← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
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- [00:00]
Buck Sexton
This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.
- [00:04]
Clay Travis
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- [00:20]
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- [00:51]
Buck Sexton
As a consumer, you decide which companies succeed with your purchasing power. PureTalk wants to say 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 US jobs by choosing a proudly American company from the PureTalk family. Thank you for your trust and God bless America. A new year means new financial goals, like making sure your savings are secure and diversified. Will this be the year you finally talk to someone from Birch Gold Group? There are forces pushing the dollar lower and gold higher, which is why they believe every American should own some physical gold 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. To claim eligibility and start the process, just text my name. Buck to 98. 98 98. Take advantage of this rebate, but you got to do it by January 30th. Text my name. Buck to 98. 9898 today. You know, there's a lot that this administration is getting done and accomplishing on the global front, domestically, here at home. Let's not forget year one. Month. I'm going to guess here, Clay, I'd say by month three of the administration, maybe it was even quicker. Maybe it was month two. The border was secure.
- [02:20]
Clay Travis
The border. No one even talks about it anymore. It's not even a topic of discussion.
- [02:25]
Buck Sexton
We have been led to believe honestly for my entire adult life.
- [02:29]
Clay Travis
Like the border.
- [02:29]
Buck Sexton
You can't. It's just crazy. It's pandemonium you can't stop all these illegals. If you refuse to stop them, you can't stop them. But it turns out if you enforce the law, you can stop them. Very, very important revelation and a huge win for the Trump administration. Now, now we go into 2026 with the Venezuela operation, which is tactically, logistically, and perhaps strategically, we'll see the implications play out. One of the most impressive military operations in certainly modern American history. I mean, it goes alongside the bin Laden raid as a wow moment for the United States military and the operators and the pilots and everybody involved, intel, intel officers. So that's pretty impressive. But we also have a lot of people in this administration who are really good at handling the press in some cases, because they have as much time in the press as Clay. You and I do. Pete Hegseth and I started in media. We used to sit together at Glenn Beck's the Blaze at the real news table, and talk national security in 2012, 2011. It's been a. It's been a long time. So Pete, now Secretary of War, is pretty good at handling the media, and they need a reminder of that sometimes. Here he is dealing with cnn, talking about the oil situation with Venezuela and what's playing out today. Let's hear how Secretary Warheadseth had to deal. Had to say it. I want to emphasize that question from cnn.
- [04:03]
Clay Travis
The questions never asked, how much does it cost when they're in the Mediterranean or the Red Sea or the Indian Ocean or the Pacific, but now that they're in our hemisphere on a counter cartel mission or ensuring that indicted individual comes to justice. Now you're asking the question of cost. It's a disingenuous question to begin with. You're trying to find any angle possible to undermine the success of one of the most historic military missions the world has ever seen. The level of sophistication that Senate just.
- [04:27]
Buck Sexton
Was briefed on and the House was.
- [04:28]
Clay Travis
Briefed on a classified level is something only the United States of America can accomplish. The world is taking notice of that. Certainly Venezuela is taking notice of that. And it continues because two oil tankers, two overnight, were seized by the United States of America.
- [04:44]
Buck Sexton
Clay, Secretary War Hegset is spiking the football in the other team's end zone, running up into the stands and high fiving the home fans.
- [04:54]
Clay Travis
Well, look, you know, I hate to brag or draw attention. It's just not my thing. There's other people that are, you know.
- [05:01]
Buck Sexton
You are a paragon of humility.
- [05:03]
Clay Travis
That is true. Maybe the humblest person on the planet. What Pete Hegseth is demonstrating here is something that I think you and I hopefully are able to demonstrate quite frequently is most media that are trying to drive narratives are not actually that smart. And so what he's doing is he's rebutting the premise of their question because he already recognizes what the intent of the question is designed to create, and he's getting ahead of where they are able to analyze it. And I think this is. We have talked about this so much, and I like to think that Twitter is helping to change. Twitter X is helping to change that. The power of the legacy media is in deciding to cover the stories that they choose to cover. All of you out there that are listening to us, all of you that are out there that are watching us right now, you are as a group, far better informed than the average person is on the left. That doesn't mean necessarily that you're. That. That what it really gets to is if you are in the echo chamber of the left, you are typically not in any way engaging in the arguments made by the right, whereas because of the cultural power of the left, even if you disagree with the arguments of the left, you're aware of the arguments that they're making and what Pete has done. And I would argue Marco Rubio, JD Vance, the top trio that Donald Trump put at the top of his administration is they're all smarter than the media that are covering them. And that's why we always see, I mean, frankly, when you see, like, Margaret.
- [06:43]
Buck Sexton
Brennan, better at doing media, by the.
- [06:45]
Clay Travis
Way, better at communicating, better at communicating than the media people. So when you see Margaret Brennan, who we played earlier this week, try to go after Marco Rubio, it's like a. It's like a kid trying to argue with an adult. There's just a different level of sophistication and knowledge from Rubio. And what you saw with that clip of Hegseth is he is, I mean, as a guy who's been in media for a long time, aware of what the intent of that question is, and he's blowing it up on its face. And this is why I, I think a lot of the criticisms that came to bear people came after Trump early in 2.0, and they said, oh, he's got Pete Hegseth. He's just a TV guy. He's got Judge Jeanine. She's just a TV gal. And they tried to make that as an attack. Actually communicating is, I would argue, the primary job of most of the people that are at the top of these businesses. So if you can't explain why you're doing what you're doing, you're not very useful. And Trump gets that.
- [07:46]
Buck Sexton
You know who else they said is just a TV guy? President Trump, who, no matter what one thinks of him, will go down as one of the most consequential political leaders in world history of the 21st century. That is already where we are, the Trump era of American politics. I don't even think people are going to remember what Biden. Biden is going to soon be one of these presidencies, Clay. You know, it's going to be like people who are trying to think back, like, what was the, what was the Pierce administration like? You know, or what was, you know, people are going to say, was that guy really president or was he vice president? No one's even going to remember.
- [08:22]
Clay Travis
I mean, it's Jimmy Carter, right? Jimmy Carter, unlike. But he was young enough when he was president that he had a post presidency that helped to redeem the era of his presidency.
- [08:32]
Buck Sexton
Well, I think he's remembered for being terrible and maybe Biden will be remembered for being a terrible president as well.
- [08:38]
Clay Travis
Yeah, I think that's the. But the difference is Carter was able to redeem himself because of his post presidency. Biden's not going to have any kind of redemption. I think Biden's going to go down as the worst president any of us have ever seen. And by the way, what you got at is the job of a president and the job of, by and large of most of these cabinet secretaries is really twofold. When you distill it. What do they do? They make decisions, judgment and they communicate. That's the entirety of the, of the job. Communication. When you're on television, when you're in media, that's our job. We have to make sense of complex things and explain why they matter. Figuring out who's good at that and putting them in your administration is actually a huge part of the decision that's being made. Now, you can quibble with the judgment, but buck the judgment. There are very, I can't even hardly point to anything. Maybe I don't like Trump taking a shot at the, the reiner.
- [09:34]
Buck Sexton
Right.
- [09:35]
Clay Travis
Like, I wish he wouldn't done that after he got murdered. Right. You can go into judgment occasionally and say, hey, there's things that I think Trump bull in a china shop could do better. But I agree with 95% of the decisions that have been made by the Trump administration so far. And from a communication perspective, we have the best and Most available. Nobody takes more questions in the history of media that I can remember in the history of modern politics than the Trump 2.0 administration. So, again, I think that they are really getting ahead of the criticisms and cutting the legs out from underneath them in the process. And by the way, I think we should buy Greenland. I think we should take over Cuba. I have an expansionist view of what American power should look like. That doesn't mean that I want our soldiers on the ground in those countries, things like that, but we should be, I think, setting the table for generations to come in a better fashion than we otherwise would be.
- [10:34]
Buck Sexton
So on that. On that front, Clay Trump put out the following. I implied this is on truth social media. I am pleased to announce that the interim authorities in Venezuela will be turning over between 30 and 50 million barrels of high quality, sanctioned oil to the United States of America. This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me as President of the United States to ensure it's used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States. I've asked Energy Secretary Chris Wright to execute this plan immediately. It will be taken by storage ships and brought directly to unloading docks in the United States. Thank you for your attention in this matter. And that's. That's from the President himself. This is the plan, and I think this plan is likely to be very successful. What is. What is a better situation, a Venezuela with the United States keeping pressure on for it to. What do we want in Venezuela? We want it not to be a hellhole. We want it not to be a communist launch pad in our hemisphere. We want the people of Venezuela to have enough food to eat, not to be at the whim of prison gangs that are allied with the communist thug government. And we want the oil to flow, and we want them to honor contracts and honor, you know, the market of. We give them money, they give us oil. That's all we want.
- [12:02]
Clay Travis
Yes.
- [12:04]
Buck Sexton
We're not sending 82nd Airborne to walk the streets of Caracas.
- [12:07]
Clay Travis
We.
- [12:07]
Buck Sexton
We're not trying to make them all male feminists or whatever. You know, we get it right. The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan, I think, are very much in this administration's mind and in the minds of all of you listening. And I think that Clay, understanding the leverage point here means that there's a good. That's gonna be ugly for a while. There's gonna be some reprisals that happen on the streets. We're already seeing some of that. It's not gonna be perfect, but what's the alternative. How much worse could it be, everybody, than what Venezuela has been for the last 20 years?
- [12:39]
Clay Travis
I think also this is important because we do get some response and I welcome it. By the way. 800-282-2882. You can get us with talkbacks as well. People say, well, how is this different than Iraq? The answer is, and we've tried to hammer this home, but I think it's important. Venezuela used to be one of the wealthiest countries in the world on a per capita basis, certainly in the Western hemisphere. There is no, you've talked about this quite a lot, Buck, because you were in Iraq. There is no Sunni, Shia divide. There's no religious fundamentalism that is embedded, ingrained in the aspect of Venezuelan life. All we're seeking here is for Venezuela to look somewhat like it did in 1995 and for the people to be able to flourish in a capitalistic market based economy, much like we have here.
- [13:24]
Buck Sexton
Here's what we want. We want the Venezuelans who are in, you know, whatever's left of the, of the bureaucracy. And let me, oh, this guy Diaz, Dalo Cabello, he's a scumbag. He's probably going to go to, you know, we'll see, right? I mean, Trump, they're all, all on notice. They've all, it's been made very clear. You can either do things that the United States wants you to do or we're going to show up in the middle of the night, we're going to have the best operators in the world show up in the middle of night, put a bag over your head and you're going to end up in a US Federal prison. Ok, that's it. This is, this is the world they live in now, the people that are still left behind. To the Margaret Brennan question, why didn't you take all of them? I don't know. Because we don't live in a fantasy land where you can do five of the most amazing operations at once. So, Clay, I think that the administration's very sober minded about this. I think they understand that there are challenges here. You know, people are saying, oh, but what about these insurgents and what about the border with Columbia? Yeah, we're not pretending that we're fixing this thing tomorrow. We're not pretending that they're greeting us with flowers. And this is a Jeffersonian democracy. Everything's great. But there is, to your point, a tremendous natural resource here that can provide a whole heck of a lot of infrastructure and benefits to the people of Venezuela as well as to the Global oil supply and in our hemisphere specifically. And we can do all these things because they used to do all these things, right? Venezuela was in a very good place and it was ruined by the commies.
- [14:53]
Clay Travis
Really what we need as we go to break here is, and this is why I think it's such a bigger part of the conversation. Western civilization makes everything better. And we have to stop apologizing for Western civilization. And I think it is connected to so much of the criticism that we have allowed to embed in so much of the left in this country. I mean, I. It is just Western civilization is a profoundly good thing and we should encourage it to flourish everywhere. What does that mean? Open markets? It means a robust and uninhibited marketplace of ideas that is First Amendment protections. You can say whatever you want to say. These are the things that lead to a better quality of life for everyone across the entire world. And we have to stop apologizing for supporting that everywhere. And we want you to be able to get in touch with everybody. You know, I was talking about during the Christmas break rapid Radios. How many of you were traveling on the road, how many of you were with friends and family? How many of you had kids running around the houses, grandkids, all the chaos out there. How many times did you just want to open the door and say go outside, go entertain yourselves, come back for time for dinner. You're driving everybody crazy here. But you want to be able to stay in touch with people. That's what rapid radio is all about. Modern day walkie talkies. I remember when I was a kid how much I loved walkie talkies. We had GI Joe walkie talkies. They didn't work very well, they didn't work very far. But we thought they were so awesome we ran around and played with them. I've got kids, my 11 year old, he loves his rapid radio walkie talkie. And it's not just kids, right? You can use this in the time of catastrophe. If you're going to end up losing your ability to rely on your WI FI networks. If you want something that's going to withstand if the power's down, five day charge for these things, they're awesome. You can get them for 60% off right now. And@rapidradios.com all you have to do, go check them out. They're ready right out of the box. No cost to keep them running. Just go to rapid radios.com exclusive deals. You're going to love rapid radios.com ready right out of the walkie talkie 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. Have you ever turned a dollar into ten grand? I doubt it, but now you can. On Better Picks Download the Better App.
- [17:27]
Buck Sexton
Pick more or less on your favorite.
- [17:28]
Clay Travis
Player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple.
- [17:32]
Buck Sexton
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- [17:34]
Clay Travis
Texas, California and Georgia. Download the Better App today. That's better.
- [17:38]
Buck Sexton
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- [17:40]
Clay Travis
No deposit necessary. Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates in terms of commission conditions. Play Better Picks Sports just got better.
- [17:51]
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- [18:23]
Clay Travis
Travis Buck Sexton show okay, let me update you on a couple of different stories that are currently underway. Everyone right now is leading with the story of an ICE involved shooting in Minneapolis. So this will not shock you, but in the wake of the fraud revelations surrounding Somali daycares, there has been an expanded ICE presence brought to bear in Minneapolis. People on the left have been protesting those ICE officers. And according to Trisha McLaughlin who just posted this at trishaohio on X today, ICE officers in Minneapolis were conducting targeted operations when rioters and began blocking ICE officers. One of these violent rioters weaponized her vehicle, attempting to run over our law enforcement officers in an attempt to kill them, an act of domestic terrorism. I am reading from Trisha's post. An ICE officer, fearing for his lives, the lives of his fellow law enforcement and the safety of the public, fired defensive shots. He used his training and saved his own life and that of his fellow officers. The alleged perpetrator was hit and is deceased. The ICE officers who were hurt are expected to make full recoveries. Then she continues, this is the direct consequence of constant attacks and demonization of our officers by sanctuary politicians who fuel and encourage rampant assaults on our law enforcement. These men and women who are simply enforcing the law are facing 13% increases in assaults against them, 8,000% increase in death threats. This is an evolving situation. We'll give more info as it becomes available.
- [20:19]
Buck Sexton
I think this is really important, Clay, especially right after they tried to make such a. Another big deal. Every year we have to all, you know, rend the garment snatching of teeth and everything over January 6th. And as we know, they mobilized the FBI in a way I've never seen before. Really for almost anything, maybe even more so than what we saw after 911 mobilized the FBI to go after people, including entirely nonviolent, some cases, accidental trespassing. OK, that's really what it boils down to, that Norm MacDonald thing about the terrorists respecting the velvet ropes in statuary hall.
- [20:59]
Okta Advertiser
You know, the.
- [20:59]
Buck Sexton
The ruthless terrorists. You know what I'm talking about, right? That tweet that. That really. That really sticks out for a lot of people. Yeah, it's an insurrection where people are taking selfies and walking around. Okay. The same federal law, the same origin of authority that we got all these just sanctimonious lectures about when it came to January 6th. How dare they? They struck the officers. They were standing in the way of these officers doing all these things. Anything done. And by the way, I disagreed with the violence against cops then. I disagree with the violence against cops now. Can't do that. But the very same federal law that they pretend to care about when it came to January 6th and officers who were in a scuffle is the same federal law that these ICE officers, no one disagrees that. They're enforcing the law. This is what has to be said over and over again. They are not in violation of federal law. They are enforcing federal law. And the Democrats play this very underhanded, really insidious game of acting like there's something wrong with law enforcement officers enforcing the law, which is exactly what ICE is doing. Which just goes to show you, the Democrat Party does not care about the law. It cares about power. It cares about what it wants and how to get it. There is no principle at work here because, Clay, they are demonizing ICE in a way we have not seen when it comes to law enforcement since BLM 2.0. And the lies about racist cops, racist cops, black cops, white cops, all the cops, they're shooting unarmed black men all the time. Actually, they're doing it almost never. And body cams have shown us what cops really have to deal with day in and day out. And overwhelmingly, they should be given high fives, medals, and gratitude all across the country. So I just think it's really important to see that, that disparity, that dysfunctional approach. January 6th. These are law enforcement officers. We care so much. And then these are ICE officers. Democrats aren't standing up for them. Democrats aren't upset about this. Why, Clay? Same federal law, same authority.
- [23:17]
Clay Travis
I am looking right now, but. Because you knew it was going to happen. I agree with all that you just said. You knew that it inevitably was going to be the case that the video of the shooting would shortly make its way onto social media because this is an ICE protest. There are tons of people out there. What I can see right now as I look at this video is a woman gets. I, you can't tell who's driving. So it evidently is a woman who was shot. Someone gets in their car and drives at a very high rate of speed, from not driving at all to starting so accelerating at a high rate of speed. And the video that I'm seeing right now, it doesn't have completely the, the shooting on it. You can hear it. But I would suspect that as this starts to circulate more that the story will vanish on the left because the woman reverses and then starts to drive in a really high rate of speed. Again, it's a little bit off the, off the screen where the shooting has happened from the video that I'm seeing right now. But I think it's going to be hard to argue that this wasn't someone engaging in a potentially violent and dangerous act. So my reason for bringing that up is what always happens when authority for use of force is justified. Story just vanishes. Nobody, nobody ever says, you know, on CNN or msnbc, oh actually, boy, this was a really dangerous situation. I'm glad that the police officers ended up fine. They just pretend the story didn't exist. And I think what you're hitting on is something that's really important. First of all, Minnesota's lost its way. I mean, in the wake of George Floyd, all of the ridiculousness that's going on in Minnesota, maybe I should have said Minnesota is the, is the state that we should give away instead of New Mexico yesterday. Buck, the mayor of Minneapolis, this crazy lunatic Jacob Fry is already saying this is caused because of ice. ICE is responsible for this. They have to be forced out of the state of Minnesota. I mean these people, their brains are broken. And even with Tim Walls stepping down, is it a surprise to anyone that again, these lunatic leftists, they take the, the lesson that they're being given here quite clearly from their, from their hair brained leaders and then they engage in Violent acts. I don't know how many times we have to see it for somebody to just clearly be responding to the impetus that's being put out there, the directive that's being put out there from these Minnesota politicians.
- [26:01]
Buck Sexton
We have a huge law enforcement community that's with us here, listening and being a part of this show every day all across the country. And they all know that these Democrats who grandstand about the Capitol Police and it was amazing. They stood, you know, it was the guy who was crying. He was like, you stood your ground, man. You know, the whole thing. These Democrats don't care about law enforcement day to day in America. They don't care about law enforcement officers. Like I said, they care about power. Because, Clay, if Democrats cared about actual law enforcement, they wouldn't try to make it easier for ICE officers to be doxxed as part of their duty so that they and their families could be threatened with, you know, murder and rape and horrible things. But Democrats say, well, they can't. They can't cover their identities when they do these missions. Why? There's. There's no. Unless they're doing something wrong. And they're all on. No one's saying they can't be observed doing what they're doing. They're just saying their identities do not have to be shared publicly as they're doing it. Why, why do Democrats oppose that? Because they want maniacs to bring pressure on ICE and to threaten to kill their family members. They want that to happen because they politically oppose the enforcement of federal immigration law. The Biden administration showed everybody exactly what the game is. Wide open borders, Third World, those third worlders come in by the tens of millions, get access to benefits, and anybody who says a word about it is treated like they're some form of Nazi or something. Well, people have had enough of that. And that's actually a violation of our laws. And now that the laws are being enforced, Democrats are showing, once again, they are completely dishonest on this. They're liars on this issue. They lie about it constantly. They want more illegals. They're upset the border is secure. And they think that somebody who arrived here five minutes ago from Somalia, illegally, legally, doesn't matter, as long as they came from some country, that's going to mean that they're likely to be on welfare and vote Democrat in the future. They think that person is as American as any of us. Anybody here, anyone, for no matter how many generations. That is their view. That is their view.
- [28:11]
Clay Travis
You know what's also super interesting about this is. And again, it's amazing how certain stories don't get the attention they should. We talked about this earlier this week when we came back, but I've been spending a lot of time looking at murder rates all over the country. What Trump is doing is overwhelmingly working. And a lot of these blue cities and blue states are some of the primary beneficiaries, because the fact that the murder rate's going to go down, it's going to go down in cities because that's where the vast majority of murders take place. And so Trump actually talked about this, and we'll get into it maybe a little bit later in the program, but Trump pointed out, as you've been saying, we've been saying on this program, it's a tiny percentage of people that are engaging in violent acts. And if you arrest those people and put them in prison, then the overall crime rate collapses. We mentioned this as we went to break and we said we would talk about it a bit more. President Trump addressing affordability of homeownership. BlackRock stock buck immediately dropped 10% after the president's post about stopping large corporate interests from being able to buy up a lot of different homes out there. This is going to be an interesting angle because I think a lot of young people, if you have kids and you have grandkids, if you have kids that are in their 20s, in their early 30s, a lot of people have just decided that homeownership because of the rapid acceleration of home prices is something that they can't aspire to anymore. And one thing that the administration has pointed out is, well, a lot of illegal immigrants leaving would theoretically drive down rent cost and would theoretically make homes more affordable, that's not a crazy perspective at all. But if you are truly seeing prices on homes accelerating because of corporatized ownership of homes, in other words, individuals are trying to compete with big companies like BlackRock. I don't know exactly what the impact of that would be because I think it's hard to analyze whether they're going to pass a law, what's the overall downstream impact going to be. But if the stock price is immediately dropping 10%, that is suggesting to me that there may be some, some possibility of that large corporate ownership of homes being curtailed going forward. And maybe it means that things are going to get more affordable. Now, the number one reason things can change to make things more affordable is mortgage rates could come back down.
- [30:40]
Buck Sexton
Right?
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Clay Travis
If we get mortgage rates back down to three and a half, 4% from five and a half and 6%. That would make a big difference because it would free up a lot of this. By the way, a lot of videos out there now popping of this shooting. We'll continue to watch this and we'll update you again. Minneapolis Ice shooting. We gave you all those details but a lot of videos now making their way online this year.
- [31:04]
Buck Sexton
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- [32:57]
Clay Travis
You don't know what you don't know, right? But you could on the Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck podcast.
- [33:04]
Buck Sexton
All right everybody, third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off right now and we are handling this. Breaking news from the last hour still of a ICE involved Immigrations and Customs Enforcement involved fatal shooting in Minneapolis. There is video of the incident. It is being broadly shared online. The situation is there were ICE operations underway. You have a snowy street scene in Minneapolis and a car, an SUV with officers partially surrounding it accelerates rapidly and swerves and there's an officer in front of the vehicle. He draws his service weapon or had his service weapon drawn perhaps, I can't really see in the video, but fires a few shots and the woman driving the vehicle has been killed. Now, we know there have been a lot of very aggressive and actually illegal. Right. You can't throw things at ICE officers. You can't attack ICE officers physically. That's a, that's a assault on federal law enforcement, which Democrats care about only once, it seems, which is in January. 6. They don't care about assaults on federal law enforcement any other time. And in fact they are encouraging, encouraging the defamation of ICE officers day in and day out from the largest left wing media outlets in the country. And then they act like. Clay, we're supposed to be surprised when terrible things happen because Democrats have convinced their lunatic base that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement is like the Gestapo or the Stasi of East Germany or whatever, some, some evil secret police force. What they are doing is entirely lawful. It is, it is law that was passed by the United States Congress. Democrats, by the way, I might add, do not have any alternative for this law, which is that you are in the country illegally, you are subject to deportation. There is nothing else that they have offered up in response to this other than the continued violation of the law, the continued state of eroding sovereignty that the Biden White House and previous administrations in general put us in. So Clay, I think it's worth everyone hearing. First off, the response we have DHS Secretary Noem. ICE falls under dhs. She spoke on this one. Let's let everyone hear what the cabinet secretary who oversees this law enforcement operation and agency has said about it. Play Christi Noem.
- [35:49]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
You asked about a shooting that we just had in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was an act of domestic terrorism. What happened was our ICE officers were out in enforcement action. They got stuck in the snow because of the adverse weather that is in Minneapolis. They were attempting to push out their vehicle and a woman attacked them and those surrounding them and attempted to run them over and ram them with her vehicle. An officer of ours actually quickly and defensively shot to protect himself and the people around him and my understanding is that she was hit and is deceased. We're continuing to gather more information. But this goes to show the assaults that our ICE officers and our law enforcement are under every single day. These vehicle rammings are domestic acts of terrorism. We're working with the Department of Justice to prosecute them. As such, we will continue to protect our ICE officers and in court cooperation with other law enforcement agencies as well.
- [36:46]
Buck Sexton
Now Clay, just on the other side of this real quick, just, just so we can get the what's being said. Here's Mayor. Let's have you react to this. Here's Mayor Frey. Cut 34.
- [36:54]
Clay Travis
They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. They're ripping families apart. They're sowing chaos on our street streets and in this case quite literally killing people. So they are already trying to spin this as an action of self defense. Having seen the video of myself, I want to tell everybody directly that is bull. This was an agent recklessly using power that resulted in somebody dying, getting killed. What do you make of that? Then he went on to say get the F out of the city. I am continuing to watch videos and this newest video that I am seeing, it was just shared by Tim Pool and it looks like it may be a video that is being shot from a home in the community. You can see and I'm trying to slow it down. I'm going to share it with you as well, Buck. You can see this guy being the car, making contact with him. And I am going to to share this and I'll put it up on social media because I understand all of you were describing what is taking place. It's sometimes difficult for people to make determinations. This video looks like the woman is clearly making contact with him in the vehicle. But here, look, this is. Let me just tell you what is going on.
- [38:29]
Buck Sexton
Oh, you're talking about that additional angle. You can see the officers clearly hit. The officer's hit by the car.
- [38:35]
Clay Travis
Yes. And. And I'm going to share this out. I just sent it to, to our team. We can share it from the Clay and Puck account as well. Jacob Frey is clearly looking for his George Floyd moment 2.0. He wants to find a left wing rallying point that in increases his political standing. That helps to distract from the fact that we've got billions potentially of dollars in Somalia fraud. That distracts from the fact that all of the Democrat leadership has allowed this to happen. And sat around and watched it. And he wants to make himself the chief antagonist for President Trump in the country. And this is just so nakedly politically motivated, in my opinion. And again, this is what Democrats have done and have been doing for a large part of Trump 2.0 and also during Biden. They encourage violent behavior, right? I mean, think about what the situation in play is here. Why is this woman in her car trying to oppose ICE from doing their job? Because she thinks that she is being a hero. Because, because Democrats have told her that ICE is acting in an illegitimate fashion and she believes that she is a hero by showing up and trying to create opposition. This is very strange behavior, right? I mean that they have encouraged. We've seen people throwing bricks at, at ICE agents, shooting at ICE agents. We have seen this behavior encouraged again and again. And when he says get the F out and when he says this is BS of self defense, which this new video that I'm about to tweet out to me quite clearly makes it clear that he has a self defense claim. I mean, if you get hit by a car then and you decide to fire, I mean, who is it among us that's going to say this guy was not in danger? Um, but he says it's bs. I talked to you off air, Buck. I think he's going to try to charge this guy. They're going to try to bring state, local charges. Now that'll get complicated because you've been doing research on. Because he's a federal agent. And how does that imply some degree of immunity?
- [40:58]
Buck Sexton
It could get moved to federal court. I mean it would be. I don't disagree with you. The political calculation may well be bring the charge. Even if you end up losing in.
- [41:05]
Clay Travis
The end, that's his because that's what he's going to do.
- [41:08]
Buck Sexton
Because, because they, they need. Meaning the Democrats, the left, they need something, they need emotion, they need a narrative here. The Democrats are worthless and useless right now on the national scene. Everybody knows it. The country is not with them on immigration. So this is, We've said this all along. They're going to try to emotionalize this. It's going to be, oh, they're grabbing these, you know, abuelas out of their homes and they're just grandmas and all this stuff. We knew they were going to do this all along. But this gives an incident that they're going to try to make into a bigger issue. Let me just say, Clay, if there wasn't video of this, we, I mean you would perhaps see riots in downtown Minneapolis, you might still hopefully not, but the video is pretty clear. So you'd have to be somebody who does not understand the basics of the law and self defense to think that this is a situation where an ICE officer, you are under no obligation as a federal or any law enforcement officer for that matter, or any person to have somebody else run you over and crush you in their suv. You are under no obligation no matter how much they scream about it's Gestapo, it's Gestapo. No, you don't have to get crushed and killed because somebody thinks that they've watched too much miss now. And that the, and that immigration officers are actually the Nazis. You're under no obligation no matter how many times they say otherwise. So I think that this, this, this could grow very rapidly here into battling narratives. Fortunately, there is video, but it also just reminds everybody the Democrat Party does not believe in the rule of law. They do not believe that immigration law should be enforced because if the law is not something that is enforced, it doesn't exist, it doesn't count. And we've dealt with far too, for far too long this country's had millions of people who are here illegally and the Democrats have told them it's fine, don't worry, eventually we'll reward you for breaking the law. Not on Trump's watch.
- [43:06]
Clay Travis
Look, I just shared the video and I mean I don't know that we've ever, we played you the cuts because I think it's important for you to hear. There now is more and more confrontation growing in Minneapolis live on Fox News. There are mobs growing surrounding this area of where the shooting happened. What Jacob Fry did was the mayor of Minneapolis when he said get the F out and when he called his self defense claim BS and he used cursing, we can't because we have FCC restrictions. He's clearly trying to, to incentivize further violent acts which benefits him politically and is destructive to the overall city of Minneapolis. Look, I mean, look, we haven't talked about it a great deal, but Minneapolis, the number of murders that occurred in Minneapolis skyrocketed. They can't get police hired there because the police officers know that the politicians don't have their back and they all know that if they have to make a life or death, life or death decision that they are going to turn their back on them and charge them with a crime. And I, I'm just predicting exactly where this is going to go. Prosecutors locally under state law are going to charge this ICE agent with a crime. I'm just telling you it's going to happen. Buck has already been looking up the federal defenses, but I'm telling you, politically, it's advantageous even if these charges get tossed. The mayor of Minneapolis says, I stood up to Trump. I stood up to ice. They are evil. Uh, they don't belong in this community. I'm telling you exactly what's coming. This is going to be. They're gonna charge this guy, and it's going to turn into a huge legal dispute, and it's not going to matter that. I think based on the evidence here, it's clearly. And by the way, and I would say this for everybody, when you are a political leader in a community, you are prejudicing any defendant when you say that their legal claim is BS because the jurors all hear this. So you are destroying the right of an individual to get a fair trial.
- [45:24]
Buck Sexton
But what you'll have is some, you know, communist Democrat cat lady judge who, if this does go before her, will refuse to allow for a change of venue. I'm sure they'll fight. Inherently, there is a right for a federal officer in the course of his duties to request a transfer to federal court from a state or local court. I'm sure that they will fight that as well, because unfortunately, Minnesota has been turned into a blue enclave of madness. So we shall see how this, how this plays out. But she, the person clearly is told, look, this really isn't that hard. A lot of it's been pulled over, and we understand that it can be stressful and whatever. She was surrounded by cops and hit the accelerator with a cop in front of her car, and the car runs into the cop. Now you can say, oh, well, maybe he could have dove out of the way or something. Yeah. And then maybe she could have, you know, swerved left and run him over and broken his spine. I mean, what is our expectation of law enforcement in this situation? Somebody can use their car as a weapon against you.
- [46:27]
Clay Travis
How about don't be there? I mean, this is what you should be saying. If you are a rational, reasonable political leader in America today, you should be saying, if you see an ICE enforcement act, don't drive your car there and try to stop it from happening. I mean, in the same way that you wouldn't show up if you saw a police action in your neighborhood, you wouldn't drive your car there and try to impinge or infringe upon the ability of the officers to do their job. And I think, unfortunately, you're going to have to see. I hate this, Buck. But I think we may have to see National Guard called in because this crowd is continuing to grow. We've already seen the precedent of what happens in Minneapolis when they allow this stuff to happen. Maybe a benefit, sadly, is that it's so cold right now that unlike when this happened in May, maybe people won't want to go outside, maybe they won't show up and protest at the same levels. But but that's my concern is that this is going to grow and be antagonized and accelerated by the behavior of this this mayor. Much less serious. Look, you can play Prize picks all 50 states right now. Pricepicks.com code clay. You get $5 when you play $5, you get $50 deposited in your account. I like all these guys to throw more touchdown passes this weekend in the wild card Caleb Williams, Josh Allen, Trevor Lawrence, Aaron Rodgers, C.J. stroud, Brock Purdy all more on their touchdown passes. If I'm right, it pays out at seven and a half to one, all 50 states. Pricepix.com code clay play along if you love the NFL, if you love college football, they make football more fun. Prizepix.com go sign up, download the app, put my name Clay in and you get $50. That's pricepix.com code clay. You know them as conservative radio hosts. Now just get to know them as guys on the Sunday Hang podcast with Clay and Buck. Find it in their podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever turned $1 into $10,000? I doubt it, but now you can on Better Picks. Download the Better app, pick more or less on player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Better Picks is available in 33 states, including Texas, California and Georgia. Download the Better App today. That's better B E T R and get a free $10. No deposit necessary. Must be 21 or older. In a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates, terms and conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got Better these.
- [48:59]
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- [49:30]
Buck Sexton
And Buck, we have Senator Marsha Blackburn with us now. Senator Blackburn, so much to talk to you about. Thanks for making the time for us. Wanted you to please just first weigh in. I'm sure you're tracking closely events in Minneapolis. We've already got Secretary Noem weighing in on this one publicly. The mayor of Minneapolis, the governor of Minnesota taking a very in opposition view of these events to what Secretary Noem said. What do you make of what's going on?
- [49:59]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
And what we know so far is that the officers were going through what was a targeted operation and of course rioters came onto the scene, were trying to block the ICE officers and one of the rioters decided to weaponize her vehicle and attempted to actually run over the officers in an attempt to kill them. This is an act of domestic terrorism. And so the officer who felt his life and those of you, his fellow law enforcement officers was in jeopardy, fired some defensive shots and the individual is that perpetrator was hit and that they are deceased. And that really is what we know at this, at this point. But like you, we have seen that the mayor is, is really quite upset and everyone mourns the loss of life. And we also are quite concerned about our federal law enforcement officers. The attacks on law enforcement officers are up over 1,300%. The death threats that are coming to our federal law enforcement officers are up 8,000%. So everyone is quite concerned about the safety of our men and women in uniform and want to make certain that their lives are protected as they are carrying out and executing the rule of law.
- [51:52]
Clay Travis
You've seen and thanks for coming on with us. Senator. We just had a race in the 7th congressional district, state of Tennessee here, where Afton Bain, who was the nominee, had posted videos of herself chasing ICE agents and trying to harass them as they were doing their job in Nashville. This has become an orthodoxy of the left in this country. This idea that you have an obligation and or you should be encouraged to show up and try to keep ICE agents from doing their job. Isn't this a natural outgrowth of this? Because why in the world was this woman there? Why was she in any way trying to interfere with an ICE raid that was going on in Minneapolis? Democrats have incentivized their crazy base to engage in behavior like this, which makes everybody in a more dangerous situation. And it ultimately, I think, led directly to this shooting today.
- [52:46]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Well, and think about it like this. If these big blue cities and big blue states where you have these sanctuary cities, if they would cooperate with our federal law enforcement and with ICE and allow them to apprehend these individuals in jails when they are in custody, then you would remove that type danger. But instead of cooperating and saying, we will help you apprehend criminals and people that may be a danger to the community, people that have broken the law, people that are committing fraud against the United States of America, people that are committing fraud against the US Taxpayer. That is what they should be doing. But they are trying to circumvent the rule of law. And since they are doing that, it creates an unsafe situation in the public space.
- [53:47]
Buck Sexton
We're speaking to Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. What about the. I should say it's early here, but Clay, his first reaction was, oh, they may try to prosecute him. Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota, saying that there will be accountability jumping in on this as though we need to hear from him on the matter. How do you think the administration would respond to that? If a federal officer is considered to have acted entirely lawfully within the scope of his duties enforcing immigration law, but the state of Minnesota perhaps would bring charges regardless.
- [54:25]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
And my expectation is that DHS and the administration would fully support the officer who was abiding by the law and enforcing the rule of law.
- [54:37]
Clay Travis
I think that's right. Now the problem is politically. I think the mayor of Minneapolis and the governor of Minnesota both may decide, even if they're on the wrong side of the law, that they benefit politically and that they're going to try to bring charges under state issues relating to this and argue that he was not engaging in his behavior within the scope of the law. That's my lawyer take on this. And also analyzing the politics of it. Let's go. I know this is a crazy news story and we've been following this, but there are a lot of other things that are going on. What is your reaction to what we've seen with Venezuela? Also all of the discussions surrounding Greenland and beyond as we have started off 2026.
- [55:23]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yes. And when it comes to Venezuela and talking to Tennesseans, I've got to tell you, so many people are, thank goodness they apprehended Maduro and his wife. Thank goodness they are going after these drug kingpins. And Maduro is basically the head of the cartel. And they have put a lot of energy into how they were structuring these drug trafficking rings and of course benefiting financially from these rings. And these are people that had indictments that had been placed against them. It is appropriate to bring them in, to get them into court, to have them face justice. And it was a coordinated effort. We had a great classified briefing on it this morning. It was very helpful. We know that the intention of the President is to make certain that the country is stabilized. And we know that they are wanting to get on the road to recovery. They have asked the US to buy this 30 to 50 million barrels of oil that they have that they're wanting to sell on the market. The understanding is the US Will accept that and will sell it and will put it into an account to make certain that Venezuela has the money to pay for basic services that are needed there in the country. We know it's going to be important for them to transition to elections. And the sooner they can do that, I think the better. And I have found it so interesting. People with ties to Venezuela and relatives that are there, they are all thrilled that Maduro has been removed from the country when it comes to Greenland. I know that the President would like to get Greenland to the table. And, you know, one of the things to bear in mind, there is a movement in the country. It's a small country. I think it's 55,000 people that actually live there. And there is an independence movement wanting to separate themselves from Denmark. The US Already has a military presence there. It is important to note that and to note that Russia and China have been aggressive in that area. When you talk about militaries, it is strategically important, the operations that we have in Greenland, when you look at how we protect ourselves against Russia, its location between their proximity with Europe and. Yes, I would think that the President is looking to get Greenland to the table to talk about how we are able to expand our cooperation there.
- [58:28]
Buck Sexton
What do you think about Cuba, Senator Blackburn? Because there's obviously a. Go ahead.
- [58:33]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yeah, I've heard from some of our Tennesseans who are of Cuban descent and have relatives that are in Florida, of course. And it appears that there is a growing push in Cuba to push to move aside from the Castro era and to move more toward a democratic, democratic footprint. I think some of the younger Cubans there, it is what you're seeing, just like in Iran, it is the younger Iranians that are pushing for freedom, is what we are hearing. But in Cuba, yes, Cuba was largely dependent on what they were able to get from Venezuela and also from China. And of course, if China is not going to be able to take that oil from Venezuela and you have that quarantine there around Venezuela, so those ships are not going to be able to come out. There were two more that they boarded that the US Boarded today, and those shipments are not going out, then China is not going to have that as a market. Cuba is not going to be able to rely on Venezuela to prop them up economically and also with, with the financial market that they need.
- [60:09]
Clay Travis
We're talking to Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, running for governor as well. Big story that I don't think is getting enough attention. It's very positive. 12025 overall violent crime rates across the country have plummeted. The biggest drop maybe that we've ever seen on a percentage basis when it comes to murders, for instance. Memphis is a big part of that success story. What is the data telling us and showing us on Memphis as federal resources have been surged in a city that at times had the highest per capita murder rate in the country?
- [60:44]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
Yes. And today marks a day 100 of the presence in Memphis of the federal law enforcement organizations and the State Highway Patrol, NTBI and we are coming up on 5,000 arrests. Many of these are violent, repeat offenders, murderers, rapists, aggravated assault, child molestation, robbery. And They've recovered over 800 guns that were illegal, firearms that were on the, on the streets. You know, and getting these gang leaders, we're at like 600 gang leaders that were there in Memphis, getting them out of there. And these are violent gangs. Mississippi 13, Trende, Aragua and other gangs that have had a presence there in Memphis. And it just shows you when you've got a mayor, you've got a police chief. They are working with the 20 plus federal agencies that are there. They have cut the crime rate in Memphis in half. In 100 days, the crime rate is down 50. So it shows you what can be accomplished when the community and the leadership in that city come together and say we're going to get in behind this. And people are being apprehended, they are jailed. They are, their cases are being prepared. We've got Mike Donovan, the U.S. attorney there who is doing a spectacular job. The DOJ has reached, has surged some attorneys. ICE has attorneys that are there and they're helping to prep those cases so that we can get these cases into court and get them tried. And people that are found guilty, we can get them off the streets locked up.
- [62:45]
Buck Sexton
Senator Blackburn, always appreciate you. Thanks for making the time today.
- [62:48]
Senator Marsha Blackburn
You got it. Take care.
- [62:49]
Buck Sexton
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- [63:50]
Clay Travis
Keep up with the biggest political comeb in world history on the Team 47 podcast Clay and Buck highlight Trump replays from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to score when your favorite player does? Well, you can't unless you download Better Picks. Who is giving away a free $10? Download the Better app, pick more or less on player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Must be 21 or older in a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates, turns and conditions. Conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got better.
- [64:21]
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- [64:54]
Buck Sexton
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