The Legacy of Sen. Graham, the Rise of the Conspiracy Grift & the Truth about Sen. McConnell

**Josh Holmes** (0:00)
There is nobody who better encapsulates the happy warrior ethos we talk a lot about in politics than Lindsey Graham.

**Comfortably Smug** (0:09)
I don't know if we would have had a Justice Kavanaugh without Lindsey Graham.

**Michael Duncan** (0:13)
Democrats quite literally tried to sabotage a very good man. What Republicans needed was someone to express authentically the indignity that was happening in real time on a public stage to give the American people just a little insight into how outrageous this whole thing is. Enter Lindsey Graham.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:33)
This is the most unethical sham since I've been in politics. And if you really wanted to know the truth, you sure as hell wouldn't have done what you've done to this guy.

**Michael Duncan** (0:46)
I do know that this is some wild conspiracy. And I do know that the Lindsey Graham thing, he wasn't poisoned by fucking Putin. He had an aortic tear.
A horrible situation and a heart attack that affected his father. You know, Mitch McConnell is not dead.
Charlie Kirk was not killed in Israel. Like those things are not true. But we've spent nine months talking about that. And it just spirals and spirals and spirals.

**Josh Holmes** (1:14)
I think it's important as a conservative movement, we nip in the bud the Kirkification of every news story. There are plenty of people who out of one side of their mouth will be like, that's disgusting. I can't believe Candice did all that stuff. And then Mitch McConnell releases a photo of himself being like, I'm getting better. The good news is I'm out of the hospital. I'm in rehab. And they're like, that is clearly AI. Yeah. Oh, he is actually brain dead.
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**SPEAKER_5** (3:01)
This program has become one of the most influential podcasts in America.

**Josh Holmes** (3:06)
I love the personality.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:07)
You guys are killing it.

**Josh Holmes** (3:08)
I just saw your number one.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:09)
Congratulations.

**Michael Duncan** (3:10)
It's an honor and a pleasure to welcome the great Sean Hannity.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:15)
Guys, I love you.

**SPEAKER_6** (3:17)
Congratulations on all your success.

**SPEAKER_5** (3:19)
This is why you listen to the Ruthless Podcast, because nobody else would ask that question. The only political podcast worth listening to is the Ruthless Podcast. The Ruthless Podcast.

**Michael Duncan** (3:32)
Good Tuesday to you.
Welcome back to the Ruthless Friday program. Josh Holmes along with Comfortably Smug and Michael Duncan. John Ashbrook is on assignment today. And I'm sad to have him on assignment today because I think he would have a lot of thoughts about things that we're about to cover.
Listen, the political world obviously has been captivated by the loss of Lindsey Graham, who is a good man, a good senator, and one of the more colorful figures that I think we've had in politics over the years. And there are many different components to Lindsey that we're going to discuss. We're going to show some of the highlights of Lindsey. But then in this broader sort of ecosystem and environment that we're in, I think there's some context that everybody needs to think about. At least the Ruthless Variety Program listeners. Not everybody. There's a lot of people there out online trying to do their best conspiracies and weirdness. But, you know, if you listen to the Ruthless Variety Program, we like to give it to you straight. And so we're going to talk about all of that. And then we're going to do some lightning. We're going to have some fun. Yeah. Because there is some great animal news today, by the way.

**Comfortably Smug** (4:49)
Embarrassment of riches. It was just like the animal kingdom went ham.

**Michael Duncan** (4:51)
Yeah. So I mean, there's great animal stuff. There's all kinds of different things. But listen, to kick things off, Lindsey Graham, elected in 2002 to the United States Senate. He was there for 10 years in the House of Representatives prior to that. Made his name with the Clinton impeachment hearings.