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Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Brief. This episode, our friend Ryan Gardusky joins to lay out for us all the most important things in politics. He's got a phenomenal sub stack. I subscribe to it. I read it every week, the National Populist news Letter. I think you should check it out on a subsac dot com type in National Populas Newsletter or check out Ryan Gardusky's name. Mister Ryan, let's start with something before I ask you to start telling me how things are looking going into Iowa now
less than two months away and all this stuff. George Santos as we speak right now, has been expelled from the Congress. What's your take on this? And what do you think the GOP believes they've accomplished by doing this? You will?
You know, George asked me be his campaign manager. I knew George back before all the controversy. I he told people we grew up together, which we did not. I don't know why he told people that he did. Yeah, uh you know, listen he uh be careful what you wish for. He really wanted to be famous, and he is famous for sure. And I think that Listen, he's a liar and I I I don't know if he's not gonna go I I you know his the case against him is very strong, and the likeoo him going
to jail is very high. And I I see what they did. He also didn't help himself by not making friends so out the way yesterday famously, when Max Miller said that he has stole money, he said to Max Miller, will you beat women? Which is an allegation allegation of Max Miller's past. He was willing to burn every bridge on the way out, so he did in the end.
I think this is actually not a great precedent though for Congress, because he has not been found guilty of any charges, and that is the precedent for everything going forward. He's one of six members own ever to get expelled from Congress. He's the first Republican to get expelled from Congress, and the other three members who had found the other five members who had found guilty of crimes in the court of law, and the other three were members of
the Confederacy. So it's a very dangerous precedent. I think by doing this, I understand why they did it. I mean, he is, in my opinion, very clearly obviously guilty. He broke a lot of house ethic rules, So I get why morally they did it, but I do think this is a dangerous precedent.
What was the what's of the allegations? Because you said, either there's there's a criminal component of this that's playing out alongside this simultaneously. What's the worst thing that he did?
He stole He stole donors credit card information and used it for personal purchases for clothes, vacations, Botox only fans subscriptions. I think there's a wiring fraud charge. He made up that he had donations that he'd never had, which is an FBC violation, which was a criminal violation. He was taking money from other campaigns accounts that had the same treasure as him and wired them to his account, allegedly a lot of monetary fraud going on. He also there's
a big question of his net worth. I think he went from something like having a net worth of seventy five thousand dollars in twenty twenty to having a networth of like two point four million twenty and he couldn't detail how that money got there. He wasn't able to sit there and say how he made millions of dollars in a very very short period of time. And he was running for Congress the entire time he was doing that.
So there's a lot of questions into like where the money came from, where the money went, how money came into his account, what money he stole, what people's identity he stole, what credit card wiring fraud he stole. Yeah, not great, not great at all.
I mean, so is it fair to say if he is found guilty of some of these things, he may be going to prison.
Yeah, the chances of him going to federal prison are fairly substantially high. And his answer so far has been that it was the treasurer who did this. He had no idea. I know, his treasure She was like a in her late sixties, older lady who had been working in the business for decades and had a very good reputation before George. So I don't know, I don't I don't know what the court's going to find. At this point.
It's going to be hard to find a jury that does not have an opinion on George Santos and.
What was so you you know him a bit right? I mean you were his campaign manager at one.
Point, asked me to be his campaign manager?
Ask you his campaign manager? Yeah, I said no, what you said?
No?
Okay? Probably a good one of the best things I ever said. Did you get the sense and obviously you turn and down that job. Did you get the sense that there was something off about this guy?
Well, he would always tell me how wealthy he was. And you know wealthy people, I know very wealthy people, and the wealthier someone is, the less they talk about money. There's an old saying that wealth whispers and money screams, and I just I knew enough wealthy. Like he would say he has a city car and then a long island car, and I'm like, these are things that not real people ever do, Like this is all kind of
weird nonsense. And he'd always talk about money every chance that he possibly could, So that was a bit of red flag. And then one day he called me and he said that he was mugged in a parking lot and he said that they stole his bag, his briefcase bag, and he described he described like the model he described what it was made out of. He described like it was like a fifty thousand dollars bag and yah yahd
YadA dad, And I don't remember the details now. It was like a alligator print burg and something insanely, something very hard to get. It's something that is very brands that are very expensive. Anyway, I called my friend, who was a very well known fashion designer, and I said to them, I said, oh, my friend just got robbed and he got robbed of his bag. And my friend said, oh, what was the bag? And I described exactly what georgiad told me, and my friend goes, yeah, that bag doesn't exist.
He's like, that bag flat out does not exist. He's like, I know this, I know the brand that makes these bags. I know what bags they have. He's like, they do not make a bag like this.
This is not Are you hold on a second. Are you sure they didn't make a special edition George Santos bag.
He wasn't, He wasn't nobody at the time. He also told me that his house was robbed.
I'm kidding, right, I'm kidding.
I know, I know, I know. He told me that the Chinese Communist Party tried to kidnap his niece at one point, like they were so the lies were so extraordinarily large. I was like this, like this guy's following shit.
But I just thought, when did this all start unrappling? It was stuff about his bio, right, like he lied about the New Year.
Our last conversation George and I ever had was the New York Times. Was supposed to be doing this puff beast basically the first openly gay repubblic get elected, and he had flipped. He had the second highest result for a Republican running in a Biden district nationwide, and it's an extraordinary piece and yet or third, whatever the case. It was very very very amazing performance in a Biden district. And he they were supposed to be his puff piece.
And the more they question him, the more they didn't like. Things didn't add up, And like you're from New York City like I am. He went to a Quney school and he said he was on the volleyball team at a Q school. I don't know if any Q schools that have a volleyball team. And then he said he played Harvard in the volleyball team.
Harvard Definitely, that's almost like say you grow on the croquet team at a Quney school, Like that's not a thing that's really big.
It made no sense. And then but like Harvard does not play Qunity schools in any sport ever, under any circumstance, like unless they fall. Like it's just everything was such an extraordinarily insane lie. And then I called him and I go, okay, well you need to hire a crisis management in person and you need to do this, and you need to do like whatever. And I said, what of this is not true? And He's like, the only thing that's not true about what I've said is I
did I graduated from school when I never graduated. I don't think he even ever attended the college you said he attended. Everything was like a lie. And after a while I was like, okay, there's just never there's no light at the end of the tunnel. And then a friend of mine DM me a DM from a very left wing journalist, and he was dming. The left wing journalist was like, you should investigate Ryan Grudusky. So I was like, f this guy, I just have no patience whatsoever.
And I was like, I'll just say what I know when I know it. But he was. I don't know, he was, just yeah, he lies. It's a compulsory problem. You can'tnot He.
Cannot not lie, So can I can? I ask? I have some friends who on the right who are very bare knuckle on their approach to politics. And here's what they're shouting about right now, now that Sound Santos has been expelled. They're saying, why is it Senator Menendez expelled? And I don't really have a good answer for them, you know what I mean? Like Democrat senator from New Jersey. Second time he's been federally indicted, and he probably should
have been convicted the first time. So, yeah, what do you say to that?
I agree, I don't think I if I was a member of the House of Representatives, I don't know if I would have expelled him because I think it's a dangerous precedent. You don't The precedent is you have to be found guilty in a court of law before you are removed from office. That is the president. It's been the present in the House for over one hundred and fifty years. I think that it is a very dangerous president to set I think that Bob Menendez is likely
to go to federal prison as well. If there's like an ounce of like a good jury in I don't know he's being convicted in DC or in New Jersey, but he clearly was like getting information, give me information to the Egyptian government like the guy was, or Turkish government whatever I think it was. The Egyptian. Yeah, Egyptian guy is clearly guilty as sin. He was probably going to see under age brothels in Dominican Republic before this he
was the guy is guilty as anything. And uh, you know, I don't know George is not running for re election anyway. I guess you could have waited to see how the how it all bore out, but then the investigation happened. But I agree, I think that Bob and this should be indicted and impeached. Uh, if you're in if that's this is a new standard, A lot of people may end up a lot of people with some very shady information in their background may end up being not loving this is the new standard.
Yeah, I mean it strikes me as okay, like this is the rule. Now just wait until they decide to.
Meet you and then be impeached as well. Who what Jamal Blumman, who pulled the fire along.
Oh yeah, I mean, I just I just feel like, now, just wait till they decide to you know, meet too some Republican like the Kavanaugh him basically and and it's just well, now now, now he has to be expelled from the Senate because there's an allegation against him, No due process, nothing, you're gonna say, you know, we know Democrats did they did it to Kavatoll. Why wouldn't they do it to remember the Congress?
I agree, I agree entirely, and I agree that if this is the new standard, then bobmin And as one hundred percent should be removed from office.
But it's not going to happen because the Democrats play tough. Brian, I want to ask you where we're going here with Iowa and all that stuff. So we'll get into this in just a second here as the actual votes are getting close to being cast. But look, there's a more of masculinity these days from the Latin America, as you know. But wherever you are politically, you could probably use a boost in your day to day a certainly as you get older and if you want strengthen vitality instead of
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is phenomenal, highly highly recommended. All right, Ryan, tell me tell me what's going on here. I mean, we saw the DeSantis. We knew some debate. Is your expectation that that will move the needle at all for DeSantis or is it just kind of a spectacle.
I think that for a lot of people who don't live online, it was a really good thing because he used a lot of things like like the map of all the ccs across San Francisco that it might like a lot of my relatives have never seen before because they don't live on Twitter like I do. Sometimes. There was a great debate thing, and the truth the matter is is that people like Desantas. He still has extremely
high favorabilities among Republicans. It's not like twenty sixteen, where like Jeb was in the was in the dump after after the after the primary, because his reputation was destroyed. The Satan's reputation has not been destroyed. They he has just not sold anyone unliking him more than Trump, and he has not sold why he should be a preferred
candidate more than Trump. And Trump's poll numbers in the general election have gone up over time, and the case of I will do better than him in the general is it's hard to make that case when the poll numbers are saying the other way. The other way around, but there's nothing Republicans love more than a Republican who beats up on the press of the Democrats, and he did a great job against Gat and Newsom. Newsom's entire argument was, Uh, the santans is really liberal but really conservative.
He's liberal because he doesn't like cracking the Everglades, and he's liberal because he's supported amnesty, which I don't think he ever supported. And he's liberal because, uh, you know whatever, but he's actually too far right conservative. And it just never It was a very to wage against the Santas. He's going into the caucuses. Everything's on Iowa for him. It's not it's make or break, it's do or die. He's got the governor's endorsement. He probably might get one
or two of the Center's endorsements. It's I got Bob vam Platt's endorsement. With evangelicals is very important. It's everything's on the ground, and it's a caucus. It's not a primary, so it's much much, much different. You have to show up at a school or church or wherever and caucus for seven eight hours of the day. And in some places they remove delegates around. If there's a tie, they
draw straws, they flip cards. It's a very kind of archaic, very weird system in Iowa, and Trump lost Iowa the first time. Cruz came back at the very end and surprised everybody in twenty sixteen. In twenty twelve Hakabee, I think one or no Santorum and then and he came back from behind and won a surprise victory. And in Hakaby he had a surprise victory in oh eight. Iowa give surprises a lot to people, but they very rarely picked the nominee. I think going all in Iowa is
probably not the smartest move politically. I don't know if it gives life to his campaign after Iowa, but it's something. But he has to win it. If he does not win it, he has to drop out. There's there's no other way around it. And Haley is surging I think everywhere else. But the problem for Haley is Haley has a large consensus vote of I don't like Donald Trump.
Desanta's voter is I like Trump, but I also like you, but I think it's time for a new energy, or you know, you'll do your great government, or whatever the case. If the Santans drops out, in my opinion, seventy five percent of his voters are going to Trump. If Haley drops out, most of her voters are going into the Santas. So the argument that if you know, Haley is surging, so it's time for Trump doesn't has to drop out
to give it to Haley. I don't think that. I don't think that actually materializes into anything real.
All Right, I want the latest I want your latest analysis on the Biden question here in a second. But first up, friends, Uh, this is just something that's absolutely needed. I've I've partnered with friends at something called Patriot Defender. Here's what Patriot Defender does. It's a membership that you join and then you have protection for your rights, freedoms, and reputation. They will provide you with attorneys if your rights are violated on first Amendent issues, second amen issues,
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your back at Patriot Defender. Go to patriot defender dot com sign up today. Ryan, I'm like losing my mind here because it's getting now. We're past the state. You know the state. I think Nevada, I think South Carolina, one or two other states were passed already where you could get a new candidate on the ballot easily, and everyone just keeps telling me it's not going to be Biden. I was at a dinner last night with a bunch of friends and I'm the only one who's saying, guys,
it's going to be Biden. Slash Harris like it has to be one or the other or both. There's no other plan. Is there another plan? Really? Am I missing something? No, there is no plan.
This is like only heard Oprah was going to be the Democratic nominee for thirty years. Michelle Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee, which she's not even interested in ever being in politics. She hates politics. There is no other plan. It is gonna be Biden, like unless he dies, there is or he is he has a serious injury that literally forbid him to run. He is going to be the Democratic nominee for office. I know that people sit there and say that seems like it
is impossible. That is what they said in twenty twenty as well, like it is impossible he is just too old. He is going to be the Democratic nominee. He is his fake teeth are gonna sit there and smile across the stage as he says there in his defense Biden amics and his record and everything else. And I don't I just don't see in any capacity it'll be anybody else. And if something happens to him, it's gonna become a law. I know.
And see we're like on an island by the way everyone else that I talk to about there's oh, it's gonna be there's gonna be a unity candidate that I'm like unity candidate at the m it's Biden. Biden is their unity the president. I totally, I totally agree. I'm living crazy here everyone. Everyone's coming up with these dudes like, oh, it's gonna be an RFK Junior and Michelle Obama ticket.
I'm like, what are you like? This isn't you know, like an episode of the West Wing guys there, you know, there's some things that have to actually fall into place for this. So I appreciate talking about this because my my dms and my my you know, Twitter mentions or whatever, it's constantly I disagree with you it's gonna be you know, and they fill in the blank. It's not gonna be Bied, it's gonna be someone else. I'm like, guys, he's the president.
He's running for re election, full stop. I don't know what else to say. I just like knowing, you know.
Anyway, you know, there's a lot of people listen. If some guy's telling you the world's gonna end on a certain date, you generally don't sit there and change your whole life for them. A lot of people are believing
a lot of crack pop policies. And I think the problem with Republicans is we're winning on so many issues or we're not having the same conversation as a lot of normal people, Like you got to get away from some of these like very very looney tune, you know, beliefs, and it is it is full stop, like people who need to get on Facebook and just touch grass for a little while. In less something. Unless he dies, no one knows, unless he dies, he is not gonna step down.
Jill Biden loves being first Lady. She does not want him to step down. She hates Kamala Harris, would ever do anything she can to prevent him from running. His handlers, the machine, the Democrat organization they're all running. They've had and alsopposen. Democrats have had sell or spell special election victories. They had a great mid term and as as midterms go, they have no reason. Just I know, poll numbers for
Biden do look bad. I get it, and I agree, but they have no reason at this point to sit there and think that their election is going to be a loser. Like they don't they think that they're gonna win, and.
I'm gonna have to keep checking in with you, like every month between now an election day because you're the only person I'm like, I agree with you on this. You agree with me on this. Everyone else is like, you don't understand. They're gonna they're gonna like bring Teddy Kennedy back to life and they're gonna run him. There's like a he's gonna be like a cyborg. Then they're gonna bring it. I'm like, no, guys, no, that's not
what's happening. It is Piden. But anyway, check out for some of the best political analysis you'll read anywhere, The National Populist newsletter on Substack. Subscribe to it. I'm a subscriber, mister Ryan Gardusky. Thank you, sir. I have a great weekend. We'll talk soon. Thanks buddy,