Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Aug 25 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Episode: Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Aug 25, 2025
Date: August 25, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton offer their signature blend of humor and sharp political commentary as they dissect current events, with a heavy focus on issues of crime prevention, flag burning controversies, masculinity and voter trends, and the culture war in national museums. They react to recent political statements and policies, especially President Trump's crime intervention efforts and executive order addressing flag burning, while also taking shots at Democratic strategies and woke cultural initiatives.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Trump’s Crime Reduction Strategy in Washington, D.C. and Beyond

(Starts 01:58)

• Clay and Buck open with acknowledgment of a marked dip in violent crime in D.C., noting 11 or 12 consecutive days without a murder—a rare achievement in summer months.
• They credit Trump’s support for the National Guard and police mobilizations, positioning D.C. as a potential test case for crime prevention in other Democratic-led cities.
  • Clay Travis (04:44): “It’s really hard to argue that this lower rate of violent crime is not directly connected to what Trump has done. Every day where the crime stays down, it becomes harder as you get a larger data set.”
• Suggest Trump's next targets could be Chicago and Baltimore; cite Trump’s willingness to confront entrenched urban crime and highlight a war of words with Chicago’s Mayor Brandon Johnson.
  • Buck Sexton (05:31): “The harder it is for those opposed to this to continue to oppose it without looking like they're pro-murder, pro-crime.”

Notable Quote

President Trump (03:51):

“It's impossible to imagine that when you get 97% negative stories, purposely negative stories, even though you've done 97% positive things... that you could win an election in a landslide. Winning all seven...swing states winning by the popular vote, by millions of votes.”

• Discussion contrasts Trump’s interventionist approach to Democratic mayors’ call for more "investment" rather than enforcement.
  • Buck Sexton (07:28): “He’s just promising more communism...rooted in race instead of class. Invest in people? Yeah—tax the people who are productive...squander that money on useless government programs.”
• Reference to historically low mayoral approval ratings as evidence of the mounting public dissatisfaction with crime management, particularly in Chicago.

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2. International Comparisons: El Salvador’s Crackdown on Crime

(11:16)

• Buck draws a parallel with El Salvador’s rapid transformation under President Nayib Bukele, who moved the country from the “murder capital of the world” to the safest in Latin America by simply incarcerating known criminals.
  • Buck Sexton (11:16): “El Salvador was a top five, [once] per capita number one... murder capital as a nation...Now it's the safest country in Latin America. He said, you know what? We know who the bad people are and we're just going to stop allowing them to do bad things and we’re going to punish them.”

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3. The Political Fallout: Democratic Branding, Masculinity, and Voter Demographics

(18:03 & 20:44)

• Analysis of the Democratic Party's declining appeal, especially among young men—citing CNN’s Harry Enten's analogy that Democratic branding is now as unappealing as Cracker Barrel’s recent rebrand.
  • Harry Enten (20:44): “The Democratic brand right now has about the appeal with the American voter as the Cracker Barrel rebrand has with the American consumers. Bad, bad, bad.”
• Clay and Buck use the viral image of NY mayoral hopeful Zoran Momdani failing to bench press 135 lbs as a symbol of Democratic struggles to connect with young men.
  • Clay Travis (21:31): “I do think this is emblematic of why young men are just completely rejecting the Democrat Party... All of his friends see saying someone is a Democrat as an insult.”
• Critique Democratic messaging around “toxic masculinity” and the erasure of masculine virtues.
  • Buck Sexton (23:33): “Democrats are not allowed to say... courage, bravery. Because they'll say, what do you mean? Well, women have that too... But as a society, generally speaking, some things tend to be true about men and women... Democrats ran against all of that.”

Notable Quote

Clay Travis (32:00):

“I tweeted that if you only allowed people who could bench their body weight to vote, Republicans would win 95-5... I think it would be a massive Republican landslide.”

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4. Museums and “Woke” Narratives: Revising American History

(34:11)

• Discussion shifts to Trump’s call for reviewing Smithsonian exhibits for “alignment with American ideals.”
  • Buck Sexton (36:25): “The Trump White House has called for a review of all current and future exhibitions at eight Smithsonian museums...the last remaining segment of woke.”
• Extensive criticism of the tendency for national museums to focus on negative aspects of American history (slavery, oppression) rather than accomplishments—Clay likens the absence of “plane crash” exhibits in the Air and Space Museum to the excess focus on slavery in the general narrative.
  • Clay Travis (40:26): “The goal of the Smithsonians is to make people feel better about America and American life and to leave with an uplifting feeling. Sites like the Air and Space Museum should not be places where you go and examine human failure.”
• Critique of politicized exhibits—LGBTQ+ history, pro-immigrant art, and Anthony Fauci portraits.
  • Buck Sexton (42:18): “The history of LGBTQ plus has got to go back only a couple years... This is really contemporary, not actually history... At the National Portrait Gallery, they were putting up, you know, paintings of, like, what a terrible dementia patient Biden was... people would recognize that it's very partisan.”

Notable Quotes

Clay Travis (46:48):

“The symbolism of tearing down statues isn't really about those individuals... It’s an argument that the story of American history is one of tragedy and one that we should be saddened by and embarrassed by.”

Buck Sexton (45:37):

“If you’re talking about combat fatalities in the Civil War, overwhelmingly it was white men who died on both sides… their price in blood ended the institution of slavery, which always seems to get left out of this.”

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5. Flag Burning: Legal Boundaries and Symbolism

(54:24)

• Trump proposes an executive order: one year jail penalty for burning the American flag, equating it to incitement to riot.

  • Donald Trump (54:24): “If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. No early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. And what it does is incite to riot...You will see flag burning stopping immediately.”

• Buck and Clay strongly critique the legality and constitutionality of such an order, referencing the 1989 Supreme Court decision (Texas v. Johnson) that protects flag burning as a legal act of political speech.

  • Clay Travis (57:07): “I disagree with the President on this. I don't think he has the constitutional authority to do it... the Supreme Court has said you can burn flags and American flags, and I think you should be able to burn gay pride flags... I believe that you should have the right to make this statement...I think the President is wrong on this one.”

• Highlights the double standard in enforcement—harsh punishments for burning certain symbols (e.g., Pride flags with hate crime enhancements) but permissiveness for burning American flags.

  • Buck Sexton (60:34): “They want the law to protect certain classes and that includes certain flag burning situations. And that has to stop.”

• Anecdotes recalling flag burning post-9/11 and discussing the cultural and legal lines of political protest.

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Memorable Moments

• Clay’s anecdote about his teenage son’s pride in his bench press achievement (21:31): humanizes the politics of masculinity debate, emphasizing generational shifts and everyday values.
• Harry Enten’s "Cracker Barrel analogy" (20:44): offers a comical but cutting interpretation of the Democratic Party’s image struggle.
• El Salvador’s “from worst to best” transformation (11:16): a real-world argument for “tough on crime” measures.
• Debate over museum exhibits (34:11–46:48): sparks a broader conversation about American identity, pride, and who gets to shape historical narratives.
• Flag burning controversy (54:24–63:14): showcases a rare disagreement with Trump and a nuanced First Amendment discussion.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Opening/Coverage Outline: 01:58–04:44
• DC Crime and Trump’s Crime Policy: 04:44–10:14
• Comparing US crime policy to El Salvador: 11:16–12:16
• Democrat Party’s Struggles and Branding: 18:03–21:31
• Masculinity, Masculine Virtues, and Political Realignment: 23:33–32:21
• Museum “Woke” Exhibits and History Wars: 34:11–46:48
• Flag Burning, Legal Challenges, and Double Standards: 54:24–63:14

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Tone and Style

• Conversational with frequent humor and real-life anecdotes.
• Direct, often caustic criticism of progressive politics.
• Willingness to debate and disagree—particularly over legal and constitutional issues (e.g., flag burning).
• Appeals to everyday American values and common sense, punctuated by cultural references and sports analogies.

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Selected Notable Quotes

"It’s really hard to argue that this lower rate of violent crime is not directly connected to what Trump has done."
— Clay Travis (04:44)

"He’s just promising more communism...rooted in race instead of class."
— Buck Sexton (07:28)

"The Democratic brand right now has about the appeal with the American voter as the Cracker Barrel rebrand has with the American consumers. Bad, bad, bad."
— Harry Enten (20:44)

"If you only allowed people who could bench their body weight to vote, Republicans would win 95-5."
— Clay Travis (32:00)

“The symbolism of tearing down statues isn't really about those individuals... it’s an argument that the story of American history is one of tragedy and one that we should be saddened by and embarrassed by.”
— Clay Travis (46:48)

“If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. No early exits, no nothing.”
— Donald Trump (54:24)

“I disagree with the President on this. I don't think he has the constitutional authority to do it... I believe that you should have the right to make this statement.”
— Clay Travis (57:07)

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Summary

For listeners seeking an engaging, right-of-center review of the day’s political and cultural battles, this episode blends substantive policy discussion with spirited cultural criticism. Clay and Buck dissect the effectiveness of crime interventions, scrutinize the cultural and legal implications of flag burning, call out perceived deficiencies in Democratic outreach—especially to men—and challenge the framing of American history in public institutions. The show’s conversational, sometimes irreverent style is anchored by candid disagreement even with allies, all in the spirit of defending free speech, traditional virtues, and national pride.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Monday edition of the program. Many different stories afoot that we will dive into during the course of today's program. After a weekend where crime continues to plummet in Washington, D.C. and where sanity continues to prevail across most of the landscape of this nation. Trump saying that he may go into Chicago, Baltimore and other cities with high violent crime rates, including getting into a war of words with the governor of Maryland West More we are talking also about DC in particular. Having gone now, I believe it is either 11 or 12 days, depending on who is counting and where exactly the definition of the beginning of the mobilization in D.C. is going. Our friend at CNN, Harry Enton, says Democrat branding is about as popular as the cracker barrel branding. We got Jelaine Maxwell Audio American flag burning, the a new executive order from Trump. Maybe one of the first things that I've actually disagreed with. And we'll see what Buck's take is on this as well. And I'm getting attacked for my take on the air and space museum, which is probably not a sentence that you expected would happen. All that and more, but we began Trump in the Oval Office, the president of South Korea scheduled to visit with him. And this is what Trump said just a few moments ago about the crime situation in Washington, D.C. this is cut three.

[Donald Trump]

Everybody before me is happy what I'm doing. Most of you won't say that because you're radical left. The newspapers are so dishonest. The press is totally dishonest. But that's all right. We've gotten used to it and we wanted a landslide. So they obviously lost their power. I mean, it's impossible to imagine that when you get 97% negative stories, purposely negative stories, even though you've done 97% positive things, that they could. That you could win an election in a landslide. Winning all seven. Think of it, all seven swing states winning by the popular vote, by millions of votes. We had a fantastic. The best this year, districts. Out of 3,000 districts, I guess we won 3,500. We won 2,750. And they won 500. And that's, to me, the best of all.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, Buck. It's becoming, I think, increasingly difficult to argue that the surge of support for National Guard and D.C. police and everything else isn't having an impact. I don't think it's totally arbitrary that we've gone 11 or 12 days without a murder in the summer, something they can't find a record of in D.C. going back decades. Obviously, crime tends to skyrocket in the summer. Weather's good, people have more free time, kids are out of school. All of that is when typical violence is at its peak all over the nation. Kind of feels like Trump may well have made his point in D.C. and I love the idea of going into Chicago, Baltimore, other cities with high crime rates and trying to see, hey, can we save some more lives?

[Buck Sexton]

The streak continues in D.C. the harder it is for those opposed to this to continue to oppose it without looking like they're pro murder, pro crime. There have been a Lot of people, I think, who in the media have been chastened already by their response. They completely misunderstand the mood of the American people. We went through this phase. We went through the Soros da BLM era, and we've decided enough is enough. And by we, I mean a solid majority of all of the American people. And that is, I think, something that Democrats haven't figured out how to handle politically. What do they do? Because to turn around and face reality is to say that Republicans have been right all along. To turn around and to accept that the policies that we've been advocating for for years not only would result in better numbers for crime, better streets, better businesses, all that, fewer dead people, something that everybody, as we've discussed, should be able to get behind and feel very pleased about. But I think Democrats continue to have this. This problem. And it's. They can't escape the radical left. They can't escape the loud voices that were directing policy in their party for years. And now here we are. Here is Brandon Johnson, the mayor. You mentioned Chicago, how that could be. Next. Here is the mayor of Chicago. This is cut 8. Play it.

[Clay Travis]

What he is proposing at this point would be the most flagrant violation of our constitution in the 21st century.

[Buck Sexton]

The city of Chicago does not need a military occupation.

[Clay Travis]

That's not what we need. In fact, we've been very clear about what we need. We need to invest in people to ensure that we can build safe and affordable communities.

[Buck Sexton]

That's just. He's just promising more communism and really more communism rooted in race instead of class. Invest in people. Yeah. Tax the people who are productive and earn more. Squander that money on useless government programs that do nothing for really anybody when it comes to crime. And more of the same. And so you have to ask yourself, if you live in a place like Chicago, clay, that had 621 murders in 2023, do you want more of the same? That's what the mayor is offering.

[Clay Travis]

I think it's becoming increasingly difficult to defend the status quo. And I give President Trump a lot of credit for changing the narrative here because it's been fairly easy for presidents to go into the White House and just pretend that Washington, D.C. is all fine and dandy around them, even though the violent crime rate has been extraordinarily high. And Trump has already weighed in on the mayor of Chicago. Remember, maybe it's bumped up a bit since then. The mayor of Chicago had a 6% approval rating in the city of Chicago. I want to repeat that six as in five plus one. I've never seen a mayoral approval rating that low. Everyone hates this guy, right? For the job he's done.

[Buck Sexton]

If we put my name on the. Do you think that Mayor Sexton is doing a good job for. I think enough people would just be confused by the question that I would get more than 6% by Chicago residents.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, it's almost impossible to get 6% of people approving of a political official that low, even with there being a ton of people who've done awful jobs. Here is Trump on Brandon Johnson. Remember, Chicago actually managed to get worse. They had Lori Lightfoot, who was among the worst mayors in the history of the COVID era, and they doubled down with awful.

[Buck Sexton]

They really did.

[Clay Travis]

She lost. She lost in the primary to this guy. Here is. Here is President Trump discussing that cut 4.

[Donald Trump]

I watched as a very incompetent mayor from Chicago said, well, what do they know? They only arrested nine people. I said, nine people. We didn't arrest nine people. We actually arrested a total of well over a thousand people. We took hundreds of guns away from young kids that were throwing them around like it was candy. We apprehended scores of illegal aliens. We seized dozens of illegal firearms. There have been zero murders. It sounds sort of terrible to say it's embarrassing. I did this over the weekend. I'm making a speech and I acted like I was so proud. As I said, we've had zero murders in the last week. And some of these people were from foreign countries. They said, that doesn't sound so good. I said, well, doesn't sound good, but Washington was the most dangerous place in this country. And now, you know what? It's probably the safest place in our country.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, it is pretty extraordinary. And I get it, data sets can be somewhat arbitrary. But I think it's really hard as we sit at 11 or 12 days, coming up on two weeks, coming through weekends when violence tends to peak because people are out in the streets more. I think it's really hard to argue that this lower rate of violent crime is not directly connected to what Trump has done. Every day where the crime stays down, it becomes harder as you get a larger data set.

[Buck Sexton]

I also think we should look to our distant south a little bit here and give credit where it is due. The president of El Salvador, Nayeb Bukele, ran the experiment in the most stark, obvious possible terms. El Salvador was a top five, and in one year, I think a clave was per capita number one. Per capita number one or number two, Murder capital as A nation of the world.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

For, you know, this doesn't include civil wars, obviously, or war. Right. This is criminal homicides inside of the borders of a country that's still functioning as a country, but it was pretty much the murder capital of the world, more or less. Now it's the safest country in Latin America. The safest country in all of Latin America. And he did this in a matter of years. What happened? What was the miracle? He said, you know what? We know who the bad people are and we're just going to stop allowing them to do bad things and we're going to punish them and we're going to take them out of broader society, full stop. And look what he did. The biggest, from the worst to the best in all of Latin America. And now we look at our American cities and we see places. You know, we just talked about Chicago. What did I say? 600 murders in 2023. 50% more murders than New York City, which has four times the people. So 50% more homicides, one fourth of the population. That's okay. The Chicago, the Chicago political establishment thinks that that's an acceptable situation.

[Clay Travis]

My, my El Salvador, no doubt my home state of Memphis, the city here, in my home state, had more murders than New York City. Think about how crazy.

[Buck Sexton]

Straight up, right? Head to head comparison.

[Clay Travis]

Head to head, Head to head. In recent years, Memphis, Tennessee had more murders than New York City. How is that acceptable? Again, I've said if I were governor, I would follow the lead of Trump, I would send in the state National Guard, I would make this end. And I think, what did I say when we started this? That it was an interesting test case. And we talked about this buck. We said, if it works, it's going to prove that there just hasn't been the will to drive down violent crime. And now that the violent crime is going down and you're using Washington, D.C. as a test case. This is where I got attacked for saying, hey, this is a really good opportunity to see if it works, and if it does, it should spread. And I never thought that I would get attacked in the media for saying, hey, let's drive down the murder rate, let's save more lives. I did, but Trump is actually just saying, I'm not going to stand for this. And I do think it's connected to the 250th anniversary of Washington, D.C. but more than that, I think Trump wants D.C. to be a jewel of America. I saw where he's going to ask for more money to basically retrofit and rehabilitate many of the great parks in D.C. to make it a true diamond of American life. And so how do you, how do you fight this?

[Buck Sexton]

D.C. as a place, as a location, maybe not so much in the summertime, is a beautiful place. And there should be something aspirational. When children from Oklahoma and Washington state and, you know, and Illinois and, you name it, Southern California, when they go to D.C. on that school trip, which I know so many of you, everyone should think, wow, what an incredible jewel of a city with so much history and gorgeous architecture and, and clean, safe streets. This stuff matters. This stuff matters. And I think that Trump is, I love this. I think this is a fantastic idea and I hope that he continues.

[Clay Travis]

Clay, no doubt. And, but boy, we had some fun. Did you see, as we go to break here, did you see mom Donnie try to bench press £135?

[Buck Sexton]

I did. I did. We should talk about it.

[Clay Travis]

We'll have some fun with that as well. In the meantime, Hootie rebels attacked Israeli citizens again this past Friday. The missile attacks met with self defense by Israeli forces over the weekend. But the attacks served to remind Israelis and their allies peace is not at hand. With all the missile attacks and damage done to their own communities, needs are as great as ever. There are tens of thousands of Israelis in need of our support and help as they contend with the bombings. As a nation, we've been supportive and generous. We continue to be so. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has built an incredible partnership for all of us to help those in need throughout Israel. Donations you make will help provide food distribution, critical first aid, emergency supplies, bomb shelters. It is incredibly important. I have seen the work these fabulous people do with my own eyes. Now's the time to help Israel's innocent and most vulnerable. To rush your gift, call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888488 IFCJ. You can also go online at IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org you ain't imagining it.

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The world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with clay and bun. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Clay Travis]

Now you can stream Fox News Live on the Fox One app. Stay on top of breaking news and the biggest stories live as they happen. All from the FOX voices you trust, bringing you the coverage you won't find anywhere else.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in hour number two, Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show Monday Edition. Want to encourage you go subscribe to the show wherever you may spend your your time. On social media we have a great and thriving YouTube channel but we are on Instagram, we are on TikTok, we are on Twitter slash X We are on truth social. We basically if there is a social media outlet, we have got a good audience that you guys have joined up with us there. We're also individually everywhere and Clay Travis Buck Sexton search us out soon we hope to have all three hours of video available on YouTube rumble wherever else people go to watch video and that hopefully will be sometime after the first of the year. But in the meantime we are coming up on the end of summer and The Democrat Party is not doing itself any favors. We have what I would say is I think you'd probably sign off on this buck as we get close to Labor Day being officially upon us, three major elections to kind of pay attention to. We've got the governor of Virginia, we've got the governor of New Jersey. Both of those are traditionally, I think it's fair to say now, blue states. We'll see how Republicans are able to battle there. And then we have the New York City mayor's race where Zoran Momdami is. Momdani is the Democrat nominee. You still got Andrew Cuomo in, you still got Eric Adams in, and you've still got Curtis Sliwa in. And basically every day, Mom, Donnie continues to create more space between him and the other candidates. At least if you use the prediction markets, he's nearly a 90% chance now to be elected the next mayor of New York City. And we're going to get into Momdani and his overall actual physical weakness. But Harry Enton, who actually shares, I have to give credit to cnn, pretty interesting data on a regular basis, kind of diving into what the numbers say. He wanted to put into context how the Democrat Party looked. And he kind of made an analogy with the cracker barrel rebrand. And this is what it sounded like.

[Harry Enten]

The Democratic brand right now has about the appeal with the American voter as the cracker barrel rebrand has with the American consumers. Bad, bad, bad. What are we talking about here in terms of big party registration changes in the key swing states? Look at this. Republican Party gains in party registration compared to this point back in 2017 during the Trump first administration. In Arizona, you got a Republican gain of three points. Okay, how about Nevada, a gain of six points. How about again, we come to the east coast, North Carolina, a gain of eight points for the Republicans. And in the Keystone State, in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, again, we're talking about a gain of eight points, my goodness gracious, for Republicans, they are converting old former Democrats to their side of the ledger as well as picking up new voters.

[Clay Travis]

So all of the data, we talked about this from the New York Times showing that, that all of this is moving in a very positive direction. And so much of this has to do with failure to appeal to young men. And we mentioned this in the first hour and you might say, ok, I don't particularly care about this. This doesn't have anything to do with policy. Why would you even focus on it, Mom, Donnie over the weekend decided to hop on a bench press at a public event and he was unable to do. I went back and looked at the pictures. It is 45 pound plates on each side and a bar traditionally 135 pounds. He couldn't do it one time. And I understand some of you may never have been in a gym, you may never have laid down on a bench press. You may never have done it at all. I do think this is emblematic of why young men are just completely rejecting the Democrat Party. I'll give you a story on this buck. Yesterday my 14 year old, he's a 9th grader, came home and he had been with a friend over the weekend and he said, dad, I just got 155 one time on my bench press. And he was so excited about it. And you know, I gave him a high five as, as dads do. He's playing football, he wants to lift, he wants to get stronger. All of his friends see saying someone is a Democrat as an insult. These are kids from all different backgrounds. And I do think that this inability to just connect with normal men is emblematic of Zoran Mandami's inability to bench. Am I making too much of this or do you think it's a symbol of Democrat weakness and also just an inability to understand average male voters? That, that is incredible weakness.

[Buck Sexton]

No, it took some time for it really to sink in. What the Democrat ideology and the talking points, the orthodoxy was around things like toxic masculinity. Remember I had this discussion on the Bill Maher show right before the election where I said Trump is going to win and this is why. And this is one of the reasons why, sure enough, that was all correct, even though, and I would say the audience actually didn't boo, really. Remember, I went back and watched this again. The audience was willing to hear it out because I think that they realized some of them knew at least the train that was coming down the tracks and the Trump train was already going toot toot. I mean, it was on the way at that point. It was October, it was right before the election. But Clay, that we talked about, you know, toxic masculinity and masculinity in general. First of all, I remember one of the other panelists there maybe is still, maybe still has a job at cnn. I don't know, I'm being quite honest with you. I don't think so. I don't know, maybe as a contributor there and she said, why are we talking about men? We should be talking about women and minorities, basically. Like, well, the topic is masculinity. So, you know, if yeah, of course.

[Clay Travis]

Completely expected, right. That she would immediately say, I don't know why we're talking. Yeah. Why are you talking about this? Well, it's the topic.

[Buck Sexton]

And, and then, and then when I try to get into. I said, if you look at masculine virtues, you're not allowed to talk about masculine virtues as a Democrat. And Democrats are not allowed to say. You can't say things like courage, bravery. Because they'll say, what do you mean? Well, women have that too. It's like, ok, yeah, but we're trying to, you know, we're trying to look at what is true generally, genetically about men and women in the aggregate. And fundamentally, men and women are different. And this is what the Democrat Party decided they were going to just. They were going to destroy this difference. They were going to destroy it with the trans issue, but also more generally, they were going to destroy it. Women should conduct themselves like men, should pursue the same ends as men, should have the same life aspirations as men. And, you know, this is where you can get into the. It's fine if a woman doesn't want to have a family, of course it's fine if a woman wants to choose a career first, of course. And they should have that, that full right to do. But as a society, generally speaking, some things tend to be true about men and women about the careers they choose, about the hours they put in, about the. And it's okay to promote that. It's okay to say, hey, this is actually a good thing for men to do, or this is a good thing for women to do in general. And Democrats ran against all of that. And you find yourself thinking, you know, they also just, they got rid of a lot of the words that you would use to describe wimpy men or wimpyness. You know, I don't even really know how you're supposed to talk about this anymore, but this is, this is where they found themselves as, as a party. And they won't walk back from this. They're starting to try. Said Gavin Newsom is putting out like he put out. Okay, here's a perfect example. Gavin Newsom put out or his team put out. Same thing. A photo, right? You saw this Clay of him in high school. Like, he's got like a long scarf on. He's got like, you know, slick hair and he's like, hey. And, you know, and J.D. vance looking a little bit like a doofus. But, you know, is high school. A lot of us look like doofuses in high school. And the whole thing, I guess, is Like, I'm like handsome, cool Gavin Newsom, unlike this guy who was like a dork in high school and it's like, well, he's the Vice President of the United States. You know, he's been incredibly successful. He actually looks great now. I think he would kick Gavin Newsom's ass in a fight. Not that that matters, but if we're talking about this stuff and every time they try to do this clay, it rings hollow. Every time they try to go down the masculinity pathway, it rings hollow because Democrats will tear down what they're saying.

[Clay Travis]

Yes. And Gavin Newsom is almost 60. I was cool in high school is not something that I think appeals very much to people when they look at a 60 year old. I, I, I think that men are not above criticism. And, and this is why I, I look at the G, at the Zoran Momdami attempted bench press. And for those of you who don't know, 135 pounds is a goal that a 14 or 15 year old boy who is trying to play football would aspire to. Right. I think for people out there who don't know one plate on each side of 45, which is the typical top weight, is a goal that young, young boys, I would say maybe some of you out there haven't been able to do it yet. I'd say that's, that's a good goal. You want to be able to have at least one plate. And then for you and me, I bet it was when I'm, you know, 20 years old or 19 or whatever I was, I want to get two plates, right. I want to be able to do 2 25, which is a lot of weight to bench press. But if you ever go into a gym, that is the goal. That's how most men, in some women, but most men would progress. They'd say I want to get one plate on each side and then eventually.

[Buck Sexton]

I want to and I can both bench press 225. And so for any of you who are doubters or haters out there, that video will be, could be forthcoming very quickly. We could both bench 225. OK, so you before, before all the snark comes flying our way, I, by.

[Clay Travis]

The way, to be fair, don't know how many reps on 225 I would get, but I can definitely notice.

[Buck Sexton]

I said we can bench it. You can bench it, I can bench it. We can both do 225. As we're having this Mamdani conversation.

[Clay Travis]

So when I look at it I just think to myself, the criticism of men, to me that I would give is that men are not masculine enough and that the failure of masculinity is that men are not strong enough, both mentally and physically, to take on the responsibilities that we as men should. And so when I see someone who is physically weak, like Mom Donnie, it doesn't make me think, oh, this is someone who believes in strong men. Is it symbolic? Yes. Are there people who are incredibly weak that are very strong mentally? Certainly that occurs. But when you are 33 years old, like Mom Donnie, and it looks to me like you, you don't even know how to hold a bench. Hold the bar. You've never been on a bench before. It is a sign, I think, of weakness mentally and physically, when it comes to the masculine ideal.

[Buck Sexton]

It all ties in, too, with. With the ideology, because victim ideology. That's not fair. Let's not compete. Everybody gets a trophy. You go down all of these thoughts, all these talking points. These Democrats embrace this stuff, right?

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

Everybody gets a trophy. Competitiveness is wrong. Oh, I'm a victim. My choices don't matter. I'm not accountable. Other people hold me down. I'd be stronger, I'd be thinner, I'd be smarter, I'd be more successful if somebody else. Somebody else wasn't doing what they're. You know, this is very central to the. The modern Democrat Party ethos and for people to say, well, what about all the lib billionaires? First of all, look at Jeff Bezos. Guy gets rich enough and, you know, he's taken enough steroids to, you know, probably give a horse a heart attack. So, you know, there's a. They want to be strong, too, in some cases. And by the way, I think he's gotten a little bit more right wing as he's gotten stronger. So I'm actually all for it. And you look at.

[Clay Travis]

Which actually goes to your point, which I think is well taken, that if you just measure testosterone levels, as testosterone goes up, Republican voting becomes more likely.

[Buck Sexton]

I think it would be. I think it would be the. One of the strongest indicators if you did blood tests of every American man walking into a voting booth. There would be some. There would be some exceptions. There would be. I think, particularly. I think the correlation would break down among some minority voters where it wouldn't, you know, it would. But I think among. Among white men, you would have probably a pretty high. You know, just because of the. I think you'd have probably a pretty high correlation with low T. And voting Democrat. Yes. I think that is true. I think that is true. And it might be true of the broader male population as well. I just have to think about, you know, voting allegiance, cultural influences. There's other things too. But if you just walk around and you had a good sense as to what the average testosterone level of a room is, I think you'll have a pretty good. A pretty good sense again. It's not perfect, but a pretty good sense about it. About the politics.

[Clay Travis]

I tweeted that if you only allowed people who could bench their body weight to vote, Republicans would win 95. 5. I don't think it would be close like if you just said, hey, Instead of being 18, new rule, you have to be able to bench your body weight to be able to vote. I think it would be a massive Republican landslide.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, well, strength is something that. And, and you know, generally physical fitness, I'd say, but strength is something where you either can or you can't. And it forces you to at least think in the real world, better version of can, can someone kick your ass or not? A lot of guys, you sit down and by the way, you don't always know. That's certainly the case. But guys generally will think about this. Like, if I had to take this guy, could I take this guy? It's a very right wing thought. Left wing is not to embrace, not to even engage, I think, in this kind of thinking. And to assume that the world does not revolve at some level around these power dynamics and power relationships, which it still does, even if the left and the collectivists don't want it to. All right. Cell phones are meant to last a long time, but not a lifetime. You've had a cell phone that's lost its battery power, one that lost its ability to process data at a quick speed. So you know that that cell phone needs to get replaced. Thanks to Pure Talk, you can replace your cell phone with a new one without having to pay hundreds of dollars. When you switch to Pure Talk this month, you're going to get a Samsung Galaxy A36 for free with a $35 a month qualifying plan. That's just 35 bucks a month for unlimited talk, text and. Sorry for talk text and data. And a free Samsung phone with scratch resistant gorilla glass and a battery that lasts all day, all on America's most dependable 5G network. Look, supporting companies like Pure Talk is a good thing.

[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Buck Sexton]

All right, third hour of clay and Buck starts right now. Thanks for being with us, everybody. And as promised, we have this discussion that has gotten a lot of attention in the press. I think a lot less attention just from Main street, from everyone all across the country trying to keep up with the news. This has to do with the Smithsonian specifically, but really museums more broadly, which, especially when you're talking about DC museums like the National Portrait Gallery and have been filled with clay. What was, have you been to any of these museums in, in recent years? I, I have to be honest with you, I have not.

[Clay Travis]

So, so this is what got me blown up by the left. When we were up in dc, my son was doing a two week internship. He is incredibly fascinated with space travel, with science, with all of the sci fi related elements. So I took him to the National Air and Space Museum. So I was just up at the National Air and Space Museum a couple of months ago when we were in D.C. and it was fantastic. And now back to you on talking about the Smithsonian. But I will come back and tell you exactly what my take was on it. But you lived in dc. These are all free, I imagine. What percentage of the audience do you think out there right now has ever been to a Smithsonian museum? If you went to DC, you have been to a Smithsonian museum. So I would think at least half of the people listening to us right.

[Buck Sexton]

Now, I was going to say 25%, but a big chunk. A big chunk. I grew up in New York City and I've never been to the Statue of Liberty. So I mean, you know, sometimes crazy things happen.

[Clay Travis]

But I feel like if you went to D.C. on a school trip or you took your family at any point in your life, I would venture most people who go to Washington D.C. have been to at least one of the Smithsonian. Now has it been a while for me other than Aaron Space? Yes. But I think set the table for what President Trump has said. And this is where it all started.

[Buck Sexton]

Let's, let's, let's gather together on this one here for a second. The Trump White House has called for a review of all current and future exhibitions at Eight Smithsonian museums. This has got some of the major art museums involved as well. And this is because of quote, a desire or the quote starts with alignment with American ideals, a desire to make sure they're aligned with American ideals. President Trump truthed the following. The museums throughout Washington, but all over the country are essentially the last remaining segment of woke. And there then the White House released a list of muse of museum exhibits that it found objectionable. Trump has told his lawyers to go through museums and this is the same thing to do with colleges and universities. His administration has saw changes threatening funding cuts and even tax exempt status. So the, the left is of course very upset about this and the reason they're very upset about this is that they want these institutions to reflect their view. Remember, there's no neutral space here. They want these to reflect their view of American history, which means highlighting oppressed and victimized people and more specifically highlighting the center, the centerpiece of American history until the Industrial Revolution, Clay and the one and only thing that we're allowed to really think a lot about is slavery. And that is the most, the, the single central, most important to highlight aspect of American history according to some of these museums. And there's a fight underway. And I think this is a good thing. I think that Trump should not allow the left wing nonsense to go without pushback at this, a traveling exhibition at the museum, at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Arizona, Clay was called Trans Feminisms. This says and now they have changed. So we're talking about some pretty radical left wing stuff at museums in general, but at our national museum, Smithsonian Museum specifically.

[Clay Travis]

Here's a couple of headlines for you, for yours truly after the take that I'm about to share with you. Fox News pundit compares slavery to plane crashes. An absurd rant against the Smithsonian. Some of you may have seen this, by the way, seen the actual event going on Yahoo Sports with Yahoo. Sorry, regular with a similar take saying not a substantial part of history. The Fox News pundit compares slavery to plane crashes. Let's see. Yahoo says Fox News pundit compares slavery to plane crashes. An absurd rant against the Smithsonian. Yahoo. All right, here's what I said and I bet you're going to sign off on this too. Maybe some of you disagree. I said, citing my trip to the Air and Space museum with my 17 year old. I said that when you go to the Air and Space Museum, it is about the incredible human accomplishment of flight and space exploration. We went through that whole place, Spirit of St. Louis front hanging from the ceiling so many different. The Wright brothers plane from Kitty Hawk is there. Recreated the original. One of the original versions, we spent an entire day there. It was awesome. We went to the IMAX theater. We watched the movies that they were putting on there. One about some of the challenges of space and time, the other about the.

[Buck Sexton]

The.

[Clay Travis]

The challenges associated, if I remember correctly, with. With interstellar travel.

[Buck Sexton]

Right.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, it is sci fi. It is hitting history of flight and space exploration. There wasn't a single exhibit about plane crashes or about people who died trying to go to space. That doesn't mean that plane crashes don't happen all the time and that there aren't dangers from aviation and space travel. And maybe at some point in time, they have a special exhibit for the Challenger or they have a special exhibit maybe connected to 911 in some way. I don't know if they've ever done that. But in general, I think the goal of the Smithsonians is to make people feel better about America and American life and to leave with an uplifting feeling. Now, there are other museums in Washington, D.C. that are directly related to specific forms of trauma. The Holocaust Museum, for instance. But by and large, to me, sites like the Air and Space Museum should not be places where you go and examine human failure and the wrongs that have been perpetrated that have led to lack of success in space travel or flight. To me, that's a very, I think, easy to understand and also normal emotional response that most people would have. And so Trump is focused on the achievement, and much of the left now is focused on American failure. And that's really what this conversation is about.

[Buck Sexton]

Now, the administration highlighted a number of specific exhibits. I was looking for this a second ago, but I found it, and I can go through just a few of these. So there was a exhibit on LGBTQ + history at the American History Museum. Yeah, LGBTQ.

[Clay Travis]

I would not sign off on that in the American History Museum, personally. Like, I don't think that is necessary.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, I mean, the history of LGBTQ plus has got to go back only a couple years because they just came up with that acronym a few years ago. I mean, the plus was just added. So this is very new. This is the. This is really contemporary, not. Not actually history. And then you had. This is the one I think got the most attention from people. A painting of immigrants crossing the southern border at the National Portrait Gallery. So it's a very favorable depiction of an immigrant family and, you know, a baby that, like, I mean, it looks like the baby Jesus or something. That is Crossing Trump's wall. And they didn't, you know, they don't like that. You know, by the way, that's illegal. What they're doing is a crime. So it's interesting the way it's depicted. It's actually illegal, but the way it's depicted, it's like a great, you know, leap forward in America's. America's, you know, history or its past, whatever. Anyway, there's a bunch of other ones, Latinos with disabilities. A drawing of Anthony Fauci at the National Portrait Gallery. Fauci is. Yeah, Fauci is a scumbag. So that's not good. So, yeah, I agree. I mean, I think this stuff is all very political. You know, imagine if you had had. At the National Portrait Gallery, they were putting up, you know, they're putting up paintings of, like, what a terrible dementia patient Biden was and having him look really confused. I mean, you might say, that's a great painting, Buck. I should do that. But people would recognize that it's very partisan, Clay. These are very partisan things that are going up in these museums.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. And again, I think the idea is. And I think most of you would sign off on this, one reason that Democrats popularity is in the tank is because they focus on the failures of America almost exclusively. They've got the Oppression Olympics all the time. The idea that you cannot succeed, that America is a horribly racist, irredeemable country with a sordid past. I mean, really, the entire concept of the 1619 Project, which the New York Times got behind, among others, Nicole Hannah Jones, I believe, was the history. I'm putting in quotation marks, because she's not actually much of a historian. But the idea of the 1619 Project was America's founding date is actually when slavery began in the. In the colonies, and. And not 1776, when America declared independence from Great Britain. And so if you root American history and define it entirely based on slavery, then you are able, this is the goal, to tear down anything that was created in that era as illegitimate and oppressive. So the Constitution doesn't have to exist. The Declaration of Independence can be removed. All of that can be torn down. If you decide to only focus on the sins of American history, what I would say is 600,000 some odd people died to end slavery. That seems pretty significant in the general American consciousness. We should focus and celebrate successes over failures. I think that's what our museum should do.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. If you're talking about combat fatalities in the Civil War, overwhelmingly it was white men who died on both sides. But white men who died on both sides, and it was their price in blood that ended the institution of slavery, which. That always seems to get left out of this.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, that always seems to be left out of the conversation. And there's a hatred, I think, of Americanness that the left indulges and really wants to propagate. And we see it at the universities, and now we see it through the. We saw it at the, with the 1619 Project, the new York Times, and now we see it through the institutions of museums. And enough is enough. Let me ask you this, Clay. What other country would do this? Find me another country. I mean, the only thing you could maybe think of would be, you know, German museums about Nazism or, you know, the way that Nazis are treated in German museums of World War II. But this idea that you're going to have museums that seek within a country, that seek to attack and undermine the country from within, this is. This is not a common thing that the rest of the world would engage in.

[Clay Travis]

I think that's true. And I also believe that what Trump sees is the symbolism of tearing down statues isn't really about those individuals who are having their statues torn down. It's an argument that the story of American history is one of tragedy and one that we should be saddened by and embarrassed by. And I think most of you out there that are students of history recognize that all of us are flawed, but that what we want to do is celebrate the great moments of American triumph while acknowledging that we don't always make the right decisions. The long range history of America, from its inception in 1776 to the present day, is one of the greatest country in the history of the world, struggling, fighting, endeavoring to become greater than it has been in the past. And that's why I think Make America Great Again has such a cultural resonance, because it's about making us all better than we have been in the past and also returning us to some of the principles that made us so foundationally dominant. And it would make sense that you would then examine history to see what our kids are being taught, because if they're being taught that America is a profoundly racist, awful, oppressive country, then it's hard to have pride in the country. And guess what? Young people don't have a lot of pride in the country. And when you don't have pride in place, you're able to be led astray and you're able to reject the history of this country and all of the accomplishments of so many people out there before us. And I think that's what Trump gets innately. Look, college campus is filling up again. Nearly 20 million college kids going away this fall. If you've got a kid going off to college, how about give them some self protection? And I'm talking about what Sabre can provide. These are self protection tools you recommend? We recommend in your own home, but also for your kids or your grandkids if they're going off to school. Pepper sprays, pepper gels, projectile devices. These are fantastic to have. We've got a 17 year old who's now driving his own car. He's got pepper spray that he keeps right in the center of the car so that he could use it if he needs to. Do you have a daughter? Do you have a granddaughter going off to school? She having to walk into a parking garage, she having to walk. Maybe she has night classes, maybe she's got a job, maybe she's going back and forth. What protection does she have? This is what Sabre is all about. It's a company founded by a family, still run by that family that can help make your own family that much safer. And right now you can save 15% on the saber Mega bundle with extra projectiles, magazines and practice targets. If you go to saberradio.com that's sabre radio.com you can also call them 844-824-S a f e that's 844-824-SAFE and you will get hooked up. Go check them out. I promise you're gonna love the products. We've got them all. Buck's got them all. You and your family could Definitely use these.15% off saber radio.com that's S A B R E radio.com news you can.

[Podcast Promo Voice]

Count on and some laughs too. Clay Travis at Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Clay Travis]

Now you can stream Fox News live on the Fox One app. Stay on top of breaking news and the biggest stories live as they happen, all from the fo voices you trust, bringing you the coverage you won't find anywhere else.

[Buck Sexton]

Start your 7 day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox One for complete terms and conditions. Fox One, we live for live streaming now.

[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

Hey there. I'm Mary Kathryn Ham.

[Carol Markowitz]

And I'm Carol Markowitz. We've been in political media for a long time.

[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

Long enough to know that it's gotten, well, a little insane.

[Carol Markowitz]

That's why we started Normal, a podcast for people who are over the hysteria and just want clarity.

[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

We talk about the issues that actually matter to the country without panic, without yelling, and with a healthy dose of humor.

[Carol Markowitz]

We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we do take the truth seriously.

[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

So if you're into common sense, sanity, and some occasional sass, you're our kind of people. Catch new episodes of Normally every Tuesday.

[Carol Markowitz]

And Thursday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or. Or wherever you listen.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, have you heard of the Rio Reset?

[Clay Travis]

Sounds like a trendy new workout, buck.

[Buck Sexton]

It does, but it's actually a big summit going on in Brazil. The formal name is brics, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But they've just added five new members.

[Clay Travis]

Smart move to stick with brics. We know what happens when acronyms don't end. They confuse everyone.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, that's an understatement. BRICS is a group of emerging economies hoping to increase their sway in the global financial order.

[Clay Travis]

Now that sounds like the plotline of a movie. I'm listening.

[Buck Sexton]

Philip Patrick is our Bruce Wayne. He's a precious metals specialist and a spokesman for the Birch Gold Group. He's on the ground in Rio getting the whole lowdown on what's going on there.

[Clay Travis]

Can he give us some inside intel?

[Buck Sexton]

Absolutely. He's been there since day one. In fact, a major theme at the summit is how BRICS nations aim to reduce reliance on the US dollar in global trade.

[Clay Travis]

Yikes. That doesn't sound good. We gotta get Philip on the line.

[Buck Sexton]

Stat already did. And he left the Clay and Buck audience this message. The world is moving on from the dollar.

[Clay Travis]

Quietly but steadily.

[Buck Sexton]

These nations are making real progress towards reshaping global trade.

[Clay Travis]

And the US Dollar is no longer the centerpiece. That shift doesn't happen overnight, but make no mistake, it's already begun.

[Buck Sexton]

Thank you, Philip. Protect the value of your Savings account, your 401k, your IRA, all of them, by purchasing gold and placing it into those accounts and reducing your exposure to a declining dollar value. Text my Name Buck to 989-898. You get the free information you'll need to make the right decision. You can rely on Birch Gold Group, as I do, to give you the information you need to make an informed decision. One more time, text my name Buck to 98. 98. 98. All right, welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. As we said, Trump had a meeting today with the president of South Korea and also was just in the Oval Office addressing a whole range of issues. One thing that came up, I didn't know that this was going to happen. I'm sure Trump had probably tweeted or spoken about it recently, but truthed about it. Recently. He spoke about the executive order on burning flags. This is cut to listen in what.

[Donald Trump]

The penalty is going to be. If you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. No early exits, no nothing. You get one year in jail. If you burn a flag, you get. And what it does is incite to riot. I hope they used that language, by the way, did they incite incite to riot? And you burn a flag, you get one year in jail. You don't get 10 years. You don't get one month. You get one year in jail. And it goes on your record. And you will see flag burning stopping immediately. Just like when I signed the Statute and Monument Act. 10 years in jail. If you heard any of our beautiful monuments, everybody left town, they were gone. Never had a problem after that. It's pretty amazing we stopped it. But this is something that's, I don't know, in a certain way, it's equally as important. Some people would say it's more important.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay, Clay, I know you want to dive in on this one. And there's, there's a lot to, a lot to chew on with this. There is the Texas v. Johnson, 1989 Supreme Court case that said that this is a, that flag burning is a legal, legal acts. The Supreme Court weighed in on this very clearly. I mean, they've said that this is, this is legal. So I don't and then there's the issue of the executive order instead of a congressional act to pass a statute. Right. Executive orders are not supposed to be in place of laws. It's supposed to be the use of executive authority that either resides with the President or given to the President by an act of Congress. So that may be a challenge. I'm sure you got some other ideas on that one, too. One thing I would say, though, about this, I don't think this is going to last. Meaning, I don't think that this is going to make its way into policy without the courts stepping in. And I think he would lose at the Supreme Court on this too. I mean, just if it went to the current Supreme Court, I don't think that he would get a different result personally. Maybe I could be wrong, and maybe that's where this ends up going at some point. But, Clay, the other thing is this. We live in a country where burning, burning some flags will get you sent to prison.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

Because they say it's hate speech. That is wrong. It is part of the left wing DEI communist reordering of our society. And whether it's a, you know, an LGBTQ mural on a street that you're not allowed to drive too fast over, or it's a trans flag somewhere, either flag burning is a legal act of protected symbolic speech or it is not. We cannot have a society where we pick and choose. We cannot have, oh, you know, you light this on fire, you go to prison, but you light that on fire again as symbolism, and there's no big, you know, light the American flag on fire, no big deal.

[Clay Travis]

Look, I disagree with the President on this. I don't think he has the constitutional authority to do it. I understand the intent, but the Supreme Court has said you can burn flags and American flags, and I think you should be able to burn gay pride flags. I think you should be able to burn trans celebration flags, state flags. I wouldn't do it personally because I, I, I don't believe in it in an, on an individual level, but I believe that you should have the right to make this statement. And so, as a First Amendment absolutist, I think the President is wrong on this one. I don't think he has the authority to do it with the executive order. Again, I understand the intent, and I understand that it feels awful to see someone burning the American flag. That doesn't mean that I believe that should be considered a crime. Now, there are exceptions, right? If the President did reference, hey, if you're trying to create a Riotous environment. There are contexts in which if you take somebody else's flag, right. Yank it out of their hand and burn it, that is different than purchasing a flag yourself and choosing to burn it. But the Supreme Court has been pretty clear on this. I think that this is a protected speech. It is political speech, whether you agree with it or not. And so look, I think if you remember, producer Greg probably remember his name. I think one of the great iconic moments in. Was it Rick Monday, I think in American sports is when a fan ran on the field at Yankee Stadium and tried to burn a flag. And Rick Monday, I believe the center fielder for the Yankees ran and yanked the flag away before he could burn it. I applaud that. I think that, remember when we outside Union Station, we played audio, there was a guy who saw a flag burning and he grabbed it and ran with it to try to prevent the flag from being burned. I salute the bravery and patriotism, in my opinion, for that occurring. Well, but again, I don't think the President has the right to do it and I don't think we should ban flag burning.

[Buck Sexton]

That, though, then brings me to the hate speech thing, which is just an end run on this. And you have to be very careful with the left in this. They'll say, no, you're allowed, for example, you're allowed to burn a pride flag. No, actually, you're really not. Because if you burn the flag and there's any other violation of statute, let's say you take a flag off of a pole and it's not yours, or, or, you know, you've created an incendiary device in a public square or they'll find some way and then they hit you with a hate crime enhancement. And let me just say, I think hate crimes, I don't view, I think hate crimes are effectively the enhancements you get from hate crimes just comes from some people are considered to be a higher status of victim than others for the same conduct or the same act. So I did I, in principle disagreements with, with hate crime enhancements. You know, obviously I don't like hate crimes, but that's, that's not the same thing as saying, you know, you've got these people that have been arrested, for example, for, for like leaving a skid mark on a street because there's a pride mural there. It's a street.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

People can drive on the street. And do you get, do you get arrested for driving too fast in another intersection and leaving some marks on something? No. Then you shouldn't be arrested for this. They play these games of. They want the law to protect certain classes and that includes certain flag burning situations. And that has to stop. That has to be there. You know, the Supreme Court, I think should take that up too and just say, look, you can't play these games anymore where you have an end run on the right to burn flags. Or, you know, you have this sort of backdoor way of really punishing some people. And then everything else, you know, the American flag, it's all, this is completely fine to burn. Burn as many as you want. So, man, I remember there was. People still think this is crazy when I say it. There were students who held a flag burning on my campus in College after 911 Clay. Yeah, a, a, you know, about, I don't know, maybe eight students or something. They were actually not from my college. This came out later. They were from Hampshire down the road. But Hampshire is such a, I'm just being honest. An unserious academic institution, top to bottom. Just the truth, just facts. That they came to Amherst because they thought it would get them more attention. And it did. Boston Globe wrote it up. But you know, that mentality was there. It was, oh, we're still burying. People from 911 are still finding out, you know, if anyone's. Where people's remains are, let's have a big flag burning on campus. So, you know, I understand very much how it upsets people and how it's, it's, it's a. I'm with you. And that I strongly disagree with it. I just don't. I think the president doesn't have the authority here and I don't see how. I don't even have the authority.

[Clay Travis]

I don't even think it's a good idea to try to start to make these designations again. I think you should be able to burn legally the American flag, the Israeli fact, the flag, the Palestinian flag, any sort of flag that has to do with any statement. By the way, we're in college football season. A state flag, a flag that is somehow in some way associated with, with anybody out there. I think again to your point, you shouldn't be prosecuted because you decide to drive over gay pride flags that are on, that are painted on the, on the road. Like, why is that a thing in the first place? You're basically demanding or in, in, in some way putting it in the context where you're going to be driving over it all the time. I think you should be able to burn a trans flag, I think a gay rights flag, whatever you want to burn. Again, I'm not saying I would do it, but I don't like the idea of penalizing direct political speech. And I think the Supreme Court's been clear on this. I don't think you have the, the ability to stop it.

[Buck Sexton]

A. A guy. In 2019, an American was given a sentence of 15 years for stealing a pride flag from a church and burning it outside of a strip club. Now, anybody, anybody who has any familiarity with how criminal law works in general. A flag. I don't know what the flag was. The flag, I mean, I'm looking at a picture of it right now. Flag was, I don't know, 50 bucks. In any other situation, do you get. Do you get 15 years in prison for stealing something that's a $50 item? I don't think so. Okay.

[Clay Travis]

That punishment is crazy, but the way they're able to punish it, to me there is. They stole something and then burned it.

[Buck Sexton]

No, I, I understand. But then they pile bonkers. They pile. On top of that, a hate crime enhancement. He. He stole a flag. Stealing a flag should be a thing that you can't do that gets you, you know, what is the value of the flag? And it should be treated like, you know, in this case, it should be treated like you stole a pair of shoes. Ok, don't do that again. You know, you have this on your record. 15 years in prison. 15 years. People murder. People don't get 15 years.

[Clay Travis]

Absolutely. Absolutely insane.

[Buck Sexton]

So, you know, this. But this is what I mean BY they really. LGBTQ+ and the trans agenda really became a state religion in this country. And I don't mean like by state, I mean big S state of the federal government and of the apparatus starting under the Obama years and then of course, really reaching its peak in the Biden years. And it's madness. You know, I'm sorry, but, like, you know, if you, if someone, if someone's going to tell me they have a right to stand, you know, here in South Florida and burn an American flag, I don't want to hear that. That if you burn a pride flag, you go to prison. That's. That's not. That's not what. You disagree?

[Clay Travis]

No, no, I agree with all that. I just. This may be a first. I'm just going through mentions. I screwed up a sports analogy and I'm getting correct. So I wanted to issue a correction. Rick Monday, center fielder for the Cubs, and it was at Dodger Stadium in 1976. I thought the Yankees were involved. This is before my time. I wasn't born yet. I know the Video as an iconic moment in sports. But I gotta, I gotta, I whiffed on that one.

[Buck Sexton]

So I just gotta tell you.

[Clay Travis]

So I had.

[Buck Sexton]

Don't blame Clay. Clay's been hanging out with me too much. He's like, you know, the Yankees, Red Sox, whatever, you know, same one of.

[Clay Travis]

Those teams that plays the ball, I don't know, the sports ball. They sports.

[Buck Sexton]

My apologies. It happens. It happens. The best of us. Clay, don't worry about it. All right, we'll come in, take some of your calls and take some of your thought. By the way, if you got thoughts on the flag burning thing, very curious for you to hear it. I think this is a move by Trump at some level. First of all, I think that he just passionately loves the American flag and appreciates symbolism and I think he deeply believes this is the right thing for the country. So I don't. I just think he's going to run into procedural problems with this. And I think the Supreme Court's weighed in pretty clearly on this. So unless the Supreme Court's going to overturn that previous decision, it's like, okay, what are we doing? But I also think it highlights this pick and choose situation of, well, some flags, you know, you go to prison for if you burn. And we all know this. Oh, it's stolen. Yeah, please. Some flags are sacrosanct. Some flags we give, we give special and some objects we give special, you know, protection to. Nope. It's either you either have the right or you don't have the right. It can't be a thing that's based on what you like. What percentage of Americans you think own gold? 5%, 15%, 33%. Look, the answer is just more than 12%, which is pretty small number when you consider the gold has increased in value some 40% of the last year. For you and most of this audience, it's an investment opportunity. It's close to another all time high now and a lot of room for growth in gold. Still a lot of reason to own gold these days. It's proven increase in value over time. I mean, just look historically at gold. Is there anything over human history that's a tangible, physical thing that has had more value over time? Also, by the way, Birch Gold Group their best, the best at getting you physical gold. I bought my gold coins and gold bars from them. They can get you a gold 401k or IRA going, that's right, a gold or gold IRA or 401k. Easy to convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered Iraq with physical gold and all you have to do to get going with Birch Gold Group today is text my name Buck to 9898 98. Birchgold will send you a free info kit on Gold A Plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. Tens of thousands of happy customers. Text my Name Buck to 9,898.98 to get started today.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

You want smart political talk without the meltdowns? We got you and I'm Carol Markowitz. And I'm Mary Kathryn Ham. We've been around the block in media and we're doing things different.

[Carol Markowitz]

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[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

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[Carol Markowitz]

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[Mary Kathryn Hamm]

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