Hour 2 - Jake Tapper is a Fraud

Summary

The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show: Hour 2 – "Jake Tapper is a Fraud"

Date: July 27, 2026
Podcast: The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (iHeartPodcasts)
Theme: Dissecting the Rise of Democratic Socialism, Media Integrity, and COVID Hypocrisy

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Overview

In this high-energy episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dive deep into current political upheavals within the Democratic Party, focusing on the rise of openly socialist candidates and policies. They scrutinize the Democratic Socialists of America’s (DSA) increasingly bold agenda, analyze key political races, and spotlight the internal "civil war" among Democrats. The show’s marquee segment, however, is a scathing take on Dr. Anthony Fauci and CNN’s Jake Tapper, highlighting journalistic hypocrisy during COVID restrictions and what the hosts call fraudulence in politics and media.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The ‘Socialist Surge’ in Democratic Politics

[02:00–09:26]

• DSA’s Rise: Buck notes the surge in Democratic Socialists’ influence, citing major primary wins (e.g., Mamdani as NYC mayor, Claire Valdez in Congress).
• Policy Extremes: The DSA’s policy priorities, as outlined on air, include abolishing the Senate, ICE, most prisons, and borders, as well as public ownership of large corporations.
  • Memorable Quote:
    Interviewer: “Abolish the Senate.”
    DSA Rep (played by Clay): “True.” ([05:52])
  • Hosts call this “full-blown socialism.”
• Electoral Landscape: Clay describes how only a handful of House and Senate races are truly competitive, making socialist advances in key primaries—like Michigan’s Senate race especially noteworthy.
  • Clay: “The best thing that could happen to Republicans is Abdul El Sayed wins [in Michigan]. Because I think that legitimately would give Mike Rogers…a great chance.” ([08:46])
• Party Tensions: Discussion on Senator John Fetterman’s comments that "socialism should be an unacceptable view" in the Democratic Party ([10:03]).

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2. Democratic Party Dynamics and Future Fears

[10:44–14:15]

• No Moderate Resistance: Clay insists that, despite talk of moderates, elected Democrats will “engage in radical acts” if in power. He warns of quick moves to end the filibuster and impeach Trump again if Democrats win back control.
  • Clay: “There are no moderates in the Democrat Party… as soon as they get there…they’re going to impeach Trump.” ([11:13])
• Voting Laws & Filibuster: The hosts mock the inability to pass laws requiring photo IDs to vote, criticizing the Senate’s rules as obsolete given Democrats’ willingness to abandon tradition when convenient.

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3. The ‘Breadline Bodega’ Experiment in NYC

[17:45–21:47]

• Mamdani’s Plan: Audio is played featuring NYC Mayor Mamdani’s proposal to open city-owned grocery stores with prices 30% less than market rates.
  • Mamdani: “Once a month our five city-run grocery stores will set prices…at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks.” ([18:05])
• Hosts’ Analysis: Clay and Buck, with Joe Kernan, argue that this unsustainable policy will only lead to taxpayer-funded subsidies, shortages, empty shelves, and eventual failure.
  • Buck: “You’re just taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the people who shop at this store. That’s all you’re doing.” ([19:59])

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4. Fauci, Jake Tapper, and COVID-Era Hypocrisy

[22:54–34:46]

• Fauci’s Diary Revelations: Buck tears into Dr. Fauci after recent diary entries surface, showing Fauci hosted CNN anchor Jake Tapper for dinner during strict COVID lockdowns, at the same time both warned the public to avoid gatherings.
  • Clay (reading diary): “Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes Trump is totally nuts. Hit 83,000 new cases today…” ([24:36])
  • Clay’s tweet (paraphrased): “Hey, Jake Tapper, why were you having dinner with Dr. Fauci, telling him you believe Trump was totally insane while you were telling your TV audience it wasn’t safe for them to have Thanksgiving dinner with their families?” ([24:43])
• Journalism and Double Standards:
  • Buck calls Tapper “one of the most snide, disingenuous and nasty people in the media.” ([24:36])
  • Hosts argue Tapper’s claims to impartiality are refuted if he privately labels Trump “nuts” while prepping to moderate presidential debates.
  • Clay: “This should be the kind of thing that would cost someone their job.” ([26:09])
• Comparison to Other Media Scandals: They compare Tapper’s actions to Brian Williams’ NBC ousting for embellishing stories—arguing Tapper’s offense is worse.

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5. Lasting Impact of COVID Fear & ‘Faucism’

[31:15–34:46]

• Mask Policy Absurdity: Buck and Clay mock the “mask up between bites” airline policy as a metaphor for broader COVID irrationality.
  • Buck: “…Like telling somebody, hey, you’re going out into the pouring rain. Wear your rain jacket half the time, and that will keep you dry. It’s idiotic.” ([32:30])
• No Lessons Learned: Hosts lament that many Americans, especially in big cities, still wear masks and that policy-makers refuse to own up to senseless restrictions, fearing future playbooks have not changed.
• Fauci’s Legacy:
  • Clay: “He wanted there to be a contemporaneous version of what he was doing during COVID so that sometimes some hagiographer out there would come and write a book: Fauci, the star of the COVID pandemic response. I mean, this guy is the biggest fraud I’ve ever, ever seen.” ([42:02])

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6. DSA Tactics and Tax Policy Shaming

[34:46–36:00]

• Pied-à-Terre Tax: Mamdani publishes a list of NYC property owners to be targeted with new taxes; hosts see this as “punitive” and speculate it will drive influencers and billionaires from the city.

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7. Notable Guest Moments & Final Thoughts

[39:43–42:02]

• Joe Kernan’s Perspective: Longtime CNBC host Joe Kernan shares personal disappointment with Fauci, questioning Tapper’s “best buddy” relationship with him.
  • Kernan: “The Tony Fauci I saw in those emails is not the Tony Fauci I knew over the years… I was disappointed by the Emails, I have to admit.” ([40:36–41:29])

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Timestamps & Memorable Quotes

Socialism & DSA’s Agenda

• [05:52] Interviewer: “Abolish the Senate.”
  DSA: “True.”
• [06:20] Interviewer: “Government or public ownership of most large corporations?”
  DSA: “Yeah, absolutely.”
• [06:23] Buck: “Full-blown socialism, just to be clear. Full-blown socialism. Democratic about that. It’s just socialism.”

Fauci & Tapper

• [24:36] Clay (reading Fauci): “Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes Trump is totally nuts.”
• [26:09] Clay: “[Tapper’s behavior] should be the kind of thing that would cost someone their job.”
• [32:30] Buck: “It’s idiotic. It made no sense ever. And we still have people that have not been [corrected]…”

Mamdani’s Grocery Policy

• [18:05] Mamdani: “Once a month our five city-run grocery stores will set prices… at 30% below retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks.”
• [19:59] Buck: “You’re just taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the people who shop at this store. That’s all you’re doing.”

Joe Kernan on Fauci & Media

• [41:29] Kernan: “I was disappointed by the Emails, I have to admit.”

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Overall Tone & Style

The episode blends outrage and humor, with Clay and Buck’s signature give-and-take—Clay often barreling ahead on key issues, Buck providing forensic analysis and timely sarcasm. Their conservative outlook is clear, yet much of their rhetoric hinges on exposing what they see as hypocrisy, lacks in journalistic integrity, and the dangers of radical left-wing politics.

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Key Takeaways

• The DSA’s radical agenda is gaining real traction inside the Democratic Party, with momentum in competitive races.
• Media figures like Jake Tapper, who present themselves as impartial, are revealed to have been privately dismissive of President Trump and flouting COVID-19 warnings.
• Dr. Fauci, in the hosts' view, is shown through diary disclosures to have operated with hypocrisy and narcissism during the pandemic’s peak.
• "Breadline bodega"-style government interventions are lambasted as doomed, wasteful policies.
• The episode calls for pressing accountability in both politics and media—and warns listeners to expect similar hardline tactics if Democrats regain united power.

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For listeners new to the show or episode, this hour offers a rapid-fire, sometimes blistering critique of current political and media trends—focused on leftist momentum, the dangers of hypocrisy, and the importance of transparency.

Transcript

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

second hour of play and Buck starts now. Let's talk about socialism or democratic socialism as they call it now. But it's still socialism. It doesn't change the core of it, although you'll find increasingly, depending on who you ask, what that actually entails. What does it mean to be a democratic socialist? I don't really know. Only good things though. No bad things. Have the socialists in history been people they admire? Depends. When you ask them. I think the answer is obviously yes, but they don't necessarily want to be too forthcoming about that. So the DSA has been in the headlines a bunch recently and with good reason, Clay. They've grown in influence in the Democrat party in recent months. They've got some targeted primary challenges that they've run some serious ground game organization and they align with Kami Mamdani who is having a national moment despite just being the mayor of New York City. Although some people think of the mayor's New York of New York as even being a possible stepping stone to say the presidency, certainly the governor of New York. But you have over 100,000 members of the DSA and they have some recent wins. I just wanted to pull up these wins, Clay. So obviously Mamdani won the 2025 Democrat primary over Cuomo and he's now the mayor of New York. But in the congressional primaries you've got Claire Valdez, Darieliza Avila Chevalier, D A C she's the one that's gotten the most. She beat a longtime Dominican American incumbent to Adriano Espayat. He was the Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair. So I mean a connected guy, not not just a bit like when you know who did AOC beat. She beat a. I think he was

[Clay Travis]

number three, long serving longtime Democrat congressperson

[Buck Sexton]

out of the and he was a very senior powerful Democrat member of Congress who had been in a coming forever and she smoked him because he basically decided he wasn't even going to show up for that one. And then he didn't have to show up after that either. Milat Quiros in Denver. He just won. No, she he Sorry. She, she thank you. She won. And then Chris Raab in Philadelphia, Janice Lewis George is DSA endorsed won the D.C. democratic mayor primary. New York State legislative results a lot of Democrat backed. Anyway, there's a whole list Clay. There's a whole list of people that could and later on you could get Abdul Syed, United States Senate from Michigan.

[Clay Travis]

That's the biggest, that' the biggest election next week. Who wins the Michigan Senate Democrat primary is I think of all of the, all of the Senate races out there, this is the last real chance to see how this is going to play in the middle part of the country.

[Buck Sexton]

Francesca Hong could become the Wisconsin governor. DSA member Cori Bush, she is trying to make a comeback. Apparently she is tied to the United

[Clay Travis]

States trying to win back her seat that she lost in the St. Louis area.

[Buck Sexton]

So, so the point is this is a, there's, there's a whole moment right now a movement underway. What does the DSA believe? Well Clay, we have here the DSA co chair Megan Romer talking about the Democratic Socialists of America platform play. Cut one.

[Interviewer]

So we're going to put up on the screen a few of the things that are part of your platform. And I want to ask you just give me sort of a true or False on these. Abolish the Senate.

[Clay Travis]

True.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Replace the presidency and Supreme Court as we now know them.

[Clay Travis]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

Abolish ice.

[Clay Travis]

Absolutely.

[Interviewer]

Abolish borders and give amnesty to anyone currently in the US Illegally as a long term plan. Yep. Defund the Pentagon. Absolutely. Abolish prisons, at least in large part.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Again as part of a long term program.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. So no prisons, government or public ownership of most large corporations.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Buck Sexton]

Full blown socialism, just to be clear. Full blown socialism. Democratic. About that. It's just socialism.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. Look, I give credit Shannon Bream just running through the Checklist and Martha McCollum has also been doing this on Fox News. And you can say, my goodness, that those are radical propositions. Those are absolutely insane propositions. But they're not even hiding what they believe. And I think that those clips should make the rounds on many of the different battleground districts. Remember, Buck, we're only talking about, I think the number is 18 house seats that are actually so called swing districts, meaning you can go from a Democrat to Republican or vice versa. We got 435 House districts in America. Only about 18 of them are actually competitive. So in order for Democrats to win, I believe they have to win 14 of those House districts, roughly 13 or 14. And there's an expectation, understanding that there is impossible, it's impossible basically to have a blue or red tide at this point in the House because these are such gerrymandered districts now, they favor one party or the other in the Senate. You're talking about five or six seats that are going to determine what ends up happening. And that one in Michigan, Trump is in Michigan today. That one in Michigan is I think the most significant primary race remaining in the country. Haley Stevens is a moderate, quotation marks Democrat. She is running, she's got tons of money that she has spent. Abdul El Sayed is a card carrying member of the Democrat Socialists basically of America and he's been endorsed by aoc, I believe Bernie Sanders as well, who is going to be the Democrat nominee, Buck, if he wins and early voting has already started in Michigan, if he wins the nomination, I think Mike Rogers is going to win Michigan and that would flip a Democrat seat and that would effectively end any hope that Democrats have of taking back the Senate. So I've said this before, people sometimes get fired up. They don't like it when I say it. In Michigan, the best thing that could happen to Republicans is Abdul El Sayed wins. Because I think that legitimately would give Mike Rogers, who only lost by about 15,000 votes in 2024. I mean this was the closest Senate race, I believe in the country running against an incumbent. This is an open Senate seat. Mike Rogers, a great candidate. He should be the pick for the state of Michigan. And, and I think there's a really good chance he wins if they go with this. Abdul El Sayed and he is favored in the poly markets in the Kashi's of the world where the, the odds markets are out there. He's about a 65% favorite to be the nominee for Democrats, which would mean this would extend beyond New York and Colorado and places that we know are fairly far left wing at this point in time into the Middle park battleground places of the country.

[Buck Sexton]

Then you've got John Fetterman out there who we've talked about as just a matter of time, I think, before he goes independent. I don't think Fetterman is going to be able to stay with the Democrats, although he votes with them and people point that out and we say nice things about the nice things that he said. It's not like Trump. He says very nice things about us. But no, he, he votes Democrat 90% of the time or votes with them and has voted with them on some very core issues. But he does say some good things. And here he is. This is cut to. He's saying socialism should be unacceptable within the Democratic Party.

[John Fetterman]

Socialism, you know, that should be the unacceptable view. You know, in the Democratic Party we all should be capitalists and we should all agree that supporting Israel. But overall, but for me calling them out, there's also been kind of like a double standard people, whether it's it's Sanders or other people, they're allowed to criticize Democrats and they can even create mass chaos like in the main race and other thing. But when I just, I call out the extreme ones, then that's when I have, I get the criticism and I get that what's more controversial, you know, like why are you going on Fox or why are you going to support Israel? Like that shouldn't be controversial.

[Buck Sexton]

And yet, Clay, the party is doing everything it can to make sure the lunatics don't take control. But they won't disavow the lunatics. They need them.

[Clay Travis]

Yes, yes. And I think your point on this is actually incredibly important. To continue to reiterate, we can talk about the Democrat Party civil war as soon as they get to power, they will all line up and engage in radical acts. Right. The, the, the idea that there are Joe Manchins or Kirsten Sinemas that are actually going to stand athwart their attempt to alter substantially the country in a far left wing direction. There are no moderates in the Democrat Party. Everyone who gets elected on the House side is going to show up as soon as they get there in January of 29. And you know what they're going to do? If they have the majority, they're going to impeach Trump and we're going to spend four or five months going through the process. We know Trump's not going to be removed from office, but their base is going to demand that they impeach him for a third time. We're going to have a trial, we're going to spend months on this case and nothing's going to happen. And then we're going to circle back around and, and we're going to be starting the 2028 presidential cycle. And if they get a president and if they get a Senate, this is where Trump's 100% right. If they are able to get back control of the Senate, get back control of the House and they have the presidency, they're going to immediately end the in the filibuster. And Buck, I flagged this over the weekend because Fox News had a new poll that came out and I did think it was significant. I know everybody's fired up about the SAVE act, but I do think that it's worth breaking down exactly how radical it is to not support this. Everybody, this is one of the most popular things in America, even socialist. According to the Fox News poll, Buck even acknowledged socialists say you should have to have a photo ID to vote. This is one of the least controversial things on the planet. And Republicans, because Democrats have acknowledged that it would hurt them to not be able to continue to rack up votes from people without IDs. They will not allow this bill to go to the Senate floor because can't get 60 votes. And I just look at it and say if you can't pass a bill that 80% of Americans, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, agree with, that even socialists agree with, what's the point of the Senate? In honesty? Because as soon as Democrats get back control, they're going to make Republicans look like pathetic losers because they're going to do away once and for all with the filibuster and push through as much radical law as they can. So what are we preserving here? And by the way, the Senate has changed things all the time, Buck. Until 1920 ish, we didn't even elect senators. They got selected by state legislatures. I know that they try to say, well, this is a huge tradition and we have to stand on it. The Senate has had tons of huge traditions that have been tossed on the dumpster fire of history. Again, the easiest one to point to is most of your great grandparents couldn't even vote for the Senate. The legislatures of the states decided who were the senators. And so I just think all this is the fact that we can't get this passed is drastically unfortunate and incredibly frustrating.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

If you truly care, pass along this common sense to family and friends. Clay and Buck owning the airwaves the

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay and Buck. Let's go into this a bit because we were just playing the audio and discussing the Democrat socialists of America. Remember Mamdani started all of this in New York City. Do we have that audio yet sent in? I believe we do. Cut 27 Momdani to. You know he said exactly what he was going to do. He said he's going to open city owned grocery stores and here he is announcing five of them that will have prices 30% below what your typical grocery store costs. Listen, here's how it will work. Once a month our five city run grocery stores will set prices for this core set of goods at 30% below typical retail prices. No exceptions, no gimmicks. The savings will last for the entire month. That means no weekly fluctuations nor sticker shock at the checkout line. This is crazy Buck. Primarily because and again I know sometimes we have to bring people the facts on business, the grocery store industry in general. I understand that people are very frustrated with prices and everything else. It is one of the smallest margin businesses on the planet. It is a very high revenue, low profit dynamic. In other words, I think buck 2, 3% a year. If you could make 2 or 3% on average that is about what grocery stores, many of them manage to make as profits.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, this is just going to be taxpayers subsidizing some people, buying food more cheaply, and it's. That's all this is. There's nothing.

[Joe Kernan]

This is.

[Buck Sexton]

Hey, if you shop at this store, there's going to be tax. Also. Are they going to check to see, like, who's allowed to shop here and who. Is anyone allowed to shop here?

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

This is the other part of it, by the way. You're going to run into shortages right away because people who want to save money are going to go, okay, well, I'm going to buy the 30% cheaper stuff at this store. So you're going to have empty shelves all the time that you're dealing with, and then people will say, well, that's fine. Then you just get new stuff. Yeah, but the point is, you're just taking money from taxpayers and giving it to the people who shop at this store. That's all you're doing.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

This is not like there's no reinvention of the wheel here. This is. This is not a better mousetrap. This is just more tax dollars thrown at what's going to be. By the way, I'm sure. No, like, what's going to happen is these grocery stores are going to be poorly run, and over time, it's going

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[Buck Sexton]

They're going to come out, it'll be all shiny and new. It's all going to fall apart. They're going to have supply issues. They're going to have staffing issues. People are going to say, the stuff they sell there is crap. It's going to be way more expensive than. This is the most predictable thing in the world.

[Joe Kernan]

Yes.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, one other fou. I want to go back to Fauci for a sec because I'm just. You know, we said that he had dinner with Fauci. Fauci and Tapper.

[Buck Sexton]

We're switching back to Fauci already.

[Clay Travis]

I saw this.

[Buck Sexton]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Joe Kernan]

No, no.

[Interviewer]

You gotta.

[Buck Sexton]

You gotta hold the foul. We gotta hold the fouch. All right, you can't do this to me, Fouchy.

[Clay Travis]

You can't just having dinner with Jake Tapper. Buck, while he was telling all of us that it was unsafe for us to have Thanksgiving dinner with our families. This is French laundry on steroids.

[Buck Sexton]

I think it's funny. This is Clay. Clay is driving the car right now, and I'm shotgun. And he just went past the exit, and. And he's not getting off of the. He just did like a ue. You know, the guy who like, like swings around and goes through that area. You're not supposed to drive on at you know, 100 miles an hour. That's what Clay just did. But you know, that's a pretty good one though because that's crazy. But he's such a fraud. The whole thing is a fraud. He was a fraud the whole time.

[Clay Travis]

Yes, 100%. OK back, we're going to, we have a short segment here, but back to Mamdani. This is going to end ultimately in a disaster. Many cities have tried this and what ultimately ends up happening is unless taxpayers are providing huge subsidies, these don't work. And by the way, Buck, if they are providing huge subsidies then they actually undercut the for profit grocery stores which desperately need to be able to make a living in order to exist.

[Buck Sexton]

There are over 5,000 grocery stores in New York City. This is five stores. How many people are going to be able to get stuff at five, five stores?

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Still talking about the Fauci diary, folks. It was all about mitigation measures. It was double masking while you were sleeping, double masking while you were awake. Because Fauci knew if you had been bad or good. So mask up for goodness sake, Clay. Turns out Fauci in this diary is an even bigger and more horrific fraud than even people who have been saying like you and I both have publicly and on the record for many, many years. Six years. Now he's even worse. Which is, which is a. He had his Gavin Newsom French laundry moment just to set this up. Gavin Newsom shut down restaurants too dangerous for other people to eat in restaurants. In person in California, the whole state. And then he Promptly went to French Laundry and sat with a whole bunch of people, like a dozen people. The fanciest restaurant in California, a Michelin, three star, very nice. And had dinner there right after signing the law. None of them. This is like the mayor of San Francisco. Went to a nightclub, partying, close quarters, no ventilation, nothing. No mask. Doesn't matter. No one cared. Nancy Pelosi getting her hair done over and over and over again. All these people. Frauds. Clay, share us the. Share us again. What. Tell us again what Fauci did with. With Tapper, which, by the way, fake or snake Tapper, depending on who you ask, is one of the most snide, disingenuous and nasty people in the media. So the fact that he was buddy buddy with Fauci during this whole thing, not surprising, had dinner.

[Clay Travis]

This is according to Fauci's diary, Buck. And I'm still catching up. I mean, this thing is 1200 pages. So there lots of revelations that are continuing to come out. Here's what Fauci said. Had dinner at my home with Jake and Jennifer Tapper. Relaxed, good time. Jake clearly believes Trump is totally nuts. Hit 83,000 new cases today, the single day record since the beginning of the outbreak. That is Fauci in his. In his diary. And I am tweeting right now to Jake Tapper. Hey, Jake Tapper, why were you having dinner with Dr. Fauci, telling him you believe Trump was totally insane while you were telling your TV audience it wasn't safe for them to have Thanksgiving dinner with their families? I mean, again, it's not just that these people lied to you, it's that they so flagrantly violated what they were telling you and lecturing you that they should do it. Buck, I would even argue.

[Buck Sexton]

What about Jake Tapper?

[Interviewer]

He.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay, he's a journalist. He's a truth teller, right?

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

So shouldn't he be telling everybody, hey, guys, look, Fauci came over for dinner last night. He's a total fraud. He. He was, he says eating in person with people, you know, having fun and, and all this stuff is fine. You're gonna, you're gonna keep that from people during the. A lot of people think I've forgotten how insane it was during the pandemic, especially in places like New York. You had an obligation to tell people the truth. You had an obligation to Tapper to tell people that Fauci was a fraud.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, the whole argument that these people make is that their job is to speak truth to power. Instead, you know, the fact that Tapper would be saying to Foushee that you think Trump is totally nuts and that he and his wife would be. I mean, this should be. I mean, to be honest, this should be the kind of thing that would cost someone their job. All we have. All we have in this business, and Buck and I are on the opinion side, but all we have in this business is the fact that we are going to tell you exactly what we think and we're going to be honest with you. As soon as you find out that someone has lied to you, you should trust them far less. When it's Jake Tapper, Buck, who is holding himself out as an unbiased moderator of the larger American discussion. Remember, he was the guy who moderated Trump versus Biden. If he's telling people privately that he thinks President Trump is totally nuts, how in the world is he remotely qualified to be able to moderate a presidential debate? This is very basic stuff. And again, I just posted that and just sent it out. But this is the kind of thing that should cost Jake Tapper his. His job. And, Buck, this, I think, ties in directly with Paramount. Paramount's trying to buy Warner Brothers. Twelve Democrat states are suing, saying that's going to violate antitrust law. Why are they suing? They're suing because they're afraid if David Ellison takes over cnn, he's going to fire people like Jake Tapper and he's going to come and try to be somewhat middle of the road. And look, I wouldn't. If Jake Tapper were an opinion guy, a straight opinion guy, I would say, boy, this is a bad look. It wouldn't shock me if Stephen Colbert was having secret dinners with Foushee while he was lecturing all of us about COVID But Stephen Colbert is not in some way trying to say, I am a total middle of the road guy. I call balls and strikes. I'm completely fair to Democrats. I'm completely fair to Republicans. Like, this is shameful. This should cost you your job. Buck, think about this. Brian Williams lost his job on NBC because it came out that he had lied about being under fire on one of his trips to Iraq. Right. Which is more significant to you as a viewer? Brian Williams exaggerates the danger that he was in while he was on an overseas trip. And is not telling you the truth about being under fire, something that Hillary Clinton lied about. You've actually been under fire, Buck. You've actually experienced it. You could be a great arbiter for this, which is more of an issue for you when it comes to Trusting someone in media, exaggerating the danger on a trip that they took to Iraq, or telling everyone in their audience you can't eat with your family at Thanksgiving while you are having dinner parties with the head of basically Covid prescriptions in America at the time. To me, the latter is more significant.

[Buck Sexton]

But see, you're approaching this, though, in a backwards fashion, because you're viewing it as though ethics are the guiding principle here. The guiding principle is the message of the machine. If you went along with Fauci, as Tapper or any of these other journalists did, you were doing what you were supposed to do, what your bosses at CNN wanted, what the bosses at NPR wanted, what the bosses of all these major corporations across America wanted. And look, a lot of companies that you'd even think of as sort of conservative were not very good on this stuff. And everybody was scared about liability and, oh, leave it to the government, and the whole thing was a mess. But Clay, the game was build up Fauci shout down all of his critics and create a moment where you've consolidated power really in the hands of the Democrat bureaucrat apparatus. And this is the. My concept or when I've talked about the apparatus, I mean, this is really where it all came together. This is all these different entities, corporate, private, public, everything, working together to foist a lie upon the American people and the rest of the world, I might add, because we really led the way on a lot of this stuff, and we became an important signal to everybody else. And the fact that there's been not only there's been no accountability, we haven't even had a clearing of the record. I mean, I want to ask Dr. Bhattacharya, why can't we get right now, if. If we started seeing news stories about a really bad flu epidemic, you would see millions of people in America start wearing masks.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

So we've learned nothing.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, they haven't even stopped.

[Buck Sexton]

We've learned nothing.

[Clay Travis]

Six years, get on a flight to Los Angeles, go walk through LAX, go walk through LaGuardia or JFK on the coast. I am blown away by the number of people who, six years later, Fauci hasn't come out and said to those people, hey, you know, this whole mask thing, it really doesn't make any sense. And you could say, okay, Clay, it's been six years. You can say, buck, it's been six years. Why do you guys care? If we don't establish ground rules here and any kind of trust, to your point, it's going to happen. They're going to try to run the same playbook all over again.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, I. This is all so straightforward, too. Masking was always. It's. It was always a. A temporary thing, meaning that you couldn't. No matter what, they couldn't actually have you masked up all the time. So people say, oh, but a barrier. And then it's like, put aside the fact that you're actually. The air is not filtered. You're breathing it in. It's the same. And all that Clay, the policy on the plane was mask up between bites.

[Clay Travis]

Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

And you would have some psycho airline attendant who was like, I think you need to mask up more quickly. And you'd sit there, like, too long

[Clay Travis]

as I was talking. Too long. You're taking too long to drink and chew. Like, you need to be faster in your consumption.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes. That was the policy. The policy that was enforced on us by Foushee, ism and Tapper and CNN and the Democrat industrial media complex was like telling somebody, hey, you're going out into the pouring rain. Wear your range, you know, wear your rain jacket half the time, and that will keep you dry. It's idiotic. It made no sense ever. And we still have people that have not been. There are people that stand strong. Look, I'm glad that I masked up as hard as I could, and the whole thing. Lunacy.

[Clay Travis]

I took the virus seriously.

[Buck Sexton]

I took the virus seriously, and Fauci has just been exposed. Everything that we were saying about this guy is true. All the years of mockery about how it was all about him, and he wanted to the media and everything else. This guy's a lifelong bureaucrat. His job was basically to tell everybody to wash their hands during flu season. For 50 years, he was making a half a million dollars a year to do it. And now all of a sudden, he. Look, he just. He became a little egomaniac.

[Clay Travis]

Think about the fact that he wrote all of this down contemporaneously. I'm sorry.

[Buck Sexton]

People were dying in huge numbers. And he's like, I talked to Barbra Streisand today. It was an amazing conversation. She's even better on the phone than I anticipated. Like, what?

[Clay Travis]

I also am still furious over the young kids who got shut down, couldn't go to school, and he's now that everybody. That's the one thing, Buck, that I think most people now, regardless of politics, would say, yeah, we shouldn't have shut down schools that long. Fauci has seen that because he's politically attuned to what people are saying. So he's going around now saying it was never me who shut down schools. Right. Randy Weingarten, the head of the teachers unions, is saying, oh, it was never me. This written explicitly. Fauci is saying, hey, I was on the phone with New York City's mayor and with the chief of staff for Gavin Newsom, making sure that they shut down schools, bars and restaurants. So he is and, and saying, hey, make sure you see my interviews on television. He's doing what we all knew he did, but in his own words, he's directly taking credit for something that he's now claiming he was not involved in.

[Buck Sexton]

By the way, Mamdani, now I'm doing what you do. I'm just going to switch. I'm just going to hit the other gear for a second. Not content merely to announce his breadline bodegas getting set up now. Now we have Mamdani publishing this story is breaking a list of people who will be taxed under the pied a terre tax. I mean, their names.

[Clay Travis]

Oh, that's crazy.

[Buck Sexton]

Who is going to be hit by this? This guy, he's. I know he smiles and I know he's got the Cheshire cat grin, the whole thing, my friends. He's a little commissar. He is not a good person. He, he, he does not see the world the way you and I see the world.

[Clay Travis]

I, if, if I, thankfully, I do not have any connections to New York City. I don't have any businesses registered there. I don't have really any assets associated with the state of New York. If I did, and he was publishing that I was going to be obligated to pay a property tax, owned something in New York City, I would sell that asset so quickly. And I think there's gonna. What I think you're gonna see is a lot of these people who are 100 millionaires, billionaires that have second, third homes, whatever it might be, which by the way, overwhelmingly benefits New York City.

[Joe Kernan]

Right?

[Clay Travis]

I think you're gonna see a lot of those guys just say it's not worth it. There's lots of great places to live in this country. Heck, around the world. I can do without New York City or I can go into New York City occasionally, stay in a hotel, be there for a few days, do whatever I need to, and get out. I wouldn't want to have assets in New York City if I were as wealthy as many of these guys and gals are. Both of our families rely on Pure Talk for great cell phone service at a monthly price. Better than the competition, right? Now. First time ever. This is an incredible deal. Pure Talk offering any plan just 15 bucks a month for your first three months. That's a savings of up to a hundred and fifty dollars when you make the switch to Pure Talk this summer. Deal applies no matter which plan you choose. If you want the fully loaded unlimited data plan, it's 65 bucks a month. You get it for just 15 bucks a month for the first three months with this special offer. Pure Talk veteran run company keeps American jobs at home. When you call customer service, you'll be speaking with someone here in the United States. Pure Talk also gives back and supports our vets in a number of ways. To make the Switch, just dial £250, say Clay and Buck. Again. That's £250, say Clay and Buck. To start saving today, miss the show. While you're on the go, wind down your day with the Daily Review podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Go to PureTalk.com Clay to make the switch to PureTalk again. PureTalk.com Clay to start.

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay and Buck. We got a lot of talkbacks. I know we're going to get some of those in the third hour. No guests by the way. Today we've got a bunch of different clips. But Buck, you were with me at the Trump inauguration. It's very rare that I fangirl at this point in time, but I have to be honest. We were at a Trump inauguration party and longtime CNBC host Joe Kernan was there. And Buck saw me just like a teenage girl. I was just giddy to get to meet Joe Kernan on CNBC. Love the guy. Been watching him for 35 years. I mean, as long as I can remember. I'm a little bit of a stock market nerd. He's been on CNBC for that long. He went after Scott Gottlieb over to his credit this diary entries from Fauci. And listen, having a reputation totally in

[Joe Kernan]

the toilet at 85 years, does that hold him to account for what he was responsible for? The Tony Fauci I saw in those emails is not the Tony Fauci I knew over the years. I mean he was a guy who is sober, who is careful about his public appearances. In his statement was always very care, always very thoughtful.

[Clay Travis]

Did you figure out the obsession with

[Joe Kernan]

mainstream media and defending him and you

[Clay Travis]

know, Jake Tapper having, you know, multiple dinners and best friends and what did that come from? And I know people around here that would call Tony Fauci a hero.

[Joe Kernan]

Yeah, I can't dissect. You don't know why people perceived I think different people had different emotions around

[Clay Travis]

Nass shut down the whole it was

[Joe Kernan]

a difficult time, Joe, as you as you know very well. And I think people are looking for a voice that they can cling to. Maybe they I am science.

[Clay Travis]

That's why people don't like me. I mean that was you're very guarded and nice.

[Joe Kernan]

I was disappointed by the Emails, I have to admit.

[Clay Travis]

Well, we'll see what happens on Wednesday. Rand Paul's been right all along.

[Joe Kernan]

Look, he's held the. I suspect that Senator Paul held onto these emails and had them for a while and dropped them now ahead of this hearing. And you know, Tony's going to have to speak to what. What's in those private communications.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, Buck, so credit to Joe Kernan, one of the few people in media

[Buck Sexton]

who's covering this is Scott Godley. Is he. Is he a moron? Because it was very obvious that Foushee was obsessed. The guy was on TV more than any human being I've ever seen be on television over that period of time.

[Clay Travis]

Ever.

[Buck Sexton]

Anyone.

[Clay Travis]

Yes. Yes. And again, I just think the decision. So you go back in time and you say, why is he keeping a diary? For the historic record. Fauci considered himself to be one of the great heroes in American history, and he wanted there to be a contemporaneous version of what he was doing during COVID so that sometimes some hagiographer out there would come and write a book. Fauci, the star of the COVID pandemic response. I mean, this guy is the biggest fraud I've ever, ever seen. I mean, I'm not kidding. I think he's the biggest fraud that any of us have lived through in the United States. The difference between what he was actually doing and the way that he got media coverage is staggering. We come back, we'll have some more on this. We've got Trump at the White House Correspondents Dinner. We got a couple of cuts from that. And Obama. Buck, did you see this? Obama decided to step into the Caitlin Clark controversy. And we may play some of the audio of that. You might be surprised by what you hear. All that's still coming. Third hour of the program. This is Coin Buck.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

All of them Lingokids?

[Clay Travis]

Yes, dad on Lingokids.

[Buck Sexton]

That's pretty cool.

[Clay Travis]

I know.

[Buck Sexton]

You just lost them for the rest of the afternoon.

[Clay Travis]

Worth it.

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