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This is an iHeart podcast. Welcome everybody to the Monday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. I am back from Taiwan and it was fascinating. Clay out today on vacation with his family. Appreciate him holding down the fort last week. The Sexton brothers mission to Taiwan was fascinating. We have an interview with the President of Taiwan that will air in this program in the third hour where we get into the threat from China, which is higher than it has ever been, the threat of invasion. It's really getting tense over there. That's one of the reasons, the main reason really why I wanted to go so I could see for myself and learn what is going on. Meetings over there, interviews with the president, the vice president, the national security adviser, members of the National Security Council, senior leadership from the trillion dollar TSMC Corporation. That's the market cap of it. I mean, it's one of the most valuable companies in the world that makes the chips for your phones, my friends. It is the only manufacturer of the most advanced chips that are needed for AI. So we talked to tsmc. I toured a Taiwanese military base, discussed preparations for a possible amphibious invasion. I mean, it was a heck of a week, I can tell you that. And I'm going to bring you as much of those insights as I can over the course of this week. Clay's out, I believe until Thursday, so we have some time together over the next couple of days. But so a lot to talk about with respect to Taiwan and China. It really does matter. It is incredibly important. It is something that we as a country need to make sure we understand and we avoid a massive war in the East. That's the real problem here. That's what we're trying to tackle because it would crash the markets and cause huge problems for global supply chain, for technology. My friends, it is the flashpoint right now and I hope that things stay calm and peaceful and status quo reigns over there and we have a big hand in it. Anyway, I will get more into that. I know first and foremost we are looking here at what's going on at home, on the home front. We have, oh boy, the shutdown happened. We are in a shutdown and it is not, in fact, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria. But it is interesting to see what Democrats place their priorities on. We will have the speaker of the House number three in line for the presidency. Speaker Johnson set to join us also in the third hour of the program. It's a pretty packed third hour. Speaker of the House of Representatives, President of Taiwan. We got a big show for you, my Friends. So we'll discuss the shutdown negotiations, the latest on that, with the speaker of the House. So that then brings me to the showdown over water being called federal protection missions. I was following this from afar. 12 hours behind in. Oh, no, I'm sorry, 12 hours ahead, rather, in, in Taiwan. So watching the news from a distance and in a different time frame. But certainly this showdown over the deployment of these federal protection missions to different American cities is really a big deal. It matters tremendously for the immigration enforcement mission, which is central to the Trump administration agenda. But it also goes to sovereignty and the rule of law as general principles in this country. Do we have rule of law or not? Let me just take a step back here for a moment. Democrats at every turn have insisted that state governments, wherever they have control state governments do nothing to help and if possible, even threatening, thwart federal law enforcement. And they will. When the Democrats are in charge of federal government power, they will refuse help from the state government. So it is the policy of the Democrat Party to undermine immigration law always at all times. When they have the federal government they don't want, they will not accept help from the state. In fact, you will recall under the disastrous Biden administration, they were telling Texas that Texas, as a state on the border was not allowed to set up barriers to illegal entry. They forced Texas to remove barriers to make it easier for the 10 million plus. I keep saying plus because I don't. Maybe it was 12 million with the gotaways. We don't know. 10 million plus illegals piling into the country under Biden. A decision made by the Democrats to undermine our sovereignty, to be lawless and reckless as a party. Top down, the decision was made to do this. And now that we have the Trump administration saying, okay, we're actually going to enforce the law, Democrats try to stop it at every point, at every juncture. And you're seeing this once again. If they had any actual courage of their convictions, why don't they just come out and say they're for open borders? Let's really just get down to this. Democrats do not want enforcement of our immigration laws. They don't want border security. They don't want deportations. They want to have the continuous importation of the third world, of developing countries, of people who don't speak English, who don't obey our laws. The first act they commit on our soil is a violation of our laws and our sovereignty. And they do this because they view America as something that needs radical change with Democrats in charge. And the only way they can achieve that. Achieve that is to import non American voters by the millions. By the millions. This is the game plan. This is what they do. Trump is trying to not only stop the inflow, but create an outflow of illegals sent packing, as our federal law states they should be. Let's be very clear about this. There's a lot of talk about prioritization about who can stay and who can go. And oh, my gosh, you know, they're sending away this grandma who's been here for all these years. If you're here illegally, you are subject to deportation. That is federal law. If Democrats don't like that, then Democrats in the House and the Senate should try to change it. But what they do is lie and say, oh, no, we're for immigration laws, but we just want to make sure that they're never actually enforced. They want to have it both ways. They want to play this double game. Enough is enough. So Trump is forcing their hand. Because what you see in Portland, what you see in Chicago and the state actions from Democrats controlling both proves my thesis beyond any doubt. It is exactly what I have been saying and am saying to you. That's what's going on. And you see it with these federal protection missions. Now, Portland, which unfortunately has for a long time been antifa Stan. Antifa, just gets to show up, run roughshod, mayhem, anarchy, do whatever they want. Portland is antifa Stan, as we know. And they have these demonstrations at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, their ICE facility. Their demonstrations play where they're riots. You know, they're, they're, they're impeding law enforcement, they're getting in the way there, there was the car being rammed into ICE recently. I mean, they're doing all this crazy stuff to stop law enforcement from conducting its duties. This is lawlessness. This is unacceptable. And the fact that state and local law enforcement, because this is a Democrat enclave, a Democrat fiefdom, the fact that state and local law enforcement refuses to assist, refuses to provide backup, is all the indication that anybody should need that. The federal government needs to double down and send reinforcements. That's what this federal protection mission is. President Trump, this is cut 12 spoke about the situation in Portland. Listen, Portland, that's a bunch of paid insurrectionists, but you have a lot of paid people in Chicago, too. I believe the politicians are under threat because there's no way somebody can say that things are wonderful in Chicago. Almost 55, I think it was 55 people over a short period of time have been murdered in Chicago, have been shot, 2222 people over a short period of time have been hit, have been wounded, not died, but 55 people died over a short period of time. You're telling me there's no city in the world like that. We're going to straighten it out. And I think that Pritzker, he's not a stupid person. I think that Pritzker is afraid for his life. Here we have Trump continuing to push on these issues where I think he not only is right legally and morally, but also politically, because Democrats don't want things to get better. They stand in the way of progress on bringing the crime numbers down, murders down in Chicago and immigration enforcement in Chicago, which is another big issue right now. They're saying, oh, these, they keep calling them militarized raids. They're antagonizing the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post. They're constantly inflaming and antagonizing the public, lying to the public about the nature of these rates. This is what is lawful for these ICE officers to do. They are allowed to go into areas and enforce our laws. Democrats cannot get away with this game anymore. We cannot allow this. Where they say, well, we support immigration enforcement, but I don't like the way they're doing it. They're being really mean in this area as they do it. What do they want to have happen here? You got people that don't want to go back to their own country, their actual home country, their country of citizenship, and they are fighting against it. Sometimes they are resisting arrest. They are trying to evade law enforcement. Enough is enough. Democrats showed us who they are under Biden. They are an open borders party. They're a bunch of liars. They cannot win. They, they show me one Democrat who can debate this issue with someone like me, someone who's fired up and knowledgeable and has been following it for now a decade, very closely. It doesn't exist because they're wrong. We've all seen that they are lying. And that's why in Oregon, it's really Portland is the issue. But within the Oregon state government, this is getting a lot of attention. A bunch of communists, unfortunately, run that place just like they run Portland and then Illinois. I feel bad Pritzker is the governor of Illinois, but really he's like the viceroy of Chicago because it's the Chicago political machine that controls the rest of the state. There's a lot of nice places in Illinois with plenty of sane people. It's just Chicago is run by the crazies. And so you have the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, the governor of Illinois, like I say, the viceroy of, of Chicago, Pritzker, who also wants to step up for leadership of the Democrat Party. You have all of them coming together, trying to again inflame the public and stop Trump from doing what he needs to do or what he seeks to do here in these places. And it's just madness. I think people have seen this. Now you have a federal judge Sunday night has blocked the Trump administration from deploying National Guard or has blocked, put out an order to block the National Guard, I should say. And now today, Illinois has sued the Trump administration over guard deployments. And so you got a couple of states that are saying, no, you're not allowed to help with enforcement of immigration. You cannot use federal resources in our state to help with immigration enforcement and also to help with crime. Not allowed to do it. This is lawlessness. This is a critical fight. It's one where Trump is right and has to continue. So I'll give you more of this. By the way, I want to remind everybody while these judges are coming forward to say, hey, you can't do this. There's no need for this. There was another time when there was National Guard deployed and there was no need for it that Democrats made a very big deal of. They deployed the National Guard and it was absurd, Absurd. How long they. I'll come back and I'll explain that to you here in just a second. You know, it was two years ago tomorrow that terrorists murdered more than 1200 innocent Israelis and took 250 hostages. Today, there's a glimmer of hope that the remaining hostages may be returned. And while the world is focused on a lot of other events in the news these days, there's a light that shines in the darkness. Christians in America tomorrow will boldly stand with Israel by participating in a growing movement that that will be going on for the month. It has been created by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, and it's called Flags of Fellowship. This countrywide effort, Flags of Fellowship, unites churches across America. Planting over 1 million Israeli flags across our land show the world that Israel is not alone. To get more information about how you can join the Flags of fellowship movement, visit ifcj.org that's ifcj.org you ain't imagining it. The world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with clay and bun. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
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You know, it's been two years ago, the terrorists murdered more than 1200 innocent Israelis took 250 hostages and today it seems like the cries of the dead and the dying are being drowned out by the shouts of anti Semitic hatred. Yet as the world may look away, a light shines in this darkness. Now united in faith, Christians and Jews in America standing together with Israel this month by participating in a growing movement. It's the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Flags of Fellowship Now Flags of Fellowship unites churches all across the country, planting over 1 million Israeli flags all across the U.S. and together we will combat hate with the scourge of antisemitism one flag at a time and and through our prayers we can save lives, bring hope and be part of seeing a brighter future unfold before our eyes. To get more information on how you can join the Flags of Fellowship movement, just go to ifcj.org that's ifcj.org today.
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Welcome in everybody. Second hour of play and buck kicks off right now. So we talked a lot about Portland in the first hour of programming and these dueling issues of immigration and customs enforcement particularly and lawlessness in Portland and then similar situation in Chicago. ICE facilities under siege, Democrats wanting illegals to just be able to continue to break our laws with impunity. That's not how the law works libs. But then there's also just the crime issue and homicides, murders, assaults, robberies, all of that. And the situation in Chicago where you have still a very high overall murder rate. It's America's third largest city. It's a beautiful city. I love Chicago as A place and it's got a lot of great people, it's got wonderful food and architecture and there's, you know, a lot of things going for Chicago here. It's a little cold in the winter, but a lot of things going for Chicago. Sorry, I'm from Miami now, so I get to say these things. Little, little chilly in January in Chicago, but I hear it's a lovely place overall. And I had, I've only been there once and I had a great experience, I must say. But there's too much crime. And the mayor of Chicago, Brandon Johnson, is an incompetent and is only making things worse there. And he sees this as his chance to square off against Donald Trump. So he's going after the president. Remember, the president wants to make safe the city of Chicago for all residents. In doing so, using federal law enforcement resources and federal support to make it, make there fewer murders and to make it safer on the streets of Chicago, it would disproportionate, disproportionately help minorities because there are more black residents of Chicago who are shot and killed than anyone else. And so it is actually a great service to the predominantly black areas of the city of Chicago to bring the crime rate down. It's very small percentage of people who are doing a very large percentage of the violent crime. And of those crimes, the targets, the victims are largely disproportionately black. We all know these numbers. We've all talked about this. Meanwhile, Mayor Johnson, this is cut 23, is attacking Trump for these efforts. Play it a double minded man. He is unstable in every way possible, unhinged and unhealthy. The idea of describing the American people as enemies from within is clearly not just a sign of authoritarianism. He has totally imbibed the full spirit of tyranny. And our cities are not training ground for the military. In fact, even the notion to suggest that the brave women and men who sign up to serve this country, to fight terrorism around the globe, to protect our way of existence, turning neighbors on their own neighbors is not only unconstitutional, it is reprehensible. It is reprehensible. Huh? The mayor of Chicago is shameless. We all understand what President Trump is trying to do here. He's trying to make Chicago safer. Let's look at some of. Let's turn to the numbers, shall we? Last year, 2024, that's the last year for which we have full numbers. Chicago had 573 murders. Now, that's the first time since 2019 that the number was under six. Hundred. Chicago in 2021. Let me just see the 2021 had. Pulling it up as I talk to you. Wow. In 94, there were 930 murders. That's a lot. 778 murders in 2020. 778 murders in just the city of Chicago in 2020. Now, I just got back, as you know, from Taiwan. I was on a fact finding expedition there on a whole range of things, mostly on the national security and economic front because Taiwan is critical for, well, the world actually on those issues. And I'll be explaining more of that. But how many murders do you think Taiwan's a country of 23 million people? How many murders you think Taiwan had last year? Let me see, about 200. In the whole country of 23 million people. There are 2 million people in Chicago. And Chicago had 778 murders in 2020 last year. I know, let's say it's so. Let's say they're running at about 600 murders a year on average for the last few years because it's usually above 600. But we'll be, we'll be generous. We'll say about 600 murders. So Chicago, a city of 2 million, has three times the total murder rate of the entire nation of Taiwan with 23 million people. With multiple cities that have over 2 million people, I think we can see what's going on here. Right? You might be thinking, well, what is it like to be. And I hadn't had this experience in quite some time. What's it like to be in a place that feels really safe? Well, when I was walking through a park at about 10 o' clock at night, a public park in the downtown of Taipei, the main city, there were families in the park at night just enjoying, you know, because it's nice and warm there. It's very similar climate actually to South Florida. It's nice and warm there. And they all they had were some, some lamps providing an ambient light from the city. It's quite a city, Taipei. But you had families sitting on the park benches in the playgrounds, just like as if it was broad daylight. There's no concern about, I can't be in a park at night because bad things will happen. And there were little kids running around playing, parents sitting on the benches watching from afar. And I had people writing to me, oh, Buck. But it's like that in my town in South Dakota or it's like that in, you know, in my town of 500 people in, you know, South Carolina or something. And I'm like, okay, yeah, that's nice. But this is a city of millions of people, Millions of people consolidated together in one place. And they. And it's as safe as a town of a few thousand in a very red rural part of America. It is as safe as that. So you say, well, it must be possible. One of the other anecdotes I have for this, which I thought was so interesting, was that people would do this thing where they. You would be in a cafe and they would put their phone down and I would say to myself, wait a second, they'd get up to go to the bathroom and they would leave their phone at the, you know, their thousand dollar iPhone or whatever at their seat. I had never seen this before, right? I would. When I lived in midtown Manhattan, I was worried that somebody was going to reach into my pocket when I was sitting there drinking my coffee and try to take my phone. They leave their phone there to mark their seat, to save their seat while they go to the bathroom. And no one. This is what you have to understand. I asked some of the locals about this. No one thinks this is odd. They're like, yeah, of course. They want everyone to know. It's like if you're at a buffet at a hotel and, you know, you leave your napkin on the table so everybody knows that you're sitting there. They do that with their smartphone in public places where people are coming and going on the street. No big deal. High trust society. A place where people do not have to be worried, do not have to be concerned about crime because it is not a realistic concern for them. Now, I'm not saying we're going to be able to turn Chicago into Taipei in terms of safety and security, it would be nice, but that's not going to happen. I do point it out, though, because we should know what is possible. We should know that there are cities with millions of people living together where there is basically no concern whatsoever about crime. And then use that as a comparison to, say, Chicago, where there is far too much crime for far too long. It doesn't have to be this way. Crime is a choice. Society makes a choice about how much crime it will tolerate. But crime is a choice. We don't have to deal with things the way that they are. And unfortunately, what you see from the mayor of Chicago and from Governor Pritzker is they don't want it to get better. They want this status quo. The same way that the Taiwanese people. And I say, I love Taiwan and I love the Taiwanese people. They really endeared themselves to Me, top the bottom. Everybody I dealt with there. Everyone is so polite and considerate and friendly and it's just a great place. It's a great place. The same way that they are proud and they should be because I talk to them. They kind of giggle, they laugh when I'm saying, well, you got, it's so safe here. How is this, you know, little old ladies walking around midnight by themselves on the streets. Not a care in the world. Kids I didn't see, I didn't take the, the subway there. I took their high speed trains to get around the countryside because I had some places I had to go. But they do, they do have. People will get on these trains. I thought I was sitting in the quiet car. If you've ever taken the Acela from D.C. or Boston down to D.C. with a new York stop, I thought I was in the quiet car. No, that's just, people are just quiet and respectful. They're not all, you know, playing their, their iPhones on speakerphone. They're not all shouting, they're not all loud talking. I thought I was in a quiet car. I was just in a Taiwanese rail car. People just all being respectful and there's no trash, no trash anywhere. I mean, whether in the, in the high speed train or on the streets, there's no litter. Isn't that amazing? It turns out you don't have to have people just dropping their, you know, their Big Mac rappers wherever they're walking. It doesn't have to be that way. And we could all be in a place that is much safer in this country, in the big cities, if we were willing to make the necessary decisions. As a society, you get the crime, you tolerate. It is not a given. It is not, oh, there's no way out of this status quo. But when you have people like Mayor Johnson who don't want it to get better, it won't get better. You are locked into this. Here, this is cut 24. Here he is saying that really this is about a war on poor people that Trump is waging.
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This is not about deportation. This is not about community safety. This is, quite frankly, this is about for profit. You know, we know that there is an investigation right now that's underway with Tom holman who took $50,000, $50,000 from two FBI agents because Tom Holman made a promise to direct contracts to the very people who are running these detention centers who actually gave over almost $3 million to President Trump's campaign. The President of the United States of America has declared war on Poor people. And if there was ever a time for working people to stand up across this world, the time is now. What a just rabble rousing, lying jerk this guy is. War on poor people. Trump's trying to keep keep poor people from getting shot, walking to the grocery store. He's trying to keep children from catching a bullet from some gang banger who can't aim and doesn't care, shooting it out with some other gang banger over who gets to sell fentanyl, murdering people in the streets. Trump wants to stop that. And the mayor of Chicago thinks that he's the good guy here. He thinks that Trump's waging a war on poor people. No, the war on poor people is from incompetent Democrats like the mayor of Chicago. The war on poor people is from less left wing race hustling Democrats who don't want to take the necessary steps, who don't want to do what they can do to save lives and make those city streets safer. It could be a heck of a lot better than it is and Trump's trying to make it so. And you know, I'll be honest with you, so much about this country I am so proud of. I do think we're the greatest country in the world. I know we have our problems. I love America though, I truly do. When you come home from being abroad, it reminds you how much you love this place. But it is embarrassing how much crime there is in our Democrat cities, like New York, where I used to live, although Chicago is way worse than New York. It's embarrassing because it doesn't have to be this way. And the leadership that says that it is, whether it's Pritzker or Johnson or any of these Democrats, you vote for them, you get more of it. It's that straightforward. It's that simple. Trump's trying to save people. All right, look, do you have a plan to stay connected with your family or coworkers in the event of a natural disaster? We suggest rapid radios. Rapid radios are modern day walkie talkies that are a literal lifeline of power. Goes out for several days or cell service becomes unstable. Rapid radios work on a nationwide LTE network so you can communicate across the country or down the street with the single push of a button. They're ready to go out of the box and have a five day battery charge with no monthly fees and pre programmed simplicity. Rapid radios keep you connected when everything else goes dark. Visit rapidradios.com today. You'll save 60% when you visit that website. Use promo code radio. Get an extra 5% off trusted tested legit. Visit rapid radios.com that's rapid radios.com stories of freedom, stories of America, inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and box. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. People ask us all the time how we can save the next generation. We've got our show and the info is an antidote. But we also have a couple books coming out. Clay. That's right. And you can pre order both of them right now and be book nerds just like us. You'll laugh, you'll nod and you'll get smarter, too. Mine's called Balls How Trump Young Men and Sports Saved America. And mine is Manufacturing Delusion how the left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and propaganda against you. Both are great reads. One might even say they would make fabulous gifts. Indeed. So do us a solid and preorder yours on Amazon today. All right, welcome back in to Play and Buck. We have the White House addressing the shutdown and other questions right now. But on the shutdown issue, here's, here's where things stand. Democrats, I think that they are finding this is not breaking the way for them that they have wanted it to. They in general think that shutdowns are something that favors Democrats, probably because they have the media in their back pocket. But here, here, let's get into some of this. Ted Cruz, for example, Senator Cruz, this is cut four. It's pretty straightforward. The Republicans have said they'll fund the government. It's Democrats that want their special goodies in addition to the continuing resolution funding. So it's Democrats who are throwing their little tantrum. And Senator Cruz is saying maybe they should stop, stop throwing tantrums. Play forward. The real reason we're having the shutdown is Chuck Schumer is in a political crisis. A couple of months ago, he agreed to allow the government to stay open and his left wing base got furious with him. He is looking over his left shoulder, terrified that AOC is going to primary him. And so this is a temper tantrum. This is Chuck Schumer and the Democrats saying we hate Donald Trump and we hate Donald Trump so much we are going to shut the government down. The government will reopen when Schumer's temper tantrum ends. But this is pure political theater trying to guard his left base. So that's one part of it. Democrats trying to figure out how to play this when it comes to their constituencies and what this looks like. And I Like that Senator Cruz goes after the possibility of an AOC primary. Oh, man, wouldn't that be great? It would be such a fun thing to do to just pop the popcorn and watch AOC try to take, try to take Schumer down. And he's got to be thinking about that. Schumer, he's a guy who, say what you will about him, he knows how to keep that funding flowing for his campaigns and he wants to keep that Senate seat. But AOC would have a big advantage with, well, a whole bunch of things, but certainly with her media profile and using digital media. This mom Donnie guy, by the way, New York, I'm worried, I'm worried about what's going to happen to you, you guys. I really am. Including my own family that's there. This Manani guy is a disaster. Really, truly. He, he's even wor. I thought he was really bad, but the more I'm seeing from him, I think he's worse than I thought, which I'm not even sure I knew that was possible, but it is because he is. It's not good.
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I, I, I think I'm going to get some fellow Floridians out of this bargain. Some people who are sane, but I know a lot of people are. It's not as easy as just picking up and leaving. I was lucky. I was not yet married, had a mobile job, didn't have a kid yet in school. So it was easy enough for me to move. I know it's hard for people to just pick up and move and they shouldn't have to. Right? You shouldn't have to flee some communist maniac in a state like New York, which is a great place and has so much going for it, or the city of New York, I should say, which has so much going for it. But here we are there. Here's Trump. Let's just let Trump weigh in. This is cut one on the shutdown and the possibility there could be some Democrat job cuts from this. Go for it. It's all because of the Democrats. The Democrats are causing the loss of a lot of jobs with their. It's a shutdown. It's their shutdown. Not our shutdown. It's their shutdown. It is their shutdown. The Schumer shutdown, if you will. They have decided that it is so important for them to try to get these Obamacare ACA supplemental payments out there. Let's just, let's just make this really easy. Obamacare, which is the signature achievement, if you can call it that. But the main thing that Barack Obama in eight years got done was Obamacare, as we know. I know, Ruining the country and igniting race riots and all that. Yeah, that too. But the main thing from a legislative standpoint is Obamacare. And they promised that this was going to cover everybody and it was going to bring costs down. That was really. It was going to cover everybody and bring costs down and also not explode deficit spending. And what you've seen is that it was a. It has failed on all fronts, essentially. It has covered more people, but overwhelmingly through Medicaid. Medicaid is busting budgets in states all over the country. And there's the complicated machinery of how these states are funding these programs and how they're like, what they do in a state like California, they spend in order to get. They spend more to. They can get more federal matching dollars. They're running all kinds of scams, essentially, to just create this massive slush fund. And Medicaid, there's so much of it, too, that has nothing to do with actual care. And it's. It's a disaster. But, okay, before we get into all or without even getting into the state funding of these things, have your premiums gone up? All of you are saying yes. Have your premiums gone up a lot? As in, are you in whatever health care plan you have, which you weren't allowed to keep? Remember, that was the big promise of Obamacare. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. No, you can't. And on your new plan, do you have better coverage? No, you don't. Are you paying a lot more for it? Yes, you are. Was the whole Obamacare game, other than being a huge giveaway to really the insurance industry, but was the whole game that you were subsidizing, it's just a complex scheme for you to subsidize other people's health care. That's what Medicaid is. But that's also what a lot of these Obamacare exchanges are really all about. It is healthcare socialism is exactly what people who were criticizing it, like me at the time, said it would be. But then you add to that illegals. You add to that the millions and millions of people who have come into this country who are illegal aliens, who are also getting health care now in something like emergency room care. You've seen New York City with its surge of migrants. In 2024, 30% of emergency room visits were illegals because they just used it as, okay, you know, I have a toothache, I go to the er, I need Prescription glasses. I go to the ER and they don't pay anything. And no one thinks they're going to pay anything. So that's one part of this. Right. But the way it works is even more complicated and more nefarious, I would say, than just you having to shoulder the burden of people coming into this country and making the. Because the money comes from somewhere, right? Someone is paying for all these illegals. Oh, and you also pay for it with your time if you try to go to. And this is true of cities across the country if you try to go to the emergency room for an emergency. I know they say they do triage, but they're overwhelmed. They got doctors and you know, yeah, maybe you get seen before the illegals if you've got like a, you know, a steak knife in your shoulder when you come in. But if you go in there and you know you're having a problem and you want to get seen quickly and it's not like immediate life or death, you got a whole bunch of illegals who are in there who are also being seen, who are being seen ahead of you. And they're using it, like I said, for non emergency care. But then you look at what happens in say, California, New York, where they do give, they do give healthcare to illegals as part of their state programs. Well, then what California does is find every creative way possible to make the federal government pay more health care funds into the state of California, which are then fungible, which then California uses to cover illegals. This is the game. And they say, oh, but, but none of these Obamacare dollars go to illegals. Okay? But California, the state of California has a budget. It has money that it spends. And if California is spending money covering illegals and also taking federal dollars to shore up whatever wild spending sprees it's going on with health care generally. Guess what? You know, this is like when they used to say, remember one of the big lies about Planned Parenthood with its decades of murdering babies in the womb? Planned Parenthood was, oh, well, none of the dollars will go, remember the Hyde Amendment? None of the dollars will go toward abortion, only go toward women's health care. If I tell you, hey, you're, you're running, you need money for, for your household budget. I'm going to give you $1,000 a month, but only for food. You can't use it for gas. Well, if I'm giving you $1,000, what difference does it make? I'm giving you $1,000. Right? What, whatever. The money that you were Going to be spending on food, can now be used for gas. This is how they play the game of giving illegals health care coverage. And this is why Democrats are fighting so hard on this issue and why people like Elizabeth Warren so upset. He's just shaking her fist. Here she is when CBS asks her if Democrats want to provide health care to noncitizens. This is cut to listen to what Senator Warren, when she goes on the war path, she's scary. Listen to what she has to say. Republicans say what you're really fighting for is taxpayer dollars for, as they put it, illegal aliens. I know that's not strictly true, but there is a provision, excuse me, not strictly, it's not true directly, but out lie. It is a flat out lie. The way that they frame it in.
C
Medicaid, there is nothing in Medicare that.
A
Permits one undocumented immigrant to get $1 of assistance. But they get it. And now they've already admitted that it does happen. They just say it doesn't happen. It's the classic Democrat sliding scale. It's not happening. You're lying. Okay, it's happening, but it's not happening that much. You know where they'll eventually be as people see more of the numbers. Okay, it's happening and it's a good thing. Shut your face. Why are you such a racist? That's where we're headed, you know, But Elizabeth Warren fired up there. Someone better hand her a peace pipe. Very upset, very unhappy with this. But people are sick of, remember, our healthcare has gotten more expensive and worse and illegals are getting healthcare in a whole bunch of ways. And you are paying for it. And your children and your grandchildren will be paying for it. And that's wrong. We should not be the soup kitchen and emergency room for the entire world's poor. And that's what we are right now. And it's not fair. It's not right. We have Americans who need help. We have Americans who are struggling. We have Americans who can't pay their bills and are behind and have unaffordable bills from doctors and emergency rooms. Oh, but they're expected to pay them, unlike the illegals. So Trump is on this fight and should be, and it's the right way to go. All right, look, here's good news for you. If you're a gold owner, gold is up around 47% this year. That's not speculation, that's reality. And if a portion of your savings isn't diversified into gold, you're missing out on a very good buying opportunity when there's instability in the markets or there's conflict in the world, investors turn to gold. That might be two reasons why gold has seen such a price increase and will continue to grow in value. And central banks are flocking to gold, which is part of why these prices are at record highs. You can still get in the door now on this opportunity. Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA. In gold you don't pay a dime out of pocket. Just text my name Buck to 989898 and claim your free info kit. There's no obligation, just useful information. The best indicator of the future is the past. Gold has historically been a safe haven for decades. Text my name Buck to 9,898 98. Birchgold will send you your free info kit. Text B U C K to 989898 today 2 guys walk up to a mic. Anything goes. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
B
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C
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A
Speaker of the House, Speaker Johnson is with us now. Mr. Speaker, appreciate you making the time. We can discuss some shutdown and other issues.
D
Buck, great to be with you. I look forward to that interview. That's timely stuff with Taiwan. We watch it very closely. So I'm glad you got to go over there and see it firsthand.
A
Thank you. Yeah, please do listen in. He had a. I asked him, I said, what's your message directly to President Trump? People should know that we don't have an embassy there. We don't have direct high level meetings with the government of Taiwan. So getting the word around, I think is really important because things are heating up with China. But in the meantime, Mr. Speaker, just bring us up to the latest here on are we calling it the Schumer shutdown? I am, but what's the latest on this government shutdown? What's happening?
D
Yeah, I wish there was more developments to report, but we're stuck at a stalemate. It is the Schumer Democrat shutdown. And I did a little press conference this morning just trying to lay out once again reiterating the simple truths. I mean, the truth has been obscured a bit by all these Democrats, their relentless efforts at spinning what everybody knows to be true. I mean, look, this is a clean continuing resolution. And what we mean by that is there's no partisan provisions in it, no tricks, no gimmicks. We're just simply trying to keep the lights on because as we were going through the appropriations process, we ran out of clock because the end of the fiscal year, September 30th and not the end of the calendar year, December 31st. So we needed more time. And Chuck Schumer's always been a champion of CRs. He never wanted to shut down the government because he knows how dangerous it is. And roll the tape. I mean, he gave the most impassioned speeches on this very subject in March of this year. This is like six months ago. But something changed. And I'm trying to point out to everybody, this is very simple. It comes down to Chuck covering his own tail.
A
All right, well, so let's there's the politics of this for Schumer, which, because I want to talk about the healthcare piece too, but your friend on the Republican side of the Senate, Senator Cruz, brought this up, that there is some specific political calculation here for Chuck Schumer. Can you just elucidate, elaborate on that a little bit?
D
I'll elaborate as, as much briefly as I can because it's pretty simple. Look, Chuck Schumer is a far left progressive politician. Everybody knows that. He's been in Congress for 44 years, brother, about most of our lives, right? He's been serving here, but it's actually.
A
Longer than I've been alive, Mr. Speaker. But yeah, there you go.
D
All right, Yeah, I was going to. All right, all right, so I'm giving myself a little credit here, but look, all of your life he's been here, okay? But he is yesterday's news. He's the last generation of leadership. He's 74 years old now and he's no longer the cool kid. Here's the problem Chuck Schumer has, plain and simple. The Marxists are now running New York. That's his state, right. They're about to elect Mamdani, an open Marxist, to be the mayor of America's largest city. Chuck Schumer is terrified by that because he knows that he's going to get a challenge from his left in his next Senate reelection bid. And that's probably could be AOC or somebody else, but it's almost a guarantee at this point. And he's almost guaranteed to lose. So he's got to show a fight against Trump. They didn't have any fight to show because again, we have a clean CR to keep the government open. So they concocted this faux issue. They're trying to argue that this is suddenly a debate about health care, never was. This is about simple funding, a simple funding measure. The health care debate is for the three months ahead of us going into the end of the year. That's the calculation. All this, all the pain inflicted upon the American people is to cover one guy's political future. And his name is Chuck Schumer and he happens to lead the Democrats in the Senate.
A
Now we've got that political piece of this. Can you dive a little more into the healthcare for illegals debate? That has just been all over and I was on the other side of the world and trying to follow it from Taiwan last week. But this has been a major issue. Democrats seem to be taking multiple positions at the same time on it. Oh, it never happens it only happens a little bit. It happens sometimes, but it's a good thing. What is the truth about the concerns that illegal immigrants, illegal aliens in this country are accessing even indirectly, federal dollars for health care?
D
Thank you. There's a couple of very important facts that are irrefutable and I laid them out in my press conference this morning. That's all on social media. But here's the thing, okay? The Democrats have, have been wanting to give taxpayer funded benefits to illegals and they actually did it. We know that. Go back to rewind to 2020 to the presidential debate stage when everybody was trying to get the Democrat nomination and they asked all of them in that debate, raise your hand if you would like to give taxpayer funded benefits and health care to illegal aliens. Every single Democrat candidate on the stage raised their hand, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. So when they got elected, they did that for four years. They used all the forces of the government and they expanded all this, these programs to illegals. We fixed it, Buck. We passed the one big beautiful bill, Republicans got control and last November of Congress and we pushed through the American, the working families tax cuts, okay? And in that, in that bill, we reversed all that nonsense. We took the health care benefits away from illegals. It was never intended. Medicaid was never intended for non US citizens and we fixed it. So what Chuck Schumer did because remember, they needed a political issue. Now it's a fight over health care. They filed this monstrosity of a counter proposal just to keep the lights on, just to keep the government open. They are demanding now that we spend $1.5 trillion of additional taxpayer funds on big liberal priorities. Included in that is reversing the changes we made and restoring taxpayer funded health care to illegal aliens. Fact. It is a fact. Go to the website speaker.gov pull it up for yourself. Don't take my words for it. Go look at Chuck Schumer's document that he filed in the Congressional Record that we have highlighted there, page 57, section 2141. That does exactly what I just said.
A
Now, can you just explain this? We're speaking to a Speaker of the House, Johnson here. How does that mechanism work? As in what is the process through which illegals are accessing federal dollars for their health care? Or how is the state playing budgetary games, in this case states like California and New York in order to give illegal aliens health care that is funded in some way by the federal government?
D
Well, there's a number of ways it's done and it's a great question. And there is an exhibit right there on that website, speaker.gov that shows you this in a simple chart. Okay, The Democrat continuing resolution, Chuck Schumer's gambit here would spend nearly $200 billion of American taxpayer funds on health care subsidies for illegal immigrants and other non citizens. And what are we talking about? There's six specific ways they do it. We reverse them all in the Working Families Tax Cut act, the one big beautiful bill. And in quick summary, what they are, is in our bill, we ended Medicaid funding for most non citizens. That's about $6.2 billion in savings. We ended the emergency care for illegal aliens that had been expanded, believe it or not. California, for example, expanded Medicaid to cover able bodied illegal alien adults. And in the process of all this, we call that the California loophole. We ended that. They also were literally, hospitals were being reimbursed more for treating illegal aliens in an emergency room than American citizens like pregnant American single women. I mean, it's just madness. Okay, we took all that out. We reversed the fraud, waste, abuse in Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare funding for most non citizens. These special rules they put in in Obamacare for immigrants, you add it all up, it's $192.8 billion. Okay? We reversed that in the big beautiful bill. And Chuck schumer on page 57 of his counter proposal cross would reverse all of it. It's a fact. They can't refute it. Not a single one of them have done it on TV or radio or anywhere. They cannot. As John Adams said, facts are stubborn things.
A
And yet here we are. What are we six days into this shutdown? Seven to six days, something like that. What is yours? Yeah. What is your sense, Mr. Speaker, for where this is going? And also can you speak to Mr. Speaker, the possibility of not just furloughs, but some trimmed federal jobs as a result of this shutdown. Where does that, where does that lie?
D
Well, there's two good important questions I think with regard to when does this end? As soon as we get a handful, we need five or six additional Democrats in the Senate to come to their senses and stop the madness. They've always voted for CRS in the past. They need to recognize real Americans are being hurt here. I reminded everybody in the press conference this morning. I said basic civics. You'll remember we don't have enough Republican votes to get out of this mess because you need 60 votes in the Senate. Our problem is we only have 53 Republicans there. So you've got to have Democrats that get off of this plank that they've walked themselves out on and do the right thing for the people. So we'll see. It goes probably at least another week. They painted themselves into a corner, but with regard to the real pain, brother.
A
Mr. Speaker, hold on a sec. Did you move somewhere? Because our cell, we had a beautiful, beautiful, crystal clear cell connection, and then it got a little bit. A little bit funky there for a second. So I could get you to either step to the other side of your office, wherever you were, or hopefully maybe the connection will just clear up. Go for it. Yeah.
D
Is that a little better?
A
Yes, it is. There we go. Crystal clear. Keep going.
D
Okay. I think it's the Russians. They're obscuring our thing from the capital here. So listen, so here's the. Here's the deal. We. We're in this situation, and it's causing real pain to real American people. You're talking about, you know, infant women, infants and children that have their nutrition subs, their supplemental nutrition being halted right now. You got health services to veterans. You got our troops and our Border Patrol agents and tsa, they're all working to protect Americans with no pay right now. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. So real pain by real people. The question is, how long are the Senate Democrats going to allow this to go on? And, you know, among all those pain points, there's a lot of things involved. Now, you talked about the furlough of federal workers. Russ Vote, our good friend, runs the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump administration. His job is to scale down the government because Chuck Schumer decided to turn off the funding streams. He has no choice in the matter. He takes no pleasure in it, but he has to sit down and evaluate everything the federal government does and triage it. Right? He's got to determine what are the most essential services policy personnel that we carry on and which are less so. And anybody who's in his position in any administration of these circumstances has that responsibility. It falls to our friend Russ. We pray that he uses wisdom and discernment, but, you know, he has no choice in the matter.
A
Mr. Speaker, appreciate you making the time for us, sir.
D
You got it, bro. Take care.
A
Man. He's Democrats. It's funny. The more the truth gets out, the worse their position looks. Not just on this, pretty much on everything, but on this, it is absolutely the case. We appreciate Speaker Johnson being with us there. Look, you want to have the right tools at home to defend yourself and protect your family. An umbrella or a baseball bat by the door isn't going to cut it in an emergency. Our sponsor Sabre makes the most effective non lethal protection tools you can have. You can go big with their pepper spray projectile launchers and factors. A pepper spray launcher bundle up@sabreradio.com right now that I would highly recommend. S A b r e saberradio.com there they've got that pepper launcher. They've also got an innovative 2 in 1 pepper light which is both a flashlight which you know you need for light, and pepper spray for outdoors walking at night. It's a great tool to have to keep yourself safe. This saber is the company we trust to provide our families with the best non lethal protection tools. If Sabre makes it, we've got a Clay uses them. I use them. Decide what you're most comfortable relying on. Go to sabre radio.com you'll save 15% there. That's S A B R E radio.com or call 844-824-safe-844-824 safe news you can count on and some laughs too. Clay Travis at Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
D
This is an I heart podcast.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – Daily Review
Episode Date: October 6, 2025
Host: Buck Sexton (Clay Travis out on vacation)
Podcast: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (iHeartPodcasts)
Buck Sexton returns from a "mission" in Taiwan to host a packed episode focused on:
The conversation blends news analysis, conservative commentary, and direct critiques of Democratic policies, especially around immigration, crime, and the current government shutdown.
“You're telling me there's no city in the world like that. We’re going to straighten it out. ... I think Pritzker is afraid for his life.” [17:20]
“It is embarrassing how much crime there is in our Democrat cities, like New York, where I used to live, although Chicago is way worse than New York. It's embarrassing because it doesn't have to be this way.” [29:57]
“Medicaid was never intended for non-US citizens and we fixed it … Chuck Schumer on page 57 of his counter proposal cross would reverse all of it. It's a fact. They can't refute it. As John Adams said, facts are stubborn things.” [54:15]
“There is nothing in Medicare that permits one undocumented immigrant to get $1 of assistance.” [42:36] Buck’s response: “Okay, it’s happening and it’s a good thing. Shut your face. Why are you such a racist? That’s where we’re headed.” [42:52]
On the stakes in Taiwan:
“It would crash the markets and cause huge problems for global supply chain, for technology. My friends, it is the flashpoint right now.” [02:40]
On Democratic immigration policy:
“Democrats do not want enforcement of our immigration laws. They don’t want border security. They don’t want deportations.” [10:40]
On crime in Chicago vs. Taipei:
“I was walking through a park ... there were families in the park at night ... No concern about, ‘I can’t be in a park at night because bad things will happen.’ ... In Chicago … you get the crime you tolerate. It is not a given.” [22:45–25:12]
Mayor Brandon Johnson (on Trump):
“He is unstable in every way possible, unhinged and unhealthy ... Our cities are not training ground for the military ... It is reprehensible.” [19:30]
Speaker Mike Johnson (on the shutdown):
“All the pain inflicted upon the American people is to cover one guy’s political future ... Chuck Schumer.” [50:50]
On healthcare funding for undocumented immigrants:
“We reversed the fraud, waste, abuse in Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare funding for most non-citizens ... Chuck Schumer would reverse all of it. It's a fact. They can't refute it.” [54:15]
This summary presents all core topics, notable arguments, guest highlights, illustrative quotes, and timestamped segments as they unfolded, providing a clear view of episode content and tone for listeners or readers seeking an in-depth recap.