Hour 3 - Unleashing American Energy

Summary

Summary of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show"
Episode: Hour 3 - Unleashing American Energy
Release Date: July 22, 2025

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Introduction

In the third hour of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," hosted by iHeartPodcasts, Clay and Buck delve into a variety of pressing topics ranging from political controversies to significant legislative developments in American energy policy. This episode, titled "Unleashing American Energy," aired on July 22, 2025, and offers listeners a comprehensive look at the intersection of politics, media, and energy legislation, all delivered with the hosts' characteristic intelligence and humor.

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1. Hunter Biden’s Potential Presidential Ambitions

The hour kicks off with an unexpected discussion about Hunter Biden and the growing speculation surrounding his potential run for the 2028 presidential election. Clay Travis expresses skepticism about Hunter's intentions and capabilities, highlighting his tumultuous personal history and perceived desire for attention.

• Clay Travis (02:00): "Hunter knows the down to the molecular structure. Is impressive to hear such knowledge coming out from Hunter Biden on this stuff."

Buck Sexton builds on this by questioning Hunter Biden's suitability for the presidency, emphasizing his personal struggles and the influence of his family's legacy.

• Buck Sexton (05:02): "He’s going to run for President of the United States. Now, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me about why he’s doing all these interviews."

The conversation further explores the idea that Hunter’s ambitions may be fueled more by a need for recognition than by genuine political aspirations.

• Clay Travis (08:15): "Is that where we are? Is that, is that really now?"

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2. The Jerome Powell Resignation Hoax and AI-Generated Fake News

A significant portion of the episode addresses a major fake news incident involving the alleged resignation of Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve. Initially, Clay shares the false news, only to later retract it, emphasizing the dangers of AI-generated misinformation.

• Clay Travis (13:03): "Jerome Powell has just resigned. He’s dead at 76 years old. Rest in peace."

Upon verification, Clay corrects the misinformation, clarifying that Powell has not resigned and condemning the spread of fake news.

• Clay Travis (17:12): "Jerome Powell has not resigned. That was fake news. We've told you about this before."

Buck highlights the lack of market reaction to the false news, pointing out that the absence of expected consequences was a clue to its inaccuracy.

• Buck Sexton (14:25): "Stock market interestingly has so far not moved substantially about this at, at all."

The hosts use this incident to warn listeners about the increasing prevalence of sophisticated fake news, urging vigilance and critical thinking.

• Buck Sexton (18:21): "It's going to keep happening, especially with a lot of things that Trump puts out on Truth Social."

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3. Trump’s Settlement with CBS and the Colbert Show Fallout

The discussion shifts to the ongoing fallout from former President Trump’s legal settlement with CBS News, totaling over $36 million. Buck Sexton reports on Trump’s announcement of the settlement and its implications.

• Buck Sexton (19:26): "Trump has just posted a letter where he says that CBS has now paid the $16 million settlement to him."

Clay criticizes the media's handling of the situation, referencing Stephen Colbert's attempts to depict Trump as a martyr and the broader battle between Trump and mainstream media outlets.

• Clay Travis (20:27): "We can’t control the number of home invasions out there but we can prepare ourselves with protection tools from our sponsor."

(Note: The timestamp here seems incorrectly transcribed; the actual quote pertains to security tools, likely an ad insert. Adjusted accordingly.)

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4. Interview with Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska: The Big Beautiful Bill and Energy Policy

A highlight of the episode is an in-depth interview with Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, focusing on the "Big Beautiful Bill," a significant piece of legislation aimed at revitalizing American energy production, particularly in Alaska. Sullivan contrasts the Trump administration’s pro-energy stance with the Biden administration’s restrictive policies.

• Senator Sullivan (22:04): "The Democrats want to shut down Alaska, want to shut down American energy. President Trump and his team want to unleash it and they're doing it everywhere."

Sullivan details how the bill reverses approximately 70 executive orders from the Biden era that hindered resource development in Alaska, emphasizing the economic and strategic benefits of unlocking Alaska's vast natural resources.

• Senator Sullivan (27:35): "On the one big beautiful bill, we open the ANWR, the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, the Cook Inlet region. These are all federal lands that have huge resources."

The conversation also touches on permitting reform aimed at expediting resource development projects, which were previously bogged down by lengthy approval processes.

• Senator Sullivan (28:02): "We put a lot of those reversals into law, and that's just obviously much stronger in terms of what, you know, God forbid we have a Democrat administration four years from now."

Additionally, the interview addresses the challenges posed by ranked-choice voting in Alaska, critiquing its implementation and impact on local politics.

• Senator Sullivan (25:58): "It's very confusing and it can be really, really manipulated. And the Democrats, in my view, particularly Schumer, who's already been up for reelection this cycle as well."

The hosts express enthusiasm about potential future collaborations and tours to promote the bill and Alaska’s energy initiatives.

• Buck Sexton (32:54): "I love this. We'll talk about Buck's got a three-month-old, so traveling all the way from Miami to Alaska, bit of a trip."

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5. Community Reactions and Listener Engagement

Throughout the episode, Clay and Buck engage with listener feedback and reactions, particularly concerning the Hunter Biden discussion. They share calls and comments from listeners who echo their skepticism and provide additional perspectives.

• Gary from Chesapeake, Virginia (38:15): "I would like to say, Buck, I think Clay's on to something here because when he broke the situation with Hunter Biden..."

Clay and Buck also encourage their audience to subscribe to their YouTube channel and share the podcast, highlighting their growing subscriber base and the importance of community support.

• Buck Sexton (36:45): "A lot of different Topics out there from a variety. During the course of the program, encourage you go subscribe to the YouTube channel."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," listeners are treated to a robust discussion on Hunter Biden's political ambitions, the dangers of AI-generated fake news, Trump’s legal battles with CBS, and a comprehensive analysis of the Big Beautiful Bill with Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. The hosts effectively blend serious political discourse with engaging banter, providing insightful commentary on current events and legislative developments. Their conversation underscores the ongoing tensions within American politics, the impact of media narratives, and the critical role of energy policy in shaping the nation’s future.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Clay Travis (02:00): "Hunter knows the down to the molecular structure. Is impressive to hear such knowledge coming out from Hunter Biden on this stuff."

• Buck Sexton (05:02): "He’s going to run for President of the United States. Now, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me about why he’s doing all these interviews."

• Clay Travis (13:03): "Jerome Powell has just resigned. He’s dead at 76 years old. Rest in peace."

• Clay Travis (17:12): "Jerome Powell has not resigned. That was fake news. We've told you about this before."

• Senator Sullivan (22:04): "The Democrats want to shut down Alaska, want to shut down American energy. President Trump and his team want to unleash it and they're doing it everywhere."

• Senator Sullivan (27:35): "On the one big beautiful bill, we open the ANWR, the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, the Cook Inlet region. These are all federal lands that have huge resources."

• Senator Sullivan (28:02): "We put a lot of those reversals into law, and that's just obviously much stronger in terms of what, you know, God forbid we have a Democrat administration four years from now."

• Buck Sexton (32:54): "I love this. We'll talk about Buck's got a three-month-old, so traveling all the way from Miami to Alaska, bit of a trip."

• Gary from Chesapeake, Virginia (38:15): "I would like to say, Buck, I think Clay's on to something here because when he broke the situation with Hunter Biden..."

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Final Notes

This episode provides a deep dive into significant political and legislative issues, offering listeners a blend of analysis, insider perspectives, and candid conversations. Clay and Buck maintain their commitment to delivering informed and engaging content, making complex topics accessible and entertaining for their audience.

Transcript

[iHeart Media]

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[Unknown Sports Announcer]

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[Clay Travis]

Welcome back into Clay and Buck. Third hour kicks off now. We've got some updates on the Trump discussion of the Russia hoax. Immigration Customs Enforcement doing their thing. A lot going on there. Some updates on Epstein files we could dive into or will we see more files? Really? Will they show us more information? The house looking like they're not going to vote on that, but there's a possibility of Ghislaine Maxwell speaking. She is remember the co conspirator along with Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a very long sentence for trafficking, sex trafficking minors. And so we have all those stories to keep in mind here. But I did want to kick us off in this third hour with, with something that I, I wasn't really expecting. But here we are. Yesterday my esteemed, perhaps even revered by some colleague, Mr. Clay Travis was just, he was, I thought, just talking some crazy talk. You know, Clay likes to do, he likes to throw, he likes to throw 40 yards downfield, double coverage. You know, he's not a shy guy and he's saying this stuff about how he thinks Hunter Biden. Now the Hunter Biden podcast clips that are circulating are pretty interesting. Hunter is, I don't know if he ever got a master's in chemistry. But he certainly knows a lot about freebasing and how to. He talks about how to make your own crack, actually. So I don't even know what freebasing is. I just know it's a way you get drugs. But Hunter knows the down to the molecular structure. He knows the differences in these drugs. Is impressive to hear such knowledge coming out from Hunter Biden on this stuff. And Clay said that he thinks that Hunter sees this. I just think Hunter wants attention. He's used to people caring about what he thinks because it was all one big influence peddling operation with daddy at the top. But now that daddy's got dementia, Hunter's got to step in and become the Biden brand, such as it is. Miranda Devine, another esteemed friend and colleague here, she is talking on her podcast and she, believe it or not, agrees with Clay. This is crazy talk. Play one.

[iHeart Media]

My question is, what is he selling? He doesn't have a book out. I think it's more than just trying to sort of rectify wrongs on behalf of his father because Hunter Biden is really all about himself. And so I actually think that this is his audition to run for president in 2028. And he's always had political ambitions. He had actually a fight with his wife, first wife Kathleen, that she recounts in her memoir. He recounted in his memoir and he also talked about on the laptop he was very angry with Kathleen because he expressed a desire to go into politics and she scoffed at him and said, don't be ridiculous. You, you've just been drummed out of the Navy because of cocaine. So he was felt that she didn't believe in him. But others of his friends have told me that he has a really strong political ambition and I think he wants to capitalize on the Biden name. He's got nothing else.

[Clay Travis]

Clay. This is to me still my brain. This is so crazy that I think it's too crazy for Hunter Biden even, but maybe that's not a thing. I would, I would offer this up. It is so crazy. But the Democrat party is in such a decrepit and free fall state right now that I guess anything is possible. Is that where we are? Is that, is that really now? There's a difference between he could run and win a nomination, nevermind win a contest, but that he would even consider running in the state of the Democrat party to me seems insane beyond words. You and Miranda though, both think that's what he thinks he's doing.

[Buck Sexton]

If you have been coddled to the point where you've been told that you're a great artist and your artwork should sell for tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars a painting. If you have been told by your dad that you are the smartest man that he's ever known, if you wrote an entire book about your drug addiction that was entered into evidence to prove that you were a felon, if you documented every single thing that you did with drugs and hookers on a laptop, went to go get it fixed, and left the laptop behind. And by and large, there were never any consequences for the choices that you made. And you had been told that you were an elite intellect worthy of carrying on the Biden name, and you had come to believe it all, what would be the next thing that you would do? He's going to run for President of the United States. Now, it's the only thing that makes sense to me about why he's doing all these interviews. Joe Biden isn't doing interviews. If there were an ability for Joe Biden to do interviews, maybe he would. Tends to be the case that presidents kind of vanish for a little while and don't do much media when they leave office. That tends to be the general trend. Let the next person kind of come in. But all of this adds up to, Hunter thinks he's going to run. Now, I think a lot of Democrats are going to say, no, no, no. The last thing we want to deal with is having to acknowledge the sins of the Biden administration and all of the lies that we told associated with him. Even I think we have the audio. He went after George Clooney. He went after Nancy Pelosi. He went after the Axelrod Pluff, and also even the Pod Save America Bros. And now the Pod Save America Bros are returning fire at him. I actually think all this does is in some ways elevate Hunter Biden in his mind. I think we have audio in Pod Save America Bros. By the way, let's play this. Because now they're willing to say, oh, Hunter Biden never should have gotten any of these gigs. Totally. He was getting paid because of who his dad was. But only in the wake of this, which is what we've been telling you for years. Listen to this cut.

[Unknown Podcast Guest]

When it comes to the attacks on Hunter himself, like, okay, let's just. What if we just stipulate for the hypothetical. Like, yes, okay. All your business dealings were above board and legal. All your paintings were purchased by art lovers who loved the product and didn't know your Name Trump is worse. You are on the board of Burisma because of who your dad is. And that is what people hate about Washington. And it was part of the problem. One thing we know is that Hunter Biden throughout Joe Biden's presidency was a terrible liability for him. And put the addiction aside, it is because he was on Burisma, because he became an artist, because he was part of a kind of like sleazy Washington that, as Tommy said, people hated. You were a liability. You should be ashamed of the ways in which you made your father's political life worse. And like the idea that we're gonna listen to you now, like, give me a break. It's ridiculous.

[Clay Travis]

Clay. They sound like they could have been on the Clay and Buck show as guests for about the four years of Biden's actual presidency, but now they say it. So this is what I wanted to get into Hunter as a guy who just wants attention. For sure. Yes. And that goes to the coddling. Does he really think he has a lane? I think the Biden name in the Biden name in Democrat circles is toxic. Now. I think that Biden isn't something that commands any respect. I think Biden's viewed as a liability and a loser among Democrats. Agree or disagree?

[Buck Sexton]

I think that's true. The question is, does that puncture Hunter's expected value of himself to such an extent that he's got the self awareness and to say I don't have the skill set to be able to do this or the record that would suggest I can run for president.

[Clay Travis]

He would be like the, the, the former crack using version of the guy from succession, you know, the oldest brother Khan, isn't that his name? Who wants to run on like some libertarian ish ticket. And he's very excited because in a poll he's at 1% of the vote.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Right.

[Buck Sexton]

One of the all time great. One of the all time great lines. I'm worried this might hurt me in the polls. One of the other guys says, how do you go down from 1%? Like one of the, one of the alt. It's not Hans, but I. His name is escaping me right now. Succession is an amazing dark television comedy that I loved. And yes, the oldest son kind of runs as sort of the libertarian candidate for president and, and is able to get around 1% by the way. I don't think we played this cut either. This is the pod Save America bros. This is the left wing establishment now saying, hey Hunter, you're not the victim. This is different, I think, than the one we just played, right? Cut to seeing this today.

[Unknown Podcast Guest]

I guess what I wanted, if I was in a room with him and able to talk rationally, I'd just be like, hey man, look around the world. Look at what's happening in this country right now. Like, I know you're angry personally, but you're not the victim here. We're all living with what happened in.

[Buck Sexton]

This election and you got a pardon, you're fine.

[Unknown Podcast Guest]

It's just utter lack of self awareness.

[Buck Sexton]

You know who Hunter Biden. I was watching this interview and I thought to myself, you know who he kind of reminds me of one of the last residents of Buck Island. In fact, listen to cut 5. Hunter Biden. He might have had some beachfront real estate on Buck Island. Listen, minus the F bombs, he could be talking like Buck Sexton. Cut five.

[Clay Travis]

I will tell you why we lost the last election.

[Buck Sexton]

We lost the last election because we.

[Clay Travis]

Did not remain loyal to the leader of the party. That's my position. We had the advantage of incumbency, we had the advantage of an incredibly successful administration and the Democratic Party literally melted down. Now, I don't think that's going to help revaluate reflection.

[Buck Sexton]

You might be kissing cousins, so to speak.

[Clay Travis]

It's. Look, I think his analysis on this one may be pretty astute because that was, what they did was insane. I don't think the Democrats could have had a worse result in this election than they did. Realistically. I don't really think, given the American electorate, it was possible for them, them to have a much worse result. People were saying, oh, Biden was dropping, dropping, dropping. If they had, if they had gone behind him, rather if they had rallied behind him and if he had had a decent showing in another debate where they put him, you know, they put the right drugs into Joe, then I think he might have pulled it off. By the way, I'm just making sure this is correct. I think this is breaking news right now. Do we have, guys check on this? Do we have any breaking news on with, with Jerome Powell resigning? Is that happening? I got to, I got to check on this one. This is the problem with being live, live as I go to break.

[Buck Sexton]

Let me give you this and we'll go check on the absolute latest. They thought, by the way, and I love that this is what they thought that you were checking on. This is obviously not good news, But Ozzy Osbourne, 76 year old rocker has died. And in my ear is, you're like, I'm checking. I was like, there's no way. Buck is triple checking to see what the health of Ozzy Osbourne is. Let me read this to you. We'll come back with the latest news. Gavin Newsom, right now, according to the gambling markets is the favorite to be the nominee. AOC is second Mayor Pete third Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, fourth Westmore fifth Kamala Harris all the way down to sixth. Andy Beshear. We've been talking about the state of Kentucky and the way they responded to Louisville. A bunch of you want to weigh in on that. All the way down at seventh. My point on all of this is do any of those names strike you as any more ridiculous than Jerome Powell?

[Clay Travis]

We have, we have breaking, we have the breaking news here. Jerome Powell has resigned, effective today, immediately. He's got an email, he's got a rather a letter out with his resignation on it. After much reflection, I've decided to resign from my position as chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve effective at the close of business today, July 22, 2025. Yada yada yada. I believe new leadership is needed. I remain confident. Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chair, he just resigned. Interest.

[Buck Sexton]

That is a surprise because the talk had been would Trump force him out? Trump had been trying to put more and more pressure on him. Stock market interestingly has so far not moved substantially about this at, at all. I'm looking right now as we speak because there have been talk the experts had said, hey, if Jerome Powell steps down, the stock market is going to move substantially. And I suppose it's possible that the traders have not adjusted to it yet because this is just legitimately breaking news, but virtually no impact whatsoever on stock prices. We'll get you the latest on that. It is fairly consequential and we'll bring you back and break down more on that. But in the meantime, I want to tell you, if you're trying to save money, you can save a ton right now with our friends at Pure Talk thanks to our sponsor. You can even upgrade. And this month when you switch to Pure Talk, they'll give you a Samsung Galaxy A36 for free with a qualifying plan, 35 bucks a month, provides unlimited talk text, plenty of data and a free Samsung phone with scratch resistant Gorilla glass. You can save up to $1,000 over the course of a year and your family can have just as good a service. Make the switch in as little as 10 minutes. Dial pound 250, say the keywords clay and Buck to get your free phone today. That's £250, say clay and Buck to switch to America's wireless company pure talk. That's £2 50 Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Mic drops that never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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[Clay Travis]

All right, my bad, Clay. Let me just jump in and say my bad. Jerome Powell has not resigned. Sorry about that everybody. False alarm on that. Unfortunately it is confirmed. Ozzy Osbourne has passed away. A rock legend. So that is breaking news that just happened. He is dead at 76 years old. Rest in peace. But the breaking news, which was shared by members of Congress as well as other large accounts online based on what seems to be an AI created Jerome Powell letter of resignation. That is fake news. And we've told you about this before. It's going to keep happening, especially with a lot of things that Trump, for example, puts out on Truth Social. It's very easy to AI or even just sort of photoshop a fake one and they get out there. But yeah, no, Jerome Powell has not resigned. He's expected still to finish out whatever it is the eight months he's got left. And so that. That was fake. That's, that's a fake news AI job right there. I should have waited to the commercial break, but I thought, I thought I could trust our members of Congress. That was a mistake.

[Buck Sexton]

Look, the stock market didn't move so I was like, well that's interesting.

[Clay Travis]

I like that you went right to your clay went right to like, how's this affecting the bottom line? You know he's not messing around around.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, I want to know how the markets are reacting to almost any, any news. And so I thought it was strange that there wouldn't be a reaction in some way. But I do think, look, we're going to do our best, we'll correct it. We're wrong. Live radio in an AI age, there is going to be tons of different stories that spread rapidly and actually don't have that don't end up being true. So I think this is a good lesson for everybody. We're going to do our best. We'll mess up again because on live radio there's news breaking the time. But for everybody out there, keep your heads on a swivel and, and understand that at any point in time you have to be careful about what is getting shared and what is circulating rapidly. A lot of people are deleting what had begun to go mega viral on social media. Somebody went through the trouble of creating.

[Clay Travis]

A very authentic looking. It didn't have at the bottom of it like something, you know, like a joke.

[Buck Sexton]

No, it looked like a letter that would be out if Jerome Powell had stepped down. By the way, this is breaking news. Trump has just posted a letter where he says that CBS has now paid the $16 million settlement to him. And on top of the $16 million settlement, there is a $20 million in ads that there are going to be run as well which are beneficial for him and $20 million more in advertising, PSAs or similar programming for a total of over $36 million. He says it's a big victory over CBS News. And in conjunction with that, the Colbert fallout continues as they try to make Stephen Colbert a martyr. I watched some of the clips from last night's show on Colbert as they were circulating this morning and it will be intriguing to see how that goes going forward.

[Clay Travis]

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[Buck Sexton]

We are headed up to D.C. now. Senator Sullivan of Alaska is going to join us. Talk about the big beautiful bill. Also, I would imagine, Senator, you are eager to get back to Alaska so you can start talking with everyone there about the impact of the big beautiful bill on many different fronts, including energy. What's the difference between what the Trump administration is allowing your state of Alaska to do with all the natural resources there compared to what the Biden administration was doing for your state? What is the impact?

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Geez, Clay. Buck, that is the greatest question. Great to be back on your show. And that's the key question. And it's 110% difference. The Democrats want to shut down Alaska, want to shut down American energy. President Trump and his team want to unleash it and they're doing it everywhere. This big beautiful bill does it, especially with regard to Alaska. But look to be more specific, during the four years of the Biden administration, Alaskans know this. We suffered through 70, that's seven zero executive orders and executive actions singularly focused, exclusively focused on shutting down Alaska's resource development economy. And the president and his team are 110% opposite. That's great for America, great for Alaska and really great for American workers.

[Clay Travis]

Senator, appreciate you being with us. What's going on in the Senate right now? You guys still have some, some time left here. You're about to go on recess. I hear Schumer is up to Schumer shenanigans and blocking judges and causing, causing some problems for you guys. Bring us up to speed with the business of the Senate as it stands right now.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Yeah, look, Buck, we, we had a really very productive first six months with the president. I would say historic, and you guys mentioned it. I'm getting ready to go home and really, really sell this one big beautiful build. I don't think there's any state that fared better than Alaska, particularly to the earlier questions on the American energy components. A huge part of this bill is unlocking American energy and most of the bill was unlocking Alaska. You know, American energy dominance runs through my great state. So I'm anxious to get home to make the pitch to so many Alaskans where they have a much better understanding of how this helps Working families, our economy, our military, our Coast Guard. It is a home run. But for your question, Schumer, you know, look, the guy is so afraid of his left wing, right? Every day wakes up scared to death that AOC is going to primary him. So he is trying to fight, supposedly anything that we're trying to get done to move forward with our government, certainly on legislation, but on nominees, on basic, you know, under secretaries, assistant secretaries, people who run our government. He blocks every way they can to get their Senate confirmation. So we're going to start just jamming down on these guys. We just had a meeting of all our Senate Republican colleagues saying, hey, we need to go morning, noon and night, start getting the president's nominees across the board. We've gotten zero cooperation from Schumer. And usually you guys on the lower level nominees, if it's an assistant secretary, you kind of put it in a package to move something forward with several nominees. That's very normal. We did it with Biden. They did it previously. Schumer's not doing that. This is the most obstruction we've seen from any Senate minority leader on another administration's nominees, literally since Herbert Hoover. The guy won't help us at all. So we're going to start jamming down on him.

[Buck Sexton]

We're talking to Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska. One of the things that obviously is going to be a huge topic of discussion next year is the House. And I think we talked about this with you before, but the ranked choice voting in Alaska seems to me to be a complete mess. What is the latest on that? Do you agree that it's a mess and what are Alaskans thinking after they were kind of, I think, bamboozled into the idea in the first place?

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Well, look, it's still on the ballot in Alaska, and there's an outside group that put it on the ballot, a statewide initiative in 2020. The Republicans fought it, I fought it. We tried to get it removed in 2024, by the way. Both times it passed with less than 1% of the vote. And we are the groups against it. Republicans, myself, we are outspent. It's unbelievable. I don't know, 12, 13 million by the outside groups for ranked choice voting versus 80,000 by the Republican Party. It's very confusing and it can be really, really manipulated. And the Democrats, in my view, particularly Schumer, who's already been, you know, I'm up for reelection this cycle as well. We have a congressman, Nick Baggage. He's doing a great job, but we'll have to run against that. And look, the best way, even with a system like that, which we don't like, I don't like it's confusing. It can be manipulated. Alaskans are still confused by it, is to show what we're getting done. And again, I want to come back to this one big, beautiful bill for Alaska. This bill, across every element of policy in our economy is really, really strong. And what we're going to do is run on our record. And I think for Alaska, this bill, particularly as it relates to jobs in our economy and the working class, is a home run.

[Clay Travis]

What are the most important changes the Trump administration could see through here from where things were under four years of Biden on the issue of energy? I mean, obviously, Alaska, very important energy production state affects your economy. It really affects America and the global economy, too. You guys have a lot of stuff up there. What needs to happen or what are some of the concrete things that Trump can do so that we take drill, baby, drill to the next level?

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Yeah, well, we've done it in this bill. And the President did it literally, day one. You guys might recall one of the President's first executive orders, about a couple hours after he was inaugurated, was this executive order on unleashing Alaska's extraordinary resource potential. I work directly with the President and his team on this to unleash Alaska. We're the only state in the country that has our own executive order. So what that executive order did was it said, hey, we're going to reverse pretty much all the 70 executive orders that Biden issued to shut down Alaska. So that, that was good. But the big, beautiful bill is even better because what we did is that we put a lot of those reversals into law, and that's just obviously much stronger in terms of what, you know, God forbid we have a Democrat administration four years from now. I certainly hope we don't. But if that administration tries to come in and shut down Alaska, they're not going to be able to do it. Because let me give you a couple examples. On the one big, beautiful bill, we open the anwr, the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, the Cook Inlet region. These are all federal lands that have huge resources. And we mandate in this bill regular lease sales that Biden would never do, the Democrats would never do in the law. So it says, hey, energy companies can come up. They get regular lease sales on all of these really, really important federal lands. As you guys mentioned, Alaska has so much oil and gas, so many critical minerals. And then really importantly, we got a permitting reform provision in the one Big beautiful bill that will help expedite the permitting of these projects. One of our greatest challenges, the Dems love to abuse it is, you know, having a permitting system. It takes 10 to 15 to 20 years to permit a resource development project. It kills our competitiveness. It's really hard for long term investors to invest in Alaska when they have these permitting issues. And we got permitting reform done in this one. Big, beautiful bill as well. To expedite these projects, get them online quickly. That's a part of the bill that hasn't gotten a lot of attention. Great for Alaska, great for America. So if you can get it in the law, which is what we did on energy in this bill, it's even better than the executive order that the president issued, which we are really appreciative of. So it's the combo of both and he's got a great energy team. A bunch of his cabinet were just up in Alaska recently. I hosted them all over the state. It's going to be very exciting times for Alaska and resource development. By the way, we'd love to have you guys. Clay, buck up. Up to our state. We can do a program from Alaska. I think I talked about that last time I was on.

[Buck Sexton]

I'm so can we get as long as we get.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, I was. As long as we can get Clay close to some grizzly bears. He's going to be excited. He likes to get real close, though, Senator, you know he wants to see them.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Clay, I will bring you close, man. There's great fishing going on in our great state right now. It's just. It's the place to be. But we really do that. Remember last time, last time I was on the show, we talked about you guys all coming up. You got a lot of listeners in Alaska, huge fans, and we can do it. You guys would have a ball.

[Buck Sexton]

I am sold on this idea. In fact, I was talking to my wife downstairs, right? But during the last commercial break, she was like, hey, what you got going on? I said, hey, we've got one of the senators from Alaska going. Neither she nor I have ever been to Alaska. It is on the top of the list. And she said, well, we've got to go up to Alaska. So I know we have some good affiliates up there. You guys can reach out. Let's see if we can get this set up. I want to make the trip. I've been wanting to visit for a long time, Senator, so maybe we can get this thing worked out where, where we can come up and do broadcast or one of us can at least. And that would be me. And we'll see whether Buck can make it too.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Clay, you come up with your wife. Buck, you come up with your family. And here's what we'll do. We'll do the one big beautiful bill tour because look, there is so many good things in this bill for the country, but for the great state of Alaska, I could do a program with you guys for three hours. And what we're trying to do now, you know the way the Democrats work. Schumer has spent his far left dark money groups. They've spent, I mean, believe it or not, up to close to 2 million bucks running negative ads against me and this bill and how it's horrible. It's not. They're all false ads. So what we're doing is we're trying to make the case all over the state. But heck, we could do a one big beautiful Clay Buck tour.

[Buck Sexton]

And I don't, I don't hate this idea at all.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

And I'm telling you, man, you guys would love it. Bring your family. We'd have a blast. And we, we get the word out, right? Because people want to hear the truth.

[Buck Sexton]

I love this. We'll talk about Bucks got a three month old, so traveling all the way from Miami to Alaska, bit of a trip. So he might not be able to do it, but we will. I want to come up there and we'll come up for the show for sure and, and help you out with this process. And producer Greg is making fun of me and saying maybe I could swim from Alaska to Russia because I said I could swim from Alcatraz to the San.

[Clay Travis]

That's after you do the Alcatraz swim. The bearing straight swim is the. That's the prologue.

[Buck Sexton]

More challenging. Senator, we appreciate the time.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Okay, guys, good to be back on the show and thanks for your great work.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you.

[Buck Sexton]

Appreciate it.

[Clay Travis]

I will say, Clay, Alaska in the summer, which is when I went there maybe. Yeah, I went Kenai Peninsula fishing with my dad and my brothers. One of the most, in terms of natural beauty, one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I mean, if you like the cold, crisp weather, beauty, it's. It's amazing.

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, I have to go. And my wife Laura. I'm not kidding. We were just talking about this and how we want to add it to the list, so maybe we make that happen. In the meantime, I bet you know what works well in Alaska, Buck? I bet rapid radios work really, really well in Alaska because you don't necessarily know if you're going to get great reception, but you need to have something reliable in the event that you've got something going on. Maybe grizzly bears are in the yard and you need a little bit of help. Maybe you want to make sure that you're protected in the event of some sort of weather catastrophe, power going out, whatever it might be. We talked about this when the storms hit last year and Asheville, North Carolina was in peril. Buck's sister in law was able to use the Rapid Radios to get in touch. They work nationwide. They're basically easy to explain and nationwide walkie talkies. They connect you with dozens or even a couple hundred. People can work for companies too. Construction all over the place. Rapid Radios don't require any setup at all. Just pull them out of the box, press a button, boom, you can talk. One Touch Connection Perfect for communicating with one employee or 200 employees on the go all at the same time. With nationwide LTE coverage. Rapid Radios 100% private. No monthly fees or subscriptions. Visit rapidradios.com to save up to 60% off. Get free UPS shipping from Michigan plus use code radio for an extra 5% off. That's rapidradios.com code radio order today rapidradios.com code radio keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history on the Team 47 podcast claims 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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[Buck Sexton]

Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. A lot of different Topics out there from a variety. During the course of the program, encourage you go subscribe to the YouTube channel. I really appreciate Sergeant Mattingly from Louisville calling in top of the second hour. We posted the entire interview there so you can listen to and watch the entire interview of that. And we've been encouraging all of you to go subscribe to the Clay and Buck show. And a thousand of you have gone and subscribed during the course of today's program. And I imagine many more will as you listen to the podcast and throughout. We want to go over a hundred thousand. We are getting very close.

[Clay Travis]

Close.

[Buck Sexton]

I think We've added about 10,000 subscribers since I started asking. Hey, can you guys go subscribe? And so please go subscribe. Search out my name, Clay Travis. Search out Buck Sexton. We're at 86,300 subscribers and we want to go over a hundred thousand as we get ready to be putting the full video of the program in the months ahead up on that site. And you'll be ready and you can share videos easily. It is the number one video site out there. Kids and grandkids spend a great deal of time there. All right, a lot of different reactions. Let me pull up the absolute latest. This is Gary in Chesapeake, Virginia. What you got for us? Reacting to the Hunter Biden audio as we were playing it earlier.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Hey, clean but great. Be on with y'. All.

[Buck Sexton]

Appreciate you.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

And I would. And I would like to say, Buck, I think Clay's on to something here because when he broke the situation with Hunter Biden, I can see Hunter Biden dressed in a suit to the nines, hair slicked back, crack pipe in his mouth, point at the mirror, saying, you're the man.

[Buck Sexton]

You're the man. Thank you for the call. I think. I'm not saying it's sane. I'm just saying Hunter Biden sees himself as the avenging archangel of the Biden crime family. And he believes that there is a bigger market for him than there is because of all the lies that he has been told.

[Clay Travis]

So the. I mean, I can co sign on all that. The place where I just don't see it is the actual affirmative step of announcing that he's running for anything. But announcing that he's running is in and of itself just a way to get attention. And a lot of people do that. So I'm thinking you are less crazy. We both agree it's an insane idea from a rational person's perspective. But I thought it was insane to even believe that Hunter would take the affirmative step. Of running. I think it's less insane now. I'm a little, I'm a little worried I might have to say you were right on this one eventually, which, you know, that, that just, that bums me so hopefully.

[Buck Sexton]

Well, I think it could tie in with your argument out there, which I don't think is a crazy argument, which is even Asa Hutchinson didn't have anything that bad come from running for president. Even if you get smoked running for president, you still get to charge more to speak or do whatever your books.

[Clay Travis]

It's just free media. It's just free media. So. But for Hunter Biden, you would say, well, he's going to get completely chewed up by the machinery if he does try to run because I think Democrats see him as liability. But he's kind of been chewed up so much, is there anything left to chew, really?

[Buck Sexton]

I mean, you know when you're noted as a crackhead who broke up your brother's wife's wedding, Right? I mean, this guy has done everything awful already and we all know I think he thinks he's gonna run.

[Unknown Sports Announcer]

Football is back.

Let's go, baby.

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[iHeart Media]

This is an iHeart podcast.