The Real Reason Democrats Hate Elon Musk
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This is what they're focusing on is how do we destroy Elon Musk? You know, the left has operated like a mafia in this country, a protection racket that they've extorted business in this country, corporations, huge multinational corporations. Shakedown racket. Shakedown racket. And Elon Musk is one of those people you can't shake down. We finally beat Medicare.

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Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please. Just a catch of strays over here. You're in for a hell of a show. Keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. It's time for our main...

Well, it's a good Tuesday back here at the Ruthless Variety Program. Josh Holmes comfortably smug, Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook, the White House correspondent, left to right across the radio dial. A holiday weekend. Uh,

Hope everybody had a good one. We're back in action here at the Ruthless Variety Program. Never a moment's rest. No, we take no days off. And listen, I mean, the news cycle doesn't stop. No. It takes no days off, so we got to be the same. And our president doesn't stop. And this was President's Day weekend, and it's celebrating presidents of America from yesteryear. However, I think that in the future—

What we need to mark is Donald Trump on President's Day. Trump Day? Trump Day. Trump Day. That's something. That's something. I didn't hear that coming. Listen, we're going to cover a lot of topics for you today. The primary one that we're going to discuss is Elon Musk. Clearly, Democrats have made Elon Musk their target. They understand that you can't go straight at Donald Trump.

Too big of a problem for them. They don't know how to message against him. He's dynamic. He's got more energy than them. He always finds himself. They already tried in November and got smoked trying that approach. They've understood this is a failing proposition. And so what they've tried to do is go against Elon. And they've tried to make a boogeyman.

out of him, essentially. It's not working for any variety of thing, but we're going to get into all of that. We've got some variety, too. I mean, there's going to be good stuff. There'll be some crazy stuff that we'll show you, good video. And then we also have a great guest today. That's right. The one and the only Will Cain.

Yeah. This is like the new big thing. He's like the new big thing. Well, and selfishly, you know, I think what he's doing is he's blazing a trail that people like us have been trying to get into for a while, you know, where we're sort of...

doing a different format of the news and politics for you, the listener and the viewer. And he's sort of leading the way on that. And so I'm like, his success is our success. Yeah. I mean, and that's the way that we've always seen it. It's the way Megan Kelly's always seen it. Like all of our friends in which, you know, because they've been on the program and we've been on theirs, we see this the same way. It's like a rising tide lifts all boats. And as much as we can promote folks like Will, right?

who are in it for the right reasons, who are authentic, who give you their actual view on a day-to-day basis. Now he's doing it with like three and a half million people. He's completely destroyed the midday ratings for every cable news outlet. And Fox is like, this is amazing. Yeah. I mean, his numbers are through the roof and it's because he's just a likable, authentic guy.

And there's a generational change in media. And he's filling this vacuum for people who want authenticity. They want long form. It's the reason why people listen to podcasts like Ruthless. And so it's just just so great to have him on the show. You will love this interview. I mean, this guy, he tells you exactly not only how he approaches all of it, but why he approaches all of it. And I think you're going to get a lot out of it. So that's at the back end here.

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We'll do this together, building a brighter future for us, powered by America's oil and natural gas resources. You can learn more about all of this at API.org. But the way we start, fellas, is on Elon. I don't think it's missed anybody. If you followed even tangentially the news, Democrats have decided, well, we're not going to like fully front on attack Donald Trump.

We're going to try to take a different tangent by just going after Elon. Some of this shit will blow your mind. It's incredibly bad. Let's put clip one up. Now, I'm going to be quick because I want to send a message to somebody. Not quick. Elon Musk.

Take your musty millions and musty Moscow rights. What? To the moon. Because if you don't, we're going to stand up.

What is he even saying? I don't know.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's nothing that anybody cares more deeply about than a four-letter agency in Washington, D.C. That's right. It's football. It's apple pie. It's CFPB. Every American. Every American. That's it. What a disconnected idiot.

I mean, these people are absolutely crazy. But you saw this all week last week. They were out in front of one three or four letter agency after another that was getting audited by Doge and by Elon and everybody else for a good reason because you saw what's come out, all nasty shit. And then these people would run out and be like, I will not stand. Right. I will not stand for any cutting of federal contracts.

taxpayer dollars to this agency that does basically nothing. And that's the thing is, right now, what Elon Musk is trying to do is save everyone in this country money. He's cutting wasteful spending. And then you see these people be like,

We're going to get people to march in the streets. Well, what are you going to tell them? You're going to be like, listen, you need to keep paying high taxes, right? And you need to get out in the streets and march for that. It's exactly right, Smug, because the real reason Democrats hate Elon Musk is he's upsetting the gravy train. That's right. And only in Washington, D.C., could be a person who's trying to save taxpayers' money is somehow the villain.

Can I just tell you that the hidden genius of what the Trump administration is doing and what Republican leaders in Congress are doing is that they're spending the first three, four weeks examining these departments and flushing into light the gross waste of taxpayer dollars. One after another, agency after an agency. They're all coming to light. You're all hearing about all of this stuff. And then they're going to get into the topic of taxes. Yeah.

It's much different when you can have an antiseptic discussion about like, well, the rich should pay their fair share. In a populous nation right now, rich should pay their fair share. And like you don't find out until later that you're the rich one that they're talking about. It doesn't feel like you're rich. Right. But like you're the one that they're talking about. But that's a conversation that Democrats have done pretty well with over the years. It's very different when on the front end of that conversation –

You have a discussion about trans studies in Tanzania. Yeah, right. And condoms, you know, they're like, oh, no, we're pushing back hard. And the condom wasn't $50 million that went to condoms in Gaza. It was also to the Horn of Africa.

Oh, okay. Well, we're still paying for $50 million. Yeah. If anybody should be marching in the streets and holding bullhorns, it's the taxpayers of this country. I mean, it's absurd that you've got people out there pretending that they're the victim because they're part of this gravy train that sucks out all of this money from hardworking taxpayers and plays victim. Right. But they're too busy earning their living so that on April 15th, they can turn over whatever they're supposed to turn over to the federal government and

And, dude, we talked about this with Megyn Kelly last week. The waste in this government is astronomical. It's not just sex changes in Nicaragua. It's not just a DEI musical in Ireland. It's not just, like, climate change.

Which, by the way, I loved your Riverdance thing. Riverdance is pretty, you know, it's racist. We already have Riverdance. Why do American taxpayers need to fund some DEI musical in Ireland? Why do we need to fund climate change heroes in Tajikistan? People from Tajikistan are coming here.

So that they can prepare to attack us. Like, we actually need to stop them. And Donald Trump is doing that. Yeah, no, it's amazing. But I will say, like, just on a more meta level, every president at some level, they're in the front of the news no matter what. Every time they open their mouth, it means something.

And traditionally, you know, Biden did it. Obama did it to Biden. Bush at some level did it. This has gone on for generations. You take issues that are somewhat complex and somewhat controversial and you have the vice president basically deal with it. They've got an additional player in the game in Elon Musk in that he has provided insulation. Trump is sitting on top and blessing Trump.

Elon to go do what it is that he's doing, all of which is extremely popular with the American public. But you have this entrenched democratic interests in Washington, D.C. that have just decided to like focus on it. It's like moths to light. Like they just –

Go for it. And so this is what they're focusing on is how do we destroy Elon Musk? It's one of the geniuses of the way that Trump has put this whole thing together. Yeah, exactly. And then you've got – J.D. is doing like very, very serious things with AI. You saw his address in Paris last week. Incredibly important stuff for the future of the country and nobody speaks to it like he does. Fantastic work, by the way.

But then Elon is tackling these very thorny, entrenched interests. And they're like, well, we can't really attack Trump on it. We've got to attack Elon. He's built another level of insulation around what it is that he's doing. Like Elon is trying to handle that frontline attack. And you see it on CNN and MSNBC. It's constitutional crisis, all these things. And Trump, meanwhile, is doing 17 other things because he's not in the middle of it. It's brutal.

brilliant. It is brilliant. And also the left has had this playbook for a generation. If you have never read Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky, I highly recommend you do because it's a real guidebook for the way that the left attacks people like Elon Musk who are trying to change things. And that is they always try to take the opposition, elevate somebody and crystallize that and then attack

it because it's easier to attack a person than it is an idea. And Elon Musk is the richest person in the world and he's sleeping on a cot in the old executive office building. Yeah.

It's hard to attack that guy. It is. Because he's just trying to save money for the taxpayer. It is. And if you listen to him talk, he talks just like normal people. Right. You know, he is reading these things as if a normal person is reading them. With a kid on his shoulders. You know, I mean, this is, you're looking at this from a political perspective and you're like, I can't believe this is controversial. Yeah. But Democrats have taken all of this and said, this is our target. We're going to go after this guy.

This is the guy who – and my favorite stuff. It's like, oh, this rich, greedy billionaire who wants to steal your money. Really? Yeah. Does anybody think that Elon Musk is interested in your paycheck? The guy flies freaking rockets to Mars. I mean why in the world would Elon be interested in anything other than what's in the best fiscal interest of our country? Because it's good for him. It's good for everyone.

It has no there. There is nothing you could say about this guy that it's not an altruistic thing. Do you think it's like in his business best interest to become a part of the national political conversation?

Of course not. Right. Of course not. But he's doing it nevertheless. And the more that they attack him, the more insulation that they provide for Donald Trump and the more they end up getting done. So I have a theory on this, like why Elon Musk draws so much of their ire. And that is.

We've talked about this a lot on the show. The left has operated like a mafia in this country, a protection racket that they've extorted business in this country, corporations, huge multinational corporations. Shakedown racket. Shakedown racket.

And Elon Musk is one of those people you can't shake down. Because he did it himself. Well, he said it on those panels. Remember those panels like pre-election 2024 where they're like, you know, you're pretty outspoken. Are you worried about that? And he's like, I don't give a fuck. Yeah. Yeah.

Like that's what his – like he's reached untouchable level. And the radicalization of the left can't be understated here. I saw online people were posting – this is in California. They were posting photos of flyers that were put on their Tesla saying that like you have until February 20th to sell and get rid of your Tesla or there will be violence committed against you. Are you kidding? Dead serious. Like they've lost their mind. Lunatics. Lunatics.

But the rest of the country, I mean, it has like a, there's an ebb and flow to it because the rest of the country hears stuff like that. And they're like, oh, now I'm with him. Now I'm with him. You know, not to mention the fact that he had the audacity to make sure that my tax dollars are being spent wisely. You know, it's just, it's wild. Let's play clip two, please.

Privileged billionaires who don't give a damn about America and Americans should not be making decisions that put Americans at harm. We have got to tell Elon Musk nobody elected you. In the streets is a not so baby. I am going to stand with you in this fight and we will win. We will win. We will fight their violations of our constitution of the United States of America.

We will not shut up. We will stand up. We will speak up. Two observations. First is...

I'm sorry, number one. I don't know. We read every YouTube comment. And the one thing I would say is we've been playing a lot of these super cuts of all these protests and stuff. And it's upset some people to see all that on their television. So we're sorry, but we have to show it to you. We got to show it to you because you need to know what they're up to. Have you ever seen, and this is the most revealing part of where the modern left is. Have you ever seen...

A group of politicians so upset about something, and that something being the government union jobs that they get their contributions from. Like when the people were drowning in Western North Carolina, when there were fires in California, when there are wars fought overseas with young women and men dying. Mm-hmm.

In pursuit of American interests, these people don't get mad. No. There's no outrage. You never see anything. You've never seen them disanimated. But when you threaten the government complex, oh, they get pissed. That's the thing is they've drawn the line in the sand.

over having access to your money because that's what matters to them. You never saw them out in the streets shouting like this, being like, hey, kids need to go back to school during COVID. They're like, no, we stand with the teachers units. That was their position. They weren't out there screaming and shouting. Where's the FEMA money for North Carolina? No protests then. And here's the thing. They know better, right?

Because these people aren't divorced from society. They actually know the damage that it was doing to children. Some of them have children in school age.

They know the damage that was happening during COVID. They clearly knew the damage that was happening, people in like Western North Carolina and Tennessee and all across. But none of that provoked the outrage that you saw when you were threatening the government complex, like the spigot. Mm-hmm.

by which all of these people draw their money from. Because it's what Smug always says. And there's no ideology, there's no principle they won't put beneath the ultimate principle, and that is power. And the government unions provide that power to them. And that is sacrosanct. They will put us all through hell if they can keep power. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's just...

It's remarkable, right? I mean, look, we're in a very big transition, a change environment. Trump is doing change things that he was elected upon. He talked very transparently about. There's no surprises here. He's doing what it is that he was elected to do. And then when he does it.

the entrenched interests act like it is the fucking Normandy invasion. And like what we're talking about is giving people paid leave for eight months and full retirement.

And they act as though that this is like a constitutional crisis. Like, will our union exist? And that's the thing is what they are fighting is oversight. They don't want anyone to see where the money's going. What kind of person is like, no, don't ask any questions about where the money's going? What does that tell you about them? Everything. It's just incredible.

We're going to get to a lot more of that right after the break, but we also want to let you know, thank you to everybody who's coming to the 500th Ruthless episode. 500. Who would have guessed we would have made it this far?

Incredible, right? More than I thought would make it. Yeah. It doesn't feel like work, though, does it, fellas? No. No, we're having too much fun. What a pleasure. Yeah, it really is. I just figured the law fair would have put us in prison by now. Well, Trump got elected. Yeah. Thank God. If Kamala was there, I'm pretty sure we have some kind of an indictment looming for a

It wouldn't be like Trend de Agua on a planet Gimma would be us for. Yeah, right. Your high crime is being too funny and too cool. I hate that you're cool. You're going to prison.

So anyway, if you can't join us live and in person, I understand it because we had a limited number of tickets. It sold out very quickly, and I'm very sorry about that. But if you can't, it goes live in 5 a.m. on Thursday. So it's a normal Thursday episode, but we're going to tape the whole thing for you, the listener, to be there live. Mm-hmm.

Because we wouldn't get there without you. I really wouldn't. So we're going to get to all of that. We're going to get to Will Kane and everything. By the way, it's not only elected officials that have an irrational hatred of Musk. The media. Wait till you hear a little something about that. We're going to get to all of that right after this.

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All right, so the media is totally unhinged, particularly on Elon, which is what we're talking about here. I want to play clip three because this is, I mean, just wait to hear some of this stuff. Go ahead, Spaghetts. I want to hear why, but do you think that calling Elon Musk a dick is effective messaging for confronting what is a potentially irreversible transformation of the U.S. government? Irreversible.

Well, he is a dick. And I think he's also harming the American public in an enormous way. And what I think is really important and what the American public want is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy, for the future of this country. It's important to push back on the chairperson of this committee.

Over his shoulder is Will Rogers, and there's a statue of Will Rogers in the Capitol. And I guarantee you that he is rolling over in his grave. I'm surprised he didn't get off the mount. At the thought of this guy who's apparently like, I don't know, an elected representative of the government. As we're told, apparently. As we're told. It's hard to believe that anybody would elect somebody that idiotic. But like, you know, the dick thing has come up a few times.

That's their new thing. He's like, dick. He's trying to be edgy. This is what you guys are bringing to this situation where President Trump gets elected, popular vote, landslide in the electoral vote, and the way you're trying to rebuild your party is like, you're picking battles like this? I mean, to your credit, it's a good question. You guys kind of sound like idiots. The media and the government are natural allies in this fight against Elon Musk, and it's for the reason that

Elon Musk is disrupting both of these industries. Both of these power centers that have had a monopoly on information and control in this country.

You know, what Elon Musk says is you are the media now when you use X. And it's true. He's disrupting the entire media ecosystem. And that scares people on CNN. They can't be the filter. Right. And Doge going through the books scares the government. That's right. And so naturally, they're both going to be attacking them for the same reasons. They have the same vested interest. They totally do. And what I find so amazing about this is...

There's like this faux edginess that they're trying to do. Yeah. You know? He's like, oh, you're a dick. Thinking that there's like a younger generation of Americans that appreciate the straight talk. Right. And in the end, what he's trying to do is defend 70-year-old institutions of public employee unions who haven't gone to work in three years, four years. And like, people aren't that dumb. No, they see right through it. That's the problem for him is this is just –

At the end of the day, I think every American polling shows this sees right through their BS. Elon Musk and Doge are trying to cut wasteful spending. That's it. That's the entire purpose of it. And then who's on the other side of that? Yeah. Well, they pretend like it's a constitutional battle or the democracy for them.

Democracy? Yeah. Right. Democracy. Every time Democrats say democracy, what they really mean is bureaucracy. Oh, yeah. That's what they're trying to protect. Look, it's taken me a while to wrap my head around this sort of break-it-all coalition that is now in the Trump coalition. Because, you know, like, I spent some time in government, and I knew how hard conservatives fought for the limited victories that we had. But, like...

The overarching point that I think the right has made that has now enveloped much of the center left and union Democrats who are now voting for Donald Trump is that you've got this industrial complex in Washington, D.C. It doesn't want anything to change ever. You can switch party one side or another as long as you don't look at the pushback.

Right. As long as you don't get underneath everything, we can change tax policy, we can change our judges, we can change all of these things, all the really important pieces of the component. But like their whole goal is larger than that. And they just want to protect this tax.

pay-to-play operation inside. Yeah, the blob must survive. Yeah. And it took me a while to figure that out because we were on the front lines of trying to fight a whole bunch of things over the years that we thought made a material difference in the American people's lives. And we had serious victories, never got a huge credit for it. We had some setbacks, always got a huge blame for it. And it made me pissed.

But now I get it. Now I understand none of those things really mattered. What mattered is what we're talking about now, which is uncovering this group of, I don't know, maybe less than 10,000 people in this country who are totally focused on just trying to micromanage underneath in contracts and in direction and policy or whatever that you never actually get to.

because they're not in the forefront of a policy debate. They're just the ones in the background who are like taking the money off the top. Well, we were always able to scratch at the surface, I feel like, especially in the Obama years. You know, there was the cash for clunkers, right? Remember shovel-ready jobs that were not shovel-ready. Solyndra, for example. But we really just were scratching the surface as conservatives. And like what Doge and Elon Musk are doing now are like,

They're flipping the log completely, and all of the insects are scurrying out. Totally. Great point. Three out of the top five wealthiest zip codes in this country are the ones surrounding Washington, D.C. And why is that? Why is that? Is that because, you know, is this Silicon Valley that they're creating jobs? Is this Houston, Texas? Do we have oil wells surrounding D.C.? No.

No, it's because, like you said, there's that group of people who have built this little system that only helps them. These government programs, these NGOs, they all skim off the top. They take their big salaries. They get a piece of the action on contracts. That's what they're protecting. And the politicians in their pockets, they send them out to go have their little protests in front of the buildings. Yeah, well, they send them out and they're never more pissed.

They're never more angry. I mean, you see, look at the emotion in that clip that we just paid. Like they are completely unhinged that someone is actually checking where the money goes. Yeah, I haven't seen Cory Booker that animated since he had the I am Spartacus moment when he thought he'd be president. What a loser. I mean, it's all just so performative. It's just, God, it's unbelievable. So we have one more clip.

Clip four, let's play this one. Elon Musk, I think, has likely a more sinister motive, which is also to kind of grease the skids for his new business interest. You know that Elon Musk is interested in starting his own payment app. He's partnered with Visa to do that. And so he has a real interest in ensuring that the CFPB isn't blocking an effort like that. This is the most insane thing yet.

As if Elon Musk wants something from this government. Do you think it would be a good play to make yourself the tip of the spear in reducing the size of government if your ultimate goal was to get a government contract? Doesn't it make any sense? It's the dumbest fuck thing I've ever heard in my entire life. And yet they just –

Right. Right. Right.

all on his own. He's the guy with the Falcon Heavy and the rockets that are caught. They're parallel parking rockets. Yeah. And then for her to try to make the point, like,

He's working with Visa to try to have payments. And it's like, oh boy, I bet him and Visa will be doing some crazy shit if it wasn't for like him trying to, like, it makes no sense at all. The man sleeps on a cot. Yeah. He's worth, like, if he spent every day buying everything in a mall near you, every single retail item, and then a

Lamborghini on top of it. He could never spend what it is that he has. And you're convinced that this is a greed play? Yeah.

Are you nuts? Like these people have lost their fucking minds. I can't believe that this is an argument that we're having in the public domain. I don't think anybody actually believes it. I think that what these people are doing is they're filling time on CNN and MSNBC and they're playing yesterday's playbook. And I think that what Elon and President Trump are doing is tomorrow. And yeah, I just I think they have to create.

a conflict in order to keep people watching, keep people outraged. And they could never imagine their own lives doing something so selfless as what Elon Musk is doing. Right? And so they have to find some sinister motive. That feels like it's kind of telling on themselves. Right.

Where they're like, well, as we all know, you get involved in government to bring the place out and steal the money, right? Right. Totally. But also the cockiest guy you know is the most insecure. Yeah. You know, like in this case, like the most concerned about grifting are the people who are grifting. Yeah. Right. I mean, it just it is what it is. And it's just it. Listen, there are a hundred ways to describe what's going on.

None of it is in a bad interest to the American taxpayer. Like all of this stuff is very good for you. If you're interested in like future generations of Americans getting Social Security, you should be pretty interested in somebody examining who's getting Social Security now if they're 175 years old.

Because that's how you bankrupt a system. That's how we've operated for the last 30 years. Right. And here's the other thing. Think about the number of illegal immigrants in this country who are somehow getting money from our social security system. The government doesn't want people to know that number. They don't want people to know how much...

that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were pushing out the door of your money to people who did not pay into the system and who do not deserve it. Well, it works two ways, Johnny. They don't want anybody to know. It's not only that, which is real. It's the other side of the coin, too, which is all of the illegal labor. I mean, nobody likes FICA taxes, but we all pay it.

They don't. Right. Right. So you're getting the back end of the benefit without having to pay the front end of the dues for admission. And that is happening. That is a very real thing. These are the things that they're looking at. What an outrage. How dare they? What an outrage. How dare they try to make sure money is spent appropriately? You have to ask yourself, why are they so mad? That's the thing. Because they're taking the money. That's it. Why are they so mad? Straight up. We know why.

We have a question of the day for you, and it revolves around next Thursday's episode, which is our 500th. And a really, really important show for us. It's going to be live. It's great. But this answer to this question will inform what it is that we do. And the question is, what games should we play? Oh, very good question. We've played probably six or seven games. I know there's going to be one game that's brand new.

Mm-hmm. One game that's brand new that we're unveiling at the 500th episode. But you've heard, you know, six or seven different games. You all have your favorites. Can't the hell you got to imagine is going to be in there no matter what? That's a staple. Mm-hmm. But let's give it your vote. Well, yeah, because when we do a live show, we emphasize the theatricality of the production. Yeah. Because you want to give people a show. Yeah.

And so we need your help. We really do. We do. And you need to tell us what is your favorite, and we will frickin' play it. We'll play it. Coming up in Variety, some incredible footage of a military aircraft you're not going to want to miss. And then a follow-up on a man whose ex-girlfriend threw away 8,000 bitcoins. We did a story about this maybe six months ago or so. It was just like a tragedy, right? Because it was like...

You know, it's worth millions. A lot of money. And the guy is apoplectic about it. There's a follow-up that you're not going to want to miss right after this. So we just got some big news from Americans for Prosperity, the most effective grassroots organization in the country. They've just launched a massive $20 million campaign to protect your hard-earned money. Here's the deal. If Congress doesn't act, the Trump tax cuts will expire.

That means families could pay $1,500 more in taxes next year. We all remember the benefits of those tax cuts. More money in your pocket, higher wages, and thriving mom-and-pop businesses across the country. But Bidenomics has taken us backward.

Record inflation and rising costs mean families are paying over $13,000 more per year just to make ends meet. Now is not the time for higher taxes. That's why AFP is unleashing its grassroots army to protect the tax cuts with hundreds of local events, millions of voter contacts, and direct pressure on lawmakers.

lawmakers. Join the fight. Visit protectprosperity.com to demand Congress renews and strengthens the Trump tax cuts so we can reignite the American dream. That's protectprosperity.com. Okay, so in our effort...

to show you not only the best of news and our understanding of what's happening in Washington, D.C., we also have to give the best of the internet and the most crazy things that we've seen over the last few days. This was completely insane. This is one of the craziest things that we've seen over the last few days. Can we please play clip five, please?

Holy shit. That is an F-18 crashing into the San Diego Bay off Point Loma. Uh, pilots now fortunately ejected before they got out of here, but you don't see this kind of thing on a day-to-day basis. This is absolutely wild. Uh,

live webcam of the San Diego Harbor that you're looking at showed all of this now again fortunately nobody was hurt at all but like wow

Huh? It's terrifying. Terrifying. I mean, that is insane to see. Totally nuts. And it also speaks to how aerodynamic that fighter jet is, that it almost makes no splash on the way in. It was like going full tilt. Thank God they ejected and were out of there. Well, they had two pilots aboard, authorities confirmed. Both were able to eject safely before that crash. A nearby fishing vessel picked both pilots up.

If I'm the captain on a ship, I'm like, so what the hell happened? Because that looked pretty crazy. I mean, for audio only listeners in that video, it's like you did like the can opener off the high dive. Like not a lot of splash. Yeah. And this is a huge fighter jet. But also the proximity of that camera to land. Yeah. I mean, can we do one more time? Can I say that one more time? I mean, this jet is real close. It looks like a missile.

And it just goes headfirst right into the bay. I mean, it couldn't be more than 100 yards offshore. Yeah. Yikes. Yeah, I will tell you, God bless the fishermen out there listening because it is the most magnanimous, generous community of people in our entire country. And they're looking out for everybody. We stand with the fishermen. We stand with the fishermen. We always stand with the fishermen. I mean, we had some great –

captains and fishermen when we did that trip with JD. Good folks. I hope those people are thinking about how we're going to recreate that in a way that we catch actual monster fish. Yes, 100%. Because we're going back to Michigan at some point to do that. Well, Smug caught fish. I did. That's nonsense. They were very cold. It was a cold day. You pulled them up from the depths. Yeah. Yeah, the depths of... Very cold. The grocery store. Yeah.

I love when J.D. called you out right away. Like within seconds, he was like, that's bullshit. He knew. He knew. All right, you want another crazy story? Yeah. So we did a story a few, I think, months ago. And this one's covered by Sky News. But about somebody who had lost...

Bitcoin. Yeah, I think he had it on a flash drive or something. Yeah. Yeah. Just an enormous amount of Bitcoin that he had lost. And he thought it went to a landfill.

Or whatever. So after a legal case to force the counsel to let him search the site was thrown out by the judge. He wanted to search the landfill for this thing that he knew was thrown away in a landfill. And worth like millions. To back up, it was his ex-girlfriend that threw out a hard drive that had 8,000 bitcoins. This happened in 2013. Yeah.

Today's value is $800 million. Wow. So, like, again, be careful about who you partner with. Yeah. You know, former mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry, understands this. The bitch set me up. Exactly. That's where you're going. That's what happened here. She threw it out.

I love the you marry and bury that thing. I don't want to get into trouble. Only a woman could be like, I'm so mad. I'm going to light $800 million on fire. Yeah. I'm sure she didn't know. She knew. No. She knew. They always try to say they don't know. Maybe she was like, this loser with his Bitcoin. I'm going to throw this out. I'm going to throw it out. Yeah. Yeah, throw it out. They want you to lose, dude. They want you to lose. They. They. Oh, my God. They get mad when you're winning. They hate it.

They hate it. So his name is James Howells, and he's toying with offering to purchase the landfill. Not a bad idea. And he's discussing the idea with business partners because at the end of the...

Look, there's a lot of money. It's like a gold mine. Somewhere in that joint, there's $800 million. Well, we think. He doesn't even know. He doesn't know necessarily. Do you have to go to a bank? Do you go to a bank and get a loan for this? And you're like, all right, my collateral is there in the landfill somewhere. How do you do that? How do you establish chain of custody to prove that it's in there so that a bank would loan you the money to buy the thing? The picture would be so easy. You just step in the bank. You're like,

One man's trash is another man's trash. In a more literal way sometimes than others. Smug would get that loan in a heartbeat. Done. He could do it. He could do it. Well, I mean, so, yeah, his ex-girlfriend threw this thing out. He's a 39-year-old IT worker.

But, I mean, I understand what he's dedicating his life to at $800 million. Yeah. Like, you've got to get that thing. That's real money. Or die trying. I mean, it's every young boy's dream, you getting to do a real-life treasure hunt, you know? Yeah. Like, that would be really cool. It would be really cool. Well, anyway, he's trying to buy the landfill. He's taking investors. Newport City Council is planning to close and cap the site in the 25-26 financial year.

which would almost certainly spell the end of any lingering hopes for him. So Mr. Howells said he's widely reported comments on Monday that he'd been quite surprised to hear the council's plan, and he's going to try to buy the joint. So do you guys remember there was this stunt? I think it was Geraldo trying to get into some vault. What was it? Was it like Al Capone's vault? This is so easy for this guy to...

Make this a reality show. Yes. Because you'll get some TV channel, something like that. Dude, in the age of streaming, I mean, like, you could, in an email, pitch this to Netflix and they would green light it. Right. Totally. But it's also no different than, like, you know, what you do in the oil business by people betting on whether you hit wells or not. Right. Like, there's a reasonable chance $800 million in there.

You spend a couple hundred million bucks, you get 600 million bucks out of it. That's an investment. It would be such good reality TV of the moment you have the show, you find the hard drive, the moment he gets it in hand, then you go live of him calling his ex. You tried to stop me. You tried. I want an expose on this lady. We want this. It should be a TV show. Do you think she's just fat? No.

No. She is right now celebrating his misery, dude. That's like every day she wakes up, it's Christmas. She's like, yeah, I won. I made him miserable. Do you think that's what's happening? Dude, I know that's what's happening. It's 100%. They're so happy. Smug, do you think you have ex-girlfriends who listen to this show? I hope so. Watch me shine. I hope not. Watch me shine.

Oh my God, that's fantastic. Well, anyway, when we come back, we're going to get Will Kane. Yeah, real treat. The one and only Will Kane, a great friend of the program. You're not going to want to miss any of that right after this. I want to welcome to the program a very famous individual. This guy is a star of stars. He's somebody who, with sheer presence on television, can triple ratings in a matter of hours. Yeah.

He's an old friend of the program. You've heard him here before. We love doing stuff with this guy. Will Kane, how are you, sir? Just my sheer presence. That's it. I can just talk about Blake Lively. Whatever. Triple A. That's it. That's it. You know, just some down-to-earth sort of middle-of-the-country common sense for everybody. And look what happens. All of a sudden, the 4 o'clock hour is exploding. It has. It's...

Yeah, man, I'm, I don't even know what to say. Like, it's, I'm not fist pumping because I'm not like, what did I do? I don't know. I mean, like, I'm as shocked as everybody else, but I'm, I'm super humbled and flattered. It's, it's just awesome. It's awesome. I should, you know what, though? I should give credit to my co-host.

I didn't know when they gave me my own show on the Fox News channel. So guess what? We're going to call it the Will Cain show that I would actually end up with a co-host who's very unpredictable and long winded. But he joins me every day at four and it's President Donald Trump. Yeah, no small part from my ratings, timing CEOs and giving press conferences every day in the four o'clock hours.

It's like drinking from a fire hose. There's so much news. I mean, the content, we have this on Ruthless, but we're not doing the four o'clock hour on the channel like this guy. But I mean, the hardest part about doing news or commentary in this particular era is trying to figure out what you're going to jam into the time you have allotted. I mean, you could cover anything. You know, and the funny thing about that, I was actually, so when I went to the Super Bowl this weekend in New Orleans and I got to sit with some of my bosses and

One of them said something really smart. She said, you know, a lot of my friends, like, I just want to catch up on what happened today. Like, what did the president do today? So we started that this week, almost like a report card or a to-do list. What did he do today? Because it's hard for the audience. It's got to be because it's hard for us to keep up with what he did every day. The other thing about that, Holmes, is

You know, this whole thing about having your own TV show is really a work in progress. What I mean is I have a vision for what I want this show to be at some point. And we're not even we're not even the first base yet. Like what I I want to be very casual the way I am here with you guys and the way you guys are on your program. And and we're going to earn our way into that with the audience.

And I also like to go deep. Like, I want to go into the why of a lot of this news and why it matters and give some historical contextual background. But the point I'm getting at is that's really hard right now. Like you said, it's like a fire hose of information. Yeah.

You can't go deep. How do I get deep on what do I do to get in here? Yeah, if you go deep on anything, you're talking about news that happened 48 hours ago. Like the last seven things that happened in the 15 minutes before you went on air go unnoticed as a result of it. But I think one of the things that excites us the most, and Duncan, you and I were talking about this a little bit, is the commitment of Fox to go with you, Will Kane,

says to an awful lot of us who have similar overlapping audiences, a digital audience, all these other things, of a generational change, not just in who appears on air, but the way you approach issues, the way that you talk to your audience, the way you interact with your audience.

And that to me is super refreshing that we've gotten to a point where, you know, four o'clock used to be sort of a stale hour. And like Fox has always done better than anybody else. But it's, you know, that's kind of like the winding down part of your work day. And like nobody's sort of like super enthused about four o'clock hour until now. Until now. Because they got something different. Well, I think Fox has recognized what we've seen here over the last two, four, six years. It's like people consume information differently now, right?

And their appetite for how news is packaged has totally changed. They're willing to go deep. They're willing to look around the corner for what comes next. I want to have a discussion about that. We do that on our show. You do that on yours. And so my question to you is, with all this fire hose of media and trying to stay on top of the day-to-day stuff, like...

Like, how do you plan for what's next for the Will Cain show? Like, how do you give your audience a peek into the crystal ball? And how does that inform like how you're going to produce the show? So you get past like first base to second base and all the way home. Well, so part of that is, is I think it's almost too, it's too shallow to say aesthetic. Okay. Let's, let's go esoteric and then apply it more, more concretely into what I envision the program.

So what you were saying a minute ago, which I am incredibly flattered by, and I appreciate how I package the news. And I think a lot about that. And in the way when Fox approached this, I look, I was a host of Fox and Friends, and that's a different kind of show. So.

I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. Like I have this vision and I want to hit it right out of the gates. I want to, you know, probably two months worth of planning and this and they're like, nope, we're just going to, nope, we're putting it on air and you're going to figure it out as you go. And I'm like, wow, like it's not only...

It's wise. It's actually wise. The bosses that I've gotten to know even more so recently, it's just incredibly wise because you don't want to shake the snow globe of television overnight. You just don't, Machiavellianly. People point out to me, Jimmy Kimmel did that. When he got a late night show, he totally rejected the format. And I think he gave up the monologue and some other things, and the ratings absolutely tanked. And then he morphed back into all the other late night programs.

Well, I'm going to do it the other way. My show now is way more traditional than I want it to be. It's going to grow and I will earn the audience's license to grow it even more abnormal than what you see on TV.

At the beginning, they just say, hey, Will, just be you. That's it. We want you to be you. And that can be an intimidating thing for somebody. It's like liberating. And you're like, yeah, awesome. Be me. But the other part is like, what does that mean? You know, but here's what you touched on. I think it was Holmes saying this. It may have been smug.

Here's all I know about me is that my currency is authenticity. That's all it is. I would like to think that I'm the same dude if we hung out in New Orleans that you see on TV. I'd like to think I'm not putting on pretenses, not false sense of expertise, curious when I'm curious, opinionated when I'm opinionated.

And I hope that's what you're seeing. Like when you said it's a refreshing package, I hope that's what I'm accomplishing right now, being authentic. Over time, I'll tell you how I'll allow myself to be authentic. Well, they're building me a studio right here next door. I'm not going to be stuck behind this wall.

image in this one shot just when we fell in love with the one shot yeah this is unbelievable I'm gonna get up man I'm gonna I'm gonna deal with the wall I'm gonna have you guys in I don't want to do a four minute interview I want to have a conversation with you guys I want to you know who's awesome I must give you an example Trey Yankst is awesome right and I had Trey I've had Trey on the Will Kane show the digital show just like you guys

30 minutes, Trey and I talk in Israel, Gaza, you know, everything. And the version of Trey that I, I would love that version of him. Like, I mean, this dude's an expert. He's there all the time. And so I want to figure out ways to use him and bring him into a conversation where I'm learning with the audience. And it's not just a traditional Q and a. So I hope when we look up in six months, it's authentically me in a more authentic environment formatically. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really well said. Yeah. Well, I just I got to ask you about something because you are not the real article. You are an authentic guy.

And I heard something last week that I think could be more meaningful to you than the huge show and all of your success on television. It was at the Super Bowl, and Jerry Jones was walking, the owner of the Cowboys, was walking down the red carpet, and he was asked by somebody about the season. It was a disappointment. And he apologized to one key fan. He actually apologized to...

to Will Kane for the performance of their team this season. And I heard that and I was like, oh my God. This is a lifetime achievement award for a super fan. - Okay, you want authenticity? So Tyrus asked him that. So I don't know Jerry and I am doubtful that Jerry knows who I am. I'm doubtful.

I do know some of Jerry's family. Okay. I live in Dallas. They live in Dallas. Our worlds have intersected. So here's the authenticity. So I go to this party, right? I'm in this new world, right? I get to be around some bigwigs. This is in New Orleans.

And I'm at the party, you know, like Brady is there and this and that. And there's Jerry. And I mean, he is five feet away from me, right? He's got the ostrich boots on. Yes. And I'm like, this is my moment. I'm going to go. And I'm not going to say, hey, why haven't we been to a Super Bowl in 30 years? I'm not going to do that. I don't think. But...

I kind of he was talking to a guy. Right. And you guys have been to cocktail parties. You're big DC, big wigs, you guys. And, you know, it's that thing. Like, how do you approach a conversation when it's not like is the circle closed? Is it open? And so Jerry's body was kind of like he was side talking to this guy like this, you know, and I walked up to kind of let him know I was standing there.

I think he side-eyed glanced at me and turned to talk to the other guy, and it was clear there is not an opening. So...

I embarrassingly shuffled away and felt very rejected from JJ. Well, now he wants to make it the head coach of the Cowboys. Well, it's a hell of a transformation in a couple of short years. So you mentioned Tom Brady. I just want to ask you, what's it like playing on the same team as him? Is he as much of a leader? Does he really dominate the scene? I met him for the first time this weekend. And

So I have nothing but positive. I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan. But Elway's still the greatest. You do know that, right? Who's great? Who? John Elway. Elway? No. No, exactly. Do not take the bait. One, Mahomes. Two, Montana. Three. I don't know where Elway comes in, but it's getting there after that. That's fair ranking. Yeah.

Brady is awesome. He met my son. I got to take my son, which was incredible, my 13-year-old. He was so cool. He took time. He talked to my son and said nice things about me. Brady's another level of superstar, right? Totally. When you get to that level, I'll put it this way. Brady's close, but I'll tell you the two most accessible superstars I've ever met.

And what I mean by accessible is they're not going through the motions. They're talking to you. They're interested in you. And there's a lot of demands on Brady in the time, in the, in the place that I was right. There's a lot of people around. So it's sometimes dependent upon the situation.

But the two most accessible that I've ever been around are Dwayne Johnson, who is the rock. Awesome dude. He's one of my favorites, man. Love to hear that. Looks in the eye, asks about you. Like, how's your life? What do you think? Not doing it in a politician type way. Like, yeah. Wants to have a conversation.

And the other is Donald Trump. Yeah, totally. We're talking about superstar and uniquely accessible human being that is genuine in their interaction with you. Trump is amazing. Yeah, totally. And as he's broken the media in many ways, that is now apparent for all to see. Over the last three and a half weeks of his presidency, he talks to you directly several times a day. And you can tell. I mean, look, some of us, we've been fortunate enough to sit in the room with that guy, you

kind of a lot over the last few years. And you're so right. Every single time that you have an interaction with Donald Trump, he is looking you in the eye. He's asking you questions. He's engaged.

And in a world in Washington in which many of us professionally grew up, that is such a rare commodity. It's unbelievable. - People usually don't take interest in other people in this town. It's like, what can you do for me? - Exactly. - But Donald Trump's always interested in you. I mean, if you went and watched that Theo Vaughn interview, for example, I think Donald Trump asks more questions than Theo Vaughn does. He wants to know, what was it like being on cocaine all those years?

And Duncan, it doesn't turn off. I used to have this theory. You guys are much more plugged into DC with me, but you can measure the talent of a politician by the amount of time they can pretend to be interested in. So I met Joe Scarborough. Five minutes. Five minutes. I saw the light go off. I saw it. I saw it in his eyes. Looking over your shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Couple months. He was looking, looking, but he was kind of looking for something else. I was around Elliot early in my career when I was at CNN, but I'm going to tell you something. He's a talented politician. He really is. Donald Trump never turns off. Somebody has to pull him away. He doesn't lose interest in you. He's not trying to wrap up the interview. Someone else has to tell him, sir, you've got to go. Yeah.

The chancellor of Germany is waiting and you're still talking to the host of Fox and Friends weekend. Oh, it's so good. The last part that I wanted to get into you with Will and I know you got to run. Look at busy guy. He's got millions of people to entertain here shortly. Uh,

You came at this thing differently. We've talked about this on the show before. You were heavily into sports. You obviously have an interest in politics, and that has grown over the years and what you've now become. But what I love about your show is that you fuse it all together. It's one of the things that we've tried to do at Ruthless is you can't come at...

the things that you come at from a political perspective unless you understand your cultural awareness you're understanding what are the things that drive you and motivate you for those of us who played team sports obviously we've got a different way of looking at a Republican team than we do you know somebody who never played any sports and they're like these are all individual things and like you have done this to a level for the first time in my mind

on cable television in a way that brings in more than just giving you the political news. We're giving you the whole thing. I mean, that's gotta be a huge motivation for you. - You know, but that's just back to the authenticity thing. It's not calculated. As you were talking about that, I'll give you the three moments that I think led me to whoever I am and whatever I'm trying to present to the audience on TV.

Law school was really huge for me. I went to law school at the University of Texas. And, you know, it's kind of weird. Like I said this other day, it's the first time in my life that I didn't care about my grades, like all through high school and college. I'm trying to get good grades. I'm trying to get to the next step, whatever it is, admission to this or admission to that. When I got to law school, I did not care about working for a big law firm. Just didn't care. I knew I was going to do something else with my life.

and it totally liberated me to actually learn. And I learned and I fell in love with the Constitution, just learning the Constitution. So that's hugely formative for me in my life. Second was Obama-McCain election of

What is that? Oh, nine. Oh, eight. Oh, nine. And I just felt like it was a huge philosophical debate in the country that was being missed through the partisan dynamic. Like, I think Obama represented a real shift in our in our country's arc on the kind of things that we accepted as our relationship between us and our government. And that led me down the political path. That's how I ended up going down TV path and that kind of thing.

And then to your point, I took five years after doing politics for whatever it was, six years. And I just left. I did sports for five years on ESPN, which I loved. And that I think we all have to be careful. We have to be careful because politics can consume us totally. And then worse partisanship can consume us. And it's, we have to remember it's just one narrow lens through which you view the world. It's maybe it's not that narrow. It's big because it represents culture as well.

But being in sports for five years, I just reconnected with people of every different walk of life and saw all the ties that bind us. I'm not doing false kumbaya stuff. But like, by the way, I love the I love the the non camaraderie part of it, meaning the debates first take. And I loved it. But the point is, it's just life is deeper. It's just so much deeper than than.

Republicans and Democrats. And so I just tried to marshal all that, or I guess I don't know if I'm trying. I just am marshaling all that into whatever I'm doing now, which- Yeah, it's so well said. And it's awesome that you can explain. I mean, that's why the authentic piece of what it is that you do shines through. Because that's the best explanation I've heard of the whole part of becoming a host and the way that you approach news and your job and everything else.

Listen, I have a feeling we're going to be seeing a lot of you and not just at four o'clock on Fox. You're a good friend. You've been awesome to this program. We always love having you on. Will Kane, thank you so much for joining us. I expect to start seeing you guys on a regular basis at four. I'm saying now. We said it before we went on air, but I want your audience to hold you accountable. Oh, good. Count it. Good. I love that. Thanks so much for joining us, Will. Thanks, fellas.

Man, that guy is so great. And Fox was so smart to put him in the four o'clock hour. And what he is doing with that is revolutionizing television. And this guy is the future of television.

what we're all hoping to do. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like the basis of what he's doing with the authenticity and bringing in different components of his life, like sports and other things to have a conversation that is largely about politics and what have you is what we did at the beginning for long years ago at Ruthless. It is so gratifying to see somebody like, we'll get to the point where he's at because it's like, you know, it's like a,

A stamp that, yep, we get it. It's like the proof of concept for why we started this show in the first place. And it's not only on television, it's succeeding. The ratings are fantastic. Yeah, he's like over doubled the ratings at that hour. He's crushing it. It is a whale of a guy. I mean, this is somebody like in a top 10 list of people you want to have a beer with and hang out and just...

Discuss life. You love seeing the good guys win. Yeah, totally. Totally. So thanks to Will for joining us. Remember, we have a question of the day. It's what game are we going to play next Wednesday for our 500th episode? What you tell us, we're going to end up doing. You should like and subscribe, like and subscribe. Enter your answer. We're going to play it on Wednesday. And with that, gentlemen...

I think we've done it. I think so. Absolute banger of an episode. Gentlemen, thank you so much to Lil' Kane and thank you so much to the listeners. We wouldn't be here without you. So until next time, minions, keep the faith, hold the line, and own the libs. We'll see you Thursday. Stay ruthless.

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