Speaker 1: Hey, y'all, we're on a short break and hope you're
enjoying the holidays too, But just in case you're missing
your daily dose of the Chicks, we got something special
for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: We hope you enjoyed this replay of one of our
favorite interviews, and be sure to tune back in this
year for some exciting new conversations that we have coming up.
And don't forget to follow and subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts link in bio. Welcome
to another deep dive edition of The Chicks on the
Right podcast. We are thrilled today to be joined by
all the fellas from the Ruthless Podcast. We were guests
of theirs several weeks ago and had just the best
time and wanted to absolutely return the favor. So we're
glad to have the fellas with us, and I thought
a way to kick off our conversation today because I
know we're going to talk about a lot of things,
but for those people in our audience who may not
know or be new to you, fellas, could you talk
a little bit about how you all began and why
you refer to your show as the program.
Speaker 2: Well, how dare anyone not be familiar? How dare they listen?
Thanks for the hospitality. We really loved having you guys
on when you were on our show. I think we
had a good time and good enough where we didn't
offend you where you wouldn't return the favors. So here
we are, listen the program. It's it's probably a downstream
effect of all of our sort of idiosyncrasies, oddities and
otherwise weirdness that we just can't call it a program.
Part of it is our affectations. We've got to we're
over indexed on Midwesterners here on the program. And truth
be told, I'm not even sure how it is that
it started, but I know we did a lot of variety.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I thought it. I thought program came from trying
to mimic like the southern genteel senator sound of the
you know the program, Yes, them program, you know, that's
that's what I mean. I don't know. Some of it's
just apocryphal. I don't know how we come up with
these things, but we stick with them, and the lore
of the program is rather deep. At this point. You
need like a decoder ring to get all the jokes.
I mean people appreciate that, some people don't, but.
Speaker 2: We should put together like a glossary.
Speaker 4: Yeah no, rightictionary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well we do.
Speaker 2: You guys get it.
Speaker 1: Fourteen years fourteen years of like inside jokes that we
have to like and then everybody is in on the
inside jokes.
Speaker 5: Well, we totally get this program.
Speaker 4: The whole show. I feel like the whole show is
basically just, you know, our lunchtime conversation. And we kind
of got this whole thing started during COVID. You know,
we would do like a regular sort of you know,
five pm zoom from our homes and after a while
sitting around and joking and having a few pops, we
were like, you know, this might actually make for a
good podcast, and so you know, here we are three
years later.
Speaker 2: It's a lunchtime conversation. If your lunchtime includes like three
tip toppers of bourbon, yeah.
Speaker 6: That's that's And also, to be fair, it wasn't just
really hanging out on zoom. It was betting on horses
while drinking bourbon. Yeah, completely on fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, transparency is a hallmark of the variety.
Speaker 6: So I mean we had a great time. We had
a great conversation and like, like Duncan said, we said,
why don't we actually just hit record and see how
this goes? And of course it started off as a
mes for a few episodes.
Speaker 2: We've regretted it ever since.
Speaker 5: I love it. It's so funny.
Speaker 1: We're so we're kind of kindred in that sense because
that's in essence, that's kind of how we started. It
wasn't a podcast, but that's kind of how we started
our website is we just went to lunch and talked
every day. So it's really interesting how it's very similar
to how we started, only yours obviously was different through COVID.
It was just a couple of years go, and it was,
you know, over lunch, just you know, having having drinks,
hanging out talking about politics and that.
Speaker 5: It's kind of it's very similar, don't you.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I mean yeah, I'm assuming you guys were
talking on your zoom calls during COVID because you are
friends aside from podcasters and wanted a way to stay connected.
Speaker 2: Yeah, totally. So, I mean we've we sort of worked
in and around each other. Smog and I met hilariously
over the internet, as one does in these in this
day and age.
Speaker 6: Yeah, So we basically would would occasionally talk. We were
like minded on Twitter, as conservatives are, and uh, I
would host these off the record happy hours when I
would come through DC and I invite Holmes to one
of these, and you know, instantly we hit it off.
He was just as funny, uh in person. You never
know when you meet someone from the internet, if it's like, oh,
they're actually dangerous psychopaths, which I'm sure you had the
same Like this guy, I bet he's a dangerous psychopath.
And unfortunately for both of us neither.
Speaker 4: No I was gonna say all of our fears were confirmed.
Speaker 2: But and the rest of us have worked John and Duncan,
we've worked together for fifteen years, so you know, we
all kind of like do the same and that's, you know,
offshoot of ruthless when talking politics, like we don't in
our sort of social life just sit around and be like, well,
let's let's talk about the ins and the outs of
the Republican Party and let's get that like that's not
really us, but our jobs put us in the center
of that, and so we have opinions on those things.
And then I think ruthless is sort of an outgrowth
of that of politics being the cornerstone of what it
is that we're talking about. But then, like you guys,
it extends far beyond that into culture and into you know,
sports and just animal animal fighting, which is now what
we're known for, right is animal fighting.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I husky.
Speaker 3: So it's all the.
Speaker 5: Yes, there you go totally.
Speaker 1: The screamings exactly exactly and dunking on the Kardashians we
have all the time.
Speaker 5: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: Nobody's done better with less than the Kardashians.
Speaker 5: Oh my god.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, they are going to be the cause for.
Speaker 5: The demise of Western civilization.
Speaker 4: They're trying their d.
Speaker 2: That in the show The Bachelor. The Bachelor, I felt
like that in and of itself was the symptomatic of
Roum falling.
Speaker 4: Like that was.
Speaker 1: Tell me it's not still on the bacause that still happens.
Speaker 5: I thought they have like a show one now.
Speaker 1: Right, the firing Congress people, it's like firing Congress people.
The Bachelor still has like a cockroach, it's still on.
Speaker 5: It's going to live for.
Speaker 3: They're doing a geatric version now, Oh my yeah, I
just read that They've got like some I don't know,
like widow, like some sixty seventy year old widow that's
going to be the next Bachelor.
Speaker 2: The winner becomes president of the United States. I've seen it's.
Speaker 5: He has to be at least eighty to right.
Speaker 3: So you, guys, are I mean, since you're so entrenched
in DC, I'm assuming that sometimes you get accusations of
being in a bubble and that you don't understand the
real people out here in the real world.
Speaker 2: So what is it?
Speaker 3: I mean, what are you hearing in the bubble? I guess,
or you know to the extent that you're outside of
it at all. What are you hearing about this upcoming
election and where people's heads are arming? We look at
the polls and it looks like Trump's running away with this.
But are you is that the sense where you are
is that do you feel like that's a done deal?
Speaker 6: Ah?
Speaker 2: Glad, I'll kick it off. I know everybody's got their
individual thoughts on all of this. I my sense is
that all elections in politics in general these days are
pretty dynamic. Now, if you're looking at the polls, and
you're looking at polls for a period of time, you
would say they look pretty static.
Speaker 7: To me.
Speaker 2: It looks like Donald Trump has got a massive lead,
and it doesn't matter if you are indicted or what
the news cycle looks like like, it only expands. I
think the state based stuff gets a little different. And
if you look at Iowa, New Hampshire, some of the
spending that's going on and some of the names that
are sort of rising and falling, the discrepancy between the
top of the ticket and the rest of the ticket
is not quite as much as it is in a
national poll. I think that's something to watch as you
get into, particularly this debate, which is kind of the
first time you get everybody on the stage at the
same time making their case. I mean, unless you're a
political junkie, you haven't listened to like Brondo Santis's pitch
or Nicki Haley's pitch or Mike Benson. You just haven't
done it. You know that Donald Trump's in the front
page of newspaper every day, and you may believe that
what's been done to him is egregiously wrong, and you
may have some sort of adhesion to the top of
the ticket as a result of that. But I don't
think we're into the argument yet, and that's you know,
look to take from your question at the outset, we
take a lot of pride in having pretty strong roots
and where we came from, right, none of us were
actually a part of politics, sort of the furthest thing
from silver Spooners, didn't have a mom or dad that
got us an internship here and had to try to
work our way up. And as a consequence, we had
a little different perspective than an awful lot of people
who were in Washington from day one and got the
internship and sort of worked through the bubble of Washington,
d C. And we stay connected to our hometowns, and
so I think it's a different perspective that we have
than maybe a lot of people here.
Speaker 6: I think what Holmes just said is extremely critical. I
think that is one thing that all of us have
in common is none of us were silver Spooners. Were
all products of self made hard work that went into
getting us here. And I think that is what provides
a lot of perspective, especially in today's Republican Party and
the more populist conservative movement that's currently in vogue. Is
you know, you've had a shift where it's more like
the left is this you know, generational elle party where
they're not even willing to let the Tommy pass. Biden's
been in power now for how many years for anyone
here was born however, correct, Like the perspective that we
bring is informed from that. You know, when we go
out and did a show in Holmes's hometown and you
see where he came from, you see his friends from
back then, you know he's a Minneapolis guy. Shockingly, he's
not a deacy guy. He made dress like what Minneapolis.
Speaker 4: He definitely dresses the most. He's the most put together
of all of us.
Speaker 2: You know, like I have a reputation.
Speaker 4: I understood, I understand.
Speaker 2: And I don't like looking like I'm not put together.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it. You're not, you know the internet guy
like me, Like I'm lucky to just to be wearing pants.
Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, the fact that you're on
a sweatpants to that is terrific. Yeahletely, you have a
lot of respect for the checks on the road.
Speaker 4: I do. I do. I mean, like I think when
we so you.
Speaker 3: Guys don't want to see my PJ bottoms?
Speaker 4: Is that.
Speaker 5: Business? We're business? From like here, we're like a mullet.
Speaker 2: Basic kind of the show is this what's going on here?
Speaker 5: It's not the night not at all.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I look, honestly, it's more of a pay to play
operation right right.
Speaker 4: When we when we started this show, I think we
all had in mind our buddies back home, you know.
And I love the people in DC like to listen
to the show and everything, and I think we provide
like a unique insight and stuff that's happening on Capitol
Hill and all that sort of stuff. But I think
every time we do a show, you know, I'm thinking
about my buddies back in Indiana and whether that this
content and the stories recovering are accessible to them in
the way that they consume politics. And like nobody just
sits down for a lunch or at the water cooler
and they're only talking about politics, or like they want
to be lectured too, right, Like, if they talk about politics,
they're talking about that for the time. And they're talking
about sports, they're talking about culture, they're talking about movies,
they're talking about all this sort of stuff. So I
think we try to make our show approach from that
lens of like how do normal people actually consume politics?
You know, I got family in Florida and in Texas
and Indiana, and when I talk to them, they're only
kind of sort of paying attention to this Republican primary
at this point. Like, and these are people who definitely
consume a lot of political news. But I think what
people are seeing in the polling is like the response
bias of people who pick up the phone and talk
to a polster for twenty minutes and say, yes, I'm
definitely voting for this person.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: I think the like, just based on my conversations with
family across the country, everybody is much more open for business. Yeah,
then the polls would suggest. And like even if you
look at some of the polls, like, you know, Donald
Trump's at forty forty five percent, but you look at
the cross tabs in those polls, half the people that
are saying they're supporting Donald Trump today are open to
other candidates. And like, you would never really know that
from reading just headlines.
Speaker 7: You know, No, talking to family and friends is the
best way I've found to stay grounded in all all
kinds of politics, but picularly this presidential election. And I mean,
I'm also from the Midwest, Like these guys.
Speaker 2: You can't literally the thing you need to know about
smash is that he actually cannot complete a sentence without
linking it back to Cincinnati. It is impossible, you can't.
It is literally wait, just wait.
Speaker 7: Guy loves his town, proud of his town.
Speaker 4: That's a rare thing these days.
Speaker 6: The truth is it's because Crooks the only DC guy here.
He's friends with journals.
Speaker 4: Yeah, That's.
Speaker 7: What I found is that you you really cannot get
a good understanding what's happening in politics by talking to
people in DC. You just fundamentally can't. And you were
asking about the presidential race. And what I've heard from
a lot of my family and a lot of my
friends is that people are open minded, Like Michael says,
they they want they still like Trump, they still want
to stick up for Trump, but they want to win,
and so they don't They're not ready to like completely
turn away from Trump. You know, they like the things
that he did. Uh, this is probably like what you
guys here on a daily basis. But they also want
to win and they don't want another four years of
Joe Biden. So it's it's a conflict that they are
wrestling with on a routine basis, and the mainstream media
will never capture that yeah.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of diehards though, I mean, you'd
be surprised, like we have a you know, we have
a definitely we have like the real folks out here
in our audience, but a lot of the diehard Trump people.
What we're struggling with, I think, audience wise, is we're
trying to get a gauge as to whether or not
those folks will be never Bideners, if that makes sense, Like,
we want to make sure that when it when push
comes to shove, they will vote for whoever it is
that is on our ticket, and it's not going to
be Biden, you know what I mean, because at this.
Speaker 2: Point, I I mean, I think my sense is both
sides of the party we have equal concern. Now generally speaking,
this thing works its way back together because it's quite
great equalizer and consolidator is always a Democratic party and
their willingness to do absolutely insane things that drive people
through the moon with woke culture and everything else. So look,
I think we're gonna get there. But there is a chasm,
no question about it, that we may not have seen
since like H. W. Bush and Bob Dole right where
you just have two sort of competing visions that are
not working together hand in hand, and then they're just
going to run this thing all the way through. And
I don't know that that's necessarily DeSantis and Trump. I mean,
it's the field in Trump and I think we're going
to get there. But I agree with you. I think
that for us, we take time trying to explain that
I'm like eighty five on the issues themselves. I mean,
other than like a handful of things, everybody agrees on
almost everything right, right, exactly, yeah, and the case. So
what we try to suss out, and I'm sure you
guys do a lot of this too, is why is
it that you are where you are? And you know,
for an awful lot of Trump supporters that thirty percent
sort of what it feels like a basement that he
can't go below that. I'm not sure that there's a
ton of issues in them of themselves that have consolidated
that support. I think they just love Donald Trump and
that is fair, and that is exactly That is how
you build a movement, and that's what a base looks like.
I mean, it doesn't almost matter what it is that
the issues are. For the rest of the field, there
are issues that sort of helped consild for people were very,
very concerned about the advancement of woke culture and corporations
and schools and things like that. I mean, DeSantis has
historically had a big lead with that crew, you know,
and there's been different candidates have different pitches. I think
at some point everybody will get back together. Here we're
just gonna We're not there yet. We had a lot
of road to go.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it was roughly at this point in
the previous Republican primary that we had Jeb Bush leading
and people are thinking about Scott Walker might be Yeah,
the next thing so.
Speaker 2: Well of his breath, best brewsters, millions impersonations, Right, that's
been it all one day, like thirty seven mil what
was it?
Speaker 5: And what did they call him?
Speaker 3: Remember they called always referred to himself as aggressively normal.
Speaker 5: He was very normal way too because he was his normal.
He was aggressive and.
Speaker 6: His track record of just kicking the hell out of
unions was incredible, Like he had a great track run
that was It's just you never know the way these
things turn out.
Speaker 2: He ran for president as a vanilla ice cream going
There is no question about that.
Speaker 1: Is like the guy on the vanilla. I order vanilla
ice cream. There's nothing wrong with vanilla ice cream for
some of us.
Speaker 2: On yourself, you're telling on yourself.
Speaker 5: It's okay, it's all right.
Speaker 3: Are you guys all? Are you all on the same
page when it comes to who you would like to
see advance to be the nominee?
Speaker 5: I don't think squabbled squabble about the squabble.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think that's what we love about.
We all have very diferent perspectives, extremely different perspectives on
the show, and we you know, that comes up and
we do sort of squabble a little bit about it,
which I think is, you know, it gives a little spice.
Speaker 3: I think that you got to tell everybody go around
the table and like name your horse.
Speaker 4: Oh I don't have that.
Speaker 5: I don't think we don't have a horse yet.
Speaker 2: And plus we have made a concerted effort within UH
in both with our agreement with when we're talking to
Ron McDaniel and the rn C, and they're gracious offer
to help or to allow us to host a a
pregame show for the debate that we weren't going to
be endorsing candidates. That would make it a little difficult
to having partiality in.
Speaker 5: That same Yeah, so that's fair.
Speaker 2: But we also have made a commitment to our audience
that we were going to have every single presidential candidate
on and give them a long form, half hour interview
where we ask them all kinds of different stuff. We're
not going to put thumbs on the scale and they
can make the determination. You know, they've look some of
the prize people. Right, we had Doug Bergham on the
show who crushed it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it was an incredible like I'm telling you, when
more folks know about Doug Burgham, like his story of
essentially he used to be a chimney sweep who got
into Stanford and started a company in North Dakota to
keep kids in North Dakota working in North Dakota.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the then he sold to Microsoft for a billion dollars,
Like building a tech company in North Dakota.
Speaker 3: Helping my face with bond Charge products, their red light
therapy mask. You guys, it is the boom and right,
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Speaker 1: It's such a treat, right, I do it for like
ten fifteen minutes a couple of times a week. I
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a contourse perfectly to your phase. You can travel with it.
It's rechargeable. It's not hot or people think that it's
really hot because it's that red light or both.
Speaker 3: The barely like a barely warmed it's just a nice one.
Speaker 5: It actually puts me to sleep.
Speaker 1: I'm like incapable of naps, you guys, and I will
take like a ten minute nap when I because it's
I don't know what it is, but it lulls me
to sleep.
Speaker 5: It's fantam.
Speaker 1: But if I don't want to do that, I can
walk around with it, which is really nice. You can
still do things with it on, but it's fantastic. I
really like it is actually brightened my skins. Don't. We
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Speaker 2: Do it.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I do love the business people stories. I like that
aspect and that's one of the reasons I like Vivague too.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do.
Speaker 4: I think. I mean, I think.
Speaker 1: Business people coming in and running for office rather than
career politicians. And that's one of the reasons that truck
resonated with people, right, That's why.
Speaker 7: People liked it from Let me just say, Vivek is
from since here.
Speaker 4: We gother up by the bootstraps. Guys, he's a billionaire
because of his hard work. You just knew Cincinnati was coming. Look,
I think, and you know.
Speaker 1: He's He's also resonating with young people. I have two
older kids, that is millennials.
Speaker 5: They really like the vague.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you guys are hearing from the
millennial folks like it, but that is that is something
is that is attractive to the younger demo.
Speaker 5: Is the fact that he is not eighty years old.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think, I think I think that's key. And
my feedback loop, Yeah, my feedback loop on him is
biased because he's from Cincinnati and we actually have some
some friends in common. Uh, But I think you're right
about the age thing. I think the age thing. And
Michael has gone to the mat on this on the show.
I'll let him talk about his his war on boomers.
But but I think I think there's there's something to that.
It's like, when is the torch going to pass to
our generation? It's like nice jen X has just been
overlooked for how long? And it's like it's our time.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think.
Speaker 5: It's like enough already with old people.
Speaker 4: I think the boomers would admit, but they have sort
of a stranglehold on our culture, you know, like here.
Speaker 2: We go, you wound him up, you stick a corner
in his back, Ladies, here we go.
Speaker 5: Okay, go let let him go. I'm good with it.
We'll shake it.
Speaker 4: I think about think about this. Okay, two big before
the Oppenheimer and Barbie, right, the two big summer blockbusters
were Another Mission Impossible movies starring Tom Cruise and Another
movie with Harrison Ford, you know, and and like yeah,
I'm sorry, but those people have been around since like
the nineteen eighties, like and the boomers are like, yes,
these stars need to be headlining more summer blockbusters. It
needs to be more about when I was, you know,
forty years younger, you know, and like nothing new, nothing new.
And then think about like the two leading candidates for president.
You got Joe Biden, he's technically silent generation. He's not
even a baby boomer. But let's let's say it's of
the same you know, era. And then you know, Donald
Trump baby boomer, right, And I think about the fact that, like,
you know, when we elected the first baby boomer president,
Bill Clinton, was nineteen ninety two, and my father, who
is a baby boomer, was the age I am. Now
my son is the age I was when we elected
the first baby boomer president.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 4: Think about that. Wow. And that was thirty years ago. Now,
thirty years ago we elected the first baby boomer president,
and the two leading candidates for president are still baby
boomers thirty years later. Wow. And it's like these baby
they talk about like leaving a better country for the
next generation. When does that start? When does that start? Exactly?
Speaker 5: You're so right, Let's.
Speaker 2: Get a little let's go samp bring your thoughts on
social Security.
Speaker 4: I love the baby boomers, but like, you know, we
could start passing the passing the dorcha all I'm saying,
it's you know, and I know I'm not going to
get an angry call from my mom.
Speaker 1: No. The only thing I'll say about that, like, especially
about the creative stuff, like the movies, we wouldn't they
wouldn't be making so many mission impossible movies if millennials
would make stuff that was actually decent, like I mean,
start being quit remaking all of our ship.
Speaker 6: I think that's the tragedy of it, is that millennial
generation is actually more destructive boom because they take everything
that was sacred and wonderful and then they'll be like,
now this person is a different race, this person is
a different gender, and they're going to be fighting like
capitalism or something like this is.
Speaker 2: A different movie.
Speaker 4: It's like the Magic Fish or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, quit redoing all of our stuff. Quit like warping
all of the great stuff that we did back in
the eighties and nineties and like come up with your
own stuff. But other than that, I totally agree with
everything else that you say.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so what do you guys, What do you guys
make of DeSantis's decline in the polls like he's people
are going after him so hard. And you know, my
view is personally is that I think Trump has really
tainted his entire campaign and his idolator followers are just
doing to Dysantis everything that they complained was ever done
to Trump in the last campaign cycles. But is it
something that you think that he can recover from And
do you think that he's messaging correctly and that he
needs to just stick with what he's doing or does
he need like a whole shake up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let me let me start with the first piece
of this, which is always overlooked because of all the
headlines about Donald Trump. He's actually running a pretty good
campaign and he's got some really smart people that'll help
to steer the ship right now. And there's little things
for those of us who have been in the business
for a long period of time that you look at
and like they're technically very sound for the first time
in any of Donald Trump's previous campaigns, like their Sarah
Get deployment, their endorsements to overshadow news events and other
candidates are making like they're just technically very sound. And
that includes strip and bark from Ron de Santis for
like six eight months and spending an enormous amount trying
to define him. I do think that. Look, when Ron
DeSantis was in the lead in this race in January
and February of this year, he had a consolidation post
his big win in Florida, where everybody who didn't want
to just revote for Trump saw in him as the alternative.
And that included everything from the base that Ron DeSantis
currently enjoys that we talked about with the woke, you know,
anti woke crowd, to your center left, center right suburban
voter who may have walked off the stage during the
Trump years because they were just sort of fed up
with the Republican Party. And that consolidation made for a
forty five forty six percent of the Republican electorate at
the time. His role out of the campaign was less
than perfect, let's just say that, and coupled on top
of that a real significant offensive move from Donald Trump
and his campaign. It's been a pretty precipitous decline. I
will say this, in the last ten days, I have
noticed a significant rhetorical and presentation change out of Rond
DeSantis that I think had he hit from the very
beginning that the decline may not have happened, but he's
sort of opening up the kamono here on everything that
it is that he is talking about why he's running,
his record and everything else, and he's not afraid to
go on perhaps adversarial shows and talk about it, and
nobody's pulling one over on Ronde Santis. He's pretty good
at this kind of thing, and he's demonstrated that in Florida,
and I think that gives him an ability to build
back now. Whether it gets back to where it was
at the beginning of this year or not, I guess
time will tell. But I think he's running a hell
of a lot better campaign today than he was a
month ago.
Speaker 6: And also, I think, you know, it's not just Trump's attacks.
I think in January of February, when he was pulling
much higher, folks didn't know about, you know, the half
dozen other candidates that are in this race that are
garnering support of their own right. You Know, we mentioned Vivek,
we mentioned Bergham. There's a lot of candidates who've been
getting attention, so he's no longer seen as the only alternative.
I would say one thing, like echoing what Josh said,
is the more that they make the campaign about Governor DeSantis,
the better it is for him. He's got that record
of victory, you know, winning huge in Florida, and you
talk to Floridians and I don't think I've met a
single one who isn't a huge DeSantis fan, you know,
especially during COVID. Yeah, they you know, they remained open
and they were very vocal about how, you know, look,
we can actually live like normal, free humans, when in
many parts of the country it was an absolute nightmare
where folks weren't allowed to attend the funeral for a
family member.
Speaker 4: It was that dire time.
Speaker 6: And you know a lot of folks on the left
are hoping everyone just completely forgets that that happened. So
I think that'd be one of the things that you know,
DeSantis needs to really highlight much more, is his success
as a governor. Again, I still think it's just so
early until you see the folks on stage, like the
way that Trump caught fire in that first debate where
no one, you know, debates used to be this like boring,
very formal event, and he gets up there and just
punches everyone in the mouth and folks love that. So
you know, when they all get up there and you
actually see, you know, how they interact and who wants it.
And the last thing is, you know, I think McCain's
a great example. There's been so many of these come
from behind wins in primaries where the most important step,
it's almost like the hero's journey, is they have to
lose everything, they have to strip down, they have to
be beaten, and then they have to crawl back from that, you.
Speaker 2: Know, and do love a comeback.
Speaker 6: That's the thing is you can come back from adversity.
That's I mean, that's the story of America.
Speaker 4: Well, and you can't run against a former president of
the United States without contrasting them versus you, right, And
I think you know, for the for the first six
weeks of the campaign, Ron DeSantis, you know, only kind
of sort of tangentially attacked Donald Trump, and it's like, well,
if you aren't going to take the guy head on,
you aren't gonna win because he had the job, he
was president.
Speaker 2: Right, and no Trump voter is going to vote Trump
light when Trump is in right right, and it's happen.
Speaker 4: And if keyty argument is I'm a winner. I just
won Florida by twenty points. That contrast only really works
if you point out the fact that Donald Trump lost
to Joe Biden, right, And if you aren't comfortable doing that,
then just give up and go home, you know. And
I think over the last week, back to Holmes's point,
is like he sort of changed his rhetorical tact on
this and I think a way that that is productive
for his campaign. Now, no consultant in DC would have
told Ron DeSantis to do that, because if you looked
at every single poll, you'd be like, oh, well, you know,
you can't criticize Donald Trump because these voters love him
and they love what he accomplished when he's president, and
all of that may well be true, But if you
intend on beating him in a Republican primary, you have
to create the contrast that allows you to win. Otherwise,
what are we doing here?
Speaker 5: You think that Trump's going to show? I mean, yeah, well,
I'm just going to ask that.
Speaker 7: It's funny you mentioned that, because this is actually why
I think it's one of the reasons I really really
hope Trump does show at that debate, because.
Speaker 2: He is entertaining.
Speaker 7: He doesn't have anything to be afraid of. We all
know what he can do in a debate setting, but
I really want to see him go toe to toe
with this new class of candidates. This is almost a
completely different class of Republican presidential candidates than we saw
when Trump first ran in twenty sixteen. He's getting a
little older, he's got some record to stick up for,
some record to be proud of, you know, and I
think everybody should get a chance to have their say.
Speaker 4: And just purely from.
Speaker 7: A spectator perspective here, I think Republican primary voters really
want to see all of them in the ring together,
because even if you do like Trump, you have the
confidence that he's going to be able to come out
on top.
Speaker 6: And also, I feel like he has more upside than downside.
I'm sure like consultants are telling him, oh, listen, you're
up in the polls, don't rock the boat. Let's just
you know, stay on cruise control and let's get this nomination.
But if he shows up and it's like the line
is still running the jungle and just wallops everybody, I
think a lot more consolidate this and you.
Speaker 2: Can actually put it down.
Speaker 6: He could put it away if he just shows up
and just.
Speaker 4: Sweat and he already did that town hall on He
can can't hurt it, you know, I mean, like he can,
he clearly can hurt him.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 1: I think if he doesn't show up, here's like I
I mean, I think there are.
Speaker 2: Two maxims in politics that I just have internalized. The
first is, you can never take a vote for granted,
regardless if it's your column or not. People want you
to earn their vote, regardless of where they are, and
they could be just totally enamored with your candidacy, but
if it ever feels like you're not really working for it,
they walk away pretty damn fast. The electorate is pretty
dynamic in that regard. I agree, And if you're Donald Trump,
you do not want to give any sliver of an
inclination that you think this thing is over and you're
mailing it in.
Speaker 6: I mean, Hillary didn't go to Wisconsin, she didn't show them.
Speaker 2: I mean that's a perfect example, right, I mean, there's just.
Speaker 5: They're such a great example, it really is.
Speaker 2: And then the other, the other maximum that I live
by that I think Duncan was getting to is there's
never been a Republican nominee for president ever that has
run and won the nomination off of somebody else's movement. Ever,
it just doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The closest you could say was George H. W. Bush
coming off of eight years of Ronald Reagan, but it
wasn't because he reframed everything with a thousand points of
light and it was like a very different message than
Ronald Reagan had. People do not just sort of like
fixate on one thing that gave them their vote four
years ago or eight years ago and then apply it
to other people. And that is the biggest mistake the
consultants in our line of work make is if they
look at poles statically and they say, well, seventy percent
of people believe this. That's all that's true. But it's
also a very dynamic atmosphere. When you convince people to change,
you build a movement of your own, and that is
actually what defines every single nominee as far back as
I can remember.
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Speaker 3: Do you want to switch gears? Since we've talked a
lot of polyt Yeah, and you want to switch gears and.
Speaker 5: Talk a little bit radio a little bit.
Speaker 3: You guys have probably heard this story about Don Geronimo.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Don Geronimo. So he's sixty four. Charlotte McBride
is thirty nine. So Don Geronimo is a radio He's
been a radio for a very very long time. And
obviously you guys have heard a little bit about this story.
But he and his sidekick, I think his name is Crash.
I don't know his real name. I'm sure his parents
didn't name him Crash. But they were at the commander's
training camp and they said a few things about Charlotte
not knowing I'm assuming they didn't really know who she was,
but since she is a very beautiful woman and she
does resemble Barbie, I mean she has the look that
kind of looks like Barbie, he made some comments and
he said I thought she was a cheerleader, referred to
as being you know, Barbie, and they were both fired
for those comments, and Mock and I did a whole
podcast on this about a week ago, and we.
Speaker 5: Both disagree with it.
Speaker 1: I mean, just wholeheartedly agree with the fact that both
these guys were fired. I think one of the reasons
we agree with it is because we're of the generation
where we just don't get offended by much. But also,
we both worked in radio for you know, almost a decade,
and we worked with all dudes, and so we look
at this and we're like, God, we could have gotten
all these guys fired, they said, you know what I mean,
because because it was just a playful, fun, frat like
environment that we just we really enjoyed it because they
were like, oh, they were our brothers. Was like working
with a bunch of brothers. But also, I mean, if
if you know, Mack said this in our podcast, because
I don't look a thing like Barbie, but she could
probably pass.
Speaker 5: More for Barbie, don't.
Speaker 1: But if some if some dude came up to her
and said you look like Barbie or I thought you
were a cheerleader, both of us would take that as
a compliment.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, like slow over myself with glee.
Speaker 5: I would really.
Speaker 4: So nice.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be like, look, this is the thing, and
we're both educated, you know, I feel like accomplished women,
and I wouldn't be like, I just wouldn't be offended
by that at all.
Speaker 5: But so many women are offended.
Speaker 1: By this stuff, and the fact that they that she
is okay with this guy or both these guys getting
fired from their jobs for this stuff. Just people women
are so okay with the cancel culture. I'm just curious.
You guys are younger than us, and so I'm just
curious what your take is on this whole debacle, all
these shenanigans.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Well, I mean, look, I think.
Speaker 2: It's an indictment of our culture in a lot of ways,
and that we've become victims and everybody feels like the
only recourse they have is to be victimized by something.
I'm not saying that this woman wasn't offended. She may
very well have been offended. But I think you know,
in generations past in this country, when you're offended by
something like that, she's also an incredibly accomplished professional. And
if you've got two dudes out there saying something that's
offending you, you know, I thinkations past, certainly you two
would have done this. You walk up to their radio
show and you intimidate the hell out of them. Yeah,
the old geriatric bastards. You don't know anything about what
you're talking about, and it's nice of you to appreciate something.
Speaker 5: We actually said.
Speaker 4: That, Yeah, offend them right back, right, right, right right.
Speaker 1: We said we would have challenged them to some sort
of a you know, like a like a man or
not a radio exactly. It would have been something where
we could have elevated our show by going back and
forth with those guys. It would have been like, yeah, okay,
well let's go back and forth with them for a
little bit. But yeah, she just didn't do that. She
did play the victim, which makes all women look bad, and.
Speaker 6: We know they're just it's like there's an absolute loss
of forbearans and just trying to understand each other. And
you know, the first instinct in our society has now become,
how do I take away this person's livelihood if I
feel they've wronged me? Like the major reaction to just
make sure someone will worry about how they're going to
pay rent or mortgage or feed their family is the
first actually decide to take instead of maybe pulling them
over and saying, you know, that was kind of a
jerk to say that actually has more of an impact
on a person I would say. Then you know, their
reaction from losing their livelihood becomes like, well, I hate
this person. Now you know the problem hasn't been solved.
You've just made someone extremely bitter and hardened.
Speaker 2: And what does it teach people about, Like, basically the
message that it sends that you have no agency whatsoever,
right that you are just sort of walking this earth,
and anything that happens to you you can cry file
and the imaginary referee comes in and lays penalties on
the opposition. You imagine teaching your kids that right, that
life's not harden that if somebody comes at you and
offends you or tries to do something to you to
hurt your livelihood and what you're trying to do for
a living, the only thing you can do is throw
up your hands and ask for somebody's you know, third
party intermediary to help you out. Like, granted, there are
horrible stories that we've had over the years of people
actually being sexually harassed and actually, you know, having horrible
workplaces that all of us completely agree need to be
addressed immediately. But this kind of thing is an offense.
You're offended. If she was, like you said, you probably
wouldn't be offended. None of the women in my life
would have been offended by something like that. But I
understand that there's some people who would take offense to that.
Speaker 5: Some people would, Yeah, some people would.
Speaker 2: And the idea that she doesn't have any agency of
her own to address that, I think is a really
shitty thing to tell young women who are trying to
be professionals, who are trying to get to a point
where they're that guy's boss, right, And if someday in
the next Don Geronimo of thirty years from now, his
boss looks a lot like Barbie instead of whoever his
boss is now, my sense is he probably has a
very different way of handling that kind of thing. And
that's how you make societal change. It's not by just
like blowing the.
Speaker 5: Whistle exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: So, Fellas, if you could let our audience know more
about this upcoming debate night preview.
Speaker 6: That you're doing, it's a huge deal. I mean, I
still can't believe it's happening. It was incredibly generous. We
had Rona on our show and on the spot she's like, well,
why don't you guys do like a game day pregame
for the debate? So, I mean, you know, if that's
what she wanted, she may regret it, but we're going
to do our best.
Speaker 2: Deeply regret it. I mean, for those of your audience
who aren't familiar college game days of famous ESPN show
that they do before college football games, or they have
a big desk in front of a crowd in front
of the stadium of the week, game of the week.
Speaker 1: We big sec girls here. Yeah, yeah, you know exactly.
Speaker 2: I mean literally camp out in the sweet territory. But
but what this is is like a first of its
kind in politics where you use the energy and the
interest in a younger generation to help amplify the event
a little bit and you have some fun. And it's
not gonna be like four dudes up with like the
third tier surrogate of each campaign be like, well, what
does the governor need to do tonight? You know, I mean,
we're going to be having fun, and we're gonna be
telling jokes, and we're going to be doing a little analysis,
but more than anything, we're going to try to get
people really into it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's going to be it's it's the official pregame
show for the debate. There's gonna be a massive crowd
behind us. Uh, the logistics are getting finalists, but it
should really just be a massive party. That's what the
goal is, celebrating that, like the time has come to
get rid of Joe Biden.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and where and where is it going to be live?
Where are you guys going to be so to be.
Speaker 7: On rumble, we'll be We'll be right outside of the
venue in Milwaukee. So just st step from the front
steps from the front door going into the debate, and
people who are going into the debate are going to
be behind us with signs and everything and fun.
Speaker 5: It is going to be a babing on you guys.
Speaker 7: And I mean there's so much stuffy coverage of politics,
and everybody is kind of like comes at this from
a background of being a nerd who was their lunch
money was taken from them every day and they lived
in a locker in high school. And what we tried,
what we're trying to do is bring this into normal
people culture where it's like a little bit more like
the regular types.
Speaker 2: In your eyes, their discussion of politics is all like
a vindictive revenge on their childhood.
Speaker 4: Exactly exactly, And if you can you know what.
Speaker 5: I was just going to say.
Speaker 1: We have been talking about culture and just the bravo
to the R and C for doing this, because we've
been talking about culture and politics literally for fourteen years
since we started this, and so the fact that they
did this and they engage you guys to do this
that night is just such a fantastic It's just a
win for them. It's a total win for us, it's
a win for conservatism. So bravo to them for doing this,
and bravo to y'all.
Speaker 2: We appreciate it. Thanks for the kind words. You guys
have been a big part of that revolutionary change and
looking at politics and a little different, little lighter side.
Speaker 6: Very necessary change.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's just there's not a lot of us
out there, so it's nice. It's nice to stick together.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we appreciate you being on with us today,
So looking forward to just continued appearances on each other's programs.
Guys are a blast, and it's it's always great to
talk to you.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 2: Oh, thanks so much, absolutely,