Hour 2 - Teen Takeover

Summary

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Podcast Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 2 - Teen Takeover
Date: May 27, 2026
Host: iHeartPodcasts

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Overview

This episode centers on the recent significant reductions in violent crime rates in major U.S. cities like Washington, D.C., Memphis, and Omaha, examining what factors have enabled this turnaround. Clay and Buck explore the impact of federal partnerships, particularly those initiated under the Trump administration, and confront the uncomfortable social realities contributing to youth violence and "teen takeovers." The theme of parental responsibility and the importance of family structure serves as a consistent thread throughout. The hosts also speak with Brinker Harding, Republican nominee for Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District, who discusses public safety, crime rates, and local versus national issues in his campaign.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Crime Reduction in American Cities

Timestamps: 02:28–10:01

• Trump and Federal Law Enforcement’s Role:
  Buck highlights how embedding federal law enforcement with local agencies in high-crime cities like D.C. and Memphis has led to tangible results. D.C. is poised for its lowest murder rate ever for its upcoming 250th anniversary.

  “D.C. is cleaned up from where it was. Memphis is apparently night and day… These are the kind of numbers… if you were a mayor running on reelection, all you would do is talk about how much safer your city has gotten.” – Buck Sexton (04:32)

• Impact on Minorities:
  Clay stresses that these improvements disproportionately benefit young black men, who are most often victims of local violence:

  “The lives that are being saved—young black men, overwhelmingly… when the murder rate collapses, young black men are the beneficiaries.” – Clay Travis (05:35)

• Credit to Law Enforcement:
  Buck argues that the current FBI, under new leadership, has shifted focus from “political vengeance” to practical anti-crime efforts, especially targeting gangs and cartels (06:35).

2. "Teen Takeovers" and Youth Crime

Timestamps: 08:46–16:22

• Viral Videos and Racial Realities:
  The hosts discuss recent viral footage of large groups of teens engaging in violent or unruly behavior, particularly in Detroit and other urban areas.

  “Matt Walsh... wrote: ‘Please be more specific. These are very clearly ‘black teen takeovers’ because stable households are essentially extinct in the urban black community. And none of these kids have dads at home.’” – Buck Sexton quoting Matt Walsh (08:58)

• Root Causes: Family Structure and Parental Responsibility:
  Both hosts assert that the absence of fathers and decline of parental accountability are driving these trends:

  “Teenage boys are often morons. Everyone who has ever been a teenage boy recognizes that… but today, parents can know where their kids are at every moment of every day... It’s not hard to look at your cell phone and check.” – Clay Travis (10:01–11:14)
  “There’s not nearly enough talk about dads and dads being in the home… the whole Democrat left is obsessed with this idea that if we just spend more money on the school system, it’s going to make up for deficiencies at home. It’s a lie.” – Buck Sexton (13:34)

• Cultural Shift in Media:
  Buck reflects on the rarity, today, of TV or film showing strong, intact families, suggesting this lack of positive role models exacerbates the problem.

3. Responsibility and Solutions

Timestamps: 15:50–18:51

• Parental Accountability:
  Clay presses for a candid conversation about holding parents responsible when their children disrupt public order:

  “If there’s a video of my kids throwing chairs in a restaurant… you should be like, what the hell is Clay Travis doing that this could happen? That’s a very valid parental response.” – Clay Travis (15:50)

• Fatherlessness as a Common Denominator:
  Buck asserts the statistical reality that father presence, regardless of race, correlates to better life outcomes for children:

  “If there is no father in the home, the life outcomes get dramatically worse across all racial lines. The family is such an essential component to all this…” – Buck Sexton (16:22)

• Clarification on Single Parenthood:
  Both hosts emphasize they’re not disparaging single mothers, but insist absentee fathers are a critical problem that society must openly discuss.

4. Caller Perspectives and Local Experiences

Timestamps: 41:02–43:27

• Memphis Crime Stories:
  Retired Memphis officer Joey shares personal stories, noting recent improvements but also the ongoing impact of crime and the criminal justice system’s failings (e.g., offenders quickly released):

  “I was robbed and shot… my mother was in a robbery… my youngest son was in a home invasion…” – Joey (41:12)

• Resident Feedback:
  Another caller, Chris, senses an improvement (“crime is surprisingly lower”) but says danger is still heavily dependent on neighborhood and time of day.

5. Interview with Brinker Harding (R-NE-2)

Timestamps: 23:45–34:51

• Positioning His Race:
  Brinker frames the Nebraska 2nd District race as “normal vs. crazy”—and stakes it as crucial for House control:

  “This race is about normal versus crazy… I want my kids and grandkids and your kids and grandkids to have more opportunities than we’ve had.” – Brinker Harding (24:20)

• Omaha’s Crime Drop:
  He highlights Omaha’s violent crime at 40-year lows and credits collaboration between local police and federal partners brought in by initiatives such as “Operation Summer Heat.”

  “To date this year, we have had four homicides… every one of those crimes were cleared… shootings are actually down.” – Brinker Harding (28:56)

• Economic and Civic Impact:
  The College World Series is presented as an emblem of Omaha’s positive trajectory, with economic and cultural value for the city (30:41–31:28).
• Campaign Touchpoints:
  Brinker discusses his Trump endorsement—with a personal call from the former president—and asks for support, tying the race directly to national consequences for the GOP.

6. Statistical Context and Systemic Issues

Timestamps: 38:50–40:35

• Buck and Clay close the crime segment with stats on clearance rates:
  • Omaha’s murder rate down 40% year over year (38:50)
  • Nationally, many cities still have distressingly low clearance rates for solving murders (e.g., Baltimore’s 40% clearance in 2020), a dynamic they say enables repeat violent offenders.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Culture and Family:

  “It's really tough to find a show these days... where you have a dad... it's cultural resonance. That is role modeling for people. You got to have families involved with their kids.”
  — Buck Sexton (13:39)

• On Single Parenthood:

  “Every time you say this, we get deluged with people who are single parents. I'm not attacking single parents... There are exceptions, but the overall data is clear.”
  — Clay Travis (17:55)

• On Law Enforcement:

  “Locking up the bad guys and being honest about that makes people safer—disproportionately makes young black men safer because they are the victims of a lot of these crimes.”
  — Buck Sexton (07:10)

• Brinker Harding’s Campaign Rhetoric:

  “This campaign is going to be about normal versus crazy, common sense versus insanity. But make no mistake, the House majority runs through Omaha.”
  — Brinker Harding (32:27)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:28: Buck introduces the crime reduction theme, referencing D.C., Memphis, and the Florida governor’s race.
• 05:18: Clay reveals D.C.’s murder rate stats and their significance.
• 08:46: Buck introduces the "teen takeovers" topic and Matt Walsh’s controversial remarks.
• 10:01: Clay reflects as a parent of teens, framing the issue of parental tracking and responsibility.
• 13:34: Buck critiques cultural/media depictions of family.
• 15:50: Clay calls for more accountability from parents.
• 16:22: Buck spotlights the cross-racial importance of fathers in the home.
• 23:45: Interview with Brinker Harding begins.
• 28:56: Harding explains Omaha’s crime drop and public safety successes.
• 38:50: Buck brings new crime clearance stats; Clay underscores the importance of solving violent crimes.
• 41:12: Memphis police officer shares frontline experience.
• 42:57: Chris from Memphis gives a resident’s perspective.

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Tone & Language

• Direct, Candid, and Occasionally Confrontational:
  The hosts do not mince words when addressing social taboos (e.g., crime stats, family breakdown, racial realities of crime, Democrat policy critique).
• Conversational and Relatable:
  Personal anecdotes (from both hosts and callers) ground the discussion in everyday experience.
• Politically Charged and Wryly Humorous:
  The Florida “golden age” quip and recurring jabs at the left provide levity amid serious topics.

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Conclusion

In this episode, Clay and Buck argue that law enforcement collaboration and active parental involvement are the essential ingredients for sustaining recent reductions in violent crime. The emergence of coordinated youth disturbances—“teen takeovers”—is framed as both a law enforcement challenge and a reflection of familial and cultural breakdown. The political stakes are illustrated with the case of Omaha’s crime turnaround and its congressional election. Across all threads, the message is clear: meaningful reductions in crime depend as much on family and accountability as on policing and politics.

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Transcript

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[Lingokids Parent 1]

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[Lingokids Parent 2]

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[Buck Sexton]

Second hour of play and buck kicks off right now and a a shout out To Paul Renner, who is running for governor in Florid and sorry about that, Paul from before. It is Paul Renner that we had on. So we have had on Paul Renner, we've had Jake Collins who's coming back on. We've had Byron Donalds many times equal time here on Clay and Buck for the Florida governor's race. I'm just, I just think Florida is in such a great spot. You know, it's a golden age here, truly. And I think there's nothing but sunny skies ahead. Let's avoid any tropical storms of socialism, if you will. Let's stay away from the left wing lunacy that has ruined so many other states. With this in mind, Clay, I would like to address something that Trump spoke about in the last hour and it had to do with the current state of crime in the country and where things are. As you pointed out, we have a 100. And guys, can you actually pull from that press conference, Trump speaking about it? Because I was listening in real time and he spoke about how things have gone so well. And the, and remember, it's not just that things have gone well because what the Democrats are going to say about this is it was already trending this way. It has nothing to do with Trump and everything else. Meanwhile, we were here a year ago and a couple of months, maybe almost exactly a year ago. I think if we go back to the original conversations about this, Clay, and Trump was saying we're going to bring violent crime down. We're going to have the FBI embedding with local law enforcement in very high crime cities. Memphis and D.C. are too. Well, D.C. was particularly ripe for this kind of approach because it's that federal protectorate, you know, federal jurisdiction. So that was pretty easy. That was pretty easy to implement, but it was still a great move for Trump to do it. And as I said from the beginning, Clay, Mayor Bowser was perfectly happy to sit back, you know, make some gripes about it, but sit back and let the federal law enforcement agencies make her city much safer. And it is. And you and I have been in D.C. in the last year a few times each. And D.C. is cleaned up from where it was. Memphis is apparently night and day. By the way, if you're a Memphis caller and you want to just send us a talk back on what it feels like to walk in your downtown at night and have things be, what's the murder rate down 60% or something? I mean, huge. These are the kind of numbers that if just for the city of Memphis, these are the Kind of numbers that if you were a mayor running on reelection, all you would do is talk about how much safer your city has gotten. Yes, sir.

[Clay Travis]

To speak to DC as today murder rate is down 46% in DC this year compared to last year. DC is trending, Buck, for 250th anniversary of our country to have the lowest murder rate in recorded history in the city of Washington. Think about how crazy that is per capita, obviously, because the population and when John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln was not particular would have been part of the homicide rate was not particularly large. Um, and as we mentioned about this before, I do think this is significant. The lives that are being saved young black men, overwhelmingly, if you look at the data, when the murder rate collapses, young black men are the beneficiaries because they are far more likely to be murdered most of the time by other young black men. So when the murder rate collapses in D.C. as you know, Buck, and a lot of our listeners know, it's not suddenly rich people in Georgetown in northwest D.C. that are dealing with a lot less violent crime. There aren't a lot of people being murdered on the streets of Georgetown, thankfully, on a regular basis. It's southeast D.C. where the murder rate typically is sky high. For those of you who know the D.C. area, it's now 46% this year. It's an amazing story.

[Buck Sexton]

And, and I, I want to note something else, though, while, while we have a willingness now to, to I think, speak more honestly about the violent crime situation. And because the Trump administration has Cash Patel, the FBI and the people of the FBI working on these task forces, they deserve a lot of credit. You know, a lot of people have been really hard on the rank and file of the FBI. In some cases, completely, justifiably, if they were involved in harassing and arresting and trying to destroy J6ers, who were, particularly the nonviolent J6ers, which is a vast majority of them. But there are a lot of FBI agents in cities across the country right now who are working on anti cartel, anti gang, anti violence initiatives, thanks to the Trump administration, that are saving lives and doing really important work like the stuff that we want. The FBI under Biden was a. Was a tool of, of political vengeance. The FBI under Trump is being turned toward. I'm not saying it is perfect. It's still a lot of stuff that needs to be done at the FBI. And, you know, I think Director Patel is working on that. I think direct Deputy Director Bongino did a lot in that one year where he was there to try to help turn things in the right direction. Full credit to both of them. But I think, Clay, that we're willing to now say, hold on a second. It turns out locking up the bad guys and being honest about that makes people safer, disproportionately makes young black men safer because they are the victims of a lot of these crimes. You've seen a lot of these videos going around lately of what are being called teen takeovers. Teen takeovers. And you know, Clay, we have video of it, so we can see these. Whether it's in Detroit. There was one recently at a beach. And these, these videos are going viral. Some of them are very recent. Maybe some of them are a little bit, you know, some months old or something. But there's this trend of teen takeovers. And I want to read to you what Matt Walsh put out here. Matt Walsh of the Daily Wire, who I think just generally does excellent. He just does excellent work.

[Clay Travis]

I have a lot of respect for

[Buck Sexton]

Matt's analysis and his positions. He wrote on Twitter about. About one of these. This one was in Detroit where it says a massive teen takeover at a park in Detroit turned into brawls, smashing windows, and a 16 year old was shot. Here's what Matt wrote. Please be more specific. These are very clearly, quote, black teen takeovers because stable households are essentially extinct in the urban black community. And none of these kids have dads at home, end quote. Matt is pointing to something here. I wonder if, as a country, we are allowed to start to have more of a conversation about what is going on with these teen takeovers. Why are there 100, 200, and we say teens, we mean people 15, 16, 17, 18, clay. Who are breaking things, who are becoming violent, who are sometimes attacking law enforcement, who are having to be arrested. And what is the community response to this? What has to happen to get a handle on this situation? Because really what this is is just the origins of mob and, you know, sort of mob violence. Not mafioso, but mob, as in, you know, a group of people being unruly and engaging in riotous behavior.

[Clay Travis]

This shouldn't be happening in places 100%. And here's something that I would say as a parent right now of two teenage boys. Teenage boys are often morons. Everyone who has ever been a teenage boy recognizes that teenage boys are often morons.

[Buck Sexton]

Clay's teenage boys are like Rhodes scholars. But put that aside. I've met his kids. But anyway, that's fine. Sure.

[Clay Travis]

I'm just saying in general, I. My kids, I'm happy with where they are. We got a graduation tomorrow and we got a kid going off to college. And I'm very happy about, about how my boys have done. But, Buck, you have not yet raised your, your son to teenage years. But here's something that I would say that is very substantial that has changed compared to even when we were teenage kids, parents can know where their kids are at every moment of every day. And I would argue when. And I'm holding up my phone right here, My whole family, my three boys, my wife, me, we are all connected on Find my Phone. Now, you could argue, oh, that's helicopter parenting. You shouldn't. When we were teenagers, and I guarantee you, Buck, this was your experience, you would leave the house and you would say to mom or dad, hey, I'm going to hang out with my friends. And your mom or dad, you probably didn't even have a cell phone. Your mom or dad really had no idea where you were for the whole evening. It doesn't take a lot of parenting to pull up your phone and check and see where your kid is. I think we have to start in a significant way to have. If we want to continue to drive down violent crime rates and we want kids behaving in a more significant fashion, I think we need to be having conversations about basic parental responsibility. Now, the data reflects that the kids that are going to be arrested for violent crimes, what do you think overwhelmingly shows dad's often not home. Right. These are often single parent households where mom is trying to keep up oftentimes with multiple kids. And we've given passes to the parents and just said, well, it's kind of hard to be a parent. I think we need to have a real conversation about this and say it's not hard to look at your cell phone or every one of these kids has a cell phone and look at these kids and say, where are you? Why are you there? It's past curfew. You need to be home. And I think we need to start to have significant conversations about parental figures and what their responsibility is when these kids engage in violent acts and when they gather in huge groups to engage in.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, this, this is. Well, your, your point there at the end, Clay, is, I mean, this is, this is the time where as a country, you know, where's the CNN panel on this? Not that anyone watches cnn, but, you know, where, where is the, the Washington Post editorial on, hey, if your kid who is. And I, you know, they say teen. And also, I will note, I'll note this, this thing where sometimes when they want to create sympathy for somebody who has done something bad. You'll note they'll be like teen arrested in. Sometimes These people are 18 or 19 years old, also known as an adult. Yes, technically a teen, but actually an adult. So. And someone who's 16 or 17 can be tried as easily. Can be tried as an adult because you are very close to. You know, we have to draw lines in society, and we do for whole renovative, for voting and for drinking and all these different things. But, you know, when someone's like, 17 and six months, it's not. Oh, they're just a wayward teen. And they went out there and they, you know, threw a rock and hit a cop in the head. Okay. There's a huge failure of behavior and a failure of parenting that is occurring with this. And there's not nearly enough talk about dads and dads being in the home. There's not nearly enough talk about families and having dinner together and spending time together. And, you know, Clay, I can't tell you all the entertainment. I was thinking about this last night. I feel like every show that I ever watch, if there is a family in it, the dynamics are. There's a lot of. There's a lot of, like, broken family or you look at, like, Modern Family. It's like people being remarried and married again and different things and all this stuff. It's really tough to find a show these days. I mean, dare I say something along the lines of, like, the Cosby show, where you have a dad. I know and I know.

[Clay Travis]

I. Trust me, I am aware of all the.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, we're all aware of what the issues are with that later on. But I would. I would. I would offer up then Full House, where I believe the mother. Every.

[Clay Travis]

Every show we grew up watching, there was a father figure in every sitcom that was. That was involved in raising kids. And I think single show.

[Buck Sexton]

One of the reasons why Friday Night Lights, for so many of us, sticks out as. As a really. As a great show is that, yeah, it does like Texas Forever. And Riggins is an amazing character and all this. The parents in that show are good parents who support each other as husband and wife. They love each other, they love their kids, and they still have to deal with a lot of problems, but they're there. There are no, you know, someone's gonna send me, like, I don't know, like, Everybody Loves Raymond or something. I mean, there's nothing out there right now that has cultural resonance. Yeah, I was gonna say there's nothing out there. That has cultural resonance. That is role modeling for people. You got to have families involved with their kids. The whole Democrat left is obsessed with this idea that if we just spend more money on the school system, it's going to make up for deficiencies at home. It's a lie. Every, every person I know who has ever taught in public school, who is not a brainwashed imbecile will tell you. If the parents don't care, Clay, and they're not around, the kids all of a sudden end up at a 400 person teen takeover where people get shot. This is what is happening.

[Clay Travis]

Amen. And so I think we need to have a real conversation about this now. Again, violent crime is going down, but there's always a viral video, Chipotle, even in D.C. all of you saw it. Parents need to be held accountable. And I say this as a parent of two teenage boys. If there's a video of my kids throwing chairs in a restaurant in Nashville, you should be like, what the hell is Clay Travis doing that this could happen? That's a very valid parental response. And I would feel like I had failed as a father if I saw something like that happening with one of my kids.

[Buck Sexton]

We have. If you see a video, and in these videos, the, the, the teenagers involved, and to Matt Walsh's point, and the videos that have gone viral recently, that they're overwhelmingly black. I mean, maybe 100% in some of these videos. And I don't hear any conversation from a single Democrat and. Or a single black leader about this issue in the media anywhere. Full stop. No conversation whatsoever. If I'm wrong, by the way, please point it out and we will amplify it. Show me the person who has a substantial. Show me the person, Clay, in sports. Show me the person anywhere who wants to speak to fatherlessness and the damage that it does to communities, particularly the black community, but to any community, one of the truisms is that if you eliminate fatherlessness, or rather if you line this up statistically, the life outcome for somebody who is white in America, black, Hispanic, if there's a father in the home and a stable family, the life outcomes are overwhelmingly good. If there is no father in the home, the life outcomes get dramatically worse across all racial lines. The point being, the family is such an essential component to all this, and you almost feel like no one's, like, why is no one allowed to talk about this? Or why does no one talk about this? And I need to speak about this in any meaningful way. You know, Clay, you've been through this you know, I'm a new dad and I look at this now and I just, I feel like the influences in the culture all around us are just no accountability. Shove them into the public school system. The public school system will fix.

[Clay Travis]

Absolutely will not. A large part of it is people don't want to attack single parents because moms, by and large end up ra the kids. And a lot of dads are absent. And this is more common in the black community. The reality is, if you just look at basic data, mom and dad at home, both with the kids, the overall outcome for children are infinitely better. And every time you say this, we get deluged with people who are single parents. I'm not attacking single parents. And you may be. Look, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both had basic single moms who. And they became president of the United States. There are.

[Buck Sexton]

I do think we need to have a conversation about absentee dads, though. I'm not, I'm not here to pile on single moms, but I do think absentee dads. There needs to be a chat about this. As a country. I think that's fair. I think that's real.

[Clay Travis]

If we want to drive down violent crime, the way to do it is for dads to show up and do their jobs. I think that's a huge part of this.

[Buck Sexton]

Yeah. Our look. If you follow me on social media, you likely saw a picture of me Yesterday holding my 1 year old son Speed, who is my pride and joy. And he wandered into my podcast studio being very cute as he does. And that moment of course warranted a photo. It's so easy now because the camera's on our phone. But you know, years and decades ago, 30 years ago with my parents, they didn't have that. Maybe they had a Polaroid. Maybe they had a VHS camcorder. So if you were from the pre digital age, how do you enjoy that stuff today? Legacy Box, this is the company that digitally transfers your old photos, video cassettes, film reels, and more into digital media. So you can put all those photos and videos on your phone and share them today. And look, Legacy Box is the safest and easiest way to preserve these memories. You pack up your old media, you send it in, and they take care of the rest, digitizing everything by hand in Tennessee. I've done it. Clay's done it. Join over 1.5 million families who have already trusted Legacy box. Go to legacybox.com buck to get started today. That's legacybox.com buck if you truly care,

[Clay Travis]

pass along this common sense to family and friends, Clay and Buck owning the

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[Lingokids Parent 1]

RJRVC with my mom and dad living in Orange county, when we bring my five and seven year old to visit, we are sometimes in for a two hour drive that could feel like 10.

[Lingokids Parent 2]

Oh, as an avid camper, I know all about this. We'll pack up the RV and know this is either gonna be the trip of a lifetime or a complete disaster.

[Lingokids Parent 1]

Which is why we load up the iPads with Lingokids before we even pull out of the driveway.

[Lingokids Parent 2]

It's what dreams are made of. Lingokids keeps kids engaged and quiet with over 4000 interactive games, songs and shows that kids simply cannot get enough of.

[Lingokids Parent 1]

You can pack whatever you think you'll need, but Lingokids is the only entertainment you'll need for a stress free car ride.

[Lingokids Parent 2]

Or really any ride, plane, train, hovercraft, whatever.

[Lingokids Parent 1]

Download Lingokids for free today or unlock

[Lingokids Parent 2]

even more amazing content with LingoKids.

[Lingokids Parent 1]

Plus, choose the yearly plan and save up to 60%. Search LingoKids in the App Store or

[Lingokids Parent 2]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back in Clay and Buck. We are rolling through the program, President Trump just said, Buck, that he's going to attend an NBA finals game in New York City to see the Knicks play there. That will be a heck of a scene. I'm going to send in the. The audio. Sports media is going to lose their mind.

[Brinker Harding]

Oh, my goodness.

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back into Clay and Bach. We're joined now by Brinker Harding. He is a Republican nominee for Nebraska's 2nd congressional district. And he of course must be familiar with the great heritage radio station KFAB out of Nebraska, where we are number one, no big deal. Number one in the market. And Brinker, first of all, thanks for being on the show. Second of all, cool name that's coming from a guy named Buck Sexton. So I respect the game. Tell everybody about yourself. I'm sure KFAB land knows you, but tell. Tell the rest of the country.

[Brinker Harding]

Sure. And hopefully I'll get to the name a little later. But I first wanted to thank you for the time today because I appreciate the mission of your show, which is to make sense in this insane world. And that's exactly what I'm going to do for Nebraska's 2nd district because elections are about contrasts. And in Nebraska's 2nd district, the contrast couldn't be clear between me and my opponent, Dark Money Denise. Because this race, and frankly, like many others this fall, this race is about normal versus crazy. And look, America turns 250 years old this year. And I want my kids and grandkids and your kids and grandkids to have more opportunities than we've had. And there's a recent poll out there that says 70% of parents in America think that their kids won't have it any better than them. And to me, that's unacceptable. And that's one of the reasons I'm in this race.

[Clay Travis]

What is going to decide this race, you guys? For people who don't know, the race that you are running in is going to be one of the 18 or 20 that actually decides who has control of the House in Omaha. What is going to decide this race? How much of it is local? How much of it is national? What are you seeing on the ground?

[Brinker Harding]

Well, we're seeing, I mean, obviously local issues, but we're seeing a lot of national attention, too. And I focused this race on positive issues that will benefit all of Nebraska's 2nd district. We're focused on how to make America more affordable for families and Washington, D.C. more accountable for the people. And we're on the front lines to fight to ensure that that American dream is a reality. That you work hard, you treat people right, you follow the law, you'll get ahead. And my opponent, dark money Denise, wants to quash those dreams with her left wing radical ideas. And look, she's an activist that moved to Nebraska with her progressive coastal ideals, is trying to buy a congressional seat with dark money to her campaign and dark money consulting fees to her nonprofits from the likes of Swiss billionaire Hans Jorg Wies. And that's not what this race is about. Look, she talked about in her campaign about being pissed off and I'm sorry to use that term, but she used that term on air and about TDS and predicting a colored geometric shape known as. I heard you refer to that earlier as the blue dot. And that only represents a segment of the population. And I'm running to help all Republicans, Democrats and nonpartisans alike. Maybe, maybe we should call it the Brinker dot. But I want to make sure that we represent all and not a few. And look, I'm. Look, I'm focused on America's future, Nebraska's future, and your futures.

[Buck Sexton]

We're speaking to our friend Brinker Harding, and he is looking to run, or he is running, rather, in Nebraska's second Congressional District. You were just talking before. I'm curious. Or, you know, I'll be honest with you. Nebraska doesn't often find itself in the national spotlight. Clay has told me that there was a time when your football team was quite fantastic at the college level. But it has gotten a little rough for a while. Not trying to. Not trying to rub anything in there. But I have heard some stories, but I'm wondering how in this era of a new approach from the Trump administration using federal resources to help cities, how is Omaha the biggest city in Nebraska? How is it doing? Where is it on the crime index? And what would you say about the governance that your biggest city in your state has had?

[Brinker Harding]

Great question. And let me quickly inject though that we've got great volleyball team, softball team is fantastic.

[Clay Travis]

By the way, Brinker, by the way, I appreciate the interjection there. Every Nebraska Cornhusker fan, if I had said after they won the title in 1997, split the title with Michigan, hey, 30 years from now, when asked about the football team, the opening response is going to be, but you got to think about our women's volleyball team. Every Nebraska fan would have hunted me down. They might have sent Big Red himself to choke me out. So, so good pivot. But 30 years ago that would have been unbelievable.

[Brinker Harding]

Yeah. Let me answer the question, though, Buck's question. But look, you were talking earlier today on the show too about public safety and crime rates. And what's really interesting, I'm on Omaha City Council right now and without safe streets, you cannot have economic development. And that's one of the things that I've always run on, is public safety. And right now in Omaha we have violent crime rates that have dropped to 40 year lows. And here's a very interesting statistic. I just confirmed this number with Chief Schmader from our Omaha Police Department this morning. To date this year, we have had four homicides. Now obviously one is too many, but four. And every one of those four has been cleared. And last year I think we had something like 22 in Omaha. But again, every one of those crimes were cleared. And on top of it, what doesn't get discussed a lot is that the number of shootings is actually down. So we take public safety very seriously here and that's something that we're very proud about

[Clay Travis]

in Omaha. I'll let you kind of close out here. I have been to Omaha for the College World Series. It is going to be starting here in a couple of weeks. One of the all time awesome sporting events that goes on and I imagine you'll be doing some campaigning surrounding that. For people who have never been to the College World Series, I'm giving it my highest endorsement. It's a phenomenal time to be in Omaha. What does that mean for the city? What does it mean for the state and why should people come?

[Brinker Harding]

Yeah, it's, I mean, it's been such an amazing event that we just truly embrace As a community, I mean, it's great to have Omaha's name mentioned on national TV for, you know, over a 10 day period. It's just an incredible American event. It's, as the slogan goes with it, it's the greatest show on dirt. And it means so much to the city, both economically, but really from a status, you know, that visibility that you get on the national level, it just means so much to, to the entire community. But I'm excited to go and I hope I mentioned Nebraska baseball in there, too. They're, they're, they're playing in Lincoln this weekend in one of the national seeds.

[Buck Sexton]

You know, I just started. Bring it. Bring us back for one second, Brinker, to your role in the city council and Omaha for a second. I know that you're talking about how things have, have really dramatically improved there. Last August, the FBI under the Trump administration and under Director Patel's leadership, they partnered specifically with police and us. Well, U.S. marshals obviously are federal, but with the local police in Omaha for operation Summer heat, 145 arrests, it says here, 75 federal indictments, hundreds of illegal weapons, hundreds of search warrants. So, so your city did get federal assistance to help bring down that crime rate and make those streets safe.

[Brinker Harding]

Absolutely. I mean, we will, we will partner to make sure that we have safe streets and, and keep our crime rates low.

[Buck Sexton]

Fantastic. Well, Brinker, where should folks go if they want to make sure that a Swiss, a Swiss billionaire can't put a Democrat in charge of your congressional district?

[Brinker Harding]

Well, like I said again, this campaign is going to be about normal versus crazy, common sense versus insanity. But make no mistake, the House majority runs through Omaha. And if we lose the House. I heard you talking about it earlier, we're going to have impeachment articles on day one. Efforts to raise taxes will happen, chaos will ensue, and the administration's accomplishments will come to a grinding halt. But I need your support. I need your audience's support. So please visit brinkerharding.com and contribute whatever you can to win the battle of normal versus crazy.

[Clay Travis]

Good luck, Brinker. We're rooting for you. Thanks to everybody out there. Listen in KFAB land and enjoy the upcoming College World Series time later and

[Brinker Harding]

tell you the origin of the name.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, tell us the origin of the name.

[Brinker Harding]

Oh, well, so actually it's, it's a family name. But I wanted to say I did get the endorsement of President Trump and that is when my team. Go ahead.

[Clay Travis]

No, you go ahead. President Trump's endorsement. Obviously, we've seen in Indiana, Texas, Louisiana, Kentucky has a tremendous impact. So that is, that is big time.

[Brinker Harding]

Absolutely. So when we, when we heard that we were getting the endorsement, I said to my team, you mean I don't get a call? You don't get a call. So I'm driving to a city council meeting and I get a Washington number showing up on my phone. I answer it and the lady said, you know, is this Brinker Harding? And I said, yes, can you hold for the president? And I'm thinking my team is pulling my leg. So I wait a minute and on comes the president and we had a great conversation. He gave me his full endorsement, knew a lot about me. But at the very end of the conversation, this is, this is how personal he gets. He said, by the way, Brinker, love the name, don't change it. And I'm thinking myself, this is from the marketing wizard. But anyway, I'm not, I'm not thinking about changing my name. It was a family name. I've always been called by it and very proud of it as well.

[Clay Travis]

Awesome. Hey, good luck. We'll certainly have you on again before the election officially happens in November. But for everybody out there in KFAB land, Brinker Harding is the pathway to retaining control of the house. We appreciate the time.

[Brinker Harding]

Thank you very much gentleman.

[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

Dad, Lingokids please. When did we become the Lingokids House?

[Lingokids Parent 1]

No idea.

[Buck Sexton]

Last week it was Dinosaurs. This week it's Lingokids.

[Clay Travis]

Why Lingokids? Because it's the best thing ever. We can play games with astronauts, wild animals and superheroes.

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[Clay Travis]

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[Clay Travis]

Everything kids love. Download it for free. Welcome back in Clay and Buck. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. Thanks to Brinker Harding, fourth generation from Omaha, Dad, Businessman. Thanks for coming on. That district, if you're listening to us in Nebraska is one of about 20 districts that is going to decide who controls the House. It's a toss up district. It's been a battleground for a long time. Don Bacon, who is longtime Congressman there, is not running for reelection and so Brinker is going to go a long way. I Think towards determining who has control in the house.

[Buck Sexton]

Can I just give you a stat real quick on this, Clay, before we get to calls. Omaha, year over year murder rate since the Trump, you know, summer surge operation, 40% down.

[Clay Travis]

And what he said, Buck, is there at 40 year lows in violent crime in Omaha and they are solving all the murders. So again, if you go look at the, at the yield rate, for lack of a better phrase to use on percentage of times that people get away with murder, it is. Has been in many cities astoundingly high. That is, they don't close those cases, there's somebody murdered and they never do figure out exactly who did it.

[Buck Sexton]

It was gonna be like 50% in

[Clay Travis]

some cities, I think.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, it was a shock. Low clearance rate for murders in some of the worst places. So that's a very important stat.

[Clay Travis]

And that also goes to the guys who commit a murder are also going to continue to engage in violent behavior. So it's not only you're not solving the murder, it's that the people who are engaged in violent behavior are staying on the streets. And as we've talked about on this program, it's a very small percentage of people that actually engage in violent crime. If you arrest them and get them off the streets, something crazy happens. Crime goes down.

[Buck Sexton]

The Baltimore city clearance rate, Clay, in 2020, the BLM year for murders, 40% clearance, you had a better than even chance of literally getting away with murder in Baltimore.

[Clay Travis]

Well, it's particularly crazy because we have more evidence now. It should be harder to get away with a murder today than at any point in history. When you consider all the cameras, all the tracking devices, everything out there, getting away with a murder should be really, really hard given all the modern technology that can assist investigations today.

[Buck Sexton]

Oh, if you have a competent police force with, with adequate resources and a d A willing to, willing to pursue the law. If you kill someone, you know they're going to find you. If you kill someone totally at random be over, then it's tougher. But if you kill someone, you have a pattern of life with meaning you've interacted with in the past, done drug deals with or whatever it may be, you're probably going to get caught. That's where things actually stand out. If you bring your cell phone, you're definitely going to get caught. Who we got on the lines?

[Clay Travis]

Memphians are weighing in. Joey in Tennessee, retired Memphis police officer. Joey, thanks for listening. What are you seeing on the streets?

[Joey (Retired Memphis Police Officer)]

Hi there. I was a deputy for 36 years. Still a police officer in Memphis, but now it's a lot better. It's definitely gotten a lot better, but just in the last eight years. I was robbed and shot and in a robbery. My mother was in a robbery and they shot at her but didn't hit her. And she had to get stitches in her hand, in her head where they pistol whipped her both over $20. My daughter, three year old grandson carjacked by four. They took her car, ran off. The police were chasing them in a helicopter. They wrecked out. They end up catching them. Nobody's still in jail. The guy that shot me, he's already out. They did a plea bargain on him without even. Without me even knowing about it. And anyway, my. My youngest son was in a home invasion where two males came in the house and put a gun to his head and stole his tennis shoes and axe box.

[Clay Travis]

But Joey, thanks for what you're doing. That's shocking, Buck. I was on the street this weekend. I was on the beach next to lifelong Memphis residents. They said they just left. They got fed up where I live in Nashville. Joey, I don't think this will surprise you at all. A ton of people have said I can't do Memphis anymore. I've got a lot of great friends from Memphis. They just moved to Nashville. And we used to have a real rivalry in the state of Tennessee, Buck, over which city was better. Memphis's crime just collapsed and now nobody even has that discussion anymore.

[Brinker Harding]

Yeah.

[Buck Sexton]

Thank you, sir, for what you do. Thanks for keeping the streets. Go ahead. Last word to you.

[Clay Travis]

Chris in Memphis also weighed in. Cut e. Let's listen.

[Buck Sexton]

Hey guys, this is Chris and I'm calling from Memphis. And the crime is surprisingly lower, but it really just depends on what time of day it is and what street you're on. It varies from street to street. You can be in a million dollar home on one street and hood in the next.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, look, I mean, again, Buck, every state has cities that have rivalries. Houston, I know, And Dallas go at it. Nashville and Memphis used to. No longer. It's not even a rivalry.

[Buck Sexton]

It got kind of sad. It was like punching down. It wasn't funny anymore because the two. Two cities. Nashville was having a golden era and Memphis was going through tough crime, really tough crime. Nationally, among the worst top three. So glad it's getting cleaned up there. And we'll take more calls and we'll dive into things. Third hour coming up.

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