Hour 2 - Left Wing Media Bias

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 2 – Left Wing Media Bias
Date: January 16, 2026

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Overview

In this episode, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton dig into the recent ICE raids in Minneapolis and use these events as a springboard to discuss widespread left-wing media bias, particularly regarding immigration and law enforcement. They analyze a heated exchange between White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt and reporter Niall Stanage, examine political rhetoric around law enforcement, and bring in guest Ryan Girdusky for a deep dive into how immigration is shaping future congressional apportionment and elections.

Tone: Direct, lively, and occasionally humorous, with a strong emphasis on confronting perceived liberal bias and championing conservative viewpoints.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. White House Press Briefing Clash Exposes Media Bias

(Starts ~05:44)

• A confrontation between Caroline Levitt (White House Press Secretary) and Niall Stanage (reporter from The Hill) is played and dissected.
  • Levitt accuses Stanage of bias: “You’re a left wing hack. You’re not a reporter. You’re posing in this room as a journalist...” (07:06)
• Key issue: Stanage admits he believes an ICE agent acted “recklessly” during a recent shooting, revealing his personal bias.
• Clay and Buck argue this is emblematic of journalists presenting opinions as news and never facing repercussions for left-wing slants.
  • Buck: “He pulled the mask completely off with this answer.” (12:38)
  • Clay: “No one is ever punished for showing a left wing bias in journalism at any of these places...it’s always actually to their benefit.” (07:51)
• Memorable paraphrase: “Going hard after a Republican guarantees you lifetime employment in media, by and large.” – Buck (10:45)

2. Media Treatment of Law Enforcement and Political Hypocrisy

(13:42–16:05)

• Clay and Buck play reactions from:
  • Sen. Ron Johnson, who calls protesters in Minneapolis “a real insurrection.” (14:03)
  • Sen. John Fetterman, who condemns anti-ICE tactics, saying protest is fine but not violence or blockades. (14:37)
• Hosts highlight:
  • The double standard: Democrats claim to defend law enforcement (post-Jan 6) but demonize ICE and federal officers when enforcing immigration law.
  • The rhetorical shift: Officers confronting dangerous situations are now treated as villains if the left disagrees with the law being enforced.
  • Clay: “They cared so much about law enforcement that one day...but now, we are told that they’re the bad guys.” (16:05)

3. Why ICE Must Conduct Street Operations

(21:28–22:45)

• Tom Homan (former ICE Director) explains the necessity of street arrests in sanctuary cities:
  • If local governments cooperated, ICE could detain criminals safely in jails rather than conducting risky community raids.
  • Homan: “They could fix this situation right now...But they haven’t achieved anything other than violence.” (22:03)
• Clay underscores: “This is totally unnecessary. It is legitimate, it is lawful, but it is unnecessary” if local law enforcement worked with ICE. (22:45)

4. Deep Dive: Immigration’s Impact on Future Congressional Power

(24:23–38:29) [with guest Ryan Girdusky]

• Ryan Girdusky breaks down how migration (both interstate and international) is transforming the political landscape:

  • Blue states are losing people (often to red states), offset only partly by incoming immigrants.
  • “California will likely lose three congressional seats...Illinois will lose two, Minnesota will lose one, New York will lose one, Rhode Island will lose one.” (25:47)
  • Red states like Texas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, and Utah will gain seats and electoral votes.
  • Key quote: “The Electoral College map is such that...it becomes much more difficult in math for the Democrats to capture the White House if they can’t win those states.” (27:41)

• Discussion shifts to how illegal immigrants are counted in district apportionment:

  • Even though illegals cannot vote, their presence boosts seats for blue states, inflating Democratic representation.
  • Girdusky: “The more illegals that flood into these districts, the more seats they get, the more power they have.” (34:48)
  • Estimate: Without counting non-citizens, Democrats could lose about a dozen House seats.

• Concrete example: In Ro Khanna’s district (CA-17), significantly fewer votes are needed to win thanks to a high non-citizen population (33:56).

• Discussion closes on the long-term strategic impact for both parties as demographics and census rules evolve.

  • “It actually changes the electorate and it changes the political balance of power right now to have all these illegals here.” – Clay (36:42)

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5. Rhetoric, Social Media, and the Death of Journalistic Objectivity

(12:41–13:19)

• Clay criticizes the modern media ecosystem, blaming social media for the public exposure of journalist biases.
  • “Journalism was killed by social media because...at noon on Sunday [a journalist says] ‘I’m just here to bring people the facts,’ and then on Twitter, ‘I hate Trump, he’s a fascist.’” – Clay (12:41)
• Buck agrees: “Social media over time reveals who you really are, for better or worse.” (13:19)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Caroline Levitt confronting Niall Stanage:
  “You’re a left wing hack. You’re not a reporter. You’re posing in this room as a journalist...the premise of your question...proves your bias.” – Caroline Levitt (07:06)

• Clay on media incentives:
  “No one is ever punished for showing a left wing bias in journalism at any of these places...Look at Jim Acosta, right?” (07:51)

• Buck on the objectivity façade:
  “All of these reporters on the left, they pretend that they have no preconceived notions...there’s a huge difference in the way that they treat...a Republican and...a Democrat.” (10:45)

• Tom Homan on ICE:
  “They could fix this situation right now...They haven’t achieved anything other than violence.” (22:03)

• Ryan Girdusky on congressional seats & the census:
  “If we did not count illegal immigrants...it would be around about a dozen seats. Mostly out of California.” (35:51)

• Clay’s takeaway:
  “It actually changes the electorate and...the political balance of power right now to have all these illegals here.” (36:42)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [05:44] – Caroline Levitt–Niall Stanage Press Briefing Confrontation
• [07:06] – Levitt’s full rebuke of Stanage, exposing bias
• [10:45] – Discussion on why media bias is beneficial to liberal journalists
• [14:03] – Sen. Ron Johnson on protests as “real insurrection”
• [14:37] – Sen. John Fetterman: Both sides need to turn down tactics, don’t block roads
• [21:28] – Tom Homan explains need for ICE raids in the streets versus jails
• [24:23–38:29] – Interview with Ryan Girdusky: immigration’s impact on current & future political power

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Summary For Listeners

This episode provides a sweeping critique of left-wing media bias, especially regarding immigration and law enforcement, with both hosts arguing that liberal journalists openly express bias with little professional consequence. They use the Minneapolis ICE case as a lens to examine not just media practices but also the political and demographic strategies at play. The conversation with Ryan Girdusky is a must-listen for anyone interested in how census math and migration could dramatically shift American politics over the next decade.

If you want clarity on how media narratives, population shifts, and immigration enforcement collide in national politics, this is an essential episode.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA S I P C Advisory Services by Public Advisors llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures [e-mail] disclosures not everybody can.

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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show. You never know what you might get on YouTube. We've got. I'm trying to up my game. This is not my baby. I am not involved in raising babies right now. Maybe one day I'll have grandkids. But my assistant Katie, who has been with us for 11 years now, initially started helping the kids. Now the kids are getting so old that I need all the help. And she just had a second baby. And so Annie is right here visiting with everybody. So if you want babies, Bucks sometimes picks up his young guy who's coming up on what, nine months old right now, if I'm not mistaken. Nine or ten months.

[Clay Travis]

He just turned nine months.

[Buck Sexton]

And Annie is working on three and a half months. So she is a really tiny little baby. And I'm holding her right now soon to hand her back to her mom. But if you are craving cute babies, I had a cute baby experience for.

[Clay Travis]

All we Clay, we can't hear.

[Buck Sexton]

There we go. There we go. You had to put the hand off the baby. I wanted to make sure the handoff went well.

[Clay Travis]

Safe baby transfer. More important than the radio ratings. Yes.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes. Okay. So seriously, things going on here. President Trump is talking on the White House lawn. He looks like, I think he's leaving for Florida because I believe Buck Marco Rubio and President Trump are both going to be in the, in the crowd as part of the national title game down in Miami. And President Trump looks like he is on his way to take the helicopter to Andrews Air Force Base. And I'm presuming likely to be headed to Florida as it is Friday afternoon right now. And we know he's going to be there for the game on Monday, but we're monitoring this. He's talking about anti ice chaos in Minneapolis. He's talking about Venezuela. He's talking about Iran. We will grab those clips and make sure that we get them for all of you. But in addition to what is going on right now with the president leaving the White House and presumably headed for Camp David. Sorry, headed to Andrews Air Force Base to head down to Mar a Lago. There are continued fallout in Minneapolis. They have been showing, even continuing this morning, protesters gathering around the ICE raids that are continuing in Minneapolis. And yesterday, Caroline Levitt at her press conference right as we were Finishing the show, had this exchange with a Hill reporter. This guy's name is Niall Stanage and I probably have mispronounced that, but like.

[Clay Travis]

N, I, A L L usually.

[Buck Sexton]

Is that a British name? I don't know that very well. Yeah, yeah, this guy is British, as you will hear. Cut six. Caroline Levitt and the Brit.

[Caroline Levitt]

32 people died in ICE custody last year. 170 U.S. citizens were detained by ICE and Renee Goode was shot in the head and killed by an ICE agent.

[Clay Travis]

How does that equate to them doing everything correctly?

[Niall Stanage]

Why was Renee Goode unfortunately and tragically killed?

[Caroline Levitt]

Are you asking me my opinion? Because an ICE agent acted recklessly until they were unjustifiable.

[Niall Stanage]

Oh, okay. So you're a biased reporter with a left wing opinion.

[Clay Travis]

What do you want me to do?

[Niall Stanage]

Yeah, because you're a left wing hack. You're not a reporter. You're posing in this room as a journalist. And it's so clear by the premise of your question. And you and the people in the media who have such biases, but fake like you're a journalist. You shouldn't even be sitting in that seat. But you're pretending like you're a journalist, but you're a left wing activist. And the question that you just raised and your answer proves your bias. You should be reporting on the facts. You should be reporting on the cases. Do you have the numbers of how many American citizens were killed at the hands of illegal aliens who ICE is trying to remove from this country? I bet you don't. I bet you didn't even read up on those stories. I bet you never even read about Lake and Riley or Jocelyn Nungre or all of the innocent Americans who were killed at the hands of illegal aliens in this country. And the brave men and women of ICE are doing everything in their power to remove those heinous individuals and make our communities safer. And shame on people like you in the media who have a crooked view and have a biased view and pretend like you're a real honest journalist.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay, Buck, what is super interested here? First of all, Caroline Levitt, great job answering that question and in general as White House Press Secretary. But credit to her because she asked him, why are you asking that question? And I jotted this down. He said because he believes the agent acted recklessly. I'm surprised he stepped into that trap and shared his opinion because he is acting the way he is. Not because he's an unbiased, middle of the road reporter of the news, but because, as he said, he believes the ICE agent acted recklessly. And I think that was really the most interesting part of the entire exchange.

[Clay Travis]

He's helped his career. I'm going to be honest. This is. The people that he is trying to appeal to are going to like that he said this. No one is. You'll notice this. No one is ever punished for showing a left wing bias in journalism at any of these places. It's always actually to their benefit. Look at Jim Acosta, right? For a long time, his whole routine was just to antagonize. Who was it? It was the White House press secretary at the time. The lady, she's a great. Sarah Huckabee Sanders name. You know, his whole routine was just to get up in her face and be crazy. So it benefits this guy to do this. Caroline handles it very well. But I also. This people, you just see this over and over again. People believe what they want to believe to say that this guy acted recklessly. She hit him with her car.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

What else do we. It's not that she came close to hitting him with the car. It's not that he thought maybe she was going to punch the accelerator and he got scared. She ran her car into him and he defended himself. He doesn't know, by the way, she could run into him and then try to run over a bunch of other officers. Like he just has to deal with the threat. He stopped the threat. It's sad. I mean, I wish it didn't happen, but he didn't do anything wrong. The same way that if someone commits suicide by cop. I'm not saying she did this, but if someone commits suicide by cop, they say, officer, officer, I've got a gun on me. I've got a gun on me. I'm holding it here. And the cop says, don't do it, don't do it. Show me your hands. If that person makes a move to pull what they believe is a gun out, you know, and you see this on the body camera, and the cop shoots him. It's sad because this person's committing suicide, but the cop did nothing wrong. Because the cop doesn't have an obligation to lose his life because somebody else is creating the situation. Renee Good caused this. She made bad choices. She shouldn't have done that. It's sad, but it is on her that this is the end result. That is not on that officer.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. And look, I do think that this is an interesting window into how stories are made. This guy who says that he's an objective reporter at the Hill, he believes personally that the agent acted recklessly. And so he is asking questions with that premise as the underlying basis for which he is asking all these questions. And I thought Caroline Levitt pointed it out. I don't have a problem. And I think you would sign onto this too. If you are an opinion person and you want to go out and you want. I'm an opinion person. You want to write your own articles, you want to write your own books.

[Clay Travis]

Clay.

[Buck Sexton]

Every now and then. But I'm not pretending that I am 100% unbiased. Right. Hey, here is what I think. Here is what we should do. All of these reporters on the left, they pretend that they have no preconceived notions that they're just right down the middle. And then there is a huge difference in the way that they treat. You mentioned Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Some of the best work I think that has been done on Twitter is when they put these so called unbiased journalists the way they question a Republican and the way that they question a Democrat. To your point, going hard after a Republican guarantees you lifetime employment in media, by and large. Here's an easy question. How many people have lost their jobs for being too stridently left wing? People lose their jobs because they don't have high enough ratings. That happens all the time. That's the business of media. But nobody, to my knowledge, loses their job because their opinions are too far left wing. It just doesn't happen. And so I think what she illuminated and illustrated there very well is she could have gone after him for the premise of the question regardless. But I love that she set a trap for him and he walked right into it. What do you. Well, what, what do you think? What's your opinion? You want my opinion?

Yes.

I think he acted recklessly. Okay, well, that's the underlying premise guiding your entire questioning.

[Clay Travis]

It's so funny too though, because if he was what he. And the Hill does have people who are, I mean, look, I used to work there. I was doing an opinion TV show there. But the Hill has people who are left and right. At least it used to. I think it still does. But if he was doing the journalism thing, the response, his, his immediate reaction should have been, I don't, it's not about. I don't have an opinion on the matter. I'm just here to try to get facts and additional information. That's actually what he should have said.

[Buck Sexton]

It would have been a lie. It would have been a lie.

[Clay Travis]

It would have been a lie.

[Buck Sexton]

But he pulled the mask completely off with this answer.

[Clay Travis]

Because their whole profession is based around this lie, that they don't actually, the journos, the journalists, that they don't actually have an opinion, that they're just bringing you objective truth and objective information. And so that's why it was just funny to me, because, yeah, he just let it rip. He just told you what he really thinks. And then this is why I've also. I've been saying for over a decade, journalism was killed by social media because you can't have somebody. You can't have, like, you know, Margaret Brennan or someone who's. I'm just an objective journalist, you know, at. At noon on Sunday, saying, you know, I'm just here to bring people the facts. And then on Twitter, be like, I hate Trump. He's a fascist. He's a Nazi. It's like, we figure out what's going on here.

[Buck Sexton]

Social media over time reveals who you really are, for better or worse. I do believe that in many ways. Let me hit you with a couple of these, Buck, because I thought it was interesting. Ron Johnson, our buddy, fabulous senator from Wisconsin, he says the truth. Conduct of anti ice protesters in Minneapolis is the real insurrection. Cut 11.

[Clay Travis]

Senator, what runs through your mind when you see these videos of protesters anti ice impeding law enforcement getting in the way? And then there's these bad consequences, and now we see Hollywood kind of backing them up. They're wearing the be good pins. What do you think about this whole situation? Well, what first comes to mind is that's what a real insurgency and insurrection looks like.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay.

[Clay Travis]

The rise of December 2020. That's what a real insurrection looks like. And understand, why are we having these protest right now? Well, it's because Democrats, the radical left, the Biden administration threw open our borders, allowed millions of people to fly in here. And some of those millions are criminals, and they need to be apprehended and they need to be deported.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay. And you know who agrees with him? This is one of the ones that we have to be honest on. John Fetterman is saying, yeah. That what we're seeing in Minneapolis, unacceptable. Cut 10.

[Clay Travis]

Senator, protests going on. There's a lot of unrest there. What's your opinion of that? What you've seen competing law enforcement? My views have always been, I reject the extreme on either side, those things. And I'm saying it's like free speech. Demonstrate, but don't block the roots. Don't do some of these kinds of aggressive things, you know, make your views heard, but not in those ways. You know, both sides, we got to turn down the rhetoric and the kinds of tactics. It is not entertainment for this.

[Caroline Levitt]

So it's tragedy.

[Clay Travis]

I agree. For the six year old, they lost his mother, it's undeniably that's an American tragedy.

[Buck Sexton]

For a Democrat buck, that's about as good as you can get. Again, I don't agree with a lot of what John Fetterman says, but if we had more Democrats who were saying if there were seven or eight John Fetterman's, I think the country would be a lot better off as opposed to one fetterman and 46, at least in the Senate, crazy people, which is where we are right now.

[Clay Travis]

It's remarkable to see how reckless the language is. When I say remarkable, it's not surprising. It's just you got to pay attention to it. You got to keep in mind that this is who we are dealing with. The kind of language that is used by these Democrats about the situation playing out in Minnesota right now. And as I keep reminding everybody.

[Buck Sexton]

They.

[Clay Travis]

We talked about this yesterday, they are encouraging violence against federal law enforcement, which given their pretense of having all the Capitol Hill police officers and that guy who had like the beard who was always crying on cnn, you know, and then members of Congress who were crying about how scared they were and everything else, they cared so much about law enforcement that one day, that one time in that, in that context. But now you have people who are being attacked and putting their lives on the line to enforce the law and we are told that they're the bad guys. Yeah, cops are the bad guys in this. I also would want to know what do they want to happen? And I'll get into this in a second. Clay, there's a big part of this that they don't want anyone to pay attention to, which is why is it necessary to find these illegals on the streets? There's another way this could be done, but the Democrats won't allow it. We'll get into it. That's what we call tease in the business.

[Buck Sexton]

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Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors LLC SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not in investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures [e-mail] Do you like free money?

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[Clay Travis]

With special guests. I didn't know it at the time.

[Caroline Levitt]

I know what I want to do.

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Something that's critical to keep in mind as we continue to discuss the situation in Minneapolis and all of the politics around this and people saying it's fascism and the Stasi are on the loop. They don't really say. Most, most libs don't know what the Stasi is, but East German secret police, for those who are wondering, here is Tom Homan making a very important point. This is because in large part they won't let ICE into jails where these illegal criminals are already in many cases being held or processed. Play 16.

[Caroline Levitt]

Look, Mayor Frye and the government could end this right now. They could say, ice, we want to work with you. Ice, we're going to let you into our jails and we're going to, we're going, you know, respect your detainers. Any illegal alien that we book into a jail, when we're done with them, we're going to call you so you can arrest them in the safety and security of a jail rather than us releasing them to the street. Then you got to send a whole team to look for them. They could fix this situation right now. Because as of right now, what are these, you know, these anarchists? What have they achieved so far? What have they achieved? Has ICE decreased their operations? No, we doubled down. We're arresting people every day and won't keep doing it. They haven't achieved anything other than violence.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay.

[Clay Travis]

They are the cause of this. Yes, that is what is so important? This wouldn't. This is totally unnecessary. It is legitimate. It is lawful, but it is unnecessary. If only state and local law enforcement in the hands of Democrats was willing to assist federal immigration. Federal immigration law enforcement efforts.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. And when we come back, we're going to talk with Ryan Gardusky who has an interesting perspective on this, that not only are the illegal immigrants being taken out of the country being opposed for for ostensible reasons about illegality, but also impacting who's able to be representing people in Congress. We'll talk about that next.

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. We are scheduled to be joined and I believe we are joined now by Ryan Gerda. He's a part of the Clay and Buck podcast network. He does great deep dives on data if you enjoy looking at the actual numbers and seeing exactly what is going on there. We are joined now by Ryan and Ryan, let's start here. You've got a really interesting piece about the politics meaning the actual data behind the ICE raids in in Minnesota. But this actually ties in with a bigger picture question before we go into the specific on Minnesota starting in 2030 so 2028 we'll have under the existing electoral college. We've talked about this some on the program. Democrats are in for a world of trouble and I think David Axelrod has an opinion piece in the New York Times about this. The so called blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Even if Democrats win All three, the math is shifting such that because red states are growing so much faster, that pathway to winning the presidency wouldn't even exist. The Democrats are going to have to start competing in the south and the Southwest in a big way or they're screwed nationally. Not a lot of talk about it. Explain.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Yes. So the way that the map is looking currently, a lot of blue people have been leaving blue states for well over a decade. Right. New York, California, Illinois. And what has happened in the last two decades to keep their populations growing has been immigration. Right. California has lost more American citizens, but because enough immigrants have come, they have managed to keep the population basically the same as it was before COVID They lost a lot during COVID but they bounced back only because of mass immigration. But even with mass immigration of a million people per year, mostly going to those states, it's not enough to keep up pace with how many American citizens are leaving those states. So California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Rhode island, those are five deep blue states they're projected to lose. California will likely lose. This is according to current study. California lose three congressional seats, Illinois will lose two, Minnesota will lose one, New York will lose one, Rhode island will lose one. That's quite a number. I mean, that's eight Electoral college votes right there. Just not also a House of his own members. And those eight votes those eight electoral college groups are supposed to go to, Arizona gains one, Florida gets two, Georgia gets one, Idaho gets one, Texas gets three, and Utah gets one. So not. Not only is that a bunch of new Republican members that will come from those red states, the blue states, but the Electoral College map is such that if a Republican wins Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas and Arizona, they don't need any Midwestern states like from the Rust Belt or from, or Minnesota or Virginia, all those states become completely irrelevant. Georgia and North Carolina become the most important states in the country. And if you lose Georgia, you can still win with just winning Pennsylvania, but. But nonetheless, all the numbers are moving successfully in a way that it becomes much more difficult than math for the Democrats to capture the White House if they can't win those states.

[Clay Travis]

Ryan, tell us what you think the numbers say about the immigration enforcement operations. Because right now, you know, sometimes there's the data that is just out there and maybe there's not as much of an incentive to use it to push a certain point of view. But I've seen over at cnn, for example, they're running, Harry Anthony's running, oh, ICE operations, people have a very negative view of this. Is there A real reason to believe that the operations are changing the mind of the American people overall on this. Is it just some areas? Because for the Trump voter, this is what we voted. I see this. I'm like, yes, more. This is what we voted for.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Same. No. Immigration enforcement is one of those things that they love in theory, not necessarily in practice. So mass ICE agents very unpop. The whole idea of not having uniform, very unpopular. Unmarked cars, unpopular. The idea of enforcing immigration law is very popular. Trump's on the border, which is of immigration. The border is one of the few areas where Trump is still in positive territory. I also have a belief system is if something about you bothers a certain politician, it's almost like nothing that they can do can be positive. So Trump has negative marks for Venezuela and for the Middle east, which were overwhelmingly successful initiatives. I think that for a lot of people, the tariffs and the economy and the fact that prices have not come down, which is what many people thought it would. Not that inflation hasn't slowed, which it has, but that prices haven't come down because that hasn't happened. And we are dealing with the hang of, hangover of Biden inflation for three years. People are still very upset about it. So because that hasn't happened, they've soured on almost everything that Donald Trump has done. That's why I kind of don't think the ICE enforcement is, is the reason people are having this negative opinion about it. Obviously the Rank Goode story was not a positive story for ICE agents. However, if you look at the whole idea of enforcing immigration, Americans are supportive. There's a very, very smart progressive pollster who actually asked all the different Democratic positions and the most popular position right now is actually AOC's position, which was saying that ICE should be reformed. And what they're saying, this is what Democrats are going to go forward saying that the money for ICE was taken out of your health care fund. That is the play that got the highest numbers as far as polling goes in private polling. And that is most likely what David Shore was. That was the person who does. David Shore sat there and said that is the. That is what Democrats should run on going forward.

[Buck Sexton]

Okay. This is super important. And I'm going to be honest, years ago when I found this out for the first time, it was mind blowing to me. I still don't think it's very widely known in the United States. Illegal immigrants are counted for purposes of House districts. Right. So everybody has to represent 730,000 or whatever the current math is. And to Your point on Minneapolis, state of Minnesota in general, as in theory, these 2.5 million, if that number is right, illegals who have left the country this year, as that continues, if it does in 27, 26 and into 28 seat, it would be a seismic impact when it came to reassociate reallocating these seats for the census. Isn't that really what this fight is ultimately about? The Democrats are seeing that. And if this pace continued and if the numbers are right and Suddenly we had 10 million illegals in the country instead of 10 million instead of 20 million, that would dramatically change the overall calibration of House Democrats seats. I think it isn't being talked about enough. That actually seems like the root battle here.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Right. So my point, I wrote this before the National Populist newsletter. This will be on my podcast for the Monday episode. Dive very deep into this. It is about what happened in Minnesota. So Since January, about 5,000 illegal aliens have been arrested in Minnesota, which is quite about 2% of the entire illegal alien population estimated. Right. There was a big raid, 2400 were arrested. The number of people that Illinois had to have to retain their 8th congressional district was 89. So they had 89 fewer people. They would have not had the 8th congressional district, which is a Democrat district now. It would have gone to New York. New York would have had, you know, given a Democrat anyway. But when you look at a broader scale of the thousands of the tens of thousands of the hundreds of thousands, when you look at Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Rhode Island, California, all those places is, you're talking about a massive reduction in political power, especially in these places that have, you know, gerrymandered six days from Sunday. All the different Republican seats, there's not a lot of Republican seats left for Illinois to cut out. I mean, they only have three. They have to lose Democratic seats. New York still, I mean, New York's not that gerrymandered, but California definitely is. Those are Democratic seats. Those are Democrat electoral college votes that they're going to be losing for the 2020, 2032 election. All that stuff really matters to the potential of the Democrats, especially to the political influence of places like Minnesota and California. And so all of this stuff really matters. There was a Brookings Institute study that just came out that says they're going to our born population decreased by about 100,000 this year and it'll be about 500,000 next year. If that's coming out of New York and California. Those numbers, I said those eight electoral college votes, they're losing. That could easily go up to 9 or 10 by the end of the decade. If Trump is able to carry this out and if we elect another Republican who carries it out through the decade, there's no reason why a dozen seats will not be redistributed away from not only those blue seats, but probably towards places like Alabama or Ohio, places that don't have large foreign born populations. You mentioned about illegal aliens being counted. I'll give you this one statistic very quickly. Ro Khanna.

[Caroline Levitt]

No way.

[Clay Travis]

Hold on. Ryan. Ryan. Actually Ryan, Ryan, slow down a little bit because everyone, you got plenty of time. Slow down and tell everybody this is going to be an important stat. I think I know which one you're going to talk about, so please take your time.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Okay, so California 17th district, that's Congressman bro. Connie's probably running for president. It's in Northern California. 255,000 people voted in the 2024 election in that district in California he won with 170,000 votes. If you look at a regular district in Ohio, Ohio's fourth, Ohio's fifth, these are Republican districts. A Republican just the Republican has to get a quarter of a million votes to win. So the threshold for a Maxine Waters to run or Nydia Vasquez or Ro Conner or any of these Democrats in these big blue states is much, much lower. They have to get fewer votes because so many people are ineligible to vote because they are foreign born residents.

[Buck Sexton]

This is Buck. Did you know this? Because I think it's one of.

[Clay Travis]

Subscribe to his national populist newsletter. Very good information.

[Buck Sexton]

It's one of the great under discussed data points that should be a point of huge discussion because when you look at it you say oh this is because people, this was where their power comes from. The more illegals that flood into these districts, the more seats they get, the more power they have. That to me is such a huge part of the narrative thread that explains why they fight so hard here. Why do they make Kilmar, Breo Garcia the faithful of their comp. Of their, of their entire party? It's basically a company. It's because they have to. What kind of getting to the nitty gritty here, Ryan? How many seats? If, if we did not count illegal immigrants as a part of the overall census for representation in Congress, which to me actually we, that should be the law. Okay, but let's pretend that there were no illegal immigrants in the country. So 20 million people out of the country. How many seats do we think that would cost Democrats in the House roughly, it would cost.

[Ryan Gardusky]

I mean this is something that they've kind of calculated and miscalculated because it's very, very difficult because obviously over time illegal aliens sometimes do become citizens and switch status. It would be around about a dozen seats overall, mostly out of California. The thing is that Texas would lose seats as well. And so as well as Florida. It's not so much a question of just blue states versus red, also regional apportionment. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Alabama, the South as a whole and the Midwest as a whole are robbed out of seats because they lose, because they just don't attract huge populations of foreign born. But certainly California would be down about almost four or five seats on its own, let alone New York, New Jersey, Illinois, it's overall about 10 to 12 seats, depending on which. Who's calculating the numbers?

[Clay Travis]

It's amazing, Ryan, you think about how a lot of even Republicans who have been on this for years, maybe decades have been pointing out to this is transforming the electorate in the future by bringing in people who are, you know, if their parents were illegal, they're more likely to be maybe Democrats if they're born here and all these things. But it actually changes the electorate and it changes the political balance of power right now to have all these illegals here. I think that's been the real revelation. Right.

[Ryan Gardusky]

And if, listen, if President Trump continues on his path to make sure that certain peoples can come here, reducing legal immigration as well as an important concept and deporting illegals, this is not just about this year or next year. This is the 2030 decade that, that is three presidential elections where Democrats will have an almost a monument. I mean if the Georgia changes, who knows. But the immense scale that they have to run up in order to have a president elected for that decade really matters in the next three years if President Trump backpedals on this or gives up or the political pressure becomes too much of Democrats defund ICE or whatever, that's really what they're looking at. It's not about tomorrow. It is about the 2030 decade. And it will be a very difficult decade for Democrats to win if they don't have this population of illegal aliens surging in places like California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, stuff like that.

[Clay Travis]

Play, this guy knows a lot. I think he should have a podcast where he talks about politics.

[Buck Sexton]

Yes, well, how can people find you, Ryan, if they don't already know? And again, to Buck's point, please go subscribe to the part podcast, part of the Clay and Buck podcast network.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Yes, go on the Clay and Buck podcast network. It is on iHeartRadio app at the Apple podcast, wherever you get it. I have YouTube as well and you can get my newsletter, the national popular newsletter on substack. And I dive into all these numbers all the time, but the podcast is the most important place where you get new information all the time.

[Buck Sexton]

Awesome. Appreciate the work, Ryan. I hope you guys enjoyed that as much as we did. Thank you.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Thank you.

[Clay Travis]

And I'm gonna help right out. It's a Numbers Game is the name of the podcast. It's a numbers game.

[Buck Sexton]

It's a numbers game. You can find it inside of the Clay and Buck podcast network. All right, let me tell you about Chalk. If you want to have a little bit more energy, maybe you're headed into the weekend right now and it's Friday and you are dragging, maybe the start of the new year, you haven't had the energy that you hoped that you would. And maybe you're thinking to yourself, what can I do to be able to keep the up with all of the obligations and responsibilities I have? If that sounds like you, you should check out the Chalk Male Vitality Stack best seller formulated to help restore testosterone levels by providing you with more energy, more drive. At a time when men's testosterone levels are falling off the cliff relative to historic numbers, you want to do everything you can to help get the best energy and the best testosterone in your life Life. Go to Chalk.com to unlike unlock Chalk's New Year special for the month of January only when you subscribe with my name that's Clay as the promo code, Chalk will pack a free 99 bag of Chalk lit powder with your first delivery. That's chalk.com c-h o q my name clay c l a y chalk.com get hooked up promo code clay 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 podcast.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. Got some calls want to get to, but want to remind you my friends, Crockett Coffee. Look at this in the spirit of Davy Crockett, the great frontiersman, the American patriot. And Crockett Coffee is delicious. Go to crockett coffee.com and we're going to have some fun book deal stuff coming up here because my book comes out. But I'm not going to push that right now. Push the book later. We're pushing Crockett Coffee. Go sign up. You will love it. Subscribe please. Today John in Oklahoma wants to chat with us. What's going on John? Hey guys.

[Ryan Gardusky]

An honor to talk to you guys and Rush is looking down proud of.

[Clay Travis]

Both of you right now and that's very kind.

[Ryan Gardusky]

Thank you John Very proud of how you guys have acted or you know, responded to the ICE incident and backing law enforcement. A lot of people just don't understand self defense. But my point is, is that I was full time deputy for eight years, never used my health insurance. I went part time to become a full time school resource officer as a contract employee because that school didn't have a resource officer and it was a little bit less stress, more money. But then of course my appendix ruptures two months after I go off of health insurance. Five days in hospital over a hundred thousand dollar hospital bill. Well a 90% cash discount. And then I looked up how much it would have cost when I had my full time health insurance and it was a wash. It was going to be about the same price so. And right now health insurance costs so much it still doesn't make any sense to purchase health insurance. So the point of my story is that, you know, not having health insurance, you know, with the cash discount.

[Clay Travis]

John, it's great. Thank you for calling in and thank you for keeping the straight streets safe.

[Buck Sexton]

In your and your neighborhood.

[Clay Travis]

Clay, as we know, sometimes the price for people with health insurance is more.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

Than people without any insurance because they know they can gouge you.

[Buck Sexton]

I talked about this as the incompetent dad that I am. Same week we had multiple kids that got strep throat. Went to get them tested. My wife of course had her insurance card when she took one of our boys. I did not. I got charged way less because I didn't have my insurance card. We come back. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rawlins joining us.

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[Clay Travis]

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