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Clay Travis
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Clay Travis
Third hour of play in buck kicks off right now. Thanks for being with us, everybody. And we have. Well, I want to jump into where the Democrats are, where their leadership fight stands. All of that coming up here. But first, just to deal with this, there's a story out there, NPR reporting, that there is already a process underway to replace Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense. I'm not buying it. I don't believe it. I don't think that's happening. Could be wrong. But I don't, I would, I would place a considerable wager that Pete's going to be just fine with this, especially based on what these, the, the, the transgressions that are listed in these reports. But I will say this, Clay, There, there should be a recognition, I think there is with this White House, that if you give the media what they want on anything and they clearly really want this, they, you've pointed this out. I would give you full credit for this observation. I agree with it, that, because I thought RFK Jr would get far more. Because, remember, he, it's not just that he, you know, that he's a, a guy who goes against the system and Fauci and all this stuff, but he's also an apostate from the Democrat Party. Right. He's a, he's a refugee from liberalism, at least on some issues, at least as it pertains to health. He's not part of their system. They have, they have focused 80% of their cabinet ire on Pete Hegseth all along.
Ryan Seacrest
Yeah. And by the way, it's not just RFK junior Tulsi Gabbard did the same thing. She ran for president as a Democrat in 2020. Both of them got confirmed. And I would say, you know, we're coming up on 100 days of the Trump presidency compared to the amount of attacks that have come down on Pete Hegseth. It's, it's pretty extraordinary how much of the fire has been focused on him. And I think one of the reasons is because he wasn't in the cool kids club in any way, because he was not a longtime Pentagon official. He didn't work his way up that way. And I think there have been a lot of people that were unhappy that Trump picked a proverbial outsider, and they really lined up against him in a way that, frankly, wasn't reflected in any other Cabinet member. I mean, he only got in because J.D. vance broke the tie. 50 50. There were three Republicans who decided to vote against him and nearly it came down to North Carolina senator whether or not he was going to get confirmed or not. And they haven't really relented on him since. Every story that has been written about him in the New York Times, the Washington Post, cnn, the usual suspects, they've all been negative. Not one single positive story's been written. I'll give you one that's actually hugely positive. The amount of people that wanna serve in our armed forces since Pete Hegseth became defense secretary has skyrocketed. They may not like the fact that he's out working out with guys all over the world that are in our armed forces forces. But I think having a youthful defense secretary actually connects with a lot of 18 to 24 year old dudes out there, I think saying, hey, we're gonna hire people and we want you to kick the bad guy's ass. I think that's a lot more appealing than find your gender identity in the Marines. Right. I mean, I think most of the young guys and gals that they are hiring that want to serve our country want to kick ass. That's what their goal is.
Clay Travis
And as is so often the case when it comes to opposition to the Trump administration, Clay success for Secretary of Defense Hegseth, while good for the country, Democrats view it as bad for them. And so if he were able to continue on this pathway. To your point about making the military much more like the perception that the military was putting out, do you remember, remember some of the commercials?
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Clay Travis
For the marines when you were growing up. And I remember seeing this and you know, they had the, they had the marine dress, dress uniform on and the sword and you're like, this is badass. I think I might want to be a Marine. Right. Some of the army ads that you would see, I wanted to be a.
Ryan Seacrest
Fighter pilot after Top Gun Buck, they leaned in. I think they've done a good job with Top Gun Maverick. But when I was five or six and Top Gun, the original came out, how could you watch that movie as a kid and not want to be a jet fighter pilot?
Clay Travis
Well, you definitely have the humility to be a fighter pilot. There you go.
Ryan Seacrest
That's right. That's right.
Clay Travis
You know, you know how you know who a fighter pilot is? Right? When he walks in the room, he'll tell you. So I got, I got to father in law jokes. I got to, you know, did you.
Ryan Seacrest
See, did you see the. This is funny did you see the story that went viral where the pilot saw an Instagram influencer and he. Did you see the story? It went mega viral. He just wrote a note and it just said, you are the most beautiful girl I've seen in a very long time. On a note, on like a napkin, and just put it down with her and wrote like, Ben, or whatever his name was. No phone number, no nothing else. And it just rocked the Instagram influencers world. She's like, some random pilot just dropped this note on my. You know, like they were at like a restaurant or bar in the airport, and it went mega viral. Millions of people saw it and everybody was like, that's a pilot life. You know, like, these guys just have unbelievable self confidence. They just roll right up to gorgeous girls, drop a note, don't even give their phone number, just keep walking. Anyway, this thing went mega viral and I think ties in with that. I don't think they, like, by the way, would you want an unconfident person piloting a fighter jet? Would you want somebody who's like, I think I'm okay at it, or do you want somebody who's like, hey, just get in, kick back, I got you. I want somebody who's pretty confident about flying a jet.
Clay Travis
Yeah, well, the person you want driving the plane, flying the plane when you're in it is the person who wants to be in that seat when stuff gets tough. Right? That's what every. You want the person who goes. Everyone else.
Ryan Seacrest
By the way, I don't want a surgeon who's like, I think I'm pretty good. I. You know, sometimes I get the wrong ventricle crossed up on the hearts. No, I want somebody who's like, I am God's gift to surgery.
Clay Travis
Yes.
Ryan Seacrest
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Clay Travis
But, But I see this from content on, like, TikTok and Instagram. There's these. These different characteristics of medical specialties. And, you know, cardiac and brain surgeons in particular, just like, hi, I'm God. Nice to meet you. That's what everyone.
Ryan Seacrest
And you know what? A lot of those guys also learn how to be pilots because I think they have, like, that idea that they are uniquely skilled and it probably is the same mindset that translates to flying a plane that operating on a heart would. Would require. I think, in many respects.
Clay Travis
Yes. Well, our friend Pete Hegseth also does not lack for confidence. And he is the Secretary of Defense right now, and he has, according to Caroline Levitt, this is cut one fully standing Behind Pete Hegseth at this point. Just play this for everybody.
Caroline Levitt
The President stands strongly behind Secretary Hegseth, who is doing a phenomenal job leading the Pentagon. And this is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change that you are trying to implement. Secretary Hegsworth Hegseth was nominated for this position because he is standing up for the war fighter, the men and women in uniform who are putting their lives on the line to protect our country and our homeland. And unfortunately, there have been people at that building who don't like the change the secretary is trying to bring. So they are leaking and they are lying to the mainstream media. We've seen this game played before. The Secretary is doing a tremendous job and the President stands strongly behind him.
Clay Travis
I don't see that swerving, changing, walk back that. I don't think they're going to put Caroline out there. First of all, she's probably talked to Trump about this just a few minutes before making that statement. And look, it is the pleasure of the President, right? So you're, you got to be in the mind of the man to know. But we know Trump pretty well, and I don't think he sees anything here that requires. The only thing that would get Pete canned would be disloyalty to the mission or disloyalty to Trump. To me, that's the, you know, if he, if he did either of those things, and by the way, then we would say, yeah, no, he's got to go. I don't know what happened. But neither of those things. Pete would saw off his own, his own arm before either of those things happened.
Ryan Seacrest
I also think Trump learned a lesson in the first term on many different levels. But one of them was, it doesn't end if he said, okay, Pete Hegseth, I'm going to remove him. We're going to have a new defense secretary. It's not like the media and the people who are attacking him would suddenly say, okay, you know, we're comfortable. The analogy I would make is, and I've been making, I've been on this for years. You can never change a team name because nobody ever says, once you change that team name, hey, you know what? We're done now. So the Redskins name changes, the Indians name changes, they're not satisfied. They don't say, okay, well, this is good, we're back to normal now. They say the Kansas City Chiefs have to go, the Atlanta Braves have to go. They always need a new target. So if you are Trump, my advice to him would be. If you like the people you picked, which it seems he did and does, why in the world would you let people who don't have your best interest at heart in any way encourage you to change the choices that you have made so far? And I think he learned that. I think he had a little bit of, hey, you know, I'll placate my critics. Oh, I'll go ahead and I'll make a shift here. If Heg says gone, who's next? Man up. It's either RFK Jr. Or it's Tulsi. They come with them guns blazing every day.
Clay Travis
Well, that's exactly right. He knows. Trump knows all too well that if he were to replace his Secretary of defense this early and especially a secretary of defense who has been so closely associated with loyalty to the president and his mission. The headline in the New York Times is, not Donald Trump in an about face and a moment of reasonableness and government. You know, government acumen or efficiency, decided to make a decision that we all agree with. Perhaps we'll see a new no, it's, you know, showing what disorder there is in the Trump administration. Trump has to toss out his secretary of defense. This is just the beginning. There's so many more who need to go. You know, it's. It just lights their fire, man. It just turns. It just makes them feel like they got one. And that's the. This is the lesson that I'll say also a lot of people learn during the whole cancellation era of, oh, if I apologize or if I bend the knee. Oh, no, you bend the knee and apologize, then you're fired and you're never allowed to work again in your industry.
Ryan Seacrest
They. There is no attempt at goodwill or reasonableness. You can't negotiate with these people. This is why my lesson that I've taken from this and sometimes Buck gets drawn into it, is, you don't like something that I did or said, I'm going to double or triple down on what I did or said that you don't like, because I think that's the only way you can handle these people. If they think that they can get you to step back or not continue to say exactly what you think, they will take advantage of you. They're not. They're not good actors. They're not reasonable people. Reasonable people. You come together and you say, okay, you might not agree with this. Like, let's have a conversation. This is what most of America is like. But the people trying to cancel you, the people who want Hegseth gone, they are not the people out there that are behaving in good faith. And I think Trump had to learn that because I think there's a part of Trump, and I bet you would sign off on this Tubac, that actually does want to be liked. You know, he's trying to get people to like him more. And I think in his first term, he thought, oh, maybe they have a point. Maybe if I try to work with them, they will be more, they'll be fairer. And then they try to, you know, try to put in prison for the rest of the life guy to kill him and it's over.
Clay Travis
Right.
Ryan Seacrest
Like this attempt to in some way make them happy. He's done with it.
Clay Travis
Yeah. And I think that this is one of the major lessons from the first administration for Trump, which was, you know, I'm not talking about some of the lower level people that had to get fired, like Scaramucci and some of this stuff, but also those were people who just happened to be around and they were staffing up fast. These picks that Trump has put in place, this is his team. He vetted. He knows these people individually, he knows what they're trying to accomplish. And so this isn't, oh, we just needed to grab somebody and someone else said, this guy was good. This is, I'm going to feed one of my people to the angry mob. That. And it's, by the way, he's not going to do it. I'm telling you, it's not going to happen. This is, I think this is fake news from npr, which shouldn't be getting.
Ryan Seacrest
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Clay Travis
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
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Ryan Seacrest
Welcome back in Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Monday edition of the program. And there are a lot of different stories that are out there that we've been tracking so far during the course of the day, but this is one for you, Buck. This is AOC has been surging in popularity. You think that she may end up being the standard barrier bearer potentially should also be a standard barrier by 2028. Here's Kevin McCarthy saying, hey, AOC could crush the old guard Democrats and become the leader of the Democrat party. This is cut 22.
Kevin McCarthy
What we're watching live is a civil war inside the Democratic Party and they're fighting for new leadership. And this is what's going to happen. Remember, AOC did this exact same thing a couple years ago and the party tried to shut her down when she would primary other members in Congress. And this is what I predict. They're going to fight to see who becomes leader of this party. Right now it's really AOC and Bernie Sanders, but this is what's going to happen. They're going to run against Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, Schumer and Hakeem. That will be a motivating factor. They will raise more money running against Democrats than they will running against Republicans. And whoever comes out of that will become the leader of the Democratic Party.
Ryan Seacrest
You buy?
Clay Travis
I, yeah, I mean I look at the field, I've said, here's the thing. They either just go all in on AOC and the social media phenomenon that she is and that she brings to the table or they're going to go with a Wes Moore, a guy who they're trying to get more of that broad appeal. Right? Broad American appeal. Guy's a quarterback, he's a veteran. Like, you know, a lot of Americans say, yeah, I like that guy. Right. Those are the two directions. I don't think it's a civil war going on in the Democrat party, but I do think there's a choice being made. But we should get some more into this, this AOC component of it because I, yes, I need the team also to find when I said this right after the election, I think that I'll.
Ryan Seacrest
Tell you why I don't buy it too.
Clay Travis
When we come back, Clan Buck.
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Fight, fight, fight.
Clay Travis
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Ryan Seacrest
All, the fact that he's saying the media is not rigged enough in our favor anymore basically is accurate. But also really funny that he is making that case.
Clay Travis
But so this is, this is where I want to weigh in on the AOC point of things. The legacy media. He's saying, oh, the media is not in on no. What he's picking up on what Jim Clyburn is referring to. He, he's seeing a shift, but he's misdiagnosing the shift. It's not that the media isn't as on the Democrat team. It's that the legacy, what we used to call the mainstream media, you know, the Democrat aligned corporate media, the, the, the three letter non Fox networks, the biggest newspapers in the country, the Sunday talk shows. Right. They all no longer have the ability to influence the conversation the way they used to, even on the Republican side. But in general, and certainly the Democrat side, they don't set the agenda for the nation the way that things used to be. So what he's feeling or he's saying is oh, they're not as on our side. It's no, they're just not as effective as they used to be. They don't matter as much as they used to. So this is where I think AOC comes in. I understand people are going to say that AOC is an idiot communist and that she will be a mess for the Democrats. And I don't disagree with some of that assessment. But she can just change what she has said in the past. I think that we're in an era now where people are no longer really tied to what they said yesterday. And never mind what they said a few years ago, politically And Clay, she has online. What do they say? What do the kids say? Now, Riz, which is short, I believe, for charisma, she's got the Riz. She's got aura. She is able to command massive attention and interest in the online ecosystem, which is now a much bigger part of the media apparatus than ever before. That is my pitch to you for why they change what she says. They make her seem slightly less insane. She's, you know, looks good on camera. She's a Latin female. Boom. Or Latin American female, boom.
Ryan Seacrest
I think her problem is Democrats are not going to go with a woman because they saw what happened to Hillary, they saw what happened to Kamala. I think they have gotten burned twice by women. Who did they win with? Joe Biden, this old white guy. I think they will find, looking ahead to 28 AOC as a vice presidential nominee, I think could make sense. I think they will find, interestingly enough, an old white guy or a Barack Obama, like young male, young. Ish. Right. We're talking about politics where if you're 45, this is the way the Westmore.
Clay Travis
Thing, to me, those are the two. It's, you know, they either. So to me that the decision the Democrats are making, Clay, is are they going to build? And remember, this is going to be a process, right? So to what you're saying about with. With aoc, it doesn't even have to just be, who's the president in four years, Clay? I mean, who's going to be the primary voice of the Democrats going into the midterms, Right? Who's the leader now or soon?
Ryan Seacrest
Here's the other thing. Remember that the DNC basically said, bernie, you're not going to be the guy. Bernie is now trying to deputize AOC as the next generation leader.
Clay Travis
I think, as we know, the 100-year-old man thing is not actually a good look in politics. We did learn that from Biden. You can be. You can in fact be too old for this job.
Ryan Seacrest
I think the Democrat party elites do not like aoc. And so I think they will line up in some way eventually. Much like they suddenly, the party of democracy actually just picks people.
Clay Travis
Right?
Ryan Seacrest
Obama got past Hillary even though she had all the advantages in 08. But he's the exception. Most of the time they say, hey, you're the guy or you're the gal, and democracy be damned. James Clyburn, who you just played, remember, Obama came, I mean, sorry, Biden came in, I believe, fifth in Iowa, fourth in New Hampshire, second in Nevada. And then suddenly James Clyburn said it's Biden because everybody was afraid it was otherwise gonna be Bernie. It doesn't get talked about enough. But Bernie probably would have been the pick of the Democrat Party but for the rigging in 16 and the choice that he's too radical in 20. They.
Clay Travis
Okay, so let me, let me just throw this out there though. I think put aside the age going at the last few Democrats, last few Democrat cycles, last few elections. Bernie was a progressive, really, a socialist, maybe a communist who ran as such. And that was the problem for him. What Democrats want is they want Obama, they want a socialist who pretends at election time to be more reasonable on economics or more centrist on these different things. If AOC pivots and says, you know, oh, it was my progressive youth or doesn't have to say that, but no, that will be the perception. Oh, she was such a progressive, but now she's moving toward the center. That to me is the way that the Democrats get. Cuz the Democrats for them to win a national election. Look what they did with Joe Biden. Oh, he's good old Biden. He's a centrist, he's a moderate, you can trust him. And then you got a communication in the White House saying we need to protect trans surgery for 8 year olds or 10 year olds. I mean it was insane. OK, you got far left policy out of a Biden White House. But Biden was the facade to fool people. The Trojan horse aoc, if she positions properly in my mind can be the same thing. The progressives know that she's actually a commie, but she'll, you know, she'll go on with Stephanopolupoulos and she'll say that, oh no, I believe in a free market economy too and you know, the usual head fake. That's how I see it playing out.
Ryan Seacrest
I got off the AOC bus. You may remember this because you were in New York at the time. Do you remember when she opposed Amazon's new headquarters in Queens? I think it was Long Island City.
Clay Travis
A big headquarters there. Yeah, I have family that have that live there, so I know all about it.
Ryan Seacrest
And when she opposed it, she didn't even understand the concept of how tax rebates worked. She thought that taxpayers were giving billions of dollars in cash to Amazon and she torpedoed that entire deal. Am I remembering correctly? They were going to build a big headquarters in New York city and in D.C. and then she said no. And they basically just are building, I believe in Northern Virginia, a big Amazon east coast headquarters. To go along with their west coast headquarters. She destroyed all that. So my concern, as I were looking at this is Hillary got beaten. But Hillary's not a moron. Kamala, I think, was a moron in that Kamala could not elucidate in an intelligent way what she actually supported because she just tripped all over herself. I think AOC is closer to Kamala than she is to Hillary.
Clay Travis
Is Biden a moron?
Ryan Seacrest
Yes.
Clay Travis
Okay. And he was president. He was president.
Ryan Seacrest
He's an old white guy. And the data reflected that there were enough old white people who didn't see him as a threat. This is something you got right in the Midwest that I think will see AOC as more of a threat, much like they saw Kamala as more of a threat to their overall lifestyle. In order to get a communist in the White House, you have to hide him. They're able to hide Biden because I don't think Biden knew what he believed in anymore. But he had that moderate history and they basically just kind of hit him. They put him in the basement and they ran him as generic old white guy candidate. I don't know who the generic old white guy candidate could be in 2028. It may be somebody.
Clay Travis
Look at Obama. You don't have to be a white. I mean, you don't have to be an old white guy.
Ryan Seacrest
But Obama motivated minority voters in a way that was unique, which is why I think the West Moore analogy applies. I think if Westmore were talented, then I think he could be a charismatic younger generation leader. I think AOC is more aligned with Kamala and Hillary. And I just don't think they will pick a woman based on going over two with women.
Clay Travis
Well, I. For one, clay, they want to shatter that glass ceiling and they haven't given up the dream. And two, I think that, look, if somebody said, and maybe there's a way I can do this, like put money on a ticket, right now, to me, it's probably Westmore at the top of the ticket with AOC as vp. But I still think that that AOC in the meantime is a far more important part of the Democrat resistance because Wes Moore can play that role in politics of the all American guy kind of a. It doesn't matter what he really is on policy. Right. They'll just say, whatever. This is the same thing with Obama. Obama was a radical state senator, radical leftist. Obama was the most left wing senator in the United States Senate when he ran for president. And they were, you know, then he gave flowery speeches and Everyone. Oh, so they can do the same thing, I think with West Moore. So to me it would be Westmore at the top of the ticket and AOC at the bottom of the ticket. But I just think that if you're looking for a leader of the resistance, Bernie too old. I mean, Pelosi too old. These people are just. No, they no longer have resonance with the broader electorate. They all look like be spending time with their great grandkids.
Ryan Seacrest
One thing that isn't getting very much attention, but I think is interesting. You know who hasn't been very outspoken about this Abreu Garcia dude? The governor of Maryland. You got the senator getting on a plane going to El Salvador. West Moore is the governor of Maryland.
Clay Travis
Yeah.
Ryan Seacrest
If he were trying to tack towards the left, wouldn't he be on a plane to El Salvador? El Salvador, talking about his.
Clay Travis
He could be the lead. He could be the A block first guest on every non Fox, you know, left wing cable news show and have a front page, you know, a top of the fold editorial in the New York Times in an instant. If he wanted to go in on this subject in a heavy way.
Ryan Seacrest
He's not. I think that's interesting. The other thing I, you. You've talked about how I trust football fans, sports fans, more than non sports fans.
Clay Travis
Yeah. It's like a handshake.
Ryan Seacrest
It's a secret handshake. I think this guy is not a fake sports fan. He's a big Baltimore Ravens fan. He's got a military background. I saw a video of him tailgating and he didn't look like Tim Walls doing spirit fingers. He just seemed like a normal dude who liked to go have a beer, have a hot dog maybe and get ready for a game. Sports fans can tell whether you're fake or not because a lot of politicians want to appear to be regular guys. The fact that he's not getting all involved in this El Salvador thing, super interesting to me because to your point, he could be on every television show in the country talking about it. I think maybe he's smarter politically than he has been given credit for. He can ride above the fray as a popular governor and then parachute in to the 2028 race as a relatively normal dude. I also know, you know what else, Buck? He actually has a pretty good relationship with Trump, which would surprise people. I think he has been very happy to meet with Trump, call him, be at his public events. I think that he's smarter than a lot of people are giving him credit for. And a lot of people don't even know him yet.
Clay Travis
I've said all along, I think that he's, I think he's the likeliest guy right now to be the standard bearer for the Democrats in the next election. But that's different than who is the leader of the resistance between now and the midterms, let's say. And I think you're just going to see more and more of aoc. And that actually may play to his favor, to West Moore's favor in the general, just because he doesn't have to, you know, stay out of the fray. His hands.
Ryan Seacrest
Stay out of the fray, man.
Clay Travis
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Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Glenn Beck
Hey Bot, it's Glenn Beck and I just want to say congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. Sleep while you can. And I mean, I'd like to tell you a bunch of funny stuff because it stops being funny when they turn into teenagers, but that's a long way away from now. Or so you think. The most important thing is now that I have my children, some of them in their 30s and both of them now, the other, the last two in, in college, I would just recommend don't miss a moment. You're going to be like, ah, I can't wait for this thing. No, they're all the best stages. Even the worst of times you will miss when you're walking around the house as an empty nester. So enjoy every moment and keep them close.
Ryan Seacrest
Glenn Beck with Dad. Message for new dad Buck Sexton and your former employer when you started in the media space. So coming full circle there and talking about, make sure you're enjoying every moment. How was the first weekend, full weekend at home, Easter with baby boy James?
Clay Travis
It's great, man. It's great. We're having a lot of fun. You know, it's a lot of good stuff going on. I don't say it's fantastic. I love it. I just want to, you know, want to get to a couple more, you know, I got to stop thinking about grandkids because that's probably a ways away from me. So, you know. But yeah, I really enjoy it. It's fantastic.
Ryan Seacrest
A lot of great responses rolling in. We'll get to more of those tomorrow about who's going to be the standard bearer of the Democrat Party going forward. I do agree with you that AOC is likely to be the public facing opposition of Trump in the midterms. I do think that that is likely to emerge, meaning next year at this time as we get closer to summer and everybody start to think about who's going to win the House. I think that she probably will work in some of those areas. But I think if you're smart, this is, look, I'm giving advice to Democrats. If you're smart, running against Trump doesn't make sense. Because he's not going to be able to run again. You have to give a vision for the country that is something other than Trump is Hitler. He's awful. I think as soon as the midterms are over, you'll actually see, and I've said this on the air, Buck, a pivot towards, oh, the Republican Party didn't win in 2024. Trump did. He's just that good of a politician. His talents won't translate into 2028. Get ready for that argument. It's coming.
Clay Travis
Yeah, I think that's probably going to happen. We didn't get to enough talkbacks and calls today. We'll take more tomorrow. We just got fired up about a few things. But remember, send us a talk back anytime. You don't have to be listening live to the show. Just go to the little phone on the little microphone on the iHeart app under the Clay and Buck page. IHeartradio is the app and also check out the Clay and Buck podcast network. Some great shows over the weekend and a lot of you are catching up. More for you tomorrow.
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Summary of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show" - Hour 3: Does AOC Have Rizz?
Release Date: April 21, 2025
Introduction
In the third hour of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," titled "Does AOC Have Rizz?", hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton engage in a spirited discussion about the current dynamics within the Democratic Party. The episode delves into leadership struggles, media influence, and the rising prominence of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) as a potential standard bearer for future Democratic endeavors.
Democrats' Leadership Struggles
Clay Travis initiates the conversation by addressing reports from NPR about the potential replacement of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. He expresses skepticism regarding these claims:
Clay Travis [02:38]: "I'm not buying it. I don't believe it. I don't think that's happening."
Travis emphasizes his confidence in Hegseth's position within the administration, suggesting that media reports may be overstating the situation.
Media's Influence and the Attack on Hegseth
Ryan Seacrest expands on the media's relentless focus on Hegseth, arguing that there hasn't been a single positive story about him in major outlets:
Ryan Seacrest [04:14]: "Every story that has been written about him in the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, the usual suspects, they've all been negative."
This persistent negative coverage, according to Seacrest, stems from Hegseth being an outsider in the traditional Pentagon hierarchy, leading to intensified scrutiny and opposition from Democrats.
AOC's Rise and Potential Leadership Role
The discussion shifts towards Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's increasing influence within the Democratic Party. Travis highlights AOC's charisma and her ability to garner attention in the digital age:
Clay Travis [29:56]: "Riz, which is short, I believe, for charisma, she's got the Riz. She's got aura."
The hosts explore whether AOC could "crush the old guard" Democrats and emerge as the party's leader, potentially reshaping its future.
Comparisons with Other Political Figures
Travis and Seacrest compare AOC with other political figures like Richard F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, noting their outsider status and challenges within the Democratic establishment:
Ryan Seacrest [06:47]: "She ran for president as a Democrat in 2020. Both of them got confirmed."
Despite their outsider approaches, these figures faced significant obstacles, suggesting that AOC's path might encounter similar resistance.
Media's Evolving Role and Its Impact on Politics
Travis discusses the changing landscape of media influence, arguing that traditional media no longer shapes political narratives as effectively as before:
Clay Travis [27:42]: "They don't set the agenda for the nation the way they used to."
This shift has implications for how political figures like AOC are perceived and how their messages resonate with the public.
Future Leadership Scenarios for Democrats
The hosts speculate on potential Democratic leaders, mentioning Wes Moore, the Governor of Maryland, as a plausible candidate:
Clay Travis [37:50]: "He actually has a pretty good relationship with Trump, which would surprise people."
They debate whether the party will continue to cultivate younger, charismatic leaders like AOC or opt for figures with broader, more traditional appeal.
Predictions for the 2028 Elections
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton project several scenarios for the Democratic Party leading up to the 2028 elections. They consider whether embracing AOC's dynamic presence will strengthen the party or if a pivot towards moderate figures like Wes Moore will occur:
Ryan Seacrest [25:12]: "I think if you're smart, running against Trump doesn't make sense."
They predict strategic shifts based on the evolving political landscape and voter sentiments.
Notable Quotes with Speaker Attribution and Timestamps
Clay Travis [02:38]: "There's a story out there, NPR reporting, that there is already a process underway to replace Pete Hegseth as secretary of Defense...I don't think that's happening."
Ryan Seacrest [04:14]: "Not one single positive story's been written."
Clay Travis [29:56]: "Riz, which is short, I believe, for charisma, she's got the Riz. She's got aura."
Ryan Seacrest [12:36]: "...if they think they can get you to step back or not continue to say exactly what you think, they will take advantage of you."
Clay Travis [27:42]: "They don't set the agenda for the nation the way they used to."
Conclusion
The episode "Does AOC Have Rizz?" provides a comprehensive analysis of the current challenges and potential shifts within the Democratic Party. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton offer critical insights into media influence, leadership dynamics, and the strategic positioning of prominent figures like AOC. Their discussion underscores the complexities of political leadership and the evolving strategies parties must adopt to resonate with a changing electorate.
Listeners gain a nuanced understanding of the interplay between media narratives and political ambitions, highlighting the delicate balance parties must maintain to navigate internal conflicts and external perceptions effectively.
Note: This summary intentionally omits advertisements, intros, outros, and non-content sections to focus solely on the substantive discussions between Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.