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- [00:00]
iHeartRadio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Jim (Podcast Advertiser)
The US electric grid is approaching a breaking point. As demand soars from data centers and home energy use, our aging infrastructure can't keep up. And the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather. Learn more@propain.com this is Jim.
- [00:36]
iHeartRadio Announcer
Hello.
- [00:36]
Clay Travis
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April, and now I have customers out the door. And this is Sarah. Hi. She started putting a portion of her marketing dollars in podcasting back in June. Business is booming. That's why I'm working on a Saturday. Want to be like Jim and Sarah? It's easy. All you have to do is own or manage a business and reach out to iHeart. Get started today at 8-44-iHeart or iheartadvertising.com.
- [01:05]
Leon Neyfakh
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why Benghazi?
- [01:17]
Clay Travis
The truth became a web of lies.
- [01:19]
Leon Neyfakh
From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [01:25]
Advertisement Voice
What difference at this point does it make?
- [01:28]
Leon Neyfakh
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:35]
Clay Travis
Welcome, everybody. Friday edition of the Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton show gets going right now and we have much to discuss. You have another strike on a suspected cartel drug vessel off the coast of Venezuela and the Caribbean. This time around, there are survivors. I think this was an undersea, meaning submersible. Like it's like a submarine, but just a few feet below the surface. That's my understanding. So we will talk a bit more about what's going on with this war, a real war on drugs, not just a metaphorical war on drugs. This is real war on drug stuff. And we'll talk to our friend, former Navy SEAL Dave Rutherford, about this later on.
- [02:18]
Jim (Podcast Advertiser)
He.
- [02:19]
Clay Travis
Well, he knows about special operations for sure. He's also a host in the Clay and Buck Podcast network, so we'll have a conversation with him. We've also got Nicole Parker in the third hour. She's a former FBI agent and we'll talk to her about everything going on over at the Bureau, the Comey indictment and also, yes, the big news story of the day today, which is the indictment of former National Security Advisor Bolton. So this John Bolton is now facing a whole lot of charges relating to transmission of and retention of national defense information. This is going to be already, Clay, it's a case that has a lot of people speaking about the politics involved, and they're talking about this whole situation as though it is just Trump doing things that he shouldn't be doing and trying to settle scores. Ok, I read the indictment, and it primarily relates to John Bolton going home from his job as national security adviser, where you see, you can see anything with the national security advisor, meaning you're cleared for the most sensitive, compartmented stuff. Covert actions in foreign countries, very sensitive collection methods, you know, you name it, right? I mean, the, the nuclear arsenal, whatever you want to know in your nsa, you can know, and you are seeing that stuff on a daily basis. Bolton was going home, Clay, while he was serving as Trump's national security adviser and writing a diary of all of his conversations so that he could put it in a book. Now, that is bizarre behavior. And I would tell you that if I had a friend in the national security world who said, hey, I've got a plan. I'm gonna just sit in classified briefings and reclassified stuff all day, and then I'm gonna go home and I'm going to relay what I. I mean, when I was the CIA, they said, you don't talk to your family about what we're doing here in the.
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iHeartRadio Announcer
Maybe.
- [04:35]
Buck Sexton
It seems to me, by the way, not having been in the CIA, it seems like that's kind of important for.
- [04:41]
Clay Travis
Like, when, when I would go home if I got a call from my mom when I. And I was just a lowly analyst, but if I got a call from my mom, it wasn't like, you know, mom, we're working on this, this sensitive counterterrorism platform and we're going to be able to blow up bad guys in this province because of it. And, man, I hit some bureaucracy on that one. Like, no, you don't do that. Now, they're saying in the indictment that the stuff that he was relaying, Clay, would be classified up to the top secret SCI compartmented level. So, I mean, this is. They're saying it's very sensitive stuff. And they lay out, now, this is interesting, you can't see the information, right? Because then you're there sharing classified with everybody. So there's a little bit of taking the government's word for it that has to go on here. They call this the gray mail defense, where they say, well, if people could only know that this information is what you're talking about. It's actually not that sensitive to. So that's going to be one of the ways they fight on this. The other thing is going to be I've seen reporting that there were marked classified documents in his home. But essentially the primary part of the indictment is that he was writing down stuff from his meetings that was clearly classified, emailing it to family members and preparing it in a diary every day. And that is, I think he's got some big problems here.
- [06:01]
Buck Sexton
So this is one of those things where it's almost not that complicated of a case to prove would be my analysis. As someone who has never been involved in top secret documents. You've talked about this before, that for instance, Joe Biden taking things out as a senator that are marked top secret and storing it in his garage and bragging about it on tape with his autobiographer, that these are things that are relatively easy to to prove because they're a form of strict liability. You either did or did not do it. And so the intent matters less. I haven't seen there are, there are 18 counts brought in this indictment. Unlike we saw with Letitia James and unlike we saw with James Comey, I haven't seen the same level of oh my goodness, this is a unbelievable act by Trump. And I think it's because one, this investigation started under Joe Biden and then I would suspect Buck see if you sign off on this or co sign on this. As soon as they realized that Joe Biden had classified documents, they really started waving their arms and saying, let's just this classified. Remember initially when Mar A Lago, they took a picture of it on the ground and everybody just grabbed their pearls and fell on their fainting couc, even though Trump had been the president to talk about how this was an unbelievable jeopardy of national security and this was very serious and there's no way that Trump was going to be able to escape prosecution on it. And then you remember when they found out that Biden had all these classified documents, not just in his home garage beside the Corvette, but also in, I think in his office at University of Pennsylvania and in his office in Washington, D.C. and they just kept finding all these classified documents. The idea that classified documents and having them was a crime that was one of the greatest that could be committed by anyone in our nation, they just basically stopped. And so I think they were smart enough to recognize they couldn't prosecute John Bolton because Joe Biden has had his own classified documents. But this was an investigation that to a large extent, was taking place while Joe Biden was president. And the raid, remember, even the criticism of the early morning raid, which now we know, it appears they found documents that are indicative of crimes being committed. I don't feel like everybody's lining up to argue this is a, this is Trump exceeding the bounds of presidential authority.
- [08:38]
Clay Travis
I will tell you, the Wall Street Journal, to my surprise, went all out on Bolton's defense pretty much on their page. They did, yes. Wall Street Journal has been breaking with Trump on a number of things. I think they're a little bit bitter over there because their consensus on trade stuff has really undermined. That's a core competency, you would think, for the Wall Street Journal. And I think Trump on trade has looked a lot savvier than they gave him credit for. And a lot of their warnings have seemed like they were incorrect. So there's that. But, yeah, they went all in on defense of John Bolton on this one. They're saying this is clearly a political, effectively political payback because Bolton was such a critic of the Trump administration. Now, it's interesting because the Biden administration dropped this probe. And I think you might be able to see or argue that Biden's team dropped the probe because he was such a Trump critic. They're like, oh, well, this guy, we kind of like what he's doing. Former national security adviser is sticking his thumb in Trump's eye and, you know, let's, let's let this keep going. The defense, though, for Bolton, as I see it, is, is going to be a couple of things. One, and I see different things on this. If he had marked classified documents at home, he's going to have to take a plea deal. Unless there's going to be somebody who.
- [10:01]
Buck Sexton
Knows there's no way to really defend. For your perspective, Trump's defense was, I'm president, so I can declassify anything. Now, people tried to argue against it, but Bolton, as his positions, does not have that as a potential defense.
- [10:14]
Clay Travis
Correct. There's no, there's no defense of he had a skiff. This comes up in the indictment. A secure compartmented information facility, a little secure room where he was allowed to have classified in his home. And he also got hacked by the Iranians, I might add, on his, his personal email. So that comes up in this, too. This is all in the indictment. But he was allowed to have classified documents at his home, and then he wasn't. When the skiff, when he no longer had that government job, the skiff essentially goes away, as does your Right. To have any classified documents at home. Ok. So what he's going to say is my recollections of meetings I did not believe to be classified information and nobody else would think it's classified information. And what I put in the book got cleared through the White House. So clearly it's not classified information in some cases or maybe in all cases because, you know, this is, this goes to what Comey did as well. Contemporaneous notes of a classified discussion can or can, you know, can be or aren't necessarily classified. Right.
- [11:22]
Buck Sexton
So let me, let me, let me pause you there because I, this is me putting on my lawyer hat. If I can't take the actual classified documents out because it would be a crime. It doesn't make sense to me that I can take a yellow legal pad in and write down what's on the classified documents and then take it outside of my house and let me explain it for everybody out there listening. If my yellow legal pad was stolen, which recited the information that was on a classified document, the practical impact of an enemy getting the information is the same whether it's written on my yellow legal pad or shared in an email or anything else as it would be if I was in physical possession of the document itself. Right. So for me that's a distinction that should not be a difference of, of magnitude from a practical perspective.
- [12:17]
Clay Travis
That is correct. The fundamentally the information is what is classified.
- [12:23]
Buck Sexton
Correct.
- [12:23]
Clay Travis
It is not the marking. And this came up with the Hillary thing too, right? Because she says, well, it wasn't marked classified. Now in Hillary's case, they were xeroxing classified and putting it into emails. I mean that she absolutely broke national defense law. She absolutely could have and should have been prosecuted, no question. Ok, that, that was actually like open and shut case. As much as everyone at the time, because they wanted to be president, tried to defend on the Democrat side, on this side, or rather on this case, both in is going to say the things that I wrote down were not actually classified from those meetings and the things that I wrote down were the basis for a book that was cleared by the White House. Therefore nothing is actually like he's just going to argue the information isn't classified. And this becomes a tough case for the government because the government has to convince people that it is classified. Now I think the jury will be able to see this.
- [13:22]
Buck Sexton
This is the gray mail. I don't know. Some of them have never been involved in a classified case. But I don't understand how you could convict someone without showing what was Classified that the person had in possession. Even though to your point, that further exposes national security because 12 random people on a jury suddenly get the news about whatever classified documents that Bolton was holding, which would theoretically allow even more of a national security issue.
- [13:48]
Clay Travis
I mean, this is where. This is a little bit like the pornography. I know it when I see it. Classified to those who have held the clearance. You know, when you see it, you know, if Bolton was going home, writing down from his meetings, which he very well could have, oh, we're going to do a strike tomorrow on Abu Jihad in this country using, you know, hellfire missiles which were launching out of this allied countries, you know, airspace that's very, very classified. Right. The fact that it's not mark classified as he writes it down does not change because to your point. Well, then I could sit there in this. I could sit there in Langley and read about all the COVID actions and then just get on a phone and call somebody and talk about it. And like, I'm not. My words aren't marked class. The information is what is classified. And it is your responsibility as somebody with access to it to know, you know, where these lines are and what you. Where you can operate.
- [14:44]
Buck Sexton
Well, and this is where I come back to. I understand the importance of taking notes. I mean, every lawyer does. It's why I do the entire show every day on yellow legal pads. Right. That's all I have. But those notes, if they are truly classified information, should not be able to leave a secure place. Your brain should be the place where you keep extremely classified information. Right.
- [15:07]
Clay Travis
Well, I think, again, I think that what he was doing. Clay was going home and writing a diary entry based on his meetings. Yeah. So it's not contemporaneous in the meeting notes. I think I got to. I might have to go back and check this in the indictment because, you know, I had to read the whole thing this morning. My sense is he was creating diary entries day to day, which, by the way, the notion that you would create a diary like this when you're the national security advisor so you can write a book is so gross. It's not about your book that no one's going to read. Like you're supposed to be keeping Americans safe and protecting our interests. This thing, this goes to a lot of things. And everybody listening who's had a clearance knows what I'm going to say. There's this idea. The. The, like people actually doing the work every day in the national security apparatus, military side, civilian side, they are expected to be perfect with all this stuff or their lives are ruined. But when you get to be senior enough, it's all about whatever publishing house you know, wants to give you the biggest book deal. And that matters more than the law and your oath. And I think people are sick of that. And this, this is, there's the legal aspect of his claim. There's also the, it's kind of just gross. The way that he was doing this was just gross because it was all meant to hit Trump too. So he's working for Trump, trying to undermine Trump, using national security information to do it.
- [16:30]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, I think that's 100% correct. And so again, I will be curious to see how this plays out. But not a, not a strong position in general to, to, to break down, I mean, I think beyond a shadow of a doubt. So, John Bolton, latest. I think the question is how many more people are going to get charges brought and, and how many of these people are eventually going to get convicted versus a jury pool that is likely predisposed to not like Trump. Although, you know, Trump's approval ratings starting to, to go up. So maybe even in Northern Virginia there are people who are having their, having altered relative to what they expected beforehand because Trump 2.0 is really kind of making everything awesome, let's be honest. And so as I break down everything here, I want to tell you, you have a good cell phone service that you can rely on. If you don't, you should. And you need to make sure that you are able to get hooked up while you can. That's what we have Pure Talk for. You can switch your cell phone service right now. Company that'll support your point of view. One of the reasons they've been a sponsor here on the show from day one, over basically four and a half years now. We've always appreciated what Pure Talk stands for and the fact that they stand for your values, our values. And you can save a bundle. That's a great combo. You can switch your cell phone service to PureTalk right now. Support a business that supports free speech. You're going to get great 5G nationwide coverage on a reliable and secure network. It is the coverage network that my sons are on. My 17 year old and my 15 year old, we rely on Pure Talk to stay in touch with them. Monthly plans start at just 25 bucks a month. You can keep your phone and your same phone number when you make the switch. Pure Talk's customer based service team, entirely us based. And you can switch right now. Keep your same phone and your same phone number, save up to a thousand dollars over the course of a year. By dialing £2.50 and saying Clay and Buck to switch to pure talk. That's £2 5 0, say Clay and Buck. You'll save an additional 50% off your first month. That's £250, say Clay and Buck to switch to Pure Talk. Do it today. Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [19:00]
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- [20:00]
Jim (Podcast Advertiser)
The U.S. electric grid is approaching a breaking point as demand soars from data centers and home energy use. Our aging infrastructure can't keep up and the Department of Energy warns that without action, blackouts could surge 100 fold by 2030. The good news? One solution is already here. Propane. It's American made, stored on site and always ready, powering homes and businesses with with cleaner, reliable energy that doesn't depend on the grid or the weather.
- [20:27]
iHeartRadio Announcer
Learn more@propain.com run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers are into true crime, sports, comedy, culture, they'll Hear your message. Plus, only iHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. And all this reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for you. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart streaming radio and podcasting. Let us show you at iheartadvertising.com that's iheartadvertising.com or call 844-844 iHeart one more time, call 844-844-IHeart and get podcasting working for you.
- [21:30]
Leon Neyfakh
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes or just asked why Benghazi?
- [21:43]
Clay Travis
The truth became a web of lies.
- [21:44]
Leon Neyfakh
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
- [21:48]
Buck Sexton
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
- [21:51]
Leon Neyfakh
Bad faith, political warfare and frankly, bullshit.
- [21:55]
Clay Travis
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.
- [22:00]
Leon Neyfakh
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
- [22:04]
Clay Travis
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years.
- [22:12]
Leon Neyfakh
I'm Leon Naifak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [22:19]
Advertisement Voice
What difference at this point does it make?
- [22:22]
Clay Travis
Yeah, that's right. Lock her up.
- [22:24]
Leon Neyfakh
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [22:30]
Clay Travis
We're gonna have a quick turn. We're gonna get into more on this National Security Advisor Bolton situation and then also a little bit more on the at some point you think they are going to have to reopen the government, but it's looking like it's pretty dug in on both sides. We will dive into that and when it comes to equipping your home with self protection tools, Sabre is the number one pepper spray brand trusted by law enforcement. Saber is spelled S A B R E. Their website is sabre radio.com Clay and I both have Sabre products in our home like the Sabre Pepper J a pepper gel spray projectile. Our wives love having these kinds of non lethal self defense tools at their disposal. And Saber's been in business for 50 years and family owned so their products are reliable and trusted. Their pepper gel projectile launcher, shaped like a pistol or rifle depending on the model, fires off a pepper gel projectile targeted and goes a long distance. Decide together what you're most comfortable lying on and go check out a whole range of self defense products@sabreradio.com s a b r e radio.com the best non lethal protection you're going to see anywhere in the marketplace from Sabre S A b r e radio.com you'll save 15% at that website today. Or you can call this number 844-824-SAFE. That's 884-4824 safe.
- [23:54]
Buck Sexton
Welcome back in Clay Travis BUCK Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Friday edition. We mentioned David Rutherford will be with us at 1:30 to talk some about this seems to be somewhat escalating situation in Venezuela and what we should expect to happen there. Also in the third hour, Nicole Parker will join us, former FBI agent. She's got a book out. We will see how the Cash Patel and Dan Bongino led FBI has maybe been changing the culture. But I wanted to to mention something, Buck, that I saw from one of our I heart colleagues, Charlemagne, the God, Mr. The God as I believe you call him. And I think you guys had a meal together if I'm not mistaken, this summer at a big iheart event. He has a large black audience, probably the largest black audience inside of the iheart family. And he does a popular show out of New York City and increasingly very.
- [24:54]
Clay Travis
Pleasant dinner company, I must say, very pleasant.
- [24:57]
Buck Sexton
Increasingly he is willing to call out the left on his show even though that he regularly has the Kamala Harris's of the world as in studio guest. And I saw this clip where he was discussing what I think is going to continue to be a looming issue for many people who were involved in the Joe Biden administration and carried water for the idea that Joe Biden was not physically or mentally capable to do the presidency. He asked a really pretty basic question. If they lied about Joe Biden, how can you trust Democrats on anything? Let's play that cut attic party after.
- [25:37]
Clay Travis
They lied to us so long about President Biden. I think that Democrats have tried every.
- [25:42]
Buck Sexton
Strategy except for two things, honesty and courage.
- [25:45]
Clay Travis
Yeah, well, there's a lot of people who are courageous right now in the Democratic Party. Our bread and butter issue, our dance with the one that brought you is health care. People have always trusted us on health care. That's our issue from President Johnson to President Obama to when Donald Trump tried to take it away. That's how we won the House in 2018. And now this reconciliation bill is going to take 14 million people off their health care. We're not only going to protect health care because I think protecting health care is not enough. We need to invest in cures. And these motherfuckers are firing cancer doctors. So we have a real clean contrast. We're for cures. They're for Cancer. Who was that?
- [26:25]
Buck Sexton
Who was the guy who was talking with him?
- [26:28]
Clay Travis
That was Swalwell. I was like, who is the, who is the D bag guy? I mean, give me a break.
- [26:34]
Buck Sexton
I mean, he is just Swalwell. So first of all, Charlemagne, I think speaking some measure of truth, even if you are the most dyed in the wool left wing legacy media consumer, the idea that Democrats are for cures and Republicans are for cancer is such a stupid take.
- [26:55]
Clay Travis
I agree. I think that a lack of honesty and lack of courage is a fundamental and central problem for the Democrat party. And I think that for a Democrat, Charlemagne or any other to be bring that up and speak to that is an effort to actually right the ship of the Democrat party. Especially after the Biden lying fiasco which all the establishment Democrats have had to fess up to. They all lied about this. They didn't believe it. They lied about it. Ok, for Swalwell to say Republicans want to give people cancer. What, what a. Trying to think of things we can say on the radio.
- [27:27]
Buck Sexton
I just, I don't even. I think that Swalwell is really bad at communication and also arguments and basically that's the entire job of being a politician.
- [27:39]
Clay Travis
I think you're saying that Swalwell is just kind of dumb.
- [27:41]
Buck Sexton
I think for a lot of these guys, the question is, are they dumb or are they just willing to say whatever is necessary and not smart enough to understand how devastating the counterpunch is this tight end buck. Did you see the Virginia Democrat Party called out Winsome Sears because there's an email thread, sorry, a text message thread that turned into a Politico story about young people saying sometimes inappropriate things on this text thread that somebody then leaked. And they said, when are you going to condemn this? Basically Winsome Sears. And Winsome Sears said, yeah, I unequivocally condemn this. When are you going to talk and we'll talk some more during the course of the program about Jay Jones, the attorney general. And so I look at some of these things and I know you're. You think about it all the time too. Some people can only throw punches. And if you like boxing at all, there is a value in being an attacker and being able to throw punches. But what is most devastating to me in boxing and also in politics, it isn't the punch, it's the counter punch. And so if you are trying to throw a punch, I think you expose yourself and your lack of understanding of an issue. If you aren't able to have the mitts up to think about opening yourself up to the devastating counter punch. And I think Swalwell constantly gets knocked out by the counter punch. I think what he's relying on and I think what a lot of these Democrats rely on is no one sees the counterpunch. All they care about is the punch.
- [29:21]
Clay Travis
Well, with Swalwell, with the, with what he's saying here, first of all, the more people learn about health care, specifically Obamacare, the more they realize it's a, it is a disaster complete. All the things that conservatives said about this, and I was one of them 15 years ago, or roughly, what is it, 13 years ago now, all the things that we said about this, true, it's not going to bring costs down. It's going to make costs much worse. Illegals will get access to care because, you know, will get access to care, will get their care paid for because of this. And it's just going to destroy health insurance even more under the pretense of it's making everyone's health insurance better and cheaper, which was all a lie. But, but beyond that, there are the arguments that someone can say to us, hey, you know, when they do these, when they do these ICE raids, it's really upsetting to some people who are illegals and they're not bad people. And it's, and it, you know, they, they're, they're paying a price here, and it's really sad. And to, to enforce the law, you're going to make some families cry over this one. And that is a cost. Now, it's a cost that I am willing for the government to bear, but that is a legitimate cost. That is someone saying, you know, hey, you're really going to make people upset by enforcing our, our immigration laws. And there are going to be people that, you know, emotionally are going to pull on your heartstrings when they're deported. Not talking about the gang members and the bad people that, but just in general. And, you know, that's a real cost that I say, ok, our side says, yeah, but we have to have sovereignty and we have to have laws. Clay, neither you nor I nor anybody else is pro cancer. And to make an argument like that is just childish. It's just dumb. And for Swalwell to go there, that's not a cost that we're in favor of. Like, this is, that's not a real thing. But it's like calling Trump voters fascists and Nazis when Trump is the most popular president from the standpoint of Israel in American history. Like, it's just, it's not a real Argument. It's fantasyland stuff. Yeah.
- [31:16]
Buck Sexton
And I do think the question that Charlemagne asked is one that the persuadable, reasonable universe of voters, which, let's be honest, is probably no more than 20%, maybe it's 10%, 15% of American voters. It's one that I think it's going to be very difficult for Democrats to get past, because if you will lie to me about the most important question, is the president qualified to do the job or not, then how can I trust you to be honest with me on any questions? And it's one that I think candidly is a very real issue that Democrats are going to have. And the closer you were connected to Joe Biden, the more difficult it's going to be to distinguish yourself, whether that's Kamala Harris, whether that's Mayor Pete. It's why I think Gavin Newsom is actually gonna benefit off of this, because he can say, hey, I was out in California. I didn't know. I think if you were in the cabinet with Joe Biden, to the extent that media are willing to ask you questions, I think it's gonna be difficult for you to argue that you weren't aware of how much he cognitively declined.
- [32:25]
Clay Travis
This reminds me of the enormous luck that Barack Obama had in running for the Democrat primary, which was because he wasn't really in the game. He could say, no, I think the Iraq war was a disaster, and it wasn't my fault, unlike Hillary. Now, was that because Barack Obama was some genius who went against the current of his time that was voting for the Iraq war? No, but he was lucky. Right. And, you know, you take the wins that are given to you. And the same thing is true of Gavin Newsom, because he wasn't involved at all in the Biden Kamala administration. He is clear of the stink of lying about Biden's dementia. Kamala is not clear, by the way. And I think Gavin would go. I think he'd go after that.
- [33:10]
Buck Sexton
I think he'd go after. Over that. I think so, too. There's been a lot of talk about the toxicity of that relationship. I would just also point out that's how Trump benefited, too. Now, Trump was on the record as being skeptical of the Iraq war in general, but the first time that I really noticed Trump was in that summer 2015 debate when he called out George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Because now I think most people are aware that the Iraq war was a poor decision, and we should have never gone in the way that we did, and we shouldn't have spent the money that we did. I think that's general consensus view. In 2015, that was not the consensus view for a Republican candidate to be willing to utter. And I think a lot of people took note of that. That Trump was willing to criticize a bad decision that the Bush administration had made. Now, did it partly help him go after Jeb Bush, who was the establishment candidate at that point in time? The continuation of the Bush dynasty politically, yes, But I think also Trump was right and nailed it.
- [34:16]
Clay Travis
Bringing us back here to the Bolton situation. The indictment of Trump's former national security adviser. But Bolton, big neocon, big hawk, big interventionist, a very bad choice for Trump under nsa. Trump admits that he made some bad. You go to war with the army you have, and you run an administration with the people that you know of who have had these jobs, at least the first time around. So he had. He had a learning curve. There's no question about it. And here he is reacting to John Bolton's indictment. This is cut one play.
- [34:52]
Leon Neyfakh
It.
- [34:56]
Advertisement Voice
Was just indicted by a grand jury in Maryland. Do you have a reaction to that?
- [34:59]
Buck Sexton
I didn't know that.
- [35:00]
Clay Travis
You told me for the first time. But I think he's, you know, a bad person.
- [35:04]
Buck Sexton
I think he's a bad guy. Yeah, he's a bad guy.
- [35:08]
Clay Travis
Too bad.
- [35:08]
Buck Sexton
But the way it goes against.
- [35:10]
Clay Travis
That's the way it goes, right? That's the way it goes. Will I What? Have you reviewed the case against him? No, I haven't. I haven't.
- [35:16]
Buck Sexton
But I just think he's a bad person.
- [35:20]
Clay Travis
We'll see. You know, one thing that I do want to the. There's a lot of voices out there, Clay. They're saying, oh, this is about reprisal or whatever. Hold on a second. The law is the law or it's not. And I'm going to tell you, we actually got into this thing on the Right where, for example, with Hillary. Hillary absolutely broke the law with the way that she was conducting her emails and everything else. No, there is a specific recklessness component of the statute that she violated in the espionage Act. Recklessness, Right. So what she did was absolutely reckless for a Secretary of state, there's no question. I mean, otherwise there's no such thing as reckless. But we said, oh, for politics and whatever. Trump said this, we'll let it go.
- [36:01]
Buck Sexton
Yes.
- [36:01]
Clay Travis
All is saying, I would not be okay with this administration. I don't care who it is. I would not be okay if I felt like the DOJ was fabricating crimes, you know, or pretending people did things or pretending they violated laws when they didn't. But if you're just enforcing the law, why is that? It's the removal of special treatment that we're actually talking about here. It's not getting bad treatment because Trump doesn't like you. It's sorry you actually broke the law. True. Of Letitia James as well.
- [36:33]
Buck Sexton
Well, it's. It's also just a response to deciding that Trump was going to be indicted in four different places. They believe.
- [36:42]
Clay Travis
This is what I mean. That removed the special treatment that he should have gotten as a former president, quote, unquote, special treatment. And they actually were fabricating crimes against him. I do not believe that. I mean, the thing that happened in New York was completely insane.
- [36:53]
Buck Sexton
Yeah. And. And not only that, while they were prosecuting Trump for everything, they had Joe Biden dead to rights. And Robert her let him off because he said he didn't have the mental capacity for a jury to convict him, even though he was dead to rights on holding classified documents and did not have the presidential privilege at all because at that point in time, he had been a senator and vice president. But the fact that Robert Hur's decision was, yes, he committed crimes, but because his brain is so broken, no jury would convict him. By the way, he may have been right, but that was the guy who was the President of the United States. So they were even still letting Biden off under the preexisting Hillary standards while throwing the book at Trump.
- [37:44]
Clay Travis
This is exactly. This is exactly right. And this is what is so essential, what you are seeing with Trump thus far, with whether it's Letitia James or Comey or. This is a. We're all going to be held to the same standard. Standard, yes. We're not gonna have. They can make up stuff again. The New York thing was an absolute fabrication. Crime. It was not a crime. Nothing wrong there. It was completely absurd. I can argue on the other ones, too, that they're. But, you know, the New York thing was just completely outrageous and specifically the most outrageous, I think. And now what we're saying is, okay, well, Democrats, when you actually break the law, we're gonna hold you accountable. Yes. I don't see what the problem is. In fact, I think there'd be a problem not doing this.
- [38:31]
Buck Sexton
And by the way, what you're also recognizing is something we've talked about on this program for a long time. If you bring your microscope, if you bring your spyglass and you aggressively investigate anybody, there is a prosecutor who can make a case against them. The amount of prosecutorial power that we have embedded in a criminal justice system, irrespective Democrat, Republican, independ every single person out there with us right now. You can think you have lived the most honest, transparent, completely in compliance with.
- [39:08]
Clay Travis
Every you could write something down on your books that you paid off totally legally, Clay, and all of a sudden you're facing 37 felony counts.
- [39:15]
Buck Sexton
Correct? They can find a crime for any of you out there. I really believe this. If they investigated you vociferously and aggressively.
- [39:24]
Clay Travis
Or they'd make one up as they did against Trump. Look, this weekend Carrie and I are having some stakes. I'm actually going shooting on Saturday and gonna be having some steak Saturday night. They're gonna be sizzling, they're gonna be juicy, they're gonna be delicious, and they're gonna be good Ranchers. Good Ranchers delivers amazing steaks, burgers, chicken, even salmon to your home on a monthly subscription. When our shipment of Good Ranchers meat arrives, it's like Christmas morning for meat. Good Ranchers meat and chicken are so delicious. They source their food from American ranchers and farmers. Nothing imported, no antibiotics, just pure delicious steaks, burgers, chicken from a farm somewhere here at home in America. From now through Thanksgiving, Good Ranchers is encouraging families to sit and share a meal every Thursday. And here's the fun part. Every week, one lucky winner will win a free Thanksgiving ham for just sharing a photo of their gathering on their Instagram story, tagging oodranchers and using backtothetable. Visit goodranchers.com use my name Buck as your promo code. Get an extra $40 off your order plus free meat for life. That's goodranchers.com promo code buck40OFF plus free meat for life.
- [40:29]
Buck Sexton
Geek out with the guys on the Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck. Podcast a new episode every Sunday. Find it on the Iheart app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [40:39]
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- [41:39]
Jim (Podcast Advertiser)
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iHeartRadio Announcer
Learn more@probane.com run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ads supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. So whatever your customers are into true crime, sports, comedy, culture, they'll hear your message. Plus, only iHeart can extend your message to audiences across broadcast radio. And all this reach means everything. Just think about the universal marketing formula. The number of consumers who hear your message times the response rate equals the results. Now let's get those results growing for you. Think podcasting can help your business? Think iHeart. Streaming radio and podcasting. Let us show you at iHeartAdvertising.com that's iHeartAdvertising.com or call 844-844 iHeart one more time, call 844-844-IHEART and get podcasting working for you.
- [43:09]
Leon Neyfakh
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why Benghazi?
- [43:22]
Clay Travis
The truth became a web of lies.
- [43:24]
Leon Neyfakh
It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.
- [43:28]
Buck Sexton
Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?
- [43:30]
Leon Neyfakh
Bad faith, political warfare, and frankly, bullshit.
- [43:34]
Clay Travis
We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.
- [43:40]
Leon Neyfakh
Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy?
- [43:44]
Clay Travis
Benghazi is a Rosetta Stone for everything.
- [43:49]
Buck Sexton
That'S been going on for the last 20 years.
- [43:51]
Leon Neyfakh
I'm Leon Naifak from Prologue Projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [43:58]
Advertisement Voice
What difference at this point does it make?
- [44:01]
Clay Travis
Yeah, that's right. Lock her up.
- [44:03]
Leon Neyfakh
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [44:10]
Buck Sexton
Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. It's Friday. We'll get to some of your reactions, such as a a I remember seeing this as I got ready for the show. I don't remember exactly what was said, but I do know it was funny. What we got here, podcast listener Jim.
- [44:27]
Clay Travis
That sharks do not attack lawyers due to professional courtesy.
- [44:32]
Jim (Podcast Advertiser)
So if a shark ever approaches you.
- [44:35]
Clay Travis
Simply show him your bar card. You should be fine. Very well.
- [44:41]
Buck Sexton
If you couldn't hear Jim very well there, he was saying, lawyers don't attack sharks. Sorry, Sharks don't attack lawyers as a part of professional courtesy. So, yes, a little bit of humor there. Well done.
- [44:52]
Clay Travis
Lawyer joke, a shark joke and a dad joke all at the same rolled into one. Good.
- [44:57]
Buck Sexton
That's a good, good job by Jim there. We come back, Buck. Your home city of New York is in serious trouble. The New York City mayor's race debate happened last night. So did, by the way, the Virginia Attorney General debate. We've got cuts from both of those, plus our buddy David Rutherford on the latest in Venezuela. What should we know about what's going on there?
- [45:17]
Clay Travis
All that next wishing the holidays could come early. If you own or manage your business, they can. With help from iHeartradio. People are already shopping for their loved.
- [45:27]
Buck Sexton
Ones and hunting for deals wherever they.
- [45:29]
Clay Travis
Can find them, including right here. They're listening to the radio. They're listening to podcasts. They could be listening to you.
- [45:36]
Buck Sexton
Don't wait for everyone else to kick off the holidays. Get your best season of the year.
- [45:40]
Clay Travis
Up and running today.
- [45:42]
Buck Sexton
Call 844-844-IHEART or visit iheartadvertising.com.
- [45:49]
Leon Neyfakh
When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why Benghazi?
- [46:01]
Clay Travis
The truth became a web of lies.
- [46:03]
Leon Neyfakh
From Prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.
- [46:09]
Advertisement Voice
What difference at this point does it make?
- [46:12]
Leon Neyfakh
Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [46:19]
iHeartRadio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.