Team 47 - Accountability

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show – "Team 47 - Accountability"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
• Host/Author: iHeartPodcasts
• Episode: Team 47 - Accountability
• Release Date: July 27, 2025
• Description: Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics, and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.

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Introduction and Guest Introduction (00:00 - 01:05)

The episode begins with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton introducing the show. Advertisements for WashablesOfAs.com and sponsorships are swiftly presented and skipped as per the summary guidelines.

Notable Moment:

• [00:00] Clay Travis announces the podcast’s affiliation with iHeartPodcasts.

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Celebrity Impact and Legacy: Hulk Hogan Discussion (01:05 - 03:02)

Guest: Bill O'Reilly joins Clay and Buck to discuss the enduring impact and legacy of celebrities, focusing on Hulk Hogan.

Key Points:

• Hulk Hogan's Iconic Status: Bill O’Reilly and Clay Travis delve into Hulk Hogan’s status as one of the most iconic figures in wrestling history.
• Hogan vs. Smear Websites: Clay recounts his admiration for Hogan’s efforts to dismantle damaging smear websites, notably Gawker, emphasizing Hogan's role in setting boundaries against online defamation.

Notable Quotes:

• Bill O’Reilly [01:13]: "Where would you put Hulk Hogan on the list of true American originals celebrities in that context?"
• Clay Travis [02:19]: "He sent a message that there is a limit to how much you can hurt people using a website or a company. And that was very important for this country."

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Book Announcement and Exploration of Evil (03:02 - 05:33)

Topic: Bill O’Reilly introduces his upcoming book, Confronting Evil: Assessing the Worst of the Worst, set to release on September 9th.

Key Points:

• Singular vs. Collective Evil: Clay differentiates between singular evil, exemplified by individuals like Bryan Kohberger, and collective evil, involving powerful leaders like Hitler and Putin who caused mass suffering.
• Historical Perspective: Clay draws on his 50-year journalism career, referencing his pursuit of serial killers like Ted Bundy, to illustrate the spectrum of evil he addresses in his book.
• Psychopathy and Society’s Obligation: Emphasizes that psychopathic individuals inflict significant harm and that society must rigorously punish them.

Notable Quotes:

• Clay Travis [03:52]: "Singular evil, individual evil, and it's heinous. But it's been in humankind forever… Singular evil."
• Clay Travis [05:33]: "They are psychotic people. They're psychopaths, and they will commit as much damage as they can. They are evil, and society is an obligation to punish them as much as possible."

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Revelations from Tulsi Gabbard and Russia Investigation (05:33 - 15:30)

Discussion with Bill O’Reilly:

• Tulsi Gabbard’s Revelations: The conversation shifts to Tulsi Gabbard’s revelations regarding the 2016 election, intelligence agency knowledge, and potential legal consequences.

Key Points:

• Brennan's Criminal Potential: Clay discusses former CIA Chief John Brennan's actions, suggesting Brennan's manipulation of intelligence to damage the Trump administration could lead to severe legal repercussions.
• Justice Department’s Role: Explores the improbability of indicting high-profile Democrats like Barack Obama due to the necessity of insider testimony.
• Epstein Card Scandal: Bill O’Reilly and Clay dive into the controversial Wall Street Journal report alleging Trump’s association with Jeffrey Epstein through a "birthday card." Clay advises President Trump to let the Justice Department handle the situation, avoiding personal engagement to prevent exacerbating the issue.

Notable Quotes:

• Clay Travis [06:03]: "If I'm Brennan right now, I'm combing for the best lawyer I can find. That looks like a slam dunk case to me. That looks like prison time to me."
• Clay Travis [08:35]: "I don't think that President Trump should answer any questions about Epstein. He should defer to the Justice Department 100%."
• Clay Travis [11:10]: "The Wall Street Journal is usually pretty accurate in its reportage. I don't know about this birthday card business."

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Discussion on President Trump’s Response to Epstein Revelations (08:19 - 15:30)

Key Points:

• President Trump's State: Clay conveys that President Trump is emotionally and mentally worn out by persistent negative media coverage, particularly the Epstein story.
• Media Coverage Imbalance: Highlights the disparity in media coverage, noting significant achievements like the Trump administration’s deal with Japan receive negligible attention compared to the Epstein story.
• Physical Strain: Clay humorously notes Trump's physical discomfort from frequent handshakes, illustrating the toll of constant public interaction.

Notable Quotes:

• Clay Travis [13:55]: "He's tired. And he's tired because this kind of stuff wears you down."
• Clay Travis [15:30]: "He's the strongest guy I know. I mean, my God. But his hand is swelling up because he, he has to shake hundreds of hands a week."

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Senate Discussions: Rand Paul, Dan Sullivan, and Tulsi Gabbard (15:46 - 35:53)

Guests: Senator Rand Paul and Senator Dan Sullivan join the show alongside Tulsi Gabbard to discuss a range of political issues, focusing on accountability within government and the intelligence community.

Key Topics:

1. Russia Gate and Intelligence Accountability:

   • Tulsi Gabbard’s Role: Gabbard discusses her efforts to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci and others accountable for alleged misconduct and misinformation related to COVID-19 and gain-of-function research.
   • Senator Rand Paul's Frustration: Emphasizes the lack of accountability for powerful figures compared to the swift indictment of ordinary individuals involved in the Capitol riots.

   Notable Quotes:

   • Tulsi Gabbard [18:29]: "I referred Fauci twice under Biden. I presumed they would ignore it, but now I referred him most recently just in the last week to the Trump Department of Justice."
   • Bill O’Reilly [25:02]: "We've got Tulsi Gabbard having a press conference right now… Epstein wasn't a felon then. And so I don't think it would surprise anybody that Trump might have a little bit of a locker room sense of humor back for much of his life."

2. Federal Reserve and Financial Accountability:

   • Rand Paul on Federal Reserve Spending: Paul criticizes the Federal Reserve’s $2 billion renovation of its Washington D.C. headquarters, questioning the lack of congressional oversight and the preferential treatment of big banks.

   Notable Quotes:

   • Tulsi Gabbard [20:14]: "The Federal Reserve doesn't even have congressional oversight as far as the power of the purse. They just print it up."
   • Tulsi Gabbard [21:41]: "Taxpayer money or government-controlled money like this is going from the regular middle class to the very wealthy elite."

3. Judicial Appointments and Senate Efficiency:

   • Senator Dan Sullivan on Senate Blockages: Sullivan highlights the Democratic-led Senate’s obstruction of President Trump’s judicial nominees, comparing current resistance to historic levels of obstruction.

   Notable Quotes:

   • Senator Dan Sullivan [33:42]: "Schumer's not doing that. This is the most obstruction we've seen from any Senate minority leader on another administration's nominees since Herbert Hoover."

4. Ranked Choice Voting in Alaska:

   • Bill O’Reilly Questions: O’Reilly critiques the implementation of ranked choice voting in Alaska, expressing skepticism about its effectiveness and reception among Alaskans.
   • Dan Sullivan’s Defense: Sullivan argues that ranked choice voting has been overwhelmingly rejected by Alaskans, citing low voter support and excessive manipulation by outside groups.

   Notable Quotes:

   • Senator Dan Sullivan [36:21]: "It's confusing and it can be really, really manipulated. And the Democrats…spent up to close to 2 million bucks running negative ads against me and this bill."
   • Bill O’Reilly [36:21]: "From a news perspective, I think you first have to ask yourself the question we're talking to Bill O’Reilly, is this news?"

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Energy Policy and the "One Big Beautiful Bill" (35:53 - 38:25)

Discussion with Senator Dan Sullivan:

• Alaskan Energy Initiatives: Senator Sullivan elaborates on the "One Big Beautiful Bill," a legislative package aimed at revitalizing Alaska's energy sector by reversing previous administration policies that hindered resource development.

Key Points:

• Reversal of Biden’s Executive Orders: The bill incorporates provisions that nullify approximately 70 executive orders from the Biden administration aimed at limiting Alaska’s resource development.
• National Petroleum Reserve and Cook Inlet: Mandates regular lease sales in these regions to encourage energy production.
• Permitting Reforms: Introduces expedited permitting processes to reduce the time and bureaucratic hurdles for resource projects, enhancing competitiveness and investment appeal.

Notable Quotes:

• Senator Dan Sullivan [38:25]: "We put a lot of those reversals into law, and that's just obviously much stronger…"
• Senator Dan Sullivan [37:58]: "American energy dominance runs through my great state. So I'm anxious to get home to make the pitch to so many Alaskans."

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Future Plans and Closing Remarks (38:25 - 44:21)

Key Points:

• Alaska Visit Proposal: Bill O’Reilly expresses interest in visiting Alaska to explore the state’s natural beauty and energy initiatives, encouraged by Senator Sullivan’s invitation.
• Humorous Exchange: A light-hearted moment occurs when Clay Travis jokes about the Real ID system, prompting laughter and camaraderie among the hosts and guests.
• Final Thoughts: The show wraps up with appreciation from guests and hosts, reinforcing the episode's focus on accountability and strategic policy discussions.

Notable Quotes:

• Senator Dan Sullivan [41:56]: "Clay, Buck, that is the greatest question. Great to be back on your show."
• Bill O’Reilly [43:30]: "I am sold on this idea. In fact, I was talking to my wife… we have to go up to Alaska."

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Conclusion

In this episode of "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," host Clay Travis and Buck Sexton engage in deep and insightful conversations with prominent figures like Bill O’Reilly, Senator Rand Paul, Senator Dan Sullivan, and Tulsi Gabbard. The discussions span a range of critical topics, including the legacy of celebrities like Hulk Hogan, the nature of evil in society, accountability within intelligence agencies, the politicization of high-profile scandals such as the Jeffrey Epstein case, and significant legislative efforts to bolster Alaska’s energy sector. The episode underscores themes of accountability, transparency, and strategic policy reforms, providing listeners with a comprehensive analysis of current political and social issues.

Notable Highlight:

• Bill O’Reilly’s Upcoming Book: The discussion around Bill O’Reilly’s book, Confronting Evil: Assessing the Worst of the Worst, offers a profound exploration of both individual and collective evil, drawing from his extensive journalism background to provide context and depth to the conversation.

Final Quote:

• Clay Travis [44:21]: "This is an I heart podcast."

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Note: This summary intentionally omits advertisements, non-content sections, and maintains a focus on substantive discussions to provide a comprehensive overview for those who have not listened to the episode.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Bill O'Reilly]

47 podcast is sponsored by Good ranchers.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Making the American Farm strong again.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Team 47 with Clay and Buck starts now. We're joined now by Bill O'Reilly in terms of icon, you spend a lot of time talking about celebrities and impact and the legacy of fame and all of these, I think, just tremendously generational and timeless analyses. Where would you put Hulk Hogan on the list of true American originals celebrities in that context for which you have spent much of your career writing about?

[Clay Travis]

I interviewed Hogan back when he was probably the top wage earner in the wrestling business. And I think he's the most famous wrestler ever. So, I mean, you don't get more iconic in that industry than that. But what his historical importance is is that he destroyed that smear website which was damaging Gawker.

[Bill O'Reilly]

He took down.

[Clay Travis]

And I admired that because that was the worst. I mean, there are a lot of bad websites now, a lot. Nothing like that. And he took them down single handedly. It was all him. And that's what I will remember him for as a journalist, the wrestling industry, okay? But what he did was he sent a message that there is a limit to how much you can hurt people using a website or a company. And that was very important for this country.

[Bill O'Reilly]

You are writing about right now, evil in particular, confronting evil, assessing the worst of the worst. That book is gonna come out September 9th, very soon, yesterday. And we didn't talk about it a ton on the show, but yesterday Bryan Kohberger was confronted by the family and friends of the four young people that he Murdered in cold blood in Idaho. What did you think as you watched that, in terms of evil and the fact that he just basically has declined to say anything about the crimes that he is committing, that the plea that he has entered into is gonna save him from the death penalty, but means he'll have to spend the rest of his life in prison?

[Clay Travis]

That is singular evil, individual evil, and it's heinous. But it's been in humankind forever, ever since the planet and Neanderthals walked, has always been here. Singular evil. What I write about in Confronting Evil is collective evil, where you have 15 people that we spotlight inside the book that achieved enormous power. And they did so in a variety of ways, but everyone knew they were evil. It wasn't like a debate about it. And yet they were able, in their situations, the Ayatollah in Iran, Hitler in Germany, Stalin and Putin in Russia, they were able to get to a position where they killed millions and millions of people. Untold suffering. That was my fascination. Now, I've covered a lot of stories in my 50 years in journalism and a lot of heinous serial killers. I chased Ted Bundy from coast to coast, all right? He was one of the worst ever. And my opinion on it is very simple. These are psychotic people. They're psychopaths, and they will commit as much damage as they can. They are evil, and society is an obligation to punish them as much as possible. But it's not at the level of what I'm writing about in my upcoming book.

[Bill O'Reilly]

We're talking with Bill O'Reilly. We open the show talking about the revelations from Tulsi Gabbard surrounding the 2016 election and what the intelligence agencies knew and what they said publicly. What do you think the significance of that story is and playing it forward? What will the consequences be, if any, legally, in your mind, going forward from the revelations she just shared?

[Clay Travis]

Well, Brennan has definite criminal potential. The former CIA chief under Obama, the guy, according to the House report. Remember, this is the House Intelligence Committee two years after the Senate issue. There's a lot of new information there, and it was chaired by Schiff, who's a Democratic majority on this committee. They concluded that at least three times that Brennan knew the information that he was using to get warrants to do other things to damage the Trump administration was false. So if I'm Brennan right now, I'm combing for the best lawyer I can find. That looks like a slam dunk case to me. That looks like prison time to me. The other is a little murky. I mean, I know the right wing people are jumping up and down going, oh, they're going to indict Barack Obama. They're not. That would be impossible. It's not going to happen. So if you want to run around thinking that, fine, but it's not. In the real world, Comey, the FBI chief now there, you'd have to have a testimony inside the bureau. You'd have to have someone inside the bureau that worked and had access to Comey say, yeah, he knew the same thing Brennan knew and he cooperated with the fraud. That's what you would need to nail Comey in front of a federal grand jury. They may be able to get that. The current Justice Department may be able to get that. And so whenever these stories break, I always tell my listeners and viewers that you have to live in the real world. Supreme Court has ruled clearly in Donald Trump's case in the Jan. 6 that he had the right as president to say and do what he felt was necessary. Barack Obama is going to fall right under that category. Unless you have Michelle Obama saying, hey, you know, he knew it was a fake, I don't think you're going to get it. But, you know, who knows?

[Bill O'Reilly]

We're Talking to Bill O'Reilly, got a new book coming out about confronting evil September 9th. What would you tell President Trump he should do about the Epstein revelations and the ongoing story there? If he asked you for advice, your advice would be what?

[Clay Travis]

Well, he asked me this morning.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Oh, okay.

[Clay Travis]

About four hours ago, I got a call from the president and I, you know, I don't report word for word, but I'll tell you generally my feeling about it. Okay. So I don't think that President Trump should answer any questions about Epstein. He should defer to the Justice Department 100%. I would not, as president, allow myself to be besieged by this story. It is a legitimate story in the sense that there are millions of Americans, not just liberal people, but conservatives as well, who believe the fix is in at the federal level. And if you're rich and powerful, you're going to be protected, even if you're a criminal. That is a common belief in America that makes this story valid. So what I would do would be have one spokesperson designated by the Justice Department to deal with this situation and to tell American people, here's what we are doing. If you read the Wall Street Journal report yesterday, it said clearly that in the information compiled by the federal government about Jeffrey Epstein, there are literally hundreds of names in that information. Hundreds guys who delivered them bagels you.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Know, all of those.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Yes.

[Clay Travis]

So these people screaming, oh, you got to put it all out. That would be billions of dollars in lawsuits if the Justice Department were to do that. Billions. Because if your name is associated with Jeffrey Epstein's name in any capacity, you're going to be harmed. There's not going to be context applied to it by anybody. And so your name pops up alongside Jeffrey Epstein. Whoever doesn't like you is going to use that to hurt you. And so the Justice Department cannot do that, is impossible. And also in the Journal article, remember the Journal article? The Journal is going after Trump. They want to hurt Trump. That newspaper, which is going to be catastrophic for the Murdoch family and Fox News down the road. The also in that article is no one is currently under federal investigation in this case. No one. Now, the Wall Street Journal is usually pretty accurate in its reportage. I don't know about this birthday card business.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Were you stunned? By the way? Let me ask you about that, because to me, from a news perspective, I think you first have to ask yourself the question we're Talking to Bill O'Reilly, is this news? And then secondarily you ask, OK, is it relevant news? I don't even get to the second question because Trump doing, even if he did it, a bawdy birthday card 20 some odd years ago for Jeffrey Epstein to me isn't news. Epstein wasn't a felon then. And so I don't think it would surprise anybody that Trump might have a little bit of a locker room sense of humor back for much of his life. I mean, that's been well chronicled. I'm just kind of surprised that they chose even to run that story.

[Clay Travis]

Well, there are three things involved here. Number one, you're correct, it is not a news story on its own. But what the press is trying to do is link Trump to Epstein in doing bad things. That's what this is all about. That's what the Trump, that's why President Trump should stay away from this 100%. What the dishonest, corrupt corporate media in America is trying to do is convince Americans that Donald Trump had access to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and may have participated. That's what the press wants Americans to believe. So any linkage between Trump and Epstein is going to be blown up. This is a very simple story. A forensic can make a determination on whether that card is in Trump's hand or not. Trump says he didn't do it and files suit two days later. Two days. Two days. I mean, come on, that looks like a Pretty aggressive action to me. And if the Journal is wrong. Yeah, this is important point. If the Wall Street Journal published a story using a bogus birthday card, that's not real, that was a fraud, the whole thing collapses. Not only the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, everything else done. That's how big this story is.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Let me ask you the last question here. You mentioned that you talked to President Trump earlier, not asking for particulars of the conversation. How would you assess his overall vibe and demeanor as you just talked to him today compared to so far in this, this term and also compared to last term? How comfortable, how confident did you find him to be?

[Clay Travis]

He's tired. And he's tired because this kind of stuff wears you down. And he believes that he's doing an excellent job for the country. Last night they had a, a great deal with Japan announced by the Trump administration. Fabulous. It got not one second of coverage on the nightly newscast. The three of them, not a second. Epstein got 10 minutes. So Trump is furious. Furious because this kind of stuff weighs you down emotionally and mentally. Now, he's the strongest guy I know. I mean, my God. But his hand is swelling up because he, he has to shake hundreds of hands a week. I do fist bumps because I got to take a lot of hands, too. Everybody knows me wherever I go, but I don't shake hands. And I tell people, look, I can't have a swollen hand. Well, Trump's hand is bothering him. It's painful. Okay? So he's going over to Scotland tomorrow, play some golf over there, get some, you know, cooler temperatures. And I was asking him, I said, look, you know, you're only a person because I know him so long. And I said, you got to be a little, you got to take care of yourself here physically and everything you got. And that's why my advice, and I hope it takes it, don't acknowledge this Epstein thing at all. Let the Justice Department handle it. And that's that.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Bill O'Reilly, fantastic as always. The book coming out is Confronting Evil, Assessing the Worst of the Worst. It will be out September 9th. We look forward to, to talking to you again. You can also check him out@bill o'reilly.com read his columns there. Appreciate you, sir.

[Clay Travis]

All right, Clay, one more thing. We just passed a million subscribers on YouTube.

[Bill O'Reilly]

That's important.

[Clay Travis]

Three months and it's YouTube.com Bill O'Reilly. And it's totally different than what we do on our television broadcast. So I appreciate you having me on. Tell Buck I think he's faking it, okay? I keep on staking it. All right, but I'll be listening on Monday when you guys get together again.

[Buck Sexton]

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[Clay Travis]

You're listening to Team 47 with clay and Buck.

[Bill O'Reilly]

We now have been joined by Senator Rand Paul who is with us. And Senator, appreciate you joining us. I'll just ask the big question right off the top. You got Tulsi Gabbard coming out with Russiagate. You have been documents that seem to show that the truth was known and not shared with the American public as it pertains to Russia's involvement in the 2016 election. You have been trying to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci accountable for a very long time over the lies that I think we believe he told under oath relating to COVID 19 and American gain of function research and all of these things. I would say the number one question that Buck and I get on a regular basis is we see all the evidence. We believe that there is ample evidence there for charges to be brought. Yet all of these people in positions of power never have charges brought against them. They can find anybody who walked into the Capitol on January 6th and arrest them and throw the book at them. But if you're super powerful and you're on the left side of the political equation, you nothing ever happens to you, will anything. Are you as frustrated as our average listener would be over this?

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Yes. And you know, I sense the frustration and I, you know, see some of the responses on our social media. What are you going to do? When are you going to arrest Foushee? People do have to realize I have no ability to arrest anyone, but the Department of Justice does, and I've done everything I can. I referred Fauci twice under Biden. I presumed they would ignore it, but now I referred him most recently just in the last week to the Trump Department of Justice. And there needs to be a hue and cry that he needs to be prosecuted. I think he clearly lied to Congress. The other thing is, is it would bring up his pardon. And then I think in court, we need to have a test case to see if a auto pin signature is a valid pardon. I think there would be then in court the discussion of who ran the auto pen, who gave them the orders. You know, I think so far we know the person running the auto pen says some guy that worked for Joe Biden told him to do it. And ultimately, you'd have to have the. You could essentially, I think, bring in the testimony of ultimately either the. The, you know, the President's wife or the President. It'd be hard to get them into court, but this would be a test case of whether that pardon holds.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Paul, always appreciate you being with us. I wanted to ask you about the Fed one. I know I think you want to get more of a look into the books at the Fed, but can you also speak to the. What is it, a $2 billion renovation that the Federal Reserve's Washington, D.C. headquarters has gotten? You know, I know in D.C. money has a whole different meaning, or lack of meaning, depending, but $2 billion for Renault, that's pretty pricey stuff. What's going on?

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Well, you know, the Federal Reserve doesn't even have congressional oversight as far as the power of the purse. They just print it up. They've got their own printing press, and they spend whatever they feel like spending. And so they started out at 1.9 billion, and they're 600 billion over there, 2.5 billion. They're $600,000 or a 33% increase in, over, over. Over the original estimate. But, you know, you want to talk about real money, the thing the Federal Reserve is. Now that offends me more than anything else is they are paying big banks in New York and around the world not to loan money. It's a program that started in 2009. They were paying banks, I got a quarter of a point or a half a point not to loan money. And it was. It was money, but it wasn't huge amounts. Now they're paying them 4.4% as of about a week or two ago. And that 4.4% equals $188 billion and 40% of that money is going to foreign banks. So it's not only the Federal Reserve, you know, holds American debt. So we have to raise taxes to pay the Federal Reserve interest. They get our interest, then they're paying our interest back to big banks to tell them not to loan money. It's the craziest scam you've ever heard of. But it's real money now. And you know, there's nothing that unites the right and the left. It's when taxpayer money or government controlled money like this is going from the regular middle class to the very wealthy elite, not only of our country, but of the world.

[Bill O'Reilly]

We're talking to Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. What did you think of Andy Beshear's Vogue photo shoot?

[Tulsi Gabbard]

You know, I think he's running for Secretary of Transportation. I think he really wants to be the next Beat Buttigieg. So I think he's got a great shot at it.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I couldn't believe I was looking at these photos and I just thought to myself, who in Kentucky is thinking, hey, you know, I really want to see a Vogue photo shoot of the governor and I, when I saw this, I was like, oh, I bet, because I remember you came on with this last time, said he's going to try to run for president. But I just look at this guy. He's one of the worst governors out there. To do that, to sign off on the Vogue photo shoot. I couldn't believe it was real.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Well, here's the real question. Did Vogue actually ask him about vetoing a bill that would have stopped sex chain surgeries for minors? So our Republican legislature put for him a bill to no longer have minors, not allow minors to make a decision to have this permanent surgery, and he vetoed it. So our Republican legislature promptly overrode him. But this guy is not part of the mainstream. He's part of the extreme left. And he got lucky somehow to win in our state. But there's nothing about him that is moderate. He is as progressive as the day is long.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator PAUL Something that's gotten a bit of attention today has to do with the president's ability to get his appointees in place, particularly on the judiciary side. And when it comes to U.S. attorneys, as the Trump administration appointed Alina Haba, one of Trump's lawyers, to be the U.S. attorney in New Jersey, a U.S. attorney in New Jersey, judges there decided Democrat appointed judges, no shock to anyone that she was unacceptable and they just picked someone else. Now that I understand is getting a bit specific into what's going on in New Jersey. But how is it going with Senate confirmation of various appointees and specifically for judicial nominees? Because that's such a critical thing to be functioning efficiently. And I am hearing some complaints from people who, well, work right near you on Capitol Hill about Senate Leader Thune and not getting this thing done with the efficiency and, and, you know, absolute sense of urgency that it needs to be done.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

You know, the good news is, is that we've actually approved twice as many as we had in 2017, when Trump won in 2017. By this time in the summer of that first year, we had approved about 55. I think we're up over 110. So it's a slow, laborious process, and the Democrats are worse than they've ever been in the sense that it typically and historically, the leadership would sit down from each party at the end of the week. They'd agree to a list of 10 or that pass them all together in one group by voice vote. None of that happens anymore. So we have, like 1500 Trump appointees. We got to vote on them one at a time. Most of them, we have to wait two hours. We vote to get onto the. The bill to vote for them, and then two hours later to confirm them. And so it's laborious. But the good news is we've done twice as many as we did in 2017. So I think, given the Democrats opposition and obstruction, I think we're doing pretty well.

[Bill O'Reilly]

What should happen with the Russia gate? We've got Tulsi Gabbard having a press conference right now. You went through all of this in the attempt to delegitimize Trump's election in 2016. I said on the air, I actually think the 2020 actions that were done to try to argue from the 51 intelligence agents, the Hunter Biden laptop not releasing the fact that maybe we thought back then, hey, we've got a successful vaccine. There were a lot of things that could have been out publicly that could have swung this election a big way. I think 2020 was rigged substantially. But what should happen associated with 2016 in your mind, both practically and if you had an ideal world. Right, because there's the reality of what can happen and what should happen. How would you distinguish between those two?

[Tulsi Gabbard]

You know, I always look at things in general terms. I'm horrified by what they did to Donald Trump, and it should make everyone mad. But I'm also concerned about average, ordinary Americans and what they can do and what this power means could be done to Average ordinary American. So I'm for taking that power away. You know, some people want Brennan in jail, they want Obama in jail. Those things are unlikely to happen. But the one thing we could do as a Congress is take power away from the intelligence agencies. They should not have as much power. I have always thought, from the beginning, I've said it publicly, I believe that Brennan called foreign governments and used their intelligence agencies to spy on the Trump campaign. You remember these random meetings in the bar with different Trump campaign officials. I don't believe they were random. I think they were planned. And I think because it's illegal for our CIA to investigate Americans, much less Americans involved in politics, I think they got our allies in on it. And I think there is a bit of massive cover up from the very beginning on this. I do think what she's pointing out, what Tulsi Gabbard has said is incredibly important. The assessment by all of the intelligence agencies after 2016 is that the Russians, like they always do, tried to mess with our elections, but that it was ineffectual, it was tiny, it was minute, it was some Facebook ads and did not affect the outcome. That was the conclusion. But then that conclusion was vetoed by Brennan and high ranking people because they chose to create a narrative that the election was stolen, that the election was illegitimate. Hillary Clinton said it, Jimmy Carter said it, all the leading Democrats said that Trump was an illegitimate president. And what they did is they then ceded information throughout all of government to try to start this narrative that there was a Russian collusion. One of the most bizarre parts of this is the Hillary Clinton campaign pays for the Steele dossier that has this so called incriminating information in it. They give it to our government, but then they also send Steel to Halifax, Nova Scotia to meet John McCain and secretly give him the file as well. He comes back to Washington, takes the bait, is all hysterical, and then gives it back to government. But that's where it started. So the government commissioned Steele to go back. It starts with the Clinton campaign. This Christopher Steele, a former spy, collects all this nonsense, puts it in the folder, gives it to John McCain who breathlessly races back to Washington to help get the thing started. But this was a big psyops. This was a big operation by intelligence community and of course it was illegal. And I'm proud of Tulsi Gabbard for getting to the bottom and I hope she continues to overturn and expose this corruption.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Transparency is incredibly important on this. So Senator Paul, we agree with you wholeheartedly on that. Do you Think it is feasible, not even likely, but feasible, that anybody could be put in handcuffs based on what they did with Russia collusion.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

You know, they'll all tell a different tale. And, you know, changing an intelligence report, they'll say they got other information. It's going to be hard to put anybody in jail on that. But the main thing I always look for in this is trying to fix the system so it doesn't happen again. So what we should conclude from this is intelligence agencies have the power to destroy individuals, and so there needs to be more checks and balances and less ability of an intelligence agency to investigate Americans. This goes along with the FISA database that they have, which a lot of Americans are sucked up into the system. It goes along with that Quiet Skies program where they were spying on Tulsi Gabbard when she was on planes. There's so much abuse, and nobody in Congress knows anything about what the intelligence agencies do other than the Intelligence Committee in the Senate and the House. And they silo off information and they try to prevent any other members from knowing exactly what they're doing. Their budgets are secret. It's very. It's like pulling teeth to get any kind of look at any of their budgets. So, yeah, there's too much power. And we went through this after J. Edgar Hoover, and he was using the power of the office to blackmail people. He was using the power of the office to illegally spy on people. And there were big reforms in the 70s, but since the 1970s, the reforms have worn off and the intelligence agencies have grown too strong again. What they did to Donald Trump should be a call, a clarion call for us to reform them and strip back their power.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Senator Rand Paul. Appreciate you making the time for us, sir.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Oh, on the real id, Clay, I gotta tell you, if you stand in the line to get the chip put in, they can insert that chip in no time at all. And there's no line.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I don't even know what that means. I feel like this is a joke. You're so dead panning it there that.

[Clay Travis]

I was like, it is a joke.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

Get another line. But no, it took me three months to get the damn real id, and they kept refusing to give it to me because some of my documents said Randall and not Rand, and they weren't sure I was who I was presenting myself to be.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I. This drives me. You go in and out of Nashville like I do because you live in Kentucky, but this drives me absolutely bonkers. Appreciate the time.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

I hate it.

[Tulsi Gabbard]

I hate it. We fought it for Years and years in Kentucky, and finally, they take away your right to travel. Apparently, the right to travel is a privilege, and you can only travel under the government auspices. It's a step in the wrong direction.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Amen.

[Senator Rand Paul]

All right, Senator Paul, thank you so much, Clay. Also, that deadpan when I had no idea that was a joke.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Well, he got me. He's such a serious guy usually. He really got me because I was getting ready for you to read, and I was like, implant. That was well played by Senator Paul. The Team 47 podcast is sponsored by.

[Senator Rand Paul]

Good Ranchers Making the American farm strong again.

[Clay Travis]

You're listening to team 47 with Clay and Buck.

[Bill O'Reilly]

We are headed up to DC 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?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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.

[Senator Rand Paul]

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 some problems for you guys. Bring us up to speed with the business of the Senate as it stands right now.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

Yeah, look, Buck, 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 to 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 nominee's literally since Herbert Hoover. The guy won't help us at all. So we're going to start jamming down on him.

[Bill O'Reilly]

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?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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.

[Senator Rand Paul]

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?

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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 worked 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 big part of the bill. It hasn't got 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.

[Bill O'Reilly]

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

[Senator Rand Paul]

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.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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.

[Bill O'Reilly]

I am sold on this idea. In fact, I was talking to my wife downstairs right 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, and we'll see whether Buck can make it too play.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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. And I, I don't, I don't hate.

[Bill O'Reilly]

This idea at all.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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

[Bill O'Reilly]

I love this. We'll talk about Bucks got a three month old, so traveling all the way from Miami to Alaska. A 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, and booster 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 Francisco.

[Senator Rand Paul]

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

[Bill O'Reilly]

The pro level, more challenging. Senator, we appreciate the time.

[Senator Dan Sullivan]

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

[Clay Travis]

Thank you.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Appreciate it.

[Senator Rand Paul]

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.

[Bill O'Reilly]

Beauty.

[Senator Rand Paul]

It's amazing.

[Clay Travis]

This is an I heart podcast.