← The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
Loading summary
Transcript88 lines
- [00:00]
iHeart Podcast Announcer
You're listening to an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Clay Travis
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast. Welcome in Tuesday edition. Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the program. A ton of different news stories out there. The big beautiful Bill Trump on Capitol Hill. We will talk with White House official James Blair at 2:30. That is the third hour eastern of this program to get the absolute latest there. James Comey went on MSNBC to talk about his Seashells by the Seashore, original sin. The book is out. And then a couple of crazy stories that we may have some fun with during the course of the program. Robert Griffin, the third Buck, you saw this story and you were like this, this can't be real. Is in a feud with a guy named Ryan Clark over Caitlin Clark and they have had wife attacks now. Over. Anyway, this is crazy also. Did you, I don't know if you saw this. This is not super serious, but is a little bit crazy. Bill Belichick and his 24 year old girlfriend are reportedly engaged. Buck. So true love as spring flowers bloom may well be afoot in the great state of North Carolina with Bill Belichick as the head coach of the Tar Heels.
- [01:36]
Buck Sexton
Some ladies like Granddad Bod, what can I tell you?
- [01:40]
Clay Travis
72 year old Belichick, 24 year old Jordan Hudson. The heart wants what the heart wants, Buck. But we begin, we begin with the big beautiful Bill Trump is up on Capitol Hill. Here is my prediction before we go through all this different audio, the bill's gonna pass. This reminds me a bit of the speaker, count votes, everything else. Eventually there is going to be a speaker. And it reminds me of the debt ceiling. Oh my goodness, what's gonna happen? The government's gonna shut down. Oh, oh no. And then the debt ceiling gets resolved. Nothing ever really changes. It's all posturing and negotiation. So that is my prediction of where we are, where, where we are headed. But let's listen to what Trump said this morning on Capitol Hill before the meeting. He said this is a big beautiful bill and we're going to get it done because it has tremendous tax cuts. Cut one.
- [02:38]
Donald Trump
Well, it's not a question of holdouts. We have a tremendously unified party. I don't think we've ever had a party like this. There are some people that want a couple of things that maybe I don't like or that they're not going to get. But I think we're going to have tremendous not luck. We have tremendous talent. This man has done an incredible job as speaker. So I think we're going to. I think we're a very unified party. The Senate's doing great. John Thune is doing fantastically. He's a great guy. And we're going to have a bill. The one big, beautiful bill I think is going to be. It's the biggest bill ever passed, and we got to get it done. Tremendous tax cuts for people, tremendous incentives, tremendous regulation cuts. All these regulations that are so horrible.
- [03:20]
Clay Travis
Okay, so that was before the meeting. Speaker Johnson, after the meeting, and then I'll play some Trump here. Speaker Johnson, after the meeting of. What happened happens if they don't pass this bill.
- [03:30]
Speaker Johnson
They love this president. The people back home love what he's doing. It's historic. And everybody understands the scope and the meaning of this. If we do not accomplish this mission, every one of you, all the American people, are going to have the highest tax increase that you've ever had. Among the debt ceiling clip that's approaching and all the other problems. This is the bill to do it. I think we're gonna get it done, Mr. President.
- [03:51]
Clay Travis
Okay, and then Trump, after the meeting, one more cut five. And then, Buck, you can weigh in on all the drama on Capitol Hill.
- [03:58]
Buck Sexton
How big it is, how beautiful it is. So beautiful. I can't stop looking at it.
- [04:02]
Clay Travis
Trump says it was a meeting of love. Cut five.
- [04:06]
Donald Trump
That was a meeting of love. Let me tell you. That was love in that room. There was no shouting. I think it was a meeting of love. There were a couple of things that we talked about, specifically where some people felt a little bit one way or the other, not a big deal. And I covered them. It wasn't so much a speech. I covered certain points, and I think there was. I'd be very surprised. No, I didn't tell. Who told you? I said I'm losing.
- [04:30]
Clay Travis
That's what we heard inside the room.
- [04:31]
Donald Trump
Wait a minute. Who's told you that?
- [04:34]
Clay Travis
We heard from people inside the room.
- [04:36]
Donald Trump
Totally true. It's totally true. I never use the term. I didn't say losing. I didn't even talk about it. In fact, it's the opposite. I think we're going to get it done. I'm not losing patients. We're ahead of schedule. Anybody that told you that, it's a liar. Wait a minute, wait a minute. I never mentioned the word losing. Patience. Because I'm not losing patience. We're ahead of. Well, but why don't you go back to your source and tell them they're Liars, if the source even exist.
- [05:02]
Clay Travis
All right, so there is Trump getting into it with reporter, Capitol Hill. Buck, your take on all this.
- [05:07]
Buck Sexton
One thing. I'll get into the substance of the bill in just a second. I just want to hear Trump with the reporters. I do think, you know, you and I, we know Don, Jr. And Ivanka. Could you imagine Trump as your dad, like, trying to tell him why you broke curfew or something? Like, excuse me, Excuse. Like, just. He's, he's very tough to argue.
- [05:26]
Clay Travis
Remember when we had Junior on at the rnc, if I remember correctly, and he had gotten permission to have a few people over, and Trump got home and there were like, he said 100 people at the house, and he was just like, all of them have to be gone. Can you imagine being at that party as a high school kid? Trump walks in and he's like, you're all gone. Like, he's not the dad.
- [05:49]
Buck Sexton
He's not the dad that you wanted to be rolling kegs in when he wasn't looking. I'm just throwing that out there. Like, I can tell, you know, I met him when I was 13 or 14 for the first time. And yeah, he was. Nobody was messing with him then, and nobody's messing with him now. Okay, the big, beautiful bill, it's huge. It's beautiful. Let's get into it. The biggest thing in this clay. And, you know, I spoke to, and you can check it out, it's on the Clay and Buck podcast network. In the buck brief, I spoke to the head of the National Economic Council, and I just said, my friend, you are respectful. He's a PhD from Harvard in economics. And I said, you are an econ guy. I didn't want to say nerd, but I mean, I think econ nerd would be respectfully said here. I said, take me through the whole thing. And so we just sat there and I went through it. I'll give you some of the highlights of it. And what is in this that really matters to people and why Trump is so excited about it. The first thing is it's, it's one of those, if you don't do it, really bad things are going to happen, meaning the tax raises that would kick in because the 2017 Trump tax cuts are made permanent here. So I know it's confusing, but if the stuff, if you don't do this, they would expire and you would go back to much higher tax rates. So that would be a shock to the system in a bad way, right? Yeah, that's one Part of it. You're extending tax cuts. You're extending tax cuts really across a whole, a whole range, whether it's for, for businesses, for individual filers and the average American family on an annual basis. And again, this is from the chairman of the National Economic Council. And I said let's nerd out, buddy. Let's get into the, it's something like 7 to $12,000 of additional money in the bank for you at the end of the year for the average American household. Ok. That's not, I think that's such an important because they're going to say it's for the rich, it's for the billionaires. The Democrats who rely on their plurality of billionaires to fund their party are always so upset about billionaires. Right? This has nothing to do with the billionaires. This is about the average American household. And you're going to have think about that. If someone told you, hey, you're going to have an extra ten grand next year at the end of the year, you'd say, wow, that's, that's great. Well, that's what this does for the average household. So I think that's really important. It's also there's the salt deduction component of this. So there's the cap for this is going to be changed. They're going to deduct more of the regional taxes from the federal tax bill that's actually good for blue states. And I think that's probably for some blue state Republicans or, or purple state Republicans, something they're happy to see the big one. Clay. And I said, wow, they're actually doing this no tax on tips. That, that is a real thing. Remember that was so popular and cool when Trump said it on the campaign trail that Kamala, for whatever campaign she was running, she was like, yeah, I think we should have no tax laws.
- [08:47]
Clay Travis
She just blatantly copied it. It was very funny.
- [08:49]
Buck Sexton
Totally lifted it. Yeah, totally lifted it. She was plagiarizing Trump. One thing that I'm going to say people on the right are annoyed about is the green energy tax credits part of this. The bill's initial tax eliminates tax credits for electric vehicles within two years, phases out credits for low carbon electricity, including wind and solar. New requirements on these credits, but doesn't totally zero. There are people that are critic. I'm just going to tell you what's getting criticized. They're criticizing this for not getting like there should be the whole green New Deal scam stuff should all be completely root and branch taken out. Some Republicans are Saying, ok, we had Ron Johnson on yesterday talk a bit about this. They tighten up SNAP benefits, which is food stamps. I guess we don't like to call it food stamps anymore. They're tightening that up so they think there'll be some savings there. Limiting funding for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which had been Elizabeth Warren's little fiefdom, that didn't actually help consumers, but was a good way to harass disfavored businesses by Democrats. Increases the debt limit $4 trillion, and then some substantial funding boosts for Pentagon priorities and deportation. So, Clay, I think those are the big top lines of where this, where this thing is, where this thing stands. And the biggest critic. It's over a thousand pages, eleven hundred pages. Just remember that when somebody's like, I've read the bill. Really?
- [10:16]
Clay Travis
Have you really?
- [10:17]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, you know, yeah, they've read the section of the bill that their lobbyists wanted included, I'm sure. But this is 1100 pages. And the part of it that I think people on the right, conservatives are a little frustrated on is just that it's extending the debt ceiling $4 trillion and doesn't really have the big, meaty cuts that from Doge you would have liked to see. That's the part of it that's. But if you're talking about, if you're talking about juicing the economy, I mean, this thing, I think, is going to be rocket fuel for the economy. So that's why Trump's so excited about it.
- [10:51]
Clay Travis
Look, it's, it's not a perfect bill. And the big issue, which, if you're around our age, meaning if you're 40s or younger, that you're going to have to deal with over the next two generations, is the national debt's out of control. And the only real way, we've told you this before, the only real way to fix the national debt is to address Social Security and Medicare. And if you look, I believe Social Security, Medicare, defense and the interest, I believe that's 86% of the entire federal budget. I think that's the number. So even if you eliminated every other part of the federal government, 86% of it would still exist just based on those four things. And unfortunately, as our debt grows, the percentage of interest that we have to pay on that debt grows massively, such that we now pay more typically, unfortunately now for the debt than we do national defense. And there is an argument that if you look at history, as soon as the debt expenditures exceed the defense expenditures, your country, your civilization, has begun a decline. So Womp, womp. First segment on Tuesday, no one in the Democrat Party, no one in the Republican Party really wants to address Social Security and Medicare. And until those issues are addressed, then there is virtually no opportunity to balance a budget. That's the reality. Now, I agree with Ron Johnson when he says, like, hey, we should be going back to pre Covid baseline spend expenditures. That's way better. That's the better solution here in my mind because we basically have embedded the cost of a growing government from COVID and we're continuing. And by the way, when you have 21% inflation, your expenses are going to go up substantially just to keep pace with the cost of goods. But this is the reality in which we live.
- [13:06]
Buck Sexton
There's also on the good side of things. So I can give you the quick negative overview, not of the bill, but just of the US Fiscal trajectory is we are not stopping this train at all, really. And the next, I think four years on the train are going to be awesome. So there's that. Right. I think the Trump administration, you're going to see everyone's going to be doing great and that's fantastic. And you know, that's nothing to sneeze at. But the other side of it is we haven't, we haven't suffered enough as a country from the overspending. When we've suffered enough, people will want to do something about it. And we, this is, I almost think it's a waste of time to get into beyond that right now, Clay, because every time we could say we're spending too much money, look at the math. You can just line up, we'll just get calls all day from everyone saying, you absolutely cannot touch my Medicare. Yeah, okay. That's where we are.
- [14:00]
Clay Travis
And that's what Trump has said. You can't trust it if you can't touch Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, basically, there's.
- [14:06]
Buck Sexton
Nothing to talk about. People are just saying we haven't suffered enough as a country from the fiscal profligacy. And that means that we just got to keep going and keep on hoping that we grow and grow and grow this economy. We got hundreds of billions coming in from the tariffs, by the way, which you're hearing. You're not getting a lot of conversation about that right now in the media because the tariffs are going to bring in additional revenue to the government. Remember, we used to fund until the 20th century, we funded this country's government on tariffs overwhelmingly. I mean, that was, that was the primary source. So it is a thing. But yeah, hopefully we can grow grow the economy much faster and, and find, you know, greater efficiencies that we'll be able to kind of keep riding this thing out. But yeah, I'm with you. It's not even worth the debt bomb. The debt bomb is ticking. Nobody wants to fix it, so why whine about it? Trump is doing the best thing he can do for the economy this year, and hopefully that means we lead into better things in the years after it. But yeah, that's, that's kind of where I am on this. It's also like having the debt ceiling fight. No, it's not even fun to talk about anymore because they're just going to raise the debt ceiling. If I'm wrong, let me know. Trying to stir the pot a little bit. 800-282-2882 look, we admire Pure Talk for a lot of reasons here, and not just because they provide the single best wireless service. They also happen to be led by a military veteran. Every member of the Pure Talk team believes that every man and woman who faithfully served this country deserves to proudly fly an American flag made in America. And that's why PureTalk is on a mission to give an allegiance flag, the highest quality American flag, to 1,000 US veterans in time for Memorial Day. Just switch your cell phone service to PureTalk this month and a portion of every sale will go to provide these high quality flags to deserving veterans. With plans from just $25 a month for unlimited talk, texts and plenty of data, you can join America's most dependable 5G network while cutting your cell phone bill in half. The average Family saves over $1,000 a year. Just dial pound250, say the keywords clay and buck, and PureTalk's US customer service team will get you switched hassle free in as little as 10 minutes. Again, dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck. Dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck, to support veterans and switch to America's wireless company, PureTalk.
- [16:27]
Clay Travis
The last thing anybody wants is to burden their family after passing. That's why having a trust and a will is essential. It ensures your loved ones, your spouse, children, anyone else you care about don't have to deal with confusion, drama, or legal hassles during a time of grief.
- [16:43]
Buck Sexton
Without a will, your assets could be distributed in ways you never intended. There are some states where a healthy percentage of your assets are taxed before any distributions are even provided, and you certainly don't want that to happen. People you love might be left out entirely as well. Probate is often complicated and expensive, but it's avoidable when you put a simple trust in place.
- [17:04]
Clay Travis
A trust and a will set a clear plan for how you want your estate handled. They're simple, affordable, and they'll give you peace of mind. I have one. And I know my family won't face unnecessary stress when I'm gone.
- [17:17]
Buck Sexton
Visit Trust and Willcom today. They're experts in creating personalized wills and trusts that protect your legacy. Visit trustandwill.com start today.
- [17:26]
Leon Nayfak
In the fall of 1986, Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency.
- [17:35]
Buck Sexton
Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir?
- [17:39]
Leon Nayfak
No one was letting it became known as the Iran Contra affair.
- [17:43]
Donald Trump
And I'm not taking any more questions. In just a second, I'm going to ask.
- [17:48]
Leon Nayfak
I'm Leon Naifak, co creator of Slow Burn. In my podcast Iran Contra, you'll hear all the unbelievable details of a scandal that captivated the nation nearly 40 years ago, but which few of us still remember today.
- [18:07]
Buck Sexton
The things that happened were so bizarre.
- [18:09]
Donald Trump
And insane, I can't begin to tell you.
- [18:12]
Buck Sexton
Please do.
- [18:18]
Leon Nayfak
To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.
- [18:39]
Buck Sexton
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. So we're talking a lot about the big beautiful bill. It's, it's huge. It's a fantastic bill. And that's good. You know, Clay, we got some other things that we will hit. I just want to give everyone a little, little preview of it. You see, James Comey is making the rounds now.
- [18:58]
Clay Travis
Yes.
- [19:00]
Buck Sexton
And that is something that we will have some fun with because I think he's second only to Fauci in terms of awful government employees. I think Foushee is still number one. I think Comey's number number two for sure. And then we have a represent a member of the U.S. house of Representatives charged with assault. You see that one, too?
- [19:23]
Clay Travis
Yeah. They dropped the charges against the mayor, I guess because on video the congresswoman was more significantly engaged in pushing and shoving. And so all of that is a, is a, is a mess for Democrats. And I would just point out that what happened to Santos when he was forced from office, Democrats will not do it. Right. So she's charged with all these criminal charges came down yesterday. And there will not be any demand or consequences for her from, for purposes of not being able to, to stay in office. So we will see what exactly happens with that. We'll break all that down for you. And more fallout of the Biden health lies. Much to discuss there as well. But you know what they say. April showers bring May flowers. In fact, we got big May showers rolling through right now. They also cause some clogged gutters. You can do something about it without having to climb up a ladder. Go to leaffilter.com clayandbuck they'll help you clean out, realign, seal your gutters before installing leaffilters award winning patented technology. A clean gutter clears the way for a carefree summer. Gutter clogs aren't just a nuisance. They can cause extensive water damage. Let Leaffilter's trusted pro help protect your home from flooding, foundation issues and more. Right now save up to 30% off at leaffilter.com clayandbuck It's America's 1 gutter protection system. Schedule your free inspection up to 30% off your entire purchase at leaffilter.com Clayandbuck that's Leafilter.com Clayandbuck See the representative for warranty details. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Tuesday edition of the program. Big beautiful bill underway. But I did want to hit this Buck. Was it Friday, was it Friday when Sherlock Clay was on the case about the seashells by the seashore, I believe. Friday show, right?
- [21:59]
Buck Sexton
Elementary, my dear Clay, Elementary. Yes, sir.
- [22:03]
Clay Travis
Well, finally, James Comey has gotten around to sitting down and having conversations with his friends at msnbc and he just doesn't understand what the big deal is. He was just on a beach walk with his wife when he happened to come across the 8647 seashells spelled out. He doesn't understand why he's in the news at all. Cut six.
- [22:30]
Buck Sexton
You are back in the middle of a political firestorm.
- [22:34]
James Comey
Yeah, for walking on the beach with my wife. So I don't know how we ended up here. Never occurred to me that it was any kind of controversial thing, but that's the time we live in.
- [22:44]
Clay Travis
I mean, first of all, is he a total moron? I mean, I, I, I, I mean this honestly, if you don't think as a former FBI agent that putting forward a 8647 message off a twice recently attempted assassinated president is going to get people to take notice when you post a photo on your Instagram page, why did you do it? I mean, you have to be a moron to actually argue this. To say nothing of the absurdity of him sticking to the story that somebody he has no idea who randomly decided to write a message in seashells on the seashore that he happened to walk past. I mean, this is next level crazy.
- [23:32]
Buck Sexton
I think Comey has a particular addiction to the sophistry of comeyism. What I mean by that is, remember when he wrote down the notes with the Trump meeting and then those notes were like relayed to the newspaper and people said, are they classified? And Comey was all, well, I was the originator. And they weren't marked classified and got on the, like. I think he likes to play these little semantic games where he gets to be political but act like he's not because there's no way he didn't recognize what that. Like, why would you understand what the 47 means without the context of what the 86 means? What is so fascinating about 8647, James? That's what I would want to ask him. What is it about that number? No, 8647 is what he saw. We understand what the implication of that was when he shared it, but I think he knew at the time, I'll be able to share this, get a bunch of attention. But also, nobody can prove my mens rea. Nobody can prove that I don't actually. Or that I do actually know what this means. And so I'll get a rise out of everybody and then go, oh, you know, did you ever have a friend in your circle, Clay, who's the guy who would either with you or with another friend, make the joke that was actually like a dig at the person and then be like, what do you mean? Like, I just thought we were having fun. Like, I just. That person always deserved a punch in the face because they're the most annoying person on the planet. Like, they know what they're doing, you know, And Comey is that guy. He's like, oh, I thought, I thought I was just sharing a seashells photo. I think he likes to do this. He gets some thrill out of playing these little word games with everybody.
- [25:21]
Clay Travis
And then he continued. He said he thought it was a clever way to. To express a political viewpoint. This is cut seven. Comey, 64 year old man on Instagram taking pictures of seashells by the seashore, talking about it on msnbc. This is cut seven.
- [25:42]
James Comey
Just again and again and again. I really thought that I was done. I was in another life. I was a grandfather and an author wearing, you know, sweaters and jeans. And then they went for a while on the beach and posted a silly picture of Shells that I thought was a clever way to express a political viewpoint. And actually I still think it is. I don't see it the way some people are still saying it is. But again, I, I don't want any part of any violence. I've never been associated with violence. And so that's why I took it down.
- [26:11]
Clay Travis
I mean, I, I just, again, I think your argument of, oh, you know, claiming that he didn't know what he was doing, he's just a moron. And I wonder how many of these people are in our federal governments in general. The fact that this guy rose all the way to the top of the FBI is staggering to me because you would think in most professions you rise to a higher level by having some degree of competence. I feel like in our federal government that is just not the case. And lots of people rise to positions of prominence simply by avoiding getting noticed. And then you just keep kind of sliding up the, up the scale of, of achievement. And I just look at him and I mean, he just seems to me to be just a total non. Entity. And remember, this is still a big deal. And I know we've got Cash Patel, and I know we got Dan Bongino at the FBI and I trust those guys to be doing a really good job. But one of the great unsolved mysteries of 2020 is who ordered the code Red on the Hunter Biden laptop? In other words, who knew that it was real and allowed the shutting down of the New York Post story and all these things? We still have no idea. I presume those people are there, but.
- [27:38]
Buck Sexton
Yeah.
- [27:39]
Clay Travis
Well, I can tell you that the whole Russia collusion mess and there were no consequences.
- [27:43]
Buck Sexton
You have to remember that in all of these places, there is a culture, a daily culture in the CIA, in the FBI of having meetings where you talk about sensitive things and there is no note taker per se. There is no recording of the meeting, obviously. In fact, you're not even allowed to bring your phone into the room. So it's not even possible for someone to make a surreptitious, unless they want to commit a crime. Surreptitious recording. So it's very easy to have conversations and have it trickle down through one of these entities for which there will be no record. And that's one of the challenges here. I mean, I can tell you that I know this. You know this from a law enforcement side for sure. Anything you text or email is effectively record for a court to draw upon. Well, they don't record your phone calls, so a lot of things get talked about on the phone that are maybe in the gray area of what we can and can't do in law enforcement with everyone knowing that that's not going to be able to be subpoenaed unless they're actively, you know, if they're already actively monitoring your phone, it means you're in a whole lot of trouble for something else. So there are, I'm just saying, when people see, like Bongino and Patel at the FBI, they're trying to uncover a massive amount of problems and fix those problems. And also the people there are pretty good at hiding problems and hiding their tracks if they want to be. That's really what.
- [29:16]
Clay Travis
Yeah.
- [29:17]
Buck Sexton
You know, it's not as simple as like, oh, we have the, you know, like to your point about the code red, like, there was never a code red meeting. We need to make sure that Biden wins this election. But could you have had four or five of the top people in the FBI meeting Comey's office and be like, make sure that our people know that, you know, we're weighing in on this and the following or whatever? Absolutely. And that's how that stuff really gets done. It's a little bit like a Mafia family. You know, the Mafia don, he doesn't write out in an email like, I need you to take out Tommy Tutos, but he whispers to somebody about Tommy Tutos and then he sleeps with the fishes.
- [29:52]
Clay Travis
Well, and then also, I mean, and this is something that I think is not unique to the FBI. But, you know, it having been in the CIA, there's a lot of guys and gals that are working in the FBI right now that believe their job is permanent and all they have to do is ride out the storm of Trump for the next couple of years and they go right back to doing what they were doing before. Right. I mean, that they are.
- [30:16]
Buck Sexton
And also I think a lot of them, even given the efforts to rein that in, we're finding out that as long as they have activist left wing judges on their side, maybe they are unfirable. You know, that still remains to be seen in a lot of these cases. So, you know, they've been operating under this assumption and Trump is trying to make sure that that assumption changes or I should say is shown to be wrong. It has not been shown to be wrong. How many people have been frog marched out of the FBI for malfeasance relating to Russia, collusion or anything like that? Effectively? I mean, none. I think that McCabe was fired and I believe he's had his full pension restored. So he was going to be retiring pretty soon anyway. So you could say, oh, he was fired and he was, yeah, but he's a hero to Democrats, he's got a book deal speaking circuit and his pensions are stored. So. But if you were lower level in the bowels of the bureaucracy, are you right to think that administrations come and go but the bureau is forever? I will. Look, Cash and Dan have been there for a hundred, you know, roughly 100 days or whatever it is now, it's very early, but I'm just saying if you are one of those people who was involved in this who's still sitting there drawing your paycheck and doing whatever you want use right now, think you're probably still good to go, maybe that changes.
- [31:33]
Clay Travis
And also they don't know who they can trust, which is a huge part of this. Right. How many people are actually trying to implement what they are doing. It's a super big challenge and I don't think it's unique to the FBI. I think it's. The reality is the deep state swamp. Employees by and large think that presidents are inconsequential to their overall ability to maintain their job and do whatever they think is important. That's why frankly from the get go I felt pretty confident that we could eliminate half of all federal employees and not have any actual disruption in our day to day life as non federal employees.
- [32:16]
Buck Sexton
One part of this that everyone should just understand, I think and it goes to why it's so hard to reform this. The federal government, the bureaucracy in a lot of ways is a jobs program. There's a lot of jobs that everybody knows aren't necessary, but somebody's getting a paycheck to do to show up and pretend to be doing the thing. And there's enough of those people that, and you know, they have families and they have, they have votes and they have the ability to make their voices heard. You know, it gets very, it gets very difficult politically speaking to rein that stuff in. Again, I'm not saying it won't happen, but I've, I said all along, even about Elon, who you just told me is saying he's pretty much done. I was like, Elon is used to being in the best possible way, private sector dictator. Like we're doing this, you're not on board, you are fired. He has tried to bring that discipline to the federal government and he's told us a lot of critical stuff and he's shown the public a lot. But you know what the bureaucracy has said so far we'll see.
- [33:24]
Clay Travis
That's the, that's the frustration I think of anyone if you aren't in charge. Like Elon has been in charge at SpaceX and Tesla and the Boring Company and now X AI he can make decisions. A lot of people don't want to make decisions in the federal government. They don't really want to do anything. And it's hard to get the federal government to move in any particular direction because it's a big sort of hot bound bureaucracy.
- [33:52]
Buck Sexton
I mean I can tell you one of the big problems they have and they had this at the CIA when I was there and I'm not, this isn't self serving but they have this huge 5 to 7 year exodus problem of people do this stuff for 5 to 7 years and then they, you know, there's a lot of reasons. Sometimes they want to get advanced degree or they, you know, they want to just transition private sector. But a lot of people leave the federal government if they go in. Especially the really the intel community because people go like if you're working at the Department of Agriculture you're probably just riding that out for, until you get, you know, all the way to your retirement. But in the, in the intel agencies and I'm sure the same thing is true, maybe less so at the FBI, but they were losing people five to seven years. And one of the big challenges is when you have so many people who are effectively replicating and even in a sense competing with your work because you're all doing the same thing and trying to get the same decision makers to pay attention to you, what value are you really bringing day in and day out? So it's like after, after five, six, seven, maybe eight years you've done cool stuff, you've learned cool stuff but then you have to show up and be like what am I really adding? And you know, if you sit there and you're the guy at this and now I'm really telling you what it's like. You sit there and your analyst, you know, I'm making up the numbers because this stuff is not, you know, but you're analyst number 50 who's working like the China Taiwan issue from your branch and there's, you know, then there's the Di DIA has a hundred analysts and they're looking at the China Tai and at the end of the day you're all trying to tell the Secretary of Defense or the President, you know, what you think the best, what you know, at some point you're just like what am I doing?
- [35:24]
Donald Trump
Here.
- [35:25]
Buck Sexton
And that's really the problem they have because you ask, you're like, what am I doing? And people say, oh, what about the field, the field agents, you know, the case officers, they have the same problem trying to get the same kind of reports, the same kind of information to the same hints. So it's very hard to keep people when you're like, what exactly are we doing here?
- [35:40]
Clay Travis
Sounds like Milton from Office Space.
- [35:42]
Buck Sexton
Yeah.
- [35:43]
Clay Travis
Or sorry, that's the head boss, not Milton. Poor Milton with his stapler.
- [35:48]
Buck Sexton
Oh yeah. Oh yeah, Milton. Milton is the, is the guy with the stapler Milton.
- [35:54]
Clay Travis
Yes. But the, the guy who's the lumbar lumber is. What exactly is it you would say that you do here?
- [36:01]
Buck Sexton
No, that's, that's not, that's the two bobs. You're getting the two bobs mixed up.
- [36:06]
Clay Travis
I need to watch the efficiency experts. Yes.
- [36:09]
Buck Sexton
And some Mike Judge movie is a fantastic movie by the way. Yeah, they're the ones. What would you say? You do hear devastating question.
- [36:17]
Clay Travis
It was more than a week ago that President Trump signed an executive order slashing the cost of prescription drugs. Going after the price gouging on prescription drugs you're now getting with Obamacare. There's a more formal name for that health care plan, the Affordable Care act. And it's anything but affordable, as you all know. Luckily, there are better options like Ease for Everyone compared to Obamacare. Ease for Everyone comes with a monthly cost as low as as $262. You get access to over 400 prescription drugs for free. Not just at a lower cost, but at no cost, $0. Unlike the broken promise of Obamacare, you get to keep your doctor. Plus you get free unlimited virtual primary care. You can have affordable health care for as low as $262 a month. Today. Go online to ease for everyone.com clay and join today. That's easeforeveryone.com clay. You can also find the info at the clayandbuck.com page on our sponsors page. Easeforeveryone.com clay in the fall of 1986.
- [37:35]
Leon Nayfak
Ronald Reagan found himself at the center of a massive scandal that looked like it might bring down his presidency.
- [37:42]
Buck Sexton
Did you make a mistake in sending arms to Tehran, sir?
- [37:45]
Clay Travis
No.
- [37:46]
Donald Trump
No one was let go.
- [37:47]
Leon Nayfak
It became known as the Iran Contra affair.
- [37:50]
Donald Trump
And I'm not taking any more questions. In just a second, I'm going to ask.
- [37:55]
Leon Nayfak
I'm Leon Nayfak, co creator of Slow Burn. In my podcast Fiasco Iran Contra, you'll hear all the UN unbelievable details of a scandal that captivated the nation nearly 40 years ago, but which few of us still remember today.
- [38:13]
Buck Sexton
The things that happened were so bizarre and insane, I can't begin to tell you. Please do.
- [38:25]
Leon Nayfak
To hear the whole story, listen to Fiasco Iran Contra on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [38:32]
Buck Sexton
Foreign. Welcome back into Clay and Buck. So we got a quick turn here. We'll get back into more of the stuff on Capitol Hill. Big, beautiful Bill, some updates there. Also, this arrest of a member of Congress for an assault on an ICE of an ICE officer, Immigration Customs Enforcement. We'll talk about that. But I don't know if you know this yet, but if you were to go to crockettcoffee.com and it is a fantastic place, a website that I'm hoping all of you have visited at some point, you will see there's the most amazing and delicious coffee you'll find anywhere, including the new mushroom blend. Now, mushroom coffee is different. It doesn't come in a K cup or anything. You just put it in hot water. It's got instructions. It's delicious. Really interesting. A lot of health benefits for it that people really, really love. And then we've also. I'm just making sure, Clay, as we do this. Yup, the Overmountain Club mug, the new Crockett Diner mug. We've got awesome new mugs which we will start using here on video on the show. But I'm telling you, Overmountain Club Clay, you know the history of this. Tell everybody the history of the Overmountain men.
- [39:47]
Clay Travis
Well, so first of all, these mugs are phenomenal because I just got them. They're oversized. If you're out there, I don't know what the deal is with the tiny coffee mugs where you barely can get a cup of coffee and they fit in. This is like I would want oversized mugs that connect with the history of Davy Crockett and the brave explorers who were willing to put their lives on the line and go places people had never been before.
- [40:12]
Buck Sexton
So join the Overmountain Club. The Overmountain men were a group of American frontiersmen from western Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Kentucky and Tennessee, who played a key role in the American Revolution, particularly the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780. So go join the Overmountain Club because it's cool. Crocket.crockettcoffee.com Go get some coffee.
- [40:41]
iHeart Podcast Announcer
Made in America means something to us when you invest 700 billion annually in American companies and the 13 million workers and families they support. You're investing in the success of Main Street. That's money powering growth in manufacturing, tech, energy and innovation. And it starts with private equity backing American ambition. Learn how private equity keeps American businesses growing@investmentcouncil.org paid for by the American Investment Council. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.