Hour 1 - Subsidizing Fraud

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – "Subsidizing Fraud" (Hour 1)

Air Date: January 16, 2026
Hosts: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Theme: Examining fraud and inefficiencies in healthcare subsidies, the rural-urban divide in healthcare and politics, immigration enforcement battles in Minnesota, and international developments with Iran.

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Clay and Buck dig into the ongoing consequences of massive government spending in healthcare, especially concerning fraud within Obamacare and Medicaid. They discuss how rural America continues to be shortchanged by these programs, analyze the latest enforcement battles over immigration in Minnesota, and touch on Trump’s recent engagement with Iran regarding halted executions. The discussion is characteristically energetic and peppered with biting humor, candid observations, and their signature blend of news breakdown and political analysis.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Kicking Off 2026 and Current Events (02:29–06:25)

• The hosts open with banter about the new year and a playful back-and-forth about possibly broadcasting from Greenland.
  • Clay jokes about logistical hurdles; Buck touts Greenland’s “telecommunications capacities.”
• Notable Quote:
  “You and I are going to get to Greenland and no communication devices are going to work… if you’re hearing this, it probably means that we are unconnectable somewhere in Greenland!” – Clay Travis (03:59)

2. Healthcare Focus: Rural vs. Urban Divide & Obamacare Critique (06:25–15:00)

• Trump’s rural health roundtable is highlighted; audio clips feature his criticism of Obamacare’s urban bias.
  • Trump laments that only 7% of Medicaid spending goes to rural hospitals, saying Obama didn't care for rural America and only aided insurance companies (07:24–08:08).
    • Notable Quote:
      “They didn’t care. Obama didn’t care about the rural community. To be totally blunt, what he did care about is insurance companies. And this was a bill to make insurance companies wealthy.” – Donald Trump (07:50)
• Clay and Buck discuss perverse incentives in Obamacare:
  • Health insurers are incentivized to enroll as many as possible for subsidies, even if enrollees don’t use the insurance.
  • Many signed up "never even know they have it," and some “don’t pay even $5” (09:30–10:00).
• Arguing the system isn't real insurance; it’s a complex subsidy and profit center favoring large corporations and urban areas.

3. Fraud in Federal Programs, Especially Healthcare (11:05–14:07)

• Discussion on staggering levels of fraud:
  • Citing prior guest Scott Besson and Elon Musk: up to 10% of the federal budget (about $600–$800 billion) is fraud (12:05).
    • Notable Quote:
      “He [Elon Musk/Scott Besson] said we could probably increase GDP by a substantial margin if we just reallocated those resources outside of the fraud category.” – Clay Travis (12:13)
  • Much comes from healthcare, but also from other subsidized state/federal programs (13:00).
  • Fraud in Minneapolis’s daycare system is linked to why Trump surged resources to the area for ICE enforcement.

4. Political Impact: Census, Redistricting & Immigration (13:10–14:07)

• With increased deportations, the 2030 census—and thus the House of Representatives—could see less benefit for Democrats, since illegal immigrants currently counted in census totals help tip representation (13:30).
  • Potential for significant shift in congressional districts’ balance of power.

5. Rural Healthcare Funding (14:07–15:00)

• Trump claims historic increase of $50 billion for rural healthcare (“the great big beautiful bill”), emphasizing political loyalty and benefit to red-leaning areas:
  • Notable Quote:
    “We increased funding for rural healthcare by an unprecedented, record setting $50 billion over five years, which will benefit Americans in all 50 states.” – Donald Trump (14:51)

6. Obamacare’s Predicted Collapse Didn’t Happen—But Fraud Persists (19:37–22:12)

• Clay relays Wall Street Journal editorial numbers:
  • Enrollment dropped far less than experts predicted, indicating no apocalypse—but also suggests fraud remains rampant (19:37–21:55).
  • Around 12 million out of 24 million Obamacare enrollees report no medical claims—suggesting they may not even know they’re enrolled.
    • Notable Quote:
      “Doesn’t it seem crazy that half of those people would have no health care claims whatsoever? …The math just doesn’t add up.” – Clay Travis (21:24)
  • The requirement for just a $5 annual payment is suggested as a threshold for legitimate enrollment.

7. Ongoing ICE Enforcement Crisis in Minnesota (24:24–32:38)

• Tensions rise in Minnesota as both local and federal enforcement clash:
  • Reports of ICE vehicles broken into, firearms stolen; host notes that federal authorities pursue such crimes aggressively.
  • Scott Jennings (CNN) audio: Criticizes local officials—says using terms like “federal occupation” incites violence (25:15–26:11).
    • Notable Quote:
      “You have Walls and Fry and Flanagan and the rest of these Democrats in Minnesota radicalizing and propagandizing their constituency, telling them things that aren’t true.” – Buck Sexton (25:34)
  • Stephen Miller, former Trump official, calls protestors “insurrectionists” and stresses law enforcement’s national security priority.
    • Quote:
      “Right now, the insurrectionists have come out of hiding. They’re confronting our officers on the street. ... This is a national security priority. … It does feel pretty insurrectiony.” – Stephen Miller & Buck Sexton (27:45–28:35)
  • They discuss the challenge Democrats face in finding sympathetic faces for anti-ICE protests. Instead, too often the focus is on repeat violent offenders—some displaying face tattoos.
    • Clay speculates, “If you have a face tattoo, I think you are 100 times as likely to have committed a violent crime…” (29:23–29:38), humorously highlighting the optics problem.

8. Comparative Safety and Policing in Cities (32:38–35:12)

• Miami and Nashville are highlighted as cities that support their police—resulting in notably low homicide rates, contrasting sharply with Minneapolis.
  • Buck credits this to political climates in Florida and Tennessee that support law enforcement rather than undermine it.
  • Fewer murders in Miami and Nashville are seen as direct results of strong policies and police backing.

9. Progress on Overdose Deaths and the Southern Border (35:12–36:48)

• Clay notes a national drop in fentanyl/overdose deaths in 2025, suggesting stricter southern border controls have saved lives.

10. International Segment: Iran’s Halted Executions (41:00–44:06)

• Trump “truths” a thank you to Iran for canceling 800 scheduled executions.
  • Clay and Buck discuss whether this signals a real thaw or is a maneuver amid US military posturing (41:40–43:37).
  • Buck is skeptical it signals regime change or true reform, suggesting Trump views direct action as unlikely to topple the Iranian government.

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Notable Quotes & Time Stamps

• “They didn’t care. Obama didn’t care about the rural community. To be totally blunt, what he did care about is insurance companies.” – Donald Trump (07:50)
• “If you have a face tattoo, I think you are 100 times as likely to have committed a violent crime…” – Clay Travis (29:23)
• “Right now, the insurrectionists have come out of hiding. They’re confronting our officers on the street. … It does feel pretty insurrectiony.” – Stephen Miller & Buck Sexton (27:45–28:35)
• “Doesn’t it seem crazy that half of those people would have no health care claims whatsoever? …The math just doesn’t add up.” – Clay Travis (21:24)

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Summary Table of Main Segments

| Topic | Time | Key Points | |---------------------------------------|------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Banter, Greenland, show logistics | 02:29–06:25| Greenland jokes; rural America intro; importance of health care | | Rural health care, Obamacare critique | 06:25–15:00| Trump slams Medicaid focus on cities; insurance company profits; waste and fraud in subsidies | | Fraud in healthcare & programs | 11:05–14:07| Vast fraud estimates ($600–$800B/yr); impedes GDP; example of daycare system fraud in Minneapolis | | Census, immigration, politics | 13:10–14:07| Deportations, 2030 census, House representation; Democrats’ census advantage waning | | Obamacare fraud, WSJ numbers | 19:37–22:12| No “apocalypse” but fraud remains; millions enrolled w/zero healthcare claims | | ICE crisis in Minnesota | 24:24–32:38| Local vs. federal standoff; officials inciting; “insurrectionist” language; violent offenders as protest faces | | Crime data, police support | 32:38–35:12| Safe Miami/Nashville; contrast with Minneapolis; political support for law enforcement as factor | | Fentanyl deaths down; border security | 35:12–36:48| Overdose deaths dropping; border measures credited | | Iran halted executions | 41:00–44:06| Trump’s message to Iran; skepticism about regime change; US carrier moves interpreted as strategic leverage |

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Memorable Moments

• The comedic riffing on doing a show from Greenland, questioning remote broadcast viability.
• Clay and Buck’s candid takedown of Obamacare’s perverse incentives, using vivid examples and numbers.
• The direct comparisons of violent crime rates between Miami, Nashville, and Minneapolis, attributing differences to politics and public support for police.
• Clay’s tongue-in-cheek but illustrative “face tattoo” metric when discussing protest optics.
• Segment dissecting the role of fraud in bloated government budgets, painting it not just as inefficiency, but as a drain on GDP and effective governance.

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Conclusion

This hour of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show delivers a high-energy critique of government healthcare subsidies, highlights the political fight over immigration and census representation, and explores both national and international angles with depth and wit. The episode is a must-listen for those interested in the interplay between policy, politics, and the practical realities on the ground in healthcare, law enforcement, and foreign affairs.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome in everybody. Friday, January 16th edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. I say it because the month has flown by. I cannot believe we are already into 2026. I'm starting to say the right year or write, write it down more. So checks and things like that have been 25 for the first week and Trump is not wasting any time. We had a rural health round table this morning which we shall be discussing here shortly. Healthcare is going to be a big deal. Caroline Levitt gets into it, gets into it from the podium.

[Buck Sexton]

Feisty.

[Clay Travis]

She went mama bear mode on some, well, left wing hack to borrow from her. Oh, at the, with the Hill. A reporter from the Hill. I used to work at the Hill long time ago. And yeah, interesting. And then there's more on ice here. This is now the fight, my friends. This is what it is. They can't beat Trump on the economy. They can't slow him down. Maybe the Supreme Court will, but they can't slow him down on tariffs. But it is in fact on immigration enforcement that Democrats are making their big stand. Minnesota at the heart of this whole thing. And we'll give you more of those details. Plus Greenland, will it become Trump land? That is something that is very much in the ether, Clay and are talking about this. I think we're going to have to do a show from Greenland. This is one of these things that I've said out loud and now I'm going to make. At first I was kidding and now I'm not really kidding. I'm working on this.

[Buck Sexton]

I. You have been diving into this. I am going to. I am happy to go. I am going to. Before I. What's the, what's the opposite of Monday morning quarterbacking? I'm going to Friday morning quarterback this before even the game is played. You and I are going to get to Greenland and no communication devices are going to work. So like we have to bank an entire show that airs if we just can't get on the air in Greenland, right where we just come on and we're like, hey, if you're hearing this probably means that we are unconnectable somewhere in Greenland. Like this is definitely a danger.

[Clay Travis]

I think that you are underestimating the telecommunication capacity of Nuke the capital of Greenland.

[Buck Sexton]

I have more faith in, I have no respect in Nook's communication capabilities as it pertains to getting us on to 555 stations in all 50 states. Thank you for listening.

[Clay Travis]

I, I have been doing research into this. The best way for us to get a real sense of what could be, you know, how there's the Gulf of America. Now, this could be the Greenland of America. We shall see. But the best way to check it out is dog sledding, which some of our Minnesota listeners perhaps already engage in sometimes. But dog sled.

[Buck Sexton]

I've dog sledded before. You have? Oh, yeah. Laura Travis is a very big fan, having grown up in Michigan of winter related activities. And so one of the times when we were out, the boys ski. I don't ski. I'm a, you know, dumb redneck who never got on ski slopes as a young guy. So I, I, that's one sport I don't need to get into. But we got on the dog sled and it was super. I have to say it was pretty cool, cold cool.

[Clay Travis]

You might be back on the dog sled, perhaps with some native guides. The only thing is I need Laura Travis to give permission here. She's going to have to like, sign that this is okay. I don't want her mad at me if you twist an ankle or something on the dog sled or I'm not.

[Buck Sexton]

Sure if you want to go. She's been begging to go to Iceland for some time, which has become a very popular tourist destination for people who don't know. No one, however, goes to Greenland at all. So you and I would be among the first tourists to visit Greenland from the United States in the history of the nation.

[Clay Travis]

So that's something that's out there. We might wait a little bit because I'm not even sure you can get flights there right now. We might wait until the summer season there. So this is something we'll have to plan out. But Clay and Buck's excellent Adventure Greenland edition might be something that in fact happens on the show. Let's get into the news for a second here. Trump talking this morning at this rural health roundtable. Why does this matter? Well, health care matters to all of us. The cost is outrageous. The system is a mess. The government intervention in this has been nothing but disastrous. They've made it worse. Obamacare made it worse across the board and specifically rural areas have gotten the short end of the stick on this one. Trump was talking about Obamacare. This is cut to specifically and how Medicaid spending, for example, it's pretty much all just going into the cities, the population centers and a lot of Democrat votes there play two rural hospitals and.

[Donald Trump]

Communities were devastated by soaring cost and that continues despite colossal increases in government spending since Obamacare was passed. Only 7% of the annual Medicaid spending on rural hospitals has gone to rural hospitals. So there's only a very little. They didn't care. Obama didn't care about the rural community. To be totally blunt, what he did care about is insurance companies. And this was a bill to make insurance companies wealthy. And they did. They made insurance companies very wealthy. I would say they don't like me too much because they spent hundreds of billions of dollars. And we're going to have that money spent to the people and given to the people, not we're going to circumvent the insurance companies.

[Clay Travis]

Clay, he recognizes that if you're talking affordability, the single place where I think people are finding the most pain over the longest period of time is their health care costs are just outrageous.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes. And Obamacare is a failure. So by the way, is the argument that if we stopped some of these subsidies for Obamacare that you remember when, I mean, this was a big topic of discussion. I do think it's important to come back sometimes when these awful predictions don't come true and say, hey, remember when we were all told, I think that The Democrats said 7 million people would lose health insurance if the subsidies were dialed back for Obamacare. And open enrollment has basically ended and there's about a million less people enrolled in Obamacare than were before. You might say, ok, well, a million is still a decent number. And ok, but what seems to be happening, Buck, is, and this is why Democrats, the fraud is so rampant in all this health care. A lot of people are getting signed up for Obamacare, potentially millions of them. And the health care companies are getting subsidies and the health care is not being used at all. So this is real and I understand a lot of people out there. It gets into the nitty gritty. We don't talk about it that much. A lot of people that have Obamacare now, it appears when they basically have to enroll and have to get themselves enrolled, the health care companies are incentivized to sign up as many people as possible so they can take advantage of these subsidies. A lot of the people in Obamacare never use Obamacare at all, Buck. They don't pay even $5. So the health care companies are getting paid to cover people who either don't need the coverage or don't even know that they have it. Does that sound like a good system to you? It's waste with fraud.

[Clay Travis]

It's also not insurance, which we all know from do I pay more for wind insurance here in Miami where we have hurricanes than people will who, you know, live in. I don't know. Is Tennessee wind insurance a big thing, Clay? Probably not.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, we have tornadoes.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, sorry, Tornadoes.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay. Well, other probably. Probably. I would say Vermont. There's not a ton of wind insurance. I don't think they have very many tornadoes. Hurricanes typically not hitting Vermont. I would bet maybe you guys are going to blow me up and tell me I'm wrong. I would bet that there's not a lot of concern about wind damage in Vermont.

[Clay Travis]

You know, I have a whole plan that we need to just make Vermont red. Right. It's not hard.

[Buck Sexton]

We could colonize it very easily.

[Clay Travis]

Tennessee could lend us enough Republicans easily to colonize Vermont. I love Vermont as a state. It's beautiful. I used to go to camp there in the summers. I highly, highly recommend it to any of you if you can get there. But it's Bernie Sandersville. I mean, the politics there are. It's pure Commie. It's beautiful place.

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Anyway.

[Clay Travis]

Well, I'll talk about my Vermont planet. I got Greenland, I got Takeover Vermont for the Republicans. I got a lot of things going on here. But back to the health care thing, Clay, we don't. It's not actually insurance because the whole system is set up so that people who are young and healthy are paying for people who are old and sick. It's a transfer of wealth. It's a program of incredibly complicated subsidies where the corporations also, because of the way these Obamacare is written and the way a lot of these bills are written up, the corporations, the companies, the health care providers are incentivized to deny a lot of claims for people. They're incentivized to make sure that they're making a profit as an administrator of health care, but they don't actually provide health care. This is what people don't understand. We have this whole system where with so much fraud and wasting it. Medicaid fraud annually, Clay, I think they estimate is like $80 billion.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, did you see we talked about this with Scott Besson. He came on and echoed Elon Musk.

[Clay Travis]

Well, he said 10% of the entire.

[Buck Sexton]

U.S. budget is fraud. Yes. 600 to $800 billion, depending on how you define it, is fraud. And he said we could probably increase GDP by a substantial margin if we just reallocated those resources outside of the fraud category. And so, yeah, a huge part of the fraud comes from health care. And obviously we're seeing a huge part of the fraud comes from any number of federal programs which subsidize state Fraud. Like what really started this whole Minneapolis mess was the degree of fraud going on in their daycare system, which led to President Trump's decision to surge resources there for ICE to go. After all of the fraud that's taking place in that community. We should mention this, too. We're talking to Ryan Gardusky next hour. He has pointed out something that's very significant about this and we should have talked about it. Smart. Credit to him for thinking of it. The amount of deportations that are occurring is potentially going to alter to a substantial degree the 2030 census. Because, remember, for purposes of House of Representatives representation, illegal immigrants are counted in the census. Roughly 720,000 citizens in each district in the United States, 435 districts, they count illegal immigrants. This gives Democrats a plus 10 or so benefit, at least in the House. And we're talking about the entire House of Representatives being decided by a couple of seats. So starting in 2030, that advantage is going to vanish. This is one of the big impacts why Democrats are fighting so hard. Their rigged system is collapsing around them and they're seeing it happen.

[Clay Travis]

Trump also saying here they've increased funding for rural health care. You know, rural tends to mean red in this country. This is cut one. Listen to what the man has to say.

[Donald Trump]

As part of the great big beautiful bill, we're increased and we have increased funding for the health care by an unprecedented $50 billion. That's rural health care. Nobody thought that was going to happen and we got it done. So we have rural health care for those that were trying to make a case that we weren't taking care of the rural community. I'm all about the rural community. We won the rural communities by numbers that nobody's ever won them before. And we're taking care of those great people. So we already did this. We increased funding for rural health care by an unprecedented record setting $50 billion over five years, which will benefit Americans in all 50 states.

[Clay Travis]

It's a big deal. Clay Trump finally able to do what needs to be done here.

[Buck Sexton]

Go ahead and I'll hit you with the data when we come back because I pulled this up. The headline in the Wall Street Journal editorial page. I'll hit you with some of these numbers. Editorial is headlined the Obamacare Apocalypse. That wasn't. They told you that if the subsidies were dialed back that there would be a huge cataclysmic impact on American health care. It didn't happen. The Wall Street Journal's got the numbers. I'll share those with you in a sec. But in the meantime, Cozy Earth first incredible company. Just flat out unbelievable whatever products you have. I was excited to get back home last night because I climbed right into my bed. Cozy Earth Sheets. It felt amazing. They just added a whole new line, Baja Bedding sets. Supposed to make you feel like Baja California. It's like just being right on the beach and living in the beautiful salty clean air. You're going to love it. That's Baja California right on the beach. They also have a luxe bath towels. I use these this morning. They feel incredible. Absolutely phenomenal. Cozy Earth Sheets. Both of those products come with 100 day trial 10 year warranty and they want you to be satisfied. They believe in the product. Go online to cozy earth.com use my name clay as the promo code for up to 20% off. That's cozyearth.com promo code clay and if you get a post purchase survey you can mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here. Cozy Earth.com my name Clay 20% off cozy earth.com trust me on this C O Z Y Earth. Check out the website today. You will love the products. Cozyearth.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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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show okay, Wall Street Journal, I just mentioned this, and again, I understand a lot of you don't necessarily get into the weeds of health care policy, but basically the shutdown happened because Democrats said this is going to be an unmitigated disaster if we don't continue subsidies for Obamacare. So open enrollment ended Thursday, that is yesterday. According to the Wall Street Journal, we have about 1.4 million fewer people who signed up compared to the 2025 number. Okay, the Urban Institute said that it would drop by 7.3 million. The congressional Business Budget Office presumed huge drops in the number of people that would drop out. And so the decline, according to the Trump administration, happened because they cracked down on fraud. And the paragon, this guy Brian Blaise, says that about 12 million Obamacare enrollees have no medical claims, suggesting they may have been enrolled in plans without their knowledge. Fraud may also explain why enrollment hasn't fallen more. Think about that, Buck. If you have 24 million people signed up for Obamacare, doesn't it seem crazy that half of those people would have no health care claims whatsoever? Yes, in a year it does. I mean, think about your life. Whatever you do for health care, I bet almost everybody out there listening to us at least spent a dollar with health care. All Republicans are saying is in order to be automatically enrolled, we think you should have to spend $5 on health care every year. I think what's happened here with Obamacare buck is it is a huge fraud laced program and health care companies are getting free rides because they're signing up people left and right. They're cashing all these subsidy checks without actually covering people because it doesn't make sense that 12 million people would not have a single healthcare claim on Obamacare if it were so integral to overall health care in America. Right? Sometimes the math just doesn't add up. Again, these are data from the Wall Street Journal.

[Clay Travis]

The more they dig into this, the more you're going to see what a mess the whole thing is. And this has been said all along. I'll just point out those of us who were ringing the alarm bell about Obamacare a decade and a half ago, basically wherever, 13 years ago. It's all true. Everything we've said is true. Your healthcare has just gotten more expensive. Access has gotten worse. There's more government spending involved. So you're paying for more with your taxes, you're paying for more with your premiums, you're getting worse care, you're having longer waits. All of it gets worse so that illegals can be covered. I mean, let's really get into this so that healthcare companies can. Not the place, not the people that are actually like fixing you, the places that determine who gets to fix you so that their profits are nice and fat so that hospital systems can become these massive private equity owned, you know, profit centers. Oh, there's so much here. There's so much here. If having more energy is your goal this year, get a subscription to chalk, my friend. I've got my chalk right here with me in the studio. All about health, all about fitness these days. And that means making sure you got the right chemistry. You got to get the chemistry right for your body. And chalk can be so helpful with regard to that. Formulated with natural ingredients, you have to worry about what you're putting in your body. Everything on their label you'll read, you go, I know what that is. And this is top quality stuff. Chalk is spelled C H O q. Take on 2026 with a little pep, little booster in your step, more mental clarity, more energy, drive and focus. Go to chalk.com check out these different products they have. I love the pre workout. I love the male vitality stack. They've got great glutathione though. So many things. The chalk daily. Go to chalk choq.com you get a free $99 bag of chalk lit powder when you use code buck. That's chalk choq.com code buck for that $99 bag of lit powder. Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. Things continu heat up over Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in Minnesota. Democrats making this their. Now is it their Waterloo or our Waterloo?

[Buck Sexton]

Right.

[Clay Travis]

It all depends. Which side of Waterloo are you on, the Napoleon side or the other side? The Wellington side of things. But they're making this their big stand against the Trump administration. And we've seen some really outrageous things. You know, the clay there was the breaking into an FBI car and they stole, I believe, a long gun like an AR15 type rifle out of the car that you do. They've arrested that guy. You do not want to steal an FBI agent's gun. They will, they will not take kindly to that. That is a serious crime and you will get into a. And as you should get into a lot of trouble for it. Scott Jennings up on CNN making the case here that the government officials in Minnesota are inciting. I mean, they're actually making this whole situation worse. This is cut 17. Listen to our man Scott laying it down.

[Buck Sexton]

The accusation has been by conservatives, including.

[Clay Travis]

By you, Scott, that he's been inciting violence. But we just played it there.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay, you, you cherry picked a handful of comments. Did you play the comment where he said we're under a federal occupation?

[Clay Travis]

Is that inciting violence?

[Buck Sexton]

Of course it is. What does that language sound like to you?

[Clay Travis]

You have Walls and Fry and Flanagan and the rest of these Democrats in Minnesota radicalizing and propagandizing their constituency, telling them things that aren't true.

[Buck Sexton]

And what has happened. One lady went out and got into a very, very sad and unfortunate situation. Three Venezuelan illegals came out and tried to beat an ICE agent to death with a shovel. Hordes of people on the street vandalized.

[Clay Travis]

And raided ICE vehicles and stole weapons.

[Buck Sexton]

Kevlar and documents and docs.

[Clay Travis]

People on the Internet last night.

[Buck Sexton]

Do you believe they are listening to Tim Walls when he talks about peace, or do you think they're listening to Tim Walls?

[Clay Travis]

He says we're being federal government. Good points there from Scott. They are clearly using language that is meant to inflame this situation to make it worse. Stephen Miller, he's straight up calling them. Stephen Miller's great. He's great. Have you seen the clips that are circulating, just as an aside of Stephen Miller when he was at Duke and the Duke lacrosse case?

[Buck Sexton]

And he don't want to take a shot at Stephen here, but he had hair. And Stephen Miller with hair is a very different image than Stephen Miller without hair. But yes, he was 100% right. For those of you who remember the fake accusations, 100% false against the Duke lacrosse kids when they were accused of raping strippers, black strippers, white lacrosse. Oh my God, they were. They were immediately tarred and feathered. That was even Buck in a pre social media era. Yeah, because I don't even know how that case would have played out in a social media era, but it was, I think fantastic. Lies were what one of the players said about those accusations. And Stephen Miller was on calling out it for bs. He was right on that. Even back in the day.

[Clay Travis]

I remember that one even talking among friends and family being like that. The whole thing's a lie. It was very obvious. But the New York Times front page kept hitting it as though it was a story of race and class playing out once again, as it always does. No, the whole thing's a lie. That's not how it plays out. Actually, the whole thing was false. Anyway. Stephen Miller, that clip has been circulating here. He is talking about the insurrectionist. This is cut 19 in Minnesota.

[Buck Sexton]

Hit it a Minnesota.

[Clay Travis]

Right now, the insurrectionists have come out of hiding. They're confronting our officers on the street.

[Buck Sexton]

They are being arrested.

[Clay Travis]

This is a national security priority. More arrests of insurrectionists are being made every day. And each of those arrests provides an opportunity to learn more about the network from a law enforcement and national security standpoint. Yep, Insurrectionist Clay, when you're attacking law enforcement in a group in ambush situations to prevent them from doing what, what you oppose, both locally and at a national level, it does feel pretty insurrectiony. And Trump has even said if this doesn't stop, he will invoke the Insurrection Act.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, not only that, Buck, and I think President Trump is right about this. Think about how crazy these left wing activists are to be showing up in 10 degree weather engaging in acts of violence against people who. Did you see the Department of Homeland Security just posted a video or, sorry, a photo, I'm sure probably a video too, but I saw the photo of one of the guys that they arrested for engaging in violence. A Venezuelan illegal that should have never been here. Now look, you should never judge a book by its cover. I will say, however, all right, I'm going to. I don't know how many people out there in our audience are.

[Clay Travis]

Some covers say a lot. Some covers tell you this cover.

[Buck Sexton]

If you have, if you have face tattoos, what do you think the rate of violent crime is for face tattoo guy compared to non face type tattoos?

[Clay Travis]

10X the general I was going to.

[Buck Sexton]

Say 100 to 100 times as likely. I think really aggressive. I think if you have a face tattoo, I think you are 100 times as likely. It's all men, by the way. I don't think that many chicks have face tattoos. If you are a man with a face tattoo, I think you are 100 times as likely to have committed a violent crime or have a violent criminal history as someone that does not have a face tattoo. And I think that might even be low. Buck was going to go 10. And when I say you look at this guy and he got arrested and Tommy Lahren posted a response on this. But who the faces are of the arguments you make matter. And the fact that Democrats are consistently picking guys with violent crimes who are illegally in this country to be their face of opposition is not helping them, I think in general. Now here is the challenge because I was reading from Axios this morning on it. Buck Democrats are having some success in convincing people who are not like most of our listeners and are not like you and me that this ice, these ICE raids are unacceptable and politically unpopular. And so I think that the question Axios, this was the Axios lead in their morning digest that I was reading this morning as I was getting ready for the show. I think the question is how do you combat this idea that the left has put in place that these are innocent people primarily that are being taken out of the country when I think the reality is most of the people that are being taken out of the country are violent perpetrators that we know they're criminals because they are illegally here. So they certainly are criminals. But I do think that's the question. I don't think Democrats have gotten the right face of the anti ICE protest yet. I think they wanted Renee Good to be that face. They've used her more. It's better I think probably for them than Kilmar, Abreu, Garcia or certainly this. These dudes who were arrested that got into that were one of them was shot in in Minneapolis. But did you see Jacob Fry come out and say, basically we only have 600 cops and we've got 3, 000 ICE agents in the country. Maybe we'll play that cut for you.

[Clay Travis]

Later in the state or in the city, rather.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, in the city. One reason they only have 600 cops is because they can't fill the existing police officer openings because they've been so disrespectful and lacking in backing up their police officers that if you could choose like hey, do I want to be in Minneapolis or do I want to be in Miami? You know, hey, I think I'd rather be a cop in Miami. They'll actually have my back. There are lots of places out there where cops are supported. Minneapolis is not one of those places.

[Clay Travis]

You know how many murders there were in. In the city of Miami, Clay? And I think it was last. Well, 20, 24 is the last one that we have the full crime data for Miami has about 600,000 people in it. There are 30 homicides in Miami.

[Buck Sexton]

That's pretty incredible.

[Clay Travis]

It's just not a lot of bad stuff, by the way, going on here.

[Buck Sexton]

What, what you would say, what I would build on top of that is city of Miami might have 600,000 people. Actually, the Miami proper is probably what, like 5 or 6 million would be my guess. Metro Miami is probably 5 or 6 million would be my guess. Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

Really, you could just do it with Miami Dade county, which. Miami Dade has 3 million people, so it's about 3 million.

[Buck Sexton]

So I bet the surrounding community of Miami, if you take in the metropolitan area, I bet there was only buck 65 murders in all of Miami. When you add up all. That's my guess. In all of Miami metropolitan proper. In other words, it's not just the city, Miami proper, that's safe. It is, my goodness. That area in general is super, super safe. And that is the case, for instance, where I live in Nashville. Nashville had 70 murders. Metro Nashville had like 73. Right. So if you actually count outside of the downtown district and combine everybody who lives there, there's basically no murders like taking place. I think we hit a 60 year low in Nashville here.

[Clay Travis]

Here we have a wonderful thing where. And it's even more so. And I have friends on the Miami Beach Police Department specifically, which is a different city technically than my. By the way, There were no. Actually, they know. I mean, if there were or if there were any murders in Miami beach last year, it was like three. It was very, very few. Because they, they usually fold that in with Miami overall, to your point. But here's why this matters policy wise, why it matters for Minneapolis and why it's part of our discussion. Clay, you have support for the cops in the city of Miami and in the state of Florida from Governor Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Uthmeyer on down. So they know if you're doing. If you're a cop here. First of all, they like you. We like you. Thank you for doing what you're doing. This true across the state of Florida and if you're doing the right things, they've got your back.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

And there's not, there's not going to be in this nonsense you see in these other places where we throw cops to the angry mob as some sort of a race communism offering to the gods or something. We don't do that here.

[Buck Sexton]

No doubt. And, and by the way the impact is tangible in the data as many things are positive. It's not getting that much attention in the grand scheme of things. Not only is the murder rate collapsing nationwide the biggest drop that we've ever seen according to FBI data. How about Buck, we'll talk about this maybe a little bit later and certainly it's a big story worth paying attention to. Fentanyl deaths, that is overdose deaths are collapsing in the United States. One of the biggest drops we have ever seen just took place in 2025. Do you think that maybe possibly shutting down the southern border and making it harder for people to cross into this country, do you think that maybe possibly that might have had a big impact on the safety of so many people in this country when it comes to drug overdose deaths, poisonings Very often the case by the way. We'll hit you with this and maybe some analysis. This just popped. President Trump, we've been talking about the tension in Iran. President Trump tweeting or truthing? I suppose I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings which were to take place yesterday, over 800 of them have been canceled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you. A little bit of an interesting again you never know what exactly Trump has got planned because there is a carrier I think storming, steaming maybe storming the.

[Clay Travis]

Abraham Lincoln, Clay's favorite aircraft carrier as.

[Buck Sexton]

It my favorite good old named one.

[Clay Travis]

Of his sons after the carrier or the president.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, that's right, my middle son. But so we'll see whether this is a little bit of a like dial back that is intentional and maybe not respected in terms of its long range impact. But that was just posted. Look price picks available in all 50 states. California, Texas, Florida, Georgia. Buck, write this one down. This is a winner. Brock Purdy more than one half touchdown pass. Drake May more than one half touchdown pass. Josh Allen more than one half touchdown pass. And Bo Nicks more than one half touchdown pass. Those are games that are taking place on Saturday and Sunday. They pay out at right at 2 to 1 plus you get a free square. So it'll take us over two to one that CJ Stroud is going to throw for at least one yard. They're giving you a free square right now. Price Picks Go sign up all 50 states. You get $50 in credits deposited in your account when you use code CLAY C L A Y. That is code CLAY C L A Y. Get signed up now. You can play in all 50 states. You can play along with us if you're going to be watching games on Saturday and Sunday as the vast majority of you will get hooked up today. Prizepix.com Code Clay $50 in your account. That's prizepix.com Code clay 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.

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. As we were going to break breaking news and Trump's. Trump has said thank you to Iran for not executing 800 people, by the way. 800 executions, Buck. Iran has a population of 90 million. This would be like the United States in one day. And some of you are like, hey, well, maybe they, maybe this is one thing that Iran got right, but this would be like the United States in one day executing 4,000 people, something like that, as a percentage of population. And most of these people that they were going to execute were protesters.

[Clay Travis]

Presumably here, though, are they going to let them out or this is some hellhole prison and beat them and torture them and maybe eventually execute them one by one. I mean, this is the problem Here.

[Buck Sexton]

Is what Trump said. Again, I gave it. This is the latest information on what is going on with Iran. I greatly respect the fact all scheduled hangings, hangings which were to take place yesterday, over 800 of them, according to President Trump, have been canceled by the leadership. Thank you. Is in your mind, Buck, as a former CIA skilled analyst, is this Trump sending up a false flag of positivity while steaming the Abraham Lincoln into the Middle east with potential other actions coming? Or does it represent in your mind a legitimate thaw in relations in any way?

[Clay Travis]

No, I think this is. Trump didn't believe that there was an option for US strikes that would bring.

[Buck Sexton]

An end to the regime.

[Clay Travis]

And so he looked at the options and said, we'll take something else here. I don't think that he's preparing to hit, hit Iran. I think that this was a situation, unlike Venezuela, where our leverage, our control, the opposition in place, all of those things were not strong enough for Trump to feel justified in taking kinetic action. So that means the regime is going to stay, by the way, which is what I told you guys all along. I said, if Trump doesn't do something, the regime's not going for sure. He's not. I don't think he's going to do anything, which means this regime is staying.

[Buck Sexton]

Which probably means that he's been told that his strikes would not have toppled the regime. Exactly. He decided not to make the decision to do it.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

So why send the Abraham Lincoln into.

[Clay Travis]

The Middle east as leverage because Iran doesn't know. Right. I mean Clay, it's, it's all about the unpredictability of Trump. That's where he is right now. He could change his mind next week.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes.

[Clay Travis]

So you know, he might decide something on that menu of options he was provided is necessary in fact or maybe something changes with leverage in inside of inside of Iran. But whereas I have high confidence that it'll be a little messy but Venezuela is going to start to be put in a much better trajectory. Iran, I don't think that we necessarily could have even gotten the outcome we want of the mullahs falling. So just with strikes, I don't think it'd be enough.

[Buck Sexton]

We will update you on more there continued fallout the opposition leader was was in the White House yesterday and gave Trump her Nobel Peace Prize. I believe we'll talk about that and more second hour. Plus our buddy Ryan Gardusky on redistricting that's coming. Nothing in life is free except this $10 that better picks is offering. Download the Better app, pick more or less on your favorite player stats, watch the games and win some cash. It's that simple. Must be 21 or older. In a jurisdiction where Better Picks operates, terms and conditions apply. Better Picks Sports just got better.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.