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Buck Sexton
This is an iHeart podcast.
Clay Travis
You know what's great about your investment account with the big guys? It's actually a time machine. Log in and zoom. Welcome back to 1999. It's time for an upgrade. At public.com you can invest in almost everything, stocks, bonds, options and more. You could even put your cash to work at an industry leading 4.1% APY. Leave your clunky, outdated platform behind. @Public.com Go to Public.com and fund your account in five minutes or less. Paid for by Public Investing, Inc. Member FINRA and SIP. Full disclosures@public.com disclosures.
Buck Sexton
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show Podcast. Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Thank you for being here with us as always. Clay, of course, taking one for the team playing golf today while I am helming the radio solo. But there is a bit of a drizzle. So he's got that going on. But he's out there having a good time and doing representing the show on the golf course. And I'm sure we'll see some video of his swing later on today. I'm going to insist that he post. You know, people call him the Jack Nicklaus of radio. I don't know. That's just, that's what the folks are saying. So, yes, he's, he's doing great, though. I saw him last night and like I've been telling you, he'll be back full, full scale on Friday here on the program. So it'll be me today and tomorrow, a lot of news to break down for all of you, the auto pen controversy now. And just to be clear, this is still in the early stages. We're finding out how far this goes and what it involves. But it seems like there's a very decent possibility that maybe somebody was wielding the auto pen for Biden without his knowledge because he was not of sound mind, which they have had to admit. This could involve pardons. This could involve signing of executive orders, even of laws. We will take a look at that. President Trump wants to take a look at that. More on the big beautiful Bill. There's a little bit of, do we call it the triple B, the big beautiful bill. There's a little bit of pushback from some conservative and Republican corners on this one, most notably from Elon Musk himself of Doge, who, as I mentioned to you yesterday in the program, is very unhappy with the situation of the big beautiful bill. And Stephen Miller's out There talking about this is what is possible and this is great and there's so many good things in it. And so we'll break down some of that for you. But this is a, an important moment for us because if we're not doing the right things now when it comes to tackling the debt, when are we going to to do the right things? When are we going to make the hard decisions? Procrastination is the enemy of success. You know it, I know it. True of so many things in our lives, true of so many things for the country. So I think that's a discussion we shall return to today. Also got more on the aftermath of that anti Semitic terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado. More details, more reaction from those in the public sphere. And I'll make some sense of, well, analyze some of what they've been saying and what is going on there. Trying to make sure I don't leave anything off the oh, yes, two Chinese nationals. This will also go into our border discussion. Charged with allegedly smuggling a fungus into the US Called Fusarium graminearum, which is a potential agroterrorism weapon. We'll talk about what this has to do with the border and why border security is, of course, national security. And I've got some other important stories, too. Basically, so many things to talk to you about today. I'm not even sure if we can get to it all. But the good news is I got three hours with you tomorrow as well and the next day after that. So, you know, we're gonna hang out. It's gonna be good. Let's start, though, with, with some of the border situation because, as you know, I think this is essential that they continue on this path. And they're running into roadblocks. The Trump administration is running into roadblocks, as expected from Biden and Obama judges on this. There's no surprise, really in any of that. But they keep pushing, which is absolutely essential. But here's something that I don't think we necessarily anticipated, and it is they are turning on ICE agents. They are increasingly pushing this narrative. And you see this because there are videos across the nation of enforcement operations that are underway. And there are a lot of people who think they can put hands on Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers. They can shove them, they can obstruct them. It is, in fact, illegal. The same laws that say that the FBI can arrest a kidnapper are the same kind of federal laws that say Immigration and Customs Enforcement is allowed to bring people into, take people into custody and put them through the process of deportation. It is not, in fact, the case that Democrats can pick and choose which laws they think have the force of law. Those days are over. Those were the Biden days. During the Biden days, it was quite clear that laws were to be in some cases ignored and in other cases pushed and weaponized. January 6th defendants, for example, nonviolent first time offenders treated like members of Al Qaeda. A stain, honestly, a stain on the Justice Department that will take a long time. Even though President Trump did the right thing and pardoned so many of those people, it's still a stain on the Justice Department that it was able to be weaponized in that way. But now we have these enforcement operations and what you see are Democrats, community activists and organizers and as our friend Jesse Kelly says, street communists, a great phrase. I agree with him as a. Well, a. Well, I'm giving Jesse credit for it, so I can now just use it. Ok? But I've gone on record that this was a borrow from Jesse Kelly. The street communist types, you know, the ones that have the radical left ideology and are also willing to dirty themselves up a bit, wrestle with cops to the ground, throw, you know, throw bottles of urine and rocks and things, right? They're doing this to ICE agents. Now, these are federal law enforcement officials. Notice how I mentioned January 6th before. Well, those are federal law enforcement. Rather, that was a federal law enforcement issue because it occurred in the Capitol building and we were told that to put hands on law enforcement was a terrible thing and they must be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Why aren't all these individuals being punished to the fullest extent of the law for physically either assaulting or obstructing ICE agents? Well, as we know, it's because the Democrats think that they get to live in a world where immigration law is not really the law that must end. Now, Tom Homan is entirely serious about this and knows what he is doing and understands what's going on here. But something that has come up specifically, and this comes from Hakeem Jeffries, who, remember, was speaker of the House, a deeply unimpressive politician, I might add, not somebody that when he speaks about any issue, you say, here's somebody with real command of the facts, makes Nancy Pelosi look like Talleyrand by comparison. I mean, really, somebody who I think is just in and over his head. But put that aside for a moment. Hakeem Jeffries, MEMBER of Congress, is upset that these individuals who are serving their country in federal law enforcement as part of immigrations and Customs Enforcement, which falls under the Department of Homeland Security, under dhs, that during these raids they have faces covered essentially like a balaclava. It's almost like a gator that they pull up over their faces. Hakeem Jeffries is upset by this. We should talk about this for a moment.
Tom Homan
Play cut to Every single ICE agent who's engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that. This is America, So not the Soviet Union. We're not behind the Iron Curtain. This is not the 1930s. And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will of course, be identified. That, in fact, is the law.
Buck Sexton
They will be identified. Why exactly. So I'd like to know. So is he saying that they will be identified by law enforcement after the fact? Fact. If they've engaged in some criminal. By the way, they have not engaged in any criminal activity. They're making arrests. But what you see here are the Democrats. To placate the rabid street Communists in their midst, the Democrats have decided that they want there to be pressure campaigns against law enforcement officers involved in interior enforcement of immigration laws. They want them to be subject to the rage of the mob so that they can slow down and maybe even stop these raids and stop these processes from happening. What other area of the law would anyone for one second think this is legitimate? If they were going in and they were raiding fentanyl stashes and the cops involved in it were, you know, obscuring their idea because some of them may be involved in undercover operations. Some of them are doing by bus. Some of them, you know, they don't necessarily want to be on the six o' clock news. Would they be making this case? No, they would not. But it's very clear what's going on here. They're trying to pretend it's about accountability. This is exactly what Democrats do, I might add, when they want donors to any. Anything conservative to be public. They say it's about transparency, but it's actually about intimidation. And it's also once again here about intimidating our law enforcement officers by having their identities out there so they can be doxxed, so they can be threatened, so their families can be the subject of death threats. We all know what's going on here, but these Democrats are vile, Vile. And they seek to undermine this law enforcement effort in whatever way they can. They are anti law on this issue. And here's Tom Holman, as I said before, speaking about how the Vilification of ice, the pretense, the games, the lies that are being told about how ICE is really the Stasi of East Germany. ICE is the Nazi ss. ICE is, is on the wrong side of history, all this stuff. They're going to get an ICE agent who's a federal law enforcement officer severely injured or killed. It's just a question of when. This is cut three.
Hakeem Jeffries
A lot of our congressional representatives who are vilifying ICE on the board to. Every day they're driving this hate. And I'm telling you, it's only a matter of time before there's an incident where an ICE agent is going to have to take a life or an ICE agent is going to lose a life. President Trump saving lives. The men and women of ICE are saving lives every day. And if you look at the numbers, the numbers don't lie. Majority of people ICE is arresting are arresting our criminal. Illegal aliens. Public safety threats. And the non criminals mostly are scooped up in sanctuary cities. And you're right, the world's upside down when, when, when the guy that carries them badging guns, the bad guy and the ones who break the law are the victims.
Buck Sexton
Notice how quickly the Democrats went back to being the party of the criminal for a moment there. Anybody who was present at the Capitol on January 6, any law enforcement official anywhere in the, in the general vicinity was, was a hero, you know, worthy of a Medal of Honor. I mean, the greatest heroes that have ever stood for our nation, yada, yada, yada. That was what they were saying. All of a sudden they liked law enforcement. All of a sudden they thought the FBI was a fantastic agency because they used it as a tool to crush their political enemies, to make an example of them. Now, no one disagrees that these are federal law enforcement agents and that they are enforcing real good, valid laws on the books. Democrats just don't like it. And they have convinced themselves as a party that the law is really what they want. The law is not a thing that is objective, that is freestanding. That we all are subject to the law is their whim, the whim of power. And they don't have power right now. Therefore, there is no law that they don't like. And they're willing to put ICE agents and other law enforcement at risk because they want to placate the angry mob that's looking to do some kind of cosplay over how they're the great heroes of this new civil rights struggle of every illegal gets to stay here forever. Not on Trump's watch. Look, Father's day means so much more to me these days because I'm a new dad and being able to celebrate and thank my own dad for all he is to me is also really special. So I've got a great A great gift idea for all the dads and father figures out there comes from Kardia Mobile, specifically the Kardia Mobile 6L. It's the world's first FDA cleared personal EKG. Cool thing about this device is it's so small and lightweight you can carry it with you everywhere. Cardi Mobile 6L can detect AFib, a leading cause of stroke cardio. Mobile is the perfect way for your dad to manage his heart health at home. Between doctors visits, easy to use and records right to his phone, he gets six views of his heart. That's six times the data of any smartwatch at a fraction of the cost. Give the gift of peace of mind for the dads in your life or even for yourself. For a limited time, Cardi is giving you 10 off. Go to cardia.com that's K-A-R--I-A.com or Amazon. Use code 10 6L Clay. It's our buddy's name. He's playing golf today, but you know, taking one for the team, it's tough. Clay's on like the seventh hole right now. You know it's a hero. Just kidding. Kardia K A R D I A dot com and use code ten six L Clay for our man Clay. Ten six L Clay for ten off. That's K A R D I A And one more time, you ready to write this code down or type it in? 10 6L Clay. Get it today.
Clay Travis
You know what's great about your investment account with the big guys? It's actually a time machine. Log in and zoom. Welcome back to 1999. It's time for an upgrade. At public.com you can invest in almost everything. Stocks, bonds, options and more. You could even put your cash to work at an industry leading 4.1% APY. Leave your clunky outdated platform platform behind. @Public.com Go to Public.com and fund your account in five minutes or less. Pay for by Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Full disclosures at public.com disclosures According to.
Sean Duffy
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Buck Sexton
Of the angry mobs that want to stop enforcement of our immigration laws that stand in the way, in many cases literally in the way of our law enforcement officers who are trying to take member. These are the public safety threats within the illegal alien pool. These are the murderers, the rapists, the gangbaggers, the, the robbers, the, the, the bad guys. Right? I don't want to hear about, oh, but what about, you know, my, the gardener down the street for me is so kind and works so hard. That's not who they're going after right now. They're going after these public safety threats. And the Democrats are playing along with this nonsense of we need to have on video shown to the whole country the identities, the faces of these law enforcement agents. And here's what the acting ICE director, Todd Lyons had to say about this yesterday. Play 20 I'm going to answer the math question.
Todd Lyons
So a lot of agencies were invited to come out two weeks ago in Los Angeles where we ran an operation where ICE officers were doxxed. So let's just say that again, people are out there taking photos of the names, their faces and posting them online with death threats to their family and themselves. So I'm sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I'm not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line and their family on the line because people don't like what immigration enforcement is. They are wearing those masks because we ran an operation with the Secret Service. We arrested someone that was going online taking their photos, posting their families, their kids Instagram, their kids Facebooks and targeting them. So let me ask, is that the issue here, that we're just upset about the masks or is anyone upset with the fact that ICE office families were labeled terrorists?
Buck Sexton
I want someone to ask Congressman Jeffries about this. I want him to have to answer on television. Remember how we know that all the journos are liars and fakes except for the ones that are right of center who somehow managed to get all the big stories correct. Isn't that interesting? But you know, I want to know why these Capitol Hill reporters, why don't they ask Congressman Jeffries, hey, what do you think about the death threats against ICE family members because they were doing lawful federal law enforcement work. What do you think about that, Congressman. Oh, I, I thought law enforcement were heroes. I, I thought we were supposed to treat them well, as, you know. No, not law enforcement in general. Only cops who were only, only, you know, Capitol hill Police on January 6. The only law enforcement. Oh, and Comey and other comey stooges at the FBI for trying to destroy Trump and trying to destroy Trump. That's the only law enforcement that they like. The only law enforcement they like are the ones who take out their political enemies. Very clear what's going on here. They are playing with fire. These leftists are doing reckless things by feeding into this public perception that our Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are somehow the bad guys. And the Democrats are on the team of, you know, Ms. 13 murderers. That's who the Democrats are worried about. Leclay and I really like spending time with the team behind Rapid radios. Rapid radios are the next level modern day walkie talkies that you need to have. Remember when you're kids you had those little push to talk radios. Imagine those. But decades later, with all kinds of new tech and new features, Rapid radios, my friends, they're amazing. Allow you to connect with anyone anywhere in the US via nationwide LTE network. Fun to use. The voice quality is excellent. Rapid radios don't require any setup. Just pull them out of the box, press a button and talk. It's One Touch Connection. Perfect for busy families with nationwide LTE coverage. Rapid radios are 100 private with no monthly fees or subscriptions. Visit rapidradios.com save up to 60% off. Get free UPS shipping from Michigan. Use code radio for an extra 5% off. That's code radio. When you go to rapidradios.com again, rapidradios.com for 60 off then use code radio, get an extra 5% off and get hooked up with some rapid Radios today. So we should always remember that some of the things that we see going on right now that are even a bit in the background of what Trump is doing, what this administration is making a reality are things that those of us who have been in the conservative movement or just ideologically conservative for quite some time, in my case, working in conservative media. 14 years. I sorry, I told you. I saw my friend, Glenn Beck, friend and mentor Glenn Beck yesterday and he pointed out it was 14 years ago that we linked up at the Blaze. He hired me and so 14 years of that. But I've been a conservative for as long as I can remember. It would seem like the stuff of dreams to be in the place. We are in on some of these issues. And I do not believe that's an exaggeration. We've been waiting a very long time, very long time for someone who would essentially dismember the CNN propaganda organization, which is what Trump has done. There was a time when cnn, and especially I think because I lived in New York City, it really was able to wield unfortunately, this gravitas and credibility among a lot of well intentioned and good and well informed people. They said, well, cnn, I would know people who I would even describe as right of center who would say things like, you know, CNN is, is pretty neutral. And I would look at them like, no, it's not, it's not now. They wouldn't say that anymore. Everyone's realized CNN's completely insane. But if you're going back 15 or 20 years, people would have said, a lot of people, you know, I mean, think about it. I mean, Tucker Carlson started his career at CNN on TV with Crossfire, right? They, it used to be less insane is what I'm saying. They used to have actual conservatives on, but that somebody could come along as CNN and MSNBC and the New York Times and these, the, the premier propaganda outlets of the Democrat Party as they reach their, the pinnacle of their power, which I would really say was the second Obama term. And then you get into Trump and they, they basically went too far against Trump and then Trump has brought them to heel and essentially and brought them low. But that's a dream come true for those of us who are on the right. That there is a, there are a number of social media platforms now where you can share your thoughts and not have it be explicitly centered. One of my great frustrations during COVID was, I mean, I YouTube. I had multiple YouTube channels banned just for talking about COVID stuff. I, you know, you know me, I'm not, I'm not some provocateur on the right. I just like this mask stuff and the lockdowns. This is moronic. There's no basis for it. I was completely right. People who disagree with me were wrong. Not as smart as they thought they were, including, you know, Google, one of the most powerful companies on earth. But now we have X and now we have Truth Social and Rumble and you know, other things, other places too. So that, and it's easy for us to have these wins that we don't necessarily take a moment to appreciate and to continue and to, to push for more of them.
Transportation Secretary
Right?
Buck Sexton
Or push more in these areas. I'm speaking about this because we're seeing a people call it a vibe Shift. I know that's a little bit of the contemporary lingo with the kids these days, but it is something. Vibe shift right now from corporate America. Actually, it's, I would argue, a powerful vibe shift. It's not a little bit, it's a lot. And we're entering a new period here where oppress half the country's ideas and they'll still come back and shop with you, they'll still come back and buy your product. That's a much dicier proposition than it was before Trump won this last election. We are not in 2020 anymore where you would just have the most blatant, I mean, the most just thuggish suppression of conservative ideas by companies, by platforms. I'm not saying the pendulum has swung totally of the direction. It is beginning to swing in the other direction. And that is a win. And we are starting to see these changes. I give you, for example, Citigroup, which is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, has reversed its policy on restricting banking services for gun companies and firearms clients. In a statement on June 3, the bank said a decision had been made over fair access to banking services. Citigroup will no longer have a specific policy as it results to firearms. This is a step back from the debanking that was going on for years and is one of the most pernicious and undermining and really aggressive things that the left was doing in the private sector to suppress ideas it didn't like and to just politically bludgeon the other side. So in 2018, they implemented a firearms policy that basically meant they wouldn't. Well, the policy is they wouldn't work with people that sold guns. They had all these rules and they were restricted. They had to restrict firearms on all these different bases. If you don't do it, they won't work with you. So that, I think, is just one of many things that we're going to see here. Where these companies are, are no longer confident enough, even if they. I don't think that they like conservatives. I want to be clear. I don't think that the people in charge have changed their mind about a lot of this. Maybe some have, some haven't. It's. It's too, too met, too large of an issue and too many people involved to, to say that definitively. But what I do know is that they recognize there could be consequences to discriminating against the right with their business. Now things have changed. And this is also after a dozen, In April of 2024, a dozen Republican state attorney generals, state Attorneys general rather wrote a letter to bank of America with regard to their debanking policies and the systemic biases that they have and that think about this, banks, which we do think of, I know they're private, but you think of banking services as being non, should be non political in nature, right? So if you went into bank of America or you went into, you know, any of these financial institutions and they, and you said, hey, I'd like to open a checking account with you. And they said, who'd you vote for in the last election? And you said, well, I'm not a communist, so I voted for Trump. And they said, I'm sorry, we can't take your business. We would all recognize that's a big deal, that's a big problem. Right? And that this kind of political discrimination was going on for as many years as it did without any meaningful pushback from the judiciary or from Congress is appalling. Absolutely appalling. Trump Organization sued Capital One, accusing the bank of closing hundreds of accounts belonging to the company. Trump Organization said that Capital One's unilateral decision came about as a result of political and social motivations and woke beliefs. Banks, banks are now left wing, WOKE enforcers. Well, they have been for years and now it's finally turning around. Now it is finally changing. Where they don't feel comfortable doing this. This is really meaningful. And note the next, the next phase of this needs to be, we need to demand, if there is an ad that runs on msnbc, ok, I want to know why that company isn't running ads on Fox News. And we need to start to hold these companies to account. If Mercedes and BMW and I don't know, I mean, you know, who are some of those? Well, star, we've got our own coffee company here, thank you very much. And to talk about Starbucks. But if some of these major international brands, you know, Apple, if they're willing to put money in advertising to reach an audience that will watch msnbc, I want to know on what basis they're not putting money with, with Fox News, with Newsmax, with talk radio. Why, why is it that left wing podcasters who are wrong about everything and who are lunatics can count on corporate dollars? And on the right, it's always, there's always this concern about brand safety. Why are they safe? But we're not safe. Our people just won the election. We're in charge. We run the country. Brand safety, you know, I mean, look, I understand free market, private market, people can do what they want, but we can also do what we want and say to any company that's out there that's putting real money on left wing programming, hey, what's going on here? And force them to answer the question. Force some of these companies, you know, for force like Ford Motors or, you know, whoever it is, I'm just coming up with big, big companies, but force them to say, you know what? Half the country can go, you know, can go take a long walk off a short pier with their politics and we think they'll just buy our stuff anyway, you jerks. Let's hear them say that now. Let's, let's force them out a little bit because this matters. This matters. The left. One of the great things about this Trump administration has been disassembling the forever regime of the universities and the, the, you know, corporate HR woke DEI apparatus and, and the way that the, the NGOs that suckle at the teat of places like USAID and npr. This, this needed to be done. And I've talked about being a conservative for a long time. We've dreamt of this fight finally happening for decades, and now it's finally here. And Trump is doing so many things, this administration is moving on so many fronts that I think it's easy to have some of this stuff get a little bit lost. It's easy for us not to put enough focus on all of these different things because there are so many of them. But forcing companies to end as a matter of policy, and I mean the biggest companies in America, the biggest companies in the world, forcing them to end political discrimination, write down in their company bylaws, we will not, as a company, deny services, deny product to people because of lawful political belief, which, whether they want to accept it or not, voting for Trump is a lawful political belief. The right to bear arms, The Second Amendment, being a gun owner and wanting to have a constitutional right that is a lawful belief. And any institution that is going to discriminate on a political basis, the Trump administration should immediately take whatever legal actions are possible, sue them, and let the courts figure it out. Oh, but Buck, isn't that, you know, that's what they do. Let's see, let's see how it shakes out. Sue them. And also the public should start to demand accountability and openness about what's going on here. So Citigroup no longer says that we're going to have these weird policies when it comes to guns because the idiot leftists who are busy, I'm sure, counting their huge bonuses who run that place realize this is not going to be a good look for us. We need this to extend to all companies and any. I'm just going to say it to you. Any company that will put money. Ok. On Rachel Maddow show and not. Not talk radio. Not conservative. Conservative content is not your friend. And they're getting away with not being your friend. They're getting away with spitting in your face. And I think we put an end to that. We. This, this is a different moment now. This is a changed moment. They don't have the same control they used to. Now is the time to push. Now is the time to make demands. Sell your stuff to everybody or there will be consequences. Treat all Americans who want access to your goods and services like the customers they are, irrespective of their own political beliefs or there will be bad things happening to your share price.
Transportation Secretary
All right.
Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
And here we have a specimen from the early 2000s.
Buck Sexton
A legacy investing platform. Please don't touch the exhibit, folks. It could crash.
Clay Travis
Ready to step out of the financial history museum? At public.com you can invest in almost everything. Stocks, bonds, options and more. You can even put your cash to work at an industry leading 4.1% APY. Leave your clunky, outdated platform behind. Go to public.com and fund your account in five minutes or less. Paid for by Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC. Full disclosures at public.com disclosures.
Buck Sexton
Hey, Buck. One of my kids called me an unk the other day. An unk? Yep. Slaying, evidently. For not being hip. Being an old dude. So how do we Un unk. You get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me. That's simple enough. Just search the Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton show and hit the subscribe button. Takes less than five seconds to help. Un unk me. Do it for Clay, do it for freedom, and get great content while you're there. The Clay, Travis and buck Sexton Show YouTube channel. We've been trying to track him down for a bit, but he's really busy. He's finally with us. We're very pleased. Transportation secretary Sean Duffy. Mr. Secretary, welcome on the program.
Transportation Secretary
Hey, man. I think this is my inaugural visit to the program. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.
Buck Sexton
Absolutely. We're honored to have you. Clay sends his regards. He is. Is on the golf course today. I'm hearing rumors that he hit it 340 yards from the back tees. I don't know if that's true or not, but this is what people are saying. But tell me this. Let's. Let's.
Transportation Secretary
Let's just leave the play on the golf course on the day I show up.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, let's. Let's do this, though. Tell me what's going on, particularly. I'm a New Yorker. At least I grew up in New York, so I spent plenty of time in Newark Airport. It has been a total mess. The air traffic control situation seems like it's a disaster that you inherited here. And is it getting better? What is the problem? Why are we constantly having all these flight delays that aren't weather related? How does it get fixed? Got a lot of frustrated flyers out there who are hoping you're going to help clear all this nonsense up. What's going on?
Transportation Secretary
Yeah. So first we have to recognize this has been a problem that's been burning for a long time, but it was coming to a head over the last four years, over the last administration. Government watchdog groups told Biden and Buttigieg, listen, you're going to have real problems. You need to fix the air traffic control system. And they didn't do anything. So they've left it to us. And what you saw in Newark is kind of a culmination of several of the problems that we have in the airspace, and they happened at the same time. So in Newark, you had three things. One, they shut down a Runway to repave it. Right. They open it up 13 days before schedule grade on the Port Authority. But the two issues remaining are issues that we see throughout the whole system were 3,000 air traffic controllers short nationwide and so you're seeing a lack of controllers in the Philly TRACON that controls the Newark airspace. And then we're having telecom issues. Our infrastructure for air traffic control still uses copper wires. Nobody uses copper wires anymore. Everyone's on fiber. So we were having telecom issues in the Philly curricon, and we resolved that issue on. On the, on the, on the copper wire. But Verizon moved incredibly fast, our partner there, and laid brand new fiber between Philly and New York. And so, by the way, we're still testing that fiber. You want to be ultra safe before you switch it over. That'll be tested through probably the end of June, early July. And then there's 22 controllers in the Philly tray, Kyle. Six of them are out right now, five for the trauma that they had because of the outages from late April, early May. One is on sicklead. We brought in 22 new controllers to train in Philly right now. Now, when I say a new controller, what I mean is this could be an air traffic controller who is certified in a different airspace, say Denver. If they come to the Philly TRACON to control a different airspace, they have to get recertified on that specific airspace. And so most of these are experienced controllers, but it's going to take them time to get certified. So the problems of telecom and the problems of the Runway and the problems of the controllers, you're going to have a small role of continual improvement. But you were seeing and giving you a lot of information here, Buck, but what you saw was we reduced the capacity at Newark. So all these flights were scheduled, but they weren't fine because we reduced the capacity, and you saw delays and cancellations, and it was a disaster. For a couple weeks. What we've done is we've got all the airlines to agree that we're going to reduce our capacity. So if you book in Newark now, you actually fly. And that's what's key. No one wants to go to the airport and wait four hours and be canceled. So because of the agreement that we have at Newark, everyone says, okay, we're not going to have as many flights coming out of here, but the ones we do have will actually go. So we're on the path to resolving it. But all these solutions take time because you can't snap your fingers and create more controllers and you can't, you know, quickly run fiber and then, you know, quickly test it. But we're doing it, and it's going to get better in Newark.
Buck Sexton
But give me some GRACE now, nationwide, Mr. Secretary, there's also. It feels like. And you see a lot of people complaining about it on X. I'm sure just flight delays have. It feels like the problem is constantly getting worse, not better. So you've talked us about Newark, but just in general across the country, how do we get it so that especially a lot of these routes where people are flying, you know, and there's a 60 or 70% delay rate. Some of these delay rates just seems unconscionable. Is that a function of airlines got to scale back the flights? Is it air traffic control? How do we get it so that people can really believe credibly if there's clear skies. Okay, I'm not talking about if there's tornadoes or crazy weather, but if the weather is fine, their plane's probably going to take off when it's supposed to, and they're probably going to get off it when they're supposed to.
Transportation Secretary
Yeah. So we are using equipment that is, you know, 25, 35 years old in whether it's the towers that are at the airports. The tracon, you know, is the next ring out from the tower. It's really old equipment and it's really old telecom. And so I'm going to need a lot of money from Congress. It should have been done, you know, a decade ago. It wasn't. And we have to basically gut and build brand new our air traffic control system with the best technology in the world. We can do it really quickly. It's going to take, you know, three years if the Congress clears the committing process. For me, if I don't have to go through nepa, that just, you know, stacks, you know, you know, month upon month or year upon year, they clear that for me, we're going to be able to do it fast. And what you'll see is you can handle greater capacity with the new system that we're going to build. And as new technology becomes available, you can deploy it off this new system to get even more efficiencies instead of having the flip phone that you can send as many updates as you want to your Razer flip phone, if that's in your genre. It wasn't mine. It's not going to update it is what it is. It's old, it's antiquated. That's what we have right now. But if I build you an iPhone 15, you can deploy a ton of technology off of it. We're going to build you the iPhone 15 that you can build technology off of. And you have to think that we're going to have more air travel, but it's going to get more complicated because we're going to deploy in the next years. You're going to see drone technology expand and services expand throughout the country, where you're going to get Amazon deliveries, you're going to get your Uber eats, you're going to get a hot cup of coffee from Starbucks. If you shop, if you get your coffee at Starbucks, all by a drone. And we're going to have Evitol. These are like the Ubers in the other. They're big drones that you can hold, you know, three, four people. And you're going to see those deploy in the airspace.
Buck Sexton
How far are we from that, Mr. Secretary? Because that sounds pretty cool.
Transportation Secretary
It's very cool. So they're testing these evitals right now. I think you can see the technology advance. Orchard, which is one of the technologies, is actually has a contract with the Olympics in 2028. And it's not just to showcase their technology. They actually have to use that technology to move people around all the different sites at the LA Olympics. So it's moving very fast. The FAA has to certify it, make sure it's safe. Eventually you'll see you won't have. These will not be piloted. They can be autonomous or right now, in certain parts of the country, like in Texas, the drone deliveries are happening in certain parts of the country right now. Easily successful. People love them. And what they've done with drones is obviously the noise becomes a concern. They've done really well innovating on props to reduce the noise. You barely know what's in the sky when it's hovering over your house, dropping product or set product down.
Buck Sexton
That's very cool. Well, that's looking forward to having that going on. But obviously if it's tough to have air traffic control for planes, if we put thousands, tens of thousands, however many drones and air taxis in the sky, that's gonna, I assume that's gonna result in some interesting air traffic issues as well. So hopefully that'll all get squared away. Tell us about the report you just released. California's high speed rail. $16 billion, 17 years, no track laid. How is that possible?
Transportation Secretary
Yeah, it's a great question. So first, I'm a conservative. I would love to have high speed rail in America. I think it would be great if we could do it. This was the first big project and like liberals seem to always deliver the same results, which are not very good. This was supposed to be done years ago and it was Supposed to cost a little over $20 billion. They haven't laid any track. They've spent billions. They've now told us that they can complete a truncated portion of the project by 2033. We looked at their data. They've given us 80,000 pages of documents. They just can't do it. And so they have about $4 billion of grants that have been given by the DOT. And it's our philosophy that if we give them that 4, if we let that $4 billion go, that's 4 billion you don't have for other good projects around the country. And I think the taxpayer expects us to spend their money well and not to invest in boondoggles.
Buck Sexton
And so where did the money, I got to ask Mr. Secretary, where. $16 billion, it's a lot of money for a state level project. What was it spent on?
Transportation Secretary
So they were, they were buying land. Right. And by the way, there's, there is an eyebrow raised from me in that how is the land, who is buying land along the route of this, of this proposed high speed rail and how much money did they make and are they connected to politicians? All those questions need to be asked and looked at is, you know, was there any criminal activity? I don't know, but I think it should be looked at. The project now it's, it's out over 10 years. And if they did the full project, it was supposed to be tens of billions. It would be $130 billion to actually build it. And they still don't know that they can do it in any specific time frame. So you have to recognize that it's a nice concept, but liberals don't spend money well and they haven't done it well on this project. And so at what point does the government cut bait and say, you know what, we're not going to do this one, but maybe there's other good projects across the country that we could invest in that would, that would serve the population well.
Buck Sexton
And tell us about what's in the. Assuming it gets passed more or less as, as is what is in the big beautiful bill that will go to transportation that will make a difference to the American people.
Transportation Secretary
So for us, we, there's $12 billion for this brand new air traffic control system. That's not going to be enough. You got to think about this. This is the biggest, it's nationwide infrastructure. It is the most important infrastructure that we're going to build on in the last several decades for sure, because it's such a big part of our economy. People fly whether it's business or pleasure. We move a lot of products through the air. And so we have 12 billion. We'll need more than that at a later point. They're going to have to give it to us. One of the problems, buck, in the past is the congress would give tranches of money to the FAA and then the priority would change or the administration changes and they never got the money. So we need to get the money up front. So 12 billion is a nice start. We can begin the project. But this year I need to get the rest of the money and then in that secondary bill we can hopefully get the, the clearing the deck of the permits. I also think it's important making sure we don't get a massive tax increase. That's big for us in the big beautiful bill. Also, there's a provision that if you buy a brand new car that was made in America, you can write off up to $10,000 of your interest payments on the vehicle. So again, incentivizing people to buy new cars. The president's doing all kinds of things to deliver on the promises that he made during the campaign. Which by the way is nice when we have presidents that, that actually do what they say or try to accomplish what they promised.
Buck Sexton
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy. Sir, thank you so much for being with us and please fix all the things.
Transportation Secretary
We appreciate it and the potholes too, but right on your house. I got you.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, you got me. Thank you, sir. Good to talk to you about the other A data breach last month exposed nearly 200 million records, including login credentials for Google, Apple, meta and more. With a number that big, the odds are that some of your own information might well be include stolen information. Contains usernames, passwords and login URLs connected to services like PayPal, Netflix and more. Criminals could use this information to commit online identity theft. It's important to understand how cybercrime and identity theft are affecting our lives. Just like it's important you know how to protect yourself with lifelocks online Identity theft protection I've got a lifelock membership. I've had it for almost a decade now and I renew my membership every year because it's worth it. Lifelock systems monitor millions of data points a second for risk to your identity. Lifelock detects and alerts you to potential identity threats. You may not spot on your own, like loans being taken out in your name. And if you do become a victim of identity theft, a dedicated U S based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. It's easy to help protect yourself with LifeLock. Join now. Save 40 off your first year with My Name Buck as your promo code. Call 1-800-LIFELOCK or go online to lifelock.com and use promo code BUCK for 40 off terms apply.
Clay Travis
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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – Daily Review With Clay and Buck Sexton (June 04, 2025)
Host: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Release Date: June 4, 2025
Platform: iHeartPodcasts
In today's episode, Buck Sexton delves into the escalating tensions surrounding immigration enforcement in the United States. He highlights a troubling trend where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are increasingly becoming targets of violent actions by anti-immigration activists.
Key Discussions:
Violence Against ICE Agents: Buck emphasizes the rising incidents of physical assaults and obstructions directed at ICE officers during enforcement operations. He draws parallels to the January 6th Capitol attack, questioning why similar severe repercussions are not facing those who assault ICE agents.
Legislative Perspectives: Buck critiques Democratic lawmakers, particularly referencing Hakeem Jeffries, who expressed concerns over ICE agents concealing their identities during raids. Buck argues that such measures are more about intimidation rather than genuine accountability.
Notable Quotes:
Tom Homan on ICE Accountability [08:28]:
"Every single ICE agent who's engaged in this aggressive overreach and are trying to hide their identities from the American people will be unsuccessful in doing that. This is America, not the Soviet Union."
Hakeem Jeffries on Vilifying ICE [11:30]:
"President Trump saving lives. The men and women of ICE are saving lives every day... the world's upside down when the guy that carries their badging guns, the bad guy and the ones who break the law are the victims."
Buck Sexton’s Commentary [12:09]:
"Democrats just don't like it... they're trying to pretend it's about accountability. This is exactly what Democrats do—when they want donors to go public, they say it's about transparency, but it's actually about intimidation."
Buck Sexton addresses a significant shift in the corporate landscape, where major companies that previously restricted services based on political beliefs are beginning to reverse these policies.
Key Discussions:
Citigroup Reverses Firearms Policy:
Citigroup announced the removal of its restrictive policies against firearms clients, signaling a move away from politically motivated business decisions.
Call to Action for Corporate Accountability:
Buck urges listeners to demand transparency from corporations that continue to favor left-leaning media outlets over conservative platforms. He emphasizes the importance of supporting companies that embrace all political beliefs, ensuring that conservative voices are not marginalized in the marketplace.
Notable Points:
Trump Administration’s Role:
The administration is encouraged to enforce policies that prevent political discrimination in corporate practices, ensuring that businesses treat all customers equally regardless of their political affiliations.
Consumer Influence:
Buck suggests that consumers have the power to influence corporate policies by supporting businesses that uphold non-discriminatory practices, thereby fostering a more inclusive economic environment.
Buck touches upon the financial strategies being discussed to address the national debt, tying it into the broader legislative efforts encapsulated in what he refers to as the "Big Beautiful Bill."
Key Discussions:
Debt Procrastination Issue:
Buck stresses the urgency of tackling the national debt, warning against procrastination which he deems the "enemy of success." He underscores the necessity of making difficult financial decisions now to secure the country's economic future.
Legislative Pushback:
There is notable resistance from certain conservative and Republican factions, including figures like Elon Musk, regarding aspects of the Big Beautiful Bill. Buck anticipates detailed analysis and discussion on these pushbacks in the episode.
A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to an interview with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, where they discuss critical issues in the nation's transportation infrastructure.
Key Topics Covered:
Air Traffic Control Issues:
Secretary Duffy explains the persistent problems at Newark International Airport, attributing delays to outdated infrastructure, a shortage of air traffic controllers, and technological challenges. He mentions ongoing efforts to modernize the air traffic control system, including transitioning from copper wires to fiber optics to resolve telecom issues.
Notable Quotes:
Secretary Duffy [37:28]:
"We're still testing that fiber. We're doing it, and it's going to get better in Newark."
Buck Sexton on Infrastructure Needs [41:49]:
"We are using equipment that is 25, 35 years old... we need to gut and build a brand new air traffic control system with the best technology in the world."
Future of Air Travel:
The discussion also delves into the integration of drone technology and autonomous air taxis, highlighting advancements and upcoming tests, such as those for the LA Olympics in 2028.
Notable Quotes:
California's High-Speed Rail Report:
Secretary Duffy critiques California's high-speed rail project, which has spent $16 billion over 17 years without laying any track. He condemns the mismanagement and advocates for reallocating funds to more effective projects.
Notable Quotes:
Big Beautiful Bill’s Provisions for Transportation:
The interview concludes with an overview of how the Big Beautiful Bill includes $12 billion for the air traffic control modernization project and incentives for purchasing American-made cars, such as allowing a $10,000 write-off on interest payments for new, domestically manufactured vehicles.
Notable Quotes:
The episode also addresses recent cybersecurity concerns, focusing on a significant data breach that exposed nearly 200 million records, including sensitive login credentials.
Key Discussions:
Impact of Data Breaches:
Buck highlights the severity of the breach, explaining how stolen information can lead to online identity theft and the broader implications for personal and national security.
Protective Measures:
The hosts discuss the importance of using identity protection services like LifeLock to safeguard personal information against cyber threats.
Notable Advertisement Mention:
This episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show provides a thorough analysis of pressing national issues, including immigration enforcement challenges, shifts in corporate policies regarding political discrimination, financial strategies to manage the national debt, and critical updates on transportation infrastructure. The interview with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy offers insightful perspectives on improving air traffic control and the future of air travel technology. Additionally, the discussion on cybersecurity underscores the growing concerns over data protection in an increasingly digital world. Through engaging conversations and informed opinions, Clay and Buck aim to keep their listeners well-informed on current events and policy developments.