0:00

We announced a new media seat

0:02

in the briefing room on day

0:04

one. We've brought in... the ruthless

0:06

podcast, you know, people like Sage

0:08

Steele who were at legacy media

0:10

outlet, ESPN forever, and now left

0:13

that world because she saw the

0:15

bias within those institutions. You know,

0:17

we've had outlets like Axios and

0:19

Semaphore who have incredible reach in

0:21

this city, but also outside the

0:23

beltway, and they don't have a

0:26

seat in the room. Like, why?

0:28

But our decision to determine which

0:30

reporters get the most to be

0:32

in the most privileged spaces of

0:35

the American presidency in the Oval

0:37

Office on Air Force One. Waka

0:39

has controlled that for decades

0:42

and it's unfair to real people,

0:44

real journalists who care about

0:46

truth and accuracy and facts

0:48

and want those opportunities. We

0:51

finally beat Medicare. Who's

0:53

right, he did beat

0:55

Medicaid, beat it to

0:57

death. Joe Biden's legacy

0:59

for seniors. He raided

1:01

Medicare, made premium skyrocket,

1:03

and drove up drug

1:05

costs. Worse, the Biden

1:07

pill penalty is already

1:09

slashing the development of

1:11

affordable drugs, forcing seniors

1:13

to pay the price

1:15

of Biden's failed policy.

1:17

Biden broke Medicare, but

1:19

President Trump can fix it.

1:22

Call Congress and urge them

1:24

to end the Biden pill

1:26

penalty. Thanks to catching

1:28

strays over here. You're in

1:30

for a hell of a

1:32

show. Keep the faith. Hold

1:34

the line and own the

1:36

lives. It's time for our

1:39

main event. Good Thursday,

1:41

you. Welcome back at

1:43

the Ruthless Variety program.

1:45

I'm Josh Holmes with one

1:47

of my co-hosts Michael Duncan.

1:50

It turns out. Yeah. We

1:52

have a couple of

1:55

missing components. to this,

1:57

which we'll get to in a minute. But

1:59

as we all do on the ruthless variety

2:01

program. We try to enhance your

2:03

experience as the viewer and listener

2:05

and try to make things better

2:07

even if it's just well yeah I

2:09

mean we've had sort of an outbreak

2:12

of the flu here at the ruthless

2:14

variety program and selfishly I don't think

2:16

it could be better timed because we

2:18

have such an amazing guest it's something

2:21

and it's it's pretty incredible and like

2:23

if you're just as statically improved

2:25

The ruthless Friday program. I can't

2:27

imagine you could do that better

2:30

than our next guest Carolyn Leavitt.

2:32

How are you White House press secretaries? Yes.

2:34

I mean you've seen like you're having

2:36

the time of your life. I am having

2:38

the time of my life. We all are having

2:40

the time of my life. Yes. I was

2:42

so much fun. At the risk of sounding

2:45

like I'm just completely blowing sunshine at this

2:47

point. Like I've been around a little bit.

2:49

I've watched. a number of people in

2:52

your position inhabit that position and

2:54

do you know different things different

2:56

people very good at different elements

2:58

of it like Dana Preno is

3:00

one that I remember being like

3:02

really good at just getting facts

3:05

to people working with press and

3:07

doing whatever you're terrific thank you

3:09

and we get this from all of

3:11

our listeners all the time everybody's like

3:13

Wow, I can't believe what a

3:15

good job you're doing. Thank

3:17

you. They told me you

3:19

were going to compliment me, so

3:22

that's why I came here. Thank

3:24

you. I love my job, and

3:26

I love Dana, and I love

3:29

all of my predecessors, Dana, Ari.

3:31

Sarah Sanders. Oh, Sarah Sanders, another

3:33

one. Terrific. Kaylee was my boss.

3:35

I love them all. They've all

3:38

been very generous with their time

3:40

and giving me advice before I

3:42

took this job. Oh, you sat down

3:44

with people and asked them. Oh, yes.

3:47

I keep in touch with all of them.

3:49

Were they all pretty generous about

3:51

giving you some tips? Absolutely. Had

3:54

more than an hour and a

3:56

half phone call with Sarah. Had

3:58

a lunch with Kaylee. or two

4:00

who was in my office yesterday. And it's so

4:02

great, because there's only so many people living on

4:04

planet Earth who have done this job, right? So

4:06

I just wanted to be a sponge of wisdom.

4:09

Once I learned, I was going to be in

4:11

this position to take their advice. And they all

4:13

gave me great advice. But we're having a lot

4:15

of fun, and I work for a boss who.

4:18

believe it or not is actually doing what

4:20

he said he was going to do so

4:22

it makes my job as a spokesperson a

4:24

heck of a lot easier. It makes

4:26

it easier. We were saying this on

4:28

day one when you showed up and

4:31

you're like well here's the facts ma'am.

4:33

It's it's basically you telling the American

4:35

people what you're doing based upon the

4:37

campaign promises that President Trump laid out

4:39

right and there's no nuance. There's no

4:42

bending of the truth. This is what

4:44

we're doing. And that has to

4:46

be sort of like self-reinvigorating in

4:48

a job as hard as yours.

4:51

Yes, it is. And my job

4:53

is just to find the facts.

4:55

I read the news both left

4:57

and right and every outlet under

4:59

the sun and figure out, okay,

5:01

this is what's being reported. Let

5:03

me go to my colleagues inside

5:05

the building, the policy experts, the

5:07

national security council, and find out

5:09

what the facts are, what the

5:11

BS is, and then it's. importantly

5:13

checking out the president to see

5:15

where his head is out on

5:17

the news of the day. So

5:19

sometimes I feel like I'm an

5:21

internal investigative reporter because I'm calling people

5:23

and I'm like is this BS or

5:25

is this real? What's the truth? So

5:28

I can you know bring that to the

5:30

briefing room. That's amazing. So like look a

5:32

lot of us who've been in this line

5:34

of work for a while have had

5:36

some frustrations. Oh. with the corporate media.

5:38

Yeah, it turns out they don't

5:40

always say... How much time do

5:42

you have to talk about these

5:45

frustrations? He always don't, but like

5:47

there's several just structural things that

5:49

we've always had a problem with.

5:51

Yeah. That I think have been

5:53

contributors to the group think in the

5:55

leftist drift of journalism over the

5:57

years and how they report out

5:59

facts. to the American people. For

6:02

one, you know, everybody kind of

6:04

hangs out together. You understand that

6:06

when you're doing like press pools

6:08

and things like that. They all

6:11

hang out together. They bump narratives

6:13

against each other. It's a club. And

6:15

like that part just kind of

6:17

anthropologically, you understand what

6:19

has always made less sense to

6:22

me is the White House Correspondence

6:24

Association. And like how it is

6:26

that this unelected... sort of

6:28

unappointed group has entirely controlled

6:31

the information flow all the

6:33

way from who they appoint

6:35

to pools to cover the

6:37

president to who gets what

6:39

chairs to do who does

6:41

what and you just pulled

6:43

the pin on the grenade

6:46

and rolled it in the

6:48

middle of the briefing room

6:50

like that had to I

6:52

mean But people like us

6:54

is keeping your promise to

6:56

the American people, right? That

6:58

like in 2025, the White House, you

7:00

know, press room should reflect

7:02

the United States of America. Yes.

7:04

You know, not like three broadcast,

7:06

you know, network news stations, like

7:08

this is 50 years ago and

7:11

these people are, you know, Edward.

7:13

Armoro. Yeah, you know what I

7:15

mean? Crockite ain't walking through that

7:17

door. And so, I mean, selfishly,

7:19

we benefited from that. We benefited

7:21

from that when John Ashbrook got

7:23

to ask that first question and

7:25

his head grew five times in

7:27

size. We're going to get to

7:29

more of that in a minute, but,

7:31

but, but, like, this is something that you

7:33

and your team. talked about obviously

7:35

and then actually took the step

7:37

of doing knowing that these people

7:40

would set their hair on fire

7:42

for sure the moment that you

7:44

threatened any of it oh

7:47

we knew we were prepared

7:49

look first of all this

7:51

goes back to the non-traditional

7:53

media strategy that Donald Trump

7:55

owned and won on the

7:57

campaign trail sitting down with

7:59

podcasts and influencers, comedians, and owning

8:01

that space because no other politician has

8:04

ever done that before. 100%. And he

8:06

was able to reach so many people

8:08

across the country who otherwise would have

8:10

never heard his honest message and who

8:12

he really is as a person because

8:15

the coverage of him has always been

8:17

through the bias of the legacy media.

8:19

So he ran in that lane and

8:21

I think in large part he won

8:23

the election because of that. So many

8:26

reasons he won the election, obviously, but

8:28

that's one of many. And we felt

8:30

it would be irresponsible of

8:32

us not to continue that

8:34

media strategy when we were elected.

8:36

Why would you stop talking to

8:38

the people who just helped us

8:41

get here? Right. So, you know,

8:43

we announced the new media seat

8:45

in the briefing room on day

8:47

one. We've brought in the ruthless

8:49

podcast. You know, people like Sage

8:51

Steele, who were at legacy media

8:54

outlet. ESPN forever and now left

8:56

that world because she saw the

8:58

bias within those institutions. We've had

9:00

outlets like Axios and Semaphor who

9:02

have incredible reach in this city,

9:04

but also outside the beltway, and

9:07

they don't have a seat in

9:09

the room. Like, why? And also

9:11

nonpartisan. I mean, we're talking, like,

9:13

the way that the White

9:15

House Correspondence Association would like

9:18

to project upon your decision-making

9:20

here is that somehow you're

9:22

just trying to get people

9:24

to just sort of echo

9:26

a magga message. critical coverage

9:28

at time. It's not about

9:30

trying to get people to be sort

9:32

of yes men. The argument that we

9:34

are trying to... create more favorable coverage

9:36

of Donald Trump or the administration or

9:38

that we're afraid to take questions from

9:40

legacy media is laughable because the legacy

9:42

media is still in the briefing room

9:44

I take questions from CNN just as

9:46

much as I take questions from our

9:48

great conservative friends who don't have seats

9:50

in that room that have to stand

9:53

on the sides for hours just to

9:55

have a spot in there and look

9:57

at what president Trump is doing I

9:59

mean the man hosted a more than

10:01

an hour-long press conference with his entire

10:03

cabinet and took questions from everybody that

10:05

was in the room. So you know

10:08

their argument that you know this is

10:10

about the First Amendment and democracy and

10:12

this and that is completely ridiculous. This

10:15

is the most transparent administration. We are

10:17

not afraid to take questions from anyone

10:19

but our decision to determine which reporters

10:22

get the most... to be in the

10:24

most privileged spaces of the American

10:26

presidency in the Oval Office on

10:28

Air Force One. Waka has controlled

10:31

that for decades and it's unfair

10:33

to real people, real journalists who

10:35

care about truth and accuracy and

10:37

facts and want those opportunities. And we've

10:39

heard from so many of them in

10:42

the last 24 hours who are saying...

10:44

And many you might be surprised of

10:46

the outlets they work for who have

10:49

said, thank you. Like I've never

10:51

wrote on Air Force One and I can't

10:53

wait to be able to do that. I

10:55

mean, I can only imagine, I mean, look,

10:57

I know what we felt when you

10:59

invited us into the room, but also,

11:01

I mean, look, it sort of pulls

11:04

the mask off what the whole motivation

11:06

for this group has been all along,

11:08

which like you said it best. You

11:10

go into a cabinet room meeting. And

11:13

he answers questions from every

11:15

single person. There are two

11:17

or three times a day

11:19

where President Donald Trump. Tells

11:21

you exactly what's going on Elon Musk

11:24

goes and tells you exactly what doge

11:26

is is happening We had like eight

11:28

questions over three months that were answered

11:30

by Joe Biden And that is the

11:33

grand irony of this whole thing is

11:35

you've got the White House Correspondence Association

11:37

You know talking about a threat to

11:39

democracy and the independent press and all

11:42

this sort of stuff have you learned

11:44

nothing? Right. Nobody right like oh Donald Trump

11:46

wants state media in the room, you know,

11:48

and it's like There are people in that

11:50

room that covered for the fact that Joe

11:52

Biden couldn't do the job. And they did

11:54

it for four years. And they didn't tell

11:56

us anything about it. And if they want

11:58

to know why they have no... power and

12:00

the American people don't listen to him

12:02

as much and like shows like this

12:05

and like the people that you've had

12:07

in that chair are important is because

12:09

we were telling them the truth yeah

12:11

right yeah I mean that's it but

12:14

but again when they say it's a

12:16

threat to democracy it is a you

12:18

know inhibits the flow of information okay

12:20

well either you can get

12:22

directly from the spigot with

12:25

the president with you with

12:27

your team with Elon Musk

12:29

from all of the cabinet

12:31

secretaries. Either you can hear

12:33

with your own ears what

12:35

exactly is happening on a

12:38

little hour-by-hour basis or you

12:40

can filter it through the

12:42

interpretation of eight self-elected, 12

12:44

self-elected people who have

12:46

controlled information access for...

12:48

since the beginning of politics, basically.

12:51

For more than 100 years. Yeah.

12:53

The White House Correspondence Association was

12:55

established in the early 1900s because

12:57

the president at the time was

12:59

not doing enough press conferences. I

13:01

don't think we have that problem anymore.

13:04

And I think everybody would agree, right?

13:06

And so again, this is, and I

13:08

was very clear yesterday, the legacy media

13:11

will still have their seat at the

13:13

table. There will still be a rotation

13:15

for those outlets. But it's time for

13:18

new voices to be included. new voices

13:20

to be included, you know, you have

13:22

to go through this whole vetting process

13:24

with Waka and, we said, no, like

13:27

they're here, they're showing up, they

13:29

should have, you know, be able

13:31

to come in the room. So...

13:33

But it is really an unmasking,

13:35

because it's... What they hide behind

13:37

is the flow of information,

13:40

but there's no element

13:42

of that. They just want to be

13:44

the controllers of the information. And you

13:46

guys just walked in and we were

13:48

like, well, hell with that. I mean,

13:50

look, it takes balls. I gotta tell

13:53

you, in this town, and a lot

13:55

of you who are listening to this across

13:57

the country, it's hard for you

13:59

to sort of. comprehend, but when

14:01

it's always done one way, there

14:03

is a serious ceiling that you need

14:06

to crash through in order to make

14:08

change. It's always hard. You guys

14:10

did this. You did it relatively

14:13

quickly. Thank you. Well, you're welcome.

14:15

This is clearly a non-traditional

14:17

administration. Yeah. And, you know,

14:19

President Trump sets the tone

14:21

with that. Whenever somebody says

14:23

we can't do it that

14:26

way, sir. Or it hasn't

14:28

been done that way. Why? Why?

14:30

And if you don't have a good

14:32

reason for telling him why?

14:35

You better run out the

14:37

door. So the answer, the

14:39

question is not, you know,

14:41

why we can't do it, it's

14:44

why we should do it, right?

14:46

And we're not afraid to, you

14:48

know, shake it up. That's what

14:50

we are, the president

14:53

was elected to do.

14:55

It's really Hey, aren't

14:57

you that PBM? Middleman, at your

15:00

your service, Don't you you

15:02

get rebates that save money on medicines?

15:04

Oh, PBS like like me big

15:07

big rebates! patients tell patients

15:09

tell me they're worried about their

15:11

costs? one says we says we

15:13

have to the the savings with

15:15

patients. Congress should make should make

15:17

sure medicine savings directly to

15:19

patients, not not Visit Visit .org

15:21

slash middlemen to learn

15:23

more. more. Paid for by by

15:25

pharma. I'm told that you... like

15:28

to have a lot of fun. I do.

15:30

I think I'm pretty fun. We're fun.

15:32

We're fun. We're fun here on

15:34

the Rhythless Variety Program. We like

15:37

to play games. We have a game. It's

15:39

one of our first. It's called

15:41

Demerjurno. And I feel like

15:43

you're uniquely qualified for this.

15:45

I think I'll be good

15:47

at this game. I don't want

15:49

to get ahead of myself. Do

15:51

you want to explain? So the

15:53

way that the game works is four

15:56

statements. and you and Josh have

15:58

to determine who is the Democrat.

16:00

It's a very difficult game. So it's

16:03

a head-to-head match-up between myself and

16:05

Josh. Yeah, and I read the... But

16:07

no, I feel, I'm terrified. I've never

16:09

actually felt like an underdog here, but

16:11

I'm definitely an underdog. Yeah, you have

16:13

an expertise, particularly on the subject that

16:15

I'll get to later, but first we

16:17

got to play that music. Let's do it.

16:20

Yeah, more

16:22

journal demo,

16:26

demo, journal,

16:29

demo, journal,

16:32

yeah, or

16:34

journal. Nobody knows. Nobody

16:36

knows. Nobody knows. Yeah.

16:38

That's ruthless acoustic right

16:41

there. That was beautiful.

16:43

Is that you guys

16:45

singing? Yeah. We recorded

16:47

that four years ago

16:49

in this conference room

16:51

when, you know, we

16:53

didn't have all the

16:56

fancy stuff. You could

16:58

tell the microphones were

17:00

a little different. Yeah,

17:02

a little bit of an

17:04

echo. Thank God we didn't have cameras.

17:06

But yeah, you know, and Smug contends

17:08

that it's a stanza too long. But,

17:10

you know, a bit, yes. Okay, so we have

17:12

agreement on that. We'll have to fight

17:15

that. It's time to refresh it.

17:17

To refresh it. So I themed

17:19

the four statements today on all

17:21

of the attacks, frankly, on you

17:23

and the administration from the White

17:25

House correspondent. This is unfair, Michael.

17:27

Do you think she's not going

17:29

to know what's an attack on

17:32

her? Well, she's a good guest. We'd

17:34

like her to come back. And I just

17:36

want to assure you. that you know the

17:38

White House correspondence like John Ashbrook

17:40

might be attacking you but people

17:42

like us we stand with the

17:44

administration? Well we've asked a lot

17:47

of questions about why he's not

17:49

here and we thought now that

17:51

you've entered him into the White

17:53

House correspondence perhaps you know he's

17:55

just showing solidarity with these people.

17:57

If that's so he is not welcome

17:59

back. Okay. Oh, I love this. I

18:01

heard he has the flu. Yeah. Feel better,

18:03

John. This is the long time. He's going

18:06

to get him one way or another. I

18:08

had to get retribution. Okay. All right. So

18:10

statement number one. Okay. Donald Trump's White House

18:13

kicked a huff-po reporter out of

18:15

the pool of journalists sent to

18:17

follow the president on Wednesday, breaking

18:19

with decades of precedent on

18:21

Wednesday, breaking with decades of

18:23

precedent. and insisting they have

18:25

the ability to pick and

18:28

choose which reporters cover the

18:30

president. Okay, all right. And statement

18:32

number one. So we have to,

18:34

okay, just remember, three of

18:36

these are jurnos. Yeah. One of them

18:38

is a democratic... Do I say it

18:40

now? No, no, no. Oh, wait to the

18:42

end. And then we work... Are you taking

18:45

notes? I have to. I'm up

18:47

against the best. Nobody gave me

18:49

a notebook. Well, I have the

18:51

printouts here. I'm going to give

18:53

them to you at the end

18:56

here. Okay, I need an advantage,

18:58

Michael. I need an advantage. She's

19:00

like... Rain man when it comes

19:02

to this stuff. Okay, statement

19:04

number two. Donald Trump

19:06

is hand picking the

19:09

reporters that cover him

19:11

in his administration. This

19:13

is straight out of

19:15

the Kremlin playbook of

19:17

intimidating press coverage and

19:19

it should alarm every

19:21

American. She already knows. You

19:23

don't know that one? I think I

19:25

do. I'm so

19:27

eager to say it. When do I

19:29

get to announce my answer? It's a

19:32

slow fuse. It's part of

19:34

building the pageantry of the

19:36

game. You know how we

19:39

love pageantry. We do. Statement

19:41

number three. Unimprecedented seizing of

19:44

control over coverage of

19:46

the American presidency by

19:49

an administration. Free speech

19:51

advocates expressed alarm.

19:53

Over what it could mean for

19:56

democracy. I know the tell is the

19:58

free speech advocates. Yes She is

20:00

entirely right about that. She gets

20:02

the game intuitively. You said like

20:05

Rayman. This is it. Anybody who's

20:07

ever been in press? Yeah. On

20:09

a representation standpoint? It's my favorite

20:11

thing. Yeah. They email. Caroline. ethical

20:13

experts are saying this and then

20:16

you say this this is Stephen

20:18

Chung my great colleague our White

20:20

House Communications Director love him we

20:22

write back which experts yeah and

20:25

then they send the names and

20:27

we Google them and they're like

20:29

Democrat donors funded by George Soros

20:31

and you're like we copy and

20:33

paste their Wikipedia like these experts

20:36

assholes this is not a real

20:38

story these are not real story

20:40

it's so good the tell of

20:42

any liberal reporter yes isn't the

20:45

magic of any liberal reporter yes

20:47

the magic of this game yes

20:49

If you've done this, you get

20:51

it. You know the weasel words.

20:53

Yes. Because they're saying what they

20:56

want to say, but they're like,

20:58

well, the experts are the ones

21:00

that are saying. Not me. It's

21:02

the experts. The experts. Statement number

21:05

four. Trump White House, on the

21:07

way to establishing its own version

21:09

of a Kremlin press pool, approved

21:11

media only. So we've got two

21:14

references to the Kremlin here. Oh,

21:16

wait, hold on. Yeah. That's four

21:18

right four statements, that's all four.

21:20

All right, so three of them

21:22

are churnos one of them Okay,

21:25

so I'm gonna give these to

21:27

you Okay, I have it in

21:29

my brain, but she doesn't need

21:31

she's the White House press secretary

21:34

She knows this without I don't

21:36

know if you've noticed, but she's

21:38

had no binder The binders in

21:40

my brain. She just does the

21:42

binder in the brain, but you

21:45

know we can give her paper

21:47

if you want we're giving you

21:49

a little okay All right, so

21:51

we're looking at this. My thought

21:54

is that the three is completely

21:56

adjourned. And that's unquestionably a journal.

21:58

You would obviously agree with this,

22:00

Carolyn. How do you want to

22:02

sequence this? Should we? Should we

22:05

have her give her thought? She's

22:07

just gonna know the answer. You

22:09

think she's just gonna know the

22:11

answer? I think so. I mean,

22:14

she's that good. You've seen her?

22:16

Okay. You've seen her? Yeah. Okay.

22:18

I'm dead here. Okay. So, you

22:20

don't want to talk it out?

22:23

No. You want to talk it

22:25

out? Yeah. No, I'm not gonna.

22:27

All right. So, I think number

22:29

one strikes me as a journal.

22:31

Breaking with decades of precedent is

22:34

the cause by which the rest

22:36

of the statement lives within. Okay.

22:38

Right? So what they've said here

22:40

is something that absolutely nobody could

22:43

disagree with. But the breaking with

22:45

decades of precedent is where they

22:47

live under and that's kind of

22:49

what the jure knows do. Okay.

22:51

So I'm going to say that's

22:54

a sure now. Do you, what

22:56

do you think? It's clear that

22:58

this man has spent years and

23:00

years, more years than I and,

23:03

or than me and, uh, calms

23:05

because I would agree with his

23:07

rationale. Where I'm stuck is, is,

23:09

is the two, is the two

23:11

Cremlins. Um, I, look, if. Just

23:14

by virtue of the way that

23:16

it's constructed, the fourth one is

23:18

so simplistic. What the beauty of

23:20

the reason why journeys have existed

23:23

before you taking control of the

23:25

White House press office is because

23:27

they add enough sort of flowery

23:29

bullshit to present to the American

23:32

people something that it's like... Maybe

23:34

that could be true. language, as

23:36

you said, flowery language, it's a

23:38

good way to put it in

23:40

between their lies, to make it

23:43

sound like they know what they're

23:45

talking about. And you really have

23:47

to carefully read and parse out

23:49

what they're saying. But unfortunately for

23:52

us, the average American who's living

23:54

their lives and... their businesses and

23:56

raising their kids don't have the

23:58

time to analyze every word of

24:00

crap. So that's how they do

24:03

it. They get by with this

24:05

this flowery language. I love the

24:07

way you said that. So I

24:09

mean I think I think I'm

24:12

gonna I think I think I'm

24:14

gonna go with four as the

24:16

dem as a result. Okay you

24:18

believe it's number four. But I

24:20

mean I'm just waiting to get

24:23

beat on this. I

24:26

hate to just see like I'm

24:29

agreeing with you, but I am

24:31

agreeing with you. Okay. This is

24:33

definitely a journal, as we already

24:35

said, the experts, the free speech

24:37

advocates. Now there was a journal

24:39

who made reference to how it

24:41

reminds him of his time covering

24:43

the Kremlin. This was Peter Baker.

24:45

Mr. Peter Baker. Yes. Who am

24:47

I couldn't help but call him

24:49

out for such a... I saw

24:51

that. Ridiculous. It was well done.

24:53

But neither of these are his.

24:55

It looks like we have more

24:57

people echoing this absurd absurdity. Yeah.

24:59

So I think I'm going to

25:01

have to go with number two

25:03

is the dam. Wow. Okay. Wow.

25:05

Okay. Here we go. Wait. No,

25:07

I didn't mean that. No, no,

25:09

you're good. You're good? Number four.

25:11

Yeah, number four is the one

25:14

that's the... Yeah, number four is

25:16

the dam. Yeah, yeah. There's a

25:18

lot of paper here, Michael. Well,

25:20

we've got a lot of... I

25:22

know. Just trying to provide. Four

25:24

is the dam. Four is the

25:26

dam. Okay. Well, number one, correct.

25:28

That is actually Brian Stelter. Oh,

25:30

yeah, the potato himself. Very concerned

25:32

for the Huffington Post. Yeah. Yeah,

25:34

a lot of thoughts and prayers

25:36

for the huff bow, which by

25:38

the way, you don't have to

25:40

tell me if it's true or

25:42

not, but I need to talk

25:44

about it because this is in

25:46

my own head, is that when

25:48

SV datte got the Super Bowl

25:50

assignment, like I was just so

25:52

personally offended and I know that

25:54

like that you can't control that,

25:56

that that's what they do. That

25:58

I was like, I literally said

26:01

it on the show. It was

26:03

like, that's gonna be the end

26:05

of the White House correspondence. Let

26:07

me just say this. There couldn't

26:09

be a less fun reporter to

26:11

enjoy going to the Super Bowl

26:13

on a Sunday with the President

26:15

of the United States than SB

26:17

Dot. And I say that with

26:19

love in my heart. There are

26:21

a lot of reporters. We don't

26:23

agree with their reporting, but like,

26:25

they're pretty cool, normal people. Yeah.

26:27

Who would have enjoyed a day

26:29

of Board Air Force One going

26:31

to the Super Bowl? It is

26:33

not that serious. Well, like Ashbrook

26:35

said, there's a ton of color

26:37

in the room. There's a ton

26:39

of stuff going on. And his

26:41

was like two lines. We had

26:43

cabinet secretaries on board with their

26:45

spouses. We proclaimed Gulf of America

26:48

Day, like how much fun is

26:50

that? When he just... No. What

26:52

you should have done is you

26:54

should have sent a playbook to

26:56

the White House Correspondence Association and

26:58

be like the first one to

27:00

identify cover three defense, you're invited.

27:02

Oh, that's totally good. That's me

27:04

definitely would have lost that task.

27:06

If you watched a second of

27:08

the game, it would have shocked

27:10

me. Yeah. But I think that's

27:12

something the press are having a

27:14

hard time with. We are genuinely

27:16

having so much fun. And this

27:18

is why you're seeing them obsess

27:20

over Elon Musk and President Trump.

27:22

And they're trying so hard, but

27:24

failing to drive a wedge in

27:26

that relationship. Because they love those

27:28

sensationalist stories of trying to pin

27:30

people against each other. And as

27:33

staff and the president himself is

27:35

having the time of his life.

27:37

I mean, he loves doing these

27:39

oval office press conferences. Caroline, get

27:41

the hats. He comes back, I

27:43

get the Trump was right about

27:45

everything, red hats. He's handing them

27:47

out to the journalists. Like they've

27:49

never seen anything like this and

27:51

they don't know how to do

27:53

it. They know. he's funny yeah

27:55

and they know we're having fun

27:57

but can't do it they don't

27:59

like they can't crack the smile

28:01

we know they're secretly enjoying there's

28:03

a few that are for sure

28:05

all right so okay well I'm

28:07

gonna save the two Kremlin ones

28:09

because I think you know you

28:11

guys have correctly identified yes with

28:13

the pivot points number three can

28:15

we go to number three please

28:17

spaghetti that is Lori Kalman from

28:20

the Associated Press wow yeah the

28:22

free speech advocates expressed Which you

28:24

guys correctly identified as the weasel

28:26

words, you know, where they defer

28:28

to the experts. It's the clause.

28:30

Maybe I'll email and ask which

28:32

free speech advocates she's referring to.

28:34

I think that, you know, probably

28:36

somebody in the Arabel Advisers Dark

28:38

Money Network. I'll just add a

28:40

federal judge did not agree with

28:42

the AP. Yeah. Sheldon Whitehouse, however,

28:44

is an advocate that definitely thinks

28:46

that way. Well, here comes the

28:48

bad news, folks. Oh no. Let's

28:50

put up number four. Oh my

28:52

gosh, do we lose? Number four

28:54

was Susan Glassner at the New

28:56

Yorker. No, no. Yeah. Its own

28:58

version? You know what? I should

29:00

have gone with my gut. Yeah,

29:02

you were close. I was there.

29:05

Yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold

29:07

on. Is she married to Peter

29:09

Raker? She is, is she? Yes.

29:11

It all makes sense. It makes

29:13

sense. Look at that. That's a

29:15

real twist. I'm deeply disappointed. And

29:17

for the record number two was

29:19

Senator Chris Van Hollen. Yeah. Yeah.

29:21

So, it's a tough game. It's

29:23

the toughest game. That's why they

29:25

say at the end of the

29:27

thing, nobody knows. Why did I

29:29

agree with you? I'm trying to

29:31

be nice. Your gut was right,

29:33

100%. It was. You saw me.

29:35

Yeah. I had my two piles.

29:37

And then I switched it up

29:39

to one second. I was like,

29:41

no, two. I went against my

29:43

own principle. Never go against your

29:45

instinct. I've got one additional thing

29:47

here, a dessert, if you will,

29:49

for this game, because number one...

29:52

One was Brian Stelter, again, very

29:54

concerned. That was just the appetizer

29:56

and the entree. It was in

29:58

a moose booth. And we had

30:00

Maine, and now we're going to

30:02

the dessert. And so for dessert,

30:04

we have Brian Stelter expressing a

30:06

very different opinion about whether it's

30:08

okay to leave people out of

30:10

the briefing room. Can we play

30:12

that video? There are, you know,

30:14

these questions about Foxes, as Fox

30:16

radicalizes, isn't as? It becomes even

30:18

more and more of a political

30:20

tool. Zurich, you wrote a column

30:22

recently for the Sun about this,

30:24

saying Fox should be viewed as

30:26

a political tool. And that raises

30:28

a question, should it be a

30:30

part of the White House press

30:32

pool? Should it be a form

30:34

of the privileges to come with

30:37

news gathering? Even though they do

30:39

have some news reporters at the

30:41

White House, you're saying they're primarily

30:43

a political tool show, so should

30:45

that be reassessed, Zurich? Listen,

30:47

I really do. I think it's a

30:49

discussion we need to have. Look, you're

30:52

not supporting democracy. You're not supporting the

30:54

larger values of this country. They don't

30:56

even stand up as a opposition party,

30:59

but there's nothing journalistic in what Lachlin,

31:01

Murdoch said. And you know what? I

31:03

say, hey, you know what, let's take

31:06

them at their word. Let's not let

31:08

them on the plane. You let the

31:10

proud boys on your plane, you're on

31:12

their fourth one? No, I don't think

31:15

so. These guys are doing the same

31:17

thing. These guys are doing the same

31:19

thing. These guys are doing the same

31:22

thing. So that's what we call TDS.

31:24

Yeah. I'm sure if you've ever heard

31:26

about it. I just diagnosed that man.

31:29

Yeah. Shout out to Mays Moore on

31:31

Twitter and found that clip. That's a

31:33

great clip. I can't believe I haven't

31:35

seen it. But to the arguments that

31:38

you're fielding all day every day, they

31:40

were making it. About a Biden administration.

31:42

About the number one television network on

31:45

the planet. Yeah. Right? Like more viewers

31:47

than anybody else in the legacy media.

31:49

And that's the network he's talking about.

31:51

And you'd like do see asking a

31:54

few questions about, you know, whether Biden

31:56

had the mental fitness to complete his

31:58

term. And next thing you know, you

32:01

get this, the potato out there saying

32:03

like they should be off the plane.

32:05

I am actually stunned by that clip.

32:08

I can't believe it. And I wish

32:10

I found it myself. Can I have

32:12

our rapid response? on steam, go recycle

32:14

that one for our social media. But

32:17

just the Democrats and their allies in

32:19

the media are the masters of projection.

32:21

They point the finger at Donald Trump

32:24

and Republicans and accuse them of something.

32:26

You can always find a time in

32:28

which they did that thing themselves. Always.

32:31

Yep. Oh, 100% threat to democracy. They

32:33

were the ones threatening our democracy for

32:35

the past four years with the border

32:37

invasion, with the wars that were breaking

32:40

out everywhere, weaponization of justice. I mean.

32:42

Everything they say about Republicans, they themselves

32:44

are doing. And that's no different. It's

32:47

why it makes so much sense that

32:49

you're doing what you're doing. Because you're

32:51

not, they keep saying on repeat, this

32:54

is about bringing in favorable coverage, it's

32:56

not. No. A concern is actually have

32:58

real questions. As President Trump has fielded

33:00

through, you know, nine years on the

33:03

public state, I mean, really, like 40

33:05

years in public, but like in... politics,

33:07

he takes all these questions and conservatives

33:10

actually want to know the answer to

33:12

it. Whereas we've been force-fed for, you

33:14

know, decades, a filtered truth that can't

33:16

actually ever get to the truth. And

33:19

you've just said, no, we're taking all

33:21

that off, the lenses off, you can

33:23

ask us anything. 100 percent. I mean,

33:26

the day of the inauguration, the president

33:28

is sworn in. takes the oath of

33:30

office, goes to the White House, is

33:33

in the Oval Office, has a stack

33:35

of executive orders that he's signing, as

33:37

promised, and lets a group of journalists

33:39

into the Oval and talks them while

33:42

signing executive orders and talking, which is

33:44

incredibly impressive, by the way, you're like

33:46

signing EO's and you're taking questions at

33:49

the same time. It's like a skill

33:51

not many could do it. Joe Biden

33:53

definitely couldn't do it. the most accessible

33:56

president we've ever had ever and it's

33:58

a it's questions on every topic under

34:00

the sun and again he did it

34:02

with his entire cabinet sitting around him.

34:05

The transparency and the accessibility and they

34:07

don't say it on the air but

34:09

they will tell you off the record

34:12

that they are pleased with that. And

34:14

we want to just it's a continuation

34:16

of that effort to be accessible and

34:19

transparent to answer questions on any issue

34:21

under the sun. That's what we want.

34:23

We want more voices in the room,

34:25

not less. The legacy media will still

34:28

be there, as we've said. But there

34:30

are many other people in this country,

34:32

across the country, who deserve a seat.

34:35

We had a local media row last

34:37

week at the White House, and there

34:39

were local radio hosts and television hosts

34:42

from across the country. Many of whom

34:44

I actually got to know on the

34:46

campaign because I would call into local

34:48

radio all the time. It's like the

34:51

heartbeat of the country, right? Like people

34:53

driving to work, listening to their local

34:55

radio. So I've become friends with these

34:58

guys over the phone. This is the

35:00

first time meeting them in person. They

35:02

were so excited to be at the

35:04

White House and ask real questions of

35:07

administration officials. We had cabinet secretaries go

35:09

over there. They were just so honored

35:11

by the privilege of covering the President

35:14

of the United States so up close

35:16

and personal and personal. in the city

35:18

unfortunately have forgotten that it is a

35:21

privilege to be in the Oval Office

35:23

every single day and aboard Air Force

35:25

One. And so that this is our

35:27

reminder of like again it's a privilege

35:30

to be in that room. There is

35:32

limited space. So why should a group

35:34

of DC-based elitist journalists get to determine

35:37

who enters and accesses that space. Yeah,

35:39

listen, with President Trump, with your help,

35:41

is running the absolute most transparent information

35:44

flow of any administration in history. I

35:46

don't even think it's close. Before you

35:48

go, can I ask you a couple

35:50

of personal things? Sure. When did you

35:53

get into politics? In college, I'm from

35:55

New Hampshire. Yeah. Which, you know. Very

35:57

political state. Or in Brent, Granite State,

36:00

very free or die. And first of

36:02

the nation primary. I went to college,

36:04

St. Anselm, which is, they do polling

36:07

and they have. the primary every year

36:09

and I just kind of threw myself

36:11

into politics in school and then one

36:13

opportunity led to the next. I like

36:16

this. Yes, didn't grow up in it

36:18

by any means. Family owned small businesses,

36:20

but when I got to college I

36:23

realized I really enjoyed media and news

36:25

and enjoyed getting in political debates in

36:27

class and just found one opportunity after

36:30

the next. with President Trump. And he

36:32

went to work. All of us who've

36:34

ever been involved in this world, who

36:36

have been attached to a principle in

36:39

one way or another, knew there was

36:41

like a moment or at least a

36:43

couple of moments where you're like, yeah,

36:46

this is going to work. Like I

36:48

really want to work hard for this.

36:50

Like you recall sort of in the

36:52

onboarding and the piece about you getting

36:55

involved and more involved and then ultimately,

36:57

I mean, you're dedicating your life to

36:59

this at this point. a moment where

37:02

you were like, this, I believe, in

37:04

this all the way through. So I've

37:06

been a supporter of the president since

37:09

16. I mean, I voted for him

37:11

in the New Hampshire primary in 2016.

37:13

So I've always believed very strongly in

37:15

his message, but certainly working for him

37:18

over the years, you know, as you

37:20

said, when you work for a principal,

37:22

you get to know them personally, right?

37:25

And so... you know I obviously wholeheartedly

37:27

100% support everything that president Trump does

37:29

policy wise and the agenda that we're

37:32

enacting every day and it was great

37:34

to be part of that campaign and

37:36

now we went from campaigning to governing

37:38

and we're actually doing what the president

37:41

said he was going to do and

37:43

so incredible to watch that come to

37:45

life but I also have grown to

37:48

know him as a person yeah and

37:50

seeing who he is yeah like personally

37:52

he's like the best boss. He is

37:55

so uplifting of everybody who works for

37:57

him, always flattering everybody with praise. And

37:59

you see that publicly. right like this

38:01

guy's from Central Casting or she's phenomenal

38:04

like that's just how he is and

38:06

that's true like in front of the

38:08

cameras and when the cameras are off

38:11

and he tells it like it is

38:13

and he is hilarious. He's truly one

38:15

of the funniest people I've ever met.

38:17

That part is so underrated. I mean

38:20

look I've never I obviously have never

38:22

worked for for President Trump but I

38:24

had an occasion over a couple of

38:27

years to every six weeks go in

38:29

and and speak with him and my

38:31

only conclusion after like the third meeting.

38:34

Was this guy's got to be the

38:36

funniest public figure I've ever been around?

38:38

I mean I was in tears laughing

38:40

almost every time. Yeah. He is a

38:43

great comedy level stuff. He has a

38:45

great sense of humor. Yeah. and it's

38:47

just fun to be around and that's

38:50

what I go back to what I

38:52

said earlier like we are genuinely having

38:54

fun we're working our butts off I

38:57

mean it's 15 18 hour days yeah

38:59

you gotta love it to do that

39:01

you have to love what you're doing

39:03

and love the people you're working with

39:06

there it is yeah the president has

39:08

put together a phenomenal team the cabinet

39:10

is great And everybody's friends, you look

39:13

at the cabinet, they're all, they've all

39:15

worked together in some capacity or campaign

39:17

for the president together over the past

39:20

several years. And then the team, you

39:22

know, that Susie Wiles has put together,

39:24

whom everybody respects and admires and loves

39:26

and loves, is great. And many of

39:29

us worked on the campaign together, so

39:31

we got in on day one with

39:33

a battle rhythm already under our belts

39:36

and we're genuinely all friends and want

39:38

to see each other succeed. direct colleague

39:40

and Taylor Butterwich who's our deputy chief

39:43

of staff, great guy, and just great

39:45

visionary and we're all in it together

39:47

and it's just a really great place

39:49

to be. I mean you can tell.

39:52

Yeah, you can tell. I mean anything

39:54

in this line of work, if you're

39:56

going to succeed, it's because of the

39:59

people around you and everybody enjoying and

40:01

knowing that nobody's like searching by. And

40:03

coming from the campaign into the White

40:05

House and having served in the Foxhole

40:08

with all these people, you build that

40:10

camaraderie. Totally. And it feels like this.

40:12

And we talked to Bruchowitz about this,

40:15

but like, it feels like y'all are

40:17

running the. permanent campaign like you're moving

40:19

at the pace of a campaign in

40:22

the White House now and just because

40:24

like you've accomplished so much so quickly

40:26

you know the fastest rate of confirmation

40:28

since 2001 you know and it's like

40:31

you only get that sort of continuity

40:33

when you bring in people who were

40:35

like in that foxal with you know

40:38

we were in the foxhole yeah the

40:40

president had has faced so much adversity

40:42

throughout his entire political tenure but certainly

40:45

you know over the course of the

40:47

last campaign that trials and you know

40:49

we sat in a dirty Manhattan courtroom

40:51

for weeks you know watching Alvin Bragg

40:54

just like persecute your boss like that

40:56

filled some camaraderie amongst the team you

40:58

know and then of course the president

41:01

almost nearly losing his life twice yeah

41:03

it was something that we all endured

41:05

together and and watching his determination through

41:08

those moments to just keep going and

41:10

fighting and it totally fuels you good

41:12

leadership you know it stems from the

41:14

top and trickles down to the rest

41:17

of the team and that's obviously a

41:19

stark contrast to the previous administration who

41:21

had no leadership and it you know

41:24

impacted the our country and people's lives

41:26

and you know it's all fun but

41:28

we do take obviously the responsibility of

41:31

governing incredibly seriously and the president is

41:33

working literally around the clock. He's negotiating

41:35

a peace deal with Ukraine and Russia

41:37

as we speak, you know, the talks

41:40

in the Middle East, he continues to

41:42

be very involved in, we're rolling out

41:44

new policy in EOs every day, so

41:47

everybody is working 24 7, but like

41:49

you said you have to love what

41:51

you do. Incredibly impressive and listen, you're

41:53

welcome back any time you want. I

41:56

want you to know though, the absence

41:58

of our colleague, we'll... somebody else. We'll

42:00

send somebody else. Oh, don't be so

42:03

hard on him. Maybe Duncan, you know,

42:05

maybe you can get retribution this way,

42:07

maybe Smug. If called I will serve.

42:10

But we'd love to see you guys

42:12

back at the White House at some

42:14

point briefing room. We're going to do

42:16

some more fun and creative things in

42:19

the weeks and months ahead. I cannot

42:21

compliment you enough about everything you guys

42:23

have done up to this point. I

42:26

can't thank you enough for coming here.

42:28

Sharing some views and a welcome back

42:30

anytime. Thanks for having me. Thank you.

42:33

I don't have to tell you

42:35

Americans are ready for what's next.

42:38

Moving beyond the hardships of inflation

42:40

and economic anxiety towards building a

42:42

future, a better future for our

42:44

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42:46

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42:48

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42:51

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42:53

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42:55

and more secure. It's all within

42:57

our grasp. We'll do this together

42:59

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43:01

powered by America's oil and natural

43:04

gas resources You can learn more

43:06

about all of this at api.org

43:08

So dunks, you know Our colleagues

43:10

are away. So we figured we

43:12

what we would do here is

43:14

fill in the banger of all

43:17

bangers. Yeah, right. I'm very Carolyn.

43:19

Yeah in here just like spitting

43:21

darts Yeah, she's fantastic. She's fantastic.

43:23

And like she said, they're having

43:25

fun. They're keeping Donald Trump's promises

43:27

and they're having fun doing it.

43:30

Yeah, and you can just tell.

43:32

It's infectious. They're smart. Gosh, they're

43:34

smart. She's so quick and so

43:36

personable. I mean, it goes a

43:38

long way in the sign of

43:40

work. You don't find that a

43:43

lot. Yeah. But just in case

43:45

you didn't get enough, you might

43:47

as well hear from the Senate

43:49

majority. It's just an embarrassment of

43:51

riches today. You want to hear

43:53

from the Senate Majority Leader of

43:56

what's going on? Well, that's what

43:58

we've got here. Well,

44:00

we have the luxury here in the

44:02

ruthless variety program of every once in

44:05

a while having some super VIP guests

44:07

That's right and as you can see

44:09

it's getting deep in here already We

44:11

have the majority leader of the United

44:14

States Senate John Thune welcome. Thanks Josh

44:16

good to be with you. Mike. Nice

44:18

to see you. This is great. So

44:20

listen your couple months on the job

44:23

I've consistently said this might be the

44:25

hardest job Maybe in all of America,

44:27

but certainly in Washington, is wrangling a

44:29

bunch of senators to try to get

44:32

mutual goals accomplished, particularly the front end

44:34

of an administration, but you look around.

44:36

I mean, you guys are way ahead

44:38

of pace on nominations, confirmations. You know,

44:41

not without controversy, but somehow you've just

44:43

managed to line these things up despite

44:45

Democrats trying to stop you at all

44:47

turns. Well, yeah, I mean, it's good.

44:50

It's a good team ball. I mean,

44:52

we had really good cooperation, and I'll

44:54

tell you, it's nice to have 53.

44:56

Right? Right. I don't have 50 or

44:59

51 in the Senate. But the confirmation

45:01

process is challenging because the Democrats want

45:03

to. They can drag it out, and

45:05

they have been. But we've been able

45:08

to use and manage the clock, I

45:10

think, well, and enforce them. to uh...

45:12

you know to concede on a lot

45:14

of things and to give us essentially

45:17

what we wanted in terms of the

45:19

schedule so we got through it pretty

45:21

well we got a couple left and

45:23

and we'll try and finish those up

45:26

but uh... you know i and is

45:28

uh... center maconel always reminded us that

45:30

the senate spends two-thirds of its time

45:32

on personnel yeah i think about it

45:35

yeah it's we're like a human resources

45:37

factory and there's you know eleven hundred

45:39

executive branch positions that come through the

45:41

senate for confirmation that all the judges,

45:44

the entire judiciary and it's just a

45:46

consuming thing. So it makes it really

45:48

hard to legislate and to your point

45:50

in the Senate you've got all these

45:53

procedures and rules you have to follow

45:55

that the Democrats can use to stall

45:57

and slow things down. So it makes

45:59

it hard to do anything. I frankly

46:02

am of the mind, and I would

46:04

say this for a Republican or a

46:06

Democrat president. We ought to cut that

46:08

about in half. I don't think when

46:11

the founders put advice and consent into

46:13

the Constitution, they were thinking about 1100.

46:15

I mean, you get presidents who don't

46:17

get their people in place until the

46:20

third year or four-year term. And that's

46:22

just, it just doesn't make sense. It

46:24

is absurd. But you're still confirming. here

46:26

on the fastest clip since 2001. Right,

46:29

correct. And while doing that, you're also

46:31

getting good legislation in place here. Can

46:33

you tell us about this Women in

46:35

Sports Act that I know y'all are

46:38

working on? Yeah, so we're going to

46:40

put that on the floor early next

46:42

week and it's an issue the House

46:44

has voted on and the president issued

46:47

an executive order. What this would do

46:49

is codify the executive order, but essentially...

46:51

you know it bans biological males from

46:53

competing in in women's sports and uh...

46:56

just the right thing to do yeah

46:58

well you know it as as a

47:00

girl dad uh... both of our daughters

47:03

and i've got granddaughters were very active

47:05

uh... in sports i've got my oldest

47:07

daughter is a in the uh... both

47:09

her high school and college hall of

47:12

fame and so all the fins are

47:14

into sports right but but so you

47:16

know it's you just it's intuitively i

47:18

think people just this is why this

47:21

is an 80-20 issue as people like

47:23

yeah well course right and it's unfortunate

47:25

that it's something that needs to be

47:27

codified but we're going to try and

47:30

make sure that the presidency owe is

47:32

endures over time and the way to

47:34

do that is to have Congress to

47:36

take action. You know, my assumption is

47:39

we'll get a lot of resistance obviously

47:41

from the Democrats. Which is unbelievable at

47:43

some level. Yeah, it really is. I

47:45

mean, like I said, I think there

47:48

are some things, you know, clearly there

47:50

are partisan political issues in our times

47:52

and things that we deal with legislatively,

47:54

which create sort of the deep political.

47:57

divide that we have, but this one

47:59

to me, yeah, it just seems like

48:01

it's just common sense, you know, I

48:03

mean logic, once in a while you

48:06

ought to yield logic and just say

48:08

this makes, you know, this just makes

48:10

all the sense in the world. Exactly.

48:12

So it's hard to, hard to feature

48:15

how you could formulate an argument against

48:17

that. But we're going to find out

48:19

here in a few days what the

48:21

dims think. Yeah, no kidding. So I

48:24

mean look, one of the underrated parts

48:26

of the job that you have is,

48:28

you know, Senate at some level has

48:30

to work with some consensus. left and

48:33

right in order to move anything. You've

48:35

been able to roll through that with

48:37

the nomination and confirmation process despite Democrats

48:39

doing everything. And so there has to

48:42

be some level of comedy. How difficult

48:44

is that? Because right now you saw

48:46

all these nominations where you'd settled, you

48:48

had the votes, it was gonna happen,

48:51

they make you run the clock no

48:53

matter what, and then they had out

48:55

to a press conference at USAID, which

48:57

like, I mean, they're but clowning themselves,

49:00

so politically it's not the worst thing

49:02

in the world, but you've got to

49:04

be watching this and saying, like, come

49:06

on. Well, I mean, I think you

49:09

they're picking you pick and choose the

49:11

issues you want to highlight and they're

49:13

picking you choose issues that I just

49:15

you know This is what you want

49:18

to talk about But yeah, there are

49:20

times you're right You know this as

49:22

well as anybody Josh where in the

49:24

Senate particularly because of the the rules

49:27

you have to find it on some

49:29

issues including spending bills bipartisan cooperation. It

49:31

takes 60 votes not 51 to do

49:33

anything consequential in the Senate with the

49:36

exception of budget reconciliation, which wouldn't you

49:38

have unified control of the government, House,

49:40

and White House, you can do things

49:42

at 51 that you otherwise wouldn't be

49:45

able to. And obviously that's a situation

49:47

we're now in and we intend to

49:49

do everything we can to take advantage

49:51

of that. But you still have to,

49:54

you know, when it comes to doing

49:56

a farm bill, for example, that's a

49:58

bipartisan exercise or like I said, funding

50:00

the government. the Democrats are just so

50:03

spun up. I mean, you know, they,

50:05

they're, and they're, and over the strangest

50:07

things, but this, um, Trump derangements. is

50:09

real on their side and it is

50:12

I mean they can't see straight now

50:14

even when we were going through the

50:16

budget resolution. process last week and I

50:18

adjourned the Senate at 4.51 a.m. We

50:21

stayed up all night and voted on

50:23

Democrat. I mean you've been there on

50:25

Democrat amendments and and some of them

50:28

are just and some of these these

50:30

folks on their side I mean they

50:32

were just they can't contain themselves I

50:34

mean they are just so they can't

50:37

contain themselves I mean they are just

50:39

so much anger and hostility right now

50:41

yeah and I think when they take

50:43

an electoral beating They sort of sit

50:46

back for a minute and say, all

50:48

right, what do we do wrong? Yeah.

50:50

Let's think about what we're not communicating

50:52

to the American people. Maybe our issue

50:55

set is a little off. And it

50:57

strikes me that Schumer and these guys

50:59

have done the exact opposite. They just

51:01

fired everything. You had their crabs in

51:04

a barrel. and they're fighting over each

51:06

other to get out. And it's just,

51:08

it is, it's just like these very

51:10

niche things and the anger, and they

51:13

just can't help themselves. And not everything

51:15

is a constitutional crisis. Right, right, yeah.

51:17

Well, and I, as I pointed out

51:19

in a floor speech not that long

51:22

ago, they are attacking the Trump administration

51:24

for use of executive power, and there's

51:26

this tension between the branches of the

51:28

government. inevitably. But right now, they, you

51:31

know, picking, for example, Doge and USAID,

51:33

you know, you get outside, you get

51:35

800 meters from this building and people

51:37

agree with that. They think the government

51:40

ought to be downsized and we ought

51:42

to do things in a more efficient,

51:44

smarter way and make our government more

51:46

cost effective. and modernize it with technology.

51:49

I think those are things that most

51:51

people agree on. But, you know, they

51:53

opted to pick, you know, USAID or

51:55

whatever that particular program is and turn

51:58

it into some sort of a cause

52:00

to raise money. from their base, but

52:02

I think what they're losing sight of,

52:04

and it's sometimes easy to do this,

52:07

is the broader, the middle of the

52:09

electorate, the people in this country who

52:11

are paying the bills, the taxpayers who

52:13

are ultimately... on the hook for the

52:16

cost of government, see this through a

52:18

different lens. And those are the folks

52:20

that gave Trump the win and gave

52:22

us the majorities in the House and

52:25

the Senate. Yeah, it turns out those

52:27

people aren't their voters. Yeah, that's right.

52:29

Yeah, they don't represent them any longer.

52:31

Yeah, they really, it's, it's, it's, it's,

52:34

there's been a, a change and you're

52:36

right coming out. Yeah. So look, now

52:38

you get to the portion of the

52:40

program where. you're going to be dealing

52:43

with core sort of Trump administration priorities,

52:45

priorities of your members, House Republicans, and

52:47

there's a bunch of big stuff that

52:49

needs to happen. You took a huge

52:52

step by passing the budget last week,

52:54

which big accomplishment there. I don't think

52:56

people would actually realize each piece of

52:58

this step is as difficult as it

53:01

actually is. But then this unlocks the

53:03

ability to do reconciliation and ultimately... get

53:05

the tax cuts done, get the important

53:07

pieces with energy, immigration, all of this

53:10

various stuff. It's not going to be

53:12

easy. I imagine with your conversations with

53:14

the speaker, with the president, you guys

53:16

are kind of working through the formulation

53:19

of how you're going to handle that

53:21

now. Yeah, and there's some decision points

53:23

ahead. This is a one big beautiful

53:25

door. Yes, yeah, yeah. But you do.

53:28

Historically, if you go back 100 years,

53:30

there have been five times when Republicans

53:32

have had unified control of the government,

53:34

by that I mean House, Senate, White

53:37

House, and four of those five times,

53:39

it only lasted two years. And the

53:41

other time it lasted four years. So

53:43

it doesn't come along very often, and

53:46

sometimes doesn't last very long. And so

53:48

the use of budget reconciliation to accomplish

53:50

things... at a 51 vote threshold in

53:53

the Senate is unique historically, but it's

53:55

a real opportunity for us. And so

53:57

locking in and hopefully making permanent the

53:59

2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,

54:02

the Trump Tax Cuts, whatever you want

54:04

to call them, is a part of

54:06

that. Doing some things on, you know,

54:08

a deficit reduction, getting us on a

54:11

more sustainable fiscal path, I think, too,

54:13

is part of it. And that's where

54:15

Doge comes in and some of the

54:17

other ideas with respect to trying to

54:20

rein in spending. Energy. that we can

54:22

do to make America more energy dominant,

54:24

I think is, you know, a part

54:26

of this conversation, things that we can

54:29

do to secure the border. There are

54:31

a whole range of things that we

54:33

believe are eligible for and that we

54:35

ought to be able to, and part

54:38

of it is in the Senate, you

54:40

got to get past the parliamentarian, and

54:42

she's like the referee of all this,

54:44

but there are things I think we

54:47

can do based upon the use by

54:49

the Democrats when they had unified control

54:51

of the government. Well, that and then,

54:53

but then we got, you know, the

54:56

American, quote, American Rescue Plan, the Inflation

54:58

Reduction Act, those were all done through

55:00

budget reconciliation, and they created a template

55:02

by expanding the scope of what is

55:05

eligible under budget reconciliation for us to

55:07

do some things that we think really

55:09

need to be done. But chief among

55:11

those really is if we can make

55:14

that tax policy permanent and create certainty

55:16

in the economy predictability around tax policy.

55:18

And to me, tax policy always ought

55:20

to be about growth. Economic growth, the

55:23

old axiom that a rising tide lifts

55:25

all the boats. You get a growing

55:27

economy, better paying jobs, people are making

55:29

money, they're making money, they're taking money,

55:32

they're taking realizations, and they're paying taxes.

55:34

And government revenue goes up. I mean,

55:36

one of the ways that you deal

55:38

with deficits long term is you restrain

55:41

spending, obviously, but then you also create

55:43

growth in the economy. a lot of

55:45

these problems that we have look smaller

55:47

by the first. No question. So in,

55:50

you know, extending those tax cuts, you

55:52

know, from Trump's first term and everything,

55:54

the thing that really bothers me is

55:56

in the conversation, you know, the media

55:59

and the Democrats and every once in

56:01

a while some Republicans, too, talk about

56:03

these pay-fors for tax cuts like this

56:05

isn't the people's money in the first

56:08

place? Right. Yeah. And I'm glad you

56:10

mentioned that other side of it, which

56:12

is like unleashing the American economy on

56:14

things like energy and all that. So

56:17

could you give our listeners sort of

56:19

a preview of what? that might look

56:21

like that component the growth component to

56:23

the american economy that really allows us

56:26

to take off yes so if you

56:28

if you think about it mike and

56:30

and uh... you know obviously uh... to

56:32

me and we went through when we

56:35

went through twenty seventeen and i wasn't

56:37

on the senate finance committee and and

56:39

helped negotiate the uh... a lot of

56:41

the policy particularly around the small business

56:44

provisions the one ninety nine eight per

56:46

pass-year businesses and those those things and

56:48

We could slot podcasts in this. Yeah,

56:50

let's get that. There's a carve out

56:53

for podcasts, especially. But the whole objective

56:55

was, if you want to get faster

56:57

growth in the economy, lower rates and

56:59

faster cost recovery. And so bonus depreciation,

57:02

interest deductibility, R&D expensing, were all provisions

57:04

that generated significant amount of economic growth.

57:06

And when you get that growth, you

57:08

know, the standard rule of thumb is

57:11

that for every one percentage increase in

57:13

GDP, you get about three. trillion dollars

57:15

in additional tax revenue over a decade.

57:18

So this is math. Growth benefits everybody.

57:20

Yeah. And you know and people are

57:22

you've got incentives for investment which is

57:24

creating those better paying jobs and again

57:27

it improves people's standard of living quality

57:29

of life and if you look at

57:31

what happened in the aftermath of 2017

57:33

at least prior to the pandemic we

57:36

were actually closing the income disparity in

57:38

this country. You know people in the

57:40

lower end. to the income categories were

57:42

seeing the biggest growth in income. And

57:45

unemployment was at a 50-year-old. So there

57:47

are, in my view, these policies don't

57:49

happen in a vacuum. They create the

57:51

conditions that are favorable for making America

57:54

an attractive place to invest. And I

57:56

think it's tax policy. I also think

57:58

it's regulatory policy and lightning that touch.

58:00

And that's another thing that when Trump

58:03

came in, a lot of executive orders

58:05

that are designed to do away with

58:07

some of this. heavy-handed burdensome regulatory framework

58:09

that the Biden administration created. And a

58:12

lot of it, and a lot of

58:14

it, and a lot of it around

58:16

energy, exactly. Yeah, yeah. And so unleashing

58:18

American energy, you know, allowing, trying to

58:21

figure out how to reform our permitting

58:23

process so that you can get through

58:25

the the citing and all those things

58:27

faster, and then also open up more

58:30

areas for energy development. And in my

58:32

view is it's a... it's American, it

58:34

ought to be in all of the

58:36

above. We ought to support and encourage

58:39

and incentivize investment in American energy and

58:41

become not only a country that can

58:43

take care of our own energy needs,

58:45

but hopefully help with some of our

58:48

allies who are too dangerously dependent upon

58:50

countries like Russia. Yeah. No kidding. Look,

58:52

I think you've done an absolutely terrific

58:54

job of... wrangling Senate Republicans, many of

58:57

which are just sort of ideologically aligned

58:59

on this stuff, but understanding the opportunities

59:01

ahead and being able to not quibble

59:03

over everything on the way to actually

59:06

getting the opportunity to do these big

59:08

things. I mean, you hear a lot

59:10

of Republicans, you were mentioning, talking about,

59:12

you know, you're paying for tax cuts,

59:15

this, that, and the other thing. It's

59:17

like, man, what you just explained. is

59:19

the reason that conversation doesn't work. I

59:21

mean, what you just explained is the

59:24

revenue growth, which Democrats will never concede,

59:26

CBO won't even concede, is your economy

59:28

is growing much faster than you could

59:30

tax your way out of when you're

59:33

lowering the rates. And that's ultimately the

59:35

conversation that happen primarily in the House

59:37

with House Republicans but ultimately you guys

59:39

need to get together on that assuming

59:42

you and Johnson. Yeah I mean we'll

59:44

figure it out and you're right we've

59:46

got some folks who think oh this

59:48

got to be offset we got to

59:51

pay for this or that but this

59:53

was extending existing tax policy right I

59:55

still hear John Kyle in my ear

59:57

you know on that you know we

1:00:00

don't we don't we don't pay for

1:00:02

existing extending existing tax policy But the

1:00:04

Democrats, oddly enough, their argument now is

1:00:06

that we're cutting taxes to give tax

1:00:09

cuts to billionaires. And I'm like, this

1:00:11

is the law. Did they? Right. Are

1:00:13

we cutting? I mean, all we're doing,

1:00:15

you know, so this is the current

1:00:18

policy, this is the current law. And

1:00:20

to- One trick ponies stuff. Yeah, to

1:00:22

think that you somehow can make an

1:00:24

argument that by- Because what's going to

1:00:27

happen at the end of the year,

1:00:29

if we don't do anything, is a

1:00:31

four and a half trillion dollar tax

1:00:34

increase, a majority of which falls on-

1:00:36

ordinary Americans, people who make and families

1:00:38

who make less than $400,000 a year.

1:00:40

So there's a huge... part of this

1:00:43

tax policy and this is the thing

1:00:45

i feel like in twenty seventeen unfortunately

1:00:47

the democrat narrative they did a pretty

1:00:49

good job of getting out there and

1:00:52

making this about tax cuts for the

1:00:54

rich and nothing could be further from

1:00:56

the no i know i mean if

1:00:58

you look at and we paid a

1:01:01

lot of attention to the distribution tables

1:01:03

and how does this you know that

1:01:05

the uh... proportion of taxes paid by

1:01:07

different income categories the tax code actually

1:01:10

became more progressive after 2017 than it

1:01:12

was prior to. In other words, people

1:01:14

in the lower income categories were being

1:01:16

less of the tax burden and people

1:01:19

in the higher income. You made the

1:01:21

mistake of doing math. That's the funniest

1:01:23

part of all of this is we're

1:01:25

about to find out how much they

1:01:28

actually believe the lie. Yeah, that's right.

1:01:30

Yes, totally. So the last piece of

1:01:32

housekeeping you've got, you've got in March

1:01:34

government funding, that's never a pleasant exercise.

1:01:37

No. Leftover from a previous Congress left

1:01:39

to you all to try to try

1:01:41

to try to figure out how to

1:01:43

get funded for the rest of the

1:01:46

rest of the rest of the rest

1:01:48

of the rest of the rest of

1:01:50

the rest of the rest of the

1:01:52

rest of the rest of the year.

1:01:55

What you think? Yeah, so the As

1:01:57

you guys all know, the federal fiscal

1:01:59

year starts October 1. So we're halfway

1:02:01

into fiscal year 25. And even though

1:02:04

last year in the Senate and under

1:02:06

the leadership on the Republican side of

1:02:08

Senator Collins, 11 of the 12 appropriation

1:02:10

bills were reported out. And they were

1:02:13

reported out. before the end of July

1:02:15

of last year and a number of

1:02:17

them came out unanimously. In spite of

1:02:19

that, Chuck Schumer never put a single

1:02:22

one on the floor. Yeah, weird. It's

1:02:24

almost like he was trying to... Well,

1:02:26

yeah, he's trying to create this pile

1:02:28

up and after the election went the

1:02:31

way it did, I think then he

1:02:33

doubled down on not wanting to do

1:02:35

anything. And so now we're faced with

1:02:37

this, you know... funding deadline and the

1:02:40

Democrats are out there publicly, if you

1:02:42

can believe this, talking about shutting down

1:02:44

the government. And in a mess that

1:02:46

was entirely... left to us by them.

1:02:49

This is a pileup that was created

1:02:51

by their inactivity and failure to do

1:02:53

the basic tasks of funding the government

1:02:55

last year, and so now we're having

1:02:58

to clean up after that. And we're

1:03:00

figuring out, you know, the best way

1:03:02

to accomplish that to make sure that

1:03:04

we keep the government funded, but in

1:03:07

a way that is consistent with the

1:03:09

overall goals that we have with regard

1:03:11

to fiscal sustainability, fiscal responsibility, and in

1:03:13

moving us in a different direction of

1:03:16

different directions. And then fiscal year 26,

1:03:18

which now will be on our watch,

1:03:20

we can start getting underway with. But

1:03:22

it's just unfortunate that we have to

1:03:25

clean up fiscal year 25 under people's

1:03:27

mess. They're super good at not doing

1:03:29

anything. They are really hard. They turned

1:03:31

it into an art form. So listen,

1:03:34

last question, for all years I was

1:03:36

in the Senate, I think you were

1:03:38

the land speed Senate holder for running

1:03:40

around the Capitol. There's nobody who could

1:03:43

touch Thoon. I'm wondering with a new,

1:03:45

we've gotten younger. Is anybody threatening your

1:03:47

40 time? Yeah, well, we've got some

1:03:49

we haven't we haven't laced them up

1:03:52

lately to see if anybody's got the

1:03:54

about what it takes. But that's got

1:03:56

to blow off some steam though. Maybe

1:03:59

just take it right down the Ohio

1:04:01

clock cord or straight across. Yeah, that's

1:04:03

right. So you don't want to great

1:04:05

honey. Yeah. We have it and you

1:04:08

got to take a spoonful of that

1:04:10

before you do it. But one of

1:04:12

the you know. for a while there

1:04:14

they had this race that i used

1:04:17

to run as the three-mile run in

1:04:19

the capital challenge they called it and

1:04:21

for a while i was like the

1:04:23

fastest person congress and so i would

1:04:26

always remind people that's like being the

1:04:28

best surfer in kansas you know it's

1:04:30

a it's a nice title to have

1:04:32

but it really doesn't mean much and

1:04:35

and it so yeah but we've got

1:04:37

some really great young uh... senators who

1:04:39

joined us and seems like a lot

1:04:41

of energy there's a lot of energy

1:04:44

yeah comes with an education as we

1:04:46

always know yeah but you're doing an

1:04:48

absolutely terrific job these are the South

1:04:50

Dakota products that you've brought us these

1:04:53

are little beef jerky yeah the honey

1:04:55

is gonna keep us healthy yeah that's

1:04:57

right we got some bison in here

1:04:59

too which I always appreciate yeah that's

1:05:02

awesome and this doesn't exactly look like

1:05:04

skinny pop over here this is gaily

1:05:06

this is honey farms 80 honey farms

1:05:08

wow that may not be maha It's

1:05:11

going to go down smooth, I can

1:05:13

tell you that. Oh yeah. How's the

1:05:15

Jack Rabbit basketball team? You know, they're

1:05:17

decent. I think the turn, it's a

1:05:20

wide open tournament this year. Our conference

1:05:22

tournament will start here in another week

1:05:24

or so. The women are ranked. Jack

1:05:26

Rabbit women are 20, their top 25

1:05:29

in the country. And the men have

1:05:31

had a nice season and I think

1:05:33

they very well could win the tournament.

1:05:35

So yeah, go Jacks. Go Jacks. Go

1:05:38

Jacks. Listen, Majority Leader Thune, thank you

1:05:40

so much for joining us. Great Billy.

1:05:42

Thanks Josh, thanks Mike. Well that was

1:05:44

fantastic. I mean, they're doing a great

1:05:47

job. Majority Leader Thune, his entire team,

1:05:49

two months in, I can't find a

1:05:51

flaw. They've processed everything. I mean, look,

1:05:53

it's going to get harder. Are you

1:05:56

explained? But the basic arguments of what

1:05:58

he's laying out are exactly right and

1:06:00

what he's cajoling colleagues to get behind

1:06:02

here. the Trump agenda and making sure

1:06:05

that we've got an economy that works

1:06:07

and everything. I mean, it's just fantastic.

1:06:09

Also, first rate, dude. First rate, dude.

1:06:11

Great personality. And like you said, he's

1:06:14

moving the Senate at a pace that's

1:06:16

just absolutely incredible. And I mean, you

1:06:18

kind of have to with everything that

1:06:20

Trump's doing on his end in the

1:06:23

administration. Totally. Well, with that, I think

1:06:25

we've done it. And we don't have

1:06:27

our colleagues. And I think it's appropriate

1:06:29

we go to Hollywood hen. So until

1:06:32

next time, minions, keep the faith, hold

1:06:34

the line, and own the lips. Stay

1:06:36

ruthless. You're

1:07:14

pretty smart. When people talk about

1:07:17

you, too smart comes up a

1:07:19

lot. So why are you trying

1:07:21

to prove them wrong? Why aren't

1:07:23

you pushing the limits of science

1:07:25

and powering the nuclear engines of

1:07:28

the world's most powerful Navy? If

1:07:30

you were born for it, isn't

1:07:32

it time to make a smart

1:07:34

choice? You can be smart or

1:07:36

you can be nuke smart. Become

1:07:39

a nuclear engineer at navy.com/nuke smart.

1:07:41

America's Navy. Forged by the sea. sea