Verdict with Ted Cruz - Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 5 2026

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.680 Welcome in, everybody, to the Thursday edition

00:00:07.820 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.

00:00:10.760 Appreciate you being here with us from all 50 states

00:00:14.000 and from all over the world.

00:00:15.820 Very cool how many of you tune in.

00:00:18.720 And we are grateful for each and every one of you.

00:00:21.840 Now, Clay, we got the National Prayer Breakfast,

00:00:25.100 Trump speaking about a whole range of issues.

00:00:28.380 We'll bring that to you.

00:00:30.600 They've talked about the situation in Minneapolis,

00:00:33.480 the charging of nine individuals,

00:00:35.820 the Department of Education issuing new guidance

00:00:39.240 to protect the right to prayer in public schools.

00:00:41.540 Trump spoke of that.

00:00:43.260 More updates on the immigration ICE Minneapolis situation as well.

00:00:48.500 Trump sat down with Tom Lamas of NBC News for an interview.

00:00:53.680 Again, a whole range of subjects touched on there.

00:00:57.000 A lot on Minneapolis and Trump's deployment of National Guard

00:01:02.260 and the security situation in various cities.

00:01:04.600 That voter ID question, Clay, and the bill that Republicans

00:01:10.440 would like to get passed here to create more secure elections,

00:01:15.100 no surprise Democrats are out on that.

00:01:18.020 So we have a lot of policy and news from the policy world

00:01:23.600 and from the Trump administration's latest to dive into.

00:01:26.900 But we will start with this really just heartbreaking situation

00:01:34.820 of Savannah Guthrie, a well-known TV news broadcaster

00:01:41.440 whose mother has been abducted.

00:01:45.260 And we don't know much more in terms of details.

00:01:49.240 She released a video trying to get to essentially the captor or captors,

00:01:58.380 as well as, of course, informing the public about what's happening here.

00:02:01.920 I want you to listen.

00:02:02.400 This is Savannah Guthrie, released this out on social media,

00:02:05.140 and it has been on everyone's feed and on everyone's mind

00:02:09.540 who's in the news cycle here in the last 24 hours.

00:02:12.040 Play 28.

00:02:13.080 Our mom is our heart and our home.

00:02:16.040 She is 84 years old.

00:02:18.040 Her health, her heart is fragile.

00:02:20.740 She lives in constant pain. 0.71

00:02:22.960 She is without any medicine. 0.76

00:02:24.800 She needs it to survive. 0.97

00:02:26.480 She needs it not to suffer.

00:02:27.940 We, too, have heard the reports about a ransom letter in the media.

00:02:33.060 As a family, we are doing everything that we can.

00:02:36.580 We are ready to talk.

00:02:38.320 However, we live in a world where voices and images are easily manipulated.

00:02:45.440 We need to know, without a doubt, that she is alive and that you have her.

00:02:50.800 We want to hear from you, and we are ready to listen.

00:02:54.440 Please reach out to us.

00:02:57.940 Clay, it is the worst nightmare situation for people to have a loved one,

00:03:03.720 to have a family member kidnapped, and it seems kidnapped violently,

00:03:07.860 and have so little to go on at this point.

00:03:11.440 We know very, very few facts about the situation other than she's gone,

00:03:18.100 she was taken, and obviously the Trump administration is very engaged.

00:03:23.520 In fact, FBI Director Cash Patel has gone down to Arizona to oversee efforts to find Savannah Guthrie's mother.

00:03:33.440 Trump has said, personally, that all available and necessary resources from the federal government will be devoted to finding her,

00:03:42.300 and now the country is waiting and hoping.

00:03:46.260 It feels to me, and we'll open up phone lines on this, by the way, because a ton of you have strong thoughts,

00:03:53.300 800-282-2882, and there's a press conference coming later during the course of the show that we will go to if we get any additional updates.

00:04:00.460 It feels like this has to be some form of an inside job to me, and let me explain why, and I could end up being totally wrong,

00:04:08.340 and we probably have, because we have experts in every field listening to this show right now,

00:04:12.620 we probably have people who have worked kidnapping cases that are listening to us right now.

00:04:17.260 So, let me start with this.

00:04:21.100 Savannah Guthrie, to me, is not Elon Musk's mom.

00:04:25.580 She is not so famous, and Savannah Guthrie is not so wealthy that I think random people who had no knowledge of Nancy Guthrie

00:04:35.000 would have any idea who her daughter is. 0.99

00:04:37.880 By which I mean, this feels like someone knows her, knows her movements, it feels connected,

00:04:49.380 it doesn't feel like a random act of violence where somebody sees a famous person on television

00:04:54.640 and decides that they're going to abduct someone.

00:04:58.320 Probably the most famous, Buck, I would imagine, you may disagree,

00:05:01.820 but probably the most famous abduction in history is the Lindbergh baby, right?

00:05:06.700 Of the entire history of the United States, I'm not sure there has been a more famous abduction than that.

00:05:14.820 That was directly connected to Charles Lindbergh, who was one of the most famous people in the United States at that point in time.

00:05:21.160 He was targeted because of that fame.

00:05:23.100 There's been millions of words written about that abduction.

00:05:26.000 If you're a true crime or someone like that who reads those stories, it would clearly be at the very top of the list.

00:05:33.660 Patty Hearst certainly is famous, too. 0.97

00:05:36.700 But I don't think it was famous on the same level as what happened with Lindbergh.

00:05:42.760 Back in the day in the 30s, in the 20s, he was as famous of a person as there was in the United States.

00:05:48.360 Okay, so if you operate from that premise, also based on everything that I've read,

00:05:52.880 and I read a lot about this to get ready for the show today,

00:05:56.200 there's basically no evidence that is tangible of the abduction taking place.

00:06:01.120 And let me dive into this with you, Buck, for a minute, because that stands out to me as well.

00:06:05.860 It feels to me like that is someone who is knowledgeable of the home because there are cameras.

00:06:12.220 Nancy Guthrie lived in a million-dollar house.

00:06:14.780 It's not only the home in which you live.

00:06:18.420 Buck, my entire neighborhood, everybody has ring cameras.

00:06:22.020 So even if my ring camera were down, then there would be 20 other cameras on the street that I live on

00:06:29.780 where people would, if the police came in, they would say,

00:06:32.700 hey, you know, we don't know exactly what time something happened,

00:06:35.380 but if you have footage of five hours ago or 20 hours ago or whatever the heck it is,

00:06:41.180 there would be some strong evidence of this.

00:06:43.520 It feels like this was targeted.

00:06:45.280 People were knowledgeable of the home.

00:06:47.280 This is my analysis.

00:06:48.880 In order to do this and not leave a lot of evidence behind, there are cameras everywhere.

00:06:54.580 I think it would be hard to abduct anyone and there not be tangible evidence of it right now,

00:06:59.200 but at least so far they're saying they don't have tangible evidence.

00:07:02.100 A ransom note was sent to a local news affiliate in the Arizona area,

00:07:07.520 as well as TMZ says they got a ransom note.

00:07:10.400 And people say, okay, how do you know it's accurate?

00:07:12.980 Supposedly the ransom note included details about the scene inside the home.

00:07:17.280 That gave clear indications that we knew who was involved.

00:07:20.760 So, Buck, this is my analysis.

00:07:22.480 I think it has to be someone that is connected to Nancy Guthrie,

00:07:25.740 someone who knows something about her life,

00:07:28.580 maybe knows Savannah Guthrie because she knows Nancy Guthrie, 1.00

00:07:32.020 because this woman is not stand-alone famous on her own,

00:07:35.840 where I would expect that someone might decide to target her.

00:07:38.400 Does all that make sense?

00:07:39.440 You worked in the CIA, or is that totally crazy from my perspective?

00:07:45.140 No, I think that all squares, absolutely.

00:07:48.460 That makes sense to me.

00:07:50.260 And, you know, one thing that I do think about with this is,

00:07:56.080 when was the last time you heard about a kidnapping with ransom in America?

00:08:00.820 This is very common in other countries, actually, unfortunately.

00:08:05.420 Oh, yeah.

00:08:05.920 It depends on where in the world you're talking about,

00:08:08.500 but there have been, there were periods of time when in Colombia, in Mexico,

00:08:15.160 there have been actually some Arab states, I think in Yemen for a while,

00:08:20.360 it was very common, people being kidnapped for ransom.

00:08:22.320 I mean, so there are some places where this happens.

00:08:26.380 In this country, and there used to be movies about this.

00:08:29.440 Remember the, what was the, was it Ransom, I think,

00:08:31.320 was the movie with Mel Gibson, right?

00:08:32.640 Oh, yeah.

00:08:33.180 Back in the day.

00:08:33.760 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:08:34.540 Where he said, he went on and said,

00:08:36.440 I'll basically give all the money to whoever finds you,

00:08:38.540 and that was the, you know, the big move in the movie.

00:08:42.300 You can't really think that you're going to be in America, right?

00:08:46.300 You have to assume that this person is probably not,

00:08:49.600 I mean, I guess they could have been taken to Mexico.

00:08:53.040 That's possible.

00:08:54.220 I don't think they're getting on an international flight and going anywhere.

00:08:58.480 And why this, I think, matters is if someone is going to have a ransom note for money,

00:09:03.900 whether it's Bitcoin or anything else, and they're going to try to stay in America,

00:09:08.820 they really think they're going to, even after they get their money,

00:09:11.240 let's say they do the exchange and they let Nancy Guthrie go free, 0.97

00:09:15.960 and we're all just hoping that she is let free and is unharmed,

00:09:20.620 that even if they do that, they're going to get caught at some point.

00:09:23.340 But you're not going to be able to, there's just no way, I think,

00:09:26.980 that you'd be able to, it's too hard with DNA and everything they can do now

00:09:30.860 and cell phone tracking.

00:09:32.420 And so that's why I sit here and say a ransom note,

00:09:37.340 that strikes me as doesn't add up.

00:09:41.460 I don't know.

00:09:42.240 I agree with you.

00:09:43.100 I think there's someone who has to know who she is,

00:09:45.140 but the idea that they would be doing this for ransom purposes,

00:09:49.240 this is just not something you really hear about anymore,

00:09:51.900 and I think it's because it'd be very hard to get paid for the kidnapping

00:09:57.360 and then not end up spending the rest of your life in a cell.

00:10:00.540 Now, maybe somebody made that calculation and they think they'll be the one

00:10:03.380 that gets away with it, but I think that's a tough thing to pull off.

00:10:08.860 I agree.

00:10:09.700 And so we will be following this.

00:10:12.080 Again, there's a press conference coming in a little while.

00:10:14.240 And, again, some of you out there, we've got a couple of guests who want to talk,

00:10:18.200 who are going to talk with us about this.

00:10:21.180 And some of you out there may, again, be experts in having dealt with kidnapping.

00:10:26.200 We're fortunate because this doesn't happen very often in the United States

00:10:29.500 where someone who is rich, like Savannah Guthrie is, would be targeted. 1.00

00:10:33.820 But it is common.

00:10:36.640 Like, I know in Latin America, Buck, a lot of ballplayers, for instance,

00:10:40.120 Major League Baseball players, have to have private security around their families all the time

00:10:45.200 because there's extreme wealth that the ballplayers make.

00:10:48.100 They spend time in Venezuela.

00:10:49.520 They spend time in some of these Latin American countries.

00:10:52.360 And their families are well-known.

00:10:54.280 And there is that sort of perpetual terror when it comes to kidnapping that it might happen.

00:11:00.840 And there might be a payment that goes on.

00:11:02.300 And I wonder, too, Buck, you were talking about staying in the U.S.

00:11:05.280 Arizona, is there a possibility they went south of the border and got into Mexico to try to hold her there?

00:11:12.600 That's one of the things that I would wonder about.

00:11:15.760 But, yes, the way you communicate now is so trackable.

00:11:20.900 It seems very, very hard for a ransom process to take place without there being abundant evidence of your ransom

00:11:29.060 and how it's being communicated.

00:11:31.540 I think it would be also a very hard thing to pull off successfully to kidnap somebody if you're an American

00:11:38.600 and then go over the border to Mexico and given all the attention.

00:11:43.400 If you don't have the help of the cartels, I think they have very sophisticated networks of intelligence collection themselves on the border.

00:11:52.000 I'm just saying, I think that would be a very risky move.

00:11:54.740 Again, we're going into the realm of speculation here because that's all that we can – that's all that there is.

00:12:00.040 We don't have really any further information.

00:12:03.240 I was also thinking about the – there's a group, I think, Control Risks, for example, does this.

00:12:09.460 They do VIP security.

00:12:12.500 It's a real company.

00:12:14.200 I think it still exists today.

00:12:16.320 Kroll has done some of this as well.

00:12:18.240 It's a big security outfit where they protect people, but they also sometimes have to have hushed in negotiations.

00:12:25.580 Yeah.

00:12:26.520 And it's possible, too, Buck, we just don't hear about these as much.

00:12:29.840 Maybe there are occasional payments that are taking place and it's staying quiet.

00:12:33.720 I tend to think that's less likely, but maybe there is in the United States some of this occurring and it just never goes public.

00:12:40.500 That's the only thing I could think.

00:12:41.580 It was a real plague for a while in Mexico.

00:12:43.160 I know that I actually had a friend growing up who had – his uncle was kidnapped, like, at gunpoint, thrown in the trunk of a car,

00:12:49.020 and the ransom was paid and they did release him.

00:12:51.460 So that does happen.

00:12:54.140 But remember Proof of Life, the Russell Crowe movie?

00:12:56.700 Oh, yeah.

00:12:57.080 It's actually a pretty underrated movie.

00:12:58.580 I thought it was a pretty good movie for what it was, both Meg Ryan and Russell Crowe.

00:13:03.040 Well, it deals with this very phenomenon of a bunch of – I think they're oil workers who are kidnapped somewhere in what is South America.

00:13:09.180 They don't specify the country, and then they have to go through that whole negotiation process.

00:13:13.540 Yeah, and I thought she was interesting, Savannah Guthrie, in the clip we played. 0.99

00:13:16.900 I hadn't really thought about it, but the proof of life is usually you hold up some sort of newspaper to show,

00:13:22.080 hey, this is the day.

00:13:23.100 This is – here's the hostage.

00:13:24.940 They're still okay.

00:13:25.660 In an AI age, I don't even know how you can 100% prove a video is real.

00:13:33.240 And I think this is a challenge across many different aspects of life,

00:13:36.120 but I hadn't really thought about it until I watched that Savannah Guthrie movie video,

00:13:40.040 that taking some sort of video and trying to use proof of life now is almost impossible to know if it's real or not.

00:13:46.040 I think that if you're looking at the odds on this, someone doing this kidnapping because they think they're going to get money

00:13:55.080 probably has a more likely outcome of Nancy coming out of this okay than if this was like a grudge, you know, random situation. 1.00

00:14:08.340 So, you know, but again, we just – we don't really know.

00:14:12.180 We'll continue to follow this story.

00:14:13.560 There's very little in the way of additional detail.

00:14:16.720 Trump is on it.

00:14:17.860 The president has – this has gotten his attention.

00:14:20.780 Cash Mattel, the director of the FBI, they're on it, and they're devoting a tremendous amount of resources to finding Nancy Guthrie.

00:14:29.520 So we hope we could have – we could have good news for you during the show.

00:14:35.380 I mean, you know, who knows?

00:14:36.480 Let's all say a prayer.

00:14:39.000 All right.

00:14:39.360 Stay in bed this Valentine's Day with super comfy Cozy Earth PJs.

00:14:43.760 Right now, they've got a buy one, get one deal on their bamboo fabric pajama sets.

00:14:49.020 Pick out two pairs that you like, and when you put in the code BUCKBOGO, one of them will be free.

00:14:54.940 That's my name, Buck, and BOGO, B-O-G-O.

00:14:58.200 So, Cozy Earth is known for their uber-soft fabric, including these luxury pajamas.

00:15:03.860 I've actually got a pair of these downstairs.

00:15:05.200 In fact, Carrie just got the BOGO herself and is sending some to her sister.

00:15:09.480 They're a classic Cozy Earth favorite, a gift your Valentine will love sleeping in them night after night.

00:15:14.480 Bamboo fabric used in the creation of these pajamas sets allows anyone to sleep comfortably without getting too hot or too cold.

00:15:21.560 It's just right.

00:15:22.300 Go online at CozyEarth.com.

00:15:24.440 Use my name and the BOGO term.

00:15:27.160 So, ready?

00:15:28.020 It's BUCKBOGO, BUCK, B-O-G-O, to get these PJs for someone you love.

00:15:33.180 That's CozyEarth.com.

00:15:34.980 And if you get a post-purchase survey, be sure you mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here.

00:15:39.260 That's CozyEarth.com, BUCKBOGO, for a buy one, get one deal on these amazing pajamas. 0.98

00:15:45.220 Making America Great Again isn't just one man, it's many.

00:15:50.640 The Team 47 Podcast, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed.

00:15:56.640 Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:16:00.480 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:16:03.200 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:16:07.300 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk Podcast.

00:16:11.000 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:16:12.240 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:16:13.460 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:16:17.080 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:16:20.760 All at different stages of their journey.

00:16:22.900 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:16:25.920 Listen to the Honest Talk Podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:16:31.420 Welcome back in.

00:16:32.640 Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show.

00:16:35.120 Appreciate all of you hanging out with us as we are rolling through the Thursday edition of the program.

00:16:41.740 Let me start off with something.

00:16:44.420 Well, let me go ahead and give you an update here.

00:16:47.420 We are right now monitoring the latest press conference that is taking place in Arizona

00:16:52.920 surrounding the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.

00:16:56.480 And we will have coverage of any information that comes out from that information that is underway right now.

00:17:06.000 We've got a guest, Lyndon Blake, who works at The Daily Wire and has been covering this at the bottom of the hour, just FYI.

00:17:13.060 And I don't know if we said this earlier, but we probably should have.

00:17:16.040 Pennsylvania Senator Dave McCormick is going to be on with us, scheduled to be on with us.

00:17:19.680 But in the third hour, there are a lot of different moving parts, as is always the case with Senator schedules.

00:17:25.480 So exactly when remains in flux.

00:17:27.520 But at some point, we hope to be able to talk to him during the course of the program.

00:17:32.380 Okay, lots of serious things going on, Buck.

00:17:35.080 But one thing that is always fun is mocking Kamala Harris for being one of the most inauthentic politicians that we have ever seen.

00:17:44.700 And Kamala decided that she had a big announcement that was incredibly important.

00:17:48.940 And that announcement was that she has a new headquarters on the Kamala website.

00:17:56.100 And this is what that sounded like for those of you who missed it this morning.

00:18:01.320 Kamala Harris, major announcement.

00:18:04.280 Listen.

00:18:04.880 Madam Vice President, what's going on with Kamala HQ?

00:18:07.040 Well, I'm so glad you asked.

00:18:08.720 I have good news.

00:18:10.300 So Kamala HQ is turning into headquarters.

00:18:13.480 And it's where you can go online to get basically the latest of what's going on.

00:18:17.940 And also to meet and revisit with some of our great courageous leaders, be they elected leaders, community leaders, civic leaders, faith leaders, young leaders.

00:18:27.820 I'm really excited about it.

00:18:29.540 So stay engaged and I'll see you out there.

00:18:31.920 Thank you.

00:18:32.340 Okay.

00:18:33.040 Okay.

00:18:33.500 So Kamala did this, Buck. 1.00

00:18:34.740 And I immediately, when I watched this this morning as I was getting ready for the program, for those of you out there that are fans of The Office, one of the all-time best comedy sitcoms.

00:18:47.340 I mean, I think it's, you know, top three or four all-time.

00:18:50.160 If you got kids out there and you want to entertain them and have them watch a show, my boys have gotten to where they will watch Office episodes with us.

00:18:58.920 They think it's really funny.

00:18:59.840 Maybe the last great, really funny on-air sitcom to air on broadcast television.

00:19:07.740 Here was Ryan, the intern from The Office, announcing his new big tech platform.

00:19:13.260 For those of you who remember, it was called Woof.

00:19:16.060 This is what that sounded like.

00:19:17.640 Woof is a site that I'm launching to be the last word in social networking.

00:19:20.620 For just $12.99 a month, Woof links up all your communication portals so you are always within reach.

00:19:25.060 It's part of the dog pack, as I call it.

00:19:27.020 But, look, why tell you when I can show you?

00:19:32.720 I just sent myself a woof.

00:19:37.500 Ryan, you have a woof on line one.

00:19:39.100 Thank you, Aaron.

00:19:40.560 Woof.

00:19:41.640 All right, so everything goes off all at once.

00:19:44.420 When I watch every Kamala video, I can't help but think, Buck, how many versions of this did she do before they ended up on the awful version that they put out there?

00:19:53.940 And I also think every time I see Kamala, I can't wait to have the stake that I'm going to win because she's 1 billion percent running. 1.00

00:20:00.640 I don't even, I can't even, I'm not selling any plots on Buck Island this time.

00:20:05.520 I think I probably got too emotional with my disdain for all things Kamala.

00:20:11.920 By the way, this is what's so unfair.

00:20:13.960 From the beginning, I've nailed that she will eventually, she will eventually be the chancellor of a third-tier UC school who, you know, like has some memoir that nobody actually reads.

00:20:26.200 And, you know, that's where she's headed, and I've called that for years.

00:20:29.240 She's not going to be president. 1.00

00:20:30.580 She's not going to win the nomination.

00:20:32.620 I maybe got a little ahead of my skis, maybe a little ahead of my skis, but she's not even going to run because that would just be, because here's the problem with my position on this.

00:20:41.020 People forget how awful she is, and she's counting on even Democrats forgetting about how awful she actually is.

00:20:50.140 She does have name recognition.

00:20:52.240 I do think the Newsom-Kamala, if it happens, and I'm not totally abandoning my post here, but I think we're about, I think, I think I'm about to get overrun on this one.

00:21:01.640 I think Buck Island, the waves are lapping higher and higher on the beach of Buck Island here.

00:21:07.780 I think that it's likely that the Gavin Newsom-Kamala Harris throwdown, because only one will really emerge from this.

00:21:18.900 I don't think Kamala would take a VP job again. 1.00

00:21:21.460 Do you think she would do that?

00:21:22.700 Like, if Gavin won, would he offer her VP again?

00:21:25.840 I don't think they like each other.

00:21:27.660 Buck, I'm going to blow your mind here, because I'm going to give you another opportunity.

00:21:30.460 So I think you're slowly acknowledging that I'm going to win the stake bet on she's going to run.

00:21:36.080 You know what I bet some of our friends with?

00:21:37.940 I was out to dinner with a bunch of our friends, let's see, on Tuesday night in L.A., and I bet everyone at the table, there were six of us,

00:21:50.080 I bet the other five guys at the table, I said, not only is Kamala going to run, she's going to be the nominee. 1.00

00:21:56.280 So I will give you, Buck, an opportunity.

00:22:01.040 I will give you, she's not anywhere near even money, but I will give you, I think she's going to be the nominee,

00:22:08.060 and I'll give you straight up.

00:22:09.300 Am I able to roll my she won't even run bet?

00:22:14.060 Oh, look at this, she's waving that off.

00:22:16.580 I've already got house money, but I am giving you the opportunity to, I think she's going to run, 1.00

00:22:22.160 and I think even you recognize, I think most people out there recognize that she's going to run,

00:22:26.760 but I think she's going to be the nominee, and I'm going to give you my logic.

00:22:30.120 So I'm giving you right now, before I even give you the logic,

00:22:33.020 I will allow you to make an additional bet on Kamala Harris will not be the nominee,

00:22:38.940 which could mean that I have to buy you a steak dinner to make up for the fact that you basically already lost

00:22:44.460 another steak dinner to me over will Kamala run.

00:22:49.500 Oh, man.

00:22:50.340 I mean, you're, you're, you're, you know, I got, I got a little boy here.

00:22:53.860 I got, I got a mortgage to pay, you know, I'm going to, I'm going to double up on my steaks.

00:22:57.640 Do you need to leave and go make sure it's okay with Carrie?

00:23:00.180 Do you need to go consult with the bosses to see whether the buddy, like.

00:23:04.060 I, I think, I think you're, let me think on this one a little bit.

00:23:09.620 All right, let me make, let me make.

00:23:10.920 Cause I, cause I made an emotional call with Kamala's not even going to run.

00:23:13.920 And now I'm feeling like, cause people forget Clay, she was so awful and lost so badly.

00:23:19.160 The fact that the Democrats are even considering like thinking about putting her up again is complete madness, 0.99

00:23:26.080 but they're lunatics. 0.99

00:23:28.280 So think about this. 0.99

00:23:29.940 All right, let me make, let me pretend that I am advising Kamala Harris,

00:23:33.860 which probably means that I'm smarter than anybody that is actually advising Kamala Harris.

00:23:38.660 She lays low. 1.00

00:23:40.720 She does these stupid things like, Hey, we're going to have HQ 67 or whatever the heck this thing is called. 1.00

00:23:48.120 But she relies on one inescapable fact. 0.97

00:23:52.620 What I would tell her is pour all of your attention behind the scenes into making sure that a Southern state is the first primary state.

00:24:04.120 Georgia, Georgia, South Carolina, heck Tennessee.

00:24:08.180 There's a bunch, there's 12 states, I believe right now competing to become the first primary state in 2027, 2028.

00:24:16.880 All right.

00:24:17.660 And you say, okay, Clay, why does that matter?

00:24:19.600 Everybody has forgotten because he didn't end up getting actually challenged.

00:24:23.780 Biden changed the entire order of the primary in 2024 to put South Carolina first because people in Iowa and New Hampshire never were impressed by Joe Biden.

00:24:36.820 Kamala is not going to do well in Iowa or New Hampshire because she has to be natural. 1.00

00:24:41.300 She has to walk into a diner.

00:24:43.140 She has to eat a hot dog at the Iowa State Fair.

00:24:46.340 She has to do all these things that are normal that she's completely unable to do because she's not normal.

00:24:51.720 She's the joker, you know, she's cackling all the time, walking around in a purple pantsuit. 1.00

00:24:57.300 But if Southern states vote first, black voters are going to show up in huge numbers for Kamala Harris.

00:25:05.260 I don't believe that.

00:25:06.500 Okay.

00:25:06.840 I don't believe that.

00:25:07.640 I think so.

00:25:08.220 I don't think so.

00:25:09.760 I don't think so.

00:25:10.360 You know what I will say for the black Democrat primary voter?

00:25:15.400 They want to vote for a winner.

00:25:16.860 They want to vote for somebody that they think will both win the primary and win the general election.

00:25:23.200 I don't think anybody who's going to show up for a primary after what happened this last time around.

00:25:28.540 But you know what?

00:25:29.580 I'm not putting a stake on this.

00:25:32.540 We'll just put the stake in there.

00:25:33.940 All right.

00:25:34.180 Clay might already win the stake with Kamala running because it's looking more like she's running. 0.96

00:25:37.400 But it's not determined yet.

00:25:38.680 Okay.

00:25:38.880 It's not determined yet.

00:25:39.600 But we'll just put that out there.

00:25:41.160 Clay is saying Kamala will be the nominee.

00:25:43.100 I'm just saying.

00:25:44.040 I'm not making any bet on this.

00:25:45.020 That is insane.

00:25:46.360 No way.

00:25:47.380 Totally disagree.

00:25:48.560 Will not be Kamala as the nominee.

00:25:50.120 I'm not buying it.

00:25:50.980 No way.

00:25:51.360 No way. 0.96

00:25:51.720 I think black women are not leaving her. 1.00

00:25:54.140 And I haven't seen yet another black candidate who could like actually manage to take away her black support.

00:26:03.500 So right now, if there were a primary in South Carolina or Georgia or Tennessee for the Democrat Party, she would win big.

00:26:10.060 So if I were advising her, I would say, you need to argue, Kamala, that it would be racist to let white voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, which is the argument really that Joe Biden made.

00:26:23.640 Really, it was nobody ever liked Biden in those states to not have a diverse electorate select the nominee.

00:26:29.380 And if there is a black focused southern state strategy, Kamala is going to be the nominee. 1.00

00:26:36.620 She's going to be the nominee.

00:26:37.760 What about what about Kamala losing every swing state, every swing state in the last election speaks to you with people are going to try to give her a second shot at this one.

00:26:51.120 I don't think it's possible for her to have whiffed more bigly than she did.

00:26:55.900 I'll give you I'll give you the answer.

00:26:57.160 This is what I would tell Kamala to say.

00:27:00.360 Donald Trump is a uniquely talented Republican politician who produced voters that will not show up for J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio.

00:27:09.460 And I would beat those guys. 0.99

00:27:11.760 Trump Biden was a disaster. 0.99

00:27:13.680 I think she'll say now Biden was a disaster. 0.97

00:27:16.020 But now she'll be able to say whether we believe it or not. 0.99

00:27:18.560 Trump was a disaster.

00:27:19.600 People are ready to turn the page and all these banal, banal, whatever you want to say, phrases that Kamala trots out.

00:27:27.540 Trump is a uniquely talented politician.

00:27:29.520 And I only lost by two hundred and twenty thousand votes. 0.87

00:27:32.740 I will kick J.D. 1.00

00:27:33.700 Vance's ass because he doesn't have the charisma or panache of Donald Trump. 1.00

00:27:38.880 And those voters are not showing up for him. 0.99

00:27:40.760 So here's why here's why I think I think that you're wrong.

00:27:45.600 This would mean that the Democrats after after the most absurd, obscene political blunder of our lifetime, which was trying to the very last minute, technically, you know, I should have just said that Biden would run, which is what you said with Kamala.

00:28:05.400 Instead, I said that he would be the nominee, which he was until the 11th hour and they couldn't pull the con off anymore. 1.00

00:28:13.480 They basically handed the Republicans this last election with their stupidity. 1.00

00:28:18.180 Yes. 1.00

00:28:18.680 Take anything away from Trump.

00:28:19.880 But what they did in putting Biden forward, the debate disaster, the whole thing was an absolute catastrophe.

00:28:28.520 Kamala was a part of that catastrophe. 0.97

00:28:31.080 The inextricably linked to and carried the burden of in the end of it, that catastrophe to run her again as their nominee. 0.68

00:28:40.560 I will put this stake in the ground would be political malpractice for Democrats on the same scale as trying to run Biden for a for a real election, given his clear dementia. 0.97

00:28:51.480 Like it is unfathomably dumb for them to do this. 0.97

00:28:55.360 I agree with all that. 0.91

00:28:56.920 She's going to be the. 0.96

00:28:57.660 And you so you think they're going to do the dumbest thing we've ever seen in politics, two elections in a row.

00:29:03.480 No, what I would say in response to all of that is even with a calamitous, incredibly maladjusted campaign, they came within 220,000 votes of beating Trump. 0.60

00:29:16.520 But I think that they I'm telling you, but it's a case that every other candidate for the Democrats could make clay is that's just what's baked in.

00:29:25.720 It's that last 200.

00:29:26.840 Look at the recent elections.

00:29:28.220 It's that last 200,000.

00:29:29.900 Look at how close it was in 2020.

00:29:32.060 It's always about the last 200,000.

00:29:34.040 It's always about the swing states.

00:29:35.480 Of course, a Westmore or a Gavin Newsom or a whoever else you think is going to be able to win all the states that Kamala did. 0.98

00:29:44.380 All that matters is the 300,000 or so votes that are up for grabs or that differentiate in those swing states.

00:29:51.340 I think what she will say, and I think this is going to be the huge Democrat argument.

00:29:55.060 Kamala should hire you. 0.98

00:29:56.040 You're like a true believer.

00:29:57.480 I think that the argument is going to be out there, and I think it may well be true, and it's something to think about.

00:30:04.060 Trump motivates voters that J.D. Vance is not going to motivate.

00:30:08.740 I don't think that Trump says, hey, go vote for J.D. Vance.

00:30:11.900 Look at every time Trump's not on the ballot, the overall Republican Party fails to turn out the people that Trump turns out.

00:30:17.460 I don't think Kamala motivates any voters.

00:30:19.440 I don't think Kamala motivates any voters that any other Democrat would not also motivate,

00:30:23.800 and I actually think that Kamala will do very poorly with working-class white voters who in the swing states will be the single most important demographic

00:30:31.640 that would be up for grabs if you don't have a Trump.

00:30:35.200 I hope this is right, but I'm telling you this is what I think they're telling Kamala behind closed doors

00:30:41.980 if they have anybody smart enough to actually be making these arguments.

00:30:45.100 This isn't as crazy as your Michelle Obama is going to be the secret stealth nominee take, 0.97

00:30:49.360 which I have to remind everyone of, that that was Clay for a long time, and I told him he was crazy.

00:30:53.860 We didn't put a bet on that one.

00:30:55.620 We didn't put a stake bet on that one. 0.98

00:30:57.080 We should have because I said, Clay, you're insane, and it was insane, 0.97

00:31:00.080 and now we all know Michelle Obama is a deeply unlikable political candidate, 0.96

00:31:05.420 so that was all just kind of boomer talk. 0.97

00:31:08.220 Well, I thought that they needed a black candidate because they would recognize that Kamala was awful, 1.00

00:31:13.280 and it would be racist and sexist if they didn't have a black woman to replace her, 1.00

00:31:16.760 and the only black woman I could think of to replace her was Michelle Obama, 1.00

00:31:19.560 who was popular enough to potentially win.

00:31:22.100 But that was the logic behind it.

00:31:23.960 That was the logic, but I think that was Fantasyland stuff.

00:31:27.160 Clay, I think this take of Kamala as the nominee is almost as crazy as Michelle Obama parachuting in

00:31:32.600 to be the nominee for the—like, this is—and I know, by the way, the numbers don't disagree with you.

00:31:36.860 I think right now she is, by the betting markets, supposed to be the candidate.

00:31:41.560 Gavin Newsom is a substantial favorite over Kamala right now. 0.55

00:31:44.600 Oh, Gavin Newsom is? Okay.

00:31:45.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:31:46.960 I'm putting—I'm on that one.

00:31:49.120 I'm on that, too.

00:31:49.760 It's going to be—Newsome is going to wipe the floor with Kamala. 1.00

00:31:53.640 Wipe the—I can't believe I'm saying this.

00:31:55.920 I sound like I'm evil Keanu Reeves' biggest fan over here.

00:31:59.620 He's just going to button down that shirt and look at all the ladies of America in the eyes 1.00

00:32:03.300 and say, hey, I'm here for you.

00:32:06.280 I think Gavin Newsom is going to crush Kamala Harris. 1.00

00:32:08.740 I think it's going to be an—which is the only reason I thought maybe,

00:32:12.400 or one of the reasons I thought that she might just realize it's not a good idea for her long-term—

00:32:16.000 Buck, what if she goes full Trump and says, I don't need to debate.

00:32:19.460 People know me already and just sits out the actual debates.

00:32:24.380 She tried to do that with Trump and then couldn't because the pressure became too much.

00:32:28.360 I don't think she could do that.

00:32:29.260 I don't think she could fill that off.

00:32:30.060 I think it's interesting, but yeah, okay, you can think about it.

00:32:32.600 It's going to be Newsom.

00:32:33.300 All right, I put my flag down.

00:32:34.440 It's going to be Newsom.

00:32:35.160 You say it's going to be Kamala.

00:32:36.320 I might have to get you a stake when Kamala runs because, again, 0.85

00:32:38.740 I made an emotional bet on that one because Kamala was so horrible. 1.00

00:32:42.680 But we'll see. 0.98

00:32:44.100 It ain't over until the fat lady sings. 0.79

00:32:46.860 All right, if you have a 401K or an IRA but you don't yet have—

00:32:50.060 it's time you add some gold to your holdings.

00:32:53.040 Gold, unlike some other things that people talk about as a store of value,

00:32:57.940 gold has grown in value this past year.

00:33:01.200 In fact, up 70% since the beginning of 2025.

00:33:04.720 20 years of gold has a 700% increase when you chart this out.

00:33:09.900 The price of gold increases when investors, central banks,

00:33:14.040 and countless other individuals react to instability around the world.

00:33:17.100 When things get tough, gold goes up.

00:33:19.820 Again, unlike some other things out there.

00:33:23.600 So Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold,

00:33:30.420 which is real, solid, tangible,

00:33:32.780 an asset that has been an asset class for all of human civilization.

00:33:37.200 Text my name, Buck, to 989898 to receive your free info kit on gold.

00:33:42.600 No obligation, just useful information.

00:33:45.240 You can also just buy gold to have on hand.

00:33:47.660 I have gold.

00:33:48.440 I recommend you become a long-term gold holder as well.

00:33:52.160 A-plus rating with the Better Business Bureau.

00:33:53.940 Tens of thousands of happy customers.

00:33:55.820 Let Birch Gold help you diversify with gold so you can have peace of mind.

00:33:59.340 Text Buck to 989898.

00:34:02.840 Text B-U-C-K to 989898.

00:34:06.820 Stories of freedom.

00:34:08.520 Stories of America.

00:34:10.640 Inspirational stories that unite us all.

00:34:13.180 Each day, spend time with Clay and Buck.

00:34:15.860 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:34:21.260 Welcome in.

00:34:22.080 Hour number three, Thursday edition of the program.

00:34:25.040 We appreciate all of you out there listening to us all over the country in all 50 states.

00:34:31.300 Reminder, Monday, you will be able to listen to this program on satellite radio.

00:34:37.060 People have been asking for a very, very long time.

00:34:40.840 Channel 123.

00:34:43.300 I believe it's the Triumph station.

00:34:45.740 If you are a satellite radio subscriber, we will continue to be on all 50 states on nearly 600 affiliate stations.

00:34:54.700 We thank all of you who are listening everywhere.

00:34:57.760 But in addition to everything else, channel 123 on satellite radio.

00:35:02.640 This show will now be available there beginning Monday at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. on the West Coast.

00:35:08.340 I am on the West Coast right now.

00:35:09.680 I've been in California all week.

00:35:11.100 And this morning, I got out.

00:35:15.760 We're, by the way, going to get an update on this Nancy Guthrie story in a bit.

00:35:20.580 But for those of you out there that were wondering or have been following this, and it is the number one story on every newscast.

00:35:27.420 No suspects.

00:35:28.960 Blood on the porch confirmed hers.

00:35:31.040 They believe she is still alive.

00:35:32.820 And there have been, they think, multiple ransom notes sent to a local affiliate station in the Arizona marketplace and also one to TMZ.

00:35:44.320 They believe those ransom notes are in some way authentic because they describe the scene of the kidnapping in a way that only the people who were involved in the kidnapping might be aware of.

00:35:57.460 So we will continue to update you on that.

00:36:00.860 We're going to have a call in as soon as that press conference ends in the near future.

00:36:04.480 I wanted to mention this.

00:36:06.220 I feel fortunate I get to travel all over the country.

00:36:08.880 We have great affiliate stations.

00:36:10.320 I'm in our San Francisco iHeart Studios right now.

00:36:13.820 I walked from my hotel this morning in San Francisco to the studio here.

00:36:20.040 And they actually told me, hey, you probably don't want to walk.

00:36:24.720 And I thought when I was told that, what an incredible indictment it is for any city for you to be staying in a hotel and for someone to say, hey, you're probably not going to want to walk.

00:36:40.660 Now, I understand if I had to walk across an interstate or if it was unsafe because of the roadways and the method in which I would have to get there.

00:36:50.080 That wasn't the case here.

00:36:51.180 For those of you who have been to San Francisco before, it's a very walkable city.

00:36:54.880 It's not a very substantial size geographically of a city.

00:37:00.780 It's a beautiful place.

00:37:02.360 One of, I would argue, the most beautiful cities, natural beauty that exists anywhere in the United States and indeed really anywhere around the world.

00:37:12.400 And they said, hey, you probably don't want to walk from your hotel.

00:37:15.160 And one of the guys we have out here, my buddy Dan Dockich, who does a show for us at OutKick, we've got a bunch of people out here for the Super Bowl, which is taking place in Santa Clara, not San Francisco, for those of you who care.

00:37:29.100 And Dan said he and his wife, they got in the previous night at 10 p.m.

00:37:34.980 And they didn't feel safe going into our hotel.

00:37:38.500 Now, we're right in the center of San Francisco.

00:37:41.660 And he said it looked like a third-world country on the streets with all of the homeless people and the way that people were behaving on the streets.

00:37:55.320 This morning, I'm up early, woke up at 6 a.m. on the West Coast, doing all my prep, go get a coffee.

00:38:03.280 And I like to walk.

00:38:04.460 I like to walk in the cities that I'm visiting to get a little bit better sense for what they're like.

00:38:09.000 Probably a lot of you who travel know what I'm talking about.

00:38:12.060 You get into a car, you move fast.

00:38:13.600 It's hard to really get a sense for what a city is like.

00:38:15.740 You walk around in a city, and you feel like you have a little bit better idea what the surrounding environment's like.

00:38:22.740 So I had about a mile and a half walk this morning from my hotel right in the center Market Street, right downtown San Francisco, down...

00:38:33.000 Producer Allie, you can figure out exactly what area we're in.

00:38:36.020 And you can text me. I'm not an expert on the different neighborhoods of San Francisco, but about a mile and a half, I think I walked towards the water, towards the bay, towards Alcatraz, where I could potentially swim spectacularly as needed if I weren't going to be eaten by a shark.

00:38:50.100 And I passed eight different abandoned needles on my walk.

00:39:00.460 I don't know what city you guys live in.

00:39:05.040 I don't see needles on the street very often anywhere that I visit, and I go all over the place.

00:39:11.100 Eight different abandoned needles.

00:39:16.100 Four different human feces-related deposits.

00:39:23.780 In my walk from a hotel right in the center of downtown San Francisco to the iHeart Studios in San Francisco.

00:39:31.040 And when I saw the first needle, I couldn't believe it.

00:39:36.220 You kind of feel sick. You're eerie.

00:39:38.920 You think, hey, man, you know, gosh, if you've got a two-year-old or you've got a kid that's walking around on the streets,

00:39:44.720 if you know and have done that, kids will reach over and pick up anything?

00:39:49.220 I couldn't believe when I saw the first needle.

00:39:54.160 I saw eight different abandoned needles in the center of San Francisco on my walk.

00:40:03.060 And then I saw human feces four different times.

00:40:06.180 You say, well, maybe it was not a dog.

00:40:10.400 And I thought to myself, what are we doing?

00:40:13.640 I passed multiple clearly strung out people on the streets who were out of their mind at 8.15 in the morning.

00:40:26.440 We're not talking about midnight.

00:40:28.540 We're not talking about middle of the night.

00:40:33.040 8.15 in the morning, people wandering around, clearly strung out, out of their minds.

00:40:40.120 And all of this is happening when the Super Bowl is in town.

00:40:44.540 And if you remember before, I think it was San Francisco, that Gavin Newsom cleaned up when China came to visit 0.72

00:40:50.580 because he wanted the city to look better.

00:40:52.600 So this may be a cleaned up version of San Francisco that I am seeing.

00:40:58.480 And they said, don't walk.

00:41:01.440 You probably need to take a car.

00:41:04.140 I walked and I saw eight needles and four human dumps.

00:41:08.540 And I thought to myself, what are we doing?

00:41:11.100 Tons of strung out people.

00:41:13.640 How has a city as wealthy as San Francisco, as beautiful as San Francisco, descended into feces and needles everywhere?

00:41:26.680 And people are just out and they just deal with it.

00:41:31.460 I also passed joggers. 0.96

00:41:34.580 And I'm thinking to myself, you're in tennis shoes?

00:41:36.960 I would be nervous that I would step on a needle. 0.97

00:41:39.300 Can you imagine stepping on a freaking needle in the middle of a city 0.90

00:41:43.580 and being terrified about what you might have gotten exposed to? 0.78

00:41:47.060 How have we come to accept filth as a standard cost of living in an American city?

00:41:55.280 That's what I was thinking as I was walking and looking at my surrounding.

00:42:00.120 And I've talked about this before.

00:42:02.320 Washington, D.C. is infinitely better now with President Trump having cleaned it up.

00:42:07.200 But you can go back.

00:42:09.120 I tweeted during the Biden administration.

00:42:11.840 I went to Washington, D.C., a city that I know very well because I lived there for four years in college.

00:42:17.780 And there were just homeless encampments all over the city.

00:42:22.480 Parks that had just been taken over and people were putting tents up and just living there.

00:42:28.540 Filth is a choice. 1.00

00:42:32.980 And you can say, and I think it's fair, well, Clay, there are more serious things to worry about.

00:42:39.080 We're concerned about murder.

00:42:41.120 We're concerned about robberies.

00:42:43.440 We're concerned about carjackings.

00:42:45.820 I would submit to you, I guarantee to you, that the level of violent crime is directly correlated with the level of filth on the streets.

00:42:59.400 I guarantee you that's the case.

00:43:01.940 So that was my walk this morning.

00:43:04.660 Now we are joined by Lyndon Blake.

00:43:06.940 I know Lyndon well.

00:43:08.180 She works at the Daily Wire now.

00:43:09.840 She has worked off and on with OutKick a variety of different places.

00:43:12.920 She does good work.

00:43:14.900 And she has been monitoring the press conference for all of us that's just been taking place in Arizona for the absolute latest as it relates to Nancy Guthrie.

00:43:24.620 I want to get that update for all of you because it is something that many people are following very closely.

00:43:31.060 Okay, Lyndon, what I saw from the press conference, no suspects, $50,000 reward, blood on the porch that is there was Nancy Guthrie's, and they believe she is alive.

00:43:44.800 Those are the three major takeaways that I jotted down from this press conference that just happened.

00:43:49.940 And is all of that accurate so far as you could hear, and what else should we know about what was revealed in the last 30 minutes or so in that press conference?

00:43:59.540 Yeah, you took good notes, Clay.

00:44:01.920 Everything you said there was correct.

00:44:03.760 My biggest takeaway from this press conference, again, so much information is still being held close to the chest of these investigators.

00:44:10.900 But the big story has been the ransom notes since Savannah Guthrie and her two siblings addressed the ransom notes head on in a video last night talking directly to the people who may have their mother, I mean, held hostage at this point.

00:44:25.640 And I wanted to talk about the deadlines that were revealed from the ransom notes in this press conference.

00:44:31.220 The FBI revealed that the ransom notes that went to the media outlets, there were two local stations in Arizona, KOLD and KGUN, plus TMZ, all received the same ransom note.

00:44:44.940 That's new information.

00:44:45.820 We could have assumed they were the same, but now we know that all three got the same ransom notes that demanded millions of dollars in Bitcoin with a deadline of 5 p.m. today.

00:44:57.620 The extended deadline for payment is Monday, and this didn't come from the press conference, but KGUN said in the ransom note that if payment wasn't received by Monday, that second deadline, there were words in there that threatened to kill Nancy.

00:45:13.660 So that's why they're taking this ransom note so seriously, and there were also two pieces of information in that ransom note, and you can look at this information and say maybe anyone can know this, but they mentioned Nancy's Apple Watch and a floodlight at her house.

00:45:29.580 That was something off about it, and those are the two things that you have to imagine struck the family as alarming, that were factual, that made them warrant a response to address the person that wrote this ransom note, assuming this is all legitimate.

00:45:47.800 The legitimacy has not been confirmed.

00:45:50.500 They're not saying, yes, the person that wrote this ransom note has Nancy Guthrie.

00:45:55.600 What they are saying is they're alarming things, and they're taking the note seriously.

00:46:00.600 Okay, one of the things that, thank you for all that information, we're talking to Lyndon Blake, one of the things that stands out to me that I just find kind of unbelievable, and I talked about it in the first hour of the show, I think, is in my neighborhood, every single house has a camera on it, meaning a ring camera of some sort.

00:46:18.140 So if a car drives by, maybe my camera is not working, which is, I think, one of the reports that's out there, but there would be a lot of people in the neighborhood whose cameras would be working.

00:46:27.880 To have no suspects, it sounds strange to me because I would think there would be a lot of video of presumably whoever got her had to come in in a vehicle, right?

00:46:37.980 She's not able to be that mobile, so they had to come in on a vehicle.

00:46:41.820 I would think there would be lots of evidence in the neighborhood of cars that have been driving by.

00:46:47.360 Has there been any discussion about that?

00:46:48.820 I get that her individual camera may not be working, but what about the neighborhood at large?

00:46:55.840 Yeah, so the neighborhood, the way it's set up, houses are very far away from each other, and there's no streetlights at all on this street.

00:47:03.360 So they act like, and there's a lot of foliage and stuff, you know, think like cacti and whatever, that are blocking the houses from the street.

00:47:12.640 So they're still saying they're processing.

00:47:15.180 They said they've been going up and asking for that.

00:47:17.860 But at this point, that is a weird point, and that's a question I have.

00:47:21.100 How do we not have, I don't care if it's the most grainy nighttime image of any vehicle that may have gone through that area sometime after, now we know, 1.47 a.m. Sunday morning?

00:47:37.260 That's a good question.

00:47:38.740 The camera footage is just the big question mark, and the only thing I can think of if they do know more about that and they're telling us,

00:47:47.080 is they're really just focusing in on, they're further along than what they're leading on, even though, again, they say no suspect, no person of interest,

00:47:55.480 and trying to follow up on something in that camera footage that would damage the investigation at this point.

00:48:02.040 Okay, a couple of questions here additional for you, and I'm going to ask them both, and you can kind of unpack them.

00:48:09.160 Savannah Guthrie and her siblings asked for proof of life.

00:48:13.040 There is a discussion that they believe she is alive.

00:48:16.420 Do we know, first question, do we know why they believe she's alive?

00:48:21.400 Second question, have they said what amount of money is being demanded?

00:48:26.100 Do we have any idea, Bitcoin obviously is harder to trace, but do we have any idea what dollar amount they are saying,

00:48:35.100 hey, you've got to give us this in order to get her back?

00:48:38.260 Yeah, there's no indication of how much money, just besides the millions of Bitcoin.

00:48:44.380 And what was the question you asked before that?

00:48:47.560 About why do they believe she's alive?

00:48:50.360 Is there any suggestion that they've actually seen proof of life?

00:48:54.540 Yeah, no, no.

00:48:55.600 They say that they have no reason to believe that she's not alive.

00:48:58.560 It was their thing.

00:48:59.560 So they're acting as if she's alive, but there's been nothing.

00:49:02.740 But I thought one part of the video that was interesting when they directly, Savannah and her siblings, addressed the AI of it all and said that images and videos can be manipulated and that they demand, without a shadow of a doubt, proof of life.

00:49:19.220 So it makes you think, has the FBI, has someone received these fake images that they're not releasing?

00:49:27.900 But no, they say that on record, they have no reason to believe that she's not alive.

00:49:34.400 One other thing, Clay, that I do want to point out, since we were talking about the neighborhood and that situation with the camera footage and stuff,

00:49:40.720 multiple outlets have reported over now, the last five days, that there were signs of forced entry today in the press conference, Sheriff Chris Nano said that he's not going to say there were signs of forced entry.

00:49:54.600 And I thought that was interesting how he said he pulled back on that.

00:49:58.560 We know that when investigators got to the scene, the front door was unlocked.

00:50:02.380 And he's saying that he would not discuss how the person or persons got in the house and wouldn't describe if it was forced entry or not.

00:50:12.600 And that also makes your just curiosity button go off again to who are we looking for here?

00:50:20.000 Is it someone that is familiar with Nancy's patterns?

00:50:23.520 What if they did just go through the front door?

00:50:25.820 You know what I'm saying?

00:50:26.960 That would just, I don't know, that part stuck out to me as well.

00:50:30.060 Well, the White House, by the way, a reporter inside of the White House, has reported that President Trump watched the entire Arizona press conference on the latest developments on the search for Savannah Guthrie's mom, Nancy.

00:50:44.140 That's according to Jennifer Jacobs at CBS News.

00:50:46.740 So the president is super involved.

00:50:48.800 We know the FBI is involved.

00:50:50.700 If there was initially a 5 p.m. deadline today, to bump it to Monday seems like a big jump to me.

00:50:57.400 That would also mean that whoever is holding Nancy Guthrie, if I'm surmising, feels very confident they're not going to be caught because Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, adding four days to a deadline, I would think would increase the risk substantially that you would be tracked in some way.

00:51:15.300 Oh, 100%.

00:51:16.160 I mean, the two deadlines, it's weird.

00:51:17.880 Why would you say 5 p.m. Thursday and then, but needs to be done for sure by Monday or there's language in there threatening to kill her? 0.99

00:51:30.160 It's interesting.

00:51:31.400 And again, that's what the ransom notes is.

00:51:34.180 They're not necessarily saying that this is the key here, but it's just signs that can't be ignored.

00:51:40.920 And they did want to make clear that even though the FBI was there at the home where the siblings were filming the video and they can advise the family, it was the Guthrie's decision to speak directly to the perpetrator to put that video out.

00:51:55.040 Meaning again, and you know, Clay, with Savannah's background in law and all the cases she's covered, she has to have a gut feeling and stuff in that letter that makes her say, no, like, we are going to respond to this and engage and we want to talk to this person.

00:52:11.740 No doubt.

00:52:13.200 And we'll continue to follow.

00:52:14.880 Thank you for the time, Lyndon.

00:52:16.340 Thank you for updating on all of this and we'll see what happens going forward.

00:52:19.600 And I'll react a little bit more to this as we continue.

00:52:21.940 By the way, Senator Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania scheduled to join us as well.

00:52:25.400 Thank you, Lyndon.

00:52:26.680 All right.

00:52:26.960 Thanks, guys.

00:52:27.500 Bye.

00:52:28.320 All right.

00:52:28.560 When we come back, more reaction to this story and more.

00:52:32.340 This is Clay and Buck.

00:52:33.460 Thanks for hanging with us.

00:52:35.840 News and politics, but also a little comic relief.

00:52:39.440 Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

00:52:41.740 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:52:46.920 Canadian women are looking for more. 1.00

00:52:49.020 More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them.

00:52:53.140 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:52:56.880 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:52:58.060 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:52:59.300 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:53:02.960 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers.

00:53:06.600 All at different stages of their journey.

00:53:08.480 So, if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:53:12.020 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:53:17.540 Welcome back in.

00:53:18.600 Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show.

00:53:21.060 I am out in California.

00:53:23.500 Super Bowl coming up.

00:53:24.380 I'll get the pick of a guy who's a pretty big football fan.

00:53:27.900 Big sports fan in general.

00:53:29.140 Senator Dave McCormick.

00:53:30.460 We'll get to that in a moment.

00:53:33.120 But I'll start with this because everybody is talking about it.

00:53:37.560 Senator McCormick, are you and your family?

00:53:39.620 Are you following this Nancy Guthrie story?

00:53:42.100 The press secretary, Caroline Levitt, just said that she and President Trump watched the

00:53:47.580 entire press conference that just aired.

00:53:50.320 It's a crazy story.

00:53:52.160 And certainly, everybody's rooting for a great outcome.

00:53:55.360 I know a ton is going on.

00:53:56.520 But it seems like this has, in many ways, captured the attention of the nation.

00:53:59.360 Yeah, no, I haven't been following it as much in the last couple hours.

00:54:04.460 But I listened to the video last night of the three children.

00:54:07.780 And just so heartbreaking.

00:54:09.320 I have an 87-year-old dad and an 85-year-old mom.

00:54:12.500 And I'm just imagining the sense of helplessness when your parents who you want to take care

00:54:19.520 of are vulnerable and who knows what's happened.

00:54:23.900 And it's just absolutely heartbreaking.

00:54:25.740 And it's riveting.

00:54:26.460 We are talking with Senator Senator McCormick right now.

00:54:31.840 When you, you and I texted, because I read your, let's dive into what you're doing now.

00:54:37.600 You've been in the Senate for a year.

00:54:39.160 You wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal having to do with the budget-related issues

00:54:44.220 and just how much money is being spent.

00:54:46.420 You ran to try to help address this.

00:54:49.380 But in a year, have you been stunned at just how rapidly people spend money, Democrats, Republicans,

00:54:55.280 everybody, on Capitol Hill, and how little regard there is for in any way trying to balance the budget?

00:55:01.120 I loved your editorial.

00:55:03.400 Yeah.

00:55:03.720 Well, Clay, you know, it feels like a lifetime ago since you and I were together in Pennsylvania

00:55:08.160 during my campaign.

00:55:09.480 And one of the things I said is I'm going to be a guy who shakes up Washington.

00:55:12.880 I'm a business person.

00:55:14.200 I'm going to try to bring business person sensibilities.

00:55:17.140 And the reason for writing the op-ed is, you know, we've got $37 trillion debt.

00:55:22.340 We have interest payments that are bigger than our defense budget.

00:55:26.660 And it's growing out of control this year alone, despite making some modest progress in the

00:55:32.440 Working Families Tax Cut Act.

00:55:33.700 We have a $2 trillion deficit.

00:55:35.280 We're spending $2 trillion more than we're bringing in.

00:55:38.320 And the point I was making is we did some reforms.

00:55:42.380 We did some Medicaid reforms, which are tiny.

00:55:45.480 They essentially slow the rate of growth from like 6% a year.

00:55:49.800 Medicaid is the fastest growing program.

00:55:51.600 It's grown by billions of dollars.

00:55:53.920 And Pennsylvania has grown by 80% in the last five years with the same number of recipients,

00:55:58.480 3 million recipients.

00:55:59.720 And I was just making the point we made modest reforms, basically saying you got to work if

00:56:04.320 you're going to receive it, if you're able-bodied, 80 hours a month, Clay.

00:56:07.540 This is not 80 hours a week, 80 hours a month.

00:56:09.780 And you would have thought we were dragging babies out of incubators.

00:56:12.680 I mean, it was the way these modest reforms were presented to the public by the Democrats,

00:56:18.800 by the liberal media, was absolutely, unbelievably irresponsible.

00:56:24.340 And the point I was making is, listen, we're going to fall off a cliff.

00:56:27.360 And I'm a, you know, my pop-up, my granddad was a county commissioner in Indiana, Pennsylvania.

00:56:32.220 He's a New Deal Democrat.

00:56:33.680 So I grew up with that in my house.

00:56:35.180 I want to take care of the helpless, the vulnerable among us.

00:56:38.280 But I want to do it in a responsible way.

00:56:41.380 And right now, we're going to destroy all these programs because we're not able to make

00:56:45.480 the kinds of modest reforms that are necessary to make them viable.

00:56:51.040 And so it was kind of like a Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

00:56:53.480 I'm like, holy cow, this is what we're dealing with.

00:56:56.220 And I ended with the point, hey, listen, when I was the CEO, if I would present to my board,

00:57:01.320 hey, we're going to be bankrupt, but we got no plan to reduce spending and we got no strategy,

00:57:06.260 I would have gotten fired on the spot.

00:57:08.280 And I said, well, maybe our elected officials should have that same principle.

00:57:12.700 Listen, if we're not going to do something, we should be fired.

00:57:15.780 John Fetterman is maybe the only sane Democrat in the Senate, which is, you know, a small measure

00:57:22.800 of praise there.

00:57:24.700 But you guys seem to get along pretty well.

00:57:26.640 And I saw a polling recently that Fetterman's actually more popular with Pennsylvania Republicans

00:57:32.120 than he is Pennsylvania Democrats, which kind of made me raise my eyebrows.

00:57:36.040 What is your working relationship been like with Fetterman?

00:57:38.920 What do you think people should know about him and about what having one Democrat, one

00:57:44.500 Republican in Pennsylvania says to the country?

00:57:46.860 Yeah, there's only two states out of 50 that have a split like that.

00:57:52.480 And, you know, he campaigned against me.

00:57:54.780 He was with Bob Casey.

00:57:56.360 And, you know, we met for the first time, I guess for the second.

00:57:59.500 We met once during the campaign.

00:58:00.600 We met the second time after I had won.

00:58:02.800 And we just sat down and talked.

00:58:04.700 And he basically said, listen, you know, you seem like a good guy.

00:58:08.400 I'm not going to ever play games.

00:58:10.400 I want to find ways to work together.

00:58:11.660 And I said, OK, you seem like a good guy.

00:58:14.200 Let's do that.

00:58:15.540 And we just built a relationship, a friendship.

00:58:18.880 I trust him.

00:58:20.480 We agree on a lot of things.

00:58:21.960 We look for things to agree on, whether it's stopping fentanyl in Pennsylvania or fracking

00:58:28.400 or the fight against anti-Semitism.

00:58:32.300 Both of us are strong supporters of Israel.

00:58:35.280 We both would never vote to shut down the government.

00:58:37.820 And so we have found a lot of common ground.

00:58:40.840 And, you know, I guess the best example of this is he was getting killed by his own party.

00:58:46.220 You know, that people were accusing him of having lost his, you know, cognitive abilities,

00:58:50.820 his mental health.

00:58:51.300 It was just a it was a horrible thing three or four months ago because he wasn't voting

00:58:55.160 the way the liberal Democrats wanted him to vote.

00:58:57.380 And he was just getting killed.

00:58:58.560 And I was like, nobody's defending him. 0.75

00:59:00.740 So I sent him a note and I said, listen, you're getting killed.

00:59:03.800 I'd like to come out and defend you and support you.

00:59:06.220 But I'm afraid it might hurt you.

00:59:07.880 What do you think?

00:59:08.420 And he said, come in because nobody else is.

00:59:11.180 Right.

00:59:11.520 And so I came out and said, this is a disgrace.

00:59:14.040 I know him.

00:59:14.820 He's he's you may disagree with him, but he's a good man.

00:59:17.560 And next thing I know, some other Republicans come out and then some Democrats come out.

00:59:21.520 And I think that sort of solidified it, which is, you know, I've got his back.

00:59:26.420 I'm going to speak truth.

00:59:28.000 We both of us have little tolerance for the nastiness, the name calling, the dehumanizing.

00:59:33.880 Neither of us do that.

00:59:36.100 And it's worked out great.

00:59:37.940 And I'd say we disagree on more things than we agree on.

00:59:41.320 But we're both working hard for Pennsylvania.

00:59:43.460 And I feel lucky to have him as a partner.

00:59:46.220 Senator Dave McCormick with us from Pennsylvania.

00:59:49.300 Senator, a lot of discussion about voting and in particular what the rules should be nationwide.

00:59:55.880 There's the FACE Act that is right now in front of the Senate.

00:59:59.500 A lot of debate going on.

01:00:00.780 And you won, I think, by 15 or 16,000 votes, but it took a long time for that final race to be called.

01:00:08.500 It seems quite clear that we should have voter I.D. and nationwide standards.

01:00:14.160 Huge percentages of Democrats and Republicans all agree on that.

01:00:18.420 Why can't we get it done?

01:00:21.040 You are right.

01:00:21.960 This is a this is the SAVE Act.

01:00:23.980 I am a co-sponsor, a strong public voice on this.

01:00:28.820 And I just I just don't understand it.

01:00:32.660 It's the most basic principle, which is you should only be able to vote it for a U.S. citizen.

01:00:37.240 And you should be able to prove that with voter I.D., just like you have to prove that to get on an airplane or any basic things in society.

01:00:45.240 And there's a piece of legislation that that I think the number of supporters in the Republican side is growing.

01:00:51.780 I'm going to make a very strong public case to get my colleagues to support it.

01:00:55.920 And I'm hoping we can get some Democrats to support it and not supporting us indefensible.

01:01:00.240 It's indefensible in terms of substance.

01:01:02.120 Why would you ever want to allow people who aren't American citizens, which is in conflict with the Constitution, to be able to vote? 0.99

01:01:11.360 And and why wouldn't you want them to verify that the people they serve?

01:01:16.360 The only reason you would not want that is if you thought you were going to benefit from illegal people voting, which is the why the Democrat leadership,

01:01:24.100 even though the 95 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of Democrats in polling support voter I.D., support this.

01:01:31.320 Well, not to say that, but voter I.D., despite that, we're not having a movement.

01:01:35.820 So I think we need to we need to have this debate publicly.

01:01:38.660 We need to have the Democrats get on the floor of the Senate and explain why they're not in favor of voter I.D.

01:01:43.780 And I think when the American public hears that, they will not be convinced.

01:01:47.140 I just listened to Thune in the last day or so say that we're going to have a vote in the Senate, which I think is absolutely the right thing to do.

01:01:53.660 And I think everybody should be put on notice.

01:01:56.240 This is a critical thing for America's elections.

01:02:00.100 And and more important is as important as the election is the faith that people have in their elections.

01:02:04.920 And, you know, a lot of people don't have faith in Pennsylvania.

01:02:07.200 A lot of people don't have faith across America.

01:02:09.080 And unfortunately, it's for good reason.

01:02:11.340 I think I said the FACE Act.

01:02:12.960 That's what Don Lemon got charged under.

01:02:14.820 A SAVE Act is what the voting ability to make it reliable is.

01:02:19.540 You have seen a lot of transformation occurring in Pennsylvania in a positive way economically.

01:02:24.920 What have the president's economic policies that you supported, the tax cuts, what have they meant on the ground in Pennsylvania?

01:02:32.100 It's been great.

01:02:32.940 I mean, the agenda is the deregulation agenda.

01:02:36.280 The energy dominance agenda is particularly important for Pennsylvania because we're we're the second largest energy producer in the country.

01:02:42.520 Fourth largest natural gas reserves in the world.

01:02:44.980 And the president's not only had great policies, he's been a great supporter.

01:02:48.680 He came.

01:02:50.200 Dean and I, my wife, we hosted an energy and innovation summit with the president in July.

01:02:55.040 He came as my guest at Carnegie Mellon.

01:02:57.080 His whole cabinet came.

01:02:58.600 We had CEOs from across energy investing the big tech companies, big hyperscalers.

01:03:03.920 We had we had the Democratic governor came.

01:03:06.760 We had big global investors.

01:03:08.800 We had the building trades come.

01:03:10.340 And you need all those people, Clay, to make this happen.

01:03:13.480 This is a team sport.

01:03:15.260 You need all those people to make this transformation happen.

01:03:17.980 And we had a roundtable with the president and all those CEOs.

01:03:21.220 And those CEOs stepped up and committed publicly $92 billion of investment in Pennsylvania, $50 billion of energy infrastructure, $42 billion in data centers.

01:03:31.520 Publicly, we had 100 media people there.

01:03:34.300 The reason I say that is that would have been inconceivable under the Biden administration.

01:03:38.340 And it's the kind of effort that we need to transform America to win this global AI and energy race.

01:03:47.780 And what I tell my friends in Pennsylvania is, listen, we're in a race with China for AI leadership.

01:03:53.180 We're also in a race with Georgia and Tennessee and Texas and Florida because capital and talent is like water.

01:04:00.320 It's going to go to the path of least resistance.

01:04:02.660 And so my goal is to make Pennsylvania ground zero for all this new investment.

01:04:06.960 It creates hundreds of thousands of jobs, great paying jobs for Pennsylvanians.

01:04:10.780 And we're off to a great start with that.

01:04:13.500 All right.

01:04:13.940 Much less significant, but I'm in San Francisco.

01:04:16.540 Game is in Santa Clara on Sunday, the Super Bowl, Seahawks-Patriots.

01:04:20.480 I'm taking Seahawks 24 to 21.

01:04:23.460 Have you had time to make your pick yet?

01:04:26.060 Do you have anything?

01:04:27.040 I think you have six daughters, if I'm not mistaken.

01:04:30.780 What is Super Bowl Sunday like in the McCormick household?

01:04:34.260 Well, it usually has a lot to do with a lot of food and a lot of energy and preparing for it.

01:04:41.780 We're going to have our girls are spread. 1.00

01:04:43.440 They're all out of the house now.

01:04:44.600 They're empty now, so we're not going to have the whole gang.

01:04:46.640 But I'm going to be rooting for the Patriots.

01:04:48.520 I just saw my friend Bob Kraft, and I don't think he'd let me forgive it if I wasn't cheering for him.

01:04:55.240 Now, if it's the Steelers or the Eagles, the birds in the Super Bowl, it's easy.

01:05:00.200 But in this case, I'm hoping for the Patriots.

01:05:02.520 And, you know, they've had an unbelievable season.

01:05:05.260 And, you know, I think what Bob Kraft and his organization have done has really been remarkable.

01:05:10.560 And to be back in the Super Bowl after that dynasty they've created is a real tribute to that organization.

01:05:15.900 No doubt.

01:05:16.180 It's incredible.

01:05:17.440 Thanks to Senator Dave McCormick.

01:05:19.440 We'll talk to you again soon.

01:05:20.680 Let us know how we can help and keep up the good work.

01:05:23.380 You got it.

01:05:23.940 Thanks for having me.

01:05:25.460 No doubt.

01:05:26.100 Look, if you're out there right now and you're going to be watching the Super Bowl this weekend,

01:05:29.540 which I bet almost all of you are, guess what?

01:05:32.460 A lot of those guys, pretty high testosterone.

01:05:34.500 It happens when you're really strong and you're beating the crap out of guys all over the field.

01:05:38.540 These guys probably don't need chalk.

01:05:39.840 Probably if you're a member of the Patriots or you're a member of the Seahawks, you have such high testosterone levels that you don't need any supplements.

01:05:50.600 But maybe you don't have the same testosterone level of the guys who can be out on the gridiron.

01:05:54.640 And if that's the case, especially if you get a little bit older than them, chalk can help you out.

01:05:59.100 Three months' time, increase your overall testosterone levels by 20%.

01:06:03.180 Texas-based company makes a tremendous difference to giving everybody as much energy as possible to be able to keep up with all those kids, all those grandkids.

01:06:13.020 Heck, to be able to stay up late for a Super Bowl, maybe have a few beverages, adult beverages, and a lot of calories.

01:06:19.260 You may wake up on Monday not feeling that great.

01:06:22.140 Get hooked up with the Chalk Mail Vitality Stack multi-supplement bundle designed to support vitality, energy, and healthy testosterone levels.

01:06:30.940 And when you sign up right now with my name, Clay, that's chalk.com, C-H-O-Q.com, my name, Clay, you get a free $99 bag of chalk lit powder with your first delivery as well.

01:06:43.040 That's chalk.com, my name, Clay, C-H-O-Q.com, my name, C-L-A-Y.

01:06:48.980 Want to be in the know when you're on the go?

01:06:52.280 The Team 47 Podcast.

01:06:54.680 Trump highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay & Buck Podcast feed.

01:06:59.580 Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:07:04.360 This is an iHeart Podcast.

01:07:06.940 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - February 05, 2026

Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Feb 5 2026

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript