BONUS: Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jun 10 2025

Summary

Podcast Summary: BONUS: Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jun 10 2025

Overview

In this bonus episode of "Verdict with Ted Cruz," hosted by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, the duo delves deep into pressing national issues, notably the recent unrest in Los Angeles, the ongoing debate over border security and illegal immigration, and the broader implications these topics hold for American governance and society. The episode also features an in-depth interview with Steve Hilton, a former Fox News commentator running for Governor of California, providing firsthand insights into the state's current challenges.

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1. Los Angeles Riots and Federal Response

Timestamp [01:35] – [08:00]

Clay Travis and Steve Hilton initiate the discussion by addressing the recent riots in Los Angeles, highlighting the deployment of 700 Marines to restore order. They emphasize the severity of the situation, noting statements from New York City's Mayor Adams condemning the "anti-ice riots in LA" as "totally unacceptable in New York" ([02:30]).

Notable Quote:

Steve Hilton: “The right to protest, obviously protected under the First Amendment. The right to loot a footlocker or a CVS or whatever is not, in fact, covered under the First Amendment.” ([02:50])

They compare the current administration's firm stance on law and order with the perceived leniency during the 2020 protests, arguing that the administration has learned from past mistakes to prevent similar unrest.

---

2. Border Security and Illegal Immigration

Timestamp [08:00] – [16:00]

The conversation shifts to the critical issue of illegal immigration, with both hosts stressing the importance of enforcing immigration laws. They discuss the administrative actions under President Biden, who they claim has facilitated the entry of over 10 million illegal immigrants, impacting congressional districting by inflating representation for Democratic strongholds ([07:19]).

Notable Quote:

Clay Travis: “If we don't establish secure borders and interior enforcement, we just have a de facto open border. And all the implications of this... it's everybody's issue.” ([06:45])

They draw parallels to the Reagan amnesty of 1986, arguing that amnesties exacerbate illegal immigration and create long-term policy challenges.

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3. Interview with Steve Hilton: California’s Crisis

Timestamp [20:20] – [32:43]

Steve Hilton joins the show to provide an on-the-ground perspective from Los Angeles. He describes the situation as a "total breakdown of law and order," citing extensive property damage and pervasive graffiti ([21:15]).

Notable Quote:

Steve Hilton: “Preach this loud and clear... There's a collapse of standards, of civilized behavior.” ([22:10])

Hilton criticizes California's leadership, particularly Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, for their inadequate responses and pandering to leftist activists instead of enforcing the rule of law.

He emphasizes the systemic issues stemming from California's sanctuary state policies, which, according to him, have led to significant financial burdens on both state and federal taxpayers.

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4. Economic Policies and Government Spending

Timestamp [32:43] – [50:00]

The discussion transitions to national economic policies, focusing on government spending and the burgeoning national debt. The hosts critique the Big Beautiful Bill, arguing that post-pandemic spending has become the new norm, leading to unsustainable deficits.

Notable Quote:

Steve Hilton: “Under the Bush administration, eight years, they average deficits of $250 billion a year. Obama... 1.3 trillion... Trump... 810 billion... Biden continued to spend again this year, about 7 trillion.” ([35:42] - [37:21])

They advocate for a comprehensive audit of federal spending, suggesting that only through diligent financial oversight can the nation address its fiscal challenges.

Additionally, Hilton discusses the strategies to reconcile spending bills in the Senate, expressing skepticism about meeting the ambitious July 4th deadline.

---

5. Simone Biles and Riley Gaines Controversy

Timestamp [59:20] – [66:00]

Clay and Steve analyze the recent controversy involving gymnast Simone Biles' comments about Riley Gaines, a transgender athlete. They critique Biles' public statements and subsequent apology, questioning her authenticity and the motivations behind her remarks.

Notable Quote:

Clay Travis: “The notion that you would, as a person who claims to have a right to be in America, you would be standing around burning cars and buildings...” ([12:46])

They argue that Biles' comments reflect a deeper societal conflict over gender and fairness in sports, asserting that personal attacks undermine the legitimacy of policy debates.

---

6. Closing Remarks and Future Topics

Timestamp [66:00] – [End]

In the concluding segments, Clay and Buck share personal anecdotes, reinforcing their commitment to addressing national issues. They tease upcoming interviews with key political figures, including Senator Ron Johnson and Marco Rubio, promising further exploration of economic policies and international affairs.

Notable Quote:

Clay Travis: “This is the most important fight in the country right now. More important than concerns about the debt.” ([08:00])

They also promote community engagement, encouraging listeners to subscribe to their YouTube channel and support various initiatives.

---

Conclusion

This episode of "Verdict with Ted Cruz" offers a comprehensive analysis of the current socio-political landscape in the United States, focusing on law and order, immigration reform, and economic sustainability. Through dynamic discussions and expert interviews, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton provide listeners with a robust understanding of the challenges facing the nation and the potential paths forward.

---

Notable Quotes with Timestamps:

• Steve Hilton: “The right to protest... The right to loot... is not covered under the First Amendment.” ([02:50])

• Clay Travis: “If we don't establish secure borders and interior enforcement, we just have a de facto open border.” ([06:45])

• Steve Hilton: “There's a collapse of standards, of civilized behavior.” ([22:10])

• Steve Hilton: “Under the Bush administration... Obama... Trump... Biden continued to spend again this year, about 7 trillion.” ([35:42] - [37:21])

---

This summary encapsulates the key discussions and insights from the episode, presenting them in a structured and engaging manner for those who haven't listened to the full podcast.

Transcript

[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Buck Sexton]

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Unknown Speaker]

This medal is for the men who went down that day on Medal of.

[J.R. Martinez]

Honor Stories of Courage. You'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Steve Hilton]

Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show Podcast.

[Clay Travis]

Welcome everybody. Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off right now. We are here in our nation's capital. Probably the best been in a long time.

[Steve Hilton]

It is pretty spectacular.

[Clay Travis]

It's very beautiful. Unlike during the inauguration. It is absolutely perfect weather here. So I am not clearing the icicles from my nose and my eyes this time. But we have a lot to talk to you about and we'll dive into some of it. We're also excited to be setting up some some pretty important interviews and sit downs and chats with the people who make this town run and this White House, which is doing a phenomenal job. Clay, you're gonna have to make sure that I don't go over too much of the territory when I was on a flight yesterday that you cover with these LA riots. Here's what I've got for the latest Marines 700 Marines ordered to assist in Los Angeles. They are expected to arrive. Well, they have been arriving. We've got Mayor Adams of New York City saying that there are anti ice riots in LA that would be totally unacceptable in New York. So they're drawing a pretty hard line on that. When you've seen some other places, Austin, Tampa, where there are reports of some gatherings beginning. We're very clear on this. I think everyone's very clear on this. The right to protest, obviously protected under the First Amendment. The right to loot a, you know, footlocker or a CVS or whatever is not, in fact, covered under the First Amendment. And this whole fight over illegal immigration enforcement is absolutely critical for the administration. And Clay, I'm happy to see so far they are taking the law and order perspective and not backing down one inch because this is setting a tone for the rest of the four years as well.

[Steve Hilton]

Yeah, what I was talking about yesterday is I do think this is a really concrete difference between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0. And you remember very well everyone out there does. In the summer of 2020, the entire nation came unglued. And I think a big part of that was Tim Walls, Governor of Minnesota, refusing to call out the National Guard in time to bring peace to Minneapolis. And then what happened in Minneapolis skyrocketed, spiraled everywhere. And for many people, it was the end of the COVID restrictions, as you well remember, because Dr. Anthony Fauci suddenly came out after telling people that they couldn't be in any groups at all and said, well, hundreds of thousands of people can actually come out in the streets and march. And many people said, wait a minute, you were telling us that we couldn't go to kids, couldn't go to school, we couldn't have non essential. Remember that phrase, non essential businesses open, and suddenly you decide that everybody should be able to go out and march in the summer of 2020. And I think in retrospect, Trump wishes that he had called out the National Guard in Minnesota and, and tried to nip this in the bud. And so I think this is Trump 2.0 saying, we're not going to allow these protests to flourish and take root like we did in 2020. Also, the difference being it's not an election year, which means that whatever the impact is of the Trump response is not immediately going to the ballot box, which is why I think they were apprehensive and I think, quite frankly, slow on dealing with those riots back in 2020. So this is Trump saying, I learned from the first term, we're not going to have this happen.

[Clay Travis]

That was one of the biggest mistakes, I would argue, in the Trump first term was people often talk about Foushee, look very hard in that moment to understand all the implications of the CDC and allowing them to set these policies. And I mean, I remember I spoke to Trump in I've told you about this. And talk to the audience about this. May of 2020, talk to you about all this. And he said, look, we're gonna leave this to the states. There was a lot that was unknown then, looting and rioting. We knew that was bad. And there was a period where there was not nearly a firm enough response in 2020. I think that that was a lesson learned for the administration. I think this time around, they are showing that it's very easy to draw this line here. Yes, you want to gather lawfully and protest. That's great. That's America. The moment you start blocking highways, throwing rocks at cops, breaking into stores, stealing things, you are in violation of a number of statutes and the laws still apply to you, no matter how upset you are on this issue of illegal immigration. It's interesting, Clay. I've seen a shift in the conversation on the right from what about the big beautiful bill? To this is an all or nothing issue, meaning we either enforce sovereignty and begin to deport some of the 10 million that Biden brought in, or nothing else matters. I agree with that. I think if we don't establish secure borders and interior enforcement, we just have a de facto open border. And all the implications of this, I mean, what you're seeing in Southern California, the massive expense that is borne not just by the taxpayers of California, but by the federal taxpayer as well. There's all this money that is. That is funneled from federal dollars to medical, which is like California's version of Medicare. Medicare, you know, Medicare, Medicaid, rather Medi Cal. And the apportionment issue with members of Congress, you have far more Democrat members of Congress. The estimates, I think it's a couple of dozen nationwide.

[Steve Hilton]

15 to 20 at least. And this is important, I think. I don't think a lot of audience even understands this because I didn't know it. Illegal immigrants get counted for purposes of congressional districts. So when you say roughly 700,000 people are being represented, if there are 20 million illegals, that is helping Democrats because they're overwhelmingly clustered in sanctuary cities, and otherwise there would be less Democrat representatives.

[Clay Travis]

Enormously important. And it also is a reminder to everybody, as we'll talk, we'll go deep into the law and order aspects of all this and why it's so important that Trump is following through the administration has to see this through. This is just the beginning of it too. But Clay, this is something. What happens in Los Angeles, I think there had been an idea that a lot of people had, oh, that's not really my problem. You know, I live in Nebraska. That's not really my problem. I live in a nice red state. You know, I live in South Carolina. And so if California wants to have 2 or 3, I'm sorry, Los Angeles county alone wants to have 2 or 3 million illegals in it. That's their problem. No, it's actually your problem in South Carolina too. It's a problem for the whole country. It's a problem because of the balance of power that it is affected by with Congress. And it's a problem because the whole point here that the Democrats are pursuing is to make sure that there's a pathway to voting, not just citizenship, voting for all the illegals who have come here, which would make a de facto one party state. So this is everybody's issue. The days where we would tell ourselves, oh, it's just a blue state, red state thing, I think that has passed. I think everyone understands Biden let in 10 million plus illegals on purpose. People keep telling me, I don't know. No one knows. No one knows. I mean, the administration doesn't know. This one doesn't know what the full number that came in under Biden is because it was so out of control that it's impossible to tabulate. We just know that it's officially at least 10 million. That's a massive state of illegals that have been added to the US Tally.

[Steve Hilton]

Totally. I mean, it's more than the people who live in. I think it's all but like 15 states. I mean, the population of the state of Tennessee, where I live, I believe is around 7 million. So more than the state of Tennessee has been let in in four years, just in illegal.

[Clay Travis]

And also, keep in mind, there's now some focus on the Reagan amnesty which I've talked about here on the show back in 1986. What happens? Probably the worst thing that Reagan did as president. Unfortunately, Reagan did great things. Defeated communism, defeated the Soviet Union. But that was bad. And it was much worse than I think anybody, even Republicans at that time realized. Because not only was the amnesty far larger than it was supposed to be, we're signing this law, right? This is back in 1986. And now we're going back now 40 years, we're signing this and we're gonna get border security. And what you got was an amnesty several Times larger, millions of people larger than what they thought it would be. Because the way the courts went and, you know, everyone was trying to, you know, be covered under that amnesty. They were hearing challenges, I think, into the early 2000s. So think about that 1986amnesty. There are people in, like, 1999 who are saying, I'm covered under that, too. And then it was a massive incentive for more illegal immigration for the years and years to come. Can you think about it this time around? If we just said, you know what, we'll take the 10 million who came in under Biden, does any serious person believe that there'd be the political will to stop the next 10 million from coming the next time there's a Democrat administration? No. If anything, it would just become in a political inevitability, it would be codified that there'd be another 10 million coming. And our immigration laws are just a joke.

[Steve Hilton]

Well, that's why whatever Trump does, they have set in place two different diametrically opposed systems. One is if you come, you are allowed in with virtually no court oversight. It's going to take years for your hearings, and in the meantime, you get to live here. And the second part is if you're trying to deport, you have to have massive court hearings, and it's going to take a substantial amount of effort to get that done. So I think they are gaming the system because they're applying two different rules. Let me also mention this, too. As the LA riot continues four days and we see the Apple stores getting rioted, and unfortunately, I saw a jewelry store owner interviewed, and we'll play some of that for you throughout the course of the program. In fact, at 12:30. So in about 20 minutes from now, we're going to talk with Steve Hilton, who's running for governor. He was out on the streets of Los Angeles last night. What he sees and is experiencing there, what he saw with his own eyes. I think that this is another impact of Elon Musk buying Twitter, because when Maxine Waters and other Democrats are coming out, I saw another Democrat congresswoman say, well, this is not much different than a sports celebration, when a team wins a title and. And then juxtapose those videos side by side. It is we talked about yesterday. I want to get your read on this at some point, but when you've got cops with cars burning and you've got the video of the bricks being thrown at them, it's hard to argue. It's a mostly peaceful protest. I think that the fairness of X to allow the Full scope of what's truly going on to be seen makes the lies more readily apparent.

[Clay Travis]

Also, the videos and the photos, which I was consuming, just as you were all weekend long and yesterday on the flight up here, as I was doing research for today's show. Clay, the notion that you would, as a person who claims to have a right to be in America, you would be standing around burning cars and building, holding up the flag of a foreign nation. That is a person who does not belong here, who does not deserve to be here. And I'm not even getting into the legal status that they may or may not have. But you clearly do not have the kind of love and allegiance for this country and for the rule of law that we want for the American people. It is also shown. And we'll get into this. The data very clearly so far supports what Trump is doing. As a matter of public opinion. Let me say, if there was 8020 against Trump on this, I don't care. This is a rule of law issue, but it's not. In fact, Trump is operating with a majority support of the American people. And the more of this that we see, the burning cars, the rioting, the looting, the madness on the streets, and people waving Mexican flags.

[Steve Hilton]

I know.

[Clay Travis]

And saying, I'm so American, I would wave a Mexican flag. Could you imagine? I mean, if I stood in front of a building that was burning in New York City waving an Irish flag. First of all, the Irish people would be like, you haven't been Irish in hundreds of years. And second of all, they'd say, well, what are you doing? That has nothing to do with us. There's something deeper here, and specifically in Southern California. This is very. This is a very precarious issue because you're talking about a group of people who, unlike any other migrant group, really the only migrant group we have here in large numbers that has come here illegally, that can walk back home and sometimes do drive and go back home, are people from Mexico. This is not true of people from. From Europe, from Africa, from, from anywhere else. And so there's something unique and uniquely destabilizing about individuals who think that they can have it both ways. They can maintain this separate Mexican identity while getting all the benefits of being in America and make demands in this country or while actually having citizenship in another country that is right next door. This is something that anybody who's looking at the national security and political implications for this country has to reckon with. That in Southern California, there is a. And I know this exists in some other places, too. Different in Texas because it's a red state. But in Southern California, there is. Look, you can see this with people going on CNN saying, well, you know, this was part of Mexico. I saw that you say, hold on a second. This is part. This was part of Mexico. It was part of Mexico for like 15 years or something. And it's been part of America for a couple of hundred. It was a Spanish colony, okay? And the Spaniards aren't dancing around saying, hey, this is actually still ours. So it was Mexican for a short while, and then they lost that territory in a war, which is a thing that happens. You know, that's something that they need to just get used to. So there's a lot going on here that I want to continue to dive into. And, Clay, I think this is the most important fight in the country right now. And I think it's more. It's more important than concerns about the debt. If we lose on this, we lose on everything else. If we don't have a country with sovereignty and rule of law and immigration, we don't really have a country. And I think that's what people are seeing on the streets of California. You know, 67,000 lives were saved last year by the efforts of the Preborn staff. You know the name Preborn? It's a nonprofit organization that focuses on saving the lives of unborn children, if last year's activities are any indication. And they are. They're doing an incredible job saving lives day in and day out. But they need your help. I know so many of you. You are like me. You are pro life and you vote pro life. But do you take action to help those the front lines? Voting is not enough. There are organizations like Preborn that are saving babies today while we try to change the conscience of some of our fellow Americans on the laws around abortion. And this, my friends, is where Preborn steps in and is doing incredible work right now, saving tiny babies. They do this with a goal, or rather with just $28 of expense per ultrasound, because that ultrasound experience is how when the mother comes in and she doesn't know what to do, preborn introduces her to that baby. And this is how lives are saved. And if you have the means, I understand this is a big ask, but a new ultrasound machine for preborn. There are one or two of you right now listening who have been incredibly fortunate and incredibly successful. A new ultrasound machine for preborn would be $15,000. It is entirely tax deductible. And over the life of that machinery, thousands of babies lives would be saved. Tiny babies in the womb saved $15,000 to be a new ultrasound machine. For those of you who are listening, you say, you know what Buck, I can't do that. $28. You are helping and that is so critical and so important and they're very thankful for it. To donate securely, dial pound250 say the keyword baby. That's pound250 say baby or visit preborn.com buck preborn.com Buck sponsored by Prebor.

[Buck Sexton]

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Unknown Speaker]

This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it.

[J.R. Martinez]

I'm J.R. martinez. I'm a U.S. army veteran myself and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart podcast from Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have decided distinguish themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Clay Travis]

We got Steve Hilton with us. You all know him from his time at Fox News. He's running for Governor of California, which is a job that needs somebody much more competent in the role than what they currently have, that is for sure. He is in LA right now. Steve, thanks for being with us. Are you out on the street? I know you've seen a lot. Just trying to give everybody a picture of where you are. So you're out on the streets in la. Bring us up to what you have seen up to this point, what the reality has been on the ground.

[Unknown Speaker]

So, I mean, I've just popped indoors, so it's not so loud. The thing is very clear, it is a total breakdown of law and order and civilized life and civilization. It is just absolutely shocking to see what's been going on here. The smashed up businesses, most of them, by the way, owned by working class Latinos whose lives are now being completely wrecked. They're not going to get insurance. No one cares about that. Newsom doesn't care. Keren Bass doesn't care. All they care about is pandering to their far left activists. So you've got the sort of total lack of care about people's lives being destroyed, but in a way the most shocking thing. And I put out a video of this just last night. I was walking around after they'd cleared the main riot scene and dispersed the crowd somewhat. And you saw the aftermath. Every single surface covered in vile, disgusting graffiti. And there's something so shocking about the scale of it. Literally everywhere you look. F ice, F Trump, by the way. F Israel a lot. So, like, what's that got to do with anything that's going on here? That tells you the kind of people we're dealing with here. And it's just this collapse of standards, of civilized behavior. You know perfectly well that not a single person who did this will be held accountable by California authorities, will be prosecuted. All of these things are crimes. I've spoken to DAs and sheriffs very clear that what we've seen happening here, they're felonies. Is anyone going to be prosecuted or held accountable? No, not by California authorities. And so this is why we need to turn this around. This is a real moment, I think, for everyone in California to realize we've got to go in a different direction. We cannot have this weakness and pandering to political activists instead of standing up for the decent, law abiding majority.

[Steve Hilton]

Western Steve, I appreciate you coming on and certainly if I were in California, you'd have my vote next year. But when you see so many people running around waving flags of foreign countries while they are burning down Waymo vehicles, or when they are raining down Molotov cocktails onto police vehicles, what does it say not only about the United States and California, but also you've come from England where this is a global struggle for the legitimacy, it seems to me, of, of Western civilization. What you see here is happening in London, it's happening in Paris, it's happening in Rome. There is in many ways, I think an attack on the entirety of Western civilization and values. Do you sense that people in California feel that?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yes, but they don't even know it. This is the thing because it's now the product of years and years, decades really of creeping indoctrination in this ideology, I mean, whatever you want to call it, Wokeism. I read a whole sort of piece on it on my Fox show. We probably discussed it, Clay, you know, for sure, 100 years ago in the Frankfurt School in Germany, the Marxist philosophers, an all out war on the institutions of a civilized Western society. The family faith, all of those things. So this has been part of a long burning plan. And I think because it's now so commonplace throughout, started obviously in academia, but now throughout the public school system and so on, they're not even aware that this is what they're spouting and that these values are what they're upholding, even if you can call them values. I mean, it's just, it's a very serious situation. But the good news is that we're confronting it finally, that we're standing up against it here in America. That's not happening in England, it's not happening anywhere else. And so that is really encouraging. And just as you see these appalling scenes, and I completely agree with it. So shocking. I put that in one of my videos yesterday. I was walking around in the daytime in the. The protest zone. Mexican flags everywhere, other Latin American flags flying. The best I could find was one young guy on the roof of his car waving. It was 50, 50. It was the Mexican flag on one side, the Stars and Stripes on the other. That was the best I could find. I had taped a little interview with him. I'll be putting that later today. Nice kid, but completely unaware of the sort of background to this leftist indoctrination. But as I say, look at what's happening, to fight back against it. Look, success of movements, the turning point, for example, and the youth vote in the last election. We're not letting this go unchallenged.

[Clay Travis]

Steve, it's been amazing and kind of horrifying at the same time to see some of what these Democrat leaders, from the Governor Gavin Newsom down to Mayor Bass of Los Angeles and other Officials as well. Their, their responses to this range from the outrageous to the entirely incoherent. You have, on the one hand, they'll say things like, don't be violent. That plays into Trump's hands.

[Unknown Speaker]

I don't know.

[Clay Travis]

I think they should be opposed to political violence and assaults on officers and destruction of property, regardless of what that will do to the poll numbers. And then beyond that, it's completely unclear what their objection is. Or rather, I should say, I think it is clear that their objection is not to anything other than the enforcement of American immigration laws. There's no claim that federal authorities have done something that is not lawful. They just are saying, whether it's the mayor, the governor and others, we don't like the enforcement of federal law.

[Unknown Speaker]

No. And you know what was completely right, and the thing that really illustrated that was that almost, you know, like, revoltingly predictable way that when the first news broke of these enforcement actions, one by one, up popped on social media, the pandering statements from everybody in charge in Los Angeles, and I use that word advisedly, of course, they're not really in charge. One after another, up popped the statement saying, we, at this time, we're thinking of our community. All this pandering to the activist left. And it was the mayor, which is totally predictable, and it was the governor, which was totally predictable. But shockingly and disturbingly, it was also the police chief and the da, Every single person in authority in California putting out pandering statements instead of saying very clearly, if you break the law, you will be prosecuted, we will hold you accountable, and we will not tolerate lawlessness and disorder. Nobody said anything like that. It was all pandering to the left. And that tells you the rot that's gone on for so long in California. And that's what we need to change. And the majority of people understand now what's really going on here, that you have people who are, as I say, not really in charge, but the people at the top who have no interest in protecting the interests of the majority of regular working people who are just being let down all the time by this far left ideology.

[Steve Hilton]

Steve, this is not standing alone either. January 31st, I think it took several weeks, you'll know better than me, to put out the fires that were burning all over Los Angeles. I'm not an expert in arson, but thankfully, lighting things on fire intentionally in Los Angeles seems like a bad idea, given the history that we just went through. But also, to me, there's a connecting thread here, and it is of Mayor Karen Bass and also Governor Gavin Newsom being unable to make rational, reasonable decisions for the people of Los Angeles and the people of California. Buck and I have talked about this a lot. Buck lived through it. In New York City, things got so bad that people finally said we need law and order. We need Rudy Giuliani, Mayor Bloomberg. They fixed New York City in many ways and they had to do it from an outsider perspective. Do you think that's what you could bring and our Californians. Are things getting bad enough or Californians say we can't keep doing the same one party decision making?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yes, that is 100% the central argument. We can't. That I make it. We cannot go on like this. And you can look at, it's all of a piece, the fires, of course. And there's a similar pattern here, right? Which is that the extremist policies caused the problem. So with the fires, it was the environmental extremism that meant that you have this tinderbox situation. They didn't clear the brush. They didn't do anything you could. Residents were with filled, fined for protecting their own property by clearing the brush. So they have the extremist policies that caused the problem, and then their response to the problem is totally incompetent. And then they just lash around blaming someone else. Similar pattern here. It was their extremist policies that caused this problem. Remember, it's the sanctuary state policies that caused this whole situation because there's no cooperation with federal immigration enforcement and law enforcement, which means that these kinds of enforcement actions are necessary. You don't see this in other states where you've got cooperation between the feds and state and local authorities. So they caused the problem in the first place. Their response is completely incompetent and inadequate. And then they blame someone else. In this case, obviously Trump. But there's another point I want to make which is about the pattern. Just a couple of weekends ago in Los Angeles, you saw very similar scenes to what we've just witnessed this last past few days. On a smaller scale, you had an illegal party, a roof party that got out of control, a warehouse building, hundreds of people spilling out into the local community, marauding around, smashing up businesses, vandalism everywhere, literally setting cars on fire. They commandeered a police car, jumping all over it, graffiti ing the police car. What did the LAPD do? Nothing. Literally nothing. They stood back and just watched while all this happened. There was not a single arrest. That's what's the problem here. You have people who will not enforce the law and uphold standards of Civilized behavior, which is the first responsibility of people in government. And that message I'm drumming home loud and clear. And I think there really will be change in California in 2026 because we cannot go on like this.

[Clay Travis]

Steve, real quick before we go, is it dying down or is there a concern here that this could continue or maybe even worsen?

[Unknown Speaker]

I think it is and I think the President is dying down and that's good to see. And I think it's the direct result of the President's tough response because everywhere you go is the National Guard holding the line. And so I think that that has clearly made a difference. And last night was better than the weekend and you know, let's hope tonight is better. It's early morning here still, so there's not nothing going on particularly. But I think that it looks like things are getting more under control and of course that's something we welcome. But it's exactly, I think thanks to the tough federal response which of course all the politicians here, that's there for, I mean for goodness sake, the governor of California spending his most of his time yesterday, you know, posting on X, you know, anti Trump, trolling things and filing lawsuits.

[Clay Travis]

Protect Madness. Madness. Yeah, he apparently he has neither read nor understood the Constitution, Steve. But that's, that's not news. We're aware of that one. Steve Hilton, what is your site for the governor's race?

[Unknown Speaker]

Steve Hilton for governor.com for Steve Hilton governor.com.

[Steve Hilton]

Well, we encourage everybody in California who wants things to change to go to Steve Hilton4california.com keep up the good work and sorry. Yeah, for governor and stay safe out there.

[Unknown Speaker]

Fantastic. Great to be with you guys. Thanks.

[Steve Hilton]

That's Steve Hilton. He's hopefully going to be the next governor of California because God knows they need a lot of help. Tunnel the Towers foundation makes a lasting difference in real lives like the lives of the Clark family. U.S. air Force Sergeant Jesse Clark's military service came to an end after chemical exposure caused a large tumor to form in his brain. Result, he's paralyzed on the left side of his body, legally blind, prone to memory loss and in a wheelchair for the remainder of his life. Friends like you help Tunnel the Towers build this hero a new smart home to help him live a more independent life. So many more families like the Clarks could need our help right now since Tunnel the towers founding after 9 11, we can't forget, not when so many have sacrificed so much. America's heroes need you to help join us and say thank you in a lasting and meaningful way. And that's why we donate. And you can donate with us as well. With just $11 a month. That's all we're asking for. @t2t.org that's t the number 2t.org. Hey, Buck, one of my kids called me an unk the other day.

[Clay Travis]

An unk?

[Steve Hilton]

Yep. Slaying, evidently. For not being hip, being an old dude.

[Clay Travis]

So how do we un. Un.

[Steve Hilton]

You get more people to subscribe to our YouTube channel. At least that's what my kids tell me.

[Clay Travis]

That's simple enough. Just search the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show and hit the subscribe button.

[Steve Hilton]

Takes less than five seconds to help Un unk me.

[Clay Travis]

Do it for clay, do it for freedom. And get great content while you're there. The Clay Travis and buck Sexton Show YouTube channel.

[Steve Hilton]

We're up here in Washington, D.C. visiting with many of our friends in Congress as the big beautiful bill wins, I guess is the correct word, its way through the halls of Congress. It's in the Senate right now. And Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is with us. And we are going to do a deep dive on spending the bill. What should happen from his perspective and where we are headed. So for people out there that really want to dive into some of the nitty gritty about the economic policies in place, we wanted to bring you in because I would say you and Rand Paul, Senator, I think it's fair to say, are probably at the forefront of. We are spending way too much money. And your argument has been that essentially, and you correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, but I'm trying to lay it out and then let you make the case, essentially, we have embedded the government spending that started with COVID that accelerated at a rapid level as the default basis for budgets going forward. Instead of, for instance, after World War II, drastically dialing back spending, we have allowed that spending process to become the basis upon which all budget bills since COVID have been crafted. Is that correct? How do we fix it if it is correct?

[Unknown Speaker]

First of all, welcome to this alternate universe.

[Clay Travis]

Thank you. Washington, D.C. you know, both were former residents here. So we, we're like reformed swamp creatures.

[Unknown Speaker]

You were smart enough to move out and I come here part time. But no, I mean, you stated the case pretty well. We spent $4.4 trillion in 2019. Pandemic hits spent 6.5. And we never look back. And I've probably said this on the show, I don't know of American family. If they got ill, somebody got ill, they had to borrow $50,000, pay for medical bills. If they got well the next year, they wouldn't keep borrowing $50,000 and keep spending at that level. That's exactly what we've done. So 4.4 this year will spend over 7 trillion. That's a 58% increase. Next year, about 7.3. I know these are a lot of numbers, but that's why I do charts.

[Steve Hilton]

Yep.

[Unknown Speaker]

And you know what's, what's kind of depressing about my charts is it lays out a pretty depressing reality. Let me throw some more numbers. Under The Bush administration, eight years, they average deficits of $250 billion a year. Obama came in his first four years, 1.3 trillion. I mean, that sparked the Tea Party movement. That's why I came into town. The Tea Party movement had an impact. And those deficits in his last term were $550 billion. Trump comes into office, had to do deals with Democrats. His average deficit was 810. Then Covid hit one year, $3.1 trillion deficit. And again with responsible leaders like we had in World War II. Okay, pandemic's over. Time to return to pre pandemic levels. It's not what Biden did. Biden continued to spend again this year, about 7 trillion. His average deficit for four years was 1.9 trillion.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, wait, so let's, let's jump in right there because I think that's very important. And we have the charts to work with, but all of our people all across the country are. We're, they're trying to visualize these numbers as we go. Where. No, yeah, he's holding it up. I wish we had. Oh, we could see some of the.

[Unknown Speaker]

They're really small.

[Clay Travis]

But tell me this, where is the additional money going? Cause here's what happens every time we talk about cutting. And I also have to bring up some of the objections to the objections to the big beautiful bill, and I want you to address those in a second. But first, anytime we talk about cutting, we could light up the phones for three hours straight here. How dare you? You want to touch my Social Security? How dare you? You want to touch my Medicare? Well, hold on a second. If those things weren't being touched at 800 billion or a trillion a year, what. Where's the extra trillion dollars, give or take? That now is the post pandemic spending norm. What's that money going?

[Unknown Speaker]

It's literally across the board. And that's what I've laid out with my pre pandemic levels of spending. That analysis where you take Actual total outlays, you exclude Social Security, Medicare and interest, spend what you need to spend, and then you plus up all those other outlays by population growth, inflation. And if you do that for 2019, for example, this year you'd be spending 6.5 versus the 7. You know, if you go back to Clint Obama, you'd be spending 5.5 to 6.2. Okay, so again, it's across the board, which is why one of the solutions is we need to forensically audit every line, every program, like Doge has done.

[Clay Travis]

Okay, so you're telling me then that there is of, of that spending increase. If it's coming from these, is it not? And you're not going to touch it Sounds to me like you wouldn't touch the non discretionary spending. Right, because that's, that's, you're taking Medicare, Social Security and interest. You see, that's right.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's part of mandatory. But you also have Medicaid and we've got to fix the Obamacare portion of that. Get a trillion dollars of other mandatory.

[Clay Travis]

Spending, which is what I mean, where's that other trillion dollars? That's, it's, it's Medicaid and then just everything else.

[Unknown Speaker]

So what, what they've done over years without. Because nobody knows they're doing this because you have these omnibus spending bills and just magically they move discretionary spending into the mandatory accounts. So during COVID that other mandatory, not Social Security, Medicare or even Medicaid, I think went up, topped out about $2.2 trillion in 2019 was 642 billion, went to 2.2. It's been ramping down. Last year I think it was 1.3 trillion. This year would be about a trillion. That's a trillion dollars. Discretionary spending is about 1.7.

[Clay Travis]

You were a business guy. Trump was and still is in many ways a business guy. When you say this to him, what does he say? Cuz he wants this thing passed with gusto. He wants this big beautiful bill. He believes. I'm sure you've talked to him about these numbers, right? I'm sure you talked about this.

[Unknown Speaker]

I was in the White House last Wednesday and when my time to talk, I pulled out my chart, by the way, said put that away. I've seen your last 10 appearances. You're too negative, Ron.

[Steve Hilton]

One of your charts saved the President's life. So you're. So this is a different chart than.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah, so actually saved his life. Yes.

[Unknown Speaker]

So one chart saved the President's life. I'm hoping this One saves America.

[Steve Hilton]

Okay, so what? So he says what? Because the argument here is that they would like to get this bill passed by July 4th. On the Senate side, it's already passed. The House side. Where are we? Do you think that's likely? How does this get reconciled? What? How, how does, how does the Senate. Because it's not just you, it's Rand Paul. It's others that have this perspective to not a huge majority. How does this get solved?

[Unknown Speaker]

So again, just so he told me I was being too negative and I took that to heart. I have been pretty.

[Clay Travis]

You're generally a very jolly fellow. I will say.

[Unknown Speaker]

I got smile on my face. Okay, but you gotta lay out the reality. So I had a great meeting just a couple hours ago with Vice President Vance and Kevin Hassett. And that was kind of what we arranged. The White House. Okay, let's get on the same page. You know, I worked all weekend long. I wrote this report myself. These are all my own charts. I'm the accountant here. Right. But we're gonna let Kevin Hassan, his economic team go through these. You know, check out the numbers. I'm not sure when we release this, but that's the first thing you have to. You have to get on the same page. And I told the president of the White House is the first step in solving any problem is you have to admit you have one. So again, I have been too negative because I've been focusing on the macro problem and I haven't been talking as positively as I should on all the good things in the big beautiful bill. Because there are a lot of good things. We fund the border, we fund defense. This House did a pretty good job of identifying about $1.5 trillion in spending reduction. That's good. We extend current tax out. We take an automatic tax increase off the table. We avoid default. Okay, Those are all great things. My only point, and I'm sorry I have to make, just isn't enough. Okay? So what I've been asking for always is a commitment to a. To return to a reasonable pre pandemic level spending and a process to achieve and maintain it. Now I'm throwing into the method because one and done won't work. I mean, this is great progress that we'd be making with one big beautiful bill. I don't deny that. But it doesn't solve the problem. So I'm looking for a forcing mechanism so we come back in this Congress, not wait till winning an election.

[Clay Travis]

You're telling me this is politically realistic? Because that's the next question. Is because this is what's being said. And you know, Stephen Miller's a very smart guy in this White House. He's been out there making the case that the objections to this are more about people making a philosophical argument than operating within the reality of what is possible. And that if you don't do it this way, you're gonna have to work with Democrats down the line who don't wanna work with you. So can you address that?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, again, we can use another reconciliation process using the fiscal 2026 budget. I have gotten just basically positive feedback from President Trump's ardent supporters and also my supporters. Again, Republicans, we realize we have a massive debt and deficit problem.

[Clay Travis]

Are there saying Republicans who won't go along with what you want to do here is that, I mean, where's the problem? It seems so logical to us.

[Unknown Speaker]

I would say part of it is marketing. Okay. The House was all focused on getting this thing done and you know, they pulled, literally, they pulled $1.5 trillion out of the air. It really wasn't in context. When I saw that, I said, you guys have set the bar way too low. Okay, we need trillions of dollars long term to get this thing done. But then they assign more than half of that to enc the committee. All they can do is Medicaid. So they just open themselves up. You're gonna slash Medicaid. And you did make the case. You realize that what we're trying to do is fix the Obamacare portion of Medicaid, called Medicaid expansion. That pays. When a state puts a buck in for a single, childless, you know, working age, able bodied adult. The federal government puts in nine bucks versus a dollar the state puts in for a disabled child. Federal government kicks in $1.33. That has led to all kinds of distortions. There's a great article in the Wall Street Journal. A father of a 17 year old autistic child can't get home care for 10 years because he's being crowded out by single adults that should be working giant welfare.

[Clay Travis]

Medicaid is just the big giant welfare.

[Unknown Speaker]

And so you literally are putting at risk the benefits for the people that we want to help, both in Medicare and in Medicaid. So you got to root out these things, but you have to make the case and you can't make it in five months. So the game plan here. So as I was talking to vice President is okay, it's going to take time. I propose a budget review panel, hire forensic auditors, take the Doge team, transfer them over this process, a House, a Senate, a White House effort to forensically audit every all more than 2,000 lines of federal budget, more than 2,600 federal programs. We've never done it. We've never done it. And even this process, you'll notice they've exempted most spending, most programs. They focused on a couple. They get slaughtered in the, in the public opinion because Democrats, it's easy pickings for them because they have the press behind them. I mentioned on the Sunday shows it's so easy to be a Democrat. You spend you mortgage kids future, you never be held accountable by the media. It's hard doing what we're trying to do. The good news for your listeners is that we're all pretty much on the same page. We want to fix this problem. We just are dealing with something that's very difficult to do.

[Steve Hilton]

What's timing look like and how significant is timing from your perspective? Because the White House has said they'd like to have this done in the Senate by July 4th. We know that we don't have a very big majority in the House. So Mike Johnson, speaker, is going to have to go back and work through whatever conciliation bill is going to come out. What to you does this time frame look like?

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, I think most people thought the House, whatever the House passed the Senate would water down. I think the opposite is true. I think we're going to make it more conservative. I think we're going to be doing even more reductions in terms of spending. And again I've got colleagues that are demanding it.

[Steve Hilton]

So and there's some people who agree with you. Chip Roy, for instance, a friend of ours on the House side wants way more spending. Right. I mean this was an issue for Mike, spending cuts.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. I mean, I mean they voted for it because they kicked it can over the House or the Senate hoping we'd make it more conservative.

[Clay Travis]

So you talk about the marketing. I'm just going to say this. You know, we've had Senator Rand Paul on the show. We've talked to him, we've heard him out on this and so many issues and a lot of the time I just think he's making great arguments. But in this moment to talk about how there's too much money going to the border after 10 million illegals came in under the Obama, I mean Biden administration and, and to say that that's where we're going to, we're going to start to make the savings happen in a meaningful way even if numerically you could start to make I just think it's malpractice because people. And this is about saving the country and you know, just to save money when you're trying to save the country. I think people view the urgency of the border and the illegal immigration issue as, you know, the policy equivalent of a war. Meaning if we don't do this thing right, we don't have the same America going forward.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, I'm a really frugal guy and I don't mind sharpening my pencil on any spending. He is chairman of Homeland Security. He should be doing oversight on this again. In the first administration we spent $6.6 billion to build 450, 450 miles of wall. Now they're asking 46 and a half million billion just for the wall. That's going to.

[Clay Travis]

Well, we didn't have enough money to finish the wall though. I remember that was a problem.

[Unknown Speaker]

But, but there's not, there's not 3,000 or 4,000 miles to have to be built. So again, he's got a wall guy. He's asking the question, can you stay.

[Steve Hilton]

With us a little?

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely.

[Steve Hilton]

Because there's some more question, but quickly. And then Buck's got to do a read here. Time frame, July 4th. Any chance in your mind this is going to be.

[Unknown Speaker]

I think that's ambitious. I really think in the Senate we're looking more before August recess.

[Steve Hilton]

Before August recess. And it has to be done before August recess.

[Unknown Speaker]

Is going to expire sometime mid August to late September. So that's part of the pressure. I mean, that's part what they do. One of the reasons they bundle this all up is I don't want to see taxes increase. I don't want to default on the debt. So it just puts pressure on us. So I've been very upfront. Nobody should be surprised. I wrote my first column on reasonable pre pandemic level spending and options to do it in the Wall street journal on January 1st. So again, I've been beating this drum for a while.

[Clay Travis]

Ron Johnson in the hot seat. He doesn't like it hot, he prefers it cold. He's from Wisconsin. But we'll keep going. Look, we're not dealing with this debt. You know it, I know it. Which means that there's those long term issues of governance and issues with the dollar and owning gold is just one way to prepare for that uncertain future. I've been a gold guy for over a decade. My dad gave me my first gold coin when I was in my 20s. He said, you know what, he's a big gold believer. And I've been a big gold believer ever since. I've been building up my gold reserves and man, the price of gold has seen great appreciation in just the past year, up 40%. I'm also a big history guy. Clay likes to refer to us as history nerds. Has there ever been a time when there's been a civilization, society that said, you know what? You know what? I don't need gold. No value in that. Yeah, there's a reason for this, all right. And that's why I think you should call the Birch Gold Group. That's who I use. Trump administration's doing a lot to try to right the ship, but they're not gonna be able to do it all. And there's a lot more that we have to look at in the future in terms of the spending. Gold makes sense. And by the way, you can invest in gold or you could just have part of your savings in a gold IRA or 401k. Very solid moves. One of the best ways to protect your savings out there and to diversify with Birch Gold's help. Text my name Buck to 989898 I just bought some more gold myself bars and coins about two months ago. Text Buck to 989898 Birchgold will send you a free info kit on gold. No obligation, just useful information. Again, text my name Buck to 989898 or go to this website birchgold.com Buck.

[Buck Sexton]

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Unknown Speaker]

This Medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it.

[J.R. Martinez]

I'm J.R. martinez. I'm a U.S. army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and I Heart podcast from Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice.

[Unknown Speaker]

Twice.

[J.R. Martinez]

These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.

[Clay Travis]

Clay and I in Washington, D.C. our nation's capital. But you are always with us when we're on the air and off the air. Clay, I was getting a salad y yesterday right from the airport, you know, trying to stay healthy, trying to be beach ready over here to the that I can, you know, Clay and I are trying to be, trying to be fit radio hosts, which puts us into.

[Steve Hilton]

A, that's certainly, by the way, an oxymoron.

[Clay Travis]

You know, usually radio hosts, we like our bacon cheeseburgers. But I was in there and within a few minutes of setting foot in D.C. some of our wonderful listeners came up to me and they said they love the show and they were visiting here. They were not swamp natives, but they were visiting our nation's capital. So it's great to be here with all of you. As you know, we've got a whole bunch of of meetings lined up with the people calling the shots here. Some at their request, they said they want to spend some time with us. So we're here doing our DC tour so we can touch base with with everybody from the president on down who is running things. And also over the weekend, Clay, you know, we've talked a little bit here about how it would be fun to get you and Laura. We all know Laura is going to be a fantastic shot if she isn't already do a range day. So my brother Mason and I completed the NRA pistol instructor certification course over the weekend. Had to qual had to actually go through a bunch of a bunch of range qualifications in order to do it. But we came through the viewer wondering. It's 15 yards, steel sights, 20 shots. I know a lot of you are instructors and I know a lot of you are instructors. You Know, black belt with three stripes on and all that. But for those who aren't instructors, it was 15 yards iron sights. That wasn't a requirement, but our guy wanted us to make sure we were. We were dialed in. So it was 15 yards iron sights, at least. I think it was 16 or 17 out of 20 in that 6 inch target. So. Yeah. So, Clay, we can set up a range day for you now. Be absolutely fantastic, NRA certified and ready to rock and roll.

[Steve Hilton]

Big timers. Yeah, that would be a lot of fun because my wife is pretty fired up about the need for, for firearms training. So I mentioned this on Mother's Day, she had the kids and me out on the range getting trained in firearms.

[Clay Travis]

I know, I loved it. I saw the photos, I saw the video of it.

[Steve Hilton]

I don't know how many people wanted to spend their Mother's Day that way, but my wife was.

[Clay Travis]

That was brilliant. I was so, so pleased to see it. I'll just tell you though, it was fun. During. There were about 20 people in this class. We had an excellent instructor down in South Florida, but we had about 20 people in the class and I'd say about half of them. It was only two days, right? It was Saturday and Sunday all day. But at the end they all came up, they're like, hey, man, love the show. So we had a lot of. I was like, I think we're in a pistol class in South Florida with NRA members. And these are people that shoot a lot. A lot of law enforcement. A lot of people who. Guns are something that they're, they're carrying for part of their job who are in the class. And, and we got a lot of clay and buck people in there. So it was unsurprised. Yeah, I was like, I think we're with our people here. I looked around, I was like, oh, we are with our people.

[Steve Hilton]

I think there's also. I mean, this is not going to surprise. We were up here for Inauguration Day. But I do think that there are a lot of people that the Trump team has brought into DC even though DC is 92% or whatever it is of a Democrat stronghold.

[Clay Travis]

You know, I lived here during a Republican administration and I lived here for. During at least part of a Democrat. So I was here for the Bush years. Oh, basically, second Bush term. I lived the whole second Bush term. I lived in D.C. more or less. And the first two years of Obama, I think I was here. And, man, when you have that transition from one party to the other, it feels like a very different town. Just based on who's here and the vibe.

[Steve Hilton]

I was a kid so it was less noticeable to me, meaning I was in college, but I came in at the very end of the Clintons and then the George W. Bush era and then left right before 9 11, which obviously changed things tremendously for the worse in so many different ways. I mean, one of the reasons we're up here now is obviously to get as many senators in as possible. You heard from Ron Johnson yesterday. We had Tommy Tuberville and Marsha Blackburn in here. We want to talk to as many newsmakers as we can in person, a lot more. We're going to have Marco Rubio in studio with us on Thursday for a couple of segments which I think you guys will really enjoy. Secretary of State will dive into some of those Ukraine questions that so many of you have. And also what's going on in the Middle east with Iran. A lot of different things we can talk about with Marco Rubio, but my 17 year old and his friend, I'm in charge of him. And I was telling you yesterday we were in Georgetown, I'm so thankful that I've got a 17 year old boy because if I had a 17 year old daughter, there's no way she's going to be. I said, hey guys, just make sure he and his friend, hey, make sure you're back by dark and you guys can run around, you'd be in Georgetown. I'm gonna be honest with you, Buck. If I had a 17 year old daughter, there is no way on the planet I would be letting her run around in Washington D.C. i would be nervous about her being funny because, because.

[Clay Travis]

You have, obviously, you know, I have this with my wife. Yeah, where you have the location finder on your phone. Yeah, my wife Carrie knows where I am at all times. She knows where she were, you know, vice versa. But I know you have that with your boys. Of course, you know, immediate family. Well, if you had a 17 year old daughter, what do you think she have to carry a GoPro around? You know, kind of like a, like a cop. Like she has to wear a body cam just to make sure everything is on the up and up.

[Steve Hilton]

I was glancing down just to make sure, you know, like hey, where are they? When we were having drinks and, and that's when I was like, I mean if I had a 17 year old daughter, there's no way on the planet I would be like, hey, just go wander around it. You and your teenage girlfriend just go wander around in Georgetown. Have as much fun as you Want. Just make sure you're back by dark. No, dad, they would, they would. Unfortunately for them, they would have to do every meal with dad and, and I'm not as much worried about the boys running around. Maybe that's a poor decision by me on parenting, but who's the disciplinarian of you? My wife is way tougher than I am. That's probably not going to surprise you. But, but I actually, I think, I.

[Clay Travis]

Think Carrie is going to be for young James. I think Carrie's gonna. I'm going to be busy. Like, buddy, you don't want me to turn this over to your mom, right? I think Carrie's going to be the law and order in our household.

[Steve Hilton]

She's pretty tough on him sometimes.

[Clay Travis]

It's kind of funny. We both are in that position. I'm going to be the one who's like, you know, stuff happens.

[Steve Hilton]

It's. I already feel a little bit sorry for the girlfriends of these, these boys because I don't think that my boys. I don't think she's going to go too easy on them. So anyway, I give thanks every single day that I've got three boys instead of three girls. And I was thinking about that yesterday as, as we were rolling through, enjoying.

[Clay Travis]

Let's dive in. You. You know this one better than me. I, I saw some of it over the weekend. I know you talked to Riley Gaines yesterday. There's some updates to this. The Simone Biles who I remember. I got all this.

[Steve Hilton]

You got crushed. I got started. Yeah.

[Clay Travis]

I mean, crush might be a little strong. There were some, there were some sour leftists out there saying some mean things.

[Steve Hilton]

How many things you said on the show that you have gotten ripped for.

[Clay Travis]

Harder than by like national media figures? Very few. Like I.

[Steve Hilton]

You're taking.

[Clay Travis]

I'm sitting here. I am like, deport them by the. No problem. Hey, I don't think we need to celebrate Simone Biles stepping away from her team during the Olympics. I didn't say that. I wasn't like, oh, she's a coward, you know, whatever. And she's in incredible shape and I'm not. And she's a world class gymnast. I just said, you know, if you pull a hammy and you can't finish.

[Steve Hilton]

It'S not, you know, it's not brave. The injured list.

[Clay Travis]

You go on the. Exactly. That's all I was saying. And I got all these people or so. So, so there's a little, little history here. A little history here. And I got, I actually got. I got tagged by A few national media figures on that one. But anyway, update everybody on the latest here. Cause she said, as I said along, too, look, I saw this from afar. Riley Gaines. To say, Riley Gaines looks like a man. Every guy in our audience is like, nah, sorry. And every gal, I think. But I just, you know, every guy's like, no, he doesn't look like a man. Nice try.

[Steve Hilton]

It was a tough argument out of nowhere, though, for those of you who missed it, Riley was on yesterday talking about this. Simone Biles just ripped her for saying. And all Riley had done that set precipitated this was Riley shared a photo of a Minnesota high school softball championship team, and a boy was on the girls team, which is absurd and way taller. And all she said was, they've turned the comments off so people on social media couldn't react. And out of nowhere, Simone Biles decided to tee off on her and then said, you look like a man. Which, again, I mean, Simone Biles has done all these body positivity things. Riley is five. You know, she measured herself like five, five, or five, six. So now, after multiple days of just getting attacked like crazy for being on the wrong side of this issue, I want to. You haven't seen this. I want to read. Simone Biles has some sort of strange PR apology up. And here's what she posted just a little bit ago. I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I've always believed competitive equity. First of all, buck competitive equity. Competitive equity is not a thing. Competitive equality is a thing. The entire point of competition is to eliminate equity. We don't want everybody to be the exact same. But I always believe competitive equity and inclusivity are essential in sports. The current system doesn't adequately balance these important principles, which often leads to frustration and heated exchanges. And it didn't help for me to get personal with Riley, which I apologize for. These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don't have the answers or solutions to. But I believe it starts with empathy and respect.

[Clay Travis]

Well, this is. This is written for her by some PR crisis team. 100%. We know that. You and I have been in this game long enough to know that.

[Steve Hilton]

And she's still, still going, oh, I'm sorry.

[Clay Travis]

I'm sorry.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, no, no.

[Steve Hilton]

The PR team wrote this ridiculous statement. I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women's sports. My objection is to singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and harmful. Individual athletes, especially kids, should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system. They have no control over. I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition, which is actually impossible. We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive, and respectful. Hugs and kisses, Simone.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. Okay, so that was written by a PR team, but she realizes there are a few things here. First of all, her position. First and foremost, her position is not just on her real position. I don't mean the PR thing. The thing that she said about Riley. Her position on, on men and women's sports is irrational and indefensible. And then to add on top of that, to go after a, a honestly, anyone's appearance based on a political issue like this. You've always really lost just to start off with, I mean, to do to the like, you look like a man thing. Fortunately, Riley, you know, we don't have to get into this. But no one thinks Riley looks like a man. I mean, she's very, very lovely woman in very good physical condition. And I just think that she realized that she did real brand damage here on top of the political issue. You don't attack somebody's appearance, especially somebody who's really good looking. Like, that's just insane.

[Steve Hilton]

I think she lit herself on fire here. And it took three, four days for her to put out this mealy mouthed jumbly. Not particularly well, even with all of the PR dollars that she's spending. That was just a jumble of nothing. And when you just type out what somebody tells you to say, I would have more respect for her, even though I would disagree with her completely if she just said, I said what I said, I'm right now. Yeah, you own it. At least I know I wouldn't agree.

[Clay Travis]

That's the Clay Travis special right there. I'm doubling down.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm tripling.

[Steve Hilton]

I'm not saying that. I'm not going to say at some point in my career something that I didn't intend to say, but in 20 years it's never happened. So you should apologize. I've been married 20 years. Look, you should apologize if, if you do things that you don't intend to do and that, that, that are not reflective of your intentionality. But that's not this also, she could.

[Clay Travis]

Have written, she, she could have just written out and said, you know, and we would know it was from her. Meaning she actually did the writing Simone Biles could, could write out on her Twitter or Instagram or wherever this is. Riley. That was, that was wrong. You know, you're a beautiful young woman and a talented athlete and I'm sorry that I would. I'm sorry that I would cross the line. There's a heated political issue and I just want to have respect for all people or whatever. Something where she doesn't even have to get too deep into the politics of it, but something that's a little bit heartfelt. This is. My PR team came in and cleaned up my mess, which to me is once again inauthentic. Like, I just don't believe that she wrote this herself. She clearly did not, of course, but. So that's what. So it's not an authentic apology. If it's an authentic apology, you write it yourself. You just say, look, I crossed the line, my bad. I wouldn't do that again. And you know, and you could move on from there. But to me, this is just.

[Steve Hilton]

I still wonder, Buck, what is the intent here? She's not that active on social media. She's not that political. Did someone pay her to attack Riley like this? It doesn't make any sense to me that you would suddenly decide based on a photo of a Minnesota.

[Clay Travis]

She might have seen someone else that she respects and likes or that wants the approval of. This is just me surmising or analyzing this. And, and she thought that there was an opportunity here to score some points with someone or some group that she wants the admiration of. Because I agree with you. This is not, you know, they're, they're like when, when Keith Olbermann's chirping at you, it's because he's always chirping at everybody. Right.

[Steve Hilton]

I mean, that's his job.

[Clay Travis]

Right? That's what I'm saying.

[Steve Hilton]

Disagree. Like most people, I think, like Simone Biles and now they don't.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah. I mean, Keith Olbermann has a constituency Miserable, childless 65 year old women that he represents. And that's just the way it goes.

[Steve Hilton]

And he looks more and more every single day like a miserable five year old lesbian.

[Clay Travis]

True story. A friend of mine just got back from a trip with his family to Ireland. Do you know who he bumped into on the street in Dublin? And he bumped into Rosie o' Donnell on the street.

[Steve Hilton]

That's really.

[Clay Travis]

And as a fellow American, he's obviously conservative. He was just kind of like, wait, really? And he asked her, he said, how do you like it here? She said she doesn't like it, she's gonna come home.

[Steve Hilton]

Of course she doesn't like it. I mean, American, the Irish don't like her. There are. Maybe this would be a fun debate if you're super wealthy as Rosie is there are only a handful of countries that would be actually better than the United States, even for the South. Super wealthy. Ireland's not one. She lived in la. Weather's perfect.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Steve Hilton]

You know she's super rich.

[Clay Travis]

Yeah.

[Steve Hilton]

I'm not surprised.

[Clay Travis]

There's a reason my people look the way we do, you know, not a lot of sunshine, a lot of booze, you know, so. Yeah, I'm just saying, the Irish. Yeah. You know it's true. Don't send me that stuff. You know it's true. Look, Father's Day is this weekend and I've got a great gift idea for you. No, truly, truly a fantastic gift idea. I'm gonna settle your Father's Day gift concerns right now and get on it right now so we can get there in time. Good Ranchers. American Raised Meat. I have a good rancher's box on the way. Honey, you listening? Because it's gonna arrive any minute, I think on the way to our house right now. Go to goodranchers.com pick dad a good rancher's box out from the options. There are ton to choose from. The cowboy, the burger box, the homesteader, or the family feast bundle. About a dozen different boxes. Delicious stuff. And we love good ranchers because everything is 100% born, raised and harvested in the USA from local family farms. No tariffs, no foreign stuff. That's right. And also no hormones, antibiotics or seed oils. Just one very important ingredient. Meat. Meat, my friend. So go to goodranchers.com go get your box today. You can get for life wagyu burgers, hot dogs, bacon or chicken wings in every box for the life of your subscription. Use my name Buck as your promo code at checkout. I'm. I'm solving a problem for you right now. Two problems really. Where do you get the best, most delicious meat? Chicken, burgers, fish. And how do you get a Father's Day gift? GoodRanchers.com Go to GoodRanchers.com Use my name Buck at checkout. Get your free meat for life plus $40 off goodranchers.com use code buck.

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[J.R. Martinez]

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

[Unknown Speaker]

This medal is for the men who went down that day.

[J.R. Martinez]

On Medal of Honor Stories of Courage. You'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Clay Travis]

This is an iHeart podcast.