Hour 1 - The Best of Clay and Buck

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 1 – The Best of Clay and Buck
Date: September 1, 2025
Host: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Guests: Heather Mac Donald (Manhattan Institute), Senator Eric Schmitt (Missouri)

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Episode Overview

In this “best of” hour, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the intersecting issues of rising crime, the politicization of law enforcement, urban disorder, and the reflexive opposition to Donald Trump’s policies from Democrats. They host Heather Mac Donald, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute and author of When Race Trumps Merit and The War on Cops, for an in-depth conversation about crime policy, policing, and public order. Later, Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri joins the conversation to discuss federal law enforcement priorities, the politicization of the DOJ under Biden, and his new book, The Last Line of Defense. The episode weaves serious political and legal discussions with moments of humor and even a detour into the true history of flamingos in Florida.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. DC Crime and Political Narratives

Guest: Heather Mac Donald | [03:17–16:48]

• Surge of Crime and Political Response:
  Mac Donald criticizes the national Democratic stance on crime, arguing they defend the indefensible regarding DC's rising crime rate. She praises Trump’s recent “Liberation Day” speech for rejecting the normalization of urban disorder.

  “He has finally broken fully with the dominant ideology in America, which is to normalize the unacceptable, to define deviancy down. And Trump is saying we are no longer going to make excuses for crime.” – Heather Mac Donald [04:10]

• Race and Criminal Justice:
  She asserts that modern criminal justice arguments from the left are “almost entirely” driven by racial considerations and “playing the race card,” normalizing high rates of urban crime.

• New York Times Shift:
  Buck notes a recent NYT editorial conceding that “defund the police” policies led to higher crime—Mac Donald interprets this as “a little tiny island of sanity” amid the paper’s usual coverage and cites the importance of supporting police in black communities.

  “If your claim is to care about black lives, you have to support the police because they are the strongest agency...dedicated to saving black lives.” – Heather Mac Donald [07:41]

• Crime Stats Integrity:
  Clay brings up whether police departments might fudge crime statistics. Mac Donald details both the potential incentives and internal anti-corruption efforts but emphasizes that even with drops, DC’s crime rates remain unacceptable.

  “The fact is you can concede that crime has dropped...and still say, so what?...None of that is acceptable.” – Heather Mac Donald [10:45]

• Juvenile Crime and Policy Failure:
  She provides alarming examples—including children as young as 12–15 involved in deadly crimes—in support of claims that DC has become “soft on crime.” She attributes this to racial disparities driving progressive prosecutors to avoid enforcement.

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2. Best Practices in Crime Control

Guest: Heather Mac Donald | [13:46–16:48]

• Cities with Effective Policies:
  Mac Donald singles out New York City during the Compstat era (Bratton, Safer, Kelly) as a model, citing an 80% reduction in homicides by enforcing the law and maintaining public order.

  “You cannot have public space overcome by people urinating, defecating, shooting up, drugs in public. This is not acceptable. We cannot define deviancy down.” – Heather Mac Donald [15:20]

• Broken Windows and Public Order:
  She argues that focusing on public disorder (i.e., “broken windows” policing) and maintaining proactive law enforcement are critical.

• Trump’s Urban Policy Instincts:
  Mac Donald aligns Trump’s instincts with an uncompromising view that no amount of crime is acceptable in a civilized society.

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3. Listener Q&A and Flamingo Trivia

[21:07–23:51]

• Flamingo Debate:
  A lighthearted exchange explores the history of flamingos in Florida. Listeners weigh in that flamingos were almost wiped out for their feathers but have recently started to return. Clay insists the cultural association is due to Miami Vice and a flock of imported African flamingos—not native Florida birds.

  “The only flamingos you’re gonna see in Florida are the lawn ornaments out there. I’m just telling you guys the truth.” – Clay Travis [23:38]

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4. Law Enforcement, Legal Battles, and DOJ Politicization

Guest: Senator Eric Schmitt | [23:53–35:56]

• Federal Support to Combat Crime:
  Clay asks how federal resources could help clean up crime in St. Louis. Schmitt promotes getting federal law enforcement out from DC and expanding successful state-federal partnerships (like Missouri’s Safer Streets Initiative) to add prosecutorial capacity.

  “We created something called the Safer Streets Initiative, where we had deputy attorney generals…deputized as Assistant U.S. Attorneys...it was a really successful program.” – Senator Eric Schmitt [25:13]

• DOJ Focus and Political Weaponization:
  Schmitt criticizes how, under Biden, the DOJ devolved into politics and censorship instead of fighting crime, scrapping programs that worked under Trump.

• Democratic Opposition to Trump’s Popular Policies:
  The hosts and Schmitt discuss the psychological reflex among Democrats to oppose Trump policies—even those with broad support like crime reduction, women’s sports protections, or seeking peace in Ukraine.

  “It truly is a psychosis...Trump Derangement Syndrome is real and it manifests itself in just some crazy ways.” – Senator Eric Schmitt [26:54]

• Lawfare and Historical Perspective:
  Schmitt frames recent legal actions against Trump (multiple criminal cases) as unprecedented and a betrayal of public trust, urging conservatives not to forget the “dark days” of weaponized prosecutions, lockdowns, and state censorship.

• Conservative Legal Victories:
  He highlights legal wins against mask mandates, vaccine requirements, censorship, and student debt forgiveness, attributing them to principled legal defense.

• Social Media, Section 230, and Accountability:
  Buck prompts a discussion of how tech giants banned Trump (even from Pinterest), and Schmitt supports reforms: tech companies must choose to be platforms or publishers, and bureaucrats infringing on free speech should be individually liable.

  “You don’t get to have it both ways...If you’re engaged in suppressing somebody’s First Amendment rights, you individually ought to be able to be sued.” – Senator Eric Schmitt [32:46]

• Overcoming DC Jury Bias:
  Schmitt suggests that because alleged conspiracies “emanate out,” legal action can be pursued in jurisdictions beyond D.C. (e.g., Florida), not just before DC’s overwhelmingly Democratic juries.

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5. Everglades, Invasive Species, and Florida Oddities

[39:48–43:51]

• Urban Order Detour:
  Buck and Clay riff on the risks posed by alligators, pythons, and other invasive species in the Everglades, musing about setting up immigration detention sites there. They note many “Florida” animals (like flamingos) are actually not native, reflecting on cultural myths and the state’s history of introduced species.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

1. On Crime Normalization:
   “Democrats have spent decades trying to write this off to say, well, it’s just kind of a normal aspect of cities...They are defending the indefensible.”
   — Heather Mac Donald [04:25]

2. Policing and Black Lives:
   “If your claim is to care about black lives, you have to support the police because they are the strongest agency in any city in any state that is dedicated to saving black lives.”
   — Heather Mac Donald [07:41]

3. Crime Drops but Still Unacceptable:
   “The fact is you can concede that crime has dropped...and still say, so what?...Is it acceptable that every single day in Washington D.C. there were 10 violent crimes, 14 car thefts, six, three juveniles shot a day? Is that acceptable?...None of that is acceptable.”
   — Heather Mac Donald [10:39]

4. Reflexive Democratic Opposition to Trump:
   “It truly is a psychosis...Trump Derangement Syndrome is real and it manifests itself in just some crazy ways.”
   — Senator Eric Schmitt [26:54]

5. On Tech Companies and Censorship:
   “You don’t get to have it both ways...If you’re engaged in suppressing somebody’s First Amendment rights, you individually ought to be able to be sued.”
   — Senator Eric Schmitt [32:46]

6. On Flamingo Lore in Florida:
   “The only flamingos you’re gonna see in Florida are the lawn ornaments out there. I’m just telling you guys the truth.”
   — Clay Travis [23:38]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:17–16:48: Interview with Heather Mac Donald on DC crime, policing, and political narratives
• 21:07–23:51: Listener Q&A – Flamingos in Florida
• 23:53–35:56: Interview with Senator Eric Schmitt on DOJ, lawfare, legal victories, and future strategies
• 39:48–43:51: Humorous segment on Everglades wildlife and Florida animal myths

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Language & Tone

The episode combines blunt, data-driven critiques with a conversational and occasionally tongue-in-cheek style typical of the hosts. Both expert interviews and lighter exchanges (e.g., flamingo trivia) reflect an irreverent, combative, and populist sensibility aimed at engaging and mobilizing a center-right audience.

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Takeaway

This “best of” hour is a comprehensive snapshot of Clay and Buck’s approach: no-holds-barred criticism of progressive crime policy, celebration of law enforcement, warnings about politicized government and tech, and the conviction that Trump’s stance on urban disorder could have transformative electoral and cultural effects. The show underscores the importance of standing firm on law and order—regardless of partisan headwinds—while keeping things relatable, humorous, and rooted in pop culture.

Transcript

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Start your seven day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox One for complete terms and conditions. Fox one we live for live streaming.

[Buck Sexton]

Now take a deep dive into the.

[Clay Travis]

Stories making the news headlines across the world.

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[Clay Travis]

Affairs and The News Agents USA listening.

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[Clay Travis]

Visit puretalk.com buck to get your free phone today and to switch to my wireless company, that's PureTalk.com buck America's wireless company, PureTalk. Thank you for listening. This is the best of with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. We're joined by Heather McDonald, Manhattan Institute fellow author of When Race Trumps Merit and the War on Cops. Particularly apropos in light of today's discussion here. Heather, always great to have you on the program.

[Heather Mac Donald]

Thank you so much, Beck. It's great to be with you guys.

[Clay Travis]

So you must be watching this debate play out over specifically the D.C. crime rate, but more broadly, obviously this brings in a lot of arguments that you've heard from the other side in the past and counterarguments that you've been making. Are you surprised that it seems that so many national level Democrats have fallen into the trap of defending the indefensible, which is the D.C. crime rate? What's your perspective on this?

[Heather Mac Donald]

Well, I think this is one of the greatest moments of the Trump presidency. His Aug. 11 Liberation Day speech just sent chills down my spine. And I mean in a good way. Words like we are not going to let it happen anymore. We're not going to take it. We're not going to lose our cities, we're taking our capital back. He has finally broken fully with the dominant ideology in America, which is to normalize the unacceptable, to define deviancy down. And Trump is saying we are no longer going to make excuses for crime. This is something we can control. The Democrats have spent decades trying to write this off to say, well, it's just kind of a normal aspect of cities. A lot of this almost entirety of the criminal justice discourse on the Democratic side is driven by race considerations. They've of course, played the race card here. So no, I'm not surprised. It has just brought out their innate tendencies to normalize crime in an extraordinarily vivid way. And they are going to lose the debate. There's just no question. You cannot, as you say, they are defending the indefensible. Their argument is a set of non sequiturs. They say, well, crime isn't bad in D.C. because it went down somewhat last year. That's a. So what? The fact is, are you defending 3 year olds being shot fatally in the head, sitting in their car, as has happened over the last couple of years regularly. You cannot defend that. And yet that's what the Democrats are doing.

[Buck Sexton]

Heather, I actually thought about you on Sunday when I read the New York Times editorial which basically said, hey, Heather McDonald was right about everything, without saying Heather McDonald was right about everything. I don't know if you officially read that editorial, but let me just read to you from the New York Times Sunday and I want to just get your thoughts on the cultural winds shifting that would allow this to occur during the. This is the New York Times. During the 2020 protests, many progressives in embrace calls to, quote, defund the police, including prominent Democrats Kamala Harris, AOC Eric Garcetti, then mayor of Los Angeles. And the protesters had an effect. Officers were disheartened by public criticisms, quit their jobs. Police departments had staffing shortages. Overall, crime surged and Democrats have to recognize that they were responsible for it. And their arguments created this. Did you ever think the New York Times would say this when it came to policing? And what is the significance of them completely abandoning the cultural arguments they were making certainly five years ago?

[Heather Mac Donald]

Well, the editorial board would appear to be a little tiny island of sanity in the paper, large because their news coverage is continuing to harp on the theme that Trump is a fascist by daring to talk about crime in D.C. and worse, daring to do something about it. And this is all just a race based ploy to try and go after black cities. So there's an absolute split in sensibility there. But it is a good thing. I'll take every win I can get. It is a good thing that the editorial board has put out a little strand of sanity there that says that the police are not the problem in high crime communities. Criminals are. And when you demoralize the police, when you delegitimate prosecution and arrests, there's only one thing that's going to happen. You're not going to get peace. You're going to get more criminal victimization. And if your claim is, and this is of course a complete hypocritical pose, but if your claim is to care about black lives, you have to support the police because they are the strongest agency in any city in any state that is dedicated to saving black lives. They make arrests, they deter crime. The National Guard there is there now just to deter crime further. It is not there as some kind of occupying force. It is using its command presence. And when the cops back off, criminals take over. I have spent years going to police Community meetings in high crime areas like the south side of Chicago or Central Harlem or Brooklyn. And all I hear from the good law abiding black residents there, especially the elderly ladies in these fantastic hats, is the police are our friends. Please, Jesus, send more police.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. Heather McDonald with us here from the Manhattan Institute. War on Cops is her excellent book. Heather, you are somebody who also not just looks at the narratives, but looks at the stats, the numbers. And have you been able to. I know it's hard at some level because you have to rely on the DC crime stats from dc, right. Meaning that the police, if they're cooking the books, it might be a little tough to see that cuz you have to rely on the frontline numbers at some level that they're putting out there. But have you looked into that at all? Do you think it is possible and or likely that this 30% crime drop, which as you pointed out isn't even really significant, but that that 30% crime drop may be the result of some fudging of the numbers?

[Heather Mac Donald]

I haven't looked into that personally. It is in line with the crime drop that we're seeing in the rest of the country. So if it were like twice as much, that would be a real red flag. But I can say, you know, there's constant pressure and ironically in the police departments that are the best run, which means the ones that are most aggressive towards their own police commanders, that are demanding accountability, that are demanding that those account, that those commanders have a plan for lowering crime. And the top brass should be monitoring their numbers on a daily if not hourly basis. So those precinct commanders are in the hot seat under what was known in New York City as the Compstat system. They're going to feel the most pressure to get their crime statistics down. And if they don't have 100% integrity, they're the more likely to possibly declassify things. Muck around with how you categorize crime. The police departments that are lackadaisical, that don't have a strong commands structure, their precinct commanders are under less pressure. So it's a weird thing and it's something that departments have to fight. The New York Police Department has a whole unit dedicated to police integrity and going after corruption. And it's not well loved in the department, but this is a constant battle. I can't say in this case, but again I would say that conservatives should not be pulled into this game that the liberals are playing, which is that, well, because crime dropped 27% last year compared to its overwhelmingly high Post George Floyd race riots thing that everything is okay and conservatives saying, well, it's still bad. Is that a true crime drop or not? The fact is you can concede that crime has dropped in the last two years in Washington D.C. and still say, so what? I don't care. Is it acceptable that every single day in Washington D.C. there were 10 violent crimes, 14 car thefts, six, three juveniles shot a day? Is that acceptable? Is it acceptable that our homicide rate is 27 times that of London's and 60 times that of Switzerland? The only possible response is none of that is acceptable. And that is what is so thrilling about Trump's instincts. It's not even the details of the plan, it's that he has instincts that are correct, which is that any level of crime is not compatible with a civilized society. Children being shot, cars being stolen, mass looting going on, the carjackings. And it's overwhelmingly juvenile. 60% of all carjackings in D.C. are juveniles. TRUMP is correct. They are not punished. In 2023, there were five girls ages 12 to 15 who beat to death a 64 year old cancer victim weighing 110 pounds. They film themselves laughing as they stomped and beat him to death. None of them had long sentences. The most they're serving time Is until they're 21. Most of them will be out long before that. Trump is absolutely right. D.C. has a soft on crime approach. That must change, just as every progressive prosecutor. It's all driven by not wanting it to have a racially disparate impact on black criminals. All law enforcement will, simply because the crime rate is so high. In D.C. blacks commit about 96% of all homicides, even though they're only 43% of the population. Whites commit just under over 1% of the homicides, though they're 39%. You do not. That should not affect how you enforce the law. You enforce the law to protect the law abiding, not to protect the criminals.

[Buck Sexton]

Not only that, Heather, and the people who are the victims overwhelmingly would be black too. So when you say, oh, we're arresting people disproportionately based on race, you're also disproportionately protecting people who are race. Right, because most black murder victims are going to be killed by black murderers. But last question for you here, and I love all the data you provide. Is there a city or a state based on the data that you have seen that is handling violent crime better than any others and do they have policies that should be replicated nationwide? We're fortunate because we have these 50 different federal systems so we can try experiments. And the idea is somebody in a state does something good, hopefully it spreads. Is there any one city or state that you would point to and say, boy, from a violent crime perspective, these guys and gals are doing great. We should be copying more of what they're doing nationwide. Any positive out there?

[Heather Mac Donald]

Well, until recently I would have said New York City because of the Compstat revolution, the accountability revolution, where Police Chief William Bratton followed up by William with.

[Clay Travis]

Sapphire.

[Heather Mac Donald]

We are going. Go ahead.

[Clay Travis]

No, no, I just. Safer. Kelly, I was trying to give you the next commissioner, but go ahead.

[Heather Mac Donald]

Right, right. Kelly said we are going to bring this down. They brought crime and homicides down 80% by enforcing the law and above all by paying attention to public disorder. That's why also the Trump initiative against the encampments is so important, because this is something else that simply should not be tolerated in a city. You cannot have public space overcome by people urinating, defecating, shooting up, drugs in public. This is not acceptable. We cannot define deviancy down. So New York was very good in paying attention to public order, in using its officers proactively to use their powers of observation to stop people suspected of carrying guns. It had an enormous effect. They backslid in recent years. Now they've got a pretty good commissioner, Jessica Tisch. So that's good. But it's a constant battle and you know, we need politicians to have the basic expectation that crime is not normal. And again, it just cannot be stated enough. Buck and Clay, Trump's Liberation Day speech could be epic changing if people get rid of the idea that they should just accept squalor, disorder and violence as the normal part and also mass looting, mass shoplifting as simply normal parts of American cities.

[Clay Travis]

Heather McDonald, everybody. Always excellent, Heather, thank you so much.

[Heather Mac Donald]

Thanks so much. Mike and Clay.

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[Buck Sexton]

Now you can stream Fox News live on the Fox One app. Stay on top of breaking news and the biggest stories. Live as they happen, all from the FOX voices you trust, bringing you the coverage you won't find anywhere else.

[Clay Travis]

Start your 7 day free trial today. Offers are subject to change. Go to Fox One for complete terms and conditions. Fox One we live for live streaming.

[Buck Sexton]

Now take a deep dive into the.

[Clay Travis]

Stories making the news headlines across the world.

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The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me, John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast the News Agents Dropping daily, covering everything you need to know about politics and current.

[Clay Travis]

Affairs and the newsagents USA listening to.

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[Buck Sexton]

Hey, Buck. One of my kids called me an unk the other day.

[Clay Travis]

An unk?

[Buck Sexton]

Yep. Slaying, evidently. For not being hip, being an old dude.

[Clay Travis]

So how do we un unk you?

[Buck Sexton]

Get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me.

[Clay Travis]

That's simple enough. Just search the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show and hit the subscribe button.

[Buck Sexton]

Takes less than five seconds to help. Un unk me.

[Clay Travis]

Do it for clay, do it for freedom. And get great content while you're there. The Clay, Travis and buck Sexton Show YouTube channel.

[Buck Sexton]

One of our podcast listeners has got an issue that he wants to raise with you as we finish the Thursday edition of the program. This is Steve, who wants to talk with you about your big flamingo discussion yesterday.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, let's hear it. Let's hear it. Buck, check your history on the flamingos.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

I'm 70 years old and as a kid, before long before Miami Vice came out, I grew up thinking flamingos were from Florida. Chat GPT says that they were native but then went almost extinct. So check it out.

[Clay Travis]

All right. All right, buddy.

[Heather Mac Donald]

All right.

[Buck Sexton]

I don't know the answer here. I'm stepping out of this fray. This seems pretty intense flamingo war, you.

[Clay Travis]

Know, when you, you know, the zoological specificity necessary on, on this, on this show is quite a thing. All right, let me, let me just say this. This is what the truth is. As I understand it, there were flamingos here. They went extinct though, for about 200 years. Okay, so they were gone in the 1800s and 1900s and then they wouldn't. Weren't able to find any. And then the 20th century, they started to try to reintroduce some native colonies. And now in Florida there are about a hundred of them. But they are doing better than the dodo bird here, but not much better. Like they weren't around. And like I said, it was a flock of imported African pink flamingos. In Miami Vice that were not indigenous to Florida. That got everybody thinking about in the 80s. Oh, Florida and flamingos. Again, they didn't have. They didn't have flamingos in Florida for over 100 years, so.

[Buck Sexton]

And yet every.

[Clay Travis]

Everywhere you go, there's flamingo this and flamingo that. It's kind of weird, right? Like walking around Newfoundland being like, hey, the dodo birds. Not as many dodo birds, I'll tell you this.

[Buck Sexton]

All over northern Michigan, they've got bear in every business. Streets named after bear. I don't think there's any bear left up here. By the way, Jody. Jody says, love the show. They used to have flamingo. You got lit up by flamingo people out there also saying the same thing. They were decimated for the feathers used in women's hats back in the day. That's why they killed all the flamingos off in Florida. So I don't know, sir, you better step check yourself before you step into flamingo wars.

[Clay Travis]

Well, I'm just. They were gone, though. That's my point, is that there were no flamingos and everyone's talking about flamingos all the time. The only flamingos you're gonna see in Florida are the lawn ornaments out there. I'm just telling you guys the truth. You can come at me with whatever you like.

[Buck Sexton]

You're listening to the best of Clay.

[Clay Travis]

Travis and Buck Sexton. We're joined by Senator Eric Schmidt of the great state of Missouri. He's also got a new book out, the Last Line of Defense, how to Beat the Left in Court. It is out today. Senator Schmidt, thanks for being here with us.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

It's great to be up with you guys.

[Clay Travis]

Let's talk a little bit, if we can, about law enforcement, because you were the Attorney General in your state of Missouri. Now, St. Louis has had a crime problem for quite some time, and I'm sure that was a focus of some of your efforts at the state level. If you had the writ, the support, the backing of the federal government, whatever could be brought to bear. Trump administration saying, let's clean up crime in St. Louis and we'll give you whatever resources you need at the federal level to do it. Could you do it? What would change? How would it work?

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

Well, I think one thing is you get some of the federal law enforcement officials out of Washington, D.C. and get them out into the country. I think Cash Patel has talked about this, and I think senior leadership at the Department of Justice just talked about this. So there's just too many. Honestly, those folks are in D.C. and they're not helping, you know, take out the bad guys across the country, sadly, they're spending a lot of their time and we talk about it in the book Last Line of Defense in the censorship effort, Russia Gate, all this nonsense, all the man hours been wrapped up in this political weaponization of the DOJ as opposed to fighting crime. The other thing is one of the things that we did when I was Attorney general is relatively what was unprecedented at the time, we created something called the Safer Streets Initiative, where we had deputy attorney generals in our office deputized as Assistant U.S. attorneys. So we added the capacity of prosecuting federal crime. When you have, let's just say you have a prosecutor in St. Louis and she's gone. But Kim Gardner was a Soros backed prosecutor. If they don't want to do their job, then we worked with the US Attorneys to go take on carjackings and things like that. So it was really successful program. When Biden came in, ironically, he scrapped the program because he just, you know, this just was not their focus. So I'm glad President Trump's in there. I'm glad, you know, he's getting his U.S. attorneys. That's going to be kind of next up when we get back to get these US Attorneys in place across the country. And I think that'll help.

[Buck Sexton]

Are you stunned that Democrats seem unable to break the reflexive opposition to anything Trump says, even when he says things that are super, super popular with most normal people in the country? Keep men out of women's sports. Let's have less violent Crime in Washington D.C. hey, I'm trying to do whatever I can to stop people from getting killed in Ukraine, in the war there. All of these things don't seem particularly political to me yet. Democrats have so bought into Trump as Hitler. Trump is going to start World War 3, whatever negative you want to associate it with it, that they seem unable to acknowledge that he actually has a lot of good ideas.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

Yeah, I think it's less political clay and it's more psychological at this point. It truly is, it truly is a psychosis. And Trump Derangement syndrome is real and it manifests itself in just some crazy ways. I mean, you gave a couple of examples. They're already actually taking criminals off the street in Washington D.C. carjackings have been up 500 plus percent in five years. Clearly something needs to be done, but they don't want them to do it. You've got a president who has the confidence and the strength to actually try to broker a deal to end the bloodiest war in Europe since World War II. And they just tried to undercut him at every turn. And I think the classic example, which is why I don't think they've hit rock bottom yet, is this issue of illegal immigration. I mean, they cannot help themselves. Chris Van Hollen goes to El Salvador and has margaritas with an MS.13 member because they hate Trump so much. It's bizarre. But I think they've got a couple more election cycles in them where they're going to continue to lose before they wake up. And this is just no longer the party of Harry Truman or even Bill Clinton. This has been captured by the radical left.

[Clay Travis]

Now, you were part of some of the battles, legal battles, that the, well, the forces of constitutionalism and the rule of law, but also Republicans and Trump supporters were involved in in recent years. I know that's something you deal with in the book. How should we view the fact that they brought four criminal cases against a president? They held those prosecutions specifically so they would occur in an election year. I mean, on the one hand, Senator, it's well, Trump is president and all's well that ends well. But on the other hand, that is a shocking precedent, breach, betrayal, I would say, of the American people's trust. And they actually did it. I feel like we're still processing that that happened because it happened so recently.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

Yeah. And one of the reasons why I wrote Last Line of Defense, which you can get on Amazon right now, is there is a tendency, guys, I think, to now that the, that were past the fever dream, that the fever broke, I think in November 2024, this kind of crazy woke nonsense and the lawfare that was brought against President Trump to throw him in jail for the rest of his life, there's a tendency to kind of gloss all that over. But you got to remember the dark days I was on your show talking about. This was why I think your audience would really like the book. This was a time of lockdowns, compulsory Covid shots, open borders, DEI struggle sessions, ESG requirements, and a censorship enterprise so vast that the Biden administration instituted that was the biggest affront of the First Amendment in American history. This is all just like in a four year period of time where they opened up the floodgates on all this and we had to push back. And so while President Trump was out of power, we were able to kind of hold the line on a lot of this. For the calvary to arrive in November of last year, it did arrive and President Trump finished this, you know, epic, historic comeback. And we're talking about all the good things that Clay, you just mentioned are happening, the Democrats are still opposed to. But there's a lot of important lessons learned. I mean, whether it was, you know, we took that vaccine mandate case, always Supreme Court, we won. We took Missouri, took the student loan debt forgiveness case all the way court, we won. I sued 50 plus school districts in Missouri for their forced mask mandates. We won. We had the censorship case. And what that shows and what the story is so important. It's kind of behind the scenes. Look at what was it like to take the depot of Anthony Fauci? What was it like to take the deposition of Elvis Chan at the FBI who was pre bunking the Hunter Biden laptop story. We did all that. The point is you gotta have courage. It's a lot easier to just go to ribbon cuttings or just kind of walk along than it is when you got to stand up and fight. And President Trump, I think has transformed the Republican Party now certainly from the one that I grew up in, into much more of not just a working class party, but a party that's just not going to lie down. We're going to stand up, we're going to fight back. And if we do it, we can actually win. So the book is kind of a playbook on how we did it then and how we can do it moving forward.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay. I love everything that's happening now. I think most people out there listening do as well. Here's my concern. And you know better than anybody, because you were involved in so many of these lawsuits, all of a sudden it's acceptable to say, hey, we believe in the marketplace of ideas. Hey, we shouldn't be rigging the algorithms. Hey, we shouldn't be artificially inserting ourselves into the public discourse and manipulating the results. Yet 2021, every social media company in America ban Donald Trump from getting on. I like the joke because it kind of brings it home. Pinterest banned Donald Trump. Pinterest. Like he couldn't share his scrapbook collages for people out there. How do we stop this from happening when Trump isn't in office and may ensure that what we are doing now is going to extend into the future no matter who the president happens to be?

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

Well, a couple things. One is I think there has to be accountability for some of these actions. I think the most I have an op ed about this. I think you can draw a straight line like ironically, Obama has as immunity because of the case that was brought against President Trump. Presidential.

[Buck Sexton]

That's right.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

But, but But Clapper doesn't, Brennan doesn't, Comey doesn't. And if you can prove beyond this, you have a statute of limitation issues, but you don't if there's a conspiracy. It was an ongoing conspiracy. Because if you like the fuse in a conspiracy, whatever happens a mile down the road, you're still responsible for. And these guys knew it was fake. They knew it was bs. They laundered that stupid Steele dossier into an actual intelligence report and they tried to, not only a coup, but tried to sideline an entire first term of a president. And then of course, that was the impetus for all of the, oh, this is Russian disinformation, this is Russian misinformation. Everything was about Russian this, Russian that, even though it was all bs. And so I don't think we should just forget about that. I think there have to be repercussions in, as far as like social media companies, you guys know this. It's a good thing that they're, they have what, something called Section 230 protections, meaning they're a platform, not a publisher, meaning they're not legally responsible. If somebody has, you know, an opinion that you disagree with on that platform that's good for free speech, but you don't get to have it both ways. You don't get the multibillion dollar subsidy of being a platform where you can't be sued, but then also try to manipulate what's on your platform in an editorial like decision. So I think they got a pick. And if they pick the wrong one, then you're a publisher, you don't have the protections. I also think a reform that would be important that I talk about in the book too, is these individual bureaucrats. If you're engaged in suppressing somebody's First Amendment rights, you individually ought to be able to be sued. There ought to be an individual right of an action for an American citizen to sue you for suppressing your speech about, you know, questioning masks and how they work for kids or not. That would change the kind of risk dynamic that currently works because these, as you guys know, the bureaucrats aren't accountable to anybody. We need to start making them accountable to real people. So there's a few things that we can do. But I, you know, what we saw guys, in that four year period in particular, if that was going on somewhere else, like, you know, the lawfare and the censorship and all this mass migration, all this stuff that was being used with taxpayer dollars to fund, you know, we would be, the State Department will be warning American citizens about that place, but that was happening here. And, and again, the story of the last line of defense, which you can get on Amazon now, is about standing up, pushing back. If you do it, if you got the courage, you can win. And this is a playbook of how conservatives moving forward can, can fight and win in the courts, which we've always kind of resisted because we thought that was their terrain.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay. Procedurally, you're an expert on this. Democrats have a huge advantage in D.C. because they have basically a 95% approval rating in D.C. they can get any indictment they want. How do you deal with that? If you're talking about bringing conspiracy charges, I don't need like a, you know, law review analysis style. But just for, for me and people out there who have a general sense that this is, is a problem, how do you rectify that?

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

Well, once you have a conspiracy moving forward, it doesn't just exist exclusively in Washington D.C. it emanates out. So for example, and I'm just using this potentially as an example, but let's just say that the raid at Mar A Lago was really about getting documents back that they thought President Trump had as related to the Steele dossier. I'm just throwing out a scenario here. Hypothetically, of course, if that were the case, you've got Southern Florida is where you can issue indictments. Because again, remember, if Jack Smith is using a phony intelligence, you know, report that was generated by Brennan and Comey and Clapper, like they begin the conspiracy process and he's furthering the conspiracy in South Florida. Again, the jurisdiction that you can kind of work in gets much broader and I think that's one area that they might, they might look at.

[Clay Travis]

Senator, appreciate you being with us and just want to tell everybody one last time, go check out the book which is out today, the Senator's new book. Very important, very good stuff. The Last Line of Defense, how to beat the left in Court. Appreciate you, sir.

[Senator Eric Schmidt]

All right guys, take care. Thank you.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

You're enjoying the best of program with.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. I feel pretty good about the difficulty of anybody getting out of alligator Alcatraz. As a floridian, are you 100% behind this idea?

[Clay Travis]

Certainly getting a lot of attention and you need places where you can hold people, quickly process them and then get those deportation proceedings going. You know, you look at the numbers and I know the Trump administration is moving rapidly on this stuff, but when you see the flood that happened under Biden in four years, it's going to take some real doing here to begin to really chip away at the illegal invasion that happened in the country. But yeah, the thing about, you know, alligators, they're, you know, during the daytime they'll leave you alone for the most part. Not too bad. It's really at night that you wouldn't want to be trying to go up to like chest deep water in the Everglades and hope that you don't make some new friends. You weren't intending on that. That would be tough.

[Buck Sexton]

There's also crocodiles and as he mentions pythons, anacondas. There's a like basically anything can live in the Everglades and they do these python searches. I mean there are 20 foot pythons now.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, well, those are an invasive species brought here as pets. The pythons are pets that were brought here and released. Iguanas were pets that were brought here and released. Iguanas are everywhere. You'll see iguanas all over the place here. A lot of the smaller lizards as well, they're not indigenous to south Florida. They were brought here as pets. So that's why when you go to places and they say, did you bring any like animals or livestock products or whatever? Because if you introduce some of these things into the ecosystem, I think lionfish as well, which you can go and you can kill as many lionfish as you want down here in Florida. And you can. I think you can eat them. They have spines on them. They're very poisonous. Parrots are there. I live next to flocks of wild parrots now. They're all over the place here. Those were brought here as pets. So a lot of stuff that you think of, you know, what is not native to Florida or you will not find in Florida, Flamingos. Have I talked to you about this before? People think of. There are thousands of businesses and places. There's a flamingo park here in Miami Beach. Flamingo is everywhere as a concept in Florida. Flamingo lawn ornaments. We've all seen them. Clay. The flamingos that most people think of when they think of Miami were actually a flock of flamingos brought from Africa at the racetrack in the intro of Miami Vice. And everyone thought from that show, because there's flamingos at the racetrack, there must be flamingos in Florida. There are very rare, like a handful of occasions where they think that maybe during severe weather flamingos have basically been like blown here. But there are. There are not indigenous flamingos in any numbers in Florida, which I think even shocks some Floridians when they find out.

[Buck Sexton]

The most successful, most liked invasive species in American history.

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[Buck Sexton]

They did. It's crazy. People don't realize it. There were no bees, no honeybees in the United States or in the Americas until they were brought over from Europe. By the way, another crazy one, Tomatoes. Not native to Italy. We all think about tomatoes, like, because so much of their cuisine involves tomatoes. Not native.

[Clay Travis]

So they. They say now that they think there are up to a hundred flamingos in the state of Florida that may have been blown here during Hurricane Idalia. But there was a. There's been a long period where there were no wild flamingos here. So now they. There's like a very small colony of them. But it's. You know, I always. I'm down here. You see pelicans all over the place.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

And they're not as famous, but flamingos are the things you think of as Florida. They're not really here, but. Yeah. So that's. It's like the state bird for a state that barely has any of these.

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[Clay Travis]

Take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world.

[Emily Maitlis / John Sopel (The News Agents)]

The News Agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening, but why? From me, Emily Maitlis and me John Sopel with Global's award winning podcast whilst the news agents dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and.

[Clay Travis]

Current affairs and the newsagents USA listening.

[Emily Maitlis / John Sopel (The News Agents)]

To the news agents on America's number one podcast network iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search the newsagents to start listening.

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[Clay Travis]

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