Verdict with Ted Cruz - Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 19 2026

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

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00:00:05.000 Welcome, everybody, to the second hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show.

00:00:09.680 And we are joined by Stephen Yates.

00:00:12.700 He's a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a former White House national security official.

00:00:18.520 Our friend, Mr. Yates, great to have you, sir.

00:00:20.500 What's going on?

00:00:22.100 Buck, great to join you.

00:00:23.080 Thanks so much.

00:00:24.480 So we want to ask you about whether we're going to war with Iran.

00:00:28.780 It's a big question.

00:00:31.240 And the reason we're asking is because, as we know, there's sort of a dual-track situation playing out.

00:00:38.460 On the one hand, there's negotiations, I think, in Geneva, sounds right, over Iran's nuclear program that the administration is involved in.

00:00:46.640 And then there's also a buildup, a substantial buildup of military assets, aerial assets, specifically F-35s, F-22s in the Mideast, prepared for what could be a sustained aerial campaign against Iran.

00:01:04.140 What do you see happening here?

00:01:05.860 How do you think this plays out?

00:01:07.260 Well, Buck, I think that the president and his team are doing far more than any of its predecessors to kind of increase the chances of a negotiated settlement of sorts.

00:01:20.600 It's very, very difficult to see there being any security from the nuclear program under the current regime.

00:01:27.040 That's why the president says that if the regime were to change, that might be better.

00:01:30.560 He's not saying he's going to do it.

00:01:32.500 But the armada that is there is doing two very substantial things.

00:01:37.240 It is stopping the illegal support for the Iranian regime financially.

00:01:42.640 That has been a big vulnerability in the past.

00:01:45.500 And, of course, it has the ability to strike hard.

00:01:47.760 And the president has proven a willingness to do that not very long ago.

00:01:51.780 So this should increase the chances of a negotiated settlement.

00:01:54.800 But I have to say, bottom line, I don't see this regime in Iran negotiating a good faith in an appropriate amount of time.

00:02:00.980 So I think the odds of a strike that would be an active war but not a total war, very high over the next two weeks.

00:02:09.160 Okay.

00:02:09.740 So what is the goal of the strikes?

00:02:12.320 Thanks for coming on, Steve.

00:02:13.400 I mean, I think that is kind of where we dive into next because the understanding that we had, and I think it was the right decision on the first strike,

00:02:22.340 was this is directly attributed to trying to eliminate Iran's nuclear arsenal, right, or their ability to develop a nuclear arsenal.

00:02:34.320 Are we trying to replace the Ayatollah with this strike?

00:02:38.020 Are we still going after nuclear weapons?

00:02:40.420 I think this needs to be a huge part of the discussion in general is what is the strategic goal here?

00:02:47.480 Do you have a sense for that?

00:02:48.760 And how do you think the administration goes about making that choice?

00:02:54.060 Well, I completely agree that it's necessary.

00:02:57.480 We've fought off the ghosts of Iraq in many, many different ways. 1.00

00:03:02.900 But that idea of making clear what the strategic objective is and what America's role is relative to other countries' role, very, very clear.

00:03:11.280 I think that the targets that they would hit would look more military, so it would be nuclear, but also some of the ballistic missile and other capabilities to demonstrate that we can do this and there's nothing they can do about it,

00:03:24.200 and knock them back a little bit to maybe buy more time and see whether they sober up for real negotiations.

00:03:30.580 There's, I think, this added layer of statements that were made about the atrocities that are committed by the regime, the human rights violations, and I have deep sympathy for that, but I don't think that is the proper use of the U.S. military.

00:03:43.700 I think that's the area that has to be made much, much more clear.

00:03:48.100 The strike had to be degrading the capabilities of the regime while they have maximum pressure to degrade the economic capabilities of the regime, and the rest of the world is going to have to step in and help handle some of the other elements of the political transformation, in my view.

00:04:03.080 You know, Steve, yes, the ghosts of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars loom large in all these conversations, and I think that's a good thing, I mean, in terms of making sure that we don't get pulled into something,

00:04:18.820 and I think Trump is very wary of getting pulled into something deeper and at much greater risk to us and to our people than we want to be.

00:04:28.000 So, as part of that, one of the conversations that I think keeps coming up, and people have been asking me, so I want to pose this to you and get your take on it.

00:04:35.860 In Venezuela, okay, we took Maduro out and, well, took him to a prison cell in New York, but there was a clear pathway of other people, and really much of the rest of the regime is in charge there now.

00:04:49.260 So there's kind of an ongoing negotiation process about what will happen and how that country moves forward, but the U.S. clearly has a lot of leverage.

00:04:56.420 What is the opposition in Iran?

00:04:58.900 Do we have any real sense as to if the mullahs fall, if they fall, who takes over?

00:05:06.580 Buck, that is the most important issue that they have to work through, and I don't take it as a given that whatever the U.S. does in the near term is going to be about regime change.

00:05:17.700 I think what they demonstrated in Venezuela is that a step along the way is that we are going to change maybe the nature of the current regime and renegotiate sort of the terms of trade and dealing with the United States and the world.

00:05:33.020 And under these new terms, maybe we buy more time for a longer-term transition to whether it's an opposition or a reformed country.

00:05:41.760 But in Venezuela, the opposition is not yet in charge.

00:05:44.880 It may be in the not-too-distant future if there's an election.

00:05:48.120 The same goes with Iran. 0.75

00:05:49.300 I mean, the debatification issue in Iraq, which you know as well as anybody, just is one of the biggest ghosts of what people think of as a failure in the Iraq strategy.

00:06:00.600 Keeping some of those institutions in place so there isn't broader instability and mayhem across the region is one of the priorities they have to have.

00:06:09.540 So I think there could be a move that gets at the top leadership, and there could be a change to someone else in the regime.

00:06:17.540 Personally, I would love it if this regime went away.

00:06:20.740 But I personally just think that the U.S. role is to strike hard the way no one else can, to contain fallout as best anyone can.

00:06:29.540 But it's the Abraham Accords countries and others that really need to be managing more of how do we have an economic and political relationship that's different with Iran.

00:06:38.580 We have a lot of Iranian listeners on this program.

00:06:41.900 A couple of months ago, we opened up phone lines and said, hey, what kind of support is there in your social networks for Iranians in the United States for the royal family to be installed in some way as a holder of power that is a transition to potentially a new government?

00:06:59.700 Do you like that idea, Steve?

00:07:01.320 Steve, is that a crazy idea in your mind?

00:07:04.400 Again, building on what we learned in Iraq, sweeping out one group and trying to replace another can be dangerous.

00:07:11.640 But there is some form of nostalgic, positive reflection on the royal family, if only based on how awful things have been under the Mullahs.

00:07:22.640 Well, I agree, and that could be a viable alternative.

00:07:26.500 But I think one of the things we felt got stung in the Iraq situation was having a leader that comes into place that is just viably identified as the American choice.

00:07:38.600 And for a lot of the world that suffers from pretty high dose TDS, if it's perceived as being Trump's choice, there could be a problem of trying to hold coalitions and investment and other security engagements that are necessary for that transition.

00:07:55.240 I think that might explain why we have this muddled or middle ground approach in Venezuela, too.

00:08:00.480 If the opposition was seen as chosen by the United States and our president, then there could be maybe grounds for greater resistance.

00:08:08.700 So a more organic and sort of stepping stones across the river approach seems to be the way they've gone at that.

00:08:16.000 That might be more what they try with Iran. 0.97

00:08:19.540 But I do think that looking at viable alternatives to the theocratic regime, most of the diaspora agrees with that, which is a fancy way of saying the people who are Iranian that live overseas.

00:08:30.360 And then I think there are also large parts of Persian culture that are not Islamist that could work with that kind of an approach.

00:08:39.700 But it needs to be seen and protected as being the Iranian people's choice.

00:08:45.760 Steve, I'm in South Florida.

00:08:48.140 And so I got to ask, how shaky do you think the regime in Cuba is?

00:08:53.980 Yeah, I think it's very shaky.

00:08:55.800 And that's an area where I think, oddly, while people wouldn't attach smart power to the make America great again foreign policy, I think that we've used some very effective levers that are non-military.

00:09:11.300 We've used our military to cut off the oil.

00:09:14.520 That is an immense pressure on them.

00:09:16.860 The movement in Venezuela politically was tied very, very close to them.

00:09:20.060 So in terms of political warfare, economic warfare and economic security, we've really maxed options.

00:09:26.180 And so I think we've got the best shot we've had for this external pressure campaign to maybe give a different path forward.

00:09:34.160 But what fascinates me is really in Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, and maybe other places, we're really seeing a very sophisticated approach to easing these transitions without America going in to push it too far and have it blow up back on us.

00:09:51.040 Buck asked a good question about Cuba, and I'm utterly fascinated about that.

00:09:55.760 But also on Iran, you mentioned it.

00:09:58.860 I think this is important.

00:10:00.260 There's a big difference oftentimes between what is publicly said and what is privately said, particularly from the other Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia et al, that clearly have made the decision they don't like Iran and would like to see changes made there.

00:10:15.540 Do they actually want the Ayatollah out, in your impression?

00:10:20.280 This is the Saudi Arabia's, the Bahrain's, the UAE's are just kind of running all through all these different countries that are technically Muslim countries, but are not allied with Iran.

00:10:29.620 Or do they deep down like the fact that the Ayatollah is such a disaster that they don't have to worry about Iran as a regional threat so long as he is there and therefore don't actually want him gone? 0.65

00:10:43.360 Do we have a sense on that?

00:10:44.640 Well, I think there is a pretty clear sense.

00:10:48.420 And, you know, in our country, I don't think enough Americans appreciate the fact that the Iranian regime has threatened to kill our president more than once over the history of this dispute.

00:10:59.160 That kind of matters.

00:11:00.500 I mean, just remember, presidents are human beings, but also you just can't allow that if you are a sovereign power and a global power.

00:11:07.980 And these other regional allies, believe me, they have suffered under assassination attempts and other kinds of violence against them.

00:11:16.980 They have have blood feud with the theocratic regime across the water from them in many cases, some across a border like Iran and Iraq.

00:11:25.800 It's, I think, very, very clear to them that they would much prefer to have a reform-oriented government there, and they would invest heavily.

00:11:36.120 And there is a path to peace and prosperity that way, but it's expanding the ethos of the Abraham Accords. 0.75

00:11:42.040 And under the theocratic regime in Iran, that's not an option.

00:11:44.960 They support the radical terrorists that attacked Israel and believe in river-to-the-sea mentality, and that is not compatible with our allies in the Gulf.

00:11:54.840 Stephen, before we let you go, I'm sure you saw AOC showing up in Munich to show off her foreign policy skills.

00:12:04.220 Did not go, I think, as planned.

00:12:06.660 She was asked about this crazy thing that no one had ever heard of before, the China-Taiwan conflict, or the possibility of China-Taiwan open conflict.

00:12:16.180 And her answer was hysterical, so we appreciate that the humorous component of this was covered.

00:12:21.660 If you were to give AOC, if you were tutoring her on this issue, say, hey, here's what you should say, so you sound like you know what's really going on with China-Taiwan,

00:12:32.160 what would be your 60-second or less answer to the question that she turned into, yeah, like, I mean, they have maps and stuff?

00:12:39.960 Well, it was mind-blowing, and if I were her, I would not go to a security conference and try to do that as a social media influencer.

00:12:51.160 You better just do a 10-second search of Grok, and probably AI could have given better talking points.

00:12:57.460 And I'd say you begin with the basics, free people who are investing heavily in our country.

00:13:05.500 We should be giving them the ability to defend themselves as much as humanly possible.

00:13:09.920 And also, let's hold up some accountability and transparency with China.

00:13:14.160 At the very least, stand with an ally like Japan, and let's see where we can go and avoid the conflict. 0.63

00:13:19.800 I think she tried to get there.

00:13:21.060 She couldn't land it.

00:13:22.040 She borderline couldn't even speak, and I don't know why you go be a speaker at an international security conference

00:13:27.460 and not prepared for basic questions.

00:13:29.440 It is funny that you mentioned Grok because she has probably a staff of, how many people do you think work for AOC?

00:13:36.800 50? 50? 100?

00:13:38.860 I mean, if you go across everywhere, I mean, it's a huge number of people.

00:13:42.640 And she could have just said, hey, how do I answer a question on Taiwan, on Grok?

00:13:47.160 And it would have given her an infinitely better answer than whatever staff she had trying to prepare her for that event.

00:13:53.460 Steve, we appreciate you.

00:13:54.700 We may need you back on when Oregon.

00:13:57.360 When war breaks out.

00:13:58.520 He's going to have to fix the war when it breaks out.

00:14:00.640 That's right.

00:14:01.920 Thank you.

00:14:03.460 Thanks so much.

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00:15:56.780 Welcome back in, Clay Travis, Buck Sexton's show.

00:16:03.580 We've got a lot of different stories that we're following.

00:16:06.040 But it is funny that we may go to war with Iran. 0.76

00:16:09.760 We're going to talk with Steve Yates at 1 in like 30 minutes, roughly, about the possibility of war with Iran.

00:16:17.120 Our friend Carol Markowitz will join us in the next hour to talk about issues of the day.

00:16:22.080 But Prince Andrew being arrested has taken over the news cycle as opposed to whether we might go to war in the Middle East.

00:16:31.580 And there are other news cycle moments that I think are worthy of discussion.

00:16:36.520 And one of them just so happens to be us being completely right about the made-up James Tallarico interview.

00:16:45.080 I know, Buck, you yesterday had FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr on.

00:16:49.880 The team pulled a bunch of different cuts here.

00:16:52.480 But here is a flashback from Tuesday's edition of the show where I said,

00:16:57.720 This is going to be so much more beneficial to Tallarico in the Texas primary than running the actual interview was.

00:17:07.060 It feels like a rigged job.

00:17:08.820 Here is Cut 11.

00:17:09.600 When I hear and see this controversy emerging, I say,

00:17:13.860 My goodness, this is elite Democrat power brokers deciding to set up this James Tallarico interview.

00:17:22.920 If it airs, it's a huge bonus to him.

00:17:26.940 But if it gets shut down under this FCC equal time doctrine, I would argue it's an even bigger bonus for him.

00:17:35.640 Because most people would have never seen this but for the fact that Stephen Colbert went on and attacked his bosses for not letting him have on James Tallarico.

00:17:46.540 So guess who now is saying this?

00:17:49.580 Stephen Colbert himself went on and said,

00:17:52.760 Way more people watch this than ever would have seen it.

00:17:55.700 This was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

00:17:59.720 Cut 10.

00:18:00.640 Whatever talking to me, the corporation put out this press release, this statement.

00:18:06.740 In it, they say, The Late Show was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Representative James Tallarico.

00:18:14.180 The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal time rule for two other candidates,

00:18:20.280 including Representative Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled.

00:18:25.780 The Late Show decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast,

00:18:31.520 rather than potentially providing the equal time options.

00:18:34.900 So we obeyed our network and put the interview on YouTube where it's gotten millions of views.

00:18:44.800 And I can see why.

00:18:46.920 Tallarico is an interesting guy.

00:18:48.620 I don't know if he should be the senator, but it was a good discussion.

00:18:51.500 I wish we could have put it on the show where no one would have watched it.

00:18:57.720 Okay.

00:18:58.660 So, Buck, here is the other thing on.

00:19:01.780 This is Harry Enten, CNN data guru, sharing all the data.

00:19:07.440 And again, this feels like such a rigged job.

00:19:10.100 The real victim here is not Stephen Colbert or James Tallarico, Buck.

00:19:15.100 And I can't believe I'm saying this.

00:19:16.600 It's Jasmine Crockett.

00:19:17.900 They're treating her.

00:19:19.580 Clay is pro-royal family, pro-Jasmine Crockett today.

00:19:23.180 I'm taking all the tough arguments today.

00:19:25.700 Pro-royal family.

00:19:27.020 And I'm defending Jasmine Crockett here because they're terrified she would be the nominee, the Democrat Party.

00:19:35.040 And this reminds me of what they did to Bernie Sanders when they did the rigged job for Hillary Clinton.

00:19:41.880 Jasmine Crockett is not allowed to go on with Colbert.

00:19:45.420 He doesn't get to make the case to the Texas Democrat Senate primary voters.

00:19:50.800 And meanwhile, listen to Harry Enten.

00:19:53.200 This is a huge story.

00:19:55.340 The overall interest in Tallarico has skyrocketed.

00:19:59.760 This is CNN pointing out, hey, the controversy is way better than if he had just been able to go on the program in the first place.

00:20:07.180 You know, I'm going to quote one of my favorite singers and actresses, Barbra Streisand.

00:20:12.000 There's a real Barbra Streisand effect going on here. 1.00

00:20:15.040 What are we talking about here?

00:20:16.660 Well, take a look here.

00:20:17.520 Google searches for James Tallarico.

00:20:19.340 In the U.S., up 4,900 percent today versus Monday.

00:20:24.360 How about in Texas, where you have that key Senate race going on there?

00:20:28.600 Up like a rock.

00:20:29.440 And we're talking about up 1,150 percent.

00:20:32.340 So, this has actually been very good news for James Tallarico.

00:20:36.320 You want that attention. 0.57

00:20:37.600 You have that primary going on in a few weeks.

00:20:39.860 And he's absolutely gotten it, both nationwide and, of course, very importantly, in the state of Texas as well.

00:20:45.540 The highest on record.

00:20:46.940 So, if you look at the gambling markets, right, the prediction markets, as it were, and you're curious, okay, what is the impact here?

00:20:57.700 Tallarico's chances since this story came out, Buck, of winning the primary in Texas have skyrocketed in this prediction market.

00:21:09.460 He was starting to fade.

00:21:10.920 Jasmine Crockett was rising.

00:21:12.580 And it's like the Democrat Party ordered the hit.

00:21:16.660 They used Colbert.

00:21:18.360 And the real victim here, the bad guy, is not Donald Trump.

00:21:22.760 It's not CBS.

00:21:23.780 It's not some executive who rightly pointed out the conflict here.

00:21:28.500 It's all Jasmine Crockett just getting dunked on by her own party.

00:21:35.060 This is all I could think.

00:21:37.060 It feels so self-evident to me.

00:21:39.400 And there's nothing that could have been more clear than this was an op.

00:21:44.680 And, you know, you called it out right away.

00:21:46.280 And I think it was definitely apparent to anyone seeing how this was going to go.

00:21:51.380 But it reminds me of the old days with CNN and the Trump first term with Jim Acosta when it was, you know, oh, my gosh, like they're shutting down the First Amendment.

00:21:59.300 Look at how mean they're being to journalists.

00:22:00.760 There's nothing better for his career than when Trump would make fun of him.

00:22:03.360 There's nothing better for a CNN anchor than when Trump would go after them because their audience loves to see that.

00:22:09.140 There's nothing better for Don Lemon than getting arrested.

00:22:11.740 As we said on this program, the idea that he was going to bear consequences was just not true.

00:22:17.500 It's the best thing that ever happened to his career.

00:22:19.420 And so this victim narrative that they create, it's all just self-serving nonsense, as we know.

00:22:28.520 But the good news for everybody is James Tallarico is going to get smoked in the Senate race.

00:22:32.440 I mean, he's not going to come close, I think.

00:22:34.060 It's going to be his Beto 2.0.

00:22:36.800 Remember Beto?

00:22:38.080 Wasn't he on the cover of Vanity Fair?

00:22:39.720 It's like, oh, he's like so handsome.

00:22:41.460 I think he married a rich woman.

00:22:42.580 Like, this guy doesn't even have a real job.

00:22:44.080 You know, he's one of these people.

00:22:45.000 He married a woman whose family has money, and, you know, he wears jeans.

00:22:51.240 And he's like, we're going to, like, take all your AR-15s, and, like, we're going to make a big pile of them and, like, light them on fire.

00:22:57.580 And all the libs on the coast are like, he's amazing, and he wears Wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, so Texas will love him.

00:23:04.040 And Texas was like, no, actually no.

00:23:07.060 So, yeah, I think this is Tallarico is going to be just like Beto, and it's not going to work for him.

00:23:13.040 So that's the good news.

00:23:13.820 Now, I do think the question here going forward is, I know they're going to toss to the curb.

00:23:22.740 Colbert's show in May, I think, is over.

00:23:24.740 And in the meantime, as we could well have expected, he's throwing as many fits as he can, kicking and screaming on the way out to his show ceasing to exist.

00:23:33.560 And then guess what's going to happen, Buck?

00:23:35.400 Spotify, or someone like Spotify, is going to give Stephen Colbert $100 million to do a podcast.

00:23:42.580 And Stephen Colbert is not going to be a victim.

00:23:45.880 And then every single left-wing legacy media outlet in the country is going to do a huge story about how Stephen Colbert was a victim.

00:23:53.660 I can tell you exactly how this is going to play out.

00:23:56.320 His podcast is going to be highly rated because they're going to promote it like crazy.

00:24:00.180 And he's going to do basically the exact same show on podcast.

00:24:02.800 And he's going to make more money.

00:24:04.460 And it'll be on YouTube.

00:24:05.260 And they'll promote it.

00:24:06.640 And they'll do a huge story about how Stephen Colbert is the big success. 0.98

00:24:10.940 And CBS are the losers.

00:24:11.980 I can tell you exactly how the next year of Stephen Colbert's life is going to play out.

00:24:16.900 Which reminds me, they manufacture his popularity and they manufacture delusions, which is a fantastic book, Manufacturing Delusion, that all of you who have not already purchased your copy should go purchase a copy of.

00:24:29.560 Because this first week, we have to be John Meacham's book.

00:24:32.640 You know, Clay, I am getting John Meacham.

00:24:34.800 For those of you who don't know, he's a presidential historian.

00:24:37.920 You know, there's a lot of books about these presidents.

00:24:39.300 But he became the go-to historian on Morning Joe alongside Beschloss to be like, Trump is Hitler and he's going to destroy America.

00:24:49.440 I have people sending me, because our books came out on the same day, that if you go to, let's just say, a large brick-and-mortar retailer with many stores across the country in places, you will see that there will be like 15.

00:25:01.420 There's a huge display of Meacham's book.

00:25:02.860 My book, you can't even find it.

00:25:04.000 You have to, like, go.

00:25:05.520 It's almost like you're going to buy, you know, the naughty book that you're not supposed to know exists.

00:25:12.980 Who makes this decision?

00:25:15.180 Corporate libs in these places.

00:25:17.560 Because our books are neck and neck in sales.

00:25:20.080 He has a giant display.

00:25:21.980 Mine doesn't exist in physical copy unless you go and know the secret handshake for the guy, you know, stalking in the back.

00:25:28.640 This is what they do.

00:25:30.020 So, you know, help me out here. 0.91

00:25:31.200 Show the communists that they don't get to just keep doing this nonsense.

00:25:34.760 Go buy manufacturing delusion.

00:25:36.360 It's so true if you walk through a book, an airport.

00:25:40.180 They will give you unbelievable placement at the front of a store for your left-wing book.

00:25:45.900 You all see it.

00:25:47.180 I will say, I'm in Amazon right now.

00:25:51.100 Best review that I've seen so far.

00:25:54.840 Phenomenal book analyzing how delusion has taken over this country.

00:25:57.940 I just wish the author had more respect for Taylor Swift, the Beatles of her generation.

00:26:04.820 Most liked review so far.

00:26:07.520 That is from me inside of Amazon.

00:26:10.440 And I am a verified purchaser, to be fair.

00:26:13.220 You can see that I, if you, if you doubted whether I paid my own money for Buck's book, it is in my Amazon account.

00:26:19.600 I am Richard Clay Travis, just so you know.

00:26:22.560 I don't, I'm actually nervous now that I've said that.

00:26:24.580 I'm like, have I reviewed anything else?

00:26:29.100 No, only a couple of things.

00:26:30.520 So, I don't have, I was like, oh no.

00:26:32.380 Like, what else have I reviewed on Amazon?

00:26:34.620 Only a couple of books.

00:26:35.500 Another one was like 15 years ago.

00:26:37.060 Somebody asked me to review it.

00:26:38.300 So, that's the only reviews that are on my Amazon account.

00:26:40.820 But that is my actual Amazon account.

00:26:42.940 Go buy your copy of the book.

00:26:45.160 And, oh yeah.

00:26:47.340 Ali's saying they used to turn Rush's book over upside down.

00:26:50.440 Look, what I would say is, in the marketplace of ideas, I think about this all the time.

00:26:58.400 How do you reach people that otherwise might not be aware of your arguments?

00:27:03.060 We are incredibly thankful for all of you out there that are listening to us every day.

00:27:07.440 And every day there's a few more of you than there were the day before.

00:27:10.640 And that's been the case for each of the last five years.

00:27:12.800 And that's a credit to the staff and the fact that we try to do a good job with this show.

00:27:17.820 But there's also tens of millions of people that would like our arguments and do not get exposed to them.

00:27:24.700 And so, hopefully, I hope that they are going to see your book and become aware that there are arguments like these being made.

00:27:33.300 Absolutely.

00:27:34.400 Very important.

00:27:35.600 So, go check out Manufacturing Delusion.

00:27:37.320 Tornadoes, hurricanes, forest fires, ice storms.

00:27:40.800 In a country as large as ours, there's a lot of reasons for power outages to occur.

00:27:45.660 And each of those can cause an immediate shutdown of the grid.

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00:28:12.660 Staying connected shouldn't depend on luck.

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00:28:21.140 take ownership of a set of rapid radios.

00:28:23.600 Go to rapidradios.com right now.

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00:28:36.420 Sometimes, all you can do is laugh.

00:28:39.660 And they do a lot of it with the Sunday hang.

00:28:42.600 Join Clay and Buck as they laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:28:50.680 Welcome back in to Clay and Buck.

00:28:52.400 Our friend Carol Markowitz of the Carol Markowitz Show on the Clay and Buck Podcast Network.

00:28:56.780 And normally, which she does with Mary Catherine Hamm.

00:28:59.620 Clay, have you been on the Normally Show yet?

00:29:01.660 I haven't been on the Normally Show yet.

00:29:03.640 Carol, how do we get on the Normally Show?

00:29:05.440 You two cool days.

00:29:05.860 I don't know.

00:29:06.200 Do you have guests with the duo show or not?

00:29:08.780 I've been on with Carol, but I don't know if they do guests on the duo show.

00:29:12.640 No, we haven't.

00:29:13.780 We haven't done guests yet.

00:29:14.920 But if we were going to do guests, you two would be, like, in the top ten easily.

00:29:20.260 Top ten?

00:29:21.280 Top ten?

00:29:22.080 Clay and I have a super big group.

00:29:24.340 You would make my top one.

00:29:25.540 Come on.

00:29:26.520 That's how I got married.

00:29:27.620 That's how I got married, Carol.

00:29:28.720 I made the top ten.

00:29:31.440 So there's that.

00:29:33.040 That makes sense.

00:29:34.660 Carol, congratulations on all the success of the podcast.

00:29:38.140 And people should go check out the Carol Markowitz Show.

00:29:40.740 Now, hard turn here because we're about to get into something pretty intense, but it's important.

00:29:45.940 We had the second in less than two weeks, maybe ten days apart or something,

00:29:51.860 transgender mass shooting, someone killing members of their own family.

00:29:57.560 There was the one in British Columbia up in Canada, 0.78

00:29:59.760 and now there's one that just happened in Rhode Island.

00:30:02.160 This guy in Rhode Island was clearly the most –

00:30:05.620 if you were drawing a picture or if you were trying to create in a laboratory

00:30:09.580 somebody who was manifestly insane, it would be this guy.

00:30:14.460 And the fact that this guy was not considered to be a serious mental health case

00:30:19.340 that needed immediate attention long before this goes to there's just a complete unwillingness

00:30:26.020 to see reality when it comes to this transgender stuff now. 0.79

00:30:29.520 Yeah, you're absolutely right.

00:30:31.180 And look, you know, I'm reading this great book, Manufacturing Delusion.

00:30:34.580 You may have heard of it, but the whole thing is –

00:30:37.420 I mean, it really is so good, and it's so right for this moment

00:30:41.100 because it's the same question going on with the transgender debate.

00:30:45.140 It's like, are you going to tell the truth,

00:30:47.200 or are you going to have to parrot the line that we were told to parrot,

00:30:51.660 which is that there's nothing wrong or odd or different about declaring yourself transgender

00:30:57.720 and that there is no mental health component? 0.97

00:30:59.800 I think that's absolutely ridiculous, especially when we're talking about young people 1.00

00:31:03.680 because we've seen the fact that it's such a social contagion. 0.98

00:31:07.460 The number of gay people has not gone up basically in our lifetime,

00:31:10.940 but the number of trans people has spiked.

00:31:13.920 So it is this brainwashing thing that is happening across our culture,

00:31:19.120 and it seems like people are waking up to it.

00:31:22.340 But right as they're waking up to it, the number of violent incidents involving the transgender community

00:31:29.320 have really spiked.

00:31:31.340 And I think it is because they're constantly being told that they're under attack.

00:31:35.940 This shooter in Rhode Island, he was on Twitter, and he said that stop bashing us

00:31:42.280 or this is why we go berserk, but no one was bashing him.

00:31:46.160 It was Kevin Sorbo, the actor, was basically saying that if you're born a boy, you stay a boy,

00:31:52.420 and that's a fact.

00:31:53.960 So the fact that something like that can be seen as bashing is the crux of the problem to me here.

00:32:00.440 They're put on the defense by the left.

00:32:02.680 They're told they're under attack, and they're acting out in a violent fashion because of that.

00:32:07.140 So I'm so fascinated by this.

00:32:14.680 You've got three kids.

00:32:15.740 I've got three kids.

00:32:17.500 I don't know how much attention you pay to their social media feeds, meaning what they watch online,

00:32:23.800 because that's where they spend all their time, YouTube, everything else.

00:32:27.940 It seems to me, and again, I've got three boys, so it might be a bit different

00:32:32.100 because I know you've got, I think, a daughter and two boys, that there is online an unregulated attack

00:32:42.600 on the woke world that is way more venomous than I think a lot of people recognize.

00:32:50.360 And I've kind of talked with Buck about this, but this anti-trans agenda is actually now,

00:32:59.260 I would say, under 20-year-olds, particularly boys, are just over the BS on a level that I don't think society

00:33:06.800 has really recognized yet, Carol, because they're saying, oh, you know, it's people over the age of 50

00:33:12.820 that just don't get the trans world, and they're the ones that are bigots and transphobes and everything else.

00:33:17.980 I actually think the younger kids see it for the absurdity that it is on a level that's not being talked about yet.

00:33:25.580 Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.

00:33:27.560 It's that younger generation, Gen Alpha or whatever, that I think they realize the absurdity of what has happened

00:33:34.280 because I think the generation directly above them were the ones that were so susceptible to this mass delusion.

00:33:41.120 And, you know, when we moved to Florida in the middle, my daughter was in the middle of sixth grade.

00:33:46.260 She had, I would say, over 10 friends in New York who considered themselves trans.

00:33:51.420 They might have said they were the opposite gender, or they might have said that they were non-binary or whatever.

00:33:56.240 She moved to Florida, and there is zero. 0.95

00:33:58.680 She had zero.

00:33:59.700 And that's a real, you know, how does that happen?

00:34:02.420 How does that happen if this is not a social contagion, if it's occurring naturally in nature the way that they say?

00:34:08.220 She still knows the same number of gay people, and that didn't change.

00:34:11.360 So I think that the younger generation has realized that it was something that spread among the slightly older people around them,

00:34:21.240 and that they don't want any part of that.

00:34:23.280 It's considered something mock-worthy now.

00:34:26.120 Like, oh, you don't know what gender you are?

00:34:27.800 You're non-binary? 1.00

00:34:29.040 That's ridiculous. 0.99

00:34:29.600 You know, there's been some major news on this. 0.96

00:34:32.640 We're speaking to Carol Markowitz.

00:34:33.740 The Carol Markowitz Show is on the Clay and Buck Podcast Network.

00:34:36.220 Go listen.

00:34:37.300 She does a fantastic job.

00:34:40.040 There's the news that has been breaking about the medical field now having to take notice of these lawsuits.

00:34:48.580 And just yesterday, I think it was NYU Langone, major hospital in New York, based out of New York City,

00:34:55.360 they have said, look, because of the regulatory environment, I think what they mean by that is we don't want to get sued.

00:35:01.080 They're stopping transition care for minors.

00:35:07.200 And, you know, so this is actually happening, and I think it's important for people to realize that you can win this battle.

00:35:14.140 You can stop them from giving 14-year-olds hormones that are going to have terrible effects on their growth and development,

00:35:22.780 stop them from having breast removal surgery, top surgery, as they call it, because they think they're a boy.

00:35:29.040 I mean, it's crazy stuff.

00:35:30.700 This is actually taking real effect now.

00:35:33.680 Yeah, absolutely.

00:35:34.760 And, you know, I think that when that New York jury awarded the detransitioner, the $2 million award,

00:35:39.140 it was the first of its kind, it was the first medical malpractice of its kind to go to trial.

00:35:45.080 And I think that really sent shockwaves through the entire, you know, industry.

00:35:49.860 The doctors who had not been held accountable suddenly were going to be held accountable.

00:35:54.400 In fact, the girl in that case, she argued that her psychologist, you know, pushed the idea on her

00:36:00.320 and that she was impressionable and her mom was afraid, and they just went along with it

00:36:04.420 because they were guilt-tripped into it.

00:36:06.420 And, you know, the numbers are like, I think it was around close to 4,000 adolescents, 12 to 18, transitioned.

00:36:14.980 And that's just in like four years, from 2016 to 2020, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

00:36:21.060 That is an insane number of people who can look back at it and say, wait, what did I do?

00:36:25.760 Why did I destroy my body?

00:36:27.980 Why did I ruin my ability to have children?

00:36:30.480 But you know what the real thing is to me, guys?

00:36:33.160 We were told this wasn't happening.

00:36:34.940 How could they be stopping procedures that we were told were not happening? 0.92

00:36:39.420 It was always like, oh, it's ridiculous.

00:36:41.440 Young people are not having these procedures. 0.99

00:36:43.680 You have to be 18.

00:36:44.920 And here they are admitting that they were doing procedures like this, and now that they're going to stop.

00:36:50.500 Since we've already been talking about the most difficult topic on the planet, which is trans-related surgeries, 0.86

00:36:57.040 I'm going to throw you another tough universe to step into.

00:37:03.040 And I don't know if we've asked you this yet, Carol.

00:37:05.000 I believe that it would be fair to call you a Swifty in that you and your daughter have been to many Taylor Swift concerts.

00:37:13.220 And among the greatest of all my predictions is that Taylor Swift is the modern-day Beatles.

00:37:21.320 Buck Sexton is outraged by my comparison of the two.

00:37:25.540 Is that a crazy opinion in your mind?

00:37:29.940 And how would you assess it through not only the prism of your own life, but also through your daughters

00:37:36.980 and presumably many of her friends that have a strong affinity for Taylor Swift?

00:37:42.380 I really like Taylor Swift.

00:37:43.820 I don't know if I get to be called a Twifty.

00:37:45.660 I couldn't name all of her music.

00:37:47.380 But I have been to the show.

00:37:48.820 My daughter and I went in Liverpool like two years ago.

00:37:51.140 It was so much fun.

00:37:52.260 She's a fantastic singer-songwriter. 0.99

00:37:54.360 I think that as a lyricist, she's unbelievable.

00:37:58.740 Beatles?

00:37:59.360 I don't know.

00:38:00.740 But yeah, of course, she's a cultural force. 1.00

00:38:03.800 I actually thought you were going to ask, if she goes on to have children, is that going to cause some sort of baby boom 1.00

00:38:09.760 among the women who were told that, oh, you don't need babies to be happy? 0.99

00:38:13.140 I think a Kelsey baby that Taylor Swift is carrying around is going to do more for fertility rates than any government program. 1.00

00:38:22.860 But do you think that Taylor Swift is going to sign on with my take or are you Buck's take that this is a ridiculous take?

00:38:30.420 That she's comparable to the Beatles? 0.77

00:38:32.980 Yes.

00:38:33.360 I mean, yeah, she's comparable to the Beatles. 1.00

00:38:36.420 She's comparable to Madonna. 1.00

00:38:37.600 She's comparable to any humongous artist of their time.

00:38:41.100 Sure.

00:38:41.340 I just think that we're forgetting.

00:38:45.960 I knew I liked Carol.

00:38:48.260 She's an astute observer of the human condition and regularly analyzes in a perceptive way the larger media ecosystem.

00:38:57.640 I've always said that.

00:38:58.440 I mean, I just think that you look at the Beatles, maybe it has the biggest impact on music globally in the last hundred years.

00:39:05.980 Carol, I have grown.

00:39:07.840 The beard has started to come back in.

00:39:10.140 The mustache is longer.

00:39:12.220 I'm going to make a decision going forward how exactly this decision is going to go.

00:39:19.380 But, I mean, look, let's be honest.

00:39:21.180 I am the most trusted mustache in news.

00:39:25.680 Well, yeah, that's true.

00:39:27.140 There aren't a lot.

00:39:28.580 It's not a lot of competition, but that makes me the most trusted.

00:39:31.640 Absolutely.

00:39:32.480 Yeah, I think it's time to shave that.

00:39:34.560 And I'm not just saying that because I like your wife.

00:39:37.860 Wow.

00:39:38.300 I like, I think the mustache is great.

00:39:40.540 Buck is a fan.

00:39:41.460 Well, that's a wrong opinion, Buck.

00:39:44.600 Well, you know, I'm entitled.

00:39:47.040 There we go.

00:39:48.020 Go check out the Carol Markowitz show, everybody.

00:39:50.160 Check it out on the Clamuck Podcast Network.

00:39:52.000 Ms. Markowitz, great to have you as always.

00:39:54.060 Thank you, guys.

00:39:54.340 Imagine walking into a cavern that's building full of old school electronic equipment.

00:40:00.900 Rows and rows of VHS machines, Super 8 film projectors, photo scanners, audio cassette machines, you name it.

00:40:07.860 This is what Legacy Box looks like here in my home state of Tennessee down in Chattanooga where my mom grew up.

00:40:13.540 And I spent a lot of time.

00:40:15.140 And, in fact, with Adam and Nick, I'm going to be seeing them next week because Adam and Nick are awesome.

00:40:20.400 Look, they built a really successful business.

00:40:22.200 You know what they're also fighting for?

00:40:23.620 A crazy idea.

00:40:24.920 Let's balance budgets.

00:40:26.560 And so they've got an organization called In the Black, which focuses on governments not overspending, that they help support.

00:40:33.960 I'm going to be talking with them about it next week.

00:40:36.400 But these guys are just, they're great American patriots who have built a business that is having a tremendous amount of success because they're trying to preserve family memories.

00:40:46.260 They want you to be able to share your old VHS cassette tapes, your 8mm film reels, your old photos.

00:40:55.360 Whatever it might be, what would happen?

00:40:58.020 What would happen if, unfortunately, you had a flood or if your, let's say, your garage caught fire, something goes wrong, and all those old family memories, well, they might not survive the disaster.

00:41:09.140 Or if you've got somebody who is your family member, elderly, and they're putting them in the garage or in the attic, and you just don't know where they are.

00:41:18.160 They can get lost in transition from a move, everything else.

00:41:21.680 What if you digitized them once and for all to make sure all those great family memories are shareable with the kids and the grandkids?

00:41:28.700 That's what Legacy Box does. 0.70

00:41:31.020 It's super easy.

00:41:32.080 You send in your originals.

00:41:33.440 They digitize them.

00:41:34.420 They send you back your old copies.

00:41:36.580 We've both done it.

00:41:37.620 You will love it.

00:41:38.660 Go get hooked up today.

00:41:40.900 LegacyBox.com, 50% off today.

00:41:44.600 That's LegacyBox.com slash Clay.

00:41:47.800 LegacyBox.com slash Clay for 50% off.

00:41:51.680 You ain't imagining it.

00:41:53.880 The world has gone insane.

00:41:56.160 We claim your sanity with Clay and Buck.

00:41:59.280 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:42:04.180 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:42:06.280 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:42:10.400 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:42:14.060 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:42:15.060 And I'm Katherine Clark.

00:42:16.620 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:42:20.320 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:42:23.860 All at different stages of their journey.

00:42:26.060 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:42:29.260 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:42:33.320 Welcome back in.

00:42:36.020 Play Travis, Spock Sexton's show.

00:42:39.480 Rolling into the third hour here in a bit.

00:42:41.760 But yesterday, I believe it was yesterday, President Trump had a black history celebration in the White House.

00:42:49.100 And a grandma got up. 0.99

00:42:51.540 And she has gone mega viral for what she said.

00:42:55.200 And you can enjoy that here.

00:42:57.520 This is a pro-Trump grandma.

00:42:59.460 Listen.

00:43:00.740 The beautiful bill that's going to change crime in the district.

00:43:06.040 If you kill somebody, okay, you take a life, you do life.

00:43:11.980 Just that simple.

00:43:14.100 If you do a harsh crime, you do harsh time.

00:43:17.600 Just that simple.

00:43:19.500 And if we need National Guard, and which we did years ago, he brought it on.

00:43:25.880 I love him.

00:43:29.300 I don't want to hear nothing you got to say about that racist stuff.

00:43:32.380 And don't be looking at me on the news hating on me because I'm standing up for somebody that deserves to be standing up for. 0.88

00:43:38.960 Get off the man's back. 0.84

00:43:40.400 Let him do his job.

00:43:41.700 He's doing the right thing.

00:43:43.120 Back up off of me.

00:43:45.160 And grandma said it.

00:43:47.340 Grandma said it.

00:43:49.240 That is the grandma said it.

00:43:53.580 A lot of you nodding along out there.

00:43:56.460 That was yesterday in the White House as President Trump honored black history and actually spent a decent amount of time, I believe, based on the clips that I saw, also talking about the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who he got along with.

00:44:09.680 Trump did quite well and issued a statement that I thought was very kind on the passing at 84 years old of Jesse Jackson.

00:44:22.100 One other good bit of news here as we finish the hour, since I'm trying to look and make sure we got good news, 30-year mortgage rates are hitting four-year lows today, Buck.

00:44:32.660 I don't know how much attention it's going to get.

00:44:35.480 They're still high, right at 6% on a 30-year.

00:44:39.400 And I know many of you out there have got 3%, 3.5%, 4% mortgages, and so you're not going to be moving.

00:44:47.620 But these mortgage rates coming down to an era before they started to skyrocket because of Joe Biden's inflation,

00:44:56.220 it is hugely important to the American economy because we have to get more houses on the market, pricing will be more reasonable, all those things.

00:45:08.020 So many people are not willing to move because of the mortgages that they have.

00:45:11.440 We get them back down to 5%.

00:45:13.020 It's going to make a tremendous difference.

00:45:15.260 We could be moving in that direction at some time this year.

00:45:19.220 But mortgage rates 30 years have hit a four-year low, worth mentioning for people out there as the spring shopping season for homes gets closer and closer.

00:45:30.260 I think there may be a little bit more thawing because so many people are just not willing to move based on the 15- and 30-year mortgage rates that they got.

00:45:38.680 I know a bunch of you are nodding along right now because you're saying,

00:45:42.200 hey, I can sell my home, but I'm going to have to pay way more in mortgage rates no matter where I move,

00:45:47.420 and that is often true for a lot of people out there.

00:45:49.800 So that is worth mentioning and is positive.

00:45:57.820 Very nice.

00:45:59.260 Everyone can sleep soundly at night knowing that the mortgage rate has dropped some basis points.

00:46:05.660 Here, by the way, we've said a lot of positive things about Buck's book, which is surging the bestseller list.

00:46:12.300 A VIP did find a typo, Buck.

00:46:15.160 And because this audience is more obsessed with grammar than anyone, he felt compelled to write in,

00:46:21.760 the book is excellent, but just letting you know that contact tracing was spelled contract tracing on page 8.

00:46:31.220 Buck, how dare you?

00:46:32.280 That typo, I caught it when I was doing the audio book of Manufacturing Delusion,

00:46:37.820 which you should all go download if you have not already.

00:46:40.640 Go get that audio book.

00:46:42.760 But, Clay, when I was reading it, that one hit me hard, man.

00:46:46.560 That was the one typo.

00:46:48.280 I told you that the toughest thing about doing an audio book is you see things that you want to fix,

00:46:53.500 and it's too late because they're off to the printer already.

00:46:55.960 I have read, I read the manuscript, the final manuscript, 30 times.

00:47:02.380 I mean, so many, to the point where it was like, I just, my eyes were falling out of my head,

00:47:08.040 and I didn't catch that one.

00:47:09.560 So that was the one typo that we weren't able to fix that I knew was there.

00:47:13.560 But I promise next edition, it'll be gone.

00:47:16.400 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:47:19.000 Guaranteed human.

00:47:19.780 Guaranteed human.

00:47:20.340 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 19, 2026

Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 19 2026

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