Schumer Senate Struggles: Socialists, Scharts & Sex Scandal

**John Ashbrook** (0:00)
How many people, particularly in the DSA and on the left, have borrowed this anti-Semitic language that Bin Laden himself was using against Jewish people who are just like trying to say something to their government? They're not allowed, apparently.

**Josh Holmes** (0:16)
And that's always been trouble for like the fringe DSA types, when the DSA was a fringe type. The big problem here, it's not a fringe type.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:29)
It's their candidate.

**John Ashbrook** (0:30)
It's all of them.

**Josh Holmes** (0:32)
It's gotten to the point where Chuck Schumer himself is like, oh, you know, war with Iran, I hate it.
Israel's doing bad stuff. It's a guy who spent 30 years of his career defending Israel to the hilt. And all of a sudden, the base of the party is blaming Israel for everything. And so he's basically taking the pro-Himaf stance. Can we talk about Schumer shitting his pants?

**Michael Duncan** (0:55)
Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee took an important step in addressing the abuse of the 340B program, which was designed to help low-income patients access affordable health care by allowing certain hospitals to purchase prescription drugs at heavily discounted prices.
But recent scrutiny by lawmakers has revealed widespread abuse of the program. For example, hospitals, clinics and their for-profit partners pocketed over $100 billion in profits from 340B medicine markups in 2024 alone, with no rules requiring that money be used to help patients afford medicine. Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith said, tax-exempt hospital empires look less like hospitals and more like hedge funds, making stock investments, purchasing stadium naming rights, and even participating in political activism. That's why the Ways and Means Committee passed Congressman Greg Murphy's Tax-Exempt Hospital Transparency Act, which will increase transparency into hospitals and help rein in waste, fraud, and abuse. Visit americansforopengovernment.com to learn more.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:14)
This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

**Michael Duncan** (2:19)
I love the personality.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:19)
You guys are killing it.

**SPEAKER_5** (2:20)
I just saw your number one.

**Michael Duncan** (2:22)
Congratulations.

**Josh Holmes** (2:23)
It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

**John Ashbrook** (2:28)
Guys, I love you.

**SPEAKER_7** (2:30)
Congratulations on all your success.

**SPEAKER_8** (2:32)
This is why you listen to The Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question.

**John Ashbrook** (2:35)
The only political podcast worth listening to is The Ruthless Podcast.

**SPEAKER_6** (2:42)
The Ruthless Podcast. Fun.

**Josh Holmes** (2:46)
Time. Friday. Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. I'm Josh Holmes along with Michael Duncan and John Ashbrook. Smuggles had to go back home. We kept him away for a long period of time. Of course, he's got a young child. So he has to be a responsible father. We understand that. I think when we were in similar situations, that you had to go at a moment's notice if you were needed. But we had a hell of a week. Honestly, dragging a little bit.
But we're absolutely committed to making this as fun a time as possible. What we delivered to you on Thursday was, I hope what your takeaway was, was the same as ours, which is just a totally inspirational, incredible experience.
A one-of-one event that Senator Dave McCormick put together at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, that was awesome, but it was very substantive.

**John Ashbrook** (3:42)
It was.

**Michael Duncan** (3:42)
It was very high brow. And this is, of course, Fun Time Friday, which is, of course, low brow.

**Josh Holmes** (3:48)
And we're nothing without versatility here on the Ruthless Variety Program.

**John Ashbrook** (3:53)
That's exactly right. We did have a great time there. To be honest, we did have a great time. There were a lot of very important people. I feel like we did a very good show on Thursday, gave people something to be optimistic about. Of course, Smug gave me a very hard time because I focused a lot on the very small businesses, parts manufacturers out there in our country, and Smug was like, no, you need to talk about the major corporations.
Well, let me inform Smug what our audience thought.

**Michael Duncan** (4:22)
He's attacking Smug in his absence? Unbelievable.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:26)
This is outrageous.

**John Ashbrook** (4:28)
Well, let me just read a couple of comments. It's not me attacking him. It is people in our audience who seem to agree. Okay.

**SPEAKER_3** (4:38)
What is this?

**John Ashbrook** (4:39)
Karen Lee Nitz. When I lived in Ohio about 30 years ago, I worked for a company that made metal stamping machines like Ashbrook spoke about. Glad to hear it. Great shows usual. And Amanda Strumpf responded, what was the company I grew up in Ohio? My uncle did the same thing.