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- [00:00]
Clay Travis
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:04]
Buck Sexton
People ask us all the time how we can save the next generation. We've got our show and the info is an antidote. But we also have a couple books coming out. Clay. That's right. And you can pre order both of them right now and be book nerds just like us. You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter, too. Mine's called Balls How Trump, Young Men and Sports Saved America. And mine is Manufacturing Delusion how the left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination and Propaganda against you. Both are great reads. One might even say they would make fabulous gifts. Indeed. So do us a solid and pre order yours on Amazon today. Welcome in Thursday Edition Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. I hope all of you are having fantastic starts to your day so far. Buck is still in Taiwan. He interviewed the president of Taiwan today. He'll play some of that for you on Monday. Monday when he is back stateside. That picture is up. He will be back with you on Monday. I've got you for today and tomorrow solo. We got a lot to dive into. Shutdown has hit day two. I think many of you out there are relatively unimpacted and also unimpressed with the battle that is currently underway, the Schumer shutdown. We'll dive into some of those details. Stephen Miller from the White House was in Memphis, Tennessee, as the federal government is flexing resources there in a city that per capita has one of the highest murder rates in the country, to see what the impact can be there. Trust in media per Gallup has hit another record low and early feedback option for you guys. Who do you trust? I think this is a fun debate. We fun discussion debate maybe that we could have. Throughout the course of today's program. I was looking at this poll from Gallup Media and it just came out. And it's probably not a surprise that there is a massive decline in trust in media which has accelerated since COVID As many of you have become aware that you were lied to and much of what you were told about COVID was untrue. And as the Russia collusion hoax has continued, Democrats were the last people to really be trusting media. And even their trust in media has begun to collapse. And the reason they trusted media was because media told them what they wanted to hear, not because media was ever trustworthy. And now they are starting to wonder, wait a minute, why didn't we hear anything about Joe Biden's issues? Uh, why, why did they tell us that Donald Trump was going to lose the election. And Kamala Harris was a great candidate. And then the results come in. It's different. Only 28% have any trust in media at all. And for those of you out there who wonder, okay, what would that look like, by the way? That is 28% of people have a great deal of trust in media or a fair amount of trust in media. As recently as 1980, that number was around 72 or 73%. So in the space of two generations, roughly, we have gone from substantial majorities trusting the media to almost no one trusting the media. And so a question for you guys. I'm interested in your talk backs. Who do you trust? I hope that you trust Buck and I, to be honest with you, not always to tell you exactly what you want to hear. But trust to me is different than, hey, I agree with this person on a lot of their opinions. Trust to me is, hey, I trust this guy or this galaxy to be honest with me about what the numbers actually show or what the facts are. Who do you trust? I'll give you some names later in the show. I'm kind of thinking through in my head who would I say this is? A person that I may or may not agree with, but I think they have enough knowledge of the factual basis underlying their opinions that I trust them not to lead me completely astray with their. With their analysis. Again, it's different than whose opinions do you trust? Because that's a function. I always like to say as an analogy, you can agree with someone's opinion, but if they tell you something as part of their factual analysis of why they have the opinion they do, you can agree with their conclusion, but you should trust them less. And I used to use a sports analogy all the time for this because I think it makes sense. If I told you Patrick Mahomes is not going to win the super bowl this year, sorry, Kansas City Chiefs fans, you might nod along and say, okay, Josh Allen, maybe he's going to win this year. Maybe Lamar Jackson does. There's a lot of different. Justin Herbert, there's a lot of different guys out there in sports. You could think, hey, maybe this quarterback's going to win instead. But if I told you Patrick Mahomes not going to win the super bowl because he can't win the big game and he's never won the super bowl before, you could agree with my conclusion, but you should trust me less. Does that make sense? Sports fans are more likely to do this, I think, than, interestingly, people involved in current events and politics are so you can get to the same conclusion as someone, but because you know that they're telling you something untrue. Patrick Mahomes has actually won multiple Super Bowls. So the evidence that I'm marshaling to tell you why I don't think he's going to win the super bowl this year, you might agree with my conclusion, but you should trust me less because you know that the information I'm citing to justify my opinion is incorrect. I think that's a good analogy to kind of give you a sense on trust, the versus conclusion. There's lots of people out there who I agree with on conclusions, but when I hear their arguments, I say, boy, I, I, I don't know that I buy this at all. And, and hey, you've totally wrecked the legitimacy of your argument by getting so many of the factual foundations that supposedly support your argument incorrect. So think about that a little bit. I'm curious what names you would give me that you trust in media as media has has tanked in terms of its trust and is now at only 28%. Uh, but I wanted to go into the shutdown, which I think is already starting to blow up in Chuck Schumer's face, because really, this isn't about the government or how it's funded at all. Uh, what you really should know is what's going on here is Chuck Schumer is terrified of the left wing of his party. And even though he knows this is a poor decision, this is about him trying to cut off some of the political support for aoc, who may well challenge him in the Democrat primary in the New York Senate race and would end his career if she decided to do that. Um, and so here is AOC on Tuesday asked directly if she's the reason that Chuck Schumer is finally decided to shut down the government. Here's cut nine. There are some people I have seen who have the following theory of why Senate Democrats have not cut a deal where they give eight votes and move along. And that is that Chuck Schumer is worried about a primary challenge from you and is worried about the politics to his left flank. And so because of that worry about a primary challenge, he's gonna shut down the government. Ergo, it is AOC's fault that the government's shutting down or that you're somehow the kind of fulcrum of this. And I wanna just ask you straight up, like, are you planning to primary challenge him? Do you think that's why he's doing this?
- [08:31]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
I saw some senators speculating about this. And I saw some Republican members of Congress saying, oh, well, if we have this shut down, it's because of aoc. Well, if that's the case, my office is open and you are free to walk in and negotiate with me directly.
- [08:47]
Buck Sexton
She's gonna run. This is the real story of what's going on here. AOC is going to run for President of the United States in 2028. And if that campaign does not go well, I think she's going to pivot and become a senator and knock Chuck Schumer out of the Senate. That's my prediction for where we are headed. AOC in March of 2027ish is going to announce that she is running for President of the United States. We'll then have the early primary dates of January and February of 2028. I'm not sure when the final date is to register if you want to primary someone in the New York Senate. But if AOC were to not do well in the 2028 presidential election primary, then I think she might pivot and run for the Senate. But I believe Buck has already said, producer Ali, you can correct me if I'm wrong. I think I was out on this, that his prediction is that it's a Gavin Newsom and AOC ticket in 2028. And if he didn't say that because I wasn't on when he was making his prediction, I think I saw that that social media post shared from our team. That's what I think is going to happen. I think Gavin Newsom right now, if you ask me who is going to be the nominee in 2028, I think it will be Gavin Newsom. And I think he will pick AOC as his running mate. Now, I could be wrong in AOC's time, crazily enough, could be now, and she could leap ahead of Gavin Newsom. I actually think that there's no woman that's going to be the nominee for 2028 for Democrats, because I think they've been scared off a female nominee at the top of their ticket by what happened to Hillary Clinton and what happened to Kamala Harris. And so I believe that they will not be willing to vote for a woman at the top of the ticket. But Gavin Newsom will pick a young, dynamic vice presidential candidate in aoc. And I think that is the favorite for the ticket right now. Now, we still have the midterms and some of you out there are going to say, heck, we still got the New York City primary. New York City mayor's race and the governor's race in Virginia and the governor's race in New Jersey, all of those still are to come. Those are all in blue jurisdictions. So things can change. And as soon as we get that election, obviously we're going to run very quickly into the midterms, what's going to happen there, primary season, nominees, all of that. But I'm telling you, by January of 2027, maybe even before then, but I don't think people will want to announce before the holidays. By January of 2027, the 2028 presidential election will be in full sprint, particularly on the Democrat side, where everybody's going to enter because it's an open, uncontested primary. Anyone could theoretically win. If you're out there and you're in your 50s or 60s, this might be your last chance to actually run for President of the United States. And so my bet is that AOC will be running, McGavin Newsom will be running, and that will end up being your president and vice president. Now, Buck has predicted that Joe Scarborough is going to run for President of the United States. I know that. I don't think that's a bad take because I think there will be many different people who are going to run in 2028. But ultimately, I think this shutdown is about Chuck Schumer lacking power over the left wing and his party being terrified of it. And even though he believes it's bad politically, he has elected to do it because otherwise, I think he is aware that his time in office could be incredibly short in his era as the leader of the Democrat Party in the Senate has effectively ended. So that is what I think is the real story behind this. Now, I also want to get into some of the facts behind the, the argument about illegal immigrants getting health care and how this is involved. And I will, I will give you a run through of that. But that is 100% happening. And I want to talk with you about the way that they are discussing it on the Democrat side to hide the fact that this is actually happening. And look, the reality is this is Chuck Schumer's shutdown. He bears 100% of the responsibility for the fact that the government is shut down. And I don't think this is going to be a good result for the Democrat Party. But I'll tell you why. We'll continue to roll through the Thursday edition of the program. And I'm curious. That question that I asked off the top, you guys can give talkbacks, you can send messages, emails. You can, you can call in and just give names to the call screeners who are the people that you actually trust as trust in legacy media is hitting all time lows here in 2025. Good news for gold owners out there. Gold is up around 40% this year. Not speculation. That's reality. And if a portion of your savings isn't diversified into gold, you're missing out on a good buying opportunity. When there's instability in the markets or conflict in the world, investors turn to gold. That might be why gold has seen so much such a price increase and will continue to grow in value. This is why central banks are flocking to gold. They're the ones driving prices up to record highs. You can get in the door now on this opportunity. Birch Gold will help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a tax sheltered IRA. In gold you don't pay a dime out of pocket. Here's how you do it. Just text my name Clay to 989898 and claim your free info kit. No obligation, just useful information. Again, what have people done throughout time when they've been nervous about the valuation of assets, about the decline of their currencies? They've decided to invest in gold. They've been doing it for hundreds of years, probably thousands of years. Quite accurately, you can do the same. Text CLAY to 989898 right now to claim your free info kit on Gold. That's Clay to 989-898 Protect your future today with Birch Gold. Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 podcast Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [15:30]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
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- [16:29]
Buck Sexton
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. You know, I'm going to dive into the illegal alien healthcare benefits here in a moment. But first, you know things aren't going well for Chuck Schumer when he's on the Senate floor. And the New York Times had a huge poll that said voters will overwhelmingly and correctly blame Democrats for shutting down the government because Democrats are the ones voting to shut down government. Chuck Schumer doesn't believe it though. He says the New York Times poll is biased against Democrats. This is the argument he's having to make. Let's listen.
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Clay Travis
Now I know the leader is going to show a poll that says that.
- [17:14]
Buck Sexton
Democrats will be blamed for the shutdown. There are many more polls that show Republicans are blamed.
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Clay Travis
The question in that poll is biased. Biased in the New York Times. But it's biased if you turn the.
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Buck Sexton
That's true.
- [17:32]
Clay Travis
I don't always believe the New York Times.
- [17:34]
Buck Sexton
You can be sure of that. Neither do you. So it's so bad that Chuck Schumer is having to resort to saying the New York Times is biased against Democrats when it comes to this situation relating to the shutdown. But we got a couple of you, of several of you, in fact lots of you. Let me pull it up asking the question because there is a lot of discussion about how exactly is this debate now over whether or not illegal immigrants get health care. In fact, here is one that synthesizes this VIP email from Ryan. First off, I absolutely love you guys. Good way to start. Always like we get a positive start to the email. Uh, that gets even better. Thanks for being the voice of reason and speaking the truth. I could go on and on and get all mushy, but you get the point. America thanks you. Ah, I love all this question. Is there actual rhetoric and documented text in the Democrat dirty CR continuing resolution there that states or proves they are pushing for illegals healthcare? I cannot seem to find it. Any help would be appreciated. God bless and stay the course. Here's what they're doing and this is why you have to dive into the nitty gritty and intricacy of the language which with they are using. Okay. They are saying the federal government is not paying for illegal immigrant health care. That is nowhere in this bill. That is not occurring at all. Here's the reality. The money goes to the states. So the federal government cuts a big check. Here's a billion dollars and they send it to California they send it to Illinois, they send it to New York. State government officials there then take those dollars and allocate many of them to illegal immigrant health care. So the argument that Chuck Schumer is making is, oh, the federal government isn't doing that at all. But that's because they are allocating the resources to the states. And then all these blue states take your taxpayer money and they are using it to fund illegal immigrant health care. And by the way, the other part of this is this particular part of the dollars that are being fought about, fought over, was directly related to Covid. And if you remember, and there were relatively few of us at the time, Buck was one of them. I was one of them. If you remember when everybody said, oh, we don't need to work anymore, the government will just give everybody money. Just go home, don't leave your house. Don't even think about going to the gym. Don't you dare go outside and walk in a park. God forbid you go to the beach. Hey, kids, we're taking the rims off your basketball hoops. Hey, we're taking down nets so you can't go play tennis. I know everybody wants to forget all of this, but much of the spending is embedded from COVID So Democrats, and there were a lot of Republicans that went along, saw the crisis of COVID and they said, this is the best opportunity we have had in a long time, maybe for much of our political careers, to increase federal spending by a tremendously huge amount. And we are going to do that. We're going to implement all these gargantuan cost increases, and it's going to become very difficult to ever dial them back. And I think we're not giving enough credit to guys like Senator Ron Johnson, friend of this program. We had him in studio when we were in D.C. just to explain all this, the budget plan that makes the most sense is go back to all the pre Covid spending and just increase it on a rate of inflation. If we had just done that, we'd all have a balanced budget right now. But Democrats are smart. They recognize that all their allies in the legacy media that nobody trusts anymore, they will label this a cut anytime you reduce spending. If they say, oh, this is a cut, you're cutting childcare, you're cutting pregnant. Pregnant women are gonna die. That's immediately what they say. And you go back and you say, well, that wasn't happening before 2020. Covid's over. Thankfully, everybody's like, yeah, now you might get a sniffle and you don't Know whether it's a cold. You don't know if it's the flu. You don't know if it's Covid. I. I mean, I'm not. I'm not trying to make light of it, but that's the reality. You get a little bit of a light fever, you don't feel great. Who knows what it is? Might be Covid, might be any of the other innumerable ways that you could have gotten sick before COVID All we're doing here is saying, hey, this health care spending doesn't make sense going forward. Much of it that is going to illegal immigrant healthcare should certainly not be spent. But in general, this is an expense that was directly connected to Covid. Covid is over. Finally, mercif. Mercifully, why would we embed that cost into the overall federal budget? Schumer's wrong. Democrats are wrong on this, and Trump and Republicans are just saying, hey, we funded the government. We're not gonna continue to fund this. We're not gonna bend to your will. Let's keep the government open. Democrats said, no, we're gonna shut down the government. And if you're out there and you're saying, okay, well, hold on a minute. Democrats don't really support illegal. Illegal immigrants getting healthcare. Here is a flashback. You may remember this. I remember watching this debate and thinking, boy, these people are crazy. In. On June 27, 2019, in Miami, second Democrat debate, every Democrat raised their hand when asked if their healthcare plan would cover illegal immigrants. Listen to this. Just to take you back in time, the Democrats on the stage at that point in time, Joe Biden, Mayor Pete, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, Cory Booker. Beto. Beto. Beto o'. Rourke. Everyone applauds inside of the audience, but just a flashback. Cut three.
- [24:23]
Clay Travis
A lot of you have been talking.
- [24:25]
Buck Sexton
Tonight about these government health care plans.
- [24:27]
Clay Travis
That you proposed in one form or another.
- [24:29]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
This is a show of hands.
- [24:30]
Clay Travis
Correct question and hold them up for a moment so people can see. Raise your hand if government.
- [24:36]
Buck Sexton
If your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants. Every hand went up. Every single hand went up. All of these people, all of these Democrats support this, and it's impossible to argue otherwise. Now, this is. I want to hit one more. One more hit here. Jasmine Crockett. I know. I just. I can't believe that this is real. The Democrat Party thinks that she is somehow an eloquent voice on all of this. Jasmine Crockett says the White House's Messaging on shutdown is illegal.
- [25:24]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
Cut 12 I think they're being a lot more illegal in their messaging. The first thing that I wanted to.
- [25:30]
Buck Sexton
Know was how can this not be.
- [25:31]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
A violation of the Hash act in some way?
- [25:33]
Buck Sexton
Right.
- [25:34]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
Because we are not allowed to politic on official sites, period.
- [25:39]
Buck Sexton
Right.
- [25:39]
Commercial/Advertisement Voice
And that's what they're doing. They literally change official government websites to put out their propaganda. Instead of just saying we're currently in a shutdown, you decided to play partisan politics on an official website.
- [25:52]
Buck Sexton
Yeah. It's illegal. It's illegal to point out that the reason that the government is shut down is because Democrats voted to shut down the government. Okay, we're going to get to a bunch of your talkbacks. We've got one guest today, a friend of mine, met him, just getting to know him, but he is running for governor in Michigan and he is John James, current congressman in Washington D.C. met him up at the Mackinac island event. He's going to be on with us at the bottom of the next hour. But we've got a lot to react to. I also want to hit Stephen Miller in Memphis. This dad, have you seen this story? Steven Federico what happened to his daughter I think is important because we can't forget what truly soft on crime policies result result in all of that coming our way. But I want to tell you right now, Legacy Box has got an incredible offer for all of you. I went down a few weeks ago to Chattanooga, Tennessee, my mom's hometown. I spent a lot of time in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 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I'm laughing as an as I come back in out of break because I shared the Gallup Poll about trust in media that a lot of you are reacting to on social media as well. And the comments there are really pretty great. And you guys are giving me a lot of talkbacks, a lot of calls about who you trust. And as I was reading to make sure that I'm updated on all the news during the commercial break, I come across our good friend Jesse Kelly, who many of you are going to hear on 6pm or later versions of the Premier radio network. He is down in Houston. He responded to my question of who do you trust to be honest with you and not lie by saying, Jesse Kelly, did I trust me the most? You dead last. So, Jesse Kelly, I've got to respond. I haven't had time yet. But I'm going to say this is exactly the response I would expect from someone who ordered $75 shots at tequila. You know, that's true. We were on, we were in New York City for those of you who may have forgotten and need to understand why you can't trust anything Jesse Kelly says. And we were having a nice, we're on the rooftop, great restaurant, everybody's having drinks, everybody's having a good time. Jesse decides we need a round of tequila shots. A round of tequila shots. I don't know. There were like six of us. I don't know what should that cost? Seven, eight dollars each. I understand that I'm getting old, but at most, and I'm not talking about a dingy, you know, college bar, because I will, I will tell you this. If you, whatever your financial situation is, if you go into like an SEC college bar for a big game weekend, you will never feel richer than when you order like five beers. What they come back and say, I was, I was out recently and I went to the bar and you know, it's crowded and last thing I want to do is stand in a crowded bar line. And so, you know, I'll try to buy, I'm an old man now, an unk, as my kids will call me. And so I'll try to get a bucket or some so I don't have to get back in line very fast. And I'll say, hey, you know, give me Six Coors Light, six Miller Lights. I'm still not willing to order Bud Light, whatever it is, the Easy Bar, you know, tab order. And the last time I did that, the girl came back and she was like, yeah, that'll be $21. And I was like, oh, this I. It's been so long since I went anywhere and somebody charged me something. And I thought, man, that's a lot less than I expected. You guys know, you know what I'm talking about. Like, everything costs too much relative to what I think it should cost now because of the Biden inflation, everything just went up like 25 or 30% at least. And so everything you order, it feels like it's way more expensive than it should be. And I think that's the angst and the anger and the being upset, but this was the second time in my life, the first time I was in New York. Producer Ali, you'll probably know where this place was. It was, I think after my first, maybe my second year of law school and my current wife, then girlfriend Laura, we were in New York. I think it was like the. So what's the really fancy hotel in Soho? The Soho House? Is it the Soho? Is that the name of the hotel? The Soho House? Would that be like, you walk in and there's kind of this cool bar and. And I don't know, it's probably like a 15 story place. I think that's where it is. I heart has a studio near there, right like that. Ryan Seacrest used to use the Tribeca Grand. Tribeca Grand. That's what it is. Yeah, the Tribeca Grand. Really nice place. Okay. I am 23, I have no money. And I remember I went to the bar in the Tribeca grand to get four beers and I think the bill was like $62, something like that. And I just remember thinking, I'm going to be the first person to ever go bankrupt ordering a round of beers in the history of mankind. I just couldn't believe what it cost at the Tribeca Grand. This same thing happened with Jesse Kelly. We're at, I think it was the Peninsula Hotel. We're on the rooftop. Everybody's having a good time. They bring six shots. $75 each. $75 each. Jesse Kelly ordered shots on my tab at the table. I didn't even know there was a $75 shot drink anywhere on the planet that should come with a. That should come with stock in the hotel. So when Jesse says he trusts me, the le the least of everybody, I just think it's Important for all of you to know that he's balding and also that he's the kind of person who orders $75 shots of tequila. Um, so, Trusted Media, tons of you reacting to that story. Uh, and we're going to continue to take your reactions to that. But I think one reason Trusted Media has collapsed is a lot of people in media are charlatans. A lot of people in media are completely dishonest, and they don't have a lot of gratitude. I am every single day. I, I, I, I encourage all of you to think, try to do this, too. Every single day when I wake up, the first thing I think, before I even reach over and get my phone, before I see whatever the frenzy of the day is, I think, boy, here are two or three things that I are that I am very grateful for. The most time. It has to do with my, my boys, my wife, my family, the jobs that I feel very fortunate to have. Before I do anything else, before I get out of bed for about 30 seconds, one minute, I just lay in bed, and I think, hey, here are the things that I am grateful for, because I think gratitude is probably the most underutilized and the most important of all emotions in the world at large. How many people in media do you think are grateful for the jobs that they have? Feel incredibly fortunate to be able to live in this country and make a living saying exactly what we think every single day? When I sit down, I put on my headset for about 10 seconds. I think, boy, this is an incredible privilege. I am so grateful that I get to do what I am doing today every single day for about 10 seconds, I think that when I put the headset on, and I've done that for 20 years, when I did local sports talk radio in Nashville, I remember sitting down thinking, man, I'm getting paid to do this. And I used to get paid nothing to do with this. My first job in radio, I made $0 to do a radio show, and then I got $50 to do a radio show. So I've legitimately done this for no money because I felt so excited to be able to do it. Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow. Do they seem grateful that they get to have media jobs that pay them millions of dollars to say whatever they think? This clip is going viral, and I wanted to share it with you because I do think that in addition to facts versus Feelings, we were talking about with Ben Shapiro, who I think has done a really good job of making that his hallmark, his calling card, Republicans seem to me in general, to be profoundly thankful and filled with gratitude that we all get to live in this country. Now, I'm not saying that there aren't things every day where you wake up and you think, boy, this has not been a day. This has not been a week. This has been really hard. I'm not saying that it means that there aren't challenges or that you aren't sometimes frustrated and upset about the trajectory of the country. I just mean that as a general.
- [39:19]
Clay Travis
Rule.
- [39:21]
Buck Sexton
Do you feel immense gratitude every day that you wake up for the privilege, for the good fortune that you live in the United States? I do. Warren Buffett has a great example of this, by the way. What are there 7 billion of us? It's really good. Illustrative. I think you could use it with your kids and your grandkids. He says, if you live in the United States today, pretend that every 7 billion people in the entire world were in a jar, and you, you were represented by a marble, and you could reach into that jar of 7 billion people, and you could pull out any other marble. You could end up the Prince of England. You could end up the President of Taiwan who Buck just spoke to. No idea what you might draw as your fate. But he said, you know what? No one in America should ever change their marble. Think about that. We are also fortunate and privileged to live in this country, that no matter whether you are the richest or the poorest person in America Today, your marble, one of 330 million ish marbles, you should never, ever risk putting your marble in and drawing a new one, because the chances that you would end up in a better place and a better position than where you are right now relative to the world at large are very, very slim. And so I was thinking about that when I watched this clip this morning from Joy Reid. And Joy Reid said, this is From March of 2025, when my mom came here from Guyana. She's an immigrant. She realized it was not a land of opportunity for people like us. Cut 28. My father was from the Congo, and my mother was from Guyana. And so they were the immigrants who came here on purpose. And they got the rude awakening. My mother got the rude awakening. Like, oh, it's racist, Terry. That's weird. For some reason, she wasn't, we're going to cross school. Yeah, tell me this is the land of opportunity, but not for me. So her dad was from Congo and her mom was from Guyana. And they're laughing. Ha ha. This is not the land of opportunity. Not for us. Boy, this is A super racist country. Why didn't you go back? I mean, that's the immediate reaction that I have. If you're not born here and you came to the United States, you could go back to Congo, you could go back to Guyana if you think it's super, super racist place and there's no opportunity for you here. By the way, Joy Reid got to go to Harvard and makes millions of dollars a year in politics just to share her opinion. Why wouldn't you go back? If I had been born in Denmark or South Korea or Botswana and I came to the United States and I got here and I said, boy, I expected it to be a lot better, this sucks. I'd go back to the country I was born in. Wouldn't you? How is the immediate reaction here? Not, boy, that's a tremendous lack of gratitude. How much money do you make, Joey Reed? Millions of dollars a year. You make more money than 99.9% of Americans. You got to go to Harvard, a place that 99.9% of Americans will never be able to attend. You got to do that as a first generation American. Would you have become a multimillionaire in the Congo? Would you have become a multimillionaire in Guyana? Would you have gotten to go to Harvard if you had been born in either of those countries? I think the answer is no. For all of that, where is your gratitude? Where is your thanks for the incredible good fortune that you had to be born in the United States because your parents came here? I don't think she even believes this. I think she's telling a lie. And I think she's telling a lie because Democrats are ungrateful for the country that exists here. And if you are ungrateful for the country that exists here, you have no problem tearing it down. They, at their essence, hate America and are not grateful for the immense gratitude benefits that have been lauded upon us. And I think that really goes to the essence of the two political parties. One party is grateful, the other is not. Now, the Republican Party is not perfect. It still has people like Jesse Kelly who buy $75 shots when you could buy a normal cost shot. And then you're not even grateful when somebody like me foots the bill. I mean, really, I'm not saying Republicans are perfect, but there aren't many, very many Joy reads in this party. We come back, we'll take some more of your talkbacks feedbacks. Remember, we're going to be talking with John James, Michigan gubernatorial candidate at the bottom of the hour and he just got called out by the Reverend Al Sharpton. We'll have some fun with that. But in the meantime, this weekend coming up, we are soon going to be on the anniversary of the two year terror attack that happened in Israel on October 7, 2023. And a lot of you, including me, are going to show your support for Israel, the country that was Savagely attacked on October 7, 2023 by putting out flags. This is a nationwide effort to show that everybody out there should have support for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews and the work that they're doing to help honor and remember the day that 1200 Israelis lost their life and 250 more were taking hostages. What they're doing is called Flag of Fellowship. It's organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. If you'd like to join millions of Americans across the country standing in solidarity with the victims of the Hamas terror attacks, go to IFCJ.org the flags of Fellowship movement open to everyone. Join this powerful and symbolic movement by going to ifcj.org that's ifcj.org stories of freedom, stories of America. Inspirational stories that unite us all each day. Spend time with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [45:51]
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- [46:50]
Buck Sexton
Welcome back in Clay. Travis Buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We are joined now by Congressman John James. He's up in Michigan and he represents the Detroit area, which was a bit of a surprise I guess according to the Reverend Al Sharpton. Good to have you on, Congressman. For people who don't know that story, I retweeted your video response this morning. What happened there?
- [47:19]
Clay Travis
Sure. Reverend Al Sharpton, as you know, is a host on the network. Msdnc. I'm sorry, msnbc. And he was talking to one of our progressive socialist candidates for Senate here, and he made mention that Michigan hasn't had a black congressman for a while. And that's kind of odd because I think I've been black for the past 44 years. So imagine my surprise when I. When I see this clip that one of my friends forwarded to me saying that there was no black congressman for the state of Michigan. Now, I was raised to believe that regardless of the color of my skin, I would be judged by the content of my character. But sadly, with guys like Al Sharpton, there's only one way to be black. When his party believe that children should be addressed by 15,000 Ways in their gender, this is something that is indicative of how extreme their party has gone, that they are so blinded to reality that they either refuse to acknowledge the representation that is in the state of Michigan and the fact that we are turning away from their lies because everywhere there is Democrat control. In cities across the nation, overwhelmingly African Americans and all people, frankly, are suffering. So we are going to combat that in the way that Charlie taught us. We're going to combat that with ideas. We're going to combat that with words. We're going to combat that with better policies. And we are going to make sure that our better policies reach every corner of America, to make our streets safer, to make our schools better, to make, to make our jobs have better pay and more of them, to make our housing more affordable and more accessible. These are things that our policies went on. And you see people voting with their feet, moving from states like New York to states like Florida, moving from states like California to states like Texas. These are the things that people see and they will not be fooled by the race baiters and the haters out there. So I just decided to tell the truth when they lied about us.
- [49:39]
Buck Sexton
We're talking to John James. He's running for governor of Michigan. I just was with you a couple weeks ago up in Mackinac Island. I've talked about this quite a lot, but my wife's family is all from Michigan. And I said in the speech that I gave that I think Michigan is the most important state in the nation when it comes to what's going to happen in 2026 and what's going to happen in 2028 if Republicans win the governor's race that you're in. And also Win the state in the 2028 election. We're gonna have great leadership. How does that happen? What do you see on the ground right now?
- [50:14]
Clay Travis
Well, that's exactly right. Michigan is gonna be the center of the electoral universe in 2026 for a lot of reasons. We have an open governor's seat, we have an open Senate seat, we have a number of competitive House seats, we have a number of competitive seats in our state legislature. We have an open seat for the Attorney General, open seat for Secretary of State, and there's going to be over $500 million spent in the battleground state of Michigan in 2026. Having a strong top of ticket, if you're concerned with making sure we hold a majority in Washington, D.C. making sure that we have a strong top of ticket, running for governor in the state of Michigan in a swing state is the most important thing you can do. And I can prove it. When you look at swing states like Pennsylvania and Arizona, if you have a top of ticket that drags down the rest of the ballot, then you lose seats that Republicans should win. Like, we lost two Senate seats, one in Arizona, one in Pennsylvania, and up to five House seats in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Contrastingly, you have Lee Zeldin in the last midterm, who ran a strong race and he still fell short in New York. And I imagine there are a number of New Yorkers with buyer's remorse for Kathy Hochul at this particular point. But Lee Zelderman such a strong race that he pulled six Republicans across the finish line and five in districts that Biden won. And all that did was save the Republic. We had such a thin majority in the 118th Congress, the last Congress, because we were able to compete and win in blue and purple seats in blue and purple states all over the country. And Michigan is one of those places that we need to hold and have pickups. And the best way we can do that is have the strongest top of picket in Michigan. Right now, I am leading the primary by 50 points, and I'm the only Republican who's beating the Democrats in the general. We have the Democrat mayor of Detroit who's running as an independent in the general election, and he's bleeding more votes from the Democrats. This is a golden opportunity, not just for 2026, but, guys, we have a presidential election coming up in 2028, and we have a current Secretary of State who's in charge of our elections, who the DOJ is investigating for malfeasance in prior elections, making sure that we can trust our election results. Is so important not just for Michigan, but for people all over the country. And then after that we have a census and then controlling, making sure that we have a good census to reapportionment. Michigan is going to be the center and this is how we build. I'm old enough to remember when Florida was a swing state and Ohio was a swing state. But because Republicans had stepped up, took ownership and began to change policies to make it more favorable for their citizens, they are now red states and they are thriving. And that is what's possible in Michigan. Michigan can not only be the most beautiful, most gritty, most amazing state, but we can also be the most well run state if we choose to pick up and we all get the support for a strong top of ticket and start planning for the future.
- [53:08]
Buck Sexton
We're talking to John James, he represents the 10th congressional district of Michigan right now. You went to West Point. What was that experience like? You also served overseas in Iraq. What was that experience like? For people who do not know your background, give them your bio and let them know how you came to be where you are today.
- [53:29]
Clay Travis
I came to be where I am today by the grace of God and a mama who would not quit on a boy who was raised in Detroit. When she watched a bunch of other young black men go down the wrong path, she refused to surrender me to the streets. And my father and mother worked hard together to give me the best and my brother and sister the best lives they could. And I know that since they come from the Jim Crow south, they came to Michigan for opportunities. And I've been exceedingly blessed in my life. And so they taught me that I have to use my blessings to be a blessing to others. That is why I knew that I needed to serve my nation, this great country that has given us so much. No, we're not perfect, but we're the greatest nation that's ever been. And we need to share the good news with anyone who will listen and most who won't. This is what I was able to do. I graduated high school, I went to West Point, I graduated West Point 2004. I became a Ranger qualified Apache pilot and I flew 750 hours combat in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I came back home after that to join my family's business and I was able to help 10x the company top line revenue and add hundreds of jobs in Michigan and around the country. I started a family, beautiful life, three little boys, got a couple master's degrees and now I'm in Congress. I'm serving the people of the state of Michigan, because it's the honor of my life to give back and serve. And that is, that's, that's, that's, that's what animates me. The. The interesting part about my West Point story. And real quick, my class was the first class to take the oath of affirmation, which means we will complete. We make a promise to complete our obligation in the first hour of the junior year. And we were the first class to make our oath of affirmation knowing that we would go to war. We were sophomores during September 11, and as a result, our class, our West Point class, has taken the most casualties of any academy class since Vietnam. And that is not just direct combat. That's also the unseen scars of war. That's also the suicides. That's also the overdoses. And so when you look at the mental health crisis in this nation, as a congressman now, as a governor later, and as long as there's breath in my lungs, I'm going to commit my life to addressing the scourge of substance use disorders, mental health, under, under service, and making sure that we all have the resources that we need. We are not serving our veterans, and we are not serving those who struggle with mental health adequately. Our schools, our hospitals, and our jails are not made up. They are not configured to deal with the special needs of folks who are struggling with mental health. So the lessons that I learned at West Point, the lessons that I learned in combat and the things that I've seen serving the state of Michigan are all pushing me to restore hope in the state of Michigan. Restore trust in the state of Michigan, Restore wellness in the state of Michigan, Restore family and family values in the state of Michigan. And also, this is important, too. Restore beauty. When God looked down on the earth and he saw things that they were good, he saw things that were operating in the purpose that they were created for. Every plan that we make has to work within its purpose. And then when it's truly good, that's when things are beautiful. When you look at things throughout the course of humanity, we're not just here to eat, sleep, work, and die. We are here for a purpose. Men, we are more than just our job. Women, you are more than just a vessel for babies. You are here to bring glory to God and love your neighbors as yourself and make this world a better place. These are all the things that we have the privilege to do in this great country, and we can all do it together in the future with the right leadership.
- [57:10]
Buck Sexton
I love all that for people who are fired up. They can find you where you can.
- [57:15]
Clay Travis
Go to john jamesmi.com or you can find me on all the socials at John James. And I thank you all so much and God bless you all.
- [57:22]
Buck Sexton
Yeah. By the way, one last question. How are the Detroit Lions going to the super bowl this year?
- [57:27]
Clay Travis
The Detroit Lions are going to super bowl this year and every other year for the rest of my life. Dan Campbell is the best coach that has ever existed on the planet and you know the best move? He let the Green Bay packers win that first game to take the pressure off his guys. You know what? That's what a great, great coach, you know. So Lions, lions will go 16 and 1, Super bowl champions and the score will be 74 to 0. Lions.
- [57:52]
Buck Sexton
Outstanding stuff. We appreciate the time. It's great to hang out with you up at Mackinac and look forward to talking with you throughout the campaign.
- [58:00]
Clay Travis
Of course. Thanks a lot. God bless.
- [58:02]
Buck Sexton
That is John James, who is a the Democrats worst nightmare in many ways. I think if you look at what would happen if Republicans could take back control of the governor's mansion in Michigan, just think about that. Leave aside John James's campaign. I think he made a really good, compelling pitch there and we're going to talk to some of the other candidates out there as well. But as he said, you've got a big Senate race going on and that could be transformative if that seat were to flip as it nearly did in 2024. And if you take over the governor's mansion, Democrats are in dire straits because there is a, a real march, I think, for the Republican Party in the state of Michigan. I feel that momentum again because my wife's family is all from there and we are in Michigan on a not pretty regular basis. So I feel like I understand that state a little bit better than, than I do others. And that could be a huge difference because again, if you told me right now, hey, Republicans are going to Win Michigan in 2028, I would say, okay, Republicans are going to win the White House. And if you told me Republicans are going to be able to flip a Senate seat in 2026 and win the governor's mansion, I would feel even better about what's going to happen in 2028. So again, Michigan is a state I think everybody should be paying attention to see what happens in all of these competitions. All right, get your pens, get your pads, get your paper. It's winning time now. We have won three out of the last four weeks. You just heard John James say Detroit Lions. They're on a roll. Okay, I want you guys, as I told you, to go to prize picks. Great American company founded by a University of Georgia grad, now worth billions of dollars. They have got a great app that you can download and when you use code clay, you get $50. When you play, $5. I have given you four picks so far this year. Every Thursday on the program, we've won three times. We're trying to make it four out of five. And here are my picks for this weekend. Three of them are easy. You just go pick more or less. Baker Mayfield, more than one half passing touchdown for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Sam Darnold, more than one half passing touchdown for the Seattle Seahawks. And C.J. stroud, more than one half passing touchdown for the Houston Texans. Okay, all three of those, plus the Tennessee Titans are the worst team in the history of mankind. Unfortunately, they are also my team. They cannot do anything well. They are playing against Arizona this weekend. Cam Ward is going to have less than 179 and a half passing yards. Cam Ward, less than 179 and a half passing Yards. So Baker Mayfield, Sam Darnold and C.J. stroud, all to throw touchdown passes. Camward less. If we're right there, it pays 2.8x. That means if you put $10 down, you would get back $28. You put a hundred dollars down, you get back $280. Let's play along. Hopefully we can make it four out of five. Go to prizepix.com my name Clay. When you play five dollars, all you have to do is click more or less on any athlete. You get $50. That's price picks that pricepix.com code clay, let's make it four out of five weeks as a winner. You ain't imagining it. The world has gone insane. Reclaim your sanity with Clay and Buck. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, I got a request for you guys. All right. And I'm open to where you would like for me to make a donation too. So where's the best place to go with this? I have got if you're watching on video. My new book is coming out. It is one month away from being released. It's called Balls. I will post the link on my Twitter feed. It'll be up short, certainly at Clay and Buck, but you can just type in Clay Travis on Amazon, Barnes and Noble on any of the sites and it will take you there. I'm in a good spot. Where I. There have been times in the past where I wrote books and I needed to sell copies of my book to be able to feed my kids, to be able to pay my mortgage. I'm in a good spot now where I don't have to worry about that. So I am going to donate all of the money that is made from this book to charity. But here's what I want. I want you guys to give me good idea on what that charity should be. Second part of this, I want you to go, please buy the book. Because I want the arguments that I make in this book to get out as widely as they possibly can. You guys know that I believe best arguments win, but we got to get the best arguments in front of the largest possible audience. The way you do that, this is just full disclosure, is you sell a bunch of books in advance of the book actually being released. So they print a ton of them and they put them in the front of stores. I want this book to be in Hudson bookstores. If you're walking through an airport. I want this thing to be in Costco. I want this thing to be in Walmart. The way that happens is we have to sell a ton of them before it's even released. So I'm asking you for a favor. And again, all the proceeds are going to charity. I'm in a great spot. I'm going to post the link on Amazon. Please go buy the book. The book is balls. It's easy. You just type in my name, Clay Travis. It's a fun read, but I think it's an important one. It's about how young men, sports fans, and President Trump won the election and how we keep the momentum of that win going forward. Your sons, your grandsons, your granddaughters, your grand. Your daughters. I think they would enjoy it. They might not have been exposed to the arguments that I'm making. I'm asking you to buy them. Give it to people. Just type in my name, Clay Travis. I'm gonna share it. I want this book to be as widely distributed as possible because I think the arguments are important and I think we are correct. I also know that there are a lot of moving parts out there when it comes to your cell phones, by the way, and that is why you need Pure Talk. They can save you up to a thousand dollars over the course of a entire year. How much difference could that make? We get close to Thanksgiving, we get close to Christmas, we get close to the end of the year. That can make a big difference. I use Pure Talk to stay in touch with my family. My 17 year old and my 15 year old have Pure Talk phones. It's what I use to stay in touch with them. I trust Pure Talk for my family. You can trust it for yours as well. You'll save a bundle. They have the same values as you. Here's how you switch. You keep the same phone number, same phone. £250. Say Clay and Buck. That's £250 from your phone. Now say Clay and Buck. Save $1,000 over a year. This is an I Heart podcast.