'Ruthless' podcast hosts think Newsom's pivot from radical stances is 'BS' but a 'bold move'
Newsom has been making headlines in recent weeks for comments appearing to moderate his stances on issues like immigration and transgender treatment of children, which many believe is his planting the seeds of a 2028 presidential bid.
"Well, I think he's making a decision to go on the Republican track in the Democratic Party," Duncan reacted. "It's a bold choice. We'll see how it works out for him, but the other choices are [to] get arrested, fight I.C.E. or become a communist. So I like his odds."
Ashbrook suggested Newsom hasn't "stuck the landing" with his pivot from the far-left. He later took a swipe at Newsom's eagerness to appear on right-wing podcasts, telling Watters, "Everybody sees through his BS."
"But it is absolutely the avenue he should be taking," Ashbrook added. "It is it's the way of the future. New media is the way of the future."
Smug compared the liberal politics of California to the New York City mayoral race where socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani continues to lead in all the polls against rivals Andrew Cuomo and incumbent mayor Eric Adams, both running as independents after previously running as Democrats.
"You have so much of the party that has lined up behind a communist. Is that 'Thelma & Louise' - let's go over the cliff. Let's go crazy. Let's learn nothing from this election," Smug said. "And there's this, like, glimmering hope of like, 'You know, maybe Cuomo could pull it off.' There's some rational group of Democrats left, isn't there? And I don't know. I don't know if there are any left."
Holmes, a Minnesota native, said progressive politics has hit close to home while discussing the Minneapolis mayoral candidate Omar Fateh, who is running on a similar platform as Mamdani.
"Look, they've had this problem in Minneapolis for a lone time," Holmes told Watters. "It came from a huge number of Somali immigrants that came in with no mandate to assimilate whatsoever in the city of Minneapolis. That's where I'm from. And you can see the community just sort of become something else, right? And then it produces folks like Omar. They have absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the state, completely on their own, on an island in the middle of Minneapolis. It's sad."
FOX News Media announced it has landed a licensing deal with the "Ruthless" podcast as part of the company's expansion of new media.
"The FOX News Media ecosystem we have built over the past seven years continues to thrive and set new records, and the 'Ruthless' deal is a natural extension of our powerhouse brand as audiences reshape how they consume quality content," FOX News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said in a statement Tuesday.
"We have cultivated an unrivaled bench of successful personalities who are well-positioned to excel in today's evolving media landscape, where podcasting offers the kind of deep engagement our platforms are known for."
The "Ruthless" co-hosts said in a joint statement, "We are thrilled to take 'Ruthless' to the next level through this strategic partnership. There is a growing appetite for authentic political and cultural conversations, and our podcast delivers with no-holds-barred, irreverent takes that deeply resonate with our dedicated audience."
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