← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
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- [00:00]
Podcast Announcer
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- [00:19]
Buck Sexton
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- [03:55]
Donald J. Trump
The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule and at levels that people have never seen before. Actually, we're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability every single hour, knocking them out like nobody thought was possible. As soon as they set off a missile, within four minutes, the launcher gets hit. They don't know what's happening. And they're calling, they're saying, how do we make a deal? I said, you're being a little bit late and we want to fight now more than they do.
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Buck Sexton
Trump has said no Iran deal now without unconditional surrender,
- [04:46]
Donald J. Trump
once again calling on all members.
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Buck Sexton
So what we have here is an escalation and a line in the sand. President Trump has had enough of the Iranians, the mullahs, the IRGC playing all these games, pretending like they want to negotiate, when really they just want to stall. Certainly when Republicans like Trump are in office, they want to stall. Democrats will make concessions and stupid deals, but with Trump, they're trying to just play games and play for time. He decided enough is enough and there's no need to sit and wait for Iran to improve or expand upon its ballistic missile capability. Which I might add, was always left out of that disastrous Obama deal. Remember, the Obama Iran deal did not cover ballistic missiles, so the Iranians were free to build up those stockpiles. And as we have seen, those stockpiles are now being dramatically reduced by the air campaign. It is incredible. The efficiency, the technology, the skill, the precision with which US Planes and Israeli planes are able to we don't just have aerial superiority. We are dominating their airspace. We are the airspace now have complete and total control over it. And it did not take very long. So you can pick any targets you want to hit. Now the big question becomes, as we have discussed, who is going to take over? Who is going to be in charge of this country or really perhaps a caretaker regime for a transition to what we would like to have democratic elections, I'm sure. And so that is, people keep asking me, like, how do I think this is going to go? I think if there was a clear plan, we would already know what the clear plan is. This is a little bit of Kentucky windage, you could say this is a little bit of just let it fly. Gotta figure this one out as we go. But Trump decided the alternative was worse. Here he is saying to all members of the security services, just put down your arms. Full amnesty. That is the way forward. Play cut two.
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Donald J. Trump
I'm once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police to lay down their arms. They're only going to be killed. And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country. You're going to have a chance after all these years to take back your country. Accept immunity. We'll give you immunity, and we'll be giving you really the right side of history, because that's what it is. So you'll be perfectly safe with total immunity or you'll face absolutely guaranteed death. And I don't want to see that.
- [07:47]
Buck Sexton
It's true. One of the components of this that is different from even what we were dealing with 20 years ago, the intelligence apparatus that we and the Israelis can bring to bear on Iran from the sky, electronically and otherwise, and on the ground, is such that we can take anybody out. Trump is just taking anybody out that he chooses to. That gives you a lot of leverage. One of the challenges of air campaigns in the past has been you always needed people with guns to go door to door, house to house, and pull the other guy out of his. Out of his fighting position, out of his foxhole, so to speak. I mean, that. That's part of this. But if we are so capable that we can take out anybody we want, any member of the leadership, I mean, here you go. Israel just says this is an update. The Israeli military destroyed a bunker used by Iran's supreme leader in a new onslaught. They're just taking apart the entire military infrastructure of Iran right now, and there's nothing the Iranians can do.
- [09:03]
Clay Travis
About it.
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Buck Sexton
There's nothing the mullahs can do. There is no, you know, secret superweapon option that they have. And I wonder how long this continues before it's clear that they're not really in charge of their own country. If you can't control your airspace and you can't keep any leadership alive without the say so of the United States and Israel, are you really in control? So we are entering a new phase. Remember, this brings together drones. It brings together surveillance technology. That's even beyond people that ask me, like, well, what do you think they have? Guys, I've been out. I haven't had a clearance in over a decade now. So there's all kinds of new whiz bangs that I read about just like you. But the technology and the mapping capability and the human terrain assessments that they can do are way beyond what you could have done in the early 2000s when we went into Iraq. Far greater precision. The munitions are much more targeted and precise as well. Our ability to shoot things out of the sky that they try to fire at us is far better. I mean, you are seeing a dominant military performance on display right now. We haven't seen anything really like it since Persian Gulf War one. Nothing that comes at this level. And that was. That was quite different in its own way. So I think that the Trump administration feels like this is going so far to plan, and I think that they are having to do some improvisation as they move along to figure out who's going to be in charge. People talk about the Kurds. The Kurds are great in Kurdish areas. I'm very pro. Everyone I know who was US Military in Iraq, everyone I know who is intel in Iraq was tended to be very pro Kurdish. They fight, they. They are reliable in their own areas, but they have limitations because you take them out of Kurdish areas and there are problems. All of a sudden, all these old ethnic conflicts come together. So you got that help in Iran in some capacity. You got to figure out what you're going to do with the Persian. Who's going to be the figurehead of the Persian majority? I don't know. People are saying some descendant of the Shah. That could be complicated. I don't know if the administration was certain, I think they would have already started to lay out that plan for us. But I also believe that there's some wisdom in this approach of, let's. Just as Rubio said and I said, to defang the snake, let's remove their capability to hit us or any of our friends and say when do you want to talk? Let us know when you want to talk. Mullis. Your missiles are disappearing, your. Your stockpiles are getting blown up or entombed by our bunker busters. How much longer do you want this to go on for? We did try it the nice way. We tried it the nice way for a long time, and I would argue the Obama administration tried it the far too nice way. Bending the knees, sending them pallets of cash, you know, whatever. We tried that for a long time. They weren't willing to play ball. They were playing games so that they could get to a nuke. It's very obvious there's no reason for them to have caused all these problems if they weren't planning to get nuclear weapons. And then they wouldn't be in this position because there would be red lines. And I think we might have already. If Iran had nukes and we were doing to them what we've already done in the early days here, would they have fired them? Yes. People have been saying to me, buck, do you think Iran would have fired nukes? I don't know as a first strike. But what we're doing now, yes, I think the mullahs probably would say, we're going to take a shot at Tel Aviv. Let's see if we can hit it. Or Jerusalem or where. Probably Tel Aviv. But, yes, I think the mullahs would do that. Now they can't. Now they can't. So we're entering a different phase. Things in Venezuela are already starting to move in a more positive direction. Look, we have to understand Trump is remaking the world in an image of stability and safety in a way that a lot of people, including Trump voters, didn't. Didn't anticipate. I didn't know he was going to do all this stuff. He didn't say he was going to do all this stuff. So far, it's working. We should all pray that it does work because it could be so enormously beneficial to all these different regions, whether it's Venezuela slash Cuba, and what that would do for Latin America, for the Caribbean Basin. What we see with Iran and the Middle east and the removal of these proxies and everything else. You know, these places don't have to be dysfunctional, problematic for the global community, hellholes. It doesn't have to be that way. There are plenty of places that we don't sit around spending a lot of time worrying about plenty of countries. And this is. This is bold stuff from the administration. There's no two ways about it. So I am just very hopeful that this will continue as it has been and that we'll start to see a coalescing of anti regime forces coming together on the ground. We saw the protest movements, but this stuff is very hard. You know, it's. Think about it this way, okay. You think that a new. You think that a new government is possible in Iran. You hate the mullahs. When is it safe for you to go outside and start talking to people about this? When are you willing to join that march and think that you're not going to get mowed down by IRGC or besiege elements with PKMs, you and your whole family? This is tricky. This is tricky. So I think that's part of why Trump is saying put down your guns now. Because I can tell you this, if they start going after civilians, I think Trump is going to hit military elements even harder. And we're talking about blowing up barracks, whatever he's got to do. So we shall see. Wondering what you think about all of this? Definitely. Give us a call, 800-282-2882. 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- [16:42]
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- [17:27]
Clay Travis
Big breaking news happened yesterday when DHS Secretary Kristi Noem was let go while we were live on the air near the end of the second hour and a big reason why I believe this guy's questions of her on Tuesday. We are joined now by Senator John Kennedy of the great state of Louisiana. And Senator, let's just dive in right off the top. What was your reaction when you saw that Kristi Noem was out? Were you surprised? Did you expect it? Take us into your, your process there as you came to see that news.
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Senator John Kennedy
I wasn't surprised. Look, I like the secretary. I think she did many good things. In fact, I started my questioning by congratulating her on her success in securing our southern border and implementing the President's plan. But there have been a number of management decisions and certain management behavior at the department in the last three or four months that I think have they, they were really distracting from the President's agenda and our agenda and the, the, the quarter of a billion dollar advertising campaign that, that featured the secretary prominently has always bothered me. I'm, I'm, I'm very opposed to spending porn. But anyway, my point is I didn't tell anybody. I, I didn't get anybody's permission. I just decided to ask the secretary some pretty tough questions. And when I asked her about the, the, the advertising campaign, I was a little surprised. That's why I asked her twice that she basically said the President approved every bit of it. And I didn't believe that. That night about 9:30, I got a phone call from the President. He was mad as a mama wasp. He, he, he, he, he told me he had nothing to do with it. He wasn't aware of the advertising, advertising campaign. He would not have approved a quarter of a billion dollars. He wouldn't have approved no bid contracts to allegedly the friends of the Secretary. And I had a feeling that he was going to make a change. He, he, he ran a couple of names by me about new, new secretaries. He asked me for my opinion on a few, and that was the end of the conversation. But I could tell that in all likelihood that the secretary was, she was as dead as Woodrow Wilson. You know, I can tell when the President's made up his mind and he usually acts pretty quickly.
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Clay Travis
Dead as Woodrow Wilson.
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Senator John Kennedy
I was just gonna say I was also not surprised at Mark Wayne because we talked about Mark Wayne and I
- [20:45]
Clay Travis
told him, okay, we'll get into that in a sec. But when you say Trump was mad as a mama wasp, what does that sound like? You talk to President Trump a lot. What does that sound like when you get a call from the President and he's that angry? That conversation sounds like what take us into, take it into what that experience is.
- [21:05]
Senator John Kennedy
Well, he wasn't, he wasn't screaming or anything, but he was angry. I mean, I could tell he was angry. And he started off by saying, I hope you know that I would never spend this kind of money on something like that when we're scratching and clawing to try to reduce our spending and therefore reduce our debt. And, you know, he was very firm, I'll put it that way. But he wasn't screaming. But I could tell he was going to make a change.
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Buck Sexton
Senator Kennedy, can you tell us a little bit more about. First of all, how could such a huge, how could anyone think that such a huge budget for an ad campaign for a government employee, not the President, would do anything other than raise a lot of eyebrows? And then also you mentioned this contracting. This seems like this is quite a messy thing. If there is money that is going, taxpayer dollars going in large sums to newly formed corporations right before they are doled out. What do we know about this? And is there going to be further looking into this?
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Senator John Kennedy
Yes, it's going to be looked at very carefully. I sit on the Appropriations Committee, but even if I didn't, when it comes to taxpayer money, I'm pretty cheap. Guys, I, I was state treasurer in Louisiana for 17 years. I squeak when I walk. And when I see spending porn or what looks to me like spending porn, I'm gonna call it out. I don't care who who did it. These ads cost a quarter of a billion dollars. They figured, or they featured rather the secretary prominently. You've seen them. She's on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. I think any fair minded person would look at these ads and say, well, there could be a number of purposes but they're primarily to, to promote the secretary. And I think during, during my questioning of the secretary, asked her, I said, did you bid these out? I mean, and she said yes. And I knew that wasn't accurate. She, she didn't get the names of the people who got this quarter of a billion dollars off Zip recruiter. I think some of them she knew beforehand and some of these were brand new companies. I don't know all the details, but I, I think what disturbed me the most from the testimony was that she, you know, she basically blamed the President and said, you know, he, he okayed it and he didn't. And you see the consequence.
- [24:08]
Clay Travis
Now, you're a lawyer, I believe I'm a lawyer. You said the President said he didn't do it. She said he did. She said he did it under oath. I mean, to me, when you say something that is untrue under oath, I mean, I think that sets off a lot of alarm bells for people out there. Do you think based on what you know, that she lied under oath about this?
- [24:32]
Senator John Kennedy
I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, it's over with. We've, and again, I like the secretary. She did many good things. But we were, we've, we've had a lot of management problems. In fact, if I, I had only 10 minutes to question her, I got to two subjects. I had eight to talk to her about.
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Buck Sexton
Well, can I, Senator, can, can I jump in there? Because another thing that's gotten a lot of attention to headlines is the allegations about the Secretary not just having an extramarital relationship and their allegations, and I know that she has denied them in the past, but with somebody who's a special government employee, so essentially traveling with her on taxpayer funded aircraft and going everywhere and in the chain of command, that is the allegation. Was it fair for Democrats to ask about that and is it true that the President was unhappy with her responses?
- [25:27]
Senator John Kennedy
He and I didn't talk about that. By him, of course, I mean the President. I don't know if those allegations are true. They were raised by a number of people in our hearing. They will. Look, this is not likely to be over. One of the things I wanted to talk to her about but haven't is management at the department has been obstructing their inspector general who works for us in Congress. And his job is to find waste and corruption and, and, and, and that sort of thing. And I know he's going to continue to probe. My guess is there will be others. But, but look this isn't perfect.
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Buck Sexton
Is that a fair, Is it a fair question? Is it a fair question, though, Senator, to ask, given that it involves somebody who might be in chain of command in your estimation, is it a fair question?
- [26:19]
Senator John Kennedy
Well, look, I, I don't, you know, I'm pretty libertarian, guys, but 90% of my philosophy is don't hurt somebody unless they're trying to hurt you first, and don't take other people's stuff and leave me alone. So I, I don't really care that much about someone's sex life. But now, if it's a government employee, for example, in Congress, if, if a, if a congressman or woman has an affair with somebody who works for you, it's illegal. But my guess, my guess is it's just a guess, but it's not going to come from me. This stuff's not going to go for a while. Away for a while. I would like to know about the quarter of a billion dollars that was spent and who got it, whether we can recoup any, any of it. But again, guys, it wasn't personal. I'm doing my job. That is my job. I consider this to be spending porn. And I'm gonna call it out every single time. And my experience with the President is that he doesn't like it either.
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Clay Travis
No. Yeah, you said he was Matt. I wrote it down because I love the quote. Matt is a mama wasp. Let's talk about something positive because you started to talk about it a little bit earlier. Senator Mark Wayne Mullen. You said the President bounced a bunch of names off you, potentially as replacements for Secretary Noem. What can you tell us? We love Mark Wayne Mullen. He was with us Tuesday. Now he's got a big promotion. Who knows? Maybe you'll get a big promotion after this interview, too. But Mark Wayne Mullen, now head of the dhs. As someone who worked alongside of him, what should we know? What kind of job do you think he'll do?
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Senator John Kennedy
Well, Mark Wayne's tough as a pine. Not guys, I, I, I, he. A, he's smart. B, he's tough.
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Buck Sexton
C,
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Senator John Kennedy
he's a good businessman. I told all this to the President. He's a good businessman, which means he's a pretty good manager. And as I told the folks yesterday, and D, even if all things, all those things weren't true, I wouldn't say otherwise because. Because Mark 1 would whip my ass. I mean, he's like a cage fighter or something. I don't know. But I like Mark Twain and I think he'll do a Good job. And I think he'll be easily confirmed. He already has some ideas about some of the changes that he wants to make. And it's, you know, new blood. Doesn't, doesn't hurt sometimes.
- [28:57]
Clay Travis
You've got a best selling book. Buck Sexton also has a best selling book. You guys have been on the New York Times bestseller list together. What's it been like to be a best selling author? People are buying your book like crazy. I'll let you know. Pitch it. Not that you need.
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Buck Sexton
I'm just going to say I think Senator has an unfair advantage with the audiobook. With that accent. I'm just going to tell you I think it's unfair. There should be like a different category for, for charming Southern accent audiobook. But go ahead, Senator.
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Senator John Kennedy
Well, man, you know it took like 20 hours to record that audiobook. Oh my gosh, I had no idea. It takes a lot. Look, the name of the book is how to test negative or stupid and why Washington never will. Harper Collins is a publisher. That wasn't my first choice for a title. My first choice was have always be yourself unless you suck. But they wouldn't let me use that type. So we settled on this one. You write a book. It was a lot of work, you know, nights and weekends in my kitchen table and you, you finish it and you have no idea what's. How it's going to do. So I'm not trying to be humble here. I mean, honest to God, I had no idea and I really was surprised. I mean we might be in the New York Times bestseller list for 21 weeks and I'm gratified. I think it's because it's not a policy book, it's a storybook. I use stories to talk about policy. The stories are, some of them are bizarre, some of them are funny, all of them are true. If, I hope, if you read the book, I talk about my colleagues, talk about what it's really like. If you read the book, I hope it'll make you think. It may discourage you, may, may make you want to day drink. But every, every bit of it is true.
- [30:49]
Clay Travis
Senator Kennedy, we appreciate you. You always got an invitation on the program. Thanks for trying to take down the spending porn. And by the way, I'm a fellow Vanderbilt graduate so it's always good to see Vandy guys having some success.
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Senator John Kennedy
Go Doors. Listen guys, y' all take the rest of the day off and also pay your taxes. We need the money. Okay.
- [31:09]
Buck Sexton
All righty, we're on.
- [31:10]
Clay Travis
It is Senator John Kennedy. We appreciate his time. Interesting comments there on a variety of different fronts. We come back, we'll unpack them a little bit. We're also scheduled to be joined by Brianna Lyman here on the Friday edition of the program. Want to tell you all about my friends at prize picks. You can play in all 50 states. I'm up in D.C. right now. From one coast to the other, you can play along. Pricepicks.com code clay. You get $50 when you play. $5. World Baseball Classic underway. Going to be really cool. Not too far from the NHL NBA playoffs. March Madness is officially here. It is a good time of year if you're a golfer. It's not too far to Lagusta now with the Masters. All of that. You can play along in all 50 states. Buck has played. It's easy. You pick more or less. Even if you're not a die hard sports person. You, you will enjoy it. I'm telling you. Go check it out. Prizepix.com Code Clay that is prizepix.com Code C L A Y. We are now joined by Brianna Lyman of the Federalist. She has done a ton working and writing about the SAVE act. And we'll start there. But I also want to get into. Remind me to ask Brianna about the study out there that says if you vote Republican, you actually save lives, which is a pretty good thing.
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Buck Sexton
We knew that. We knew that before the study. But we'll take data too, so why not?
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Clay Travis
And we'll get to Brianna on that. She's also doing a Great Series on America 250. But let's start with this. We've got a super close race. I believe it's in the North Carolina Senate. The last I saw Brianna was it came down to two votes. This is a state Senate, um, and the SAVE Act. Now we've got Ken Paxton down in Texas saying, hey, if you'll pass the SAVE Act, I'll consider dropping out of this race because he wants for John Cornyn to support it. There's around 80% of voters who support this. I know many people out there are frustrated. What's the latest on it? And how in the world can we not get basic voter integrity? Vote with a license, vote with a vote photo. The photo ID passed.
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Brianna Lyman
Yeah. And I'm happy you brought up that North Carolina race because it is still down to two votes. And when you have elections that are literally decided by two votes, it doesn't make election security less important. It makes it more important. It makes things like the SAVE act more important. Because remember, the SAVE act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote and then voter id. Right now, the only thing standing between a non citizen and our free and fair elections and is a little square box in the federal registration form that says you attest under penalty of perjury that you're a citizen, AKA the honor system. And that is absolutely not enough. And so when you look at races like this one in North Carolina, when you look at Marionette Miller Meeks In 2020, she won her congressional race by six votes. Imagine if six non citizens had cast a ballot in that race. That could have quite literally changed a congressional seat, changed the balance of Congress. That is unacceptable. And right now you have leaders in the Senate like Leader Thune, who dragging his feet on legislation like you said, that is popular nationwide amongst Republicans, Democrats, blacks, Latinos, whites, you name it. Everyone's saying this is common sense legislation and yet it's not being done.
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Buck Sexton
What entirely is in the SAVE Act? I mean, you mentioned there's, it's clearly about election integrity, but what are all the different pieces that it contains? Are there any things that aren't getting attention that would be really important for election integrity? It's just people are talking about the SAVE Act. I think it's important that everyone also know what's in it.
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Brianna Lyman
Yeah. And what the SAVE act does. So there's the 1993 NVR, NVRA, the National Voter Registration Act. And what that does right now is it actually hamstrings the government from requiring proof of citizenship to vote, because I think it was 2013. The Supreme Court, I think, wrongly interpreted that 1993 law to prohibit states from requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote. So if you think of Arizona, Arizona has two registration forms. You can prove that you are a citizen and vote in state and federal elections. But if you can't prove that you're a citizen, you can only vote in federal elections. And so what the SAVE act would do is it amends that law, it fixes the problem we've had for 30 years and says, no, you have to require documentary proof of citizenship. Right. States should not be sued by the Obama and Biden DOJs for trying to make their elections more secure. President Trump seemed to hint in a truth social post that he wanted to add no trans and kids maybe into the whole, say, back negotiations. I think that was a bit unclear. But right now the two biggest things, proof of citizenship to register and voter id. And a lot of people will say, well, we already have safeguards. And they cite things like hava and Ha. Which are early 2000s legislation. Do you know, in a state like California, let's say you don't have your driver's license or your Social Security, right. And you have no identification, you can still register to vote. And you know how you get to prove your identity? Your gym membership? What protocols do you go to to get a gym membership? Nothing. You just take a picture in front of the little thing and they say, okay, here's your name. You can come to the gym and you can use that to verify your identity to vote. So our elections are so insecure. And when you have 20 million people in this country illegally, we can't take chances.
- [36:37]
Clay Travis
Brianna, one of the things that I would just point out is the contrary argument does not exist. Right. Because the argument is, well, it's racist to require voter id. That's insane. As we, as you said, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, people of all different backgrounds agree that you should have to have voter id, photo ID to vote. So really, isn't this just an implicit acknowledgment from Democrats that they're cheating and worried that they might get caught because otherwise none of the other arguments stand up.
- [37:06]
Brianna Lyman
Yeah, there is no legitimate reason. And if you talk about. Let's go over first of all, the racism thing, right? Remember Jim Crow 2.0 in Georgia? Why was that? 21, they told us that black people would never be able to vote again. CNN and the Washington Post actually did articles after the first big election, after the legislation went through and they interviewed black voters who said it was actually easier to vote now than it had been in the past. They weren't encumbered, they weren't prohibited from voting. So that never actually manifested. Right. It was just that, rah, rah. Then you have claims that this will disenfranch voters. And again, I bring it back to these smaller races that are decided by razor thin margins. Take this. In December, a woman from the Bahamas who is not a citizen admitted to the Georgia State Election Board. She has voted in multiple elections, not because she was trying to do something illegal, but she said, look, they kept sending me papers, I thought I was eligible. So I did it. Right? It wasn't nefarious, but there was no security and safeguards to stop her. Imagine she had cast a vote in this North Carolina race and one other non citizen did that. Right? That would change the outcome of an election that actually disenfranchises American citizens. So Republicans and Democrats who say, well, oh, well, this might disenfranchise people, think about the Americans being disenfranchised by non citizens voting.
- [38:23]
Buck Sexton
Speaking to Brianna Lyman of the Federalists. And Brianna, the folks who write into us are saying, we got to pass the SAVE Act. It's critical to pass the SAVE Act. And we have a problem here, of course, which is one, Majority Leader Thune does not seem willing to push for this. But even beyond that, without a 60 vote threshold, there's the threat of filibuster, not an actual talking filibuster. That is assumed to be enough to shut this down. So that means that it doesn't get passed. Right. So what is the best thing? Let's say we could get. We could get Majority Leader Thune to sit down right now with all of us. What should he do in this situation, given how important election integrity is and how much sense and how much support from the general public this Save act has?
- [39:16]
Brianna Lyman
Yeah, and Chip Roy actually wrote a letter explaining the talking filibuster, which is that, you know, Leader Thune has to basically call and have Democrats. They have to follow the rules and they have to talk. They get two times to talk each. Once they stop talking, they don't get to resume. Right. And if Republicans were to enforce already standing procedures, Democrats would eventually just run out of time. And then you can hold a regular vote in which you only need 51 votes to pass this legislation, which we know we have because Fetterman is on our side. And if a Republican is going to resign themselves to say, well, we, you know, we don't want to get rid of the filibuster, but we want this legislation passed, then they're admitting they're never getting it passed. Republicans are never in our lifetime likely going to get a filibuster proof majority. That is silly thinking. So what, what Republicans like Thune are saying is, well, I guess we're just going to have to settle for only doing things that Democrats want. But just remember something. Chuck Schumer has made it very clear. When Democrats take back power, nothing, including nuking the filibuster, is off the table. When Democrats take back Congress, whether it's in 20, 26, 28, whenever, they will do what's necessary to push their agenda. And I wish Republicans would have the appetite to do the same on legislation that is universally popular. This is not a 5050 issue. It is an 8020 issue.
- [40:34]
Clay Travis
We're talking to Brianna Lyman of the Federalist. All right, everybody out there who's fired up about the SAVE Act? We are fired up. We want it to happen. Uh, but let me ask you about this. Which is actually a very positive story I was reading about this week. There is now data out and I believe you wrote about this or have talked about this as well, saying that if you vote Republican, particularly when it comes to DAs and the prosecution of violent crimes, the data reflects lives are saved because there's far less violent crime. Seems like kind of an important story that should get more attention. What did the data show? What does it tell us and why is it significant?
- [41:09]
Brianna Lyman
Yeah, yeah, this was, this was data that was kind of, I feel like hidden. Granted, you know, the Iran war started, so it did get buried. But what it shows is that despite people telling us that if you vote for a progressive prosecutor being compassionate and empathetic, that compassion comes at a very deadly cost. And what the study by a Vanderbilt professor and a Wellesley College professor found is that when you narrowly elect a Republican prosecutor over a left wing counterpart, you see a reduction in deaths among young men, 6.6%. That is not a drop in the bucket. That is a substantial decrease. And obviously you don't need a study to show this, but Republican prosecutors, they actually want to hold criminals accountable. They send them to jail and most importantly, they levy consequences on these criminals that do come with the consequence of restricting their access to firearms. It reduces suicide among young men. It also reduces other forms of gun violence. And so you, you think to yourself, Democrats hate gun violence. Everybody hates gun violence. But Democrats also hate the second amendment. Instead of taking away the second amendment from law abiding citizens, if you want to reduce gun violence, elect a Republican prosecutor. Tell your progressive prosecutors what they're doing is not only not working, but it's deadly and dangerous. For that, Democrats claim they want to help. They want to help victims of gun violence. This is how you do it. Be a tough on crime prosecutor.
- [42:34]
Buck Sexton
Brianna Lyman, great to have you with us from the Federalist. Come back soon.
- [42:38]
Brianna Lyman
Thanks for having me.
- [42:40]
Clay Travis
In Israel citizens are on high alert. Any hour, any minute next to incoming missile or drone might be headed in their direction. The vulnerable population of Israel is the most effective. That's the young, that's the old, that's those without substantial resources. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They're on the ground preparing large scale distributions of life saving food, first aid and emergency essentials for security personnel. I saw it for myself on the ground what the IFCJ does. They build brand new store bomb shelters. They build new underground hospitals because hospitals are targeted, believe it or not. They have to turn parking garages into their emergency wards and into their own hospitals. They do incredible work to take care of everybody in Israel. And right now they could use your help. 888-488-IFCJ. As bombs rain down in Israel, you can go online@ifcj.org and help the people there. This is the Fellowship of Christians and Jews. IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org org.
- [43:56]
Buck Sexton
Before we get into this Mom Donnie story, which is interesting stuff, Mom Donnie's wife actually play, why don't you tell everybody what you're doing in D.C. man? You know, what's, what's going, what's going on there?
- [44:07]
Clay Travis
The reason I was late, I flew up to D.C. i'm only up here down and back. Same day on my beloved Southwest Airlines. There's actually a really cool panel on the future of college sports. And I know a lot of you are big college sports fans, but basically, as players have begun to be paid, it has created an absolute mess that I think most fans out there agree needs to be fixed. And this gets into the weeds a little bit. But it is going to require if we want to fix it, I think congressional action now, I don't know if Congress can pass anything right now, to be frank, but President Trump, in addition to building ballrooms and victory arches and doing engaging in actions in Venezuela and maybe Cuba and certainly Iran, is trying to fix everything out there. And so people from Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, a lot of different people affiliated with college sports are gonna be at the White House. I'm gonna be on a panel. I think it's going to be carried live on fox News at 4pm Eastern. And the president's trying to put together a plan to solve many of the issues bedeviling college sports right now. And I'm going to be a part of it. So with my background in media and politics and law, hopefully I can be somewhat helpful. So that's what's going on. I'm going to go to the panel and then go home, pick up my kid at a lacrosse match and head into the house for the weekend. But hopefully we can make some progress on trying to fix the mess that is college athletics right there.
- [45:42]
Buck Sexton
Now, I'm already hearing more about how here in Florida, because of our lovely climate and the ability to play outdoor sports pretty much year round, that there's a surge in interest in kids going to essentially sports first academies, with the idea being you don't even have to go pro anymore. And it's not just about getting recruited to a college. You might be able to make seven figures. Now you say, okay, well, maybe you can only do that for a few years. Yeah. Starting out life in your early 20s, if you're making a half million dollars a year for I think my first job, I made 30 grand. So yeah, you know, that's pretty good deal.
- [46:19]
Clay Travis
Look, the balancing act is going to be complicated because you want people to be compensated for their talent. I'm a capitalist, but I always say, and it takes people sometimes a minute to think about it, but in sports, the business is the competition and the quality of the competition is what dictates the success of the sport. And so if you're creating competition that is not ideal and you're breaking the, the, the, the, the competitive balance in the process in the long range, that is not a good solution. So got to figure this out. If people are curious about it. My Twitter handle, I laid out some of the complex issues on it. But a lot of our friends, Senator Ted Cruz is going to be there. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Trump clearly, Eric Schmidt, Senator from Missouri. A lot of people that have an understanding of many different complex issues here. Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, who have had history in coaching. So I'm looking forward to it. I have no idea truly what to expect fully, but it'll be live at the White House. I'm looking forward to getting over there and seeing everybody in about 30 minutes. So I'm going to be headed over there.
- [47:29]
Buck Sexton
And now let's hear about the first
- [47:31]
Clay Travis
lady or the New York State Crockett era. Yeah. So this is not going to surprise people, Buck, But I was reading this morning and I want to give credit to the group that wrote about this. But bom. Donnie has tried to, has tried to lean into, I think what, I think what it's fair to say, a lot of negative connotations surrounding Jewish people. I think that's being very kind to him in New York City and he has tried to argue, oh, that's just being misconstrued. That's being mischaracterized. I don't actually believe these things. Jewish Insider.com a reporting site has a story up. I shared it. I am retweeting it right now. If you are interested in reading it, it'll be up at clay and buck.com to mayor mom. Donnie's wife liked many different social media posts celebrating the October 7 terror attack that led to 1200 Israeli deaths and 250 people being taken hostage. Now everyone out there who is married, I understand and I do think it's fair to Say, hey, husbands and wives don't agree on everything. I think it's pretty unlikely that there's very many husband and wives where one of them says, yay, I'm so happy that Hamas killed a bunch of Jews and the other one is the exact opposite opinion. So there are certain things where maybe husbands and wives, married couples, the dating couples can differ and all of you have, who have spouses can acknowledge this. Certainly my wife does not want to be held accountable for everything that I say, trust me. But I don't think there's very many couples where, again, would you sign onto this, Buck? One of them is like, yeah, I'm so glad that a bunch of Jews got murdered. Let me go celebrate October 7th. And the other partner is absolutely horrified by that. I don't think that's very common. I'm. Donnie has not commented on this. It's his wife, not him. But she went on social media and liked a ton of celebratory post for the murder of innocent Israelis on October 7th.
- [49:41]
Buck Sexton
He's horrible. She's horrible.
- [49:44]
Clay Travis
Let me put it in this context, Buck. If Melania Trump had done this, do you think people would say, oh, President Trump had nothing to do with it?
- [49:53]
Buck Sexton
No, I mean, of course the media would be all over it. I just. This is what you get in New York when you have some communist that you decide you're going to put in charge of the city and he's going to have people around him who are, who are anti Semites. Keep in mind, there are Jewish New Yorkers who are very pro Madani. They don't care about this stuff. They think that the hatred of Israel is somehow entirely separate from hatred of them as Jews. I can tell you, everyone I've ever heard talking about how much they hate Israel, especially remember, we're not talking about criticizing Israeli policy. If you're celebrating October 7th, you hate Israelis. I mean, you want Israelis to vote.
- [50:33]
Clay Travis
You hate Jewish people.
- [50:34]
Buck Sexton
You hate Jewish people, too. And this is a very, very obvious right? We don't need to play this game that they want us to play of like, no, it's different. I only cheer when the Zionists are being brutally murdered for no reason in the street. Not when Jew. No, no. Jews. They hate Jews. And so, yeah, she an anti Semite? She is. But there are Jewish liberals in New York who support Mamdani and probably support her anyway. You know, it's the, it's the old enemy of my enemy is my friend thing with them. They don't really care as long as they're pulling down the load bearing walls of Western civilization, going full commie. They're, they're fine with it.
- [51:07]
Clay Travis
I do think, look, if we're going to play fair stakes here, if you paid attention when President Trump shared the, the meme video, which was designed to be humorous about Barack and Michelle Obama and it just played on a recording. For those of you who remember that controversy, it was front page news. I think the wife of the mayor in New York City celebrating the murder of 1200 innocent Jews in the captivity of 250 other innocent Jews, many of whom would be murdered while they were in captivity, should be. And I know I'm old school because I was reading the newspaper on my flights up to D.C. today. I know that this should be the front page of the New York Times and certainly the New York Times, but also the Washington Post based on the way they cover Trump's social media post. Will it, will any of the. Have you see this covered anywhere other than a show like this or a site like the one that covered it?
- [52:04]
Buck Sexton
It's. But honestly, Clay, it's tough. She's, she's not an elected office.
- [52:09]
Clay Travis
Will they even ask him? Will they even ask him about it? I mean, I think that's fair to say, hey, your wife was celebrating the murder of Jews. Do you think maybe that's a little bit wrong? I mean, I get it.
- [52:18]
Buck Sexton
He'll just say my, he'll say my wife and my wife is allowed to have opinions and he'll just, just move on.
- [52:24]
Clay Travis
I'm just, I don't even think he'll.
- [52:25]
Buck Sexton
You're not gonna, he won't get asked. But if he did get asked, he would just say, my wife loves Jewish people. And this is what they just gaslight you. They ignore. It doesn't matter. The evidence doesn't matter. Someone should write a book about this. Maybe somebody did called Manufacturing Delusion, which you should go get a copy of this weekend if you have not already available on Amazon or wherever you get your books. Because, Clay, they, the, the game with them is just say you didn't see the thing you saw or. Yeah, what I said doesn't matter. This is, it's just like with Gavin Newsom. It's all, it's all this, it's all the same stuff. And unfortunately it works with people and it works, works well enough in New York City. They're just going to figure out the hard way that this guy is the mayor of New York and everything that he says he's going to do that's A positive he will make worse. He came into office to make people's lives more affordable. He's going to make them less affordable. Horrible. And they still won't learn the lesson. You know why? Because whatever he does, they'll say he didn't do enough of it. That's the problem. This was the whole thing with, with like Obama and all the spending after the, after the Great Recession because it caused, it was all kinds of waste and, and inflation and everything else. And it was always well, he just didn't spend, it's not that he spent too much money on Democrat Party. He didn't spend enough. That's why we had this is they have a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell. This is how Democrats are with everything. That's why we just can't let them be in charge. We just had on Brianna Lyman from the Federalists talking about the you elect Republicans, fewer people die. Elect Republicans to run your city and fewer people will die by the numbers. Do you think any Democrats care? No. Whatever happened, if it saves one life, they use that when they want, but of course they never mean it.
- [54:09]
Clay Travis
This is the unfortunate consequence of there being a non consequential right. Actual bad policy doesn't seem to change people from rooting for what team they decided to root for. And you would think in many of these blue cities where violence has skyrocketed, thankfully it's coming back down because of President Trump's decisions that that would change. But it just hasn't. And I think again the Mamdani argument as you just laid out is a very difficult one to make in the grand scheme of things. Look, I want to tell you all about Chalk here in the nation's capital. Fast paced, a lot going on. If you're going to thrive in the city, you need stamina and energy. And if you want more of it, naturally you can find that in the great products made by the American patriots. At Chalk that's spelled C H O Q. When you include chalk, smell, vitality, stack in your routine, you can be like Buck Sexton and even handle a little bit the PDEL issues associated with it. Leading ingredient in this supplement, it's been proven to increase testosterone by 20% in just three months time. Manufactured here in the U.S. chalk's herbal supplements are clinically proven to have game changing effects on your energy, focus and mood. Visit chalk.com to unlock Chalk's spring special when you subscribe with my name Clay as the promo code, Chalk will pack a free $99 bag of chocolate powder with your first delivery. That's CHOQ com code clay chalk. Com code C, L, A, Y.
- [55:48]
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