Hour 2 - Buck Debate Challenge

Summary

Summary of "Hour 2 - Buck Debate Challenge" from The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Release Date: August 11, 2025
Host: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Publisher: iHeartPodcasts

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1. Tackling Violent Crime in Washington D.C.

Clay Travis opens the discussion by addressing former President Trump's recent press conference, where he announced the deployment of additional resources to combat the soaring violent crime rates in Washington D.C. Travis highlights the stark statistics:

"Washington, D.C. has nearly triple the violent murder rate of cities like Mexico City, 28 times the violent crime rate of cities like London and Paris." (00:34)

He criticizes Democratic leaders, particularly Hakeem Jeffries, for downplaying the crime epidemic. Despite the alarming data, Democrats oppose Trump's measures, with some labeling his crackdown as racially motivated.

Buck Sexton adds to the critique by mentioning the administration's tough stance on cities with high crime rates, often those with majority Black and Brown populations:

"They seem to hold their harshest criticism sometimes for cities that are majority black and brown." (02:04)

2. Democratic Opposition and Accusations of Racism

Travis and Sexton delve into the Democrats' response to Trump's initiatives. Travis argues that Democratic opposition is unfounded and rooted in a refusal to acknowledge the severity of the crime problem. He emphasizes that:

"There is no solution here. When Hakeem Jeffries is coming out and saying this president can't be trusted basically to lower the crime rate of Washington, D.C., I just think to myself, my goodness, Trump has completely boxed the Democrats in." (02:18)

They assert that Democrats' policies, such as depolicing and defunding the police, have exacerbated the situation rather than alleviated it.

3. Impact of Depolicing and the BLM Movement

Clay Travis critiques the outcomes of Democratic policies, referencing the "Depolicing the Ferguson effect" and the resurgence of Black Lives Matter (BLM) 2.0. He contends that these measures have led to increased crime and societal instability:

"BLM 2.0 did nothing except for bad things. When it comes to policy and the numbers and the reality and the stats, it might have made some people feel good about themselves in the moment, but it did nothing except make everything worse for everyone." (03:49)

4. Expert Insights and Judicial Limitations

Buck Sexton introduces a clip featuring Judge Jeanine Pirro, who discusses the challenges of prosecuting crimes committed by individuals under 18 in D.C. The judge outlines the limitations imposed by current laws, emphasizing the need for legal reforms to effectively combat violent crime:

"If they're under 18 years of age, I can only get the case if it's murder, robbery, rape... So the law has to be changed." (06:10-06:00)

Travis connects this to his personal experience, sharing that he was robbed by a teenage individual, underscoring the real-world implications of lenient laws.

5. Demographic Shifts and Political Realignment

The hosts discuss the demographic composition of Washington D.C., noting that while it was historically a majority Black city, recent statistics show a decline:

"White, 40%, Black, African American, 41%, Hispanic, Latino, 11%, Asian 5%. Population of black as recently as 2010 was a majority black city." (13:41)

Travis argues that the current political rhetoric is alienating Black communities, who are now reconsidering their long-standing support for the Democratic Party due to persistent crime issues.

6. Redistricting Battle and Hypocrisy in Political Discourse

Shifting focus, Travis and Sexton address the ongoing redistricting battle in Texas. They criticize J.B. Pritzker, Governor of Illinois, for perceived hypocrisy in opposing Texas Republicans' redistricting efforts while benefiting from gerrymandered maps in his own state.

"The argument that is being made by Democrats on this is garbage. All they're saying is, I don't like when they do what I do. When I do it, it's good, so you should like it when I do it and not when you do it." (26:24)

Travis mocks Pritzker's defenses, portraying them as insufficient and self-serving, and lauds Trump for exposing Democratic inconsistencies.

7. Federal Intervention and Police Support in D.C.

Returning to the crime issue, Travis highlights the D.C. Police Union's support for Trump's federal intervention:

"We stand with the President in recognizing Washington D.C. cannot continue on this trajectory. Crime is out of control." (41:50)

He underscores the irony of Democrats supporting any form of federal assistance for police control, despite their general opposition to Trump's policies on crime.

8. The Quest for Safer Communities

Travis envisions a broader application of Trump's strategies to other cities plagued by high crime rates. He emphasizes the potential for significant reductions in violent crimes nationwide if similar measures are implemented:

"If we truly believe that black, white, Asian, Hispanic, all lives matter and that we should have a lower rate of violent crime everywhere, then Trump's policies in D.C. could be a model for many other jurisdictions." (46:08)

9. Concluding Remarks and Upcoming Topics

In wrapping up, Travis and Sexton reaffirm their commitment to addressing crime and political hypocrisy. They tease future discussions on Trump's meeting with Putin regarding the Ukraine-Russia war and continue to promote their stance against Democratic policies they deem ineffective.

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Notable Quotes:

• Clay Travis (00:34): "Washington, D.C. has nearly triple the violent murder rate of cities like Mexico City, 28 times the violent crime rate of cities like London and Paris."

• Buck Sexton (02:04): "They seem to hold their harshest criticism sometimes for cities that are majority black and brown."

• Clay Travis (03:49): "BLM 2.0 did nothing except for bad things... it made everything worse for everyone."

• Judge Jeanine Pirro (06:00): "The law has to be changed."

• Clay Travis (13:41): "A thousand people, fifteen hundred people. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of black residents... who deserve to live in safe neighborhoods."

• J.B. Pritzker (26:24): "Democracy is at stake."

• Greg Pemberton (41:50): "Our officers are stretched beyond their limits. The federal intervention is a critical stopgap."

• Clay Travis (46:08): "This could actually be a turning point, not just for D.C. but for other cities and other models across the country."

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Conclusion

In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton vigorously advocate for strong law enforcement interventions to combat violent crime in Washington D.C., critiquing Democratic opposition and policies they believe have failed to address the issue. They highlight demographic changes and political hypocrisy within the Democratic Party, positioning Trump's strategies as a potential blueprint for nationwide crime reduction. Through data-driven arguments, personal anecdotes, and expert insights, the hosts aim to challenge prevailing narratives and propose actionable solutions for safer communities.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay, Travis Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We are rolling through the Monday edition of the program. Lots to discuss from Trump's press conference announcing that he was bringing additional resources to bear to try to bring down an unacceptable level of violent crime in D.C. when Democrats have predictably already lined up in opposition to bringing crime down. I read for you, Hakeem Jeffries saying there's no issue here. Despite the fact that Washington, D.C. has nearly triple the violent murder rate of cities like Mexico City, 28 times the violent crime rate of cities like London and Paris. In most parts of the world, the capital city is a jewel where crime is not tolerated to any degree at all. And yet Democrats are now upset at the idea that Trump may be trying to bring down the violent crime rate in the process potentially saving millions of lives. In fact, the argument is so crazy out there that go ahead and stop me if this surprises you. And I bet it doesn't surprise any of you on msnbc, they're saying Trump's goal to crack down on violent crime is rooted in racism. Cut 5 one of the things that.

[Buck Sexton]

We have seen over and over from the president, from his team, you know, Stephen Miller saying it's like Baghdad and Ethiopia. They seem to hold their harshest criticism sometimes for cities that are majority black and brown.

[Clay Travis]

Do you see that and what do.

[Buck Sexton]

You think that means?

[Clay Travis]

So they had a breakdown in a discussion there. The harshest criticism should go for cities that have violent crime rates, no matter who is in charge, white, black, Asian or Hispanic. And there is no solution here. When Hakeem Jeffries is coming out and saying this president can't be trusted basically to lower the crime rate of Washington, D.C. i just think to myself, my goodness, Trump has completely boxed the Democrats in to now consistently taking a position that a hundred percent of sane people should be in favor of. Unless you are a professional violent felon in Washington, D.C. who makes a living engaging in rampant criminality. Everyone else should be in favor of this buck. Like some of this stuff is just the idea that you would say, hey, we want less people to get murdered. And Democrats would raise their hands and say, actually, we don't need to worry about that because crime is not actually that bad. And we just ran through all of the numbers on national capitals. And look, if you want to argue, hey, there's other cities that could use help too. Yeah, I would like to see the President, frankly, mobilize resources in St. Louis and Memphis and Kansas City and lots of places out there where, frankly, probably still Detroit. The murder rate is far too high. But why not use DC as an example of what we can do to make things better everywhere?

We also ran the experiment of what happens when you give the Democrats their wish with this stuff. Depolicing the Ferguson effect, defunding, whatever you want to call it, it's worse for everybody. BLM 2.0 did nothing except for bad things. When it comes to policy and the numbers and the reality and the stats, it might have made some people feel good about themselves in the moment. They might have felt that their emotions, their anxiety, their. Their frustrations were expressed on the streets in one way or another. Hopefully not by looting a cvs, but there were some people who obviously did that, too. It did nothing except make everything worse for everyone. We saw the results of what they, the Democrats, want. Now it's time for a different approach. And I think that there's nothing that the Democrats can say that will be an effective counter to the results that I think Donald Trump can bring about here in dc. I'll just say this, Clay, it was true when I was in the intel division. Now it's called the Intel Bureau, by the way, so that they've done a reorg at the nypd. It's even bigger entity than it was when I was there. But you could speak to any field intelligence officer, the FIO at an NYPD precinct, because they keep stats and numbers and data. They want to know what's going on. They can tell you who the bad guys are. And it's guys, okay? I mean, the real problems are guys. We can just say that it is men who are the ones who are doing the really serious violent crimes. You know, 90, 95% of the time. They can tell you who the bad guys are. They can tell you who the gangs that they need to be concerned about are. But the question is, do they have the resources and the backing of the political authorities? To do what is necessary, meaning the commissioner and the mayor in the case of New York, similar thing in D.C. you got to throw the city council in there. And will the prosecutors actually do something about it, too? Right. I mean, those are the two angles of this that really matter. You know, Judge Jeanine spoke about what she faces. I think we should play this for everybody. I thought this was a really good, important clip to hear. She's not even able to do what should be done to keep people safe. This is cut 25 if the person's under 18. Listen to this.

This is personal for me as well. Last year, I was robbed on the streets by one of these teenage thugs, had a gun, got away with it.

[Buck Sexton]

Let's talk about the effort that between.

[Clay Travis]

Law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges, because it's.

[Buck Sexton]

A Republican, you know, recycling belt like these kids go. They don't fear the police. They know if you talk about how.

[Clay Travis]

We'Ve got to get these judges and.

[Buck Sexton]

Put these kids behind bars, Adult crimes deserve adult penalties.

[Judge Jeanine Pirro]

Here's the problem. Assuming that they're 17 years older than 17 years old, I can get the case. If they're under 18 years of age, I can only get the case if it's murder, rob one, rape. Even if they shoot a gun but don't kill you, I can't get it. So the law has to be changed. As the president said, cashless bail. That has to be changed. All right, then even assuming I get the case, I get jurisdiction, I get a conviction. The D.C. council has given the judges the ability to give probation on shootings. And so then it's up to them, all of these things. The Youth Rehabilitation Incarceration Reduction act, and now they want to seal records. So if we work hard, we get a conviction. They want to wipe it out. So that needs all to be changed.

[Clay Travis]

And just give it. Give a comparison of this. Clay in the District of Columbia, the law enforcement bosses there in recent years have made the decision that if you shoot somebody but you're 17, you should get probation. But if you walked into the Capitol building and obeyed the ropes in statuary hall, you should get solitary confinement. You should get a prison sentence. You should have your life ruined. I think people see these things side by side and they realize Democrats have completely lost the plot. They are just on the wrong side of the crime issue, top to bottom. And enough is enough. And Trump is making the right move here.

I think also this is how Trump is having massive growth outside of just the white voter, because remember, Kamala increased her support in 2024 compared to 2020 with female voters. White female voters in particular were like the only group that voted for KAMALA More in 24 than 2020. But I think a lot of black men in particular, and growing numbers of Hispanic, Asian people who live in cities, they're looking around and saying, okay, we've given Democrats our votes for 50 some odd years, 60 years in many cases. What has that gotten us? Record rates of crime, record rates of violence. And I think this is one where everybody looks around and says, how is this controversial? You know, we talk a lot about, hey, we've got to bring bipartisanship back to America. Reflexively being opposed to Trump saying, I want to bring down the crime in Washington, D.C. to me, as a great example of Democrats having broken ideas. Because basically what they're arguing for is, hey, we should be able to remain completely in control of police and more people should die. That's what, that's what their argument boils down to. Because I don't see. I mean, you tell me, you worked in this, you saw it happen in, in, in New York, as you just laid out. How is it remotely possible that this could have a negative impact in Washington, D.C. i'm not sure it's going to be seismically successful, but there's no world under which I can consider or conceive that having more resources on the streets of D.C. would be anything other than productive to everyone who lives in the D.C. area when it comes to limiting violent crime.

Well, the opposition to this from Democrats, and we always have to say, but this is a given. Anything Trump does, they oppose. Part of the brilliance of this, as you've pointed out, is instead of this being a really complicated partisan issue where, you know, oh, should we, should we or should we not get rid of the carried interest loophole that hedge funds and private equity guys use in the tax code, Democrat, you know, Bernie Sanders would be like, that's for the billionaires and the millionaires.

You know what?

In that case, he's pretty much telling the truth. But, you know, those are issues where you can get caught up in the specifics of policy. This is how do we stop bad things from happening on the streets of our capital? And it's pretty straightforward. The Democrat opposition to it is one they hate.

Trump.

So that's Trump is aware of and he knows steering into these issues where he makes the Democrats look crazy. That's why he threw the trans thing in there too, by the way, because he's just saying he's a gay. You guys, you don't want to stop people from getting carjacked in D.C. we all know what has to be done. You also think that 200 pound dudes should play against girls in high school athletics. And like that's normal. Like you people are nuts. And, and he's right. But then beyond that, it's. Democrats have created this position, this narrative whereby because law enforcement disproportionately is going, and this is just by the numbers, by the facts, every large city in America, this is the case, is going to have a disproportionate incarceration effect on non white and specifically black and to a lesser extent Latino, but specifically black residents of the city. It is in a, it's a disparate impact scenario. It's inherently racist to more stringently or more strictly enforce criminal laws. And what has to happen here is Trump because, because they've, they've just hammered that, they've hammered that point so many times for so long, people believe it without really thinking about it. The reality is that Washington D.C. which I think is a majority or close to a majority black city. I think it is a majority black city.

I forgot what the exact number may have just ducked back under 50%. Right. For much of the last 50 years it has been a majority.

Team, pull up what the latest is. But you know, it's, it's a close to 50% black city. Look, look at how many people you're talking about. A couple, couple of thousand people at any given time who maybe are involved in the criminal justice system in D.C. incarcerated or waiting to be incarcerated. You know, a thousand people, fifteen hundred people. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of black residents in Washington D.C. who are committing no crimes.

Yes.

Who deserve to live in safe neighborhoods. But one, one career criminal will engage in dozens, even hundreds of criminal acts, which makes every, there's a psychological impact to this. So Trump has to show, and this is what Giuliani did in New York, hey, by enforcing the laws, we make everybody safe. And disproportionately black law abiding residents who are the vast majority of the residents of the District of Columbia benefit from these efforts. But he has to show the result because the narrative, it gets very emotional for people. You'll have, you'll have Black politicians in D.C. who will, you know, because they don't want any accountability. They don't want to be part of the, you know, they want to continue to be part of the problem, not part of the solution. Here they're going to say Trump is racist because that's what their donors want and that's what they're. He has to show the results just like Giuliani did in New York. And then all of a sudden you'll have black pastors cuz this happened in New York coming forward, saying, you know, President Trump, thank you for making my parishioners safer, thank you for making our blocks safer. Thank you for encouraging investment and black communities and black businesses, thank you for bringing back some of these areas to be the communities that they can be. That's what will happen if he shows the results.

By the way, 2020 census that I'm looking at right now. White, 40%, Black, African American, 41%, Hispanic, Latino, 11%, Asian 5%. That's what I'm looking at right now. So the population of black as recently as 2010 was a majority black city. By the way, buck 1970, 71% of the district was black. So the percentage of black residents has been declining fairly precipitously. Still a small majority, but white people almost make a majority of district residents according to what I'm seeing right now.

And I think this is a really good time to have a conversation about because we're talking just, we're talking about crime and crime numbers. A good time to talk about how you can keep yourself safe. And this is where Sabre comes in. A lot of burglaries, home invasions are happening in communities all across this country every day. And I'm sure that the people who are there, if they're not prepared, they're wishing to themselves in that horrible moment. My gosh, I wish I had something at hand where I could defend myself and my family. Is where Sabre comes in spelled S A B R E. S A B R E. The website to go to go to is sabre radio.com. i know a lot of you are 2A people. I am too. But that's a lethal option, right? That's a big, big move. You don't have any force escalation with a gun really, other than I've got my gun and I'm going to shoot now. Maybe that's the situation you're in. However, a lot of people are more comfortable with non lethal and they maybe just want to have that force escalation option. Look, you know, I've got my lethal option but I want to, I want to use a non lethal first. This is where Saber comes in. Defend yourself with Sabers home defense projectile launcher. Non lethal, easy to use. Act now, protect yourself and save 15% on Saber's Mega bundle with extra projectiles magazine and practice targets. Go check out all these different products. The pepper sprays, the pepper launchers, whole bunch of home defense tools for you. I've got them here. Clay's got them in his home too. Sabre Radio is the website S A B R E or call them at 844-824-SAFE. That's 844-824-SAfe.

Stories of freedom, Stories of America. Inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Caller]

Hey Clan Buck, just a heads up. You're talking about the crime in Washington D.C. and how they claim that the crime is down. That's baloney. The guy who is the current local Attorney General in Washington D.C. this guy named Schwalb, he vowed that he would not. He's like Alvin Bragg. He vowed that he would not prosecute crimes and he even said when there was a crime wave last year that you can't prosecute your way out of crime. That's why crime is down because they're not prosecuting them.

[Clay Travis]

We've this. They have lowered so many felony charges to misdemeanors and you heard Jean and Judge Jeanine pointing out that much of the crime is now under 18s and we need to have a conversation about this larger scale when violent criminals know that 17 year olds by and large are going to get slaps on the wrist. They actually sometimes are using these younger kids to commit violent crimes because they know they can get away with them and it actually accelerates the violent crime rate to not treat them in some way as significant violent offenders.

Yeah, there's a lot of ways that these statistics can be manipulated to bring about outcomes that make it look like it's better than it is. I mean there's stunning stuff when you, when you dig into it. I remember a few years ago, Clay there somebody actually, well I said this on Tucker show and then it caught, caught a lot of attention from people across the country that in Philadelphia the Krasner, who's an infamous, infamous Soros DA was declining any prosecution on 50% of felon in firearms possession cases, not illegal gun cases. You're a convicted felon who also has an illegal gun, which is an even worse situation. He was declining. Half of them got nothing. They just got the case dismissed. So this is how crazy things have gotten in some of these places. And they call it like restorative justice. Restorative justice just means pandering to the criminal element in society. That's what it actually is, by the.

Way, D.C. has such aggressive gun restriction laws that you could really go after people and prosecute them to the fullest extent because there's not very many legal gun holders in that community. If you're walking around with a handgun, you're probably a gang banger of some nature to a large extent. Look, cell phone service doesn't have to be expensive. PureTalk can prove that they introduced a $25 a month unlimited talk text and a whole lot of data some years ago. Years later, they haven't raised the price. You can switch to PureTalk from Verizon, AT&T or T Mobile, realize the cost savings without any compromising. PureTalk will use the same 5G network on the same 5G towers as one of these big companies. So you get the same quality of service at a fraction of the price. And with PureTalk, you can keep your phone and your phone number from your cell phone. Dial 250 0, say Clay and Buck and you'll save an additional 50% off your first month. You can switch over in about 10 minutes time. Again, it's super easy. £250, say clay and Buck to switch to Pure Talk Wireless for Americans. Buy Americans. £250, say Clay and Buck. Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Monday edition of the program. Much to dive into in the next hour. We will jump into Trump. A lot of answers of questions relating to the big meeting scheduled in Alaska with Putin surrounding the Ukraine Russia war. But last week we talked a lot about the redistricting battle going on surrounding Texas. And we talked about, look, whatever your ideas are on this, the idea that of all the places the Texan lawmakers could have fled to, they went to Illinois, which is one of the most gerrymandered states in the entire country. Um, maybe J.B. pritzker was paying for all their hotel rooms and everything else. But even left wing media were not able to overlook how hypocritical that was. And so JB Pritzker went on Meet the Press to try to make the argument that this was unacceptable. And, and we've got a couple of different cuts here of Meet the Press. I referred to this, I think, on social media, Buck, as the equivalent of the Russian judge disqualifying the Russian skater. You've got the whole rig job in your favor and you still get absolutely lambasted like this. Here is cut 11, JB Pritzer Pritzker getting challenged on Meet the Press Every.

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Major Group that grades the fairness of congressional maps, gives your state an F30. Common cause and nonpartisan government watchdog even says your mat, and I'm going to quote, represents a nearly perfect model for everything that can go wrong with redistricting. We talk about preserving democracy. How do you preserve democracy if you're using the same tactics that you've criticized Texas Republicans for?

[J.B. Pritzker]

What they're talking about is a distraction. The reality is that the violation of people's voting rights is what Texas is attempting to do. That's what's right wrong with their efforts right now. And the fact that the President of the United States knows it and nevertheless is asking them to do it, that is what's wrong with what we're seeing right now. Democracy is at stake.

[Clay Travis]

This is, this is him. Yeah. This is him thinking I can just talking points steamroll the fact that my argument is trash. The argument that is being made by Democrats on this, especially people like Pritzker, who are kind of coming from a state like Illinois, is garbage. All they're saying is, I don't like when they do what I do. When they do it, it's bad. When I do it, it's good. That is the sum total of their argument. To be clear, there's nothing beyond that. It's, Republicans are icky, they're bad. I'm good, so I get to do the things that they do. And you're supposed to like it when I do it and not like it. I mean, this is, this is like arguing with toddlers. They have nothing beyond that. Notice he didn't even engage with what she said. You don't have to know anything about gerrymandering. If you look at a map of congressional districts in Illinois, you'd say to yourself, the heck is that?

Yeah, it's bizarre. And she followed up. But, but I do think this is important, what you just said, and I think the media is getting a little bit embarrassed. Even as shameless as they are, they're starting to recognize that Texas is just catching up and doing what California and Illinois and New York already did. In other words, the redistricting in Texas and is just lagging behind. And we had Greg Abbott on last week essentially in many ways making that argument. But Buck, to her credit, Kristen Welker followed up after that non answer from J.B. pritzker and said, wait a minute. President Trump, as we told you on this program, won 44% of the vote in 2024. It was, look, Texas and Florida were actually not as competitive as Illinois was. I Believe. If you look at the raw numbers, Illinois, which is a deep blue state, Trump got almost 45% of the vote. Listen to cut 12.

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I do want to look at the map of Illinois. Let's take a look at this. Despite President Trump winning 44% of the statewide vote in 2024, Republicans hold only 3 of Illinois 17 districts. These districts seem to be designed to maximize Democratic advantage. What do you say to those who argue that it's hypocritical for you to criticize Texas for partisanship when your state also drew maps to boost your party's standing?

[J.B. Pritzker]

Well, remember that what Texas is trying to do is again, violate the Voting Rights Act. You talked about how rare it is to do what he's doing. Yes, it is. What's even rarer is to do it at the behest of the President of the United States, who's clearly attempting to and says that he deserves to have five more seats.

[Clay Travis]

He's wrong. I mean, the non argument. He doesn't even make an argument.

I just look at so many of these political figures, and there are Republicans in this camp, too. They're just not serious, intellectual, intelligent individuals who should be representing us. I mean, J.B. pritzker is supposed to be one of the forerunner favorites for Democrats in 2028. He's been elected multiple times, I believe, already in Illinois. His daddy's a billionaire, and so he's a billionaire. He's not an impressive person. And, and to go on knowing that these questions are coming. First of all, if I were advising J.B. pritzker, I would have said, hey, moron, we shouldn't be the place that is hosting all these Texas Democrats. I know you want to get your face on television, but you're just going to expose our hypocrisy. And when Kristen Welker is, is pointing it out, Kirsten Welker, whatever first name is, is pointing it out on Meet the Press, you know that you really engaged in hypocritical behavior.

This is, this is where you're getting to the. We've been to the border level. When, when you have journalists who are friendly journalists and I, you know, journals, we can all, it's obviously in quotes. But, but when they won't go along because your argument is so dumb that it will make them look dumb, too. That's the line here that Pritzker is crossing. Same thing you saw with Lester Holt. And he's like, look, Kamala, I like you. You know, I'm, I'm proud. Although Lester Holt maybe is A little bit, actually of a centrist, but whatever, put that aside. I don't know. But clearly he liked Kamala Harris. But he's not going to sit there while she says, we've been to the border. And he's not going to, you know, clap for that and pretend like that's normal. Of course not.

Right.

That he's not going to look like a moron on her behalf. And even Welker, I think here is like, look, buddy, you guys do what they do. So you got to explain this, because I don't want to sit here and look dumb. I'll be partizan, but I don't want to look like I don't have a enough brainpower to understand the argument. So I'm going to have to ask you this question. And Pritzker's answers are, are absurd. I mean, this is a guy who bought the governorship of a very blue state, and there's nothing impressive about him. I mean, Pritzker, Heavy P needs to figure out better answers to questions like this.

Heavy P is a great nickname, except he might use it in a positive context. I just, I do think that what you're seeing here is Trump is delivering a masterclass. Time after time, Democrats try to argue and they get embarrassed. And now we'll talk here in a minute about the pivot that's going to happen with the big conversation going on in Alaska on Friday. And just as they are calling Trump racist because he's trying to decrease the amount of violent crime that's taking place in D.C. i guarantee you, no matter what happens on Friday, they're going to say, oh, Trump is Putin's stooge. They're going to try with the whole Russia collusion argument again. The problem for them, I think, is Democrats have reached the boy who cries wolf scenario. We saw it in 2024. I thought they would learn from it. In the first 200 days of Trump, they have not. They've continued with the same arguments and they're failing. Time after time. We'll get to some of your talkbacks. By the way, close out the hour. We'll dive into the Ukraine and Russia situation. Top of our three and more all coming your way. But some of you may be aware football is basically back. Preseason football is underway. And that means that Bucs favorite player George Pickles has taken the field again. A new and we're going to be giving you, I'll start maybe on Thursday of this week, picks for the NFL and for college football. As all of this is starting to roll back into the season and that means it's fun. For prize picks. We're going to try to win. Really easy to use. I give you a pick. We hope to hit a 5 to 1, 10 to 1. All we have to do is pick more or less on player achievement. I put them out there for you and we are ready to roll. It is super easy to use. You can play in California, you can play in Texas, you can play in Georgia, you can play in Buck where Buck is in Florida where I am in Tennessee. Thirteen million of you signed up. You get fifty bucks when you play five dollars. All you have to do is go to prizepix.com code clay that's prizepix.com Code clay 50 instantly when you play five dollars. If you love football, and I know a lot of you do, football season is back. You can still stay. Major League baseball, NBA, NHL, tennis, golf. Whatever sport you like is out there. Nascar. But get hooked up. Right now we're going to be giving you picks and football. That's prizepix.com code clay prizepix.com code Clay Two guys walk up to a mic. Anything goes. Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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Back into Clay and Buck. We got a lot of things to dive into. I just wanted to point this out, Clay, because we're talking here about the D.C. situation and Trump federalizing law enforcement for a 30 day period. It's 48 hours first and then it can be extended, which Trump will do to 30 days under the like DC Home Rule act of 1973 I think it is. And then it can be extended beyond that by Congress. But one thing again, Clay, I'll never forget, I was on CNN back in the day when I used to do a lot of terrorism analysis as a former counterterrorism analyst. And they had me on. And this is a true story. This is on Don Lemon show. So you know, it's a true story. They showed a chart of, of Islamo fascist jihadist violence, whatever you want to call it, right. You know, Muslim guys doing suicide bombings and different kind of terrorist attacks. And they broke it down by, you know, whether it was that or it was like white nationalists. And I remember I was looking at the chart and there's a, See Buck, it's really the number of jihadist terror attacks that have occurred. Said you guys started after 9 11, meaning you exclude 911 from the data. Right. So that's a very, that's a, that's a big deal. It's a big thing if you're going to go back, you know, many, many years. But you're going to start a 2002 suddenly and not show the early. You know, this is the kind of stuff you used to deal with, right? They were clearly trying to skew the data. Notice that they don't tell you this, clay, that the D.C. homicide rate was at a, a multi decade high in 2023 under Biden's second to last year in office, 274 homicides under Trump. In 2016 it was 135. So you have the worst murder surge, I believe in D.C. history over a 10 year period, Clay, a murder surge to be embarrassed about for the City of D.C. and the enforcement of the law there. And now they're saying, oh well, it's down 30. It's down 30% from there. Oh, so it's down from the worst thing you've seen. They're playing games, everybody.

This is also important. The D.C. police union said, quote, it acknowledges and supports the President's announcement this morning to assume temporary control of the Metro Police force. Here's the chairman, Greg Pemberton. Again, these are D.C. police. We stand with the President in recognizing Washington D.C. cannot continue on this trajectory. Crime is out of control. Our officers are stretched beyond their limits. The federal intervention is a critical stopgap. But the Police Department of D.C. needs proper staffing and support to thrive. This can only happen by repealing the disastrous policies that have driven out our best officers and hindered recruitment. So you have D.C. politicians and national Democrats now opposed to the actual police force of Washington D.C. thanking the President for the support that he is providing them. Again, I just, I look at this and I don't even remotely see how we need to have way less murders in D.C. and way less, way, way lower violent crime is anything that anybody could be opposed against. And then I see all the Democrat leadership lining up because Trump has come out aggressively against violent crime and saying we don't need his help basically, or crime is not actually an issue.

It's stunning though. I mean, Clay, when you look at the homicide trend in D.C. that it got as bad as it was 2023, 274, 2024, 187. For a city of basically half a million people to have 274 homicides. New York City at its best, at its best year got under 300. New York City has 8.5 million people. Everybody. The people who are telling you D.C. is safe are lying to you. All right? It's very important. Everyone understands. I have lived there.

Clay has lived there.

I know many people that still live there. It is a shockingly dangerous place for America's capital city, and it has been for far too long, and it is a national embarrassment. This is a serious issue. People are losing their lives. And again, it's just Democrats, you know, they, they would. I don't know what to say. They just would rather there be more carjackings than they admit that Trump was right. I mean, is that really where it is? I don't know how else they can't win an argument. I would debate any Democrat anywhere in the country on the issue of DC Crime and make them look like an absolute moron. You, too? It wouldn't be hard to do. They would not be able to make. All they'd be able to do is talk about it's actually safe. It's gone down in recent years. It's so racist for you to enforce the law. It's not racist to enforce the law. In fact, I think it's particularly racist when Democrats say that it's racist to enforce the law. I think there's something very underhanded and very strange about that approach.

Well, we had a conversation with a, a guy who lost his job over saying all lives matter on, on Friday during the, during the Black Lives Matter protest. If black lives truly matter, then what President Trump is doing is likely to save more black lives than anything that any Democrat politician has done in D.C. in a generation. So if you truly believe, which I do, that black, white, Asian, Hispanic, all lives matter and that we should have a lower rate of violent crime everywhere, if D.C. is, if President Trump is effective in D.C. then I would say that this would be a policy that could be applied in many different jurisdictions. I was talking about per capita. What you're pointing out is really important because sometimes people look at raw numbers, but a city like New York city has about 16 times the population of Washington, D.C. and yet D.C. and New York City have similar numbers, roughly, of murder, that is unacceptable for D.C. and.

A couple of things to remember. Wherever you live in the country, you know, people who are listening right now who live in Alabama or who live in Louisiana, but live in red areas of those states where there's very little crime, right? I mean, there's, there's parts of Alabama where there's no crime, right? But then there, Birmingham has a lot of crime. This affects everybody because it affects state resources. It affects the capital city of the state or the main city of the state that you're in. The Democrat approach to dealing with these problems, top to bottom, is a proven and consistent failure with terrible results. And Democrats are hell bent on continuing to make the inner city suffer of whatever cities they're in charge in. You know, the poor areas, the high crime areas, the disproportionately minority areas suffer because they don't want to admit that Republicans have been right all along. They don't want to admit that BLM was a horrible failure that made everything worse for everybody. And they certainly don't want to admit Clay Trump's got a point. And this could actually be a turning point, not just for D.C. but for other cities and other models across the country.

I mean, we should have, I think, a national conversation about murder because to your point, we know murders happen, unlike other violent crimes, which can be finessed if there's a dead body and somebody gets shot or stabbed, usually we know about it. Why shouldn't there be a goal to decrease murders in this country by 50% during the Trump administration? That seems like a goal we could all get behind. I love the idea. We'll talk about it more next.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

That sounds amazing. Can I have a bite?

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

This is an I Heart podcast.