Why Democrats Won’t Take Yes for an Answer on DHS funding

[0:00] It's now day 40 something into a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, which Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have insisted upon because of weeks old news that came out of Minnesota in January. [0:14] Every one of these lines that you see across the TSAs is all because of Chuck Schumer terrified for his job. [0:21] Why did why did Democrats care about this? [0:24] The reason is intimidation to stop deportations at all costs. [0:28] It doesn't matter how violent the person may be. [0:32] It doesn't matter what their intentions inside of this country may be. [0:36] It doesn't matter if they are a part of like a sleeper cell inside of our country. [0:42] Democrats do not want them deported. [0:45] If Mohammed Atta himself were available for deportation, Democrats would say, no, he should stay here. [0:51] Why don't you just throw Schumer out? [0:53] This is getting ridiculous. [0:54] Stand up. [0:55] Do something. [0:56] The unearned confidence of a moron. [0:58] Yeah. [0:58] Yeah. [0:58] Yeah. [0:59] Dude, that's her in space. [1:00] The unearned confidence of a moron is such a good way to put it. [1:06] Washington politicians are always getting in your wallet. [1:09] Now they're messing with your credit card. [1:11] Your credit card and the security it offers are under attack. [1:15] The Durbin Marshall credit card bill would change the nation's payment system to benefit corporate megastores like Walmart and Target at the expense of everyday Americans. [1:24] Credit cards keep your payments secure and provide rewards that families use to help make everyday purchases. [1:31] But credit cards for just a few hundred dollars are not enough? [1:32] It's not. [1:33] The Durbin Marshall mandate would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, [1:38] routing transactions over cheaper, untested networks with weaker security and fewer protections. [1:44] The Durbin Marshall mandate would let corporate megastores cut corners on credit card processing, [1:45] That means higher risk of fraud, greater chance of stolen personal data, and the loss of rewards programs just so corporate megastores can pocket billions of dollars [1:55] and higher profits. [1:56] Tell Congress to guard your card. [1:58] Visit guardyourcard.com to take over. [2:01] Take action and learn more. [2:04] I've worked at Coca-Cola for 21 years. [2:07] We're delivering Dr. Pepper from our brand new facility in Dallas, Texas. [2:10] We're really proud to still make Pepsi products in America. [2:13] You don't need a college degree to work here, but I put four kids through college by working here. [2:17] This is a great place to work with great people and great American brands. [2:21] Grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants, they all depend on us. [2:25] We deliver great paying jobs. [2:27] We deliver beverages people love. [2:29] We deliver for our community. [2:30] Gentlemen, attention, please. [2:41] Keep the faith. [2:42] Hold the line and own the lips. [2:44] It's time for our main. [2:50] Well, if it isn't a good Thursday to all of you. [2:53] Welcome back to the Ruthless Variety Program. [2:55] I'm Josh Holmes, along with Comfortably Smug, Michael Duncan, and John Ashbrook, left to right across your radio dial. [3:02] So, listen, you've undoubtedly seen the news and you'd rather take a cargo ship out of Guyana [3:09] than you would take your kids on spring break. [3:12] You have to go through the TSA line at your local airport. [3:17] And it turns out all this was very, very foreseeable. [3:19] It's now day 40-something into a Department of Homeland Security shutdown, [3:25] which Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats have insisted upon because of weeks old news [3:31] that came out of Minnesota in January, essentially, [3:34] and their objections to ICE enforcement and the deportation of criminal illegal aliens from our country. [3:42] Now, that is something, and believe me, I can sympathize if you're thinking about that [3:49] and you're saying, well, I thought we had a national referendum on the issue of deportation of criminal illegals [3:58] in 2024, November, where there was one party that sort of stood for that [4:03] and the other one that let 25 million people into our country, [4:06] and we pretty decisively came down on the side of deportation. [4:10] Well, Democrats have blown through. [4:12] They've blown through all of that, and they've gotten right back to their roots [4:14] where they don't want enforcement of the border, [4:17] they don't want enforcement, interior enforcement, [4:20] and certainly not the deportation of any criminal illegals, [4:23] the Maryland man and people like that. [4:26] Well, I think it's important, you know, everyone has to make a sacrifice in these trying times, [4:31] and just know when you're in those long lines on spring break with your screaming children, [4:36] it's a small price to pay, so Trendo Aragua can run human trafficking operations in our country, [4:42] everyone has to make a sacrifice. [4:44] No, it's very clear that every 22-year-old Uzbek who walked across the Mexican border [4:49] during the Biden administration is just well-meaning. [4:51] Yeah. [4:52] They're just looking for a 401k and a dental plan. [4:55] Why won't somebody think about the trials and tribulations of the fentanyl traffickers? [5:02] Yeah, they wait in long lines all the time. [5:05] That's exactly right, sometimes overnight, if it must be. [5:11] So here we are. [5:13] All of this has been well laid out. [5:17] The arguments have been well laid out. [5:19] And you just won't believe where they've landed on this whole thing. [5:24] If you're confused about why this has come to fruition, [5:29] we're going to clarify all of that here on the top of this segment. [5:34] But let me start with the premise of, [5:36] if there is anyone that you know who is confused about why this is happening to you, [5:43] you need to be indignant about it. [5:45] Because there is no confusion about why this has happened. [5:48] I know there's a lot of people who don't follow the ins and outs in government. [5:51] You don't listen to the Ruthless Variety Program. [5:53] You look at Republican majorities in the House and the Senate, Republican administration. [5:57] You have some inconvenience that's given to you by the federal government. [6:00] And you're like, well, these throw the bums out. [6:02] I get it. [6:04] Believe me. [6:05] But because of the way that our government is structured, [6:07] there is a narrow minority in the United States Senate that can stop all of that. [6:13] And it turns out, because of... [6:15] of the situation that we explained to you on Tuesday [6:17] with Chuck Schumer's failing political standing amongst a progressive base, [6:21] he's unwilling to do just the basics for government [6:25] because he's afraid he's going to lose his job [6:27] if he keeps the lights on in the Capitol. [6:29] That's basically the sum and substance of it. [6:32] And I will say, just as a preview, [6:34] I mean, remember where we were last October. [6:36] We had the longest government shutdown in American history. [6:42] Think about that. [6:43] You can go through the 60s. [6:44] You can go through... [6:46] Frickin' slavery. [6:49] Like, we're talking about crazy times in American history. [6:55] The longest government shutdown. [6:57] Why? [6:58] Because Democrats weren't satisfied that health insurance stock prices were good enough. [7:03] They wanted to further subsidize health insurance companies in this country. [7:09] The shutdown is over. [7:11] And not a single Democrat talks about health insurance anymore. [7:14] No, we tried to sew this together for you a little bit on Tuesday. [7:18] Where you had Bill Cassidy, who's the chairman of the Senate HELP Committee, [7:22] Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, [7:25] where he's got oversight over health care. [7:28] And Democrats were so insistent that we had a health care crisis back in October [7:32] that they had to shut the government down for 43 days. [7:35] They got nothing out of it in the end. [7:36] They just reopened the thing after, like, destroying the paychecks [7:39] of an enormous number of people [7:41] and impeding upon our economic growth and everything else. [7:47] And in the end, [7:48] that went away. [7:49] We asked Bill Cassidy, [7:51] how many Democrats have come up to you since that government shutdown was over? [7:55] And said, hey, this was a crisis. [7:58] It's still a crisis. [7:59] Let's do something about it. [8:00] His answer on Tuesday that you all heard? [8:03] Nobody. [8:05] Not a single Democrat. [8:06] Which is wild. [8:07] Not a single Democrat. [8:09] That crisis. [8:10] They shut the government down for the longest period in American history. [8:14] And it didn't matter. [8:16] Like, they just gave away the game because they never followed up on any of it. [8:20] All of a sudden, it's not a crisis. [8:21] And there you get the theater of what it is that we're up to now. [8:25] They decided at some point, after the chaos in Minneapolis, [8:29] that there was enough public concern about the issue of ICE [8:34] that they could listen to that 8% to 10% progressive pro-Hamas base [8:39] that they've got over in the Democratic Party [8:41] and say that, like, you know, [8:43] despite the fact the American people wanted to deport criminal illegal aliens [8:46] and like border security and all these things, [8:48] we can now jump back in on that [8:50] and make this a problem. [8:51] We can now make this the issue [8:51] because we think we've got enough support of the American people [8:55] to reopen borders and stop deporting people [8:58] and whatever anybody else is doing. [9:00] So it's worth the risk for us. [9:02] We can placate that [9:03] because there's enough people who are confused about who's doing what. [9:08] And therefore, we're not concerned about the ramifications. [9:12] Now, you would think, as a well-adjusted human being, [9:14] that when you go to war [9:16] with the largest state sponsor of terrorism, [9:19] that something like funding Homeland Security [9:21] would be sort of important. [9:23] Turns out that's why we founded the thing in the first place [9:26] after the 2001 terrorist attacks on 9-11. [9:30] Not the case. [9:32] That didn't move them an inch. [9:33] All of a sudden, you get people in like four-and-a-half-hour TSA lines [9:37] and it's like, oh, now we just need to start pointing fingers. [9:39] They don't even want to negotiate. [9:42] They were not even concerned [9:44] about whether that place was operating at all [9:48] right up until their constituents were like, [9:50] man, I can't take my kids to spring break. [9:52] And now they're like, yeah, look what Trump's doing. [9:54] It's really a shame. [9:58] Think about that. [10:01] Like, these people are absolutely insane. [10:03] So where does this thing, [10:06] how has it gotten to the point where it's at right now? [10:09] One of the most articulate voices on the Democratic side, [10:12] Maxine Waters, was going to explain the opening offer [10:15] from Democrats in Clipset. [10:16] We're after ICE. [10:18] We want ICE not to be funded. [10:20] And if we can fund everybody else, [10:21] that's the fair thing to do. [10:24] Straight up. [10:24] Ah. [10:25] Now, this dumb fucker, [10:26] didn't realize something that, you know, [10:29] it's your job to realize, sensibly it is, [10:32] but apparently she doesn't have any competent staff, [10:36] that they funded ICE at $75 billion level last year. [10:41] Big, big increase. [10:44] Because of the mandate the American people gave this president [10:47] and an incoming Republican majority [10:49] to do the things that they're doing. [10:51] Out of that, I'm told by people in the administration [10:55] and within Congress, [10:57] they spent nine or 10 of it. [10:59] So there's $65 billion that are still operating budget of ICE. [11:03] So the idea that you're defunding ICE is insane. [11:07] Like that's just dumb. [11:08] It's all political show right from the jump. [11:10] They were never defunding. [11:12] ICE is funded. [11:13] Yep. [11:13] But it's the only thing in Homeland Security [11:16] that's actually funded. [11:18] Now the administration's objections [11:21] to what Democrats were talking about [11:23] are not like in the funding component of this [11:26] so much as it is. [11:27] They just don't wanna have border security at all. [11:30] So they don't want riders that are going along [11:32] in appropriations bills that fund the rest of the government [11:35] that say that you can't do things like, [11:37] I don't know, take the rapist off the corner street. [11:39] Like, yes, we wanna be able to do that. [11:41] We don't want you to tell us we can't do that. [11:44] So they've, of course, thrown up walls to any negotiation [11:48] about whether we're gonna pin riders to this kind of thing. [11:51] But all of that just showed up until the Democratic Party [11:55] came to the conclusion that I just laid out for you, [11:57] which is reality to anybody who's in government. [12:00] Also, I think it's kind of wild that Maxine Waters [12:03] is still out there making statements. [12:06] I mean, I remember riding around in the car with my dad [12:08] when I was a kid, listening to Rush Limbaugh [12:10] play quotes from her. [12:12] She's been dumb for a long time. [12:14] Like, I'm being serious. [12:15] Like the financial crisis, [12:18] she was weighing in with the dumbest takes. [12:21] And I remember it would be like watching news reports [12:25] where they'd cut to her and she like does not understand [12:27] the fundamental basics of anything. [12:29] There is something to be said, [12:32] because I find it hilarious, [12:33] the unearned confidence of a moron. [12:35] Yeah, dude, that's her in spades. [12:37] The unearned confidence of a moron [12:39] is such a good way to put it. [12:41] It is. [12:42] It is so true. [12:43] It is so sadly true. [12:46] If you're too dumb to understand how dumb you are, [12:49] man, you got a lot of arrogance about you. [12:51] Yeah, but fellas, if Democrats take the majority, [12:54] she is in line to chair the House, [12:57] Financial Services Committee. [12:58] That's so funny. [12:59] She's in charge of our nation's banking system [13:01] if you would vote Democrat. [13:02] I wouldn't give her a debit card. [13:04] Oh my God. [13:06] You wouldn't hire this person [13:07] to look after your kid's piggy bank. [13:09] Yeah. No. [13:10] I mean, this is this, [13:11] but I mean, she's like defund ICE, defund, defund. [13:14] Like, she doesn't know that they just passed the shit [13:16] that didn't, they can't. [13:18] And she's already funded. [13:18] She's getting up there. [13:20] I mean, the only thing silent about this woman [13:22] is the generation she came from. [13:25] That's pretty good. [13:26] Hell yeah, hell yeah. [13:27] Pretty good. [13:30] Isn't it funny though? [13:31] Isn't it funny though, [13:32] that Rush Limbaugh was playing clips [13:34] from her banger after banger in the nineties [13:37] and here she is still doing the same thing for us. [13:40] Here on this show, talent reloaned from God. [13:47] All right, so Republicans listened to all of that [13:51] and they were like, you want to defund ICE? [13:53] I guess they haven't carried the one [13:55] and done the math on that. [13:57] No problem. [13:58] We'll move all the rest of it [14:00] and we'll set the ICE thing aside. [14:03] Happy to call your bluff on all that. [14:06] And when they do, this is what happens. [14:07] Clip three. [14:08] Yes, nope, yes. [14:10] There are Democrats that have seen funding all of DHS [14:15] but stripping out the ICE funding. [14:16] And that appears that that's the current offer [14:20] from Republicans right now. [14:22] I've spoken to Senator Kaine [14:24] and a number of other Democrats that have signaled [14:26] that that would be enough to open the government. [14:29] Why not do that today? [14:30] Every one of my colleagues, [14:32] every one, A, believes that we should be unified [14:37] and B, we need reforms of ICE. [14:40] Every single one. [14:41] Did you hear that? [14:42] Yes. [14:48] Look, we need... [14:53] Look, you know what we've called for all along. [14:56] I'm not going to get into specifics. [14:58] Amazing. [14:58] You can't do that. [14:59] Strong, strong reforms. [15:00] Strong reforms. [15:02] These strong reforms, guys. [15:02] He's so pathetic. [15:04] Because remember they said body cams [15:05] and then all of a sudden, body cams. [15:06] Body cam footage came out in Minnesota [15:08] and it was like, oh, totally exonerates the agents involved. [15:11] And they're like, well, not, maybe not, not the body cams. [15:14] And they're like, what we want is them to take the masks off. [15:20] And you're like three months removed [15:22] from activist left doxing ICE agents and murdering them. [15:29] Remember this? [15:29] I mean, this happened. [15:30] That's what they want is they want the masks gone [15:33] so that this is what the left has basically made their MO [15:37] over the past decade plus. [15:40] You see it online, you see it with ICE, [15:42] where if they don't get their way, [15:45] they will try to get someone fired. [15:47] They'll try to ruin their life. [15:48] They'll do anything in their power [15:50] to ruin an individual who disagrees with them. [15:53] That was the whole mob that, the woke mob [15:55] that people were terrified for years, [15:58] that they will, they'll call your employer, [16:00] they'll hound you, they'll ruin you. [16:02] And that was the promise that they had of, [16:03] if you go against us, we will do that to you. [16:06] And they've taken a step further [16:07] where now they wanna know who these ICE agents are [16:10] so they can hunt them down and do them harm. [16:13] That's the whole reason they made this mask thing [16:16] a part of it. [16:16] Yeah, why would we ever let the people [16:18] who celebrated the death of Charlie Kirk [16:20] know these ICE agents' names and their faces? [16:23] Exactly. [16:24] Why would you ever do that? [16:25] Why do Democrats care about this? [16:27] The reason is they want to stop deportations at all costs. [16:31] It doesn't matter how violent the person may be. [16:35] It doesn't matter. [16:36] What their intentions inside of this country may be. [16:39] It doesn't matter if they are a part of like a sleeper cell [16:43] inside of our country. [16:45] Democrats do not want them deported. [16:47] If Muhammad Atta himself were available for deportation, [16:52] Democrats would say, no, he should stay here. [16:54] Yeah, it's true. [16:55] He was simply a flight school engineer. [16:57] One of the thing I noticed from that Schumer clip, [16:59] which I think is interesting and sort of buttresses [17:02] the argument we made with the Wall Street Journal piece [17:04] from the Tuesday show, is there was a question, [17:08] put into him about an offer made by Republicans [17:10] and it was relayed by Senator Kaine. [17:13] Yeah. [17:15] What is the first thing Schumer says? [17:18] A, all Democrats are united in saying we need reforms to ICE [17:24] because he knows that he's in a tenuous position [17:28] as leader in the Senate. [17:30] And so the idea that there's Democrats within his conference [17:33] who are getting a little squirrely- [17:35] That's the hard part. [17:35] About his position. [17:36] Because it unveils- [17:38] Uh-huh. [17:39] What he's actually concerned about. [17:40] Correct. [17:41] Which is our whole subject of Tuesday's episode. [17:43] It's not, notice he did A and B. [17:46] Yeah. [17:47] A, all Democrats are unified. [17:51] B, we need reforms to ICE. [17:54] A, I'm concerned about my fucking job. [17:56] Yep. [17:57] B, yeah, there's some shit that people wanna do. [18:00] Yeah. [18:01] You know what I mean? [18:02] Like it's, he just shows you exactly [18:05] the political transparency and negligent behavior [18:10] within his leadership and operating style [18:13] before he tries to try to play a different game. [18:16] Now look, it's also possible to just be smart about shit. [18:21] Right? [18:22] And like you look around, the Minneapolis thing wasn't great. [18:26] Like we've made the argument on this program [18:28] that there was a mandate for the administration to go out [18:31] and try to remove criminal illegal immigrants. [18:35] It was double the fact in that you had a governor [18:38] and a state administration within Minnesota, [18:41] that not only chose to not do that, [18:43] but then chose to spend $8 billion of your tax money [18:47] on Somali fraud. [18:50] Yeah. [18:51] That shipped your money overseas. [18:53] And they weren't gonna do anything about any of it. [18:55] And so therefore the administration chose [18:58] in a very aggressive response. [19:00] Now, in retrospect, you look at the way [19:03] that that whole thing played out [19:04] and the idea that you've got people storming through streets [19:07] and doing raids and stuff like that. [19:09] Like, I mean, look, our country was founded at some level. [19:11] Right? [19:12] At a real, healthy-feel of fear of government. [19:15] And so people, reasonable people see that. [19:17] And even when they get the intent, [19:19] they're a little uncomfortable with that. [19:21] So what happens in the interim before this funding fight [19:23] sorta gets going, but the shutdown already happened? [19:26] Kristi Noem gets fired. [19:28] The head of Homeland Security! [19:33] And the Democrats, they've got their scalp. [19:35] They did! [19:35] Re-open the department. [19:37] She got. [19:38] In any other political universe, [19:41] when you raise an issue that you're concerned about, [19:43] And the other political universe, When you raise an issue that you're concerned about, [19:43] And the other political universe, When you raise an issue that you're concerned about, [19:43] about that the majority of the american people agree that this is of some concern and you're [19:48] like you know what i'm gonna fire that person that's it like you've okay there's your scalp [19:55] let's move on we're gonna operate in a different way mark wayne mullen who comes in to replace has [20:01] good relationships with an awful lot of these people in fact he got democrat votes in his [20:05] confirmation they know that they're operating differently that's not the issue right the issue [20:11] is chuck schumer's political standing it's whether or not he can hold on to this the same [20:15] thing that we dealt with in october if they come to you whenever homeland security reopens [20:23] it is not going to be dictated by black lives matter it'll be something along the lines of [20:32] what the trump administration is willing to do to get things back in running order and there's [20:38] enough democrats that say okay it chuck schumer's gonna take a fucking bath all he's [20:43] doing right now is prolonging yeah the inevitable yeah prolonging the pain what a box canyon he's [20:50] walked himself into but that's why you gotta get rid of leadership when you have this problem [20:56] because they can't do the thing of serving the american people if they don't have the trust of [21:03] their colleagues and the respect of the base of their political party and he's gotten to a point [21:07] where he's got none of it no colleagues don't trust him evidenced by the wall street journal [21:11] story right the progressive base [21:14] hates him they hated him for like doing just passing a biden budget there's nowhere for him [21:21] to go so he has to take everyone hostage as a result of his own political standing that's a [21:30] hell of a thing it's it's cowardice and it's selfishness and every one of these lines that [21:35] you see across the tsa's is all because of chuck schumer terrified for his job and and the thing [21:43] is is that like he he's he's [21:45] so furiously trying to hold on to this job that his base hates him for that he in the end they're [21:54] gonna throw him overboard they are you know what i mean like he's just delaying the inevitable he's [22:01] accomplishing enough this is a 100 just an ego project that he's willing as many americans need [22:06] to suffer let him suffer for his own ego also you know for your republicans out there go to the [22:15] airport throw up some ads yeah [22:18] tell people about what's going on because you know look chuck schumer is the reason for [22:21] all of this but like john ossoff could vote to get him out of there [22:25] he could [22:25] john ossoff could say you know what enough is enough he could [22:29] he won't do at [22:30] any time he could and he won't do it neither will any of the other democrats they're hoping [22:34] you don't even bring up their name [22:35] and that's the other thing is so delta announced that they will no longer allow members of [22:39] congress to have the like courtesy like shuttle them past all the like checkpoints that had a thing [22:46] and speaking of john ossoff who is an over-represented mother of all Republicans on facing much criticism of these ministries品 шумер [22:47] te eigen�� [22:49] in cycle and Delta which is based out of Atlanta yes right if you see us off [22:55] there you ask him let him know why are you making this happen why don't you [22:59] just throw Schumer out this is getting ridiculous stand up do something do [23:04] something you know what and no free beverages at the lounge if you're a [23:09] bartender at the Delta lounge at the Atlanta Airport and he comes up for the [23:14] free wine or beer you don't give it to him don't give it to him that's son of a [23:18] he doesn't deserve it it's incredible so look we previewed a [23:23] little bit of what we're gonna get into but there is a motivation that's beyond [23:27] Chuck Schumer's just political standing and it is what it is that the modern [23:31] Democrat actually stands for and if you listen carefully they'll tell you [23:36] exactly what it is that they're going for here right after this American [23:42] energy is growing with a renewed focus on American oil and natural gas we're [23:47] rebuilding our industrial strength and driving investment energy demand is [23:51] rising the United States has the resources to meet it here's the [23:55] challenge if we can't build the infrastructure to move that energy [23:59] pipelines transmission lines and power plants Americans won't feel the benefits [24:04] and while projects stall China moves faster not because America lacks energy [24:09] but because Washington's permitting system is outdated and broken energy [24:14] affordability depends on getting energy where it's needed when it's needed yet [24:18] critical projects remain stuck for years in [24:21] place and endless litigation we have the energy we have the workforce now it's [24:26] time to build let's secure American energy leadership for generations to [24:31] come when America builds America wins pass permitting reform now learn more at [24:37] permitting reform now.org paid for by the American Petroleum Institute in [24:41] America parents call the shots for their families not bureaucrats but the [24:47] so-called App Store Accountability Act puts your child at risk [24:52] this bill requires app stores to collect children's sensitive personal data while [24:57] taking away power from parents over how their child's data is handled by tech [25:02] companies parents should get to decide if their child's age is shared with apps [25:06] not politicians parents should attest to their kids ages not turn over birth [25:12] certificates to tech companies Congress don't put kids at greater risk online [25:18] and box parents out of making decisions for their families tell your [25:23] filmmaker to put parents first there are better ways to keep kids safe Net [25:28] Choice is dedicated to making the internet safe for free expression and [25:32] free Enterprise learn more at Net choice.org backslash keep app stores safe [25:37] okay so um around Tuesday's episode we said that Chuck Schumer is just deathly [25:46] afraid of the progressive base but in particular that's manifested itself in [25:50] the United States Senate from Chris Murphy and otherwise totally unimpressive [25:56] individual who's a senator from Connecticut has been there forever but he's got enough personal [26:03] ambition to rise above what is otherwise just a mound of molding white bread that is the [26:13] Democratic's conference in the United States Senate no I don't think I'm wrong about that [26:18] it's basically what rocks well said basically what it is and so Murphy has begun to articulate [26:27] in some ways [26:28] exactly what it is the Democrats are after here because remember he's meeting with the [26:34] progressive activists at La Shamier of course he's the one that's meeting yeah French toast he's the [26:43] one that's meeting with these people that's really what it is that they're after so occasionally he [26:49] goes on TV and people ask him the question occasionally and this is what he has to say [26:53] clip one the negotiation didn't have a path to citizenship it was entirely on their terms [26:59] in order to get Ukraine funded right well I mean Chris that's been a failed play for 20 years so you [27:09] are right that that has been the Democratic strategy for 30 years maybe uh and it has failed [27:16] to deliver for the people we care about most to the undocumented Americans that are in this country [27:24] whoa can we run that back I I I felt like maybe I didn't catch the whole thing because there was a [27:33] thing he was talking about a failed strategy which is by the way what happens in progressive [27:37] politics when you're trying to oust people who you think are like your establishment there they've run [27:43] failed strategy 30 40 years nothing's worked we haven't gotten our way so what we actually want [27:48] and care about is can we play that one more time uh and it has failed to deliver for the people we [27:55] care about most the undocumented Americans that are in this country oh okay just straight up [28:04] it's so cool man you like you like throw Democratic leadership under the bus and you're like they get [28:09] all the priorities wrong if I was in charge undocumented immigrants but straight up and [28:18] to like not even fake it or muddle it what we care about most is illegal aliens straight up just what [28:27] we care about most in this country most straight up but then you know you're like again you know [28:33] sometimes you hear these clips is in TV [28:35] sometimes you can these things up but you you look and you rewind the tape on what it is [28:39] that they've been up to their number one stance other than this DHS thing is to try to ensure that [28:47] there aren't uh limitations on only Americans voting in the American elections yeah yeah whether [28:54] um local law enforcement cooperates with ice making Heroes out of a Brego Garcia is a Maryland [29:00] man right you know like it's a thematic across all of their politics it's just a coincidence [29:04] rewind the tape [29:05] a little further remember the big census fight boy they were up in arms with the idea that only [29:11] American citizens were counted in American census and then it turns out you have to have a glance [29:17] through the Constitution it turns out like you're an elected representative of the American people [29:23] you do take an oath to do that against Powers foreign and domestic uh and yet they see their [29:32] job primary function of their job to represent [29:37] people who are not you and I'm not dude I'm not being high I'm not making it he just told you [29:42] that's it's complete insanity to say what is most important to us is illegals not the safety of [29:51] Americans not the prosperity of Americans he's laid it all out bear they care more about illegals [29:58] than anything else it's it it's stunning and it's hard to believe but that's the fact pattern we've [30:05] seen I feel like we're getting I feel like we're getting lazy [30:08] like we're not getting lazy on the Ruthless variety program because we're bringing you these [30:12] Nuggets day after day of stuff that we're just seeing and we think are game-changing type [30:20] Revelations when it comes to the motives of the Democratic Party how hollow and vacant they are [30:26] how politically tenuous their leadership is perched amongst their own base and and the impact [30:32] that it's having on you on a day-to-day basis where the is the echo chamber yeah what are we [30:36] talking about if you're a Republican [30:39] anywhere in this country how are you not talking about that there should be an ad on every [30:44] television across this country marrying up the three things that we just talked about in in this [30:51] show you got Maxine water defund eyes well now we don't want to defund ice we want to do stuff with [30:56] that oh here are your TSA lines we're totally comfortable with that we'll maybe negotiate a [31:00] little bit more and we'll give like no urgency whatsoever and then you get to the chase and [31:05] it's this guy Chris Murphy saying actually what we care about [31:10] the most I'm not saying it he said it that's the quote the most is undocumented immigrants why [31:18] aren't you having a national discussion about that I realize we've got Iran going on but it [31:26] is possible to chew gum and walk at the same time where is the echo chamber on this like [31:33] let's get aggressive about this because otherwise people are just going to come cave in the Republican [31:39] doors right they're just going to come in [31:41] and say I'm dissatisfied because honestly the whole goal of Democrats here is to make life [31:48] as unlivable as possible to try to show that Republicans can't govern effectively despite [31:53] the fact that they are the ones responsible for it and and in the end if you don't tell [31:58] a countervailing story along the way you're gonna get your doors beat in that's it so all of the [32:05] Democrats Behavior is basically geared towards like home said making things as miserable for [32:11] Americans [32:11] they want to cause as many problems especially ahead of the midterms so your average Joe voter [32:19] walking into the voting booth who hasn't seen the clip of Murphy being like the people we care about [32:26] most is illegal aliens and we decided where we stand on that when Trump won okay so we know this [32:33] is a winning issue we need to talk about that that should be blasted out there we should make [32:38] sure that there's no voter going into the midterms being like you know I [32:42] vote for Trump and and and and I've had to wait in TSA lines and all this crazy Shit's happening [32:48] it's a hundred percent Democrat obstruction trying to cause problems because they want voters to [32:54] think Republicans can't govern and we talked about earlier how Maxine Waters of Democrats take the [32:59] majority in the house is the chairwoman of the Financial Services Committee Democrats after this [33:04] election just might replace Chuck Schumer with Chris Murphy so if you think things can't get [33:11] worse out of Democrats and Democrats a lot Hey what your thinking what you think what are some of your thoughts on this дело diğer luculi a couple years ago public no rivers. Against Trump or you're Trump or you're in my community or qualifications what do 가지 de Burke programs are going to see Biosci one with Biosci and Obama theplant referral or 좰m [33:12] the senate buckle up fellas it can get worse it can get much much worse with a guy in his own words [33:19] saying the most important people in this country are the illegals i got news get the hell out of [33:25] here there ain't no white knight coming down that democratic you know there just isn't path they're [33:30] just not they're all they're all insane there is no such thing as a moderate democrat no they're [33:34] just not they're all on board for the big win with that and it wasn't so long ago that everybody had [33:39] a very very different view timu obama back in the obama administration similar situation came up [33:47] with dhs and a funding mechanism and concerns about a potential shutdown at that time here's [33:53] what he had to say i thank the distinguished general lady from new york we are here today [33:58] to do a single job and that should be to fund fully the department of homeland security anything [34:06] else is an abdication of our responsibility oh anything [34:11] else is an act of legislative malpractice simply because of the inability of my friends on the [34:18] other side of the aisle to satisfy the thirst of the extreme right-wing anti-immigration base of [34:25] the party and so we're playing political games at a time when the safety and the security of the [34:32] american people is being 2015. and that was uh if the funding of the department of homeland security [34:40] didn't pass because [34:42] republicans at that point were concerned that the administration wasn't doing enough [34:46] to enforce the borders now what a novel concept barack obama looked like freaking benito mussolini [34:54] compared to joe joe biden yeah like on the border i mean this guy he drew a hard line but republicans [34:59] understandably were concerned that they weren't doing enough at that point he was like never mind [35:03] all that what's really important is the safety and security of the american people he's literally [35:07] wearing the identical shoes remind me were we at war with iran in 2015. [35:13] were handing them pallets of cash yeah we were handing them pallets of cash it was important to [35:18] fund the department of homeland security and we were paying off the terrorists and yet they want [35:23] to shut it down when we're at war with them yeah which is also a little short-sighted and they use [35:28] the pallets of cash to buy uh uh missiles that they then fired into israel right yeah right [35:36] and attacked more americans who were living abroad yeah which you know i don't well i do have to say [35:43] though hakeem jeffries seems a little more articulate in that clip than he does today i [35:47] have to think maybe being in leadership gives you some sort of cte that could be the only [35:52] explanation for his current state he's got a little tighter haircut in back then than he did [35:58] does now and i do feel like whatever the jaw mechanism that he's got it it's become more [36:06] pronounced okay you know back then you know if you looked at his teeth they're kind of like that [36:11] and now it's a little bit more like that [36:13] where it's it's more it's more difficult to focus on the words coming out of his [36:17] mouth because it kind of looks like yeah like a hypotenuse that's chomping [36:22] down on a bottom right jaw which is which is difficult to concentrate i find it difficult [36:29] my guess is at that point in his career he had no reason to have to talk to eric swalwell and [36:33] jasmine crocker yeah people like that and now they're in his office all the time complaining [36:37] every single day and that is probably the tick the more swalwell time the greater the hypotenuse [36:43] that's right i i think that's it it sort of presents like a stroke even if maybe he hadn't [36:49] hasn't had a stroke he's mad he sort of looks like the dad from legends of the fall all of a sudden [37:01] i mean it's it's tough i can't i find it hard to concentrate yeah i always have uh anyway we [37:09] got to get to your question so when you're this week and basically all of hack madness what we [37:15] would like you to do and we're going to break down what we're going to do is we're going to break down [37:17] where we're at with hack madness for our listeners who are just tuning in who haven't uh we haven't [37:22] talked to in the last couple of weeks hack madness our big tournament um the biggest journalistic [37:27] hacks in all of politics and we run a big tournament and we'll get more into that but we'd [37:32] like you to continue to break down your brackets bracketology is a key point of march and ours in [37:40] particular i think brings the best out of our audience and so when you like and subscribe to [37:46] the ruthless variety of news you can subscribe to the ruthless variety of news you can subscribe to [37:46] the ruthless variety program we'd like you to break down your own bracket give us the matchups [37:51] that you're looking for give us some predictions about what your final four would look like [37:55] and be funny about it because in this one we get back to you on fun time friday so you know you [38:00] really gotta be kind of funny yeah you gotta you gotta be kind of funny to get in there and when [38:05] we come back we're gonna get your comments from last episode right after this okay when you like [38:11] and subscribe and i mean i'm not just saying that to be rhetorical about like this is the intro like [38:18] subscribe [38:20] that's how you get our stuff at the top of the sheet subscribe to this bad boy but when you do [38:26] and you leave a comment we read absolutely all of them get back to the very next episode to do that [38:32] we always start with a voice okay this first comment um from lmb and it's very good and i [38:38] just want to set the table and remind people of the jake tapper setup where he surrounded himself [38:44] with all the different paper weights and bobble heads and everything and it was specifically like [38:50] failed presidential candidates yes exactly right smoking covered his entire office in former failed [38:56] so eagle-eyed lmb notes i don't see hillary anywhere on that ball jake no [39:04] eagle-eyed very very very good comment and i'll tell you lmb i didn't see joe biden 20 20 on the [39:10] wall either nice nice i like that i can tell you why hillary's just out here jenning it up i can [39:19] tell you why hillary's not on the wall and it's because neither jake nor hillary herself could [39:24] admit that she lost yep no that is true that is the existential wound on our body politics [39:31] we're still dealing with the ramifications uh i will also add that um hillary's husband and jake [39:39] do share my god you're gonna bring that up yeah that's insane they do but we can move on too [39:44] that's a bit much go on it's a family program i've got hold on you can't just leave it yeah [39:49] you don't know where this is going i've got time oh i know where it's yeah okay yeah no that's [39:52] we've got all the time it's a bit much it's a bit a little exposition for the audience are you [39:56] familiar with a woman named monica lewinsky yes okay well president clinton had some sort of a [40:02] relationship with her yeah it depends on what your definition of is is that's right it does [40:07] it does well documented by the star report and jake tapper has publicly revealed over many years [40:13] that he also once was friends with monica lewinsky now that's a bit much i do know i [40:20] i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't [40:20] i do know what you're talking about did he ever reveal whether or not he had a similar experience [40:27] that's a bit much i don't recall uh the specifics he didn't but i do know i mean it's baseball season [40:34] he didn't reveal a base that he had there's there's families listening to this and this is [40:37] where you've taken the show i keep in the day i do know that they that their paths crossed at [40:43] one point or another according to what he said was it around second base third you know again [40:50] um that's i'm going to talk about that later i'll talk about it then um we're going to have [40:54] yeah we're going to have to go to the we're going to have to go to the old uh politics reference.com [40:59] manual to you're going to get an angry dm from jake tapper now that's what you've done here oh for [41:05] sure but you already obtained that with the tuesday episode you're already you're already [41:09] halfway there not know what i mean the hack madness tournament alone the seating i'm sure [41:14] that somebody over here has heard about it so hillary may not like jake okay she might she might [41:20] just maybe it was like a diversion i mean to be honest with you you might have been helping out [41:23] the cons my god yeah taking one for the team you know well the kind of gal that is interested in [41:30] doing something like that with the president of the united states uh doesn't strike me as [41:34] particularly shy about performing well as you may recall it was a well you know publicized secret [41:41] that they were getting awfully close that's why they had to ship monica lewinsky over to dod [41:45] oh and that was that was part of the reason vernon jordan if i recall uh-huh was the gentleman who [41:52] took it upon himself to make such a move what a great trip down memory lane god rest his soul [41:59] what an incredible thing he was right-handed right vernon jordan oh boy we're going back to the vince [42:06] foster okay okay okay i'm taking this i'm taking control i'm now i'm al hagging this situation [42:12] comment number two comment number two [42:15] two is uh isn't from not today uh not today writes when jake said [42:23] where we do actual journalism i realized his office was a fictional place [42:32] that's good that's good uh comment three smuggles from dan james it's just simply quote [42:39] hello my fellow podcasters cnn probably beautiful got to imagine that's the buscemi [42:47] gift [42:48] yeah yeah right with the skateboard yeah in high school yeah oh my god that's great our listeners [42:54] the absolute best remember you get a like and subscribe and what you do we read absolutely [42:57] all of them get back to you in the next episode so we have to do an update on hack madness and [43:01] where this whole thing stands folks if you're not into this and you haven't gotten into it [43:07] anytime over the last six years you just need to take five minutes to get your mind wrapped [43:15] around it like you hear it you're like hack madness i don't know everybody makes a big deal out of it [43:19] but i don't know exactly what it is so like i don't know i got to move on because i'm just [43:22] trying to get the news and have some yucks you'll never get more yucks than you will at hack madness [43:28] i mean this is the most fantastic thing of all time take five minutes of your day look at go back [43:33] to that episode where we announce the seating and we'll give you the reasons why it is that all [43:37] these people are in this tournament and then just watch the voting and how it unfolds on smug's x [43:42] account i promise you it's enough entertainment for an entire month and we take this incredibly [43:47] serious here at the ruthless event we're gonna get the r deutsche in the vpn seven and we're gonna get [43:48] the ruthless variety program the process of this entire thing is sacrosanct it is why we don't play [43:54] king of the hill during hack madness because we don't want to put thumbs on the scale you don't [43:59] want to you could tip the balance we don't want to influence the voting and we have found over [44:04] the years that people who are just sort of reoccurring topics on the ruthless variety [44:08] program tend to go a little further because there's deep lore there's a lot of deep deep [44:13] lore so so you have to be particularly careful at this excruciating moment in time for each of these [44:20] you know huge teams to try to get through the bracket not to put your thumb on this right [44:26] but by the same token i don't think we're shy about providing our own observations yeah for [44:32] example in the way to online bracket there's a cinderella story i've been watching ever since [44:37] the play-in game and that's olivia nuzzy but in this round of 32 in the early voting it [44:43] appears maybe the slipper does not fit keith olbermann is up to a very very early lead [44:50] and it could be the end for her hold on i just want to i just want to i just want to stop and [44:55] compliment the genius yeah we got jay billis over here of the bracketeers and the people who put the [45:02] seedings together the committee knew what they were doing what you're telling me and i didn't [45:05] realize until this very moment is that the play-in game in which olivia nuzzi played against ryan lisa [45:13] that's correct [45:13] which we've [45:14] covered extensively on this program she she won she then had to face the number one seed sv date [45:20] she handily defeated you're telling me her next matchup is the ex-boyfriend before ryan lidza [45:29] so she's had to go through a lover's lineup she sure already get to the swiss yeah but [45:34] it appears that olbermann is just dominating her right now is that right maybe it doesn't [45:39] hold you know maybe she's got votes coming in at the end that she's sort of pulling together but [45:44] she may not advance this week before the rest of us get into the match-ups that we're watching [45:49] i do want to bring up the history of this in graphic two these are the former champions of [45:57] hack madness 2020 was just a banner year for the potato brian stelter he was a force to [46:05] be reckoned with he was a champion of fake news he was the one that was an arbiter of what is real [46:11] and what is not of course whatever he said was real i talked about brian stelter in a program just this morning what i said was and he knew what was and he knew his own stuff but it was some shit he knew his own stuff what he knew his own stuff but even though he knew his own stuff what e d y would have accidentally forgotten when the human data was actuallyン [46:12] not of course whatever he said was real was not whatever he said was not was real but that's why [46:18] he was the 2021 champion jen rubin then went back to back she was at the washington post at the time [46:23] and that's why she's the queen that's why i don't think that there has been a singular figure that [46:29] has had as much force in this tournament as she has had now of course she's not a part of this [46:33] year's field yeah she hasn't been back and she sort of looks like the indiana hoosiers under [46:38] bobby knight those were the big days when they won all the time bob knight leaves of course she [46:43] leaves the washington post all of a sudden she's not in the tournament anymore and i think that [46:47] those banners will stay but her name may not return well let's pop it back uh up because you [46:53] recall taylor lorenz had a real run in 2023 she was also at the washington post at the time had [47:00] worked over from the new york times where she was fashioning herself as a sort of a young gen z [47:07] type person who [47:08] is of course a gen xer herself but she uh would go to parties wear a mask tell everybody that they [47:15] were uh incredibly irresponsible for passing on coven uh two and a half years after we've proven [47:20] that all the things she's talking about didn't work and then uh promptly like forced into the [47:26] public domain this progressive nonsense that was completely just shy of something you would [47:32] institutionalize a family member for him in in the pages of the washington post and people were onto [47:38] that so she [47:39] she just sailed through the brackets she did what's interesting about the matchup that you [47:42] showed with olivia newsy and keith oberman is that keith oberman has long been gone from mainstream [47:48] media long fired from msnbc long fired from espn but he maintains what a sub stack or something [47:56] like that and occasionally there are people like megan kelly or whatever who like read the things [48:01] that he's writing and like surface so as a name that you hear and you see some of his stuff on x [48:07] but he's largely irrelevant [48:09] and queen pop so the graphic again if you look at it it also tells a story of the media landscape [48:14] where you see 2020 2021 2022 that's stelter and then back to back reuben that was pretty much [48:21] and then even taylor lorenz who was at the washington post in 2023 when she won [48:24] that was pretty much like the peak of the mainstream media cnn post post post and then [48:33] they started to have their downfall where like you could have a sub stack and pop up like keith [48:39] olberman in 2024. so jen rubin part of her problem is she kind of like peaked too early [48:45] like a a sub stack now would get you more notoriety or whatever foot [48:59] his mind d'arcy d'arcy what's the name of his rag [49:02] nobody knows so they'll make up their publications [49:05] i can't believe you know that yeah well [49:06] am i learning uh what's that um at least i i guess i can't make kinds of comments now [49:09] who has to hold journals accountable ashbrook doesn't know how to do that one bit but anyways [49:13] so the story is then you have in 2025 it was essentially margaret brennan because i mean she [49:18] made a name for herself she distinguished herself by by just being deranged on the morning show and [49:23] getting dunked on in the process like everyone remembers the the jd vance she also had a high [49:28] profile debate i mean there were many many occasions for her to be in the center of the [49:33] media universe where everybody could see with their own eyes how insane this is she is right [49:39] but but i think you make a good point about the advent of substack it's sort of like the advent of [49:44] nil and if you look back at some of the players from yesteryear like len bias would have been [49:49] paid a millions of dollars shaquille o'neal millions of dollars in by today's standards [49:56] however today's standards pay guys who were not quite as good as them [50:01] money that those guys couldn't have ever earned and so it's a little bit of a different dynamic [50:05] i'm telling you that you are exactly right if jen rubin had a substack [50:10] and grew in today's standards she probably would still be in the tournament all right let's get [50:14] some breakdowns because we're now uh through the first round and we're into the second round [50:19] fellas what are you looking at can we get the bracket up on screen there it is one match i [50:24] want to highlight early was you had uh nicole wallace versus jen saki and of course you go to [50:31] my ex account at comfortably smug i have it pinned right at the top [50:35] to vote but you look at the nicole wallace jen saki that came down yeah yeah nicole wallace won [50:42] that one with 50.4 percent of the vote jen saki lost with 49.6 boy it's like less than 100 votes [50:50] yeah every single vote matters folks yeah every single vote matters yeah yeah i mean the one that [50:55] i want to highlight here in this second round is anderson cooper against natasha also looks like a [51:02] real nail biter you're talking about a household name right versus somebody who's a proven [51:08] beyond your wildest dreams hack right in this [51:12] is where the balance comes well you just took what i was going to say but yes [51:18] but this is what we this is what we try to talk about when we talk about like the aaron blakes [51:23] yeah right i mean what you see here is a constant thematic of like people with long runs in in [51:30] television careers and then people who actually put out and say no stuff all the time but just [51:34] are not that well known yeah you know one of the things i'm watching develop is in the [51:39] establishment bracket and it is not the round of 32 it's the potential [51:42] suite 16 face-off between stephen colbert and bill crystal who is the biggest clown who can actually [51:48] win that i i dude i think that there is such a bias in our audience toward the contestants for [51:57] king of the hill that i think crystal has a shot against colbert however [52:03] colbert upset colbert has played this season not dissimilar to how margaret brennan played in 2020 [52:09] i agree with you and so i think that that is the thing you don't want to see it's a hit and run [52:12] the matchup of this next round. [52:14] To put an adaptation that is not dissimilar [52:17] from the observation that you were making, Duncan, [52:19] is the one that I'm looking at [52:20] is Abby Phillip and Jim Acosta, right? [52:23] Where there's not necessarily a huge discrepancy [52:26] in overall notoriety, [52:27] but OGs have a special reverence for Jim Acosta. [52:33] And he is now doing nothing. [52:35] He's doing nothing. [52:36] And I think it's so much of our media landscape now [52:39] isn't actually watching these failed shows [52:41] that get no ratings. [52:43] It's the clips they produce. [52:45] And so in that context, [52:46] somebody like Abby Phillip is gonna be a rock star [52:49] in this tournament. [52:50] And that's the hilarious thing is like, [52:51] Abby Phillip is insanely dumb and terrible, [52:55] but Scott dunking on her nonstop has given her a name. [52:59] Like she would not exist were it not for Scott. [53:02] But she's got a difficult road to the final four. [53:05] I mean, if she gets past Jim Acosta, [53:07] she's probably facing off against Brian Stelter [53:09] in the next round. [53:11] Like that's a- I mean, she's got a- [53:11] That's a tough matchup. [53:12] I mean, I'm just saying Acosta for our audience, [53:18] special reverence. [53:19] Right. [53:19] You know, it's like going against a Blue Blood, [53:22] a Notre Dame or a- [53:24] Right, that's right. [53:25] Alabama. [53:26] That's right. [53:27] That kind of thing. [53:28] Acosta, by the way, I think was in one of the final, [53:29] two of the finals. [53:31] Yeah. [53:32] Of our- [53:33] Yep. [53:33] He's never been able to close it out. [53:34] Never been able to close it out. [53:35] I was a bride too. [53:36] Never a bride. [53:37] Yeah, that's right. [53:38] So tell us, remind us of the schedule here on Thursday. [53:42] What are we looking at? [53:43] You posted up- [53:44] Yep. [53:45] It has been posted. [53:46] And as you are listening to this, voting is underway. [53:49] You want to go to X, go to my profile at Comfortably Smug, [53:53] and it is pinned right at the top. [53:55] You just start voting. [53:56] They're all lined up one after the other. [53:59] You know what I'd like in addition [54:00] to your just prognostications, [54:02] when you like and subscribe to the Ruthless Friday program? [54:05] Some ideas of championship merch. [54:09] Just throw it in there. [54:10] That's a great idea. [54:11] Because everybody needs a championship t-shirt. [54:12] We haven't done that. [54:13] We haven't done the Ruthless Friday program. [54:15] We'll have to consult our attorneys [54:16] to make sure that name, image, and likeness [54:18] are all in coordination for what we can do. [54:22] But throw out some ideas, [54:23] because I feel like we should do that. [54:25] Maybe like a video that goes up right afterwards. [54:28] Abby Phillip fans, she has won the championship. [54:32] Now get your Sports Illustrated video. [54:35] Remembering her season. [54:36] We're going to have to produce that. [54:38] The source is tipped. [54:43] We do a one shining moment. [54:44] We got a trip up. [54:46] Dude, that would be electric. [54:48] It would be electric. [54:49] We should maybe think about that. [54:51] We're very excited about this interview. [54:54] Good friend of the program, Senator Pete Ricketts, [54:56] the great state of Nebraska. [55:00] I want to welcome to the program [55:01] a good friend of the program. [55:02] You've heard him here at least a couple of times. [55:04] Senator Pete Ricketts, how are you, sir? [55:06] I'm doing great. [55:07] Thanks very much for having me on again. [55:08] I think the first time you were on, you were a governor? [55:10] Governor, yeah. [55:10] Yeah, and now you're senator. [55:12] And I just have to ask you, [55:13] before we get into all the other stuff, [55:17] lot of fun up there it is a lot more fun being in the majority than the minority that's fair that [55:22] that's fair kind of sucks the majority is a lot of fun um except for the democrats that's that [55:27] was just gonna say you know like just looking around um the level of insanity that you guys [55:33] have to deal with on the democratic side because you know i mean look the senate has to work at [55:38] some level in a bipartisan function in order to do anything uh but you're dealing with folks who [55:44] are like yeah no i'm totally comfortable with people standing in six hour tsa lines because of [55:49] headlines that happened six weeks ago and my progressive base which is like eight percent [55:54] of the american public uh feel strongly that uh i do this or else i get thrown out of office [55:59] and it like is there an ability to reason at all with these folks it feels like they've kind [56:04] of lost their mind it has right and i think it's more driven by their leadership yeah [56:09] i think chuck schumer than maybe people like chris coons or peter welch right [56:16] so and just this funny of dhs let's just talk about this right like for over 30 days they [56:23] would not even meet face to face to talk to us because schumer just wanted the chaos yeah right [56:27] like and he doesn't care about the tsa agents he says he does but doesn't really care or else he [56:32] would have met with us face to face right before a month was out right totally so it's he's just [56:38] totally hypocritical when he talks about these things because he's like i just had to listen [56:42] to on the floor today going on and like well you know the democrats are [56:46] trying to pay tsa i'm like no you're not no you're not if you had been trying and we're [56:49] willing to meet in a wellness notice no you weren't you went 30 days more than 30 days [56:53] before you even would sit down and talk to us yeah right we're on day 40 now and the first [56:58] time they met with us was last thursday face to face i mean they were they refused to take meetings [57:04] and it just like and then we actually had a deal that schumer agreed to we took it to the [57:12] white house it wasn't me it was my colleagues like kitty britain and brit took the white house [57:17] signed off on it brought it back and schumer said no i changed my mind i'm not going to do it [57:23] they're moving like how can yeah how can you move in the goal post how can you deal with somebody [57:27] like that right whose whole negotiating strategy is not to agree to anything again just gets back [57:32] to do you just want chaos and think about this homeland security this is the department supposed [57:37] to keep us safe set up after 9 11. we've got a conflict in the middle east right now totally [57:42] right against the largest state sponsor of terrorism exactly and think about this they've [57:47] got us the cyber security and infrastructure security agency so that is supposed to protect [57:53] us from these kind of things has 2 000 people except 1200 of them are laid off right now they're [57:57] furloughed because of the shutdown so we're undermanned like what what does schumer want [58:04] does he want to like what's it going to take a terrorist attack a tsa walking off the job and [58:09] we've lost over i think over 300 tsa agents because they can't afford this they live paycheck to [58:13] paycheck yeah i mean he's putting americans at risk he's bringing people in my state of nebraska [58:18] at risk yeah all for his political chaos political gains so senator i'm curious because we saw some [58:24] recent reporting out of the wall street journal about this sort of infighting within schumer's [58:29] conference a lot of people doubting his ability to lead um senate democrats i'm curious you know [58:36] because you're inside do you send some discontent within their ranks with how he's prosecuted this [58:42] whole shutdown the democrats are very good at presenting a public face of you yeah they are [58:48] yeah so i don't see it so much directly right yeah that's why i'm talking some of the other members [58:57] you get the feeling first of all that schumer doesn't even really share everything with them [59:00] yeah that's the first thing and but they are very good about just keeping all their members [59:04] in lockstep and frankly part of it is i think schumer can punish them more and frankly they [59:07] also punish their own members more there's a social thing that goes on in the democrats [59:11] caucus that they just you know this is why mansion's not there that's why cinema's not [59:15] there yeah they endorse against each other like just i mean they yeah they go after them yeah [59:20] right now we need to do a better job on our side of being more unified yeah certainly we've got [59:25] opportunities to do a better job but i think the democrats one thing they do do is they stick [59:30] together and present that united front even if they're fighting internally yeah i want to ask [59:34] you how all this is translating into nebraska and this is a state that you have traveled [59:40] year after year for a very long time and are people more interested in talking about the [59:46] economy more interested in safety are they concerned about the economy or are they concerned [59:50] this dhs shutdown what are you hearing mostly from people that you're talking to well i would say that [59:55] one you know the whole rule if you're explaining you're losing and people look at it and just say [1:00:00] well you guys got the white house the house and senate how can we can't fix this yeah right it's [1:00:03] a problem so it's a problem so i think we actually get our fair amount of blame for this which is [1:00:07] kind of a problem especially among it might be the whole intent well that's exactly what schumer's [1:00:11] attended this is why he wants the chaos i i think if schumer could take this all the way through the [1:00:15] election he would totally do it yeah so that's part of it what people really are concerned about [1:00:20] though is hey we had 40-year high inflation under joe biden right and prices went up 20 [1:00:26] and it's still no fun to go to the grocery store yeah that's what that's what nebraskans are [1:00:29] talking to me about is like you know inflation went up and it still like sucks to go and you [1:00:37] know go to the grocery store and we're you know we saw some progress gas prices came down from [1:00:41] their high you know it was like almost five bucks a gallon or joe biden average now it came down and [1:00:46] uh you know what's going on around right now it's going back up again but people saw some really [1:00:50] things that were going on in iran right now it's going back up again but people saw some really [1:00:51] there they saw some relief from housing prices uh rent mostly right coming down because frankly [1:00:56] illegal immigrants were deporting themselves so that was actually relieving some pressure on rent [1:01:01] but they were still going it still sucks to go to the grocery store and that's what really most [1:01:05] people are talking about is those pocketbook issues yeah i want to get to that because look [1:01:09] i'm not laying blame on anybody's feet because there's a dynamic atmosphere obviously we're [1:01:14] dealing with all kinds of different i'll blame it on democrats no i feel like that's right but um [1:01:21] look when you were governor you laid out a very clear mission of the things that you wanted to [1:01:27] accomplish efficiencies in government making the economy in nebraska work for everybody that kind [1:01:33] of thing and then you would just systematically just beat that in not only from a policy [1:01:38] perspective but from a messaging person everybody knew you were up to right you get into the senate [1:01:43] obviously you're you're one voice uh amongst a republican conference and a larger republican [1:01:49] congress and then you've got the white house [1:01:51] how much of that economic argument do you feel like is sort of being lost and that you have a [1:01:56] story to tell just not everybody's got the same bumper sticker to tell the story at this point [1:02:02] i would say one of the other issues is the national media's refusal [1:02:06] good point to cover a lot of this stuff right it really is like again one of the things i've [1:02:12] been trying to break through the clutter with is the fact that again just what i told you [1:02:15] schumer wouldn't even meet face to face for over a month yeah have you seen that covered anywhere no [1:02:21] no of course not right no i feel like you broke the news it doesn't fit in the narrative of the [1:02:24] national media and say oh gosh the democrats must somehow be a right like they totally don't even [1:02:30] want to say that he wasn't unwilling to even have a conversation about a negotiation there was also [1:02:34] hilariously i just saw on fox last night a juxtaposition of somebody who had been in line [1:02:40] in houston airport for six hours and he's standing there doing an interview and he's just like fit to [1:02:45] be tied yeah obviously as everybody would be um and then they flashed to chuck schumer who's a [1:02:50] Schumer who's like they submitted a proposal we'll take a look at it we'll probably send them a [1:02:58] counter proposal like no sense of urgency whatsoever right and I feel like if we were to do something [1:03:04] like that with somebody standing in a six-hour line hard to believe it wouldn't be the front page [1:03:10] of every newspaper in the English-speaking world absolutely the again the bias in the national media [1:03:15] is incredible terrible yeah it's absolutely terrible it kind of doesn't matter where you're [1:03:20] from I mean we all have our our local parochial arguments with our newspapers and whatnot but [1:03:24] you get up here I mean it's just it's on steroids yeah it's very different yeah I do a weekly press [1:03:29] call with Nebraska media and it's a it's a much different kind of conversation they want to know [1:03:34] what you're doing yeah we talked I mean we hit some of the national topic issues too but I'm [1:03:38] talking about like I introduced a bill to help protect American farmland from Chinese Congress [1:03:42] buying it so that's how I let off my press call this week so I'm talking about some of this you [1:03:49] know I start off my calls talking about [1:03:50] stuff that I'm introducing that's gonna uh the Nebraskans are going to care about yeah you know [1:03:53] that kind of thing so so tell me more about this in the campaign itself I know you've got an opponent [1:03:58] here this independent oh he's a fake fake Dan Osborne yeah fake independent right yeah so [1:04:04] tell me a little bit about this cat okay so this is another thing the Democrats are better at us [1:04:08] than us they think about states like Nebraska these red states and say don't just say hey we're [1:04:13] going to exceed that one they're like well how can we maybe change the rules to win this one [1:04:20] with running these fake independents and they started with Deb Fischer so they were very smart [1:04:25] about it first of all there's a marijuana party in Nebraska and so they knew that if there was [1:04:30] a marijuana party candidate on the ballot it would only draw away from their independent and not from [1:04:34] Deb Fischer I I gotta say I'm shocked the bot heads are that organized what when the Democrats [1:04:40] are doing it for you all you gotta do is sign a piece of paper right well sure well like I said [1:04:46] well I was gonna say they're kind of Libertarians who like to smoke right yeah yeah so anyway so [1:04:50] um anyway so there's a marijuana party and there's a real candidate and then the Democrats [1:04:55] run this fake marijuana party candidate who they spend like I don't know thirty thousand dollars [1:05:01] on something I mean there's like a thousand people vote in the marijuana party primary I [1:05:04] think it's a low number so they don't have to spend a lot of money they get their candidate [1:05:09] elected and then he drops out before ballots are printed ah and so the marijuana party can't get [1:05:16] a new person on and they did that on purpose because they knew it hampered them then their [1:05:21] candidate this fake Dan Osborne guy he waits until you know pretty much the last moment to [1:05:27] file his signatures and runs like a 10-week race and the Democrats dumped 38 million dollars into [1:05:34] his campaign okay so my I was up for a special election in 2024 I spent a little over five yeah [1:05:39] which is kind of what you expect to spend race in Nebraska in a normal year so just think about like [1:05:44] how much more money that was 38 million dollars I don't even know how you figure Schumer maxed [1:05:48] out to him from the Democrat senatorial committee and then gave him nearly four [1:05:52] million dollars more to a pack supporting him and then Dan Osborne goes well I don't know who [1:05:56] Chuck Schumer is like really you don't know you don't know who the largest donor is stroked a [1:06:00] pretty big check for somebody you know right you didn't ever run the guy because he gave a lot of [1:06:04] money I want more friends like that yeah I'm sure he never asked you for anything 95 of Osborne's [1:06:12] voters came from outside the state of Nebraska there are places like Washington DC New York [1:06:17] California that sort of thing yeah and one of the things that was really that really helped Deb out [1:06:22] was the fact that Trump was on the ballot yeah and there's a number of Trump voters and this is what [1:06:27] we have to crack as Republicans to get those people out in non-presidential years but there's [1:06:31] a bunch of Trump voters that only show up in presidential years and Deb benefited from that [1:06:34] so that's one of the things that helped her she ended up uh winning by about 60 000 votes so which [1:06:39] in Nebraska is only not that much compared to what it probably ought to have been yeah so now we come [1:06:44] to my election cycle here in 2026 midterm and they're doing the same thing so they've got a real [1:06:52] problem and a union guy who happens to be the state employee union head when I was governor [1:06:58] for a couple years and but by the way he's always been pro-marijuana and he gets on and then the [1:07:04] marijuana party calls him a Dan Osborne plant ah so they're on to it they know that this guy is a [1:07:09] fake marijuana party guy that is going to probably drop out and then the Democrats are they endorse [1:07:16] Dan Osborne last year and try to keep the field clear so some pastor from Western Nebraska files [1:07:25] so the Democrats run a party person down there to file as well so they can have again make sure [1:07:32] that there's not just one Democrat that would automatically get through the primary and then [1:07:37] she says the quiet part out loud she says well I'll drop out of the pastor drops out and if I [1:07:43] win then I'm going to drop out and support Dan Osborne so she she's acknowledging it's all set [1:07:50] up it's all fake imagine you having to go through all that Jiu Jitsu in a democracy to just sort of [1:07:57] well it's because they know their ideas don't sell they're terrible it's because nobody in the [1:08:03] Midwest believes a single thing that these Democrats are saying especially now I mean [1:08:07] maybe 20 years ago they had some points when every both parties were trying to do different [1:08:12] you know take different paths to the same goal yeah not today not today they they are it's [1:08:19] unrecognizable their party right now I just I really wonder um Senator if if you think and I [1:08:27] know that [1:08:28] you watch the map your Blaze are focused on Nebraska but I know you watch the rest of the [1:08:33] country I do you think that there's any hope for to real Democrats back into sanity or until they [1:08:41] start losing on a consistent basis I don't believe so because their far left wing is so loud and [1:08:47] drive so much of the narrative on their side I know there's lots of normal Democrats that don't [1:08:51] feel the way that they're extreme yeah you're running doing Nebraska and everywhere yeah but [1:08:56] you'll be running into Nebraska like you know for crying out [1:08:58] loud I'm going to give Sherry a couple stories so like we have a county attorney in Douglas County [1:09:03] who was a Democrat and then with the George Floyd riots sadly we had a writer who was killed by a [1:09:11] business owner who was defending his property I'm not gonna excuse the business owner for what he [1:09:17] did but the county attorney said I don't have enough evidence to prosecute yeah but I'm open [1:09:23] to a grand jury well the Democrats went and protested this guy for 30 days in a row out in [1:09:28] front of his house of course yeah and so and so [1:09:29] and so he's like okay I'm becoming a Republican yeah so he switched parties and then won the county [1:09:35] as a Republican yeah right in our biggest city Omaha yeah we had the head of the police union [1:09:39] president of the police union was a Democrat and then the Democrats cut up a pig put a police hat [1:09:47] on the head of the pig dropped all the body parts in front of the police union's uh headquarters [1:09:53] geez yeah like just crazy stuff and of course that police union had said about one of our county [1:09:59] parties like I'm re-registering as a Republican [1:10:01] yeah right because it's like they're driving like they're driving their own people out totally uh so [1:10:06] at some point when they lose enough hopefully they'll realize that actions like that that are [1:10:12] driven by a small minority of the Democrats really don't represent certainly not Nebraska the vast [1:10:18] majority of Democrats and then if you keep losing doing those sort of things you have to change what [1:10:23] you're doing what has struck me about in particular your story about all the filing jujitsu that was [1:10:32] competitive when an otherwise and by the way again so with Dan Osborne we're on this is fake [1:10:37] independent it's a competitive race yeah I mean it's competitive it's just me and him yeah that's [1:10:42] why they're trying to keep these other people out yeah but what struck me about that is if you're [1:10:46] willing to go through like five layers of filing and and removing your name from a ballot and then [1:10:51] tossing 38 million in and then moving the chess pieces one thing or another like you're obviously [1:10:57] trying to game the system you know you can't win a model a model race so you've got to like kind of [1:11:02] which again I think brings me back to the save Act which I know you guys have been working on [1:11:08] but again you got 83 of the American public who believe that voter ID is a is a darn good idea [1:11:16] passed in Nebraska 65-35 right 65-35 and undoubtedly it was a heavily uh lobbied against [1:11:23] on both sides by your progressive left um and he's not done anything for uh to hurt voter turnout by [1:11:30] the way in any of these states of course not yeah [1:11:33] I mean turns out just about everybody has to get an idea anyway yeah it turns out yeah I mean how [1:11:38] can we be more concerned about underage drinking than we are about the sanctity the ballot in the [1:11:42] American yeah so so on this let me just tell you so we obviously been trying to get this passed [1:11:46] we've been trying to do what we call unanimous consent yeah right and so we put it up for [1:11:50] unanimous consent the Democrats object you know what they put up as a counter a unanimous consent [1:11:56] motion to ban voter ID all across the country oh 36 states have voter ID including 21 that have Democrat [1:12:04] representatives to ban and they want to ban it so they're all terms like not like well let's find a [1:12:09] more reasonable order no we want to ban the whole darn thing yes it used to be you know [1:12:14] stuff you used to spend like all your days and nights trying to figure out a way to mitigate the [1:12:20] pain on something they're like now it's just going again Schumer went on the floor and this is what [1:12:27] he's so disingenuous said well we're not against voter ID so what was their other proposal for voter [1:12:34] ID it was uh allowing for types of ID like a utility bill anything any piece of mail just had [1:12:40] your name on it maybe a library card well at least a library card would uh verify your residence right [1:12:46] but there's no picture on it right right so like it was all sorts of things like that it was like [1:12:50] library card I mean it was like a library card would actually be a higher end of what they were [1:12:55] proposing it's like how about we get a form of verification in which the 25 million people we [1:13:00] led into the country could immediately qualify for debit card was one of the things right debit card [1:13:05] photocopies of a debit card let me ask you this why don't you try to get on a plane with a photocopier [1:13:10] of your debit card yeah I don't think so do you ever think to yourself like a lease that was another [1:13:15] thing too if you got a lease you could do that at least let's get your address on it do you ever [1:13:18] ever think to yourself man what a line of work because we had your brother in here [1:13:22] baseball there's a reason why there's a reason why I don't have any hair and he does [1:13:31] it's such a good point I've thought this for years that you guys [1:13:35] can sit around like the Thanksgiving table and you're like you son of a he's like yeah [1:13:42] you know we're working with pictures and catchers and you're like I gotta work with Chuck Schumer [1:13:46] I mean it has to be something well I just hope there's a better place for me in heaven and [1:13:53] Todd's got to work a little harder that's right there we go maybe there's a hierarchy of things [1:13:58] of uh uh you know you've produced for the public yeah in some way although the Cubs you can make [1:14:04] an argument depends on how Boyd pitches on [1:14:06] yeah that's exactly right I mean you've had a heck of an experience in politics I feel like [1:14:12] we we've been talking about this a little bit in that it's a little bit more divorced from [1:14:18] reality than any time that I remember you know we used to have horrible partisan arguments and [1:14:23] you can trace back all the way to the 60s you know obviously before that where there's just [1:14:28] elements of just chaos in our political debate but never before do you just have no acceptance [1:14:34] of the same level of [1:14:36] facts about things like actually that is a great point and that's a part of it too is that people [1:14:41] listen to their own media and so some of the stories that are out there you know my sister's [1:14:46] a Democrat and so I'll bring up something and she's like when did that happen never heard that [1:14:51] never heard it yeah because like just one example she's like oh you know um Trump is releasing oil [1:14:58] from the strategic reserves yeah I'm like you mean like when Biden did it and she's like what [1:15:02] do you mean Biden did it I'm like yeah he did it too like they would do it every summer driving [1:15:07] yeah you remember that it was like uh for the last 50 years we've had the exact same bar graph about [1:15:13] what happens during summer driving season and they would be like well now is the time that we'd [1:15:18] release the strategic Reserve and you're like dude you don't the strategic part of the Reserve is it [1:15:23] kind of an important element to why it was created in the first place but again like everything just [1:15:29] seems political theatrical not based in fact yeah there's a again it gets back to what news sources [1:15:39] are yeah what news sources are you looking at and a lot of again and actually um you know my actually [1:15:45] my dad's got a new service called straight hour news or sand yeah one of the things that one of [1:15:49] the features of that is they look at news stories and they say what is the left covering what is the [1:15:53] right covering and it's pretty interesting you pick a story and like they'll be like [1:15:58] uh depending on the story like three left-leaning news services are covering where seven conservatives [1:16:04] are and then a different story it's like three conservative and seven yeah lefty it's whatever [1:16:09] well again think about it right what is that what are those new services doing they're kidding for [1:16:13] their audience yeah right so they're trying they're going to show the stories that they [1:16:17] know that their audience is want to go here it's yeah I don't have a really good solution for this [1:16:21] but we ought not to be surprised that when you've got for-profit media they're going to be looking [1:16:26] to cater to their audiences can I ask you one last question just the economy in general a successful [1:16:33] businessman long before you got into this line of work and I know you've got a pretty sophisticated [1:16:39] look at what the Trump [1:16:40] administration's doing what's happening with international markets and how it affects wage [1:16:44] growth and everything here obviously with your farmers I know you've been all over the tariff [1:16:48] issue and making sure that people are taken care of your prognosis about where we are and where [1:16:54] we're going here over the next year well the wild card in all this is going to be what happens with [1:17:01] Iran yeah right if we can get that wrapped up relatively quickly and I'm not privy to the [1:17:07] administration's specifics but I know what they want to do is degrade the [1:17:11] missile facilities whether it's the stockpiles the launchers the production facilities and by the way [1:17:16] the fact that Iran could launch a missile that it could hit Diego Garcia yeah demonstrates to us [1:17:23] well they they were lying to us they said they didn't totally told us they did not have a missile [1:17:27] and frankly we didn't think they had a missile that could reach that far either but now they've [1:17:31] got a missile that can reach London and Paris the United States is not far behind so it really goes [1:17:37] to the imminent nature of the threat that they've got because a country that chance death to Iran [1:17:42] has a nuclear weapon and a missile that can reach the United States and thinks that they go to heaven [1:17:46] for triggering Armageddon that's a problem for us right that's really dangerous so we got to degrade [1:17:52] their missile facilities you know sink their Navy destroy their Air Force degrade their nuclear [1:17:56] facilities at the point that the administration feels we've done that sufficiently that's when [1:18:01] they'll bring this to a close and you think that has a global impact on I mean obviously it does [1:18:07] with energy and everything else for a lot of things you know it's like things like fertilizer [1:18:12] yeah it's not [1:18:13] a lot of farmers have already purchased a fertilizer for this year but it's still going [1:18:16] to drive up the prices so if it's still high in the fall that's gonna be problematic uh but also [1:18:20] things that uh like helium you know that a lot of the 30 of the world's helium goes through the [1:18:25] Straits or humus and that goes into all sorts of things that we don't think about like it's also [1:18:29] yeah this whole thing is also delayed talks between the Trump administration the president [1:18:34] himself and perhaps Xi in China yeah which was I think he's that yeah there was supposed to be [1:18:39] in April and the president has to push back yeah because of all that but yeah [1:18:43] we understand Besson uh met with some folks in Paris and they're trying to work yeah imagine the [1:18:48] the ancillary benefit to farmers in Nebraska and across the if you normalize some kind of a fair [1:18:54] uh situation for American workers that's got to be a good thing right well we need to get back to [1:19:03] that right we need to get back to the pocketbook issues that's going to be really important for [1:19:06] this midterm election yeah yeah no question about it people want to help you out where do they go [1:19:10] uh go to Pete Ricketts.com come and help me out I got a tough race so [1:19:14] yeah it's that fake independent guy Dan Osborne so he hates it when I say that too by the way [1:19:19] well let's keep saying it before we let you go I know you brought us something oh right we can't [1:19:24] forget and dear to your heart and I want to make sure we get to that all right can we bring those [1:19:28] over please so Todd obviously I had to listen I had to listen here yes Josh hand me that yeah so [1:19:39] Todd brought you these really nice baseball caps right that he had made for you yeah [1:19:45] and it's why I'm listening to his podcast because of course he was done so he sent it to me I'm like [1:19:49] hey I'm really Todd goes I'm really funny you listen to this so I listened to it and he was [1:19:56] really funny he did a good job so but then I heard the baseball things like oh man he really raised [1:20:00] the bar here what am I going to do so I was thinking about it and I was saying well maybe [1:20:04] I'll get you like a bottle of scotch or something like that but you guys get a lot of bourbon already [1:20:07] yeah so I'm like well duh I'm from Nebraska we are the beef state dude so this is um these are [1:20:15] ribeyes from my favorite beef place in Nebraska so this is all 100 Nebraska beef Oak Barn beef it's [1:20:20] got a great story behind it so I met the young woman who started this her name is at that time [1:20:25] was Hannah Esch she was in college and she started this direct to consumer beef business off of her [1:20:31] family's Farm yeah and now it's grown and she's now married got a couple of kids but like when I [1:20:38] sent Todd like his birthday present which is a bunch of beef this is where I order from so this [1:20:43] is fantastic Nebraska [1:20:45] beef has got it's a great startup company in Nebraska you know it's Nebraska beef so these and [1:20:51] these are look how thick they cut this I can't wait for your audience Heather look how thick [1:20:56] that is for those of you who haven't been through Nebraska to have Nebraska beef before I even take [1:21:01] a bite of this bad boy after grilling it up I can attest this is like 10 of 10 stuff every time I [1:21:08] had to drive South we always made a little cute turn figured out how to at least get over to Omaha [1:21:13] where we could pick up one of these just [1:21:15] can't thank you enough that's like the best gift we ever it is oh well good good thanks love that so [1:21:20] yeah and this will go great with uh like um all that bourbon that you get too yeah yeah yeah fill [1:21:25] these up and go out there too yeah I love it well good luck out there and uh keep us updated on all [1:21:31] this I know you're working on a whole bunch of things we didn't even get to today but now we [1:21:34] didn't get to the fact that Nebraska is in the sweet 16 for the first time ever yeah playing [1:21:38] Iowa the first W the first W of the NCAA tournament yes I mean this has been a big year it's been a big [1:21:45] year what did you think Nebraska is now a basketball school and Indiana is a football [1:21:49] school who would have thunk that yeah like our cats and dogs gonna start living together or [1:21:53] something like is this a side of the apocalypse that's just crazy I'm looking at different times [1:21:59] no questions and of course baseball baseball's uh opening day tomorrow too yeah exactly yeah pumped [1:22:04] about that yeah so all sorts of good stuff coming up you're the man thank you appreciate it thank [1:22:09] you thanks guys appreciate it well a lot of interesting stuff there about how Democrats [1:22:15] are monkeying around yeah [1:22:17] that race and sounds like they've been doing it cycle after cycle it is incredible I mean it's [1:22:23] just it's unbelievable but he's a great guy you gotta love anybody from Nebraska the stakes he [1:22:28] brought and the idea that he's here on opening day what a special treat the stakes we're gonna [1:22:34] have to figure out a special way to prepare all of that absolutely very very good all right well uh [1:22:40] look fellas looks good to me I think we did it I think so absolute banger of an episode gentlemen [1:22:47] thank you so much [1:22:48] and repeat Ricketts and thank you to the minions remember if you have not yet go to [1:22:52] the YouTube and hit that subscribe because it's more fun in video so until next time [1:22:56] minions keep the faith hold the line and own the libs we'll see you Friday stay ruthless