← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
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- [00:00]
A
This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human. Welcome everybody, to the Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Strap in because we are taking off. We have a lot to discuss with you today. Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan is going to be joining us bottom of this hour. Michael Whatley, former RNC chair and North Carolina Senate candidate, joining in the second hour along with our friend Shannon Breen, chief legal correspondent at Fox News. She's got a new book out. We'll be talking to those fine folks and we will also be breaking down all of the latest news and analysis and important goings on for all of you. Big story still, biggest story, I should say, the ongoing airstrikes against the Iranian regime. Also some jitters people are having around the price of, of oil. So we're going to address all of this. Here is Secretary of War Hegseth at a press conference this morning promising everyone that we're just getting warmed up with all this stuff. It's going to get even more intense. Play three.
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B
Today will be yet again our most intense day of strikes inside Iran. The most fighters, the most bombers, the most strikes. Intelligence more refined and better than ever. So that's on one hand. On the other hand, the last 24 hours have seen Iran fire the lowest number of missiles they've been capable of firing yet. Just the bifurcation, just the trend lines that we talked about on our first briefing. You see, this is not 2003. This is not endless nation building under those types of quagmires we saw under Bush or Obama. It's not even close. Our generation of soldier will not let that happen again. And nor will this president who very clearly ran against those kinds of never ending, nebulously scoped missions.
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A
So he is saying that everything is going according to plan. We are essentially kicking the Iranian military's ass with one arm behind our back from the sky entirely. And this is going to continue and get more intense as the days go on that we will not relent. Trump last night speaking at Doral, he was down here in the Miami area near, near where I am. Here he is. This is cut six. He's saying, look, we are making strides toward achieving what we need to in Iran. Play six.
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C
We're achieving major strides toward completing our military objective. And some people could say they're pretty well complete. We've wiped every single force in Iran out very completely. Most of Iran's naval power, will power has been sunk. It's on the bottom of the sea. It's almost 50 ships. I was just notified it's 51 ships. I didn't know they had that many. Didn't last very long. And these are fighting vessels. They're meant to fight, but they're not meant to fight against us. We've struck over 5,000 targets to date, some of them very major targets. And we've left some of the most important targets for later in case we need to do it. If we hit them, it's going to take many years for them to be rebuilt, having to do with electricity production and many other things. So we're not looking to do that if we don't have to.
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A
Clay it seems like the strategy is bomb them back into the Stone Age, so to speak, and wait until they cry uncle and come up with I don't know what. That's the, that's the big question that I have. What is supposed to emerge here? Unconditional surrender, but contingent on what? Even if they were to say it, what are the next steps supposed to be? This gets to who's going to run this country? Because Pete Hegseth is saying very clearly and Trump has said the same, we're not going to be sending 20 year olds from Kansas and Maine and Washington State, et cetera, and Texas and everywhere to walk the streets of Isfahan, Kermanshah, Tehran and Tabriz. Not happening.
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D
I think we're in a balancing act where who is the person we want to be in charge in Iran? That is the one thing that we really haven't gotten any indication of. Now simultaneously, I understand that why that is, because as soon as the United States acquiesces or acknowledges that Iran has got a leader we want to work with, that definitely puts political pressure on the individuals in Iran too. Do you remember, Buck, how the Delsey Rodriguez played out? Del C. Rodriguez and the reason why I point to this is I think it's the best analogy. Although obviously Venezuela and Iran are very different. But when Del C. Rodriguez came into power, she said a lot of tough talking things about the United States. And many of our United States leaders just kind of said, okay, she's got to say that for political viability inside of Venezuela. But meanwhile we were having back channel conversations with her and she was basically letting us know what she had to do. Are we having back channel conversations with anyone in Iran that could rise to a level of power? That's a good question, right? Who are the people that Israel may have been working with to help get all of these targets that we were able to focus on and take out so quickly? All of those questions? I think are still incumbent upon us to resolve. But I do think at a minimum, the message that we sent, even if we pulled out tomorrow, Buck, even if we said, hey, mission accomplished, we are out and we are going back and we're not going to continue to bomb Iran, we have sent the message and I think it's a very significant one, not only to Iran, but to everybody around the world, that we can basically take out any world leader that we want to. And so whomever comes to power in Iran, we can wipe that person out too. They know it, we know it, the world knows it. And so the question that I have is, to what extent is there someone that we are amenable to that could be rising to power and what is the timeframe under which that could occur? I think that that's the question that is still out there right now. I think the argument that we were going to lose tons of soldiers is out the window. I think the argument in the wake of the last day, Buck, this is one of the craziest things I've ever said. When we came on the air yesterday, everybody was in a full fledged panic over the price of oil and gas. It hit $120 on the market on Sunday before we came on the air. They open overseas, it's now $85. Now that's significant, but it's not that much of a bump. And the straight of Hormuz, it appears the oil is actually coming through fairly comfortably. We just haven't seen the spike that everybody said we were going to see. And I think we have the ability to exit this escalation whenever we want. And we have effectively neutered Iran for decades to come. In terms of the. They have no air force, they have no navy, they have no, they have no missiles. Largely, their ability to even send off these drones has been significantly curtailed. I just, I look around, Buck, and say we're at the who is going to lead Iran stage of this military, of this military endeavor.
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A
The whole irgc, which we talked about a bit yesterday, is set up to be a decentralized and survivable security apparatus for a situation like this. This is the challenge that we have. So they've got the guns, they've got comms set up, they have down to a very localized level, terrain knowledge, human terrain knowledge. Basically, anyone who walks out of their home to start a protest in the street liable to just get shot by these either besieger or IRGC units. So what do we do about that? This is the, this is where things get a little Open ended. I'm not really sure what the plan is on this. We can keep blowing their military equipment out of the out of the sky, but ultimately whoever has the most manpower with guns on the ground willing to fight is likely to be able to stay in control. It's also, by the way, big lesson about the Second Amendment, how important the second Amendment is and armed citizenry. Right. Because they don't have that. The people with the guns are the government. That's it. Very few people in Iran are going to be able to get out there and get into a gun battle with members of the Iranian security forces. So with all that clay, I think that the military side of this is showing incredible. Everything that Hegseth and Trump have been saying about this is true. It's been an amazing display of US Military capability. Does this go beyond this month? I don't think so. Does this end with US Troops on the ground? I don't think so. Does this end with a new government in Iran? I don't think so. That's where I come down on this one here. By the way. Here's Hegseth saying this morning this cut four clay. Just saying they're going to take this to the end until the enemy says we give up.
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B
Play four, destroy their missile stockpiles, their missile launchers and their defense industrial base missiles and their ability to make them. Two, destroy their navy. And three, permanently deny Iran nuclear weapons forever. It's a laser focused, maximum authority mission delivered with overwhelming and unrelenting precision. No hesitation, no half measures. As President Trump declared yesterday. We're crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force. We will not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated. But we do so. We do so on our timeline and at our choosing.
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A
Sounds good. I hope we get there.
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D
How many people do you think we in general, how many people do you think we have named that we would be okay with being leaders of Iran? How?
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A
I don't think we even have a list of. I don't think we even have a list of people that we think would be. We're hoping they emerge. That's my guess. Obviously. I've been out of the game a while. Maybe they've got someone just ready to go, but I would highly doubt it.
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D
Do you think Israel does? Because it seems like they have basic full optics. It feels like on some level of inside of Iran and some of those.
- [10:47]
A
I think finding an Iranian who doesn't hate Israel, who has any political juice whatsoever inside of Iran is I'M not sure it's possible.
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D
It's very. I wonder whether you could publicly hate Israel, but privately have a relationship with Israel.
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A
I mean, maybe, like, maybe. Sure, sure.
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D
That would be, that would be my hope is that we could find a, a solution in that way. And I think the long run here, look, if, if you want to tie Venezuela and Iran together, I think the long run is we should have more oil and gas stability going forward when this situation is ended than we did before. And when you combine it with the United States ability to produce a ton of oil and gas, you know this because this was a conversation that when you started working at the CIA, would have been a big one. The Middle Eastern countries, which basically had the ability to curtail oil and gas shipments. It led to a lot of petro dictator states. It feels to me like the petro dictator state power is altering in a way that is favorable to the United States in many respects.
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A
This is a reminder where any of you who know somebody who works for big oil in this country works for a natural gas company and oil exploration company, you should give them a high five. Because America is the true global energy producer superpower, which has enormous, enormous geopolitical advantages for us in dealing with all of this. We got so much of that stuff that we're selling it all over the world. But we know we've got secure supply and we know that we are the single most important energy power, energy, energy producing power on the planet. That's, that's, that's how we come at this 100%.
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D
That is the best decision we have made in a long time. And by the way, the states that have rejected that, if you're listening to us in California right now, you may well be paying well over $5 a gallon. Because California, which still to my knowledge Buck and I know we got a lot of oil and gas guys and gals out there, still has a lot of oil and gas. Right. California has the ability to pump far more, even more. Instead they turned it off effectively because the greenhouse, the climate change, crazy people.
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How many Americans even know this really important trivia know? You've got Saudi Arabia, you've got Russia, you know, you've got some of these countries. You know which country is the biggest oil producer in the world? America. It's America.
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D
That stuns a lot of people. No, it does. I mean it stuns people.
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A
We produce more crude oil than any other country. We've surpassed Saudi Arabia, we've surpassed Russia. And our oil industry has done this despite all the climate Change, which is a complete waste of time and an absurdity that no human being should ever waste three seconds concerned about anything else. But our oil industry is one of our biggest strategic assets as a nation. And yet Democrats trash them all the time and act like they're killing all of us. No, actually you should go thank an oil man today, or a woman if she happens to work in the oil industry. You should go say thank you for what you do. Because. Because that's why we can go around the world and kick anybody's ass and do it in a way that is blowing the minds of our top adversaries and enemies.
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D
Which by the way, in the first Gulf War, for those of you who remember, that fear that they would curtail our ability to get oil and gas was the impetus to a large extent for the first Gulf War back in 1990 or whatever it was, it was a totally different world. I'll add into what you just said, Buck. Do you know what country they believe in? The Western hemisphere has the largest untapped resources of oil and gas. Venezuela.
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A
Well, the biggest proven reserves on the planet. Yeah.
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D
So the fact that we now have the ability basically to also access that is yet another sign that we are curtailing the power of the, of the oil and gas petrodictators all around the world, including Iran, Russia. It's not a surprise that a lot of these countries that are natural adversaries to ours are very oil wealthy. Well, tax season can be scam season. Every year, IRS can expect as many as a million tax returns filed by cybercriminals using somebody's Social Security number and address to get the refund before you do. This year, no different. If you're an identity theft victim, it's up to you to prove it to the irs. It's important to understand how cybercrime and identity theft are affecting our lives. Just like it's important you know how to protect your online identity. It's best done with a LifeLock membership. LifeLock monitors millions of data points a second for risk to your identity. That's how they discover your identity is in the wrong hands. And when LifeLock sees it, they're in touch with you quickly to confirm whether you have a problem. If you become a victim of identity theft, a dedicated US based restoration specialist will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. It's easy to help protect yourself with LifeLock. Join now and save 40% off your first year. With my name, Clay, as your promo code, call 1-800-LIFELOCK or go online to lifelock.com promo code CLAY for 40% off. That's lifelock.com promo code clay for 40% off. Saving America. One thought at a time. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome in our number two Clay Travis, Buck Sexton show headline on FOX Business. Oil prices have dropped the most in four years in the last 24 hours. If you're wondering whether the oil panic of yesterday has vanished. Stock prices are, are up again today fairly decently. And MSNBC has removed their oil and gas tracker from their website as well as the stock market, sorry, from their television broadcast. And so we're on to the next narrative, whatever it may be. After a one day, everybody's going to collapse because we're not going to be able to pay for oil and gas narrative. And by the way, Buck, I was talking about this with Buck off the air. Yeah, tough spot. If you were one of those guys who bought the oil and gas yesterday for $120 and now you're staring at $85 barrel of oil, that's a, that's a big hit for a lot of the commodities traders out there.
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A
Speculation is risk,
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no doubt. We bring in now North Carolinian Michael Watley. One of the biggest battleground states of the midterm will be North Carolina and in particular an open Senate seat there. The primaries are over. It is going to be Michael Watley against Roy Cooper. You have seen and helped to shepherd Trump to victories in North Carolina in 2016, 2020 and 2024. And so you know the state better than almost anyone. What does it look like on the ground there? What needs to happen in order for a victory to happen in this seat to remain in Republican hands? Chairman Whatley?
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Well, really like what came out of the primaries and we have a completely unified Republican Party and we have the narrative that we really were hoping to have in this election cycle because this is about contrast. This is about a choice that North Carolinians have and they are going to vote for a conservative champion who's going to be an ally for President Trump over Roy Cooper, who absolutely is not going to be an ally with the president. He's not going to support the president's agenda. He is going to be a soft on crime senator, just like he was a soft on crime governor. And he is going to always want higher taxes. He's going to want boys and girls sports and men and women's locker rooms and he's going to always fight harder for criminals and illegal aliens than he is for the people of North Carolina.
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A
So my understanding is you are the recovery czar for western North Carolina right after Hurricane Helene that Trump has talked about how you've been important in those efforts. How is, how is that going? And what would you say about the state efforts that you weren't in control of to try to help out areas like Asheville and Boone?
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E
Well, what we saw when Roy Cooper was the governor was absolutely no activity whatsoever, either from Joe Biden or from Roy Cooper. They both left the state totally in shambles. What President Trump has done, what we've been able to DO, is bring $8.75 billion plus in recovery efforts to western North Carolina. 99% of the roads have been rebuilt, the bridges have been rebuilt, the water systems, the wastewater systems have been rebuilt. You know, that is a very strong part of the state. It is a resilient part of the state. The people there have, you know, overcome adversity. Adversity. But, you know, we're not ready to hang out a mission accomplished banner yet. But we feel very good about where we are in terms of the recovery. And this is the largest recovery effort by the federal government in North Carolina history for any hurricane.
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D
The governor, former governor of North Carolina, you're running against Roy Cooper. I remember seeing a super viral video of him asked a very basic question, should men be able to compete in women's sports? And I know as March Madness is going on, there's not a sports crazier state, hardly for basketball season than North Carolina right now. I think it's something that really cuts through and connects with a lot of North Carolinians in particular. Has he answered that question? I imagine that when you get on the debate stage and as this campaign progresses, that's going to be something that you really hammer him on.
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E
Well, he did answer the question because he vetoed three different bills to keep woke out of schools, boys out of girls sports, and men's out of women's locker rooms. He's exactly wrong on this issue set. And it really does, as you say, you know, touch the hearts and minds of people all across North Carolina.
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A
What is the difference between you and Roy Cooper, as you see it, when it comes to immigration enforcement? That's obviously an area that matters a whole lot to the whole country, and it matters a whole lot to your home state of North Carolina. Where is Cooper on that issue? Where has he been as governor, and where will you be?
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E
Well, I'm gonna support President Trump. I think that when we Talk about the highest, most important function for any government. It is protecting its citizens. That's true. Whether it's local, state or federal. And what President Trump has done in securing our border is not just keep out, you know, the millions of illegal immigrants that were flowing into the country every single year, but has also brought down drugs, he's brought down migrant crime, sex trafficking, you know, all of the, all of the scourges that came along with, you know, 10 to 15 million illegal immigrants that came across, you know, Roy Cooper, on the other hand, vetoed two different bills that would have forced sheriffs to honor ICE detainers and help get violent criminal illegal aliens out of North Carolina.
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D
I know that the answer is everywhere, every part of the state, but you know the state of North Carolina better than anybody. Buck just asked you about western North Carolina, where I think you were born and raised, still recovering from a lot of what happened with Hurricane Helene. Where does a statewide race get decided in your mind? Is it the suburbs outside of Charlotte? Is it in turnout related issues? Again, I know that there are lots of things to point to, but when you look at this state, where is a close election decided in North Carolina?
- [23:07]
E
Look, you nailed it on the head when you said everywhere matters. We're expecting that this race is going to be extraordinarily close. You know, when Thom Tillis won this seat for the first time in 2014, he had a 50,000 vote margin, which was 3/10 of a point. When he won it for the second time, it was a 6/10 of a point margin and Ted Bud got a very comfortable 50.5. So we know that every, every place is going to matter. What we need to do is to get out there and talk to every Republican voter that supported President Trump who has not voted in the off years. So we look at people who voted in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but they didn't vote in 2018 or 2022. We want to go to them and have a conversation that says this really matters. We need to dynamite them off the couch and we need to get them to go vote. The other thing that we need to do is in a typical election in North Carolina, 46, 47% of the people are going to vote for a Republican candidate. 46, 47% are going to vote for a Democratic candidate. And then we are going to have to go have a conversation with that 6 to 8% that are your swing voters. And they're predominantly suburban, they're predominantly college educated. And the thing that matters to them is A conversation about crazy versus common sense. And they supported President Trump in this last election cycle. Independent voters in North Carolina, 54 to 45, because he was the common sense candidate. He was actually going out there and talking about the issues that they cared about, not the woke progressive issues that Kamala Harris was putting on the table. Roy Cooper is right there in lockstep with the Democratic Party when he's talking about open borders, inflationary spending and a weak woke America. What I'm fighting for is President Trump's common sense agenda to, you know, rebuild our economy, to make sure that our kids and our communities are safe and that the men and women in uniform based in North Carolina have what they need to protect our interests and allies around the world.
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A
Speaking to Michael Wadley, he's running for that Senate seat that's open in this cycle in North Carolina. I know you've strongly supported Michael, President Trump's tax cuts, which have obviously boosted North Carolina's economy along with the rest of the country. But there's major affordability concerns in your state, just like there are in many states, particularly a lot of states, people are moving to. Right. Housing prices are going up because of that supply and demand reality. Roy Cooper wants to expand Medicaid. Roy Cooper wants to spend more money, and that's not going to help. What would you like to do? What kind of pro growth policies would you prioritize in the Senate so that working families can get some relief and there can be some of the affordability issues addressed that are so critical right now, especially to those independent and swing voters?
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E
Yeah, look, tax policies, regulatory policies and trade policies that are going to help North Carolina manufacture small businesses and particularly our farms. Right. We need to create more jobs. We need to make sure people are taking home bigger paychecks. And of course, we've got to get the cost down low. And that is going to take a concerted effort. You know, one of the things that's so important about President Trump and one big beautiful bill that was passed by Congress last year is extending the Trump middle class tax cuts, which ended up being the largest tax cut in history, and making sure that no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. You know, Roy Cooper, when he was a legislator, he voted for multiple tax hikes. When he was the governor, he vetoed six different tax cuts and he made it very clear that he would have voted against the one big beautiful bill. So he's always going to support tax increases. He's always going to want, you know, to tax and Spend your money. Right. I'm going to always fight to make sure that we're going to bring those costs down. You know, you mentioned housing, Right. So just today we've got Secretary Scott Turner, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, coming into Charlotte, North Carolina, and we're going to have a roundtable where we're going to be focusing on bringing down housing costs and making sure that we have houses that are going to be available. It's really hard for you to set up and live the American dream when you can't get married and buy a house and raise a family. And so what we want to do is have an honest conversation with the secretary, along with, you know, real estate developers and lenders and construction folks about what is it going to take for us to be able to build more homes and bring down those prices. We need to bring, you know, interest rates down. Right. President Trump has been fighting on that a lot. We need to have transparency in the housing markets. We need to make sure that the HUD loans and other programs they have are specifically designed to get more first time homeowners into place.
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D
How much is this race going to cost total, do you think? And for people out there that might have the resources to be able to help you, how can they help you?
- [28:11]
E
Well, this is going to be the most expensive Senate race in the history of the country. And we're seeing, you know, experts on both sides of the aisle are saying that we're going to be somewhere north of $600 million that are going to be spent on this race, which is going to eclipse what we saw in Ohio and Georgia and Pennsylvania in the last couple of election cycles. People want to support us. They can go to michaelwatley.com, we are certainly going to need help from all across the country. And we are going to be in a position to win this race when we have that support, because we are believers that good policy is good politics. And we're going to be on the right side of every one of these 80, 20 issues and we're going to be fighting for President Trump's common sense agenda.
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D
I want to just come back to that number quickly because my jaw drop for people watching on video, you think this race is going to cost $600 million.
- [29:03]
E
Yeah, I think it's a, it's a stunning indictment on politics these days that this is what, what we're going to be spending on there, you know, but we need to make sure that we get our message out, you know, and President Trump did such a good job. What we did on the campaign was make sure that we were good stewards of every dollar, that we were spending it in a way that was going to maximize getting our message out there. But it didn't work if we didn't have a good message. And so when we talk about rebuilding the economy, restoring the borders and keeping our kids and our communities safe and making sure that our military has what they need, you know, as we're watching what happens now in Iran, we need to make sure that we're focusing on what are the issues that the voters care about.
- [29:47]
D
He is Michael Whatley. He is hopefully going to be the next senator from the state of North Carolina. I'm sure we'll be talking to you a lot. That $600 million battle, that is extraordina, sir. Get your rest and be ready.
- [30:00]
E
We're ready to go and really appreciate you and your listeners.
- [30:04]
D
That is Michael Watley. Check him out. And one of the big open Senate seats, maybe the biggest battleground Senate battle in the country there. 600 million. I can't believe it. By the way, reports now that the New York Police Department bomb squad has arrived at Gracie Mansion. Buck will update you on the absolute latest on that. That's the headline at Fox News as we are on the heels of the two IEDs being thrown outside of Gracie Mansion as well. Prize picks available in all 50 states, California, Texas, Florida, Georgia, wherever you are across the country. You can play along. You can download the Prize Picks app today. Use my name Clay as the code and you get $50 instantly in lineups when you play $5. That's code clay, clay on prize picks to get $50 in lineups when you play $five dollars, win or lose 50 bucks in lineups just for playing guaranteed prize picks. It's good to be right. You want to check out and get hooked up with this in all 50 states. When you play $5, you get back $50. You are going to love it. It's fun. March Madness underway. Have a little bit of fun with prizepix.com code clay want to be in the know when you're on The Go the Team 47 podcast drop highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clan Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton show. We appreciate all of you hanging out with us and we are glad to be joined by our good friends friend Shannon Bream. Am I allowed to say it? I'm going to say it. I always ask and then I say it anyway, nearly a neighbor of mine, among other reasons that I appreciate everything that she does. She has great choices and where she has decided to live with her awesome husband Sheldon, who often listens to the show. So thank you. Congratulations on the new book. Let me make sure that I get that out there for the title. It is Nothing Is Impossible with God. Eleven Heroes, One God, Endless Lessons in Overcoming. Shannon, of course, chief legal correspondent at Fox News. And we encourage all of you to go buy her book, put her on the bestseller list like Buck was just on the bestseller list for the New York Times. And Shannon, I'll get to the book in a sec. But let me start with this. We're still expecting really big Supreme Court decisions. When do we expect some of these to come down? And what do you think has the potential to be the most significant between now and June when that term is over?
- [32:51]
F
Well, Clay, good to hear your voice. Great to be with you guys. Thanks for having me. We probably will get another round of opinions starting the week of March 23rd. They're back at arguments, oral arguments then. So listen, it's the courts world. We're just living in it. They could give these opinions anytime we want. But that's kind of my educated guess. You know, we're waiting on one really big one out of Louisiana that has to do with redistricting with the Voting Rights Act. And you guys know we're tracking these states all over the country that are trying to do redistricting leading up to the midterms. So if we get that decision on the earlier side, meaning, you know, March, April rather than the later, which would be the end of June, it really does have the potential to impact a number of these states and what they're doing with redrawing these streets. So excuse me, the district. So I'm watching for that one. We've got a couple that test the limits of executive power. You know, the president trying to dismiss a governor from the and some other interesting ones that we're just kind of waiting on. Our nail biting standby.
- [33:45]
A
Shannon, I want to ask you about the book because I just went through the whole book thing and still going through.
- [33:50]
F
And congrats. Congrats.
- [33:52]
A
Thank you. Thank you. I'm sure you're enjoying your copy very much. Thank you for your kind words. Tell me what you write in this book and what do people need to know? I want to dive right into it.
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F
Well, listen, it's a group of stories from the Bible, old and New Testament that have this theme of overcoming Because, I mean, all of us get up against something in life that, you know, either it's unplanned and it's, you know, a terrible diagnosis or financial crisis or something really difficult in life. It may be something exciting like, you know, starting a new business or having a baby or doing something. But we all have things that sometimes will make us feel a little bit overwhelmed, and that's the common thread in all of these stories. And so I hope that people will see themselves in these stories, be encouraged and see how God was working, and help each of these people to overcome what was the tough thing in front of them.
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D
Shannon, you mentioned the Supreme Court decisions that are coming down soon. One of the biggest questions, and this is a huge mess in general, so maybe you have the perfect solution. Here is, and I think we talked about this with you before, the tariff decision had so many different implications, but the biggest still is out there. It is what happens with tariff refunds. How does this play out in your mind? Where does it go?
- [35:06]
F
Yeah. And listen, during the fight over the tariffs in the lower courts, the administration represented to the courts numerous times that they would pay out the refunds to the plaintiffs in those particular cases. So that was just a small group of businesses. So I pressed, you know, Secretary Bessant, Kevin Hassett, others on this, like, what happens to everybody else out there? And you've seen, I mean, there were already been a lot of big filings, lawsuits filed with different companies across the spectrum saying, we want our money back. Well, now, cbp, because this money comes in through Border Patrol, they say, listen, we are getting together a streamlined way to do this. It's going to take us about 45 days. I think they told the court recently to kind of set up the way that you go about getting your refunds. But there are a lot of lawsuits from companies who say, we're not waiting for that. We want the money back, and we want a guarantee from the court that you're going to pay us.
- [35:57]
A
Hmm. How do you think this plays out, Shannon?
- [36:01]
F
Well, you know, the president himself was frustrated that the court did not give a specific, you know, framework for paying this money back. Instead, he, you know, said, oh, we're going to be tied up in litigation for a couple of years. So that's my question. Is the administration going to fight some of these refunds, or will they do, as CBP has said, set up this framework? Because, you know, several businesses out there have spoken publicly and said, listen, the forms that you fill out for these specific tariffs, it's always Very specific. So you can track, we got the receipt, as the kids say, to show exactly what money you've paid out. And so it would seem with that in mind, if CBP really sets up this framework for getting it done, that that would expedite the process. But I think that there are going to be those who press for litigation to make sure that that vow is made good.
- [36:47]
D
When you look, Shannon, at the Supreme Court decisions, the one that you just referenced on the, on the redistricting in particular, using race as a, as a criteria, the German meandering of race, I've seen some stories that that could flip 20 different districts, particularly in the south, if that's tossed. My suspicion, I'm curious if you would sign on, is that the court is going to wait as late as possible, release that ruling. I think it's going to invalidate those districts, but I think they want to do it late enough that it doesn't impact the 2026 midterms. You buy that? Or do you think there is a possibility that they would interject themselves into that aspect of 2026?
- [37:35]
F
Yeah, and that's such a great question because that's what we keep waiting for. Listen, if this thing comes in the next couple of weeks, I do think, you know, it's going to impact a number of states that can make these changes before it's later. But if it comes at the end of the end of June, it may preclude that process, you're right, from getting too close to doing anything about the elections that are going to come in the midterm. You know, the justices will tell us they want the court to be viewed as apolitical as possible. They don't want to get involved in looking like they're putting a weight the scale in a partisan manner or any other way. So I don't know where they're going to do, where they're going to land with this. But, you know, the chief justice always tells us when the opinions are ready, we don't hold them or time them to meet any kind of specific political or other timeline, we release them. So they haven't even given us a date for the next release, but he says they don't play games with it, that when it's ready, we get it.
- [38:24]
A
Something I just thought about as we're here talking about matters affecting the high Court and matters before the High Court, Shannon, whatever happened to finding out who leaked the Dobbs decision in advance of the actual decision? Very few people would have had access to that. And it feels like that just went nowhere, Buck.
- [38:44]
F
I love it. One of my favorite questions, because remember, this administration picked that up. When the court had the investigation, the Chief justice kept it in house, used the marshal service, used their internal workings to get it done. We know some people were pressed on taking lie detector tests and those kinds of things, but we all know if it was a clerk, and that's an if. We have no idea. They have these one year terms. And if it's an internal Supreme Court investigation, when they leave at the end of that clerking term, the court kind of loses its reach over them. They can't take away their employment. They can't do anything from that infrastructure. And there are a lot of critics on the outside who said this should have been farmed out. We should have brought in DOJ or some other federal investigative body to do this. Well, then, you know, when Dan Mangino was part of the administration, he talked a couple of times about this, saying the Dobbs decision is still on our list of investigations. Like we're going to try to find out. So if the court cooperates with them, that's one thing. But if the court's not cooperating and turning over all the details of what their internal investigation found, I'm not sure how you kind of pick up the threats at this point.
- [39:49]
D
We want you to go buy her book. The book is Nothing Is Impossible With God, Eleven Heroes, One God, Endless Lessons in Overcoming Shannon Bream. Let me hit you with this, because I haven't heard this discussed in earnest, but a big part of what might happen in the Senate is who's going to control it, right? This could be the last year that President Trump has control of the United States Senate. Have you heard any discussions about the possibility of some of the older justices, maybe a Justice Alito, for instance, deciding that this is the time to step down because he knows that his confirmation would be someone who shares many of his judicial philosophies. Whereas if you wait until, you know, January, you could end up in a situation where Ruth Bader Ginsburg found herself or other justices have found themselves, where your health is at the beck and call of a political universe. You don't control what discussion, if any, is about the Supreme Court right now.
- [40:54]
F
Oh, guys, this is one of our favorite parlor games in D.C. especially in the Supreme Court press corps. Like, it gives ulcers to all of us trying to figure this out and figure out what they're going to do. Because you guys know, these confirmation battles have gotten so heated the last few rounds that when Somebody decides to step down, it triggers all kinds of pandemonium in D.C. and you're right. You got to look to the midterms and see does the Senate lose control, which would make it really hard. It's already difficult because you're not even guaranteed all the Republican votes. If you're a Republican voter who wants to see President Trump to get another appointment, they don't always stick together either. So, you know, it's a really heavy lift. But I've heard nothing. I mean, Justices Thomas and Alito have both hired their clerks. They have everything in place that you would think is going to be in place for future terms. That's something that they do pretty far in advance. They haven't heard any rumblings that anybody's actually thinking about it. We like to speculate, but my educated guess is that Justice Thomas is not going to leave the bench by choice. He's having a good time. He fights every day. I think when he shows up there every day, he does it with such glee for his haters that I think he's somebody who's going to stay as long as possible. You know, we have no indication that Justice Alito is even thinking about it, but I think he would step down before Justice Thomas would. So I think June could be very interesting month on that front.
- [42:12]
D
Yeah. Let me hit you with this, because I like to look at the markets, and there are markets right now on whether a new Supreme Court justice would be confirmed before 2027. And it's right at 60%. Yes. So there are people making wagers that somebody, Alito is the favorite. As you just kind of ran through that, you know, he might be considering this. And again, you've done this for a long time. If you wanted to ensure who your replacement was going to be from a judicial philosophy perspective next year, that meaning this year might be the last year where you have some certainty on that for some time to come.
- [42:54]
F
Right. And listen, as much as the court wants to be apolitical, they're not blind. Listen. They get the political trends, they get the political conversation. And you do have to think about that. Remember when Justice Ginsburg was being pressed so hard by the left to step down, and it made her dig in her heels? I mean, there were op eds telling her she had to go. There were law professors calling for her to go, and she was like, no, sir, I will go on my own timeline and I'll go when I'm good and ready. And then the left was so furious with her, obviously passing away while she was still holding that seat and you know, President Trump obviously getting to replace her. So it's a really sore point. But a lot of people think on the right even listen, you give deference to these men who, you know are the more senior members of the conservative wing of the court. They've given decades of their lives and we should respect that. So I don't know. And I do think that both Thomas and Alito are justices too. If you pressured them or started saying, hey, time to show you the door, that would make them stick around. But they're not dummies about the political calculation, so I got to imagine that's that's part of their consideration.
- [44:02]
D
No doubt.
- [44:03]
A
New book is Nothing Is Impossible With God, Eleven Heroes, One God, Endless Lessons and Overcoming. Go get your copy. Shannon, Clay and Buck are Shannon fans and we have so many Shannon fans listening. So I think we're going to sell a bunch of books today. Let us know how it goes.
- [44:18]
F
Well, thank you. The feeling is mutual. I would love to see you guys in person so hopefully end up in one of your studios again soon. And again. Congrats, Buck.
- [44:25]
A
Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you. She's the best.
- [44:29]
D
She's awesome. And Sheldon, her husband, super good at her job.
- [44:33]
A
Super nice. Like, tell your daughters to grow up to be like Shannon Bream. Just saying. Your roof is one of the most valuable parts of your home, right up there with plumbing and electrical systems. So when a roofing company offers you a free inspection to see what kind of shape it's in, it's smart to say yes to the offer. Erie Home is the roofing company making that offer. Erihome is a 50 year old company specializing in making sure the roof on your house is in excellent shape. Take advantage of their offer. They'll inspect your roof for any problems free of charge using a 25 point inspection they've developed over their many years in business. If your roof needs replacement, ErieHome offers all kinds of options, including the use of newer metal materials that are made to mimic the look of your current roof. These new metal materials allow your new roof to last up to two to three times longer than traditional shingle roofs with proper care and maintenance. Maintenance. Your new roof from Erie Home comes with a 50 year transferable warranty. So if you sell your home, you're providing even more value in the selling process. Schedule your free inspection@eriehome.com Buck today and get a discount off the installation price. That's E r I e home.com buck this discount is maximized at $1,200 valid. A new roofing installation only. Minimum purchase required and restrictions apply. C Rep. Buck for warranty or promotional details,
- [45:48]
D
news you can count on and some laughs too. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [45:59]
A
Third hour of play and Buck kicks off now. Show is flying by and we are covering so much ground. A good time to remind you all there's a podcast of this program. You can go back and listen on Dimensions anytime you'd like. The iHeartRadio app. Best place to start. Wherever you get your podcast, hour by hour, the show goes up. Go listen to it. You missed hour one. We had a great hour one. Some people say the greatest hour one of any show this, this week so far. There was a great, great hour one of the show. We're talking Iran stuff. We're talking economy. We had Jim Jordan on. We had Shannon Bream on Great Americans. We had Michael Watley on. I think he's going to win that race, Clay in North Carolina. I really do. I like Michael Wadley. He's a good man. They're going to their money that's going to be spent. It's just crazy how much money is being spent by most in Democrats.
- [46:49]
D
Million dollars, he said, Buck, if you were watching on video, my jaw, it's rare that my jaw drops when I hear a number I was even projecting, okay, it'll cost a couple of hundred million dollars. Six hundred million dollars for one Senate seat is outrageous, but it's indicative of how much money is Ben and we just talked with Shannon Bream about this. You can't be confident if you are the White House right now that you are going to have control of Congress. This might be your last opportunity this year might be the last opportunity of you, meaning the Republicans, to be able to get anything through the, the House and the Senate. And so if that's going to be true, it makes all of these stakes that much higher, including as we were just talking about the possibility of could there be a Supreme Court vacancy? Because, Buck, if you don't make the decision to go now in 26, 27 and 28, if Republicans lose control of the Senate, nothing's getting done. And then in 28 you have another election and you don't know who's going to win, you might have a split and so you might not have certainty on who your replacement's gonna be for four or five years, maybe longer. If you're a 70 some odd year old Supreme Court justice.
- [48:09]
A
Also some breaking news here. That Gracie Mansion, which is the mayor's residence in New York City, right, like a block or two from. My little sister actually went to school. I know the area very well. Gracie Mansion has. Well, there's a report of the NYPD responding to a device, a suspicious device. Not immediately clear if it was a hoax or real or not. But look, this is getting more attention on. There was that protest and the counter protesters, remember a protest about too many Islamic radicals in New York. So Islamic radicals were like, how dare you? And then threw a bomb at them. Kind of tells you a lot as we were discussing. And now there's another suspicious package that has been found. You remember, Clay, I think it was the New York Post held the contest for the name of a strip club that at one point was going to be opened. A all male strip club that was going to be open near the site of a mosque, you know, but do you remember?
- [49:13]
D
Do you know, I don't remember this story at all.
- [49:15]
A
I think it was New York Post and the winner was Suspicious Packages. Actually really funny, which I always thought was kind of a funny one.
- [49:25]
D
That's very.
- [49:26]
A
If you're gonna have a strip club across from a mosque, you know, because some guy wanted to make a point that they won't allow a strip club near a mosque. An all male. It was like a Chippendales thing. This is a long time ago. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Onion. I'm pretty sure it was a real thing, but maybe it was the Onion. It's a funny story anyway. Sometimes, you know, when the facts and the legend conflict, you got to go with the legend. But whenever I see suspicious packages now, I always think of that story or that, that urban legend, whatever it is. Now we have the, the CNN reporting on this is. Is incredible. And this is where X. I. I know we sound a little bit like Elon superfans here. Maybe some or I'll just speak for myself. I want actually Clay with the Tesla. I think it's pretty big fan.
- [50:09]
D
I am. I think Elon is my, my 50, my 15 year old son. The other day was just. Would you stop? You may or may not know this phrase. Would you stop with the Elon glaze? Glaze is like when you're giving somebody praise. I'm like, he's the greatest capitalist in the history of the world. I mean, I think it's fair to say that of anybody that's alive today. I think he's probably done more in A positive direction from a capitalist perspective than almost anybody ever has. And did we say this on the air? Was it off air? AOC was criticizing Elon Musk recently for being a billionaire who had never accomplished anything. And Elon Musk just did a star, you know, an asterisk and said trillionaire, which is Elon is, if he's not already soon to be the first trillionaire in the history of the world. And I think it's because he's built pretty incredible products. So I to cut you off, I might like Elon and be more of an Elon Glazer according to my own 15 year old than even you are. But so I'll sign on.
- [51:16]
A
What is it called in Gen Z speak? Gen Z has some very interesting. First of all, I've noticed that we grew up saying dude the way they say bro. Bro is now what dude was in the 90s. You'd be like dude. Now it's bro.
- [51:31]
D
Everything is bro.
- [51:32]
A
That's one thing I've noticed about the Gen Z. I have a Gen Z babysitter and I listen very closely to her lexicon to her verbiage and I'm learning things all the time.
- [51:45]
D
Oldest man way to describe how a young. I listened to her lexicon to her verbiage. How old is. Is your Gen Z lass? That is. That is a babysitter.
- [51:58]
A
22 year old, just got out of the. Just got out of the IDF actually 22 years old and she was serving over in Israel. Now she's here and, and she's great, she's great with, great with speech, fantastic. But I'm learning from the way that she speaks and there's a thing mogging. Oh yeah, mogging. Oh, I, I've learned this thing.
- [52:19]
C
So.
- [52:20]
A
So when Clay and I took a photo years ago with Tommy Lahren and Tommy looked like Tommy Lahren and Clay and I both looked particularly schlubby. Even for us, we were mogged by Tommy. This is with it.
- [52:37]
D
Right?
- [52:37]
A
That's the correct. It's like when someone completely overshadows you in a photo because they're like, they're so good looking.
- [52:45]
D
I think that's what basically you can mog people in all respects, but typically it is applied for physical. Like if you went to the beach and I went to the beach and like Arnold schwarzenegger, you know, Mr. Olympian style was there at the beach, he would be totally mogging us. Like we would be the fat schlubby guys at the beach.
- [53:05]
A
And then, I mean now he's Pretty wrinkly and old but yeah.
- [53:08]
D
So who is the most, who's a super ripped guy now? There aren't as many famous ripped guys. I mean I know there's tons of wrestlers and things like that.
- [53:16]
A
I think super bodybuilders have become. Did you see the guy who was like I think won the Arnold Classic? The photos and we're going around does not even look like a human musculature. I mean it looks like another species or it's crazy how Jack.
- [53:27]
D
Yeah well some of those guys can't put a shirt on fine. So it's hard to be like oh you're the strongest man on the like when I'm not kidding. Like they can't take a shirt off and take a shirt on because they're so muscular like their, their shoulders don't work. They can't just like do normal things right?
- [53:43]
A
Well you're taking massive doses of anabolic steroids to get to that and that's just known. I mean this isn't like some see everyone that you're not hiding it. You can't be a bodybuilder, a male bodybuilder competitor. It's interesting the most competitive of the female body and I'm in Miami which is I think now probably the bodybuilding capital of the country or certainly South Florida has got to be up there.
- [54:04]
D
South Florida is the attractiveness capital of the United States by far. Everybody's good looking, everybody's in shape. Like I LA is probably number two in terms of people who are just in great Miami's now number one.
- [54:18]
A
Your fitness level in South Florida is a minus three compared to the American average. So if you think you are like a 7 out of 10 in terms of fitness for your age category, you come to South Florida you're like a four or five. It's just the way it is. Look I, it applies to me too, trust me. I was like, I came down here, I was like I'm the fattest guy in the whole gym. Like it's tough down here.
- [54:38]
D
Well and also it's warm so people wear less clothes so it's hard to hide like you can't wear a bulky jacket. You don't get like if you're the fat guy in Miami, everybody knows you're the fat guy in Miami.
- [54:49]
A
Yeah, you don't. I mean around here it's, there's, it's a whole different thing with the year round beach where OK so looks mogging. We've explained to you now for Gen Z speak most of you it's going to be your grandkids or your kids that will know what mogging is. And you explain, you explained glazed. There's some other Gen Z terms that I'll think of that are very, very common usage these days. But anyway, going back to CNN here for a moment. Oh, why? Who are we glazing? Elon. Because Elon's incredible. He is.
- [55:18]
D
And you were saying the reason we knew this story from CNN to a large extent is because of Twitter and the way that it's changed culturally.
- [55:25]
A
Yeah, I mean, Twitter used to be a left wing propaganda platform. It allowed conservatives on, but it actually was nefarious because it was always suppressing. You know, if you're in a race, what's worse? Hey, I'm the. This is a race to determine who the fastest person in the world is. But I'm going to exclude, like most of the fastest people and then give a gold medal to somebody who's actually not the fastest. Or if you put everybody in the race and then you have the actual fastest people, you know, running with like shackles on their legs or running barefoot, or they might even run faster barefoot. But anyway, you get what I'm saying, right? Like, it's actually more nefarious to pretend it's a honest platform. X now does not operate as a left wing propaganda platform. And it's not perfect, but it's a lot better than it was. And so CNN has had to put this out. A post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside of New York City. Mayor Zoran Mamdani's home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident, thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted. Now, just to share with everybody what the tweet was, this is from CNN's official account, which has millions and millions of followers. Still, two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could have been a normal day, enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would be drastically changed as they would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti Muslim protest outside of Zoran Mamdani's home home. Clay, that construct of how to tell this story is like clinically insane. I mean, you could do this with anybody. It was, you know, it's like Osama bin Laden was having just another day eating some chunks of goat in a cave in Afghanistan, thinking about a Quranic verse, and then boom, all of a sudden on his tv, the planes ran into the buildings.
- [57:26]
D
Like, what are you doing yeah. And this is where it becomes significant to me. Me, a lot of times people can screw up. I've written a lot, you've written a lot. We talk a lot. Four hours plus every day, variety of different topics. To me, what is an utter indictment of what you just read that went viral this morning is it's a product of the culture of cnn. In other words, you know, this articles don't go up on CNN.com without having been vetted by multiple editors. And I would submit that a CNN account does not tweet something out without it having the ability to have been overseed by multiple editors. Which is a good thing. Right? You don't want CNN suddenly tweeting out 100% inaccurate news because it could be very traumatic to the nation as a whole. Right. If suddenly CNN said, hey, something awful has happened to President Trump and it's not true at all, it could alter the marketplace. People see on stock markets, everything else. By the way, Caroline Levitt has started a briefing and we will be updating you on what she is saying there. But all of that is to say this is the culture of CNN that must be ripped out root and branch. And this is why for those of you out there who didn't care about who was going to buy Warner Brothers, I did care. CBS News was a mess. I think CBS News has gotten better under new ownership. I think that similarly, CNN needs to be reimagined and redefined and rehabilitated based on the way that the culture of their news has broken. And that tweet and that story is a perfect example of a culture that's broken.
- [59:15]
A
When we see volatility in the world, which we certainly have because the oil markets with Iran, it's a time when precious metal tends to grow. Gold is limited in quality, quantity, rather unlike cash, which can be printed by any government treasury. And it happens all over the world, including here at home. This past year, gold grew in value by more than 65%. Experts and analysts think the growth in value could continue this year too. But look at the long term. Gold is up 700% since 2006. Forward thinking Americans have been diversifying a portion of their savings into precious metals like gold for years now. And it's something you can start doing early this year or you can add to precious metal that you've already been buying over the years. And Birch Gold Group is who I recommend you go to for this. Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into an IRA in gold. They can also Just send precious metal, gold silver to your house. That's what they've done for me. I've got gold coins and gold bullion from Birch Gold Group. Just text my name Bucks Buck to 989898 to receive your free info kit on gold. There's no obligation, just useful information. A plus with the Better Business Bureau. Tens of thousands of happy customers. Let Birch Gold Group help you diversify with gold. That's peace of mind. Text Buck to 989898 Text B U C K to 9,898.98 Clay Travis and
- [60:36]
D
Buck Sexton Mic drops that never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.