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- [00:00]
Clay Travis
This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human feeling overwhelmed by stress and uncertainty. You're not alone, and encouragement is closer than you think. At InTouch.org, Dr. Charles Stanley's ministry provides powerful sermons, daily devotionals, and resources designed to strengthen your faith. It's more than information, it's transformation. Discover peace in the chaos, clarity in confusion, and practical wisdom for everyday life. Whether you're seeking hope, guidance, or simply a reminder of God's presence, InTouch.org is here for you. Visit today. You'll be glad you did this July
- [00:36]
Commercial Announcer
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- [01:05]
Buck Sexton
deciding
- [01:06]
Commercial Announcer
on what to listen to is Hard Using Xumo to stream music from iheart 90s radio is easy or play iheart country classics radio or Hip Hop Beats your choice. All for free. Stream Easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle. Get cozy on the couch and binge your favorite movies like Awakenings starring Robert De Niro, Looper starring Bruce Willis and and more. All streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now. Life is hard. Xumo is easy.
- [01:38]
Show Host / Co-host
Combat sports fans. This January it's the Bruise Cruise Party with fighters.
- [01:42]
Clay Travis
Watch a bare knuckle fighting event live in the Caribbean.
- [01:45]
Show Host / Co-host
Plus DJs, bands and chaos at sea. Prices increase soon. Hop aboard now. Go to bkfsea.com welcome in our number three, Clay and Buck rolling through the Thursday edition of the program. We head up to D.C. right now where there is major decisions to be made on a variety of different fronts as we come into the summer season here before we get into the fall campaign season. And we are joined now by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Republican from Louisiana. A lot of different stories that are out there. Let me start with this. I saw where President Trump just posted that he supported Senator Cruz and Senator Cantwell's college bill on the Senate side. I know that you guys have been working on the score act on the other side in the House. What for people out there that like college athletics? Is there a method in your mind by which the Senate bill could pass the House if it got there. If not, what is the scenario? What is the situation? There's a lot of us like me who are big time college sports fans. What's going to happen here from your perspective?
- [03:01]
Steve Scalise
Yeah, well, first, Clay and Buck, thank you all for having me. And obviously there are a lot of people that care about college athletics and anybody following it knows it's just evolved into the wild, wild west, primarily because over years lawsuits have been filed and lost by the NCAA to the point where there is no enforcement mechanism for college athletics. And so you don't have any ability. You can have 28 year olds playing against 17 year olds, kids on their sixth school, you know, playing eight years later. And, you know, so what we, what we ended up having was a situation where a lot of the different schools, conferences, coaches started coming to us probably in the last two years and said, can y' all help? Congress needs to step in to give the kind of antitrust protection that, so that the schools can govern themselves again. So that was really the genesis of the problem. I had Nick Saban in my office a couple of years ago and a few times since, as well as others that all recognized, look, we can fight it out on the football field or the basketball court, but can we at least get the ability to govern the schools again and bring structure and protect the student athlete, by the way? Because, Clay, a lot of these young kids in high school are being poached by unscrupulous people as agents that are, you know, taken 10, 15, 20% when the going rate is 5% for an agent, things like that. So we put together a bill and the House and Senate I don't think are too far apart. But on some key issues there are some differences that need to get worked out. But I met with President Trump and President Trump wants the House and Senate to work through this to fix the problem. He cares about college athletics like we do. And so let's make sure we can let the schools govern themselves, give protections to the student athletes that they don't have right now. You know, nil is already there. We're not talking about whether or not to pay student athletes. They can get paid for their name, image and likeness, but have some structure to protect them, give them financial literacy so they don't blow the money, protect them from people that might be posing as agents who aren't. We cap agents fees at 5%, really good protection for the student athlete. One thing that a lot of schools and student athletes told us is they don't want to be forced into being employees of the school and then ultimately being unionized. And that's one of the big differences between the House and Senate bill that's got to get fixed. But you also right now are in a situation in the Senate, in the House bill, and look whose bill it is. I don't really care whose name we'll name it after Nick Saban or anybody else. But I appreciate that people want to fix the problem, but we need to fix it the right way so that you don't have a situation where colleges are going bankrupt trying to run athletic programs. And so I think we have some things to work out. That's what Congress needs to do, is go fix some of these problems and then get these protections so that we can maintain good, strong college athletics going forward with all the conferences. By the way, right now you've got the two major conferences in college sports, the Big Ten and sec, opposed to the Senate bill. So you can't have a credible fix to college athletics with a bill that is opposed by the two biggest college athletic conferences. Let's work together with everybody and get this done the right way.
- [06:23]
Show Host / Co-host
It sounds to me, and I'll let Buck dive into other issues, but this is one that I've been following pretty closely. So I appreciate you on this coming on. It sounds to me like your position is not the Senate bill closer to the House bill. We need some sort of synthesis between these two bills in order for it to pass the House. Is that a fair approximation?
- [06:45]
Steve Scalise
And it's really to address the issues that the schools came to us on. This isn't something where Congress woke up one day and said, we want to get involved in college athletics. Obviously, we've got a lot of other issues we're dealing with, and we're doing that. We're dealing with some bills on fraud prevention this week on funding the Department of Homeland Security. But I think most people also care about college athletics. And the schools came to us and said, we've got a problem and the only solution because of lawsuits. The president did some good executive orders. But even President Trump acknowledged Congress needs to fix these final pieces. And so let's fix them in a way where it includes all of the schools. It can't be pitting some schools against other big schools, against small schools. You know, this is not a problem that only applies to certain types of schools. I mean, you had everybody from the biggest conferences to the smallest conferences to all of the HBCUs who came to us with the same problem. So let's have a solution that solves it for Everybody.
- [07:46]
Clay Travis
Leader Scalise, appreciate you being here. What can get done? That's probably a question you get asked a lot. I'm sure a lot of questions start that way when you're in Congress. So what can get done before the summer recess, if anything? And what are you hoping more importantly is on the. Is on the realistic agenda here before the midterm election?
- [08:08]
Steve Scalise
Yeah, Clay, the biggest issue that.
- [08:11]
Clay Travis
Oh, no, I'm Buck. The other guy's Clay. Buck is. Buck is the one who asked the salty questions. Go ahead.
- [08:17]
Steve Scalise
Yeah, good. The biggest problem that they need Congress's help with is antitrust protection because of court decisions that have come, you know, and you just saw it in the last few months. You know, some student athlete is, you know, maybe in his sixth year at a school and he wants to play another year that used to not be allowed. Well, NCAA says you can't play, so he goes to a state judge, and the state judge is going to rule in favor of the state school. And then next thing you know, NCAA has no ability to enforce anything anymore. And so they need antitrust protection. So you don't have a state by state hodgepodge of rules that cannot be enforced. That's the biggest thing. So, leaders.
- [09:01]
Clay Travis
Leaders, Scalise. I mean, beyond the scope of. Of college athletics, what can you get done in Congress?
- [09:08]
Steve Scalise
Well, we're working like the other things on the Department of Homeland Security, which is really important. We've seen threats and attacks on our homeland recently that have been stopped by that department. They do important work. The agency is not fully funded. I think by the end of this week, we could have a bill that fully funds the Department of Homeland Security. We're working on some other bills that would go deeper into fraud prevention. I met yesterday with Dr. Oz, who's doing a great job over at CMS. He's identified close to $100 billion of fraud. I'm talking theft of taxpayer money in programs like hospice care and durable medical equipment, where people are just going, oh, let's give all this money to health care. And then you find out international criminal organizations are setting up phony companies and stealing your tax money. Because it's that easy to do, because there's not fraud prevention measures and we need to put those in law. So a lot of us are working with agencies like CMS to help root out more fraud, because then you can put that money into the places where it belongs, help people that have true needs in healthcare, as opposed to. A lot of them are foreign countries that are setting up these shell Corporations stealing billions of tax dollars. So we're focusing on things like that, obviously working on more energy production, trying to lower costs, make housing more affordable. We have a really good housing bill right now that's moving through the House and the Senate. They're in final negotiations. I think you could get a bill signed by the president in the next few weeks on housing that would lower housing costs for Americans. And that's something that matters to everybody, whether you're a first time homebuyer or somebody with an existing home looking to upgrade or downsize. So we're working on that right now. You know, it's nonstop. But there is, I think there's a lot of things we can do before we get to, you know, what is the August recess, where people go back to their districts in an election year and, you know, you're, then everybody's running for reelection.
- [11:02]
Show Host / Co-host
We're talking to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. I'm sure you're paying at least a little bit of attention to what's going on in California. President Trump is saying, we got to get the SAVE act passed. California is about to be in its third day. I guess they're in their third day now counting votes. It doesn't seem to be happening at all. They still have millions of votes outstanding. How do we get this fixed? It's frustrating, I think, certainly to people who are listening to us and voters in California. But this story right now and how bad California is voting, it's really getting a lot of attention nationwide. Are you as frustrated as we are?
- [11:39]
Steve Scalise
This is a national embarrassment. Everybody in the country ought to be looking at this, saying, you know, most states, if the polls close on 8 o' clock on a Tuesday night, by 9:30, everybody's got their state returns in. And if you're days later, weeks later in California, New York, it was three weeks later in some cases and they were still, quote, unquote, counting ballots. I think it raises a lot of questions and it makes people question the integrity of the vote count. When you're seeing them finding boxes of ballots weeks later, is that really right and fair? And so we've got to fix that. The Save America act, as you mentioned, is a great solution that says just two basic things. Prove your citizenship to register to vote, and when you go to vote, you show a picture id. Is that really complicated? You can't get on an airplane without showing an id. You can't go buy a six pack of beer without showing an id. Why not? The franchise of American democracy. You show an ID So that we can make sure that illegals aren't voting, people that are not fraudulently voting. And then shouldn't we be able to have election night be election night and not look California three days later? They're not even at 50% on many of these races of the ballots in, well, where are those ballots? Who's got the ballots? It's unreal that in today's age with all the technology you have available that they're going to tell you it's going to take weeks. In the 1800s, they could count ballots the same day, no doubt.
- [13:13]
Show Host / Co-host
Majority Leader Steve Scalise, we appreciate the time, sir. Keep up the fight there and we'll talk to you again soon.
- [13:20]
Steve Scalise
Hey, thank you all for having me. Appreciate it.
- [13:22]
Show Host / Co-host
Clay and Buck, thank you. Look, I want to tell you right now it's awful in Israel and has been since October 7, 2023 when it comes to just being safe, just knowing that there's not going to be missiles raining down, all sorts of issues that are going on there. It's why the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, you know what they do? They build bomb shelters, they help hospitals build underground, ability to take care of everybody because unfortunately you've got missiles and bombs raining down up above ground. They also do a great job of helping to take care of people who are driving vehicles that may be in danger, trying to be first responders and serve and protect so many people all over Israel. If you're listening to us right now, it's an American based organization that's designed to bring Christians and Jews together and build a bridge of connection between the US And Israel. IFCJ uses every donated dollar by you in the most productive, helpful ways. Right now they're inviting you to leave a personal prayer or a message of encouragement that will be delivered directly to someone in Israel who needs hope. It'll be personally delivered by the ifcj. More than just support, this is standing with Israel when it matters Most. Go to prayifcj.org to submit your prayer today. That's prayifcj.org Level up your brain mental mogging with Clay and Buck this July
- [14:56]
Commercial Announcer
4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes and the kickoff to giving 4th helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration@america250.org
- [15:25]
deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Xumo to stream music from iheart 90s radio is easy. Or play iheart country classics radio or hip hop beats your choice. All for free. Stream Easy with Zumo Play. Get live and on demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle. Get cozy on the couch and binge your favorite movies like Awakenings starring Robert De Niro, Looper starring Bruce Willis and more. All streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now life is hard. Zumo is easy.
- [15:57]
Show Host / Co-host
Combat sports fans. This January, it's the Bruise Cruise party
- [16:01]
Clay Travis
with fighters watch a bare knuckle fighting
- [16:03]
Show Host / Co-host
event live in the Caribbean. Plus DJs, bands and chaos at sea. Prices increase soon. Hop aboard.
- [16:09]
Clay Travis
Now go to bkfsea.com these days it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere you turn, every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, Okta helps you get identity right by securing your AI agents identities, giving you a single layer of control, a single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with Okta you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent, secure any agent. Okta secures AI.
- [16:43]
Show Host / Co-host
Welcome back in Clay and Buck. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We got a cool guest here in studio for a couple of segments with us. He is Brad Thor, bestselling author. How many books have you sold? What is that? It's got to be.
- [16:57]
Buck Sexton
It's. Yeah, it's in the tens of millions.
- [16:59]
Show Host / Co-host
Tens of millions. The tens of millions. Not a bad spot to be. You got a brand new book. Let me make sure that I get choke point. And you now live in Nashville. Buck and I and you were all talking during the commercial break. There goes the book flying off the shelves already. Buck, you have known Brad for a long time. We were talking about all the different awesome books and programs and, and entertainment that he's been involved in. I'll let you introduce when you guys first met and then we'll dive into all the things he's doing now.
- [17:29]
Clay Travis
So when I first got out of the agency and Glenn Beck hired me, apparently Glenn Beck was doing his recruiting out of the CIA. You know, he brought, which I'm sure now he like does not remind everybody of, but he, he was. When he started the Blaze, it was just really cool because it was a, a multimedia, multi platform company that wanted to bring in everything right it wasn't just commentators. It was obviously great authors. It was people who are doing creative stuff. And so that was when I first first met Brad Thor. And I remember, I think I did either a hit with Brad on Glenn show or a panel. And afterwards, a couple of the guys in the Blaze newsroom were like, dude, that was so cool you got to do the show with Brad Thor. And I was like, whoa. And then I, of course, looked into his books and, you know, lines of Lucerne and etc. Etc. And now, now he's like, he's one of those names. He's one of those people that like, the bookstore has got like so many of his books and they've 27 books.
- [18:29]
Show Host / Co-host
I was just doing the research here.
- [18:30]
Buck Sexton
27. Listen, before we go any further, I just have to say how proud I am of you guys and how you've been killing it.
- [18:36]
Show Host / Co-host
Thanks.
- [18:37]
Buck Sexton
And you know, Rush had me on his show several times and just such a great guy and in the newsletter and all that kind of stuff. And I can remember when we first moved here and Rush giving me a call and all that kind of stuff. So I don't think they could have handed it to more capable or more talented hands. So you guys are killing it. Great job.
- [18:52]
Show Host / Co-host
Well, thank you.
- [18:53]
Clay Travis
Thank you.
- [18:53]
Show Host / Co-host
You have moved.
- [18:55]
Clay Travis
We are having fun. And we are. Neither of us are clinically insane. So those are differentiating factors these days.
- [19:01]
Show Host / Co-host
Crazily. That is an important differentiating factor. The mere sanity. You moved to Nashville 12 years ago. You were from Chicag. You were ahead of the curve.
- [19:10]
Buck Sexton
Yep.
- [19:10]
Show Host / Co-host
Why did you make the move?
- [19:12]
Buck Sexton
Well, you know, my taxes kept going up in Chicago. I did conservative drive time radio as a guest and sometimes a fill in on WLS in Chicago. And I had people calling in when I started saying, I think I'm going to leave. I've worked on enough campaigns. I've tried to get things to change. They haven't put in a Republican administration in Chicago. And you know, well over 100 years. And people said, oh, you're chicken and out. You're running away. And I said, guys, listen, at some point it was okay for Rihanna to leave Chris Brown. Right? Like, Tina had to leave Mike. Rihanna left Chris. I felt like. I felt like I was on this island that was being swallowed up by the ocean because the gangs were getting so bad. I had to tell our babysitter, you can't take the kids to the beach, to the zoo. All that. And I'm paying more and more money for less and less enjoyment in Chicago. My wife had some health issues. I was worried that she was going to be a target for muggings. And I said, and they wouldn't let me carry a gun. So I said, up yours, we're leaving. And you know, we moved down here and it's been, been great. It was a great place to raise our children. No income tax states run very, very well and we love it here.
- [20:16]
Clay Travis
Yes, I will say you, you picked one of the two places that I think Americans realize these days you can achieve that level of freedom. We do love Texas, but the problem with Texas is a lot of people end up. This is, I know this because my brother actually Brad, went through this during the, during the pandemic. He, he was kind of the, like a la carte pioneer. Going to check out the different. And he, he, he checked out this lovely little place of Austin, Texas which does have some great restaurants and barbecue and all this sort of stuff.
- [20:47]
Buck Sexton
No plastic grocery bags.
- [20:48]
Clay Travis
Yeah, you get, yeah, you get the blue governance in the middle of the very red state. Whereas at least in Nashville, surrounding area now believe it or not, here in Miami, in the surrounding area, you have sane governance in, for the city in a sane state.
- [21:04]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, it made all the difference to us to get out. And our kids understood why we were moving. We luckily moved them young in grade school, so that worked. And we've never looked back. I mean everything, the property taxes are less here. The only thing that's comparable to Chicago is the sales tax here. But that's, that's it. And we were used to paying that there. So this has just been, it's been great for freedom, it's been great for my business and great for my family.
- [21:24]
Show Host / Co-host
When we come back, we're going to ask you all about what it's like to not only be an author, but to be working to try to turn those books into multimedia projects and movies and television and more. But Buck, you take us to break
- [21:36]
Clay Travis
Saber, my friends, we're just talking about Chicago. If you're in any city, anywhere in the country, you know you have to find ways to keep you, yourself, your family safe. And there's some places where by the way, they don't allow you, they don't even allow you to conceal carry and it's basically impossible. So non lethal options make so much sense. In some cases they're a complete necessity. But even if you have, if you're a two a person and you, you live in a rural area, you live in a place where you're in the suburbs, you think you don't think about crime that often. Home invasions happen. Sabre Smart pepper spray is just something you should have. Think of it as part of your force escalation toolkit. The best non lethals you can get come from Sabre, the Sabre Smart pepper spray. Right now it's available on Amazon and it notifies other family members if you have to deploy it. So people get a heads up about this. If it is used in defense, it's a pretty brilliant, brilliant tool. Search Saber Smart pepper spray on Amazon to get it today again. So easy. Get it delivered to your house the next 24 hours. Saber Smart on Amazon. I gotta say, I love the Rejoin music being a. An homage to Beverly Hills Cop, one of the 10 best movies of the 80s. I don't care what Clay Travis says about it.
- [22:49]
Show Host / Co-host
I think you said five before and I was like, ah, that's aggressive. Ten is a little bit more buff.
- [22:54]
Clay Travis
Okay, okay. I think 10 is like a, is like a, a gimme. That's easy. So I'd say top 10 movies of the 80s, but we had, we had that one there. We're sitting here, by the way, we're talking about, with Brad Thor, of course, author of so many books, 27 bestsellers. You got a huge, we got a huge audience of radio listeners who are also a huge audience of Brad Thor readers. His latest Brad Thor choke point. Well, you know, it's Brad Thor because he wrote a choke point. Number one New York Times bestselling author. Well, we're talking about all the, all this fun stuff, by the way, because we're like, oh, man, who's going to be in the series or who's going to be in the movie and all this. We can get into that in a second. Brad, though, because he's a practitioner, you know, he's, he's a guy who likes to get into the research and he's had some, he's done some work in the intel community before himself. He's like, wait, I want to weigh in on the DNI stuff.
- [23:43]
Show Host / Co-host
And I'm sitting here having our super. You and you and Norm having your super nerdy conversation.
- [23:48]
Clay Travis
Yeah, I'm just like, are we going to get like, like Taylor Kitsch to be in this, in the mov movie? Or like, I want to talk cool Hollywood celebrity stuff, Navy Seals fighting on the screen and all this, everything else. And he wants to talk DNI. So by all means, Mr. Thor, what do you think about the current state of the intel community?
- [24:07]
Buck Sexton
Well, listen, I think we spent a lot of money solving a legit problem but we over, over solve the problem with the odni, right? It's like, it's like dhs. I've never been a huge fan of dhs, even though that's where I did do the analytic Red Cell unit and things like that. I thought your answer to Norm was good. Number one, because listen, governments are made up of people and no organization is perfect. They have problems. I'll give you all of that. But I don't think that the, you know, the DNI is pushing up garbage to give to the President as part of the PDB every single day. But, you know, the issue, as you know Buck probably better than anybody because you worked at the agency is the stove piping, right? Is how much stuff just kind of went up and down are basically up at Langley. Whether it just, you know, ended up at the seventh floor and didn't get disseminated. That's the problem, that's what the DNI was supposed to solve, is that the agency shared information. So, you know, I'm not, I mean, Negroponte, the big insider thing that most of the people in the intel community used to know is Negroponte would go out, the first guy that ran that office, he'd go to these three hour lunches and get a massage. I mean, it was unbelievable how little time that guy was actually in the office. And it kind of gives you a hint as to how important was it in a lot of agencies. And I'm sure Buck knows this as well. Have some put some good people there, but it's also a graveyard where they also stick some people that aren't so good that they don't want in headquarters and shove them over there. So it was set up to solve a communication problem. So we didn't end up with guys that were taking flight lessons that didn't want to know how to learn land the plane. And that information wasn't getting shared around. So could we do without it? Yeah, we probably could do without it. Is Pulte the guy to lead it? Absolutely not. The job description is very clear that you have to have intel experience. But the way that the Federal Vacancy Reform act is written is that he gets to be there 210 days. President Trump gets to put up one person for confirmation. If that person bombs, then Pulte gets an automatic next 210 days. And then President Trump could put up a second person. And if that guy bombs at the senate, he gets 210 more. So this guy's basically got the job if he wants it. And if the President chooses to keep him in it for the rest of the administration.
- [26:13]
Clay Travis
All right, so that was a very astute, excellent nerd analysis of the entire baseball.
- [26:18]
Buck Sexton
I know Clay is the sports guy, but this is my politics.
- [26:21]
Show Host / Co-host
Like your bucks in heaven right now.
- [26:24]
Clay Travis
We sit here all day, be like, hey, what do you think about the change from the National Clandestine Service back to the Directorate of Operations? No, no, we're going to talk about your cool book and Hollywood stuff here for a second so that we have all of our listeners staying with us. You are right now tell us which one of your projects is the furthest along. I know you've got multiple that are options and optioned and licensed and all that sort of stuff. I feel like Ari from Entourage right now, I'm like, we got a lot of stoves in the. You know.
- [26:49]
Show Host / Co-host
Well, he just mentioned, listen, that's what
- [26:51]
Buck Sexton
I'm in business with. I'm in business with Emanuel's son Ezra, who is business partners with Pete Berg, the producer, director. And Pete did Lone Survivor. We were talking about that off camera. Friday Night Lights was Pete. American Primeval on Netflix right now with Taylor Kitsch. That's Pete's. And so they're taking my book. My. I did my first co written thriller this year with a great writer, a veteran named Ward Larson. And Ward and I wrote something called Cold Zero and Pete loved it. And Netflix is turning it into this massive, big budget thriller that they're calling a bigger, more badass Hunt for Red October.
- [27:26]
Show Host / Co-host
That has to be so much fun. Now I want to dive into a couple of these guys you mentioned, Pete Berg, Friday Night Lights. Buck and I have talked about. I think it's the best broadcast drama that's ever aired. I mean, if you haven't watched Friday Night Lights, put it on your list. Whole family can watch it. You can watch it with your wife. Even if you don't love football, you'll love this show. But Nick Pizzoletto and I may be missing a lotto. He's a lotto is the True Detective guy.
- [27:50]
Buck Sexton
He created True Detective and he also adapted the Magnificent Seven screenplay, which is a pretty good.
- [27:56]
Show Host / Co-host
Pretty good variety. Yeah. So what is it like working with those guys?
- [28:00]
Buck Sexton
They're awesome. You know what I didn't know about Pete Berg? His dad was also a Marine like my dad. And that was the first thing when Pete introduced himself to me, he said, we have something in common. And he started with that. And I said, well, Marcus Luttrell is also a good buddy of mine and you did his movie Lone Survivor. So we found we had all these connections and stuff. Piece a lotto is amazing because True Detective, that first season with Woody Harrelson
- [28:21]
Show Host / Co-host
and Matthew McConaughey, it's unbelievable how good that is.
- [28:23]
Buck Sexton
And Colin Farrell season two was fantastic. And I love arctic stuff, so I even love the Jodie Foster night, whatever it was called.
- [28:31]
Show Host / Co-host
My wife, My wife has watched all of the True Detectives. And I remember, remember it crashed the hbo, the first season of True Detective when people tried to get on for the final episode. Do you remember that, Buck? It crashed. You couldn't get on HBO.com because so many people were trying to watch the final episode.
- [28:48]
Buck Sexton
So they. He's the. He's the screenwriter, so he's writing the movie for Cold Zero. And so as we were talking about off air, I'm hoping to see the script. I'll bring an extra copy. We can sit out outside, have a.
- [28:59]
Clay Travis
I was going to say Clay and I are available when those directors chairs are on the set, you know, and we can, we'll even yell cut for you. You know, this is part of our learning. So we can talk to our audience about this stuff and bring everybody into.
- [29:12]
Buck Sexton
You should do a remote the. It would be fun from the movie.
- [29:16]
Show Host / Co-host
By the way. Buck and I have both written books. You've written 27. I'm curious, what is your writing process? There's probably a ton of people out there listening right now who have a thriller in the back of their mind or have a goal to write something. What is your writing day to day? What. How do you. How do you go about putting together a story? What do you do? How do you write it?
- [29:35]
Buck Sexton
So there's two types of writers. You've either either got an outliner or what we call a pantser, which is flying by the seat of your pants. And I'm. I'm a pantser because I want to have the same experience writing this that you have reading it, where I don't know what's going to happen next. And then I get four ideas and I throw those out because if I. If those are the first four that come into my mind, they're probably the first four to come into yours. So it's all about self discipline, though. Seat of pants. The seat of chair. You can't edit what hasn't been written. And you just got to sit there and you got to bang it out. And that's what I do. I try to. I try to get through that first draft as solid as I can and as quickly as possible. And then Go back and edit. I don't edit a word until it's done because that's a trap. That's a loop. Particularly with fiction. You can get just stuck trying to get the perfect sentence out of page one and you'll spend forever on it. You'll never get the book done.
- [30:22]
Clay Travis
So your Cold Zero book, which you co authored with Ward Larson, CIA operative not named Buck Sexton, which is a little disappointing, but a CIA, I mean, you do have a great day. You got a buddy here, you got a guy you could. Anyway, I'm sure that he has. You know, there's some things that, that are totally borrowed from true life there. He's battling the elements and rival superpowers to secure world altering AI technology. Speak to me about this for a second. As a. I think we could call you a mega author. You're in the mega author category. You know, now you're with like, you know, the Clancy's and the Crichtons and the Clay. Who's the one who does all the legal.
- [31:00]
Show Host / Co-host
John Grisham.
- [31:00]
Clay Travis
Grisham. Grisham. Thank you. Grisham and Scott Scotch a row, that kind of stuff. So you're in that, you're in that echelon now. By the way, congratulations. What do you think about what AI is going to do? I saw something yesterday that Amazon has seen a 40% increase in the last year in self published books. And let me tell you, this isn't all people that just decided to write the great American novel the hard way. People are having AI write books for them now. What does this do to the industry? Like how do you see that playing out?
- [31:34]
Show Host / Co-host
They all suck.
- [31:35]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, they all suck. Well, that's true. AI is not. It is such a misnomer. It's like Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve is about as federal as Federal Express. So this idea that artificial intelligence, there is no intelligence, there's no human spark there. It is a glorified search engine that finds stuff and it gobbles everything up on the Internet and it gives you the average of what it finds. So I've played with it and said, give me a plot and it's so bad I'd be laughed out of my editor's office. There's no way that AI is coming for my job anytime soon. It's terrible when it comes to artistic things with the human experience in it ideas.
- [32:12]
Show Host / Co-host
You've written 27 books, that's a lot. I'm sure some of them seem like they're ripped from the headlines because you're aware and you're constantly, as you've been explaining on the show, you're paying attention to current events and everything else. How many of you think you can do? Do you ever sit and think, hey, I'm tapped out. Do you ever feel as if you can't? Where do the ideas come from at this point?
- [32:32]
Buck Sexton
Let's. I could tell you about Choke Points, which comes out June16. So great name. I picked it in September because It was Untitled 25 at that time. And by the way, if you haven't read a Brad Thor book before, I tell people they're like the James Bond movies. You can go and see the latest Bond movie.
- [32:46]
Show Host / Co-host
You can jump in without having read the previous book.
- [32:48]
Buck Sexton
Exactly, yeah. So I've been fascinated with the Chinese. They do this thing in real life called the Belt and Road Initiative where they go into countries and say, your port system could be better, we'll pay for it, help you spruce it up, or your rail system and it's the camel's nose in the tent. And all of a sudden the Chinese are exerting influence on foreign policy, domestic policy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The Chinese in real life went to Thailand and said, we want to carve this canal across the southern port of portion of Thailand because we're afraid of the US Navy closing off the Strait of Malacca. And then we can't get out of the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean. And Thailand told them to go pound sand. So I said, what if the Chinese decided to come into Thailand and foment a military coup? Last one in Thailand was 2013, 2014. And what if to hide their fingerprints, they took a disillusioned American veteran and used him to be the guy stirring the pot and creating all the chaos in Thailand? What might that look like? And what option might the president of in my fictional world? If you gave him five different things, what option might he engage in to make sure this stopped and didn't happen? Because the Chinese would, if they were successful, it would really erode American naval power, particularly in the Indo Pacific. And so this is a spy novel set in Bangkok and the Chinese are bombing and killing Americans and doing all this terrible stuff. But it's fun, it's short three page chapters and you get through it really fast. But it's based on a real, real world geopolitical thing.
- [34:09]
Clay Travis
Brad, you're far too successful and the audience loves you too much and this has been too fun of an interview. So I'm going to ask you now about Iran. Womp, womp. It's Just going too well. We got to get. We got to throw something your way. Is this going ok? Where do you think this is?
- [34:24]
Show Host / Co-host
President?
- [34:24]
Clay Travis
I spoke to some White House folks when I was in D.C. they seem unbothered by this. I'm sure you've written about Iran stuff obviously in the past, in the, you know, you write fiction, but it's all informed, of course, by the reality and the geopolitical realities that we face, as well as the combat and tactical reality. So when you see this thing and you've done Red Cell for the. For the intel community before, what do you think about how this is playing out right now?
- [34:47]
Buck Sexton
Well, listen, anything that puts a little daylight between Netanyahu and Trump, I like. So the fact that allegedly they're bickering or arguing in the background I actually think is a really good thing. So that's number one. Number two, I worry about what options the president has to declare victory and climb out of this, which I think we'd all like to see. I don't want another service member injured, killed. I don't care if it's on a base in Kuwait or it's on one of the ships that's. That's over there. I want us out of this thing as quickly as possible. And I think we ought to give President Trump the grace and the space to get out, which would be fantastic. I think we've proven something that had not been proven before, which is that the Iranians can close that strait if they want to. I kind of wish we hadn't allowed them to test it and do it. But we are where we are.
- [35:30]
Show Host / Co-host
Right?
- [35:30]
Buck Sexton
And you. What was that? There was the old Schwarzkopf thing. I think you go to war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had. We've got the situation on the ground, in the water that we have.
- [35:39]
Clay Travis
I think that was Rumsfeld.
- [35:40]
Buck Sexton
Rumsfeld, Sorry, you're right. It wasn't Schwarzkopf. It was Rumsfeld.
- [35:43]
Show Host / Co-host
Known unknowns just nerding out here.
- [35:45]
Commercial Announcer
Yeah.
- [35:45]
Buck Sexton
So listen, I think this is. I think the sooner President Trump can declare victory and get out, he will. I think what this current White House is discovering is that as much as you might not have liked the JCPOA in unfreezing Iranian assets and stuff, it might be very difficult to come to it. Everybody, no matter. Even if Trump had to give him one Dixie cup full of lemonade, everybody's gonna say Trump made a worse deal than Obama. There's no media outlet that's going to be fair to him in it. So I don't know how you, how you prep the President to be successful, because that's what his brand is, a success. He got into this not to take us to war. I think he really believed a lot of the BS he got from, from the Israelis that this thing could be over quickly and all that kind of stuff. So. Buck, it's a really hard question. I don't know. And as many NSC people as I still have relationships with, they are extremely tight lipped on what's going on behind closed doors. And you know, one day the negotiations are going great, next day we're bombing them. I think anybody who says they know what's going on really doesn't know, I think.
- [36:46]
Clay Travis
And nobody wants to get on the wrong side of the big guy for even one second. So that means that people are very, very cautious about what they're willing to say, even to trusted, trusted folks. Brad Thor, Choke point, everybody. Get the book. Brad, if you ever just want to call and like rap about the interagency coordination process for national. For National Intelligence assess and how the NSA needs to stop the continued stove piping from dia. You know, we, we can do this all day. So you just call me anytime. We'll, we'll wrap on it. But we'd love to have you here. And, and Clay obviously wants to go hang out on the movie set and, and meet all the celebrities, so maybe I'll tag along for that too. But congrats on all your success. Congrats on Choke Point coming out soon. Gonna be a number one New York Times once again, I am sure. And people should go get it and they should watch them. The, the Cole. I'm sorry. Cold zero.
- [37:33]
Buck Sexton
That'll be the next Netflix movie. And Sony's developing the Scott Harvath books into a television series, so we got both.
- [37:39]
Clay Travis
Clay's gonna. Clay's gonna hit the stack hard and get that six pack and those biceps going so that he can be in the next cold zero. He's already told me this, so it's gonna be great.
- [37:48]
Buck Sexton
Perfect.
- [37:49]
Clay Travis
Thank you so much, Brad.
- [37:50]
Buck Sexton
Thanks, guys.
- [37:51]
Clay Travis
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- [38:53]
Show Host / Co-host
The show While you're on the go, wind down your day with the Daily Review podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
- [39:03]
Commercial Announcer
This July 4th, come celebrate at America's Block Party Hosted by America 250, America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes and the kickoff to giving 4th, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration@america250.org
- [39:33]
Buck Sexton
deciding
- [39:33]
Commercial Announcer
on what to listen to is hard. Using Xumo to stream music from iheart 90s radio is easy or play iheart country classics radio or Hip Hop Beats your choice. All for free. Stream easy with Xumo Play. Get live and on demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle. Get cozy on the couch and binge your favorite movies like Awakenings starring Robert De Niro, Looper starring Bruce Willis and more. All streaming free on Zumo Play. Go to play.zumo.com now life is hard. Zumo is easy.
- [40:05]
Show Host / Co-host
Combat sports fans this January, it's the Bruise Cruise Party with fighters.
- [40:10]
Clay Travis
Watch a bare knuckle fighting event live in the Caribbean.
- [40:12]
Show Host / Co-host
Plus DJs, bands and chaos at sea. Prices increase soon. Hop aboard now.
- [40:17]
Clay Travis
Go to bkfsea.com these days it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere you turn, every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, Okta helps you get identity right by securing your AI agents identities, giving you a single Layer of control. A single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with Okta, you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent, secure any agent. Octa secures AI. Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. We got some talkbacks to hit tight. Turn around.
- [40:56]
Commercial Announcer
Let's do it.
- [40:56]
Clay Travis
Let's do a talk back. Is it B?
- [40:58]
Steve Scalise
I think it was No.
- [40:59]
Clay Travis
A, A, A, A.
- [41:01]
Steve Scalise
Hey, Clan Buck, this is Robert from Clarksville.
- [41:04]
Show Host / Co-host
I'm listening to hour one of your Wednesday edition and Buck just dropped the best line. Frat boy summer.
- [41:11]
Steve Scalise
Perfect. That's perfect.
- [41:12]
Show Host / Co-host
Especially considering the last election and everything.
- [41:15]
Clay Travis
Keep it up. There we go.
- [41:17]
Show Host / Co-host
Gotta. You could gotta advance to the runoff, though. And I'm afraid, Buck, that Pratt may not advance to the runoff. Now, are you.
- [41:24]
Clay Travis
Are you canceling Pratt Boy Summer before we even know?
- [41:27]
Show Host / Co-host
Well, I mean, it's hard to have frat boy summer if they cancel Spencer Pratt before we even get to official summer before he can even get into the campaign season.
- [41:36]
Clay Travis
Plus, we got Chris Pratt to celebrate. He's one of my favorite actors. You know what I mean? We go Prat Boy Summer either way. Let's just. Let's just make this a thing. Lean into it and, and we're holding out for our guy to do well in this or get to the final round here of this Los Angeles mayors race. I honestly, I almost wish we could just get talkbacks from crazy Libs to explain to us. Why would you vote for Karen Dylan? Like, what. What is the thought process that you're like, you know what I'm going to do? This person who's been in charge and who's obviously terrible at her job in ways that make life for everyone in Los Angeles worse. Let's give her more. Let's give her more term, more time in office.
- [42:15]
Show Host / Co-host
I mean, this is what happened in Chicago. You know, they had an awful mayor, Lori Lightfoot. They got worse. Now they're going to re up with an awful one in la. We'll be back with you Friday. Thanks for hanging.
- [42:25]
Clay Travis
Sometimes we all need to slow down and reconnect with what matters most. Life can feel overwhelming, but encouragement and guidance are closer than you think. @intouch.org you'll find biblical teaching, daily devotionals, and timeless sermons from Dr. Charles Stanley. These resources are designed to strengthen your faith, renew your hope, and give you confidence for life. If you're seeking peace, strength, or simply a reminder of God's presence, visit intouch.org today. You'll be glad you did this July
- [42:54]
Commercial Announcer
4th come celebrate at America's Block Party hosted by America 250. America's Block Party is a can't miss 4th of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music, performances from major artists, patriotic tributes and the kickoff to giving 4th, helping to make July 4th the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Learn more about this landmark celebration@america250.org
- [43:23]
deciding on what to listen to is hard. Using Xumo to stream music from iheart 90s radio is easy or play iheart country classics radio or hip hop Beats your choice. All for free. Stream Easy with Xumo Play get live and on demand entertainment with no logins, no signups, no accounts, no hassle. Get cozy on the couch and binge your favorite movies like Awakenings starring Robert De Niro, Looper starring Bruce Willis and more. All streaming free on Zumo Play Go to play.zumo.com now life is hard. Zumo is easy.
- [43:55]
Show Host / Co-host
Combat sports fans. This January it's the Bruise Cruise Party with fighters.
- [44:00]
Clay Travis
Watch a bare knuckle fighting event live in the Caribbean.
- [44:02]
Show Host / Co-host
Plus djs, bands and chaos at sea. Prices increase soon. Hop aboard now go to bkfsea.com.