Hour 2 - Clay's Birthright Citizenship Argument

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Hour 2 – Clay’s Birthright Citizenship Argument

Date: April 1, 2026
Hosts: Clay Travis & Buck Sexton
Podcast: iHeartPodcasts

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dive deep into the national debate over birthright citizenship, dissecting the constitutional, legal, and political dimensions of the Supreme Court arguments and discussing Congress’s ongoing inability to address immigration reform. They intersperse policy analysis and frustration with humor and pop culture references, including a lighthearted opening conversation about space movies. The hosts are sharply critical of both parties’ congressional leadership, explore practical alternatives for addressing the incentives of birthright citizenship, and air caller reactions from around the country.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Space, Pop Culture, and IPOs (00:00 – 02:21)

• Artemis 2 mission: Brief mention of the NASA moon mission and Jared Isaacman’s comments on future space exploration.
• Space Movies Banter: Clay and Buck joke about their favorite space-themed films, with Clay choosing "Apollo 13" and Buck opting for "Aliens" and "Star Wars".
  • Buck Sexton (01:09): “That’s the answer I would expect from somebody who spent his vacations going to civil war camp and Supreme Court arguments.”
• SpaceX & IPO Speculation: Clay connects the upcoming Artemis mission to SpaceX’s rumored historic IPO aligning with America’s 250th anniversary.
  • Clay Travis (02:21): “Would not shock me if Elon Musk tried to do it around July 4th...to celebrate America’s 250th.”

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2. Clay’s Birthright Citizenship Proposal (02:21 – 08:27)

• Two Types of Citizenship: Clay distinguishes between citizenship by parentage (uncontroversial) and by jus soli/"soil" (the point of contention).
• Comparative International Perspective: Noting that automatic ‘by soil’ citizenship is rare globally; countries like China, Japan, and many in Europe do not grant it.
• Solution 1 – Mutuality/Reciprocity:
  • If Americans can’t gain citizenship in your country by birth, your citizens shouldn’t gain it in the US.
  • Clay Travis (04:22): "If we can't become citizens of your country, then you should not be able to become citizens of our country."
• Solution 2 – Minimum Residency Requirement:
  • Proposes that pregnant women should have to be in the US for several months before the birth for the child to receive citizenship, targeting "birth tourism."
  • Clay Travis (06:59): "If we said you cannot be in the United States for a short period of time… you have to spend, four months, five months… I think that would also interdict, drive back the chances of people being able to come to the country."
• Legal Reality Check: Both hosts agree reforms are rational but have little faith Congress could pass them.
  • Buck Sexton (08:27): “Yeah, they’re reasonable and rational. The Democrats won’t want them.”

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3. Congressional Dysfunction and the Filibuster (08:30 – 15:28)

• Partisan Gridlock:
  • Clay expresses frustration over the inability of even unified Republican government to pass substantial reforms.
• The Filibuster Debate:
  • Buck criticizes the Senate filibuster as a “self-imposed incumbency protection program.”
  • Buck Sexton (10:28): “We need to start just living with the consequences of elections… Elections have consequences."
  • Advocates for eliminating the filibuster so Congress must make hard choices and let the public see resulting policies.
  • Provides etymology of "filibuster," linking it humorously to piracy.
    • Buck Sexton (13:15): “To filibuster is in fact to be a pirate among Congress.”
• Democratic Intentions:
  • Both agree Democrats would abolish the filibuster if/when they control Congress and the presidency.
  • Clay Travis (14:31): “They're going to do away with it. I'm just telling you.”

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4. Callers & Listener Arguments (19:00 – 32:09)

• Rodney from Cincinnati (19:34):
  • Points out the inconsistency between limiting constitutional rights for public safety (e.g., Second Amendment) but not addressing birthright citizenship for national security.
  • Rodney (19:38): “[They] are always willing to change the Second Amendment for public safety, but you got a national security issue...”
• Clay’s Response:
  • Emphasizes restricted constitutional rights in context, arguing incentives should be addressed – namely, "jobs and birthright citizenship".
  • Clay Travis (20:11): “Constitutional rights are not without restriction.”
• Buck’s Focus on Welfare Incentives:
  • Suggests welfare programs are a bigger draw for illegal immigration than jobs.
  • Buck Sexton (21:50): “I would actually replace your first one, Clay, with our massive welfare state… Even if a lot of the illegals were to pay taxes, they actually would get money back from the government.”
• Congressional Inertia, Voter Accountability:
  • Clay and Buck both express frustration that voters, not just Congress, are to blame for returning ineffective lawmakers.
  • Buck Sexton (24:59): “We like to blame Congress because we don’t want to hold ourselves collectively to account over electing these idiots.”
  • Both highlight the lack of significant legislative accomplishments, answering rhetorically if any listener "thinks Congress has done an incredible job."

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5. Broader Immigration Problems & Political Strategy (29:09 – 32:09)

• Long-Term Democratic Strategy: Clay observes how Democrats benefit as more births and immigrants eventually become eligible voters.
  • Raises questions about American citizens born abroad voting from places like China.
• Congress’s Role: Both hosts hammer home that Congress is not interested in solving problems or addressing shifting demographic and voting realities caused by current immigration law.

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6. Humor & Cultural Critique (33:45 – 36:07)

• Dress Code Rant:
  • Buck entertains with a mini-rant about how “lightweight” suit jackets don’t exist for men’s summer formal wear, drawing laughs and agreement from Clay.
  • Buck Sexton (35:21): “I don’t think there is such a thing as a lightweight suit jacket that you can actually wear comfortably when it’s hot outside.”

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7. Listener/Legal Community Feedback (36:07 – 36:43)

• Robert from Corpus Christi (36:07):
  • Attorney caller commends Clay’s ability to argue the birthright case, lampoons the oral advocate’s monotone.
  • Robert (36:17): “Clay, you said you’ve given up the practice of law, but I tell you what, you would have done a better job than [John] Sauer...”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Clay Travis (04:22): "If we can't become citizens of your country, then you should not be able to become citizens of our country."
• Buck Sexton (10:28): "Elections have consequences. We have this sort of halfway thing of like nobody ever has to really. No, America should get what it wants and get it long and hard."
• Buck Sexton (13:15): “To filibuster is in fact to be a pirate among Congress.”
• Clay Travis (20:11): "Constitutional rights are not without restriction."
• Buck Sexton (21:50): “Our massive welfare state… Even if a lot of the illegals were to pay taxes, they actually would get money back from the government.”
• Buck Sexton (24:59): “We like to blame Congress because we don't want to hold ourselves collectively to account over electing these idiots.”
• Clay Travis (26:57): “I just get more frustrated when I see problems, and it just doesn't ever get addressed.”

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Segment | Time | |-------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Space & IPO Banter | 00:00–02:21 | | Clay's Citizenship Solutions | 02:21–08:27 | | Filibuster/Congressional Dysfunction | 08:30–15:28 | | Caller Rodney & Restricting Rights | 19:34–21:50 | | Immigration Incentives: Welfare vs. Jobs | 21:50–24:00 | | Voter Frustration/Accountability | 24:59–26:57 | | Long-Term Immigration Politics | 29:09–32:09 | | Dress Code Rant (Comic Relief) | 33:45–36:07 | | Attorney Robert: Critique of Oral Arguments | 36:07–36:43 |

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Overall Tone

• Conversational, skeptical, impatient with government bureaucracy, and sprinkled with humor.
• Sharp criticism of both parties, especially Congress.
• Frequent interplay of policy depth and banter.

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Conclusion

Clay and Buck use this episode to channel and articulate conservative frustrations about birthright citizenship, outlining uncommon practical solutions and spotlighting the deep structural issues in Congress and American discourse that prevent legislative action. Through a blend of wit, legal analysis, and pointed critique, they underscore the disconnect between public will, electoral consequences, and actual governance—leaving listeners questioning not only the future of immigration law but the basic functioning of democracy itself.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Clay Travis]

Guaranteed Human. Welcome back in hour number two. Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. We thank all of you for hanging out with us. A bunch of different news stories in the works as we are speaking to all of you. The Artemis 2 crew is suiting up ahead of their launch down in Florida to return to orbit the moon for the first time in decades. Jared Isaacman was on with us yesterday, the head of NASA talking about how this is setting the table for a moon base and one day humans on the surface of Mars, which is pretty cool.

[Buck Sexton]

What is your favorite space movie? All time Space. The Final Frontier. Favorite movie? I'm leaving it very broad here.

[Clay Travis]

That's a very good question. I, I don't even know that I, that I have one. That is. I probably. Apollo 13 probably was Paul of 13, right. With Tom Hanks about the space crew and having to come back. I think that's the answer. Is there a better one?

[Buck Sexton]

That's the answer I would expect from somebody who spent his vacations going to civil war camp and Supreme Court arguments. Fine aliens for me, but including like

[Clay Travis]

Star wars and stuff like that. Everything.

[Buck Sexton]

Everything, you big nerd.

[Clay Travis]

Well, Apollo 13. Star wars is the answer. I mean, Star Wars. I thought you meant like an actual space move. Star Wars. Empire Strikes Back.

[Buck Sexton]

Empire Strikes Back. That's respectable. You're not, you've gone, you've gone less nerd.

[Clay Travis]

Apollo 13. Well, I thought you were specifically saying like a real. Not science fiction.

[Buck Sexton]

Did you go to NASA camp too? Was clear. Like I want to be an astronaut one day. I want to be zero gravity.

[Clay Travis]

Laura has been to space camp multiple times, I think but with our boys because they have parent kid space camp down.

[Buck Sexton]

That's cool. Well, that's like a nice family thing.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, yeah, she's been multiple times. I think she's ready to go to space if she needed to. So yeah, I mean Star wars is the obvious answer, but I thought you meant like actual rocket space. Like real life tie.

[Buck Sexton]

You've seen Aliens, right? Yeah. Wow. Oh, oh, oh, oh. Light him up, everybody. Light him up. He's James Cameron's aliens. He's not giving that it's due. That's madness to me. Madness.

[Clay Travis]

So Artemis 2 that is going to take off. SpaceX going public. I think that's probably intentional to double up there for the biggest IPO potentially in the history of capitalism. Supposed to happen in July. Would not shock me if Elon Musk tried to do it around July 4th, if that's true. To celebrate America's 250th. Um, I can see a lot of positivity associated with that. But, Buck, I am still super fired up. I was watching all the birthright citizenship arguments, and I thought, let me give you a couple of things. First of all, and again, this is nerding out, there is a difference between two different types of citizenship. One of them is not controversial at all. If your parents are citizens of a country, then you should become a citizen of that country when you are born. I think everybody gets that. And that applies even if you are on a base in Germany or one day, if you're on Mars and you have a. And your parents are American and they have a baby, you should be an American citizen. I think everybody gets it. The other one is by soil. And I didn't think that the advocate here, John Sauer, really did a good job historically explaining what's going on personally, because by soil citizenship is very rare and nowhere in Europe. He did mention. We played that audio. You can't become a citizen in China. You can't become a citizen of Japan. So I have got two different things that, to me, Buck, would make sense. All right, Solutions, right? Because Congress can't do anything. We did like, won't do anything. Can't manage to get anything passed. However you want to contextualize this, Buck, tell me what you think about these two solutions. One, mutuality. If we can't become citizens of your country, then you should not be able to become citizens of our country. Let me explain how that would work. If you and I got invited to Beijing and one of us had a wife who was pregnant. Laura has had three. Let's say Kerry is pregnant and suddenly she had a baby in Beijing. That baby would not be Chinese. Why should Americans be able to travel to China and have babies there and their kids do not. Our kids do not become citizens of China, but Chinese citizens become citizens of America. One easy solution, to me that is very commonplace, is reciprocity. If you are not doing for us what we are doing for you, then it should not exist. That seems very logical, very common sense. There's a lot of examples of this. For instance, in law, sometimes you can wave into other jurisdictions and become a lawyer for purposes of practice in other states. But it's very common that if one state. Let's say I'm. I'm licensed in Tennessee right now. I can't become a lawyer in Florida by just waving in, I don't think. Or California. And so if California and Florida will not allow that to happen, then I think Tennessee will not allow you to wave in from those states because we're being treated differently. Reciprocity makes very much sense to me. That's one I don't know if it could pass, but I'm gonna ask Jim Jordan. That seems very reasonable. It's a way to go after birthright citizenship, because I doubt that China is gonna suddenly say, oh, by the way, you can travel Americans to China and all your people become Chinese citizens as well. Now, Buck, you don't think dual citizenship should exist? I kind of agree with that in theory. But this is one way to chip away at the concept of birthright citizenship by saying, you have to treat Americans as we are treating you. If you're going to take advantage of our country, then Americans should have the ability to take advantage of your country too. What it creates, unfortunately, because America is so much better than other countries, is some countries might be willing to create that mutuality.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm sure Somalia would be like, hey, if you want Somali citizenship, we'll trade you.

[Clay Travis]

Ok, so. But the problem is Somali. We have it right now already. But what it would do is if there's truly millions of people doing this from China, I think it would strip away of Chinese, China's ability, for instance, and Japan and all the Europeans countries from being able to take advantage of this. Okay, here's the second one. What if when you enter the country we insisted that if you are pregnant, you have to spend multiple months in this country instead of being able to travel in for a week or two, take advantage of all of the American medical treatments. I don't know about you when you went through pregnancy. First of all, it's reckless when someone is eight months pregnant to put them on an airplane and decide to fly them from a foreign country or seven months pregnant or whatever else at some point in time. You remember this, Buck, they said, hey, it's probably better for you not to be on an airplane for a long flight if you're a pregnant woman. That is very standard advice. If we said you cannot be in the United States for a short period of time, four months, five months, you have to spend in this country in order for your child to be considered an American citizen, I think that would also interdict, drive back the chances of people being able to come to the country. So both of those seem like reasonable ways to address constitutionally a decision that is likely to come down from the Supreme Court that says, hey, birthright citizenship by soil is constitutional. Do those seem like somewhat reasonable, rational? Again, I know reasonable and rational doesn't get passed often by Congress. But both of those seem like reasonable, rational ways to try to dial back the incentive of people coming here just to have babies so that they're American citizens.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, they're reasonable and rational. The Democrats won't want them.

[Clay Travis]

But can Republicans pass them? I'm sorry, do you think Republicans could pass them in the limited amount of time that we have? I don't have a lot of faith in Republicans either. Like, we can say Democrats won't pass them. Republicans can't pass anything either. And we've got the House and the Senate. By and large, we can't get anything done.

[Buck Sexton]

I think, I think this filibuster thing is dumb. Yeah, not, not the filibuster as a basic concept, which I think goes all the way back to like the, the origins of the term filibuster. Has to, I think it has to. The, the word itself is like French and has to do with like, like pirates. I'll, I'll get back to that in a second. Basically, it's like you're hijacking the situation is what a filibuster is. But I think that we don't have a 60 vote requirement in the Constitution. Why are people pretending like we have a 60 vote requirement in the Constitution? And people are saying, oh, well, Democrats will do all these crazy things. Okay, well then the American people can see the crazy things they do and make decisions based upon it. There's still a lot of bad laws that have been passed even with this requirement. It just feels like this is an incumbency protection program where nobody ever has to take a hard vote and nobody ever has to actually live with the consequences of getting what they want. I don't know. I've started to become a little more radical on this. People are sitting here, they're going, what about the SAVE Act? I'm like, yes, yes, great. Never gonna happen unless they get rid of the filibuster. They'll say, oh, but what about if we use parliamentary procedure in the standing filibuster and we show the American people, oh, okay, nice idea. Still not going to get the SAVE Act. Democrats won't do it. Republicans won't even all do it, by the way.

[Clay Travis]

So that's, that's my concern. We can't get anything passed. And this is where I get so many of you out there so frustrated that we've got. I don't know how often it's going to happen, Buck, that we have a Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican House, all three right now. We have in theory, a majority of Republican appointees on the Supreme Court, and yet it feels like they can't do anything.

[Buck Sexton]

We need to start just living with the consequences of elections. And that means if you win the House, you win the Senate and you win the presidency, you get to do things within the, you know, within the scope of the Constitution. You get to do things. Elections have consequences. We have this sort of halfway thing of like nobody ever has to really. No, America should get what it wants and get it long and hard. Like we should actually have a government that can take action that is meaningful beyond some of these carve outs that we have. You know what? You know what? They don't have this issue with budgets. You know why? Everybody wants to spend, spend, spend, spend. Easiest thing in the world, everybody in Congress, they're all a bunch of little piggies at the treasury trough and they don't want to stop. The spending is automatic. Everything else is like, meh, can we name a post office? Sure. It's, it's absurd. It's absurd. This whole 60 vote filibuster thing. I know people are like, no, it's important. The Senate tempers the passions. No, it's made up, get rid of it. Actually just have people vote and get the. Again, we have a Constitution, we have an anchoring system for this. You can't just do anything. You know, we have laws in place, we have statutes. But what all it means, Clay, is that, you know, you know, when the last time somebody got a super leg, you know, got the super legislative majority was Obamacare, which is a disaster, A disaster. Well, and so you're sitting here like, well, what exactly are we, we're holding ourselves back from doing a good thing with the SAVE Act.

[Clay Travis]

This is why President Trump has enacted so much of his agenda through his executive authority, which then November, as we see this morning, the only reason the border is secure is cuz President Trump issued his executive authority. The reason why we bombed Iran was there's typically more clear credence or space given to presidents in foreign affairs. I get why, exactly.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this is what I'm saying. He has the powers though, to do these. So the executive order is really just a way of saying the President chose to do the thing that he's allowed to do. Allowed to do.

[Robert]

Right.

[Clay Travis]

They can try to challenge out whether he has the ability to do it right through separation of powers, which is the big picture question. But again, the first, everybody's going to be angry at the Supreme Court when we're, when we're Predicting that they say birthright citizenship is the law of the land. Where I'm saying is your anger should actually be with Congress because they won't fix anything. They're basically worthless. And if Democrats take back control of the House, they're going to impeach President Trump. Nothing's going to happen. And I'm almost to the point where I just am like, just don't do anything. I don't know that they're making anything better for anyone's life most years that they are on Capitol Hill.

[Buck Sexton]

By the way, Clay filibuster comes from the Dutch Vrybooter, which is a freebooter or a pirate. And it passed into the French with from freebooter to vilibustier and filibustero to describe Caribbean pirates. So to filibuster is in fact to be a pirate among Congress.

[Clay Travis]

I love that history. I didn't know that. I will say this.

[Buck Sexton]

He looked at me like I was insane when I was saying.

[Clay Travis]

By the way, he was like, he

[Buck Sexton]

looked at me like I needed a nap or something. Like I was pulling a full Biden here.

[Clay Travis]

Pirates of the Caribbean. I know the parlay concept. We need to parlay. That's a great series of movies. I will say, buck the other part about the filibuster, as soon as Democrats have control, they're going to do away with it 100%. So you're 100% around talking about standing up for a principle that the other side will not respect when they have the opportunity to do away with it.

[Buck Sexton]

It's not even a principle. What is the principle? I get we won the election. This is a self imposed principle. This is like we could win, but we don't want to win because winning is mean. What are you talking about? It makes no sense. It makes no. People say Democrats will do these insane things. Okay. And we'll see the insane things that they're trying to do or that they do.

[Clay Travis]

Well, no, I do. I think, I think that if they win back control of the, of the presidency in the House and the Senate, I think that they will expand the Supreme Court. I think that they will decide to give statehood to places like Washington, D.C. to add senators, and I think they'll do it by a bare majority. So for people out there who are saying, and there are a lot of Republicans that say that, well, we've got to stay committed to not doing away with the principle. Biden tried to do away with it. The only reason that it didn't happen was because you had Joe manchin in West Virginia and because you had Kirsten Sinema in Arizona. Oh, by the way, they're not there anymore. Who are the Democrats that are? Maybe Fetterman, Maybe Fetterman would say, hey, this isn't a good idea. Other than that they do. They're going to do away with it. I'm just telling you. So the idea of not doing away with it because it's important precedent, the precedent is going to get tossed out the way as soon as they have the power to do it.

[Buck Sexton]

Do you guys think after eight years of Democrats losing their minds over Trump, they're going to be reasonable? If they remember this is only if they win the presidency, the Congress, you know, the House and the Senate. Right. But if they win all three of those, you think that they're going to be reasonable and they're going to keep the filibuster after Trump for eight years? No way. No way.

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Support the show.

[Clay Travis]

Follow and preset Clay and buck on the iHeartRadio.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. Talk a little bit about The I was going to dive into Iran, Clay, but we only have about 30 seconds before we've got to give everybody a little bit of a break, a breather, get up and stretch for a second. So I can't fix the Strait of Hormuz in 30 seconds. But I will say Trump has given a speech tonight on the Iran situation where he's really going to call out US Allies I think in a pretty big way. And I don't know if that's just a negotiating tactic or if it's Trump is truly frustrated because we need some help because but that's what's coming up tonight at 9 o'. Clock. So we'll get back into this here in a moment. Some people dress for success, others dress for comfort. But with Cozy Earth you can do both. They make smart looking comfortable clothes for guys and gals. And now look, I started out with Cozy Earth sheets and bedding. That's a great foundational approach because their sheets and bedding are so comfy and soft. But the clothing is amazing too. I've got six pairs of Cozy Earth pants right now hanging up in my closet. Closet. I wear them all the time. Cozy Earth backs everything with a 100 day trial and a 10 year warranty. So you know when you must get all dressed up for something, half the time you're thinking about whether you can lose the outfit and get back into your comfy clothes. With Cozy Earth, they are your comfy clothes and you look sharp in them. Clay and I both love Cozy Earth stuff across the across the board. I was at the Tunnel, the Tower benefit in West Palm Beach. Fancy place, the Trump International. You know what I fit in in my Cozy Earth pants. I will even say I look so snazzy. Go to cozy earth.com use my name Buck as your promo code. For 20% off, go to cozy c o z y cozyearth.com use my name Buck get 20% off today.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We got a bunch of callers who want to weigh in on the Birthright Citizenship case. We will get to some of those. We'll also continue here coming up in the next hour to update you on many of the situations surrounding Iran. In the meantime, let's see. Rob. Well, we just lost a couple of callers. I don't know what happened there. Literally, as I said, I was going to go to you. Let's go to Rodney in Cincinnati. Rodney, what you got?

[Rodney]

Yeah. Hey client Buck, how you doing?

[Clay Travis]

Great.

[Rodney]

I'VE got a thing to ask you about. Nobody said anything about it. But the last segment you had with, with Roberts when he, when he was asked about the constitutional and all that stuff and he said, what's the same Constitution? Yes, they're always willing to change the second Amendment for public safety, but you got a national security issue with these people coming across the border and having a baby and making them a citizen of the United States.

[Clay Travis]

So, yeah, thank you for the call. I mean, I think that's an easy argument. Look, constitutional rights are not without restriction. I mean, to his point, you have a second Amendment right, you have a First Amendment right, but those rights can be restricted in some ways within the context of specific fact patterns. And so the argument, again, I think the anger is going to be with the Supreme Court. And I understand why that anger is going to be with the Supreme Court. The reality is anger should be with Congress. Congress knows that we have a major illegal immigration issue in this country. There are two reasons why we have a major illegal immigration problem in this country. One is you make way more money to do jobs here than you do in most of the other countries in the world. And so if you make $5 a day in another country and you find out you can come to the United States and you can make a hundred dollars a day, you're going to make 20x money, you're going to try to get here. So one is just, we got great capitalism, a dynamic economy, and that is one of the draws. The other is your kids become citizens. If we want to address illegal immigration, and I'm talking about illegal immigration, you have to go to the incentives that we create for illegal immigration. And there are two jobs. Hard to dial back the jobs, candidly, because we have such a great economy, we're producing a lot of great jobs and people most of the rest of the world would kill to have a job in the United States. The second one though buck, is birthright citizenship. We, which we should and could address.

[Buck Sexton]

I would actually replace your first one, Clay, with our massive welfare state. I think you have more people coming here so that they can access the various programs that exist in this country. And keep in mind, even if a lot of the illegals were to pay taxes, they actually would get money back from the government. They would not be a function of

[Clay Travis]

how good capitalism is. Right. That we have created this such a huge Social Security safety net because of the dynamic capitalistic nature. Yes, you're.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, but, but I'm, I'm talking at all. I'm not Talking like Milton Friedman, you cannot have open borders and a massive welfare state. And that's what we have right now. So this is a bigger. You know, Clay, I think the old immigration paradigm was people come here because the jobs are. Yeah, of course. There's a lot of that. I'm not saying that's not true.

[Robert]

But.

[Buck Sexton]

But the 10 million illegals who came here under Biden, they're. They're. They're trying to find every way they can to. I mean, this is the people getting the free hotels in New York City and getting the EBT cards loaded with cash and going to the emergency room for all of their medical needs, which, by the way, are all met. You show up, they'll do whatever.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, yeah, you know, you need.

[Buck Sexton]

You need new prescription eyeglasses.

[Clay Travis]

True. And we pay for it. We pay for all, and we pay for it.

[Buck Sexton]

And we are running dangerously deep into debt. And when, you know, when you have interest rates where they are, and people start to pay attention to how much we're paying on money we've already spent just on interest on the debt, it's crowding out other spending. This is a real problem.

[Clay Travis]

Okay.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, we don't hear about the debt very much here just because nobody wants to deal with it. And that's why Elon lost his mind.

[Clay Travis]

This also comes back to, though, the larger issue, which is all of that incentive structure exists because of Congress, and they can't. Totally won't. Can't and won't do anything to make those of us who are American taxpayers actually feel like we're being well represented by Congress. And that's why I think there is a deep well of anger right now. Look, people can be angry at President Trump. The guy is trying to do everything in his power. This is an executive order. He just threw up his hands and said Congress won't do anything. He's the one who shut down the border. He's the one who is saying we have to fix birthright citizenship.

[Rodney]

So.

[Clay Travis]

But the reason he's acting this way is because he's looking at Congress. He's a business guy, and he's just like, these guys are clowns. They won't pass anything. They can't even get TSA paid. And this is where I think there's a great deal of populist anger, because many of you say, wait a minute, we worked our asses off to get a Senate majority for the Republican Party. We did everything in our power to get the House to Republicans, and they got tax cut through. And look to be fair, there's a lot of judges that are going to get appointed that are very significant. That's behind the scenes. You don't focus on a lot of it. The Senate is doing that. But do you think people, in terms of congressional action, I'm not talking about what President Trump can do with his own executive authority. Do you think people, anyone out there. Is anyone out there, like, thank the Lord Congress has done an incredible job in the first year and a half of President Trump. Is there a single person listening to us right now that would make that argument?

[Buck Sexton]

No, but, Clay, I don't, you know, I take the position on this stuff that we like to blame Congress because we don't want to hold ourselves collectively to account over electing these idiots. I mean, this is, we're, you know, we're the, this is the. So this is the thing. I have so many people. How many people right now, I'm sorry to pick on South Carolina. How many people listening right now are in South Carolina and are laughing at when people are talking about how Lindsey Graham can't get enough war in Iran and wants, you know, wants, wants a thousand times more bombs and everything else and how he's a warmonger and all this other stuff, and yet they elected him and maybe they voted for him, but they still think he's absurd. I sit here, I. So how are these people able to keep winning elections and then getting away with not doing the things that they said that they would do during the, you know, during the campaign season? It's because we don't have a, an engaged enough. We don't hold people to account. So it's, I think at some level, it's on us. Right? Congress is just a reflection on what people in this country are doing with their votes. And we put a lot of these idiots in place. And I'm not even talking to the Democrats. I'm talking about Republicans, Democrats, a whole other thing when they just, they just want to watch. What's the, what does the guy say in, in Batman, Some men just want to watch the whole world burn. You remember that? That's kind of Democrats. They just want to watch the whole world burn.

[Clay Travis]

Alfred the Butler.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, Alfred the Butler. That's where Democrats are. They just like America. So what if we burn it to the ground? We'll build something else.

[Clay Travis]

It'll be better.

[Buck Sexton]

It'll be more multicultural. Thanks, Democrats. That's what they think. The Republicans, though, are cowards and they're never held to account. I mean, I'll tell you this after the midterms, if they're. You're going to see so many Republicans who all of a sudden start getting a little mouthy on some of this immigration stuff and other things, because they're not going to be afraid of Daddy Trump anymore. They're not going to be afraid of Big Daddy Trump if that's the way this is going to go.

[Clay Travis]

I just, I look at it and I say, and I know many of you are in this position, one reason I stopped practicing law was because it was so frustrating how long it took to get anything resolved. Any of you that have ever been involved in litigation, it is years. You file a lawsuit and you think, hey, this is gonna like this. Nobody ends up happier with litigation. Everybody gets more embittered. It lasts for years. You're paying ungodly amounts to lawyers who are just slowly moving a procedural ball down the field. And then years later, there's finally maybe some form of resolution. I hated it because I see a problem and I want to fix it. And I think President Trump sees problems and he wants to fix it. And that's why he's using his executive authority to do it. Because deep down he has contempt for Congress's inability to get anything done. And so for people out there, I understand you're going to be angry at the Supreme Court when this case comes down and they say, hey, the President doesn't have the authority to do this. But to me, the real anger should be with Congress because this is exactly what they are intended to do, solve problems. And they don't solve problems worse than that, Buck. I would say Congress tends to create problems, make things worse where we would just do, you know, some states only allow the state legislature to show up for like two months a year. There are lots of states out there where they're like, the legislative session is, you know, just a couple of months. And it's because a lot of people in states have just been like, I don't. These guys just make things worse? Like, let's try to limit what they can do to restrict us in any way and, and let the free market actually get things solved. We just talked about SpaceX going public, Buck. SpaceX is better at sending rockets to space than NASA. NASA had a 70 year head start, probably hundreds of billions of dollars in money that had been given to NASA in advance. And Elon Musk is better at sending rocket ships to space than they are. Soon, maybe Jeff Bezos is going to be, too. That's because government stinks at almost everything and we need Less of it. But I just get more frustrated when I see problems, and it just doesn't ever get addressed.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah, but, you know, there's. There's the lack of it getting addressed, and then there's the Democrats. Half the country wants all the illegals to be made citizens and be able to vote. Half the country doesn't agree on this. Roughly half the. I'm gonna say half. Somebody say no, it's like 43% or whatever. But a big chunk of the country doesn't agree with us on this. And so this is why with Congress, the way that it's set up right now, you need a huge. We have a very divided country, or roughly 50, 50 country. And Congress has set it up so that to solve any problem, you need to have a supermajority that doesn't really materialize. And keep in mind, even the one that Obama had, that was because of essentially the worst financial situation since the Great Depression. And it also involved bringing bogus federal criminal charges against. Up in Alaska. What was his name? Forget the senator. Forgetting his name.

[Clay Travis]

But wasn't it.

[Buck Sexton]

No, no, no, no, no. It was a guy before that. Some of you were shouting, I'm sorry, Alaska people.

[Clay Travis]

I'm forgetting.

[Buck Sexton]

But Stevens. Thank you, Ted Stevens. They took him off the playing field, and that allowed them to finish off the final rung of Obamacare. It was a total scam, by the way. He actually. He actually was. Should have been completely exonerated. So my point is, like. And even with all that, there was so much wrangling over Congress, and they're at that 60 votes, and all they did was make everything worse.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, I agree with all that. Here's the thing. Democrats are playing the long game because every year there are millions of more illegals, by and large, that are either entering the country when they're in charge. Like we saw 10 million with Biden, or the birthright citizenship game is still continuing. And so all these people coming in that are getting American citizenship. I mean, I don't even know the answer to this. Are you allowed to vote in American presidential elections from China? Honest question. Because a lot of voting now takes place electronically. I have family members that currently are in Canada, and they're able to vote from Canada in American elections electronically. Some of you may not even be aware of this. I wasn't. But if you're an American citizen and you live in China, are they sending absentee ballots to China? I mean, are a million people from China eligible to vote in the United States presidential election? Because they're American citizens, if they also are establishing in some way or arguing that they are also domiciled in California or whatever state that they were born. I don't know the answer. I mean, it's a super interesting question that maybe we should have a solution for. But again, Congress is not in the business of solving problems. And there's way too many people in America that are not in the business of solving problems. They're just kind of there to cash checks. And this is where I get supremely frustrated. And I think today's case is a great example of that.

[Buck Sexton]

All very true. All very astute. I was just at a Taunt the Towers event. This is just an incredible organization, guys. You know, what they do, the mission is so important. And also what they do for people as part of the mission is so clear. Taunt the Towers foundation was born on America's darkest day of September 11th. They provide homes for our heroes, homes for the. For the families of those who are fallen, homes for gold star families. It's incredible what they do, and I think talented Towers is one of the best organizations of its kind of any kind in America doing this kind of nonprofit work. We are honored to be affiliated with. Affiliated with them. I got a chance to chat with Frank Siller. He's a. He's a big fan of Clay's. Not Clay's golf swing so much, but a big fan of Clay showing up to the events and helping get the word out about everything. And look, they're just a beautiful organization doing great stuff, and we're always so thankful that they partner with this show and that so many of you support them. I donate $11 every month. We all know, we all know what it is that they're trying to do. And that is to honor our promise to never forget and to take care of the families of the fallen, first responders, fallen military, and to honor their sacrifice. Go to t2t.org Today's a great day to start. Sign up $11 a month, guys. It's easy. T2t.org that's t the number two t.org

[Clay Travis]

news and politics, but also a little comic relief. Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Before we get some of your calls, can I just say something, Clay? You know, I had a book event yesterday for manufacturing delusion up in Palm Beach. It's a lot of fun and we had like C Span there. Please go get a copy while you can. Of Manufacturing delusion. If you go to Crockett Coffee. By the way, we have a special on signed books that's going to be [e-mail] Signed books, very exciting stuff. But clay blazers, jackets, suit jackets. I'm just going to call this out because, you know, I've been. I've been running a one man jihad against ties for a long time now. I'm just like, I don't like ties. They're dumb. They make no sense. Some. A French king hired a bunch of Croatian mercenaries 400 years ago and so I have to wear this stupid thing forever now because of fashion? Sorry, not into it. I'm going to tell you something. I want to know if you agree with me on this. It's a little controversial. This could get us in trouble. I don't think there is such a thing as a lightweight suit jacket that you can actually wear comfortably when it's hot outside. It's just not a thing. You're going to sweat and then you're that guy with the sweaty pits and the sweat in the middle of the dress shirt. People are like, oh, it's summerweight wool. Summerweight wool. I mean, this is like lightweight lead. Are you kidding me? No such thing. Absurd. I think that we need to just call this out for what it is, cuz gentlemen, we're being forced to be sweaty messes at all these formal events. I went, no jacket people. Why aren't you wearing a jacket at your book event? Because I don't want to look like a sweaty piggy Piggy up there.

[Clay Travis]

I actually thought you looked sweaty in the photo that you posted with Carrie.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, you're a. You're, you're a jerk.

[Clay Travis]

You're a jerk. I thought you looked a little flush. She looked comfortable in her dress. Like she's a Floridian. She was used to the heat. It's not even August yet. And I was like, oh, bucks. Just sweating bullets out there.

[Buck Sexton]

My, my, Scots Irish people are melting down here in South Florida. That's all I can tell you.

[Clay Travis]

I think you need to just go. Seersucker would be what some of the people out there would say in the old school, in the old school Southern community. I think, you know, back in the day, they used to have to argue all these cases in, in southern courtrooms without any, without any moving air at all. They see people war. Yeah, it's crazy. It's Robert.

[Buck Sexton]

And Corpus Christi, Texas is an attorney. Want to get you in, Robert. Go ahead.

[Robert]

Hey, sounds good. Play the wheels of justice grind slowly. For sure.

[Clay Travis]

Amen.

[Robert]

I wanted to give you guys props. Clay, you said you've given up the practice of law, but I tell you what, you would have done a better job than sour with that voice of his. It's like scratching a chalkboard. It's worse than RFK Jr. Yeah, look.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you. You're a lawyer. I mean, how many people do you think could have done a better job advocating for President Trump? Just from an oral advocacy perspective?

[Robert]

Most every lawyer I know that. I've been practicing for 35 years and do a lot of trial work. Not that much appellate have done a bit. But my voice. If you give sour my voice, I think he would have carried the day. But.