Will Cain Country - Supreme Court Overturns Trump Colorado Ballot Ban In 9-0 Ruling with the hosts of Ruthless

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

Today Will is joined by the hosts of the Ruthless Podcast, Smug, Holmes, Duncan, and Ashbrook.   Story #1: Colorado rejected! The United State Supreme Court votes 9-0 to keep former President Trump on the ballot.   Story #2: What does it mean when President Joe Biden is rejected on every single issue by voters, including the one that got him into office? Story #3: Iowa Forward Caitlin Clark is the all-time college basketball scoring leader. Why is her success so divisive?   Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail]   Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show!   Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For a limited time at McDonald's, enjoy the tasty breakfast trio. Your choice of chicken or sausage McMuffin or McGrittles with a hash brown and a small iced coffee for $5.5 plus tax. Available until 11 a.m. at participating McDonald's restaurants. Price excludes flavored iced coffee and delivery. One. Rejection. The Colorado. Supreme Court rejected nine to nothing by the United States Supreme Court, Donald Trump will remain on the ballot of victory for democracy.

Two, what exactly is it? When Joe Biden is rejected, according to every poll, not just by voters, but in his ability to do the one thing he promised to do when he came into office, unify the country. Three, Caitlin Clark, she is now your all-time scoring leader in NCAA basketball, but why is there this effort to at the same time diminish her accomplishment and elevate it over Pistol Pete Marevich? It's the Will Cain Show streaming live at Fox News.com and on the Fox News YouTube channel, the Fox News Facebook page, and always on demand, meaning you can listen or watch the Will Kane podcast. If you ever miss an episode at any point in the day that you would like, buy you. subscribing to our audio feed, our podcast on Apple or on Spotify or at Fox News podcast, or to watch us whenever you like, in whole or in part, exclusive interviews, YouTube shorts, or the entire

episode at Will Kane Show on YouTube. Hit subscribe and you'll never miss anything from the Wilcane show. It is breaking news today. It is that democracy, literally small D, democracy has been saved for the moment by the United States Supreme Court. In a unanimous decision, that means it included Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Kintaji Brown Jackson. In a 9-0 decision, they have rejected the Colorado Supreme Court's attempt to define Donald Trump as an insurrectionist and thus keep him off the ballot in Colorado. It is a huge victory, or better yet an embarrassing defeat. for the attempt to subvert democracy, an attempt to, quote, unquote, save democracy. We're going to be talking about that today, plus the latest polls from the New York Times and Fox News

that show such big warning signs, red flags, for Joe Biden that you have to now, I think, seriously entertain the possibility within the matter of months. He will not be the nominee for president. We're going to do this today with the hosts of The Ruthless Podcast. They have a very popular podcast. The hosts are Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, and Comfortably Smug. They have a very popular podcast, a ruthless podcast, and they're going to be joining us today live for the entirety of the Will Kane show to walk through all of the topics of the day. It's a little bit of a different experiment. And then I'm going to keep the guys for the entirety of the show, and there will be five voices in this show, mine plus the four hosts of the Ruthless.

podcast. We'll do our best to kind of work our way through the big hangout section on the couch that today is the Will Kane show. So stick with us. We'll use names. We'll toss the volleyball around for Bump Set Spike, but we'll see if it all works. Technologically, it should work in terms of producing good content. So let's start with that. Story number one. It is the hosts of The Ruthless Podcast. Joining us now here on The Will Cain Show. As I said, it is Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, and comfortably smug. What's up, guys?

Big fan. Glad to have you on the Will Cain Show. What's up? It's really great to be here. It's nice to finally meet, you know, over the Internet, but it's meeting nevertheless. I was just texting with my wife before we went on air. I said, would you please get the leaf blower away from outside my studio? He fired it up, literally as the show got fired up.

So I'm going to do my best to hear you. And so the audience doesn't hear the leaf blowing right outside my door. But I'm glad to have you guys on. You guys have a very successful podcast to set some background. I believe I'm correct in that all four of you worked in the office of Mitch McConnell for years, your buddies, and now you're breaking down politics in Washington, D.C. Is that the correct bio, all of you guys inside the office of Mitch McConnell? Three of the four.

I did not work with Mitch McConnell. I got roped in with these guys afterwards. Yeah, so we have one resident sort of redneck here, and then two of us that worked in the office, another that was in campaign life. But, you know, we are buddies. That part is definitely true, and we like to kick it around a little bit.

I don't know how to do this. Do I call you smug? Should I call you comfortably? I don't know how to dress comfortably smug. And CNN invited us to come on last week to their great detriment. Smug nearly broke them. It was spent like the entire Thursday and Friday talking about how dare they platform such an individual. So we hope you don't run into trouble by inviting us here. I don't think that I will. We're happy to platform you right here at Fox News.

So, Josh, I'll start with you. So 9-0 decision by the United States Supreme Court in rejection. of Colorado, just a massive victory for Donald Trump? Yeah, no question about it. And look, we've been talking about this an awful lot. This thing is as close to written in crayon. And I'm talking about the Colorado case by Democratic activists there as any legal brief you'll ever see. There were tons of punditry about veracity of all kinds of Trump claims over the years.

Nothing was as bad as what they were trying to do in that Colorado case. I don't think any of us are disappointed by this outcome. It was also, I think, 9-0 in this political environment, a real message that we're actually, we have a Supreme Court, and that Supreme Court's going to ensure the democracy is done here. Yeah, guys, and I'll let you bat it around the table on this. What will be interesting will be the reaction to this Supreme Court decision. You know, it was last week the Supreme Court decided they will take up the immunity case for Donald Trump in the January 6th, Jack Smith investigation. And in the wake of the Supreme Court taking up that case, I mean, I'm hesitant to say it's a freak out because it's become par for the course in that you saw, and I don't want to be dismissive about calling these people simply MSNBC pundits because many of these people hold positions at big time, you know, at least historically reputable law schools. But people like Ellie Mistle basically moving, who is a professor and contributed at MSNBC, moving in a predictable direction.

but that is the Supreme Court of the United States is now in their minds an impediment to democracy, that it's a real problem, the institution of the Supreme Court. Keith Oberman, who at one, at the same time, we need to dismiss as unserious, but also recognize that he had at one time one of the most powerful voices on the left has called this morning for the dissolution of the Supreme Court. So I'm curious what they'll do, I'm curious what they'll do when you have a unanimous decision that puts him back on the ballot, Donald Trump. Spug, you've got to take this one.

I absolutely want to take this one. So this has been kind of like a hobby horse for me for a while, is watching the left get radicalized on the notion of the Supreme Court and what democracy is. I think you said it perfectly in the opening of this is more of a defeat for leftists than it's a victory. This is how our country should work. It was ridiculous to begin with.

But the left doesn't really take these things well. They've had an effort for years now to try and pass. the court with groups like Fix the Court, Soros-funded groups, left-wing dark-minded groups, whose whole bent is the last thing standing in their way is the Supreme Court or else they can have total control of the country. And you're seeing that freak out in real time. So as absurd as it sounds when Keith Olderman says the Supreme Court needs to be dissolved, destroyed, they're actually working to make that happen right now. There's even been an effort to try to push Sotomayor to retire because they're worried Joe Biden can't win. And they want to make sure they have his

young of justice is there as possible. So there's basically no line the left is not willing to cross to get their way. Yeah, that was smug, and we've heard from both Josh Holmes and comfortably smug, so I'll bring him Michael and John as well. You know, I want to veer at times away from simply like kicking the left, because somehow when you do just kick the left, you lose some sense of credibility on what might be objectively true, at least in the world of perception. And so I do my best at times to recognize reality. Like, is there some element on the right of a potential embrace of authoritarianism? Yes.

The question is, how big is it, right? I think it's tiny. I don't think it's this overwhelming movement within the right. And I bring that up to say, when I say the following, I'm really attempting to not make a partisan point, but be objective. There is a huge movement on the left to destroy every institution of constitutional republic. in order to what in their minds or their language, John would be to save democracy, but really it is to consolidate power. And, you know, it's popular, meaning like actors like John Cryer will say do away with the Supreme Court

or pack the Supreme Court at a minimum. But it's also intellectual, like we're pointing out with guys like Ellie Mistle. And at this point, I think you would have to, if we, if the five of us sat together and said, what institution has not come under the microscope of potential destruction of the left, we'd struggle to find some institution that's safe. from their target yeah i mean look everything from the electoral college to the supreme court to the filibuster um you know when the left gets its hands on the wheels of power in this country the first thing that they try to do is remove every guardrail from them accumulating more power i mean

you know we're talking about this when we were on cnn last week but like if you want to censor how radical the democrats are they want a huge swing state victory in arizona and elected Kirsten Sinema, the first thing they did is ran her out of the party because she wouldn't eliminate the filibuster in the Senate to get everything that they want past, you know, in their left wing fantasy. So, I mean, I agree with you 100% will. Every time that they point to us and say that we're radical, I mean, like the proofs right there, you just look at the last three years. Yeah. And Ashbrook, we've talked about higher education in and of itself, which I think could basically be the feeder system for an awful lot of this discussion. It's a feeder system

directly into a number of institutions in our country, chiefly the mainstream press. And I mean, to be honest with you, Will, and you've noticed this over the years, one of the worst offenders of left-wing ideology has been the mainstream press. And it's because every single newsroom at major broadcasters, major newspapers, is filled with people who are single-mindedly focused on a left-wing agenda. And you hear that from the right a lot. You hear the complaint. Oh, conservatives are just complaining about the press again.

But there's a reason why people complain. because it is fundamentally biased. It leans toward the views of the people who are delivering the news. People consume news. They turn on the news because they want information. They want to know what the weather's going to be. They want to know what's happening in Washington. They want to know if the world's about to end.

And that's really why maybe to get the box scores from a baseball. But that's why they're tuning in. They're not tuning in for somebody's left-wing political point of view. And that's why these numbers are coming down for subscriptions in major newspapers. numbers are coming down for viewers at these major broadcast networks because the left has made it so one-sided that not only is it not informative it's actually not interesting hey Josh who's the on the panel today the four of you who is the resident redneck well that's going to be smug I'll take that title yeah and I don't know we have all kinds of

different smears that we use for him on a day-to-day basis but he's the guy that's closest to the ground around here and that was the one that we We met the last. And so he's, I think he's got, if you're looking for a real controversial opinion here, well, that's your spot. That's where you got to go. Perfect. Bump set spike coming your way, comfortably smug.

As someone who would never, I don't, it's like who gets to claim themselves as redneck? Well, I don't know. I grew up in a small town in Texas. I worked on a ranch in Montana. Let's just say I'm redneck adjacent. I am familiar with the redneck. it's not just institutions though that are the target of the left so when something happens on the right when somebody is upset with something on the right and again i'm trying to be as objective

and fair as possible the criticism usually falls on the decision it usually falls on the policy that doesn't mean we're above ad hominem attack i mean to the extent that joe biden's senility and fragility are ad hominem those are legitimate issues and we will talk about the person but what i'm talking about is the left when they find defeat or they find controversy, it's usually less about the idea and more about the institution or the person that they disagree with. And they're not afraid to malign the voter. And I'm struck by this book. And I don't expect anybody to be listening or watching right now to be familiar with it. But it's made the rounds on MSNBC. And it's called it's rural white rage or white rural rage. And it's these authors that have blamed everything

that's happening in the country on white rural voters. In short, what you and I can talk about here, Smug, which is rednecks. And this appearance on MSNBC, I mean, he goes through a list of one of the authors, it's two authors, talking to Mika Brasinski on Morning Joe. I mean, he said, look, they're racist, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, they are xenophobic, and that's just number one. Number two, they are, they're conspiracists against, you know, QAnon, election denialism, COVID denialism. Number three, they have anti-democratic sentiment, including white and Christian nationalist. And number four, the white rural voter is not afraid to resort to violence. The entirety of the argument is, you know what the problem here is? I don't know what white rural

voters make up. It's not half. But the problem is those people. Yeah, that's exactly it. I think you framed it perfectly. The problem with the left is they're essentially run by a mob at this point and they're not necessarily united by issues you know for conservatives for folks on the right it's an issue-based situation when we make decisions that's what you know we believe in individualism they believe in collectivism so the number one way that they can unite people who who might have completely different views it's why you saw queers for Palestine protesting there's no reason that these two groups should be aligned but

the left cows everyone together into a mob and they do that specifically by saying anyone who disagrees with us is evil and they go through the standard list of slurs they say this person's a racist this person's violent i don't know if they've looked at like any data lately on crimes but the crime isn't happening in rural areas it's happening in cities that democrats typically control so all the attacks that they try to smear none of it's based in fact none of it's based in data all of it is just to tell their mob hey that guy who disagrees with us he's evil but it's also a real tell will i mean if you look at the mod democratic party i mean three of us grew up in the midwest and and you know that i think the

democratic party of 20 years ago is very different than the one today you look around at how it is today it very much this sort of limousine liberal coastal elite you know chilled shibbley as we like to put it on our show but it's become sort of a top so top down that exactly what you're saying is that they're uniting this diverse group of people who can't agree on anything i mean literally nothing imagine like environmentalists and union members but somehow under the same tent because you can unite everyone around this like well those people are bad and part of that i have to assume is that those people are made those people because they never interact with them they never they never they never any conversations with anybody yeah that's that's a really really good point because you

you read a list of all of these things that that white rural voters supposedly are one thing that they are not is in power in this country joe biden is president The LIBs run every single university. They run every single major mainstream media outlet, or most of them anyway. And the reality is that they are in power, and they're blaming people who are out of power for all of their problems. I just, I don't have any time for it. It is the most frustrating thing that you hear out of the left. They just blame people for their own problems.

Yep. It's not only that they're punching eyes, in order. to unite that that fractured base that you guys talked about they have to you know it's like in lost you know as long as there's a the others we can keep ourselves together i mean that's the way that that's the point of war as well you know it's like okay is everyone projects the u.s the way to unify the country is an alien invasion but their alien invasion is the rural white voter i mean it's just other eyes divide by the way so that takes me um that i want to we'll bounce back and forth between various topics but i want to follow it as it as it fits i was struck by the the fox news

polls over the weekend, where it's just, it's all good news for Donald Trump. But the place where it was really bad news for Joe Biden is yes, when he had, there's a, there's a question about where he succeeded and where he's failed. The biggest failure is on, on the southern border. 71% of respondents say it's a huge failure. But the second biggest failure was 69% of people saying he gets an F is on unifying the country. And like, that's, that was the, that was the banner. that was flown in 2020, you know, and we're saving democracy. And it's pretty eye-opening to see, like, maybe people do see what you just talked about, Michael. I mean, maybe people see this whole divisive strategy is doing the opposite of unifying the country.

Well, I mean, what is the first thing that Joe Biden did after he was sworn in? He went ahead and he attacked every, you know, red state governor in the country that was trying to pass reforms to their election. laws and called them jim crow 2.0 makes jim crow look like jim eagle i think was the quote yeah right and then it was maga extremist um and so yeah i mean like look you reap what you sow here and joe biden has spent the last three years dividing this country and calling his opponents racist yeah no and and it's funny that you mentioned will the way he campaign versus the way he governed i mean you're right his whole center of his campaign was like just restoring order to think things, right? This is like your old establishment guy, he was not going to make any waves,

he was just going to calm the country down. And then he does that on day one. He opens up the border through a series of executive orders. He passes a multi-trillion dollar giveaway to democratic interests around this country, creating inflation, creating more division. I mean, literally, if you were to map out a way to do the exact opposite of what Joe Biden pledged to do during the course of his 2020 campaign, you wouldn't change a thing. It was exactly the worst thing to do at the worst time. And now I think the polls reflect a common assumption amongst all of us that that didn't work.

It just didn't work. What do you guys think? Now, this will be to all four of you then. So, like, what do you think they'll do in response to this reality? Like, so one of the first things they're going to do, I think I'm a little surprised, but I think it's pretty clear that one of the biggest things they'll try to do over the next six months is tie Republicans to Russia. Again, it will all be about.

Russia. And then, you know, then by extension, it's we're saving America from authoritarianism and alignment with a foreign power and therefore we're saving democracy. That poll suggests to me, hey, that's probably not going to work. We might see abortion come back. I don't know. The law fair, as we started the show with today, with Donald Trump winning 9-0 with the Supreme Court, the lawfare seems to be failing. The timeline of the cases don't seem to be adding up happening before the election, which leads us to what will they do? Like, and I've been someone who believes they will replace Joe Biden. I put that to you guys at Ruthless.

Yeah, I think I totally agree. What I was going to say, Will, is the one thing that I think they will do is replace Biden on the ballot because they've tried everything that you've listed and none of it seems to work. If you look at the national polls, President Trump is leading by 2% nationally. And you mentioned the Fox poll and break it down state by state in the key states where Biden won in 2020, Trump is leading by a. significant number and democrats cannot cannot deal with that so what i think they will try to do

is allow republicans to run their convention and then this is just one guy's theory president biden announces for the good of the country the good of the party i will not continue to run as my party's nominee for president and that allows somebody like baroque obama or a father figure in their party to say at our convention we're going to put up for or five names and let the, let the delegates at the convention decide. It's a way that they can placate Kamala Harris, but also get around her being their nominee, because as bad as Joe Biden is, Kamala Harris is that much worse. We all know it. We've all seen her on TV over and over and over again. And there are others on their bench that are far more capable of executing a winning campaign

in November. They cannot do it with Joe Biden. And if they do, they're asking for a loss. Smug, you got thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean, I agree with that. So the big pickle that they have is the whole reason Joe Biden picked Kamala Harris is because she called him a racist. So, you know, on the Democrat side, that kind of works. But it ended up being one of the only good decisions he's ever made because now there's a situation where, okay, if we get rid of her, we're stuck with Kamala, who, I mean, she can't even complete a sentence. It's like because there's nothing up there. It's not because she got old. The ultimate insulation.

Yeah. And then the other problem they face is if they try to get rid of her, all of a sudden you have the backbone of the Democratic Party, which is. black women voters upset that. Okay, so they're just completely going to throw us to the side and find someone new that they want, especially if they get Gavin Newsom to go in because the Democrats have kind of conditioned their supporters to believe white men are evil. And so that doesn't help the case for Gavin Newsom. I mean, I think Ashbrook's completely right when he says that there's no winning formula for Joe Biden. I mean, we've now seen what his record looks like as a president, so they can't run on the record. So they're just going to play the hits from

2020 they'll say okay democracy's dangerous uh russia's back they're going to play all the old hits and hope that it works and it absolutely won't okay uh so i i don't think the lawfare is over and i think they're sort of still pinning their hopes to that and i think that's the only reason joe biden stays on is the nominee you got to like realize will like the the democrat psyche uh has been broken over the last six years they've always thought that there's some you know shining night on a white horse that's going to come and save them first it was going to be robert muller and then it was michael avonauty and then it was adam shift and now it's you know a series of prosecutors around the country they're always looking for this you know ex machina moment where someone's going to

come in and save them of course no one's coming to save them but if i'm them and i'm looking at this nine-no decision from the supreme court what i do look at is the timeline or arguments in this case were just three weeks ago so they they rendered a decision very very quickly so april April 22nd, I think, is when they're going to hear oral arguments in the immunity claim that Donald Trump is making before the United States Supreme Court. So, okay, three, four weeks from that, you're looking at the middle of May. And for them, maybe they're just holding out hope they can get one more of these things to trial date, right? Like the D.C. Jan 6 case or the Mar-a-Lago docs case.

So I think they're going to pin their hopes on that because the polling does not look good. No, no, I think that's right. I mean, the one noted caution I have to conservatives is they're looking about, you know, where these polls are now. There's an awful lot of consolidation that has yet to be done on the Democratic side. Tons of frustration over things like Israel, young voters, you know, people who support the idea of a Palestinian state, all that. We saw that play out in Michigan. None of that stuff can be cobbled together on its own without a, as you suggested, other way of campaigning. And Donald Trump's going to be the other.

They had very, very successful othering during 2020. And I think that they deep down believe they can do it again. I think they look at some of these polls with independents, particularly in suburban areas. And they think there's a soft piece of that showing up and polling right now that can be re-solidified with the idea that Donald Trump's about to bring chaos back to this country. Now, I happen to think they're a little shy on where they need to be if you look at these polls right now. but it's not the worst play in the world, is my point. And it is not impossible to imagine a scenario in October of 24 where they've been able to reconsolidate an awful lot of those voters

and make this a real nail-biter. I'm Janice Dean. Join me every Sunday as I focus on stories of hope and people who are truly rays of sunshine in their community and across the world. Listen and follow now at Fox Newspodcast.com. It is time to take the quiz. It's five questions in less than five minutes. We ask people on the streets of New York City to play along.

Let's see how you do. Take the quiz every day at thequiz.com. Then come back here to see how you did. Thank you for taking the quiz. All right, I'm going to follow up with something each of you said. So I'm going to go back to you first, Michael. So let's stay with the law fair. So if you're inside their mind and they get a trial date sometime in summer,

either on the Marilago Classified Documents case or the January 6th case, is the idea, again, in their mind, if I get it into a courtroom, I pommel Donald Trump's polling numbers, or if I get a conviction, I pummel Donald Trump's electability. I still think they haven't reconciled with the fact that an indictment, and I know we talk about the polling, like conviction versus indictment have much different effects on a poll. So they're betting on the effect of conviction on the electorate. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, that's what they ultimately want is every one of their ads to start off with convicted felon Donald Trump. I mean, if you look at some of the polls conducted earlier this year on, you know, the hypothetical that they would ask to voters, if Donald Trump is convicted of one of these, you know, felony charges in these cases, you know, would you still vote for him? And it moves numbers, you know? I mean, we don't know ultimately how this will be metabolized by the electorate. Obviously, different cases that probably have different outcomes, for Donald Trump. I mean, you know, the case in New York where they trumped up a misdemeanor to 40 felony accounts, I think is processed differently from, you know, by the electorate than, say, the DC-G-N-6 case or the Mar-a-Lago docs case.

But those two cases really are the ones with the most political liability for Donald Trump. So they want to get those into a courtroom. And ultimately, back to Holmes's point, they want to run a referendum campaign against Donald Trump. They don't want to run an election where they don't want to run an election where they're they have to sell Joe Biden, right? Yeah. And so being in the courtroom and having wall-to-wall media coverage and all of that allows them to make that argument.

Okay. And in the follow up to you, Ashbrook, so if you and I both agree that ultimately it's going to add up to just the inability to run Joe Biden out there. And that doesn't even factor in yet the age thing. By the way, have you guys noticed in the past two weeks? They seem to be happy to talk about age. Like, they're trying to talk about Donald Trump's age and his senility. Like, this is the issue.

you guys want to do this? You want to have this fight? I can't believe. They're like, yeah, let's do this. But Ashbrook, if we're right, and they go to the convention, and I like what you said, so that's, so, okay, they throw it to the floor with four candidates, and that's the way they kind of can do the Kamala thing without doing Kamala. They can say, oh, look, you know, the delegates didn't pick Kamala. Who are those four or five names? Is it Newsom? Is it Whitmer? Like, who's on the floor that they're discussing at the Democratic Convention? Well, I think you named two of them. I think Gavin. Kevin Newsom is one of them. I think that Gretchen Whitmer is one. There's a guy named Josh Shapiro, who's the governor of Pennsylvania. He could be one. This guy named West Moore, who's the governor of Maryland. He's, you know, maybe you saw the video of him doing a shotgun and beers outside of the Ravens game. He's younger, obviously a huge contrast with Joe Biden. He could be one. They've got they've got a bench, you know, a mile long. And I think that that bench of people who are like, wait a minute, I really want to run.

this should be my turn that bench is agitating behind the scenes nobody would ever do it publicly but behind the scenes for an opportunity for their close up this fall because they know that Biden's going to come up short so oh yeah i was just going to say it's also why ashbrook's theory the case here that they have to do this at a convention i think is the only way that you could actually get it done because of all the people that you just mentioned on the bench plus elizabeth warren plus amy klobuchar plus kori booker i mean none of them were wanted to just hand it over anybody they've all run for president before and i think the idea that you have any sort of open debate within democratic politics that's great irony by the way democracy does not a not a perfect

fit within the democratic party but but the idea that you can do that publicly and have another moment where they all raise their hands on stage saying yeah open the border will give everybody benefits is something you cannot do in the shadow of an election this big they can't have it And so it has to be sort of behind the scenes if it's going to get done. So you said something fascinating again, Ashbrook, you're winning today. You said something again. No, no, you guys are all great. I'm loving this.

No, but the deep bench thing, I've never thought about Democrats having a deep bench and rattling off those names. And it certainly is deep compared to the people at the top. It's like your starters stink, you know, obviously. like Biden and Harris stink. I'm not sure that adds up to meaning your bench players are good, but they might be better than your starters. And I wanted to bring you guys in on this.

One of my producers, by the way, is a big fan of Ruthless. And he was saying, you do have a bit of a debate amongst yourself going on between like, you know, kind of, look, we can talk about McConnell, but maybe some establishment instincts versus some America first there at the table at Ruthless, which I love that debate. I love that healthy tension. I got, I had this, I did a Fox Nation primary show about a week ago, and Congressman Michael Walts was on.

He said, Republicans have a deep bench. And I didn't feel the same way. I said, you know, when I looked at the Republican primary and I saw everybody on the stage, I just didn't feel, and we could argue politicians shouldn't make you feel inspired, but I didn't feel vision and future. And I wonder, I have this constant wonders, what happens to, you know, I don't. conservatism after Donald Trump. I, for one, like the repositioning towards America first. I like a populist instinct. And this is a change for me that I would openly, you know, lay out there for the

audience. This is a change over the past, really for me, like five years. But I do have this concern that obviously a lot of it is about him as a personality, as him as an individual. And without him, what happens to the movement? And I'm, you know, I don't know. I think Ron DeSantis is actually much more hawkish when it comes to foreign policy than Donald Trump. And were he president, we would probably see that. That's not the only issue of America first. But I don't know that I see a deep bench that's going to continue a movement either for Republicans. Well, look, this is a theory that I've had all the way back before we even knew we were going to have a primary, which is you never win a Republican nomination ever, literally ever, when you're trying to surf off the wave

of another movement that had already had success, right? If just in recent memory, if you look at 2016, you had 16 candidates on stage basically trying to do one iteration of the Tea Party of 10, 12, and 14, and then one guy out doing his own thing in Donald Trump, right? If you look back, even George W. Bush was very, very different than his father, H.W. Bush,

in terms of domestic policy, things like education, energy, and other things. What I saw coming into this is a whole bunch of people that were either trying to do a Donald Trump routine, not named Donald Trump, or basically not in a position to win the primary in the first place. I think that was a recipe for disaster. At some point, there will be someone with an authentic vision that you haven't heard before,

making an argument that is very, very compelling for some of the things you believe in, some of the things that I believe in. Ultimately, what it's about in terms of being a nominee is figuring out how to cobble together a not nearly as crazy different Republican Party as Democrats have trying to cobble together on their side, but with a central vision and sort of this umbrella message that Donald Trump has really done really well with over the years.

I think the principles have largely remained the same. Foreign policy, there might be a few things in there, but I do have hope, Will. I think there are an awful lot of people out there who can look at the electorate of where Republicans are right now, who our voters are, conservative policies or they wouldn't have gotten this into this in the first place. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, Ashbrook mentioning the issue that they have on the Democrat side is it's kind of like they have a pent-up bench of folks.

There's been a third of a century where at the top of the ticket, it's been a Clinton, an Obama, or a Biden. And they have basically just held on for dear life and kept the rest of the folks out from having a voice in that party. Meanwhile, on the Republican side, I think this primary was a prime example. What Joshua said is, yeah, you had people who were trying to act like Donald Trump. But going forward after Trump is the presidential candidate, we still have a ton of people. Look at how much attention Vivek Ramoswami got, came out of nowhere and got a vision that a lot of people agreed with and could see a positive future with. And across the country, we've got governors who are all-stars, we've got new senators who have been younger senators. who've been arriving to the Senate.

There's a lot of hope for the future on the Republican side while they're still trying to run yesterday's candidates on the Democrat side. Yeah, and you he mentioned governors. I mean, right now Greg Abbott, governor of Texas, is standing up to the feds and actually trying to shut down the border to his state. He's doing things that Joe Biden will not do. That's the kind of contrast that a guy could take into a campaign in 28.

A lot of people talk about Brian Kemp in his fight with Donald Trump. What they forget about is that when Brian Kemp first ran for office, He ran as, here's my truck, here's my gun. I'm going to use both of them, and I don't care what you think about it. That is a, that is a, and if you know the guy, if you talk to him, it's a genuine part of his personality. That's the kind of thing that people will be able to see in the years after President Trump steps off the stage. Look, I mean, the reality is President Trump is a unique figure in American history, not just politics, not just this presidential election in American history. He stood on stage and he shaped an entire party, an entire message, an entire movement, and an entire country to something that a lot of others weren't talking about.

And he did it through willpower and he did it by, in a lot of ways, you know, one of the things we talk about that we joke about, Donald Trump might be the greatest press secretary who ever walked in face of the area. Everybody's like, oh, all they do is fight against the press and fight against the press. well, you know who's calling people and trying to shape things behind the scenes. It's him by himself. He's not leaving it up to a staffer. He's in charge. And so, like, you're right, Will, when he steps off the scene, things are going to change. But I think that I think there's a lot of hope for the Republican Party. Well, and my concern is when he steps off the scene, you revert to instincts. I don't know that I agree. So, Josh, you said two things that I find fascinating. I don't know that I agree that I see this great big variation in Republican candidates as you go throughout the years. I'm not saying they're all the same, and maybe I'm guilty of now living in a world of Donald Trump,

but like the bandwidth of variation between Republicans for many, many, I mean, you could argue decades, was relatively tight. Like John McCain, Mitt Romney, George W. Bush, you know, we're talking about degrees of difference. And then Donald Trump comes along and blows out the bandwidth. And so I think, but I'm intrigued by your idea of vision. And, you know, we're always accused of fighting yesterday's war, preparing for the war we just fought and thinking it's tomorrow's war. And what you're saying, Josh, is we're also doing the same thing with politics is we're trying, we're gauging and grading and trying to win elections on being the next Donald Trump and the guy that truly wins is the one who has his own unique vision that he can sell. And I find that incredibly fascinating. But I will ask all of you on this, like maybe each of you give me your one name.

Like, who do you think? Like, if you're projecting right now, because I'm going to not be, I'm going to tell you at the outset, if the four of you give me names that are inside that bandwidth, it's not going to do it for me. Like, if we, I'm concerned, Ashbrook, to your point, I'm concerned we revert to the mean. I'm concerned we go back without Donald Trump to Romney and McCain and Bush. And that this ends up being this great historical exception. I hope Josh is right. And we have another guy with his own unique vision that takes us in a positive direction forward.

I don't. I'll, since you mentioned my name, I'll start with this. I don't think, one thing I really agree with Josh on is that I don't think it's possible for somebody to come in after Donald Trump without their own vision. And the vision of yesterday's Republican Party is not going to succeed in today's Republican Party. They just can't do it. So it's going to take somebody like Greg. Sorry to interrupt. Real quick. If Donald Trump were not in the race, do you think the Republican elector right now would embrace Nikki Haley? If there were no Donald Trump, would we have Nikki Haley as our presidential candidate? That, but that, I don't know. Maybe DeSantis, maybe Haley, but you can't. It's a different coalition, though. Well, like, the thing is, is it's a pretty dynamic electorate. And I think this, the core Trump voter that you're focusing on here, no, I don't think that they would be happy with Nikki Haley at all. But I think, Nikki Haley probably opens up a opportunity for your center right that Donald Trump doesn't have. And so it's a different coalition of people. I certainly don't think that the Donald Trump base would ever cast a ballot for Joe Biden, you know, whether or not they even vote at all, I think is the only question worth asking there. And the polls show that she would have some

poll that Donald Trump doesn't in a different segment of the electorate. And I think that's one of the mistakes that all these candidates made all along is that they were basically trying to win Donald Trump's electorate. You can't beat Donald Trump at Donald Trump's electorate. I mean, you're kidding? I always quote Big Lebowski, how are you going to keep Bonnie down on the farm once you've seen Carl Hungas? I mean, they're not. They saw Carl Hungus. Boney's not staying on that farm, right? And so it's going to be different no matter what going forward. And I think there's just a lot of people who have different machinations within a conservative election. electorate to get the job done we do also fall back on the fact that like he's the most recent

president we know to think political history started with donald trump and the republican party and we've talked about it previously on ruthless but you know after the 2014 election we had 54 Republican Senate seats in 240 Republican House majority you know I mean like those are huge historic numbers and then Donald Trump went in and supercharged it with the you know adding people to the coalition now i just think long-term success the republican parties can require doing those two things like keeping part of that suburban coalition that dominated in the republican party for so long and also appealing to the donald trump electorate a more rural um electorate uh in those two things in concert i think a recipe for success for republican party in the future they're not mutually exclusive

everybody wants to act like they are they're really not it's just a matter of having a messenger that can do that. Yeah, but just to go back to there is no other Donald Trump. He's unique. The next person is not going to be Donald Trump. They're also not going to be Mitt Romney. They're going to be something a little bit, actually a lot closer to Donald Trump than they are to the 08 version of who Republicans nominated.

It's just I believe that. I hope you're right. This is Jimmy Phala, inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com. I hope you're Ashbrook. By the way, in the mid-show rankings, I mean, huge leap forward for Josh invoking the Big Lebowski.

Like, the most important one movie. It's the number one movie on my list. It's literally number one. And that beat out a lot of westerns. And it was so good, you made me forget where I was going to go as a follow-up. I get there and I'm tight and tight. I'll go back to you, Michael, because you kind of seem to be, I don't, I don't, in our short conversation together, interested in the lawfare angle of this. Man, am I blown away by Letitia James?

Like, Latisha James, the AG of New York, she's great. I love her because she's like, she's not hiding it. She let you know the entire lawfare playbook. Hey, we're going to, she filed a lawsuit last week, apparently, against the biggest beef provider for not having a net zero plan. And she jumped in on a Colorado case. And I mean, they do with New York about the cake shop that doesn't want to, you know, make the gay wedding cake. She kind of is like sodium pentatol. She's truth serum.

She lays it out naked for everybody. This is who we are, Letitia James in New York. Absolutely perfect. Yes. The Democrats, whether it's that case or it's the other case, would like you to believe that, you know, democracy's at stake. And that's why we have to stop Donald Trump. And, you know, I think we all recognize here that what this is, is, is a lot of them. a politicized process where they're doing everything they possibly can to beat Donald Trump at the ballot box.

It's not ultimately about the truth or, you know, I mean, look, she's tweeting out the interest on the judgment that Donald Trump owes. She's tweeting it out every single day. I mean, she's a gift to Republicans that she's laying it all bare for the public to see that this is all political. Yeah, mid-show rankings, Will, where do you put Fannie and Tish on your rankings? I mean, it seems like a fierce competition for the most incompetent prosecution. And I just, where did he come down? Who is it? Who did you say, Tish and who?

Fannie. The most incompetent. Oh, Fannie. Yeah, Fannie Wallace, Georgia. Yeah, I know. Yeah, I know. And I have, I'm glad you took my pronunciation. If you said Fawny, I wouldn't know who you were talking about.

That's the big, is she Fawny or is she Fannie? I mean, I think she. wants to be fanny. Fanny most incompetent. I mean, James, by the way, has a judgment on her hands. At least you can claim a W right now in the court system, even if it's horrendous. Smug, let's get back to some controversy, so you've been missing for way too long. I'm going to throw you two racial news items in the story, and you help me reconcile these too, and you can't. I'm always here for that.

But University of Florida, through the state laws passed by Ron DeSantis, they banned DEI. And I guess the Florida system is the first implementant because maybe they have a Boulder Board of Regents and say the Florida state system. By the way, that drew the ire of one of my childhood heroes, Emmett Smith, because he doesn't understand the difference between equality and equity. Literally, in his tweet going after it, he replaced the word equity with equality. But great thing, great thing in Florida. And then in that same Fox News polling, this is shocking. So Donald Trump, I don't know, I think he's in the 20% range with black voters, but the Latino voters, shocking. He's beating Biden 46 to 40, and he lost it in 2020, 65 to 32.

Like, that's a massive swing in Latino voters towards Donald Trump. Yeah, and you know what? I think actually these two stories are completely intertwined. And DEI is basically the heart of the modern progressive movement, of the left. Their belief in, again, like we said, uniting all these different coalitions who would seemingly not have anything to agree with, almost by a threat of force. And so you're seeing, I think it was specifically after the attack on Israel when even leftists were horrified to see on college campuses, you know, posters of Israeli hostages

being torn down. the whole belief that DEI has is you are like born into sin there's no redemption for that there is an oppressor and there's the oppressed and we decide who is who and you have to march lockstep with that it's a horrendous horrendous system and like you said there's a significant difference between equality and equity the equity part that the left pushes is essentially just trying to create permission for themselves to punish their enemies and so that's what you're seeing that their whole reason of oh well we're allowed to riot because this is is part of equity. You have to have justice enacted by mobs. And what you're seeing is there's

a significant portion of the Latino community that's not with that message at all. They do not see themselves as victims. They do not necessarily kowtow to the left's demands of what they believe. We saw, you see polling on the term Latin X. Over 97% of Latinos are offended by the use of that term. That's a change of their entire language by leftists. who demand how it works is changed because they want to be able to have their pronouns and everything that they want to force on others. So they've alienated a significant part of that population. I would not be surprised to see the numbers go up from the 32% that Donald Trump already got in 2020. Yeah, I think that's right.

Well, there's another side to that. I'll just add this and then you guys jump back in. So obviously there's all kinds of cultural issues that would attract Latinos towards the GOP. But the other thing is if you're going to play this coalition thing of we're going to elevate you on the totem pole in hierarchy higher than someone else, then you've got to have your constant finger on the pulse of who's above and who is below. And like I remember when I had a radio show on ESPN, and it was during the George Floyd's, you know, national reckoning. I remember Latino dudes calling into my sports show and being like, you know, like, no one's talking about us. Like, where do we fit in this new national framework that everything is black and white? And the DEI regime, although I know it makes allowances for every race,

you know who's left out of the entire handout that is equity, the entire ranking of hierarchies? It's the biggest racial minority in America. It's Latinos. Like they have no place in the DEI totem pole. Yeah, it's one of the most taken for granted elements of the Democratic base and coalition is that they've sort of played lip service to the Latino community for 20 years, just assuming that everybody shows up and supports Democrats because they always have. have. And what you're seeing in a whole bunch of places around this country that in particular

have multi-generational Latino communities, people who have been here, who've had success, who have families, who've grown their communities, you know, there's a huge awakening that has happened within those communities to say, like, all right, hold on, we've voted Democrat for a long time. What are they doing for us? What are they doing for us? And the way that they're speaking about our community as if it's monolithic right as if the cuban and south florida is the exact same as the mexican american in southern california yeah like it's just it they've kind of mashed all this together to a point where you're like yeah it that it's fine you're democrat you speak spanish right no no no you're democrat don't worry about it it makes no sense and meanwhile on

the republican side you're seeing a whole bunch of like nominees for the republican party in these districts reflecting their community with conservative principles. You see that along the South Texas border. You see that in South Florida. It's now happening increasingly in places like Colorado, Nevada, and other places. And that is only going to bring more success. Donald Trump or no Donald Trump within the Republican Party and the larger conservative movement for years to come.

And not just Latinos. Think about Asian Americans. You know, like DEI is hostile to Asian Americans. It's not just about like forgetting. no it's like they're the target they're the target they're like no we do think it's good yeah just try to discriminate against asian americans it's true it's like everybody kind of blows past that they're like no no no you're the target right your admission number is the one we don't want but it goes back to what smug is you know has said from the beginning and i love the way he

sort of clinically walked through that entire explanation of DEI but there are just oppressors and the oppressors and sorry asian americans now you're oppressors And Jews and Latinos. And also, like, the response that the left has had to this is completely insane. Like, I think it was the Washington Post who had a headline saying that Latinos can be white supremacist too. Yeah, that's right. None of this is making sense. You know, they've got their work cut out for them to get people to believe this.

Yeah. All right. Are you guys, as we wind down the home stretch here, I don't think I've made. any of you guys in person um are in but you're a bunch of dudes uh are you guys are you guys oh my god we are just like the most massive sports guys my number one question to you is how the hell it is that you got out of sports and into politics because i trade with you and it's heartbeat but how i'm not trying to be mean josh but that doesn't make you any different than anybody else like everybody in politics wants to be in sports and everybody in sports

wants to be in politics. It's the weirdest thing in the world. I'll give you the serious answer really quickly. You know, I was in politics and news before I went to ESPN and did sports, and so I was always kind of in this vein. I was a contributor at CNN and National Review for a while, but 2020, I just think 2020 changed everything. It's like, you know, I could talk about cultural issues and I love sports and I love talking about sports, but I just wanted to take it more head on. And I had the opportunity behind the scenes to make the move. So let's talk sports for just a second. So Caitlin Clark at the University of Iowa is a stud.

She has broken the all-time NCAA scoring record, which the reason we're talking about today is she beat Pistol Pete Marevich's record from, I don't even remember. Was he in the 50s, 60s? It was like 70s, I think. Yeah, he was at LSU in the 70s. He was at LSU in the 70s?

Wow. Seems older for some reason. So she beats that record. And I think that we've got this weird thing going on where, like, there is an element of the coverage and I guess, you know, it is coverage-based, but to elevate what she's done and put it on the same plane as Marevich.

And it's just not. It's a different sport. I mean, not just because it's male-female. Maravich didn't have a three-point line or a shot clock, which meant, like, you're a scoring leader when everybody's trying to keep the score as low as possible. That's incredible. But then on the other hand,

there are people who are diminishing what she's doing, and those are the people within the world of women's basketball. That's like Cheryl Swoops, you know, she's a Hall of Famer, Texas Tech, WNBA. And I think it's, I think we know why, let's be real. That's race. The reason is because Caitlin Clark is white. And, I mean, if we're just getting right down to it, that's what's going on with people like Cheryl Swoops. But on the other hand, Outkick here at Fox had an article where it's like got after the University of Iowa coach because she said, well, I don't think we should try to beat men's bars.

I don't think we should try to beat Merovich. She already got the women's scoring title. And I actually agree with that. It's like celebrate her for becoming the all-time women's leading score. Why do you have to compare her to Marevich? It's apples and oranges. Yeah, I think that's probably right. It is one of the very few scoring, you know,

this scoring title is one of the very few things you can do in any sport that has a comparable marker. But for all the reasons that you suggested and others, it's not the same. It's not the same. I am absolutely totally disgusted by people who try to put her down, though. I mean, this is this is a generational athlete and and if you needed to think about how significant her place is, look at the TV ratings, right? I mean, women's college basketball was absolutely nowhere for years, you know, rivaling WMBA, which is a ghost town. And then all of a sudden she shows up in the last couple of years and they're beating like men's bowl games in terms of overall audience.

That in and of itself should tell you how significant a character and a figure this. is in sports, period, not like men's sports and women's sports. That's right. If you're raising girls who are playing sports, they're looking for figures who are like them that they can root for. And the only thing that you see on TV is, oh, men are dressing up like women and playing women's sports. And in reality, man, she is a hero to these girls who are looking for a hero.

They want a hero. And she's the best thing there is. Another thing that Outkick had that I thought was very funny that you guys found over the weekend. ESPN apparently said that she was at Iowa State. Did you guys see this? Yeah, they're not sending your best at NPN anymore. Which, by the way, if you're watching NBA coverage or men's college basketball,

they're going to shove some women's basketball at you. ESPN's going to be like, hey, you like some basketball? Here's some female basketball. They're going to shove it at you, like, consistently, but they can't get it right. So true. It's like seven promos every 15 minutes. It's like, no, here, here's another game. You like that game?

There's another game. You're like, no, no, I'm not interested in that game. I did like that she broke the record at the foul line. Yeah. I thought that was very poetic a way to do it, just like you and the record. You know what I mean? Yeah. And none of the noise, none of the commentary, none of the other players, just you and the shot.

And I liked that. I think it makes for a good storybook ending. Yeah. I hate to do this now that we're all being nice. And Josh has said the thing about like, you know, I really don't like people tearing her down. So how do I make this transition without it seem like I'm tearing her down? Which I'm not.

There was this sports radio station in Dallas that I have sort of a love, hate relationship with. They had this fascinating hypothetical. And they were like, the state champion high school football team in Dallas last year is really good. Like all the starters going D1. It's an incredible team, right? Here was the question. Could they beat the 1971 Dallas Cowboys Super Bowl champions? Like, you rewind history.

How long do you have to go back before? By the way, they're faster, bigger than anything. I mean, that team was full of Hall of Famers, the Cowboys. So those are some big guys. But they haven't seen anything like these motion offenses and the speed. And, you know, you got to normalize equipment and a normalize officiating rules. Like, who would win? And in the end, they were like, well, the Cowboys would win because it's men versus boys still.

Like, the same reason you can't beat up your dad until a certain age. But then there is an age when you can beat up your dad, right? And so how far do I have to rewind the WNBA All-Stars before they take down an NBA champion? Like, do I have to go 30 years, 40 years, 60s? Could they beat the Celtics of the 60s? You're not. You're still going to run into Bill Russell. There's no chance that works.

I think you've got to go before that. I mean, we're talking about Dr. James Naismith, perhaps in that era. And we get into something. Like, for real, though. I mean, they're just huge people. I mean, they're just huge people, but that alone. Well, I know I'm going to take a bunch of crap from you guys for mentioning this because you make fun of soccer.

I happen to like it. I'm with you, Michael. I'm with you. I'm with you, Mike. Thank you. Famously, the women's, you know, U.S. national team lost to a U-15 boys team. Like, the gender stuff just doesn't work, right? It's just totally, totally, totally different.

Yeah. They didn't lose to, they didn't just lose to like a U-15, you know, national team. They lost to the FC Dallas U-15. It is their MLS Academy team, but I mean, it's like one of 32, you know, in the country, and they lost to them. There is a gender thing, and I'm not trying to, I think Caitlin Clark's incredible. I think women's athletes are incredible. They should be judged on their own standard of against women and their own history, but I do like the time traveler thing. How far do we get back to the modern day?

I love that. We're going to start playing that. We'll get that with the immaculate. grid stuff going tomorrow morning we can come up with some stuff yeah unfortunately sports is the only thing you can do it in because of like you know bigger stronger faster you know Donald trump versus Ronald Reagan debate pretty fun to think about you know like that'd be good that would be awesome I can't even imagine that would be so good I mean honestly for being real Trump would find some way to make Reagan a joke and he would and I'm not saying that's good or bad but he would and

So what's the nickname? Like, first off, what nickname does he come up with? Well, he'll come up with one on stage. First of all, he'd call him a trash actor, right? All your movies sucked. Everybody knows that the only reason you do this is because it sucked. If you were any good, you'd still be in movies. Your wife's into astrology.

That's exactly what he would do. All right, man, this has been a lot of fun. Josh, Josh Holmes, comfortably smug, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook, you guys are great. Check out the Ruthless podcast. I've loved having you here on the Will Kane show. Thanks so much, fellas. Have a good show. Thank you, Will.

Thank you. We really appreciate it. All right. Take care. There they go. That's the host of the Ruthless podcast. You can go subscribe to them wherever you get your podcast, obviously, as you can tell. Great hang there to talk about both serious and light issues of the day.

Ruthless podcast. Follow each of them on Twitter as well. Comfortably Smug. Josh Holmes, Michael Duncan, John Ashbrook. That's going to do it for today here on The Will Kane Show. We'll be back all four days, Monday through Thursday, live 12 Eastern time, right here at Fox News.com and on the Fox News YouTube channel on the Fox News Facebook page. Until then, I'll see you again next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcast, and Amazon Prime members, you can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon music app.

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