Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jul 31 2025

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – Daily Review (July 31, 2025)

Hosted by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, this episode delves into significant political developments, economic shifts, and healthcare reforms shaping the current landscape. The discussion is enriched with expert insights, highlighting the implications of recent events and policies.

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I. Kamala Harris: Political Ambitions and Future Prospects

The episode opens with a focus on Vice President Kamala Harris, who recently announced she will not pursue the governorship in 2026. Instead, Harris is set to release her new book, "107 Days," scheduled for September 2025. Additionally, Harris is slated to be a guest on Stephen Colbert's Late Show, marking her first major media appearance since her defeat in the 2024 election.

Clay Travis initiates the discussion:

[02:30] "Kamala Harris has maintained a low profile post-defeat, but her upcoming book and media appearance signal she might still have political ambitions."

Buck Sexton counters with skepticism about Harris's future in politics:

[03:19] "I believe Kamala Harris is transitioning out of active politics, possibly moving into a ceremonial role at a university or think tank."

The debate intensifies as Travis argues that Harris might still seek higher office, driven by personal fulfillment and political strategy, while Sexton remains doubtful, citing her perceived lack of political success and personal life constraints.

II. New York City Mayoral Race: "Mom. Donnie" and the Defund Police Debate

The conversation shifts to the New York City mayoral race, where the Democratic nominee, referred to as "Mom. Donnie," faces scrutiny over his stance on defunding the police. The candidates’ positions on public safety and law enforcement funding are pivotal issues that could influence the broader Democratic strategy nationwide.

Travis expresses concerns about the nominee's policies:

[22:42] "Mamdani's approach to public safety, especially his stance on defunding the police, raises serious questions about the future of law enforcement in NYC."

Sexton emphasizes the potential national ramifications:

[23:51] "The outcome of this race will serve as a benchmark for the Democratic Party's direction on policing and public safety reforms."

They explore how these policies may resonate with voters and the possible challenges "Mom. Donnie" might face in balancing progressive reforms with effective law enforcement.

III. BRICS Summit and Its Implications for the US Economy

The hosts discuss the recent BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit in Rio, highlighting its significance in the global financial order. The addition of five new members to BRICS signals a strategic move to diminish the United States' economic dominance, particularly concerning the US Dollar's role in international trade.

Travis captures the urgency of the situation:

[19:58] "BRICS nations are actively working to reduce their reliance on the US Dollar, which could have profound impacts on America's economic standing."

Sexton warns of the long-term consequences:

[20:33] "The shift away from the Dollar doesn't happen overnight, but it's already underway, indicating a need for strategic economic responses from the US."

The discussion underscores the potential for a weakened Dollar and the necessity for the US to adapt to these emerging global economic dynamics.

IV. Healthcare Reforms and Medicaid under the Trump Administration

A significant segment features Dr. Oz, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, discussing the administration's healthcare reforms. Central to the conversation is the implementation of work requirements for Medicaid recipients, aimed at reducing dependency and encouraging community participation.

Dr. Oz defends the "big beautiful bill":

[39:58] "This bill introduces work requirements for Medicaid, promoting autonomy and encouraging beneficiaries to engage with the workforce, thereby reducing long-term dependence on government assistance."

Travis raises concerns about the effectiveness and ethics of such measures:

[41:47] "While the intent is to foster independence, there's apprehension about the potential exclusion of vulnerable populations and the overall impact on public health."

Additionally, Dr. Oz addresses the administration's efforts to curb prescription drug prices through the Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing strategy, aiming to make medications more affordable by aligning US prices with global standards.

Dr. Oz elaborates on MFN pricing:

[42:35] "We're committed to ensuring that Americans aren't paying three times the price for medications compared to other countries, which is both unfair and unsustainable."

The segment highlights the administration's dual focus on reducing healthcare costs and enhancing the efficiency of medical services through technological advancements.

V. Federal Trade Commission's Role in Combating Fraud and Regulating Mergers

The show features an interview with Melissa Saholio, Commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She outlines the FTC's initiatives to protect consumers from increasingly sophisticated fraudulent schemes and scrutinize corporate mergers to prevent monopolistic practices.

Saholio emphasizes the rise in sophisticated frauds:

[52:00] "We're witnessing a 25% increase in fraud, now surpassing $12 billion, with scammers using advanced technologies like voice cloning to deceive consumers."

Travis probes into the FTC's enforcement mechanisms:

[53:16] "How does the FTC act upon identifying these frauds, and what collaboration exists with other agencies like the DOJ?"

Saholio explains the process:

[54:32] "We issue civil investigative demands and collaborate with criminal partners when necessary, enabling swift action to freeze assets and prevent further victimization."

Regarding corporate mergers, Saholio highlights the FTC's balanced approach:

[55:10] "While 98% of mergers present no significant issues and can benefit consumers, we meticulously analyze the remaining 2% to ensure competitive fairness and prevent monopolistic dominance."

The discussion underscores the FTC's proactive stance in safeguarding consumer interests amidst evolving technological and economic landscapes.

VI. Conclusion

The episode concludes with reflections on the discussed topics, emphasizing the interconnectedness of political strategies, economic policies, and regulatory actions in shaping the nation's future. Travis and Sexton encourage listeners to stay informed and engaged with ongoing developments to navigate the complexities of modern governance and societal challenges.

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Notable Quotes:

• Buck Sexton on Kamala Harris's political future:
  "[03:19] 'I believe Kamala Harris is transitioning out of active politics, possibly moving into a ceremonial role at a university or think tank.'

• Melissa Saholio on FTC's focus:
  "[52:00] 'We're witnessing a 25% increase in fraud, now surpassing $12 billion, with scammers using advanced technologies like voice cloning to deceive consumers.'

• Dr. Oz on MFN pricing:
  "[42:35] 'We're committed to ensuring that Americans aren't paying three times the price for medications compared to other countries, which is both unfair and unsustainable.'

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This comprehensive review offers listeners a nuanced understanding of pivotal issues discussed in the episode, providing context and expert opinions to inform and engage both regular and new audiences.

Transcript

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome in. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Thursday edition of the program. And we have got a loaded program for all of you. Nancy Pelosi flustered when she's confronted with insider trading allegations. Mom. Donnie, the Democrat nominee on the in the New York City mayor's race, we will break down his sudden change of heart when it comes to defunding the police. Certainly interesting timing there, but we begin with our good friend Kamala Harris. Yesterday afternoon, shortly after we finished the program, Kamala announced that she will not run for governor in 2026. Since then, she has announced that she has a new book out called 107 Days that will be out sometime next month or, sorry, in September. For those of you, I guess it's the last day of July. For those of you want to make sure that that is on your calendar so that you do not miss the opportunity to buy that on the release day. It will be coming out in September. She also just announced, or it was just reported, that she will be Stephen Colbert's guest tonight on his Late Show. This is the very first interview Kamala will have done since her epic defeat in the 2024 campaign. She has to a large extent stayed out of public view for the last six months or so in the wake of that election defeat and the obvious inauguration day that followed. Uh, but I thought that we should first, let's start with this. Let's go on the record Buck, if you want to. I don't even Know what your answer is going to be on this? Do you believe that she will run in 2028, or do you think this is effectively Kamala Harris waving the proverbial white flag and letting it be known that she is no longer going to be involved in serious politics?

[Buck Sexton]

You know what I've said all along, Clay? I am a firm believer in Kamala Harris is on her way to a chancellorship or some other quasi ceremonial, overpaid role at a UC School, University of California school or something like that. Maybe she is, you know, a senior something or other. You know, a chancellor emeritus or something at Brookings Foundation. You know, like. But she's. She's out of the political game, is my point here. The fact that she's written a book about the hundred days. The only way this book could be worth reading and could be interesting in the least is if Kamala Harris was going scorched.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

And just lighting up every Democrat who crossed her, every idiot who gave her some of the worst advice I've ever seen. It was clear that she was advised, for example, not to do media. That was. And she started doing media when the public outcry was, hey, you're running for president. It's been a few weeks since you became the nominee. Effectively, you have to actually talk to people. You can't just have the machine do all this for you. But now we get to. Clay, was it actually better for her to not do any of the media? Here is, for example, Kamala Harris.

[Clay Travis]

Well, hold on.

[Buck Sexton]

Before.

[Clay Travis]

Before we get into the worst of Kamala, I actually disagree. I think she's going to run. I think she will run in 2020.

[Buck Sexton]

You got a steak bet.

[Clay Travis]

Let me. Let me. Yes. Steak bet on Kamala's future. Let me lay out why I think she will run because I understand.

[Buck Sexton]

Mark it down, team. Mark it down.

[Clay Travis]

I understand your argument of she can get a multimillion dollar relaxed job. She isn't actually a very talented politician. It's rare for Democrats to re nominate a candidate who lost. I can run through all of those different things. I don't think she has anything else in her life. This. This is me getting into the psychoanalysis of Kamala Harris. One, she's 60. That is relatively young, as these things go in the political process. Hillary. Somebody can look up the exact age Hillary was, but actually, I think Hillary had a. I can't believe I'm gonna. Hillary has a life outside of politics in some way. She's got a daughter. She's got grandkids. She's Got a husband that at least she has been with for a long time and has some sort of relationship with. I don't think Kamala actually likes Doug Imhoff. I think he's a loser. I think deep down she knows that he's a loser. Not a particularly likable or charismatic guy. Her, she doesn't have any kids. She doesn't have any pre existing life. She's, I, I, I can't believe that. I'm not trying to just utterly destroy her, but I think she's an empty soul and politics feels the void in her life that otherwise doesn't exist. There are other people out there that. And you all know, I would argue.

[Buck Sexton]

With you that Hillary Clinton actually has an even bigger hole in her soul and doesn't care that she has a husband who she obviously does not have.

[Clay Travis]

Any real, you know, maybe, but she has a daughter. She has grandkids like Hillary.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't think that either.

[Clay Travis]

I think Hillary has a life that is more filling in its way than Kamala does. I mean, I can understand the argument and, but I just look at this.

[Buck Sexton]

And I say she was utterly humiliated in this election. Utterly. She lost.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

She lost every swing state. She looked like a fool.

[Clay Travis]

I'm not saying she's a disaster, but.

[Buck Sexton]

She can at least say it wasn't. Why do you think she wrote this book? It's, it's trying to reframe the narrative of the disaster. Now, I know you're saying, well, maybe that's to reframe it so she can run again in a few years. Clay, the Democrats are going to want to move on.

[Clay Travis]

I agree.

[Buck Sexton]

Everything Biden related entirely. And at least Kamala Harris can go out now on the speaking tour and take that chancellor's job at, you know, UC San Diego or whatever, making a million dollars a year to go to cocktail parties and sound like an imbecile. If she runs again, she has to put herself out there for other Democrats to further destroy her brand. Now, she's a former vice president who was pushed into the slot. That's obviously part. I haven't read the book, but I could tell you what the book's about. It was, I did my best under difficult circumstances and like, you know, please don't hate me. That's her book. It's not. I'm amazing. I'm the leader of the Democrat Party going forward. And Gavin Newsom, by the way, he is going to work all the donors. He's going to work the entire system in California. So there's not Even a hint of a lane for Kamala to run.

[Clay Travis]

I got a stake.

[Buck Sexton]

We got a stake on this one.

[Clay Travis]

I get the argument. Your argument is not a bad one. I just think she has to do this because I don't think she has anything else in her life. And I think there are a lot of people that advise her that also are incentivized to build her back up and convince her that she needs to run. Here's the other thing.

[Buck Sexton]

I think politics was the easiest way for her to get a job that paid her and gave her prominence, access. And if that now is offered to her outside of politics, she would far. Clay, she's never had to run a real campaign. Obviously, look at the campaign she ran. She is the dei, the pinnacle of dei. And it all collapsed.

[Clay Travis]

But look at the like. I can't believe that I'm now going to be making the Kamala.

[Buck Sexton]

Look at Clay defending Kamala, defending Hillary. Clay showed up ready to roll.

[Clay Travis]

How outrageous it is that I'm now, if I'm Kamala's chief commissar, her chief of staff, whoever her consigliere is, you.

[Buck Sexton]

Don'T pronounce the g. Consigliere consuliari, whoever.

[Clay Travis]

The person is that can put her in a position that then elevates his or her position. Look at the rest of the Democrat field of minority candidates. And we know black voters are a huge part of the overall electorate. Look, Stacey Abrams is dead in the water. Karen Bass is dead in the water. There is no black female candidate, unless Oprah runs or somebody like that, that can go into the Kamala arena, right, to get the nomination. This is the way I'm sketching it out in her mind. Wes Moore is unchallenged. Cory Booker is a. Is just lighting himself on fire. She is the number one minority candidate in a field buck that may start in South Carolina because remember, there's now a battle over what is the overall flowchart of the Democrat party. If James Clyburn says as he did when Kamala got elevated, it's Kamala, she'll be the nominee. There's going to be a bunch of white guys. Gavin Newsom, I hope you're right.

[Buck Sexton]

I hope you're right. But you're saying why she's going to be the nominee or why she's going to run. Well, I do think she's going to be the nominee. We got to go more than a steak. I need like a trip to St. Bart or something way more.

[Clay Travis]

That's where. That's where they're going to pitch her. This is why I'm just sketching out why she's going to run. Because they're going to say you're the only black candidate that can get black support. If James Clyburn is still alive in South Carolina and he says you're the pick. Much like Joe Biden became the nominee. Look, Mayor Pete, Gavin Newsom, Josh Shapiro, they're all kind of running for the same lane. Who is the. Let me just put it to you the other way.

[Buck Sexton]

She lost everywhere she could possibly lose as badly as she could lose. It would be almost unthinkable for a Democrat to underperform Kamala's numbers in this last election.

[Clay Travis]

You're going.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, I hope what you're saying is true. I just think the Democrats aren't that insane.

[Clay Travis]

Ok. Who is. Here's what I'm saying. They're going to pitch to her. Who is the minority candidate that is going to get the black vote instead of her?

[Buck Sexton]

I don't think Democrats think that. I don't think Democrats are necessarily going to run a minority. Joe Biden, by the way, had phenomenal support among the black community of Democrat voters. I don't think you need to run a minority. I think you're artificially limiting the field.

[Clay Travis]

But Joe Biden didn't have to overcome a minority candidate because Kamala was so bad. She had already dropped out. It was Joe Biden when it. By the time Clyburn made sure there.

[Buck Sexton]

Was Cory Booker, there was Kamala Harris, there was. That guy from. Those guys is the congressman who's Latin. Latin America.

[Clay Travis]

Those guys were gone by the time Clyburn had to make the decision. Remember, if they start in South Carolina, and I don't know that they are if they start in South Carolina, then the black vote is going to matter. The black vote doesn't matter in Iowa and New Hampshire because it doesn't exist. Which is why Democrats have said, hey, we should start with South Carolina. You start with South Carolina again. That will be a sign of whether Kamala is going to run. I think she's going to run.

[Buck Sexton]

So do you disagree with this statement? If they run Kamala in. Well, see, now we're. We're. We're. We're conflating a little bit here because you're saying she's going to run. Maybe she runs. But if she does, she's doing it for the book sales and the attention.

[Clay Travis]

I would. I would. We agree.

[Buck Sexton]

The chance of her being the nominee is.000.

[Clay Travis]

There's no chance I don't even agree with that because if they start with South Carolina, I think it'll be a minority voter, a minority candidate that gets the South Carolina primary win.

[Buck Sexton]

Now maybe it's west running for governor of California.

[Clay Travis]

Why wouldn't she do it?

[Buck Sexton]

No, why isn't she doing it?

[Clay Travis]

Oh, because I think she doesn't think that it gains her any standing if she runs in 2028.

[Buck Sexton]

Like, I mean, 2028 is a long time away. People are going to forget who Kamala Harris is.

[Clay Travis]

That's what I'm saying. It might be good.

[Buck Sexton]

No, but I think her name recognition is going to fade along with it.

[Clay Travis]

I think she's in a far better.

[Buck Sexton]

Position running for president if she was the governor of California.

[Clay Travis]

I just, I actually think if she's governor, she exposes herself because she does far more public events. She's an empty suit. She's an awful candidate. But I think you have to get into her peanut brain and think as she lays this all out, I think she is going to run. Let's put a poll question. I'm curious, like what people think, by the way, you can weigh in. We got a long time to think. But remember, people are going to play.

[Buck Sexton]

A very astute fellow. I think he's wrong top to bottom on this one.

[Clay Travis]

I think he's wrong. People are going to announce by January of 27. So it sounds like it's a long time away until November of 28. But people, the Democrats are going to officially be chomping at the bit and announcing in January, February.

[Buck Sexton]

You may be right. I may be right. But we have deprived the audience of the greatest hits of Kamala because of.

[Clay Travis]

How we will play those. That's where we would hit those.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes, we have to hit those. Ok. Because that I think will also shed some light on the discussion.

[Dr. Oz]

Wow.

[Buck Sexton]

Kamala Harris. Wow. You know, we talk about the best case maybe for a Kamala resurgence would be the career of Joe Biden who ran three times was a total loser. But that was contingent upon a once in a century pandemic and a mass delusion that allowed a dementia patient to hide in a basement and and have people cheering for him to be hiding in that basement. You would need clay something completely world changing for Com. It would have to be like the COVID pandemic for Kamala Harris to even be the nominee.

[Clay Travis]

But remember, Biden was the nominee before COVID hit. He won in South Carolina because Clyburn said vote for him. And then Super Tuesday happened all before COVID became an issue. And then they hit him. Right. If he had. Had to be on.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, how he became president. But.

[Clay Travis]

Yes, but. But even. Yeah, but even the nominee. They basically just said, it's Biden and to knock out Bernie.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, that was name recognition tied to him being eight years of Obama's wingman.

[Dr. Oz]

That's.

[Buck Sexton]

That was the whole decision, and it was the system just deciding that the guy who was with the guy who won twice can win again. And it was a very unique moment in time for Joe Biden, because obviously, he wasn't even leading, and they picked him up. But that's because they thought he could win, and they managed to do it. I know they cheated. Whatever. But Kamala Harris. Clay. Clay. All right, we'll get into this.

[Clay Travis]

She's going to run. She's going to say, I deserve to be the full nominee. I deserve a black woman. They just threw me in to try to take that.

[Buck Sexton]

Your buddy Cuomo, who you said was going to be mayor and then president, he's about to get his ass kicked by Mom Donnie.

[Clay Travis]

I said he was going to run. I said he was going to run for president, and that's a mess. I did not see Mom Donnie come.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't. I don't think if he gets his ass kicked by Mom Donnie, he's going to run for president after that. I think that's.

[Clay Travis]

But if he were able to win as an independent, I think he would.

[Buck Sexton]

The thing is, some of these people are insane enough that I can't entirely.

[Clay Travis]

Even if I don't have anything else. This is where your argument of what do you actually lose by running for president is actually a good one, like.

[Buck Sexton]

Most people, I guess. I mean, if you're telling me that is Kamala going to run in a few years, and she's going to end up with like 5% or 10% of the vote or something among them. I mean, maybe, but I. All right. All right, let's hear from all of you on this. We got a lot to talk about.

[Clay Travis]

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[Podcast Producer]

Again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Buck Sexton]

Clay have you heard of the Rio reset.

[Clay Travis]

Sounds like a trendy new workout, Buck.

[Buck Sexton]

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

[Clay Travis]

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

[Buck Sexton]

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

[Clay Travis]

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

[Buck Sexton]

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

[Clay Travis]

Can he give us some inside intel?

[Buck Sexton]

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

[Clay Travis]

Yikes. That doesn't sound good. We got to get Philip on the line, Stat.

[Buck Sexton]

Already did. And he left. The Clay and Buck audience, this message. The world is moving on from the dollar. Quietly but steadily, these nations are making.

[Dr. Oz]

Real progress towards reshaping global trade, and.

[Buck Sexton]

The US Dollar is no longer the centerpiece. That shift doesn't happen overnight. But make no mistake, it's already begun. Thank you, Philip. Protect the value of your Savings account, your 401k, your IRA, all of them, by purchasing gold and placing it into those accounts and reducing your exposure to a declining dollar value. Text my name. Buck to 98. 98. 98. You get the free information you'll need to make the right decision. You can rely on Birch Gold Group, as I do, to give you the information you need to make an informed decision. One more time, text my name. Buck to 98. 98. 98. Some new data has come out on the New York City Mayor's R.A. and if anyone's wondering, why should you care? You live in the Midwest or the south or the west coast or the Sun Belt or the Ohio River Valley or wherever? Well, because this is going to be, I think, a test case for the Democrat Party nationwide. Can they win in the biggest city in America with really the furthest left wing candidate that we've seen at this level, at least, of a mayor's race in New York for a very long time? This guy is more radical than de Blasio, certainly more left wing than Mayor Eric Adams. And this is a moment in time where the Democrats are going to have to Start to choose. Remember, it was sly of Biden during the whole BLM anti cop mess in 2020. Biden never said defund police. I do think he knew enough. He had been in the game long enough to know that was going to be a big problem for him in the general election if he did it, which he didn't do. So whenever people talk about the Democrats defund police. That, that became a. Oh, it's AOC and it's, it's the, the squad. And it was not associated with Biden specifically. Even though Kamala Harris, I know, you know, wanted to, didn't she put out a tweet about the raising money for people in Minneapolis or something or the bail fund.

[Clay Travis]

Right. I mean, it's.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, Kamala, yeah. Kamala was more defund police by for sure than Joe Biden was. But Mamdani has got had to show up and speak in the aftermath of an NYPD officer gave his life in the line of duty trying to defend innocent people in that building, that office building on, on Park Avenue during that mass shooting a few days ago. And he's being asked, he's like, hold on. You were a disband police guy. You want to be the mayor. Now you're showing up after a cop died in the line of duty trying to stop a deranged gunman. Where do you really stand on disbanding, for example, an elite NYPD unit that would respond to shootings just like this? This is what Mamdani said. Play 15.

[Mamdani]

Over the course of this race.

[Clay Travis]

I've.

[Mamdani]

Been very clear about my view of public safety and the crit role that police have in creating that public safety that officers are tasked with delivering while we ask them to respond to nearly every failure of the social safety net. And the vision that we've put forward in this campaign, despite what others may say, is not to defund the police. It is in fact to allow those officers to respond to these serious crimes that many of them signed up to address and to do so by ensuring that we ask them to focus on those crimes and we ask mental health professionals to respond, respond to calls of mental health crises.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, mental health professionals, how many mental health professionals are they going to have on speed dial to deal with what the NYPD terms an edp, Emotionally disturbed person, a lunatic. Like, if you're running around the streets at 3am naked, barking like a dog and this stuff, that stuff happens in New York, ok, that this is reality for the cops there. They say, oh, we got an edp. We got to do they will eventually take you to a mental health facility. But even this idea that you're going to have mental health, people respond, what does that even mean? All they're going to try to do is get somebody to that facility. And by the way, if they don't have cops there, they may be attacked, bludgeoned, stabbed. Does anyone want, like a psychiatrist with the, you know, the tweed jacket with the elbow patches to show up when some maniac is waving a machete saying he wants to come kill everybody? Like, what, what, what world does Mamdani and the people who support him, what world do they live in?

[Clay Travis]

Not the real one is the answer. And the scary thing. And look, this is the argument I made a couple of weeks ago on the show. I think at some point Democrats have to have to deal with the choices that they are going to make. It's almost like being a parent. And a lot of you out there know what I'm talking about. If your kid keeps making the wrong decisions and you do your best to steer them away from it, you steer them away from it, you steer them away from it. Sooner or later, experience becomes the best teacher where you do something that is moronic and your parents or your grandparents told you not to do it, you do it, and then you're like, boy, that was really dumb. And part of parenting is trying to keep kids from doing things that are so stupid that they ruin their future life or unfortunately, even lose it. And I feel like for Democrats, they have to wear it. They picked mom, dummy, Mom. And I get it. People out there wor many of you are listening in the Manhattan area and you're looking around, you're saying, clay, you're just going to throw us to the wolves. This guy's a moron. Why should Republicans have to save Democrats from the awful choices that they're trying to make? If you want to put a communist in charge of New York City, deal with it. New York, deal with it. Why should all of us have to cobble together votes from Andrew Cuomo, who's awful, or Eric Adams, who's mediocre, or Curtis Sliwa, who's otherwise not going to be able to win because the idiots of New York City are otherwise going to endorse a guy who was sharing videos and tweets saying, defund the police. I saw a new clip that he shared where it's like somebody, a police officer was crying in a car and he's celebrating it. I just, I find this guy to be utterly false in a way that is Even staggering for politicians. And I My concern Buck, is you heard that answer right there. My concern is he's just going to try to glide because he is glib and he is good at talking. He's just going to glide away from all the crazy opinions he had and say, well, that's not what I really meant. That's not really the way that I want it applied.

[Buck Sexton]

Here's a perfect example. This is cut 16. He is asked straight up if he wished that he hadn't said he wanted to defund the police. Play 16. Do you wish you hadn't said some of those things a few years back?

[Mamdani]

My statements in 20 were ones made amidst a frustration that many New Yorkers held at the murder of George Floyd and the inability to deliver on what Eric Adams of all people described as the right for all of us to be able to enjoy safety and justice, that we need not choose between the two.

[Buck Sexton]

And it's just a non answer, which.

[Clay Travis]

Is what this guy's really doing, which is what he's gonna do. And you're right about Joe Biden wasn't crazy enough to go fully down the defund the police BLM train. Cuz I think at that point in time he had enough sanity to recognize that that was a poor decision. And we've said on this program, probably the only thing Joe Biden got right in his whole career was the 1994 crime bill, which helped to put violent criminals behind bars, kept them off the streets, and has led to at that point, a decline in the overall rate of violence. Mamdani is just, he's an inauthentic, yet articulate politician. And that means that he is going to be able to avoid consequences for anything that, that he has said. I think, and I think unfortunately, he's going to be elected the next mayor of New York City.

[Buck Sexton]

The latest, the latest polling on this, the latest polling does not look good for anyone who's hoping Momdani does not win. Because however you split it, even if Cuomo drops, he wins. If Adams drops, he wins. If a combination drops, he wins. It's, it's not looking good. And it's, it's, I think, disproportionately the. Well, I know it is disproportionately the under 40 vote in New York that he is counting on. And there are people who live in New York City and I understand this. One of the great frustrations, and this is true in a lot of cities in America right now. Certainly true in San Francisco, it's true in la I'm sure people complain even about the price of housing in downtown Nashville now, right? I mean, you know, people say it's expensive or it's gotten a lot more expensive, not compared to New York. But you know, prices can rise in these areas pretty rapidly. But in New York, the housing supply is artificially constrained in a number of ways by the regulations, by the super tenant friendly and landlord hostile laws that are in place, the massive welfare programs for housing that, you know, and I think it's NYHA or whatever it is in the New York City Housing Authority.

[Clay Travis]

There's a lot.

[Buck Sexton]

And there's rent control. There's all these things that the government has done. Oh, and there's all the illegals. I mean, you go through this whole list, there's all these things that are government decisions that have made housing substantially more expensive than it would otherwise be in New York. And here comes a guy whose entire ideology is in line with all of those decisions who's saying, oh, but I'm going to make things cheaper for you and it's not going to work. The people who are sitting around saying, oh, but I'll be able to afford to live here if Mamdani is the mayor are guaranteed to be very disappointed, but they're still gonna vote for him. And you know, this is like real communism has never been tried. You know, real Mamdaniism. You're going to see they're going to come up with some reason why someone else stopped. And whatever the things that he is saying he's going to do are guaranteed to fail. Bringing social workers instead, not even in addition to police, instead of police to emotionally disturb calls. Imagine if that cop in Virginia, Clay who responded it was a wellness check on somebody who was having a mental breakdown.

[Clay Travis]

Imagine it wasn't a cop, it was a social worker.

[Buck Sexton]

That social worker by the former Georgetown player would have been stabbed to death with a butcher knife in that hallway in that building we all saw in the body cam. So what the heck is going on here?

[Clay Travis]

It's not even. You can every. He's wrong on everything. But the one that I look at and I really. It's not even blm because that was such a defund the police. Any moron that you knew on social media in 2020, oftentimes highly educated, was making that argument in 2020. That one doesn't even surprise me as much. The fact that he's arguing that we should have city owned grocery stores is so dumb. Like that by itself is so profoundly dumb. And he's making that argument right now. He's not even trying to backtrack on that. He's saying, oh, grocery stores are making too much money. The profit margin on a grocery store is 2% at best. It is one of the most difficult businesses to do well in all of American commerce. And if you just look at all these socialist countries that decide, hey, we're going to have government funded grocery stores, you can't go buy anything. People stand in line for hours. There's never any food there. You can't. Price control. And suddenly he thinks in New York City, where it's hard to bring things into anyway, right? The expensive for trucks and refrigeration and everything else that's required. And he's arguing, hey, I'm going to save people money on groceries by taking it over and doing city funded grocery stores is so transparently unable to understand basic economics that that by itself is disqualifying to me.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this is, what I mean is it's not like there's a trade off here. And this is, I think, also exactly what you're getting at. It's not that there's a trade off here of, oh, well, people want the following things from Mamdani, and even if he's bad on some things that you and I and others care about, he will deliver on things that they want. He's going to fail on the things that they think they're getting as well.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

It's just going to be a disaster across the board.

[Clay Travis]

And, and he doesn't even have. He's articulate. What has he ever done that is any level of success? One rule that I wish was in place is in order to be running for politics, you have to have been profoundly successful in some other aspect of your life.

[Buck Sexton]

Right?

[Clay Travis]

Hey, I had success here and now I'm going to try politics. What has Mamdani ever done that he's been successful at? I mean, look, he's very articulate.

[Buck Sexton]

He wasn't even successful at faking being black so he could get into Columbia University, which is.

[Clay Travis]

That's right.

[Buck Sexton]

Quite a feat.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, he's good at communication, I guess, but he's never been successful to my knowledge, in the communication fields anyway. I just, I think New York City is going to make this choice. I think he's going to be elected mayor and maybe he's just going to completely change all of his opinions. There's that possibility. But if he actually tries to implement the things that he's arguing for, it's going to be one of the biggest disasters the city has seen in any of our lives in terms of elected political officials. Set yourself up to have more energy with our friends at chalk spelled C H O Q. You do not want to have Joe Biden energy. You want to have Donald Trump energy. You don't want to have the energy of some beta loser male out there who's offended because Sydney Sweeney is too good looking in her gene commercial. And and you don't want to have test so little testosterone that you're not even looking at attractive women anymore and noticing them. If that's you, that's fine. You can listen to other shows. You can go after try to lower your testosterone level even, even more. You can go listen to npr. You can go watch msnbc. I'm betting that's not you though. I'm betting you'd like to have a higher testosterone level and this is all natural and it can increase your testosterone level by 20% in three months while also again, all naturally giving you way more energy. What do you have to lose? Why not check it out. Chalk.com My name Clay. For a massive discount on any subscription for life, you can cancel anytime. No penalties, no worries. All you have to do is go to choq.com my name Clay. That's choq.com my name Clay. For a massive discount on any subscription for life.

[Podcast Producer]

You ain't imagining it. The world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with Clay and Bun. Find the on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Clay Travis]

We are joined now by Dr. Oz, who does a fabulous job inside of the Trump administration working on so many different issues out there. He is the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and working to make health technology great again. There's a lot going on when it comes to to the cost of health care for sure. Dr. Oz, you've been dealing with it for your entire life. Are you optimistic about changes that you guys are going to be able to implement inside of the Trump administration? Part one and part two? What should we expect to see? Thanks for coming on with us.

[Dr. Oz]

God bless you. I am optimistic as a doctor often has to. There's some bad news I should get out of the way first. Then we move to the growth. But we are spending twice as much per capita as any other country in the planet on our people. Our life expectancy despite that investment is now five years shorter than Europe. We're sicker. It's one of the reasons that we don't live as long and that we do have to pay More because of our chronic illness. This is why the Maha movement has gained such traction, because moms know that it's gotten really hard to be healthy in America. But the good News is that 90% of all the expenses, 90% of all the problems that I think we're facing both as paying for health care, but also being healthy is around chronic disease, which we have consumer control over, and mental illness. They work together. And I can say the number one driver of all this is probably loneliness, because if you're by yourself, there's no one to crutch on. We are social creatures. A good part of our brain power is reading the face and listening to the voice of people around us. And there are people right now making sense to create what you're saying just because they can hear subtle little intonations in your tone. So that all becomes hugely valuable. And when you lose that, you tend to become atomized, separate from everybody else. So part of the challenge in the Trump administration, and the President's very clear on this, is break the silos down, break down the barriers, and then use the power to convene. And by that he means allow people to know that you're serious, that you have a stick you'll use if you have to, but you rather use carrot to get them to work together on their own voluntarily. And that's what happened yesterday at the White House. President hosted a wonderful event. It was the 60th anniversary, by the way, of the foreign foundation of Medicare and Medicaid, the agencies that I run. And the president had 60 of the biggest technology companies and health care companies in America pledge promise they were going to do business differently. They're going to give the American people their medical records back. You own them, they're yours. You paid for them, you got the care that you needed, and there's information about that you should have access to. And so we are getting all these companies together. And together are going to make possible on your phone the ability to get information and advice about your well being, to get your doctor to be able to message you directly, in fact, make doctor's appointments, which is hard for a lot of Americans, and get the whole process to move forward in the 21st century, like so many other sectors of the American economy have, with great productivity and success.

[Buck Sexton]

Dr. Oz, one of the things you're hearing a lot out there, or we're hearing a lot out there, I'm sure you do too, from people who are critical of Trump, well, on everything, but particularly of the big beautiful bill, has to do with Throwing millions of people off of Medicaid, we are told, right? This is the talking point from the Democrats. Can you just break down what did the big beautiful bill do with respect to Medicaid and health care funding so that everyone can hear it from somebody who's living with these spreadsheets right in front of him?

[Dr. Oz]

The one big beautiful bill saved Medicaid. This beautiful program that was described by Hubert Humphrey as fulfilling our moral and government obligation to take care of those at the dawn of life, the children, those at the twilight of life, the seniors and those living in the shadows. Think about that metaphor. That's who it was designed for. Back then, it never crossed the, anybody's mind that you would let an able bodied person live forever on Medicaid without having to at least try to participate in the community. And every Democratic president, every Republican president has said the foundation of a social safety net is work. You're not supposed to just give people money and insurance. You're supposed to say here, this is something for you to get you back on your feet again so that together we can roll the oars and get society to be productive and get America to thrive. And that's what this bill did. It creates a work requirement. President Clinton in the 90s with welfare reform did this and it worked beautifully. Everyone applauds it as a huge success story. This time the president, our President Trump does it. Everyone criticizes the bill. It's wrong. This was an opportunity to give the American people who are trapped in Medicaid and the belief that they matter, that they have autonomy on their life, they have agency, give them a chance to get a job, to volunteer, to get educated, to participate as God gave them the right to do. We're all put on this planet to do something. And if you're going to watch 6.1 hours of television a day or just hang out, which is what's, that's the number, by the way, for people who are able bodied on Medicaid who aren't working. That's not a life, that's not what you're here for. And so I think this will be judged very and wisely as a wonderful contribution to getting America back on its feet again. We got twice as many jobs in this country is people willing to do them. Let's help people connect with the workforce. This makes that easy.

[Clay Travis]

Dr. Oz, I think one of the things that's incredibly frustrating to so many people out there who spend so much money on their health care is we pay way more and we don't get the results that would suggest we should get based on what we're paying. In other words, when you look at life expectancy, our numbers are not great. Why are we getting gouged? And other wealthy countries, I understand why they don't charge as much in countries where people are vastly inferior in wealth. But Europe pays, for instance, way less than we do for many of the same drugs. Certainly Canada and Mexico, people go across the border to buy the same drugs for a fraction of the cost. I think that's one of the things that gets people the most fired up. I know you saw it when you ran for Senate. I'm sure you still hear it now.

[Dr. Oz]

Well, as always, what makes you so successful is your timely questions. Within the hour, the White House announced a most favored nation prescription price letter from the President going out to all the major companies addressing exactly what you just described. The gouging of the American people and the original executive order that some may remember from a few months ago asked that this global freeloading stopped. So here's what the President is saying to all the manufacturers and it's our job to go out there and non negotiate these prices. But he's saying from now on we don't want brand prices in America costing three times the exact same product in the same box made in the same factory as it costs in Europe. And the metaphor for me is the NATO deal. So with NATO, there's an external threat. The President said, because it's an external threat, we all have to chip in. But we don't pay the whole bill in America. You guys got to chip in too. That happened. As you know, with the exception of one country, all the European countries now are paying their fair share. He argues there's an internal threat as well, illness. Why is it that America cuts the bill for $130 billion of research and development in pharmaceutical products and then on top of that doing all the homework to get the drugs out, then we pay most of the money that makes pharma profits. 70% of pharma profits are made in this country. This is not the right thing for the American people. Pharmaceutical industry knows that. They know this is coming. And the letter just went out. Literally it's being mailed as we speak. And our belief is that within several years we can get most drugs, the vast majority of these drugs, to be most favored nation pricing. It's going to be a huge asset to the American people, to governors trying to balance their state budgets, but it's also the right thing to do. It shows that America will carry the right load, but don't put it on us to cure all the cancer in the world. Chip in, help us out a little bit. Just like with NATO, we'll do the same thing with this most favored nation prescription drug pricing.

[Buck Sexton]

Dr. Oz, how do you foresee technology? We're in this age of rapidly advancing capabilities with AI and robotics and a whole range of tools that are already doing pretty marvelous things or showing marvelous possibility. How is technology going to be leveraged under this Trump administration, which obviously you're a part of it, on the health side, to improve American's health, to find cures, to get us healthier?

[Dr. Oz]

The American people have been waiting too long. We've been waiting for, you know, to get the right information from the doctor's office days and days when it should have been immediately delivered. We've waited for these surprise bills from hospitals, wait for access to our medical records just to see stuff that we paid for. And we've been waiting for Washington to take action. The commitments that the President made yesterday with all these companies pledging puts an end to this waiting. Technology is going to allow us to message you when you want to hear it about things going on in your life. It's going to allow doctors to look at you in the eyes and talk to you instead of having to chart the whole time because they got a code so they can bill for the encounter. It's going to make it much easier for us to fast track things like prior authorization, where you're trying to see if an insurance company is going to pay for something you thought you paid for. All that's going to become automated much faster. But the real benefit here, and this is a critical point, is we're going to be able to cut the fraud, waste and abuse out of the system that's destroying it. Maybe $100 billion of administrative costs unnecessarily. You may have read last month with the Department of Justice, we announced a $50 billion takedown because we're $1.8 trillion entity. We're double the size of the defense budget. And in order to get into our walls, our security walls, you can use the numbers that all Medicare beneficiaries have, their membership number. And so foreign companies and countries, literally the $15 billion was a multinational criminal organization that I believe is based in Russia. I mean, these are massive operations trying to take us down. Technology is going to allow us to protect ourselves. But at its very core, the goal is not just to keep people alive. It's to get them to be vital, to get them to flourish. The value of an American who's healthy enough to work is much, much greater than what it costs to treat them. But we have to actually get at those wonderful folks who are making mistakes about their lifestyle in a timely fashion. And technology, especially AI will let us talk to people in ways that we couldn't have before to literally babysit them through a process that they may be going through, which a doctor just won't do on their own. They don't have the and it also allows us to get the rural America which has been left behind and let that part of the country thrive. You should not have folks falling behind. Every American ought to be cared for with the dignity they deserve. It doesn't matter what zip code they're in.

[Buck Sexton]

Dr. Oz, appreciate you being with us, sir.

[Dr. Oz]

God bless you my friend.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Podcast Producer]

Seconds news and politics. But also a little comic relief. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay. Travis, Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We are joined now by Melissa Saholio, commissioner of the United States Federal Trade Commission. A lot going on in, in that world as we break down all of the different, I, I would say just insanity that seems to be going on on a day to day basis. A lot of different mergers underway, a lot of different moving parts associated with the tariffs and everything else. You're new in the job. How has that been for you so far?

[Podcast Announcer]

Oh, well, thank you. Thank you for having me on. I'm super excited to be here. Thanks, Clay. The job has been wonderful. It's been amazing. We had a change in administration in January, so it's nice to finally have a positive agenda that we can implement. But like you said, things are changing every day. Lots of big things in our world. I think what's interesting is we get a lot of questions about tariffs and I will get a lot of questions about tariffs, but we don't even know the word trade is in our name. We don't necessarily do anything with tariffs other than see maybe some of the consequences of that. So we don't negotiate those or enforce those. So what we're looking at, what the Federal Trade Commission does is protect American consumers in the United States, mostly from fraudsters and scammers and like you said, from anti competitive behavior. And we look at mergers in the world and see what's happening with companies and we want to protect Americans from monopolists as well.

[Buck Sexton]

What are some of the, thank you for being with us, Commissioner. It's Buck. What are some of the primary frauds? You know, one thing that we have a great sponsor on the show that deals with identity theft. And one thing that I've seen is just how sophisticated some of these efforts are to do that. It's really, it used to be somebody would send you an email saying, you know, I'll give you a million dollars if you give me 10,000. And unfortunately that would work far too often. But it's A little bit, a little bit on the, on the obvious side. Now they're getting really good at pretending to be from a bank or I mean what are the kind of scams or the kind of things the FTC is focused in on policing these days?

[Podcast Announcer]

That's such a great question. I mean, because that is a majority of our work and what we want to focus on. And fraud has just growing and growing. Last it was $10 billion a couple of years ago and now it's grown 25% to over 12 billion. And it's what we want to focus on every day. So. And what we're seeing, like you said, is we're seeing lots of sophisticated frauds and the use of different technologies. So one of those examples is they use voice cloning technology. So you'll have a grandma in the middle of the night get a call from what sounds exactly like her grandson saying I'm in jail, I need money. Send this to me here. And it sounds just like them. And those are the kinds of really concerning types of fraud where IT folks, everyone can would get duped from it. Not just it does, it's a lot more sophisticated than some of the things that we've seen in the past. And we're trying to go out and educate consumers on some of these more sophisticated frauds.

[Buck Sexton]

What are the enforcement mechanisms like when you find something that's going on? I mean, you're not the FBI, right? So what enforcement mechanisms does the FTC have access to and how does that process like when you find the fraudsters, then what?

[Podcast Announcer]

Great question. So what we do is a lot of the times we're looking at trends of frauds. So we have a really large database that, that we have that many, many states have access to and we look at complaints that are coming in. I think one, one thing that I want to, if I could get a message out, one thing is to make sure to report the fraud. We have a website that says that where you can report the frauds and we take those complaints and we start from there, enable to, and in order to do, like you said, investigations, we will issue civil investigative demands. If we think there's a criminal component to it, we work with our criminal partners. We will go reach out to the Department of Justice or others, estate partners, U.S. attorneys and districts across the country and work with them. If those types of criminal components are applicable to.

[Buck Sexton]

So basically you can flag something for DOJ and then DOJ can actually make it a criminal matter if that's the kind of fraud you're talking about.

[Podcast Announcer]

Exactly. But we don't have to stop just because there might be a criminal component. A lot of times we can move really fast in terms of freezing assets and going in and making sure like to stop the bleeding and basically have those assets available if and when we can get some money back to consumers.

[Clay Travis]

One of the biggest challenges, I would imagine, in the merger space is technology and the fact that this thing is moving so rapidly, whether it's AI or elsewhere, that we typically think of monopoly power as something that leads to higher prices. But in the universe that we're in now, some of these huge tech companies are arguing that when they are merging, when they are buying new assets, it's actually leading to lower prices. How do you balance all this out? Because the tech universe has definitely maybe upset the apple cart of what monopolistic power truly looks like.

[Podcast Announcer]

I think that's so important that we're actually analyzing what the harms are. Like you said, we have mergers that we look at so many mergers that get filed and we get notification of them. But in the vast majority of them, like literally 98% of cases, there's no real problem there in terms of the merger. And in fact, a lot of mergers provide benefits for consumers. And so what we want to do is make sure we're getting out of the way if there are mergers out there that can really provide benefits. Because the faster they that they can move, the better and quicker that those benefits can go to consumers. And then in the smaller amount of cases, yes, we'll take a second look in those 2% of cases to see what's happening. But like you said, in tech and in big tech, these are extremely dynamic markets, things are changing all the time and we want to be analyzing them correctly. So we're not providing or we're not preventing any benefits that consumers could enjoy.

[Clay Travis]

Outstanding stuff. Well, look, we need you back. I know you got a lot to get on involved in because we've got what the, the big rail merger that they're talking about right now. I'm sure you're going to be diving into so many of these different cases, so many of these different decisions. Just keep us on speed dial. We want you on to be able to bring us up to speed on so many of these different issues going forward. Congratulations on hopefully being able to get a lot more done now with the new administration.

[Podcast Announcer]

Well, I appreciate that so much. I love the work that I'm doing. It's very important. I will say one thing that is that if I can just leave with a few last moments thoughts related to the tariffs. I think there's just been this real reinvigoration of American manufacturing, American exceptionalism. And the one thing that the FTC has been focusing on in the month of July is the Made in the USA label rule and our enforcement efforts there. And if folks are looking and they're seeing problems Made in the USA labels that they just don't that are suspect to them, they can email [e-mail] but we also work with businesses. So if businesses are trying to comply with the law and want to make sure that they are advertising truthfully and really working with consumers on that, they can also email us because lots of people plug in for that.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, lots of people sadly do try and lie about the Made in the usa. We've done reading and studies on that. So I'm glad that you can be on top of it because obviously is something that many people want to be able to spend their money on.

[Podcast Announcer]

Yes, absolutely.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you so much. That's Melissa Hollyoak with the ftc. Look, we just had an awful story. Midtown Manhattan, what happened there? Innocent lives lost. Tunnel of the Towers has been supporting America's greatest heroes and their families. In fact, they have already pledged financial assistance to the family of the New York City police officer who was killed in the line of duty at that Manhattan office building on Monday. They did it without fanfare, without the need for news conferences. In fact, they had no idea we're even talking about it right now. Producer Ali saw that this was happening and said, we want to shine a light on it because it's a great example of how quickly and rapidly they can respond to tragedy. Tunnel the Towers all about supporting families when their loved ones have been lost in the line of duty, defending our freedoms, protecting our communities. Your donations will help pay off a mortgage so a family doesn't lose their home. And that's just one of hundreds of actions they will take. You can join us and donating 11amonth to tunnel the towers at t2t.org that's t the number 2t.org again. T2t.org want to be in the know.

[Podcast Producer]

When you're on the go the Team 47 podcast. Drop 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.

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast.