← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
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- [00:00]
iHeart Radio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Asma Khalid
America is changing and so is the world.
- [00:09]
Clay Travis
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [00:17]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [00:19]
Clay Travis
Tristan Redman in London. And this is the global story.
- [00:23]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [00:29]
Clay Travis
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:35]
Propane Advertiser
The US electric grid is approaching a breaking point. As demand soars from data centers and home energy use, our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready. Powering homes and businesses with clue cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@probane.com this is Jim.
- [01:06]
iHeart Radio Announcer
Hello.
- [01:06]
Buck Sexton
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back.
- [01:09]
Clay Travis
In April, and now I have customers out the door. And this is Sarah.
- [01:13]
Asma Khalid
Hi.
- [01:14]
Buck Sexton
She started putting a portion of her marketing dollars in podcasting back in June.
- [01:18]
Asma Khalid
Business is booming.
- [01:19]
Buck Sexton
That's why I'm working on a Saturday. Wanna be like Jim and Sarah? It's easy. All you have to do is own or manage a business and reach out to iHeart. Get started today at 844 iHeart or iHeartadvertising.com.
- [01:35]
Clay Travis
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why Benghazi?
- [01:47]
Buck Sexton
The truth became a web of lies.
- [01:49]
Clay Travis
From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [01:55]
Asma Khalid
What difference at this point does it make?
- [01:58]
Clay Travis
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. People ask us all the time how we can save the next generation.
- [02:09]
Buck Sexton
We've got our show and the info is an antidote. But we also have a couple books coming out.
- [02:14]
Clay Travis
Clay. That's right. And you can pre order both of them right now and be book nerds just like us.
- [02:19]
Buck Sexton
You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter too.
- [02:22]
Clay Travis
Mine's called Balls How Trump Young Men and Sports Saved America.
- [02:26]
Buck Sexton
And mine is Manufact Manufacturing Delusion. How the Left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda against you.
- [02:33]
Clay Travis
Both are great reads. One might even say they would make fabulous Gifts indeed.
- [02:38]
Buck Sexton
So do us a solid and preorder yours on Amazon today.
- [02:42]
Clay Travis
Welcome in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. We are rolling with all of you, Thursday edition of the program. I have joined Buck in the free state of Florida. I'm in the northern part of Florida. He is in the absolute most southern, nearly part of Florida. But we have got the entire sides of the state covered. I'm on the panhandle bucket. I know you talked about when you were in the Highlands how everybody who comes up is super. I bet per capita the panhandle of Florida, particularly down in the beach area, may be the number one most indexed. I love you, Clay and Buck audience in all of America. So this is fun. I'm in Panama City beach for the next couple of days. Um, and we are monitoring a bunch of different stories that are out there. Uh, President Trump is as we speak, I believe, unless something has happened in the last couple of minutes on a phone call with Vladimir Putin, Trump is Buck. He's feeling it. You know, when you, you know, he got the role going a little bit, maybe whatever your game is table stakes. Hey, J.B. pritzker, $1.4 million. We have some fun with that. And gambling earnings last year. Did you guys see that? The governor of Illinois. But you have the. Maybe you're on the craps table and the roles are going your direction. Maybe you've just hit blackjack against the dealer and you got some money in your pocket. Maybe you just hit on a few of our prize picks, winners. But President Trump is feeling it right now. He's got the peace agreement in the Middle east and he now is stepping up. He's got Zelinsky coming into the White House on Friday, and I think he's increasingly emboldened at his hand, so to speak, and the string of victories that he has put together. And I think he has expectations that he's going to be able to find peace in this Ukraine and Russia deal. And it's going to be interesting to see what his negotiating lever is. We got a bunch to get into. But right off the top, Buck, it seems like right now Trump has decided that, that maybe the way to get peace is to make Russia fear if the war continues. Right now, there is no fear. If you look in the Middle East, I know a lot of people disagreed with you and me, but we were right. The strike in Iran basically let everybody know, okay, there are consequences if we step outside the lines of acceptable behavior. And right now, there are no consequences for Russia. Those consequences can be economic as it comes to oil and gas and Trump has tried to bring that to bear on India, but it seems, and I'm not sure he's officially going to do it, but it seems that Trump has decided that giving Ukraine weapons that can reach into Russia and directly attack Russia's ability to produce oil, which is what is the money funding source that is allowing this war to continue, that maybe Trump is at least willing to threaten, if not actually willing to do it. Does that kind of seem to be your read from a negotiating standpoint and what exactly is at stake here or what's going on?
- [05:54]
Buck Sexton
Yes, and we should dive into some of the specifics here. I would just add to it that there's also the very high stakes negotiation with China going on over trade over tariffs, where on the 1st of January, as of right now, it's supposed to be 100% tariff going into effect on Chinese goods, which this is true trade war stuff. And when 100% tariff isn't a little surtax, that is now the products will no longer be competitive, entering the US Market at the current rates. So that's a big deal. China is thinking that they can outmaneuver Trump by cutting rare earth minerals to the rest of the world. This is a very complicated topic on its own because rare earth, we have rare earth minerals here, we haven't been mining them. I think a lot of this is because the environmental lobby and concerns about, oh, the mining is going to be so terrible. So China's been doing it and now China is this massive provider of rare earth to the whole world. You need these things for the electronics that we all now rely on for our day to day lives. So, so the China negotiation, clay is heating up right at the same time. We are entering now another phase of the Russia negotiation which you were laying out. Here's my sense of this. I do not believe that Trump is going to get a deal on Russia, Ukraine this time around either. I think that Putin still believes that he is taking territory. He may give some indication of progress via words meaning Putin and we're going to revisit this. I think that Putin squarely and strongly believes that he will continue to strengthen his hand and gain more territory with the battlefield at status quo. And even Trump saying I'm going to bloody your nose on this if you don't stop is not going to be enough. You're going to have to see an actual change in what's happening on the battlefield because of U.S. weapons and support and then maybe you can get to a deal you know, I think Trump has to turn up the heat, not just threaten to turn up the heat to get to any kind of meaningful, just cease fire, never mind peace deal.
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Clay Travis
Okay, so let's build on that. To what extent is giving Ukraine offensive weaponry going to lead to a more significant battleground, a more deadly, a more serious. Remember that Russia has nukes. Do you fear that if we accelerate the weaponry on Ukraine side, that Russia will accelerate the use of weaponry on their side? Because that's the rationale for which giving Ukraine weapons that could strike into Russia have not been done to this point. Do you buy that as a fear that Russia will accelerate or increase the level of violence that they bring to bear?
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Buck Sexton
I do not. I think that Putin will make noise about that, but I think that there are a few reasons why he wouldn't do it. For one, you have Russian and Ukrainian troops in essentially a trench warfare standoff in very close contact, such that if this was used, even a so called tactical nuke used on the battlefield, you would be taking, I think, a substantial risk to your own forces, most likely. Now people could say, what if you nukes Kiev or goes deep into the interior? Well, that's a massive escalation beyond what we have even seen. That would bring, I think the international, you know, forget about the international community, America, the UK, even China at that point be like, what the heck are you doing? And you might have reprisals, you might have a response from nations that, you know, get takes us to a very scary place. I don't think that they're willing to do that. I don't think they would do that if we started, if they start lobbying missiles into Moscow maybe. I mean there, there are red lines the Russians have, but I don't think that more effective weapons on the Ukraine battlefield against the Russians results in Russia deploying and, you know, using a nuke. That would be a very scary world if that happened. And I know that this is very high stakes poker, but keep in mind they've been dangling that threat this whole time. I think at some point people have to be willing to call the bluff on it. I'm not sure that Trump is, I'm not sure how far deep down this rabbit hole Trump is going to go, but I also think that he recognizes the, hey, Vladimir, let's be reasonable, let's be, let's be reasonable men here. Does not work. That's not going to work with Putin. He is not reasonable in the sense of how we view reasonableness.
- [10:41]
Clay Travis
I think it comes down to fear. I think the only thing that Putin responds to is fear. And I don't mean that he's physically fearful. I mean that he is afraid somebody might be willing to be as nasty to him as he is clearly willing to be to them. And I think Trump has come to see that that might be necessary. And I think you hit on something important here, which is the China component. I wonder to what extent a peace deal that could be brokered might involve China starting to step away for just a short period of time from purchasing Russian oil. Because Trump brought the hammer down on India. And to be fair, a lot of this Russian oil embargo is complete bs by which I mean people say, oh, we're not going to buy Russian oil. They're invading Ukraine. This is unacceptable. And so Russia share sells the oil to India at a discount. India then marks it up some and sells it back to the rest of the world. It's a ridiculous shell. It's not a bad business for India. Right, because they're getting reduced oil gas cost, and then they're able to still sell at a reduced price as the middleman. But this whole idea that we've cut off Russia's outlets to the rest of the world with their oil is a total shell game. And Trump has recognized it. He's put the pressure on India. Now, will China bend in any way? Because really, if you want to curtail the financial might of Russia, you have to end a fake game. Here's the other thing they could do, and there has been some discussion about this much of it in Europe. Start letting Europe use all of the frozen Russian assets that have been seized in overseas bank accounts and to pay for the war against Russia. That, to me, is something that could get Putin's attention in a significant way as well. I think, Buck, it is around 200 or $300 billion that has been seized in Russian assets in European banks, by and large. And if you just give all that money to Ukraine and say, okay, boom, go buy all the, all the weaponry that you want, and we'll let Russia fund the war directly against Russia, I think that might well get a lot of their attention. And it feels like, to me, a significant step that should be taken.
- [13:07]
Buck Sexton
Yes, there's a lot here that that could be done. Again, I think Trump is going to have to do it. I don't think that the talking about it to Putin, even from President Trump, is going to result in any real change here. That's just based on how this has gone so far. I would also say one of the challenges that we have. And clay this came up even in my discussions with the Taiwanese leadership in Taipei. One of the challenges is that even when America now wants to sell, not give sell weapons to allies so they can defend themselves, we run into capacity problems. We don't have the World War II, all of the above. What was a factory for cars is now a factory for tanks. We don't have that economy anymore for understandable reasons. But that's not the situation we are in. So we can't even ramp up the production of some of even things as straightforward as artillery rounds for the Ukrainian fighters, so. Or Ukrainian army. So that's a challenge that we run into here as well. So we can give them more advanced systems, but just giving them. Part of the problem is that Russia can just put more men and material on the battlefield with a whole lot more in reserve. And our ability to try to match them for the Ukrainians in any meaningful way is constrained by. We can't make this stuff fast enough. Yeah, so that's another problem that we're running up against here, you know, and you can't just build advanced factories to make whatever it is, you know, the various missile systems. There used to be a lot more defense contractors. There were dozens in the, I think even back in like the 80s. Now it's really just four that are the primary or is four or five. But they're just a handful that are the major defense contractors and they're not going to operate at a loss with capacity they don't use. So they're just churning out what they're churning out. So there's complexity here to the battlefront that Ukraine is on that we have to take take into account here as well, that Trump has to take take into account when he's doing these negotiations.
- [15:17]
Clay Travis
One other bit of news there that could be favorable is we're now into mid October. By mid November, the mud becomes so significant, according to everything that I've read, because winter arrives in Ukraine, that the battlefield movement and attacks diminish substantially, meaning we may now have several months where there isn't any ability to move the lines in an aggressive fashion that might facilitate peace. Now, to the extent that Putin feels like he's captured as much territory as he possibly can, by the way, several other stories out there, again, we begin with that because Trump is on a call with Vladimir Putin as we are beginning the show with all of you, John Fetterman, big story in Axios that Democrats are unhappy with him and maybe bringing a challenge in the senate primary in 2028 in the state of Pennsylvania. AOC says Republicans are leading young men astray with their toxic masculinity. Mom Donnie went on Fox news with Martha McCollum as the new York City mayor's race inches closer and closer. Just about three weeks away there, and maybe things in Virginia are more competitive than we thought. Obama has had to drop an ad for Abigail Spanberger in that Virginia governor's race. We'll continue to follow all of that with you, but we want to tell you the headlines out of Israel this week speak of joy, relief and hopefulness for meaningful peace now at hand. Millions feel that way, but there's still a large segment of the population rebuilding their lives, their homes, dealing with the after effects of being targeted by missile attacks and worse. You should know our partners at the ifcj, that's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. They're still on the ground in Israel providing valuable assistance to the part of the population that desperately needs help. They've been at this for 40 years now. The Fellowships brought Christians and Jews together to solve big problems facing the Jewish people in places like Israel and the former Soviet Union. One of those problems feeding the hungry and those without necessary means, including Holocaust survivors. I saw the work the foundation does on the ground. It is absolutely incredible. The the work that they do is immense and frankly, fantastically important. Every day, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they're on the ground hand delivering boxes of food to feed the comfort and comfort the poor. You can put your faith into action by taking part in the IFCJ mission. To find out how, visit IFCJ.org that's IFCJ. Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [18:13]
Asma Khalid
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- [19:17]
Clay Travis
But what's happening in America is isn't just a cause of global upheaval, it's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [19:25]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. i'm.
- [19:28]
Clay Travis
Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story.
- [19:32]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [19:37]
Clay Travis
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:44]
Propane Advertiser
The US electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use our aging infrastructure. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather.
- [20:11]
Clay Travis
Learn more@probane.com Grand Canyon University, a private Christian university in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, believes we're endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. GCU believes in equal opportunity and the American Dream starts with purpose. GCU equips you to serve others in ways that promote human flourishing and create a ripple effect of transformation for generations to come. By honoring your career, calling you impact, your family, your friends and your community, you can change the world for good by putting others before yourself to glorify God. Whether your pursuit involves a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree, GCU's online, on campus and hybrid learning environments are designed to help you achieve your unique academic, personal and professional goals. With over 340 academic programs as of September 2024, GCU meets you where you are and provides a path to help you fulfill your dreams. The pursuit to serve others is yours. Let it flourish. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University. Private christian affordable visit gcu.edu run a.
- [21:22]
iHeart Radio Announcer
Business and not thinking about radio? Think again because more people are listening to the radio and iHeart today than they were 20 years ago, and only iHeart broadcast radio connects with more Americans than TV, digital, social, any other media, even twice as many teens than TikTok. And that reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula, the number of consumers, consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for your business. Radio's here now more than ever, and iheart's leading the way. Think radio can help your business. Think iheart streaming, podcasting and radio where the reach is real. Let us show you@iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-at-844. Iheart one more time. Just call 844-844-Iheart and get radio working for you.
- [22:21]
Buck Sexton
Welcome in, everybody. Second hour of Clay and Buck kicks off now. And we had mentioned this, so we have to play it for you. We can't just leave you hanging out there. Right? Crisp on. I'm on Paul, who has a sort of English accent, but also it's, like, fancier than an English accent.
- [22:43]
Clay Travis
What percentage of her professional success is related to her accent? Buck, if she talked like you or me, not bad voices. We talk on the radio, would she be 75% less successful in her career?
- [22:57]
Buck Sexton
Oh, at least. At least there was a time when, and this is just a fact, there was a time when, especially in television, you had a British accent of any kind. People just assumed you were smart and they should listen to you in America, which is weird, especially when you stop to think that the GDP per capita of the UK is less than the per capita income of the poorest American state. Like, why do we think they're so fancy over there? You know what I mean? This is a weird.
- [23:29]
Clay Travis
It's not even past Buck this. I think John Oliver owes 75% of his career success to the fact that he's British.
- [23:37]
Buck Sexton
Well, that's not very nice, is it, Clay? You know? Yeah, absolutely. If these guys actually spoke like everybody.
- [23:45]
Clay Travis
Else, John Oliver had a Southern accent, he would have no career. Exact same. Exact same opinions. Deep Southern accent. He does not have a media career. It's. He owes everything to the British and the fact that he doesn't have a deep Southern accent.
- [24:03]
Buck Sexton
What's funny to me is I've tried to goad Clay into giving me the most country Tennessee accent possible, and he. It's like, it's. It's not even a thing that's there. He just doesn't.
- [24:12]
Clay Travis
Well, I just feel like if you fake an accent, and I don't mean for comedic purposes, this is the thing that drives me crazy. Every Southerner. We've talked about this before. Politicians disrespect us so much because they pretend that they're actually Southern, whenever they come down here, that my mom and dad have deep Southern accents. But you can't even.
- [24:36]
Buck Sexton
You don't even code switch, though.
- [24:38]
Clay Travis
You don't.
- [24:39]
Buck Sexton
You don't do the code switch thing. Like, it's not like when you're in Nashville, but you're like, hey, I'm Clay Travis, y'.
- [24:43]
Asma Khalid
All.
- [24:44]
Buck Sexton
You know, like, that does not happen.
- [24:45]
Clay Travis
I don't believe in code switching. Like, I'm me for better or worse. Like, there is no distinction between me on this microphone and when I walk outside and I'm on the sidewalk in Panama City, I will sound the exact same. I can't act. I'm his actor.
- [25:00]
Buck Sexton
I was going to say, you know, when I'm in Sheepshead Bay, I'm showing Clay around in New York, and I'm like, hey, it's Buck. I'm a firefighter. Fdny. You know, Like, Clay doesn't even. He's like, what's going on here? I'm like, don't worry. I'm with the locals. We're talking, you know. You know, like, it's a different thing. He doesn't even.
- [25:16]
Clay Travis
I won't even do it. I'm helping people get elected in Tennessee. I just show up and I talk like me. Now, does it help that I'm from Tennessee and that people know that I am? Yes, probably, because there's so many people who have moved in from other places and they trust me because I'm a local. But what we don't trust in the south, and I know there's tons of you out there in the south listening, nodding along, is when somebody who's not from here shows up and tries to pretend like they are, which is every politician.
- [25:45]
Buck Sexton
Well, as we've discussed, we actually do need to have a national dispensation. Maybe Trump could sign an executive order whereby we all just appropriate y', all, because it is a better contraction, you guys, which is really the Northeastern equivalent. You guys, y' all is way better. Easier to say, rolls off the tongue better. But none of us want to seem like posers by taking your y'. All. So I know some of you write and say, buck, you can do it because I have honorary Southern privileges. But we really should just, as an American thing, get to. Everybody can say, by the way, is.
- [26:19]
Clay Travis
Your honorary Southern privilege that you married a girl from the South? Is that why you think you have the ability to say y'?
- [26:25]
Asma Khalid
All?
- [26:25]
Clay Travis
Or is it the movement to Florida? What if you had moved to Florida, just married another New Yorker in Florida?
- [26:31]
Buck Sexton
No, I, I actually, you. I think it's just because I do this show and Southerners in their graciousness.
- [26:36]
Clay Travis
It'S like giving me the key to.
- [26:37]
Buck Sexton
The city or something. It's like an honorary PhD. I have honorary because we have such enormous audiences in Southern states, in the.
- [26:46]
Clay Travis
Big audiences all, you know. Yeah, no, I think, look, my wife has been down in the south for 24 years and it took her a while to get comfortable saying y', all, but it is a way better word than the alternative. Like you guys, it's way more efficient, way more effective. And so, yeah, I think the whole nation should adopt it.
- [27:06]
Buck Sexton
Now back to Christiana Monport. Very fancy, but also very sorry because she said something really, really stupid. Let's start with the stupid thing that she said that she had to apologize for.
- [27:20]
Christiane Amanpour
Play that people who start to talk to the hostages who've only just been released will find that it will take a long, long time for them to recover physically, but also mentally, it's been a terrible, terrible two years for them because not only are they there, you know, they're probably being treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had. Now Hamas has given up all its leverage, by the way, by giving them all up.
- [27:48]
Buck Sexton
Better than Clay, she said.
- [27:50]
Clay Travis
Better than. I know, I know, I know. Probably go back to. Go back to the last 15 seconds of that. Can we cut through into that? Because not only the two things that she said there that I think are significant and actually she's telling on herself. One, the hostages that were made to dig their own graves, most of whom were actually killed, murdered by the people holding them. The people that have not been above ground, some of them in years, they're probably being treated better than the average person in Gaza. That's what she said. She also pointed out here something she said, well, this is a big risk for Hamas because they're giving up their leverage. This is something that everybody.
- [28:35]
Buck Sexton
She sounds like a Hamas. She sounds like a Hamas negotiator. Honestly, she sounds like she could be doing the Hamas back and forth with Trump, et cetera, herself.
- [28:45]
Clay Travis
And she's saying that because Hamas has told her that, right? She's not. She has bought into the idea that Hamas, the average person in Gaza, is being treated way worse than the average hostage. Play that backside again and then we'll play her apology where she tried to clean it up. But sometimes you gotta listen to people, cuz they will tell on themselves. Uh, and again, this was live television. Christiane namanpur, who owes 75% of her entire career at least to the fact that she has an interesting accent that makes her sound smarter than she is listening.
- [29:20]
Christiane Amanpour
Terrible, terrible. Two years for them because not only are they there, you know, they're probably being treated better than the average Gazan because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had. Now Hamas has given up all its leverage, by the way, by giving them.
- [29:32]
Clay Travis
All up, probably being treated better than the average Gazan Christian poor, on how the hostages are being treated. Ok, that was, I'm glad we played that. Then she had to clean it up because a lot of people saw that clip and said, my God, how did that air? And here was cleanup on aisle Amanpour. This was cnn.
- [29:57]
Christiane Amanpour
Listen, I noted that for the hostages who are finally home, it'll take a long time for them to recover mentally and physically. But I regret also saying that they might have been treated better than many Gazans because Hamas used these hostages as pawns and bargaining chips. But that was insensitive and it was wrong. From speaking to many former hostages and their families, like everyone, I've been horrified at what Hamas has subjected them to over two long years.
- [30:25]
Buck Sexton
Ok, the first, the first version was what she really thinks just to be correct. The apology was by CNN corporate leadership saying, you moron, we don't want to have to fire you after 30 years of you being an overpaid, you know, zero, but you better go out there and clean this up right away. But she actually believed the first thing that she said because there are a lot of people who have adopted this narrative of the Gazans. The casualty, the real casualty figures for Gaza are something like 1% of the overall population. That's the actual CA. So 99% of Gazans in a so called genocide and starvation scenario, 99% of them are, are not, were not in any way killed or casual.
- [31:08]
Clay Travis
The 1% is also important here, Buck. It's because Hamas was using them as human shields.
- [31:14]
Buck Sexton
Human shields.
- [31:15]
Clay Travis
So it's not the number. And look, Israel is imperfect as everyone is in a time of war, but this was probably the most targeted attack on bad guys that we have ever seen in the history of modern warfare, of warfare at all. Remember, look at what they did in Iran. Some of the things that they did, they went into apartment buildings and took out Iranian leaders in the nuclear arms race and didn't even hit the rest of the apartment. So when they're out there saying, oh my goodness, all these people are innocent being killed, some innocent people are killed in times of war, that is unfortunate. That is a reality. But that's an intentional move by Hamas because they put so many of their facilities under hospitals, under schools, in places, so they can point and say, no, there's nothing wrong here. Remember, Buck, in the early days, remember when every newspaper put that Israel had hit a hospital and then it came out that it was actually Hamas that hit it and it just kind of vanished? Yeah.
- [32:14]
Buck Sexton
Well, this also, though, is a reminder when we want to talk about the moral clarity with which people should look at this conflict. They could have avoided a single Palestinian casualty if Hamas just didn't do what it did, didn't do October 7th.
- [32:32]
Clay Travis
Correct.
- [32:32]
Buck Sexton
Or even in the aftermath of October 7th, if Hamas leadership, if the Palestinian people have been like, you know what? You take these bums and do with them whatever you want, they're out and we're giving you back your hostages. And you take our Hamas leaders and try them and execute those that, you know, whatever. They would have saved a lot of civilian casualties that way too. But they chose to fight after starting the fight. If you start a fight and then you choose to fight, you don't get to cry when you lose the fight, which is exactly what has been going on here the whole time.
- [33:03]
Clay Travis
By the way. President Trump just tweeted, we'll read this maybe when we come back. He's been on the call with Putin our whole show so far today. Buck, he just hung up with Vladimir Putin. So he has been talking for Putin. I mean, we've been talking for an hour and 20 minutes already. Uh, before we started the show, he was on the call with Putin. Well, hold on here we. I have just concluded my telephone conversation with President Putin of Russia. Very productive one. President Putin congratulated me in the United States on the great accomplishment of peace in the Middle east. Something that he said has been dreamed about for centuries. I actually believe the success in the Middle east will help in our negotiation and attaining an end to the war with Russia. Ukraine. President Putin thanked First Lady Melania for her involvement with children. Very appreciative. Said this will continue. We also spent a great deal of time talking about trade between Russia and the United States when the war with Ukraine is over. At the conclusion of the call, we agreed there will be a meeting of our high level advisors next week. The United States initial meetings will be led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio together with various other people to be designated a meeting location to be determined. President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to See if we can bring this inglorious war between Russia and Ukraine to an end. President Zelensky and I will be meeting tomorrow in the Oval Office where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin and much more. I believe great progress was made with today's telephone conversation. That is President Trump two minutes ago.
- [34:41]
Buck Sexton
I hope President Trump is right. Let's see, that's I think, where we have to be. We'll continue to look at the, the details and see if we can get a little more of a, of a readout, some of the specifics from the conversation. Every single day in America, we lose around 3,000 unborn babies to abortion. For all of us who believe that life starts at conception, this is a tragedy. One in four pregnancy ending in abortion, 25%. But that's a statistic that we can change and we will change by supporting the work done every day at preborn clinics. The team at the Preborn Network of clinics are on the front lines. They meet with pregnant mothers who are in a crisis and who are leading toward perhaps an abortion of their unborn baby. Preborn provides them with a better offer. Love, acceptance, understanding, support and a viable alternative. This year alone, more than 40,000 babies have been rescued by the efforts of preborn. And every time there's an ultrasound that happens in these preborn clinics, the chance at the baby's life doubles. So please, would you consider making a tax deductible donation today to preborn to sponsor one of these ultrasounds? Just $28 would provide a life saving ultrasound at a preborn clinic. You can go online. It's so easy to donate. Go to preborn.com buck preborn.com buck or dial 250 and say the keyword baby. That's 250 say baby. Together we can end this tragedy. One mother, one baby, one life at a time. Sponsored by Preborn Stories of Freedom, Stories.
- [36:17]
Clay Travis
Of America, inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
- [36:29]
Buck Sexton
One is some of you been saying that Fetterman voted to keep the government open. There's been a lot of these votes and until there's agreement from the Democrat side, it's really just a going through the motions gesture. But in a recent vote, as I see here, two days ago, six senators did not vote to reopen the government, including Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania. So at least in a recent one, he didn't vote. Now I guess he's been vocally supportive of reopening the government as well. But you know, let me see Fetterman statement on the government's not the reason.
- [37:07]
Clay Travis
The government is shut down. Look, the, the reality is you got to get to 60 and I don't believe we've gotten to more than 55 or 56 so far. I think they need four more Democrats in order to open the government.
- [37:21]
Buck Sexton
According to Fetterman, he voted yes to extend the ACA tax credits, but he won't vote for the shuttering of the government. So he voted in favor of House and Senate Democrats, Alternative Continuing resolution and the Democrats. Anyway, whatever, guys, he's caught in the middle of this one. There's been a bunch of different votes here. I'm just trying to see. Yeah, he voted with the Democrats on this, but I guess he says he wouldn't have. Whatever. I don't know.
- [37:51]
Clay Travis
I find. Let me just say this. Eventually the government is going to reopen and we are going to run, unfortunately, massive deficits for years. They're going to take a lot of our money and they are going to continue to spend it and none of us are going to be happy about it.
- [38:07]
Buck Sexton
So also I want to throw this out there. If any one of you have done, we have a lot of California listeners. If any of you have done the Catalina Island Channel swim, please call in. I want to hear what it's like. I looked this up because I was wondering also because to me, swimming at night, you're generally advised. I know maybe I'm a little too freaked out about sharks. Ok, Maybe we've established that I have shark attack phobia or something. But I've seen Jaws too many times. In fact, I've seen all of them and they get really bad after Jaws too. I mean, even Jaws, a lot of.
- [38:38]
Clay Travis
Money grabs going on.
- [38:39]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, yeah. The Jaws movies, really, they, they sink to the bottom of the ocean if you ask me. But the, the reason they do it at night, generally you don't want to swim at night because it's harder to find you rip. Rip tides and also sharks. Sharks are more active feeding at night. But the reason they do it is because of all the heavy boat traffic. Boat traffic. Exactly.
- [39:04]
Clay Travis
That's what I was saying, which is.
- [39:06]
Buck Sexton
Even a bigger risk to swimmers because there's a lot of boats that are moving in that area and you don't want obviously any problems with that. So that's why they do it at night. Okay, clarified that the Fetterman vote thing sounds like he's trying to play a little Bit of both sides on it, but nonetheless, that's where we are. So with that, sir, I wanted to.
- [39:27]
Clay Travis
Where you wanted to dive into your boy. Mom, Donnie, who was on with Martha McCall not yesterday afternoon on Fox News.
- [39:34]
Buck Sexton
Not born in America, so cannot be president. Glad we clarified. I'd forgotten that he was Ugandan.
- [39:41]
Clay Travis
Yep.
- [39:42]
Buck Sexton
You know, I actually, random side side note here. I had a good friend in college who was Ugandan, and he. His father came home one day and said, pack a bag to his family, to his two sons and his wife. Pack a bag right now. We are going to the airport. And his. His father was a lawyer in Uganda at the time of IDI Amin's reign as president, but really as dictator. Right. He was effectively the dictator of Uganda who was making perceived enemies disappear. And the story that again, my friend told me, was that his father showed up to the law firm late one day. He had some other business or whatever, and all the partners had been detained and disappeared. Yeah.
- [40:37]
Clay Travis
Wow. Yeah.
- [40:39]
Buck Sexton
So anyway, Uganda, if you have. I've told you that's okay.
- [40:43]
Clay Travis
He and the family got out of the.
- [40:45]
Buck Sexton
They got out. Yeah. He made it to.
- [40:46]
Clay Travis
How you knew them.
- [40:47]
Buck Sexton
His dad became a professor in this country. They, by the way, actual refugees. Right, Right. Actual asylum seeker slash refugee situation. That's what it's for. It's for someone's trying to kill me just because I, you know, am like an educated member of the political opposition. Will you please take in my family? It is not, Hey, I just crossed the border and I want to make more money here. Slash get access to your welfare anyway.
- [41:17]
Clay Travis
But if you have not on the Uganda front. Sorry to remind you, Mamdani's middle name is Kwame. Remember we talked about this and he tried to pretend that he was black for purposes of. Or mixed race. For purposes of his Columbia application. When he clicked African American on the. I know a lot of people have stopped talking about that, but he did that because he was born in Uganda and his middle name, he's Zoran Kwame Mamdani. And so he was hoping, I think, that the admissions counselors would think, oh, how many Kwame's from Africa are not partly black? And that he would help him get into Colombia, which did not work.
- [42:00]
Buck Sexton
My Ugandan friend was most certainly black. And yes, and yes. And he fled. And I would say, if you have not seen Last King of Scotland, that is a. Which deals with this. It's a fictionalized, but it deals with. With IDI Amin and what it was like under his reign. And it is A it is a great movie, underrated, I think, and kind of forgotten now, but a really, really good watch.
- [42:24]
Clay Travis
Although Forest Whitaker is the star in that movie. Right? Really, really. He plays well.
- [42:29]
Buck Sexton
I also think later.
- [42:30]
Clay Travis
Yeah.
- [42:30]
Buck Sexton
I think of as an underrated actor in general also. I think Forest Whitaker, you know, people who know, know that he's actually really good, really good actor and he was phenomenal in that role. But yeah, he's. Yeah, some of the scenes will kind of traumatize you. I kind of wish they actually had toned it down a little bit with some of the brutality. But anyway, it's a very, very good movie. And there we have it. Okay, now, Zoran Mamdani, born in Uganda. Zoran Mamdani, here he is when he sat down with Martha McCallum. She got the exclusive yesterday to sit down with him on Fox. And I, I will note that you're going to see, Clay, more Democrats who realize they have to do this now. They have to be willing to sit down with not puff media that's just going to tell them how amazing they are because they don't have the same media ecosystem dominance that they used to. So you're going to have to go in and talk to people at Fox News. You know, increasingly, I'm not saying it's going to be everywhere, but you're going to see more of this. Look, Gavin Newsom's been doing it, obviously because he wants to. He does want to run for president. But he was asked Zoram Donny was asked about Hamas and whether they should lay down their arms. This is cut 22. This is what he said.
- [43:46]
Zoran Mamdani
I have no issue with critiquing Hamas or the Israeli government because my critiques all come from a place of universal human rights. And my focus, however, is right here in New York City and transforming the most expensive city in America into one that's affordable for each and every New Yorker.
- [43:58]
Clay Travis
But.
- [43:58]
Asma Khalid
Okay, and I want to get to that. Absolutely.
- [44:01]
Buck Sexton
But do you believe that Hamas should.
- [44:03]
Asma Khalid
Lay down their weapons and leave the leadership in Gaza?
- [44:06]
Zoran Mamdani
I believe that any future here in New York City is one that we have to make sure that's affordable for all. And as it pertains to Israel and Palestine, that we have to ensure that there is peace and that is the future that we have to fight for.
- [44:16]
Buck Sexton
But you won't say that Hamas should.
- [44:18]
Asma Khalid
Lay down their arms and give up leadership in Gaza.
- [44:20]
Zoran Mamdani
I don't really have opinions about the future of Hamas and Israel beyond the question of justice and safety and the fact that anything has to abide by international law. And that applies to Hamas, that applies to the Israeli military, applies to anyone.
- [44:31]
Buck Sexton
You could ask me about Clay, it sounds a little bit like Abigail Spanberger being asked about the trans issue, where you hear a bunch of words but you don't get much of an answer.
- [44:42]
Clay Travis
Martha is, I think, one of the best interviewers in news. And that's a very direct question. Should the terror organization lay down their arms or not so we can have peace in the Middle East? That's effectively what Martha is asking. And he, to your point, went full Abigail Spanberger and just talked his way out of having to answer that question. Look, mom, Donnie is really glib. He is really articulate. He is a handsome guy. He's way better at saying nothing than Abigail Spanberger is. And he smiles and he knows how to play the television game. And I am glad that he was born in Uganda, because earlier when you were talking about it, I've thought through this. He would 100% have an American presidential future in his horizon if he had been born in the United States, because he is that good at being disarming. He's wrong about everything. I want to be clear, wrong about everything. But talks a good game. And there are a lot of people out there that if you smile. I have talked about this with people on television for years. You can deliver absolute missiles if you smile while you do it. And if the better looking you are, the more you can get away with it. I joked about this with Tommy Lahren, who works at Outkick. Go listen to some of the, some of the, the, the bullets that Tommy Lahren metaphorically is firing. But she is so good at smiling while she does it and she is gutting people and they don't even realize it. And Mamdani is a handsome, good looking, telegenic disciple of all the wrong messaging. But he does it so well that a lot of people just don't even recognize what he's arguing. And then there are other things that really appeal to young people. Hey, groceries are too expensive. Why doesn't the city of New York just run its own grocery store? And then everything will be cheaper. Hey, man, rent's really expensive. We should just freeze rent. That'll solve all the problems. When you lack basic economic knowledge, you come up with lots of answers to challenging situations that actually make the challenging situation worse. But they have the illusion of success for people who are often too young or too ignorant to recognize that they're going to end up in a worse shape. You know who doesn't get frozen. Buck mortgage. The mortgages that the landlords have to pay, like their rates of. Of payments don't get helped. I mean, it's all broken.
- [47:42]
Buck Sexton
You're leading right into what I wanted to dive into, which is as somebody who lived in New York and had to deal with, I mean I was like 30 and had four roommates, right. I mean this is. It's a very tough place to make a go of it. But the reasons for it are not lack of government intervention. The reasons for it are largely, I would argue, government doing too many things the wrong way and thinking that it can just create by fiat market conditions. Right. And then those market conditions that actually exist after the government intervention happens are incredible. It's same thing in California housing, by the way. California. It's like, why is housing so expensive? Why is a house so expensive in California? Well, it's because there's all these regulations and all these permits and all these things that go into the process. You know, recently they did an analysis, Clay, and I think it was in Canada, another very liberal place, right, left wing place. And something like 50% of the cost of a new house in Canada is purely regulation, taxes and permits. 50%. And I mean, if you looked at what it is in California, remember when they were going to build the million dollar porta potty, essentially, I think it was in San Francisco. They were going to spend a million dollars on a public single occupancy bathroom. Everybody, that's a porta potty. How do you spend a million dollars on a porta potty? California? Gavin Newsom has an answer for you. New York City, Clay. 20% of New Yorkers, something like 1.4 million people are in subsidized, almost free. Depends on which kind of subsidized housing. And then they make it very expensive and very difficult to create new housing. Guess what? This makes market conditions where everything is pricier. The 2% surcharge that Mamdani says he's going to charge on incomes to make life less expensive for people is a joke. It is not even scratching at the problem.
- [49:49]
Clay Travis
It also reminds me your bathroom analogy. Remember when they were going to build a nationwide network of charging stations for all the E vehicles and then the numbers came out that they had spent billions of dollars and somehow added like seven charging stations. The government can't do anything efficiently or effectively, which is why we need to get the government out of as much as we possibly can. We'll play a couple more of these momdani cuts because I do think they're very significant. Also, we got Obama coming in to the Virginia governor's race and I saw this AOC on masculinity. But also, Buck, did you see that AI articles now make up the majority of articles published on the Internet already? Just in the, you know, two years that AI has taken off.
- [50:36]
Buck Sexton
I think this is the book industry, which you and I are still in. For what it's worth. I don't know what's going to happen now. It's gone from ghost writers to AI writers is what you're going to see. I can tell you I wrote my book and I know Clay wrote his book because I know the people in the publishing industry who are reading these things. That's unfortunately going to become a vanishingly small number of books that you're actually able to buy.
- [50:58]
Clay Travis
No doubt. Look, next week I'm going to be in New York City participating in a charity golf event for Tunnel to Towers. I do it every year. It's an incredible time. Even if my golf swing is less powerful than bucks. Tennis serve the Tunnel of Towers foundation honors America's heroes and their families when tragedy strikes. Heroes like Scott Abrams. For more than three decades, Scott served his community and his country as a United States Marine, a New York City police detective and a volunteer firefighter. While he was on the NYPD motorcycle escorting the funeral procession of a four year old child, his life changed in an instant. He was hit by a bus, crushing four vertebrae in his neck and leaving him partially paralyzed. Scott's recovery was grueling, but through unwavering love, strength and perseverance, Scott, his wife Tara and their son Joshua made it through unimaginable challenges. Tunnel the Towers honored Scott and his family with a mortgage free Smart home. Thanks to supporters like you, Scott now has a home he can move freely in as he heals and raises his family with dignity. More heroes are waiting and in need of assistance. Honor their sacrifices now. Join us in donating $11 a month to tunnel the towers@t2t.org that's t the number 2t.org you ain't imagining it. The world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [52:27]
Asma Khalid
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- [53:30]
Clay Travis
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [53:38]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, DC.
- [53:40]
Clay Travis
I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story.
- [53:44]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [53:50]
Clay Travis
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Clay Travis
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- [56:34]
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with with us. We've got a bunch of different stories that we are chasing. Today President Trump had a multi hour long call with Vladimir Putin. The impact of that call, according to President Trump's statements are that there will be a meeting between Trump and Putin in Budapest and that there will be a meeting very soon between high level advisers. The United States initial meeting will be led according to President Trump by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a meeting location to be determined. So the goal there to try and end the war that is taking place right now in Ukraine. President Trump riding a great deal of momentum off of the release of the hostages and the positive directions that things are moving in that, that context. Uh, now we also have John Fetterman potentially facing a Senate challenge for not being committed enough to crazy left wing ideals. That is according to an Axios report. Uh, we've been talking about mom Donnie making his initial appearance on fox news. Martha McCollum asking the big questions of mom Donnie and Mamdani being frankly very good at dodging responsibility for much of his public commentary. Now he did say buck and I think we have this audio. I want to make sure we pull it up. He did publicly apologize to police officers for saying that he had previously said they should be defunded. He also said it was too early to give Trump credit for the Gaza peace deal. And so let me hit a couple of those. Here is cut 23. Martha McCollum says, hey, does President Trump deserve credit for the peace deal? And Mamdani said It's too early. Cut 23.
- [58:45]
Zoran Mamdani
I continue to have concerns because I've seen reports still that it's just in the last few days that five Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military. And that's what gives me pause about issuing any kind of praise or celebration at a moment when it is still so in its infancy. And what I will tell you is, is that in that same moment, it is also one that requires a focus on ensuring that, that hope, that belief in a better future is one that is emblematic in our policies right here in New York City as well. And that's what we're hoping to lead with.
- [59:11]
Clay Travis
Would you give President Trump credit or not?
- [59:12]
Asma Khalid
To any extent? Credit or not?
- [59:14]
Zoran Mamdani
I think it's too early to do so.
- [59:15]
Clay Travis
Too early to say.
- [59:16]
Zoran Mamdani
But if it proves to be something that is lasting, something that is durable, then I think that that's where you give credit.
- [59:22]
Buck Sexton
Can I just one quick thing, Clay, because we talked about it. He's saying the five Palestinians were killed. Where's the outrage? Where's the condemnation? Or even just the conversation about the public executions, you know, summary judgment and execution of captives by Hamas that occurred in the last 24 hours. I mean, they're bounding and gagging, tying up, blindfolding and shooting people in the back of the head on the street. And there's, I don't see any of these people that are so concerned about Gazans, Concerned about those Gazans. It seems quite strange.
- [60:01]
Clay Travis
Yeah. And I also think it's funny the way this is covered. There's a big article in the New York Times about Mamdani going on the Martha McCollum Show. Here's a couple of the paragraphs. This is how the New York Times covered it. Since Mr. Mamdani's rapid rise to the top of New York City politics, Fox News has led a right wing media effort to characterize him as an avatar of the Democrat Party grown too beholden to its factions on the far left. The network's contributors often point to his thin political experience, past comments about law enforcement, and proposals to increase taxes on New York's wealthiest residents as both disqualifying and dangerous to New York City, America's largest financial center. Yes, this guy's all very accurate. And it's written as if it's like, oh my goodness, can you believe all the crazy things they say on Fox News about Mamdani? He wants to tax everyone who makes money in New York City into virtual oblivion. So that is one star of the New York City Democrat Party. Now the other star of the New York City Democrat Party In New York City is aoc And I wanted to play this for you, Buck. This was last night. Bernie Sanders and AOC had a town hall with Kaitlan Collins. And she was asked AOC was why are Republicans successful online? And she said two different things. One, because we'll just listen to her. I won't characterize it. Here's cut 18.
- [61:31]
Asma Khalid
When they talk about Republicans and their success online, they have been successful because they have also been very clear, especially digitally, about what they believe. That women are inferior, that do not, and they do not deserve equal rights. That they believe that LGBTQ Americans are subhuman. That they believe and are circulating disgusting racial and white supremacist messaging that they are able to get away with digital, digitally and online.
- [62:06]
Buck Sexton
Get.
- [62:06]
Clay Travis
Get away with.
- [62:08]
Buck Sexton
This is.
- [62:08]
Clay Travis
They have no hope for young men. I mean, I just wrote a book, it's coming out called Balls, Buck. But this is. This is not a good pitch. I just don't think AOC is very aware of how the Internet works based on that answer.
- [62:21]
Buck Sexton
I want AOC to be the great commie splainer of masculinity for the Democrats. I want her to be out in the forefront telling all young men because they have, as Democrats would say, their lived experience. They have been through men, particularly now in their 20s. They've been through the COVID shutdowns and the complete eradication of free speech, scientific inquiry, and everything else that the left manufactured during that. They've been through the toxic masculinity talks. They've been through CNN doing documentaries about how college campuses are, quote, like hunting grounds for the constant sexual assaults and sexual abusers that are other college students. That's what they're saying. They've been through all of this, and they know that something is really wrong with the Democrat party. And if the Democrat party's response is going to be no, actually, your toss, your toxic masculinity is the problem. Great. Stay with that. Stay on that. Democrats have AOC tell young men how they should really feel about things. And if they don't agree with her, it's because they're sexist and racist. Love it. Keep it going. Blast it from the rooftops.
- [63:38]
Clay Travis
That's exactly what she did in cut 19. Buck, she's listening to you. She's running the game plan. Cut 19. AOC last night on CNN.
- [63:46]
Asma Khalid
They are able to. To radicalize and target and exploit a generation of young boys in particular, away from healthy masculinity and into an insecure masculinity that requires the domination of Others who are poorer, browner, darker, or a different gender than them. And that is why they are resonating online, because they are appealing to the most basest and worst parts of human nature.
- [64:19]
Clay Travis
Toxic masculinity. And I think about this all the time because I've got three boys and also because I just wrote the book, Buck. But the Democrat brand, it has become a slur for young men. They will accuse each other of being Democrats. Black men, white men, Asian men, Hispanic men, teenage young men. I don't know how they come back from this. I am very certain that it is not by having a woman lecture young men that they are actually toxic because that's why they've left in the first place. We don't talk ever. Have you ever heard anybody talk about toxic femininity? Have you ever heard a huge national discussion about how women are toxic and they are destroying the country? Maybe we need to have that conversation because liberal women are toxic and they are destroying the country. But young men have been told their entire lives that they are the problem. And this is me getting on the soapbox. Cause I think about this so much, Buck. I see the world through the eyes of my kids. You and I are roughly of the age and a lot of listeners are out there where we were raised in the idea that men and women should both be able to aspire to the apex of success, whatever it might be, become president, fly a plane, whatever you want to do, be an astronaut. Everyone should be able to aspire to the apex, to pursue the meritocracy to the fullest extent of their ability. And I think everybody out there nods along and says, yeah, that's good. Men, women, be the best. Be the best that you can be. There's a difference between be the best that you can be, which I would say is the culture and era in which you and I were raised. And women are better than men. And sometime around, and I don't know the exact year, but sometime around 2012, 10, 14, in that era of social media rising and Barack Obama, we moved from women and men should both be able to be as successful as they possibly can to men are bad. Certainly me too accelerated it. And women are better than men. And we. This is the era now that young men are being raised in and they're looking around and saying, why am I being blamed for everything in America? Actually, America's awesome, first of all. Secondly, to a large degree, America is awesome because of brave men and women. But a lot of brave men and masculinity isn't toxic at all. And so that is, I think, the foundational issue that emerged in 2024. And Democrats don't seem capable of addressing it in any way that is going to be successful. I think it's getting worse for them.
- [67:13]
Buck Sexton
I think you could not have civilization as we have come to know it without men embracing their masculinity.
- [67:22]
Clay Travis
Yes.
- [67:22]
Buck Sexton
I think that if it were not for men who were willing to put their lives on the line and lose their lives to fight for something bigger than themselves, if it were not for men who would spend the longest of hours and make tremendous personal sacrifice and in a sense give their lives in a different way to the pursuit of incredible inventions or exploration or technological advancement or building something, whether it's a skyscraper, a manufacturing plant or a cathedral.
- [68:02]
Clay Travis
Right.
- [68:03]
Buck Sexton
If it weren't for men willing to take masculinity in its different forms to the extreme or to its maybe its most appropriate, you could argue, level its highest level, then we would not have the civilization that we enjoy right now. And that I think is forgotten or rather entirely suppressed by the angry and bitter feminist left, which has sadly, tragically led an entire generation, really now, a couple of generations of American women who buy into that stuff down a pathway that that is not fulfilling, that is filled with bitterness and self pity and is ultimately a bad life course. And this is just the reality that you see. I mean, I've said this before, I've had this talk with many people, including in my own family, that I think the Sex and the City ification of American women has been horrendously undermining for their long term happiness. And I know they could say, oh, I'm mansplaining, I'm a man. What do I know? You know, I'm in my 40s, I've seen a lot and I pay attention and I actually want what's best for men and for women in this country. And there's been a huge departure from civilizational norms that are the basis for building our civilization, which is of course, family cohesion. It is male and female parental roles and spousal roles and roles within a civilization itself, within society, and we pay the price for that. And you can just see this all around. Clay. It's a very sad thing. We talked about this another day. I know so many women now because they're my age that I grew up with in New York who did this sort of eat, pray, love through your 20s and 30s thing. And maybe they had some job in, I don't know, you know, marketing or PR or Advertising or something that they liked but weren't really that invested in. Not like a life's calling. They're not hearts or virgins.
- [69:58]
Clay Travis
Yeah.
- [69:59]
Buck Sexton
And now they're unmarried, they look around, they don't have families. It's hard to start a family at that age. Biological reality kicks in. Being 44 year old woman, it's not easy to have kids. And they look around and they want someone to explain this to them. And unfortunately the Democrats say it's men's fault. Yes. And that's not true. So this is where we are. I don't know if people can see it in some other lens or some other manner, but men I think see this and say to themselves, I didn't cause this. And actually it was the people saying that toxic, that men are toxic that convince women to go down this pathway where effectively they're trying to compete with and act as men in ways that are not going to be fulfilling. So there you go.
- [70:43]
Clay Travis
I think that's well said. And I've spent a ton of time. I love this topic. This is a big part of the book. There's a difference between equality and sameness. You can treat everyone equal, but it doesn't mean that they're the same. And we spend so much time on this idea to kind of build on what you said and kind of maybe distill it a little bit. We have told men they should be more like women and we have told women they should be more like men. And the result is men don't like, by and large, women who act like men and women do not like men who act like women. And so when you're trying to androgynize the sexes, you're actually driving everybody unhappily away from each other. And to Buck's point, this is what you end up with. A lot of people who are sitting around saying, wait a minute, I made all these good choices and I wanted to have kids and I can't find a man. It's the man's fault. That's where we are.
- [71:40]
Buck Sexton
And they vote Democrat. And if I had to take a wild guess on the number of pictures and videos Carrie and I have made in our son's first six months of life, I mean, it's probably in the thousands. He's so cute, we can't help it. But having an iPhone handy to capture every moment makes it so easy. But remember back in the day when you had to have like a Polaroid or VHS camcorder and all these technologies that are gone now, what happens to all that stuff. Well, thanks to Legacy Box, you can now get it all digitized. It's so easy. It's fantastic. Those old baby pictures, videos of Christmas, videos of of holidays and school plays and all kinds of stuff. Legacy Box can transfer that for you. They've done it for more than a million and a half families, including mine and Clay's. So Legacy Box is just the best in the business at this. And it's such a fun thing to do, especially as we enter the holidays. Send Legacy Box your tapes and photos in the specially made shipping box that they'll send to you. Their technicians hand transfer your memories on the digital files. You can also have them on the cloud or in a thumb drive like go to legacybox.com buck save 50 on their services. Now that's legacybox.com buck to save 50 off legacybox.com buck news and politics, but.
- [72:53]
Clay Travis
Also a little comic relief. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
- [73:02]
Asma Khalid
America is changing and so is the world.
- [73:06]
Clay Travis
But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
- [73:14]
Asma Khalid
I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, dc.
- [73:17]
Clay Travis
I'm Tristan Redman in London, and this is the global story.
- [73:21]
Asma Khalid
Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection where the world and America meet.
- [73:26]
Clay Travis
Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [73:33]
Buck Sexton
This is Jim.
- [73:33]
iHeart Radio Announcer
Hello.
- [73:34]
Buck Sexton
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April, and now I have customers out the door.
- [73:40]
Clay Travis
And this is Sarah. Hi.
- [73:41]
Buck Sexton
She started putting a portion of her marketing dollars in podcasting back in June.
- [73:45]
Asma Khalid
Business is booming.
- [73:47]
Buck Sexton
That's why I'm working on a Saturday. Want to be like Jim and Sarah? It's easy. All you have to do is own or manage a business and reach out to iHeart. Get started today at 844-844-IHeart or iHeartadvertising.com.
- [74:02]
Clay Travis
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why Benghazi?
- [74:14]
Buck Sexton
The truth became a web of lies.
- [74:16]
Clay Travis
From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [74:22]
Asma Khalid
What difference at this point does it make?
- [74:26]
Clay Travis
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [74:33]
iHeart Radio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.