ICYMI: Ruthless Co-Host Dishes to FNC’s Will Cain on Stares Inside WH Briefing

Curtis Houck
February 3rd, 2025 11:55 AM

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Fresh off having been the recipient Friday afternoon of the White House press briefing’s seats for new media, Ruthless Podcast co-host John Ashbrook dished to new 4:00 p.m. Eastern Fox News Channel host Will Cain what it was like to share a room with many of the reporters he had engaged with for years on Capitol Hill, drawing “a lot of my eye rolls and a lot of smirks.”

For those that missed it, Friday’s briefing was a reinforcement that it would be a new era in the Brady Briefing Room with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt not only keeping her promise to call on reporters representing a wider swath of the American public, but make space for newer forms of media like podcasts

Ashbrook had this to say when Cain wondered how he was received by all the liberal journalists:

I was looking forward to it all day because I have interacted with a lot of these same reporters as a press secretary back in the day. So, when I walked into the room, I saw a lot of my eye rolls and a lot of smirks and that is exactly what I was hoping for, Will, because, you know, at The Ruthless Variety Progrum, we don’t take ourselves too seriously, would like to have fun and deliver information in a humourous way. 

Ashbrook then zoomed out to what the new seats mean for the country write large, calling it both “absolutely brilliant” and “incredible...what this White House is doing, reaching out to new media, making sure that we, the people, have a voice inside of that broom and that everybody who is concerned about what is going on at their government have an opportunity to voice that.”

As for why he asked about illegal immigration, he said it was a no brainer because “[i]mmigration was the central issue on the campaign last year...and you have the media taking shots at this administration because they are deporting illegal aliens and the media is claiming they aren’t criminals,” which has been so “disingenuous.”

Cain and Ashbrook closed by drilling down on the significance of our executive branch taking steps to bring in fresh voices to the Briefing Room, lambasting these liberal outlets as “full of bureaucracy” and for “too long” it’s been “the same people asking the same questions” (click “expand”):

CAIN: Okay. Finally, John, it is a new day as you point out. It’s a new media. There’s a new presence in the White House Briefing Room and digital media helped launch of this show that you’re watching currently and you’re appearing on on the Fox News Channel. What do you think you will be able to bring and any other digital media for that matter — any new media for that matter — you’ll be able to bring to the Briefing Room that has not been present with the same organizations always present?

ASHBROOK: You know, so many of these media organizations are full of bureaucracy. They are full of — of things that really keep the good questions and they most interesting content down. And what we try to do at The Ruthless Variety Progrum is the same thing to try to do on your show every single day. Information you’re hearing from your audience and bringing it to people who maybe haven’t heard it before.

CAIN: Yeah.

ASHBROOK: And, in this White House Briefing Room, it’s just been too long of the same people asking the same questions or now you have the opportunity to hear from somebody else.

CAIN: With the same presumptions and the same agenda —

ASHBROOK: Exactly.

CAIN: — driving the same propaganda. I think you’re exactly right. An opportunity for the people, not you and me —

ASHBROOK: Yeah.

CAIN: — but the people listening to you and watching me to hopefully have a much more direct connection to those in power.

To see the relevant FNC transcript from January 31, click here.

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