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Christina Quinn
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Elaheii Zadi
When I listen to the news, here's what I wanna know. Why this story matters, who's at the center of it, and how the reporters uncovered it. And as a journalist, I wanna make sure that's what you get too. I'm Elaheii Zadi, co host of the podcast Post Reports. Every weekday, my colleagues and I at the Washington Post give you the context you need on the biggest stories. Healthcare tariffs, artificial intelligence. We've got. Look for Post reports wherever you listen to podcasts.
Clay Travis
Welcome in the Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show Bucks out the rest of the week you'll have me solo as we roll through all of the major breaking news stories. And right off the top, I think Buck would have been just as sad about this news as I am. For any of us, particularly that grew up in the 80s and the 90s. Malcolm Jamal Warner from the Cosby Show Theo dying earlier this week, but just in the last 30 minutes or so. TMZ reports that Hulk Hogan, 71 year old wrestling superstar who was at the RNC last year about this time endorsing President Trump has died again. Age of 71. If you are of the age as I know many of you are who grew up in the 1980s watching wrestling or if you had kids that loved wrestling, maybe you did. Maybe you were a big Hulkamaniac back in the 1980s and the 1990s. I don't think there are very many people that were more famous in America in the 80s and the 90s than Hulk Hogan. 71 years old. I want to play a couple of cuts of Hulk Hogan again. The news just coming down. Hulk Hogan dies at 71 years old. Here he was last year. We played some of these cuts for you. Very funny. For those of you who remember the speech. Cut 26, Hulk Hogan at the RNC in Milwaukee last year about this time.
NFL Announcer
What you gonna do when Donald Trump and all the Trump of Maniacs run wild on you brother?
Clay Travis
Also cut 27 here. Remember he ripped his shirt off in vintage Hulk Hogan fashion. He seemed very good last year. Reports are early again that he had a heart attack at 71 years old. A lot of those wrestlers, what they put their bodies through have not had very long lives as many of you know. Here is cut 27, Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt off on the RNC stage. This is what it sounded like what.
NFL Announcer
Happened last week when they took a shot at my hero and they tried to kill the next president of the United States. Enough was enough and I said let trumpamania run wild, brother. Let trumpamania rule again. Let trumpamania make America great again.
Clay Travis
And that was an incredible turn on the stage. Now I know about that. My boys are big wrestling fans and I know probably a lot of you out there listening are as well. The WWE back in the day was the WWF brought Hulk Hogan back in and relatively speaking a warm embrace after scandal had pushed him away for some time. And he appeared on I believe the most recently, most recent WrestleMania and on several different of their events. So look, if you want to talk back, I imagine that there are a lot of you out there hearing this news that want to react. If you've got a favorite moment from the Hulksters era, you can talk back. We'll play some of those. I would imagine that this is something that is hitting a lot of people out there who grew up, like I said, in the 80s and 90s with Hulk Hogan as famous just about as any sports entertainer, media personality, frankly. However, you want to classify him as almost anyone out there and obviously a huge Donald Trump supporter and an iconic American original. I mean truly one of the most only in America as, as, as Don King used to like to say. But truly only in America I don't know that there are figures like Hulk Hogan who certainly had tremendous global appeal and would have been one of the most recognizable people, I think, anywhere in the United States, for sure. Even for people that did not care much about wrestling, he was just an absolute icon. So that news coming down, sad news. Ozzy Osbourne, for those of you who are rock fans, and Malcolm Jamal Warner, if you grew UP in the 1980s, 1970s, 1990s, those are three different icons that may well have characterize some of your youth. Okay, So I wanted to share all that with you off the top. I got a text message this morning. I was getting ready for the show, and friend of the show. We've had him on the show. Alexi Lawless, one of the best American men's soccer players of his era and a American soccer analyst. A lot of you know him, big fan of the show. Awesome guy. He said, hey, I was listening. He listens every day. And he said, I was listening yesterday. And I think, hey, man, I speak for a lot of people. The Russiagate story is just. It's a big mess. And the way it's being covered, it's hard to even understand. Can you give us a sense, just distill why it matters? Take us through it, I think. And he was speaking on behalf of not only himself, but a lot of other listeners. He said, I just think this is super complicated and confusing. So I took that to heart and I got out. For those of you who watch us on YouTube, go subscribe. We're over 90,000 subscribers now. I want us over a hundred thousand. But for those of you who watch on YouTube, this is how I do the show. I am holding up for you right now, a yellow legal pad. And I basically just. I'll sit here with a pen in my hand, and I jot down bullet points that I think are important to characterize what exactly a story is. Just a little a note so that. So that I know where I'm going. And this morning, right before the show, I took Alexi's comments to heart, and I just jotted down a flowchart that I think will simplify in the minds of people out there that are somewhat confused over what happened with Russiagate. I also want to open up phone lines, 800-282-2882, ask questions. There's nothing wrong with not knowing the answer to a question. Um, a lot of people have opinions, but I think very often the foundational knowledge is very important because it will allow you to have more intelligent opinions than you otherwise might. So let's go back in time. Let's go Back in time to 2016, to the election night, Hillary Clinton is an overwhelming favorite to win the election, according to all of the quote, unquote experts. I remember sitting, as you probably remember sitting, watching all those election results come in and seeing what was effectively a cataclysm for the media. All of their predictions, all of their expertise, all of their polls. They were all 100% wrong. And not only were they 100% wrong, but Trump didn't just win. He won what would have to be characterized in many ways as a landslide victory out of nowhere. One states that they said he had no chance of winning. Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan states that he would win again in 2024. But in 2016, they didn't see it coming at all. And so in the immediate aftermath of Trump's win, the media and the intelligentsia and the entire Democrat establishment had two paths they could have taken. One, they could have said, hey, maybe this guy Donald Trump is a much better politician than we thought he was, and maybe Hillary Clinton is a much worse politician than we thought she was. And they could have gone through all of the returns and they could have come up with a game plan to try to beat Trump in 2020 that acknowledged the significance of his win and also gave credit to him for being an elite politician. They didn't do that. Instead, they went back and they said, there's no way this result could have happened and happened in a legal manner. In other words, Trump had to have cheated. What are we missing? Everybody said Hillary was going to win. What are we missing? What happened to make Trump win? And instead of saying Hillary was a bad candidate, Hillary didn't campaign in the states. She should have. Hillary used her resources poorly. She was a thoroughly unlikable person to many, even Obama voters. Remember, Obama came out of nowhere to beat Hillary way back in 2008, despite the fact that Hillary had all of the advantages. What was it that happened? They decided it had to be something outside the bounds of normalcy. There had to be cheating going on. Trump cheated. And I believe what happened was that message was conveyed to the intelligence community, which also was stunned beyond belief that Trump could win. And so they came up with the idea that Russia put its finger on the scale and the story became manufactured narrative. The reason Trump won was Russia. And they even moved beyond Trump won because of Russia to Trump is and was a Russian agent. He is effectively the Manchurian candidate. They took that manufactured evidence that they had created in the intelligence communities out to the Washington Post, the New York Times, abc, NBC, cbs, cnn, Msnbc and they all uncritically took that expert intelligence information and trumpeted it as news and said Trump cheated. All of this was the product of Russia's interference in our election. And they did it by saying Russia hacked the election. And many people out there in the media, in the Democrat Party, you can say they're one in the same, decided to immediately put Trump under siege because the idea from the get go was that he was an illegitimate president. They couldn't accept that Hillary lost. Again, this was the original sin. They had two paths. Hillary just lost. She was a bad candidate. Trump was better than we thought. That is, I think, indisputably true. Instead, they said they had to have cheated. Let's delegitimize Trump. Right at the outset, they made the calculated decision, hey, this is the path we're going to take. And here is where I, Buck, we'll talk about this, because I don't think this story is going away. We'll talk about this with Buck when you come back on Monday. I think he would sign on to this. The intelligence agencies are so big that if you want to find a story to tell inside of that intelligence agency, there's somebody with data points that will allow you to tell the story that you want to tell uncritically. The Washington Post, New York Times, abc, NBC, cbs, cnn, msnbc, they all ran with Russia and Trump cheated. That's why they won the election. If you asked any questions about that, oh, you were complicit as well. Maybe Russia was paying you. All of that then leads to basically the entire Trump 1.0 regime being under siege from the moment they came into office. Attorney General won't end it says, hey, we've got to have a special counsel to investigate all this Russia collusion. Mueller comes in, spends years investigating, eventually, what does he come out and say? There's no evidence of collusion effectively, but it took years. That also, when we come back, I want to talk about this. It wasn't just 2016. All of this also set the table for what I think was the ultimate rig job of 2020, when because they had set the idea that Trump was Putin's stooge, that Trump was working for Russia, when the 100% legitimate Hunter Biden laptop, which indicated so much wrongdoing by the Biden family, when that was in FBI possession, they decided to say, the 51 intelligence agents, that it had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation, they then sold an additional Russia lie. The idea from the outset was clear. Trump is a Russian stooge. Trump is controlled by Putin. The only way he could have won in 2016 was by Russian interference was all a lie. And what Tulsi was talking about yesterday was that even the intelligence agencies themselves did not have the evidence to support the lies that they helped to propagate. That's why all this is significant. 800-282-2882 I hope I'm explaining that in a way that that is understandable, because I understand certainly how complicated all of this can be and how difficult it is to stay on top of all of this as well. We'll tell you more about this in the meantime, but if you've ever misplaced or had your wallet stolen, you know it's an awful feeling. Your license, credit cards, insurance cards, other forms of ID now potentially in the wrong hands. Multiply that by 10 when it comes to your online info, when a company database gets hacked, happens a lot. Cyber thieves get access to your personal information and then pretend to be you. It's important to understand how cybercrime and identity theft are affecting our lives. We recommend protecting yourself with LifeLock. LifeLocks Online Identity theft protection alerts you to potential identity threats you may not spot on your own, like loans taken out in your name or unwanted credit card charges. You should have Lifelock if you don't already join now. Say 40% off your first year with promo code Clay and 1-800-LIFELOCK. You can also go to lifelock.com use my name Clay as the promo code for 40 off. That's lifelock.com promo code Clay 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.
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Christina Quinn
If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this Dig in with Me on practical advice for life's common challenges. Follow Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. A lot of you weighing in with your own Russiagate questions. And another aspect of this that's important is all of the people that told you that Trump was a Russian agent, all of them that told you that Russia tried and basically did succeed in hacking the 2016 election, all of them are now telling you, oh, there's nothing to what Tulsi Gabbard said yesterday. They gave each other Pulitzer Prizes. The New York Times and the Washington Post haven't returned those Pulitzer Prizes that they got for 100% artificial fake news. At a bare minimum, if they wanted to acknowledge their complicity in spreading all of these Russian hoax lies, they would return the Pulitzers that they got for information that was 100% not true. But in order to do that, they would have to tell their audiences, hey, all those things we told you for years about Trump being a Russian agent and how Russia rigged the 2016 election with their Facebook ad buys and their email hacks of Hillary Clinton, all of that. Well, it didn't actually change the outcome in any way. And it turns out Trump won fair and Square in 2016. If they did that, they would have to return all the Pulitzer Prizes. They would have to acknowledge that they covered a fundamental lie for four years. And so they're not going to do it. They're going to tell you. I was reading the newspapers this morning. Buried on page A20 of the new York Times is that Tulsi Gabbard revelations. Cnn, we played that audio for you yesterday. As soon as she started to lay the case out, they cut her mic and went back to the studio and said, hey, we're not going to cover this. Lots of people out there who vote Democrat still believe that Trump is a Russian asset. They've even Tried to play that same narrative again in 2024. Anytime Trump has been remotely, remotely conciliatory in any way towards Putin as a part of trying to get a ceasefire in Europe, I'm going to talk about this more, why it matters, but I want you guys to be able to react. 800-282-2882. Cell phones meant to last a long time, not a lifetime overtime. Battery fades. Processor can't keep up. That's why you might need a new cell phone. And right now, with Pure Talk, you can get a Samsung Galaxy A36 for free with a $35 a month qualifying plan. Just 35 bucks a month for talk, text, data and a free Samsung phone with scratch resistant gorilla glass and a battery that'll last all day on America's most dependable 5G network. Here's how you make the switch. And you can also save $1,000 over the course of the year. My two teenage boys, 17 and 14 year old, are on Pure Talk phones. You can make the switch in as little as 10 minutes. Dial £250, say Clay and Buck to get your free phone today. That's £250, say clay and Buck to switch to America's wireless company, PureTalk. Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. A lot of people with questions that want to weigh in on the Russiagate story that started yesterday. So I laid out why I think it was such a significant story, why the people that helped to spread it are unlikely to acknowledge, hey, we got this all wrong, and how it completely attacked Trump 1.0 and threw them off kilter from the moment they came into the White House. And I think Trump has summed it up very well by saying, in the first term, I was the hunted. Now I'm the hunter. And to be fair, there has been no suggestion, hardly at all, that the 2024 election was anything other than a landslide triumph of an epic nature by Trump. So that now Trump's intense and significant political talents are basically acknowledged. And I've told you, and I am 100% confident that this is gonna happen. And some of you are gonna tell me that I'm crazy. But by the time we get into 2027, that is after the midterms next year, when everybody who's running for the Democrat nomination, when everybody's running for the Republican nomination, all of the Democrats are gonna come out and say, well, Republicans are never gonna be able to repeat what they had during the Trump era. They're going to Go from he was Hitler to he was the most uniquely talented politician in America since Ronald Reagan almost overnight. Prepare yourself for that, because they will shift their narrative on a dime. Okay? Now the question is that I think is integral. That's why Russia gate matters. Tulsi laid it out, I thought articulately, brilliantly, clearly. And I would encourage you to go listen to her 10 minute run through of all of the evidence that was marshaled from inside of the intelligence agencies. The other thing is Trump didn't have his people at the intelligence agencies in the first term. And I think he learned how important that is. That's why Cash Patel at the top of the FBI matters. That's why Tulsi Gabbard at the top of the DNI matters. That's why Dan Bongino is deputy director of the FBI matters. And I understand she has been under fire quite a lot related to Epstein. And we may talk about that a bit during the course of today's show, depending on how the Department of Justice conversation with Ghislaine Maxwell, which is scheduled to take place today, actually goes. But Pam Bondi, these are all people that Trump has faith in that he believes will have his back and that are finally going through all of these internal documents and pointing out the fallacies that are involved. Now a lot of you are asking questions. 800-282-2882. And we are now going to go through those in order right now. And let's start with Josh in New Jersey. What you got for me?
Caller
Hey, how are you?
Clay Travis
Great. Appreciate you calling.
Caller
Yeah, thank you for having me on your show. So even if the DOJ is able to lay out a very strong case, I'm just wondering if the past Supreme Court case that was ruled in favor of Trump in 24, that gives presumptive immunity for any acts of the president within their scope, within their purview. I mean, won't that work in Obama's favor? So even if you have the strongest case, it's unlikely anything will really stick because he has presumptive immunity.
Clay Travis
Thank you. And I think this is the irony. The best defense that Barack Obama 2016 has is the 6:3 Supreme Court decision that Trump won establishing basically criminal immunity for any president for activities within the scope of his presidential powers. And honestly, this is why there are gonna be people out there who make a lot of money telling you, Barack Obama's gonna go to prison for this in 2016. Just wait. I don't think that's true because I actually think the very first argument Obama will make, despite the fact that they told you it was a fascist Supreme Court. And this is how dictatorships happen. The very first precedent that Barack Obama's defense, if he were charged in this case, would point to is they would say Trump was protected from criminal charges for everything he did to investigate the 2020 election. Everything that Obama did to investigate the 2016 election is also protected. I'm just telling you that is what every criminal defense attorney would go to. And if you go back and listen to the tape on this show, I said the reason the criticisms of the Supreme Court 6:3 decision on Trump are so unfair is because that precedent is going to apply for every president that's still alive today. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and every president that's still alive in the future, whoever those may be, and President Trump today. So, yes, that's why I think the odds you could bring charges. But I think the number one defense for Barack Obama will be look at what you just ruled for the charges related to the Trump 2020 investigation into the election. All Obama was doing is the same thing in 2016. And I think that there would be no way, I think the Supreme Court would look at it and say, yeah, this is within his presidential powers. There's no criminal charges that can be brought on it. That's what I think. Good question. Jason in New Hampshire, what you got for me?
Caller
We could possibly even be able to tie in the legacy media and even also like all the politician Democrats as co conspirators because they were complicit in pushing the whole Trump Russiagate stuff. I was just wondering what you thought about that because, you know, yeah, you.
Clay Travis
Got cut off a little bit there at the front. But I think you're asking about sort of criminal conspiracy charges involving media and the people who fed them this information, given the fact that it's now been discredited. Again, smart question. How I would analyze that is this way. I believe the charges would have to be based on sharing classified information to media because, and I'm not trying to, to be their criminal defense attorneys, but your average reporter at the Washington Post or the New York Times or abc, NBC, cbs, msnbc, cnn, they're not actually that smart. And all they're doing is writing on the information that's being provided to them from inside the intelligence agencies. They don't get access to the wide variety, the huge spectrum of different opinions that might be originating from inside of the intelligence agencies. They are only writing on what they're being given. So to me, the most likely Charges here that would be able to stick are sharing classified information with the media. The challenge there is proving it. I think proving that the media knew that this information was not true at the time that they published it is hard to do. I think proving that they know it's not true now is very easy to do, which is why I'm saying the absolute bare minimum they should do is pull these Pulitzer Prizes. Jim in North Carolina, what you got?
Caller
Hi, guys.
NFL Announcer
So comment and then quick question. So I don't think they have any shot whatsoever at being successful in bringing.
Caller
Any charges against President Obama.
NFL Announcer
I do think there's a much better chance for Comey, Brenner and Clapper, however. And my question to you guys is, what about Hillary? Any, any chance at anything being brought against her?
Clay Travis
Yeah, I think this is the challenge with figuring out exactly what her campaign did to fund the Steele dossier. I think that's probably the best way that you could go after Hillary. And I don't disagree with you, by the way, about Brennan Clapper and all of these intelligence guys. I'm telling you what their defense is going to be is we had all this information, we had all these different reports. We're just trying to figure out what we think is the most likely. And so they're going to say, hey, we all we did was try to gather as much intel as we could, analyze it to the best of our ability. We don't have perfect vision on the decisions that Russia is trying to make. We're trying to put that puzzle together without all of those pieces there. And so proving intent is always one of the most challenging aspects of any criminal charge. So I think what Hillary knew and when she knew it is again, integral to potential charges as well. And I just think it's going to be very hard to go after anybody for doing anything other than leaking intelligence information. I think the Hillary campaign, and this is what I think a lot of you see now, and it's why it's so incredibly dirty. If Hillary's campaign had wanted to come out and they had said, hey, we think that Donald Trump is a Russian asset because we've been told that there is a tape from a high end, from a high end hotel that Russia has of Trump and it's compromising information and they're going to use it against him. If they had come out and directly said that, I think that would be different than what they tried to do, which is get the information and then get the media to write about it so they can cite the media's Reporting instead of putting it out themselves. And this is kind of the dark arts of politics in general. Usually. How do you think the media ends up with the. The nasty divorce details of a somebody running for office, or their battle over child support payments, or what happened with some business that didn't go well and they went bankrupt with it? That's all counterintelligence that is collected by the campaign running against the candidate. But instead of putting it out themselves, which would actually be at least somewhat honest, hey, you can't trust that guy because he went bankrupt because his. He didn't pay child support. Because all these things, they get the media to write the story, but they are handing the media all the information that allows the media to write the story. It's actually super dirty. Super dirty. And basically all they're doing is laundering the story that they want to tell and having the media tell it for them. And then they point back once you see it, you can't not see it. They point back and they say, hey, look, the Washington Post reported this. Hey, the New York Times reported this. Yeah, because you handed them that intel. Guys, look up this story. Do you know, do you remember where the whole Stormy Daniels story started? My recollection is that somebody from Hillary's campaign confirmed that this is correct. Guys. That someone from Hillary's campaign met a Wall Street Journal reporter in a public like park and just handed them printed off stories that they were just handing to them to try to get them to write about the Stormy Daniels case. That's my recollection for how it happened. I mean, it's actually. These campaigns are basically intelligence agencies themselves. And I think one of the lessons. And look, this has always been my thing. Cause I'm a history nerd. One of the lessons that people just don't really spend enough time on is intelligence agencies are always political. They've always been political. They just released a bunch of the MLK files. J. Edgar Hoover wiretapped Martin Luther King's hotel rooms back in the day and recorded him having sex with hookers. They spied on everybody. Rfk, jfk. When people come out now and they're like, I don't know how you don't trust the FBI. I'm like, have you ever read history? Our own FBI. Look at what J. Edgar Hoover did. He had compromising information on every famous person in political office for 40 years. And you think that's just now stopped. You think that somebody waved a magic wand and now our intelligence agencies are not political. I just don't buy it. Now, there are better ways they can be political. I think the FBI with Trump in charge is way more honest than I think the FBI was with Biden in charge. But there are just degrees of how much you can trust. I mean, again, I think in two years, in 2027, all the MLK tapes are going to come out. Go read the Taylor Branch civil Rights trilogy. MLK banged every prostitute on the planet just about during the Civil Rights movement. When he was shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, there was a chick he had just slept with, not his wife, in the hotel room. I'm not saying that to suggest that MLK wasn't an incredibly important and transcendently brilliant historical figure. I'm just saying they had compromising information on everybody. JFK used to have girls over to swim in the White House pool naked. The minute that Jacqueline Kennedy left, the Secret Service would run in teenage girls to swim naked with them in the White House. You don't think maybe that was a little bit compromising information that J. Edgar Hoover didn't know all about? I mean, again, these guys, this idea that the intelligence agencies are just out there trying to do their best, and they aren't political at all, man, these are killers. Sometimes, literally, there can be a lot of bad that comes out of them. And I think the 2016 was a lot of bad. And in two years, when the full MLK files come out, people are going to be like, ooh, man, this MLK dude, he was into some stuff. Just like a lot of people have found out about JFK and rfk. And by the way, Bill Clinton, we know what he was into. All right, we'll take some more of your reactions. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Imagine living for years with the sound of sirens alerting you to an incoming barrage of missiles. Your only thought is, where are the nearest bomb shelters? Even the most resilient people can't live like that forever. That's what life's like for the citizens of Israel. Which is why the support of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has meant so much by aligning yourself with this organization. We call them the ifcj. You're standing up not only for Israel, but the United States, too. And make no mistake about it, there are so many people that could use your help. We're talking about bomb shelters. We're talking about protective vehicles. We're talking about trying to keep the innocent and feed the hungry. I saw all the work the IFCJ does. It's just basic good stuff. Help to provide security inside of hospitals. I can't tell you how amazing these guys the work that they do is. It really is. They want to build more bomb shelters to protect more innocent people and that's what they use your money to do. Call 888-488 IFCJ. That's 888-488 IFCJ. IFCJ.org that's IFCJ.org sometimes all you can do is laugh. And they do a lot of it with the Sunday hang. Join Clay and Buck as they laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Christina Quinn
If you eat too many ultra processed foods, you could be starving your gut microbes and they'll get hangry. That's one of many things I learned after working on a new audio course about the gut microbiome. You can learn how to keep your gut happy by listening to Try this from the Washington Post. I'm Christina Quinn. I host Try this Dig in with me on practical advice for life's common challenges follow. Try this right now, wherever you're listening. Seriously, try it.
Clay Travis
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. This is what I was talking about. This from the Wall Street Journal, by the way, about how dirty these relationships are between media and the campaigns. The Wall Street Street Journal reported well after this occurred. How exactly they got the information, and this is pretty wild. It says the Wall Street Journal reporter met in person beneath the brass clock in Grand Central Terminal four days before the election and someone with a brown folder with a ribbon tie handed them the information about the money payments that Trump had allegedly made. I mean, come on, you want to talk about like that? Seems like something that would happen in a movie. They're meeting at Grand Central Terminal four days before and a ribbon report. Give me a break.
NFL Announcer
Football is back.
Let's go baby.
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Christina Quinn
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The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show: Hour 1 - RIP Hulk Hogan and Russiagate 101 Release Date: July 24, 2025
In this poignant and insightful episode of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton delve into two major topics shaping the national conversation: the passing of wrestling legend Hulk Hogan and a comprehensive examination of the enduring Russiagate saga. Skipping over advertisements and non-content segments, the hosts provide listeners with a detailed analysis, enriched by notable quotes and thoughtful discussions.
The episode opens with the somber news of Hulk Hogan's death at age 71, a figure synonymous with American wrestling in the 1980s and 1990s. Clay Travis expresses deep sadness over Hogan's passing, highlighting his immense influence and legacy.
Clay Travis [02:20]: "I don't think there are very many people that were more famous in America in the '80s and the '90s than Hulk Hogan."
Travis reminisces about Hogan's vibrant presence, particularly his memorable appearance at the Republican National Convention (RNC) the previous year, where Hogan passionately endorsed President Trump. He plays segments of Hogan's speech to underscore his charisma and the impact he had on both wrestling fans and the broader public.
Clay Travis [04:03]: "He ripped his shirt off in vintage Hulk Hogan fashion. He seemed very good last year... Hogan ripping his shirt off on the RNC stage. This is what it sounded like."
Travis also touches upon the physical toll of a wrestling career, noting that many wrestlers of Hogan's era did not enjoy long lives due to the intense physical demands of their profession.
Clay Travis [04:03]: "A lot of those wrestlers, what they put their bodies through have not had very long lives as many of you know."
Reflecting on Hogan's contributions, Travis acknowledges him as not just a sports entertainer but a cultural icon whose influence extended beyond the wrestling ring.
Transitioning from the tribute to Hulk Hogan, the show delves into the convoluted Russiagate investigation that has dominated political discourse for years. Listener Alexi Lawless, an American soccer analyst and a friend of the show, voices the confusion and complexity surrounding the Russiagate story.
Alexi Lawless [02:05]: "The Russiagate story is just... it's a big mess. And the way it's being covered, it's hard to even understand."
Clay Travis takes this feedback to heart, aiming to distill the intricate Russiagate narrative for his listeners. He outlines the origins and evolution of the investigation, starting with the unexpected outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Clay Travis [02:05]: "In 2016, they didn't see [Trump's victory] coming at all... Instead, they went back and they said there's no way this result could have happened in a legal manner."
Travis critiques the media's and intelligence community's handling of Trump's victory, suggesting that there was a deliberate effort to delegitimize his win by attributing it to Russian interference without substantial evidence.
Clay Travis [02:05]: "They decided it had to be something outside the bounds of normalcy. There had to be cheating going on. Trump cheated."
He further examines the role of major media outlets in perpetuating the Russiagate narrative, emphasizing their uncritical acceptance of intelligence reports that linked Trump to Russian interference.
Clay Travis [02:05]: "The Washington Post, New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC—all ran with Russia and Trump cheated."
The discussion extends to the long-term implications of Russiagate, including the Mueller investigation, which, despite its extensive duration, concluded there was no evidence of collusion between Trump's campaign and Russian entities.
Engaging with listener interactions, Clay Travis addresses specific questions regarding the potential legal consequences stemming from the Russiagate saga.
A caller from New Jersey raises concerns about the implications of a Supreme Court decision granting presidential immunity for actions within the scope of presidential powers, questioning its impact on prosecuting former presidents.
Caller [25:44]: "Won't that work in Obama's favor? So even if you have the strongest case, it's unlikely anything will really stick because he has presumptive immunity."
Travis responds by highlighting the irony and challenges posed by this immunity, suggesting that it could extend protections to previous presidents, thereby complicating any legal actions.
Clay Travis [26:14]: "The best defense that Barack Obama has is the Supreme Court decision on Trump, establishing basically criminal immunity for any president for activities within the scope of his presidential powers."
Another listener from New Hampshire posits the idea of holding media outlets and Democratic politicians accountable for their roles in promoting the Russiagate narrative.
Caller [28:29]: "We could possibly even be able to tie in the legacy media and even also like all the politician Democrats as co-conspirators because they were complicit in pushing the whole Trump Russiagate stuff."
Travis delves into this notion, discussing the potential for criminal charges centered around the sharing of classified information with the media. He expresses skepticism about the media's awareness of the veracity of the information they disseminated at the time.
Clay Travis [28:51]: "I think the most likely charges here would be sharing classified information with the media... proving that the media knew that this information was not true at the time is hard to do."
Expanding the conversation, Travis draws parallels between historical actions of U.S. intelligence agencies and the current Russiagate narrative, emphasizing a long-standing pattern of political manipulation.
He references notorious examples such as J. Edgar Hoover's FBI surveilling political figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and JFK, suggesting that politicization within intelligence agencies has deep roots.
Clay Travis [30:49]: "These campaigns are basically intelligence agencies themselves... intelligence agencies have always been political."
Travis warns of the potential release of compromising information on historical figures, hinting at the cyclical nature of political scandals and intelligence exploitation.
Toward the end of the episode, Travis anticipates a shift in political narratives, particularly regarding Donald Trump's legacy and his role in future elections. He posits that as time progresses, perceptions of Trump may evolve, recognizing his political acumen despite the controversies surrounding Russiagate.
Clay Travis [19:08]: "By the time we get into 2027... Republicans are never gonna be able to repeat what they had during the Trump era. They're going to go from he was Hitler to he was the most uniquely talented politician in America since Ronald Reagan almost overnight."
Travis underscores the enduring significance of Russiagate as a foundational element that has shaped and continues to influence America's political landscape.
Notable Quotes:
Clay Travis [02:20]: "I don't think there are very many people that were more famous in America in the '80s and the '90s than Hulk Hogan."
Clay Travis [04:03]: "A lot of those wrestlers, what they put their bodies through have not had very long lives as many of you know."
Clay Travis [28:51]: "I think the most likely charges here would be sharing classified information with the media... proving that the media knew that this information was not true at the time is hard to do."
Clay Travis [30:49]: "These campaigns are basically intelligence agencies themselves... intelligence agencies have always been political."
Clay Travis [19:08]: "By the time we get into 2027... Republicans are never gonna be able to repeat what they had during the Trump era."
In this episode, Clay Travis masterfully navigates the dual themes of honoring a beloved cultural icon and dissecting a complex political controversy. By intertwining personal reflections with rigorous analysis, Travis provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of both Hulk Hogan's enduring legacy and the multifaceted Russiagate investigation. The episode not only commemorates Hogan's contributions to American entertainment but also challenges listeners to critically evaluate the interplay between media narratives and political machinations.