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Clay Travis
Shh.
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Clay Travis
U N D welcome everybody to the Tuesday, December 2nd edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. We are racked and stacked. First order of business, got to get to it right away just to get it on your radar because we do have, thanks to one of us being a born and raised Tennessee and in fact a Nashvillian, more specifically, very important 7th congressional district in Tennessee, Afton Bain, trying to get sneaky and take this seat away from the Republican Mr. Van Epps. And I think that we need to make sure that doesn't happen, my friends. You need to get out and devote. Today is election Day. It is happening. Special election, special election. Do not be caught napping on this one. This is important because if nothing else, they will make fun of and antagonize our good friend Clay every day if he has basically the most left wing member of Congress in the United States Congress as his home Congress. It's not just Clay. You got a whole, basically the whole Daily Wire. Shapiro doesn't live there, but the rest of Daily Wire is there. Matt Walsh I think is in the area, right? Isn't Matt Walsh live roughly in your area?
Buck Sexton
Matt Walsh is there. Michael Knowles, my, our friend Riley Gaines, Tommy Aaron, Candace Owens.
Clay Travis
So it's a lot.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, it's a lot.
Clay Travis
This is like a, this is a hometown fight here for, for the seventh Congressional. And all of you who are listening need to get out and need to vote. Let's not give the Democrats something early to celebrate going into this term this morning.
Buck Sexton
So I'm telling you to do exactly what I did. I dropped my son off at school and then I walked right into the precinct there and I voted. So I'm asking everybody in from the border of Kentucky to the border of Alabama, the seventh Congressional District. I even had a friend text me and say, hey, I thought that that was my district. I tried to go to my polling place. There was no race, there was no election. Okay, you did your part because this is a new, this is a new district in many ways and a lot of people are not aware of this race going on. So I went on with Sean Hannity last night. We've been talking about it like crazy on this program. I feel like I have done everything I can to help make people aware this race is happening and today is the last day to go vote.
Clay Travis
So you got to get out there and vote. We, we've talked about the race. You've heard it, you know what's going on, you know the issues here. Just going to be Giving you reminders today during the show because, of course, we are live here for three hours with you. It's a great time to be listening to Clay and Buck on your way to go vote in that district. So get out there and get it done. All right. Other things, the drug boat controversy and Venezuela, the Caribbean, unusual for it to be quite the scene of action that it is now. But the Caribbean and Venezuela and the drug trade are all very much in the headlines. Pete Hegsett, the Secretary of War, getting a lot of heat, a lot of criticism. No surprise for these strikes. And there's been some reporting that is now contested about a double tap, if you will, on one of these boats. I think it was the first boat strike, actually. We're going to discuss some of that and also the implications for Venezuela where it is now being said the president has given Maduro was it to Friday.
Buck Sexton
It's already Tuesday. Friday.
Clay Travis
Deadline Trump went on a truth posting bonanza last night. Posting truths to truth Social. We will get into some of those. The cabinet is meeting currently. We'll bring you the highlights of that. The Trump cabinet, Caroline Levitt also had a fiery press conference yesterday. We'll bring you some of the best moments from that. Zoran Mamdani is being a crazy commie. Tom Homan is saying the Biden administration, it wasn't bad enough for them to let 10 million illegals flood the country. Clay. They also said, you know what, let's just take in all these Afghans and not vet them at all. Basically, you raise your hand and say, hey, I did great things for America. You owe me. Ok, we'll take you. Hmm, not a good idea. Not a good idea. But let's talk first about the drug boat situation here, Clay. Now they're, they're making a thing of this. And we've discussed this. They really have wanted to take Secretary Hegseth off of the chessboard. From the very beginning. I think the media has gone after Trump. Would you co sign this one? In term two, Pete has been target number two after Trump. Trump's always target number one.
Buck Sexton
I think that's accurate. I think Cash Patel has moved now number three in the number three spot on the attack list. Um, and I think we've kind of stayed in that range. I think there would be probably a big drop off. I mean, Elon obviously was not in the cabinet, but he was probably the most attacked in the first six months or so of Trump. But in the Cabinet, I think hex Seth's 1. I think that then Cash Patel is 2. And I would you agree with me, there's a huge drop off after those two. I, I don't even know who the third biggest target would be. It's been like just kind of alternating between Hegseth and, and with cash.
Clay Travis
They have been trying to go after David Sachs as well lately, the crypto and AI Czar, who we would like to get on this program soon to talk about what he's doing. But he's a very savvy cat and has been not only able to defend himself very effectively without having to do very much because a lot of the stuff that they're saying is just not true. Other people have been coming to his defense as well, saying he's in this position of he has so much money, money has very little meaning for him. He actually thinks that he's helping the country and that's why he's in this special advisory role, special employee to the administration. But we can get more into that too. But they want it. They want Hagseth out. They want to be able to show the Democrat base, hey, we can still call the shots in the media. We can still get a scalp, so, so to speak. And so this is where we're talking about, not just the boat strikes, which I'm going to tell you right now, Clay, they're going to impeach Trump over this if they win the House. All right. Do you have any doubt whatsoever about this?
Buck Sexton
I don't know that it'll be over this specifically. They're going to impeach him probably over whatever. I mean, they're going to find something to impeach him over. We agree 100% that they will impeach him for a third time for if they win the House.
Clay Travis
I think this is, I think this is top of the list. And that's why they're so dug in on this. I believe that they're going to try to make the case that, that these are war crimes. That's exact. And they're already saying it. So it's. That's not a stretch at all. But they also want to use it to have it as a cudgel to force Secretary of War Hegseth out of office. Here is, I mean, for example, for example, here is former Deputy Assistant ag this is cut eight, John. Wait, before we play the cut. So the claim, Clay, so we're clear on this, is that Pete. Let's go on. Pete, sometimes we know him, oversaw and was watching in real time a strike on the first of these boats and that they hit the boat, you know, J. Sock blew this boat up. And then there was wreckage. There was, you know, pieces of it. And there were a couple of guys who were clinging to the wreckage. And then the order, the affirmative order was given to send a second missile strike to kill the guys who were clinging to the records. That's the claim. This is disputed. Here is, though, what's being said by people in the media now about this play 8. If you look at the US law of war manual, which is the definitive.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
Interpretation of the way we fight the.
Clay Travis
Laws of armed conflict for the United.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
States, it says clearly that you are not allowed to give orders that say no survivors. Commanders are not allowed to give or say no quarter.
Clay Travis
And so Hef can't give that command legally also. Again, there are gray areas, but one gray area, one area that's not gray.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
That'S clear, is you can't fire on the wounded. You can't kill survivors who can no longer fight.
Clay Travis
So the Admiral should not have obeyed the order that Secretary Hegseth gave. And even the soldiers who carried out the Admiral's orders should not have obeyed. Clay, Lawyer Clay, work us through this a bit.
Buck Sexton
Okay, so, lawyer Clay, let me first say, I obviously don't have firsthand knowledge, but if I were making a case here, there are several angles that I think would be in play. Let me start with defending the decision. If this were what happened from them, I think they can say this wasn't a second strike to kill survivors. The boat was still operable, and. And we were concerned that we hadn't fulfilled the original mission. Right. You can hit a boat or a vehicle multiple times. If you do not believe you have actually rendered it to be inoperable. In other words, I think there's probably a defense that, hey, the first strike did not do the complete damage that was necessary. We did a second strike on top of it. I also think that there is potentially an issue here where if there are prisoners taken, then there is going to be a legal challenge to whether the President has the authority to undertake these actions. And do we then have an obligation to go rescue the survivors? All these other different things, I think that could be in play. But again, what are the facts? What were the exact orders? What was the intent of the order? Remember, there are all sorts of issues out there where we have an attack that is ordered and it's the wrong attack. Right? We talked about this on the program before in Afghanistan. We killed an innocent family. We thought the guy was a terrorist. That obviously got a decent amount of attention. So there are errors of interpretation that occur on these strikes too. I think it's very hard to know direct intent. Right?
Clay Travis
Well, we have to know the facts here. The facts are not agreed upon. And I would say one thing that has been established for a long time by the Obama administration, among others, but the Obama administration really accelerated. It was the signature drone strikes where they would hit a target based upon a series of factors that were not 100% and clearly not because they did blow up women and children sometimes. And this was going on in Pakistan, a country with which we were not actually at war and a country that we were pretending publicly at least for a long time in the Obama years. Oh, no, we're not doing drone strikes there. That's classified. The New York Times was writing front page stories about it, but the Obama administration, Clay, to avoid dealing with it in public, would just say that there's, you know, it's classified. We're not, we're not talking about that. That was accepted by all of the people who currently are sitting around angry at the Trump administration or supposedly angry at the Trump administration for what's going on here. So we do know that there are civilian casualties from strikes that are based on presidential authority. That does happen. But as you pointed out, it is accidental here. It would be to the point made by John, you now, John, you. Why do they have John, you making the rounds? Everybody, a little bit of history. If we all recall 20 years back or so, he was the so called torture memo guy under the Bush administration. So he was tied to enhanced interrogation techniques. So what you have now is the media having former Deputy Attorney General John U. Under Bush, a Republican, saying if you give an order for no survivors, that's a war crime. And this is from the guy who was like, we got to waterboard people sometimes you got to do what you got to do.
Buck Sexton
And again, all of this comes in rising tension with Venezuela. Again, we should mention also there's a cabinet meeting going on right now. Trump is taking questions. We're monitoring it in real time, as you said, off the top. The biggest part of this story is there is a report that Trump has given Maduro and his family until Friday to vacate the country or potentially we are going to take him out and install a more democratic government in Venezuela, which tons of people have a lot of opinions on. I said yesterday on the program I stand by it. I think that this can be akin to the strikes that happened in Iran in that they are very strategic and ultimately beneficial for the overall country. And we have tons of you out there that are Venezuelan. I mean, Buck lives in Miami, which is filled with tons of Venezuelan refugees. As we said yesterday on the program, Venezuela has the largest deposit of oil certainly in the Western hemisphere and used to be a thriving country that was very, very successful before the Maduro and that regime came into power.
Clay Travis
Third richest country in the world after the United States and Canada per capita at one point in recent memory.
Buck Sexton
Yeah.
Clay Travis
So, yeah, Venezuela should be doing great. It's not turns out that communism ruins everything. Guys, who could have known? Well, anybody who pays attention to history. We'll talk more about this though, because I know on the one hand we hate commies. On the other hand, we also hate regime change and rebuilding operations for other countries. And there are people that are concerned that that may be something that we face here sooner than later when it comes to Venezuela. We'll discuss, want to hear from you as well. Also, if we have any Venezuelan refugees or Venezuelan Americans. Clay listening right now. If you want to weigh in on this one, I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on should we topple Maduro? Should we just keep the pressure on? How involved should we be? What do you think is going to happen here?
Buck Sexton
No doubt.
Clay Travis
Okay. Yes, no doubt indeed. If you believe in the life of a child as rather if you believe the life of an unborn child is precious. And all of you in the pro life community certainly do you know that we have to do everything we can to save the lives of tiny babies in the womb Right now, one in four pregnancies ends in abortion. That's. That's just a horrific fact, but it's true. Thousands of lives, lives lost every single day. We can change hearts and minds. We can change laws. That takes time. In the meantime, lives are being lost. How do we save lives right now, this Christmas season, How do you go to bed at night knowing that you've helped to save the life of a tiny baby and changed the mother to be's life with it as well. Preborn. Preborn clinics have saved over 350,000 babies with their life giving work. What they do is they welcome in mothers to their clinics. They give them a free ultrasound because when mom meets that baby, the moment of mom and child meeting via ultrasound, the heart beating, that changes everything. That ultrasound costs just $28 and that's where you come in. So as the year comes to a close, please consider a holiday season tax deductible donation which could save the life of a tiny baby. That donation could be the difference between life and death for a baby this week, next week, who knows it can make the difference. To donate, dial £250. Say the keyword BABY. That's £250, say BABY or donate securely@preborn.com Buck preborn.com B U C K Sponsored by Preborn Saving America One thought at.
Buck Sexton
A time Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Buck Sexton
Then the space hamster flew his hot.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Air balloon all the way to the.
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Where did that story come from?
Clay Travis
Book?
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Buck Sexton
Clay Travis Buck SEXTON show We're going to take a bunch of calls on this because a lot of you have a variety of takes. Bobby in Maine up first says he was in military intelligence. What's your take on the Venezuelan boat strike story?
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
So Clay and Buck, here's the bottom line. This is Bobby Charles. I was in charge of all counter narcotics in 030405 as the assistant secretary of state. Also 10 years naval intelligence and an attorney. The bottom line is what they are doing is well within the law. Number one, and I think Clay, you probably or both of you know this, there is a legal opinion somewhere justifying exactly what they're doing. Number two, there would be no finish off order. Hegseth was in the military. He knows very well you can't do that. But here are the two facts people don't know. The United States government has long supported shoot down policies by foreign countries, including Peru, in which we shot down any plane that we had cued intelligence for or we allowed them to shoot down the plane if it was known to be carrying narcotics and avoiding, avoiding interception. The second thing is in our littoral waters legally, all of our we have Coast Guard Blackhawks up there, Jayhawks that are fully armed and they have a sniper with a sling in the open door in order to shoot out the engines of these boats. So point number one, the law, they are well within the law. When they take an enemy combatant designated as a foreign terrorist organization that does not stop. They have cute intelligence. They know they can hit it. They hit it. They would be outside the law if they did a finish off order for survivors. I guarantee you they did not do that.
Clay Travis
So can I just say I think that you were. You're saying, sir, you have deep expertise in this. That's what I think. We're all in agreement here. That's that we're, we think it's lawful to do the strikes, but it wouldn't be lawful to do a finish off order if the guys are floating in the water.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
So Hegseth was a military officer. He knows very well what the orders are. He knows the UCMJ probably inside out.
Clay Travis
Right. And I don't think he gave that order. So again, I think we're all, keep him.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
Keep him.
Clay Travis
Let's keep talking to this guy.
Buck Sexton
While we're spending time with family this holiday season and Buck is stuck in a sound booth recording his new book, you can listen to us on the podcast, Clay.
Clay Travis
Don't rub it in. But. That's right. Just fire up the iHeartRadio app and kick back with the Sunday hang guaranteed laughs. Or check out any of our other great hosts in the Clay and Buck podcast network.
Buck Sexton
There's so much content, you won't even miss us.
Clay Travis
But we'll miss you and look forward to speaking with you again in the new year. Until then, shield time.
Buck Sexton
As we finished off the last hour, we were talking about the boat strikes off Venezuela. A bunch of you want to weigh in on those? And I was saying, again, this is me behaving as a lawyer. Finish them off can mean multiple things. It can mean to me, finishing off the boat so that it's no longer able to do what it was intended to do, so that the drugs are not there, still floating, that could be picked up by another boat. And so what is and is not intended by the orders is likely to be an issue right now. I don't think the communication has been clear, Buck, as to exactly what the story is. Just that the White House has said, hey, we support the admiral here. The president supports the admiral. The Secretary of War supports the admiral and his ability to make decisions on the ground there. We had a call from a individual who was still with us, and that is, I want to make sure that I get his name right. I got so many different text messages in here. That is. Let's see, Bobby Charles from Maine. He's running for governor, by the way, the primaries in June.
Clay Travis
Not a bad. Not a bad way to get people to know about the primary here. Bobby, we got a pretty big radio show, so you're a smooth operator. We like it.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
I feel like you guys invited this one, so I'm just gonna pick it up.
Clay Travis
Oh, we did. We did. All right.
Buck Sexton
So, Bob. So, Bobby, when I say what finish them off means, this is me being a lawyer. Finish them off can mean a lot of different things. It can mean finish the boat off, it can mean finish the survivors off. That seems like a pretty clear defense. If I were advising Secretary of War Hegseth. If I were advising President Trump, if I were advising the admiral in this case, as an attorney representing them, I would say go ahead and get your story out there. What does finish them off mean? We wanted to end the threat that this boat brought to bear. We had not done that yet. It was still floating out there. There was the possibility the drugs could be picked up and so we ordered a second strike to take out that boat. Is that a valid argument from your perspective, based on your knowledge of the rules of engagement?
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
Yes. So let me give you my perspective. I was a U.S. court of Appeals clerk after Columbia Law School, long before being assistant Secretary managing counternarcotics programs around the world, among which were shoot down programs in Peru and Columbia in which we gave orders we didn't give them. I worked with the heads of southcom who gave them, but those field commanders gave orders to finish off planes that were in the sky carrying drugs. We had cute intelligence. They refused to comply. They continued moving forward the same way. If you were in World War II on a battlefield and a tank is coming at you and you've disabled the gun, but the tank keeps rolling, you have every right to stop it. So I am believing, and I think they should ask for this and I think everything else is a false bogey. And there is a legal opinion, I guarantee you as a former Navy intelligence guy for 10 years and an assistant secretary doing counter narcotics, there is a legal opinion in the file that says something like this. That organization is identified as an fto. It is a foreign terrorist organization trafficking drugs. Because it is an fto, it is by definition engaging in premeditated, politically motivated acts of violence against non combatant targets. Because it is doing that. You have every right to hit and destroy the drugs and, and to hit and destroy the boat. And there is no, under the rules of law in the ucmj, there is no requirement that you warn the combatant that you're going to do that if you hit half the boat. And we currently have policies that the US Coast Guard uses in our littoral waters with snipers. They don't call them snipers, but they're snipers. They have big, they have big firearms in a sling dedicated to taking out the engines of a boat, of a go fast drug boat. They've been there for 25 years. If we feel that we have not hit and disabled and finished the task of a combatant coming at us, we have every right to do that. You do not have a right to then shoot folks in the water. But I will guarantee you that there is no legal opinion in the file in the Defense Department. If they subpoena it, and I did oversight for five years with Gingrich. There is not going to be a legal opinion that says you can finish off people in the water. It will say just what I said here. And that is what they're doing. And so it is completely lawful, and it's protecting the national security of the United States and every single American, including in states like Maine, where we had 10,000 overdoses last year.
Buck Sexton
Okay, that's a perfect argument. Why isn't the Trump administration making that argument right now?
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
I'm guessing that as much as I'm a lawyer, I hate lawyers. You know, if you're Irish, you get to say words about the Irish, and I am that, too. If you're. If you're a lawyer, you get to hate lawyers. There's lawyers in the Pentagon going, hey, we can't release that. That's a legal document. Hey, we got to back off. We can't. We can't get the legal argument involved in politics.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yeah.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
What I think Heg says should do is just say, look, I have every legal right to be doing what I'm doing.
Buck Sexton
That's what I'm saying. Hegseth is not. We know. I mean, he's not an attorney. But what I'm saying is I would. If I were Secretary of War Hegseth, or I was advising him, I would be telling him to say exactly what you just told us right now at the press conference. Because I think it would end this story instantaneously. Also, it's.
Clay Travis
Unfortunately, that hasn't happened, Clay. And so now they have the back and forth of different versions of what happened. And what was this? And what was that?
Buck Sexton
Why, sir? That's my question for Bobby. Why wouldn't he make that case? Well, because they screwed up.
Clay Travis
Because they've screwed up the comms just like they screwed up the. I mean, I'm going to jump in and just say, because they messed up, because this is where we are right now, just like they did.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
You know, the truth is, your point is well taken. You take the world as it is. What has transpired up to this moment in time has. The future is for us to define. They should do the press conference. Take it verbatim. What I said, that's the truth. I don't know the exact wording of the legal memo, but I guarantee, before they took one shot, there is a legal memo there. They should release it. They should say, we have every right to have done what we did. Let's clarify the record, and the facts are the facts, you know?
Clay Travis
Yeah, look, I, I think we're all. We all, we're all aligned on this. I just want to be clear, Bobby, because there are people out there who are saying, oh, no, there. When I say people, I mean online, you'll see people who don't know anything, who are saying the clinging to the wreckage. We could mow them down, too, you know. No, that's not true. But what you've laid out is the legal justification for what we believe happened here, which we're all aligned with. But I just want to be very clear because I have seen the argument made by people with followings and by people who are part of this conversation. If we have to finish off people in the water, so be it. No, that's actually not. That's actually not how this goes. And that's not what was. What was going on here.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
You're absolutely right. And In World War II, there were bad mistakes made on both sides. This is one where we don't have to make a mistake. That would be a mistake. We're not going to do it. I'm going to tell you, though, as a guy running for governor in Maine, and, and I'm up by double digits on everybody. But the reality is, right now, people throw crap at you. That is untrue every day. And you just have to keep responding. And that's what Hegseth, I suspect, will do. And that's what Trump does every day. And that's what you got to do. You beat, you know, it's like the old Supreme Court case said, right? You beat bad speech with good speech. You just keep going.
Clay Travis
Bobby, we're leveraging your expertise here a lot, but I actually want to transition you because you said you transitioned the topic.
Buck Sexton
I should. I should. Yeah.
Clay Travis
I want to transition the topic to. Got to be clear these days to. You said you oversaw or involved in overseeing narco programs in the Caribbean. 1. How effective you think taking out these boats is, actually. And to talk to us about Venezuela, you would have a very important perspective on what's going on there with Maduro, the narco trafficking, the possibility of the overthrow. Talk. Talk us through some of that.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
Yeah. So I have had multiple hats in life, blessed a thousand ways from Sunday. But the reality is, yes, I did oversight for five years for Gingrich. I was his top oversight investigator looking at counternarcotics, but also the Pentagon justice. I did the Waco hearings, all that. So at the end of the day. Our counternarcotics policy in the Caribbean was effective when we could create 25% deterrence. So when we could cover 25% of the Caribbean at a time, incidentally, when there was no land bridge, as in there was no coming up through the Mexico Pan American highway, what we did is we shut down the Caribbean by shutting down 25%, creating an enough uncertainty that the traffickers thought they would get more losses than it was worth. They shifted to the land bridge. What they will do right now, it is relatively effective because it's creating that one thing we know. Again, let's go back to World War II. Everything is about deterrence versus appeasement. You do nothing, you appease it. Same thing with people coming into this country. You do nothing, you appease the behavior. Appease bad behavior, you deter it. All of a sudden they're going to stop coming. All of a sudden they're going to stop shipping drugs through the EPAC Eastern Pacific, which is where some of this is happening, or through the Caribbean. And so deterrence works. It absolutely works. But you always have to remember, it's like trying to block water that is being pulled by gravity down. It's going to look for another way around. The bad guys always look for another way around. So you got to constantly be one step ahead. You know, we don't ever win anything. Finally and decisively, you know, you. What you do is you. You, you manage the process so that you're always one step ahead. That's why we've not had another 9, 11. We've always stayed one step ahead. Same thing is true with the drug traffickers. What I love that he's doing, what Trump is doing is he's calling a spade a spade. He's saying we lose more people every year to this foreign drug infusion, this chemical weapon brought into this country than we lost in all of Vietnam. We lose 100,000 more or less every year to this. They are a threat to the United States. We are going to treat them as FTPs. We are going to combat them. And so ultimately, what you do is you start to destroy the industrial strength of the cartel. There are Colombian cartels, there are Mexican cartels. And you want. You're never going to get rid of all crime, but what you want to do is drive it down to a level that's so low that most people don't have to engage it. And here in the state of Maine, I will tell you, I am going to thoroughly support law enforcement. I am going to thoroughly stop these foreign drug traffickers from getting in here and then having created deterrence, I'm going to do put the rest of the population that's addicted on a get well, stay well plan, get real treatment programs in here and solve it. That is what Trump is doing in all the places that he's been allowed to do it. And by the way, I will mobilize the National Guard too, if needed to support law enforcement.
Buck Sexton
Bobby, thanks for all of this. I mean, this is well said. You got my vote.
Clay Travis
You got to be the next governor remain, buddy. So you got to come back and talk to us more about this. We're very impressed here.
Bobby Charles (Guest, Former Assistant Secretary of State)
Thank you, guys. Call me anytime. And I love talking to Greg. So we're good to go.
Clay Travis
All right. Producer Greg is the man. So you have good taste in radio and radio producers. Well done, sir. And we'll talk to you again soon. But Clay, I just want to say our legal analysis was all spot on. So there's that, you know, before and.
Buck Sexton
Also, again, I think we hit on this correctly. It's a communication issue. And I, I just, I understand. And, and he pointed out lawyers can sometimes say, well, we can't talk about this publicly yet, sir. I would talk about it publicly. If I repeat Hegseth, I would put this story to bed. I would say that this was the goal, we had the authority to do it. And it vanishes. If you tell the story the way that he just did.
Clay Travis
It's a version of. It's not the crime, it's the COVID up. There was no crime here. They are active in the lawful authority. But if you have differing narratives about what happened, even if it's in good faith, but there's daylight between what the, you know, Trump White House says and what Secretary Hegseth says or whatever, then that becomes the story. And they just say, see, they're hiding, they're changing there. So you just, it's a comms issue to be very clear on this so that everybody understands because what the Democrats that their biggest story this week is the, you know, the war crimes thing. What they don't want to be talking about is the Biden Afghan withdrawal slash importing people with no vetting whatsoever, including the terrorists who just killed two national, killed one and grievously wounded another National Guard member. That's what they don't want to be talking about this week.
Buck Sexton
Correct. And you can limit their ability to drive the narrative by telling your story in the best, most effective way possible. And I don't think that has occurred yet. But I think if they said what Bobby said, what I said, what you have said, I think it would go a long way towards putting this story to rest. I want to tell you fighting in Ukraine, we'll talk about this a little bit there. Right now are meetings going on in Russia to try to end the war in Ukraine. Both sides, Russia and Ukraine, are acknowledging loss of lives. More than a thousand soldiers each day far from the front lines. Life can feel very difficult. Different sort of way for people like Maria. 85 year old woman of Jewish faith living in Ukraine. Her needs are severe. She's one of the many Ukrainian citizens in need of food, medicine and assistance with heating bills. When war first broke out in Ukraine, many nonprofit organizations made the needs of Ukrainian citizens a priority. There was and still is a great need for humanitarian effort. Today. Many of the nonprofit organizations have moved on, but not the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the ifcj. They're still there, continuing to do what they can to help the Jewish faith in Ukraine, particularly the elderly. Through the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. With your donations, you can bring hope to those in need. Your gift of 25 will help provide a food box packed full of life saving essentials that will help feed families and individuals feeling them especially ignored and left to fend for themselves. To rush your gift, call 888-488 IFCJ. That's 888-488-4325. You can also give online@ FellowshipGift.org that's FellowshipGift.org want to be in the know when you're on the go the Team 47 podcast highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. All of you hanging out with us. This is still live, right? If I'm not mistaken, the White House Cabinet meeting has now been going on. Buck for the entirety of our radio show. We are competing with the Trump show head to head.
Clay Travis
It's another radio show, Clay. That's really what it is.
Buck Sexton
Trump has been doing over two hours straight along with his cabinet taking questions. It does feel to some extent, Buck, like this is a response to the New York Times saying that he doesn't have the vitality and the vigor that he used to. Maybe I'm wrong on this. But then a couple of days later he's like, all right, let's just do a thing. 3 hour potentially press conference that Fox News has been carrying straight through and Even CNN now has elected to go live to Trump. So we're continuing to monitor that. I just sent a couple of clips to producer Greg as Hegseth has weighed in more on the on the boat strike off Venezuela. But evidently buck happened September 2nd. So this was one of the earliest strikes that occurred on the boats. I do think that matters here. I don't know that we've given a date, but he did in his answer, which we will have soon. Vote. Go vote. Go vote. If you are in the 7th Congress congressional district in the state of Tennessee, it is election Day. I went this morning. I took my fifth grader to school, I dropped him off, and then I went into the polling place right there at his school. My wife is working all day at as a volunteer at this local polling center. I think I've mentioned this before, Buck, but you know Laura quite well. She was really fired up at the, at the overall security issues associated with elections. And so she said, well, heck, I want to see this for myself. So she decided that she would volunteer and watch as the election is taking place here locally. By the way, President Trump standing up right now. We are no longer competing with the Trump show. He has just walked out after a marathon two plus hour session with his cabinet and it is just now breaking up in real time. All right, this is funny. Marco Rubio, Secretary of State Buck, there are many different super serious stories that are going on, but you know, I trust college football fans implicitly. In addition to everything else that was discussed, Marco Rubio came out and said if the Miami Hurricanes, your new hometown team, Buck, if they're not in the playoff, he's furious and he's going to put President Trump in charge of next year's playoff. This is funny. This did just happen, among many other things in the, in the cabinet meeting. Listen to this.
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Clay Travis
So I wanted to be fast, but there was a lot to cover.
Buck Sexton
I do want to say this is the most wonderful, magical time of the year.
Clay Travis
By that, of course, I'm referring to the college football playoffs.
Buck Sexton
I just want to say this as.
Clay Travis
A point of personal privilege and I'm.
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A Florida Gator, but if the University.
Clay Travis
Of Miami gets screwed out of the college football playoffs after going 10 and 2 and beating Notre Dame, the whole.
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Thing should be scrapped.
Clay Travis
And you're going to have to take over next week. Marco better watch out. He could get another job. Maybe he becomes like SEC commissioner or something. In addition to, I think he's secretary of State, national Security Advisor, USAID Director. The Marco portfolio is a remarkable thing to behold.
Buck Sexton
Your wife is a Florida Gator grad. Marco Rubio's son is a football player for the Florida Gators. So I was actually texting with him over the weekend. Nothing at all to do with serious things, just about the college football coaching searches going on. Marco Rubio is doing a fantastic job, but so many different topics. I did think it was funny that he decided that he wanted to weigh in on that because Marco Rubio is a Miami guy, big college football fan, which is one reason we get along so well. Do we have from producer Greg yet the clip that I sent in of Hegseth giving more details? It's not in yet, Buck. Okay, we will have. This is the lead story now for people out there who are saying, what are you doing here? Why are you talking about that? The lead story everywhere. We want to make sure that we're addressing it. Well, cnn, MSNBC and Fox News basically all covering this as the top news story of the day.
Clay Travis
Yeah, well, because the implications of this, first of all, aren't just about the attempts to undermine and attack Hegseth and with him, this administration, there's also this issue of what this does to Venezuela. And increasingly we have what seems to be a de facto regime change policy in place. Now, regime change and nation building are not necessarily things that go hand in hand, but they often do. And so this is going to start to bring up some very important and difficult conversations, I think if Maduro goes. But here we have Secretary Hegseth just, just moments ago getting into the details of this strike that has been widely reported on. Let's listen to the secretary of War.
Pete Hegseth (Secretary of War)
I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting. A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the which he had the complete authority to do. And by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat. Sunk the boat and eliminated the threat. And it was the right call. We have his back. And the American people are safer because narco terrorists know you can't bring drugs through the water and eventually on land, if necessary to the American people. We will eliminate that threat and we're proud to do it.
Clay Travis
So you didn't see any survivors, to.
Buck Sexton
Be clear, after that first strike?
Pete Hegseth (Secretary of War)
I did not personally see survivors, but I stand because the thing was on fire. It's exploded and fire smoke, you can't see anything you got digital. This is called the fog of war. This is what you and the press don't understand. You sit in your air conditioned offices or up on Capitol Hill and you nitpick and you plant fake stories in the Washington Post about kill everybody phrases on anonymous sources not based in anything, not based in any truth at all. And then you want to throw up really irresponsible terms about American heroes, heroes about the judgment that they made. I wrote a whole book on this topic because what politicians in the press does to war fighters. President Trump has empowered commanders, commanders to do what is necessary, which is dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people. We support them and we will stop.
Buck Sexton
The poisoning of the American people. Okay, that's a better answer. I still think, and this is the lawyer in me, Buck, I want a clear, concise, direct description of what the Admiral did. And it may be the case that, that they haven't talked in detail about this decision, but that's, that would help to end this story, I believe, once and for all.
Clay Travis
It's hard to sound objective, talking about Pete, because you and I both know Pete and are, we're personally friends with Pete. We've, I've known Pete now for almost 15 years. So I just, I say that because I think we need to be honest about where we come from, especially talking with some of these public figures who we know on a personal level. And I know Pete loves the country and I know he loves the war fighters in the United States military like his own family. And so I bring all of that to this discussion, too. All right. That said, I think that the problem that he's running into here a little bit, Clay, is when you start to say things again, I'm looking at this like the enemy here in the media, which he's addressing very clearly. He's saying you guys are a bunch of jerks who don't understand anything. But when he says things like fog of war, that they're going to take that now and say, so you don't know if there were survivors or not. That's what they're. That's the next stage. Now, I think in this process, it went from the order to kill survivors to now you're saying fog of war again, I understand from the very beginning. So you don't need to call in and say what he did is totally lawful. I believe that Pete Hegseth and, and the JSOC here, Joint Special Operations Command, I think they operated in a lawful fashion. I am just saying the Way this is turning into a story is leaving bits of daylight here with the facts as presented, the narrative as constructed from the top of the, of the Pentagon hierarchy. And when you say things like, you know, fog of war, I get it, I know what he's saying, but they're going to say, so you don't even know if there were, you know, there was smoke, you know, there could have been survivors. You know, this is the next, this is the next phase of it, I think totally.
Buck Sexton
And this is why I say, and this is me speaking as a former criminal defense attorney. Your story has to be consistent and you have to stick to it and you have to put it out there and it has to be ironclad in terms of you being able to prove what exactly it is. And I just think the story of we had to hit the boat a second time because it had not been completely obliterated and, and there were still drugs there, and they could have brought another boat in and gotten those drugs off and they could have still come to the United States. The purpose of the mission was to ensure that that boat is completely obliterated and there are no drugs that survive the attack. The first attack, it did, we put in a second one. That's what happened. I don't know anything about the people that were on the boat, frankly. I don't care about them because they were terrorists trying to kill people in the United States. They may have survived, they may not have, but I know that boat didn't and the drugs are gone. That's my answer. That's a pretty good one. I wish it had been given.
Clay Travis
Yeah, stop the threat. This is a threat that's identified. A threat that we can lawfully use the United States military to address. And Secretary of War Hegseth and his. Those below him in the chain of command who are directly involved in the strike, they were operating to stop the threat against the American people. And if two missiles is what it required to stop the threat, then that is what it required. But this is why, again, you know, the specificity of the same thing in a self defense case. If somebody came at me, Clay, in my own home, which would be a very bad idea because I do have a lot of guns here and I am pretty trained up these days. But if somebody came at me in my own home and I. And I put one in them, and then they say, well, why did you, why did you actually unload your whole magazine into this person who was coming at you, let's say, with a knife or something? I would Say, because in the moment, that's what I believe to stop the threat against my life. That's the answer.
Buck Sexton
Yes.
Clay Travis
Right. It doesn't. Whether it's one bullet or ten bullets. I acted to stop the threat against me and my family. What you don't want to get into is, well, I hit him five times. But then I thought, you know what, I got to get some headshots in here to make sure he's not moving anymore. You don't want to in a self defense situation say anything like that. This is those you, you don't have to know law of war necessarily to understand how this, when you're talking about use of force, you got to be very specific about why you're using that force. And I've sat through the classes, I've sat through the discuss. We had this in the CIA. We had to have conversations about lethal force. Right. This is, you have to understand what the framework is for using violence against another human being. Always.
Buck Sexton
The threat wasn't eliminated with the first strike, so we had to have a second strike to eliminate the threat. This is not very complicated, but again, when they start nitpicking at you, I appreciate the fact that Pete recognizes he's the target here. Somebody, I think this is important, leaked probably very classified information to a large extent to the Washington Post, which may or may not be accurate. But somebody obviously has Pete as the target here. They're attempting to come after him, the Admiral and the President. I mean, their intent here matters. And so again, I, I think you have to eliminate this story to the best of your ability. You know what happened over the weekend, Buck? I was watching games. My sister, my sister Lisa, she's awesome. Sat down on the couch, she's watching the games. She had. There was a cozy earth blanket on the couch. This is 100% true. I didn't even know this. She got the cozy earth blanket a little bit chilly in Florida. She put the blanket over her. She didn't even know that we had a code. She went, got her phone. The blanket was so comfortable. And she ordered one for my mom and for her. That's how comfortable this blanket was. It's 100% true. She told. I said, did you use a coach? She said, I didn't even know there.
Clay Travis
Was going to say. I love this story. Except we don't get credit for the sale blanket. But that's okay. We're going to sell a lot more blankets now because that's how amazing they are.
Buck Sexton
I said, you use the code, right? She said, I didn't know. I didn't know there was a code. Thanks for listening, Lisa, but that's how comfortable this blanket was. I'm not even kidding about this. She sat down on the couch, little bit chilly. She puts the blanket over her. Within 20 minutes she got on. She was like. She asked my wife like, where is this Cozy Earth? She got on. She bought her own. It's pretty incredible. Think about how busy the holiday season is. Every Cozy Earth product is fantastic. They're the perfect combination of luxury, comfort, relaxation. In fact, you know what I was doing last night? Watching Stranger Things Season 5 with My Boys and guess what I was covered up with. Cozy Earth blanket. A little bit chilly in Tennessee right now. It's in the 30s last night. It's very cold for us. And I was like, if I'm going to be watching Stranger Things 5, I need these awesome covers, these blankets that feel so phenomenal to have them on. And right now you can get a 10 year warranty. You get the gift of everyday luxury. This holiday season. Head to cozyearth.com use my code clay for up to 40% off. Make sure to order by December 12th for guaranteed Christmas delivery. You're gonna love these products. Trust me, they are fantastic. Cozyearth.com c o z y earth.com Most comfortable sheets, blankets, you name it you will have ever had. They are incredible. 40 off. Don't be like my sister. Remember to use the code Clay. She then went back and bought more and she used Code Clay, by the way. Cozyearth.com Code Clay that c o z y earth.com Code Clay Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Mic drops. That never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Buck Sexton
Shh.
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Buck Sexton
Clay and Buck Show. Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. New Year.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in here everybody. We are joined by Senator Marsha Blackburn. Senator Blackburn, always appreciate you being with.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Us and it is always so good to join you. Thank you so much.
Clay Travis
First up, can you just speak to some politics going on in your home state, the seventh Congressional District. You got a loony leftist trying to sneak a congressional seat in what is not just a red area of the wonderful state of Tennessee. Senator Blackburn but also Clay's backyard. Like I think his yard is in fact considered part of the district. What can you tell us about this this race today?
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Well indeed. And we need everybody to get out and vote that is for sure. And These off year special elections, sometimes they get a little funky on you. And what you have are Democrats that are very excited, saw what they thought were big victories in blue areas. And so now they're trying to California, Tennessee and are putting a lot of energy in that today. But Matt Van Epps is a good, solid candidate. He is going to win. He is going to be an outstanding member of the U.S. house. He has wonderful experience and a record of service, a good sol record of service for the people of Tennessee and for this nation. His military service, his business expertise, the way he served Governor Lee in his cabinet. And I know that Matt is going to bring that fighting spirit to work on the issues of cost of living and access to affordable health care and really getting the country back on track. You know, Joe Biden and the Democrats raised taxes, they ra up the cost of health care. Inflation was at 9.1%. And President Trump and Republicans are trying to get everything back on track. Matt Van Epps is going to do a good job doing that. And the people of Tennessee support President Trump and his agenda.
Buck Sexton
We're talking to Senator Marsha Blackburn. She is also running for governor of Tennessee. She's telling all of you to get out in the 7th Congressional District all the way from Fort Campbell up on the border with Kentucky, all the way down south with Alabama, Nashville included, part of Davidson County, Franklin, Williamson County, Brentwood, all points in between. You also are a mom and a grandma and you have a USA Today editorial piece up about the lack of protection for young people online. And I know in social media era there's a lot of moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas out there that are deeply concerned about this. What have you uncovered? What do people need to know and what should happen going forward?
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yes, and the op ed is@time.com and this is work that we have done on the Kids Online Safety Act. And I was just on the phone talking with a House colleague, Kat Kamek out of Florida, and she and I have several of these bills together. Look, Big Tech uses our children as a cash cow. And when kids are online, they are the product. And we've been trying to pass legislation that would protect children in the virtual space, just as we have laws in the physical space that says you can't sell alcohol and tobacco to kids, you can't expose them to pornography, you can't endanger children, you can't force children into contracts, you can't traffic children, you can't groom children. All of this, there are laws, but it happens in the virtual space. 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And when you look at these apps that are catering to children, when you look at these platforms catering to children, and you know that big tech is trying to get these kids on their site and they want them to doom scroll for hours on end. And then you talk to parents and teachers and preachers and pediatricians, and you hear that addiction to these screens is one of the biggest problems they have when it comes to cyberbullying and behavioral issues in schools, most of it start in the virtual space. When kids meet a drug dealer, a pedophile, a trafficker, a groomer, generally it is in the virtual space. And we need to put these protections in place for our children in the virtual space, just as they exist in the physical space.
Clay Travis
Speaking to Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Senator, the terrible terrorist attack that occurred just before the Thanksgiving holiday, took the life of a National Guard member of the National Guard and almost took another life, has got people focused in here on how could something like this happen? How was the vetting, or really what was the lack of vetting like to bring in many of these Afghans during the Biden withdrawal? I wanted you to speak to that and give us a sense as to what do you think the Trump administration is going to be able to or should do now that there's a recognition that there was insufficient vetting for many, perhaps most of the Afghans who were brought here during the Biden withdrawal.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
And actually the Inspector General's report from 2022 with the Department of Homeland Security noted there was insufficient vetting. And the response from the Biden administration was that they were going to go back and do this vetting. Obviously, they did not. And now what the Trump administration is discussing doing is halting immigration while they catch up and make that they have vetted all these individuals, whether they came in through the Afghan welcome program that Biden had put in place, or it is people that are in the system that illegally were in the country or people that were here legally on a visa and have overstayed their visa. You're going to see this administration and this Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State circle back and actually clean up some of these. And if someone needs to go, they will be issued an order of deportation and then deported and removed from the country.
Buck Sexton
I don't think we've asked you about this, but I asked you about it in person the last time I saw you, and I want to make sure we hit it. I think it's a pretty extraordinary, unbelievable story. That at least eight United States senators, including you, had your phones tapped as part of an investigation. I know that you guys are continuing to follow up on that. Can you tell our audience what happened there, why obviously it's significant and should never happen again. And what is going to happen as a result? Where is that story for people who don't know very much about it or haven't been paying attention?
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yes. And the story is continuing to unfold as we're getting more documents and hearing more from whistleblowers. And I think it's tomorrow. We have Judge Boasberg who is going to come before us. He is the one who issued as many as 197 subpoenas for information on our phones. And on top of those subpoenas he put a non disclosure order which meant that the wireless companies could not tell us that they had a subpoena for our phone records. Now, we were targeted from what we have learned because we were all Republicans, we all support President Trump and we each of us had questions about the 2020 election. Now the reason we're continuing to dig on this and to get information is because if they were going after phone records, there is doubt. And we have reason to believe that they went after other information. Were they going after the content of those contacts? Because what they did was to get every phone call I made or received and the location where I was when I made or received that call and who that call was made to or received from. And it started on January 1st of 21 with me. And it was a pure spying effort. It was a pure fishing expedition. But we also want to know, did they get the content of emails? Did they get the content of text messages? Was there any wiretapping in real time that they did? Did they surveil and investigate people that we were in contact with? What was the extent of that surveillance? Did they go after financial documents and other information about us? So we are trying to get to the bottom of us that I think each of the eight of us want to know the extent of this. And I will tell you this. We want to know what they've done to other conservative. They know there were 197 subpoenas issued against 430 individuals, conservatives and it was organizations and individuals in that mix. Citizens United, Turning Point usa, different organizations, what they were after. We know they got financial documents on some of those, but we want to see that. We want to make certain this never happens again. And conservatives have to be protected. And of course in this case, because you have Some whistleblowers over at DOJ that were aware of this, they brought the information to Senator Grassley and that is how we've been able to find out as much as we have gotten so far. But what they did to conservatives and the extent of it. Jack Smith, who ran Arctic Frost, needs to be held to account. I think he ought to be in jail and we need to hold everyone to account. I have written a letter that calls for the Office of Professional Conduct at the Department of Justice to look into to his actions. He should be disbarred. We also have written a letter to the D.C. bar about his conduct and what the actions that he took and the email chain that we got last week. You know, the interesting thing is the attorney, the counsel that was advising Jack Smith and Arctic Frost told them this is a constitutional violation and pointed out to them what we had said early on. It's a First and Fourth Amendment violation. It is a violation of the separation of powers. It's a violation of the Speech and Debate clause. It is a violation of due process. It is a violation of the Stored Communications Act. And to think they did this knowing it was outside of the law, but they hate Donald Trump and people that support. Support Donald Trump and so they did it anyway.
Buck Sexton
Amen. It's a big story. I think we're going to continue to follow it on this program. Please keep us updated on it. And thanks for taking the time. And one more time, tell everybody to go vote. Senator.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
You got it. Be certain that you go vote today. Tennessee 7, Matt Van Epps needs your vote. Let's send a message that the Democrats are not going to take this seat.
Buck Sexton
Amen. That's Senator Marsha Blackburn. Great state of Tennessee, soon to be governor. Appreciate you, Senator.
Senator Marsha Blackburn
You got it. Take care.
Buck Sexton
All right, Buck. Your boy Pickles, he's actually turned into one of the greatest receivers in the NFL right now. George Pick.
Clay Travis
Many miles away. This is not even the least. I said always bet on Pickles, and I was correct.
Buck Sexton
I appreciate your mom and dad saying that. They'll lie for you and claim that you were watching college football to try to keep you from having to to be reprimanded by me for not spending time watching football. Here is a pick, however, that you can play that everybody In California, Texas, Georgia, 40 states, 13 million people signed up. Pricepicks.com Code Clay. This pays out at 5.5x. It begins on Thursday. George Pickens, aka George Pickles. According to Buck Sexton, more than 77 and a half receiving yards. Yards. Jameer Gibbs more than 76 and a half rushing yards, Josh Allen more than 228 and a half passing yards and Jamar Chase more than 90 and a half receiving yards. If all four of those hit 5.5x is the play, I will give you that pick later this week. It's fun to play along. We haven't had a lot of success lately, but I'm optimistic that success will soon garland our our achievements here. George Pickens, Jameer Gibbs, Josh Allen, Jamar Chase, all more go to prizepix.com you can download the app price picks as well. When you play $5, you get $50. That's pricepix.com code clay keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history on the Team 47 podcast Clay and Buck highlight Trump replays from the week Sunday at noon Eastern. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Buck Sexton
Shh.
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On this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle several of the day's most critical political stories with their signature blend of humor and analysis. The focus is on the high-stakes special election in Tennessee's 7th Congressional District, the controversy over U.S. military strikes targeting drug boats near Venezuela, implications for regime change in Venezuela, and the fallout from the Biden administration's vetting of Afghan refugees. The duo brings in expert opinions, including an extended discussion with Bobby Charles, former Assistant Secretary of State, and interviews Senator Marsha Blackburn. They also provide legal breakdowns, comment on media narratives, and keep an eye on live-breaking Trump Cabinet proceedings.
(02:36 – 05:04, 56:08 – 58:26)
(05:04 – 16:53, 21:09 – 35:52, 39:39 – 53:27, 43:40 – 45:14 with Sec. Hegseth audio)
(14:44 – 16:53, 31:00 – 34:12, 42:53 – 44:21)
(61:16 – 62:03)
(63:18 – 69:06)
(38:14 – 41:52)
(59:11 – 61:16)
“This is a hometown fight here for the seventh Congressional. And all of you...need to get out and need to vote.” (04:02)
“I think this is top of the list. And that's why they're so dug in on this. I believe that they're going to try to make the case that, that these are war crimes. That's exact. And they're already saying it.” (09:20)
“We will eliminate that threat and we're proud to do it.” (44:21)
“You do not have a right to then shoot folks in the water. But I will guarantee you that there is no legal opinion...that says you can finish off people in the water.” (26:01)
“It was a pure spying effort. It was a pure fishing expedition...We want to see that. We want to make certain this never happens again.” (63:56)
“It's a version of ‘It's not the crime, it's the cover-up.’ There was no crime here...But if you have differing narratives about what happened...then that becomes the story.” (35:03)
02:36 – 05:04 — Tennessee 7th Congressional District election coverage
05:04 – 16:53 — Initial breakdown of drug boat controversy
21:09 – 35:52 — In-depth call with Bobby Charles, legal/foreign policy angles
43:40 – 45:14 — Secretary Hegseth audio defending the decision
56:08 – 69:06 — Interview with Senator Marsha Blackburn on election, child safety, Afghan vetting, surveillance scandal
38:14 – 41:52 — Trump Cabinet meeting coverage, lighter moments (Rubio/football)
This episode deftly juggles urgent political developments with legal analysis, media scrutiny, and live-breaking news. Clay and Buck combine personal connections, expert guest input, and straight-shooting commentary to give listeners a comprehensive and entertaining guide through the day’s headlines. Their emphases: vigilance in elections, clarity in public communication, precision in military and policy conduct, and relentless scrutiny of both media and government action.