Buck Brief - Prosecute Anti-ICE Criminals to the Fullest

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Buck Brief – Prosecute Anti-ICE Criminals to the Fullest
Date: January 23, 2026
Host: Buck Sexton
Guest: Orin McIntyre (The Blaze, Orin McIntyre Show)

Episode Overview

This episode centers on recent arrests following anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis, where activists disrupted Christian worship services. Host Buck Sexton and guest Orin McIntyre explore the legal, political, and societal consequences of these events. Key themes include the importance of enforcing immigration law, the alleged double standard in the justice system, the political motivations behind open borders, and the broader implications for upcoming elections and American society. The conversation also touches briefly on Trump’s foreign policy tactics and public sector union activism.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Arrests Following Anti-ICE Protests in Minneapolis

• Background: DOJ action against activists who disrupted Christian worship services in protest of ICE operations.
• Orin’s Reaction: Applauds the arrests, emphasizing the need for consequences after perceived years of left-wing impunity.
  • “It was critical that the Trump administration take whatever opportunity it had to kind of give that feedback, give that pushback, let the left know, no, you have to play by the rules, too.” (03:04 – Orin McIntyre)
• Significance: Fast-tracked indictments seen as a message of zero tolerance for mob tactics, especially against religious gatherings.
  • “If they had not taken action here, I fear that the idea that the government really had any legitimacy honestly hung in the balance if no real action was taken.” (05:21 – Orin McIntyre)
• Notable Detail: High-profile figures in BLM targeted; frustration over the lack of action against media figure Don Lemon due to a judge’s refusal.

2. The Left’s Immigration Strategy and Political Ramifications

• ICE Enforcement as Existential Issue:
  • Orin argues that left-wing political dominance is intertwined with mass immigration, describing it as a deliberate effort to shift electorate demographics.
    • “Their political strategy is entirely tied to mass immigration. Without it, they couldn’t win elections... The great replacement is not some conspiracy theory. It's literally something that the left celebrates on a regular basis.” (06:24 – Orin McIntyre)
• Democratic Party Tactics: Allegations that open-border policies are instrumentalized for growing government patronage networks and creating future Democratic voters.
• Right vs. Left: The enforcement crackdown viewed as an existential battle for the future direction of the country—both parties’ “political existence.”

3. Political Optics and Public Sentiment on ICE

• Framing in the Media:
  • Initial “shock” from forceful ICE operations is exacerbated by sensationalized news coverage controlled by left-leaning outlets.
  • “The left is very good at propaganda. They control the media. They often control the narrative and the framing. So they're putting out a lot of propaganda about a lot of lies about what ICE is doing.” (08:27 – Orin McIntyre)
• Winning the Midterms:
  • Sustained immigration enforcement, paired with emphasizing lawlessness and activist overreach (e.g., storming a church), can shift public opinion clear of leftist narratives, benefiting conservative candidates.
  • “If we can't do this with the government, there's no point. Elections don't matter. We have to be able to defend our borders. We have to be able to remove the people who are here illegally... We have to change that.” (10:20 – Orin McIntyre)

4. School Closures and Protest Mobilization

• Teachers’ Unions Role:
  • Buck raises the issue of Minneapolis schools being closed for protest activity—not safety—after a shooting.
  • Orin responds by labeling public sector unions as “political foot soldiers” for the Democratic Party.
    • “The reason they canceled school had nothing to do with students or safety or education or the welfare of the community. They did it so that the students and the teachers could protest. They wanted to put more bodies on the streets.” (12:11 – Orin McIntyre)
  • Suggests unions use school cancellations to lend legitimacy and numbers to demonstrations, instrumentalizing children and educators for activism.

5. Trump’s Foreign Policy—Negotiating over Greenland

• Buck’s Question: Invites Orin to comment on Trump’s aggressive posturing regarding Greenland and resource security.
• Orin’s Analysis:
  • Describes Trump’s “art of the deal” strategy: make a bombastic request as an anchor, then negotiate back to a more reasonable, desired position.
    • “He literally wrote a book on how he does deals... You set an anchor, you set a radical request out there. And then when people get flustered... you dial it back and you negotiate, you give yourself space, so you end up kind of where you want it to be.” (13:50 – Orin McIntyre)
  • Prefers U.S. economic engagement in more stable regions like Greenland or Venezuela over military adventures elsewhere.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On DOJ Action and Government Legitimacy:

  • “If they had not taken action here, I fear that the idea that the government really had any legitimacy honestly hung in the balance if no real action was taken.”
    — Orin McIntyre (05:21)

• On The Left and Immigration:

  • “The great replacement is not some conspiracy theory. It’s literally something that the left celebrates on a regular basis.”
    — Orin McIntyre (06:32)

• On Media Framing:

  • “A lot of sensational stories get out there and they get debunked. But by the time they get debunked, the people have already consumed the salacious propaganda, and so they get a, you know, a skewed idea of how ICE is conducting these raids.”
    — Orin McIntyre (08:32)

• On Teachers’ Unions and School Protests:

  • “Every public sector union is de facto an arm of the Democratic Party. They are going to go out there, they’re going to march, and they’re especially going to provide cover for the more violent aspects of that protest.”
    — Orin McIntyre (12:19)

• On Trump’s Negotiating Style:

  • “He’s not giving you the first offer. He’s going to dial that back... He’s always negotiating back to a place of strength.”
    — Orin McIntyre (15:05)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:23]: Buck introduces the topic and brings on Orin McIntyre
• [03:04]: Orin’s analysis of the DOJ’s arrests and its importance
• [05:27]: Discussion of the Trump administration’s approach to ICE enforcement
• [06:23]: Orin delves into the broader Democratic strategy on immigration
• [08:27]: Debating the political optics and midterm implications
• [12:11]: Examination of school closures and union-fueled protests
• [13:50]: Orin explains Trump’s Greenland strategy as classic negotiation

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Closing

Orin McIntyre plugs his show, available on multiple platforms. Buck commends Orin’s work and the Blaze’s broader talent pool.

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For Listeners

This episode provides an uncompromising view of right-wing perspectives on immigration enforcement, leftist activism, and political strategy, with detailed arguments about the stakes for American governance and electoral politics. The conversation is candid, forthright, and combative, reflecting the show’s signature tone.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

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[Buck Sexton]

Some arrests have been made in Minneapolis DOJ Moving on the deprivation of rights, a civil rights crime against Christians gathered together who did not need to be shouted at by maniacs about immigration enforcement while they were trying to worship God. We'll dive into this with our friend Orin McIntyre now. You'll know him from the Orin McIntyre Show. He is with the Blaze and he joins me now. So these, these initial arrests, what's your first take on this? Are you feeling like this was the right move? Are you concerned? Is this gonna get swatted down? Take me through your thinking on the initial slapdown of the street Communists in Minneapolis here.

[Orin McIntyre]

Well, I think this is absolutely critical. We've all seen the way that the justice system worked under the Biden administration. It was obviously a two tier system. Conservatives had basically no rights. The left got away with everything. We look at what happened with the J6 and all the ridiculous prosecutions under the FACE act when it came to different pro life protesters and that kind of thing. So it was critical that the Trump administration take whatever opportunity it had to kind of give that feedback, give that pushback, let the left know, no, you have to play by the rules, too. There will be consequences for what you do. And I was very happy to see them actually convert that many people were worried, especially that Pam Bondi hasn't been so great with handing out, you know, some of those convictions. At the end of the day, looking for those charges, people we think that ultimately should be going to jail. So it's very encouraging to see them do this and do it in a relatively timely manner. Remember, you know, the. They have to go through the federal court system. It was MLK day right after this happened. So, you know, you basically just had a day or two between the actual event opening of the courts and then the, you know, the indictments being handed down. So I think that was really important. It's also critical that they got leaders of Black Lives Matter movements, that kind of thing. They're hitting very important people. The one person that they haven't gotten so far is apparently Don Lemon. And it looks like they did enter the case for that. They did request, you know, that. That go before a grand jury, but the judge refused to sign off on it. So it looks like we have another rogue judge basically protecting Don Lemon and his criminal acts. I really hope that the administration goes after him as well. They try to find different avenues. Don Lemon absolutely deserves to be in jail. All of these people should face serious jail time. The face, or the rather the Conspiracy to Prevent Rights, the KKK act that they are being prosecuted under has a maximum penalty of 10 years. Many J6ers received several years in prison for what they did and would have served many more had they not had their sentences commuted. So I think this is a great action. I don't know where this will all go in the courts. Obviously, you can't predict what any given judge or jury will ultimately decide in any of these cases. But I think it was critical for the administration to take action. And I think this is a huge win, because if they had not taken action here, I fear that the idea that the government really had any legitimacy honestly hung in the balance if no real action was taken.

[Buck Sexton]

The administration has shown a particular doggedness with, with the issue of these ICE operations, which I'm very pleased to see, because in the past, I think, or in going back to the first administration, first Trump administration, there were some unfortunate victories that the left were able to win in pr, specifically with family separation. Right. That was the. And then the Trump administration changed that policy, and then the left was emboldened by all of this. To me, it has become clear that if we can't enforce the laws when it comes to these illegal aliens in Minneapolis, we don't really have immigration law. And I think the American people are starting to see for themselves this isn't about just the way that these laws are being enforced. That's what they complain about. They don't want these laws enforced at all. I mean, the Democrat position is de facto everybody gets to stay, including rapists, murderers, and all the rest.

[Orin McIntyre]

Yeah, the left has made this an existential issue, honestly, for them. They understand that their political strategy is entirely tied to mass immigration. Without it, they couldn't win elections. They need this large amount of people to come in, to be on the government dole, to grow the power of government, to increase the patronage network that the left operates, and then eventually become stalwart voters for the Democratic Party. In fact, the left has laid this out many times. The great replacement is not some conspiracy theory. It's literally something that the left celebrates on a regular basis. Hey, we're getting rid of all those white Republican voters. Look at us. Aren't we great? America is going to be, you know, a Brown, and it's going to vote Democrat. They just. They cheer about it all the time. And so it's very clear to them that they need to have these borders open. They don't want to enforce the law. They want to have the scams. They want to have the voter fraud. That's what they're looking to do. So when they See ICE coming in and actually taking action, really doing the deportations, really pushing to end the fraud, to end the abuse. They are absolutely apoplectic over it, and they are going to the streets over this. This is a huge issue, left and right. We can't allow them to continue this, and they can't win elections if they don't continue this. So both sides are really fighting for their political existence in the United States.

[Buck Sexton]

Where do you see this going as it pertains to the midterms? I mean, if the Trump administration stays on this, do you feel like it is likely still? It was clearly. Immigration enforcement was clearly a winning issue in 2024. All the polling showed that. I think the result of the election showed that. After 10 million illegals were let into the country. Do you feel like the narrative around ICE being so rough, all this stuff, is actually turning more Americans against this? Speaking this purely put aside what's right, let's just look at what the politics of it are. Or do you think that if Trump stays with this, the numbers will start to speak very loudly about how many of these people are actually being deported, which gives people a sense of how many more there are in the country illegally? I mean, how do you gauge all that?

[Orin McIntyre]

I think for the American public, there's an initial shock because, of course, the left is very good at propaganda. They control the media. They often control the narrative and the framing. So they're putting out a lot of propaganda about a lot of lies about what ICE is doing. A lot of sensational stories get out there and they get debunked. But by the time they get debunked, the people have already consumed the salacious propaganda, and so they get a, you know, a skewed idea of how a ICE is conducting these raids, conducting these operations. However, I think that what we saw, especially with the beginning of the Trump administration, is that strength is key. When Trump came out of the gate, he was powerful. He was throwing around executive orders. He was hitting the Democrats at every level. And that shock and awe, that constant action threw the left back on their heels. They had no idea what to do. It wasn't until the judges and Congress slowed down the process that. That we ultimately saw the Trump numbers flounder. I think that while there is an initial shock for some people watching the deportations happen, I think if you continue to deliver and you make your case and you show the positive things that are happening and the amount of fraud and the amount of crime and the amount of violence that was under all of this, I think it will win over the American people. I think that it's critical that you also highlight things like the storming of the church by these activists because that is terrible optics for the left. It shows that really these people are not just interested in protecting an immigrant community. They hate Christians, they hate white people. As the guy who ran into the church screaming, you're a white person just sitting here trying, you know, into your comfortable Sunday clothes, you know, listening to this church, like, that's the way that they treat godly, Christ fearing Americans. You cannot have that out there and think that that's going to win people over and in the public space. So I do think that if they stay on top of this, it's going to win. But either way, even if the politics were bad, what are the midterms for, Right? Like, what do we even want control of the government to do this, right? Like, if we can't do this with the government, there's no point. Elections don't matter. We have to be able to defend our borders. We have to be able to remove the people who are here illegally and are going to end up committing voter fraud, who are going to manipulate elections. We have to change that. It ultimately doesn't matter what happens with the midterms. That's got to be the goal. But I do think ultimately it will be a strength for the Trump administration during the midterms.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Orin McIntyre]

Yep, absolutely. Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. So what was your first thought when you saw that? There's this shooting, the ice shooting in Minneapolis, and then they just, like the. Like the teachers unions or whatever, just cancel class for days in Minneapolis because there's a shooting. Like, what is that all about?

[Orin McIntyre]

Oh, it's. They're political foot soldiers. Let's be really clear. The reason that they canceled school had nothing to do with students or safety or education or the welfare of the community. They did it so that the students and the teachers could protest. They wanted to put more bodies on the streets. You have to remember that every public sector union is de facto an arm of the Democratic Party. They are going to go out there, they're going to march, and they're especially going to provide cover for the more violent aspects of that protest. You put the children, the students, the teachers out there, you give it a veneer of having some kind of public support, you know, and then you have the violent guys, the black bloc, the antifa, go out there and harass people and go the extra mile. So make no mistake, it had absolutely nothing to do with welfare students or education or anything else. It was all about getting more Democratic activists, more foot soldiers out on the street.

[Buck Sexton]

Yep. Not a surprise there. I just thought it's. They don't even really try to hide it. Right. It's very straightforward. It's like, oh, no, we need people out with placards shouting, we need all those. Not just teachers, it's all the administrators.

[Orin McIntyre]

Right.

[Buck Sexton]

The administrative state within the education bureaucracy is itself just a massive leviathan of waste and nonsense. Talk a bit for. For a little bit here.

[Orin McIntyre]

Just.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm curious about your take on Trump in Greenland. To the degree that you're. I feel like you're generally a more of a domestic policy focused guy. But look, the president's made this a big issue and he says it is in the interest of the American people. What do you think about the way he's negotiating and does this look like it ends up in a good place for the American. For the American people overall?

[Orin McIntyre]

Like you said, I am more of a domestic policy guy. I would prefer that we kind of looked more inward and fixed our situation here. Obviously, we have some problems going on, if you haven't noticed, Buck, and it would be great if we put all of our effort and focus in here. But I understand that the world doesn't disappear when you close your eyes, you're still the global hegemon. You still have to keep an eye on your interests abroad. And so I understand there has to be some level of attention there. The good news with Trump, and I think this is the just the air that is made over and over with this guy. He literally wrote a book on how he does deals, how he negotiates the art of the deal. You set an anchor, you set a radical request out there. And then when people get flustered, when they get overwhelmed, when they say, oh, that's crazy, you dial it back and you negotiate, you give yourself space, so you end up kind of where you want it to be. But you do that by throwing out a request that's so crazy that once you dial it back to what you wanted, oh, that looks very reasonable. Trump does this over and over and over again, and people lose their minds every time. They're like, oh, he said something. Yes, of course he did. He's negotiating. He's not giving you the first offer. He's going to dial that back. So when he's out there and saying, we're going to invade, we're going to take it over, we're going to control it, what he's really doing is setting the stage for the fact that he's eventually going to say, okay, we're going to pay you for some of this, we're going to extend our leases, we're going to expand some control of this, but ultimately it's going to be a cash deal. We're not going to invade, we're not going to put troops on the ground and open up the howitzers so we can fight Denmark or anything like that. Once you kind of get that understanding, you can understand that while Trump's going to be bombastic in these deals, he's always negotiating back to a place of strength. So I think overall, this is fine. He's not actually going to invade Greenland. He's setting up a scenario where we're going to get access to key shipping routes and minerals. And. And when you have this global economy, when you have this kind of competition, you do have to secure that in the near abroad. I would prefer that we secure it in a place like Greenland rather than having to, I don't know, bomb Iran or some other place in the Middle east and extract resources from there. So if we're going to be in the business of securing our interest and securing our resources, I'm glad we're focusing in places like Venezuela and Greenland. As opposed to places like Iran or Saudi Arabia or Israel. Ultimately, I think that's much healthier to be focused in our hemisphere in North America, making deals there.

[Buck Sexton]

Oren, where can everyone go to check out the Orin McIntyre Show?

[Orin McIntyre]

Oh, of course. Thanks for having me. I am on Blaze TV. We also have the show on Rumble Odyssey, YouTube and all of your favorite podcast places. It's just the Orin McIntyre show wherever you look.

[Buck Sexton]

Some great talent at the Blaze over these many years. The Blaze, fantastic place. Making some great careers happen. I'm just saying, you know, as some of you, you know, I was there.

[Orin McIntyre]

When it started as an alumni. Yeah, yeah. No, I'm on the Buck Sexton track. That's my plan. I'm following your arc there.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, man. Hey, you're. You're in a good spot and you're doing a great job over there. So go check out the Oren McIntyre Show. Oren, thank you so much, man. Good to see you as always.

[Orin McIntyre]

Thanks again for having me.

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[Orin McIntyre]

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[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Orin McIntyre]

Guaranteed human.