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Buck Sexton
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Clay Travis
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Buck Sexton
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Welcome to today's edition of the Clay.
Clay Travis
Travis and Buck Sexton show podcast. Welcome back in our number three Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. I hope all of you are having fantastic weeks. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin going to join us here momentarily. We haven't mentioned this. We did discuss the fact that it is February 13th, which is Friday the 13th. Perhaps more ominously, for some of you men out there that have not been paying attention, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. And if you have not already taken care of your Valentine's Day plans, I hope you are at least aware you you're on notice right now. We bring in Senator Ron Johnson. And Senator, I hope you're taking care of your Valentine's Day plans. And we appreciate you joining us here on Valentine's Day Eve. You got into it in a hearing yesterday, I believe it was, with the attorney general of Minnesota, Keith Ellison. And I was talking this morning with our friend Congressman Jim Jordan about the entire concept of sanctuary cities and the fact that we have allowed what Congressman Jordan says is roughly 31% of the country. When you look at the cities and the states that are refusing to cooperate with ice, we've allowed this to happen despite the fact that under the supremacy clause, the federal government makes federal immigration policy. And just as Texas was not allowed to do what Texas wanted when Biden had a wide open southern border, now that Trump is there and is fixing it, the fact that we're allowing sanctuary cities to exist and people like Keith Ellison to defy the federal government is frankly indefensible. Thank you from for holding him accountable. What, if anything, did you learn from the hearing and that testimony from the chief law enforcement official of the state.
Senator Ron Johnson
Of Minnesota, it is incredibly proud of himself and very smug about it. Part of the problem you have is I laid out in my questioning is you look at go back from Barack to Barack Obama and when you add returns and removals, Barack Obama averaged over 600,000 returns and removals per year. Trump in his first term average I think 500,000 a year. Right now, he's up a little under 600,000 his first year. So I mean, this is not out of the ordinary at all in terms of removing people that are in this country illegally. What's unusual about it is you have this mercurially funded, well Organized resistance to it. And the people that are organizing the resistance realize that the legacy and the corporate media are on their side. They will amplify whatever instance these guys can gin up and generate. And that's what's happened here. I did not intend to get that angry or display that level of anger at Keith Elson as I'm just going through the particulars of, you know, what it's like to be a law enforcement official that is being docked, shot at, the vehicles rammed, you know, the signal chats that are out there that are deploying these trained activists to obstruct your law enforcement. And we now know that one of those trained activist had a semiautomatic weapon on him. Again, these ICE officers are under enormous pressure and threat. And as I'm just describing as Keith Elson, he just has this smug merc on his face. And as I'm describing it just, it just, you know, he just got so under my skin just watching him just sit there and smile and go, well.
Buck Sexton
Senator Johnson, it's Buck. Can I jump in for one second? Because we should let everyone can actually hear how this went. This is cut 29. Play it.
Senator Ron Johnson
A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it. And you ought to feel damn guilty about it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, sit there and smirk. Smirk. It's sick. It is despicable.
Buck Sexton
Are you asking me for comment, Senator? Cuz everything you said was untrue. It was a nice theatrical performance, but it was all lies. I want to let you react to this. He's saying you're lying. Senator Johnson, what's the truth here?
Senator Ron Johnson
Everything I said about him was the truth. I mean, I got him to admit he knew about the fact that they were training these activists. Of course they called. Well, we're training them to uphold the First Amendment. No, in the second panel, the temporary or the acting director of ICE said that they have these pamphlets that are directing these trained activists to get between the law enforcement officials and the people are trying to apprehend again. In other words, put themselves in danger. I said, you've encouraged people to put themselves in danger. And that was kind of my whole point. I can't imagine asking MAGA folks to go out and put themselves in danger, start obstructing legal law enforcement officials knowing that something bad could happen. And that's exactly what Keith Ellison did. They got their martyrs. And then he's sitting there smirking about. He's just smug about. You think, you think he's any. He's shedding any crocodile tears Honestly, for, for the two martyrs that they did help create.
Clay Travis
No, no, I don't think. I don't think so at all. And this is why, to me, it is one of the biggest stories out there. And I just want to come back again on it. Sanctuary cities. We know that the federal government has the constitutional right to determine immigration policies. We talked about it on this show. I think we probably even talked about it with you, Senator. It was super frustrating. I know we talked with a lot of people in Texas who had to watch all those illegals coming in. Texas tries to stop it. And all the judges come out and say, well, actually, sorry, it's the Biden administration, because they are in office, the federal government, the president gets to determine policies here. How in the world are people not getting arrested for sanctuary city policies and sanctuary state policies because they are directly defying federal immigration law as it's being applied by the President of the United States. It seems like it should be a much bigger story than it is. And to your point, it's actually creating a great deal of danger because instead of, for instance, when somebody is in a prison, when they're in a jail, when they're arrested for violating the law, they're being released out onto the streets, people are then becoming victims like Lake and Riley. But also if they're able to be arrested, it's taking a great deal of time, resource and danger associated with it. I'm fired up about this. I just don't think it's discussed enough.
Senator Ron Johnson
Well, you know, Lindsey Graham makes the analogy of the clerk, I think, in Tennessee county who refused to issue a marriage license to a gay couple. Right.
Clay Travis
That clerk went to, I think that was Kentucky. I think that was Kentucky, Senator. But yes, that's a very good analogy.
Senator Ron Johnson
So. And he's saying the same thing should be happening to these officials who are not following the law. So I can't explain why this administration isn't, other than look at the public backlash that they're running into with trying to engage in these lawful enforcement actions inside places like Minneapolis or Los Angeles. So again, this somewhat comes as a surprise. I'm sure the administration where in the rest of the country most law enforcement officials want to cooperate with ice. Now, some of the political leadership pass laws, don't allow them. So I think it comes as a surprise. But I think the bigger picture, honestly is the organized group. We had an earlier hearing, Josh Hawley subcommittee under his GAAP on the fraud. And we had Themis Bruner there talking about, you know, he works with Peter Schweitzer. And they're tracing the money flow into, you know, aggressor nations, you know, people who are, you know, China and Mexico, but also transnational criminal organizations. You know, you have those NGOs, right? Non government organizations who by the way, have, have assets worth almost $14 trillion. Let violence sink in a little bit. But Anyway, you have NGOs that have facilitated the movement of these millions of migrants through the Darian Gap, up through Mexico into America, into sanctuary seas. Again, this is one great big mercurially financed but well organized effort by the radical left. And this was, it's, it crosses borders. It's nation state actors that are adversaries to us. It's transnational criminal organizations. And quite honestly, I don't think enough Republicans are fully understanding how we, how they're at war with us. And the Democrat Party is part of that coalition. They want to destroy the Republican Party. They want to turn America into one party nation. And this is how they're doing it with their allies in these, you know, through these funding mechanisms, whether it's Arabella, the Soros group. I mean, I haven't traced all this. I think Peter Schweitzer is going to do a pretty good job laying out his book. But that's the bigger picture here.
Buck Sexton
We're speaking to Peter. I'm sorry, we're speaking to Senator Ron Johnson, who just mentioned our friend Peter Schweitzer. We had him on for his book recently. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. And Senator, we're heading to a partial shutdown. Seems to be all around this ICE issue. Can you just lay out the what's happening and the what's really going on here with this?
Senator Ron Johnson
Well, first of all, I think everybody realizes very little is going to really be shut down that's noticeable. We should have passed the Shutdown Fairness act where we would just paid these people. But the TSA agents, a lot of folks in fema, most people probably working in Department of Homeland Security would be deemed essential. They've got to work. They just won't get a paycheck on time. I think Republicans, I know the White House is trying to negotiate in good faith. I'm not sure the Democrats are, but I think everybody kind of realizes, well, the public's really not going to feel much of a pinch on this for probably quite a few weeks. Good things. Air traffic control controls are being paid because they're normally the first people to start digging the heels in and really make it painful on a shutdown. But again, it's Always been the case when you say shut down government, 97% is always going to continue to operate. And that's really true than DHS as well. So again, Democrats, they've got the backing of the, of the legacy media, they can continue to dig their heels in, really not get blamed for it. And so it always seems like Republicans end up having to cave. If you actually want to open up these agencies, where do we go here?
Clay Travis
As we roll into February, second year of the Trump administration, I know the election season is going to shut things down soon. We've talked a lot about the idea of trying to get basic voter ID passed. Let me ask you about that. And then where do you see in terms of priorities what can get done before we get to what effectively is going to be the summer shutdown where everybody leaves and starts campaigning again?
Senator Ron Johnson
Well, I think the Save America act is certainly the top priority of many, including I think the President. He realizes if we don't get control over our elections, if we can't secure them, prevent cheating, it's literally existential certainly for our party and I would argue probably for America as well if it gets taken over by leftists. So that's extremely important. Now House has passed it. You've got some real challenges in the Senate at this point in time. We don't have enough Republican senators that are willing to do a Democrats surely will do which is end the filibuster. There's a lot of talk about the talking filibuster. There are many, many challenges to that. There have to be rules that have to be changed by just a majority vote to make sure you don't have an infinite number of amendments which allows Democrats to drag this on forever without ever bringing it to a close, which is what culture vote was all about. No, but anyway, if the public were really to start pressuring Democrats, if they get past the lies, Democrats, hell on this, it's like Jim, you know, Jim Crow 2.0. It's not, it's doing what most Americans, 80 some percent of Americans want is they want to make sure that their legitimate votes not canceled by a fraudulent one. If we fight for this, if the American pressure builds on Democrats, we might be able to pass it. But again, I don't want to get people's expectations up. This is, this is tough about the public coming up and actually putting pressure on Democrats for a change.
Buck Sexton
Senator Johnson, appreciate you being with us as always. Have a fantastic weekend.
Senator Ron Johnson
Have a great day.
Clay Travis
Take care that Senator Ron Johnson. We come back, we'll take some of your calls, including I have got a clip that is going to rock Bucks World as we roll into Friday. And again, remember it is Valentine's Day Eve. What is Buck doing for Valentine's? I've got a funny quote from one of my kids that I will share with you as he is getting a little bit older and coming to see Valentine's potentially for what it was. But if you need a lot of energy going into the weekend because you got Valentine's Day coming up, you're chasing around the kids, the grandkids, you and the wife, the girlfriend, the the the the whoever it is that you're going to be out with. Maybe a little bit of extra testosterone in your life could make a difference. Most guys over the age of 40 start to have significant declines in their testosterone and it can make a big difference for you to have more testosterone because it is the engine that drives the male body. And right now you can get hooked up@chalk.com what they do 20% increase over the life of three months time. That's nothing. You have nothing to lose. The Male Vitality stack. It's all natural. Guaranteed to increase your Testosterone up to 20% over three months. Why not check it out? Plus you get a free pack of chalk lit powder with your first delivery. Just go to chalk.com that c h o q.com my name Clay as the promo code. You get a free $99 bag of chocolate powder when you sign up. Again, that's chalk.com My name Clay Choq My name C L A Y.
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Buck Sexton
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Gene Simmons
You.
Buck Sexton
You are of the mind that this is just pure vindication of your position on a controversial topic recently. I, I will let you take it away from here, but I will just let you know, Buck island is not so easily submerged under the lapis blue waves of the ocean, my friend.
Clay Travis
I, I gotta give credit to the, the diligent production team at Clay and Buck because I had no idea that this was even out there. And so I want to make sure that I get this right. But I said last. Was it last week. I think last week I made the indisputable argument that Taylor Swift was the Beatles of her era. And many of you, you disagreed with that because you were wrong and I was right. But I was willing to take the slings and arrows of disagreement as I generally am. But then guess what has happened. Ringo Starr, kind of a famous guy, former beetle Ringo Starr. Ringo Starr came out Buck, and he said Taylor Swift is this Generation's Beatles. Cut 23.
Buck Sexton
Do you think what's happening with Taylor Swift could be the closest thing to.
Senator Ron Johnson
Beatlemania for this generation?
Buck Sexton
I do. I think Taylor Swift is great anyway. Yeah. And she's pulling them in, you know, and when we talk about her, I always have to mention that the first time I met her, she was 14 and she was at the Grammys with her mother. Taylor is the.
Clay Travis
The now one. All right. The Beatles themselves, endorsing my horrible.
Buck Sexton
Hold on, hold on. A Beatle, a beetle said the closest thing today. Have you heard music today, Clay? I mean, like it's. Yes. Is Taylor Swift closer to the Beatles than Bad Bunny? Sure, I'm closer to the Beatles than Bad Bunny. All right, so it's, it's not quite as cut and dry as you want to say. I'm also, I'm not trying to get rough here with Ringo, but I mean, of the Beatles, like really, Paul McCartney comes out and says this. I'd put a little more stuff. Ringo. It's like, does anyone even remember this guy was in the Beatles? Come on, get.
Clay Travis
Ringo had no idea he was going to take this kind of attack. Can we put in. Probably did not anticipate me saying this. I. They probably won't come on. But can we put a request to Ringo star, Paul McCartney and any other member of the Beatles to come on the show and analyze whether Taylor Swift is a modern day Beetle. By the way, we're going to break, but we have another popular musician that is also on Team Clay Travis about Taylor Swift as the Beatles. Modern day. And we will play that for everyone out there when we return, Buck.
Buck Sexton
But I would see the, the, the frenzy of like a Beatlemania. That, that is, that is a temporal, that is a temporary situation. The real question is, does it stand the test of time as a giant of the music genre with enormous influence on countless other bands?
Clay Travis
He just said he met her when she was 14. She's already had a 20 year career. This is extraordinary.
Buck Sexton
I mean, look, it's, this is not like a controversial position for someone who lives in Nashville. I'm just gonna say a lot of, a lot of, a lot of Tennessee love coming Taylor Swift's way. That's, that's not a shock. All right. Pure Talk is a fan of this, of this upcoming national holiday on Monday, President's Day. That's because it reminds us how affordable their monthly service plans are. The clues are on your $20 and $5 bills featuring Presidents Jackson and Lincoln. For $25, Pure Talk gives you monthly unlimited talk text, plenty of data. Now compare that to big wireless companies where you're likely to spend a whole lot more every month. Save your Benjamins for another day. Pure Talk is an American wireless company, one that supports our veterans and invests in a US Only customer service team. So when you call, you're talking to someone right here in the US Pure Talk uses the same towers as the big carriers. So enjoy superior 5G coverage without the inflated price. Just $25 a month. Dial pound 250, say the keywords clay and buck. You'll get 50% off your first month. Dial pound 250, say clay and Buck. Make the switch to Pure Talk.
Clay Travis
Hey, Buck. One of my kids called me an unk the other day.
Buck Sexton
An un?
Clay Travis
Yep. Slaying, evidently. For not being hip, being an old dude.
Buck Sexton
So how do we un unk you?
Clay Travis
Get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me.
Buck Sexton
That's simple enough. Just search the Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton show and hit the subscribe button.
Clay Travis
Takes less than five seconds to help. Un unk me.
Buck Sexton
Do it for Clay. Do it for freedom. And get great content while you're there. The Clay, Travis and buck Sexton Show YouTube channel.
Clay Travis
It is Valentine's Day Eve. It is also Friday the 13th. Some would say that might be connected. But before I eviscerate you with more brilliant analysis here of Taylor Swift's career, this is actually pretty funny. My youngest son, he asked me this week, this is a quote from him. Is Valentine's Day just a day where boys have to get girls things and if we don't we're in trouble. And I absolutely love this because when you're a little kid, if you remember, Valentine's Day is actually pretty even, right? Like you're a little boy, you're a little girl, you get to go exchange Valentine's Day, you know, cards, notes, the little cool cards. Back in the day, everybody, boys and girls, mom and dad primarily mom may get you like a chocolate of some sort. Like the ten pound bunny, which you saw that I. That I bought at Costco, which is not technically Valentine's. It's an Easter bunny. But. But there's lots of cool ch. Chocolate gifts and bunny rabbits and whatever's going on for, For Easter. For. Sorry. For Valentine's Day. And then as you get older, you realize, wait a minute. Valentine's Day is just a test for all men where basically there is no real reward. You just try to avoid disaster. And I don't know, how many Valentine's Day dates did you have as a single man? Were you a Valentine's Day date guy or how did you married for so long? I never really had to go through a ton of these. But what. What did you do?
Buck Sexton
It's treacherous. It's treacherous ground for the single man. Because if you're, you know, at what phase is it expected versus when is it clingy for you to do something on Valentine? Like if it's a, you know, if it's like a third date. I don't think you do anything on Valentine's Day. You know, if you're at like that.
Clay Travis
Third date phase, maybe right early you can overdo it.
Senator Ron Johnson
If you're right.
Buck Sexton
I mean, you don't want to be the guy who's like, hey, next week's Valentine's and I'm sending, you know, $400 of roses to your front gore. That's a little weird. So, you know, it's tough. I'll just tell you guys this, though. Carrie and I already had our Valentine's Day dinner. I. I refuse. I'm willing to celebrate the romance with the one that, you know, matters, matters most to you in the, in the world and your romantic partner. I'm. I'm willing to play this game, ok? So people don't feel left out. That's fine. But this notion that I have to do it on the same Saturday night as every other poor schlub in the country like me, who would be dragged out to restaurants, that this is, this is the true reality of Valentine's Day. Restaurants give you their C game at best. They roll out Prefix menus. So all of a sudden, you're paying twice as much for some cheap sparkling white wine that they're going to call champagne in a tiny little glass, and some rubber chicken that you have no choice. It's rubber chicken or, like, pasta that they brought in. All of a sudden, you're having banquet food. Whatever restaurant you go to, they're downscaling you, but they're up charging you, and you have no choice. In fact, you're supposed to be grateful for getting the reservation because it's Valentine's Day, my friends. This is a scam. This is a scam, Gentlemen, don't fall for it. Take your woman or take your man.
Senator Ron Johnson
Whatever.
Buck Sexton
Take him out tonight. Make Valentine's Day Friday your move. Because if you're going out to restaurants anywhere across the country, you're going to have people trying to sell you roses at the table that you don't want to deal with. You're going to have people that are trying to get you on the prefix menu. You're paying a lot more. You're going to wait. And you know what happens when the service is bad on Valentine's Day. Do you have a salty server? They go, sorry, it's Valentine's Day. They think it's amateur night, and they treat it as such. It's like going out on New Year's Eve to dinner. You're getting scammed. And I'm here to tell you, go out tonight or go out for Valentine's Day brunch on Sunday. Value, baby. Get your value.
Clay Travis
I hope that some of the men that do not have Valentine's Day dinner dates booked use that buck argument and take your girls on Friday or Sunday. I always say this. It is never ending. The guy who goes into the restaurant and tries to get seated without a reservation on Valentine's Day may have been that guy before. You go to, like, eight different restaurants and you're like, how long's the wait? They're like four hours. And we can seat you at 10:45. Like, that doesn't seem very good. And you have to keep getting back in the car. She's like, oh, look at all these other guys who thought ahead and made a plan, and they actually like their wives or girlfriends. It's just. I want to thank my friend Chad, who was a listener of the program. Uh, I have got a Valentine's Day dinner down here because of him. He's a big fan of the show. I appreciate him taking care of me. So I'm going out on Valentine's Day. But I gotta tell you, if you didn't get reservations months ago at a lot of places, you're basically done for. And so there's just gonna be a lot of guys that are in a.
Buck Sexton
Tough spot here, you know? And honestly, I mean, if you're a big Olive Garden guy, fine. But, like, don't feel like you have to just do whatever and go to the Olive Garden on Valentine's Day because everything else is booked. Tell your wife, tell your husband, whatever we're dealing with here. Hey, why don't we celebrate tomorrow? It's not actually anyone's birthday, okay? Or rather, you're not celebrating someone's birthday. You can move the day and have your own beautiful celebration and not pay 50 to 100% more for whatever it is that you're doing. Trying to go to the spa. But what do you think it's like trying to get a spa appointment on Valentine's Day, Clay? Not that I would know, but it's really hard.
Clay Travis
It's impossible. I mean, you basically had to make a spa appointment a year ago, which is why I think my youngest son is right. Ultimately, all Valentine's Day is designed to do is blow men up. Now, there's very little benefit. And so anyway, It's Friday the 13th, which also may be, ominously accurately, is the eve of Valentine's Day, if you have not already made your plans. All right. It's also ominous for Buck. We just heard from the legendary musician Ringo Starr, endorsing my argument that Taylor Swift is the modern day beetle. But some people said, well, what do we care about Ringo? He's only a beetle. What could he know? How about Gene Simmons? How about Gene Simmons, legendary rock star, all lining up behind me. Cut 22.
Gene Simmons
There's nothing, and I mean nothing. And I think it's true for most bands to seeing the. The lights come on in the eyes of a young child who just becomes enthralled. Just like. Like in the Exorcist, when the demon enters you, your whole body, you live, kiss you, breathe. Kiss you. It's more than music. And the only analogy I can point to is the Swifties of today. Yes, the songs are cool and she's wonderful, we know her. But it's more than that. It's almost a gathering of the tribes. The Beatles had that. It was called Beatlemania. We love the Stones, we loved Hendrix. That didn't exist. They were just popular, really popular. But when there's something else going on, it is a. It's almost cultish.
Buck Sexton
A lot of People have cold followings in music. Fish has a cult following. Dave Matthews Band has a cult following. You know, Grateful Dead as a cult following.
Odoo Ad
Yeah.
Buck Sexton
They don't have 15 year old girls all thinking that Dave Matthews is like the, you know, the queen of the princesses or whatever. But this is, you know, first of all, Gene Simmons. I'm, now I'm just gonna start stepping in it. But Kiss, is that even really a music act? Is it kind of more of like, you know, like musical theater or something? Like some theatrical thing with the face paint and everything? I don't think anyone's like, wow, the music of Kiss really endures. Get out of here.
Clay Travis
I just think when you consider legendary musicians and they line up with me, it just proves the, the legitimacy of my argument here.
Buck Sexton
No, I think that these are old guys who want relevancy today. And so of course they're going to lean in on what the big act of the moment is. But the timelessness argument that is being made here, I mean, I've just that that's really, and also the impact on music as, as a genre. I just, I don't see it, I don't see it. I'm sorry. I wish, I wish I could go along on this one. I don't, I don't think Taylor Swift is bad. I just think she's overrated.
Clay Travis
Well, as also our illustrious team of, of researchers pointed out, you used to be a Swiftie form this.
Buck Sexton
I mean, I like when I was a single guy, you know, he's kind of pretty. I thought she was kind of pretty. So I was a little, you know, a little bit.
Clay Travis
I love my game that we had with this. It took a few days, but then coming out of the woodwork, old school buck listeners, and they're like, wait a minute, this, he's singing a different tune here as Taylor Swift. I say, why you got to be so mean? Wait.
Buck Sexton
Jay in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan wants to weigh in on Ringo Starr. Jay, let it rip.
Senator Ron Johnson
Hey, Clay, I thought you were a common sense conservative, but clearly you sound like AOC with this argument. The Beatles. I could name seven or eight albums, every single song on that album. You ask someone walking down the street to say a couple of lines, they'll be able to say a line. Taylor Swift. Are you kidding me? I, I, the only song I know is one that you mentioned on the radio, and I couldn't name one of the lines.
Clay Travis
I will. How to be fair, Jay, how old are you?
Senator Ron Johnson
Argument.
Clay Travis
How old are you? Jay? Okay, you're 57. Every single woman.
Buck Sexton
Let him light them up, Jay.
Senator Ron Johnson
Octogenarians who are just trying to appease their hosts.
Buck Sexton
Get him, Jay. Get him, Jay. Every. Jay. I'm with you, Jay. Jay. Don't let anyone take away your fire, my friend.
Clay Travis
I love Jay. Got so fired up there going after Ringo Starr. By the way, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, great place. Happens to be the hometown of one Laura Travis, just north in Oakland County. She went to school in Bloomfield. But let me, let me say this, Jay, you're 100% wrong. And every, every single woman, every young girl, you go 15 to 45, every single one of them can name a Taylor Swift song. There is not a 15 to 45 year old woman girl in America that cannot name a Taylor Swift song. It's just Jay is 57 and male. I get it. This is not his wheelhouse. I happen to, as a 47 year old, 46v47 year old man, to just be able to channel.
Buck Sexton
Well, can I point out though, Clay, you're actually making a problem. I think for your own argument here, which is you're saying all these women, all these women listen to Taylor Swift. Everybody listened to the Beatles. It wasn't a male ver.
Clay Travis
You're.
Buck Sexton
You're referring more to Beatlemania and sort of taking that as a. The Beatles as a musical phenomenon were both global and.
Clay Travis
But I think the Beatles would have been more popular with women back in the day than they were men too. Right? Probably a 70, 30 fan base in the early days.
Buck Sexton
I don't think, I don't think when you get to like Abby Road and you get to the White Album, I, I wouldn't say it was necessarily a lot more women than men.
Clay Travis
Yeah, maybe not.
Buck Sexton
Maybe so.
Clay Travis
I mean, I think there, to be fair, there are a lot of men in that 15 to 45 year old window, such as Buck Sexton himself, who were also fans of Taylor Swift at some point during that window.
Buck Sexton
Well, she had an advantage before this Kelce, this Travis Kelce fellow came along with his big muscles and his manly beard.
Clay Travis
Grant in Minnesota. Grant, what you got for us?
Senator Ron Johnson
First of all, I want to apologize for Minnesota.
Clay Travis
Well, thank you.
Senator Ron Johnson
You guys talk about the Beatles, you know, they're fabulous musicians. When they broke up though, all four of them went their separate ways. Ringo Starr had the most number one hits on the chart.
Clay Travis
He was the most successful of the post Beatles. I don't know that to be true. I appreciate the call. That is Grant's argument. We'll look into that. Monty says, look, I said we could get Paul McCartney. We could get Ringo Starr on Monty. Talk back. G.
Senator Ron Johnson
Clay, the other Beatles, John Lennon died in 1980 and George Harrison died in 2001. So I don't think you're gonna have any luck in getting a hold of them.
Clay Travis
Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are still alive. That's what I'm saying. We got to get one of those two guys. By the way, do you know how America became by and large aware that John Lennon died? Do you know who announced live on television that John Lennon had been killed? And when it happened in 1980 for huge swaths of the American population anyway, probably not going to know. Buck, any. Any guess about how who delivered the news of John Lennon's death to the largest audience of Americans when it occurred?
Buck Sexton
I don't know.
Clay Travis
It's a good.
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Buck Sexton
You were in your 30s. I was not yet born.
Clay Travis
Good trivia. I was a baby. John Lennon's death announced by Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. During the course of that Monday Night Football game, he came on and said, hey, basically I have this awful news to report to all of you. Howard Cosell. A lot of people wouldn't anticipate that that was the case. Was the guy who broke the news to the largest group of Americans that. That John Lennon had been killed.
Buck Sexton
That's. That's kind of a tough turn for me here, but okay. Okay. Thanks, Clay, for that trivia. Real, real bummer, you know? So, yeah, here we go. Nice work, Clay. All right. For years, I've been a Lifelock member.
Clay Travis
Lifelock of a transition. I don't. I was like, oh, no, what did I lead him into? Now it's going to be super serious. You could talk about cyber security after this. You got. This is no challenge because there are.
Buck Sexton
There are bad people out there who will take advantage.
Clay Travis
Amen.
Buck Sexton
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Howard Cosell
Howard, you have got to say, but we know in the book, yes, we have to say it. Remember, this is just a football game. No matter who, who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by ABC News in New York City. John Lennon outside of his apartment building on the west side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all of the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash.
Buck Sexton
Do you, do you agree that, is that, is that really an announcement you make during a football game?
Clay Travis
It's a tough, it's a tough transition to expect an announcer.
Buck Sexton
I mean the pre social media era. So I guess you could say that maybe people were expecting to get news from wherever they were of something of that kind of, you know, flash breaking news magnitude. But you know what I'm saying, Remember when they broke in with O.J.
Clay Travis
During the. I think what they would do today, and they may not have had the technology to do it in 1980, is if they felt compelled to break in and give that news, they would go to a newscaster, they would say, hey, we're going to go live to insert location here. I would point out that this came on the heels, Buck, if you remember, I mean the Winter Olympics are going on right now, but 1974 in Munich, much of that was largely covered by sports people. When the Jewish, the Israeli Olympic Olympians were taken hostage, people who were there to cover that event were sports people. And suddenly they had to pivot in real time to being on air for massive amounts of hours to cover a truly serious story. I think sports would get exposed far faster today than it did back then because I think the average news person was more intelligent and well versed in larger society than they are today.
Buck Sexton
Well, thanks, Captain Womp Womp. Happy Friday the 13th, everybody. Great way to end the show here with Clay. Getting some really intense stuff. We got assassinations, we got terrorist attacks. Enjoy Valentine's tomorrow, everybody.
Clay Travis
Ringo Starr. Thanks for the backup, brother. You've got an invite on this show whenever you want to. Come on. Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. Speaking truth and having fun. Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton.
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Hour 3: Sen. Ron Johnson Fireworks
Date: February 13, 2026
Podcast Host: iHeartPodcasts
Summary by Expert Podcast Summarizer
This hour of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show features a lively and wide-ranging discussion on border and immigration policy, government shutdown politics, and media narratives, highlighted by a fiery interview with Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. The second half shifts gears to a playful pop culture debate about Taylor Swift's place in music history—specifically whether she is “this generation’s Beatles.” Throughout, hosts Clay Travis and Buck Sexton balance political seriousness with signature humor and banter, especially about Valentine’s Day “pitfalls” for men.
Sen. Johnson on Ellison’s Attitude:
“It is incredibly proud of himself and very smug about it. ... as I'm describing it just, it just, you know, he just got so under my skin just watching him just sit there and smile.” (04:35)
Exchange from the Hearing (audio clip):
“A tragedy was going to happen and you encouraged it. And you ought to feel damn guilty about it... Yeah, sit there and smirk. Smirk. It's sick. It is despicable.” – Johnson to Ellison (06:35)
Buck Sexton’s setup:
"We should let everyone actually hear how this went. This is cut 29. Play it." (06:26)
Johnson’s rebuttal to Ellison calling him a liar:
“Everything I said about him was the truth... I said, you've encouraged people to put themselves in danger. And that was kind of my whole point. I can't imagine asking MAGA folks to go out and put themselves in danger, start obstructing legal law enforcement officials knowing that something bad could happen. And that's exactly what Keith Ellison did. ... He's just smug about. ... Honestly, for the two martyrs that they did help create.” (07:05)
Clay Travis on legal authority over immigration:
"The federal government has the constitutional right to determine immigration policies... how in the world are people not getting arrested for sanctuary city policies... they are directly defying federal immigration law as it's being applied by the President..." (08:08)
Johnson on political and NGO funding:
"This is one great big mercurially financed but well organized effort by the radical left. ... It's nation state actors that are adversaries to us. It's transnational criminal organizations. ... They want to turn America into one party nation." (09:44–11:51)
Johnson on the shutdown:
"Very little is going to really be shut down that's noticeable... Air traffic controllers are being paid because they're normally the first people to start digging the heels in and really make it painful on a shutdown..." (12:12)
Johnson on future legislative hopes:
“If we don't get control over our elections, if we can't secure them, prevent cheating, it's literally existential... But again, I don't want to get people's expectations up. This is tough about the public coming up and actually putting pressure on Democrats for a change.” (13:47)
Clay Travis’ victory lap:
“I made the indisputable argument that Taylor Swift was the Beatles of her era... But then guess what has happened. Ringo Starr... said Taylor Swift is this Generation's Beatles.” (20:38)
Ringo Starr audio clip:
“I do. I think Taylor Swift is great anyway. Yeah. And she's pulling them in... when we talk about her, I always have to mention that the first time I met her, she was 14 and she was at the Grammys with her mother. Taylor is the now one.” (21:39)
Buck’s skepticism:
“Have you heard music today, Clay? ... Ringo—it's like, does anyone even remember this guy was in the Beatles?... If Paul McCartney comes out and says this, I’d put a little more stock.” (22:05)
Gene Simmons’ commentary:
“It's more than music. And the only analogy I can point to is the Swifties of today... The Beatles had that. It was called Beatlemania.” (31:45)
Listener Jay from Michigan’s rebuttal:
“Taylor Swift. Are you kidding me? The only song I know is one that you mentioned on the radio, and I couldn't name one of the lines.” (34:23)
Clay Travis fire back:
“There is not a 15 to 45 year old woman girl in America that cannot name a Taylor Swift song. ... It's just Jay is 57 and male. I get it. This is not his wheelhouse.” (35:21)
Cosell, reporting:
“An unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us... John Lennon... shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, dead on arrival. Hard to go back to the game after that news flash.” (43:40)
Clay’s observation:
“Good trivia... John Lennon's death announced by Howard Cosell on Monday Night Football. ... I think the average news person was more intelligent and well versed in larger society than they are today.” (38:43, 45:40)
This hour delivers a deep-dive into contemporary immigration debates, critiques of federal and state governance, and the intersection of politics with media narratives. The playful turn toward Valentine’s Day foibles and the ongoing Taylor Swift–Beatles argument provides levity and pop-culture connection. Highlights are the raw exchange with Sen. Johnson, revealing the emotional stakes of national policy fights, and the spirited, multigenerational pop music joust. Listeners will walk away informed, entertained, and equipped with fresh conversational ammo—plus a little fatherly wisdom about reservations and roses.