Hour 1 - Defanging Iran

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Hour 1 - Defanging Iran

Date: March 4, 2026
Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts
Main Theme: Military operations against Iran, air dominance, and the broader geopolitical impact, with a recurring comparison to North Korea’s nuclear status.

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Episode Overview

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dive into developments in the ongoing conflict with Iran, focusing on the significant achievement of U.S. and Israeli air superiority. The hosts dissect the strategic and political motivations behind these military operations, the diminishing capacity of Iran’s military, and historic parallels—especially with North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. They debate the long-term consequences of regime change and nuclear proliferation, field questions from listeners, and reflect on the intricacies of Middle Eastern and East Asian geopolitics, always laced with their trademark banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. U.S.-Israeli Air Superiority Over Iran

[02:12]

• Significant Update: U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announces near-complete control of Iranian airspace, stating:

  "US And Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it's over and Iran will be able to do nothing about it... Our war fighters have maximum authorities... Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be."

• Hosts’ Reaction: Clay and Buck underscore that Iran’s capacity for reprisal is rapidly shrinking:
  • Ballistic missile launches down 86% since day one of hostilities; 23% decrease in 24 hours.
  • Drone attacks down 73% since the opening salvos.
  • [02:54] Clay: "Iran's ability to fire back is diminishing in a hurry... their ability to pepper Gulf states with drones and missiles is vanishing."

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2. War’s Purpose: Preventing a Nuclear Iran

[08:54]

• Clay: "The motivation is clearly to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That’s what this is all about—doing to Iran what we should have done to North Korea in the 1990s."
• Comparison to North Korea:
  • Clay: "The world would be infinitely better if that crazy fat dictator in North Korea did not have nuclear weapons."
  • Buck: "North Korea is the craziest place on planet earth by far." [13:08]
• Historical Parallel: Both hosts agree avoiding another North Korea scenario is crucial, noting that global security would have been improved if North Korea’s nuclear ambitions had been stopped early.

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3. Challenges of Regime Change in Iran

[04:26]

• Buck: "There is not a set and clear alternative to the Iranian regime... It’s a complicated country with many ethnic factions—Kurds, Azeris, Turkmen, and more."
  • Removing all prior regime figures, as done in Iraq, brings chaos: "The lesson of Iraq is you cannot remove everybody... unless you want bloody anarchy."
• CIA’s Role: Reference to CNN report about CIA supporting Kurdish uprisings in Iran, paralleling past experiences in Iraq.

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4. Dangers of Nuclear Proliferation: Iran vs. North Korea

[09:55]

• Clay: "Iran having nuclear weapons is even more dangerous than North Korea."
• Buck: "North Korea is a cult of personality, but it’s also capable of terrifying violence... North Korea is already a nation-state-backed terrorist operation."
• On Fundamentalism: Clay argues Iran’s religious ideology makes it more dangerous: "There are lots of fundamentalists who believe they need to kill to spread their faith."
• Buck: "In North Korea, the religion is the Kim dynasty... The country is a mass mind-control experiment." [24:00]

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5. Regime Stability and the Prospect of Negotiation

[29:33]

• Clay: "We're saying to Iran: let us know when you're willing to negotiate who your next leader will be... as long as it stays air strikes, with no boots on the ground, public support is high."
  • Polling: "74% support the decision in Iran if resolved without ground troops and within a month or two."
• Seeking a Moderate Successor: Hosts debate if there’s “an Iranian Delsey Rodriguez”—a potential acceptable, less hostile leader, noting the lack of organized opposition.

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6. Listener Interaction & Broader Geopolitical Reflections

[34:09]

• Caller: Will Iran instantly strike Israel if it gets a nuke?
  • Buck: "Huge question... It’s a massive gamble for Iran. Their first nuke might not even get to Tel Aviv."
• On China’s Role with North Korea:
  • "North Korea is entirely a vassal state of China... China keeps it going for its own purposes."
• Religion and Ideology:
  • Multiple callers affirm that North Koreans genuinely worship the Kim family—a “religion” created by the state.
  • Buck: "He [Kim Il Sung] is worshipped as a deity. He is the religion of the state of North Korea."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [02:12] Secretary Pete Hegseth: “Our war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly... We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be.”
• [04:26] Buck (on regime alternatives): “This is a large and complicated country... the lesson of Iraq is you cannot remove everybody... unless you want bloody anarchy.”
• [08:54] Clay: “The world would be infinitely better if that crazy fat dictator in North Korea did not have nuclear weapons.”
• [13:08] Buck: “North Korea is the craziest place on planet earth by far.”
• [17:39] Senator Marco Rubio: “You’re going to really begin to perceive a change... as the two most powerful air forces in the world take apart this terroristic regime and defang it... This terroristic radical cleric-led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons.”
• [24:00] Buck (on North Korea): “The religion of North Korea is the Kim dynasty, right? That it is a religion, effectively... Kim Il Sung is still technically the leader of the country forever.”
• [25:25] Buck (red lines): “At what point does a country with nukes have red lines?... If we had armored divisions rolling across Russian territory, would they fire tactical nukes? Yeah, I think they would.”
• [34:55] Clay: “They want the nuke because it protects their power forever. Which is why Kim Jong Un has a nuke.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:12] — Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s statement on US-Israeli air dominance
• [04:26] — Buck on internal Iranian factionalism and regime change pitfalls
• [08:54] — Clay introduces “preventing a second North Korea” as motivation
• [13:08] — Buck’s assessment: “North Korea is the craziest place on earth.”
• [17:39] — Senator Rubio reinforces the “defanging” strategy
• [18:25] — News: Iranian flagship sunk by US torpedo
• [24:00] — Discussion of regime stability, religious ideology in Iran vs. North Korea
• [29:33] — Clay summarizes the administration’s approach and public opinion
• [34:09] — Listener questions on Iran’s nuclear intentions and China’s influence
• [36:58] — Caller recounts North Korean deification of Kim Il Sung

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Tone & Style

• Conversational, approachable, and energetic, with frequent joking (especially about Kim Jong Un and North Korea).
• Underlying the humor is palpable concern about the stakes—especially nuclear weapons and global security.
• Frequent references to historical lessons, with Buck providing in-depth analysis and Clay driving the big-picture, comparative arguments.

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Summary Takeaways

• The US aims to eliminate Iran’s military capability, particularly its nuclear ambitions, through overwhelming air power.
• A central rationale is to prevent Iran from ever becoming a nuclear-armed rogue state, learning from the North Korea precedent.
• Both hosts see Iran as a more immediate, ideologically motivated threat than North Korea, while acknowledging North Korea’s uniquely oppressive, isolated regime.
• Viewer engagement reflects anxiety over nuclear proliferation, the feasibility of regime change, and the risk of unintended consequences.
• No clear plan exists for Iran’s political future—the process is being ‘figured out on the fly.’
• Humorous sidebars about visiting North Korea or “being too kind” to Kim Jong Un provide comic relief while sharpening the analysis.

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For listeners who missed the episode, this hour offered a deep dive into the rationale and risks behind US policy toward Iran—and the global consequences of nuclear proliferation—grounded in historical lessons, current military action, and thoughtful debate.

Transcript

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show Wednesday Edition. The primary in Texas is over. Continued discussion of the war in Iran. Our buddy Jesse Kelly will join us in the second hour. In the third hour, we are hoping that maybe Yael Eckstein will be able to join us. She she is from the ifcj. As missiles are raining down on Israel, we will see whether that ends up happening or not. But we appreciate all of you hanging out with us. And let's go right to it. I've said before, Buck, that I love early morning press conferences and I understand that people in media do not like to get up early in the morning. I had five years of early morning radio. Nobody else was awake. I love making media members get up early and have to go cover events I've talked about at the White House. I particularly love that the Secretary of War and the the that everybody there is doing early morning press conferences because it sets the entire agenda of the day. And here is what I thought was the most significant aspect of what Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that basically and Buck, I want you to analyze this as well. We are close to having complete and total control of the skies over Iran. Here is Cut six.

[Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (quoted)]

US And Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it's over and Iran will be able to do nothing and about it. B2s, B52s, B1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long. We're playing for keeps. Our war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. This was never meant to to be a fair fight and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be.

[Clay Travis]

All right, we're finishing them. Would be another way of pointing this out. Buck, let me hit you with another couple of pieces of data raising Cain, as Trump calls him, General Kane says Iran's. This is a direct quote, ballistic missile shots fired are down 86% from the first day of, of fighting. 23% decrease just in the last 24 hours. One way attack drones down 73% from the opening salvos that were fired. Why is this significant? Because what we are seeing is Iran's ability to fire back is diminishing in a hurry. And I, I understand that, that the talking points are this war has just begun. Uh, I think that is largely to, to try to drive Iran towards an agreement on who the next leader will be. But to me, the story now, and you correct me if, if, if you see anything else here is Iran's ability to fire back sort of indiscriminately, which they've been doing, peppering many different Gulf states with drones, with missiles, is basically vanishing. Soon it will be gone. And when that occurs, America's air superiority will be even more pronounced. And then it's really just a question of to what extent is Iran willing to negotiate with us to determine what their new government will look like and who the leaders are. Is that a fair assessment in your mind?

[Buck Sexton]

Well, mostly, yes. Except negotiate with, with whom. This is the problem is that there really is not a sort of set and clear alternative to what we currently have, which is now gone, or rather is mostly gone. And there's a lot of factionalism. This is where you get into. This is a large and complicated country. We've thought of it as in this country. I think a lot of the media coverage has made people think of it more as a monolith. People refer to all Iranians as Persians. Well, Persians are just one ethnic group

[Clay Travis]

actually in Iran, 60% according to the numbers that I saw.

[Buck Sexton]

Buck, there are, there are Kurds, there are Azeris, there are Turkmen, there are, I mean there are so many different ethnic factions that otherwise that I can't name them. There's a, there's a dozen or more that will make the list. There's a lot of them is the point. And when you actually talk about a resistance forming from within, I think what we, what we want. Clay, the lesson of Iraq is you cannot remove everybody who had any function in the pre previous government unless you want bloody anarchy, which is what we ended up getting. We, you cannot have every person who ever held a gun for and received a paycheck from a government that is was run by the Ayatollah or formerly run by the Ayatollah. You can't get rid of all of them, you need somebody from within who has enough wasta, I think they would say in Arabic in the Middle East. You need somebody with enough juice that they can say, all right, we can calm things down. We can approach America or American intermediaries directly. There's already reporting out there. I mean, there's reporting up on CNN of. I mean, this is the CNN report. It says, CIA working to arm Kurdish. Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, according to sources. Is that true? Is that not true? This is what. This is what CNN is reporting. I can tell you this. That's. That comes with a lot. The whole Kurdish thing. We went through this in Iraq, and the Kurds are often a pretty reliable allies. They fight. They kept northern Iraq very stable even during the worst periods of the Iraqi insurgency. Anybody who was. If you went from, you know, Baghdad or Ramadi or Mosul to Erbil in the military, military side, it felt like you were in a completely different country if you were in what they called Kurdistan. But the Turks get very aggravated because there's a lot of. Lot of Kurds in Turkey, and they. They have their own separatist problem in Turkey. So it's just.

[Clay Travis]

You're.

[Buck Sexton]

You're getting into Mideast factionalism here. What you need is someone who is a rational actor from within the existing apparatus, not an ideologue, not bloodied substantially by. Engaged in, you know, irgc, quds for stuff or whatever. Does this person exist? I don't know. You know, we talked about Venice. Venezuela is different. Venezuela has had democratic elections until quite recently. And yes, there's oppression, and there's been the. You know, the Maduro regime stole the last election. And yes, they've been thuggish, and. But, Clay, you. You don't have to go back very far for there to be something resembling a real election in Venezuela. You go back to 2012. Right, right. And that's when Chavez took. Took charge, I believe. Right. Wasn't it 2012, 2011. 2012. So in the Islamic Republic, you got to talk rather, you know, in Iran, you got to go back to 1979, and even then, they didn't have elections, they had a shah. So what is the game plan for all of this? I think it's being figured out on the fly. But I think that Secretary warhegsett's plan is we're gonna completely defang the snake, and then we'll see if the snake wants to play ball. But the snake will have no fangs, that is for sure.

[Clay Travis]

And I just. Let me. Let Me make a suggestion, because I know we got a lot of people in the administration who. Listen, I think one of the most compelling arguments they can make and buck again. Tell me if you think this is crazy. I made it yesterday, but I haven't seen it because now the argument is. Well, they haven't really been able to give us a full throated explanation of what the motivation is. Well, the motivation is clearly to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons. That's the motivation for all of this. This is basically doing to Iran what we should have done to North Korea in the 1990s. The world would be infinitely better if that crazy fat dictator in North Korea did not have nuclear weapons. And now that he does, we can't really do anything. The world is unstable because of him. Do we want a. Now, the only thing I will say in favor of Kim Jong Un should probably get clipped. People will be like, Clay Travis loves Kim Jong Un.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay Travis loves Kim Jong Un, loves all the big posters, the pot belly, all of it.

[Clay Travis]

Big Kim Jong Un guy here. He's not a religious fundamentalist. That's the only thing I think you can say in his favor.

[Buck Sexton]

North Korea.

[Clay Travis]

I don't think he's a religious fundamentalist, is he? Oh, no, he's.

[Buck Sexton]

He's just. He's just God. But that's. This is a whole other conversation.

[Clay Travis]

He thinks he's God. But. Yeah, well, that's. But my point is, I think you're

[Buck Sexton]

a fundamentalist when you're God.

[Clay Travis]

But.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, okay, fair enough.

[Clay Travis]

Well, my point is he's not reading a book because convinced that everybody else who is not a member of that religion is an infidel. And he's not trying to impose his religion. I don't think so. I. Look, you're coming too hard after my

[Buck Sexton]

boy Kim Jong Un here. I'm pretty familiar with North Korea stuff. And I got to tell you, they. They have the most crazy.

[Clay Travis]

They're absolutely racist.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, like we are vermin. Non Koreans are considered vermin in North Korean propaganda. I mean, actually subhuman. And. And they'd use all kinds of.

[Clay Travis]

But.

[Buck Sexton]

So they.

[Clay Travis]

But it's a. It's a crazy place. We agree. We. We wish that they did not have nuclear weapons. My point is, to my knowledge, North Korea has been unable to in some way or even demonstrate that they're going to enact terror upon the rest of the world in a substantial way. I know they had the one attack on the subway.

[Buck Sexton]

No, no, they do terror. They do the terrorism thing too.

[Clay Travis]

So your, Your Point is that basically you're going rogue. I' positive here in saying that I think Iran having nuclear weapons is even more dangerous than North Korea. But the argument should be that North Korea having nuclear weapons is absolutely awful for the world. And if we had been smart in the early 90s, we would have wiped out their ability to ever have nuclear weapons. That's what we're doing with Iran. And I think Iran is even more dangerous than North Korea based on what they have demonstrated for 50 years now that they want to wipe many countries off the world, including Israel, but also death to America, everything else. So the argument to me is pretty clear. It is President Trump is making a determination that for the next 40 years or 50 years or who knows how long, we're not going to have to deal with a nuclear Iran because it destabilizes the rest of the world and even more than North Korea does now. And if we could go back in time into the 90s, we would have wiped out North Korea's nuclear ambitions. I haven't heard anybody make that argument. I think that's the best argument for what we're doing with Iran right now.

[Buck Sexton]

We certainly didn't want another nuclear standoff like what we had with North Korea. But North Korea has already been, whether it's for proliferation or destabilizing activity, support of terrorism, assassinations, kidnappings. The North Korean intelligence service operates like a. A nation state backed, you know, basically terrorist operation.

[Clay Travis]

So you're my argument of trying to be kind and say that Iran is a more dangerous North Korea. You actually think North Korea might be more.

[Buck Sexton]

North Korea is the craziest place. North Korea is the craziest place on planet earth by far.

[Clay Travis]

I was too kind. I was too kind to Kim Jong Un.

[Buck Sexton]

It's really. They're really.

[Clay Travis]

But it would be good. It would be good if we didn't have a North Korean twin with nuclear weapons. That to me is a really.

[Buck Sexton]

That we co signed that we did

[Clay Travis]

not need to understand.

[Buck Sexton]

I co signed that we did not need a country with totalitarian dictatorship that also believes if we have a massive war it will harken the return of the 12th Imam. And there is religious prophecy that will come out of the nuclear flames. But North Korea does want to kill everybody in South Korea and probably America too.

[Clay Travis]

So would they really do or is that just a delusional crazy person? More so like the apparatus senior generals

[Buck Sexton]

of the North Korean regime with anti aircraft pieces just to make a point.

[Clay Travis]

They're pretty bad. He's crazy. He's crazy. It's bad that he has nuclear weapons. I just, I look at North Korea and say, if Kim Jong Un was gone, I think North Korea actually could reconciliate with South Korea. And there is a way in which that country eventually could return to normalcy in the world. And much of it is a cult of personality driven around one person. And maybe I'm just too kind to North Korea. There is the possibility, maybe the headlines, Clay is too kind to North Korea.

[Buck Sexton]

You're going to, you're going to get an invite to Pyongyang at this rate. You and Dennis and Dennis Rodman, we're

[Clay Travis]

going to be just chilling, playing a basketball game with, with my boy Kim Jong Un. I will say the stories of what they did when that movie was made about the assassination of Kim Jong Un, the interview, I think with, with James, who did that movie back in the day. You remember that movie where they. James Franco, James Franco and Seth Rogen.

[Buck Sexton]

That led to the hacking of Sony, which was a huge problem, by the way. Just the point about North Korea, Clay. They also operate as nation state backed global hackers trying to steal everything from crypto to state secrets to. And what are you going to do? You're going to go to Interpol and say, hey, we think that we trace the source to North Korea. Good luck with that one.

[Clay Travis]

But if we could go back in time and wave a magic wand and we wiped out North Korea's ability to ever have nuclear weapons, North Korea might not exist as a country today. Right.

[Buck Sexton]

Like I think that's probably true.

[Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (quoted)]

That.

[Clay Travis]

So the analogy here of we're trying to avoid creating another North Korea, to me, I think is a really good one. Have you heard anybody making that argument? I haven't heard it anywhere.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, the argument you will hear people make is the, is the Gaddafi lesson isn't reconcile with America if you're a dictator, it's get nukes as fast as you can. Because otherwise that's, that's the other side, by the way.

[Clay Travis]

That's the rational choice to make. And if you question it, Ukraine wouldn't have gotten invaded by Russia if they hadn't given up their nukes.

[Buck Sexton]

That's also true. And we promised them that that would never happen.

[Clay Travis]

We would protect them and never allow that to happen.

[Buck Sexton]

The Budapest memorandum. Yeah, not good. Not good. All right. Our partners at the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews are on the ground in Israel right now. They're preparing large scale distributions of life saving food, first aid and emergency essentials for security personnel. The IFCJ is also helping ensure hospitals, emergency rooms and shelters are are stocked with critical medical supplies when Israeli residents are in need. The the IFCJ is there to help. They focus on Israel's most vulnerable the sick, the elderly, children and families in great need. But the fellowship needs your most generous gift today to make this work possible. Now is the time to stand with Israel's most vulnerable. To rush your gift, call 888-488-IFCJ. That's 888-488-IFCj or go online to ifcj.org, that's ifcj.org Clay Travis and Buck Sexton

[Clay Travis]

Mic drops that never sounded so good. Find them on the free I Hard radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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[Buck Sexton]

homes only welcome back into Clay and Buck. We were talking about the plan with regard to Iran and I said defanged. It turns out that's exactly what Secretary Rubio said. Great minds think alike. I didn't even know about this one. Here is Secretary Rubio.

[Senator Marco Rubio (quoted)]

Play it from what I've been told by the Department of War, everything is on or ahead of schedule and proceeding on these objectives. We have every confidence in the world that these objectives will be achieved. The last point I would make is, and I said this yesterday, and I repeat what's about to, you know, you're about to see, you know, we're going to unleash Chang on these people in the next few hours and days. You're going to really begin to perceive a change in the scope and in the intensity of these attacks as frankly the two most powerful air forces in the world take apart this terroristic regime and defang it and take away its ability to threaten its neighbors or hide behind a zone of immunity that allows them to develop their nuclear ambitions. This terroristic radical cleric led regime cannot be ever allowed to have nuclear weapons.

[Buck Sexton]

We just blew up the Iranian flagship Clay with a torpedo. The first time the US has taken down a ship with a torpedo since World War II.

[Clay Travis]

I saw that for the military history nerds out there. I don't even know how many ships Iran has, but I don't feel like they have a very, very long history of of seafaring left in their in their future here. Look, if you're out there right now and you want to make sure that you have a great opportunity. With Rapid Radios you can get hooked up right now to make sure that you're taken care of in the event that power goes down. Maybe you just don't want your kids to have a cell phone. We use Rapid Radios to communicate with my youngest son. He's too young for a cell phone, but he thinks it's cool to be able to run around with his Rapid Radio. Maybe you've got parents that aren't great with cell phones or don't have great cell phone reception and you want to be able to stay in touch with them. And again, we've just seen so many different weather related conditions, whether it's tornadoes, hurricanes, bad ice storms. When a community loses power, Rapid Radios has a five day charge. They can hook you up. Get hooked up right now with the brand new RAD1 1 and go check them out at rapid radios dot com. That's rapidradios dot com. Check them out today. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show Texas Primary we got some cuts now that James Talarico has beaten our good friend Jasmine Crockett. We're going to play those for you in a moment. But as I was checking my text messages, the team has been constructing photos of me playing the flute while dining with Kim Jong Un after the open of the show. Those will soon be out on social media. Let me circle back around on this angle and see if you'll buy into this argument. Buck the reason why I think Iran with nuclear weapons is more dangerous than North Korea with nuclear weapons. Both are dangerous. But the reason why I think the North Korean argument is a good one is my concern is if the Ayatollah dies and Iran has nuclear weapons, the reason why the Ayatollah is in power is there are enough fundamentalists in Iran that the power of the Ayatollah is not coming from top down, it's from bottom up. In other words, there are lots of fundamentalists who believe that they need to kill people in order to spread their faith. And the leader then is a reflection of of what many actually believe in the country, which means the length of time that they can have nuclear weapons is in danger for many different leaders. I think most people are lying when they say, oh, we love Kim Jong Un. They fear him because he's very powerful. But there isn't actually a fundamentalist belief system of the same way. When people leave North Korea, they tend to embrace Western values and suddenly realize the rest of the world is great. There are people who leave Middle Eastern countries and decide that they're going to act out based on their religion. Does that make sense? I think the religion of Kim Jong Un or whatever it is in North Korea is not actually real. People are just terrified if they don't put his photo up that they're going to be killed because he is a very supremely powerful person. But if he were gone, there actually could be some sanity in that country. My concern, and we'll see what happens now, is now that we've cut off the head of the snake of the Ayatollah, it is possible that we end up with a religious fundamentalist leader in Iran who is even worse and more dangerous going forward than what we have right now. So both are bad. But I actually think Iran with nuclear weapons is more dangerous than North Korea with nuclear weapons.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, it's, I think it's a little bit of an apples to orange comparison, but I don't know how much worse North Korea could be than it. Than it. It is. There are a lot of Koreans who actually buy into the cult of personality there. They don't clay. They don't have external Internet, they don't have books, they don't have tv. The entire country. I mean, I actually write about this in Manufacturing Delusion, which is a fantastic book you can go check out. The entire country is essentially in a mass mind control experiment.

[Clay Travis]

Well, they will kill you if you bring in DVDs from other countries and just try to watch them in your home. I mean, that's.

[Buck Sexton]

They have millions of people who are part of the security apparatus in North Korea. Who, their privileged position, their, their family's privileged position. The fact that they have food to eat and roof over their heads is entirely in their minds tied to Kim Jong Un and his benevolence. So it's not as simple as like if he were gone. Everything. I mean, the country is, it is a bizarre place in so many ways. It's not like it would be a flowering of Jeffersonian democracy if you had no Kim Jong Un. Well, this series have another general take over on behalf of the Kim family. It's technically a necrocracy, meaning that the Kim, Kim, Kim Il Sung is still theoretically the head of the Communist Party of North Korea and he's been dead for a long time.

[Clay Travis]

Well, and they have a dynasty that is predicated on his, his supremacy that theoretically is now going to run. I think Kim Jong Un has already announced that his daughter is going to be the one that takes over after he's dead. Right.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, he's. He is considered the eternal president. Kim Il Sung. That's what they call him, the eternal president. So. So to your point about religion and everything else, play. The religion of North Korea is the Kim dynasty, Right? That's that it is a religion, effectively. I mean, they have a dead guy who's still technically the leader of the country forever because of the way that they've set up all of the state propaganda. And look, North Korea, really. Let's go axis of evil here. What was the axis of evil? Iraq, Iran, North Korea. North Korea we can't get rid of because of all of the nukes. And that's not just the nukes. They've got enough conventional artillery that they could kill hundreds of thousands of people, probably in Seoul, in the capital of South Korea, in the first 48 hours or so of an engagement. Right. I mean, it's an absolute disaster waiting to happen. So Iran, we don't want to get to that place. But, you know, the other side of it is people would say Iran would have a little bit of a problem with Saudi Arabia, all the Sunni Arab states around it that have. That are enemies of it, effectively, and then this little country called Israel that is just really good at kicking their asses, that also has nukes. So there is some box in reality for Iran, I think, as well. But will regime. Would regime change ever happen if they had nukes? Probably not, because you get into. At what point does a country with nukes have red lines? I mean, I think there are things we could do to Russia where Russia would launch. I'm not saying they would launch at all US Cities, but I think Russia,

[Clay Travis]

if we took out Putin, there is somebody who might push a button to. I mean, to send a nuclear weapon here. If we took out charities or if

[Buck Sexton]

we joined the Ukrainians and marched and we had, you know, armored divisions rolling across Russian territory, would they. Would they fire tactical nukes to take. Yeah, I think they would. Right. My point is that nukes will be used at some point. It's not just we use them. We're the only ones who have nukes, aren't just there for show. And with North Korea, if they had nukes and they were under this degree of pressure, I do think that they would be willing to launch. That's why we're doing it now. And so.

[Clay Travis]

Well, and again, I agree that stopping

[Buck Sexton]

them from getting to that point is very important.

[Clay Travis]

But.

[Buck Sexton]

But North Korea is a little crazier than you think it is.

[Clay Travis]

I'm going Iran one on Biggest threat with nuclear weapons, North Korea. Two. Are you taking North Korea one, Iran, two. On the power rankings of crazy.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, it's very, it's very hard. I mean, this, I can tell you, is North Korea is, is the average North Korean more disconnected from reality and, and, and more delusional than the average Iranian? Yeah, by a factor of like 10. It's not even close because they, Iranians are a sophisticated, educated people that's been around for, you know, know, Persians and Iran have been around for millennia. North Korea is the kind of mutant, evil stepchild of the Chinese Communist Party in China next door, which is itself an outgrowth of Stalinist Soviet communism. So, you know, North Korea is really. That's a really messed up place. Really messed up place. I think if you had mass starvation in Iran, the Mullers would have a big problem on their hands in North Korea. They've had mass starvation. And you say a word about it and they'll just kill you faster.

[Clay Travis]

It really is. You know, they have opened up, they've opened up resorts in North Korea. Have you seen.

[Buck Sexton]

I think we know who's going to be one of the first American commentators to go. Clay's going to be on the beach in North Korea. Like, this place isn't so bad. Look at this. They got a water slide.

[Clay Travis]

I would go visit North Korea if, if Dennis Rodman were with me, I would go interview Kim Jong Un.

[Buck Sexton]

Would you? Serious question. Would you? Actually, I would not be willing to go because I think North Korea cannot be trusted. Even if they invite you, give you a visa and you. Would you be willing to go? I wouldn't.

[Clay Travis]

I would go. I would go to.

[Buck Sexton]

If.

[Clay Travis]

If they told me that I was going to be able to interview Kim Jong Un and, and all those things, I think I would go. I don't know that Laura Travis would go.

[Buck Sexton]

James Franco. Don't you? Clay is just like, I go in there, I go in there to talk sec football, but really, I get rid

[Clay Travis]

of the dictator of North Korea. I mean, I know everybody stopped talking about it, but remember, the relationship between Trump and Kim Jong Un used to be a huge talking point, right? I mean, obviously Trump went to the demilitarized zone in term one and visited and said, I think one reason that North Korea has these beaches and resorts that they have built is partly because President Trump, as Trump would do, just says, hey, you know what? We should actually have, we should actually have resorts and things like that in North Korea. I think Kim Jong Un is actually likes Trump and is impacted in some way by that.

[Buck Sexton]

But there was no, the, the first efforts to get some resolution from the Trump administration on diplomacy with North Korea was a bust unfortunately. Didn't, didn't actually get anywhere. I think you're right. He probably views Trump as an interesting character that is, is, is ever, I mean everyone who spends time with Trump is like, I like that guy. But they were not able to get any kind of an agreement out of it. Back to Iran though, we're sinking all their boats, we're blowing up all their planes, we're destroying all their surface to air missiles, we're blowing up their intelligence headquarters, we're blowing up their, their military barracks. I mean the plan is I think essentially as Rubio said, or as I was talking about before, make it so that it's a country without a military and then we can have a conversation about what comes next. That's really where we're taking this and we have the air power to do it.

[Clay Travis]

And again, I think we're basically at a point now where we are saying to Iran, let us know when you're willing to negotiate who your next leader is going to be. And I don't know if you saw the data, the polling on this is basically as long as we drop bombs and don't have boots on the ground and this is not some multi year war. The overwhelming majority, I think it was 74% I saw, support the decision in Iran so long as it doesn't lead to boots on the ground and it is resolved within a month or two. And I think that's the design right now of the, of the President. I think the question is who is the Delsey Rodriguez of Iran? Who is somebody that we feel like is a leader that will in many ways execute pro America ish policies that are not going to create a huge issue going forward and does that person exist?

[Buck Sexton]

But again, the opposition in Venezuela existed, ran was organized, won votes. We got nothing like that in Iran. We're starting from, starting from zero. We're starting from zero with political opposition in Iran because it hasn't been allowed to exist.

[Clay Travis]

Now the one thing I would say that overlaps is they put Delsie Rodriguez in because I believe her brother runs the military. What is the military in Iran going to do? To what extent is the IRGC actually long term committed to the Ayatollah's leadership? Is there someone that could have a role in the Iranian military that's trusted there, that would not be trying to constantly provoke Middle Eastern responses? All those things I think are certainly paramount of of decision making at this point in time.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Want to be in the know when you're on The Go the Team 47 podcast drop highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feedback. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Let's get some calls here. We've got a lot of them coming in and we want to hear from all of you. M. From Springfield, Massachusetts. Unidentified Play it, Clan. Buck, you talked about Korea in the 1990s. How about China? You think they would have let us do what you're suggesting? I think you're sadly mistaken. Yeah. China uses North Korea as a gives them a strategic depth, if you will, where they can keep the inner they they without China, North Korea falls apart. By the way, North Korea could cut off China and the country would starve and wouldn't have any gasoline or wouldn't have any ability to function. So North Korea is an entirely a vassal state of China. China keeps it going for its own purposes and it's viewed as a tool against us. Sometimes, Clay, it's, you know, you better, you better play nice with us here in Beijing. You don't want things to get wild up in Pyongyang, guys. I mean, the Chinese, you know, have play both sides of this and they also don't want to collapse in North Korea because they'd have the most massive met or a refugee crisis and imaginable of just millions of North Koreans flooding into China. So they're, they're, they're, they're very involved in that whole situation.

[Clay Travis]

North Korea, I think I'm correct. Buck doesn't have a airplane that they feel confident enough in to travel with Kim Jong Un. So they he travels to China when he visits by train.

[Buck Sexton]

Train. Yeah. Well, that's also, I think, a security probably security procedure where they feel like the Train is. Yeah. Safer. They can. They can make sure that he's all. All buttoned up and safe in there. But, yeah, North Korea's got all kinds of weird problems. Matt in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Go ahead, Matt.

[Caller]

I believe North Korea has some nuclear ability and does not use it. If Iran would obtain a nuclear missile, do you think that they would last more than a second before shooting it at Israel?

[Safeway/Albertsons Advertiser]

Yes.

[Clay Travis]

Look, I think.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, this is a huge question, by the way, but the answer is yes. I don't think that. I don't think that the entire leadership of North Korea would instantaneously decide that they want to vaporize 90 million. I'm sorry, the entire leadership, rather, of Iran would say, yes, I want Israel to vaporize, like, tens of millions of Iranians. Maybe it's a huge gamble, one we don't want to take, but that is what would happen if they fired that first nuke. And by the way, their first nuke might not hit Tel Aviv. Their first nuke might not even get there. So think about the risk that they're taking.

[Clay Travis]

I think it's, yes, they want death to Israel, death to America, but I think from a logical perspective, they want the nuke because it protects their power forever.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes.

[Clay Travis]

Which is why Kim Jong Un has a nuke. Now, my argument is I'm more concerned by North Korea, by Iran, because of the religious fundamental. Fundamentalism of Islam that would be behind it. But both are bad. And I think the strong argument is if we could wipe it out once and for all, if we could go back in time, America and the world would be much safer. If North Korea had never been allowed to get.

[Buck Sexton]

I would present this to you, everyone. The jihadists, as bad as they are,

[Clay Travis]

haven't killed a fraction of the people

[Buck Sexton]

that the communists have in the last hundred years. Not even close. If you're talking about a hundred. A hundred million dead versus maybe, you know, a few million dead at the hands of the jihadists overall. So, you know, let's not under. Let's not underestimate crazy. Let's not underestimate crazy, Chuck. And West Palm also wants to say he thinks Iran is more dangerous.

[Clay Travis]

Let's go.

[Buck Sexton]

I do.

[Caller]

Iran is more dangerous because of the religious fundamentalism. They want to bring forth the 12 demons, plus they sit on oceans of oil. North Korea, as your previous caller says, is controlled by China. Only point I wanted to make, guys.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you, Daryl in Savannah, Georgia. Darrell, what you got for us?

[Caller]

I just want to tell you I spent a lot of time in Korea while I was in the military. And I can tell you that the North Korean people worship the king of sounding like they are God. Yeah, it was a really good illustration. Then they had a. They had some blind North Koreans, and they had. They finally got some Swiss scientists, Swiss doctors there to operate on them. And when they operated on the print, they could see the first thing they saw was Kim Il Sung picture on the wall. And they started praising Kim Il Sung and thanking him. They didn't even say anything to the doctors.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, he's worshiped as a deity. He is the religion of the state of North Korea. And I'll also just point out for everyone who keeps saying the 12th Imam in Iran, I'm very familiar with this. I'm familiar with the Hojetaya faction inside of Iran, which used to be more prominent, but we use nukes and we're. And we're not a death cult. There is a calculation, a military calculation, that goes into the deployment of nuclear weapons. I think Iran would have made them if they had ever gotten them. I think North Korea is making them by saying, no one's going to do anything to us, because if they do, we'll nuke them.

[Clay Travis]

One other thing, too. If Iran gets them, all the other Middle east states are going to want them as well.

[Podcast Host/Announcer]

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