Hour 1 - Who Do You Trust?

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Hour 1 – Who Do You Trust?
Date: October 2, 2025
Host: Clay Travis (solo, Buck Sexton in Taiwan)
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

---

Overview

This episode centers on the ongoing collapse of public trust in legacy media, reflected by a Gallup poll showing trust at an all-time low. Clay Travis tackles this crisis of confidence, what it means for American politics, and challenges listeners to consider: “Who do you trust?” He also analyzes the government shutdown—framing it as a power struggle rooted in Democratic Party divisions—and explores Democratic rhetoric around healthcare for illegal immigrants, connecting recent spending fights to COVID-era policies. Throughout, Clay invites listeners’ feedback and talkbacks, making the discussion interactive and dynamic.

---

Key Discussion Points

1. Media Trust Crisis and Clay’s Challenge

[00:44 – 09:00]

• Gallup’s Shocking Poll:

  • Only 28% of Americans have "a great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in media—a huge drop from 72-73% in 1980.
  • Clay: “We have gone from substantial majorities trusting the media to almost no one trusting the media.” ([04:10])

• COVID & Media Lies:

  • Clay emphasizes that the sharpest decline followed public realization that “much of what you were told about COVID was untrue.”

• Trump & Russia Collusion Hoax:

  • Media's repeated falsehoods further eroded trust, with even Democrats beginning to doubt.

• Who Do You Trust?

  • Clay distinguishes between agreeing with someone’s conclusions and trusting their factual analysis:

    “You might agree with my conclusion, but you should trust me less because you know that the information I’m citing … is incorrect.” ([06:50])

  • Uses Patrick Mahomes sports analogy: Factual errors undermine legitimate opinions, even if you like the outcome.

• Invitation to Listeners:

  • Clay asks the audience for names of media figures they actually trust—promising to revisit their feedback later.

---

2. The Government Shutdown: Real Story or Political Theater?

[09:00 – 17:00]

• Schumer’s Shutdown:

  • Clay brands the ongoing government shutdown as “the Schumer shutdown,” arguing that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is acting out of fear of being outflanked by AOC and progressives in his party.
  • Clay asserts:

    “Chuck Schumer is terrified of the left wing of his party. … This is about him trying to cut off some of the political support for AOC, who may well challenge him in the Democrat primary.” ([06:20])

• AOC’s Political Future:

  • Predicts AOC will run for President in 2028, and if that fails, she’ll pivot to challenge Schumer for Senate.
  • Discusses Buck’s prediction of a Gavin Newsom-AOC Democratic ticket in 2028.

• Shutdown Responsibility:

  • Clay insists Democrats are “100% responsible” for the shutdown and that it will politically backfire on them.

• Poll-Skepticism:

  • Plays a clip of Schumer dismissing a New York Times poll (“it’s biased!”) that says voters will blame Democrats for the shutdown.

    “It’s so bad that Chuck Schumer is having to say the New York Times is biased against Democrats.” ([21:00])

---

3. Illegal Immigrants, Healthcare Funding & COVID-Era Spending

[24:00 – 33:00]

• Are Democrats Pushing for Illegal Immigrant Healthcare?

  • Clay explains how federal funds, funneled through states, end up supporting healthcare for illegal immigrants—even if it’s not explicit in federal legislation.
  • He answers a listener’s email about the technicalities:

    “The money goes to the states … and all these blue states take your taxpayer money and they are using it to fund illegal immigrant healthcare.” ([22:55])

  • He frames Democrats’ denials as “disingenuous legalese.”

• COVID’s Budget Legacy:

  • Argues much of today’s budget debate is over “emergency spending” embedded during COVID.
  • Cites Ron Johnson’s proposal: “Go back to all the pre-COVID spending and just increase it on a rate of inflation…we’d all have a balanced budget right now.” ([25:35])

• Democratic Rhetoric Deflection:

  • Democrats frame any attempt to reduce COVID emergency spending as “mean cuts” to essential services, even when programs didn’t exist before 2020.

• Flashback: 2019 Debate on Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants:

  • Clay plays a clip of every Democratic presidential hopeful (Biden, Harris, Warren, etc.) raising their hand to extend coverage to illegal immigrants:

    “Every single hand went up. All of these Democrats support this, and it’s impossible to argue otherwise.” ([29:30])

---

4. Editorial vs. Factual Reporting & Decline of Journalism

[17:07 – 24:00; 33:00 – 36:29]

• Blurring Fact and Opinion:

  • Clay criticizes legacy media for blending factual reporting with editorializing, erasing traditional boundaries.
  • On factual accuracy:

    “You can’t have a strong argument without factual basis to support it. … If your facts are not correct, then the entire opinion can collapse.” ([17:36])

• COVID Lab Leak Censorship:

  • Recalls media branding the lab-leak theory “racist” and later being proven wrong.

• Quote:

  “What I notice is there is an intent in the legacy media now to constantly intermix fact and opinion…that’s one reason you’ve seen the legacy media collapse.” ([18:55])

---

5. Listener Talkbacks: Who Do You Trust?

[36:29 – 40:14]

• Listener Feedback:

  • Listeners weigh in on who they trust in media.
    • Biloxi, MS: “You guys and Ben Shapiro. Facts over feelings!”
    • Greensboro, NC: “Bill O’Reilly. Probably over everybody.”
    • Southern California: “Walter Cronkite and Paul Harvey. Nobody else.”

• Clay’s Reflection:

  • Nostalgic for an era when journalists like Cronkite and Harvey commanded widespread, bipartisan trust.
  • Recalls his father’s memory of hearing Cronkite report JFK’s assassination:

    “Cronkite was crying, delivering that news to the nation.” ([39:53])

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Clay Travis on Trust vs. Agreement:

  “Trust to me is different than, hey, I agree with this person on a lot of their opinions. Trust to me is, hey, I trust this guy or this gal to be honest with me about what the numbers actually show or what the facts are.” ([05:15])

• Clay on Declining Trust:

  “As recently as 1980, [trust in media] was around 72 or 73%. So in the space of two generations, … we have gone from substantial majorities trusting the media to almost no one trusting the media.” ([04:10])

• On the Schumer Shutdown:

  “Chuck Schumer is terrified of the left wing of his party. … This is about him trying to cut off some of the political support for AOC, who may well challenge him in the Democrat primary.” ([06:20])

• On Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants:

  “All these blue states take your taxpayer money and they are using it to fund illegal immigrant healthcare.” ([22:55])

• Listener from Biloxi:

  “You guys and Ben Shapiro. … Facts over feelings!” ([38:29])

• Clay on Media Blending Fact and Opinion:

  “There is an intent in the legacy media now to constantly intermix fact and opinion. … When you go back and say, wait a minute, this is opinion, they say, no, no, no, this is just facts.” ([18:55])

---

Timestamps of Important Segments

• [00:44 – 09:10]: Clay introduces the Gallup poll collapse in media trust, analogizes sports reasoning, invites listener participation: “Who do you trust?”
• [09:10 – 13:00]: Breakdown of the shutdown as a Schumer maneuver to protect himself from the left; early 2028 campaign predictions (AOC, Newsom).
• [17:07 – 18:40]: Distinguishing between facts and opinions; importance of factual bedrock for trust.
• [21:50 – 23:25]: Clay answers listener about how federal funds support illegal immigrants' healthcare through state budgets.
• [29:08 – 29:30]: Democrats on 2019 debate stage unanimously supporting government healthcare for undocumented immigrants.
• [36:29 – 40:14]: Listener talkbacks—various trusted voices in media, nostalgia for past journalism credibility.

---

Tone and Style

Clay Travis keeps the episode fast-moving, peppering humor and pop culture (sports analogies, football, family stories), while maintaining a combative, populist tone toward Democrats and legacy media. The audience is actively engaged throughout, making the discussion feel participatory and community-driven.

---

Summary

This episode spotlights a foundational crisis in American political culture: the total collapse of trust in legacy media. Clay Travis analyzes why this breach occurred, connects it to a broader pattern of factual manipulation and political self-interest, and asks listeners to do some soul-searching—who can you actually believe? Pivoting to the government shutdown, he argues it’s an intra-Democratic power struggle, with American taxpayers caught in the crossfire—especially regarding the controversial issue of healthcare for illegal immigrants. Throughout, Clay grounds his hot takes in calls, emails, and listener voices, creating a vibrant and varied conversation about distrust, power, and the future of news and politics.

---

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

People ask us all the time how we can save the next generation. We've got our show and the info is an antidote. But we also have a couple books coming out. Clay. That's right. And you can pre order both of them right now and be book nerds just like us. You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter, too. Mine's called Balls How Trump, Young Men and Sports Saved America. And mine is Manufacturing Delusion how the left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda against you. Both are great reads. One might even say they would make fabulous gifts. Indeed. So do us a solid and pre order yours on Amazon today. Welcome in Thursday edition, Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. I hope all of you are having fantastic starts to your day so far. Buck is still in Taiwan. He interviewed the president of Taiwan today. He'll play some of that for you on Monday when he is back stateside. That picture is is up. He will be back with you on Monday. I've got you for today and tomorrow solo. We got a lot to dive into. Shutdown has hit day two. I think many of you out there are relatively unimpacted and also unimpressed with the battle that is currently underway, the Schumer shutdown. We'll dive into some of those details. Stephen Miller from the White House was in Memphis, Tennessee, as the federal government is flexing resources there in a city that per capita has one of the highest murder rates in the country, to see what the impact can be there. Trust in media per Gallup has hit another record low and early feedback option for you guys. Who do you trust? I think this is a fun debate. We a fun discussion debate maybe that we could have. Throughout the course of today's program, I was looking at this poll from Gallup Media and it just came out and it's probably not a surprise that there is a massive decline in trust in media which has accelerated since COVID As many of you have become aware that you were lied to and much of what you were told about COVID was untrue. And as the Russia collusion hoax has continued, Democrats were the last people to really be trusting media. And even their trust in media has begun to collapse. And the reason they trusted media was because media told them what they wanted to hear, not because media was ever trustworthy. And now they are starting to wonder, wait a minute, why didn't we hear anything about Joe Biden's issues? Uh, why, why did they tell us that Donald Trump was Going to lose the election. And Kamala Harris was a great candidate. And then the results come in. It's different. Only 28% have any trust in media at all. And for those of you out there who wonder, okay, what would that look like? Uh, by the way, that is 28% of people have a great deal of trust in media or a fair amount of trust in media. As recently as 1980, that number was around 72 or 73%. So in the space of two generations, roughly, we have gone from substantial majorities trusting the media to almost no one trusting the media. And so a question for you guys. I'm interested in your talk backs. Who do you trust? I hope that you trust Buck and I, to be honest with you, not always to tell you exactly what you want to hear. But trust to me is different than, hey, I agree with this person on a lot of their opinions. Trust to me is, hey, I trust this guy or this gal to be honest with me about what the numbers actually show or what the facts are. Who do you trust? Uh, I'll give you some names later in the show. I'm kind of thinking through in my head who would I say this is? A person that I may or may not agree with, but I think they have enough knowledge of the factual basis underlying their opinions that I trust them not to lead me completely astray with their. With their analysis. Again, it's different than whose opinions do you trust? Because that's a function. I always like to say as an analogy, you can agree with someone's opinion, but if they tell you something as part of their factual analysis of why they have the opinion they do, you can agree with their conclusion, but you should trust them less. And I used to use a sports analogy all the time for this because I think it makes sense. If I told you Patrick Mahomes is not going to win the super bowl this year, sorry, Kansas City Chiefs fans, you might not along and say, okay, Josh Allen, maybe he's going to win this year. Maybe Lamar Jackson does. There's a lot of different. Justin Herbert, there's a lot of different guys out there in sports. You could think, hey, maybe this quarterback's going to win instead. But if I told you Patrick Mahomes not going to win the super bowl because he can't win the big game and he's never won the super bowl before, you could agree with my conclusion, but you should trust me less. Does that make sense? Sports fans are more likely to do this, I think, than, interestingly, people involved in current events and politics are so you can get to the same conclusion as someone, but because you that they're telling you something untrue. Patrick Mahomes has actually won multiple Super Bowls. So the evidence that I'm marshaling to tell you why I don't think he's going to win the super bowl this year, you might agree with my conclusion, but you should trust me less because you know that the information I'm citing to justify my opinion is incorrect. I think that's a good analogy to kind of give you a sense on trust versus conclusion. There's lots of people out there who I agree with on conclusions, but when I hear their arguments, I say, boy, I, I, I don't know that I buy this at all. And, and hey, you've totally wrecked the legitimacy of your argument by getting so many of the factual foundations that supposedly support your argument incorrect. So think about that a little bit. I'm curious what names you would give me that you trust in media as media has has tanked in terms of its trust and is now at only 28%. But I wanted to go into the shutdown, which I think is already starting to blow up in Chuck Schumer's face, because really, this isn't about the government or how it's funded at all. What you really should know is what's going on here is Chuck Schumer is terrified of the left wing of his party. And even though he knows this is a poor decision, this is about him trying to cut off some of the political support for aoc, who may well challenge him in the Democrat primary in the New York Senate race and would end his career if she decided to do that. Um, and so here is AOC on Tuesday asked directly if she's the reason that Chuck Schumer is finally decided to shut down the government. Here's cut nine. There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal where they give eight votes and move along. And that is that Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you and is worried about the politics to his left flank. And so because of that worry about a primary challenge, he's gonna shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC's fault that the government's shutting down or that you're somehow the kind of fulcrum of this. And I wanna just ask you straight up, like, are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that's why he's doing this?

[Clay Travis]

I saw some senators speculating about this. And I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, oh, well, if we have this shut down, it's because of aoc. Well, if that's the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly.

[Buck Sexton]

She's going to run. This is the real story of what's going on here. AOC is going to run for President of the United States in 2028. And if that campaign does not go well, I think she's going to pivot and become a senator and knock Chuck Schumer out of the Senate. That's my prediction for where we are headed. AOC in March of 2027, ish, is going to announce that she is running for President of the United States. We'll then have the early primary dates of January and February of 2028. I'm not sure when the final date is to register if you want to primary someone in the New York Senate. But if AOC were to not do well in the 2028 presidential election primary, then I think she might pivot and run for the Senate. But I believe Buck has already said, producer Ali, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think I was out on this, that his prediction is that it's a Gavin Newsom and AOC ticket in 2028. And if he didn't say that because I wasn't on when he was making his prediction, I think I saw that that social media post shared from our team. That's what I think is going to happen. I think Gavin Newsom right now, if you ask me who is going to be the nominee in 2028, I think it will be Gavin Newsom. And I think he will pick AOC as his running mate. Now, I could be wrong and AOC's time, crazily enough, could be now and she could leap ahead of Gavin Newsom. I actually think that there's no woman that's going to be the nominee for 2028 for Democrats because I think they've been scared off a female nominee at the top of their ticket by what happened to Hillary Clinton and what happened to Kamala Harris. And so I believe that they will not be willing to vote for a woman at the top of the ticket. But Gavin Newsom will pick a young, dynamic vice presidential candidate in aoc. And I think that is the favorite for the ticket right now. Now, we still have the midterms and some of you out there are going to say, heck, we still got the New York City primary. New York City mayor's race and the governor's race in Virginia and the governor's race in New Jersey, all of those still are to come. Those are all in blue jurisdictions. So things can change. And as soon as we get that election, obviously we're going to run very quickly into the midterms, what's going to happen there, Primary season, nominees, all of that. But I'm telling you, by January of 2027, maybe even before then, but I don't think people will want to announce before the holidays. By January of 2027, the 2028 presidential election will be in full sprint, particularly on the Democrat side, where everybody's going to enter, because it's an open, uncontested primary. Anyone could theoretically win. If you're out there and you're in your 50s or 60s, this might be your last chance to actually run for President of the United States. And so my bet is that AOC will be running, that Gavin Newsom will be running, and that will end up being your president and vice president. Now, Buck has predicted that Joe Scarborough is going to run for President of the United States. I know that. I don't think that's a bad take because I think there will be many different people who are going to run in 2028. But ultimately, I think this shutdown is about Chuck Schumer lacking power over the left wing and his party being terrified of it. And even though he believes it's bad politically, he has elected to do it because otherwise, I think he is aware that his time in office could be incredibly short in his era as the leader of the Democrat Party in the Senate has effectively ended. Um, so that is what I think is the real story behind this. Now, I also want to get into some of the facts behind the. The argument about illegal immigrants getting health care and how this is involved. And I will. I will give you a run through of that. But that is 100% happening. And I want to talk with you about the way that they are discussing it on the Democrat side to hide the fact that this is actually happening. And look, the reality is this is Chuck Schumer's shutdown. He bears 100% of the responsibility for the fact that the government is shut down. And I don't think this is going to be a good result for the Democrat Party. But I'll tell you why. We'll continue to roll through the Thursday edition of the program. And I'm curious. That question that I asked off the top, you guys can give talkbacks, you can send messages, emails, you can. You can call in and just give names to the call screeners who are the people that you actually trust as trust in legacy media is hitting all time lows here in 2025. Good news for gold owners out there. Gold is up around 40% this year. Not speculation. That's reality. And if a portion of your savings isn't diversified into gold, you're missing out on a good buying opportunity. When there's instability in the markets or conflict in the world, investors turn to gold. That might be why gold has seen so much such a price increase and will continue to grow in value. This is why central banks are flocking to gold. They're the ones driving prices up to record highs. You can get in the door now on this opportunity. Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA. In gold you don't pay a dime out of pocket. Here's how you do it. Just text my name Clay to 989898 and claim your free info kit. No obligation, just useful information. Again, what have people done throughout time when they've been nervous about the valuation of assets, about the decline of their currencies? They've decided to invest in gold. They've been doing it for hundreds of years, probably thousands of years. Quite accurately, you can do the same. Text CLAY to 98-98-98 right now to claim your free info kit on Gold. That's Clay to 989-898 Protect your future today with Birch Gold. 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.

[Clay Travis]

Time for a sofa upgrade? Visit washablesofas.com and discover Annabe where designer style meets budget friendly prices with sofas starting at $699. Anabe brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anabe is the only machine washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that make clean cleaning easy. Liquid simply slides right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high resilience foam lets you choose between a sink in feel or a supportive memory foam blend. Plus our pet friendly stain resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washablesofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30 day money back guarantee. Get up to 60% off plus 4 free shipping and free returns. Shop [e-mail] Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you. What's of those feedbacks? Who do you trust in media? Not again, not who do you agree with? Because my analogy, you can agree with a conclusion and also say, boy, that was a really bad argument to get to the conclusion. And that's one of the things that I've learned about a lot of politicians. Many of them. I'll look at it and I'll say, boy, you know what, they've got the right result. And then I hear their argument for how they got there and I think, boy, they got no idea because maybe I'm a little bit weird. I still think of any argument as being built on a strong factual foundation for the kids out there and clip this and share it with them. 5 paragraph essay still a really good format for, for making an argument. I know it's gotten increasingly less popular because now they teach kids all sorts of things different than they used to when we were in school. But open three paragraph argument, conclusion still really, really foundationally strong. And the most important thing about any argument is the facts have to be correct in order for me to trust your opinions. Right? A lot of people have trouble distinguishing between fact and opinion and I think many legacy media outlets have made that abundantly clear in the way that they have confused people in their arguments. Newspaper it used to sense there was the news section which is, we all know it's biased, but it's not supposed to be biased. And then there is the editorial page where people say I believe, I think this is an editorial show. Right? We give you our opinions on the world at large every single day. But I would challenge anyone out there and we occasionally say this, find things that were factually inaccurate on we'll apologize, we'll correct factual inaccuracies on this show because you can't have a strong argument without factual basis to support it. It's basically the foundation of any strong opinion. And if your facts are not correct, then the entire opinion can collapse. What I notice is there is an intent in the legacy media now to constantly intermix fact and opinion. And then when you go back and say, wait a minute, this is opinion, they say no, no, no, this is just facts. This is not opinion at all. And I think that's one reason that you've seen the legacy media collapse because the things that they told you were factual. Remember when they would lecture us all, oh, it's racist for you to suggest that Covid might have come from a Chinese lab. That's a racist attack with no basis in reality, really. Actually, it's 100% correct based on logical reading of all the evidence, in my always humble opinion. When we come back, I'll tell you what the situation here is. How are illegal immigrants actually getting health care? And why is the fight partly rooted in that? But in the meantime, the Internet's a dark, scary, dangerous place, particularly when it comes to your information. And October is Cyber Security Security awareness month. And LifeLock is out there to make sure that they can monitor hundreds of millions of online transactions and account opening notices daily looking for evidence of foul play. If your name's involved, they notify you immediately. And a LifeLock US based restoration specialist will help fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. All LifeLock plans backed by the million dollar protection package. Meaning LifeLock will reimburse you to your plans limits if you lose money due to identity theft. How do you get signed up? Check it out. 30 day free trial lifelock.com my name Clay as the promo code. That's lifelock.com promo code Clay for 30 days free. Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton show. You know I'm gonna dive into the illegal alien healthcare benefits here in a moment. But first, you know things aren't going well for Chuck Schumer when he's on the Senate floor and the New York Times had a huge poll that said voters will overwhelmingly and correctly blame Democrats for shutting down the government. Because Democrats are the ones voting to shut down government. Chuck Schumer doesn't believe it though. He says the New York Times poll is biased against Democrats. This is the argument he's having to make. Let's listen. Now, I know the leader is going to show a poll that says that Democrats will be blamed for the shutdown. There are many more polls that show Republicans are blamed. The question in that poll is biased, biased in the New York Times. But it's biased if you turn the. That's true. I don't always believe the New York Times. You can be sure of that. Neither do you. So it's so bad that Chuck Schumer is having to resort to saying the New York Times is biased against Democrats when it comes to this situation relating to the shutdown. But we got a couple of you, of several of you, in fact, lots of you. Let me pull it up asking the question because there Is a lot of discussion about how exactly is this debate now over whether or not illegal immigrants get healthcare. In fact, here is one that synthesizes this VIP email from Ryan. First off, I absolutely love you guys. Good way to start. Always like we get a positive start to the email. Uh, that gets even better. Thanks for being the voice of reason and speaking the truth. I could go on and on and get all mushy, but you get the point. America thanks you. I love all this question. Is there actual rhetoric and documented text in the Democrat dirty CR continuing resolution there that states or proves they are pushing for illegals healthcare? I cannot seem to find it. Any help would be appreciated. God bless and stay the course. Here's what they're doing and this is why you have to dive into the nitty gritty and intricacy of the language which with they are using, okay? They are saying the federal government is not paying for illegal immigrant health care. That is nowhere in this bill. That is not occurring at all. Here's the reality. The money goes to the states. So the federal government cuts a big check, here's a billion dollars and they send it to California, they send it to Illinois, they send it to New York. State government officials there then take those dollars and allocate many of them to illegal immigrant health care. So the argument that Chuck Schumer is making is oh, the federal government isn't doing that at all. But that's because they are allocating the resources to the states and then all these blue states take your taxpayer money and and they are using it to fund illegal immigrant healthcare. And by the way, the other part of this is this particular part of the dollars that are being fought about, fought over, was directly related to Covid. And if you remember, and there were relatively few of us at the time, Buck was one of them, I was one of them. If you remember when everybody said, oh, we don't need to work anymore, the government will just give everybody money. Just go home, don't leave your house, don't even think about going to the gym. Don't you dare go outside and walk in a park. God forbid you go to the beach. Hey kids, we're taking the rims off your basketball hoops. Hey, we're taking down nets so you can't go play tennis. I know everybody wants to forget all of this, but much of the spending is embedded from COVID So Democrats and there were a lot of Republicans that went along, saw the crisis of COVID and they said this is the best opportunity we have had in A long time, maybe for much of our political careers, to increase federal spending by a tremendously huge amount. And we are going to do that. We're going to implement all these gargantuan cost increases, and it's going to become very difficult to ever dial them back. And I think we're not giving enough credit to guys like Senator Ron Johnson, friend of this program. We had him in studio and we were in New in D.C. just to explain all this. The budget plan that makes the most sense is go back to all the pre Covid spending and just increase it on a rate of inflation. If we had just done that, we'd all have a balanced budget right now. But Democrats are smart. They recognize that all their allies in the legacy media that nobody trusts anymore, they will label this a cut. Anytime you reduce spending, they say, oh, this is a cut. You're cutting childcare, you're cutting pregnant. Pregnant women are gonna die. That's immediately what they say. And you go back and you say, well, that wasn't happening before 2020. Covid's over. Thankfully, everybody's like, yeah, now you might get a sniffle, and you don't know whether it's a cold. You don't know if it's the flu. You don't know if it's Covid. I. I mean, I'm not, I'm not trying to make light of it, but that's the reality. You get a little bit of a light fever, you don't feel great. Who knows what it is? Might be Covid, might be any of the other innumerable ways that you could have gotten sick before COVID Um, all we're doing here is saying, hey, this healthcare spending doesn't make sense going forward. Much of it that is going to illegal immigrant healthcare should certainly not be spent. But in general, this is an expense that was directly connected to Covid. Covid is over. Finally, mercif. Mercifully, why would we embed that cost into the overall federal budget? Schumer's wrong. Democrats are wrong on this. And Trump and Republicans are just saying, hey, we funded the government. We're not going to continue to fund this. We're not gonna bend to your will. Let's keep the government open. Democrats said, no, we're gonna shut down the government. And if you're out there and you're saying, okay, well, hold on a minute. Democrats don't really support illegal, illegal immigrants getting healthcare. Here is a flashback. You may remember this. I remember watching this debate and thinking, boy, these people are crazy in on June 27, 2019, in Miami, second Democrat debate. Every Democrat raised their hand when asked if their healthcare plan would cover illegal immigrants. Listen to this. Just to take you back in time, the Democrats on the stage at that point in time. Joe Biden, Mayor Pete, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker, Beto. Remember Beto? Beto o'. Rourke. Everyone applauds inside of the audience. But just a flashback. Cut three. A lot of you have been talking tonight about these government health care plans that you proposed in one form or another.

[Clay Travis]

This is a show of hands question and hold them up for a moment.

[Buck Sexton]

So people can see. Raise your hand if government, if your.

[Clay Travis]

Government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants.

[Buck Sexton]

Every hand went up. Every single hand went up. All of these people, all of these Democrats support this. And it's impossible to argue otherwise. Now this is. I want to hit one more, one more hit here. Jasmine Crockett. I know. I just, I can't believe that this is real. The Democrat Party thinks that she is somehow an eloquent voice on all of this. Jasmine Crockett says the White House's messaging on shutdown is illegal. Cut 12.

[Clay Travis]

I think they're being a lot more illegal in their messaging. The first thing that I wanted to know was how can this not be a violation of the Hash act in some way?

[Buck Sexton]

Right.

[Clay Travis]

Because we are not allowed to politic on official sites, period. Right. And that's what they're doing. They literally change official government websites to put out their propaganda. Instead of just saying, we're currently in a shutdown, you decided to play partisan politics on an official website.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. It's illegal. It's illegal to point out that the reason that the government is shut down is because Democrats voted to shut down the government. Okay, we're going to get to a bunch of your talkbacks. We've got one guest today, friend of mine, met him, just getting to know him, but he is running for governor in Michigan and he is John James, current congressman in Washington, D.C. met him up at the Mackinaw island event. He's going to be on with us at the bottom of the next hour. But we've got a lot to react to. I also want to hit Stephen Miller in Memphis. This dad, have you seen this story? Steven? Federico. What happened to his daughter I think is important because we can't forget what truly soft on crime policies. Result, result in all of that coming our way. But I want to tell you right now, Legacy Box has got an incredible Offer for all of you. I went down a few weeks ago to Chattanooga, Tennessee, my mom's hometown. I spent a lot of time in Chattanooga, Tennessee. In fact, if you want to be entertained, I shared this. We can probably put it up on Clay and Buck. There's a couple of private schools down in Chattanooga. Some of you are going to be familiar with them, some of you are not. Baylor School and McCauley School, they are big rivals private schools, they have elite high school football teams and they one of the schools, McCauley put up a video in advance of their Friday night football game that is absolutely hysterical. It is a trash talk video. It is really funny music video style. Props to the kids that were involved in that. I bet that our buddies at Legacy Box have all heard all about that game. Cause it's taken over Chattanooga, Tennessee as we get ready for big time high school football matchup down there. But what it represents to me, Chattanooga is what these guys do so well. Look, they've built a company that's just about making you have long lasting relationship with the friends and family that matter most to you. How many of you out there right now have friends or family that have the repository of the family's history? Somebody who does all the genealogy. Someone who has got all the old photographs and knows every great uncle and great aunt and everybody's connection. One big photo album, one big box of photos. What happens if that person just has a fire in their house? What happens if that person, God forbid, has a tornado hit? Heck, what happens if that person passes and there isn't someone out there that knows everything about your family's history and is able to point to the photos and tell you all about them? Heck, what happens if those photos just vanish as oftentimes happens in the years, the decades. How many times have you sat around and thought, man, I wish I could have seen Grandma had this great photo book, man. Remember that Christmas vacation that we took in 1988? The dad had the photo, the VHS tapes and was walking around with the camcorder. Remember those old slides? Remember those 8 millimeter film reels? Boy, I'd really like to be able to share those with my kids or grandkids now. Show them what the family's been been through. Have you done it? Why would you not right now? If you go to legacybox.com use my name, Clay. Get 50% off. This is about preserving your family's history. I walked through this facility that they have where they were preserving family memories in every direction. It really is an incredible gift Maybe you're like me. Let's be honest, I'm not the greatest gift giver. Maybe your dad or grandpa out there listening right now. Maybe your grandma, grand grandma or mom. And you've given every possible tie you can. You've given every possible bathrobe you can. You're sitting around, you're like, I cannot think of another gift. What about the gift of your family's legacy preserved forever digitally so everybody can share it and everybody can be able to text these old pictures, these old film reel videos back and forth from one to another. It's incredible gift that these people have put together for all of you from Chattanooga, Tennessee. I love everything they're doing. Legacybox.com My name Clay. Right now you get 50% off. Go check it out. It's easy. They'll send a box to you. You put all your originals in. They copy them, send you the digital link. Boom, you're set. They'll send you back your originals, preserve your family's history for as long as you can possibly imagine. Into the generations to come. Do it for everybody. Legacybox.com code clay that's legacybox.com code clay for 50 off. Sometimes all you can do is laugh. And they do a lot of it with the Sunday hang. Join Clay and Buck as they laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Clay Travis]

Life's messy. We're talking spills, stains, pets and kids. But with Annabe, you never have to stress about messes again. At washablesofas.com, discover Anabe Sofas, the only fully machine washable sofas inside and out starting at just $699. Made with liquid and stain resistant fabrics that means fewer stains and more peace of mind. Designed for real life, our sofas feature changeable fabric covers allowing you to refresh your style anytime. Need flexibility? Our modular design lets you rearrange your sofa effortlessly. Perfect for cozy apartments or spacious homes. Plus, they're earth friendly and built to last. That's why over 200,000 happy customers have made the switch. Upgrade your space today. Visit washablesofas.com now and bring home a sofa made for life. That's washablesofas.com offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Bit of good news, I mentioned the other day that Katie, who producer Ali has gotten to know well, she is basically my full time assistant, tries to keep me out of too many squabbles, too much trouble. She had a baby girl, 6 pound 10 ounce baby girl. Family is going to go see that baby girl tonight. Everybody is super excited. But I mentioned that she was in labor a couple of days ago and some of you reached out and said you didn't tell us what happened. Everything is great. They have a little baby girl named Annie and she is super, super cute. She's got a two year old baby brother that is very excited now that he has a sister. So a lot of positivity out there. Try to make sure that we share some of that positivity with, with all of you. So thank you for everybody who, who reached out and asked and congratulations to Katie and Josh and their new baby girl, Annie, who I'm excited to see this this afternoon. A lot of you weighing in. We've got so many different talkbacks pouring in and and I want to hit some of those. Let's talk about the fact that trust in media according to Gallup has hit an all time low. And I'm actually just curious from all of you who you trust in media, not who you always agree with. Again, that's a very different question. But who do you trust? And you guys are pouring in with answers. I want to hit a bunch of those. And as always, talk Back is the fastest way to get into the show. One of our listeners from Biloxi, Biloxi, Mississippi, it's the Beau Rivage. I've lost some money in the Beau Revage Casino down in BILOXI. News Radio 104.9 WBVU radio says this is who he trusts. CeCe, I'd say the people that have my trust in the media are obviously you guys And Ben Shapiro, he always, in my opinion, always gives good facts and his opinions, in my opinion, are pretty good. Fair. I agree. I think Ben is super talented. We've had him on the show a lot and facts matter. As he says, facts over feelings, which I think is in many ways a symbolic way to distinguish between Democrat and Republican arguments to a large extent. Eric in Greensboro, North Carolina News Talk 94.5 WPTI says who does he trust in media? DD I would trust you, MV and Mr. Bill O'Reilly probably Bill O'Reilly over everybody, though it sounds like Eric may be babysitting a kid there. Did you hear in the background? I'm not an expert on all the kids shows now because I've raised my three and we don't watch as many kids shows now. But that sounded a little bit like the Mickey Mouse Playhouse. I might have been able to pick that up in the background. Mark in Southern California, coast to coast, Keib radio says here who he's trust Walter Conkra. First of all, trust Jen and Paul Harvey, nobody else. Thank you. Funny, those guys have been gone for a little while. I was in the car driving to football game, my 9th graders football game with my dad on Monday. And we were driving through Murfreesboro, Tennessee. And my dad went to Mtsu, Middle Tennessee State University. And as we were driving through, we were on one of the old roads and he was saying, I remember being on this road driving home, listening to news about JFK being assassinated. And then as soon as I got home, I got inside, turned on the television and Cronkite was crying, delivering that news to the nation. More next.

[Clay Travis]

This is an I Heart podcast.