Verdict with Ted Cruz - Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 12 2026

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.200 Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show podcast.

00:00:09.180 Welcome, everybody.

00:00:10.240 Thursday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show kicks off right now.

00:00:15.460 Thanks for being here with us.

00:00:17.380 A couple of big stories right off the top we're going to spend some time on today.

00:00:21.100 One, the pullback from the operation in Minneapolis,

00:00:27.640 the enhanced ICE deployment there.

00:00:31.460 We have some sound bites from Tom Homan.

00:00:34.580 We have updates from the administration on this one,

00:00:36.660 but they are claiming the mission has been completed,

00:00:40.720 and therefore this is on schedule.

00:00:42.960 Is that the way this will play more broadly?

00:00:45.520 We will discuss.

00:00:47.060 Also, a horrific shooting by a transgender man claiming to be a woman

00:00:57.060 at a secondary school outside of Vancouver in Canada,

00:01:01.620 and the Canadian media in particular,

00:01:04.820 although not only Canadian media,

00:01:06.760 are pretending it was a woman.

00:01:09.840 We're going to talk about this.

00:01:11.620 There is a mass hysteria, a mass delusion around this transgender issue,

00:01:16.200 and we are not going to back down one inch from the truth.

00:01:19.940 It's very important.

00:01:20.960 So, we will get into that, talk a bit about Minnesota.

00:01:25.460 Also, some excellent guests today.

00:01:28.500 We have Secretary of Education Linda McMahon with us in the next hour.

00:01:31.800 We will talk to her about a new prize for,

00:01:37.020 well, it has to do with the American founding,

00:01:38.660 has to do with 250 years of America,

00:01:41.640 which we're celebrating this summer, which is very exciting.

00:01:43.940 And we also have our friend Jesse Kelly,

00:01:46.580 who will deign to spend a few minutes of his time with us,

00:01:51.000 and I'm sure will have pithy commentary

00:01:53.440 on America's political and cultural scene,

00:01:55.960 as well as Clay Travis's mustache,

00:01:58.920 which is now turning into kind of a gruff beard slash mustache situation.

00:02:05.280 You're going sort of like for the Sam Elliott

00:02:07.340 after a couple of weeks out on the trail look now?

00:02:09.680 Is that where we are?

00:02:10.420 I don't really know.

00:02:11.040 Oh, I'm kind of in a tough spot with the mustache.

00:02:14.160 You know, if I go clean shaven,

00:02:16.240 then the mustache is completely a commitment here at this point.

00:02:19.900 I wouldn't know who you were.

00:02:21.340 Like, if you showed up clean shaven,

00:02:22.920 if that mustache and the beard were gone,

00:02:24.840 I would think you were an imposter,

00:02:26.260 and I wouldn't know what to do.

00:02:27.720 So, I don't know.

00:02:28.960 I mean, it's the most trusted mustache in news now.

00:02:32.020 I'm not even sure who my competition would be.

00:02:34.220 Geraldo may be back in the day,

00:02:35.740 but I think Geraldo retired.

00:02:37.740 So, I don't know.

00:02:39.200 I feel an obligation to the American public,

00:02:41.520 and I don't know exactly how to land the plane, so to speak.

00:02:46.780 Although, with this mustache, I'd probably be great at landing planes.

00:02:50.520 I think, similar to Churchill, played by Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour,

00:02:57.320 you should let the people weigh in on this,

00:02:59.500 and you should just take it to a poll

00:03:03.660 and just see what the Clay Travis people of America,

00:03:07.900 because I think team mustache will win.

00:03:10.500 I think if you put it to a fair, democratic process,

00:03:14.760 you become a mustache guy instead of a beard guy.

00:03:17.080 You know what's funny is a lot of 20-year-old guys have mustaches.

00:03:21.400 I was watching the U.S. men's hockey team as they were playing

00:03:27.120 and getting ready for their games and everything else.

00:03:29.600 Almost everybody on the team has a mustache now.

00:03:32.140 So, my 15-year-old was like, that's a good, you know, stache.

00:03:37.100 I mean, I think the mustache has surged in the, like,

00:03:41.020 18- to 28-year-old contingent out there.

00:03:44.340 So, I'm definitely way older than them,

00:03:47.200 but there are a lot of them.

00:03:48.760 I noticed it out at the Super Bowl.

00:03:50.940 So, we will see.

00:03:53.340 We shall see.

00:03:54.440 All right, Minnesota, let's talk about this.

00:03:57.080 The White House is saying that this is essentially mission accomplished

00:04:03.660 and that that's why there's a change here.

00:04:07.380 This is Tom Holman this morning

00:04:09.700 who has taken the lead on the messaging

00:04:12.700 and the operations in Minneapolis.

00:04:15.620 Here he is saying that this is coming to a conclusion in that state.

00:04:22.080 Play one.

00:04:22.800 I have proposed, and President Trump has concurred,

00:04:25.720 that this surge operation conclude.

00:04:28.440 A significant drawdown has already been underway this week

00:04:31.120 and will continue to the next week.

00:04:34.460 We have a lot of work to do across this country

00:04:36.540 to remove public safety risk,

00:04:38.680 who shouldn't even be in this country,

00:04:39.940 and to deliver on President Trump's promise

00:04:42.180 for strong border security and mass deportation.

00:04:45.400 Law enforcement officers drawing down from this surge operation

00:04:48.120 will either return to the duty station

00:04:50.340 or be signed elsewhere to achieve just that.

00:04:54.320 Clay, I worry that even if this is true,

00:05:00.440 meaning that they feel like they've gotten better cooperation

00:05:03.400 and they have, by the way, a quick note here,

00:05:07.460 because some of you, I looked very briefly,

00:05:10.360 this is a little bit of a digression,

00:05:11.540 I looked very briefly at a map,

00:05:13.060 and when I said outside of Vancouver where the shooting was,

00:05:15.640 sorry, it's 700 miles from Vancouver.

00:05:17.320 My Canada geography is not great.

00:05:18.840 That was the closest city that I knew of.

00:05:21.060 I saw the map too,

00:05:22.140 and I thought it was fairly close to Vancouver as well.

00:05:24.860 Yeah, Canada's a very big place,

00:05:26.660 so that was not, that's kind of a whiff on my part.

00:05:29.340 It's way up in British Columbia.

00:05:30.940 Anyway, we'll come back to that,

00:05:32.220 but I just, before everyone starts filling up the inbox,

00:05:34.520 but that's nowhere near Vancouver.

00:05:36.060 It's the closest city that I knew,

00:05:37.420 but that's because I don't know Canada very well.

00:05:39.220 All right, back to Minneapolis.

00:05:42.980 Tom Homan, he says, Clay, how does this play?

00:05:46.280 Because the worry is that the maniacs,

00:05:48.300 the purple-haired, shrieking street harpies

00:05:51.860 are going to say, we won, now let's go on to round two.

00:05:56.780 I think that's 100% a valid concern. 0.64

00:05:59.700 Now, here is what I would say in general.

00:06:03.000 It seems as if Minneapolis and Minnesota

00:06:07.260 both backed down in terms of not turning over

00:06:10.820 violent criminals when they are arrested,

00:06:14.320 people who are violating the law,

00:06:16.600 that essentially they are now notifying ICE

00:06:19.400 and allowing ICE to take possession,

00:06:22.820 take them into custody,

00:06:24.380 when they are being released

00:06:25.700 released from Minneapolis and Minnesota area prisons.

00:06:30.000 That's what I saw.

00:06:32.160 Keith Ellison, and I don't know if we have the audio,

00:06:35.240 but he was effectively acknowledging that.

00:06:38.300 So here's what I think happened.

00:06:40.780 I think both sides said,

00:06:42.800 this is not beneficial.

00:06:44.320 Tom Homan went to Minneapolis,

00:06:46.300 had a good conversation.

00:06:47.760 He said, we will draw back the number of ICE agents

00:06:51.940 on the streets if you guys will start to allow us

00:06:55.860 to arrest violent criminals that come into your possession

00:07:00.080 instead of releasing them back into the streets.

00:07:03.420 There was a quiet handshake agreement on this,

00:07:06.300 and that is really what has gone on behind the scenes.

00:07:10.860 I also think that if you look at the population of Minneapolis

00:07:15.280 relative to other states,

00:07:17.580 it doesn't have as many illegal immigrants,

00:07:21.160 and so the surge was only going to be necessary

00:07:24.580 for a limited amount of time

00:07:26.420 because you're going to go get a huge percentage

00:07:29.380 of the people there.

00:07:30.740 So I think this is effectively both sides saying,

00:07:33.900 hey, we've gotten what we consider to be a good result

00:07:37.840 from a compromise perspective.

00:07:39.380 What you and I said,

00:07:40.980 and this would be my concern going forward,

00:07:43.340 is, well, the obstruction tactics put in place

00:07:46.780 in Minneapolis are now going to be utilized

00:07:49.360 in other cities where there are ICE agents

00:07:53.000 out in the streets,

00:07:54.040 and we'll see whether that ends up being the case or not.

00:07:58.340 And the final thing that I would point to is

00:08:01.920 Tim Walls' political career is over.

00:08:05.360 We have a governor's race and a Senate race 0.97

00:08:08.640 that is taking place in the fall in 2026 in Minnesota,

00:08:12.640 and ultimately Minnesota voters on some level

00:08:16.680 are going to come out and tell us

00:08:19.040 what they think about the direction of their state.

00:08:23.460 The fact that Tim Walls,

00:08:25.000 who a little over a year ago

00:08:26.600 was the heartbeat away potentially from the presidency,

00:08:29.600 now has his political career over,

00:08:31.620 would be a sign that much of the immigration-related aspects

00:08:36.440 of Minnesota politics are not breaking in favor of the Democrat Party.

00:08:42.140 And I actually saw a poll out yesterday, I believe it was,

00:08:45.680 showing Michelle Tafoya in the Senate race

00:08:48.160 only down by five or six points against the presumptive Democrat nominee.

00:08:52.380 So again, governor's race and a Senate race in Minnesota,

00:08:56.700 we will find out how this all plays out in about 10 months.

00:09:01.380 That will be the first verdict on this.

00:09:03.980 I think the governor, Klobuchar, is likely to win and comfortably win.

00:09:09.380 But in the Senate race, which is, I would argue,

00:09:12.620 actually way more consequential on a national scale,

00:09:16.120 I think Michelle Tafoya is going to be able to make a real run there. 1.00

00:09:19.460 So that, to me, will be the question going forward.

00:09:23.220 We shall see.

00:09:25.400 Certainly it would be great to start to turn the political tide a bit in Minnesota.

00:09:31.400 Who would have thought Minneapolis would be both at the heart of BLM 2.0

00:09:38.000 and then the sort of front line of the resistance

00:09:44.600 against enforcement of the law when it comes to immigration.

00:09:48.180 So it would not have been on my, the top five cities I would have thought of

00:09:53.780 as the hotbeds of left-wing radicalism.

00:09:57.180 Apparently, and I have a family friend who just moved down here

00:10:00.420 from Minneapolis to South Florida. 1.00

00:10:03.120 Apparently everyone who lives there knows, oh no, in city limits, they're nuts. 0.99

00:10:07.000 So this is not a surprise to them. 0.95

00:10:08.640 I think it's actually a scary take because, again, like I was looking,

00:10:14.680 I was doing my reading this morning, and the number of people that never said a word

00:10:20.380 about ICE for the entire time that Barack Obama was in office

00:10:24.080 and have suddenly been mobilized to believe that ICE is the modern-day SS,

00:10:30.160 that they're Nazis, probably ties in quite well with your book,

00:10:35.040 but Manufacturing Delusion, which will be out in five days, I believe,

00:10:39.460 if I'm not mistaken.

00:10:40.240 That is correct, sir.

00:10:42.420 But the degree to which Democrats are able to mobilize people

00:10:47.280 who didn't care about anything at all for decades to suddenly decide

00:10:53.880 that this is the most imminent, dangerous threat that we face in America today

00:10:58.720 really should scare all of us because they're going to move on to the next new thing,

00:11:03.940 but they really have, on the left wing in this country, managed to mobilize people

00:11:11.080 to fight back against things that have been considered totally standard operating procedure

00:11:17.460 for decades under Democrat presidents as if it is an existential threat to the nation.

00:11:23.740 And that scares me because, you know, you had a guy in this Alex Preddy

00:11:29.420 who basically everybody stopped talking about as soon as that video of him spitting on ICE agents

00:11:34.920 and kicking the taillight out.

00:11:36.460 Do you notice that, Buck?

00:11:37.520 Everybody was like, oh, my God, this guy is an unbelievable hero, nurse.

00:11:41.800 He was totally innocent.

00:11:43.380 He never had missed back.

00:11:44.380 And then the video came out, and I hear almost nothing about Alex Preddy now.

00:11:47.880 But how did a guy like Alex Preddy get radicalized to such an extent?

00:11:53.360 I was reading they had a story in the New York Times about his family.

00:11:57.360 I guess the mom and dad spoke to media in the last day or so.

00:12:02.560 How did this guy go from they said he grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, mom and dad, sister,

00:12:10.740 normal family of four, and he just completely lost his mind

00:12:15.640 and decided that his role in life was to be an obstacle to ICE?

00:12:22.840 I don't understand it at all.

00:12:25.860 It's downright scary.

00:12:26.900 We'll talk about that.

00:12:27.660 We'll take some of your calls.

00:12:28.580 A lot of people met Matt at Buck over the marijuana discussion

00:12:32.360 and, you know, again, continue to direct all your vitriol in Buck's direction.

00:12:36.880 But in all seriousness, we got a bunch of talkbacks on that.

00:12:39.840 We'll play some of that for you, and we'll open up phone lines.

00:12:43.100 Also, Linda McMahon, the education secretary, she's got an announcement for us.

00:12:49.200 She is going to join us.

00:12:50.380 Some of you will know her as the wife of Vince McMahon, legendary WWE founder.

00:12:57.440 We will discuss much with Linda McMahon.

00:13:00.100 And then our buddy Jesse Kelly going to be on with us at 2.30.

00:13:04.140 Many of you hear him on many of the same premier network stations in the evening

00:13:09.560 in the time slot that Buck Sexton used to have.

00:13:12.020 So we will talk with Jesse and with Linda McMahon as well going forward.

00:13:17.900 But it is now college basketball season.

00:13:21.140 Right after the Super Bowl, I immediately pivot and I say,

00:13:26.000 okay, I'm starting to get a little bit of a fever for March Madness,

00:13:29.800 which is coming very, very soon.

00:13:31.660 Last night, I kicked my feet up and watched college basketball games.

00:13:36.140 That is after I, you know, I'm really beating my 11-year-old.

00:13:39.940 We have a new six-foot basketball goal downstairs, mini basketball hoop.

00:13:44.100 And, you know, I'm not really the kind of guy to brag.

00:13:45.820 But if prize picks were setting odds, I'm crushing him every day,

00:13:50.040 multiple horse games.

00:13:52.400 Dad is the champion.

00:13:53.900 Prize picks would have to set unbelievable odds for you to bet on my fifth grader.

00:13:57.720 Not that I want to throw him under the bus, but I crush him every night.

00:14:00.380 And if prize picks were setting odds on this,

00:14:03.400 you would take more on championships that are going to be won by Dad.

00:14:06.980 And if you are a college basketball fan, if you are an NBA fan,

00:14:10.280 if you are a basketball fan, heck, you're like me and you're ready

00:14:13.320 for pitchers and catchers to report because not very far

00:14:15.760 until Major League Baseball is going to be back.

00:14:17.700 It's super fun, super easy to play.

00:14:19.900 All you have to do is pick more or less on two or more athletes

00:14:23.520 in your favorite sports.

00:14:24.820 And when you play $5, you get $50 deposited in your account.

00:14:29.340 PrizePicks.com, code Clay.

00:14:31.060 That is PrizePicks.com, code C-L-A-Y.

00:14:35.040 PrizePicks.com, code Clay.

00:14:37.240 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:14:47.780 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders,

00:14:50.720 and the world around them.

00:14:51.960 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:14:55.680 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:14:56.860 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:14:58.080 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

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00:15:10.820 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio

00:15:13.200 or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:15:16.140 Both Buck and I love American history.

00:15:19.520 We are huge history nerds.

00:15:21.560 We regularly talk about it a ton.

00:15:24.780 And we are joined by someone else who is a major history aficionado.

00:15:29.080 She is Linda McMahon, Secretary of Education of the United States.

00:15:33.080 And we are now celebrating America 250.

00:15:37.680 And we've been talking about America 250 quite a bit on the program,

00:15:41.140 even though we're early into the year.

00:15:43.600 And, Secretary McMahon, we appreciate you coming on right now.

00:15:47.780 You are announcing a Presidential 1776 Award.

00:15:54.020 Historical literacy is a major issue among young people in the United States today.

00:15:59.060 Tell us what this competition will do and what you're hoping it will create.

00:16:06.780 Well, thanks so much for having me on.

00:16:09.240 And I appreciate the fact that you are both such historical buffs and put such emphasis on it

00:16:15.840 because I can tell you it's not been emphasized much in our country,

00:16:20.400 as we see, unfortunately, through our scores, you know, across the country when kids are tested on their civics

00:16:27.960 or historical knowledge.

00:16:29.240 And so this is part of the President's Initiative, this 1776 award,

00:16:34.300 in conjunction with the celebration, you know, our 250th birthday for the country.

00:16:39.360 And so to generate interest, he wanted to create the civics award.

00:16:44.620 So the registration is open right now for students who want to enroll.

00:16:52.280 And what they do is they're going to sign up to take the world's impossible test.

00:16:58.960 They have 90 minutes online to answer 4,000 questions.

00:17:03.680 That's called the impossible test.

00:17:05.580 Wow.

00:17:05.900 And I would think it would be.

00:17:09.360 But, you know, ever how many they get, not how many they answer,

00:17:12.960 but how many they answer correctly, of course, you know, will determine the winner in each round.

00:17:18.740 So it's a three-round competition.

00:17:21.180 And the top winners are going to receive, the very top winner will receive a scholarship of $150,000,

00:17:29.140 and second place is $75,000, and third place is $25,000.

00:17:33.140 And so, you know, it's conducted a little bit like a national spelling bee.

00:17:37.280 There will be, you know, the first round of competition, and then we'll have, you know,

00:17:40.940 regionals and districts, and then three winners will come to Washington, D.C.

00:17:46.440 in June of this year, and we'll have the final competition.

00:17:50.040 And then the awards will be made.

00:17:52.660 So it's created a lot of excitement.

00:17:55.940 So we're very happy.

00:17:57.660 We're sending notices out, you know, to teachers, to organizations, to schools, to principals,

00:18:04.820 to everyone and getting it online so that as many people can be notified that it's a fun thing to do

00:18:11.700 with a great, you know, potential reward.

00:18:13.540 So they can go to presidential1776award.org.

00:18:20.920 Have you thought about giving media this test?

00:18:25.320 Because when you're describing this, I actually think this would be real.

00:18:29.560 I would like to take it.

00:18:30.880 I know I'm not eligible, but 4,000 questions, 90 minutes.

00:18:35.060 I think it would be really fun if you got some media out there that cover the White House and beyond.

00:18:43.320 I would take this.

00:18:44.680 I think it would be interesting to see what kind of scores people might post.

00:18:48.040 Well, Travis, I think you should just launch your own initiative to do that.

00:18:53.080 This is not a bad idea.

00:18:54.460 Buck, would you take this test?

00:18:55.980 Would you sit that 90-minute American history 1776 test?

00:19:00.060 I think I would take it.

00:19:01.240 It would be you and me versus Don Lemon and, you know.

00:19:08.080 I would put you and I on the 1776 test as a team up against any duo in media in the country.

00:19:17.520 I think we would win.

00:19:18.340 Do you think anybody could beat us that actually has a dang show? 0.94

00:19:21.400 My normal humility, Secretary McMahon, disappears on this one.

00:19:25.220 Clay and I would smoke any of the libs out there.

00:19:27.480 I think so.

00:19:27.880 Yeah, it would be the Clay and Buck Civics Challenge.

00:19:32.300 I like this.

00:19:33.340 This would be fun.

00:19:34.240 I don't think anybody would actually take us on, but I will take it.

00:19:37.160 Secretary McMahon, we will reach out for you and see if we can set up a time to take this

00:19:41.900 and see if we can smoke everybody out there.

00:19:44.660 I also want to ask you, as you're running a very large agency of the government,

00:19:52.520 what are you doing with education these days?

00:19:54.620 It's a big thing.

00:19:55.540 It's massive.

00:19:56.400 It's huge.

00:19:57.100 Secretary, how are you going to fix education in America under the Trump administration?

00:20:02.880 Well, you know, the president's executive order is to return education to the states

00:20:08.920 and take bureaucracy that exists in Washington out of our education process.

00:20:14.780 So, in other words, instead of, you know, all of the money that is appropriated by Congress flowing through the Department of Education

00:20:23.740 and then to the states, which does create more regulation, more red tape, et cetera,

00:20:29.400 it is my goal to move the different agencies or departments, if you will, within the Department of Education to other agencies of the United States government,

00:20:40.820 which is where they existed before there was a department.

00:20:44.460 You know, if you guys, and I know you guys know this fact, but the Department of Education was not established until 1980,

00:20:51.680 and since that time, we've spent $3 trillion on education, just throwing more money at the problem,

00:20:57.660 and watched our national scores continue to decline.

00:21:01.880 So we're clearly doing something wrong, and the president believes, and I agree with him, 0.99

00:21:05.820 that the best education is that that's closest to the child, that it is controlled by the state superintendents and district superintendents and teachers,

00:21:15.140 and most importantly, parents, who have then insight into what is being taught to their children.

00:21:21.320 So this dismantling, if you will, of the department and moving it to other agencies will make it more efficient,

00:21:28.980 and I do believe that there will be greater satisfaction with what's going to be happening with education once this job is completed.

00:21:38.440 One of the things that I think is most interesting and maybe extraordinary when it comes to educational accomplishment is what the state of Mississippi has done.

00:21:49.320 They, and I know you probably have studied it quite a lot, I don't think most of the audience out there has gotten, become aware of it,

00:21:57.620 but basically they went back to committing, and you can maybe explain better than me,

00:22:01.960 but to old school style teaching, and abandoned many of the quote unquote newfangled methods of instruction for children.

00:22:11.180 And as a result, the kids in Mississippi, many of whom are drastically underprivileged, you know,

00:22:18.420 relative to socioeconomic status in the rest of the country, have seen their results skyrocket.

00:22:24.560 And now other southern states in particular are copying them.

00:22:28.360 What are they doing? Are you encouraged by what you've seen there?

00:22:32.500 And is this a good example of the laboratory of state education giving us things that could work, for instance,

00:22:38.120 in California where the results are not good?

00:22:41.860 You're exactly right in that this does prove the point about states being laboratories

00:22:47.500 because this is innovation that occurred at the state level, not at the federal level.

00:22:52.060 This was not mandated by the federal government.

00:22:54.400 And what the state of Mississippi did, and it's actually called the Mississippi Miracle,

00:22:59.000 they adopted the science of reading.

00:23:02.260 And it is exactly what you said.

00:23:04.500 It was going back to the way reading was, you know, originally taught.

00:23:09.340 Now, of course, there are some updates to the process, et cetera, but it's based on phonics.

00:23:14.320 It's based on sounding out words and sounding out combinations of letters so that kids can learn to read.

00:23:20.660 They're not just doing sight reading of whole words or concepts, which is what's really been, I think,

00:23:26.260 the downfall of our literacy numbers throughout the country.

00:23:30.980 And if children cannot read by the time they finish the third grade,

00:23:36.100 then they are never going to be able to be successful because they'll just get farther and farther behind.

00:23:42.860 So the science of reading, as it has been adopted, has proven to be so successful.

00:23:48.540 And sometimes this is done in connection with what are called classical schools that are doing exactly what you just –

00:23:56.420 Clay, I think it was you, what you were describing is going back to sort of the way schools were taught, you know, before.

00:24:03.120 Now, that's working in many communities.

00:24:04.960 Some communities, you know, have different kinds of schools, you know, there are charter schools, magnet schools,

00:24:12.840 there are religious schools, there's homeschooling, and so – and micro schools.

00:24:16.660 And what I'm doing is touring all 50 states.

00:24:20.300 I've been to about 30 now, and I have visited all of these many kinds of schools.

00:24:25.740 I've even been to the Alpha School in Austin, Texas, which has its first two hours of instruction in the morning through AI.

00:24:34.960 Which is really like an individual tutoring session, and then the rest of the day are spent on applying the applications of what they learn.

00:24:43.080 So my goal at the end of this term, or as we are turning education back over to the states,

00:24:51.420 is to develop a toolkit of what has worked in most of these states and to just hand it over to the different states and say,

00:24:59.920 look, these are the things that I've seen that work, this is how they work, this is who's doing it.

00:25:05.240 Please be in contact with them if you so choose.

00:25:08.540 And you know what?

00:25:09.560 Governors and state superintendents, they're pretty competitive.

00:25:13.600 No governor likes to see another state get ahead of them, you know, in terms of the success, especially, you know, with kids and education.

00:25:20.180 So I think we're going to have a good impact.

00:25:22.900 The beneficiaries of what we're doing will be our children and schools, you know, in general.

00:25:30.620 And I'm very excited about what we're doing.

00:25:34.360 Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon with us now.

00:25:36.700 And, Mr. Secretary, when we saw the Minneapolis ICE protests, there was all this school closures, administrative and teaching staff going out to protest.

00:25:51.380 Why is it that this just happens and there seems to be some acceptance that the school system is like the protest shock troops of the far left in this country?

00:26:02.140 Well, I can tell you, you know, if you just look at those protests from a common sense standpoint, and I as a parent, if I was there, now I can't stand in the shoes of the parents who were there.

00:26:15.180 But I would think, why is my child not in school that day?

00:26:19.160 And if we look at what the scores are, you know, in Minnesota, they're not sterling at all, if you will.

00:26:27.300 I would want my children to be in school learning how to read, how to do math, how to solve their science problems, and not out on the street in the bitter cold protesting and objecting to something that they might not even fully understand.

00:26:42.160 I think it's outrageous.

00:26:43.580 And if that were to continue, I can tell you that there would be investigation by us, and those schools could be, you know, in jeopardy of having lost federal funding.

00:26:55.240 Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, one more time, I'm going to try, maybe you can have somebody on your team reach out.

00:27:02.560 I would like to take this test and see how I would do, but we encourage so many people out there with kids and grandkids that are committed to history and want to learn more on the 250th anniversary of this country to compete.

00:27:16.420 That competition has an incredible award, as you just told us.

00:27:21.340 How can they do that one more time?

00:27:23.400 Well, the enrollment period is now through February 21st, so about a couple of more weeks.

00:27:30.980 You can go online at presidential1776award.org to register.

00:27:39.640 Awesome.

00:27:40.180 And then shortly thereafter, they'll be taking the test, and it will be a 90-minute test to see how many 4,000 questions they can answer correctly.

00:27:51.300 And these are just historical fact questions.

00:27:54.620 You know, this is, if anybody has any concerns that they're partisan politics, they are not at all.

00:28:00.280 This is just based on facts and history.

00:28:03.300 Awesome.

00:28:03.960 Secretary of Education McMahon, appreciate you making the time for us today.

00:28:06.520 Thank you so much.

00:28:07.820 Lots of fun.

00:28:08.580 Thanks for your desire to participate.

00:28:10.420 We're going to make this happen, Clay.

00:28:12.120 I'm in.

00:28:13.100 I'm looking forward to it.

00:28:14.120 Okay.

00:28:15.080 All right.

00:28:15.480 My man, he's going to swim from Alcatraz Island.

00:28:18.500 He's going to take the impossible history test.

00:28:20.800 You know, we got to get Clay jumping out of planes for our YouTube channel soon.

00:28:24.520 I haven't taken a history test, I don't think, Buck, since the AP U.S. history test back in 1997.

00:28:32.180 So we'll see whether the old brain can retain any of the knowledge from the test back in the day.

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00:29:21.320 A couple of other different things that are continuing.

00:29:33.960 We've talked about the surge in Minnesota being dialed down.

00:29:38.460 We have talked about the—we haven't even mentioned this.

00:29:42.640 Maybe we can get into it.

00:29:43.720 Thanks to Linda McMahon, by the way. 1.00

00:29:45.100 We're going to talk to our buddy Jesse Kelly at the top of the third hour.

00:29:47.960 Grand jury has refused to indict Democrats.

00:29:50.940 We've talked about this in Washington, D.C., and that is the advantage that Democrats have.

00:29:57.860 They basically have a kangaroo court in Washington, D.C., which is 95% Democrats,

00:30:03.220 and they regularly get better treatment than Republicans will.

00:30:07.540 But this story, I thought, deserved way more attention because, unfortunately,

00:30:13.060 it is continuing the acceleration of extremely violent acts by people who are trans. 1.00

00:30:23.080 We had Minneapolis, the church that was shot up by a trans individual. 1.00

00:30:28.900 We had Nashville, the religious school that was shot up by a trans individual. 1.00

00:30:34.140 And we now have had, unfortunately, in the British Columbia province in Canada,

00:30:42.980 10 different people, including the shooter himself, who committed suicide.

00:30:48.680 I think it was a him, right, that identified as a girl.

00:30:51.760 And nobody will really have the conversation, wait a minute, what's going on here?

00:30:58.600 To what extent are all of these drugs that these people are being pumped full of?

00:31:03.980 The rate of trans violence is off the charts. 1.00

00:31:07.540 That doesn't even include the shooting of Charlie Kirk, 0.75

00:31:11.340 which allegedly happened by someone who was dating a trans person

00:31:17.400 and was offended by Charlie Kirk's perspective on trans people.

00:31:21.360 That trial is scheduled to occur this year at some point.

00:31:26.220 But listen to how even the media is covering this.

00:31:30.380 Cut 8, a Canadian journalist, says that the shooter was a him, right?

00:31:37.360 Am I correct in this, Buck?

00:31:38.360 This is a dude that identified as a girl that was trying to flip to become a girl.

00:31:44.580 And he ID'd as a girl. 0.97

00:31:47.240 This is a boy and was clearly mentally unstable.

00:31:51.500 But this is what it sounded like when they were trying to figure out,

00:31:54.780 hey, what do we even call this person?

00:31:57.260 Cut 8.

00:31:58.560 Officer Romina Dea from Global News, could you please

00:32:02.260 expand a little bit on the suspect?

00:32:05.960 Was he known to police?

00:32:07.540 Were there any red flags regarding his mental health?

00:32:12.200 So a suspect is identified as an 18-year-old female by the name of Jesse.

00:32:17.960 We have a history of police attendance at the family residence.

00:32:24.480 Some of those calls were, pardon me, related to mental health issues.

00:32:28.860 Okay, if you had trouble hearing that a little bit,

00:32:32.600 the actual journalist says that this is a guy, which is biologically accurate,

00:32:38.180 who did the shooting, and then the police, the deputy commissioner there

00:32:43.480 of the police department says, actually, no, the shooter was female.

00:32:47.640 So he corrects the reporter, who to her credit, I think it was a woman speaking,

00:32:52.420 was actually correct that this was a male shooter.

00:32:54.700 It's a guy.

00:32:58.100 It's a guy who just committed a mass murder, and it's a man, by the way.

00:33:01.180 It's an 18-year-old, okay?

00:33:03.060 So this is a man, a young man, who decided that he had girl pronouns,

00:33:10.300 which is wrong, not true.

00:33:11.960 It's a guy.

00:33:12.480 And went in and shot a whole bunch of people.

00:33:15.220 I mean, he killed, let me see, killed a 12-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy,

00:33:21.560 a 39-year-old teacher, shot all these people.

00:33:26.840 At what point do we, as a society, have a conversation about the extreme mental illness

00:33:35.020 that is behind transgenderism and the fact that it should be and has always been treated

00:33:40.340 as a mental illness that deserves and necessitates support and mental health intervention

00:33:47.840 instead of people placating and playing along?

00:33:51.240 That's one part of this.

00:33:52.420 The other part of this is you are in a real dystopian situation

00:33:56.660 when the cops are lying to you about who does a mass murder.

00:34:02.380 That Royal Canadian Mounted Police guy, a, I mean, you know, I know Canada,

00:34:08.220 it's become so left-wing, it's become so crazy over there in so many ways.

00:34:14.140 That guy saying that this is a woman, a female is actually what he says, he's lying.

00:34:23.700 Yes.

00:34:24.580 He's just lying to everybody.

00:34:26.040 I mean, this would be like saying, hold on a second, the guy who did this, you know, 0.54

00:34:30.380 if a white kid went into a school and shot up a bunch of kids 0.97

00:34:35.440 and you stopped during the press conference, then hold on a second, he was black. 1.00

00:34:39.920 Everybody would say you're a crazy person. 0.99

00:34:42.780 No, he was a white kid and vice versa. 0.96

00:34:44.480 I'm just saying, if you describe the race of the assailant clearly incorrectly,

00:34:49.960 people would think, like, there's something wrong with you.

00:34:52.740 This was not a woman. 1.00

00:34:54.320 This was a man. 1.00

00:34:55.140 This was a guy with a penis who went in, who was crazy, who was clearly very mentally ill, 1.00

00:35:01.000 but on the internet and on TikTok and whatever, there's all these people telling me, oh, you're 1.00

00:35:05.900 actually a girl.

00:35:07.180 Oh, and then, by the way, all the people that don't affirm that you're a girl, they want

00:35:10.940 to erase you.

00:35:12.460 They're committing a genocide against you. 0.95

00:35:14.840 They're the bad people.

00:35:16.540 It's crazy. 1.00

00:35:17.340 This crap leads to violence, everybody. 1.00

00:35:19.880 Enough is enough. 0.99

00:35:21.280 And by the way, if you're out there and you're saying, okay, maybe this poor police officer's

00:35:25.900 just fumbling around.

00:35:27.600 He doesn't know exactly what he's doing.

00:35:29.760 No.

00:35:30.600 He says they're respecting the preferred gender pronouns of the school shooting suspect. 0.93

00:35:36.940 Before we play this cut, this is cut nine, he's a mass murderer.

00:35:43.700 Should we respect him in any way for anything?

00:35:47.380 My argument would be no. 1.00

00:35:49.220 He's trash. 1.00

00:35:50.700 He is evil. 1.00

00:35:51.820 And we have allowed him to be mentally deranged and coddled in some way, his mental derangement. 0.97

00:36:00.580 And again, I don't think it's coincidental, Minneapolis, Nashville, now in Canada, mass

00:36:08.160 shootings going on because not only have we coddled these people and told them, oh, whatever

00:36:13.180 gender you are, you're actually correct. 0.92

00:36:15.380 But worse than that, to Buck's point, we have convinced them that anybody who says that's

00:36:21.580 not true is committing a genocide against you.

00:36:24.800 So you have mentally unstable people that are convinced that if they aren't affirmed in

00:36:31.240 their gender, that that's a genocide being committed. 0.98

00:36:34.620 And so they go out and start trying to kill people. 0.94

00:36:36.940 Unfortunately, this is becoming far too common. 0.86

00:36:39.080 Cut nine.

00:36:43.100 We're not hiding it.

00:36:44.300 In fact, you're the first media to ask the question.

00:36:47.260 I will say this.

00:36:48.200 We identify the suspect as they chose to be identified in public and in social media.

00:36:53.220 I can say that Jesse was born as a biological male who approximately, the information that

00:36:58.840 I have, approximately six years ago, began to transition to female and identified as female

00:37:04.580 both socially and publicly.

00:37:08.660 This is crazy.

00:37:10.020 I mean, this is delusion.

00:37:10.800 I mean, imagine, imagine if after, you know, like one of bin Laden's Al Qaeda guys went in

00:37:17.080 and blew up a plane or something.

00:37:19.140 Imagine the FBI saying, hold on, hold on a second.

00:37:22.480 Hold on a second, everybody.

00:37:23.740 He preferred to be called Sheikh Osama.

00:37:26.180 You know what I mean?

00:37:27.140 Like, I don't think that you need to be weighing in with the wishes of the mass murderer right

00:37:33.260 now.

00:37:33.520 Like, I don't think that that's something that the police should be so concerned with

00:37:37.260 here.

00:37:37.640 It just shows you the grip of psychosis, manufacturing delusion, everybody.

00:37:43.160 Here's the book.

00:37:43.960 There's a whole chapter on this.

00:37:45.720 It's called Menticide.

00:37:47.220 It goes back to World War II.

00:37:48.940 It goes back to breaking people down in authoritarian regimes. 0.99

00:37:53.260 Part of it is get them to say that we don't know what a penis is. 0.99

00:37:56.060 We don't know what a vagina is. 1.00

00:37:57.460 We can't tell anything. 1.00

00:37:58.620 We're all so dumb. 0.94

00:38:00.000 Please get your copy of the book. 0.98

00:38:01.220 It comes out on Tuesday.

00:38:02.300 If you buy it today, it'll be there waiting for you on Tuesday when it comes out.

00:38:06.120 This is a whole chapter in the book, though, and I had to write about this.

00:38:09.020 And people told me, by the way, writing about this transgender stuff, Clay, I mean, I hate

00:38:14.060 to bring it up, but look what happened to Charlie.

00:38:15.520 We're talking about this stuff.

00:38:16.860 I mean, you're facing down the most insane part of the left these days, and in some ways

00:38:24.860 the most violent and the most, you know, the craziest, and you just got to do it.

00:38:29.960 There's a reason why they're all in on this.

00:38:32.700 If I started to identify myself as a black female, it would be racist of me to call myself 0.91

00:38:40.840 black because we saw that happen with Rachel Dolezal, the white chick pretending that she 0.99

00:38:45.600 was black as the head of the NAACP back in Spokane, Washington. 0.97

00:38:49.360 It's super racist for me to identify as black.

00:38:51.960 But you would have to accept the fact that I'm female.

00:38:56.700 This is Democrat Party orthodoxy right now.

00:38:59.740 If I said, hey, I've decided from now on I want to be a black female, the Democrat Party 0.95

00:39:06.760 would have to say, oh my God, that's super racist. 0.93

00:39:09.880 But it's great that you're now a woman.

00:39:12.720 Which do you think is a crazier transition?

00:39:16.880 Which do you think is a more substantial leap?

00:39:20.100 Me changing my race.

00:39:21.840 People find out, by the way, all the time that they're not the race they thought they were.

00:39:25.820 Or me changing my gender.

00:39:27.520 Everybody out there knows it's gender. 0.95

00:39:29.460 I have more in common as a dude with black, white, Asian, and Hispanic guys than I do with

00:39:34.920 women. 0.81

00:39:35.220 But the Democrat Party orthodoxy is, they would have to say, congratulations, you're now a

00:39:41.400 woman.

00:39:41.960 But simultaneously, they'd have to tell me it's racist for me to claim to be a black woman. 0.99

00:39:46.760 It's bonkers. 0.97

00:39:47.880 And Buck, this I think does matter.

00:39:50.260 People out there say, well, why does this matter?

00:39:53.120 Let's pretend this person was actually on the loose.

00:39:57.560 And they were asking for help.

00:40:00.640 Do you describe him as a dude, which he is?

00:40:03.960 Or do you say, we're going to accept his preferred pronouns, this is a woman on the loose?

00:40:10.260 I mean, all of this is crazy.

00:40:12.360 And the fact that you would be concerned with what someone who committed a mass shooting

00:40:17.480 thought about you, or not respecting their pronouns enough, I just, what we should be having

00:40:24.160 a conversation about is this.

00:40:26.220 To what extent do all of these drugs that these trans people are loaded with, Buck? 1.00

00:40:33.960 To what extent does that accelerate their mental degradation and make them more prone to violence?

00:40:40.200 That's a real question we should be asking.

00:40:42.280 We talked about this for 12 and 13-year-olds.

00:40:45.040 The data reflects that their bones don't develop fully when they start getting these trans treatments. 0.87

00:40:50.700 That's a big deal.

00:40:51.680 Not to mention sterilization.

00:40:53.560 But what does it do to adults?

00:40:54.960 Does it make trans people more prone to violence?

00:40:58.340 I don't think it's crazy to say the trans community is tiny, and we now have three mass shootings 1.00

00:41:03.380 basically in the last year and a half that have been propagated by trans people who were

00:41:07.900 on drugs and or being treated for trans-related issues.

00:41:12.520 Shouldn't we be asking, what is the impact of the drugs that we're pumping into their system?

00:41:17.060 And does that make them more prone to violence?

00:41:19.480 To say nothing of the fact that certainly telling them that people who disrespect your preferred

00:41:25.580 pronouns are committing genocide against you, that certainly accelerates, I would think, 0.52

00:41:30.440 the justification of violence.

00:41:33.120 Also, we just need to figure out whether as a society, we really have a choice, Clay.

00:41:38.940 We can have these things happen, or you can have people more readily, involuntarily committed

00:41:46.980 for a period of time.

00:41:48.220 To be clear, I'm not saying that all trans people should be committed, but this individual,

00:41:52.780 I think they should get mental health assistance.

00:41:55.500 But a lot of people, you know, veterans come back with PTSD, they get mental health assistance.

00:41:59.700 Mental health assistance is something that shouldn't be stigmatized and people should have

00:42:03.780 ready access to.

00:42:05.600 But this person, when the police are coming to your home, and by the way, this trans shooter 1.00

00:42:10.500 killed his mom and brother as well, or sister, killed the mother and sibling as well, before

00:42:15.660 he went to the school. 0.92

00:42:17.040 So killed his own family, this guy.

00:42:19.380 Yeah.

00:42:19.500 His 18-year-old killed his own family members, and then went to the school.

00:42:22.920 So this is somebody, all the signs, the cops are going to the house, all the signs were there.

00:42:29.080 I bet if you looked up the laws in British Columbia about, or, you know, for Canadian federal

00:42:34.100 law, or whatever they call it, getting this person to be put into a psychiatric facility

00:42:39.760 until there was a real effort to bring them into reality, I bet it's almost impossible.

00:42:46.000 It's basically impossible in America.

00:42:48.280 Buck, you know, we talked about the filters and how they tried to make Alex Peretti look

00:42:53.400 better in MSNBC.

00:42:56.660 Of course.

00:42:57.140 Canadian media are using AI filters to try to make the shooter look more female.

00:43:03.000 Of course.

00:43:04.940 Yeah.

00:43:05.620 I mean, this is utterly insane.

00:43:09.900 Utterly insane on all levels.

00:43:11.460 I wouldn't get into it, but with a very prominent podcaster, I got into an argument over dinner

00:43:15.040 once.

00:43:15.400 He said, but you can't tell the difference with the trans. 0.73

00:43:18.180 And I was like, no, man, I can always tell the difference.

00:43:21.640 Like, I'm not, we're not doing this thing where I can't tell.

00:43:23.920 Can you tell the difference in a photo necessarily?

00:43:26.240 No.

00:43:26.800 In person?

00:43:27.900 When they're like, hi.

00:43:29.300 You know?

00:43:30.020 Yeah, I can tell the difference.

00:43:31.480 Okay?

00:43:32.040 I've always been able to tell the difference.

00:43:34.220 It's getting harder, but I can tell the difference.

00:43:36.980 In person.

00:43:37.560 In video or in photos, you know, that's a different thing.

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00:44:42.480 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their 1.00

00:44:53.100 elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:44:55.160 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:44:58.900 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:45:00.080 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:45:01.300 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:45:04.960 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of

00:45:09.940 their journey.

00:45:10.500 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:45:14.000 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:45:19.380 Jesse Kelly joins us.

00:45:21.880 He is the host of the Jesse Kelly Show, syndicated by Premier Networks in the evenings.

00:45:27.760 He has a new book out, Jesse's Little Red Book, which we'll be talking about here in a

00:45:32.620 second.

00:45:32.900 And he is America's tallest radio host, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

00:45:38.220 So, Jesse, welcome.

00:45:41.580 Well, I'm just happy I can finally bring some talent to the airwaves here, Buck.

00:45:46.020 And I do have to ask, before we get going, what did you do to your hair, Buck?

00:45:54.680 I love that my mustache avoided all attacks.

00:45:58.700 You know, I pointed this out.

00:46:00.200 Did you get a new take on this?

00:46:02.000 Because Buck has been getting the same haircut as, like, 20-year-olds in Miami now.

00:46:07.040 Jesse, I go to a barbershop with some wonderful Cuban-Americans who speak very limited English, 1.00

00:46:14.860 and you are seeing the end product of that here.

00:46:17.620 But I will have you know that Clay's teenage sons, in shock, referred to this haircut as

00:46:25.580 cool.

00:46:28.780 Yes, but have you seen Clay's mustache?

00:46:32.520 I mean, with all due respect, are we going with Clay's brood's opinion here?

00:46:37.040 How about you opening with no hair, coming after Buck for a haircut?

00:46:44.140 Like, that is just an unprecedented attack from you.

00:46:48.140 That's like Iran coming into negotiations with Trump and, you know, threatening to obliterate

00:46:53.980 Washington, D.C.

00:46:56.360 Clay wanted to read an email that you posted from one of your fans on air on this show,

00:47:01.180 and I was like, no, Jesse's our friend.

00:47:04.520 You know what, Clay?

00:47:05.560 Go ahead.

00:47:06.080 I'm not standing in the way anymore.

00:47:08.120 Let's start off.

00:47:09.000 If you want to throw stones, I'll make sure I grabbed it here because I was laughing during

00:47:14.440 the commercial break.

00:47:15.620 This is an email.

00:47:16.580 Jesse is on many of these same stations in the evening.

00:47:19.640 The subject is gay boy, which, by the way, I'm sure got flagged because you and Mayor Pete

00:47:28.360 are emailing so frequently with each other.

00:47:30.740 Jesse, I think that's what you call each other, right?

00:47:34.060 Jesse, you say you had an ice water at the Super Bowl party.

00:47:38.340 How many fruit wedges did you throw in that water?

00:47:41.060 Was any cucumber involved? 0.76

00:47:42.980 People are concerned your gayness is bleeding over into the NFL. 0.80

00:47:47.200 Just go watch the halftime show. 0.99

00:47:49.520 Why are you so gay? 1.00

00:47:50.780 It's okay to use my name, Aaron. 0.98

00:47:53.300 So, you know, there's a lot of Super Bowl talk. 0.90

00:47:56.320 Aaron wants to know, why are you so gay? 0.54

00:47:59.920 Would you like to apologize to America for drinking an ice water at the Super Bowl party? 0.98

00:48:06.040 No, I would not like to apologize.

00:48:07.880 And let me explain.

00:48:08.900 It was not my party.

00:48:10.380 And I didn't care about the Super Bowl.

00:48:12.360 I haven't watched the NFL in years because of all the Black Lives Matter stuff. 1.00

00:48:16.220 I went from being an NFL super fan to I never watch it.

00:48:19.420 I went to a neighborhood party because my neighbor who barbecues and he smokes all these delicious meats.

00:48:25.580 He had smoked chicken wings.

00:48:26.900 But anyway, the fellas and ladies were getting together.

00:48:29.840 Of course, the ladies stayed inside.

00:48:31.180 They're too annoying.

00:48:32.080 And the guys went out back and we ate meats.

00:48:34.840 I did not go for the game.

00:48:36.580 I didn't care about the game.

00:48:37.940 I left at halftime after I made everybody turn off the Bad Bunny halftime show and turn on the other one.

00:48:43.980 Then I made it halfway through that and I left at halftime.

00:48:47.400 I was there to hang with the fellas for a little bit and have some meats.

00:48:52.700 The Super Bowl is on a Sunday.

00:48:54.900 I am 44, not 24 years old anymore.

00:48:58.440 I try to limit my alcoholic beverages, period, let alone on a Sunday night when I have to work the next day.

00:49:05.600 So, yes, I had ice water.

00:49:07.440 And I had to tell everyone there I had ice water. 0.57

00:49:09.340 And I had to catch crap from them. 0.98

00:49:10.920 And then I had to catch crap from my listeners. 0.97

00:49:12.860 And now I'm getting it from you guys. 0.93

00:49:14.200 What's wrong with ice water?

00:49:15.140 I like ice water.

00:49:17.400 Well, I mean, it's fine.

00:49:18.520 I mean, I heard rumors that there were cucumber wedges in the ice water.

00:49:21.500 I know.

00:49:21.940 I just remember you coming after me for Brussels sprouts.

00:49:25.820 And I think if you were trying to assess masculinity, Brussels sprouts for the table versus cucumber wedged ice water at a Super Bowl party.

00:49:34.200 I just think that I'm the more masculine choice here.

00:49:37.400 Well, if I have to be honest, I didn't advertise it was ice water because I had one of those big, big, I forget what brand it was, one of the big insulated mugs with the lid on it.

00:49:49.500 So if you looked and I walked in with it, you probably would have thought, wow.

00:49:53.220 You're just carrying around your own water now?

00:49:55.980 No.

00:49:56.160 This is what chicks do. 1.00

00:49:57.280 No.

00:49:57.480 In your Stanley Cup?

00:49:58.560 No.

00:49:59.820 No.

00:50:00.380 I like the water to stay cold.

00:50:02.620 I have an ice machine.

00:50:03.980 I don't like to rub my wealth in anyone's face.

00:50:06.300 But I have an ice machine.

00:50:07.780 It makes endless amounts of ice.

00:50:09.660 And so I spend my days drinking icy cold water as if I'm on an Arctic expedition.

00:50:17.900 Tell us about, I'm going to save you here, Jesse.

00:50:20.420 I'm going to pull you out of the Arctic icy waters here for a second, like a polar bear grabbing a seal.

00:50:27.340 Tell me the little red book.

00:50:31.100 This is available at jessikelly.com right now.

00:50:34.760 What is this?

00:50:37.780 Okay.

00:50:38.340 First of all, it's free.

00:50:39.380 I need to stress this.

00:50:40.540 It's free.

00:50:41.080 It's not a gimmick or a scam.

00:50:43.280 I wrote the Anti-Communist Manifesto, what was that, a couple years ago.

00:50:48.560 I'm not an author.

00:50:49.480 I don't ever want to write another book again.

00:50:51.740 And I didn't want to write another book.

00:50:53.260 But I had some extra thoughts.

00:50:54.700 Like I wanted to put an extra chapter in it, basically.

00:50:57.120 But then as I was sitting down and I was hashing it out, it turned into, I think it's 93 pages, which is more than an extra chapter.

00:51:04.240 And I thought, well, why do I even get this to people?

00:51:06.720 I don't want to put it in hardback. 1.00

00:51:08.100 Why don't I just email it to everybody?

00:51:10.680 So we came up with the idea.

00:51:12.160 Let's just write it.

00:51:13.580 It's a little booklet on, you know, my thoughts on the Democrats, Republicans, culture.

00:51:18.320 I even have food thoughts in there.

00:51:20.080 Whatever.

00:51:20.460 Just a little booklet.

00:51:21.700 That's obviously a riff on Mao's Little Red Book, which he used to slaughter all kinds of people in China. 0.61

00:51:27.780 No one will be slaughtered after my Little Red Book.

00:51:30.460 It's just little food for thought items about where we're at as a country.

00:51:33.860 And it's free.

00:51:35.080 We just put in your email address at jessikelly.com and we email it to you.

00:51:39.240 That's what it is.

00:51:39.760 That's a pretty cool idea.

00:51:41.380 So I would encourage people to potentially check this out if you're into gay authors, which, you know, it's an important moment to honor you.

00:51:54.780 I know it's Black History Month, but, you know, Gay Author Month is coming up soon, I'm sure.

00:51:58.560 And it's an esteemed accomplishment.

00:52:01.020 All right.

00:52:01.200 I'm going to I'm going to so this is all like prelude to you can choose to join me in right now.

00:52:08.500 People are coming after me like crazy.

00:52:10.280 Or you can say, you know what, Clay, that's you on an island.

00:52:14.000 And it's an interesting island because I watched yesterday Pam Bondi testify on Capitol Hill and she was interrupted by so-called.

00:52:24.400 And I say use the phrase so-called because these women are saying, hey, we were abused by people other than Jeffrey Epstein.

00:52:32.560 And they continue to have all these press conferences and they keep showing up and they were in the press conference.

00:52:38.840 And they're in the back of the I mean, at the at the at the hearing, they're in the back of it.

00:52:44.080 They're chanting.

00:52:44.840 They're drawing attention to themselves.

00:52:47.000 Where what am I missing here?

00:52:49.020 If you are a victim, if somebody assaulted you and yet that person is still alive and maybe they're still out there assaulting other people,

00:52:59.560 don't you have an actual obligation if you are doing all these press conferences to actually make the public allegation,

00:53:06.760 file lawsuits, get investigations to occur.

00:53:10.980 What am I missing here?

00:53:12.100 At some point when you're showing up for all these press conferences saying I'm a victim, I'm a survivor.

00:53:18.340 Epstein is dead.

00:53:19.320 Jelaine Maxwell is in prison.

00:53:20.800 They're saying there's other people that abuse them.

00:53:23.900 Don't they have an obligation morally to actually tell us who these people are?

00:53:29.000 I mean, I'm just I'm fired up about it.

00:53:31.480 Well, I don't disagree, but I think this this Epstein stuff, it's very similar to like what the Me Too movement was like that started out.

00:53:41.160 And it was a really good thing because women who had been abused by men felt comfortable coming forward and finally voicing it.

00:53:47.040 And then it took like five minutes for it to turn really scummy and scammy.

00:53:51.100 And very clearly it was a money grab.

00:53:53.000 And he took me out on a bad day and he ordered Brussels sprouts.

00:53:55.720 And now I'm mad at him, that kind of a thing.

00:53:58.000 And so I think the exact same thing is taking place with Epstein, who was clearly a creep and a monster, was surrounded by creeps and monstered, did all kinds of creepy, monstrous things.

00:54:07.880 And I hope every one of them gets thrown into prison.

00:54:10.500 However, as soon as people start getting paid on this stuff, start getting famous on this stuff, that is inevitably going to invite scammers and scummy people, too, who love to give press conferences every other day and have their name in 60 minutes.

00:54:26.120 But at some point, if you're going to if you're going to come out publicly and say I was abused, you have to deliver the goods.

00:54:32.380 I don't necessarily think you're crazy.

00:54:34.060 Now, if you want to stay quiet, I get that.

00:54:35.640 I know a bunch of women who have sadly gone through this kind of thing, and they don't want to talk about it.

00:54:39.220 They don't feel comfortable talking about it.

00:54:40.620 And that's not my place to tell anyone to talk about it.

00:54:43.120 But if you're if you're on your 20th press conference talking about the powerful men who've abused you and it's the 20th time you haven't named a single name.

00:54:51.460 I'm sorry.

00:54:52.100 I need to hear some names now.

00:54:53.860 I want to hear some names. 0.75

00:54:55.100 I want to know which of the powerful people in our society are freaking monstrous predators preying on women. 0.99

00:55:02.040 You've teased me to this point in time. 0.90

00:55:04.060 Now you've got to deliver.

00:55:05.640 It's more if they truly are out there and they did it to you, they're likely doing it to other people.

00:55:12.060 So to me, the moral obligation, people say, oh, there's an NDA.

00:55:15.220 They got paid 100 million dollars.

00:55:16.800 They can't talk.

00:55:17.640 This is BS like the Epstein.

00:55:19.580 The Epstein estate is not suing you.

00:55:22.940 I've been through some of these cases before with representing women and representing people in situations like these.

00:55:29.960 You I just I'm fired up about it.

00:55:33.700 OK, where are we, Jesse?

00:55:36.220 Year two as we are now.

00:55:38.580 You know, you got a primary.

00:55:39.640 You live in Texas.

00:55:40.300 You got a primary in what, two and a half weeks, whatever it's going to be.

00:55:43.240 What do you expect in twenty six?

00:55:47.880 I expect that we will lose the House of Representatives and keep the Senate.

00:55:52.400 I think that's a reasonable expectation.

00:55:54.440 How bad that loss is remains to be seen.

00:55:57.920 If we fight tooth and nail, we might lose it by a little.

00:56:01.240 If if this economy does not come back for most people, then we're probably going to lose it by a lot.

00:56:06.860 And Trump's going to be impeached every other day in the House.

00:56:09.300 And it's going to be a miserable last two years of his presidency.

00:56:12.100 See, I think it's all going to depend on the economy.

00:56:15.300 Those us political people, everyone listening right now, we know all the ins and outs.

00:56:18.920 We know all the issues.

00:56:19.820 But the normies who decide elections don't vote on that.

00:56:22.400 They vote on can they afford chicken?

00:56:24.080 Can they afford a plane ticket to go see their mother?

00:56:26.540 Is the economy back for them?

00:56:28.420 Selling them on another big trade deal does not do anything for the normies out there.

00:56:33.520 They have to feel it in their pocketbook.

00:56:35.540 Are they feeling it?

00:56:36.840 I don't know.

00:56:37.740 They better be feeling it by election time or we're in trouble.

00:56:39.980 So, Jesse, putting you back on the hot seat here for a second, what would you say to a full grown man with a mustache who lives in the Nashville area who makes the claim that Taylor Swift is on her way to being the 21st century version of the Beatles?

00:57:00.020 Man, that is just so sad.

00:57:03.580 If I had a moment, if I could talk to that guy, if I had a chance.

00:57:09.980 If I had a chance to talk to that guy, I'd really want to, I mean, I'd almost want to figure out, is he hurt?

00:57:15.500 Is there something wrong inside?

00:57:17.520 Is there something going on in his life that we need to find out about?

00:57:20.460 Can we get him help?

00:57:21.400 I have a heart for people, Buck.

00:57:23.260 If I met somebody that broken and wrong, I would want to find out, is it rehab?

00:57:29.460 Look, I'll pitch in some money.

00:57:31.300 Buck, I know you will, too. 0.78

00:57:32.660 Clay, you probably would, too, if you met anybody that unbelievably deranged.

00:57:35.980 Um, she is an absolute icon.

00:57:42.720 And long after the three of us are gone, her music is going to echo throughout the world, bringing everyone together.

00:57:51.060 Go to jessikelly.com.

00:57:53.020 I was just called gay for drinking ice water?

00:57:56.000 At a Super Bowl party. 0.84

00:57:57.400 You didn't drink ice water after you ran a half marathon.

00:58:00.400 You drank ice water at a Super Bowl party while, I might mention, hanging out with guys and pounding meats on the patio, I think, in your phrasing.

00:58:12.220 He's going to be voting for Mayor Pete in every election for the rest of his life.

00:58:15.960 He's Jesse Kelly.

00:58:16.920 Make sure that you go subscribe to his podcast.

00:58:19.620 Check out his new book.

00:58:20.520 And you can listen to him on many of these same stations in the evenings.

00:58:23.840 Jesse, thank you.

00:58:25.760 See you, boys.

00:58:26.580 Through the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, you can honor the courage and sacrifice of our nation's greatest heroes, first responders, and military heroes, like United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Christy Rabitz.

00:58:38.760 Christy served our country with unwavering dedication for 20 years.

00:58:42.520 As a combat nurse, she provided life-saving care to wounded soldiers, including at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center during the height of the global war on terror.

00:58:51.900 Christy was also a devoted wife, mother, and mentor whose life was rooted in compassion and integrity.

00:58:58.460 After six years of courageously battling service-related cancer, Christy's life was tragically cut short.

00:59:05.120 She leaves behind her husband, Stephen, and their two kids.

00:59:08.580 Tunnel to Towers honored Christy's service and sacrifice by paying off the mortgage on her family's home.

00:59:13.840 Help more families like Christy's.

00:59:16.120 Join us in donating $11 a month to Tunnel to Towers at T2T.org.

00:59:20.480 That's T, the number two, T, dot org.

00:59:30.840 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:59:33.700 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 12, 2026

Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 12 2026

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