Hour 1 - Better Late Than Never on COVID

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 1 – Better Late Than Never on COVID
Date: July 31, 2026
Hosts: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

This episode focuses on the fallout from Dr. Anthony Fauci’s recent congressional testimony, during which he invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times. Clay and Buck dissect the shifting public and media stance on Fauci, the COVID response, and the belated recognition by some mainstream voices that critics of the lockdowns and mandates might have been right all along. The show balances sharp critique with humor, and responds to both new revelations and caller pushback.

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Key Discussions & Insights

1. The Cabinet Meeting at Camp David (02:41–03:45, 20:39–21:43)

• Ongoing live coverage of the U.S. Cabinet’s Camp David meeting, focusing on Iran. Clay notes they’ll cut in if anything newsworthy emerges, but audio quality is lacking.
• Buck muses about the rarity of press events at Camp David, emphasizing the unusual nature of this particular media coverage.

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2. Fauci’s Fifth Amendment Testimony & Media Reactions

Deborah Birx’s Admission (06:19)

• Dr. Deborah Birx acknowledges on Fox News that tight COVID restrictions were often driven by politics in blue states, and some states overreached due to the election year.
  • Quote: “Because it was an election year, there were states that persisted in their very tight mitigations and others that showed us a way that you could Open K through 12 and higher ed.” (06:19)

Hosts’ Reactions (07:03–10:08)

• Clay and Buck contrast Birx’s relative candor with Fauci’s evasiveness, seeing her admission as a “bit of an apology.”
• Buck argues Fauci is avoiding even basic admissions to prevent the “house of cards” of Faucism from collapsing, suggesting denial and a pathological need to protect his own image.

Mainstream Shifts & Notable Quotes

• Charlamagne tha God (11:17): Raises suspicion about Fauci taking the Fifth, likening it to having something to hide.
  • Quote: “How can somebody trap you if you’re not doing nothing wrong?” (11:17)
• Stephen A. Smith (14:13): Publicly points out the contradictions and lack of science behind some mandates, calling Fauci’s behavior “shady.”
  • Quote: “Fauci was damn near encouraging us to wear two and three masks… He later admitted that it wasn’t backed by science…” (14:13)
• Chris Cuomo (15:32): Even as a known Fauci defender, admits Fauci “looked like a man who has something to hide.”
  • Quote: “He was good to me when I was sick… Yes, he looked like a man who has something to hide…” (15:32)

Hosts Analyze Mainstream Reactions (11:42–16:19)

• Clay and Buck credit non-conservative figures for late honesty, though Buck notes many are “five years late” in their criticism.
• The hosts mock the shifting “Overton window” and note the tarnished legacy Fauci now faces even among the general media.

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3. Public Accountability, Winning Arguments, and Listener Calls

Listener “Adam from Minnesota” Pushback (25:56–26:58)

• Adam objects to giving credit to latecoming critics like Charlamagne and Stephen A. Smith for “discovering” Fauci’s dishonesty, having labeled Fauci detractors “conspiracy theorists” for years.
• Buck and Clay respond: While not treating latecomers as heroes, it's better that they arrive at the truth than never at all. Clay uses a music analogy: it’s like a band’s original fans resenting new followers when the band gets popular, but “I want the entire stadium booing Fauci.”

Broader Point on Changing Historical Narratives (30:29–32:57)

• Clay says the verdict of history is “not going to be kind” to Fauci, and that such shifts require even belated public recognition from figures outside the right.
• Highlights Stephen A. Smith’s public apology to Kyrie Irving for previously vilifying his stance against COVID vaccination, and notes sports figures like Aaron Rodgers were once ridiculed but ultimately vindicated.

Ongoing MSM Praise for Fauci (32:57–33:14)

• Lawrence O’Donnell (MSNBC): Embodies ongoing hagiography, calling Fauci braver than all senators combined.
  • Quote: “A man who has done more in service to this country and the world than every senator in that room and the entire current United States Senate combined.” (32:57)

Clay’s Closing Take (34:00)

• Prefers mainstream figures admit error over perpetuating the Fauci cult: “I’d rather people say, 'You know what, I got this wrong,' than continue to try to genuflect at the altar of the cult of Fauci.”

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4. The Need for Honest Data and Public Debate (34:00–35:44)

• Buck expresses frustration: AI and search engines still reflect “settled science” narratives about vaccine efficacy and masking, despite new data. Calls for more public debate and official recognition of the failures.
• Questions why the Trump administration or CDC hasn’t collated and released definitive data since the pandemic.

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5. Lighthearted Segment: Right-Wing Media All-Star Basketball Team (38:19–41:01)

• After heavy COVID discussion, the hosts pivot to a fun segment: assembling a hypothetical right-wing media basketball team.
• Dave Rubin and Jesse Kelly call in to offer themselves as team members, adding comic relief and friendly banter.
  • Rubin: Shooting guard recovering from injuries but “still got the three-point shot” (39:14)
  • Kelly: Jokes about strategy versus WNBA teams (40:11)

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Notable Quotes

• Clay Travis (07:03): “Compared to Fauci, Dr. Birx just saying it was an election year...as these things go from public health officials, this is a bit of an apology of sorts.”
• Buck Sexton (07:36): “The moment he admits one thing, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down...And as we know, they were wrong about all the things.”
• Charlemagne tha God (11:17): “How can somebody trap you if you’re not doing nothing wrong?”
• Stephen A. Smith (14:13): “He later admitted that [social distancing] wasn’t backed by science. He’s just coming up with this stuff.”
• Chris Cuomo (15:32): “Yes, he looked like a man who has something to hide, and there were definitely mistakes made.”
• Lawrence O’Donnell (32:57): Calls Fauci “braver than anybody in the United States Senate combined.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:41: Start of substantive program discussion, overview of show format and cabinet meeting at Camp David.
• 06:19: Dr. Deborah Birx’s clip on COVID politics and response.
• 11:17: Charlemagne tha God criticizes Fauci’s Fifth Amendment strategy.
• 14:13: Stephen A. Smith points out Fauci’s inconsistent advice and “shady” behavior.
• 15:32: Chris Cuomo reluctantly admits Fauci “looked like a man who has something to hide.”
• 25:56: Listener Adam from Minnesota objects to giving credit to late critics of Fauci.
• 32:57: Lawrence O’Donnell lavishes praise on Fauci, demonstrating that the “cult” persists.
• 39:14: Dave Rubin and Jesse Kelly light-heartedly join the all-star basketball team.

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Tone and Style

• The episode is fast-paced, opinionated, and humorous, in line with Clay and Buck’s established style.
• The hosts oscillate between righteous indignation, sarcasm, and self-deprecating humor.
• Frequent direct engagement with listeners (reading/responding to calls), and an unvarnished take on recent news and public figures.

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Summary for Non-Listeners

If you missed this episode, you missed a fiery, incisive breakdown of the long-delayed mainstream reckoning with America's COVID policies, Fauci’s legacy, and the value of belated honesty in media. The hosts lambast Fauci’s evasions and celebrate (even if reluctantly) the overdue awakening among previously skeptical or dismissive public figures. The episode closes with a lighter, fun segment, maintaining the show’s balance of news and entertainment.

Transcript

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome in Friday Edition. Clay and Buck. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We're going to have some fun, take you into the weekend on this final of 15 hours that we have produced. 12 hours up. We encourage you. Look, I know I'm kind of excited about this. I encourage you to go subscribe to YouTube. A lot of you have been subscribing there. And Buck, I was texting with Buck earlier this morning because I was kind of playing around on the YouTube page. Hello to all of you watching live. You can go to Clay and Buck. If you go to our YouTube page, click that live button and you can see us in real time. We love all of you listening on nearly 600 stations nationwide, satellite radio, podcast, however, you are consuming this show. We appreciate all of you being with us, but man, Buck, podcast numbers are really starting to pop. Individual interviews, so many different segments that you can go grab. You hear somebody, you hear a couple of minutes of it and you think, oh, I'm interested in that. I'll give you an example. We talked with Evan Barker, who, who was a top fundraiser for the Democrat party and left the party. I believe that was on Wednesday. Nearly 50,000 of you have watched that interview with her. Long form, 15 minutes. I think a lot of people maybe you hear a couple minutes, you say, hey, I want to go hear this. Anything you hear, we're cutting up interviews. Ron DeSantis was on any interview here. Girdusky. People love Gardusky. Buck. It is really kind of interesting. The podcast numbers are phenomenal for him. Every time he comes on the show, people want to hear the data analysis. He had an interview that he did was that yesterday. He was on with us, I think, and that thing did, did really, really well. So anything you want on YouTube, you can get a version of it there. We're going to be doing more and more special things for YouTube going forward. Click like and subscribe. Okay, we've got a cabinet meeting going on right now at Camp David. Focused on what the right response was for Iran. Uh, it. We will monitor that. We will play any audio clips for you that are particularly newsworthy. The entire cabinet meeting at Camp David. The audio is not great and it's a lot of cross talk. So we won't go live to that right now. Uh, but many different individuals are speaking, uh, right now for the media is live on cnn, MSNBC and uh, Fox News. But Buck, you and I talked quite a lot about what the fallout of Fauci's testimony on Wednesday morning was going to be. And it seems to me that a lot of people, I'm going to hit you with a series of these. A lot of people who are not necessarily known as quote unquote, right leaning media, a lot of them are taken aback by the fact that Fauci took the Fifth 111 different times that he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. And we're going to play some of that. But let's start first of all with Deborah Burks. Some of you have asked, well, Fauci was one of the front facing members of the COVID response team. What about Dr. Burks, she of the unique scarves who was caught early on not following her own measures when it came to family gathering? She kind of tapped out. She was not as involved in the Biden administration. She went on Fox News and she said, you know what? I think a lot of this in retrospect was politics in the blue states. Cut 7 I think all of us

[Dr. Deborah Burks]

need to be quite honest with ourselves about how the not only the information evolved, but the needs for the relevant, what we call countermeasures should have also evolved. When this first hit. We didn't have enough testing out there. We couldn't stop the spread in any way. Hospitals were being overrun. We didn't have a supply chain that matched the need. And so the first part and the few months were a crisis. But once we got additional therapies where there were actually additional treatments, then you can pull back on some of the mitigation. But because it was an election year, there were states that persisted in their very tight mitigations and others that showed us a way that you could Open K through 12 and higher ed.

[Clay Travis]

OK, buck this. This is way more honest, at least. I'm not saying that she deserves some sort of commendation for being honest, but compared to Fauci, Dr. Burke's just saying it was an election year. Blue states basically locked down too aggressively. Other states showed us that there were opportunities to not have to do this. As these things go from public health officials, this is a bit of an apology of sorts, nowhere near what we need. But compared to Fauci, it is more honest, I would say.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, I think Fauci recognizes something that's actually true, which is the moment that he admits that one of the things is not true, then the whole house of cards comes tumbling down because it was all about the cult of Fauci, the science. It was you do everything that you are told because that is what the good smart science knowing people do and if they were wrong about one thing, it would mean they could have been wrong about many things. And as we know, they were wrong about all the things. So they would rather just be in a state of pure denial, which is where Fauci still persists, than admit even the most basic thing. This is also why I would add, I have absolutely zero sympathy for the. For a million reasons, many millions of reasons, in fact, meaning all of you. I have no sympathy for Fauci's reputation being destroyed at this phase of his life or anything like that. He is so cruel and selfish in his thinking that even at this stage, he won't let people go back. There are a lot of people out there who still think that they need to be vaxxed and boosted and wear masks. I don't mean a lot like half the country, but there are. You'll see them. I mean, you just see them in airports. You'll see people working in restaurants occasionally or in some other place where they're masked up because they're afraid, thinking that's going to do something for them. He won't even tell them it's okay, it's over now. He won't do that for them. That's how cruel and selfish a person he really is. It's pathological. I think there's something that's very deranged about Foushee and that came across in those missives he wrote to himself. And now there are a lot of people that are just going to, of course, ignore this and say that we didn't learn anything new. This is part of the complete collapse of the cult of the expert that the left had been building up for a long time. And now we realize whether it's a college admissions committee or it's the CDC or it's a Democrat appointed Supreme Court justice or FBI director. I mean, go down your list. A lot of these people are utter morons with no ethics whatsoever and deeply damaging when they're in positions of authority. And that is a good thing, actually, that we know this. The revelations of the 21st century Clay, I think, have been overall and overwhelmingly and of the Trump era specifically, really positive. Like, we need to know the truth about this stuff, and we're seeing more and more of it. And Fauci is just a huge example of it.

[Clay Travis]

All of you agree with everything Buck said because you've been paying attention and you're sane and rational people. But a lot of people out there, I am somewhat encouraged. Buck, were taken aback. Maybe they hadn't paid attention for A few years maybe they hadn't seen Dr. Fauci and they kind of still thought about him in that 2020, 2021 context when Covid was top of mind for everything. Many of these media outlets, I'm going to play three different, what I would say are not traditional, certainly right leaning audio outlets. Let's start with Charlemagne, the God. He has a super successful show out of New York City. He's part of the iHeartMedia network. Props to iHeart because many of these people are that, that have a variety of different perspectives. I heart kind of covers every end, whether it's entertainment, whether it's politics. They're the best audio company in the world. Charlemagne's one of their talents. And here he is saying to his audience, majority black audience, left leaning audience. Boy, Dr. Fauci pleading the fifth. Looks suspicious, didn't it? Cut nine.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

I never understood why Dr. Fauci needed a pardon if there was no crime committed or nothing was done wrong. And when you think of every conspiracy theorist that accused him of everything from creating or covering up the virus, you know, the profiting, the profiting from mandates and vaccines, it does look suspicious that he won't answer questions in the language. How can somebody trap you if you're not doing nothing wrong? Like, well, like, how can you can't trap me if I'm not doing anything wrong.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, Buck, pretty rational, reasonable take for an audience that may not be paying a lot of attention to Fauci. That was not Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. But it doesn't sound that dissimilar to a lot of what we said after that testimony.

[Buck Sexton]

I, I, I agree with, I agree with the sentiments there. I would say that sometimes people talk about a, a perjury trap situation and if you're talking about making someone testify, you know, about a murder or something that's very complicated and, and there can get jammed up on something. Foushee was the guy in charge of the most powerful figure in charge of COVID policy in America and really globally. We can all understand what's going on here. He has two choices, lie or say things for the record. Finally, that would show that he was lying before, which wouldn't put him in criminal jeopardy now, but would destroy all of the edifice of Faucism. And that's exactly why he won't say anything, because those are the only options. Lie now or admit you were lying then and he doesn't want to lie now because the pardon wouldn't cover conduct going forward. And Clay, something else here Too. Fauci did lie under oath a lot. Fauci did mislead, lie, lied to the American people many, many times. You know, a lot of normal Americans get in huge trouble for lying about things under oath. You know, a lot of people have really had their, their lives and their careers messed up for lying under oath. And we really have set a trend here where if you are a powerful, particularly Democrat figure, you can lie under oath and it's fine.

[Clay Travis]

Yep.

[Buck Sexton]

And now I know that goes back a long ways, it goes back to Clinton. But I'm saying these days it feels like it just happens all the time, including in front of Congress and it just does not matter. There is no accountability and the lack of accountability is very frustrating. I'm glad that this information's come out this week about Fauci. It does feel like it has finally come full circle a bit. Right?

[Caller/Reuben]

Don't you think?

[Buck Sexton]

This was different. There have been a lot of Fauci hearings in the past where he was sparring with Rand Paul and I'm like, ok, this is good theater. The diaries moved the story. Yes, because the diaries show who this guy really is and you can't avoid

[Clay Travis]

it in conjunction with all of the Fifth Amendment. 111 times. Let me play these two quickly by the way. 800-282-2882. You can talk back, you can react. Here's Stephen A. Smith, another guy that is not exactly known as a right wing ideologue, saying of Fauci, this is shady. Cut 10.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

Fauci was damn near encouraging us to wear two and three masks at a time. We daily a cabreeze. How about the six foot social distancing? We can't ignore that. Where you get that from? He later admitted that it wasn't backed by science. He's just coming up with this stuff. The lockdowns, the natural immunities, the vaccine's ability to prevent infection and transmission. Fauci's pulmonary infarction following vaccination that he didn't reveal to the public but he wrote about in his diary. This is all shady. It is. And the Democrats have nothing to say. Wasn't it the Democrats that was enforcing stuff? People lost their jobs, businesses went out of business, folks quality of life was severely compromised and we had reached a point in our society where if you even questioned Fauci as opposed to celebrate him, you were in trouble.

[Buck Sexton]

All true, but he's about five years late on this one. All accurate, but it took him quite a while. But he did arrive at the right Conclusion. When there was nowhere else to go.

[Clay Travis]

I will say again, Charlamagne, Stephen A. Smith. This is, you know, the football coach that we played making fun of Fauci. One more. This one's really funny, Buck. Chris Cuomo, who was Fauci's bro. Bro Cuomo, as you call him back in the day, he likes Fauci, and he thought it was an awful look for Fauci. Cut 11.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

Look, full transparency here. I know and respect Tony Fauci. He was good to me when I was sick today. Yes, he looked like a man who has something to hide, and there were definitely mistakes made and not just by him.

[Clay Travis]

And yes, the diaries present real questions

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

about the lab and messaging and the vaccine. And yes, pleading the Fifth just gives a bad impression.

[Buck Sexton]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Mr. Bro Cuomo, come on this show if you want to talk about this. He was nice to you because you were a CNN celebrity, and he was obsessed with being on CNN airwaves. You could see his ugly face on there all the time.

[Clay Travis]

He.

[Buck Sexton]

He lied. He didn't make mistakes. He lied about what was going on. He covered up his role. Clay, this is. This is not nearly enough. Not, oh, it looks bad.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

Of course he's going to say, everyone knows it looks bad. But it doesn't just look bad. It is bad.

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Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

He's not even at the right place. What Charlemagne said is is correct, which is this is obviously, this guy is full of it and it's trash. It's not. Yeah, it kind of looks bad to. Fauci's a good guy. He's not a good guy. He didn't do a good job. He was not on it. Sorry, but I broke Cuomo. Step it up, buddy.

[Clay Travis]

Overton window moves substantially. Yes. Is it five years too late? Many of you are saying yes. But remember, what Foushee was caring about the most at this point was his historic legacy. It is now in tatters. I think it's only going to continue to decline even more. The quote unquote mainstream media is wise to what the lies that Fauci has been peddling. We'll take your calls and Friday edition of the program. Let me ask you something. How many credit cards do you have right now? 20 plus percent interest rate. How frustrating is that? Incredibly frustrating. Do you lay in bed thinking, oh, I can't believe how much my interest is now? Do you have other different aspects that you're having to pay out there? Would you like to have a lot less stress in your life? That's what Perfect 10 Mortgage can help with if you own your home they can wipe out all of your debt in as little as 10 days and you can get one payment one due date. A whole lot less stress in your life. Perfect 10 Mortgage because if you give them 10 minutes they can close in 10 days. Hundreds of you have been reaching out to Perfect 10 Mortgage. They are excited about how many of you they are being able to help. So far a lot of you already reaching out. If you haven't done it yet go to perfect10 Mortgage.com that's perfect10 Mortgage.com Perfect 10 Mortgage like Nadia Comin each back in the day sticking the perfect 10 in gymnastics. 10 minutes and as little as 10 days you can have a brand new mortgage. You can end the stress. You can wipe out all of your [e-mail] perfect10mortgage.com no cost. Give them 10 minutes. They share your values. Give them a chance to help put your financial house in order today. Perfect 10 Mortgage DBA Network Funding LP NMLS 2297 Equal Housing Lender all borrowers must qualify this advertisement not a promise to make alone. Laugh, learn and hang with the guys Clay and Buck preset on the iHeart app.

[Joel Osteen]

What God Started in my life, he's

[Clay Travis]

going to finish the Joel Osteen Daily Podcast.

[Joel Osteen]

Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. What was meant for my harm? Lord, I want to thank you. Right now you're turning to my advantage.

[Clay Travis]

Your daily source of hope and encouragement.

[Joel Osteen]

Your second win is on its way. God is about to breathe on your life in a new way.

[Clay Travis]

Listen to the Joel Osteen Daily podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your favorite podcasts, this

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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back into Clay and Bach. Just a news update here. We're monitoring this Camp David roundtable that is going on right now with the cabinet and they've got press in there. I think they're just talking, meaning the members of the Cabinet. They're not taking active. Are they taking Q and A yet?

[Clay Travis]

I think they're taking some questions.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, they are taking Q and A

[Clay Travis]

and they've been kind of going around the table. There's a bunch of press in there. The audio is not great because I. Frank, do you ever remember seeing a live press conference from. I didn't know they had a conference room like this at Camp David. I don't remember ever really seeing audio.

[Buck Sexton]

I kind of thought you went to Camp David to mostly get away from the press conference. Aren't you supposed to be fishing and hanging out? I guess I'm wrong on that one. But we got a few other things going on. More on the Iran Strait of Hormuz situation. Trump's board of Peace, not to be confused with the Department of War Board of Peace, secures a quote, historic Hamas disarmament deal. So that's some news today, Clay. Second quarter GDP came in a little lower, 1.5% slower than the 2.1% we saw in Q1. Not great. And people are saying it's because of some of the oil price drag stuff, which is also not great. And then some incredible footage out of Europe that's reminding everybody. Suta, specifically in North Africa, reminding everybody what happens when you have no borders. So we can hit any or all of those or we can just talk about how people say the new Spider man movie that's out today is really good. Have you seen this? I like people saying, no, not the movie, but people saying it's really good.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, buck, I. My 11 year old is ecstatic about this. I'll talk about it. We're going straight as soon as the show is over today.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, wow. So you are on the. You are on the Spider man train. Okay, we'll talk about this. All right, Peter Parker, guys, what's your energy like at the end of the week or the end of the month? It can be tough, right? If it's Low. How about trusting a supplement that gives you energy without the crash and burn sensation that comes from energy drinks? Guys, I know what it means to have your body chemistry aligned so that

[Clay Travis]

you're at your best.

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[Clay Travis]

welcome back in Clay and Buck. We are rolling through the Friday edition of the program. Positive news story here. Buck, as we were going to break, you were mentioning the new Spider man movie is out. I am going with my 11 year old as soon as this show is over. He is so excited to go see this movie. Last night we watched the last Spider man movie, which somehow I missed. I, it's hard for me to keep up with all these superhero movies. My wife Laura does a great job getting the kids and keep them up to date on all the superhero movies. It was also great. And so I, I do think that every now and then there are movies that are completely down the middle of the road and still good. And the Spider man movies, I think the Avengers, end games, like there are a few of these that are really, really good. So anyway, I'm excited to go see that. And you heard the movie is good. Like we're gonna talk, by the way, with the director of Young Washington, which I still need to see. He's going to be with us in the third hour, I believe.

[Buck Sexton]

I believe Tim Pool, who is a very, very, you know, well known podcaster, content creator on Twitter. I just saw this today when I was scrolling stuff said it is the best Marvel movie he has ever seen. 10 out Marvel movie, not just Spider man movie. 10 out of 10. Perfection. I mean that's, I mean that's like if I said that's how I felt when I walked out of Braveheart for the first time, I'm like, that was a perfect movie, perfect movie.

[Clay Travis]

So you Will like this. I don't know that I told you, but I had the boys all sit down and watch Braveheart with me. Even my 11 year old. There are some risque moments a bit in Braveheart, but they loved it. They couldn't believe. I mean, you know, it's been 30 years since that movie was made. Now you gotta.

[Buck Sexton]

If you're a man, you gotta see that movie. I mean, some of the ladies like it too, but you gotta. You gotta see that movie. But apparently this Marvel movie is good. I'm excited. We have the Young Washington director on with us, third hour. We'll talk to him. We're so happy to see the success of that, especially given the genre, the fact it's an independent film. And as I said, your book Wreck for me, thanks to the surveillance society we live in, turned into a TV show wreck about the Lincoln assassination with Manhunt, which Carrie and I are almost finished with, which was. It's Apple tv. It's very good. I can tell you. It's really worth watching. So once we're done with that. Next up on our queue is Young Washington, because I think you can stream it now, right?

[Clay Travis]

Can you. Okay, they come out. I think you can, quickly on streaming. We'll ask the director if you can. I want to watch it in the house as soon as I can. By the way, Adam in Minnesota is upset with us. Join the club. News. What did you do, Clay?

[Buck Sexton]

What did you do?

[Clay Travis]

News Talk. 11:30, 103.5 radio. Cut E.

[Joel Osteen]

Hey, Clay and Buck, this

[Clay Travis]

is Adam from Minnesota. I don't think you should for a second give Mr. Tha God or Stephen a or anybody else an ounce of credit for realizing that Dr. Fauci was lying. And, oh, now he looks. These people are calling us right wing conspiracy theorists, even though this was blatantly right in front of our faces. And now they're coming to our side. That's pure crap. Okay, I think this is an interesting debate.

[Joel Osteen]

I.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Buck Sexton]

Hold on to me, Clay. Wait, wait. I said the guy's five years late and it's absurd. What else do you want me to say? We said this. I just said this five minutes ago. I'm like, this is crazy. I don't. And I just ripped Chris Cuomo for saying that Fauci's still a good guy, but he made some mistakes, so why is the caller so. I mean, maybe he's mad at you, but he shouldn't be mad at me.

[Joel Osteen]

I'll.

[Clay Travis]

I'll presume that he's mad at me? Yes. But I, of course, would have liked for people to be saying this five years ago. The question is, do you want people to eventually acknowledge that you might have been right? The caller, me, Buck, all of you out there who had these opinions five years ago, or would you rather them go full Fauci and refuse to acknowledge that they were wrong about anything? To me. To me, and some of you may disagree on this, I think we have to come back and normalize in some way the idea of acknowledging that you can get things wrong. Now, do you want the media to hold Fauci accountable now, even if they didn't hold him accountable five years ago when he deserved it? Or do you want them to continue to argue that he's a hero, like James Talarico down in Texas would do? Or like the audio we played of Senator Kim of New Jersey reading the Theodore Roosevelt man in the arena speech when Fauci was testifying on Wednesday, lionizing his courage and bravery. Do we have Lawrence o'? Donnell? Lawrence o' Donnell went on his MSNBC show Wednesday evening after Fauci took the Fifth Amendment 111 times and said Fauci was braver than anybody in the United States Senate combined and one of the bravest figures he'd ever seen in the history of American public life. Do you want people to continue to praise Fauci, or do you want, even if it takes some time, the general public to come to realize that he was a fraud? I would rather people recognize that he was a fraud, even if they're coming to that revelation long after I believe they should have. So it's a little bit like, take it out of something serious. A lot of people who like something before it's popular get upset when the thing that they like becomes popular. You see this all the time in music. People get mad when the band only has a hundred fans. You like them, but then they sold out when suddenly they have stadiums that are full, they're too popular for you. And I want the entire stadium booing Fauci. I understand that Buck and I were one of the first hundred booing Fauci and that a lot of people were angry at us for that. I want to win arguments because by winning arguments, you change the direction of the country and you help to ensure that something like this never happens again.

[Buck Sexton]

I would also point out that even at this stage. So there is a balancing here. Even at this stage, most of the people who were the big proponents of Fauci have changed nothing.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

So it's not like Every. It's not like you're like the last guy jumping on the train and it's fully left the station. There are still a lot of. I mean, I think a majority of. I can't even. I mean, a super majority of the. Of the Democrats who supported all things Fauciism are all. Look, look at what happened at the, at the hearings. They're all, you know, Fauci, you're amazing. You're great. You did your best. You're a genius. You're all this stuff. So we do want more people on our side with this one. I don't think we have to treat them like heroes for coming to our side, but we do want to say welcome to sanity. Or in the words, the timeless Words of John McClain of the NYPD, welcome to the party, pal.

[Clay Travis]

Such a great line. Yippee ki yay, bum bum bum. I can't say the rest. That was a great line, too. I will say also, one of the big debates that is out there that we have been having for multiple years on this program is how will history cover the Fauci era? The COVID era? I think you're starting to see. I think you are really starting to see that the verdict of history is not going to be kind for Fauci and that he is going to be a villain of the COVID era as opposed to a hero. And I think that's important. And so that means you have to have people. I mean, I give credit to Stephen A. Smith. I don't know if we have this audio as part of that audio as well. He publicly apologized to Kyrie Irving. Buck, you remember this story? Kyrie Irving lost around $100 million guaranteed because he refused to get the COVID shot. He was a new Nets, a member of the New York Nets. Brooklyn Nets, I guess they're called now, I think. And memorably. Buck, do you. You lived there during this. I. I hammered the heck out of this. Kyrie Irving was not allowed to play for the Brooklyn Nets because he refused to get the COVID shot. But he exposed the hypocrisy of the rules because he was allowed to sit and watch the games courtside, but he was not allowed to actually play in the games times because he refused to get the COVID shot. Stephen A. Smith ripped him. At the time, he just came out and said, you know what? I was wrong. Kyrie Irving was actually brave. I hope people will apologize. You remember Aaron Rodgers, your favorite NFL player? Because Aaron Rodgers said, no, I'm not getting this Covid shot. The sports media ripped to shreds any athletes who were refusing to get the COVID shot. Now, it is quite clear if you had any doubt at all that they were right and the COVID shot was worthless and they got no benefit, and they may have had significant consequences. Whatever you think about athletes, they know their bodies well because it's how they make their money. And a lot of athletes, at least as public figures, were far more skeptical. And by the way, let me play this because this is what could have happened. Caller didn't like praising people for changing their minds. What do you prefer? Here's Lawrence O' Donnell on MSNBC praising Foushee After Wednesday's event, the congressional hearing cut 34.

[Carl's Jr. Advertiser]

Bernie Moreno's target in that hearing today was a man who has done more in service to this country and the world than every senator in that room and the entire current United States Senate combined.

[Clay Travis]

Now, you might say the standard of success or achievement for the entire United States Senate combined may not be right now, in your opinion, that high, but this is the kind of hagiography that still existed for Dr. Fauci on Ms. Now, would you rather Charlemagne the God Stephen A. Smith come out and say, you know what? We got this wrong. Stephen A. Smith in particular, and Charlemagne, both saying that Fauci looked incredibly guilty, or would you rather them come on and say, that's one of the bravest things I've ever seen anybody do in the history of this nation? Because to me, I'd rather people say, you know what, I got this wrong. It's better than continuing to try to genuflect at the altar of the cult of Fauci.

[Buck Sexton]

I. I would agree with that. I think that's a strong take. So, yes, indeed, we want more people to come over. I still, though, have this question about why maybe, can we team, can we invite doctor. Dr. Bhattacharya on the show, who, by the way, is great. Is great. I'm not, I'm not trying to criticize Dr. Bhattacharya. I'm just curious, why isn't there. I mean, Clay, if you were to go right now on AI and say, were the COVID shots. Now that we have all the data, were the COVID shots highly effective? Grok. I mean, not Grok, you know, well, may probably, but Gemini, all the. They'll say, yeah, they'll say they reduced transmission, they reduced hospitalization, all this sort of stuff. And I sit there and I go, what happens if you type in Are masks effective? They'll say, Masks are effective. There's some, you know, they're wrong. Yeah, because the official data sets still pretend. I mean, for example, on the reduced transmission thing with COVID Yeah. It's a vaccine that had, you know, substantially reduced transmissions. They tell us for like four weeks. And then basically, you know, it's after a couple of months, your reduced transmission rate. If you got the vax, and this is for 2021, when everybody was freaking out, was like 20%. That's, that's, that's a therapeutic, that's not a vaccine. And this is preposterous. But we don't have this information settled yet and we should have this. There should be a public debate on the data and I don't understand why that hasn't happened. I don't know where RFK Jr. Is on this. I don't know why the CDC under the Trump administration has not put this out there.

[Dr. Deborah Burks]

Because

[Buck Sexton]

they have the information. They have the Cochran study on mask that shows that you. Here's how effective masks are. You can't actually point to any real study that shows them having any effect whatsoever. You know what I'm saying? This is. And yet, does anyone doubt for one second if we had a Democrat administration and a really bad flu season, there wouldn't be CDC recommendations about masking and, and, and social distancing. They wouldn't say 6ft, but they would say so. They would bring back a lot of this stuff. And I think that's completely unacceptable. And I'm very confident that unfortunately that's where we are. Where, where is the Trump team on this one? And by the way, I don't mean like, where's the Secretary of War? He's got Iran to handle. There are people whose jobs are to do this. Why haven't they done this? I do think we can start to ask almost halfway through the administration second term here. The people that are supposed to do this, are they doing it? What's going on? Cuz this is important. Yeah, I'm just, you know, just a guy saying some things. I'm also a guy who cooked some amazing steaks last night. They were delicious. We had steak night here. Carrie had a friend over. I was, I was manning my cast iron. And thanks to Good Ranchers. It was, dare I say, magnifique. Chef Buck with his little Swedish chef hat on, doing his thing, making amazing steaks courtesy of Good Ranchers. I had the bone in New York strips. They are so juicy. They're so succulent, so delicious. And it's great because they arrive in a special box from Good Ranchers. I get it shipped to me every month. The box arrives specially made so they arrive frozen, fresh, ready, you know, ready to go right into your freezer. They're delicious. And then when you're ready for them, you just decided steak night, you're good to go. You thaw them out and you got the best stuff. Good Ranchers partners with local farmers and ranchers to deliver 100% American meat straight to your door. This is not commie carnivore stuff. This is American baby, through and through. Good Ranchers get a box shipped to you right now. In fact, even better, subscribe. Get your monthly meat delivery. Chicken, pork, beef, all the stuff you need for a limited time. You get $50 off. Your first Good Ranchers order. Means you can build your own box starting as low as $129. Just go to goodranchers.com buck to get $50 off anything on their site. Remember, that's goodranchers.com buck for $50 off. You also get double the free meat with every order on top of the $50 off. When you start a plan today, go to goodranchers.com Buck switch to American Meat Delivered.

[Clay Travis]

Clay and buck on the iHeart app.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. You know, we talked about yesterday how we might have to pull together a right wing media all star basketball team. I don't know. I don't know. Clay, what position you probably like? A shooting guard, I would say. You know, I like to think of myself maybe as an aspiring point guard. But we discussed that we could, we could fill out these roles. It turns out that other people listening to the show reached out to some of our, you know, we, we said Ted Cruz, I think he's a good low post player. I think Senator Cruz pulls down a lot of rebounds for us. You know, Jesse Kelly, he's so tall, he can block. We know that he could block shots. I don't know if he can shoot, but Dave Rubin, turns out they weighed in on this one here. First up, we have Dave Rubin of the Dave Rubin Report, or the Rubin Report rather, saying that he would join our all star, our merry band of all stars to defeat any WNBA team for charity. Play one.

[Caller/Reuben]

Yo, Clay and Buck, it's Reuben here. I just got a call from my agent. He's telling me you're putting together a squad to take on some of these WNBA chicks. So I just want to throw my hat in the ring as shooting guard. As you guys know, I'm 50 years old. Tore my ACL playing ball a couple years ago and about a month ago, had a grade three separation of my AC joint in my left shoulder. But the stem cells are working and I think I can get back out there. Still got the three point shot. Pretty sweet finger roll. And you know, I got a. I got a nice behind the back pass, so let me know what I can do. And you know, if you want me to even put on a wig or whatever, change my name, I'm happy to do it. Just want to help. Okay.

[Buck Sexton]

So, Clay, we got Dave Rubin as our shooting guard for our. Our middle aged, cartilage depleted dream team here. Jesse Kelly also weighed in our center. Play two.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

What's up, fellas?

[Buck Sexton]

It's Jesse. I heard that you guys recruited me and we now have to play some WNBA players. That's like the women's basketball league, right? Well, anyway, I was curious. I heard a lot of those chicks are lesbians. Have you guys ever heard that? Give me a call, Let me know. I'm glad Jesse's really focused on what matters, Clay. The strategy and the tactics we would use of the basketball game.

[Clay Travis]

I don't know. Jesse versus Brittney Griner. I think she may have a higher testosterone count than the Jesse Kelly. I'm not sure.

[Various Media Commentators (e.g., Charlemagne the God, Stephen A. Smith, Chris Cuomo)]

I don't know that.

[Clay Travis]

I love that matchup inside.

[Buck Sexton]

Do you think Britney would she.

[Caller/Reuben]

Would she.

[Buck Sexton]

Manhandle, if you will, our own Jesse Kelly down in the paint. I'm worried about it.

[Clay Travis]

She may dunk on him all balls in the face style. Second hour.

[Caller/Reuben]

Next.

[Buck Sexton]

You're a.