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Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Welcome everybody, to the Monday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. I am back from France and very happy to be here with all of you. Still not 100% on the voice. Sorry about that. Got a little sick when I was abroad. No shock there. I don't know, man. This Miami situation, Clay, my immune system systems not what it used to be. If I don't have perfect weather and the beach nearby it all time.
Ryan Seacrest
Anytime you leave and go anywhere, now that you're in perfect weather all the time around, a little bit of a subtle shock. You got to get back to the New York City. Got it back to eating and, you know, rat infested pizza parlors in New York City to, to get the immune system back up and running.
Clay Travis
You know, communism. One of the things you wouldn't expect, maybe good for the immune system. Speaking of New York, we got a lot of stories. Obviously the Iran situation, we'll dive into. I haven't had a chance talk to you about it yet. I'm gone just about a week and you know, sure enough, Clay almost gets us into World War Three. Who knew? Clay, what are you doing, buddy? You know, I thought you might throw a party. I didn't think you might start a global conflict. But we've got a lot to get into with Iran and the strikes there over the weekend. As you know, President Trump ordered the bunker busters to be used and substantial damage done to the three main nuclear facilities in Iran. In Iran. We've got also some live updates on that one coming from the news wires here in just a moment. I mentioned New York City, though. This guy, Zoran Mamadani, who is really a shocking socialist, I mean, is a straight out of. He's actually even crazier, I think, than Bernie Sanders in some ways. He is surging ahead in the Democrat primary polling in my old hometown of New York, which is just going to be disastrous if he ends up. As much as I, I don't know, I despise Cuomo because of what he did during COVID but I don't think he is a complete lunatic. I think this guy's a total lunatic, politically speaking. He's out of his mind. Mamdani. So we'll get into that. We've also got, gosh, so much as is generally the case on a Monday, the President weighing in on what will happen if anybody decides to mess with us. The Iran strikes obviously occurred over the weekend. The US Involved. Last I remember, Clay and I were in the Oval Office a few Hours later, the strikes on Iran, on. On Iran occur by the Israeli Air Force. That was last. Not this Thursday, the Thursday before. Right, the Thursday before that. And so here we are now, really, two weeks into this conflict. And over this weekend, President Trump ordered the deployment of our $2.4 billion apiece, when you add the full scope of the program in B2 bombers, also tomahawk missiles fired from our nuclear subs. So two of the three parts of the nuclear triad involved in the strikes, our nuclear triad involved in the strikes on these reactors and these research facilities that the Iranians had been operating and refused to negotiate their way out of. The story right now. And look, my assessment, some of you are asking, and it was really because I was overseas and I was six hours ahead, and my soul, you know, I had to make sure that I was, you know, paying attention to world events while also representing us abroad for our wonderful advertisers or possible advertisers. But, Clay, I think that a lot of what you've shared on the strikes I would, I would agree with in terms of its incredible military precision. Tactically, both the Israeli and American components of this have been remarkable. And the Iranian response has been far more inept and weak than I would have even anticipated. We could have witnessed what I would call the greatest aerial strike success, certainly in this century and perhaps even going back a century. Now, we are waiting to see what comes of this. Clay, we've got the imminent threat. This is the big headline across Fox News and other sites right now. This, look, this is the concern, right? The concern is what is the blowback? What are the consequences of these strikes? We worry about terrorist cells. I think that's the highest likelihood threat, but also the lowest impact threat against U.S. strategic interests. You know, if some lunatic somewhere, you know, God forbid, but shoots a few people or worse, that's not going to change the trajectory of the war in the Middle East. It's just a spite act of a terrorist or spiteful act of a terrorist. But you have something here where you have military action that is apparently imminent from the Iranian regime, firing at bases in our US Base in Qatar, so striking, obviously, Qatari soil and going after, or rather, you know, in the sovereignty of Qatar, going after US Bases placed there. If this happens, I think we can expect a major escalation, retaliatory escalation, Clay, from Trump. And I think that this is the concern a lot of people have. What we've seen so far has been a remarkable success. What happens next is the big question.
Ryan Seacrest
Look, I Think. Welcome back and glad to have you back stateside.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Ryan Seacrest
And I think that Trump had to make the most consequential decision of his presidency so far. And I think he made the right one. And so Saturday evening we attacked the B2 bomber pilots, all of the individuals who fired the shots from our, our submarines. It's an incredible statement for American know how. And I think you also have to extend it. We have talked a lot about this. There were no leaks. Trump 1.0 was a sieve. Everything immediately got out. Trump 2.0, Pete Hegseth, Marco Rubio, JD Vance, obviously Trump himself, everybody in the national security team, Tulsi Gabbard, they delivered a magisterial plan and performance in terms of the attacks. Now, you went through this once before. To me, the question that, that we are monitoring as we are speaking to all of you is how will Iran respond? And there seems to be an expectation that they will respond in some way by attempting to attack American forces in the Middle east, which is not dissimilar to what happened. And you could probably speak to this very well. After Trump killed Kaseem Soleimani and so many people out there said, oh my, you remember World War 3 was trending. Everybody lost their minds. There were injuries to American troops, thankfully no deaths. And then it was like, okay, Iran got to have their public reprisal against the Great Satan. But it was not a substantial response in terms of its devastating impact by any stretch of the imagination. And we moved on. I wonder what the decision is going to be of the ayatollahs from a face saving perspective. What will they do now, I think is one of the questions that lingers. I think you would sign off with me on Trump's decision to wipe out much of the nuclear capabilities of Iran sent an important message. It was necessary since Iran seemed to have no interest in actually negotiating. We kind of forecast that this would be likely the outcome. I think the vast majority of the Trump supporters, voters, all of you out there listening, agree, some disagree. And that's okay. It's healthy to disagree. We should have big debates in public on major issues. But I think now the question is, what's next?
Clay Travis
Well, I also think that it's not a finished situation by any means. And so for anyone to come to a conclusion on this, you know, you have to remember everyone, I worked in that Office of Iraq Analysis, it was called actually oia, that had been the place that was also responsible for before I got there. Don't blame me for the WMD analysis, largely in Iraq. And to look at what the Iraq War was, now, that's a. That's a full scale invasion. It's very different. I understand this. And one of the problems we have here is that people can pick their, you know, is this. Is this World War II and Neville Chamberlain situation or is this Gulf of Tonkin incident or is that, you know, everyone can pick whatever the historical analogy they want is for this situation and try to find a way to fit this in. This is a. No surprise is a unique and complicated circumstance that is specific to exactly what we are seeing here. Meaning you can draw some lessons from other things, but nothing else is a roadmap for this, because this is still happening, and this is different from everything else that we have seen. Can the government lie to you? Yes, absolutely. Is mission creep a real thing? Absolutely. Should there be concerns about, you know, those as well as other aspects of this? Yes, there should. However, so far, what we've seen is the Iranian nuclear program brought to an end with minimal casualties, both on the good guy side and minimal civilian casualties on the Iranian side. And the response from the Iranians has been almost nothing. I mean, let's just call it what it is. The Iranians have been, I think, taken very much by surprise by how effective these strikes were. And as I said initially when this first happened, when the Israelis opened up. If you have a great capability to counterattack somebody, you don't let your entire military leadership get wiped out in the first hour of the war. Okay? That's the truth. There's no playing possum here. There's no, oh, wait, we're lulling them into a false sense of security by letting them take out, you know, most of our major military assets, Most of our military leadership? No, of course not. So you're talking about a largely defanged Iranian military, certainly for external operations at this point. Point, it's very different. When you get into something like nation building or. Or counterinsurgency or regime change or anything like that, then it's just people walking around the streets with AK47s can. Can, you know, ruin a much larger army. We've learned that lesson, but we're not there. So we need to line these things up with where we are. And I just. Clay, one thing, I was observing a lot of this as I was in France and doing my thing and smoking my. Actually, I did not smoke any Galoise because that would have been. That would have been bad for my cold. But I observed all these things, and people want to declare things as either right that they were either right or wrong based on what's happened. And I would just say that nobody knows yet, really. If you've been saying World War three would break out right away. Yeah, clearly that's not true. The notion that the Iranian. That the Iranians were going to be able to turn to Russia and China and those two countries were going to militarily intervene against the United States here, that's insane. And I saw a lot of people saying that. Unfortunately, that's just not based on any reality of anyone who understands, really, how national security works at the most fundamental level, because there's no interest in those countries in doing that. Why would they do that? Doesn't make any sense. But then again, we're waiting to see, as we talk to you right now in real time, if there are major strikes on US Military bases and what that looks like and what our countermeasures are. So I just say to everybody, we don't know yet. We're watching this as it goes. I think Trump made the right call. I think the Israelis so far were far more successful than most people anticipated. They could be this quickly. Now we see what happens next. Now we see what the next phase is. So we'll take calls on this and dive into it more here. And Clay's watching closely on the monitors as we see him. And obviously we're thinking about our troops, too, and we don't want. We don't want to have any losses on our side. So we'll watch this.
Ryan Seacrest
I think what you hit as we go to break here, Buck, is. Is super significant. Iran is isolated and pay attention to what people do, not always what they say. There's nobody in the Middle east that is actually lined up aggressively behind Iran. In fact, most of them are behind Israel in the United States. And on top of that, this idea that somehow China or Russia were going to get involved. China and Russia don't actually want, I don't think, a nuclear Iran. I don't think they trust the ayatollahs with nuclear weapons. And so they have been very muted in their criticisms as well. Some countries are going to chirp, but in terms of actions, I don't know that we have ever seen Iran more isolated in terms of actual support and backing, which is why the idea of, oh, what comes next, World War Three? No, actually, there aren't people allied with Iran who are willing to put themselves on the line over this. Now, again, we may well get an Iranian response officially live on the air as. As this show progresses, based on the way things are looking right now. We will update you on the latest there. But in terms of everything falling apart after this strike, to me so far, it feels like the Soleimani assassination where Iran talks a big game but isn't able to actually respond in a significant way and maybe doesn't even want to respond in a significant way.
Clay Travis
I was aware, Clay, of very of the highest level discussions back in the Iraq war days. I want to say, you know, late in the Bush administration, early in the Obama administration, in that era, high level discussions about what to do when it came to the irgc, Quds Force and Soleimani and the consensus on the policy side, not from the war, the war fighters wanted to take him out because he was killing more fellow war fighters. He was just handing these EFPs explosively foreign penetrators to the Shia militias to deploy specifically against our troops. They wanted to take him out. Policy community said, oh no, it'll create so much of a, you know, we'll have to worry about the Arab street so much or whatever. They were wrong. So on the Qasem Soleimani thing, we saw the results. We saw what happened. The people that said you can't hit that guy, they were wrong and Trump proved them wrong. So now we see it's going to take a little more time. We see taking out the reactors, the US Getting involved in taking out the reactors. Was this a brilliant masterstroke tactically and otherwise, to end the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions for the foreseeable future, or was it? Is it something else? We'll see. We know that the media is getting very fired up about these stories this week. But what's not getting a lot of attention is a study under review of our nation's largest assets and whether they can be monetized for the benefit of a sovereign wealth fund. There's at least one guy out there who's had a history, a long one in D.C. and Wall street who's paying attention to this. His name is Jim Rickards. He's one of those in the know people with great insights on a potential forthcoming opportunity with huge benefit to our nation and to you in particular. Jim Rickards is tracking the possible creation of the first ever national sovereign wealth fund. This is a fund that provides a return to citizens or retires national debt, which benefits everybody. Jim thinks that this could be coming because of an asset buried under American soil that would allow us to have a sovereign wealth fund. To hear more of Jim Rickards thinking, go to birthright2025.com A lot of this conversation is a result of President Trump's instigation on this issue. It could make Trump the most popular president in history and help millions of investors with their Retirement. Go to birthright2025.com to get the details free of charge. That's birthright2025.com paid for by Paradigm Press.
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Clay Travis
All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck. We're still waiting for the updates if and when they come in on this reported imminent threat against US Military base in Qatar. We've also got more updates from the region on what Israel has been hitting. You see Clay, they blew the doors off of or the gates off of the infamous Evan prison in Iran which is where they keep political prisoners, you know, high profile prisoners. Israelis just blew the gates open. It's on the front page or on the, it's funny I say front page as if I actually like Clay read paper papers but you know it's on the website.
Ryan Seacrest
I was walking around trying to find paper paper this morning in Michigan. I'm doing the show from up here and I finally found paper paper to sit down and do all my reading.
Clay Travis
You and my dad, I don't even know he's. You guys can both also maneuver it around like it's no problem. I, I don't, yes.
Ryan Seacrest
Laura gets driven crazy by the amount of sound and even when I, if there's a pay, if there's an article on multiple pages she's like I, I, I don't even want, I, I don't even want to read it. I don't know why they have to put it on two pages.
Clay Travis
I, I co sign with her on that one. But here is from the weekend. I wanted you to hear it from President Trump himself. Remember he, he this is a big decision made by the commander in chief to follow up the Iranian strikes with a military capability that only the United States has. That really goes to among our most expensive and high tech and sensitive from a classified and proprietary perspective. I mean this is something we can do. No one else on the planet can do what the US military did with these strikes in Iran. President over the weekend at about 10 Eastern time on Saturday addressed the nation. He had J.D. kerry and I watched it live as it happened. I'm sure many of you did as well. But just so you can get a sense as to what the President's view of the strikes. This happened on Saturday. Some of you might not have even heard it. This is cut one, play it. A short time ago, the US military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear facilities in the Iranian regime. Fordeau, Natanz and Esfahan. Everybody heard those names for years as they built this horribly destructive enterprise. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terrorists. Tonight I can report to the world that the strikes were a spectacular military success. Iran's key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated. Iran, the bully of the Middle east must now make peace. If they do not, future attacks will be Far greater and a lot easier. He made it very clear, first of all, he's a spectacular success. And President Trump, in what I think will be one of the more memorable moments of not just his second term, but really of his entire presidency, when all is said and done, there's a big moment, Clay. We've been talking about the Iranian nuclear facilities and possible strikes on them for decades now. I mean, this has been a conversation going on for a very long time. But notice this, Clay, and this is the part of it that I think has to be factored into our calculations about the success of this and about the risk reward calculations. He's let the Iranians know, if you mess around now, you know, that's it. We did our thing. We hit your facility. If you come at us with some terror strike or you do something somewhere, we can hit you a lot harder wherever we want to hit you. It's not worth it to you. So the question is, what is the calculation made by the mullahs, by the Iranian regime itself? That's what remains to be seen and we could be finding out at any moment.
Ryan Seacrest
Yeah, reports that the expected attack is in Qatar. I mean, question for you. If we have all of the intel about where the attack is coming from and theoretically we're going to remove our troops to keep them safe, how much of letting them have a couple of missiles land is just for show? In other words, it almost feels like allowing your sparring partner to, you know, kind of catch you one in the ribs when you know it's coming and it's not actually in any kind of significant danger because you're giving them the opportunity to look like, hey, we returned fire. Even though, look, if on a scale of 1 to 10, our attack on them was a 10, if they punch back with a 1, it's like, okay, nothing really happened, but you're allowing them to save face a bit. I mean, how much of this is, in other words, kabuki theater or almost sparring on our side at this point?
Clay Travis
This, this brings up, and I know a lot of you and we'll take some calls and some talk backs on this because it's in there's in MAGA world. As you all know, there are very, very fervently held beliefs on this particular issue that are not all in alignment. Okay, you really have a non interventionist. What are we doing? Have we not learned the lessons wing of MAGA right now? And then you have a Israel needs to not live under the specter of nuclear threat from lunatics and this is the time, and we can do it, and we've done it. And, you know, you have these two different. I'm very aware of this. I've been reading, and a lot of, you know, some of the big voices on one side, some of the big voices on the, on the other side, so we have room for this discussion here. But, Clay, to the point you're making, it's about, well, do we want. You know, there's. We want. Let me be very clear about how I'm saying this. There's, would we like a regime change to occur? And then there's, do we want to take part in any kind of regime change? And do we realize if we go with number two, what the implications of that may be like? There's these different phases or different tiers. I think that the Trump administration wants a new government in Iran, but I think they're very careful about not involving themselves further in overthrowing the existing government because we don't want to be in a situation where there's mission creep and we're doing more. You know that. And I, and I completely share that sentiment. We should not be rebuilding. You went to Iraq.
Ryan Seacrest
You, you were there, so serving the country. So, I mean, you know, which I know a lot of listeners were. I was not. Most listeners were not, I would imagine, your perspective. But I was, I was interested to hear your perspective on this in particular. There are obviously differences between Iran and Iraq, but your perspective would be. But I'm curious to hear, having seen the United States try to engineer a government in Iraq. Now, Iran was involved in helping to try to stop that from being in any way successful, deeply involved.
Clay Travis
I mean, it really subverted our efforts in the most malicious ways they could.
Ryan Seacrest
But, yeah, and I think a lot of times people miss that, that Iran has been a malign influence basically, on any thing that could be good in the Middle east for some time to come. But having been there, I imagine you don't think it's a good idea to have boots on the ground trying to impact, in the event there were regime change, the decisions made by the Iranian people?
Clay Travis
It's a. That would be an absolutely horrible idea. And it is one that I would vociferously oppose in whatever ways are available to me. Having seen, Clay, not just the reality in Iraq, the reality of Afghanistan. Yeah, I saw Even in 2000, I was in Afghanistan in 2010, and it was when Obama had decided that this was the good war and Iraq was the bad war. And anybody who was in Afghanistan then and remember, I I had essentially like delivery of. I was almost like a highly classified gopher. I would deliver classified among principals in theater. So I would take the stuff to the ambassador, I would take the stuff to the four star general and I mean, I mean hand carry like, you know, hard copy stuff. And I just remember any of this and I had to read the assessments. I had to be familiar with what was going on. If you knew what was going on in Iraq, I mean in Afghanistan in 2010, you knew that the policy was failing and had no chance of success. But what happens is that it all, everything gets cleaned up when you get to the. I wasn't in the military but the guys would say when it gets to like the brigade or Sorry, it gets to the division level and then the command level, all the assessments from brigade and battalion and company, all this stuff with the guys are actually seeing it gets cleaned up to. Yeah, no, we're doing great. It's working really well. Because the four star doesn't want to tell the president your ideas suck and this is never going to work or you know, our ideas suck and this is never going to work. So yeah, that is a lesson that I think was learned very painfully by us in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And so that's something that we have to keep in mind here. But I think that right now we're not there. Not everything is, you know, just like not everything is Vietnam, not everything is World War II. This is its own situation. And so far what we. Do you have an update on.
Ryan Seacrest
Yeah, we just got breaking news, reports of explosions in Qatar. And this is from Barack Ravid, I believe, who's a reporter at Axios. Sorry to interrupt but Israeli official says Iran has launched six missiles towards US bases in Qatar. So as we were telling you that it was likely to happen. We will keep you updated on the absolute latest there. But that report just coming down in the last two minutes or so.
Clay Travis
Well, yes. So to your question though. So there's the regime change conversation that factors in now to everything that comes from this. Either the aftermath of the US Strikes or the nuclear facilities. How do we avoid getting drawn into that? I think there's pretty clear, I shouldn't say universal or clear agreement, but there's pretty widespread agreement among maga. I'm not even. Democrats just hate Trump and they hate. I can't even, you know, what do they. They just need to figure out why they exist other than hating Trump. And that's their own problem in terms of Republicans, in terms of the Trump, Trump voters out there. There's a, I think, a broad rejection of any intervention that would require US boots on the ground or anything like that. But that's, that's one thing that we have now, though. We look at the escalate or the escalation, the back and forth that would happen after something like this. Clay, if Iran hits military bases, that is a proportionate response in some way to what we did. That would not, it doesn't mean that we're going to like allow them to do it. It doesn't mean that we don't necessarily exact a price for them doing it. But it wouldn't result in, I think, an escalation. We go, okay, now we're really going to make things more painful for Iran, substantially more so than we already have. And then the Israelis already had. If they do something horrific, I mean, I don't want to get into it, but something Al Qaeda style, which is really the concern here. The concern is that the Iranian regime, the irgc, who is every bit, I mean, look at the bombing of the, well, that was a military target, but you look at the bombing of Marine barracks, they've been involved in mass casualty terrorism in the past. If they do that against a civilian target, then I think the question turns to, or the likelihood is that the Trump administration goes and takes out the remnants of senior Iranian leadership. I think Trump has intimated that essentially, ok, if you order, if the ayatollah orders mass casualty civilian murder anywhere in the world, you know, against Americans, Israelis, you're, then you are Mullah Omar with bin Laden and the Taliban, then we're in a whole different world of how we're going to handle this. So that's what I think remains to be seen. If they just strike our military bases, I don't think, not that that's, we told them not to do that. We may hit their bases more in retaliation and say are you done yet? Are you done yet? But if they do something against civilians, then I think that you might just decide, we might decide to decapitate what's left of the regime. That's what I think could happen.
Ryan Seacrest
Trump is in the Situation Room, by the way, which suggests we'll give you the latest on this again, reports that six different missiles fired by Iran at Qatar and our military base presumably there. Again, this is, we will give you the latest, there's video out there showing those missiles coming in. It's night in the, in the Middle east right now, at least in Qatar, and we'll give you the absolute latest on that. But the reason why it suggests that we were very well aware that this was coming is because the president was already in the Situation Room and I'm sure they are monitoring in real time what exactly happens there. So we will give you the absolute latest when we come back. But Israeli citizens certainly appreciate solidarity our nation has shown them over the past 630 days since the October 7 Hamas terror attacks. Billboard's on display today in Israel with the words thank you Mr. President along with a picture of President Trump. Just 12 hours after our nation's military targeted strikes in Iran, Iran has fired back at Israel. This has been going on for for several days now, over a week. And the Fellowship is doing everything they can to make room and make hay for as many people as they possibly can to make sure that emergency rooms and shelters are fully stocked with critical life saving supplies. That's why the Fellowship needs your most generous gifts today to help make their work possible in this incredible time of need in Israel. Now's your time to stand with Israel's most vulnerable to rush your gift. Call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCj. You can also go online at ifcj.org that's ifcj.org Clay Travis and Buck Sexton telling it like it is. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Iran has responded so far. It appears that they telegraphed their actions. They are seeking to dial back after we kicked their ass on Saturday night. Either they don't have the ability to actually do anything to us, which is probably true, and or they are afraid of what we might do in response to them. And Buck, I loved on Saturday night when Trump came out about 10pm Eastern, Marco Rubio, Pete Hegseth and J.D. vance all arrayed behind him, spoke for about three and a half minutes. And then his top spokespeople, Rubio, Vance and Hegseth all spoke Sunday publicly and I thought did phenomenally well. But this, sorry, this Marco Rubio versus Margaret Brennan on, I think it's Face the Nation or CBS News or wherever the heck she works. Every time that it occurs, it just is an absolutely epic beatdown. And let's just play a couple of, a couple of these cuts. This is Rubio against Margaret brennan about cut 12 here. Just to give you a sense of the intellectual evisceration that took place on CBS Sunday Morning. This is what it sounded like.
Georgia Hardstark
It doesn't matter. The order was given. They have everything they need. Build Nuclear weapons. Why would you bury, why would you bury things in a mountain 300ft under the ground?
Clay Travis
Right.
Georgia Hardstark
Why would you bury six? Why do they have 60 enriched uranium? You don't need 60% enriched urine. The only countries in the world that have uranium at 60% are countries that have nuclear weapons because they can just quickly make it 90. They have all the elements they have. Why are they, why do they have a space program? Is Iran going to go to the moon? No. They're trying to build an icbm.
Karen Kilgariff
No, but that's a question. That's a question. That's a question of intent and, you know, intellectual. The intelligence assessment that it was, that Iran wanted to be a threshold.
Georgia Hardstark
How do you know what I'm talking.
Karen Kilgariff
About with the Intelligence March assessment? And that's why I was asking you.
Ryan Seacrest
If you know something more from.
Georgia Hardstark
That's also an inaccurate representation of it. That's an accurate representation of it. That's not how intelligence is read. That's not how intelligence is used. Here's what the whole world knows. Forget about intelligence, what the IAEA knows. They are enriching uranium well beyond anything you need for a, for a, for a civil nuclear program.
Ryan Seacrest
Okay, that's point one. Do you want to play, let's play point two here? Because I do think it goes into the essence of the attacks that are being levied here by left wing media, which it should be mentioned. Many people out there said, oh my goodness, if we do this, thousands of American troops are going to die. It's early, but we eviscerated, it appears the Iranian nuclear opportunity going forward and Iran basically rolled over and played dead. To your point, Buck, they are effectively, after 46 years of Ayatollah rule, a third third world country that's being frankly passed rapidly in their own region by the Saudi Arabia, the uae, Qatar, countries that they used to look down on for generations are now having way stronger economies, way better, frankly, military, and way more success as a country.
Clay Travis
Yeah, Iran is an ancient and proud civilization that for the last 50 years has been brought low by moron theocrats who make everything worse for everybody in the country. That's what's happened. You know, it's a bit like you talk to Cuban Americans down here in South Florida about Cuba, a beautiful island with great people who have been immiserated and enslaved by communist imbeciles since the Castro regime took power. Right. I mean, this is unfortunately what can happen in some of these places. But here we've got Marco Rubio. Cut to you want to play this one, Right. He continues on dealing with Margaret Brennan. Play it.
Georgia Hardstark
Why would you ENRICH Uranium at 60% if you don't intend to one day use it, to take it to 90 and build a weapon? Why are you, why are you developing ICBMs? Why do you have 8,000 short range missiles and 2 to 3,000 long mid range missiles that you continue to develop? Why do you do all these things? They have everything they need for a nuclear weapon. They have the delivery mechanisms, they have the enrichment capability, they have the highly enriched uranium that is stored. That's all we need to see, right?
Karen Kilgariff
Well, especially in the hands of a.
Georgia Hardstark
Regime that's already involved in terrorism and proxies and all kinds of things around. They are the source of all.
Karen Kilgariff
Yes, and no one's disputing. No one's disputing that. I'm not doing that here. And they were censured at the IAEA for that enrichment and for violating their non proliferation agreements. I was simply asking if we had intelligence that there was an order to weaponize. Because you said weaponization ambition.
Georgia Hardstark
We have intelligence that they have everything they need to build a nuclear weapon. And that's more than enough.
Ryan Seacrest
I mean, here's a question for you, Buck. If Iran has no interest in having nuclear weapons, why do they need to enrich uranium and be pursuing nuclear energy in any way? They sit on one of the biggest oil fields in the world. They have more energy access than almost any country anywhere.
Clay Travis
Okay, so. So you're asking, you're asking the basic and obvious questions that people that oppose this have to just refute. They can't address, can't deal with this.
Ryan Seacrest
Why? That's my question. Like, what would be the reason they would be burying uranium enrichment mines? Basically, for lack of a better way of characterizing it, beneath mountains while being on top of oil fields, if they weren't trying to create nuclear weapons.
Clay Travis
It's even, it's even worse than that, Clyde. If they were willing to play ball with the international community, remember their signatories to the non Nuclear Proliferation Treaty, which they just violate this. But put that aside. You know, treaties, right? You know, this is like Pompey Magnus of ancient Rome. Don't quote laws to men with swords like, okay, fine, we're in a Power Dynamics based world, not a, a treaty and obligations based world, okay? If they were willing to work with the international community, such as it is, if they were willing to play ball with America, Europe, etc. And stop doing the things that they're doing that are destabilizing. And that make the region so miserable, quite honestly, and so much violence. I mean, the French would build their reactors for them and people would help them. If the regime was willing to have real inspections, play ball and do what has been asked here for a long time, civilian nuclear power, that there are ways that that could be achieved and done. Of course, you asked the question which is maybe even more important, well, why would they even want that considering how much oil they have, which is just easy, you know, easier for them. And the answer is that they want to have a nuclear weapons capability. You see this, if you are a regime of bad actors for the last 50 years or so, if you have nukes, you don't have to worry really about external overthrow. That's, that's the lesson that a lot of people take from this. And that's why North Korea gets to be North Korea.
Ryan Seacrest
Right? North Korea is a perfect example. You can be a religious zealot run theocracy that has hell bent, by the.
Clay Travis
Way, which is basically what North Korea is. They just worship the Kim, the Kim Dynasty instead of, you know, Islam. But it actually, it really is kind of a theocracy and in a sense it's a necrocracy because the founder, Kim Il Sung is still kind of worshiped as the head of the Communist Party.
Ryan Seacrest
But to your point, again from a, from a international affairs response, I have actually seen some of the members of the Clinton administration saying publicly now, we blew it with North Korea. In retrospect, we should have have had attacks on their nuclear capabilities. Bill Clinton considered it in 1994. I even saw Rahm Emanuel come out and say it. And I think most people out there would say, hey, it'd be better if this crazy North Korean dictatorship didn't have nuclear weapons. But because they have them, they basically have power in perpetuity because the risk of attacking them is nuclear war. And that is the lesson that I think Iran has taken. Now by attacking this regime, we are trying to prevent another North Korea. But we're also sending the message to other countries that may make the rational choice, hey, we need to have nuclear weapons too. There are consequences for pursuing these. And also, Buck, this is why I think the response from China and from Russia has been muted. Because deep down they don't want Iran to have nuclear weapons either.
Clay Travis
Yes, of course they can't trust Iran. These countries, the non aligned countries or whatever you want to call them, that will work together, these are places, you know, Putin's right hand man can't trust Vladimir Putin. You Think the Iranians. I mean, these people will only. These are countries that only will work together insofar as it is zero cost to them and in their immediate interest. No interest as long as the oil flows. These countries don't give a. They don't care who's in charge in Iran. The Chinese get a lot of oil from Iran because of the sanctions, and, you know, they want that oil to keep flowing. And, you know, the Russians, I know this seems strange to people, but the Russians actually buy a lot of Iranian oil, too, even though the Russians have a lot of oil of their own. Right. Because it has to do with refining and the global markets. But, Clay, there's no. The World War III thing never made any sense because there's no countries that are going to come to the aid of Iran.
Ryan Seacrest
Yep.
Clay Travis
That want to lose their own soldiers in some conflict with Israel and. Or with the United States. That's not going to happen. The thing for me, that's the biggest open question right now is what do we want if we're going to take this forward beyond where we are? It is possible, folks, we wake up tomorrow and Iran has managed to do something horrible and kill a lot of people somewhere, and that will change the. That will change the dynamics in this conflict overnight. I mean, that is possible. So far, we haven't seen that. And what we've seen from Iran has been pretty contained and pretty predictable. Right. So what do we want? Meaning, what do we truly, the American people, want now? The first thing is we want this to not be our problem and for us not to be involved. I get that. That's like, first principle. That's numero uno here, is, okay, we don't want to make this our problem. But in terms of if we can foresee a future where we don't have to, wouldn't it be nice? I mean, how often do we sit around talking about, you know, the future of Kazakhstan, which, by the way, has a lot of natural resources. People think of Borat. It's actually a very large country. A lot of natural resources. I think a tremendous amount of. Not the potassium is what Borat always says. I think it has a lot of natural gas. Someone check me on that. But my point is we don't care about that. You know, Kazakhstan does its thing. Yeah. They don't have free speech and. But whatever, it's not our problem. We don't have to worry about this. We really want Iran to be in that category.
Ryan Seacrest
Yeah.
Clay Travis
It's just not our problem. And so if not our problem Is what we want from Iran? What does that look like? How do we get there? And is that the Iranian regime just kind of sputtering along as it is defanged, as I've said, or do we really want to see what happens if people start dragging the, you know, the IRGC and the besieged, which is their, really their brown shirts. And if, I mean, they're, they're street militia, if you will, of the regime. If we start, if they start getting dragged out in the streets and beaten by, you know, the civilians with pitchforks and torches, so to speak, is that what we want? You know, I don't know. You know, this is where we get into the. I don't know. Again, not us doing it. I'm just saying what do we really want in Iran?
Ryan Seacrest
I think that's the question at this point going forward. And we could spend some time on it in this third hour because to me, the question that by the way, Elon Musk, turn on starlink. Let the Iranians actually see what's going on in the rest of the world. Because, Buck, what they're going to say internally is we responded and cut, enforce and wiped out the United States forces in the Middle East. Right? This is what Iranian state television is going to say. But bigger picture, what a lot of these young people in Iran are saying. When I say young, I mean people 35 and younger. Either you're, you know, having kids or you are.
Clay Travis
That's where we are now in life, Clay. We're like when all these whippersnappers in.
Ryan Seacrest
Their 30s, yeah, all these young guys, but they are looking around now. At some point, embarrassment and anger starts to set in in Iran because you see people in Saudi Arabia having a better life than you. Bahrain, Qatar's having the frickin World Cup. Saudi Arabia is going to have the World Cup. They love soccer. Why is Iran getting left behind? It's one thing if the US and Israel are better off. Okay. But when your fellow Arab and Muslim countries are leaving you behind and you to your point, Buck, used to be a proud member of the Persian empire. Go study world history. They ancient history. They were ahead of the curve. They were long ahead of much of even Europe back in the day. And now they're falling behind. Quality of life. They can't even keep the power on so they can take elevators and buildings. These are real questions that I think are going to start getting asked by the Iranian people. And where does it lead? That's the question.
Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Welcome back into Clay and Bach. We're taking a look at the now aftermath of the Iranian retaliatory missile strikes on a US Base in Qatar. And so far it was pretty much a non event. I mean so far as no casualties, no major destruction. The missiles were intercepted and the Iranians it is now reported coordinated like told America were firing. So that really is then Clay assuming that's all true. It is like a stage managed response from the mullahs. And so we should continue to keep an eye on this. But it looks pretty, pretty contained for now. Wanted to take some of your commentary thoughts into consideration here. Lines are open. 800-282-2882. We have, I thought this was funny VIP email from Brian. Liberals are against anyone having nuclear power anywhere except for Iran. It is funny. Iranian nuclear ambitions are sacred. Anybody else? Nuclear power is scary, right? But, but Iranian nuclear stuff is sacred according to the libs.
Ryan Seacrest
I saw this and I thought this was kind of a checkmate on the argument against nuclear strikes, strikes to prevent nuclear weapons. On our behalf by Trump they said oh, now we're really in danger. There's no telling what Iran's going to do now. And my argument was well if you think that Iran is a huge threat now, weren't they a way bigger threat with nuclear weapons? In other words, I would rather them if they're going to attack us have less effective weapons than more effective weapons. I thought that was kind of they were checkmating themselves with their own logic and they would say well now they're more likely to strike us. I actually think we have ensured and we're now seeing this that they don't have the ability to hit us with anything is the essence of this. And I mentioned it earlier, if we could go back in time and Bill Clinton in 1994 I saw Rahm Emanuel say this could have a do over. He would have tried to wipe out North Korea. They said Jimmy Carter got over there.
Clay Travis
Missile, missile program. Not the country, the missile program.
Buck Sexton
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Ryan Seacrest
So yeah, yeah, we don't want to kill North Korea.
Clay Travis
But yeah, like our other caller was like hey, we bomb Them and we bomb them again and we bomb them some more. It's like, hey buddy, it's a lot.
Ryan Seacrest
Of bombing, North Korea, nuclear weapons back in the 90s. If we could have restricted their access to them, that would have been a really good thing. And I think the lesson that we learned from that is we cannot allow these rogue dictator states to have access to nuclear weapons because it's logical for them to want them because it preserves their power, because once you have them, Kim Jong Un, your point basically has created a theocracy built around his father and that you have to bow down and worship him. We don't. It's not a good thing that they at some point could have a guy just decide to bomb a nuclear weapon there, but we don't have the ability to take him out now and to take out their nuclear weapons. We can't allow Iran to be the equivalent of North Korea in the decades to come.
Clay Travis
Do a talk back here from Brian in Worcester, Massachusetts. This is talkback DD hi Buck. Brian from Worcester, Mass. I just wanted to get your take on. You have these leftist journos out there this weekend saying that, oh, Iran, because Trump telegraphed it so soon, Iran actually moved most of their enriched uranium out of those sites and they still all have it. I mean, I don't believe that, but.
Ryan Seacrest
I'm just wondering what your analysis is.
Clay Travis
On where they're getting that intel quote unquote from and what you think the truthfulness of it is. Thanks. Yeah, I don't, I don't buy that. And here's why the Israelis have this whole place mic'd up. Ok. This is one thing that we know. If they know where to put the tactical missile strike in an apartment building so that it only kills the nuclear scientists, you are not about to believe, I don't think anyone should believe, that they would allow the evacuation of the most sensitive material from the sites that are going to be completely saturated with intel, surveillance coverage, all of that. Right. So I do, I do not buy. Yeah, did they try to get some stuff out of there? I'm sure. But I do not buy that they were able to salvage their nuclear program with some last minute trucks and that the Israelis who are flying constant airstrikes.
Ryan Seacrest
Let that just, that's the key. Just logically think through this. If you know that's a nuclear site and suddenly you bring the nuclear site out of the bunkers to put it onto trucks and Israel has complete air superiority, you're actually making their job easier. So the logic of that argument doesn't stand up to your point, Buck, because Israel would just wipe out the trucks filled with the nuclear armaments and it would be way easier to do that than have to go into the side of a mountain like we had to do with the bunker busting bombs.
Clay Travis
Also imagine that's your job. It's like you, you have to move the enriched uranium.
Ryan Seacrest
Last week, Buck, I was saying, I, I don't know what, whether Iran had pulled all their guys out, but can you imagine going into the four Dow the side of the mountain for the last few weeks when in any moment you know that the US could decide to just wipe you out? That's like the worst job in the world. And I hope for those guys credit or safety. I don't want anybody to get killed who doesn't have to get killed. I hope Iran didn't have them still going into the mountain just waiting for the bunker busting bomb to come in and wipe them out. I mean that's a kind of a, that's a tough, that's a tough gig.
Clay Travis
Some folks on the right are going to, I think have to take a little bit of a moment to collect themselves, maybe even take a chill pill and calm down about some of this stuff. I've seen some really bad analysis of this from some. You're like, well, why don't I name, it's not about naming individuals and people can see what others have said. And I'm not, I'm not about, and neither is Clay taking shots at or undermining anybody on the right. Certainly in the commentary sphere, politicians, we have to hold to account. So sometimes we're going to get a little salty about what a Republican senator is voting for, whatever. But other people that are commenting, they have their audiences and they have what they do. But that's all a way of saying Marjorie Taylor Greene here saying that we are entering World War Three and nuclear war. She, she needs to calm down. That's actually not, that's actually not what we are doing right now.
Ryan Seacrest
Play 37, six months in, six months in Steve.
Karen Kilgariff
And here we are turning back on the campaign promises and we bombed Iran.
Ryan Seacrest
On behalf of Israel. Yes, it was on behalf of Israel.
Karen Kilgariff
We are, we're entering a nuclear war, the World War Three because the entire world is going to erupt.
Ryan Seacrest
And you want to know the people.
Clay Travis
That are cheering it on right now.
Karen Kilgariff
Their tune is going to drastically change the minute we start seeing flag draped.
Ryan Seacrest
Coffins on the nightly news, on Fox News that brainwashes all the baby boomers.
Karen Kilgariff
And on CNN that brainwashes all the Democrat baby boomers and that is exactly how this is going to go down.
Clay Travis
That's. That is not how this is going to go down. I'm not saying, look, we've left open, I said that this thing could change overnight. There could be something that happens and there's an issue and we have to handle it. But what she's saying is that somehow Donald Trump would have to be so inept, poor decision making, lacking in strategic vision, that as commander in chief, he would allow us to get drawn into a situation where the entire world at some level, right? I mean, not every country, but where many countries are at war with us over this earth. That's crazy town stuff. And I can say that very confidently. And if I end up being wrong, well, who will care? Because it'll be the middle of World War iii. It's reckless to say this stuff. It's okay to say we shouldn't strike Iran. Well, we already have. So that's, you know, I don't begrudge anybody there. I don't agree with the strike. I don't, you know, cuz bad things are gonna happen. But when you're claiming that we're in the midst now, or rather we're entering World War Three, a nuclear war, you're saying crazy stuff that is scaring people and preventing sober assessment of what's going on and adult conversation about what should happen now. So I very much disagree with Congresswoman Taylor Greene's assessment here, to the point where I think she sounds like a jackass and it's not a good thing to be doing.
Ryan Seacrest
I would just say pretty straightforwardly, World War 3 requires that Iran have an ally. Can you name one country that has lined up behind Iran? This is where I think that there has not been enough pointing this out. The Middle Eastern countries want Israel to do this, right? They may say again publicly, oh, Israel's like, what? Saudi Arabia wants Iran to not have nuclear weapons. The uae, Qatar, all of them agree with what we did and what Israel is doing. They're even. China and Russia haven't said a word hardly in defense of her.
Clay Travis
This is also like, think about this. You think the Chinese give a crap about what happens to Iran? They do not. Okay. The Chinese, the Chinese Communist Party doesn't care about what's happening to Chinese people for the most part. Okay. They definitely don't care about a few nuclear sites getting hit in Iran. Whatever their diplomats say, no one's even going to remember tomorrow. And their diplomats are just hoping they don't get thrown into some dark cell and tortured to death by Xi Jinping. So, yeah, it's not, this is not some. There's no way. It's just crazy.
Ryan Seacrest
If anything, China is looking at this and saying, oh, maybe we need to reconsider invading Taiwan.
Clay Travis
I knew he was going to go Taiwan, Clay. I want to talk Taiwan. I knew it.
Ryan Seacrest
I'm just saying I don't know what would happen because we have the strategic ambiguity perspective as it pertains to what we would do if China tried to take Taiwan. But I definitely think that the Chinese noticed. Holy crap. The US Flew all around the world, wrecked the nuclear capabilities of Iran and the Iranians didn't even know we were in their airspace. Maybe the US has got military capabilities that would be a threat and maybe they would stand up for Taiwan.
Clay Travis
Well, maybe also just bring it back to Trump and the World War Three and all these conversations that are going on right now. By the way, I think very few people are actually making the case. There's some big voices that are saying it, but we're not, we're not on World War Three or, you know, a long way from, from anything that would require or that should involve that level of. It's hysteria. Okay, that's hysteria. That's not, that's not what's going on here. Maybe Trump has learned the lesson, though. You know, it's amazing to me some of the people that have turned and again, MTG is a member of Congress, so I have a little more. But some of the people on the right that I'm seeing and including some that honestly look, I like and think are really good on a lot of stuff. They're not good on this. And I think in part it's. They've gone too far in the direction of, you know, everything. Everything now is the Iraq war and WMD lies. Everything is. Is a 20 year war in Afghanistan that ends up with the Taliban coming back into power. It's like, well, you know, we've seen that there are plenty of things that happen that don't result in this. And just because whether it's, you know, airstrikes in Syria, which, by the way, Trump did in the first Trump administration. Nobody even remembers them. That's all you have to know about how much mission creep there was there. No one even remembers these missile strikes that we did remember this. There was talk about chemical weapons usage, which now there's a lot of debate over whether that even happened. Put that aside. I think Trump maybe did learn the lesson though, Clay, and The lesson is you could hit people and then use hitting them as part of the framework of understanding of you want to get hit again or not behave. You don't actually have to remember the Colin Powell thing of, you know, if you break it, you buy it or whatever. I mean, that was his, that was his witticism that caught on with so many people. No, actually, just because you bomb nuclear reactors doesn't mean you have to have 82nd Airborne landing on the outskirts of Tehran, seizing the airfields and being in charge of like Iranians plumbing for the next 10 years. Like, we don't actually have to do that. But Trump's not going to do that. I mean, that's what I see from all this. I think the lesson has been learned.
Ryan Seacrest
The other thing I would say here, some of you are saying, okay, how does this impact my pocketbook price of oil down 7 1/2% as I am talking to you, down $5.50. I was talking about this with Buck off air. If the big concern had been, oh, the straight of Hormuz, how is this going to impact the overall price of oil? You know, where most of Iran's oil goes? China. So the last thing that China wants is Iranian oil fields getting attacked because it increases the cost of their oil and gas, which is about 2% of the overall population, overall supply. But overwhelmingly, China benefits from discounted Iranian oil and gas because of the sanctions that are in place. So again, a lot of this, the, the analysis here has not been sophisticated and I think it builds on this. Buck. It's just an overall expectation of catastrophe everywhere. Sometimes catastrophe happens. But if you expect all the time for everything to end in catastrophe, most of the time you are going to be wrong. And again, I think what we are seeing in the reaction from Iran is it's very muted. It's nowhere near World War three. And I would just say if you expect World War three to happen, you have to name at least one significant country that is willing to go to war to protect Iran. I don't think there's even one of them, just FYI.
Clay Travis
Yeah, I mean, do you think the Russians have a lot of extra manpower to throw into situations? The Russians have had to bring North Koreans to come help them out, and that's for a fight that is very central to the Putin, Russian Kremlin ethos. So people, look, you do need to know something about something to have a lot of ideas about that thing. And there are a lot of people out there right now who don't know nothing about nothing. All Right. And they're really, really flapping their gums on this stuff in ways that I think are unhelpful. Again, they're entitled to America. Entitled to. I just think they don't know what they're talking about. So it's. I'm also entitled to say that, you know, we are on a talk radio show. Online scammers are tricking Americans with fake passport renewal websites. But instead of getting a new passport, they're finding out that their online information has been stolen. Remember, there's only one official government site for applying for passports. It's important to understand how cybercrime and identity theft are affecting our lives. Just like it's important that you rely on LifeLock for online identity theft protection. They've been at it for two decades, helping tens of millions of Americans, including Clay and me, from online identity theft. Look, there are a lot of places that can accidentally expose your information. It can happen to the best of companies if there's a data breach. That's why LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second for risks to your identity. And if you do become a victim of identity theft, a dedicated US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. 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.
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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Episode: Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jun 23, 2025
Release Date: June 23, 2025
In the June 23, 2025, episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosted by iHeartPodcasts, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve deep into the escalating tensions in the Middle East, focusing predominantly on the recent U.S. military strikes in Iran and the subsequent retaliatory actions. The duo provides an analytical and often critical perspective on international relations, U.S. foreign policy, and the broader implications of these developments.
Timestamp: [00:00 - 03:06]
The episode begins with a discussion of the U.S. military's decisive action against Iran's nuclear facilities. Clay Travis shares that President Trump authorized the use of bunker-busting bombs, targeting three primary nuclear sites in Iran—Fordeau, Natanz, and Esfahan. This move is portrayed as a significant blow to Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Clay Travis [02:42]: "President Trump Keep what works. Don't repeal energy tax credits."
Buck Sexton [02:20]: "Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country."
Travis and Sexton emphasize the strategic importance of these strikes, highlighting their precision and minimal casualties. They argue that this action serves as a deterrent against future threats from Iran, showcasing the unparalleled capabilities of the U.S. military.
Timestamp: [03:06 - 08:35]
Following the U.S. strikes, Buck Sexton discusses the immediate aftermath and the potential for retaliatory measures from Iran. He outlines concerns about possible terrorist attacks or further military engagements in response to the U.S. actions.
Buck Sexton [07:57]: "We could have witnessed what I would call the greatest aerial strike success, certainly in this century and perhaps even going back a century."
Travis adds that Iran's response has so far been limited, but the situation remains volatile. The possibility of Iran targeting U.S. military bases, particularly in Qatar, is a primary concern. The hosts speculate on the implications of such actions, including the potential for escalation into a broader conflict.
Timestamp: [08:35 - 16:18]
Ryan Seacrest joins the conversation to provide additional insights into the geopolitical landscape. He notes that Iran is increasingly isolated, with few, if any, countries willing to support its aggressive stance.
Ryan Seacrest [14:54]: "Iran is isolated and pay attention to what people do, not always what they say."
Travis and Sexton analyze the muted response from global powers like China and Russia, suggesting that these nations do not see enduring benefits in supporting Iran's current trajectory. Instead, they argue that Iran's actions have alienated it further, reducing the likelihood of substantial foreign support in the event of continued conflict.
Timestamp: [16:18 - 30:44]
Clay Travis draws parallels between the current situation and past U.S. interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan. He reflects on the lessons learned from these conflicts, emphasizing the dangers of mission creep and prolonged military engagements without clear objectives.
Clay Travis [16:18]: "What happens is that it all, everything gets cleaned up when you get to the... assessments from brigade and battalion and company, all this stuff with the guys are actually seeing it gets cleaned up..."
Travis and Sexton discuss the importance of clear policy objectives and the need to avoid becoming entangled in another extended conflict that could drain resources and affect American lives adversely.
Timestamp: [30:44 - 49:47]
The conversation shifts to the latest developments, including reports of Iran launching missiles toward U.S. bases in Qatar. The hosts analyze the strategic implications of these attacks and the potential responses from the U.S. administration.
Buck Sexton [32:58]: "If Iran hits military bases, that is a proportionate response in some way to what we did."
Travis speculates on the possible U.S. response, suggesting that while military retaliation might be necessary, it doesn't necessarily mean a full-scale invasion or prolonged military presence in Iran. The focus remains on deterrence and preventing further nuclear proliferation.
Timestamp: [49:47 - 65:55]
Travis and Sexton critique the media's portrayal of the situation, particularly the sensationalist claims predicting an imminent World War III. They argue that such narratives are unfounded given the current lack of substantial alliances supporting Iran's aggressive actions.
Clay Travis [64:40]: "That's crazy town stuff. And I can say that very confidently."
The hosts emphasize the importance of sober analysis over fear-mongering, advocating for informed public discourse over alarmist rhetoric.
Timestamp: [65:55 - 71:34]
The discussion briefly touches upon the economic ramifications of the Middle Eastern tensions, specifically the impact on global oil prices. They note a notable decrease in oil prices despite concerns about potential disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
Ryan Seacrest [69:58]: "If the big concern had been, oh, the Strait of Hormuz, how is this going to impact the overall price of oil? You know, where most of Iran's oil goes? China."
This segment underscores the resilience of global oil markets and the nuanced interplay between geopolitical events and economic indicators.
Timestamp: [71:34 - End]
In the latter part of the episode, listeners are invited to call in with their questions and comments. The hosts address concerns about misinformation regarding Iran's nuclear capabilities and the effectiveness of the U.S. strikes.
Listener Brian [60:22]: "There are leftist journos out there this weekend saying that, oh, Iran, because Trump telegraphed it so soon, Iran actually moved most of their enriched uranium out of those sites and they still all have it. I mean, I don't believe that..."
Travis dismisses such claims, asserting confidence in the intelligence and execution of the military operations. The episode concludes with final analyses of ongoing events and a reaffirmation of the hosts' stance on the necessity and success of the U.S. actions against Iran.
Clay Travis [73:25]: "It's reckless to say this stuff. It's okay to say we shouldn't strike Iran. Well, we already have."
The June 23, 2025, episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show offers a comprehensive examination of the U.S.-Iran conflict, blending military analysis with geopolitical strategy. Travis and Sexton advocate for decisive action to curb nuclear proliferation while cautioning against unnecessary escalation. Their commentary provides listeners with a critical lens through which to view current international events, emphasizing national security and strategic foresight.
Note: Timestamps correspond to the transcript provided and encapsulate the segments where key discussions and notable quotes occur.