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- [00:00]
iHeartRadio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:05]
Downy Unstoppables Advertiser
What's that sound? That's the sound of Downy unstoppable scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long. There it is again. It's like music to your ears. Or more like music to your nose. That freshness is irresistible. Let's get a Downy Unstoppables bottle shake. And now a sniff solo. Nice. With Downy Unstoppables, you just toss wash. Wow. For all day freshness.
- [00:35]
Clay Travis
Welcome, everybody. Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show gets going right now. Election day edition, in fact, a day of votes and a day of balls. Clay Travis's book goes officially on sale today. The title, easy to remember, easy to spell, B, A, L, L, S. And there are in fact two balls of the basketball variety on the COVID Author Clay Travis. Guys, if we want good books coming out from good people on the right, we got to go buy them, okay? I got to tell you, in the era of podcasting and TV and YouTube and all this stuff, I've got my book coming out in February. February 17th is the day. Clay's book's out today. I'm just bringing this up, though, because the amount of work you do to actually write your book. Clay writes his books. I have written my book, meaning sat there at a computer, not paid somebody else to do it. It's a whole other conversation. Sat there at a computer and did the writing. It is something that I hope people will appreciate on our side of things. And the best way to show appreciation is by buying the copies. Let's get Clay on the bestseller list. Clay will be talking to you more about balls throughout the program. But it is election day and that is going to be, of course, our focus today. And we have a whole bunch of things happening all at once. The New York City race is the one that is getting by far the most attention. New Jersey is going to be a squeaker. I think it's going to be tight. Virginia not looking so good for our gubernatorial candidate. Winsome Sears not looking so good at this point, but go out, vote. Don't listen to me. What I. What do I know? I'm some guy just squawking nonsense on the radio. Go vote.
- [02:19]
Buck Sexton
By the way, also, AG is going to come down potentially in Virginia to a pin pricks difference based on everything we're seeing. So it's important. Yes, we may lose a governor's race, we may lose different aspects, but the down ballot can be hugely important too. So Lieutenant Governor is an important job in Virginia. Attorney General, certainly we want you to go vote for winsome Sears too. But the attorney general race looks like it could be in Virginia, one of the tightest out there to Bucks Point, New Jersey. Governor, Republicans win. If Republicans show up in big numbers today in New Jersey, everybody listening to us on W O R and other stations in New Jersey, if you have not voted, go do it. Go vote everywhere. Because it really is likely to come down to a hair's breadth margin in many of these races.
- [03:14]
Clay Travis
We have the biggest last minute, I think, change in the voting situation or in the endorsements around that. We have a Trump endorsement of. Drumroll. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayor's race. This is something that now, Clay, you've been telling our beloved audience that you think that this is the right move. And there have been some New Yorkers who have been calling you from parts of South Brooklyn where they're very upset. They don't like this talk from Clay about voting for the commie or voting for Cuomo, only voting for Sliwa aloud. Clay does not like, does not like the prospects of Sliwa winning this. And so has made the Machiavellian decision to go in favor of a Cuomo as the lesser of two evils. And I do think two evils is the right way to describe those candidates. And we have a whole bunch of reaction to this. Clay, I want you to react. Well, first of all, Stephen Miller, who we know another, a brilliant strategist and senior White House aide and friend of the show, this is cut seven. Here he is saying anti Momdani vote. Go vote Cuomo. Play it. As far as New York is concerned, as you've talked about, as we've said, unfortunately, the anti Mamdani vote is being split between Cuomo and Sliwa. And President Trump tonight put out a statement being clear that if you vote for Sliwa, who's polling at about a third of where Cuomo is, you're just throwing your vote away. The anti Mamdani vote, which is really the pro New York City vote, the pro America vote, needs to unite behind the leading candidate, and that's Andrew Cuomo, man. There you go.
- [05:03]
Buck Sexton
Is everybody going to be as angry at Trump and Stephen Miller for telling you on the day before the election what I have been telling you for weeks, which is Sliwa can't win and all he is doing is helping Mumdani? And we had him on last week and I asked him this directly. I think Curtis Sliwa hates Andrew Cuomo. And he has stayed in the race partly out of principle because it is true that Democrats have created this problem, but also, as he told us, because he truly does not see a difference between Momdani and Cuomo. And so the idea that he would help either of those guys, particularly Cuomo, who I think he probably hates more than he does Mom, Donnie, because they have history together, is a decision that, that he made. And my concern is that when we get these results start rolling in tonight, that we will see Momdani not win over 50% of the vote and win because the anti Momdani vote was split between Sliwa and Cuomo. And that's what Trump is telling us now. Buck. It may also be the case based on this turnout, that Mamdani wins over 50%. And it wouldn't have mattered anyway. And if that's going to end up happening, then all this was for naught, no matter what. And it would suggest that at least in New York City, being an avowed socialist candidate doesn't put much of a, of a rock on top of your head of expectations. And so your ceiling is maybe higher than people would have anticipated. So this is where we're going to start to see what the results of this, of this race truly are. And I'm up in New York City right now and it's all everybody's talking about. It looks like the New York City mayor's race may set an all time record for most votes.
- [06:53]
Clay Travis
I just want to let you know, New Yorkers that I did encourage Clay to walk around and offer to sign copies for anybody who buys balls of his book, but not to hand out flyers about moving to Franklin, Tennessee, that it's too soon. We have to see how this shakes out. He's not allowed to recruit off the streets of New York while he's there in our darkest hour of communists taking over. So he has agreed he will sign the book, but he will not give you flyers on how to move, how to get a U haul set up for Tennessee.
- [07:28]
Buck Sexton
I will say the numbers out there. Did you see this report that a million people say they're going to leave New York City? Now, I think this is a little bit like people who say, I'm going to move to Canada, Trump wins. I doubt that most of them would move, but let's say that 100,000, 10% of the million, I don't think that's crazy. I think 100,000 New Yorkers, if mom Donnie wins, might say, I'm out. I'm going to Florida. I'm going to Texas. I'm going to Tennessee. What did Davy Crockett say? You can go to hell. I'm going to Texas. All time great line crockett coffee.com's Davy Crockett, not Jasmine Crockett. But I think there are some of people will just say New York and go to hell. I'm going to Texas or I'm going to Tennessee or I'm going to they'll.
- [08:12]
Clay Travis
Certainly, there certainly will be some outflow I think into the tri state, so Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, outside of the urban, the urban bubble that will happen, I don't know in what numbers there have been people snapping up real estate. It's one thing to move to Putnam county. It's another thing to move to Palm beach, right?
- [08:35]
Buck Sexton
Yeah.
- [08:35]
Clay Travis
It's another thing to decide you're going to order Orlando or wherever. So we'll see. I agree, Clay. I don't think, I think people are frustrated. I don't believe that you'll see a large outflow New Yorkers because I think that most of the New Yorkers who are going to leave, like me, left during COVID I think that that pushed a lot further in this direction than anything we're seeing right now. But we'll see. We'll see the number of people that want to move versus who will move. That is an important distinction as well. I think a lot of people will want to move, but it's hard. You got family, everything else. But tell me this, do you agree with this assessment of Van Jones? Over. This is cut 14 suggesting that the Cuomo endorsement by Trump could, given the political realities of New York, actually hurt Cuomo. Play, play 14. Look, there must have been some kind.
- [09:29]
Buck Sexton
Of handshake deal between Mamdani and Trump.
- [09:31]
Clay Travis
For Trump to come out and endorse in New York City a multifaceted endorsement and non endorsement. But like I can't think of a.
- [09:40]
Buck Sexton
Worse thing to happen to Cuomo than.
- [09:43]
Clay Travis
For Donald Trump to come out last night in this town and say what he said. What do you, what do you think of that?
- [09:50]
Buck Sexton
I think it's probably why they waited until now, candidly because there's a lot of early voting that's already taken place and I suspect that they said early voting you may juice turnout. I don't think most people on election day are going to be motivated to vote against Trump. I think Trump's calculus is there might be some people out there that haven't decided how they're going to vote. And if it's a close race that this could swing the difference. My concern now is, mom, Donnie seems to be rolling Buck and that if he wins over 50%, then all of this was for naught. I mean, to be fair, it wouldn't have mattered if Curtis Levo was in. It wouldn't have mattered how many other candidates were there. Because if he wins over 50%, then the majority of New York voters and a majority of New York voters with a huge turnout, potentially record, are saying, mom, Donnie's our guy. Now, Cuomo, I think, has run a poor campaign, but he's actually pointing out something that is very important. Cut 16. He's saying what Mamdani is promising to people he doesn't even have the power to deliver on. And I do think that that might be beneficial to New York City. Cut 16.
- [11:08]
Housing Policy Expert
I call them. The TikTok promises that he put forth in the primary. None of them are real. The mayor is going to freeze the rent. People think it means that he's going to freeze their rent. No, no, no, no. First of all, the mayor has no ability to freeze anybody's rent. No legal ability done by an independent board that is term appointed. And then it's only for about 25% of the housing units called the rent stabilized units. So it will never happen. We're going to have a government owned grocery store, one in each borough. We have 16,000 grocery stores. Five grocery stores are not going to make a difference. Free buses. It's not up to the mayor. It's up to the state. State said they're not going to do it. It's all bs. It's all campaign rhetoric. None of it will change anybody's life.
- [11:53]
Buck Sexton
Where was this for the past several months? Cuomo finding an ability to make the case against Mom, Donnie, I get it. Hey, this is the final day, the final hours. But wouldn't this have been helpful back during the primary? Wouldn't this have been helpful in the last several months? I just think if Mamdani wins, it's not only a credit to Mamdani's personal charisma and the fact that a lot of people want to believe in the tooth fairy, so to speak, but it's also a function of how poor of a job Andrew Cuomo has done. Defining the absurdity of the Mamdani campaign.
- [12:28]
Clay Travis
Well, he has run a terrible campaign. I think there's even been some admission of that from the Cuomo side that he has not done. He has been not just inept, but lazy, too. It's certainly in the primary in the Democrat primary. He thought he was going to walk away with this. We've seen this happen before in New York. Remember, AOC took out the number three Democrat in terms of House leadership. I forget the guy's name. That tells you something. But he just figured, I'm going to win. Didn't campaign, didn't show up, didn't care. And now we've got AOC running around saying crazy stuff. Mamdani was also something of a sleeper candidate here, at least in the primary. And when he took out Cuomo, it was because Cuomo was lazy and thought that he was kind of entitled to, to represent the Democrats in the city of New York. It's looking like it's going to be Mandani, but, you know, Cuomo could pull something out here at the very end. Maybe that's my, that's my most hopeful note I can hit on this and I'm not even very hopeful. Clay Cuomo is awful. I'm sorry. I know people want to believe that this would be some huge metaphorical bullet dodged by New York. And no, I think Cuomo is pretty terrible too. So even if he wins, we got problems, New York, we got problems.
- [13:43]
Buck Sexton
Also important to understand the way media is going to spin this. I'm looking at CNN right now. Their headline is voters deliver Early Report card on Trump Presidency. Even though it's blue state Virginia, even though it's blue state New Jersey, even though it is deep blue New York City. They are going to argue if the results are the Democrats win, as they are favored to win many of these races. They're going to argue that this is a massive repudiation of Trump and that Americans regret the decision that they made a year ago. Just prepare yourselves.
- [14:17]
Clay Travis
People vote. Most people vote first and foremost based on how it makes them feel to cast that vote for that person, that party, that candidate. So if you can tap into frustration, resentment, some idea that this is a, an effort to check or veto or slow down the Trump administration, as absurd as that is, it's again, the tooth fairy syndrome, right?
- [14:46]
Buck Sexton
Yes.
- [14:47]
Clay Travis
This does nothing. Having a communist mayor in New York does nothing to stop the Trump administration, really. But if people feel like it does, you get Mom. Donnie, we'll see. We'll take your calls on this, too. WOR listeners, light us up. Tell us what you're hearing and seeing. Unplanned pregnancies are scary. When you're not planning something as huge as bringing another life into this world, there's often that, quote, unquote, easier choice that is being pushed on young women, sometimes even by their families or their own partner. And it can be a very tough moment. But that's why there are organizations that are out there right now, as I'm speaking to you, that are saving the lives of tiny babies. This year, Preborn Clinics saved the lives of 67,000 unborn children by offering pregnant women with an unplanned pregnancy another option. Because when a mom to be walks into one of those preborn clinics, she's welcomed with open arms. She's introduced to her baby through an ultrasound and for the first time she sees that life so clearly and is offered so many hope filled choices by preborn and preborn will continue with her for up to two years after the birth of the baby. Providing maternity clothes, diapers, counseling and so much more. Preborn cares for the whole woman, her mind, body and soul and the precious baby growing inside her. There are hundreds of thousands of mothers to be in this situation. They need your help. As you're closing out this year, think about a deductible tax deductible donation to Preborn, which can be the difference between life and death for a tiny baby in the womb. Using your cell phone, dial pound250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound250, say baby or visit preborn.com buck all gifts are tax deductible. Like I said, Preborn is a five star rated charity. Preborn.com Buck sponsored by Preborn Saving America.
- [16:40]
Buck Sexton
One thought at a time Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
- [16:49]
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- [17:50]
Downy Unstoppables Advertiser
What's that Sound. That's the sound of Downy Unstoppable scent beads going into your washing machine and giving your clothes freshness that lasts all day long. There it is again. It's like music to your ears. Or more like music to your nose. That freshness is irresistible. Let's get a Downy Unstoppables bottle shake. And now a sniff solo.
- [18:13]
Clay Travis
Nice.
- [18:14]
Downy Unstoppables Advertiser
With Downey Unstoppables, you just toss wash. Wow. For all day freshness.
- [18:19]
Buck Sexton
Election Day 2025. I am in New York City, where the mayoral decision is being made across the city. Potential record high turnout there, across the river from New York City, New Jersey. And here's the truth. And if Republicans show up in big numbers today in New Jersey, then Cittarelli is going to win. If they do not, then he is going to lose. Because there's pretty reliable data out there, Buck, that shows that Democrats banked, as they often do, a substantial lead of around 250,000 votes, it appears, headed into Election Day. So the question is, can Republicans in New Jersey get out to the polls and win Election Day and flip control of the state of New Jersey? In Virginia, winsome Sears open, no incumbent there, but also lieutenant governor and Attorney general, races that are all super competitive down the ballot. As I mentioned, the mayor's race in New York City, mayor's races in Minneapolis, I believe Cincinnati, I believe Detroit. Many of you across the country, the big Prop 50 decision on California, and the headline is going to be, if Democrats do well tonight, that this is a repudiation of Donald Trump, even though that is not fair, because Trump lost Virginia by five and lost New Jersey by five. And these are both blue states, and certainly New York City is among the deepest blue cities anywhere in the country. Uh, but this is going to be seen in some ways as a verdict on the first 10 months or so of Trump 2.0. You and I are happy. Most people out there listening to us right now are happy. And this is not the battleground states that that will decide things in 2026 or 2028, necessarily, but that is where we are. They want to try to attack Trump, and they will use these results, if they can, to do so.
- [20:30]
Clay Travis
This is going to seem like a minor thing to some of you, but I'm telling you it's not. When I go to New York, when I go to visit my family, I'll be up there for Thanksgiving to see my family. The same thing I understand is true in New Jersey, Clay. I go in there and I buy some things in the store, you know, in the grocery store and they give me a paper bag and there's no option for a plastic bag. My understanding is that Jack Cittarelli is going to reverse the New Jersey ban on plastic on plastic grocery store bags. That alone, for me, I would be a single issue voter. I'm here in Florida. They don't even charge me. They're giving out plastic bags left and right. And let me tell you, I use them for all kinds of things. And I could tell you I wrap my tennis sneakers in one of those little plastic bags.
- [21:18]
Buck Sexton
So they're supposed to probably pick up dog poop in the plastic bag.
- [21:21]
Clay Travis
Would be a good guess. Pick up dog poop in my pla. I am reusing and using the plastic bag all the time. The environmental data on non use of plastic bags is very clear. It's actually worse for the environment for a whole bunch of reasons. Mostly because of paper is much heavier, requires more fossil fuels to be expended in transport, cannot be reused, often breaks. People want double and triple bags. This is a point of idiocy. And New Jerseyans, I know you've got housing costs and, and tax and crime and all these other issues, but you fundamentally cannot trust a politician who is in favor of banning plastic grocery bags. I'm in the land of plastic grocery bags here in Florida. Thank you, Governor Ron DeSantis. I'm in the land of plastic bags. Paper bags are trash. They are as in they end up in the trash when they break and my milk and my other things fall all over the sidewalk because a bunch of libs want to believe they're somehow fighting climate change by using these things. They're wrong on the merits, they're wrong across the board. And I'm just saying I would be a single issue voter for Jack Ciatarelli on the plastic bag thing alone. And then you add all the other stuff. It's really straightforward. The, the Democrat there, Mikey Sherrill, she thinks that the fact that there are all these municipalities clay New Jersey that have to have affordable housing, they call it affordable housing creation. This, this is not the way that the market should determine. You know, developers should say, hey, here's where I'm going to make housing. And here, you know, here's the cost of land, here's the cost of labor in this area. They have screwed up housing in New Jersey so much, it's so expensive to make it because of politicians. And the Democrat just wants to do more of that. And you want. Citarelli wants a rewrite of it to say, look, we Got to get rid of these stupid mandates and all of the intrusions into the housing market. That's complicated. Grocery bags. Not complicated, though. Vote Cittarelli.
- [23:20]
Buck Sexton
It's also not complicated to say if you want to have lower cost for rent, you need to have more rentable units. I know sometimes we try to overcomplicate things, but the number one way to drive down the price of something is to have more of it. That is the basic laws of economics. And so if you had way fewer illegal immigrants, people would have to pay way less for housing in the New York City area. And so the whole concept of freezing rent actually gets the incentive structure backwards because what you need to do is encourage building and create far more rentable units and encourage the rehabilitation of some of these buildings that are otherwise not rentable right now. And, and when you freeze rent, you actually create an economic disincentive to increase the amount of available housing in Manhattan and the New York City area. So this is also basic that, you know, the laws of economics do apply across party and across city and across state, whether they're blue or red. And the fact that we can't even have a real argument with Mamdani where people point out this is, first of all, as Cuomo said, he doesn't even have the authority to do it. But if you truly desperately thought that rent was too high in New York City, what you should do is figure out a way to build as many new housing units as possible, which feels like very basic common sense to me. But it runs into, oh well, then we got climate issues or it's so hard to get building permits and so many of you out there are just fed up with this.
- [25:00]
Clay Travis
Well, but who's going to do this? This is a huge thing in New York as well. So New York and New Jersey, this is the same problem played out in different locales. California had that really embarrassing, even for California, embarrassing bureaucratic moment of the million dollar porta Potty. You all remember that, you know, how many of you live in a million dollar home right now? You know, a good amount of you, but you know, the average American home right now is like 400 grand or something. So a million dollar home is a nice home. I mean, that's an expensive depends. You know, in Nebraska it's a mansion. In Manhattan it's a one bedroom apartment. But a million dollars to get you some nice real estate. Clay, they were going to build a solo porta Potty, basically like a glorified public bathroom for a million bucks. I think this was in San Francisco. But it was California, state of California involved. And what that should be the signal to everybody, this state is not going to do good things when it comes to building housing or even involving itself in this housing process. This, this plays out in so many ways. And you know, even in a place like, I know a friend of mine's a landlord, like a kind of a, you know, big multifamily landlord in D.C. and he says that D.C. you know, one of the big problems is with building new construction in D.C. for people to live in. You know, you'll never be able to evict anyone. Yeah, basically it's going to be impossible. It'll cost you so much to evict people in Washington, D.C. that you end up paying them off to leave. Who wants to go through the headache of, I'm going to build a new eight unit, you know, multifamily in Northeast D.C. and I'm going to. When half your tenants can say, I'm not paying you anymore, and you end up paying them to leave after they've screwed you out of eight months of rent, no doubt.
- [26:47]
Buck Sexton
And by the way, a couple of stories that are also out there. Let me build on this for a minute, Buck L. A, A lot of you listening to us right now in L. A are nodding along. They still haven't gotten the ability to rebuild the areas that were burned down in Los Angeles because getting building permits in Democrat run cities, even for burned down homes, is virtually impossible. And you know, who knows this better than anybody? Trump, who is a builder and is building a ballroom right now because he found out there weren't zoning restrictions in D.C. speaking of D.C. buck, all flights at Reagan national have been halted following a reported bomb threat on an arriving aircraft. And so the whole air traffic yesterday we talked about Houston. There's a report that just came out that starting next week they may have to restrict airspace because of the government shutdown, meaning whole swaths of the country they're going to be restricting air travel. I think Democrats are going to come to the negotiating table and get this thing done. As we have told you, as soon as the election is over. They think it's beneficial to them to have the government shut down in these elections. I think that has been clearly their calculus. But I do think that this is a significant story that is building in intensity and some of you listening to us right now, and I was a part of this in Chicago on Friday because they shut down Nashville's airport for a while when I was trying to travel a lot of People right now are getting caught up in frustrated, trying to get through tsa, trying to get on planes, trying to. This is absolutely ridiculous. So that is all underway as we are speaking to you. Let me also say this. If you go buy my book, I will love you forever. I think that is a simple way. I want this book to be in as many hands as possible. It should be in every bookstore. So wherever you are in the country right now, balls is out there. And the esteemed President Donald Trump is the only quote on the back. Buck. It says, clay Travis has a great new book. Clay is a highly talented commentator, great taste. This Trump, who is tough, smart and gifted with common sense. He has studied our historic movement from the very beginning. Truly gets maga. MAGA loves him. This is the only thing on the back of the book. I thank President Trump for the endorsement. Uh, I would really appreciate to get on the New York Times list. They don't want to put me on. Buck, they don't want to put you on Joe Concha. Our friend just texted me and he said, hey, I've written all my books. They finally put me on the Times list. I've been a bestseller before all the books. This is my potentially last best chance. But Concha is listening right now and he said, dude, they finally put me on the list. Maybe they aren't as communist laden as they have been in the past, so. But I need to blow through the numbers. It's like Trump winning in an election. In order to get on the list.
- [29:56]
Clay Travis
Though, you know who doesn't like Joe Concha? Great guy, crazy. Crazy to not put him on the list.
- [30:00]
Buck Sexton
But, you know, this is like the election, right? You're not going to win by a few thousand, right? You have to be way over the finish line. You have to win by thousands and thousands of vote. You have to win a landslide. And that's where I need all of you. Amazon's got it right now, every bookstore in America. I would seriously, deeply appreciate if you guys would go buy it. As Buck said earlier, it's a lot of work to write a book. We actually write books. Finish the show, sit down in front of the computer, crank this thing out. It's fun, it's engaging. Also, if you're not a reader, I read the entire thing on audiobook. Are you scheduled to be in the audiobook chamber? I say that because it is somewhat accurate.
- [30:39]
Clay Travis
Over.
- [30:39]
Buck Sexton
Over the Christmas.
- [30:40]
Clay Travis
Over the Christmas holiday. Bah humbug. Ebenezer Scrooge coming for my holiday.
- [30:45]
Buck Sexton
So you come back in January because You are. I've recorded the last three of my books. You guys know I mispronounce words all the time. They have you there reading, and every time you mispronounce anything or you miss a word or whatever else, they stop you. It is unbelievably challenging to just read an entire book. To say nothing of the fact that you think, oh, I should have put that paragraph there. Why am I an idiot? Why did I have that sentence here? I could have written this better. You just self criticize the whole time you're doing it, but you can hear me read the entire thing. I did the audiobook book. Buck will be doing his. So if you're like my wife and you listen to books more than you read them because you're driving kids around or you're on the road a lot, you're a trucker, you got that option, too. I would seriously, deeply appreciate if you would go buy a copy of Balls today and drive me up the best seller.
- [31:38]
Clay Travis
People are asking what charity you're going to donate the proceeds to, I might add.
- [31:42]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, I'm going to try to. Yeah, I'm going to try to send to a bunch. I don't want to break news. We're talking about doing something pretty. I'm going to break news significant at Vanderbilt Law School about commitment to free speech principles for lawyers, because I'm troubled by what I've seen so many law schools out there doing when they're not. Basically the whole idea of being a lawyer is you have to sometimes advocate for things that you might personally disagree with, and that's the job. And I see a lot of law schools now saying, well, if it's not the right woke perspective, then we don't even feel like we should teach advocacy here. And I deeply disagree with that, as does my wife. So we're trying to work on something there that could be significant.
- [32:27]
Clay Travis
So in 20 years, is Uncle Clay going to be able to get little Jimmy Speed into Vanderbilt Law School? Let's get down to brass tacks here.
- [32:33]
Buck Sexton
I should have. Good pull.
- [32:35]
Clay Travis
There we go.
- [32:36]
Buck Sexton
Good pull.
- [32:36]
Clay Travis
That's what I'm talking about right there. I should write down to it.
- [32:39]
Buck Sexton
But I was also on in Asheville, North Carolina. I want to do something. I know we've already done some stuff, Western North Carolina. I did a tour this morning with a lot of our local affiliates. I think there's still a lot of people struggling in the Asheville area, even though it's been a year since the hurricane hit there. But a lot of people have forgotten my in laws are still, still rebuilding, still rebuilding. I think there are tons of people in that area that need help. So I'm going to do a variety of things, but I'm excited about being able to hopefully make a little bit of difference out there. And look, if you love stakes, burgers, chicken, pork kind of all sound good, I'll be honest. You want a subscription to Good Ranchers. This is the company connected to us with American ranchers doing the hard work. They raise cattle, pigs, chickens, the right way. No antibiotics or unnecessary hormones. Their farm fresh proteins much better than the supermarket alternative where the beef is often imported from other countries. They give you 100% American proteins delivered right to your door with we're subscribers. My kids love it. We love it. And right now you can get a great offer. When you use Clay as the promo code. You get $100 off your first three orders plus free meat for life. $100 off the first three orders. As we come in on the holiday season, I bet you're going to be cooking for a lot of people. Do you want good, healthy American raised meat products in your home? And I do. I bet you do too right now. Good ranchers.com Ben and his wife Corley have four young kids. They made this product for their kids and your kids and your families. $100 off plus free meat for life. Good ranchers.com code clay for 100 bucks off good ranchers.com code clay want to be in the know when you're on the go the Team 47 podcast shop highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast. We are joined now by our friend, data guru Ryan Gardusky. He's a part of the Clay and Buck podcast network. And I know we're about halfway through the day right now, Ryan, so I'm going to lay out some things. You tell me if you would sign on to these and or what you are seeing. Uh, if Cittarelli is going to win in New Jersey, Republicans have to turn out in huge numbers today because he's down around 250 or so thousand votes. It appears based on early voting and the mail ballots, absentees. Virginia is looking bad for winsome Sears, but Jason Miarez, the attorney general is in a tight race and has a decent chance Lieutenant governor is going to be competitive. There's and it looks like mom Donnie is going to win and potentially win with more than 50% of the vote. Do you sign on to any of those takes? Am I wrong? How would you assess where we are?
- [35:40]
Ryan Gardusky
No, you're. You're pretty on the money. I mean, the. What we. New Jersey's reporting county by county, so it's very difficult for me to get a real estimate. Remember Cittarelli, who only lost by 80,000 votes in 2021? He lost election day Republican versus Democrat turnout. Right. There were more Democrats turned on election day in 20 than Republicans, but he won Independence by such a large margin, it overwhelmed whatever Democrat turnout looked like. He won Election day by a little over 200,000 votes. Right now, it's looking like. One thing that's pretty surprising is how many people in Mikey Sherrill's district are voting right now. She has tremendous turnout out of her districts. As of noon today, not all the counties are reporting. A lot of the big Republican counties have yet to report. Some of the mild. Some of the other big Republican counties have reported. But definitely Mikey Sheryl's district is definitely showing up in full force. Presumably for her, it's a pretty safe Democratic district over in Virginia. What I sat there and seen right now is, you know, there's a. Republican counties are kind of in a mix right now. There's counties like Caroline County, Greene County, Norton county, which are doing fairly well of, you know, they're coming up in pretty large numbers. But also at the same time, there's other super big Republican counties like Appomattox and Buchanan, which are having horrendous turnout. So Republicans are making up some of the best turnout counties and some of the worst at the same exact time. Places like Alexandria, Fairfax, they're about 50% of their 2024 election day. As of right now, 50, 55 to 60, New York City is going to have the largest turnout in mayoral history. We're easily going to blow past, I think, 2 million votes. I mean, it's pretty safe to say. Largest election ever was in 1991. For 1993, rather, for Giuliani, that was 1.8 million. This is going to be at least 2 million tremendously high turnout. And places like the Bronx, which had not voted at all before election day, horrendous voting before election day had tremendously high turnout.
- [37:49]
Clay Travis
So Ryan, in the New York race, the thing that you hear about constantly from the Mamdani camp, it's just variations on cost of living and how Mamdani says he's going to bring those costs down. This is, as far as I'm concerned, like fairytale stuff. But put that aside, For a second. Is it a similar situation in New Jersey? What are the biggest things that are at issue that are actually moving, mobilizing voters and that could make the difference here in turnout when you look at the issues between Sheryl and Cittarelli?
- [38:24]
Ryan Gardusky
Well, the biggest issue, and I cover this on the, on the Numbers Game podcast for a whole episode. One of the biggest issues in both Virginia and New Jersey are electric prices. Electric prices are through the roof. Two thirds of electric price increases, according to CNN, were because now that that's a reliable source, but 2/3 of the increased cost was because of Dory.
- [38:42]
Clay Travis
Every time you mentioned CNN on our show Ryan, we play a little boo in the podcast.
- [38:47]
Ryan Gardusky
Well, I think that, I think the article was, I think the article was tremendous amount of the data centers and data centers that are popping up everywhere and how the increased costs are coming in those in states like that. That's a big thing. What happened in New Jersey, what happened in Virginia is that Democrats try to nationalize it, right? Make the whole election about Donald Trump and say a vote for me is a vote against Trump. Even Jay Jones is doing that as attorney in the attorney general race is Trump. All day, all night. Cittarelli has talked a lot about, you know, cost of living, how they be effective, an effective administrator that I don't know what's moving numbers right now. Democrat numbers are fairly strong in a number of places, but numbers are strong, by the way, everywhere. I'm looking at races across the country. There's an election in Miami going on right now. Democrat turnout is gigantic right now in Miami. The race elections in Pennsylvania, there's lines around the corner in Pittsburgh to go vote. This is a very, this is probably one of the highest turnout elections and off, off non primary, non, non presidential, non midterm years, probably ever.
- [39:54]
Buck Sexton
What's the impact, if anything, of Trump saying Cuomo should be your vote? Sliwa can't win. He waited till the night before the election. There's been arguments that it actually helps Mom. Donnie, at this point, does it have any impact and prediction from you? Do you think that Mamdani is likely to get over 50%, in which case all the talk about SLIWA versus CUOMO versus Eric Adams may not end up having mattered because if he gets over half the vote, then it doesn't matter how much split vote there was.
- [40:29]
Ryan Gardusky
Yeah, I, it doesn't. It's not helpful for Trump to weigh in because he's so disliked by two thirds of New Yorkers. A 30%, 33% love him. Or like him. And two thirds can't stand him in New York. And I don't think that it's necessarily helpful to Cuomo. I think Curtis Lewa could have done not only more for himself by team Anto Cuomo, but also helping the Republicans running down ballot in New York City, which is going to be tremendously important if Mandani becomes mayor. Can he win? Listen, can he win by 50%? I don't know. And I don't like to predict that. I don't like to make predictions I know I can't come true on. But here's what I'll sit there and say. You know who's looking at this election more than anybody is aoc because everyone kind of sat there and said, mandani has a ceiling. Mandani has a ceiling. He got so and so many votes in the primary. He can't possibly get more than a million votes in a 2 million person election in the general. If there's no ceiling on socialism. AOC is going to look at that and say, okay, it's my time to shine. I'm running for president. And it's not a joke when you say, I mean, yes, New York City is not reflective of the entire country, but there's a big chunk of that base in the Democratic primary. Sit there and says, no, there's no cap on socialism. Let's go completely full fledged on this. And then it's just a race to the left of who can get there first, especially on economic issues.
- [41:44]
Clay Travis
Ryan, on the Virginia side of things, it's not looking good from everything that we've seen and we talked to you about this in the early voting stage, A bit winsome. Sears, was this just not a race she could win because of the political realities of the state of Virginia right now and the enormous weight that really the suburbs of D.C. which is what, like Fairfax county and Nova, all those different areas of it, basically. Was this not her fault or did she. I don't remember a single thing coming from her side of the campaign. Plenty of things coming from the Spam burger that I didn't like, but I was certainly hearing about. But winsome series. I didn't even hear what she was standing for.
- [42:26]
Ryan Gardusky
She said one thing and one thing only. I will stop transgender bathrooms from happening in Virginia. She said it every single day. That was the only issue she ran on. Look, I'm not here to trash someone who's still. The votes are still yet to be counted, but I'll say so. Winston Sears. She's doing significantly Worse than both the candidate for lieutenant governor and ag. And even before the scandal, she was doing worse than the ag. It's not only she's an unknown person, she's lieutenant. She's the lieutenant governor currently. She raised a ton of money. She wasn't starving for cash. She ran on only one issue, which was transgender stuff. I'm not saying it's not great for Republicans. It is a, it's a winning issue.
- [43:03]
Clay Travis
She need, she needed more than that. It sounds like assuming that the polls are accurate so far, that that al is not going to propel her to the governor's mansion.
- [43:10]
Ryan Gardusky
It's just not the most important. It was the only thing she talked about. She didn't talk about anything. And then when she was asked about specifically data centers because electricity prices are increasing throughout Virginia, she sat there and said, well, they're here to stay and I'm building more of them. And it was very, very, very unpopular. She just is, she's, she ran, she, her original campaign team was, had a lot to be desired. I talked to a lot of people running down ballot. They did not like what she was doing. And she's not just losing today like the lieutenant Governor, she's just a generic Republican. No one really knows a lot about him. He had no money. She's losing worse than him and it says a lot more about her. It's a bad year. It's a bad year. You lose, you lose. But when you're losing worse than somebody with known money, no name id, and that's just a generic Republican, that's, that's pretty much on you.
- [44:00]
Buck Sexton
Okay, to what extent do you believe there is any predictive value in these elections? As we look toward next year's elections, which have far more consequential stakes, I.
- [44:14]
Ryan Gardusky
Think that it looks like Democrats are voting like at the presidential election. I mean, that's just the truth of it. They're voting in early elections. And like presidentials, some of these counties I'm looking at in New Jersey where it was 5 to 1 in 2020 blue counties, 5 to 1 Democrat in 2021, it's looking like 8 or 9 to 1 Democrat right now, just Democrat turnout is through the roof in some of these places, especially these white college educated areas. And they are voting like at the presidential election. Republicans really need to wake up if they think, even with all this gerrymandering that they're doing and things that are working their favor, if they think they can win on that alone, they cannot. When it comes to this kind of turnout the turnout is immense and Republicans need to match it in a significant way and really need to have answers on certain things in the economy, which I think are really pressing people's questions on quality of life.
- [45:04]
Clay Travis
So any last minute thoughts for how you think New York is going to go? Specifically Ryan, as the votes are coming in right now, is, is a Cuomo. This is really what I'm leaning toward. Is a last minute Cuomo miracle in the cards or have you already written this off?
- [45:21]
Ryan Gardusky
I mean, listen, I'm not writing anything off. I just sit there and say this Cuomo needed to do one major thing, give Republicans a reason to vote for him, and he never did. And that is Cuomo's biggest mistake in this general election. In the primary, he didn't do anything. Right. But in the general, he needed the hundreds of thousands of Trump voters in the city of New York who could sit there and flip an election to say, I'm going to vote for Cuomo because he's going to do X, Y and Z. He's going to support the problem solver, the Common sense Caucus, which is Republicans and Democrats in the city council. I'm going to do this on crime. I apologize for Covid, I apologize for bail reform. I'm going to be the guy for everybody now. I'm going to rise above this. And he never did. He only stuck to, you know, Democratic politics. And it makes me think maybe is.
- [46:07]
Clay Travis
He just kind of a buffoon? I'm shocked at how inept he has been, Ryan. Honestly, like for a guy who was the governor, it's, it's like he, and you know, he's like the. Who's the, who's the little blond haired sort of idiot king in the beginning of Joffrey. Joffrey, he's like, like a little Italian version of Joffrey.
- [46:26]
Buck Sexton
Also, by the way, version of shot Italian. But also mom, Donnie has so many vulnerabilities. Like, it's not as if he's got a, you know, like coat of armor on to buck's point. It just feels like a super incompetent campaign.
- [46:42]
Ryan Gardusky
It's super incompetent. And, you know, I had a dinner with one of, I never said this anybody before. I had a dinner with one of Cuomo's advisors. And we're sitting there and, you know, I run the 1776 Project Pack and we're doing well. We have got some money. And he said, would your pack donate 100 grand to the Cuomo campaign? I go, you're known to have a money Problem, you have a candidate problem. All the money in the world not going to fix that. I give Republicans a reason to vote for you and they just wouldn't. And you know, I looked at his entire electoral history. He never had a competitive primary one time in his entire life. He never had a competitive general one time in his entire life. And I think that that's probably speaks.
- [47:18]
Clay Travis
It's amazing. He's just not a good. He's just not a good politician is actually what has been exposed in all this. Meaning he's not even good at pretending to be good at things. So that's, that's disconcerting. But yeah. All right. Ryan Graduski, everybody.
- [47:32]
Ryan Gardusky
More like we're going to blow past the 20. I mean, we might hit 2024. General election numbers.
- [47:37]
Buck Sexton
That's crazy, right? It's crazy.
- [47:39]
Ryan Gardusky
Wow.
- [47:40]
Clay Travis
Go, go check out everybody. It's a numbers game on the Clan Buck podcast Network. Great podcast. Ryan breaks down all of the data. He knows the players, he knows the numbers. You'll learn a lot. You'll impress all your lib friends, all your mom Donnie, voters next door be like, well, only 30% of 20% think that Mamdani is a 100% of the time. Thanks for being with us, Ryan.
- [48:02]
Ryan Gardusky
Thank you.
- [48:04]
Clay Travis
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- [48:53]
Buck Sexton
Be the difference news you can count on and some laughs too. Clay Travis at Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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- [51:06]
Clay Travis
We've covered a lot. We're gonna keep covering a lot because we've got the New York City mayor's election, the governor's races in Virginia and New Jersey. Go vote. Go vote. I voted for my Miami beach mayor here and, and commissioners Clay voted for Franklin alderman or the alderman or whatever over there.
- [51:25]
Buck Sexton
I'm not even sure exactly what the alderman does, but I went and voted.
- [51:29]
Clay Travis
Yeah, you got to make sure you got the right alderman or else all hell's going to break loose. And you know, you might have some, I don't even know what going on in, in the town of Franklin. You know, you could have people, you.
- [51:42]
Buck Sexton
Could have a little bit of utopia where I live. A little bit.
- [51:44]
Clay Travis
I was saying you could have people thinking they can just drive the golf cart all the way into town. Like what's going on? You know, civilization, friends, we can't just let these things happen. So, yeah, we are going to follow this up. Also, talk a little bit about California, where Gavin Newsom so much of this is, it's interesting. It's just, it's just tapping into Democrat frustration. Clay I think that's true in all of these races. It's certainly true. Virginia, New York and California and New Jersey, where Democrats feel like their party has been because it has been outplayed by Trump and the Republicans, they're losing and losing and losing again this year in their opposition to Trump and their opposition to his agenda. So this is just an opportunity to vent their spleen a bit with a vote against whatever the Republican option is. I don't think it really even gets in for most people. I don't think it really even gets into what they think is going to happen here because cost of living is such a big thing in New York, in California, in New Jersey and Virginia too, especially if you get closer to D.C. and Democrats will make it worse, Guaranteed they will make it worse. Because even what they do to make it, make it seem like it might improve in the short term is to just squeeze the balloon at one side, right? To redistribute the wealth, to find some way to subsidize. And we see this with Obamacare, which I still wish people would pay more attention to this, Clay. We're still in a shutdown, everybody, which is going to end after the election. All ties in, I might add, right? Democrats, government shutdown, getting people frustrated, making people think, oh, the Democrats are standing up, they're fighting. Well, what are they fighting for exactly? Like, how are they making anyone's life better? Ah, forget about that. They're fighting. It's, it's emotional manipulation in place of an argument. It's very effective, unfortunately, in mass psychology and mass politics. But the Democrat offerings on all this stuff, like Obamacare specifically, is to ignore market reality and to make promises that they can't keep. And you're going to see a lot more of that. Gavin Newsom, Meanwhile, I didn't get to yesterday, Clay. I meant this is a little bit of a pickup because I'm about to talk about public safety. We talked about D.C. and the crime situation there and how who was it? It was Norah o' Donnell was like, well, I just go to work and I don't know if it's safer on the streets because she doesn't want to admit it on camera that Trump is right. The murder rate since Trump has tried to do his security plan in D.C. is down 60%. Okay, 6,0% drop in the murder rate. And all crime is down substantially, almost 30%, I think, in D.C. year to date, with a big chunk of that coming since Trump. So it is working. It's not perfect, but it's working. No one thought it would be perfect, meaning that there'd be no murders or no crime. But it's substantially improving the situation. Meanwhile, you know what Gavin Newsom's worried about? Not whether people feel safe on the streets or they're going to be harassed by some maniac, but of course, immigration play. 19 people are on edge. Communities of color on edge. I mean, folks scared to death to go out trick or treating the other night, scared to walk their dogs, go to a playground, go to a park, go to a loved one's funeral because they might be disappeared on the basis.
- [55:05]
Buck Sexton
Of what they look like, where they.
- [55:06]
Clay Travis
Congregate, the language they speak. In the United States of America today, you heard notion of a private police force that appears to have taken an oath of office to the President of the United States, not to the United States Constitution. All just, just hyperbolic fear mongering blather. Are they illegals? And also this notion they're being disappeared. They're not being disappeared. They're being detained, processed and returned to their country. Free flight back to where they actually should be.
- [55:39]
Buck Sexton
I think we just have to prepare for this. I would. I know it's still a year away from the midterms and I know we're not going to start the 2028 presidential cycle until January.
- [55:51]
Clay Travis
It's going to be Newsom. It's going to be Newsom.
- [55:53]
Buck Sexton
It's going to be Newsom, and he's going to lie blatantly like this. Do we still have Gavin Newsom? I don't think we played it yesterday, but would we play Newsom saying the one. Let's. Greg, you can grab that. I think we had it yesterday, but when Newsom said it went mega viral. I hate when politicians lie, you know, and he's like moving his hands and moving his face awkwardly and it's just so diabolically sinister because I don't know that anybody lies more than Newsom. And by the way, there's a difference between getting a fact or two wrong in sort of hyperbole and blatantly lying. Um, and Gavin Newsom is just such a blatant liar. And the reality is, I think you have to have a blatant liar on the ticket because Democrats are wrong about everything. I mean, they really are, by and large. It used to be you could be a reasonable person and you could look at the two parties and you could say, hey, you know what, I disagree with my party on this perspective or this issue, even though I might vote the other way. I can't even think of what Democrats are run. It used to be Democrats would say, hey, we know healthcare. They're destroying everything having to do with insurance. Nobody can even afford health care anymore.
- [57:16]
Clay Travis
If you are looking for something that Republicans and this is going to tie into another news item that Republicans I think look back on and say, ok, we actually got that one wrong. I think it's the Iraq war as a party, which Trump, among others have said that was the. We were on the wrong side. We weren't on the wrong side of Afghanistan in post 9 11. But the Iraq War thing. But the thing about the Republicans there is Democrat establishment went along with it too. Yeah, right. Hillary Clinton, all the, you know, the Schumer, all the Democrats were in favor of it as well. But it was, the charge was led by a Republican administration, to be fair. And that included Dick Cheney, who just passed away. And we haven't mentioned this, but Dick Cheney, just, What is he, 84? I think he just died in.
- [58:01]
Buck Sexton
Early this. Early this morning.
- [58:03]
Clay Travis
Early in the morning, yeah, 24 hours. He passed away. I remember meeting the vice president on several occasions when he was the vice president in the Oval Office. And I will tell you, Clay, it was. We had multiple wars going on, a very different Oval Office experience as a young CIA analyst briefing then Vice President Cheney than what we got when Clay and Buck show up to hang out with Trump in the Oval. I mean, just knighted. It didn't even feel like the same movie set, the same universe. It's just a totally different feeling. There was an intensity and a solemnity under those Bush years because of 9, 11 and everything else. And you walked in there and you made sure your jacket and tie were crisp and it was, yes, Mr. President. No, it's President. You know, we went in there and saw Trump and he's like, we got the owner of the Saints. Come on in here. We got J.D. we got, you know, it was, it.
- [58:52]
Buck Sexton
Was like we were check out the new guilt that I put in the, you know, Cabinet just showing us cool stuff.
- [58:58]
Clay Travis
He's like, isn't it beautiful? Look at this painting. Redid this painting.
- [59:00]
Buck Sexton
Beautiful painting.
- [59:01]
Clay Travis
It was just a very different feeling. But, yeah, Dick Cheney passed away. He became very controversial, I think more controversial actually in some ways after he left office. With the legacy of the Iraq war.
- [59:13]
Buck Sexton
And also, to be fair, he and his daughter refuse endorsing Kamala over Trump in the 2024.
- [59:21]
Clay Travis
I knew his daughter did. I actually forgot that he did until you just mentioned that to me now, which is insane.
- [59:26]
Buck Sexton
Yeah, that's.
- [59:26]
Clay Travis
That. That's. That's personal bitterness overriding political. Look, I. I think he just passed away. And I know we're not supposed to speak ill of the dead. I'm not going to. I'm not trying to speak ill of someone who just passed away. I think Dick Cheney was a patriot. I think he loved his country, and I think he did what he thought was best for the country. And I think a lot of the stuff that was used to attack him about how it was like he was enriching him, that. That actually wasn't true.
- [59:51]
Buck Sexton
And even the unitary chief executive attacks on Dick Cheney, I mean, those are. He believed that the president had the authority to make important decisions.
- [59:59]
Clay Travis
I was in the Oval Office, and I could tell you that the vice president watching them make decisions and discuss at various points, and the vice president was deferential to George W. Bush as president. This notion that he was the puppet master in Bush. The media, this. Because they could get away with this. Clay, I'm not trying to get diverted. I know we got election Day here, but I think the media lied to people so much about George W. Bush that they have this complete. They weren't, you know, because of Trump and the way he did things by going right to them and bypassing the media, people's conception of who George W. Bush is, a lot of just everyday American is. Is a complete caricature. The guy was not dumb. The guy was not shy about leadership and making decisions and was. Was actually very on. He wasn't a scholar of Middle Eastern history, you know, but guess what? Neither is Kamala or Biden or any of them. Right. But the notion that he was some sort of buffoon and was bumbling and an idiot is absolutely. Is absurd. Not true at all.
- [61:00]
Buck Sexton
Not only that, I mean, it's. It's funny. They remember early in Trump 2.0, it didn't work because it's Trump. You can't call somebody a dictator and then be like, they tried to say that Trump wasn't president. Remember, they tried to say President Elon. They tried to demean the person in the chief executive office, the President of the United States. And so the argument when Bush was there was, oh, Cheney's the actual president. They tried to argue, oh, Trump's There, Elon's the president. You ever hear anybody argue that Obama wasn't the president when Obama was in office? You ever hear anybody argue Clinton wasn't the president when Clinton was in office, whatever you thought of their vice president. Now, to be fair, during Biden, people may have accurately said it's actually Obama who's still president.
- [61:48]
Clay Travis
And to be fair, during Clinton, there may have been moments where he was busy, otherwise occupied, not really indisposed. The country indisposed would be one thing you could say about Bill Clinton. But I think so. Cheney passed away. The guy had a. He did have a remarkable career. And I do think, I think the best thing that can be said for him or the things that can be said for him is he loved his country. And he tried, but he was wrong on some big stuff. And unfortunately he got particularly wrong toward the end about, about Trump and the, and the, you know, the trajectory of the country. And I think it was personal because of the repudiation of Bush, Cheney by Trump.
- [62:27]
Buck Sexton
I think that's exactly right. He was trying to be.
- [62:29]
Clay Travis
People are going to get mad at me there because he's a warmonger.
- [62:31]
Buck Sexton
I'm trying.
- [62:31]
Clay Travis
The guy just died trying to be charitable. He served his country for many, many years and I think he loved America. He was willing to go to the mat against the jihadis, I will tell you that. And we needed people that were willing to go to the mat.
- [62:42]
Buck Sexton
You can love your country and make awful decisions.
- [62:45]
Clay Travis
Correct.
- [62:45]
Buck Sexton
Those aren't opposite things.
- [62:47]
Clay Travis
And I think people always throw Neville Chamberlain under the bus. Yeah. Was he wrong about how things would go with the Nazis? Sure. But people forget that World War I had just destroyed an entire generation of Europe, including Englishmen and people from the United Kingdom. And he was hoping we wouldn't have to do that again.
- [63:05]
Buck Sexton
Right.
- [63:05]
Clay Travis
He may have had the wrong remedy, but he, he didn't want to go to war. I mean, that's and reasonable thing to do.
- [63:13]
Buck Sexton
And to be fair, I read the oral history recently in the last year OR so of 911 because I wanted to re. Experience that. Remember, they thought the White House was going to get hit and Cheney was underground monitoring 911 while Bush was up in Air Force One. And nobody could get in touch with him because they were trying to keep him safe.
- [63:36]
Clay Travis
People forget this because they always think now of KSM Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in his like, you know, pulled T shirt and getting arrested and all this stuff. They were planning multiple 9 11s. Yeah, that's real. That is fact. They were going to keep Coming at us with all kinds of stuff. The war on terror was absolutely necessary. And those of you who fought it should always remember that and always feel, you know, honored in your service for the fact that they were coming for us. It wasn't just 9 11. There was more after that. And yeah, it was, the fight against.
- [64:05]
Buck Sexton
It wasn't perfect.
- [64:05]
Clay Travis
No war, the fight is never going to be perfect. But it was a necessary one. It was Iraq that was the expansion of it that I think was a strategic miscalculation. But I don't think the people that said, I mean, I got hit with this even a while back was on a podcast. People said, oh, it was also Cheney could make money through Halliburton. Yeah, that's actually not, that's actually not true. Yeah, you, you can say that he was a warmonger and he made the wrong decision and it was terrible. But he actually didn't do this to make money through Halliburton for himself. And I, I just, I like the criticisms to be rooted in reality.
- [64:37]
Buck Sexton
One thing that stood out to me as I re read to experience the history of 9 11, that is really kind of crazy to think about is there was almost no communication to the President because Air Force One wasn't able to get telephone signals. They weren't able, obviously the Internet was not in place. They got spotty every now and then, television. So Cheney had to manage much of 911 because the president, they were afraid of where the next strike might be. He was just up in the air. They didn't have any idea. And so I would encourage you to go back and do some reading about that day.
- [65:12]
Clay Travis
They could have had 50 planes hijacked. Given how easy it was to hijack the ones that they did. They could have had 50 of those planes turned into essentially massive guided missiles with hundreds of innocents aboard. We had, you know, I mean, it's crazy to think about the worst terrorist attack ever in history and it actually could have been a lot worse.
- [65:33]
Buck Sexton
Yes, yes.
- [65:35]
Clay Travis
And it would, by the way, it would have been worse if not for those, those brave souls.
- [65:42]
Buck Sexton
Shanksville, Pennsylvania on United Flight 11.
- [65:44]
Clay Travis
That's exactly right. Let's roll. If that does. Beamer, I believe, was it Todd beamed.
- [65:49]
Buck Sexton
Beeman, I think. Or is it Beeman or Beamer? You may be right.
- [65:52]
Clay Travis
If it's not, it's not for him. And saying, let's roll. That plane ends up, we have a smoldering United States Capitol or White House. Everybody total. That's how close we were.
- [66:02]
Buck Sexton
United Flight 93 I think if I'm getting remembering that.
- [66:06]
Clay Travis
But to be, you know, to be fair to chene summary, we needed a wartime consulary, so to speak after 9 11. I'm not saying that everything was good or right, but I mean the guy, the guy did step up and, and a lot of bad guys needed to be taken off the battlefield. All right, money gets tight this time of year. Christmas gifts, holiday travel, donations you want to make. So let's just save you money with something that is just going to be better for you all around. Pure Talk, my friend, you can save hundreds of dollars a year. In fact, the average family of four saves over a thousand dollars a year when they switch from their big wireless company to Pure Talk. Because Pure Talk gives you unlimited talk text and plenty of Data for just $25 a month on Pure Tax. Pure Talk's lightning fast 5G network. Plus right now, they'll take an additional 50% off your first month. That's immediate savings. Immediate savings. 50% off your first month. Keep your phone and your number if you want. And you can keep a lot of your own money too. Dial pound250, say the keywords clay and buck, and Pure Talk's US customer service team will switch in as little as 10 minutes plus, say 50% off your first month. Dial pound250, say clay and Buck to switch to America's wireless company, Pure Talk.
- [67:16]
Buck Sexton
Clay, Travis and Buck Sexton. Mic drops. That never sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [67:27]
Clay Travis
This is Jim.
- [67:28]
iHeartRadio Announcer
Hello.
- [67:28]
Clay Travis
Jim started advertising with iHeartRadio way back in April, and now I have customers out the door. And this is Sarah. Hi. She started putting a portion of her marketing dollars in podcasting back in June. Business is booming. That's why I'm working on a Saturday. Want to be like Jim and Sarah? It's easy. All you have to do is own or manage a business and reach out to iHeart. Get started today at 844-844-IHeart or iheartadvice advertising. Com.
- [67:57]
iHeartRadio Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.