Hour 3 - TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn

Summary

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

Episode: Hour 3 – TN Sen. Marsha Blackburn
Date: October 21, 2025
Host: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
Guest: Senator Marsha Blackburn (TN)

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Main Theme of the Episode

This hour revolves around the ongoing federal government shutdown, its political consequences, and broader issues at the intersection of health care, spending, and urban crime. With Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn as a featured guest, the hosts explore Democrat vs. Republican narratives on the budget impasse, the failures of Obamacare, and highlight local and national crime reduction strategies, particularly in Memphis. They also discuss media narratives around presidential history and current political figures.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Historical Anecdotes about the White House and Media Narratives

• JFK’s White House Reputation:
  • Trump’s anecdote about the old White House pool (now media room) sparks a conversation about how presidential legacies are shaped (“Camelot” vs. reality) and the lack of media scrutiny in the pre-digital era.
    • "JFK and Camelot and all that stuff is a... pure fabrication of the Democrat aligned media... perpetuation because it created this Kennedy dynasty… Ted Kennedy who let a woman drown in the back of his car." — Buck (04:43)
  • Comparison to media downplaying FDR's paralysis and Woodrow Wilson’s wife's role during his stroke.
• Media’s Evolution:
  • The hosts stress that public access to information and accountability has increased, meaning modern politicians can't rely on old media protections.

2. The Federal Government Shutdown: Political Realities & Blame Game (08:00–14:00)

• Trump & Russ Vought:
  • Trump praises OMB head Russ Vought (nicknamed "Darth Vader") for slashing spending on Democrat priorities during the shutdown.
    • "They're cutting Democrat priorities and they're never going to get them back." — Trump (08:11)
  • Discussion on government shutdown strategies, the inability for any one group (‘no kings’ rallies) to unilaterally reopen government.
• Chuck Schumer’s Framing:
  • Schumer’s attempt to brand the crisis as the “Trump Shutdown,” accusing Republicans of inaction.
    • "We enter another week of Donald Trump's government shutdown...” — Schumer (10:55)
  • Hosts argue that Obamacare’s failings and continued subsidies are a drain, and mock the idea that “subsidies” can fix policy.

3. Healthcare, Economics, and Democrat Policy Critique (12:04–14:24)

• Health Care Expenses & Obamacare:
  • Criticism that Obamacare raised costs and reduced flexibility for Americans.
    • "Obamacare has actually made... everything more expensive and worse than it would be if we had never fiddled with it at all." — Clay (12:44)
  • Discussion of the perpetual Democrat strategy of “government subsidies as solutions," referencing Jon Stewart’s critique.
    • "When the government promises endless funds to insurance companies... prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation." — Jon Stewart, played by Buck (13:10)

4. Interview with Senator Marsha Blackburn (23:27–31:35)

Shutdown Politics & Democrat Strategy (23:31–25:28)

• Democrats keep the government closed, hoping to “supercharge” Obamacare, aiming for single-payer health care and trying to avoid negative optics of backing down.
  • "In the beginning when they did Obamacare, they said this was a step toward a single payer system, government run health care. And this has been their goal." — Sen. Blackburn (24:08)

Republican Unity & Trump’s White House Meeting (25:28–27:36)

• Lunch in the Rose Garden with President Trump discussed protecting benefits for troops, women, infants, and the need to return to normal appropriations.
  • "Very upbeat lunch... importance of getting the government reopened so we can return to the appropriations process." — Sen. Blackburn (25:48)
• Emphasis on Democrats’ previous votes for same funding levels they now oppose, suggesting their opposition is “hatred for Donald Trump.”

Spending Cuts and “Dog on Steroids” Approach (27:05–28:56)

• OMB’s Russ Vought is targeting wasteful spending during the shutdown, focusing on blue-state infrastructure and unnecessary government programs/jobs, especially at the IRS.
  • "There’s the opportunity to eliminate some of these jobs, like over at the IRS... you can begin to cut the fat out of some of these government programs.” — Sen. Blackburn (27:57)

National Guard’s Impact in Memphis (29:44–31:35)

• Memphis had a significant drop in crime with National Guard, TBI, and federal agencies aiding law enforcement.
  • "Memphis, right at 1,200 gang members have been apprehended... 63 missing children... 227 illegal firearms... that is what has happened in the last couple of weeks." — Sen. Blackburn (30:41)
• Blackburn sees this as a possible national model for crime control.

5. Extended Analysis: Crime and Urban Reform (32:14–33:32)

• Hosts discuss the potential for crime reduction models in Memphis and D.C. to be replicated nationally, challenging the narrative that America's cities must remain “lawless crime hellholes.”
  • "This could be one of the big wins... because it will break through this idea that Democrat controlled cities can just be lawless crime hellholes for 50 years..." — Buck (31:42)
• Parallel drawn to Trump’s ability to act decisively at the border.

6. Calls and Commentary on Free Speech & Urban Politics (38:36–44:29)

• Caller stories about consequences for political speech in the workplace, with references to recent high-profile events and teacher behavior (Charlie Kirk incident).
• Callers and hosts agree cities must face the consequences of far-left governance before real change occurs.
  • "New York City needs to suffer the pain of electing a communist so that the rest of the country can see... what they want to do for the rest of the country.” — Dave, caller (43:25)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Presidential Myths vs. Reality:
  “This idea that he [JFK] was this strapping, handsome, you know, all American guy... it’s all a fabrication.” — Buck (05:37)
• On Obamacare’s Failure:
  “Obamacare has actually made... everything more expensive and worse than it would be if we had never fiddled with it at all.” — Clay (12:44)
• On Democrat Strategy:
  “Their solution is always subsidies... when the government promises endless funds... prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation…” — Jon Stewart, via Buck (13:10)
• On Crime-Fighting Success:
  “Memphis... 1,200 gang members have been apprehended... 63 missing children... 227 illegal firearms... that's what has happened in the last couple of weeks.” — Sen. Blackburn (30:41)
• Sen. Blackburn on Shutdown:
  "What they are wanting to do is, is to supercharge Obamacare... we can't let them continue with these enhanced Covid credit premiums..." (24:08)
• On Historical Media Complicity:
  “They pretended that FDR was not in a wheelchair… staggering complicit related media aspects.” — Clay (06:35)
• On National Policy Models:
  "We can show what we did in Memphis and that can be the model for fighting crime all across the country.” — Sen. Blackburn (30:11)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Quote Description | |:----------:|:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 04:43 | Buck critiques JFK “Camelot” media myth, draws parallels to Ted Kennedy, FDR, Wilson| | 08:11 | Trump (via audio) lauds Russ Vought, likening him to “Darth Vader” for budget cuts | | 10:55 | Schumer labels situation a “Trump shutdown,” sets up partisan blame game | | 12:44 | Clay denounces Obamacare as a “complete and total lie” increasing everyone’s costs | | 13:10 | Jon Stewart (clip) outlines core flaw in Democratic subsidy-driven economic policy | | 24:08 | Sen. Blackburn describes Democrat goals in shutdown - supercharge Obamacare | | 25:48 | Blackburn’s recap of White House lunch – focus on government reopening priorities | | 27:57 | Blackburn details IRS/government jobs and spending cuts enabled during shutdown | | 30:41 | Crime stats from Memphis, cited as a model for urban policy | | 31:42 | Buck: Crime reduction could be a “big win” for Trump presidency | | 43:25 | Caller Dave argues NYC must “suffer” leftist governance for national wake-up call |

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Structure & Flow

The episode moves from entertaining White House stories into a pointed look at modern political media, then swiftly shifts to the government shutdown: first as a political football, then as an opportunity for policy maneuvering by the GOP (with narrative reinforcement from Senator Blackburn). The second half zeros in on health care and economics, segues to crime strategies in urban America, and ends by reinforcing the argument that high-profile political failures and urban malaise are necessary catalysts for change—wrapping with live audience engagement via calls.

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Tone & Language

The tone is conversational, irreverent, often humorous in its ridicule of political opponents (Democrats/left-wing policies), alternating between casual storytelling and direct policy critique. Expect quips, inside references, and a presumption of listener familiarity with key conservative talking points.

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This summary captures the core content and flow of Hour 3 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show (October 21, 2025), highlighting its major themes, moments, and guest interview for those who missed the episode.

Transcript

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[A]

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From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.

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What difference at this point does it make?

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Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

Welcome into the third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show. We're gonna be joined at the bottom of the hour by our friend Senator Marsha Blackburn of the great state of Tennessee, which may be adding to its numbers from some New Yorkers. If Mondani wins, we'll see. I know Florida is going to Florida real estate prices already sky high.

[B]

Probably going to go up a little.

[A]

Bit more in some areas. It's only going to be in a couple of places right where I live and also probably in the West Palm Beach Del Rey Boca corridor. But we'll see, we'll see. Maybe, maybe Kami Mandani is not really that awful. I think that's very unlikely, but it could be the case. We also have Trump just speaking a few moments ago. As you know, there's a and the team pointed this out to me, privately funded renovation, really. A remodel, a demo and remodel of the east wing of the White House to accommodate a ballroom that, as some people are saying, gonna be the most fabulous ballroom of all ballrooms. It's gonna be spectacular, I'm sure. And this is President Trump speaking about the West Wing's history and more. Play 30. This is, as you see over here, the Presidential walk of fame. And we had this long wall with half windows because that used to be a swimming pool on the other side of the wall. And that was the swimming pool Where Jackie would say, I hear women inside. Are women inside Quite a famous. I'm not saying anything. This was a part of a movie and the Secret Service said, no ma', am, there's no women inside, ma'. Am. I'm sorry, ma', am, you're going to.

[B]

Have to move along.

[A]

But I hear women inside. No, ma', am, you'll have to move along, ma'. Am. So that was the famous swimming pool. Now it's even worse. It's for the media. They covered the pull up. They covered the pull up and now it's for the media. And I think we have a small representative group. I don't think they allowed the rest of them. I don't, I can't believe it. What happened? They're all on the other side of the wall. Can you believe it?

[B]

That is one hell. So the story, should I tell the story that Trump is telling? I guess I have to tell the story that Trump is telling. Buck. I think they do. These angry emails are Buck Sexton's fault. So word is from the White House historian crew that back in the day jfk, as soon as Jackie Kennedy would leave the White House would roll in girls and they would have naked swimming parties in the White House swimming pool. So if you think Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky was scandalous, what, what, what Trump is referencing is that they would have skinny sessions when JFK was president with girls that they would, they would bring in. So that pool's now covered up and it's where the press goes. But that is a accurate, so far as I have heard, historical rendition that Trump was referencing there. Probably did not expect that that would be the opening of the third hour, but that is what I was talking about.

[A]

JFK and Camelot and all that stuff is a pure, the same way that, that they went with Biden doesn't have dementia. It was a pure fabrication of the Democrat aligned media and not just then, but a continuation perpetuation because it created this Kennedy dynasty, so called dynasty that led to someone like Ted Kennedy who let a woman drown in the back of his car. Right?

[B]

Yes.

[A]

These are the kind of people that the Kennedys brought us in politics. And isn't there a, wasn't there like the red haired guy who was going to be the, you know, the great hope of the Kennedys and he gave some like sweaty faced speech after the, you know what I'm talking about. There was a young Kennedy, another, a member of Congress. He was going to.

[B]

Patrick.

[A]

Yes, that sounds right.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Basically they're, they're a Democrat brand and they're protected as such. But if you actually look at the conduct of JFK in the Oval Office, in the White House, and as a person, he was also a very sickly guy, needed a whole bunch of different controlled substances to get through the day. This, this idea that he was this strapping, handsome, you know, all American guy and all this is all. I'm just saying it's all a fabrication.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

This is all stuff that was fed to people because there was no, you know, it's different. You didn't have the constant media cycle. You didn't have so many people that have not just access, but are able to use their own methods of, of capturing information. You know, everyone walks around. Now, think about it this way. When Kennedy was actually President, Clay, the press had a fraction of the access and the ability to create content that every single one of our listeners right now does.

[B]

Yes. I mean, no, the evolution, I mean, look, and it wasn't just Kennedy. Right. They pretended that FDR was not in a wheelchair. I mean, that that's maybe one of the most staggering complicit related media aspects. They pretended that, that, that FDR wasn't actually needing to be pushed around in a wheelchair because, because the press was asked to do so.

[A]

And well, they also got away with, with Woodrow Wilson's wife running the White House.

[B]

Edith was basically the President of the United States because he had such a bad stroke.

[A]

I also think that, that we didn't talk about it that much. I think that same dynamic factored in with doctor. I love that we all call our doctor and just gosh, Dr. Jill Biden. I think she recognized that her frail husband meant that she was in a more powerful role than a First lady certainly could or should be generally. So that was a pirate. But let's get back to Trump here. What he just said about this or what he was just saying. He spoke about the shutdown. All along there has been the things that the shutdown has made possible as part of what the White House can do. It's a great refutation of the no Kings rally, I might add. Right. The government is shut down. The king can't just open the government. Well, because he's not a king, as we all know. It's such a stupid rally, a stupid name. It's just not good. But back to what Trump is saying about the shutdown. He talked about Russ Vaught and here is what he says about this individual and his cutting and the prioritization underway. Play 32. I will say this that we have Darth Vader. You know Darth Vader, right? Darth Vader is a man who, I think he's sitting right. Is that Darth, Stand up, please. Darth Vader, stand up. Does everybody know this is. They call him Darth Vader. I call him a fine man, but he's cutting Democrat priorities and they're never going to get him back. And they've caused us and they've really allowed us to do it. And by the way, thank you. You're doing a great job, I have to tell you. So really a great job. Because many of the things that they're cutting, like the New York project, $20 billion, we're cutting it, they're not going to get it back. I mean, they're not going to get a lot of things back. They may not get it back. Maybe we'll talk to them about it. But they're losing the things that they wanted. But many of the things that they wanted are things that we don't want, the things that are just so bad for our country. And we're cutting those things out. Clay. Russ Vaught is the head of OMB Office Management and Budget. And they're able to get in there with a scalpel and cut some of these government programs because of the shutdown. So another, another component of this, not.

[B]

Only that, it is just not registering in any way that the government shutdown still going on. I understand that some of you out there are going to have to get back pay if you're in military. Trump is saying that he wants to make sure that everybody gets paid again. They're going to have a press availability for the Republican senators that are all at the White House right now. And we're scheduled to talk with Marsha Blackburn at the bottom of the hour, so we'll hear what President Trump said. But I just think that they are in such incredible difficulty here because they didn't want to shut down. They didn't want to bend the knee before the government protest, before the no Kings protest. And now a part of me thinks, Buck, that they may think this is advantageous for them on some small level in Virginia and New Jersey and two close governor's races. Maybe it motivates a little bit turnout, I don't know. But I think the idea that there was going to be some mass rallying effect to the Democrat side has certainly not been reflected in the polls and it hasn't been reflected in the reactions by and large, in as most people have just kind of said, yeah, there's Not a lot to this.

[A]

Well, here is, since we're talking about the shutdown a little bit, the, the latest explanation of this that we get from Chuck Schumer, who is really. It is the Schumer shutdown. I mean, this guy, more than any other, is responsible for where this is. This is cut 12. Hit it. We enter another week of Donald Trump's government shutdown and Republicans seem happy not to work, happy not to negotiate, happy to let health care premiums Spike for over 20 million working and middle class Americans. Our country is staring down the barrel of a health care catastrophe. And Republicans will spend this week either vacationing or holding pep rallies at the White House. It's been over a month since the House of Representatives even took a single roll call vote. That's shameful. That's derelict. Government workers must work without getting paid. House Republicans get paid without working. And yet it's the Schumer shutdown. He can say whatever he wants about it. Clay. I don't think that it's going to work. I also think that the more they talk about health care. Hold on a second. Obamacare was supposed to make everything cheaper. Why do we have to shovel billions and billions of dollars into Obamacare to make it even temporarily seem solvent?

[B]

All of us are paying way more than we were told we would ever have to pay for health care. To a large extent because Obamacare has failed. And this idea that your insurance was going to be cheaper or you were going to have more flexibility when it came to your doctors, it has been proven to be, I think, a complete and total lie. And so everybody out there who is dealing, and I think it's all of us, when you have to go to the doctor and you get back your bill and you say, how in the world could it possibly have cost this much? Or how can my insurance premiums have risen to the level that they have? Obamacare has actually made, as many people argued that would be the case. Everything more expensive and worse than it would be if we had never fiddled with it at all. And in fact, it kind of ties in with this. I can't believe I'm gonna give him credit here. What Jon Stewart said about Bernie Sanders, the Democrat solution is always subsidies. And when the government causes endless funds to be spent. Jon Stewart's actually making sense here. Prices rise. This was cut 15.

[A]

The democratic solutions have never been to directly provide. It's always been a subsidy. Absolutely right. But what happens is when the government promises endless funds to insurance companies or private universities without any cost controls and Trump seems to understand this. Prices rise far beyond the rate of inflation and we've seen it in tuition and we've seen it in pharmaceutical and we've seen it in health care. So my question is, will Democrats recognize the poison pill that they've often placed into well intentioned policy?

[B]

They don't understand basic economics. And I think to Jon Stewart's credit, he's elucidating that Democrats don't understand market based policies and get all of their prescriptions wrong, which ends up costing us all more.

[A]

Let's play the Bernie response to that on the other side of this. You could have Bernie Sanders. It's going to be like but the more we spend comes from the millionaires and the billionaires. It's going to be something like that. There's going to be some nonsense.

[B]

I like your argument. I think that is likely to be proven true.

[A]

Yeah, I don't know what it is, I'm just guessing. But economic illiterate Bernie Sanders is going to have some foolish thing to say and you'll stick around with us and you'll hear it. Gold has never been more valuable than it is this month. Whether you're watching the increasing price of gold or not, it is up 60% year to date and we've got the better part of 70 calendar days left where it could keep going up. Who knows where it's going to go? That's why I recommend you talk to our friends at Birch Gold Group if you're thinking now is the time to purchase gold for the first time. Good for you. Your timing is excellent. Birch Gold Group makes you this offer. Buy gold from them this month and get free silver for every $5,000 purchase from Birch Gold Group this month in advance of Veterans Day, they will send you a free patriotic Silver round that includes the American and Gadsden flags on it. Birch Gold can help you own gold by converting an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA in physical gold plus they'll send you free silver Honoring our veterans on qualifying purchases. A plus rating with a Better Business Bureau. Tens of thousands of happy customers, many of whom are listeners just like you. I encourage you to diversify your savings into Gold. Text My name Buck Do 989898 Get a free info kit. Claim your eligibility for free silver with qualifying purchase. Again, text my name Buck to 989898 today Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Mic.

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When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked why Benghazi?

[A]

The truth became a web of lies.

[B]

It's almost a dirty word, one that connotes conspiracy theory.

[C]

Will we ever get the truth about the Benghazi massacre?

[B]

Bad faith, political warfare and frankly, bullshit.

[A]

We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.

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[C]

What difference at this point does it make?

[A]

Yes, that's right. Lock her up.

[B]

Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Buck predicted that after Jon Stewart pointed out that Democrats big problem was they don't understand basic economics and everything they claim is going to make everything more affordable actually makes things more expensive. That Bernie will likely respond and say billionaires are to blame. Let's find out. Cut 16.

[A]

We have got to make it simple. In the wealthiest country in the history of the world, should health care be a human right? Yes, it should be.

[B]

Should we have the best quality education.

[A]

In the world, from child care to graduate school? Yes, we should. Right? But these are, these are. How do you pass? Let's get there. What we need is a very simple, straightforward agenda which says, by the way, and this is, this is really a sticky point. You got to finally say to the.

[B]

Oligarchs who have never, ever had it.

[A]

So good, they're making money hand over fist, all right? And you got to say to them, sorry, guys, a billion dollars is enough. You ain't going to have 200 billion or 300 billion try to survive on me. A billion. You're going to start paying your fair share of taxes.

[B]

Okay?

[A]

A millionaires and billionaires just, it's always, it's this guy's the ultimate broken record has notice he said 100 billion, 200 billion. You got to live on a billion. Does he understand what that would actually mean?

[B]

Yes, that's right.

[A]

How are you even going to get there? Second of all, it would mean the destruction of companies because people don't sit on a hundred. This isn't Scrooge McDuck in ducktails swimming in the vault of gold coins. People don't have $100 billion in cash.

[B]

90% of money doesn't physically exist. And so I wish that there had been an immediate pushback there from Jon Stewart and say, ok, you always have this slogan, everybody should pay their fair share. Billionaires often are paying, like Elon Musk did, 50% tax rates. When they live in, in California and they sell stock. What is their fair share? Because over half of what you make seems like way more than a fair share, particularly when over half of Americans don't pay a single dollar in income tax. So again, over half of all Americans don't pay a dollar in federal income tax.

[A]

They're Also, but the tax is even worse than the tax rate on everybody because inflation is really just a tax on everybody. That particularly hits those without assets that are getting inflated. So this is why everything is feeling like it's more expensive and this is why, you know, wages are not keeping up and all the challenges that a lot of people speak about in general terms, economically, clay. Worse, the government, the federal government of which Bernie Sanders is a part in the Senate, spends more than it takes in even at the current tax rates. So this idea that if they took in more money, they wouldn't also be adding on top of that the debasement of our currency is absurd. They would just take in more money and spend more money than they're even taking in. Cuz that's what they always do.

[B]

And there aren't enough billionaires to balance the budget, meaning that eventually what they do to the richest trickles down to everybody else as well.

[A]

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[C]

I'm delighted to join you. Thank you so much.

[A]

Let's start with some shutdown talk if we can. Senator, the heck is going on here with these Democrats. They had their little silly no kings rallies so they made it seem like they have something to say other than Trump is bad. Although that's really the same thing. Trump is bad, no kings, little childish, whatever. But now the government's been closed. I think 21 days. What's gonna happen here? Are they gonna blink? Are they gonna finally give up? What do you see going on?

[C]

Some of the Democrats are say, well, we need to bring an end to this. And then you've got Chuck Schumer saying, well, we did the no kings and now if we vote to reopen the government, it's going to look like we are giving in and caving in. And oh, by the way, the notices on the Obamacare premiums are going to go out November 1st and we want to keep it shut to then. I think the important thing that we need to remember is this, what they are wanting to do is, is to supercharge Obamacare. You know, in the beginning when they did Obamacare, they said this was a step toward a single payer system, government run health care. And this has been their goal. So what we have to do is realize that is their goal and we can't let them continue with these enhanced Covid credit premiums where they took off the caps and anybody that was in the marketplace got a subsidy.

[B]

We're talking to Senator Marsha Blackburn. I think based on the background there, you may still be at the White House. President Trump came out and spoke for some time. There's also been a press conference with Senate Republicans there. What did you learn today? What's the vibe? What should we know? Looks like a beautiful day in Washington. Also about the changes that President Trump has made to the White House.

[C]

You know, Clay, we were, we were in the Rose Garden for lunch and had a wonderful time with him. We're on our way back to the Capitol right now to vote. It was a very upbeat lunch. We were delighted to have some time with the President and to talk about what is taking place as we are in this shutdown, to talk about our concerns for making certain that the troops are going to be tended to, that women and infants and children are going to get the benefits that they need and talk about the importance of getting the government reopened so we can return to the appropriations process. And we've done great work in the Senate. Our approach committee has all of our bills ready to go to the floor. Three of them are already finished and ready to go into conference with the House. And regular order would be a very good thing. Getting onto a Republican budget instead of a Biden Covid era budget is something that's important. And part of the silliness of this whole thing with the Democrats is that they have already voted five times for these funding levels. Not once or twice, but five times. And now they're saying, well, they are so full of hatred for Donald Trump, they're trying to make excuses and then not vote to reopen the government.

[A]

Senator Blackburn, Trump spoke a bit about Russ Vaught going after some spending that this administration thinks is wasteful taxpayer dollars, not, not going to good effect. Can you speak with any specificity to some of what those programs are, what what is able to be done in terms of cutting during this period? Because Trump has referred to it many times and he gave really a big high five to OMB direct Director Vaught earlier today.

[C]

Yes, he did. And Rice was there at lunch with us. There are programs, some of these programs that some of the big blue states have wanted, some infrastructure projects that many times conservatives have questioned the usefulness or appropriateness of using taxpayer dollars for some of these programs. And indeed, there's the opportunity to cut and eliminate those. There's the opportunity to eliminate some of these jobs, like over at the irs. And I was seated with Secretary Besant at the lunch. I'm glad he is overseeing the irs. But, you know, that is where you can begin to cut the fat out of some of these government programs. And I liken it to kind of being like Doge on steroids, where you can say this is wasteful, the other is wasteful. Government is shut down. We have to be careful with the resources. And so these programs and things that are not necessary can be eliminated. And it is part of the president's prerogative during a government shutdown to remove those programs.

[B]

In the background, we can hear what sounds like emergency going off.

[C]

Well, actually it is the motorcade. We're going from the White House back to the Capitol for the vote. So you're getting this in real time.

[B]

Well, so I was just going to say it made me think about the president calling out the National Guard not only in Washington, D.C. but also in Memphis. And so you have unique opportunity to see it happen in both places because you spend a lot of time in Washington, D.C. and also you have traveled and represent Memphis. What have you heard from people about the impact, the safety? Do you see it, do you feel it, that the president's call up of the National Guard and the State Guard.

[C]

Has had, I have to tell you, in Memphis and Shelby county, and I was there twice last week. People come up to me and say thank you so much. They know that I've worked very hard on this. Senator Hagerty has worked very hard on this also. And one of the things that I have put a lot of energy into is drawing the Attention of Cash Patel and Pam Bondi and the president to what we need in Shelby county and in Memphis. The mayor of Memphis has done a great job working with us. People are thrilled that Memphis is safe. We're going to make certain that Memphis is the safest city in the United States States and that they lose this moniker of having been the most dangerous per capita. We also feel like with things going so well in Memphis and the governor and the Guard and the highway patrol and the TBI and 13 federal agencies all working together, that we can show what we did in Memphis and that can be the model for fighting crime all across the country. And Memphis, right at 1200 gang members have been apprehended. Most of those gang kingpins have been apprehended. You've got 63 missing children that have been rescued. You've got 227 illegal firearms that have been pulled off the streets. And that is what has happened in the last couple of weeks.

[A]

Senator Blackburn, appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much.

[C]

You got it. Take care. Bye. Bye.

[A]

Clay. I think if the, if the crime program bears the kind of results that we're hoping it does, this could be one of the big, the, one of the big wins for the Trump, for the Trump presidency, for the Trump administration, because it will break through this idea that Democrat controlled cities can just be lawless crime hellholes for 50 years on end with no one ever stopping to say, maybe we should do something differently here.

[B]

Yeah. And it reminds me of the border, because we heard for so long, if Congress can't act then and doesn't act, and how could we ever shut down the border? And then Trump just shut down the border and. But there is an element, I think, when you see the crime collapse in Washington, D.C. and in Memphis, that we've just come to tolerate this and we don't have to. And yes, why would the precedent that's brought to bear in both of those cities not also be used other places? It seems like this could be really potentially transformative in a positive way for everybody. Of all different backgrounds sent. As we have talked about on this program for a long time, no one hates murder more than you and I. Look, NBA is returning tonight. You got college basketball back soon. A Major League Baseball World Series is set, and NFL and college football are firing on all cylinders. You can get hooked up right now with phenomenal offers from prize picks. In fact, when you play $5, you get $50 in your account on Thursday. I am going to give all of you what I hope is a winner and you can play along with us. But if you go ahead and download the app. Prize Picks if you go ahead and sign up Prize Picks, use my name Clay. You can be ready to go. You can pull out your app, you can get your notepad, you can write down. All you have to do is pick more or less on a variety of athletes and we will hopefully have a winner for all of you on Thursday. We've had four winners already. We're going for five at prizepix.com code clay that is prizepix.com for $50. Code clay keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history on the Team 47 podcast Clay and Buck highlight Trump replays from the week Sundays at noon Eastern. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[B]

A podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist called rolled their eyes or just asked why Benghazi?

[A]

The truth became a web of lies.

[B]

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[C]

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[B]

Bad faith, political warfare and frankly, bullshit.

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We kill the ambassador just to cover something up. You put two and two together.

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Was it an overblown distraction or a sinister conspiracy? Benghazi is a Rosetta stone for everything that's been going on for the last 20 years. I'm Leon Neyfak from Prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.

[C]

What difference at this point does it make?

[A]

Yeah, that's right. Lock her up.

[B]

Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. We are closing the the Tuesday edition of the Pro. I almost man, almost forgot what day of the week it is already. We'll be, I wanted to say this off the top. We will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana tomorrow. If you are listening to us on Whoa right now, whoa whoa.com for the details about that visit. And they are doing a post show gathering. Whoa whoa.com for the details. We travel all over the place and we are looking forward to meeting those of you at that big hundred year anniversary celebration of that station again. Whoa, whoa.com if you are listening to us right there and you want to be at our event, all right, we got a bunch of people who want to weigh in.

[A]

I say this will be my, this will be my third trip to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

[B]

Veteran of Fort Wayne, Indiana, I have never been. We will be there all day tomorrow. Whoa whoa.com if you want to come hang out with us. Post show Jeff in Phoenix. Nice. Let's take some of your calls. We'll rack and stack them to close out the show today. Thank y' all for calling. Jeff, what you got?

[C]

Hey.

[A]

Regarding the free speech thing, the company I work for.

[C]

Nice.

[A]

Some guy within roughly a week of when Charlie Kirk got killed was terminated from the company. My boss pulls us all into a quick impromptu conference call and goes, please be careful what you say on social media. And he specifically mentioned Facebook. I'm like, what was said? Who said it? And we all know who said it, but we don't know what was said. So I'm all about free speech, but consequences are coming, guys.

[B]

Yeah, no doubt. Look, I mean, I think everybody has to be aware. In fact, I think this is California. We talked about the Chicago public school teacher, but this is going viral right now. Another teacher. This is audio, but the video is out there of a public school teacher celebrating Charlie Kirk's assassination. This is what it sounds like. You can hear it a little bit there. They're chanting Charlie Kirk in favor of him. Those are kids. And this teacher is chanting, is dead. Is dead. Celebrating crazy Tom in Florida. Fire away for 40 years.

[A]

And the stuff I saw during that.

[C]

Period of time was incredible. I know one thing. When a person reaches the rock, rock bottom, they go one of two ways. They get help and survive.

[A]

They keep going and they die. New York is in the same situation. They've just about hit rock bottom.

[C]

And if they put mamdani in, they.

[A]

Are going to hit rock bottom. And they can only go one of two ways. They can start voting differently and get.

[C]

Help for themselves, or they can collapse, and hopefully for them, a democrat will get elected and bail them out, because that's their only hope.

[A]

These morons keep voting the same way all the time, and they're gonna.

[C]

They're gonna regret it.

[A]

But I kind of hope it sort of happens.

[C]

They need to get there and get this hope buck.

[B]

You live through it. Things are just not bad enough in New York City for somebody like Giuliani to come in and be the savior.

[A]

Well, this is. This is where you. When you look at the historical comparisons, when Giuliani came in, I should say, after a few years of dinkins, When Giuliani came in, you had an incredibly high murder rate.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Right. And so that was. Even the communists, at some point, are saying there are too many people being shot on the streets of New York. And when I say too many. Over 2,000.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. Murders. So you got to think how many thousands of people were shot on top of that. I mean, it was really out of control. New York now has for a city of Its size, a pretty low murder rate actually American, you know, system, not obviously, you know, Taiwanese or something where they have almost no murders, very low murder rate. And so the stuff that we're really talking about is quality of life issues. You know, trash on the streets, illegals piling in, taking over whole hotels, people acting like maniacs on the subway. And a lot of, a lot of libs will tell themselves, you know, that's a price other people are going to pay. It makes me feel good about myselves while the driver is putting up the partition on the way to the Hamptons to vote for this stuff. And a lot of, a lot of left wingers will even tell themselves, no matter what happens, Clay real mom Donnie ism has never been tried. They, they, these people don't learn their lesson is the point.

[B]

Positive news. We'll take a couple more your calls to finish the show. There are a lot of polls rolling in as we get close to Virginia and New Jersey elections. Jason Mearez, who we had on last week, I believe, or the week before last, the Virginia attorney general candidate is surging. And Jay Jones, who said in text messages, I hope these, these Republicans kids die. We may have seen something where normal people say, ah, that's maybe a bit too far as his chances are collapsing. And one thing one wonders, as they called in Barack Obama to campaign, whether that is also starting to have an impact on the governor's race because Spanberger has not called for J. Jones to drop out yet. Dave in Gilmanton, New Hampshire. Dave, what you got for us?

[A]

I wanted to make a comment about the New York Post assertion that if Slee were to drop out, he could save New York City from Mondami by increasing Cuomo's chances of winning the mayoral race. Understand this. Cuomo's political aspirations do not end with being mayor of New York City. He wants to use it as a springboard to be the party nominee for president in 2028. And why would Republicans want to do anything to help him do that? Because he'll be touted as the moderate Democrat I'm with. Clay. New York City needs to suffer the pain of electing a communist so that the rest of the country can see the Democrats had a chance to move to the center after Trump won in 24, and instead they're moving further left. And what they're doing in New York City with Mamdami is what they want to do for the rest of the country. To the rest of the country. Once that realization is made, then our constitutional republic is safe for the foreseeable future. We have such excellent, excellent callers, you know, fantastic. Like they listen to good radio hosts all day and they pick something up from it. You know what I mean?

[B]

I hope so. Whoa, whoa dot com. If you want to hang out with us tomorrow, that is whoa, whoa dot com and we look forward to hanging out with you guys in Fort Wayne tomorrow.

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See you there. Whoa, whoa. Land. The NFL international games continue on NFL Network. And here our stars come out in the morning. Week 10, Bajan Robinson and the Falcons.

[B]

Take on Daniel Jones and the Colts in Berlin.

[A]

Fireworks in the fourth quarter. Then in week 11, Jaden Daniels and the Commanders touchdown once again. Face Tua and the Dolphins in Madrid. Slow news off game on It's Sunday.

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Morning Football continues November 9th at 9:30 Eastern only on NFL Network.

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When I told people I was making a podcast about Benghazi, nine times out of ten they called me a masochist, rolled their eyes, or just asked, why Benghazi?

[A]

The truth became a web of lies.

[B]

From prologue projects and Pushkin Industries. This is Fiasco Benghazi.

[C]

What difference at this point does it make?

[B]

Listen to Fiasco Benghazi on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[A]

This is an iHeart podcast.