IMPLOSION: Dems Anti-Trump Deportation Narrative Unravels
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This is the ground they're fighting on. Yeah. This is their argument right now. Like Duncan said a second ago, you didn't see any of these Democrats stepping up demanding that the

The folks in North Carolina get help that they deserve. The folks in California get help that they deserve. They're out here arguing. So when I met with the illegal MS-13 guy in El Salvador trying to bring him back into this country, I think the margaritas were fake, folks. What are you talking about? We can't talk about the tattoos or the domestic violence. We don't talk about tattoos or domestic violence because of margaritas. Yeah, like what is happening?

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Tell Congress end the Biden pill penalty. Ladies and gentlemen, your attention, please. Keep the faith, hold the line and own the lips. It's time for our main. Good Tuesday to you. Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. I'm Josh Holmes, along with Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, a full cast and crew here on the Ruthless Variety Program. Fellas, how we doing?

Tanned, ready, and rested. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, I had spring break with the kids down in the Bahamas. Terrific. Water park time. Okay. Yeah, it was fun. Maybe a little ambitious. Yeah, but you survived it. Survived it. I have a couple of observations, if you'll indulge me. Oh, boy, please. Can't wait. So, number one...

And I'm the sentimental type. You know this. I love love. Well, he does love love. For those of you who just want to know how much he loves love, at his wedding, when his bride turned to come down the aisle and the music played, you've never seen a more contorted face. No way. In your entire life. Including the shoulder, like the...

It was a full cry. I cried at my wedding. I cry at most weddings. I even cried at a rehearsal dinner once. That's a...

It's true. I can't help it. Fact check, true. But I have a sentimental thing to say, and that is, first of all, I love you guys. Oh, we love you, pal. And I don't really – I guess I don't really realize it very often because we've optimized our lives in so many ways. Yes. That we surround ourselves with people that we like to hang out with. Yeah. You know? That when you go on a vacation like that where you are out in the general population –

And you, like, you come across people who you would never hang out with. It's sort of like it's a shock to the system. It's jarring. Dude, it's right. It really is. It's true. You know, and when you go to a resort like I went to, you know, and some people, when they pay money to go to a resort like that, they treat you like a non-playable character in a video game. You know what I mean? Like, they step in front of you in line. They're like, I paid to be here. And it's like...

One of my main observations from vacation is just how glad I am to be back amongst friends. Oh, man. I hear that. And then my other observation, one more, sorry. I had a lot of time on the airplane. Yeah, please. Is how much I want Smug to have kids. Yes. Yep. I want it so much. Yeah, I do too. Because I had a couple... And I want this for you for one reason in particular. And that is... And this is me selling you on it, pal. Is...

The greatest thing about having kids is you get to live life over again. Yeah. Well, that's the plan. You get to see them enjoy things for the first time through their eyes, and it's awesome. Now, what's the other side of that coin, Old Joe? Well, the other side of that coin is a lot of long lines and kids who are very tired and meltdowns. But when your kid gets on a boogie board for the first time, it makes it all worth it.

My operating theory, and I thought this is universal, is for every man, the purpose of having a son is now you get one more chance, but you don't make any of the mistakes. You know what I mean? Now I can do it one more time, but I won't make any of the mistakes this time. He's iterating on the program. That's the whole purpose. Just playing his son. He's like, congratulations, son, you get to speed run my life.

That's it. That's the plan. I thought that was understood. I thought that was the whole point. And I just got to say, I mean, Ashbrook, you had a trip yourself, so I'll let you get into it. But it feels like Easter has become like four or five days of Easter, of which, for a dad, it is...

Well, look, we celebrate Jesus Christ. He is risen. And it is what it is, you know? I mean, there is that. But then you've got all of these various egg things and, like, the commercialization of it where, like, Dad has got to wear pastels. Yeah. Dad's got to go. The indignity. Yeah. Got to chase kids around forever. It's basically a guarantee of four straight days of just being –

the most undignified that you could possibly be. And that's like where I found myself over the last few days. Fine. I love it. I love the pictures. I love the memories. And my dad always told me, it's like, look, these memories, they're going to be some of the best, but they are going to be the most painful at the time. And he told me this years ago. And I was like, yeah, I got it.

True. A true fact. The stuff that makes the best memories in retrospect really difficult at the time. Smash, how about you? How was your trip?

It was wonderful. I mean, it really, like, spending a little time with the fam, with my girls, it really, like, just is life-giving. And I did miss my friends. Yeah. I'll have you know, I did wish that I was here on Wednesday. I wish I could have flown back and been here Wednesday and then flown back and spent the rest of the weekend with them. But it just, it really is one of the greatest things that you can do is spending time with your kids. Yeah.

I mean, I highly recommend it. Got to unplug every once in a while. Listen, we got a big show in front of us today where I talk a little bit about a Democratic implosion. It seems to me...

If you're paying attention at home. And I think, Duncan, you put this well in that Democrats in the first time around, they had a whole bunch of things to make the thing. Yeah. And this time around, they're like just picking common criminals. Well, yeah, it's really interesting. The first Trump term, they picked a lot of like former Republicans like Robert Mueller. They were putting him on candles. They were praying to Robert Mueller.

Mueller. Literally. And talking about this guy at DHS, Miles Taylor, and this book Anonymous and making it a bestseller or making Liz Cheney a hero. You know, like, okay, that was embarrassing. Now they just support criminals. It's insane. Yeah.

Of course, we're talking about the Abrego Garcia case. And there's a lot of developments over the weekend, including a full Ginsburg by Van Hollen. For those of you unfamiliar with a full Ginsburg, it refers to Ben Ginsburg, not the former Supreme Court justice in which during the 2000 election, he was the first person to do every single Sunday show. This was back when Sunday shows were a thing. They're not really a thing, are they?

Not like they used to be. No, I mean, it's just not. I mean, you get people like, I mean, look at our hack madness. It was like CBS was essentially every one of their folks were on our biggest hacks of the year tourney. So they're not what they used to be. They're not what they used to be. Yeah, they've really turned into just another content creation machine. And it's on Sunday morning, you have people who generate clips that people share on X. I mean, that's really the only purpose of it.

So, like, when I started in politics, the Sunday shows set the table for the week. They were the most important interviews about who was driving the news for the next calendar week. And they would set the message in that basically everything you heard Monday through Friday was some element of what it is that they laid down. Now most people have to wait until Tuesday and listening to the Ruthless Variety program to do that. That's exactly right. Honestly, that is what has happened.

But you used to build entire strategies around, like, how do I get my principal on these shows for Sunday because it set the tone for the week. Yeah, you need some deference from, like, leadership or president in order to say, like, this person is okay to go out and do it. I mean, it was a big hierarchy type thing. Now it's like you can book anybody, and of course—

There's no better. Anybody. Anybody. Mr. White bread himself, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, of course, went down to incredibly El Salvador.

Because of his quote-unquote constituent that he was very, very concerned about. We've got a whole lot of conversation on that coming up along with some variety. Our guests, we got MK Hamm and Carol Markowitz. Excellent. Good friends of the program. Good friends of the program. So you'll hear a little something. Nice to get a little perspective from them at all times. Before we get into it, I got one update on Gus. Oh, the murder donkey? Yeah. Oh, boy. Okay.

So Gus the murder donkey, you know, I was reliably informed he was just taken off the premises. Well, he sort of was taken off. He no longer has contact with the sheep, which I think was in everybody's best interest. Yes. Considering the murder and the violations. Yeah. The murder, the violations in front of the bachelorette party, all of that kind of thing. But they put him in a cage and

Well, it's not a cage. It's a fence, like a compound. Okay. Like a jail cell? Well, they separated him from the smaller animal. Smart. A sheep. Okay. They put him in with much larger animals. Oh, boy. So he got super max type situation on the farm. So now he's dealing with big old horses and stuff. He's being humbled. Yeah.

And we'll see. Yeah. I mean, people are concerned. People are saying that have been, you know, thinking about Gus. They're worried that maybe he's maybe he's getting a little of his own.

Oh, no. It's not medicine. No. They're concerned. People are concerned. I have no evidence to suggest. Oh, my gosh. But they're concerned. This is like prison. It's shank or be shanked. Yeah. But you never know. Maybe Gus is just like a feisty little donkey. Look, I've got faith in Gus. I don't think that he is going to be any shrinking violet. You put him in any situation and he will thrive. Ugh.

The murder donkey is not somebody to be trifled with, no question about it. But like, you know, we'll see. Long-lasting in a Supermax cell. I don't know. I'm just glad I'm not there. Anyway, we're going to talk about the news today. This is the Democratic unraveling. So the way that we've prefaced a lot of things that we've done on this show is –

Trump does something media reacts in the initial media reaction is always to find a single case study that they can blow up into something that try to tries to refute the entire premise for why it was done in the first place. Right. This has been done countless times. And after eight years of this guy in the political scene, what you found out is that like two or three weeks down the road, uh,

everything the media is talking about, well, it's not true. And this is the case of Abrego Garcia. You recall that immediately he's wrongly deported. This is like a Maryland man who's just...

Sitting out playing. The branding of him as Maryland Man, that alone should be such a just example number 5,029,000 of this insidious media that's just trying to hold on to any sort of relevance while yet again showing us

They're just liars. That's exactly right. Maryland man. Maryland man. It's just a lie. Mostly peaceful protest. That's it. It's Joe Biden is sharper than you think. Yep. It's the exact same thing. Exact same thing. So they raise this as a Maryland man. And the administration comes back and says, well, actually, two hordes.

have said that he's a member of MS-13, one of the most violent gangs in the world, and whose initiation in America is actually murdering people. Like, that's what they do. And that was the whole premise of the whole deportation of the MS-13 crew to begin with, of which the media characterized his as a mistake, right? And then they had some fodder because the administration in and of themselves in court argued that

We may have made some mistakes along the way. And, you know, I mean, they basically conceded that do full due process for each one of these individuals may not have been the case. This is what they were arguing in court. So the media seized on that. And all of a sudden you get Chris Van Hollen and all the Democratic Party going down. Well, so we figure out shortly thereafter, this is according to Lawfare, in a gang field interview sheet that

And this is like amazing that they have these things submitted by ICE. This document from Prince George's County Police Department claimed Obrego Garcia was a member of MS-13's Western clique, quote unquote, with the rank of Chequeo and a moniker of Chele.

It's cited as past and proven and reliable, confidential informant, and noted that his clothing, a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with money imagery, is indicative of his Hispanic gang culture. All right. So the point is, is like.

They did all of this. They said, this guy's not a part of MS-13. They tried to just change the narrative. And Ice is like, well, two courts and then all of this. Like, he kind of is. And then they were like, well, let's just take a look at his tattoos. So graphic one, please. Okay, so...

So there are the tats. For our listeners, the symbols on each knuckle represents MS-13. I don't know. How do you think he's on an MS-13? He just wrote it on himself? Yeah, no, it's just by happenstance. By happenstance that this man's knuckles said MS-13. Just your everyday Maryland man. It's your everyday... Just rooting on the Orioles. Yep.

Just eating crabs at Cantler's. Yeah, just Cal Ripken. With the marijuana leaf and the skull on his wrist. I'm fucking unbelievable. Well, and then they also unveiled, as Chris Van Hollen's plane is in the air to El Salvador, that he was actually...

served a restraining order from his wife for like domestic violence purposes and in serious allegations, mostly peaceful Maryland man. Mostly. So like all of that, all of that came out. That did not stop Chris Van Hollen from going there. We showed on Thursday, his visit. Well, here's how he sounds on his way back. Clip one.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, President Trump says that some of Abrego Garcia's tattoos signify that he's a member of MS-13. In 2019, police alleged—a confidential informant claimed that Abrego Garcia was an active MS-13 member. His wife and his attorney deny that, of course. Can you say with absolute certainty that he is not, nor has he ever been, a member of the MS-13 gang? And did you ask him point blank?

Well, Dan, what Donald Trump is trying to do is change the subject. The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights.

I mean, it's just incredible. You've never seen a softer politician in your entire life. I would bet you that he doesn't have a single callous, nor has he ever had a single callous on his hands. This is the softest guy who ever set foot in the United States Senate. But Donald Trump. But they've got they have a media plan here. And it's not to answer the questions. Look at clip two. This is a Brego Garcia's wife.

And I know this is a sensitive question, but I have to ask it. You did take out a temporary order of protection against your husband in 2021. Were you in fear of your husband? Husband is alive. That's all I can say. Okay. I'm not going to push on that, apparently. Push on that, apparently. He's alive, guys. He's alive. He's alive. But it goes to your whole point, Holmes, about lifting up this one thing as part of the narrative for the Democrats.

That was good morning America. I know. That is good morning America. We're not talking about a Sunday show or political show or, you know, political show or cable news show. You got a defensive end from the Giants asking that question. Yeah.

This is not. This is not. It goes to your whole point of like they're trying to break the containment of political news and raise this guy up as some person who's been horribly treated by Donald Trump. Yeah. And they want to make sure everybody in America sees him on Good Morning America. But you're right. You're right. Every gear and pinion of the mainstream media is just a mechanism to deliver the Democrats message. It's hilarious. It's unbelievable that they still do it. But thank God, because it's terrific content.

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And that means more risk for your credit and your identity. Tell Republicans in Congress, stop Dick Durbin's takeover of your credit card before it's too late. The basic premise of all of this is that the Trump administration basically characterized MS-13 as a terrorist organization.

state-directed terrorist organization that could bypass the elements of due process in the name of national security.

That much of which is not disputed. Like they if that fits the walls of that, they're fine. They're good. The question was whether or not there were people who were not a part of a state administered terrorist organization that fell outside of that. And they got this guy and they're like, no, this guy doesn't belong.

there. This is a Maryland man who has not done anything. And they just seized upon it for their entire political narrative to say, like, no, this is the man that we need to bring back to the United States. And then you find out, it's like, oh, okay, MS-13. His wife files domestic violence allegations against him, gets a restraining order, all of those things. And then they're interviewed and they're like,

He's alive. Yeah. By the way, nobody's disputing the fact that he's here illegally. Right. Nobody. Nobody. Like, don't let that, like, just sit. I mean, that's... The whole point of deportations is finding people who have been here illegally and sending them away. Now, if they have criminal backgrounds, then they are at the top of the list. Well...

I'm sorry, but this dude qualifies. And that's the thing is, I love situations like this. And with President Trump, we find ourselves here so frequently, shockingly frequently, that the Democrats are here trying to argue some process story. It's the TPS report. It's insane. It's the TPS report argument. No one is denying the man is here illegally. And I...

For a little while there, Democrats tried to make this conspiracy theory that President Trump holding up that photo of the tattoos on his hand. Can we get that graphic back up again? Graphic one. Democrats tried saying that this was made up and then people pulled up the wife's Instagram and every photo has that on his hand.

He's got a billboard saying I'm a member of MS-13. And this is the ground that Democrats are trying to fight on. Yeah. How does this happen? Like after they got their clocks cleaned in November, they're like, no, no.

We're going to fight for an illegal alien who's a clear member of MS-13. We're going to be like, this is the guy. They're traveling to El Salvador. Yeah. These people are so dumb. They didn't even travel to North Carolina. That's the thing. You know, during the floods. That's the thing. They don't care about the wildfires in California, but they'll travel to El Salvador to argue for the merits of returning this guy to the United States. The White House did an admirable job at putting a victim whose daughter-

was murdered by an illegal immigrant in Maryland on the podium last Friday by explaining, like, we didn't hear from Chris Van Hollen. Nope. That's an actual constituent who was murdered. And, like, no concern whatsoever, but we'll travel down to El Salvador to try to make a political point against...

Donald Trump. It's such a good point, dude. Democrats, not only are they weak, not only are they controlled by these like forces like George Soros, but their priorities are so out of whack. Yeah, they don't care about regular people. They represent Chris Van Hollen is not the only Democrat who's gone to El Salvador for a photo op. There's a woman who is a congresswoman from all

Oregon. She represents an area with like replete with poverty outside of Portland. And what has she done for them? Basically nothing. It's getting poorer and poorer and poorer. And she flies to El Salvador to try to get the release of some guy from Maryland. Like their priorities are so out of whack. And I'm telling you, it just makes sense why people vote for Trump. I want to wait one more clip and then I want to just sort of

encapsulate this. Can we play clip three, please? Because this is Van Hollen when he got to El Salvador claiming shenanigans. Clip three. Now I just want to take a moment. I hadn't planned to do this, but as I was landing on the airplane, I got a transcript of some questions President Trump was asked at the White House today about what I would call Margaritagate.

I don't know if you guys have been following this, but President Bukele, after I met with Kilmar, did this tweet showing us at a table with these two glasses. So here's what happened. When I first sat down with Kilmar, we just had glasses of water on the table, I think maybe some coffee. And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table.

With ice and I don't know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but they look like margaritas. And if you look at the one they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me, in front of me. To try to make it look, I assume, like he drank out of it. What? This is where we're at? The Democratic Party is hitching.

their wagon to a convoluted story about whether or not there were hosts of a press conference that put margaritas down in front of him. It's amazing. Or not. This is the ground they're fighting on. Yeah. This is their argument right now. Like Duncan said a second ago, you didn't see any of these Democrats stepping up, demanding that—

The folks in North Carolina get help that they deserve. The folks in California get help that they deserve. They're out here arguing. So when I met with the illegal MS-13 guy in El Salvador trying to bring him back into this country, I think the margaritas were fake, folks. What are you talking about? We can't talk about the tattoos or the domestic violence. We don't talk about tattoos or domestic violence because of margaritas. Yeah, like what is happening? It's like...

It's so good. I mean, it truly is. It's like, yeah, no, you know, the guy with the restraining order and the beating the wife who's in MS-13, who's in the United States illegally, who's a part of MS-13, that they actually shipped out that I'm trying to get back in. Yeah, the margaritas were half full. This stunt goes too far. Ha ha ha!

Dude, what are you talking about? Like, I don't know if you've noticed the economy is not awesome. You know what I mean? Like there's a bunch of stuff going on. There are many things. If you have a democratic perspective where you're trying to take down Donald Trump, which by the way, is what they're trying to do. They don't have an ideological point of view whatsoever. They have no ideas of how they can improve your life one way or another.

But their whole goal from soup to nuts is just try to take down the Trump administration. And they have decided that a rocky bond market, a stock market up and down the threat of tariffs, you know, uncertainty of tax reform with a thin majority. All of these things are like not our best stuff. We got to fly to El Salvador. That's amazing. Dude, these are the dumbest people on the face of the planet. Yeah, they are. I mean, they are completely locked in on this.

this guy covered in MS-13 tattoos being like, "Here's where we get Trump. Here's where we get Trump." They've learned nothing from this. Nothing.

Absolutely not. So when we come back, we're going to tell you why Democrats are doubling down on this collapse narrative, which, you know, we covered a little bit on Thursday. But listen, there are progressives all over the place. And this is part of the issue. Margarita Gate isn't even the most insane part of this conspiracy theory that Democrats are pushing. We'll tell you all about the sensational fake news involving President Trump and Abrego Garcia and the gang tattoos and all of that right after this.

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All right. So it's a good question, right? We covered this, Smug, you and I covered this a little bit on Thursday, where we were talking about like, why is it that you're, if you're just a Trump antagonist, and the only thing you want to do is try to take down the Trump administration, as we saw the first four years, the only goal was to take down Trump. It didn't matter if it was Russiagate or, you know, Ukraine or whatever. It was just, they would do whatever they could do to try to take him down.

And so they're seizing upon these weird things and we're like, well, geez, like this doesn't make a lot of sense. And then we talked about the backstop of that with the Bernie AOC like full tour that they're doing with tens of thousands of people showing up.

raising $10 million from liberal activists when they're not really in the mood to give to a party that's failing in elections, the power and the energy within the Democratic Party, all behind insanity. Yep. Right? And so that's where people like Chris Van Holl and Mr. White Bread decides, like, okay, now's my time. And we joked about it. It was like, yeah, I mean, this entire Senate office is like, this is it, pa.

This is our time. This is your moment. This is our time. This is 2028 shortlist material. They've been waiting for you. Well, it turns out there's a whole bunch of other Democrats who are like, I mean, they can't fight it. I mean, they know where the base is and all that stuff, but they also know that they'll never be elected to anything in the world if Obrego Garcia is the thing that they think is going to bring them back from obscure. Amy Klobuchar, clip for it.

And my point is they have picked out this case and this man because it's about a subject that they want to keep in the news. So it's even more cynical than just flaunting the law. They're doing it because they want to distract people from the fact that our economy is in a tailspin, thanks to them. Their tariffs, the fact that you've got businesses that are looking at closing down or not investing, that costs are up, chaos is up, corruption is up.

and the market is down. So for the most cynical reasons, this is a case they've picked to not obey the law. Maybe one, they will all of a sudden, they'll just send it back or maybe they'll be held in contempt. But I think it's really important for people to realize they're following the law in other cases. They've just decided not to follow the law with this guy. So she may eat salad with a cone. Yeah.

She may actually physically assault her staffers, but she's kind of smart on the political side of things. Like she actually gets what moves the American people in one way or another. And she's basically saying like, well, this is all a distraction to what we were just talking about, like other vulnerabilities that actually could be vulnerable.

Yeah, what's interesting to me is this hot war between Democrats on rhetoric. It will never be covered by the press because they do not cover Dems in disarray. They will not cover the infighting among Democrats the way they cover infighting among Republicans. But what she did there was completely repudiate soft Chris Van Hollen. Yeah.

You know what I mean? She didn't go to talk to the MS-13 gang member. She's trying to pretend like she's not part of the party that supports MS-13, even though she is. She's trying to pretend like she's part of something different and cast a vision that puts her in a position to be a leader in that party. Yeah, but you know what? I got to say, like, it has that sort of ham-fisted Selina Meyer personality.

quality to all of it. You know, where like, you know, Klobuchar in the car ride over to the studio for CNN was like looking at the topics and being like...

I don't want to fucking talk about this. All right, I'm going to make this about the economy. Okay, corruption up. Chaos up. Economy down. That's what I'll do. I'll do that. I'll do that whole thing. And then we're going to change the conversation. Because that's what I do. I'm Amy Klobuchar. Yeah. I ran for president, goddammit. Yeah. I think it's hilarious because she is trying to act like she's the adult in the room. She's like, listen to me, folks. I know what's happening here. We shouldn't take the bait.

But in the process of it, she shows that she's still captured by this, like, left-wing brainwashed shit. When she's trying to be like, folks, this is a trap. This MS-13 guy is a horrible place for us to try to die. This is not the hill to die on. She makes a good point there. And she's like...

The Trump administration is forcing this into the news. It's like, no! Your party is all taking turns flying to El Salvador trying to free this MS-13 guy and bring him back to America. The guy that preceded you on the Sunday show just did a full Ginsburg. He did every single one of the Sunday shows to try to make this the single argument that your party carried into the week. And she's like, why are we dealing with this distraction? Yeah.

Well, I don't – I mean – This isn't like President Trump is forcing Democrats to fly down to El Salvador and demand the gang member be returned to America. No, this is your party. This is it. The problem is your party believes in what this MS-13 guy – that he deserves to be brought to America. And they all raised their hands on that stage saying that, oh, illegal aliens, free health care, free education for everything. Yeah.

And this is in practice. Right. That's not like, oh, well, you know, we said that. We've learned our mistakes. We saw what happened in this past election. We're moving on from that. No, this is doubling, tripling, quadrupling down the same idea. They're showing the American people right now, we're going to fight for this guy who beat his wife, this illegal alien MS-13 gangster. We're going to fight for him more than we ever fought for you on anything you ever needed. Right. It's insane. It's wild. It's wild. But I have one more, like, tie of the knot. Okay.

Because even Democrats like Chris Van Hollen can't quite get there, so they expect the punditry.

to get there. And this is basically anybody who's employed on television sans like anybody at Fox or Scott Jennings. Every single other person has to carry this water just another ledge that your average politician wouldn't in order to just really try to strike fear into the hearts of people. Let's go to clip five, please.

To me, that is why Kilmar Abrego Garcia's specific case, the case of the gentleman who's a makeup artist out of California who was also sent to that prison, that is why the 75% of the folks who have been sent, the men who have been sent there that don't have criminal records, that is why this is so important. Because if they could do it to them,

If they could snatch students off the street without any pushback or recourse, they will do it to any of us. To be very clear, it's going to be the people of color and vulnerable communities that are next in line. Here we go. Here we go. So MS-13 equals people of color. Yeah. I mean, it's just it's wild.

leap that you know like even mr white bread wouldn't be comfortable making but they can make it on msnbc with that hysterical panel by the way i mean come on you would think again you would really think because the most hard-headed individual

learns from their mistakes after they've been beaten again and again and again and again after november you start to think that like you know what maybe this kind of shit doesn't work maybe people are sick of it maybe maybe people don't want to hear that oh you know america is a horrible country everyone in america is racist this is a racism infused nation it cannot be salvaged and

That message lost in November big time. You saw every community, doesn't matter what the demographic is, Trump made gains among them. And they still are trying this playbook. You can't understand. It's like, what is that? The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over. This is insanity. It's the same thing over and over and over again. It's complete insanity. Just to put a fine point on what we're talking about. The reason that we're doing this, I mean, I understand you've probably heard far more than you want about Kilmar Obrego-Garcia.

I know I have. But the point is, is what Democrats are doing with Kilmer Obrego Garcia is what they did with Russiagate, is what they did during the entire course of the Trump first term, which is find something they can ball up the media with and basically stop any agenda that he is trying to

To get done. I mean, everything from Doge to tax reform to trade deals and all these other things. You notice we're not talking about it? We're not talking about it. We're talking about Kilmar Obrego Garcia. That's their whole goal, right? If you thought for one second that they gave a shit about...

Due process? Yeah. You are out of your mind. They made prayer candles of Robert Mueller. They made a comic book about Michael Avenatti. These people are unwell. They are unwell people. They don't care. They don't care. And like, look...

In a theoretical sense, I understand the argument, which the Supreme Court talked about, that people like Kilmar Obrego-Garcia are afforded some sort of due process before they are sent out of this country. Okay. If he has an asylum claim or whatever it is. I understand that intellectually. But honestly, he was elected to get people like Kilmar Obrego-Garcia the hell out of this country. And that's exactly what he's doing.

And he's doing it effectively, efficiently, and doing it maybe in a way that I think the mainstream media didn't appreciate how good he could get it done. And so they try to seize upon this. I mean, do you think anybody think that like Kilmar Obrego Garcia is going to like Chris Van Hollen's Thanksgiving dinner next year? He doesn't give a shit. It's.

It's all about trying to take down the Trump administration. Can I just read you a poll you guys may have seen from CNN? OK, this is CNN. The number the percentage of Americans who want to deport Americans.

All undocumented immigrants is 56%. Yeah, it's a majority. All undocumented immigrants. This is not MS-13 gang members. I mean, I'm sure that that number is much higher. But every single undocumented immigrant in this country, 56% of Americans want them deported. Do you know what that number was in 2016? It was 38%. Man. So there has been a massive movement toward deportation among normal people.

regular Americans who are like, what is going on here? We need to move some of these people out. They shouldn't be here in the first place. That's CNN. Yep, that's CNN. It's your numbers, folks. This is an apple. This is your numbers. So our question of the day is, will all this Garcia, Elbrego Garcia stuff, and all of these shenanigans, will it be enough to stop Trump's deportation agenda? Will it be enough?

My sense is not because the American people are on his side here. And as much as they're making these all these arguments, they're missing that bigger picture that you just talked about with that CNN poll. Like nobody cares. And like poor Amy Klobuchar is trying to go out and be like, yeah, but what about your checkbook? And Democrats are like, shut up. Shut up.

What are you doing? What are you trying to do? Win? We're not happy until MS-13 is back in the United States where it belongs. Make them an agency of the federal government. So when we come back, we're going to get to your comments from last week's episode where Democrats, they're encountering the David Hogg. Show me your hog. I missed this. Democrats said, show me your hog. And he did. And he did. So your responses to all that right after this.

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Help U.S. Retire is sponsored by the Investment Company Institute, representing asset managers serving individual investors. All right. So our question of the week, just to remind you, was which Dems should David Hogg target in primaries and why? Which Democrats are saying, show me your hog and why? And to do that, we always start with a voice. Well, it's a pressing topic and an astute question, I might say, my friend.

First comment comes from Daniel Friedrich, and Daniel writes, Oh.

This is, of course, the big fat guy from New York. The pants get higher and higher every year. Well, you would know more about this than I do. But like it seems to me like he's had three or four different procedures. I mean, God knows what he's done. I mean, the thing is, is that we discussed previously about how like New York has this like political machine and Democrats. You know, that's why it's going to be if AOC primary Schumer tough thing. Yeah.

This guy Nadler was one of the architects of the creation of the New York machine. That's why he's there. That's why Maloney lost her redistricting. This guy, for being such a massive... The guy is essentially New York's Jabba the Hutt. He's like the gangster that runs that island. His belt is longer than the chains at an NFL game.

We're just going in on that. Friedrich continues, there will be nothing funnier than watching the Wadler try to look energetic against Hogg and his gang of crazies.

stay ruthless about it. That's right. Daniel, that's fantastic. That's great. I can't believe it's not Nadler's charming good looks that has gotten him through this long of a political career. He looks like the penguin, dude. Dude, he does. He does. He does. The thing is, he's not even really good. No. You know what I mean? One thing, if he was like...

super cunning and super astute. But they shoved him off all the impeachment stuff on the Democratic side because they didn't think he could do the job anyway. He's not even smart enough to do that. He's just fat in there. They did. Can I just go back to our spring break conversation? Because at the airport, I don't know if you guys have ever noticed this, but at the airport, there are people in wheelchairs who are not obviously handicapped.

They are simply fat. Have you ever noticed this? Literally 385 pound people who are shoved into a wheelchair and shuffled in front of everybody else when they're trying to board the plane, right? Jerry Nadler is the kind of guy who would be in a wheelchair boarding first. They're not handicapped. They're just fat.

Tell me you've never noticed this. No, I've seen it. That puts a fine point on it. But, dude, that is the existence of the belt stretch. You know, they have the extender. Yes. Which I've always found completely fascinating. Have you ever sat down in a seat in an airplane where they have the extender? Oh, dude, you're standing in line to get on the plane and you see an 800-pounder and you're like, my God, please do not be in my airplane.

Please do not be in my room. And they always are. They always are. They always are. But if you ever sit down in one of those seats, you could stand up vertically in your, like with feet on the ground vertically. Not enough. And you can still not get to the end of that situation. Right. And how do you, and you know. It's like, I got a good idea. I'm going to fly commercial. When you're traveling with children, they're going to make a comment. They're going to ask a question. Their questions are never whispered. You know, the questions are like out loud, like dad.

What is this? Why is Free Willy sitting in our row? Try to explain that one. Why is there a blue whale in our section? Literally, like there's a difference between there's a difference between just like a little bit overweight and like 800 pounds. There is there are 800 pounders who are flying. And yet you check in the bag and they're like, oh, I'm sorry, sir. That's 51 pounds. You're not allowed to take that bag through. You know what?

And it's an 800-pound person. I'm always puzzled by that. I'm always puzzled by that. I'm always puzzled by that. Why has my check-in got to be under 50 pounds, but the dude can be like five tons? Exactly. Totally. Weigh the people and the bags. Totally. And the flight is at least a 50% risk of going down for a sugar foot attack. Right. You know what I mean? It's a problem. Right. Yeah. Anyway, good comment, Daniel. Let's go to number two. Congrats. Congrats. Jerry Natler, you just caught that one.

It's going to come at two. Runks, what do we got? This is from FreeFallen68. I hope it can compete with Daniel's. What a springboard.

The ray that which states like Maryland, Massachusetts, and Connecticut churn out stupid politicians is mind-boggling. That said, they should stay their current course as the damage they're inflicting on their party is greater than any we could do. That's right. It's no longer a party but a suicide cult. Bingo. We make this point often on the show. Dude, it is exact. Well, it's the whole point of today's program.

Right, which is, there's a lot of things that we're doing that you could take question in and make political headway on. That is not what they have chosen. Free Fall in 68 has put their eye exactly at the point. Set it and forget it. Right. Right.

All right, comment three, Smuggles. This comes from John Darcy, and they write, If Hogg is smart, he'll primary Maxine Waters, Alec Green, Chewie Garcia, Rosa DeLauro, and might see Hirono. Maisie, Maisie. Maisie. Yeah. Oh, don't forget Maisie, dog. They look and act like aged Batman villains. One caveat, as a Republican, I'd be sad to see them go. Those guys generate endless bad publicity.

for Dems. And the wildest thing about them is these cast of idiots have the most incredible committee assignments. They're all German!

Yeah. Maxine Waters financed. They're all ranking members of everything. Which is the most insane place. Rosa DeLauro wears like purple streaks in her hair like she's a goth 14-year-old. Do you know what's funny? Here's what's hysterical. If you talk to Democrats like on the K Street community, like the lobbying community where they're like, who's a Democrat that we can talk to that actually understands that we live in a market-based economy and you can't bankrupt every company and you can't do all these things? They're like, wow, it's really only a few. Yeah.

I think Rosa DeLauro is one of them. And then you look at Rosa DeLauro and she has like purple fucking hair. She looks like she's 97 years old. And she, like, that's who they're hooking this to? Yeah. Like, no, I'm not kidding you. When they say, when the business community comes into DC and they're like, who should we talk to? Purple haired gargoyle. About...

But the key to being a successful Democrat and also having relatively normal viewpoints is you have to wear a disguise. Yeah. You cannot achieve what you just described and be the person that the business community wants to go to and be a successful Democrat if you don't have a disguise. Yeah. No, it's true. So maybe she's done that effectively. Could be. It's possible. I mean, she looks like a Halloween costume every single day. It's truly unbelievable.

Anyway, Maisie Hirono, the single dumbest member of Congress, Republican or Democrat, House or Senate, I will say it and I defy you to try to prove me wrong on that. It is absolutely incredible. The filibuster. It's broken. There it is. Soundboard is back, baby. It's back, baby.

Maisie Hirono, ladies and gentlemen. Now we're cooking with gas. She's just so dumb. Well, you know, it's not broken when it comes to... She's using it now. Yeah, she's using it now. It's not broken. Remember to like and subscribe if you like what you've heard. And if you do and you put down your answer to today's question of the day, we'll read them all and get back to you on Thursday's episode.

But coming up, we've got some variety for you. We've got some – there's some China stuff in there. China robots. Yeah, yeah. Got to love this. I think this is like a new thing that we're going to get to right after this. For too long, weak politicians have sold out America's steel workers and allowed China to flood our country with cheap foreign steel.

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You know, we've been very into AI and tech development and the race against China for all of that kind of thing. But we found one that I think is apropos of many things that we've talked about. It's according to TechCrunch, China's first robot marathon runner trips amidst smoke and falls apart. Can we go to clip six just to kick this thing off?

There it is. Wow. It's running, but not really. I mean, that doesn't look like a good pace. Where is it? This story is actually really interesting. Oh, here it is. It's running. It looks like more of a speed walk, if I'm being honest. Yeah, exactly. It looks like more of a speed walk. And they have a human handler behind them. It's not exactly encouraging. Oh, no, it went down. It went down. Down goes Frasier. For audio only.

The robot is no longer. It's laying down. So in an emitted smoke, it like just burst into all kinds of problems. This is apparently the robot that the Chinese think is, according to Bloomberg, the winning robot, Tianjiang Ultra, was built by the government-backed research institute X Humanoid and finished the race in two hours and 40 minutes. Now...

That particular robot that I saw did not appear like it finished the race at all. No. They maybe carried him across the finish line. It feels like a Kim Jong-un 18 hole in one situation. Yeah, that's the toughest thing with China that I can't really get straight here. Like...

You look at things like DeepSeek, where they put out that AI large language model that everyone was going gaga over. And you're like, oh my gosh, China might be a serious threat when it comes to tech and AI and quantum computing and all these things. And then you see something like this. And it feels more like the Soviet Union painting over the rust on their tanks with new paint to make you think they're still strong. I don't know what to make of this. I don't know what to make of it either. But apparently they started several of these robots.

And some of the robots barely made it past the finish line. Or the started line. Started line. I'm sorry. For example, Shenang, one of the robots, tripped a human support runner. They have a support runner. Mm-hmm. Like, I don't think. Yeah, they didn't have that in Terminator. Right.

Didn't have that. Didn't have that. And then it slammed into a fence and shattered. Hell yeah. Yeah. And then at one point, little giant, the shortest competitor at 30 inches in height, which also feels a little bit like, it's like running a remote control car. Yeah, 100%. We had that technology. And Bloomberg even had in that article that the robot that we saw that was doing the like weird slow run, because it was a half marathon. It took damn near three hours for this thing. Yeah.

That wasn't actually just like some AI that's just like running on its own. Apparently it was just following. There was a runner ahead of it with sensors on like all their limbs that was running and the robots just like mimicking the move. It's all made up. In China, it's all made up. In America, it's real. We've had robot heroes for 40 years. You guys remember Johnny Five? He was...

Robocop. Yeah, Johnny Five was knocking out bad guys and all he needed was a radio shack and a defibrillator. For those of you of a certain age, Johnny Five Alive is... Short circuit. I mean, that... It's a wonderful movie. Is that Dennis Quaid? Was that with a... Johnny Five is alive!

Didn't RoboCop end up getting a statue in Detroit or something? I remember there was like a movement. I think so. I think that. Detroit Supercop. Another example. But along those lines, can we get clip seven, which is showing what American. It's a Boston sign. Boston Dynamics, I should say. So this is our robot. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. It's doing flips and shit. Look at that thing. What are we doing now? It's, oh boy. What is it? It's like break dancing. It's doing a break dance. Yeah.

So here's the other thing is, you know, I know Boston Dynamics, they put these videos out on social media. Everyone's like, oh, this is so cool. You know, the robot can do this break dancing and cartwheels and everything. But the real application, we know, folks, is you put a handgun in this thing. If it can do a cartwheel, it can hunt people down. That's exactly right. And that's what it's going to be used for. Let's be honest. Right. One million of those can take the beaches in China. That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

One million of those directed at the Three Gorges Dam. Bingo. And we win. Remember Trump sent that dog to kill the ISIS leader? He killed, remember, the ISIS leader was lying when the dog was sent after him.

You get like hundreds of those. You just airdrop them on ISIS. That's what we're talking about. Like, yeah, it's great for the public to see this thing doing its little cartwheels and such, but we all know that's where this is headed. This is more impressive than watching ISIS swing on monkey bars. I'm a little concerned about the all four moves, though. I mean, I don't. Yeah, they need to deprogram that move. We need to increase the quick twitch.

Yeah, it needs a little something. But that's the thing. This is the one that's public. I mean, you know the shit that's training with the SEALs is off the chain. Yeah. When it aims at something, you know it doesn't miss. Yeah, 100%. No, that robot's serious. That's what I want to see. I can't wait until America unleashes the fucking robots on our enemies. You know what I mean? It feels right. Yeah, you don't have to worry about boots on the ground when it's robots. They got to worry about it, not us.

So that's the future, folks. This is such a great episode. That's the future. We're going to get to an interview here. M.K. Hamm, one of the OGs here in the Ruthless Variety Program, coming up with Carol Markowitz. I want to welcome to the program two wonderful women who are joining us here, Carol Markowitz and Mary Catherine Hamm.

Friends of the program. Great friends of the program. And they're bringing us a lot of news and a lot of stuff that they're working on. So thanks for joining us. Thank you for having us. We appreciate it. So good to be on with you guys. She's here from the beautiful free state of Florida. So we thought we'd make a visit while she's in town. Yeah, yeah. So you've been in Florida now a couple of years. Yeah. Coming from Brooklyn. That's right. Right? You were like neighbors with Smug. That's right. He and I used to hang out sometimes, you know, when I hung out with liberals like him.

Perfect. It was a different time. And he didn't even have the decency to show up here for the interview. Well, I was thinking that. You know, it's my second time on Ruthless, and both times no smug. I think he's just, like, afraid, you know? I think you're exactly right. He can't take the heat. He can't handle it. He knows you'd bring up the old stories from Brooklyn. Yeah.

I have COVID again. But you're liking Florida. I love it. Yeah, it's really great. It's as good as everyone said it would be. And, you know, we moved during a really crazy time for New York and a really good time for Florida. So really happy. And this New Yorker in this 40 degree weather is like, nope, I can't do it.

Yeah, I think you spend a little time down there in Florida and the blood thins out or something, right? Like you acclimate to it pretty fast. Totally, yeah. I hope to do that at some point in my life. I really want to be in Florida and let my blood acclimate. She's reverting openly all the time. It's just an incredible place to live. Okay.

I'll start sending you Zillow listings like right away she's like an NIL guy but for Florence she's always trying to make deals I get it my parents live in Sarasota and they remind me all the time how wonderful their weather is it feels like

You know, telling us how bad our weather is is one of their favorite things to do. Yeah. You have a bad day up there? In the politics, yeah. Yeah. I don't know if you've heard, we have some good politics. I know. In general. Nice. Yeah. So what are you guys working on? I mean, obviously, Carol, you've done a lot of work at the New York Post, which, I mean, it's an embarrassment of riches, the headlines. I think we read one on every single episode of Ruthless. So what are you working on?

So Mary Catherine Hamm and I have a relatively new podcast together called Normally, where we have a normal-ish take on the news. Refreshing. I feel like, you know, we're the female counterpart to Ruthless a little bit. We don't get crazy. There's no screaming.

Mostly. You've got to guide the libs because they forgot how to be normal. Totally. And so we lure them in with this show called Normally. And we lure other suburban women in with this show called Normally. And then we react to things in a normal fashion. And we find that that does wonders. It works. Yeah. It's great. I've listened to the show a few times. And it is really, really good. I mean, I think you guys are on to something in exactly the right way because the libs are so...

so insane and conservatives are now basically the normies in this country and I know you guys have been at it for like a few months now right? Yeah it started in October We got to ride the wave of that election season always fun and now we get to react normally to Kid Rock's totally normal appearance in the Oval Office So I'm curious about that is it tough or is it fun?

to do a show like that in an environment like now. Well, the thing I always say is that conceited Donald Trump, not normal, right? Lives at an extraordinary lifestyle is an extraordinary person. And frankly, very different for most of us, right? Hence the kid rock in the Oval Office. He does things differently. That was part of the pitch.

Libs got so weird, that's the far more normal. Option. People are like, I don't know, Hulk Hogan and Kid Rock, I get them. Yeah, yeah. Unlike the displays on the South Lawn occasionally from influencers from the left. Oh, yeah. Which were...

sometimes obscene. - Yeah, so I think the thing I said on Ruthless recently was that Donald Trump has a couple superpowers. And one of them is he makes everyone so crazy that he can be the most normal person in the room. Which is just a wild, wild thing. And his life is totally different than ours. But he'll put out a tweet bragging on the fact that he won the member guest at his club, which I think is hilarious.

Is awesome. And he also mentions in that tweet that his partner, like when I play my member guest, I'll bring a ringer. I'll bring somebody who's really good. I'll bring like a really good friend. He brought the president of Finland to be his guest. And it's like he lives a very abnormal life than most of us, but somehow finds himself being the most relatable person versus all these other people. I do think he's good at...

transcending that because he's very much 100% himself all the time but he also seems to get like what other people care about and has that streak in him I mean he's he's definitely you know not a normal guy but he's not faking the funk in any way he is who he is in every single way like

Even when he was building his golden palaces and golden toilets and all that, he wasn't embarrassed about it. He was like, look at my golden toilet. I have this. Isn't it awesome? So the fact that he's so real is what makes him appealing, I think.

Yeah, it's refreshing. I mean, you just don't get that in politics. And that's what people have been so hungry for after just like years and years of politicians who read you talking points and just tell you what their pollster tells them they should say. It's very, very refreshing. People just put a premium on authenticity, right? Like I remember, Mary Catherine, when you came in, this was the old setup of politics.

the studio and this was in the run up to the election and you asked us, you're like, all right, so like all these podcasts that he's going on, like, do you think this is a good strategy? Right. And I think like our take at the time was like, yeah, because it's a presidential election where everybody's got universal name ID and,

you're going to bring in a lot of people who otherwise wouldn't get involved in the process and they want to hear from a politician, probably listen to a politician for the first time that they ever cared. And that authenticity matters a lot. Like going on Theo Vaughn, and Theo Vaughn's telling you about what it's like doing cocaine and staying up like an owl, homie. It's like, you don't get that from most people. No, you don't. And what I wondered was, is there a path...

from those listeners who've never voted before in all likelihood, many of them, to the voting booth, and oh, there was, it turns out. So they figured that part out. Yeah, the two-step process was the concern, I think, for us. Like, yeah, you're listening to him on a podcast, but then are you registering to vote and showing up on election day? I guess that's three steps. Yeah, so that leads me to another question about the premise of the show is how do you get people

normal people, people with busy lives to care about politics at a regular cadence, you know, to show up in a, you know what I'm saying? Um, I'm curious, you know, how, how do you, how do you feel like that shapes the content that you do on a show like that?

I like to think of myself as normie adjacent because I care way too much about this stuff to be actually normal. But I'm like close to it. And one of the things that I think the new media does is it allows normal people who are way too busy to be spending all of their time figuring out the 17 stories a day that are happening is to choose me as an editor for them or to choose Carol as an editor for them and let us sift through it.

and pick three things that are relevant to us. We do a lot of education talk. We do a lot of COVID reckoning revenge talk. Things that matter to moms, things that matter to the people in our lives who maybe don't have the time to be involved in politics all the time. So that's how we try to improve.

to approach it. Yeah, we pick three topics every episode. We try to do a serious topic and then maybe another serious topic and a lighter topic. We get into bachelor drama sometimes. I don't watch it, but Mary Catherine tells me all about it. Some vegetables and some candy. That's it. And some candy. And I mean, there's so much opportunity out there. Every time I talk to my family, they're like,

what should I be reading? What should I be listening to? There's such an appetite for content where people feel like they're not being lied to. You know, there's media just pulling the wool over everybody's eyes. And you guys are delivering that on normally on a routine basis. Yeah, we try. And it's, you know, and as a result, sometimes it's not all, it ain't all cheerleading all the time for our own side. Sometimes it's like,

well, this seems like we're playing with fire. Why are we going in this direction? And I think that's part of earning trust from listeners as well. Yeah, I think that's right. Because it's like, you know, I like to think about it when we do Ruthless about...

Would my buddies back home in Indiana care about this? Right. Right. It's like if there's this, I think, a seductive part of media in crafting media made for other people in media to talk about media. Right. You know, and it's like that is that is that is a way to have a conversation with yourself rather than the people who you are actually trying to bring into this audience. Right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's so important.

to know who you want to talk to and not just to be talking to each other because what's the point, right? And the bubble is just so powerful and so damaging for so many people in this town. If you've been here for any length of time, you know that. And I think being a right of center person, just by virtue of that,

you are enough steeped in liberal thought and enough connected to right-leaning thought that you end up sort of by default kind of normal. You're hearing a lot of things. You don't bubble eyes as easily, although you can. But the libs are all over the place. Ezra Klein, who is sort of a famous lib out there who's trying his best to recenter himself, has had this big piece about abundance. And I know you guys have been talking about that a little bit. I wonder if we can get your take on that.

Yeah, this is like the revamping. I think the Democrats don't know exactly what to do and they're attempting to crawl out of this hole.

And what Klein is doing, and I actually appreciate the fact that he's saying, hey, our policies aren't working. What he's saying is we can't be the party of the people we're trying to help if we're not actually helping them. And then he points out some of the ways in which these programs that he in the past has supported and that were Biden and Obama led, that in fact, you don't get results out of them. In fact, they're hurtful sometimes to communities. And I just like...

the only part that bothers me is that I've been saying that since I was 16 years old.

And like, we've been talking about that for a while. Like when he runs through the list of things that you have to do for rural broadband to get through the pipeline with the federal government. And Jon Stewart's like, are you kidding me? And I was like, how does Jon Stewart not know? Did you really think it was working smoothly? That's what you thought. They thought when you call it Affordable Care Act, they thought when you call it Inflation Reduction Act,

Well, well, well. Don't have to worry about the details here. We passed it. Solved that problem. But until Democrats can be honest with themselves about how bad they actually are at government, they're never going to come back. I mean, I did a panel with a guy, I will not say his name, but he's a Democrat, prominent Democrat. And he looked at the audience, he was like,

do you want to live in San Francisco? Do you want to live in Chicago? Do you want to live in Detroit? Those cities are run by Democrats. Nobody wants to live there. And until our side figures out that we can't do the job that we're claiming we're capable of, we're never going to win again. I think Obama, I think this is all Obama's fault. Most of the things on the left, I think, are Obama's fault. Like, I think, like,

They won the messaging war on a lot of this stuff during the time in which he was president. And then they stopped worrying about the details. You know, it's like Nancy Pelosi. We have to pass the bill to figure out what's in it sort of thing. And they felt like they were just winning on the politics and the rest didn't matter. You know, and that's where I think all of their coalition frayed. And I think at the same time, not just in the regulations, but I think the entire Democratic Party changed into a party that wasn't for the working class or, you

You know, I mean, Bill Clinton said, you know, the era of big government is over. And in the era of Obama, the opposite happened in which it was like, we're going to pass this huge thing. And then all of our friends and special interests are going to be at the trough to figure out how they can get rich off of it. And it became less about the people who actually put, you know, their trust in them and voted for them. Right. And there's an entire generation of Democrats who that's all they know, you know. And so now they're all figuring out. It's just.

It's fun to watch. Yeah. You know? It's galling. It's a little galling where they're becoming abundance Democrats and I'm like, that's just a Republican. Yeah. And...

Are you a deregulation Republican? To watch them discover all this stuff that we've known for so long and also to say we're the ones who caused this problem and we're the ones who are going to fix it. It's a little unfair, I think. And this is why we cover COVID reckoning frequently, because any time you can trade a Francis Collins who caused the problem for a Jay Bhattacharya who clearly got it right. Yeah.

That is a rare example of when you are earning back public trust. And that's what we have to do. Yes. So, Carol, I'm so glad you mentioned that about like we cause this problem. We're the perfect people to fix it, which I think is hilarious way of looking at it. But like MK, so you've got this new project on public sector unions. And I think that's such a perfect example of this phenomenon, which is like.

Democrats can't pass anything unless they have support of like that critical part of their coalition who are part of the reason we find ourselves in such dire straits financially in this country. So like, please tell us more about this project. So yes, I'm an advisor with the public labor union accountability committee. Nice. Pluac. It's very fancy sounding. And the thing is, as,

Elon Musk is doing his work or Doge is doing his work or Trump is talking about federal government all along the way. You're learning. Oh, interesting. These folks have a lot of protections that normal. There's that word again. Workers do not. And you find out that one of the reasons is they have public sector unions that collective bargain is.

against the taxpayer, who is you, right? They're like, in a normal union situation, look, I'm not a huge fan all the time, but they are organizing to negotiate with employers who create something because they create something. In the government, they're not creating a thing. There's no profit.

And so what they're doing is just negotiating with your money, which must be a blast. I mean, Randy Weingarten does, it seems like she's having fun. She's having a democratic administration, but I think getting the word out to people about how different those two things are, a private union versus a public employee union and, and,

how much money those guys take of yours to then funnel to democratic politics to make the cycle start again. It just continues. It is wild. And you know what? FDR was against it from the beginning. He wrote to, at the time, saying, hey, when the government has a union and it strikes, it's actually just striking against the people who are their boss. So we can't have that. But, you know, then they figured out how much it paid. And they were like, maybe we should do that.

And so a lot of this is the unwinding of that. And Trump just the other day signed this executive order banning collective bargaining for a lot of these public labor union employees. It's amazing. Where the hell do you find the time for all

Like, MK, I swear, you're like the Ryan Seacrest of conservative media. I feel like I see you everywhere. Also a dog, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've seen you on Bill Maher. I see you got your podcast. You're just doing everything. You know how you diversify a portfolio? I diversify my career.

Yeah. I could just like, you know, you can't take me out with one shot. It's incredible. I'm all over the place. Yes, but you can check out my Twitter account at MKHammer. I'll be doing some educational stuff with the Public Labor Union Accountability Committee. Yes. And you can learn more about these crazy deals they make with your money. Insane. Yeah.

Yeah, and why you can't fire them. You can't fire them. And also... Three years later, we're in court. Maybe you can fire them. They're working out these deals with politicians that they then get to reelect. Yes. You know, two years later. Yeah, they're like, oh, give... Randy Weingarten says, hand me the money. I'll get you reelected. The money goes to my people. The children do not go to school, but that's a side issue. It's a side issue.

Yeah. So do you think some of these changes Trump is making on public sector unions, do you think those are going to take and those are going to hold into the future? Look, they're going to be in court for a while because that's what unions are great at, is building these protections in and then fighting over them.

However, I think the American people are getting an education in exactly how the federal government works through this Trump administration and how it had worked against them for a long time. And by the way, the moms who we are friends with, many of whom listen to our podcast, they got their first dose of that through the Randy Weingarten's of the world during COVID where they were like, wait a second.

this person's not just not agreeing with me. She's an adversary to my children and me. And that is a dynamic that was news to people. And I would like to make sure everyone knows about it. Even people who would consider themselves left-leaning or moderate, who would go along with all the COVID restrictions or the restrictions in schools or the closing of the schools. Then we got to a point with her in these unions where she,

Biden comes in and we're going to reopen these schools. And then it's like, you know what? Schools have never been safe. Right. You know, this isn't actually a COVID thing. It's schools have never been safe. And it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, pause. And it was like.

You knew they had a gun to our heads. And it was... I think it opened a lot of people's eyes who otherwise would have been agreeing with Randy Weingarten. Yeah, they ransomed those kids' education. Yeah. And they got paid handsomely for it. Even if you're not on the left, I always, you know, oppose teachers' unions. I always knew that they were indoctrinating kids, pushing really bad policies in schools. I never thought that they would destroy education for poor kids. I never thought that they'd be like...

you know what? Poor kids can't go to school. Plot twist. Right. That was news. I didn't know that they were evil like that. I thought it was just, I thought we had a policy disagreement. I didn't realize that they didn't care at all about these kids. And that was, I mean, again, Smug and I lived in Park Slope, and in Park Slope, all the wealthy people sent their kids to open private schools, or they got them a tutor, or they formed a pod, or they moved to their beach house where the schools were open. Right.

And they were marching for equity and didn't say a word about any of the poor kids around the city who weren't going to public school. And that's the...

unions alliance right there. They couldn't say anything to help poor kids because that would mean opposing teachers' unions. And what's wild to me, Carol, is teachers' unions don't seem to care about teachers either because you have more administrators, you have the unions making more money, you have more bureaucrats in the government, and yet somehow teachers are not paid what people think they earn. You know what I mean? It's like you have these

normie women out there who are busting their ass trying to help kids and like emailing the parents back and everything and the teachers union is pretending to have their back and they're just enriching themselves it goes to the whole conversation about this abundance thing

that Ezra Klein and these folks, these thought leaders on the left are talking about. It's like it fails on purpose. Like it's set up to fail. Like you can pass the biggest budget in the world to increase education funding. The system, you know, is designed to,

to not help teachers and not help students. It's designed for a situation where it's like, well, we got to help black and brown kids in poor communities, but oh, during COVID, we're going to let them fall behind the worst. It's like the system set up to be bad. Yeah, it is. And the answer to bad for Democrats has always been, well, y'all didn't give us enough money. Just give us enough money. And that's just, I think people are waking up

really truly to the idea that that ain't what makes it happen. The money and the good education are not correlating. The giantness of the Department of Education and the number of

you know, good public servants who work there is not correlating with kids actually learning, but it is correlating with a bunch of 200 K jobs in administration. And this is what I love about the Doge stuff is I feel it's exposing the system, like the institutional rot for the first time in so many ways for normal people who maybe don't consume a lot of politics or,

look through the federal budget you know i mean it's like one of the reasons i'm a republican is i thought we all wanted to do this sort of thing and so like you see some of these people out there like that's why i just don't understand the never trump people i don't care if you like donald trump or don't like donald trump but like if you are conservative in this country like this is what we signed up for like to do this sort of thing not talk about it and never do anything about it well i think it got so out of hand that the way to do it is to do it

swiftly. And publicly. And to do it with a bunch of really smart techie guys who know what they're looking at and can dig through a bunch of numbers very quickly. Because the old way to do this was like, all right, new blue ribbon commission panel. We're going to have a lot of policy prescriptions and then we're going to take that right up there to Congress, march up there, and then it's going to never happen. There's a former version of me who would have been like, yes, I like the idea of a panel. This is the proper way to do things. And now I'm like, meh.

We in a new world. Yeah, slash and burn. That's it. When it comes to the size of government, y'all got to pass for a long time. We got to do something about it. And we're getting out the public labor unions while we're at it. It's great. It's great. So you've brought a gift for us. Our favorite thing on the Ruthless Variety Program. I do have a gift for you today.

I made this last night. Oh, my gosh. I like to be creative. I love it. It's been a while since I've brought you guys a gift. So this is a commemoration of a very important moment. Oh, my gosh. In Ruthless history. John Ashbrook, White House correspondent. This is a picture of John Ashbrook asking his question. And he has the deal with it glasses on. Love it. Thank you, MK. I didn't even AI that. I had my dad Photoshop that. The real...

Old school human way. You've done a horrible thing. Because his head is going to get so much bigger now that he has this. I mean, look at that. All eyes on him. That's right. There's a camera. There's a podium. We are the media. Wow. That's great. This might be better than the advent calendar. How could it be? That's still in the office. I'm excited about it. You gotta go check it out.

Thank you, MK. That's outstanding. And look, is there no glass on it? Because one of my kids knocked it off a wall and I used this that I found in my house for this? Sure. It makes it even better. It's fine. You guys will play safe with it. Well, that's great. That was made with some love.

I can't believe your dad knows how to Photoshop like that. He's a very good Photoshopper. Wow. Nice job, Mr. Ham. That's wonderful. Well, ladies, thank you so much for coming in here. Thank you so much, guys. Like, subscribe. Subscribe to the pod normally. Listen to these ladies. They're very, very smart and very, very normal. Thank you so much. Very normal. Thank you. Normal-ish.

I mean, such a great interview and such a great conversation with two very dear friends. Their podcast normally is something everybody should check out. But MK is just, she's OG Ruthless. Yeah, she is. She is. She is the best. We appreciate it. Check out that podcast. And while you're there, like and subscribe under Ruthless.

Do it right now. If you haven't done it yet, do it right now. It's the only way that people will be able to see this kind of thing. Like and subscribe for crying out loud. Yeah. Anyway, I think our question of the day was, is this Abrego Garcia thing going to stop the Trump deportation stuff? You let us know. Like and subscribe. We'll read all of it and we'll get back to you on Thursday with that. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and check out the merch while you're there.

Had a lot of good Gaza Riviera reviews, by the way. People have gotten their stuff. They love it.

It's great stuff. I got mine. It's fantastic. Check out all that merch. And with that, fellas, I think we did it. I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much. MK, thank you so much. Kel Markowitz. And thank you so much to the minions. Like Holmes said, like and subscribe to that YouTube immediately. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.