Trump's Masterstroke In Iran As Dems Spiral
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Nobody wants global war. Nobody wants, you know, troop commitment in their region and all the things that we've had to deal with over the last 20 years in terms of the war on terror and everything else. Like, I understand the anxiety. If there is a group of people anywhere in the world that says they want to eliminate you from the face of the planet, you have two choices. You wait around for them to get the capability to do as they wish, or you try to eliminate the threat.

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Well, good Tuesday to you and 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 left to right across your radio dial as always. Fellas, admirable job holding down the fort for me last week. Thank you. Great shows. It was fun. So listen, a lot of content out there, many things that we want to put on in context and give our opinion on. And, uh, uh,

As is always the case, Democrats give us a lot to work with. Yeah. So we're going to have some yucks in the process.

Iran, obviously, is the big discussion point that we're having across the world, really. And you all by now are very well aware of the mission that was executed against the nuclear facilities and the development of nuclear weapons within Iran. There have been presidents back to my beginning in politics, George W. Bush, in deep discussions about whether or not

America had an obligation to do something to prevent a regime that said, we will kill you if we have the capability for doing something about it. And W. Bush, obviously, with the war on terror in Iraq, they sort of had their hands full in that regard. And Obama...

drone striking weddings and sending them pallets of cash and sending Iran pallets of cash decided there were other more pressing issues. Can I say like number one biggest owl of the weekend hands down to the Iranian mullahs and the government of Iran number two has to be like Obama and his team. Yeah. They man.

I mean, it's not coincidence. Like they were hand in hand. They tried to be like, OK, Iran, we'll give you piles of cash. We'll try to like all of their theories. I thought that was the funniest thing over the weekend. You know, you watch this and you're a little tense about the whole situation. Obviously, it's like what's going to happen here? But then you have these Obama pod bros explaining to the world, well, now that Donald Trump has attacked Iran,

you know, they're very dangerous. Like they, you know, they could do terrorist attacks in Cyprus, blowing up a, you know, a bus full of American tourists. If they're so dangerous, you give them pounds of cash? Like explain that thing to me. It makes no sense. I saw you tomahawk dunk on Tommy Veeder, the pod bro. Yeah. I was like fucking Sean Kemp. Yeah.

Took no prisoners, man. Good for Duncan. Well, they, you know, look, they like to reinvent history every time. I mean, there was also other takes that I saw that I agreed with that were terrific where they always talk about the consequences of American action.

And, you know, maybe when you spend the last 30 years attacking America and its interests and its allies abroad, maybe we're the consequence. You know, maybe the consequence is coming to Iran finally for the first time. Yeah. America is the one who knocks.

Yeah. There it is. That's right. That's it. And that's a good framework for how it is that we view in the Ruthless Variety Program what's happened here. I understand there's a lot of questions, a lot of anxiety about what this all means. Nobody wants global war. Nobody wants troop commitment in their region and all the things that we've had to deal with over the last 20 years in terms of the war on terror and everything else. I understand the anxiety. If there is a group of people anywhere in the world

that says they want to eliminate you from the face of the planet, you have two choices. You wait around for them to get the capability to do as they wish, or you try to eliminate the threat. And it's that simple. And what I love about President Trump and the way that he has executed particularly Middle Eastern foreign policy is that it's always about, let's see if we can find a different way to do something.

And then he runs up into the familiar blockades that every president before him has run up against. And instead of just throwing hands to the air and be like, OK, well, I guess I'll focus on taxes for a while. He's like, OK, well, you've left me no choice. Soleimani is a good example of that. Right. ISIS. What do you do with ISIS is a good example of that.

I mean, taking decisive action, moving the embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, which every president before him had said, you can't do it because it's going to create a— Even though they ran on it. Everyone would always say it's campaign promise, and then they wouldn't do it. He's like, okay, well, let's just do it. And so this is a situation where you have a regime in Iran—

that has not only just said they wanted to kill Americans, they're the largest state sponsor of terrorism. They've killed more American soldiers than any other country on this planet. They've internalized that for a minute. Internalized that. When we were involved in Iraq...

When we were involved in the region, you can go back to the Khobar Tower bombings or the... Beirut. The barracks bombings in Beirut or all of that. That was all Iran. That's what they were doing. You can go all the way back to the student hostage situation in 1979. It's the same thing. It's the Ayatollah Khomeini, now his son, and that's what they're doing there. And it just took sort of the recognition of a responsible leader to say, well, if I ever get the opportunity...

to ensure that they can't actually reach beyond their little sphere of influence, I'm going to do it. And he did it. Yeah. Look, it's a big deal. And we're going to tell you a lot of questions out there in the universe about whether this is, particularly in the online universe, about whether this is America first. We're going to answer all of those things. We're going to get deep into depth, and we're going to have some yucks.

Because Democrats, again, it's pretty bad. We've also got an update on this Senate action on this big, beautiful bill and when you can sort of rest at ease that your taxes are not going up. And we'll talk about all of that along with some variety that you're going to love. But to start off with, I think the biggest question was answered Monday.

that most Americans had, which is, okay, what's the retaliation for this? Because this is the reason why every American president hadn't done what President Donald J. Trump had done, which is, what's the retaliation for doing the right thing? The right thing was obviously eliminating the nuclear capability of Iran. Everyone has agreed on that. Literally everyone has agreed on that. But the question was always at what cost? So what's the retaliation? Well,

Turns out they launched some missiles at a U.S. base in Qatar. No missiles impacted. All were intercepted. No casualties. The attack was, as Donald Trump has said, preannounced. Can I read this in its entirety? Can we get this on the screen? This was posted by President Trump on Tuesday Social.

Iran has officially responded to our obliteration of their nuclear facilities with a very weak response, which we expected.

and have very effectively countered. There have been 14 missiles fired, 13 were knocked down, and one was, quote, set free because it was headed in a non-threatening direction. I am pleased to report that no Americans were harmed and hardly any damage was done. Most importantly, they've gotten it all out of their system. System, quote, unquote. That is so good. And there will hopefully be no further hate.

I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice. This is, man. He is so good at just being mean to his enemy. Just a dunk.

I want to thank Iran for giving us early notice, which made it possible for no lives to be lost and nobody to be injured. Perhaps Iran can now proceed to peace and harmony in the region, and I will enthusiastically encourage Israel to do the same. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Donald J. Trump, President of the United States of America. That's just so hard. Can we talk for a minute about the...

Thank you for attention as matter how that's just become the mic drop. That is so good. It was incredible over the weekend. All these memes just sort of flourished on Twitter with like a B2 and a, and a flag flying behind it. It said, thank you for your attention to this matter. It's just, it's one of the greatest things. I guess what I love about it the most. And I've said this numerous times is like Trump more than any politician in the history of politics can break the fourth wall. Yeah. You know? And it's like,

all right, we all know what Iran is doing here. Like they have to have a face-saving measure in which they try to lob some missiles at some American facilities in the Middle East, but they've been degraded by Israel and then by the United States. And Donald Trump isn't going to even give them that. He's going to know, he's going to be like, nah, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to dog walk you on the world stage and let everybody know I know. Okay.

That's the best part. It's so amazing. That's the best. So can we get a clip 1A? This is just of the missile defense systems. This is in Qatar. And look, I got to imagine that's a little disconcerting looking out your window and seeing a...

fireworks show above you. But what that is, is Patriot missile defenses from the Americans shooting down these missiles headed towards Qatar and more importantly, American bases in the region, ensuring that as Donald Trump said, 14 missiles were fired, 13 were knocked down and one was set free. No casualties in the Americans. You know, one of the crazy thing about those images is

When you see those interceptions, that's actually happening outside of the Earth's atmosphere. That's crazy. Isn't that mind-blowing? Mind-blowing. That's the level of technology America has, is those explosions that you're seeing, those are above the Earth's atmosphere.

They look like stars. I will say, I know we're going to get to it a little bit later in the segment. I don't think this is the end of what the Iranians are going to try to do. No, I think that's part of the discussion we're going to have is the cost-benefit analysis on all that, but we're going to get into it. I think that, look, we would be remiss if we didn't take some acknowledgement over the opposition. And it's uniformal on the Democratic side that somehow now...

Despite their strong preferences that Iran never get nuclear capability, they now have a problem with somebody actually effectuating that policy. Foremost amongst them, AOC, our girl. Yes. Our girl. Let's pop up graphic one, if you don't mind.

The president's disastrous decision to bomb Iran without authorization is a grave violation of the Constitution and the congressional war powers. He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations. It is absolutely and clearly crowns for impeachment. That was a horrible take. Hell yeah. She hit all of the liberal –

you know, what would you call it? Mad libs. I would say she, she hit it all. It's like an SEO. Yeah. They're trying to get all the things in for the ad, the adverb. I think the funniest part about it is the idea. She gives a fuck about the constitution. Never cared a lick. Like when we were doing,

She was using taxpayer dollars to force landlords not to evict people. And she was like, no, it'll cast a constitution. Like, I don't know. It's like several amendments that directly pertain to the last set of shit that you were dealing with. And can I say, I was on vacation this past weekend.

And among all the bartenders I encountered, her take was the worst on a situation. Like, are you, like, that's the problem is people are like, AOC is not qualified because she's a bartender. Any other bartender I encountered this past weekend had a far better foreign policy take than her. She's just uniquely dumb and thinking, well, why don't we impeach the president for this? It's unbelievable. Yeah.

It's so bad. But she wasn't alone. I mean, there was a whole Adam Schiff, Shifty Schiff was out there with his thing. Ilhan Omar. Yeah. I mean, like the usual suspects were out there. It's worth noting from the Democratic side that Obama had bombed without a war resolution in any way. Yeah.

Iraq in 2014, Syria in 2014, Libya 2011, Yemen 2016, Somalia 2014, Pakistan 2016. And then the era of AOC, Iraq 21, Syria 21, Somalia 23, Yemen 24. I mean, so- Get out of here. How many times did she file articles of impeachment over this illegal act? Yeah, amazing, right? Holmes, that's crazy.

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If you wanted somebody...

To best articulate the hollowness that is today's Democratic Party. You never have to go any further than the top of the food chain in the Democratic Senate. And when you have Chuck Schumer, his existence in and of itself.

is like a Mad Libs to the intellectual bankruptcy that is the Democratic Party. Because he doesn't actually care about a fucking thing. His goal is to try to stand on top of a very...

dynamic, insane Democratic majority. It's best they can cobble together those coalitions. And so he's in one place one way, he's in another another day, and then he just says things that are inherently contradictory. Well, he's here in footsteps. He's got Chris Murphy out there on Twitter making his case, and he's got Chris Van Hollen flying to El Salvador and having margaritas with...

Abrego Garcia. And AOC record fundraising for folks who want her primary him. But he's getting out in front of all those things too, right? Like when Holland goes and has margaritas with a human trafficker, as we found out, and he's got a strong statement in support of all of that. And then he just drops it and they're like, well, it wasn't really his idea. He didn't think of it. And then he comes out and he's like supportive. He's supposed to be like the one Democrat who's left who's pro-Israel.

Going to support Israel. It's very important to the pro-Israel community that they have Chuck Schumer standing in the way of it. First of all, he's done fucking nothing to stand in the way. The Democratic Party has gone from 100 percent pro-Israel party to maybe a 20 percent pro-Israel party on his watch, on his watch. He's apparently leading this movement.

So like, you know, if this is your guy, maybe look for another guy. But this is where this thing really gets in technicolor. Look at clip one. This is from a couple weeks ago in June 2nd.

Oh.

any side deal should be before Congress and most importantly, the American people. If Taco Trump is already folding, the American public should know about it. No side deals. All right. So the Taco Trump thing and the reason why that's so ridiculous is it was something that came up with traders on Wall Street about the tariff situation. It was Trump always chickens out. And it was about effectuating the dates by which tariffs were going to go into place. Now,

because all of those were negotiations and whatnot. But the Democrats at some point detected that it got under Trump's skin. And also it was fake. So it turns out it was a couple of traitors who donate to the Dems. That were doing that. Yeah. And so then the Dems actually came up with this and tried to push it. Then they got their friends in the media to ask about it. They got their friends in the media to write it. Wired up. And then they got Democrat politicians that they donate to to say it.

And now how stupid does Schumer look? It's not the only thing that was fake. I don't know if you noticed, fellas, but there were several cuts in that short video that Schumer was filming to camera on an issue that supposedly matters a great deal to him. And it reminded me of Randy Weingarten jumping up and down while she's reading a script trying to

and convey some sort of emphasis. Like she actually cares very much. He cares so much about this topic. He's got to cut seven times for a short video.

Zero authenticity. But that's the hallmark of Chuck Schumer. So now all of a sudden all of this happens. And let's put up the full text of his statement, if you don't mind, fellas. President Trump must provide the American people and Congress clear answers on the actions taken tonight and their implications for the safety of all Americans. No president should be allowed to unilaterally march this nation into something that's consequential as war with erratic threats and no strategy confronting Iran's

Ruthless campaign of terror, nuclear ambitions and regional aggression demands strength, resolve and strategic clarity. I'm confused. Wait, I thought he was a chicken, Josh. I thought he was chickening out. I thought he was going to chicken out. And now he does the thing and you're mad about it. Wait, hold on. It was that he was letting him off the hook, but then he didn't let him off the hook. And now we're concerned about congressional. And he says in that little video, he's like, oh, the terrorist government of Iran. Trump's going to let him get away with it.

And I don't know if you guys caught this, but over the weekend, Democrats were whining. We didn't get a heads up. Nobody called us and let us know.

Caroline Leavitt made it very clear that Chuck Schumer was called. He was given a heads up. Yeah, well, then he had to say it was perfunctory. You're a spokesperson. It was perfunctory of what it was that they were doing. Whatever the hell that means, you got a heads up that we're bombing Iran. Something that you have told your constituency for decades is something that you support. And now all of a sudden, nope, War Powers Act. Well, it's my favorite thing in the Democratic Party.

We've talked about this a lot on the show, and that is when they know Donald Trump has done something that is clearly and obviously correct and right.

It always has to be a process argument. Yeah. They can't actually argue the thing on the merits. They're like, the call was wrong. It was perfunctory. Yeah. You know, or like, it just, he did it the wrong way. He didn't do it with the war powers thing that we never enforced on Biden or Obama. We're going to enforce it on Donald Trump and therefore he needs to be impeached. Where's your TPS report? He didn't file the right TPS report. Didn't have the cover sheet. He didn't give me the personal call and the cover sheet was not correct. It was not dated and it wasn't signed by him. And for that reason, impeached.

laughter

Dude, it's true. It's true. It's really true. But that is what these guys do. And then they try to hide underneath it. And so Schumer is going to simultaneously try to shore up the left flank. It's what you always say, dude. Which is very pro-Palestinian. He's so hollow. It's such hollow. It's just hollow, superficial politics. The guy has just absolutely no core. No core. He's trying to shore up that pro-Palestinian, I would say close to majority within the Democratic Party. Absolutely. Yeah.

along with his historical support for Israel at the same time, because he's not speaking to the substance of the matter. He's speaking to the TBS report. It's just genuinely concerning. Their party's nihilist HR. It is. It is.

Everybody loves HR. Look, they're not alone. There's a couple of voices within the Republican Party and people in the online right, the Tucker Carlsons of the world, who are talking about whether bombing Iran is America first as they understood it. We are going to contextualize all of that right after this.

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Williams is ready to get back to building the pipeline infrastructure that will keep our economy growing, strong and secure. Learn more at Williams dot com. OK, so listen, the whole Iran thing has put people in different positions in that we've talked about this before on the show about when Republicans are out of power.

Your libertarian left, which finds itself on the right in some fiscal issues and whatnot, tries to grab hold of the Republican Party and pretend as though, because they've got a big online voice over the last 15 years, they're trying to pretend as though this is the Republican Party of Donald Trump. We have highlighted on this show several occasions in which this sort of pacifist,

isolationist type mentality that they ascribed to President Trump during the course of the 24 campaign just wasn't accurate. And if you looked at Soleimani alone, what was your line on this guy? He turned him into salsa. Exactly. So that in and of itself...

or ISIS or anything else, is belied by how President Trump conducted foreign policy. He's not an isolationist. He's not a pacifist. And he's not a neocon on the other side of it. And he's not a neocon, right? It's not about building countries in the mold of the United States or making the same mistakes that we had about deposing Muammar Gaddafi and turning Libya into a terrorist center or Egypt in the Arab Spring or whatever. He's a realist about all.

Right. But if you listen to the detractors on the right ahead of the bombings, you would have been under the impression that Donald Trump is about to start a 20-year ground war in Iran. And that was never on the table. J.D. Vance himself over the weekend made a very, very good point over and over again. We are not at war with Iran. We were making war against their nuclear weapons program. It's very specific.

And what President Trump did was very targeted. It's the opposite of what he was being accused of doing ahead of his bombing. So I want to speak on this because, I mean, even last week, the folks who saw the episodes know that, I mean, on a very personal level, I'm very skeptical of given the American experience of like the previous 20 years. Like, you know, I had good friends like who went and after the September 11th attacks,

and they signed up with the Marines. And I hired a good friend when I was at the Board of Elections who was an Army Ranger. And after he was there for a little bit, he was like, I don't really enjoy this kind of line of work. And he went and he signed with a private military contractor. But for a lot of Americans...

The 20-year war on terror was very scarring. Particularly in how we got out of it, too. Exactly. And that experience. And so when me personally, I was seeing, okay, what would this look like? These people are saying that we need to act on Iran. And the last thing I ever wanted was for more young Americans to have to experience that.

something like that, that are, you know, a lot of our friends and our generation experienced and, and like not hearing from some of those friends again and not knowing what happened to them. And the, the unique genius of president Trump to use this moment, because it's a very specific moment. He threaded the needle. This was a very, very small window that he was allowed to act within where the past 18 months of

you'd seen given after the attack on Israel how much Israel's military had degraded Hamas, had degraded Hezbollah, right? And then you have a situation where Russia is pinned down with a war in Ukraine. And then you have a situation where the Houthis had been just decimated

By America, where like so many of the pieces that Iran had to count on to always keep itself safe. Well, and then you had 10 days of Israel taking out all the air defense systems across Iran. And so Donald Trump had the opportunity to do something that he wouldn't have previously been able to do without those terrorist proxies like Hezbollah putting drones into northern Israel or Hamas.

you know, doing terrorism in the South. What did you say this afternoon? They're basically doing an air show over Tehran? Yeah, right. I mean, like, you could bring out old biplanes and there's nothing Iran's air defense could do to stop Israel from doing it. Ladies and gentlemen, a 1942 P-51 coming across. You'll see pilot Chip McGivern. He's just doing barrel rolls. Honestly, they should take the P-51 and run it there. Let's get some more...

Let's get some more Ws for the P-51. But like the threading of the needle, because the window and the opportunity to accomplish this would never be there again. Yeah. And it could have been easy. It could have been easy because there's so many people like Trump voters such as myself were like, I don't know about this. It all had to wait on him. And he did it because so many folks have been like, and he knows and he saw this.

within his own base of people being like, oh no, this is going to be war. This is like, you know, I didn't vote for a neocon. This is not what I voted for. But for him to be willing to take that risk and to do this because for so long, like I think the Obama administration

presidency was a perfect example of what happens when you are essentially captured by fear of how they appeased the Iranians. They're like, no, listen, we have to send them pallets of cash and we have to, the only way forward is to try to be their buddy. It's a carrot and stick and they're always a carrot person because it's a blame America crowd. I mean, to be honest with you, it does break down as simple as that. You either believe that America is a force for good or you do not.

And if you do not, you believe that every action that America takes anywhere in the world is going to result in a reaction that the American people are going to bear the brunt of.

What you do by doing that is erase the 30-year history of Americans already bearing the brunt of it and our allies bearing the brunt of it. If you think October 7 was a joke and that no American was harmed with that and our hostages aren't still somewhere in Gaza, like...

okay, I could understand how you could figure that out. But when you know the history, the accurate history of what it is that these people have been attempting to do to this country for a long time, when you're given an opportunity, you take it. And also just like going forward for the future, for future generations of Americans, what this means for them of, you see this horrible situation of like, oh, what are we going to do with Russia and Ukraine? Oh, we have to like,

Send supplies, sell arms to Ukraine. How are we going to approach this? Because Russia is a nuclear power and you don't have to deal with that with Iran any longer because President Trump sent those B2s. They just those precision bunker busters. Gone. Done. It's off the table. We don't have to let Iran try to the way that I mean, they just extorted.

the Obama presidency. That's just, let's be honest, they extorted this country under Obama because they were like, ooh, we could develop nukes. You never know. Trump's like, that's off the table. And he's clowning, like he is dunking on them on X now. And what I would say is like,

Okay, to all of those people who worked in Barack Obama's White House and his foreign policies, NSC, and all of that sort of stuff, and the State Department, and those pallets of cash that went over there to Iran. When you saw those paragliders go into that music concert on October 7th, did you think to yourself, wow, I got a lot of innocent people killed? Did you ever think about that? They should. Because you should. I hope they can't sleep. Because you should. Think about having the shamelessness to post...

and questioned Donald Trump's resolve and his decision-making against Iran after you funded the murder of all of those Jewish people. Fellas, I don't want to get too far ahead of the program here, but their weakness in Iran is...

was mirrored in their weakness on the border. Everything Obama did to let Iran get off the hook is what Joe Biden did to let everybody get off the hook who was walking across the Mexican border over the four years that he was president of the United States. To your point, and you've said it numerous times on the show, but like now those people have the audacity to,

to be like, well, maybe they're sleeper cells of Iranians in the United States. Without a doubt. How the fuck do you think they got in this country? Because of your ex. Exactly. Last October, House Republicans did a report with the...

Customs and Border Patrol data center, and they learned that there were 1.7 million people who came over here from countries that the American government has identified as security problems for our country. So people from Yemen, people from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and China, and these are fighting age men. And so there's so much focus on

on getting illegal immigrants deported from this country. And I know Tom Homan has been on this case, but I would really like to hear more about what this government is doing to move some of these North Africans and Tajikistans and Uzbeks out of the country who came here. And they're not... They didn't come here looking for work. They came here with a job already. And that's what terrifies me. Well, so look...

Let's just get into this now. And I want to get back to the legality of what Trump is talking about and put to rest like the Thomas Massey's and Rand Paul's and all that nonsense in a second, because it legitimately is nonsense. And, you know.

Of course, Democrats piggybacked their way into it despite the, I guess, 19 different encounters that we discussed in the Obama and Biden administration where they did the same thing without a War Powers Act. But on the immigration side, you make a good point because the question that Americans always have is what's the retaliatory measure?

component look like? I mean, is this something where we have a real fear in the homeland? Is this something that's going to jeopardize our soldiers abroad? I mean, we saw a good look at the Qatar situation. If that's what it is, I feel very comfortable with where we're at. But as you mentioned, the immigration component opens up a whole new

concern for those of us who lived through 9-11 and understood that there were people who came here on student visas, all of a sudden you had a pilot's license, and next thing you know you're killing 3,000 Americans by flying planes into buildings. Like, what is the capability of all that? Now, thankfully, you have an administration that's not blind to

to the problem that Biden created with 20 million people coming into this country, 1.7 million from people from countries that we deem to be problematic from a national security standpoint. Let's listen to Tom Homan on clip two, if you don't mind.

I said the last four years my biggest concern was this open border was the biggest national security vulnerability this country's ever seen. So I pulled numbers this morning just from a CBP under Joe Biden. There was 1,272 nationals of Iran released in the country between OFO and the Border Patrol. And you compare that to the Trump administration, zero, right? Zero releases.

Yeah. I mean, if you're not terrified by that number, you're not terrified by anything. And I will tell you, their missiles being intercepted by American Patriot technology over our bases in the Middle East, that's one thing. But we saw what they did in Israel on a Saturday morning in October a few years ago. They can do the exact same thing over here. So I think that Americans have to be vigilant. We have to be talking to our –

uh the the people in security if you see something that is weird you got to tell people because i i think i dude it can happen here and and here's the other thing is like you you think about this context with what we've seen about these idiot democrats out there standing in front of like uh ice trucks trying to go out there and arrest illegals and try to arrest criminals

You're literally aiding and abetting terrorists. Get the hell out of there. In LA and all these writers, it's like if you are trying to stop CBP, you need to be put in prison. I'm so over this. We've allowed this. The media especially has done everything to say this is just protesters. If you stand in front of police trying to arrest criminals, a lot of them are violent offenders here illegally.

That's just protest. No, it's not. And now the stakes have been raised considerably. And you might think that maybe they just forgot the lesson of 9-11. I don't think anybody here has forgotten the lesson of 9-11. There are so many people in New York and New Jersey who painfully remember that lesson every single day of their lives. But the idea that we are supposed to just...

pretend like it can't happen again here. I mean, we cannot. You know what I mean? It is so important that we stay vigilant because it can't. This is a story that the media is missing. They are. And one that we endeavor to get you here in the Ruthless Variety Program. We're going to reach out to a bunch of officials to try to get greater clarification. I saw a story, I forget which publication, about the additional FBI assets that are on

Iranian immigrants, basically, and trying to figure out whether or not we have sleeper cells or not. And we're going to pursue that because that's information that you need to sleep, I think, comfortably, given the fact that we're in an extremely dynamic situation. But I also wanted to address this issue of constitutionality. And there is, look, there are two

maybe three members of the Republican Party in Congress that believe that the President of the United States does not have executive authority to act in America's national security interests. That every time he lights the fuse on a tomahawk, it requires 535 people sitting under the Capitol dome. Their acquiescence or their approval of doing that. Now, there have been a myriad...

of Supreme Court cases, many of which were litigated in the first 10 years of this century. Or just read Article 2 of the Constitution. Right. I mean, that's basically the core. Okay, Pauline Dexter, if you're into, like, reading. But...

It's pretty clear. It's very clear. He's commander in chief of the United States of America. It's Article II powers in the Constitution for everybody who claims to be somebody who cares about the Constitution that exists for that reason. For when there is a clear and present danger to the United States of America, the commander in chief, Donald J. Trump, can act.

act. He does not need an approval of Congress. If he needs to go to war and we need to take the U.S. military and put all of those assets over there in the Middle East, yes, you should do that. But, I mean, we haven't done it since World War II. So...

Clearly, the courts are well established in this fact that it's not necessary. So I don't know why people are pretending. This is the whole fucking this thing that really pisses me off about this entire fight. Yes, let's go. Put a quarter in this fight. This entire fight. And Smug, you were talking a little bit earlier about like sort of like that generational scar for people who grew up in the era of 9-11. And I'm right there with you. That was me.

It upsets me when people exploit that to make up bullshit. Yeah, totally. And I felt like so much of the fight that was happening in the online right were people exploiting that pain from Iraq and Afghanistan and our friends and people and our producer here, Lee, who went and fought in Afghanistan, exploiting that to make something more than what it is. Yeah. And that's such a dishonest thing to do to your audience. Yeah.

And something that we would never do here on this show. I mean, two episodes last week, we talked about this conflict in Iran and we gave you the stakes of the entire thing. But what did we reiterate the entire time? Like no point Donald Trump talked about putting boots on the ground in Iran, that we weren't talking about, you know, doing Iraq all over again. But that was the entire conversation over the whole weekend from a bunch of dishonest people who are undermining the president. It's like...

At no point was Donald Trump talking like that. And I just think it's so dishonest for people to pretend something is real that is not. Right. They would have you to believe that his mission is to create a bicameral system of democracy. Yeah, right. Three branches of government. But also the president isn't a mascot.

They have real power. Real power. When you're commander-in-chief, it's commander-in-chief. It's not a title. It's a duty. It's a duty. It says it right there in the job description. And you analyze, you alone, along with your staff and your military advisors, assess threats to this country. You don't go ask Adam Schiff his opinion about whether or not something constitutes a threat because, as you know, as we've watched—

you're going to get a predictably partisan, ideological, sort of what is it good for me politically type answer out of these people. And you don't have time in a national security setting to deal with it. And again, I hate to keep coming back to this, but if you look at the biggest mistakes that America has made, you could argue Vietnam, right? But after that, when you're talking about the lead up to 9-11,

If you're talking about all the various problems we've had with Ukraine and everything else, it's about not dealing with the issue as a commander in chief. Like you're dealing, when someone says that they want to kill you,

And then they put action behind it where they kill your people, hundreds of people. And they do it. And then they say they're developing a nuclear weapon. And then they go about having tangible evidence that they're enriching uranium beyond 60% that is very close to weapons-grade uranium.

The only question is when they get it. And if they get it, you're relying on their good graces not to do what they said they would do when they get it. Right. They said that they would use it and they said that they wanted to eliminate Israel and the Western world. They don't like the United States. They said death to America. That's not coming from some protest group as we have in the United States. That's coming from the Ayatollah. They say death to America. So you take a look at that and you see, all right, put it in your street sense, right?

Right. You've got a guy on the street who says, I'm going to kill you. And then he says, I'm going to obtain a gun. And then he goes and gets the gun. Are you going to wait for him to find you somewhere on the street to kill you? Or are you going to try to take action to make sure that he never gets the opportunity to jump ugly? I think what you need to do is just give him a pallet of cash and then maybe he won't shoot you after he gets it. That's the best part is the pallet of cash.

Can I interest you in a pallet of cash? Don't answer. I'm just sending it. Yeah.

Which is an easy answer if it's somebody else's pallet of cash, i.e. the American taxpayer, right? I mean, these people are supposed to represent us and they're siphoning off our tax dollars to give to a whole bunch of people who ultimately use that cash to attack our allies in the form of Hezbollah and Hamas. I mean, this is a no-brainer of all no-brainers. And the idea that you need a War Powers Act

to ensure the safety and security of the American people. I mean, you saw that stupid statement out of Medvedev, the former president before Putin of Russia, where he was like, no, we're going to ensure that they're, first of all, they didn't damage their nuclear capabilities. And second of all, we're going to ensure as Russia that we give them the capability of delivering the payload.

That tells you right there. Yeah, I actually... Oh, so it wasn't about nuclear energy, was it? Yeah, I actually loved that statement. It's so funny. It revealed the whole theater of the whole thing. It did. Like, we're talking about enrichment levels and, like, at the UN, are they comfortable with this amount? And what are we going to do here with the Obama administration and this deal and all the bullshit? It was all bullshit. They want to nuke. They want to fucking nuke. They want to kill us. They made it very clear. And it is a very direct parallel, in my mind, to the situation that we had in the late 90s and early 2000s about...

systematically, quarterly almost, attacking American assets abroad and thereby allowing Al-Qaeda to build capabilities to figure out how to attack us. And either you ignore it

As Bill Clinton, Democrats did in the 90s and early 2000s, the results in something like 9-11 or you take action, which is what Donald Trump did. And so get your fucking mind right. This is not a perfect world that we live in. No. It's not a place where you can put on the blinders, throw up the walls and pretend like Youngstown, Ohio is going to thrive again if only we don't look outside the borders of the United States. It's just not going to happen. Mm-hmm.

Like this needs to be done stuff like this needs to be done to ensure not only the peace and prosperity of the American people Which is the primary goal, but all of our allies that we do business with and how we grow our economy abroad It's that simple. I real quick. I just want to take ten seconds on a very petty and personal level Michael Michael Duncan dunked on Tommy Vitor. Yeah. Yeah this past weekend Who's one of the pod bros and they're very mad at us the pod bros. Oh

Tommy Vietor blocked me. They're mad because we have now more listeners and viewers than they do, and they look very stupid. They tried giving money to Iran. All their ideas failed. And we didn't deliver pallets of cash to anyone. By the minute, Ben Rhodes' hairline gets worse. The bro is having crisis. Everyone saw a video with a backpack crying sitting on the street, and he's never recovered from it. And I enjoy watching you all suffer.

That was it? That was worth it. That's all I had to say. That's it. That was entirely worth it. I just had to say it. God bless you. That's why you listen to the Ruthless Variety program, because that's fantastic. So how are the libs in the media handling all this? Predictably, we're going to do it right after this.

Okay, folks, time to sound the alarm. Trump's big, beautiful tax cut is coming down to the wire in Congress, and my friends at Americans for Prosperity want your help to get it across the finish line. If the bill doesn't pass, the average American family is looking at a $1,500 tax hike.

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AFP is the only organization I know that can bring this kind of grassroots pressure to bear. If you want to join the fight to protect prosperity, visit ProtectProsperity.com to help Trump get his big, beautiful bill. That's ProtectProsperity.com. OK, so the media, look, was very predictably predisposed.

On the Iran thing. No, you don't say. I mean, it's like all the deficiencies of, well, President Trump's an isolationist. He doesn't understand the value of what it is that we're doing in Ukraine to keep the Russians pacified. He doesn't understand the Middle East. And then he does something that no other president could do that they all claimed was.

was important and yet now have a problem with it much like the Chuck Schumer like Chuck Schumer like goes a step above to put a fine point on the hypocrisy and idiocy of all of it but the media just be clowns himself and our winner of hack madness yeah

- She did it again. - She just can't stop. She must have some kind of a humiliation stage. - Yeah, she is done with Tyrese Halliburton would have done if he stayed healthy in that game seven. - Whoa. - He did all, dude, Indiana, no shame in their game, dude. - That's really below the belt. - I expect that from a loser from Ohio. - Yeah, right?

The Pacers backlash. Indiana deserved the win. That was a horrible tragedy. I love that he leaves Ashbrook hanging. But Brennan has Marco Rubio on. And let me preface this by saying Marco, who's the Secretary of State and has acquitted himself perfectly over the first six months of this administration in terms of articulately laying out

THE PRESIDENT'S AGENDA AND WHAT WE'RE DOING AND PUSHING BACK ON THE NONSENSE IS ALSO THE FORMER CHAIRMAN OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE IN THE SENATE. THERE'S NOT A THING THAT THIS LADY CAN SAY TO HIM THAT HE DOESN'T ALREADY KNOW BECAUSE IT'S BEEN HIS JOB FOR LIKE A DECADE. AND YET SHE'S THE EXPERT. CHECK OUT CLIP THREE. ARE YOU SAYING THERE THAT THE UNITED STATES DID NOT SEE INTELLIGENCE THAT THE SUPREME LEADER HAD ORDERED WEAPONIZATION?

That's irrelevant. I think that question being asked in the media, that's an irrelevant question. That is the key point in U.S. intelligence assessments. You know that. No, it's not. Yes, it was. No, it's not. The political decision had not been made. I know that better than you know that, and I know that that's not the case. But I'm asking you whether the order was given. And the people who say that...

It doesn't matter if the order was given. They have everything they need to build nuclear weapons. Why would you bury things in a mountain 300 feet under the ground? Why do they have 60% enriched uranium? You don't need 60% enriched uranium. The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60% are countries that have nuclear weapons. Dude, I have to say...

He has been stacking so many Ws. Yeah. And like you said, like, Margaret Brown's definitely got some, like, humiliation fetish thing going on. Because it's like, tag team, like, Rubio and JD are basically taking turns being like, I don't care, Margaret. Why are you so bad at this? And he's done such a terrific job. Especially, like, that image you saw of when President Trump called that press conference. Yeah.

You had Secretary Hegseth. You had Secretary Rubio. You had J.D. Vance. You had Trump roll up. And it felt like, okay, I have such confidence because you're seeing capability. Strength. Right? As opposed to like,

In the Biden years, the Obama years, you had, I mean, again, we can go back to like Ben Rhodes. It's like you have these people calling the shots and now you have these people who are like, listen, this guy's been on the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee. This guy's the Secretary of State and to just on the spot dismantle. So good to see. The two things I would add to that. Number one, it goes back to the TPS report argument. It's like Margaret Brennan's there and she's seriously asking the Secretary of State, like, did you see the TPS report where the Ayatollah himself was like, build me a nuke?

It's like as if that's a thing. And then the second part of it, and I think this is really important, it sort of disarms the entire argument, is like you put it down three –

300 meters. Yeah. Encased it in concrete, built an entire complex inside of a mountain. Yeah. You're doing that to make nuclear energy? Yeah. Really? Really? That's what you're saying? It's a civilian nuclear energy program. Yeah. That's what you're doing. Seriously. Also, credit to, you know, Secretary Rubio, because I'm usually of the opinion of you should avoid and ignore the leftist media, which is like what Margaret Brennan, CBS is probably the most left wing. It's crazy. Yeah.

But credit where it's due, to have the capability to roll up in the lion's den and dunk on them, that J.D. has, that Secretary Rubio has. Yeah, they still do it. That's huge. They still do it. They still put them out, which it does say something. Yeah, it does. They're willing to go have the argument. I think the best clips that this administration does are as a result of interviews. But you have to have that 1% talent that J.D. and Rubio have. Or else, you know, you're a mess. Yeah, so beyond Margaret Brennan-

describing what's important

in a threat analysis to the secretary of state and former intelligence chairman. He's like, listen here. It goes beyond. I'm a shrill, angry lady. Like the goal of all of them is to find a crack in the armor, some kind of a hypocrisy, some kind of a misstory that they're able to, like never mind the fact that you've got an incredibly brave bunch of people who executed an incredibly brave maneuver to keep the American people safe. The

The question is the TPS report. The question is all of this stuff. I'm seeing these posts on Blue Sky. Yeah. And he's like, I actually see the report, lady. I see the intelligence report. Yeah, he's like, I actually get the intelligence report. But this one actually made me laugh out loud. So this is Sam Stein in Graphic 3. What he says is...

In response to Donald Trump talking about the successful attack, this is right after we had cleared Iranian airspace to notify the American people of what we had done. He says, wow, what happened in two weeks? Whoa. Whoa. Body bag. You got him. So last week in the South Lawn, the president was asked what he's going to do with Iran. And he laughed. He was like, what a stupid question. Why would you –

asked me about putting a timeline on what it is. He's like, I don't know. I imagine we'll probably do something in the next two weeks. This dude shows up and he's like, well, there's a clear element of misleading. He said two weeks, which is only four days. And I love it because President Trump ran and in 2016 on this, how he said that, like, it is so stupid that

how Democrats were like, I want you to tell me the day you would do this bomb. And he was like, we have to be unpredictable. One of the greatest men to ever lead this country, Richard Nixon, was known for foreign policy, known as Madman Theory. He was unpredictable. His enemies never knew what he would do. So Sam Stein's like, no, no, no, don't you understand? Obama was like, you have to send pallets of cash and wire them if you're going to do anything. At the same time, the New York Times was doing a piece about how his Twitter account was compromising the safety of our,

or men and women in uniform because he was with transparency announcing to the American people what it was that we were doing. I just can't wait until the media calculates the amount of jet fuel we wasted sending these B-2s to Guam. And what that did to the climate. That's so good. You got to think about what that was doing. Was the misdirection worth it, sir? No.

Also, just think about the extent to which this president and his national security team has gone here to try to avoid innocent casualties. Yes. They went to remote nuclear sites.

To bomb them. Yep. To take out the threat. They didn't bomb Tehran. And hit that one with subsurface bunker busters, so some guard at the tower was untouched while this three-stage bomb is tunneling using a blade of steel covering to only hit the fucking accelerators. But Smuggy didn't hit the 14-day mark. Oh, no. So we're concerned.

This one's my absolute favorite. Graphic four, if you don't mind. This cat, John Ismay, he says, in the briefing, Hegseth referred to B-2 pilots as our boys on those bombers, yet both men and women have been trained to fly them. Got him. Got him. Got him. Wow.

Resign. I apologize to whoever this is because I think that they are a listener. But somebody had this thing on Twitter that was like, in the song by Cyndi Lauper, girls just want to have fun. It is inaccurate in that historically both girls and boys have been known to enjoy fun. Okay.

Dude, that's the New York Times. That's the same thing. It's the same thing. You're trying to find schisms of things to be critical of. Like we're critical of Hag Seth for saying, are boys on those bombers? Dude, what? Obama sends literal pallets of cash to people. They're like, these are dangerous terrorists. And we're sending them pallets of cash. And the New York Times is like,

yeah women have also been trained to fight did we do a land acknowledgement when we entered iranian airspace i don't i don't know and why haven't we put trans people in those planes that's the problem with our society it's not equality if our trans don't get to bomb them it just isn't we're living a lie here in america

So in Graphic 5, one of the contestants, frequent contestants on King of the Hill, David Frum, who's a noted neocon, just hours before Trump took out Iran's nuclear program, David Frum wrote about how Trump always chickens out. Again, go back to the taco thing that like the left wing...

according to like two analysts on Wall Street who had come up with this, they think agitates him. And so what he's done here is use the vernacular of Chuck Schumer, very clever bumper sticker that they've come up with, to suggest that the mullahs of Iran join the bet that Trump always chickens out. And he posted that the day we hit the nuclear sites in Iraq. Yeah.

I won't name names, but I've heard rumors that a hedge fund that Chelsea Clinton was associated with, who was run by a noted Democrat donor, is the source of that. Oh. Oh, interesting. I've just heard rumors about that. No, that's good. Many people are saying. These are litigious individuals. Important information here. Mark Lazzari is very litigious. Allegedly, allegedly, we're joking and laughing. Parody, parody. So anyway, you take a look at that, and then you, like the little enclaves...

of liberal progressive nonsense that we've dealt with. Like if you're thinking about the last two weeks, you're like, all right, so what is one of them that has been absolutely outrageous? I know, L.A.,

Right? L.A. is... This is so nuts. I can't believe it. Somehow weren't enforcing anything. They got people with Mexican flags all across the streets. They're allowing people to burn down shit and riot and whatnot. And, like, we had to send in the National Guard a trick because they wouldn't do their job. So, naturally, the Sheriff's Department, who's in charge of...

law and order in L.A. is something to say about the Iranian strike. Yeah, naturally. Naturally. So they go up to say, if we're going to put this on the board, our hearts go out to the victims and families impacted by the recent bombings in Iran. How is this real?

How is this real? While this tragic event occurred overseas, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is closely monitoring the situation alongside our local, state, and federal partners. This is so good. They've had literal riots, looting, burning down of the city. They are not following federal law. They are letting illegal immigrants take over their city. They are going to weigh in

on a bombing campaign against people engineering nuclear weapons against the United States. We are going to sing the song of Iranian traders who were long on the weaponization of their nuclear weapons. They lost a lot of money, and we need to recognize that. Bro, the L.A. Sheriff's Department can't keep the Apple Store from getting hit for iPhone.

phones. They're monitoring the situation. Do your job, bro. Just do your job. Just do your job. I mean, you can't make it up. I understand. Well, they've since deleted this ill-fated

thing, so even they realize. Which is a further cowardice. Yeah. I mean, they know. They know. But this is what you get out of the law. I want Tom Homan and Dog the Bounty Hunter to run the police department in the state of California. Let's just actually have law and order in that failed state. Let's get some stuff done. So it gets to our question of the day.

Which we've touched on. I think you know our point of view. But is bombing Iran America first? You all have, particularly those of you who spend a lot of time online, some strong opinions about this one way or another. You know ours. The Tucker Carlson thing. Look, we saw the Ted Cruz-Tucker Carlson interview, which I don't think went particularly well for either of them. Yeah. To be honest. Like, I watched it and I was like, holy smokes. Like, you talk about disintegrating...

any sort of constituency. They're just killing each other. I happen to come down on this particular topic strongly along the side of Ted Cruz. But that's the debate that's happening within the Republican Party. And I think that you all probably have some views too. It is funny to me though, all the people who are ascribing this libertarian, non-interventionalist

build a wall and don't look outside our borders type policy have scrambled back to sort of recontextualize what it is that they do. Which should also tell you something. Look, at some level I appreciate the Thomas Massys and the Rand Pauls because they're intellectually honest. They come at it and they say what they now I disagree as vehemently as I can.

But if you're following a bunch of people who are like, no foreign wars, forever wars, blah, blah, blah, we can't even look outside of our border. And then all of a sudden today they're in a situation where they're like, no, this makes sense. And President Trump knows what he's doing. Think about the rest of the advice that you're getting. Maybe tune in double to the Ruthless Variety program because we're not going to make any shit up. We're just going to tell you exactly what it is, whether you agree or disagree with what it is that we're saying. Like your comments on all of that.

And we got to get to your comments from last week. Again, thanks, fellas, for holding the fort down. Of course. Really appreciate it. Should Trump order a strike on Iran, which was very, very precious. Great question. Great question. The timing could not be perfect. Just a 48-hour. Poor Sam Stein. Yeah. Yeah.

We didn't hit his two-week mark. Oh, no. What a shame. Anyway, if you like and subscribe to the YouTube channel, we read all of your stuff, and we get a representative sample here on the program. To do that, we always start with a voice. And, you know, we have the best listeners on the planet. Summer Days is among them. Summer Days writes, I was a service member. Back during 2020, my base, Taj, in Iraq got bombed twice with over three dozen rockets from an Iranian proxy group with

within three days. It was in response to a well-deserved assassination. They aimed at living areas, gyms, and food areas on base. We lost American and British soldiers there. My unit participated in the evacuation of our embassy in Baghdad, too. Iran also attacked directly Al-Assad Air Base while I was in country. It still happens, folks. And

And it drives me nuts that we pretend that it doesn't or that Israel is the only one with skin in the game because it's politically inconvenient. The military's job is to keep them all occupied over on foreign soil so the bombs and insurgents don't come to hit us here at home. But it's only a matter of time before another Dem takes office who thinks that winning hearts and minds through financial appeasement actually works. Spoiler, it doesn't. It makes us look weak.

Fundamentalist Islam does not view mercy as strength. In my opinion, Israel has provided an opportunity to set Iran's nuclear program back to the Stone Age and possibly even usher in a regime change, and we would be fools not to take it.

Iran will continue to be a problem whether we address it today or tomorrow. Let me just say, this is somebody who knows what they're talking about. Can you tell us some lottery numbers in your next comment? Yeah, I mean, they know what they're talking about. And Summer Days obviously has lived that life. Right. We have the best audience. We do. Because we have – there are so many guys –

men and women in our audience who actually knew people who paid the price. They paid the price themselves during the 20 years in Iraq. And I just think, like, we have to pay attention to that voice. Right. No question about it. All right. Next comment, Dunks Runks. Comment two is from Lisa Marie. Great friend of the program. Great friend of the program.

Lisa writes, sadly, Trump will have to do some kind of action from us before Iran surrenders. Again, very correct. Nailed it. Very correct. She's totally right. In that, look, there's a lot of geopolitics in the region, right? And Saudi Arabia is no friend of Iran. Qatar, no friend of Iran. Turkey, no friend of Iran. I mean, you're talking about all the countries that are in the mix of this discussion, but

But the idea that Israelis are the only ones that are perpetrating this disarmament of Iran creates problems under the top end of the regime. Your leaders of these countries can philosophically understand that. But the rank and file, look, they're Islamic. They're not huge fans of a Jewish state just decimating an Islamic state. She's right.

I mean, this is in order to get the job done, not just physically in terms of us having the technological expertise in order to get it done, but politically in the region to get it done. She's right. It's the revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran. Everybody has to remember that. Yeah. Like, it's not just that it's the Republic of Iran.

They are carrying out a revolution against the West. They're not going to stop unless we make them stop. Because they tell us. They tell us. They say it. Right. Yeah, good comment, Lisa Marie. All right, comment three, smuggles. Comment three is from Lisa Peter. And Lisa writes, making, quote, deals with Iran is fruitless and would give us a false sense of security. They're not people of their word. Lying is permissible. Getting caught lying in the sin in their economy. You cannot trust them ever.

Great lesson. Shout out to the Pod Bros again for not learning that one. I love the dragging of the Pod Bros. Oh, Duncan just, man, he beat the shit out of Tommy. That was great to see. Great to see. Make no prisoners. They're mad because their ratings are shit. You made his menchies a mess. Mess. Absolutely. Destroyed them. I bunker busted his menchies. Dude, you were like SGA over the...

Okay. Oh, jeez. I missed this guy. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. We were all getting along so well. Look what he did. Oh, jeez. All right. So a quick update on this tax and the big, beautiful bill. You recall that the administration had set a deadline of July 4 in order to pass something to law, although that is not out of the question. Yeah.

Look, good systems, thanks. Obviously, the House passed their version of the big, beautiful bill. It's gotten over to the Senate. There's been discussions about

The tax stuff is largely locked. The issues have dealt with Medicaid. They have dealt with a little bit on the SALT side of things, state and local deduction, because you don't have blue state senators that are representing people of high-tax states. And so it's less of a problem there. And there are – if you ever met a senator –

You've met someone who looks in the mirror every morning and sees the next president of the United States. The idea that they're going to just sort of usher along with some rank-and-file House member is accomplished. Unthinkable. It is unthinkable. Like, there's a jurisdiction to all of this. Very important. You have to put the Senate in print. They don't appreciate what I have to go through. No, I...

I look at the longer view, longer tail. It's the teacup and the saucer. That's the way the Washington said it. We are the saucer. So they're going to take their time with the whole thing. I've been gratified because I've seen the work the White House has been doing with the Senate and then trying to keep Speaker Johnson in the loop on some of these things. Now it's not resolved. They're going to go through a whole bunch of procedural stuff.

This week. But this week is a pretty big week in determining when this thing actually gets done. And I say when, not if. Yep. This is not ever a question of if.

The media would lead you to believe by talking about process, by talking about, you know, well, Johnson says there's 30 House Republicans and now oppose the Senate bill. Or, oh, there's at least four or five Republicans in the Senate who say that they oppose the bill as written. Like all of that is designed to generate this conflict and this clickbait about whether or not this thing's going to get done. Let me just assure you.

it's going to get done. There is no other option. The question is when July four, I think is still attainable. They're going to shoot for it. I look at this in terms of how this is the other piece of it related to the debt ceiling, which also needs to get done. And recall, if you, this is about the spending that was done in the Biden administration and whether or not your entire portfolio evaporates overnight because the American people or the American government hasn't figured out how to set a debt ceiling and

to finance the spending that was already done. Like, you hear Rand Paul or whatever, and they're like, oh, as long as the debt ceiling's a part of it, I'm not doing it. You know, this is the thing is, again, I always say that Democrats are nihilists, but in this...

they are personified as nihilists because what Democrats want is for this to fail. They want Senate Republicans not to stick together. They want it to fail so that the economy goes into the tank, taxes go up, and they can be like, wow, Trump destroyed the economy.

me under his watch. So here, just to put a final point on it, this is Leader Thune in Fox News. He wrote, "...senators have worked to develop this bill for well over a year now. Now it is time to act. Border resources are drying up. National security needs have never been more apparent."

With each passing day, we move closer to reaching both our nation's debt limit and the largest ever tax increase on the American people. That's what's it. That's what it is. And he goes on to promise that the Senate will stay in until it is done. And I think that the Senate finishing by the 4th of July is realistic. Now, can the House also process a revised version by the 4th of July? Yeah.

I'm not so sure. I really mean, if we're being honest, I think that it could take a little bit more time. I think I sort of look to the month of July for that for either a conference process or a ping pong process or for the House to come to grips with what the Senate is.

is sending over, you know, there is a lot more revenue coming into the federal government thanks to the tax cuts that President Trump passed in 2017 and also the tariffs he's levied on some of these countries. So there's a little bit more leeway in that debt limit number you're talking about.

I talked to an economist last week who said that it was pushed out sort of to the end of August, mid-September, before that deadline hits. So you could see the start of August or maybe the first, second week of August as the real backstop for House and Senate to come together on a package. Look, I think they're going to get it done sooner rather than later. I want to take the debt limit thing and just wrap this up.

in terms of the big there are gonna be discussions about medicaid there's gonna be discussions about salt there's gonna be discussions about a whole bunch of things that may or may not have anything to do with your pocketbook as you're listening but that it is just sort of contingent on you getting this larger tax package but would you elect somebody to the senate or the house

They have to sort of abide by the ideological consistency within your district for sure. And their goal, their job, as defined by the founders of this fucking country, is to try to drag whatever product they've got as closely to what it is that your district represents as possible. That's what good representation is. That's why you have it.

when you have people that deal themselves out over something that needs to happen, I keep hearing this conversation about Thomas Massey, about Rand Paul, where they're like, we'll never vote for anything with a debt ceiling increase. Okay, well, first of all, you got to talk to Joe Biden about that because your inability to prevent him from raising the debt, $6 trillion was non-existent. Whatever your arguments were, they weren't persuasive. They got it done at a party line vote. And now the American people are on the hook for it.

So your responsibility is try to figure out how to prevent the impact of those poor decisions on your constituency. And if you're to just not raise the debt ceiling as a result of all of this, you're going to bankrupt every single pension fund in

Every single bond holder, every single, anybody with anything in the market whatsoever, all your retirement, your 401ks, all that stuff. And I'm not being hyperbolic about it. Like that's an actual thing. Tangible negative impact. Like that's what happens. And anybody who tells you

that not raising the debt ceiling somehow makes America live within its means is a fucking insane person who doesn't understand how this whole process works. They don't understand how dynamic our economy is. They don't understand where we're getting our loans from. They don't understand where that money gets called from.

If you're making a loan to the United States, then all of a sudden you've defaulted on that loan. Do you think people will ask for their money back? Of course they will. How do you think the American markets respond to that? So when you say you're never going to do something, I'm never going to sign off on Americans paying the same tax rate as they're paying right now and not a higher tax rate.

Because we have to raise a debt ceiling that has become important because of the Biden spending. What you're saying is I don't give a shit about the American consumer and what your experience is. I have an ideological point to make. And I have no patience or no time for any of that.

I've got no patience or no time. So, like, look, urge your people to get in this because no is not an option. And the more they're fucking around and giving Politico what they want from a quote standpoint about, oh, maybe I'm there, maybe I'm not.

Just shut that shit down. Online or everything else. Circle the wagons. Just circle the wagons. Get it done. Throw it over the finish line. Let's get on to making sure the world is a free and prosperous place and the United States of America is leading all of it. That's what I have to say. Well said. All right. You want some variety? Yes, please. Dude, I caught this thing over the weekend.

So good. I haven't seen this yet. I had like 10 people send this to me. I mean, it's just so good. All right. So you remember Hank Johnson, the representative who said he would sink Guam? Yeah. This guy said he would. Is there any fear? He asked in a congressional hearing a member of the military about whether or not we would sink the island of Guam by putting a base on one side of it out of fear that it would capsize. This is not a joke. This is not a joke.

actually happy. The guy was just floating there. This is the mentality of a representative who, where the, where does he represent? Atlanta? Oh, Jesus.

You can do better than that, George. You can do better than that. Poor Brian Kemp. I can't believe he has to deal with this. Anyway, this cat is like, I know what I'm going to do. He's probably a Braves fan. He's like, I know what I'm going to do. Terry Pendleton, Sid Bream, and all those guys. He's just had a lot of sports takes here today. Well, if that's the brain trust, that explains why Delta's so bad. You know, if those are your kind of thinkers. You're going to get Kemp back in here. He's going to be upset by that. Anyway.

Listen to how he's addressing what's going on in our country. Clip four. Oh, man. My God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Dude, that is so out of tune. And nothing like Jimi Hendrix. Yeah. What? Oh, my God.

This can't be real. That's an attempt to hate Joe, right? Yeah. Dude. Bro, that's bad. So like the Hey Joe, Jimi Hendrix tune and Jimi Hendrix, a notable sort of anti-war. It was my take over the weekend that if anybody, if there was any action as taken by the result of this, it would be like Jimi Hendrix coming out of his grave to advocate for a ground war in

Based on what was happening. What was the press secretary was just like, yes, sir. This is outstanding, sir. I can't wait to get this up. People are going to, it's going to kill it. It's going viral. Let's make sure that your guitar is not tuned. Or, you know what? Here's my thinking. Is because I always think people think the worst possible thing. They're horrible people. His chief of staff wants his seat. This guy's getting old. Yeah.

He okays that shit. I think it's a sabotage. It's the only reason. It really is the only explanation that you would look at that video and you work in that office and you're like, yes, post. Yep, this looks so good. Be like, I want that seat. I want everyone to think he's too old. I push him out and it's me. I could be that guy.

Dude, it's so bad. Very interesting take. It's so bad. So play that to yourselves all weekend. I know you'll enjoy. When you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Variety program, we read all of your comments. And the question of the day is, is a bombing Iran America first? Interested to hear what you have to say. We'll read all of it on Thursday. Thanks so much for joining us with that. I think we did it. I think so. Absolutely.

banger of an episode gentlemen again thank you so much to listeners remember if you have not yet go to the youtube hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video 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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