Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jan 6 2026

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Daily Review with Clay and Buck – Jan 6, 2026
iHeartPodcasts | January 6, 2026

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Episode Overview

On this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the dramatic fallout from the seizure of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, the collapse of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s political career, and the broader implications in American politics, corporate culture, and masculinity debates. Bringing intelligence and humor, they dissect headline-grabbing stories, riff on masculinity, call out political hypocrisy, and interview Congressman Chip Roy about immigration fraud and U.S. policy toward Venezuela.

The show’s tone is conversational, irreverent, and direct, with plenty of banter and memorable one-liners.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Tim Walz Collapse and Masculinity Politics

• Walz’s fall from grace: The hosts discuss how the Minnesota fraud scandal, magnified by Walz’s brief stint as a vice presidential candidate, went from a local embarrassment to national news because of his elevated profile.

• Authenticity in politics: Clay and Buck debate the Democratic Party’s attempts to create an “avatar” of American masculinity, insisting that voters value authenticity above manufactured image.

  “Democrats, by and large, look at voters like zoo animals.”
  — Clay Travis [03:23]

• Contrasting Ron DeSantis: Stories about DeSantis’s practicality highlight the diversity within the concept of masculinity, challenging simplistic political attempts to appeal to male voters.

  “Democrats don’t understand the wide range of masculinity that I think Republicans can end up supporting.”
  — Clay Travis [06:40]

2. Venezuela Fallout and U.S. Strategy

• Americans in Venezuela: Questions are raised about the safety and number of Americans living in Venezuela post-Maduro and implications for U.S. baseball players there.

• Territorial ambitions: The hosts riff on the U.S.'s history of territories, suggesting tongue-in-cheek that the U.S. should consider making Cuba and even Venezuela territories or protectorates.

  “We should...end the fact that Cuba is a communist country and return basic freedoms to Cuba.”
  — Clay Travis [13:38]

• Interview with Congressman Chip Roy: Roy outlines the national security reasoning behind U.S. intervention in Venezuela, the positive reaction from the oil & gas sector, and draws a sharp line between Venezuela and past U.S. nation-building efforts.

  “I am concerned about the next steps...Moving one guy out of it is a good step, but it’s not going to be the whole solution.”
  — Chip Roy [57:16]

3. Corporate America, Bud Light, and Cancel Culture Backlash

• Hilton ICE controversy: A Hilton franchise cancels ICE agents’ hotel reservations; corporate comms come down hard against the move, signaling a shift since the Bud Light backlash.

• Legacy of Bud Light and Michael Jordan: The hosts highlight Bud Light’s plummeting brand and Michael Jordan’s avoidance of political alienation, arguing companies are re-learning not to alienate half the population with ideological stances.

  “Why would you alienate half the country? It never made any sense to me.”
  — Clay Travis [21:44]

4. Masculinity Debates and Cultural Shifts

• Democrats and masculinity: Clay and Buck assert the Left misunderstands and even denigrates masculinity, which contributed to their downfall in recent elections.

  “Why do the Democrats have such a problem with masculinity?...If you sit there and have him say, ‘I’m a male feminist and I believe that men don’t have an advantage over women in sports,’ you instantly think that this guy is a wuss.”
  — Buck Sexton [26:16]

5. Tariffs, Economic ‘Common Sense,’ and Media Narratives

• Trump’s tariffs vindicated: The hosts cite new studies disproving the widespread belief that tariffs trigger inflation, mocking economists who once parroted the opposite.

  “How did we all get this so wrong?”
  — Clay Travis [28:24]

• Print-money fallacy: The dangers of “modern monetary theory” are exposed as they mock the concept of consequence-free government printing.

  “If you can print any money and it doesn’t matter...we should just set up for every American a bank account, put a million dollars in it.”
  — Buck Sexton [28:37]

6. Demographics and the Democratic Party’s ‘Destructive Force’

• Single/unmarried women critique: Clay and Buck controversially argue that unmarried white women (especially highly educated) are driving the most destructive policies in America, lambasting their unwillingness to reevaluate failed strategies.

  “The most destructive force in America today is white women. Left wing and frankly, unmarried, white.”
  — Clay Travis [41:10]

  “The lack of accountability I always talk about is the centerpiece of the Democrat Party’s pitch to people.”
  — Buck Sexton [46:14]

7. Media Shifts and Citizen Journalism

• Walz scandal broken by YouTuber: The collapse of old media’s gatekeeper status is exemplified by a YouTuber unearthing the Minnesota fraud, ending Walz’s career.

  “This is an important moment...who is the press?...With technology and what Elon did with X, it’s impressive now what you can allow what a 23-year-old can do...”
  — Chip Roy [59:21]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• [03:23] Clay Travis: “Democrats, by and large, look at voters like zoo animals.”
• [06:40] Clay Travis: “Democrats don’t understand the wide range of masculinity that I think Republicans can end up supporting.”
• [13:38] Clay Travis: “We should...end the fact that Cuba is a communist country and return basic freedoms to Cuba.”
• [21:44] Clay Travis: “Why would you alienate half the country? It never made any sense to me.”
• [26:16] Buck Sexton: “Why do the Democrats have such a problem with masculinity?”
• [28:37] Buck Sexton: “If you can print any money and it doesn’t matter...we should just set up for every American a bank account, put a million dollars in it.”
• [41:10] Clay Travis: “The most destructive force in America today is white women. Left wing and frankly, unmarried, white.”
• [46:14] Buck Sexton: “The lack of accountability I always talk about is the centerpiece of the Democrat Party’s pitch to people.”
• [52:57] Chip Roy: “We have been doling out billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars nonstop... a welfare state that is out of control.”
• [59:21] Chip Roy: “With technology and with what Elon did with X, it’s impressive now what you can allow what a 23 year old can do, to bring out truth.”

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Conversation Timeline (Key Segments)

• [00:34–05:57] Walz, Venezuela fallout, masculinity avatars, and the authenticity problem for Democrats.
• [10:13–14:49] Americans in Venezuela, territorial jokes, and U.S. policy history.
• [17:17–20:29] Hilton/ICE hotel cancellation, corporate America’s post-Bud Light sensitivity.
• [25:26–28:37] Cultural backlash against Bud Light, issues with Left’s masculinity politics.
• [28:37–32:46] Tariffs, economic theory missteps, and inflation myth-busting.
• [33:01–35:54] Geographic shifts of American wealth post-COVID, Miami’s rise, and New York’s slow decline.
• [39:10–46:14] Progressive housing ideas, policy-by-demographic critique, and the role of unmarried women in progressive politics.
• [52:57–64:43] Interview with Chip Roy: immigration fraud, Venezuela, legacy media collapse, and the power of citizen journalism.

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Summary

This lively, opinionated discussion covers the collapse of a Democratic rising star, the new realism in U.S. foreign policy towards Venezuela, the rebalancing in corporate America post-“Bud Light moment,” and palpable shifts in American demographics and wealth. Noteworthy for its biting critiques and the high-profile interview with Congressman Chip Roy, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to understand today’s hot-button issues through a sharply conservative, populist lens.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human. As a consumer, you decide which companies succeed with your purchasing power. PureTalk wants to say a heartfelt thank you for choosing them. Because of you, PureTalk had a record breaking year. You've helped them donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership to help prevent veteran suicide. You also help provide 1000 hand sewn made in America flags to veterans. And you're supporting U.S. jobs by choosing a proudly American company from the Pure Talk family. Thank you for your trust and God bless America.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome in Tuesday edition. Clay Travis, BUCK SEXTON show. We've got a fun one headed your way as we continue to discuss the fallout of Maduro being seized in Venezuela. We are expecting for there to be, I believe, another another out there of the Tim Walls press conferen. His political career is in shambles. We will discuss all of that with you and more. We'll also open up phone lines. We didn't take very many calls. Your talkbacks as well to allow you to ask the questions that you may have surrounding everything having to do with the Venezuela situation as well as maybe the Tim Walls continued fallout because if Venezuela hadn't happened, the Minnesota fraud story and the, and the fact that Tim Walls has gone from what, 240,000 votes away from being vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency, to basically having his complete political career be over. And I, I don't know about you, Buck, on this, but let's kind of dive in. Do you agree with me that if Kamala hadn't picked Tim Walz, he probably runs for governor again, gets elected? People don't really pay that much attention to the Minnesota fraud situation just because Minnesota is not typically the focal point of any major national news stories. And yes, the fraud would have still existed. It would have been indefensible, but it wouldn't have been out there in the public arena to such an extent. And so Tim Walls would have gotten reelected and he would have continued right on with the path that he was already on.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes, in a twist of irony, the guy who Democrats put forward to be the avatar of American masculinity is losing his political future after one, people questioning whether he was a good avatar of that masculinity broadly mocking him. And two, he is a household name now because of his short and ill fated run. And therefore the wild corruption that has been unearthed in Minneapolis is a much bigger story because the governor of Minneapolis, Tim Walsh, is a national figure, which he would not have been before. I mean, if I sat here right now and asked everybody, if you don't live in the state of Idaho, who's the governor of Idaho? Everybody, everybody knows the governor of Minnesota, though. No, by the way, no shade to the governor of Idaho.

[Clay Travis]

I think he's a Republican, but I'm with you. I don't know who the governor of Idaho is. He might be listening right now. We love Idaho and we've always been a big fan of your work, Celebrate your entire catalog. In fact, you know, when you look at that, I think it's also emblematic. Did you send out a, a tweet? I think I saw where you're just like, what if Democrats are just horribly wrong about everything? Like, Yep. And, and I do think there's a lot of truth to that. But to me, the Tim Walls entire experience is indicative of the fact that Democrats, by and large, look at voters like zoo animals. They have to go out in the wild. They look at men and they think, you know, in the same way. Was it Diane Fosse who was, I think, one of the great primatologists, if.

[Buck Sexton]

That'S a word, talking about gorillas, gorillas in the mist. And there was Jane Goodall with the chimpanzees.

[Clay Travis]

Yes. They, they would go out and they would sit in the, in the, in the wild, and they would observe what the chimpanzees did, what the gorillas did. And in an effort to understand how their society works, Democrats now are like that with men. They, they, they, I, I, I'm not kidding about this. They sit there and they, and they've got their notepad out and they, and they say, you know what we need? We need a older white guy who wears cowboy boots and car heart and knows how to go out and walk around with a gun. And he used to coach high school football. And you put all this together and it's like they're trying to create an AI avatar of what they think is going to be a man who connects with other men. The problem is what they missed is authenticity matters more than anything. You look, there are nerds out there who are not the foundation of, I think, typically masculine, you know, bigger, stronger, faster men don't aspire necessarily to be like them. That can be really, really popular. Right. I mean, I would say, no offense to him, Ron DeSantis, a little bit of a nerd. Right. And, and, and I don't mean that.

[Buck Sexton]

In a meatball, as they called him. What was with the meatball? Was that some kind of weird underhanded or backhanded, like, Italian American thing? Like why are they hitting him on Meatball? That never made sense to me.

[Clay Travis]

I met one of Ron DeSantis fraternity buddies over. Over break, during. And we were talking, and he said, you know, he loves Ron DeSantis with every fiber in his being. He said, the guy is the best at just doing jobs. Say, if you need a guy who's just going to build you a shelf in the frat house, Ron DeSantis will build a shelf in the frat house that will be there for generations. He's like, if you want a guy that's going to go out and pound a bunch of beers and try to pick up girls, not Ron DeSantis's thing. And so he's like, you know, the going on the campaign trail, which is in many ways kind of a seductive thing. Right? You got to seduce voters, convince them. The popularity contest, yes, it's not necessarily his thing. But every guy out there listening to us right now, you're saying to yourself, you know what? Ron DeSantis, I wish he could be governor of Florida for the next 20 years. He's done maybe the greatest job as a governor that. That Florida has ever seen. And. And so I guess what I'm getting at is Democrats don't understand men to such an extent that they don't understand the wide range of masculinity that I think Republicans can end up supporting. And so they toss out this fundamentally inauthentic guy in Tim Walls, and he in instead of actually convincing men that they should be voting for Kamala and Walls, I think he actually cost your votes. I. I think it would have actually been better for Kamala Buck if she. If she had gone and just said, hey, you know what? Gretchen Whitmer is my pick. Yeah, you got a double chick ticket. And it might have hurt her, but I think she probably would have won Michigan.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't think she would have called it a double chick ticket. But, yeah, I hear what you're saying.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, a double dude ticket, double chick ticket. I think she would have been better off. I don't like Gretchen Whitmer, but I think Gretchen Whitmer is more authentic as a governor than Tim Walls was. And I think men might respect Gretchen Whitmer even more than they did Tim Walls, because he's so fake. And so we start off this day with Tim Walls's political career being over, which I think is kind of a remarkable story.

[Buck Sexton]

Let's be honest here. Good chance that if you're wondering who could hang the picture frame and get it done with the tool belt and all the things. I think Gretchen Whimper might beat out. Tim Walls, if you're looking for someone to choreograph your next Gretchen production, Chicago better. I would say Tim Walls is your guy.

[Clay Travis]

Gretchen Whitmer might be better at home repair than either you or I.

[Buck Sexton]

She definitely is. I take no if my in laws are listening.

[Clay Travis]

Every time.

[Buck Sexton]

Every time my father in law shows up here to visit. It's like a trade. He gets to see his grandchild and his daughter, and I get to present him with a list of things in.

[Clay Travis]

The house that are broken that I.

[Buck Sexton]

Don'T know how to fix. It's great works.

[Clay Travis]

Laura. Laura is the same. My father in law can fix everything. He's an engineer. And you know, she. He just shows up. And by the way, he's about to be 80. Happy early 80th birthday to my father in law. And he's still infinitely better at fixing anything in the house. So. Look, I. I'm not claiming that at least.

[Buck Sexton]

At least you drive way too fast like a maniac and are ready for the F1 circuit. I drive slow. This is why I have to go in my free time and shoot lots of guns and do tactical training on the weekends to. To make up for my inability to change a light bulb and driving like a little old lady.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, you know, you're driving like Miss Daisy. Is. Is definitely. I was. I was doing all that. This actually thought about this. He should just said.

[Buck Sexton]

He should just say, thank you, Buck, for keeping me safe. But instead I get all this.

[Clay Travis]

You know, when they were talking about the CIA agents who were in Venezuela. Officer. I always get that wrong. But the CIA officers who are in Venezuela, I was thinking to myself, you know, this could have been a job for Buck. But hopefully they were never chased because if they were, he would have gotten caught and captured just like that. Because the guy can't. He has no evasive driving skills. He would be obeying whatever the speed limits are. And. And. And as a result, we might not have gotten Maduro just because you don't drive fast enough.

[Buck Sexton]

It's called going low profile. Low vis. You obey the local traffic ordinances so you don't arouse suspicion, Clay. That's how highly trained I am. They would think that I'm a retiree on vacation there. They would never suspect.

[Clay Travis]

How many Americans are there in Venezuela, by the way, do we know, like actually in Venezuela?

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, the number is a lot less now than. I mean, obviously right now particularly. But it's been going down and down For a long time. I mean, the State Department has had a do not travel order up for. For Venezuela for quite some time, I think. So it hasn't been a probably don't go. It's a don't go.

[Clay Travis]

This is my. My boys is not going to shock you that as soon as we raided Venezuela. My boys are super sports fans. One of my sons said is Ronald Acuna. Okay. Ronald Acuna is the star Venezuelan baseball player of the Atlanta Braves. And a lot of. I mean, this is true. A lot of baseball players in the off season go to Venezuela. Weather's perfect. Baseball is hugely pop there. And so there are a lot of Major League baseball players in Venezuela, I think right now, before spring training starts.

[Buck Sexton]

Next month, maybe Venezuela, we decide. We get. Look, you can't make them citizens. They're not Americans. They're. They're, they're Latinos. They're South Americans and Latinos. But, you know, maybe we, Maybe Czar Miller, I don't know if he's officially being called that yet, but Stephen Miller in the White House, if in fact he gets the Venezuela portfolio, we move toward Venezuela becomes like Guam, but a lot bigger and with a lot more oil. Like, you're not, you're not voting in our. Exactly like the US Virgin Islands, except.

[Clay Travis]

Where I know all about territorial law, by the way. Cleaning up. A couple of things. We are big fans of. Let's make sure that I get this right. We are big fans of Brad Little, current governor of Idaho. No one. No one. Bigger fans than us.

[Buck Sexton]

Let's make sure you get it right, because you've been thinking about Brad a lot lately. Yes, I have.

[Clay Travis]

I've been. I've been thinking. Need to talk about the job Brad's doing in Idaho.

[Buck Sexton]

You know what the truth is, though. Can I just really quickly. The reason we don't talk about Brad a lot here is because Idaho is a great state and he's obviously doing a great job. So because he's not the focus of commentary is a good thing.

[Clay Travis]

Grok. I don't know how much you use Grok now.

[Buck Sexton]

All the time. Replace Google for me. It's amazing.

[Clay Travis]

I love it. Grok says that there. And if you have not, this is worth getting on Twitter. X by itself. I am stunned by how effective it is at just giving me basic facts. Like yesterday, I was looking up. We'll talk about it a little bit later, but I was looking up the number of murders in Washington, D.C. you can go on Twitter, hit the Grox symbol, and you can just say hey, tell me how many murders there have been graphically from 1970 in Washington D.C. to the present day. Wait, like 45 seconds a minute.

[Buck Sexton]

Boom.

[Clay Travis]

All of the data right there in front of you. Grok says there are 10,000Americans roughly that are living in Venezuela right now, according to recent estimates.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Right.

[Buck Sexton]

Small number when you consider the size of Venezuela. And I wonder what it would be comparatively, say to Colombia next door. So we can grok that one, by the way, Clay, in retrospect. Now, given that maybe Stephen Miller can bring about the territorial dispensation of Venezuela for us. I'm not saying he's going to do that. It's just a fun idea. We should talk about Greenland, which I don't think is entirely a joke. I still think that there is an interesting conversation that is being had about people say it belongs to Denmark. Okay, why the Greenlanders are not Danes. What has Denmark done for Greenland? Does Greenland get a say in this? It's a big piece of territory. And also, just because you're a Civil War nerd, self described, people forget this. Ulysses Grant had a great plan. He wanted to make the Dominican Republic. You were talking about baseball before. He wanted to make the Dominican Republic a US Territory and got shot down by the Senate.

[Clay Travis]

First of all, there are a lot of decisions we made surrounding territories that I think were wrong. And I think in like the first year of this show, four or five years ago, I said we should go into Cuba and we should end this absurdity. I'm going to re. I'm going to re. Bring that back up, double down, double down, triple down, quadruple down, whatever necessary. We should right now in this year of 2026, end the fact that Cuba is a communist country and return basic freedoms to Cuba. To your point on territories, I would even suggest that we should look at what we've done with Puerto Rico and with the US Virgin Islands, Guam, as you mentioned, and consider making Cuba a territory of the United States, not a full part of the, of the citizenry. You're not voting. You don't. In the Senate. You don't have congressional representation, but just a protectorate of sorts. To me, that is a. Something that should significantly be looked at.

[Buck Sexton]

Think about the deal that we've gotten in other places. I mean, Guam is one example. They get US Military protection, we put bases there. They don't ever have to worry about foreign relations, foreign invasion, anything like that. They get infrastructure, they get rule of law, they get access to, you know, American markets, etc. It's not a bad deal.

[Clay Travis]

We already have the huge base at Guantanamo and thanks to Colonel Jessup, we still have it.

[Buck Sexton]

And we needed him on that wall. He was actually the unsung hero of that movie in so many ways. That's a conversation for another time. All right, this may be the time. This may be the year that you join me in something very important. Gold and Owning some Gold. Every indication is that gold is going to continue to grow this year and this is because of global instability. We're just talking about some of that stuff. But also all the money printing that's happening, it's not going to stop. And owning gold is part of your savings plan, your 401k, your IRA. It just makes sense. And Birch Gold Group is who I trust. You're going to like working with these people. I've purchased gold from them and until January 30th, if you're a first time gold buyer, Birch Gold is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. Claim eligibility, Start the process Text My name Buck Do 989898 Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold. You're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. Make this month your first time as a gold buyer or add to your goal that you already have. Take advantage of a rebate of up to $10,000 when you buy by January 30th. Text My Name Buck to 98 98.98 Text B U C K to 989898.

[Podcast Announcer]

Saving America One Thought at a time Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Buck Sexton]

As the consumer, you carry the success or failure of business in the palm of your hand. Their success depends on your decision to spend money with one business or their competitor.

[Clay Travis]

Our friends at PureTalk would like to say thank you from the bottom of their hearts for choosing PureTalk as your cell phone service provider. Because of you, they've had a record breaking year because of your generosity. Through their Roundup for Charity program, they've been able to donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership. That's a nonprofit that stands on the front lines of preventing veteran suicide. Your patronage has allowed PureTalk to donate a thousand hand sewn Made in America flags to your fellow veterans.

[Buck Sexton]

When you choose PureTalk as your wireless provider, you choose to support American jobs. Like I said, as a consumer you have the power to make or break companies and with the money the big wireless guys throw around on advertising, you're inundated with offers everywhere you look. So from everyone in the Pure Talk family, thank you for your trust and God bless America. Welcome in everybody to the second hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. You know, Clay, sometimes it's funny because I have in my head a story that I think we're going to end up talking about and then it changes rapidly because of events. And one of those unfolded in the last 24 hours where there was a.

[Clay Travis]

Report out there, I guess you could.

[Buck Sexton]

Say an allegation that a Hilton branded hotel was canceling the reservations of anybody who works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Just like everyday folks, government employees, when they travel to places they don't have homes, everywhere, they stay in hotels. And there was this report out about a Hilton hotel that had turned, not just refused to take a reserve, but canceled active reservations of a, of some ICE contingent. And it came from, I believe officially or initially, the official DHS account saying this, that this happened.

[Clay Travis]

So they go right to the people.

[Buck Sexton]

With this stuff now. I mean, this Trump administration doesn't hold back. It was amazing to see how quickly, to Hilton's credit now I think they understand what's at stake here. But Hilton hotels, man, they were the comms, they were on it. They right away, publicly, this is absolutely not our policy. We would never do such a thing. We are, we are open as a hotel for all who wish to stay. And you know, they, they went and they said, we are looking into this right away. And then they said the, it's a franchisee. People forget this, that there's often, you know, these big brands, you have to play by certain rules, but you're a franchisee, so you independently operate it under the overall corporate umbrella. So there's kind of limited, there's not really direct oversight. There's some oversight, but it was a franchisee hotel. And Hilton, you see this, the latest autoclave was that Hilton hotels came out, I think it was either last night or early this morning to just say, you know what? This franchisee told us, they fix it. They didn't fix it. They're no longer a Hilton hotel. This was in less than 24 hours. I just think that this is indicative of how much the vibe, as the kids say, has changed now in corporate America, where the second that anyone starts to get a whiff that you think that half the country should go stuff it and that they're, you know, you don't want their business if they're going to vote for Trump or whatever. Oh, the days of half the country sitting back quietly and letting that stuff fly are long since gone.

[Clay Travis]

Well, I think this is the legacy of Bud Light, which is why I think the Bud Light story is going to linger for years and years to come. Look, Michael Jordan had it right Buck. Republicans buy sneakers too. Back in the day, they tried to get Michael Jordan to be super political and he said, no, I'm not going to do that. And he gave the quote, republicans buy sneakers too. That means that maybe he had Democratic leanings but he wasn't going to get involved. And as a result, you know what the legacy of Michael Jordan is? He's the most popular athlete in the entire country still, he sells more Jordans his sneakers than any current NBA player does. Combined. The Air Jordan brand is more valuable than every current NBA player combined. Tiger woods took the same approach. Tiger woods basically said, look, I want to be the greatest golfer that has ever lived. Now, he didn't beat Jack Nicklaus in overall majors. I think he just turned 50. Happy birthday, Tiger Woods. You're listening. And, and Tiger made the decision that, that he wanted to have the same level of appeal. And I just, it seems very basic to me. If I ran a company that was desirous of, of, of, of trying to appeal to everyone, which most companies are, why would you alienate half the country? It never made any sense to me. It always seemed like a really short sighted plan.

[Buck Sexton]

I just thought it was so interesting because. And I pulled this up. It was from the official Homeland Security account initially. And, and so Homeland Security account called this out like the comms for DHS said we're getting reports about this and they called it no room at the Inn, all in caps and Hilton. You know, there was a time, there was a time when I think at best what you could hope for would have been the overall. Now, Hilton is a true global brand and you know, it's been around a long time and so people know it. There was a time when I think the best you could have hoped for would have been we have, you know, read this report and we're going to look into it and they would sort of just hope that it goes away and that's it. Maybe they would have even gone in the other direction and said, you know, well, we believe that like, you know, in borders, that borders shouldn't exist and all people are people and no one is illegal. There was a time when some corporations in recent memory would have done that. I think major corporations, I think like, you know, Disney might have done that depending on the the day, but in this case, Hilton came out with right away, like all that they could bring to the public conversation about this, to squelch this story and set it straight and say, we absolutely do not do this, would not do this and we will hold those who do it under our banner accountable. That is, you know, we've started to get a little used to this, guys. It's only been a year. That is a massive, massive corporate sea change in attitude and behavior from a big brand like that, when clearly this is because it's Trump's ice, Trump's policies. That's the whole thing. Under the Biden administration, you know, people even still thought they could get away with all kinds of nonsense like this.

[Clay Travis]

I think it's also reflective of an unfortunate reality, which is most business leaders are cowards and they go whatever the direction is that the wind is blowing. And for a long time, the way that they would lose their jobs was by not seeming left wing enough. So if you remember in 2020, in the summer, remember when every brand that you ever bought anything from suddenly had to email you to let you know what they thought about Black Lives Matter and you were sitting around and you were just like, hey, I just want to buy some kitty litter. I don't need to know what my pet company, pet food company thinks about geopolitics. And yet everybody felt compelled to send you those messages. A lot of those same CEOs knew it was BS then, but they were concerned about protecting their own jobs now because Trump won, they can go back and try to address what they knew to be ridiculous for a long time. And I think the math on it was, is pretty clear, right? I mean, if you're Hilton or Hyatt, I always get those two mixed up. I don't know which. I can't tell the difference. Probably not helping me for, for us getting a big hotel chain sponsorship here, but you should want everybody under the sun. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, people who don't vote. Everybody should be your target market. And I give them credit. I think you're right. They, they looked into this, they got back to it fast and they said, we're not going to allow this to occur. This guy is no longer one of our franchisees.

[Buck Sexton]

The people who decided to send Bud Light a message to your point, message received by corporate America. It just doesn't Bud Light. Now who do they have the MMA and they've gone out or like some right wing.

[Clay Travis]

It still hasn't come back because, and maybe it's going to take years.

[Buck Sexton]

No, no, but I, I just mean.

[Clay Travis]

That the steps, they, they spent God knows how much money on the ufc. They have spent God knows how much money. I mean, you can't watch in a college football or NFL game without Bud Light commercials everywhere. Look, the most toxic thing that you can have if you are a brand that is, that is trying to appeal to men is the idea that you're cool with dudes pretending to be chicks. Like, and everybody just said, yeah, we're not going to do this, and stop drinking the beer almost overnight.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, you can unpack this really quickly, right? Why do the Democrats have such a problem with masculinity? This was the big question going into the last election because the polling, the data, it all showed that that is, that is an issue for them. If you have a guy, I don't, I don't care who it is, you can have a, a, you know, a jacked three tour super soldier, you know, you know, like, whatever. The ultimate in masculinity is in your mind. If you sit there and you have him say in earnestness, not ironically or kidding, I'm a male feminist and I believe that men don't have an advantage over women in sports. You instantly think that this guy is a wuss.

[Clay Travis]

Instantly, yes.

[Buck Sexton]

There's no way around this. It doesn't matter who you are. It doesn't. You can have the top, you know, NBA or NFL athlete in the world, sit down, look you in the face and say that. And you're like, oh, so you're just a coward. So you actually don't have balls to borrow from a great book. You don't have balls.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, it is. And I think it's why it had such cultural resonance in 2024, because most people, it's very complicated what the tax code should be. We were talking about off air. It looks like Trump was right about tariffs. There now is a huge study I'm reading in the Wall Street Journal this morning as I'm getting ready saying, actually, we went back and looked at 100 plus years of data and there is no evidence of a substantial degree that inflation follows tariffs, despite the fact that every economist in the country told you, oh, my God, if Trump does these tariffs, then inflation's going to go through the roofs. And they were wrong. And a lot of economists, they're looking around saying now, like, how did we all get this so wrong? And by the way, a lot of the same economists said we could print as much money as possible. Remember, Buck, it wasn't very long ago, 2021, when they suddenly said, hey, modern monetary theory is this new thing, and there's no cost associated with just printing way more money. And we, we, you. And I remember coming on saying, I, you know, I think there's actually pretty good history that when you print too much of your currency that the value collapses. And there was this idea out there that Biden bought into that you could basically print as much money and there were going to be no consequences when it came to inflation. And then, boom, within a year, we're at 9%, and we're still trying to deal with the fact of that incompetence.

[Buck Sexton]

This is where common sense is seemingly less common than we would want it to be. If you can print any money and it doesn't matter and you'll just deal with it and you'll buy whatever you want and get whatever you want with it, we should just set up for every American.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

A bank account. Put a million dollars in it.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

If that's a problem, why is it a problem? Well, once you establish why that's clearly a problem, you understand why soon to be $40 trillion in debt and spending trillions more than we take in every year is also a problem. Right. So it's very straightforward stuff. On the tariffs issue, I will apply the same common sense. This is what we kept saying on the show, Clay. Okay, Somehow every other country in the world, every other Canada, the UK all the other countries in the world, including the ones that are closest to us culturally, legally, et cetera, have tariffs in place. Why is it that they're so dumb that they just want to do something that doesn't benefit them and raises prices for them for no apparent reason. Now you can say, oh, no, Buck, we recognize that. No, no, the people who were anti tariffs suggested there was really no upside to it either, that it was just a bad idea. It was just downside. You don't even really protect effectively because the global marketplace, your domestic industry. But, Clay, I go back to the common sense man, the normie, if you will. The same normie that's asking, are Democrats just wrong about everything? Narrator, voice yes, they are. Why is everyone else doing this if it's so stupid? Every other country in the world, some, like China, doing it very aggressively and getting very rich while they do so.

[Clay Travis]

Yes. No, I mean, look, this is. Now, here's the downside. I do think the Supreme Court might say the president doesn't have authority to implement all of the tariffs that he has implemented. So, like, we can sit here and say Trump was right about the tariff front again and he's bringing in, I think he's on pace now to bring in 600 billion billion in tariff revenue in 2026 if the tariffs were allowed to continue. And he was going to put that money towards helping to pay down the debt. And by the way, 4.3% growth at the end of the third quarter as we're headed into the end of 2024, 2025, sorry. There is the possibility out there that with if growth is around 5% that I, I don't know I've heard anybody else say this, that the budget could start with in conjunction with the tariffs that the budget could start to come close to being balanced in 2026 and 2027. Now that's a very positive. That's if the economy continues to expand, if continues to grow and the Supreme Court says the tariffs are allowed to be upheld. I'm not convinced that they are. And so that could turn into a huge mess because how do you give back all the money that was, that was taken in through the tariffs? I mean I think that's one of the challenges the Supreme Court is grappling with as they try to break down that going forward. In the meantime, tap to pay. Popular way to pay with a credit card. It's stores cyber scram scammers out there. They're using tech that allows them to read credit card data. It's a tactic known as ghost tapping. They can steal your financial info without your knowledge. Cyber threats are everywhere. That's why Lifelock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for identity threats, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. You want lifelocks online identity theft protection. In this day and age, if you do become a victim of identity theft, you get your own Lifelock restoration specialist who will fix identity theft guaranteed or your money back. Your protection backed by Lifelock's million dollar protection package. Join now. Say 40% off your first year with my name Clay as the promo code. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK or go online to lifelock.com you'll be protected in minutes once you provide them with the right info. Remember my name [e-mail] or when you talk to agents at 1-800-lifelock terms apply.

[Podcast Announcer]

Want to be in the know when you're on the go the Team 47 podcast Trump 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.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome our number three, Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. We appreciate all of you hanging out with us. I have gone to war with the state of New Mexico unexpectedly today. I hope that all of you living in. I don't even know what is New Mexico. The frontier states.

[Buck Sexton]

So don't. Don't dig me into this hole with you. Don't start asking me New Mexico trivia. So I have to take the incoming on this one.

[Clay Travis]

I want to say something nice about New Mexico. One of my college roommates lives there, and I've been to Albuquerque. And what I remember is that they have a lot of honey that they put on burritos. And that sounds like something that doesn't make a lot of sense, but it actually tastes very good. So I would miss the honey on the burritos if we let New Mexico go back to Mexico and if we ended up with better states instead. So that is the land of Enchantment is what New Mexico is. I thought it was the. The frontier state. That's Alaska, I guess. But we are having a lot of fun Venezuela talk. Tim Walls talk.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, no, Tim Wall's talk is. Is always great and fantastic. Do you. Can we. Since we're already talking about states that you want to give away, you are willing to trade. Trade away? Trade away. Not give away.

[Clay Travis]

Not give away. I want something better in exchange for them. But I'm willing to barter them. Trade them.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, what are we trading for? New York City being destroyed by Mamdani? Just the knowledge that communism never works.

[Clay Travis]

We're gonna. We're gonna have a bigger House majority and maybe add a couple of Senate seats. So it makes me sad that all of you in, you know, New York City, just New York City. I mean, I bet Long Island's gonna be nicer. I bet Westchester is going to be nicer. But those of you, maybe Staten island, because it's protected and has its own island, maybe it will be okay. But Manhattan in particular, Brooklyn, Queens, all of you are done. I'm sorry. You know, you just sink beneath the, the, the. The. The waves like Atlantis. And the rest of the country just goes right on. I saw where. Who was it? David Sachs came out and said Miami's gonna replace New York City as the financial capital of the United States. Did you see that prediction from him?

[Buck Sexton]

The idea that is. Yeah, the idea that's out there now is that South Florida, it's really Miami.

[Clay Travis]

And the.

[Buck Sexton]

The 95 corridor up to Palm beach and that area, West Palm, Palm beach and on down is going to become A major global financial hub and that there will be a move also of these California billionaires to Texas. Yes, for the tech.

[Clay Travis]

I think he's right.

[Buck Sexton]

There is some momentum behind both of those things. This is already going on in some ways.

[Clay Travis]

So yeah, I think that, look, I do believe that one of the biggest legacies of COVID is going to be that a lot of people became aware that they could live anywhere in the country and indeed all over the world and they would not actually lose the ability to do their job at a high level. And so if you have made that risk taking test that you would never have tried on your own, right. If you make a million dollars a year and you are a super successful New York City investment banker, you would have never said, hey, let me see if I can still do my job just as well. I'm going to risk it, move to Miami or I'm going to move to Houston or I'm going to move to Nashville where I live. A lot of those guys did it and now they're looking around and they're saying, why would I pay 14% in state income taxes? Much like buck yourself if you can do your job just as well. And oh, by the way, also live potentially in a more hospitable environment to raise a family. As I think most people would say, hey, Texas, Tennessee, Florida, does that feel like a better place to raise a family to a lot of people than New York City or LA or Chicago? I think a lot of people are saying yes and they're moving. And so I do think culturally when David Sack said that kind of made me raise my eyebrows a little bit. And I'm not 100% sold on the idea necessarily. But man, every time I come down to see you in Miami, the number of buildings going up, it is extraordinary to see the amount of building that is going on in South Florida and the property, what people are paying to live in South Florida now, the amount of wealth that is relocating. And then I think what you're going to see is the state of New York and California and Illinois, as they lose some of those rich residents, they're going to have to raise taxes and that's going to accelerate the departure of other people. And so I think the end result is going to be that much like Atlantis, New York City is going to sink beneath the waters and the rest of us are going to benefit from your destruction.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, I'm not going to sit here downing mint juleps, OK? A la Mr. Tennessee Clay Travis over there, while New York just slips into New York Harbor. And while Manhattan disappears, I'm going to help you fight. Fight the madness that is Mamdaniism, which has already showed up in all kinds of ways here. Let's. Let's start with this one, Clay. This is a flashback. Mamdani's tenant director is someone named, I think, Sia Weaver. I don't know. I guess that's how you say her first name here.

[Clay Travis]

I think this is super important we should mention this, because this always comes up. It's not just Mom, Donnie. It's who he puts into so many of these positions, and he's picking a lot of crazy people.

[Buck Sexton]

He's building a wacko brigade around him, which is a really good, really bad sign of what's going to be happening here. Here is. This is a flashback in this video to Mamdani's tenant director. I want just listen to the words she uses when she's talking about people being able to own and rent homes in New York. Play 19.

[Sia Weaver]

I think the reality is, is that for centuries, we've really treated property as an individualized good and not a collective good. And we are going to. Transitioning to treating it as a collective good and towards a model of shared equity will require that we think about it differently. And it will mean that families, especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well, are going to have a different relationship to property than the one that we currently have.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay, so first off, before we dive into the insanity here, ironclad rule. You cannot give anyone authority in anything. Who does this up talking thing? Who does this thing where she starts talking up at the end of sentences like it was a collective good, and now we're going to treat it like it's. Or it was, you know? You know what I'm saying? That's always a huge. That's a huge red flag. You don't want to listen to anybody about anything important. Who does the uptalk thing at the end of sentences? I'm just telling you it's true. You don't want this person operating on your heart. You don't want them collecting, you know, rent. You don't want them doing anything of any importance for you. That's part one. Part two. Notice that he has to just be like, yeah, we're just going to hurt white families more because, you know, private property rights aren't really a thing. This is how these lunatics speak behind closed doors. And they're not supposed to be able to fool enough people to have any political power. But Mamdani, did you asked the question.

[Clay Travis]

Which I think is really good one. What if Democrats are just wrong about everything? It's not just Democrats, though. It's the base of the Democrat party that is driving all of this insanity. And do you know who the base of the Democrat party is? White women. White women are highly educated. White women have bought into everything that is wrong in America, and they aggressively put in place policies that are utterly wrong on all fronts. I just. I look at it and I know every time I say this we get. You know, it's like. It reminds me of the. What was the. The Chris Rock joke he used to tell where women would sing along to really degrading rap lyrics. And they'd be like, he's not talking about me. And he's like, he's saying your name, you know, like it's a great line if you ever would go out to a bar. Rap lyrics, very degrading to women. And all the women are dancing around like crazy, you know, rapping along with the lyrics. And whenever I say this, white women are like, not me. I'm not it. Yeah, okay. But as a percentage, overwhelmingly the most destructive force in America today is white women. Left wing and frankly, unmarried, white, married.

[Buck Sexton]

Unmarried white women is really the demographic you're talking about, buddy.

[Clay Travis]

But they are destroying the country, and they're wrong on every single issue. And the scary thing, I bet this chick that we're. That we're playing the audio from that she's an unmarried white woman, God forbid, if she's got a husband, poor bastard. But I will tell you right now, the scary thing to me, Buck, is not being wrong. Because trust me, I've been wrong and a lot. You've been wrong in a lot. Everybody out there has been wrong on a lot. It's not being willing or able to recognize when you are wrong and changing your opinion or changing your lifestyle choices. These crazy unmarried white women are so committed to the destructive belief systems that they have that results don't change their opinions.

[Buck Sexton]

I'll tell you honestly, man, it's just unmarried single women. It's unmarried women in. In, like middle. You know, particularly like late 30s, up until their 50s. That's. That's the demo. It's. It's across all races. They've got really bad.

[Clay Travis]

Well, young. Young women are wrong like young men are, because they're just knuckleheads and they haven't had enough life experience to learn. As you age, you start to have a better life perspective and you can adjust in your opinions so younger people, I think oftentimes have moronic. It takes. I've got all sorts of opinions I had when I was 17 that I was.

[Buck Sexton]

But I mean, the true base by the numbers of the Democrat Party is actually black female voters. That's the. That's the absolute locked in base that they have when it comes to voting.

[Clay Travis]

But I don't know. I don't know that black women drive the choices made by the Democrat Party as much as highly educated unmarried white women do. That's the base you're talking about.

[Buck Sexton]

Who's like the policy director versus who's the base?

[Clay Travis]

That's right. You're right. The percentages of people who are going to show up and just vote because they've always voted Democrat. Black women are the most loyal Democrat voters. But the people that are actually driving the proverbial bus of the Democrat Party are unmarried white women. And they are driving basically the bus off the side of a cliff. Cliff. And they don't recognize even choices they make. In New York City. Momdani, if he actually puts in place the policies that he said he's going to do, you know what's going to happen? Women are going to be infinitely more dangerous in the lifestyle choices that they make. You're not going to be able to ride the subway. You're not going to be able to ride the buses. They're actually making choices that are utterly destructive for their own lifestyle. And they're not willing to recognize that they made the choice. Remember the great Sex in the City show back in the day, Buck? There's a line where Charlotte, who I thought was the.

[Buck Sexton]

I think that show led women off a cliff. So I would never refer to it as great. I think that show is enormously destructive to a generation of women. I've always believed that. And some chicks thought I was crazy years ago. And now they're like, buck, you're right. You're like.

[Clay Travis]

It is an entertaining show. But I think if it's a lifestyle. But the Charlotte at one point has this realization where she's made all these life choices and they've all been wrong. And she has this like, meltdown where she says, I chose my choice. I chose my choice. I chose my choice. That is a realization that you made choices in your life that led you to the position where you are. I don't think a lot of these women are capable of logically recognizing that they have chosen the method of their own destruction. To use a Ghostbusters reference. They're actually making choices that are utterly destructive to their lifestyle. And there aren't. There isn't a recognition of it. Right. It'll be different if you thought. I just. This is something I worry about all the time. If you. If you have a consequence free reality of your world, then how can you in some way get people to make rational choices?

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this is the lack of accountability I always talk about is the centerpiece of the Democrat Party's pitch to people, which is that nothing that is in your life that is bad is your fault or could be changed by you. It is other people's fault. And the government is there to hurt those people that are the reason you are dissatisfied with things and to give you the things that you think you deserve. That's like the fundamental pitch of the Democrat. Really, it's just socialism, but they don't call it that. That's what it is. And speaking of socialism, you've got like. Mamdani, you know what? We can come back to this, Clay. But Mom, Donnie talking about how World cup tickets for everybody. You know, soccer, World cup tickets.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

What?

[Buck Sexton]

He's the mayor of New York. He's not. He's not emperor of the universe, but, you know, if you're a commie, it's the same thing to you.

[Clay Travis]

So, yeah, we'll play that. I saw that clip that was going viral yesterday. Mamdani has basically decided that he has to address every single issue, every day. Know the mayor of New York City. I don't know that you really need to call President Trump and give him your opinion on Venezuela. Right? I mean, is that really the essence of your decision making? This may be the year you discover firsthand the value of owning gold as a part of your savings plan. Our friends at Birch Gold Group want to help you get this done. Look, gold has been an incredible investment. If you made a gold a part of your portfolio, you outperformed everything in 2025. You outperform the stock market. You outperformed crypto. You outperformed basically every asset class on the planet if you just owned gold. And right now, Birch Gold is giving you until January 30th to get hooked up with a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. To start the process and claim eligibility, text my name, Clay, to 98 98. 98. Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold, and you're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000. Make this the month your first time buying gold. Take advantage of this. Add it to your portfolio. Just get more info about it. Why not consider it text my name Clay that's C L A Y to 98. 98 98. That's my name. Clay to 98. 9898 98.

[Podcast Announcer]

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton mic drops. That never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

As the consumer, you carry the success or failure of business in the palm of your hand. Their success depends on your decision to spend money with one business or their competitor.

[Clay Travis]

Our friends at Pure Talk would like to say thank you from the bottom of their hearts for choosing PureTalk as your cell phone service provider because of you. And they've had a record breaking year because of your generosity. Through their Roundup for charity program, they've been able to donate over half a million dollars to America's Warrior Partnership. That's a nonprofit that stands on the front lines of preventing veteran suicide. Your patronage has allowed Pure Talk to donate a thousand hand sewn Made in America flags to your fellow veterans.

[Buck Sexton]

When you choose Pure Talk as your wireless provider talk, you choose to support American jobs. Like I said, as a consumer, you have the power to make or break companies. And with the money the big wireless guys throw around on advertising, you're inundated with offers everywhere you look. So from everyone in the Pure Talk family, thank you for your trust and God bless America.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton show. Let's see, we've got a bunch of different clips out there. Tim Walls, we're finally took questions and he refused to resign. Says only will he resign over his dead body.

[Tim Walz]

Cut 30 Republicans want to tell you everybody with brown skin is stealing money or that they're not welcome here. They want to do nothing to improve this state. Their idea of improving this state is being a parrot for Donald Trump agreeing to everything that he agreed with. Well, here's I'm going to tell you it ain't happening. I'm not going anywhere. And you can make all your requests for me to resign over my dead body. Will that happen? I will fight this thing till the very end to make this state better. And the question that I think they need to decide is when did the guy in the White House resign? When does he take accountability for what he did? Because it isn't going to happen here in terms of us shying away from making the state better. So you'll get to see me more. The good news on this is is that I got no election to look forward to. I've been in front of you. I'll call on who I want to call on and I'll watch what the press gets written and we'll make sure that in this state there's full accountability for everybody. Because I, I buck stops with me. I'm accountable for this. And because of that accountability, I'm not running for office again. But I have a year to continue to improve on a record that I think will stand up against anybody's. A record that has made Minnesota better, a record that makes people want to come here, and a record that has respected not only the dignity of people, but the idea of rule of law and camaraderie.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, what's interesting here to me in general is does it feel like to you the whole, like he tried to start off the argument by saying, oh, this is about racism and this is about coming after people who are brown skinned. Does it feel like to you that that argument has just complete, like it used to be you could shut down people really quickly if you said, hey, you know, we got to look at crime and black guys commit more crime than white guys. They're like, my God, you know, the Overton window was so small that if you said that, they would say that's racist of you to notice what basic data shows and they would try to shut down the conversation. It feels like they've lost that battle now. And I don't know if it's social media just exploiting larger marketplace of ideas, conversations, but they're still trying to make it and it doesn't even work on legacy media anymore.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes, that's all true. And there's a number of reasons why I think that Elon Musk's purchase of X is still one of the most important free speech turning points in the 21st century. And I know that for many of you who aren't even on X or never on Twitter, you're like, how can that be? It's the only place at scale. And I know some of you going to tell me truth and whatever, and I appreciate that, but that's the numbers speak to this. That's a very, very small fraction of what you have on X. It's the only place at scale where ideas can be shared and can really take hold of the public consciousness in a way that is not dominated, has not been dominated by left wing control. We do have Congressman Chip Roy out of Texas with us now. Congressman, appreciate you being with us.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Great to be with you. Sorry to step out of our GP day. We have with the President and had to Give you all a call, but great to be on.

[Buck Sexton]

No, I appreciate it. Tell the big guy we sent him a high five. He's doing an amazing job. We give him, give lots of thanks to him for a great 20, 25. But we're talking here a little bit, actually about what's going on in Minnesota, the fraud there. And now people are saying, if it's that bad in Minnesota, what's it look like in California? What's your take on this one, Congressman?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Yeah, I mean, look what we're signed. What we're seeing there is the inevitable outcome of two things. A very broken immigration system, both legal and illegal, that flooded our country, particularly places like Minneapolis, with individuals who are, you know, obviously engaging in rampant fraud and taking taxpayer money and basically expanding it and bringing family members over and abusing our immigration system. But it's also the product of a welfare state that is out of control. We have been doling out billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars nonstop now for years. And it was put on steroids under the Biden administration. And now all of those two things collided to produce this disaster in Minneapolis. Yes, it's bad in California. Remember, by the way, last May, June, when we were working to get the big beautiful bill passed, remember those of us who were fighting and saying we needed the Medicaid work requirements and that we needed requirements to clamp down on fraud? Remember we were being said, well, you're going to take away Medicaid, you're going to make all these. No, we were trying to make sure that only American citizens were able to get that benefit through Medicaid. And we were trying to get rid of fraud. And by the way, Medicaid keeps going up under the big beautiful bill, but we're just trying to tighten down the fraud now. We've got miles to go. We're trying to fight through the appropriations process now, working with the President's team at the Office of Management and Budget. Now you've got DOJ and you got them out there investigating in Minnesota. We need to keep doing it and exposing it. And frankly, all of you people out there that are keyboard warriors looking at this stuff and finding the information, there's a great guy, what is it? Oilfield Brando, his Twitter account, he's a great Texan, dives into all of these accounts and they frankly do a lot of workforce to help identify this stuff. So we're going after it and doing the best we can. And we got to just do more because that fraud is all over the place because of the money that's flowing.

[Clay Travis]

You're running for Attorney General of Texas in addition to being a congressman right now, Venezuela. What is the read on oil and gas from somebody who's in a state that knows more about oil and gas than anybody? What is the reaction that you're hearing from the people in the oil and gas industry? What do you think think should happen, will happen with Venezuela?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, first of all, the president showed great leadership and what he did engaging in Venezuela, this is not unprecedented. Obviously Noriega was a precedent. Legally, I think the President's going to be on strong footing in court, went out and extricated somebody who and brought him here for justice, who'd been indicted for engaging and carrying out criminal activity and organized crime with cartels and putting drugs into our communities. So it was the right thing to do. They're now going to try to make sure that it's stable. Let the Venezuelan people do what they need to do to pick their leadership and run their country. But we're going to make sure it's stable first. But remember, they nationalized the oil fields and their oil industry and took a lot of the investments that Americans put in there 10, 20, 30, 40 years ago. And that was a real issue that we've got to now unwind and then make sure now that oil isn't going to our enemies and isn't going to China, isn't going to Iran, isn't going to Russia and rather is being able to flow into Western hemisphere. And so I think that's going to happen. I think people I'm talking to in the oil and gas space are excited that we can have some oil supply to help, you know, free up the market. I mean, look, we can produce massive amounts of oil here, but there's always limits to what we can do with our fracking. And so it's nice to have multi sources and not be reliant on any one area. So to add the Venezuela supply back into the pipeline, so to speak, is viewed favorably. But also, you know, we need to make sure that we don't have, you know, another situation where we go invest in it and then it gets nationalized again. So president's doing the right thing, but we got to do a lot of work to make sure that we can rely on it.

[Buck Sexton]

How concerned are you, Congressman, about the next steps in Venezuela specifically pertaining to the security and internal. It's not a stable place. So stability might be the wrong word, but keeping this place from devolving into a Hobbesian mess. What do you think are the ways forward here, and how do you think the administration is going to be able to handle some of these challenges?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, first of all, Marco Rubio has been doing a fantastic job as Secretary of State in every situation he's been put in. He was great this weekend articulating why this is critical to our national security interest. The Trump Doctrine, whatever you want to call it, with respect to focusing on the Western Hemisphere to push out our enemies and to increase the relationships and the reliance on other countries in the Western Hemisphere, on America and not our enemies, not China, not Russia. These are all things that are critically important. I am concerned about the next steps. Those are very real concerns. They've got a lot of people. The regime are still in place. There's a lot of corruption that still exists. Moving one guy out of it is a good step, but it's not going to be the whole solution. We got to work to try to get Venezuela back on its feet, get it back to where it was economically two decades ago, but moving forward with a stronger rule of law and to have a better society that is built on our Republican principles here. And so I think we've got a lot of work to do, but we can do it and it's worth it. Okay. This is not the nation building of trying to go build a country over in Iraq, you know, for 20 years, where you spend $7 trillion and lose 7,000 men and women and 75,000 injuries, which what we're dealing with here is in our Western hemisphere, in our backyard, just south of Cuba, a country that is rich with minerals that can be a benefit to our entire civilization over here, but that we need to stabilize. I think the president is doing the right thing, but it's going to take.

[Buck Sexton]

A lot of work.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

This is not easy. I'm not a big believer in regime change and nation building, but what we're trying to do here is create stability with an important country in the Western Hemisphere that's important to our national security interests.

[Clay Travis]

We're talking to Congressman Chippewa, running for the Attorney General of the state of Texas. When you look at what's happened, Tim Walls, we just played a couple of cuts from him, press conference availability today, his political career is effectively over. What does that tell us about the dwindling power of legacy media when effectively this is a 23 year old on YouTube who went and did his own investigation into fraud in Minnesota and I think effectively ended Tim Walls his career? How does this change the dynamics of the political universe and also the trajectory of our Country.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Well, look, I think this is an important moment and I think we should recognize that. And I've been talking about this quite a bit because when I mentioned a minute ago, right. I wasn't joking when I said that those of the listeners out there, the people who focus on this stuff, they can go do some of this investigative, investigative work that helps us with policy because people don't realize that, you know, in a congressional office, right. I mean, I have 14 or 15 staff, half of them are doing constituent services and, and you know, engagement with my constituents. And you got a handful of policy people and you have to do bills every day. And so it's hard for us to go do the deep dive investigative work. So when we've got support from the outside, which should have been the media, right. The media is supposed to be seeking truth wherever it may lead, right? To quote Thomas Jefferson, they haven't been doing that. They have been an advocate for radical Marxism and leftism. And now you've got people like Nick who went out and did the hard work, you know, on the ground in Minneapolis and Minnesota. And now hopefully we're going to see more of that. See that in California and see that in Texas. Right. I mean there's, there's fraud in Texas and that we had to root out. There's Medicaid Fraud Division, AG's office, the Attorney General's office that, you know, I want to make sure we're focusing on rooting out all the Medicaid fraud. But I know Texas is better than California and Minneapolis and Minnesota and New York. But we've got to have that. We've got to have people on the outside that are helping us. Again, the founders understood the importance of the freedom of the press. The question is, who is the press? And right now with technology and with what Elon did with X, it's impressive now what you can allow, what a 23 year old to your point can do, to bring out truth. Again, this is all about seek truth wherever it may lead. That's the goal.

[Buck Sexton]

Do you think that there will be accountability though? A lot of people, Congressman, become very disillusioned with our system when there's this exposure of something like this. And then we're wondering, well, is anyone actually going to go to prison over this? I mean, I saw, I think there's a U.S. attorney's office in Atlanta, Georgia is bringing a prosecution against a state rep there for stealing $15,000, something like that, in Covid funds. And they're bringing that prosecution under public integrity and they're like, look, you're a. You're a public official and you're stealing money from the state you live in. That's unacceptable. I see what's going on in Somalia. I'm hearing that people are. I'm sorry, in with the Somalis in Minnesota, and you hear that people are taking the GDP of Somalia from that state in fraud. Is anyone going to go to prison?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Yeah, I mean, you make. Make a good point. In fact, I tweeted that out early. I think I was the first maybe to put that out, that their GDP is 13 billion, and we're talking about 18 billion of potential fraud. Now, that's the potential number. That tweet got 35 million views, by the way, just to be clear about how much people are recognizing this. And I think that's important to your point. Yes. Heads need to roll. I am gratified to see that. I think I saw something like a thousand prosecutions that were being discussed in the news reports that I saw this morning or yesterday. You know, look, this takes a little bit of work. You got to prove up a case. I'm a former federal prosecutor in U.S. attorney's office. And remember, typically, our federal laws are not designed for us to have a federal police force and federal prosecutors force going into states. But where you've got the abuse of federal funds, where you've got the nexus to the fraud of these federal tax dollars flowing, and you have public servants who are engaging in that kind of behavior, there's absolutely room for federal prosecutions. We need to follow the truth wherever it may lead on this stuff in terms of including state leaders and those that are involved in knowingly and intentionally violating our laws, and we've got to dive into it. And, you know, look, people ask me all the time, why isn't Judge Boasberg being impeached? Well, I agree. He should be. I mean, we should bring it up and we should have the vote. And if some Republicans won't vote for it, then they got to go answer to their constituents. I think we need to have some votes here on judicial impeachments. I think we need to see prosecutions out of the U.S. attorney's offices, and I hope we will.

[Clay Travis]

Last question for you quickly here as we go to break. How much difference is Texas with a completely secured Southern border? And privately, do even some Democrats come up to you and say, boy, things are so much better here with a completely secured southern border?

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Yeah, I mean, I would call a lot of those folks, former Democrats, frankly, people in South Texas who Have been looking at this, going, yeah, I mean, that was ridiculous. What we were dealing with, the danger, the fentanyl, the cartels, the, the criminal activity, the fact that our hospitals and jails were all filled up. Now they see what can happen when you just simply enforce the law. But the point that I made, I literally just made it 15 minutes ago sitting in front of my Republican colleagues in our meeting. I said, remember that the president had basically secured the border in 2020. It wasn't quite as tight as it is now, but it was pretty tight. And guess what happened? He got blown to hell. In a matter of months. Under Biden and Mayorkas, we Congress, must codify the president's agenda, the president's, you know, actions that he's taken as president on the border and pass what we passed last Congress. Remember we passed HR2, that strong border security bill. We have not passed that again. We need to pass it, send it to the Senate. We need to force them to act. If we don't codify this stuff, then the next Democrat president will abuse it again. So it's great. To answer your question, Texas is in a lot better spot. But look, we still have a lot of people we still need to remove. ICE is doing a good job, but we got to go out and find the folks that have been violating our laws, the people that were wrongly paroled and granted asylum, move them, and then we need to pass laws to codify these things to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[Clay Travis]

Congressmanship Roy of the great state of Texas, the next Attorney General there. We appreciate the time, sir.

[Congressman Chip Roy]

Thanks, guys. Take care.

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Keep up.

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[Buck Sexton]

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