Verdict with Ted Cruz - Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jan 22 2026

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.540 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.340 Welcome in, everybody.

00:00:05.640 Thursday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off right now.

00:00:11.680 We've got Jack Smith hearings on Capitol Hill, bringing some highlights of that.

00:00:16.540 I'm not expecting much to come of it, but it's causing fireworks in our nation's capital,

00:00:21.940 sort of.

00:00:22.620 So we will get into it a little bit.

00:00:25.080 Trump on the Greenland deal.

00:00:27.060 Very interesting stuff happening there.

00:00:28.580 He's talking Golden Dome, mineral rights, all kinds of goodies that he believes he has

00:00:34.460 lined up for us via Greenland.

00:00:38.660 And Trump's speaking with Maria Bartiromo this morning.

00:00:41.780 Some highlights from that.

00:00:42.920 J.D. Vance is in Toledo, Ohio.

00:00:46.040 Gavin Newsom will talk to our friend Katie Zachariah, a California political and legal analyst,

00:00:52.480 about Newsom.

00:00:53.400 He got a little bit of a womp womp because they canceled his Davos speech at the last 0.60

00:00:58.980 minute.

00:00:59.340 He's saying it's pressure from Trump world.

00:01:02.080 We shall see more and more on all of that.

00:01:06.360 In the meantime, my friends, the big, big news today coming out of, yes, you guessed it,

00:01:12.780 Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

00:01:15.860 We have the following from Attorney General Pam Bondi.

00:01:20.980 This on Twitter or X.

00:01:24.020 Minutes ago at my direction, FBI agents executed an arrest in Minnesota.

00:01:30.560 So far, we have arrested Nikima Levi-Armstrong, who allegedly played a key role in organizing

00:01:39.740 the coordinated attack on City's Church in St. Paul, Minnesota.

00:01:44.560 We will share more updates as they become available.

00:01:48.660 Listen loud and clear.

00:01:50.360 All caps now, Clay.

00:01:51.960 We do not tolerate attacks on places of worship.

00:01:57.620 This, I think, is what many of you have been calling for.

00:02:04.060 And this is a pretty quick turnaround for DOJ, at least, on this kind of an arrest, I have

00:02:09.220 to say.

00:02:10.040 They wanted to make sure they get all this lined up.

00:02:12.720 And this is now, I think, the beginning of more arrests like this.

00:02:18.640 Although, Clay, now there's going to be a lot of rewriting of history.

00:02:22.260 It was peaceful protests.

00:02:23.840 We were just hanging out in the church.

00:02:25.500 We were asking for directions.

00:02:27.760 You know, it was no big deal.

00:02:30.100 Anti-Ice Church protester organizer Levi-Armstrong was on CNN last night.

00:02:35.920 This is cut one.

00:02:37.360 Here's her claim. 0.87

00:02:38.620 This is pre-arrest, by the way.

00:02:40.100 Hit it.

00:02:40.580 We did not rush into that church.

00:02:42.760 We actually went and sat down and participated in the service.

00:02:46.360 And after the pastor prayed, that is when I stood up and asked him a question in response

00:02:53.020 to his prayer.

00:02:54.360 And then I, and he responded to me.

00:02:56.840 And then I proceeded to ask him about Pastor David Easterwood and how is it possible for

00:03:03.200 him to serve as both a pastor and the director of ICE for Minnesota.

00:03:07.340 And instead of responding to me, as soon as I said the name David Easterwood, the pastor

00:03:12.820 says, shame, shame.

00:03:15.900 And that is when I led us in chance justice for Renee Good and hands up, don't shoot.

00:03:21.040 So I want to clarify that.

00:03:22.320 We didn't rush in.

00:03:23.440 We didn't bust in.

00:03:24.400 Okay, Clay, now it's the big mean pastor was the one who caused the problem in his church,

00:03:32.080 by the way, trying to celebrate with his congregants and, and enjoy their connection with God. 0.96

00:03:39.560 These lunatics show up once again, whether it's BLM with the cops or it's just the leftist

00:03:45.700 agitators with ICE, their main enemy, video footage, video footage. 0.96

00:03:51.560 We saw, we've all seen what happened.

00:03:53.440 You know, and yes, so credit to the Department of Justice for getting these arrests done

00:04:02.200 in Minneapolis.

00:04:03.040 I've actually seen, which I think speaks to even Democrats being like, yeah, this is probably

00:04:08.980 inappropriate.

00:04:09.440 I've actually seen so far a fairly muted response from Democrats in terms of being opposed to

00:04:15.900 these arrests going on.

00:04:17.240 I mean, I'm sure that there's going to be the usual suspects lining up, but it doesn't

00:04:21.600 feel to me like this is, uh, this is some sort of cross the Rubicon moment for them.

00:04:27.360 And you knew that these activists were aware that they had potentially, uh, created an issue

00:04:33.960 because they very rapidly started trying to recharacterize what actually happened, even

00:04:39.480 though we could all see it on video ourselves.

00:04:41.760 And for those of you out there that are not familiar with the FACE Act, for instance, you

00:04:47.880 know, it was actually designed to stop.

00:04:50.260 If you, if you're wondering where did this, uh, law having to do with protecting church

00:04:55.020 services come from, you know what it was actually designed to do for churches, Buck?

00:04:59.700 It was designed to stop white supremacists.

00:05:02.460 This is their thesis. 0.60

00:05:03.960 When they passed it, it was designed to stop white supremacists. 0.95

00:05:07.320 They said from interrupting black churches.

00:05:10.820 So, oh, you got to be careful sometimes with the laws that you put on the books because

00:05:16.400 the precedent that is applied for them can shift as the world changes because Democrats

00:05:22.120 today, Buck, we all know would never pass a law that prohibited protests from taking place

00:05:28.420 in churches.

00:05:28.960 In fact, they would probably pass a law saying we need more protests inside of churches if

00:05:34.480 you had to ask them to make a choice now.

00:05:36.980 But this law is on the books and, uh, attorney general Pam Bondi traveled to Minneapolis.

00:05:41.720 And this is what we somewhat talked about yesterday.

00:05:44.260 It's one thing to say, arrest people, but you have to tangibly connect the arrest to a crime

00:05:51.420 and the work that has been done here.

00:05:53.960 I think it's kind of an open and shut case pretty clearly demonstrates that these individuals

00:05:58.580 broke the law and now we'll see whether a jury is willing to convict them in Minneapolis,

00:06:03.260 which I think is an entirely different, uh, process.

00:06:06.900 But these warrants, these arrests were signed off on probable cause based on the evidence.

00:06:12.340 And it's, uh, pretty significant.

00:06:14.260 I think that we've already seen a result.

00:06:16.320 I think Pam Bondi deserves credit. 0.98

00:06:17.800 I think the Minnesota, uh, uh, uh, lawyers deserve credit in the department of justice overall.

00:06:23.060 Now here's J.D. Vance, by the way, speaking to, uh, this, this was this morning, he's in

00:06:30.940 Ohio, but he was talking about the situation in Minneapolis and just how he's making the

00:06:38.300 point, Clay, that we've been hammering here for days, which is, this could all be made

00:06:42.660 so much easier.

00:06:43.880 This could be, this could be unnecessary.

00:06:46.300 It is necessary because of the decisions that Democrats have made, but if they were willing

00:06:52.360 to just give the slightest assistance to federal law enforcement on these issues by just allowing

00:06:59.820 access into their jails, for example, by just giving a heads up, a phone call, an email, Hey,

00:07:04.240 you know, that, uh, in a three time violent felon, that's supposed that has an order of

00:07:08.540 deportation.

00:07:09.300 We got them.

00:07:09.860 We just picked them up on something.

00:07:11.500 They could do that.

00:07:12.440 And this wouldn't be necessary.

00:07:13.400 They refuse.

00:07:13.920 Here's J.D. This is cut 17 and he is speaking the truth about what's really going on here.

00:07:20.280 I'm headed from here to Minneapolis, where we're going to talk with some of our ice agents,

00:07:24.920 talk with local officials about how we can turn down the chaos.

00:07:28.180 And my simple piece of advice to them is going to be, look, if you want to turn down the chaos

00:07:32.040 in Minneapolis, stop fighting immigration enforcement and accept that we have to have a border in this

00:07:37.040 country.

00:07:37.400 It's not that hard.

00:07:38.220 If you look all across our country, what's happened in Minneapolis is happening almost

00:07:44.740 nowhere else in the United States of America.

00:07:47.160 And that's because whether it's in Texas or Tennessee, it's in red states, it's in blue

00:07:52.140 cities.

00:07:52.680 Even within our country, most people are cooperating with the simple principle that we ought to be

00:07:58.080 able to enforce our immigration laws and get illegal criminals the hell out of the United 0.82

00:08:02.180 States of America.

00:08:02.960 It's really not that complicated.

00:08:05.160 I think it's very important that he puts it into that context, because it's a very big

00:08:08.780 country.

00:08:09.840 People in Minneapolis, including the mayor and the governor and the attorney general of

00:08:15.380 the state of Minnesota, they have decided the law does not count in their city.

00:08:20.260 They've decided they're going to stop people from enforcing the law.

00:08:24.460 They don't have that right.

00:08:25.860 They're wrong.

00:08:26.800 And the rest of the country isn't going through this.

00:08:29.380 The people are saying, oh, that's the thuggish tactics.

00:08:32.020 And it's so the all the stuff, the checkpoints and all of this.

00:08:35.860 Do they have those in Nashville?

00:08:37.920 Like, are there checkpoints in Franklin?

00:08:40.360 I mean, you know, you sit here.

00:08:41.720 I'm seeing none of this in Miami because they don't have the same processes of obstruction

00:08:47.540 in play.

00:08:48.160 Yeah, they've made they're making this happen is the point.

00:08:50.940 No, I think that's a really important because if you're in a state like you are Florida or a

00:08:56.580 state like I am Tennessee, by and large, there is not this obstruction constantly that is

00:09:02.760 occurring of ICE's ability to do their jobs.

00:09:05.080 And I would say this is one thing you could look at.

00:09:09.100 And maybe Pam Bondi and her team are looking at it in Minneapolis and in Minnesota writ large

00:09:14.480 right now, if there is tangible evidence of Mayor Frye saying in some way or Tim Walls providing

00:09:23.100 instruction in some way to state or city employees to obstruct ICE's ability to do their jobs,

00:09:32.080 potentially you could have an obstruction charge that could be brought against Mayor Frye or Governor

00:09:38.340 Walls.

00:09:39.020 This to me is is is one of the great questions that is out there in general, which is to what

00:09:45.320 extent is there direct evidence of of of behavior that would constitute a crime on behalf of these

00:09:53.560 individuals who are obstructing ICE in particular, as I said yesterday, I still think it's one

00:09:59.300 of the great unexamined aspects of the entirety of the of the immigration era.

00:10:04.400 How in the world have we allowed the possibility of a sanctuary city to exist at all federal laws

00:10:11.080 supreme?

00:10:12.200 So when the president of the United States on immigration related issues, when the president

00:10:17.580 of the United States says the law of the land is this on immigration, it is undisputedly in his 0.98

00:10:23.340 province of authority.

00:10:24.400 And but do you remember how frustrating this was?

00:10:27.120 We talked about it a lot when Biden had the open borders and Governor Greg Abbott in Texas

00:10:32.500 and so many other individuals in Texas said, we've got to have the power to control ingress

00:10:39.620 and egress in our state.

00:10:40.880 And they kept getting slapped down by judges who said, well, it's really more of a federal

00:10:45.600 than a state issue.

00:10:47.380 If that principle applies, which it does for Biden and for Trump, sanctuary cities are not

00:10:53.540 permissible under federal law.

00:10:55.700 And anyone who is allowing them to occur, in theory, is violating federal law and their

00:11:02.820 state and local laws are covered by the supremacy clause.

00:11:07.800 And so you could bring charges in that aspect, which would be applicable, whether it's California,

00:11:13.420 Minnesota, New York, anywhere in the country.

00:11:15.280 And this is where we got into the discussion yesterday.

00:11:19.400 I'm sure we still have some talkbacks about it from those who just want charges to be filed

00:11:23.200 versus the, hey, let's know why we're bringing the charge approach to these things, which

00:11:28.940 I think is good, because if you bring a charge that is frivolous, especially in a place like

00:11:34.660 Minnesota, they're just going to show they're going to have lawyers show up in a court and

00:11:39.500 the judge is going to dismiss it, guys.

00:11:41.620 This notion, the process is the punishment.

00:11:43.840 Let me tell you something about this.

00:11:45.380 If you're really being grasping and you're on enemy territory politically, there really

00:11:51.720 is no process. 0.99

00:11:53.060 You're going to show up to court and a judge is going to say, yeah, these are garbage. 0.99

00:11:56.460 See you later. 0.97

00:11:57.360 And then if you try it again, you might get a judge who says, OK, you're doing something

00:12:00.920 here.

00:12:01.280 I might file.

00:12:01.940 You might get a contempt order.

00:12:03.380 So it's not as simple as just prosecute them.

00:12:06.740 That's not a thing.

00:12:07.860 OK, you have to have some basis for it if you want.

00:12:10.740 Now, to Clay's point about this yesterday.

00:12:13.840 You get an indictment.

00:12:14.860 OK, now there's a process.

00:12:16.620 Now someone's got to go through discovery and a trial and all these different things.

00:12:21.280 But just bringing a charge, bringing a charge.

00:12:24.100 I mean, if let's say we brought a charge against Donald.

00:12:26.400 Now, Don Lemon's a bad example in the sense that I think he actually could be in trouble

00:12:29.480 for the same reason this organizer is.

00:12:31.020 But you bring a charge against someone like Don Lemon and he shows up with his high price

00:12:35.200 lawyers.

00:12:35.620 Guy's got millions of dollars and he gets a judge to slap away the charge.

00:12:39.840 Just throw it out.

00:12:40.840 So it's over.

00:12:42.060 Well, what process do you think that is other than Don Lemon walking out of the courthouse

00:12:45.220 saying, I'm a hero.

00:12:46.300 I'm a martyr for, you know, ice and, you know, the or, you know, anti-ice and all the illegals 1.00

00:12:52.400 and everything else.

00:12:53.420 So this is what this is what we're trying to say.

00:12:55.260 What Pam Bondi is doing is the right way.

00:12:58.720 Here is the charge.

00:13:00.300 Here's the evidence of violation.

00:13:02.580 That's why we have arrested.

00:13:04.360 Now you have a reasonable chance of a judge seeing this and at least allowing this to go

00:13:09.620 to an indictment phase instead of just it's going to get now.

00:13:13.720 It might get tossed out, but I mean, you're ensuring it's going to get tossed out if you're

00:13:17.600 showing up with like, we just arrest this person because we don't like them, which, by

00:13:20.480 the way, we actually don't want that happening.

00:13:22.520 I understand that this is where there's a little bit of you.

00:13:25.080 You don't want to be in a country where you just get arrested because people don't like

00:13:28.060 you.

00:13:28.240 I know the other side has done this with Trump to some extent, but it failed.

00:13:33.160 It failed.

00:13:34.940 And if you want any more proof of that, you can see the mugshot.

00:13:38.940 But did you ever get a mugshot T-shirt?

00:13:40.860 Was that you that got that?

00:13:41.840 There was some I got a mugshot T-shirt autographed by President Trump.

00:13:46.520 It is in my house as a I mean, I think that is an all timer.

00:13:51.560 Maybe the greatest mugshots ever been taken, by the point here is, as far as I see it, Pam

00:13:55.680 Bondi is making the right move.

00:13:56.940 This arrest, this charging of this organizer, violation of law.

00:14:02.260 It's there.

00:14:03.180 It's real.

00:14:03.840 It's clear.

00:14:04.960 Let's go.

00:14:05.800 If you find out that Buffoon Walls was doing something illegal, great.

00:14:10.680 But we have to find that there's a thing that we can we can credibly say he was doing

00:14:15.240 that's illegal.

00:14:15.760 He doesn't arrest people.

00:14:16.840 I don't know.

00:14:17.660 I think I think that's a pretty self-evident truth.

00:14:21.280 All right.

00:14:21.800 This is the month that many of us cut back on expenses because, look, things got a little

00:14:25.500 crazy in December.

00:14:26.620 But I think it's time you should save some money with the easiest thing I could think

00:14:31.700 of.

00:14:32.040 Switch to Pure Talk.

00:14:33.360 And over the course of a year, because it's going to be a monthly savings, but over the

00:14:36.620 course of a year, you could save six hundred to a thousand dollars.

00:14:39.760 Pure Talk saves you 50 percent or more off your existing cell phone bill without sacrificing

00:14:45.300 any quality of service.

00:14:46.520 That's because Pure Talk operates on the same cell towers and network as one of the bigger

00:14:50.140 cell phone companies, but without all the overhead expenses.

00:14:52.980 And the cost can be as low as twenty dollars a month for unlimited talk, text and three

00:14:57.780 gigs of high speed data on Pure Talk's super fast 5G network.

00:15:02.440 Dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck, Pure Talk's U.S. customer service team will help you switch

00:15:07.380 in minutes.

00:15:08.360 Again, talk, text and data for just twenty dollars a month.

00:15:11.700 Dial pound 250, say Clay and Buck, you'll save an additional 50 percent off your first

00:15:16.060 month.

00:15:16.600 Pure Talk, America's wireless company.

00:15:19.000 Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many.

00:15:24.720 The Team 47 podcast, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed.

00:15:30.420 Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:15:34.800 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00

00:15:39.300 leaders and the world around them.

00:15:41.080 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

00:15:44.180 I'm Jennifer Stewart and I'm Catherine Clark.

00:15:47.280 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women, entrepreneurs, artists,

00:15:52.320 athletes, politicians and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:15:56.720 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:15:59.940 Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:16:05.500 Welcome in.

00:16:06.340 Hour number two.

00:16:07.200 Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show.

00:16:09.860 So, okay, we got a lot going on, as has been the case for the last several weeks.

00:16:16.860 Breaking news, Minneapolis church protesters have been arrested, several of them.

00:16:24.360 There have been charges brought or attempted to be brought against Don Lemon, among others.

00:16:32.260 There are reports from CBS News confirmed by the Daily Wire that a judge refused to sign the

00:16:38.920 complaint, allowing Don Lemon to be arrested.

00:16:42.840 Jack Smith has been testifying.

00:16:46.320 All three news networks have been covering his testimony.

00:16:50.040 We will play some of it for you.

00:16:52.460 But again, the Minneapolis news, I think, has taken precedence.

00:16:56.540 And maybe the most surprising thing to me about this at all, Buck, is no one is out there

00:17:02.640 really defending these individuals who were arrested.

00:17:06.900 In fact, the opposite.

00:17:09.760 And even Mayor Fry, who weighed in and said this is a completely inappropriate arrest, it's

00:17:16.980 the first comment that he has made at all about the protest inside of the church.

00:17:21.880 But it feels like there has been a sort of code red ordered on behalf of Democrats to throw

00:17:29.560 this crew to the wolves and not defend them because I think they recognize the optics were so bad.

00:17:35.700 In fact, yesterday, whether we believe him or not, remember Don Lemon said he hadn't even

00:17:40.760 seen the video of the protest from inside of Minneapolis when he was asked, Gavin Newsom

00:17:47.240 was, at Davos about this incident.

00:17:50.420 So it feels like maybe the politics on this are so bad that everybody is running from it.

00:17:56.680 And I'm stunned, frankly, that there are no coverage on MSNBC of these arrests, no coverage

00:18:04.520 on CNN, because if you remember, Buck, remember when that judge in Milwaukee got arrested for

00:18:10.620 interfering with the ICE proceeding?

00:18:12.840 And immediately it was everywhere.

00:18:14.600 And they said, oh, my goodness, this is fascism and Trump.

00:18:17.840 And then the video came out of the judge and everybody stopped defending her.

00:18:20.980 And she was later convicted and she's no longer a judge.

00:18:25.120 I do think this is maybe that where the video came out and Democrats just said, this is such

00:18:32.260 a bad look for us.

00:18:33.720 We're not even going to fight on this ground.

00:18:35.560 Mayor Frye has, but I haven't seen anything of any significant nature from any sort of outspoken

00:18:40.980 national Democrats on it.

00:18:42.320 Yeah, I think that they've recognized this is a very tough one because, like I said, of

00:18:49.100 the video and the fact that there are specific laws.

00:18:52.460 And do they want to say that those laws shouldn't exist?

00:18:56.120 You know, this is the next level of it is, do we want to be in a country where, keep in

00:19:00.460 mind, if a church isn't protected, neither is a synagogue, neither is a mosque, neither is

00:19:06.460 a Hindu temple.

00:19:08.100 Go down the list. 0.98

00:19:08.800 Just any time you want to get attention for yourself and you're a lunatic cause, you can 0.70

00:19:14.600 interrupt a house of worship and cause a riot and shouted everybody and ruin their religious 0.95

00:19:20.260 service because you feel like it. 0.98

00:19:22.140 But by the way, a black church, same thing. 0.96

00:19:25.440 You know, if you're if you're in this, if you're in the South and you're in a black church, 0.99

00:19:28.200 should some maniac, you know, right wing, left wing doesn't matter, be able to just shout 0.99

00:19:36.520 down everybody in that black church and intimidate them. 0.99

00:19:38.820 Well, of course not. 1.00

00:19:39.940 So the law is actually a good law because we don't want what these morons did. 1.00

00:19:44.900 They clay. 1.00

00:19:45.540 This was a huge tactical error on the part of the street communists.

00:19:50.580 And they're paying the price because the Trump administration isn't playing games.

00:19:54.480 Third arrest in the last minute.

00:19:57.440 Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that a third individual is now in custody.

00:20:02.560 Again, Politico has reported that there are seven arrests, seven charges, seven people

00:20:08.000 charged.

00:20:09.220 And that process is underway.

00:20:11.620 We'll go to some of your calls here in a moment.

00:20:13.740 But I did want to hit this two off the second top of the second hour because I don't think

00:20:18.480 it's going to be talked about very much.

00:20:20.280 And I actually think it is a tremendous accomplishment, one of the best accomplishments so far of Trump

00:20:27.280 2.0.

00:20:28.080 I'm reading from Axios Buck, U.S. murder rate hits lowest level since 1900.

00:20:37.180 I want to repeat that because it should be everywhere.

00:20:40.560 Everybody should be talking about this.

00:20:42.480 The murder rate in Trump 2.0 year one just hit the lowest level since 1900.

00:20:52.360 Murders fell 21% last year, the biggest one-year drop ever.

00:20:58.760 Likely the lowest rate since the year 1900, Axios data says.

00:21:05.120 The decline signals a complete reversal of the COVID era crime wave.

00:21:10.160 Here are a couple of data points inside of this.

00:21:15.320 Aggravated assaults fell by 9%.

00:21:17.760 Gun assaults and robbery down 22% and 23% respectively.

00:21:24.580 And in some cities, listen to this, Buck.

00:21:28.500 Murders fell 40% in Washington, D.C.

00:21:32.560 Do you remember when they told us that Trump surging resources in Washington, D.C.

00:21:37.500 was going to have no impact?

00:21:38.820 In fact, 40% in D.C. and in Omaha, Nebraska.

00:21:43.060 Murder down 41% in Denver.

00:21:46.960 And in general, the national murder rate is down to 4 per 100,000 people.

00:21:54.180 The lowest level it has been at since 1900.

00:21:59.040 This is a big deal.

00:21:59.740 This is a really big deal.

00:22:00.960 And I think it's a sign of Trump's endorsement of law and order, and it's having real impact already.

00:22:09.880 Well, I'm sure it's coming.

00:22:11.340 Minneapolis right now is the focus, as is Greenland and the negotiations at Davos.

00:22:15.360 But I think this White House is probably going to have a press conference in the days ahead where the first thing we hear from Caroline Levitt is going to be all these stats that you just shared. 0.77

00:22:25.400 If they haven't done this already, maybe I've missed some of this.

00:22:27.480 But they should do that because a few things.

00:22:32.220 One, the administration deserves the credit for making a decision in the face of tremendous pushback.

00:22:41.200 And also, this really matters.

00:22:43.640 This isn't adjusting the marginal tax rate for a 12-month period until we figure out what the next appropriations bill is.

00:22:52.880 This is saving people's lives.

00:22:55.380 And so it's important that everyone understands the old way of, sorry, we just have to have X hundred number of murders in this city or that city because that's the way it is, should no longer apply.

00:23:08.060 What's even more, what's the word, shocking, but maybe it shouldn't be shocking, is Clay, all the people that were opposed to this should now be saying, wow, murders are way down.

00:23:22.320 Trump was right. 0.50

00:23:23.180 We should do more of this.

00:23:24.920 But they won't because they would rather, I don't know how else you could frame this.

00:23:30.560 They would rather more people get shot and killed in D.C., in Memphis, in all these different cities we're talking about.

00:23:39.360 They'd rather more people get shot and killed because they don't have to see that and deal with it if they don't live there or they don't live in one of the bad neighborhoods that admit that Trump was right and that he's saving lives.

00:23:48.780 Think about that.

00:23:50.200 Imagine that's your moral calculation because that's the calculation Democrats all across the country are making.

00:23:56.180 And, Buck, this is just going to be 100% true based on the data.

00:24:01.320 Do you know, as we hit the lowest murder rate since 1900, do you know what Donald Trump has done?

00:24:08.680 He's actually proved Black Lives Matter because overwhelmingly, the people whose lives were saved were black because overwhelmingly.

00:24:17.920 You've got to get that on a T-shirt.

00:24:19.320 We've got to sell the Clay Travis.

00:24:21.260 Trump has proven Black Lives Matter. 0.99

00:24:23.000 No one has saved more black lives than Donald Trump, I mean, in the history of the presidency.

00:24:30.220 I don't know who was president back in 1900, but when you look, I mean, in all seriousness, it's unfortunate truth that the black murder rate, 1.00

00:24:41.600 that is people who are black who are murdered, is I think it's 20x the white murder rate.

00:24:46.620 I think that number is correct. 0.68

00:24:48.000 In other words, the victim's not perpetrator shock, right?

00:24:50.800 I think it's 10x perpetrator, 20x victim rate, something like that.

00:24:56.800 Does that sound right?

00:24:57.860 I think that's about right. 0.99

00:24:59.100 We'll have a, we'll grok it, but I think you are 20 times as likely to be murdered if you are black as if you are white. 0.99

00:25:06.560 So my point on that is when murder rates come down, they overwhelmingly are leading to fewer black murders because the numbers are statistically what they are.

00:25:18.240 So if you truly believe that black lives matter and you've been focused on it since George Floyd, no one has done more to save black lives as a president than President Trump has.

00:25:29.180 And the reality is what I, what I love about this, in addition to the fact that way more people are alive, which is a good thing, the DC numbers buck.

00:25:40.560 We got lectured, so many journos came out and they said, they wagged their fingers and they either said, it's not actually that dangerous because that's one of the things they would say.

00:25:51.180 Well, they, then the national, you're right about this, but I think it's interesting, Clay, because remember we talked about it, journos who didn't live in DC were all, DC's great.

00:26:01.680 I went there on a school trip and it was really nice.

00:26:04.180 I felt super safe.

00:26:05.580 I don't know what they're talking about.

00:26:07.040 Yeah.

00:26:07.160 I went to a cocktail party once in Georgetown and didn't get shot.

00:26:10.420 What a surprise.

00:26:12.160 The, the actual journos in DC though, including some libs, you remember there were cracks, there were breaks in the ranks on this where they were like, yeah,

00:26:21.020 I know it's really dangerous.

00:26:22.640 They were the ones who live there.

00:26:25.080 Some of them started speaking up because they were sick of being worried about getting robbed for their phone on their street corner in nice neighborhoods.

00:26:32.000 So that was real.

00:26:33.420 The numbers have plummeted 40% DC murders, overwhelmingly saved black lives in DC because almost everyone who dies of murder in DC is black. 0.94

00:26:42.560 I mean, that is what the data actually reflects.

00:26:45.160 Also Buck, this ties in with what we're talking about in Minneapolis.

00:26:48.900 Do you think that just maybe letting ice go arrest violent criminals in the United States and put people on notice that they're coming for them might also have impacted in a significant way.

00:27:04.060 The overall murder rate that we saw happen in this country.

00:27:07.400 I just think if, if you just objectively step back and just said, Hey, let's look at what the data actually reflects.

00:27:17.680 This is where I think president Trump is correct.

00:27:20.140 He's not getting credit for having a transformative first year of his presidency when it comes to border security, when it comes to actual murder rates nationwide, when it comes to locking bad guys up.

00:27:36.520 Think about this, no one alive, listening to us today, this is a pretty incredible, no one alive, listening to us today has ever lived in a United States safer than last year in the United States.

00:27:51.260 That's a pretty remarkable stat unless you were, unless you're, unless you're, I don't think anybody's 125 years old or 126 years old right now, then none of us have ever been alive in a United States that was safer than president Trump's first year in 2025.

00:28:08.060 And it's a remarkable turnaround since 2020 when the murder rate skyrocketed, that we now have gone to a level of safety that no one living today has ever seen before.

00:28:21.960 You know what I might call that book making America great again.

00:28:26.040 In fact, it's not America safe again, for sure.

00:28:29.780 Making America safer than it's ever been before.

00:28:32.580 We're not even going back to the word again.

00:28:34.900 We're going to a new standard of excellence when it comes to safety in the country.

00:28:40.580 This should be the number one story everywhere in the nation right now.

00:28:45.440 And I bet many of you will not hear it, but for having heard us talk about it.

00:28:51.940 And we'll take some of your calls.

00:28:53.480 We got loaded lines, by the way, everybody wants to weigh in.

00:28:55.820 We'll take your calls when we come back.

00:28:57.040 Stick with us if you would.

00:28:59.000 And we'll continue to update you on that Minneapolis situation.

00:29:03.000 But in the meantime, I want to tell you, prize picks, I've got a pick for you.

00:29:07.720 NFC Championship game.

00:29:09.600 The Seattle Seahawks are hosting the L.A. Rams.

00:29:13.380 And I've got Matthew Stafford to throw more than one and a half touchdown passes.

00:29:16.960 And I've got Sam Darnold to throw more than one and a half touchdown passes.

00:29:20.680 If I am correct in that, pays out at 2.75 to 1.

00:29:24.220 That is $5 becomes, what, probably $14.

00:29:27.600 Nearly triple your money.

00:29:29.580 And when you play $5 for the first time, guess what?

00:29:33.820 You get $50 deposited in your account that you can use.

00:29:38.760 When you play $5, you can play in all 50 states.

00:29:41.640 Buck's in Florida, he can play.

00:29:43.240 I'm in Tennessee, I can play.

00:29:44.980 You can play out in California.

00:29:46.300 You can play in Texas.

00:29:47.500 You can play in Florida.

00:29:48.420 All over the country.

00:29:50.340 Get hooked up today at pricepicks.com, code Clay.

00:29:54.100 That is pricepicks.com, code Clay.

00:29:56.280 Go sign up.

00:29:57.560 You're going to love it.

00:29:58.320 Pricepicks.com, code Clay.

00:30:01.640 Stories of freedom.

00:30:03.400 Stories of America.

00:30:05.440 Inspirational stories that unite us all.

00:30:08.080 Each day, spend time with Clay and Buck.

00:30:11.000 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:30:15.840 Welcome back in.

00:30:16.680 Clay Travis, Buck Sexton's show.

00:30:19.340 Politico has now updated their story to say Don Lemon was not charged.

00:30:24.880 We told you CBS News reported and Daily Wire confirmed that a judge had refused to sign off on the complaint to allow Don Lemon to be arrested.

00:30:36.980 To be arrested.

00:30:37.900 But Attorney General Pam Bondi just posted the last few minutes that a man named William Kelly had been arrested.

00:30:44.940 He is the third individual arrested for going into this church.

00:30:49.420 And I believe we have the audio.

00:30:52.260 I'm just trying to make sure that I get the number right here.

00:30:54.680 Here is cut 36.

00:30:57.300 One of the Minnesota church protesters yesterday, he taunted Attorney General Pam Bondi and dared her to come arrest him.

00:31:07.000 36.

00:31:07.400 So, you know, Pam Bondi, you want to come and arrest me?

00:31:10.060 You want to come and give me charges?

00:31:11.400 So be it. 0.99

00:31:12.360 And for all the people getting, you know, giving me death threats, threatening my life, kill me. 1.00

00:31:16.960 Go ahead. 1.00

00:31:17.480 Kill me. 1.00

00:31:17.980 Because you know what? 0.99

00:31:18.740 As Fred Hampton said, you can kill the revolutionary, but you can't kill the revolution.

00:31:25.920 All right.

00:31:26.420 Well, I think you want to be saying about the AG right now.

00:31:31.080 There's a couple of other clips of him taunting Pam Bondi.

00:31:34.740 I don't think that went very well for him.

00:31:36.420 But Bobby Charles running for governor in Maine, he's been waiting a while to come on with us.

00:31:41.560 Thank you.

00:31:43.300 And I think you have a big legal background, if I remember from our last conversation.

00:31:47.840 Have you heard of a judge, like in Minneapolis, as reported by CBS and Daily Wire, refusing to sign off on a complaint for charges to be brought?

00:31:57.040 Have you experienced that in your career?

00:32:00.900 Actually, no.

00:32:01.900 I never have.

00:32:03.080 You know, politics has infused itself into the judiciary now in ways that it never was before.

00:32:10.640 And I was a litigator in New York and in Maine and in D.C.

00:32:14.780 And I clerked on the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

00:32:17.160 I never saw a judge not sign off on a valid complaint, and particularly a complaint from the attorney general of the United States.

00:32:24.820 I just, you know, to be honest, I called in with just two simple points, and I just leave your listenership with them, and I don't want to take up your line.

00:32:32.300 And in addition to the fact that we are up by double digits in this state and very likely to become the next governor, the first point is that we are living, Maine is the next Minnesota.

00:32:42.920 A spoiler alert.

00:32:43.700 We are living in a state here in Maine where the governor, the secretary of state, and others, including down to the mayor level, are provoking, in my opinion, violence.

00:32:54.580 Our secretary of state blocked the issuance of undercover license plates for ICE last week.

00:33:01.240 She directed that anybody who sees ICE, that is a government employee, needs to let her know, presumably so if you stalk, and then she can tell the so-called nonprofits that are involved in fraud and illegal immigration up here that they can harbor those people, get them out of the way.

00:33:17.780 And the third thing she did is she directed our DMV employees, even though there's a federal statute saying that they should and can report illegal aliens to ICE, that they not do so.

00:33:29.300 So, you know, the second big thing I'm just going to say, and it's very simple, is we're living in an environment nationwide.

00:33:35.600 Minneapolis happens to be the current flashpoint.

00:33:38.220 It may well be that Lewiston, Maine, or Portland, Maine become the next flashpoint in which you have leftist groups and leftist officials who are literally in the business of trying to incite without appearing that they're inciting.

00:33:51.820 And I will tell you that as a former litigator and as a former federal investigator, I did the Waco hearings.

00:33:58.020 I was one of Newt Gingrich's top investigators for five years.

00:34:01.860 We have a statute. It's an obstruction statute, 18 U.S.C., 1501, 1505, 1510, which is interference with criminal investigations, that I think we're at the moment where the federal government should look at these, not just private individuals and not just these nonprofits pushing illegal aliens, but look at people like the Secretary of State, Maine, who incidentally is leading on the left to become the governor.

00:34:25.580 I think she hasn't got a chance, but on the other hand, the machine is strong here.

00:34:29.880 She is provoking people in such a way that I think it violates 18 U.S.C., 1510.

00:34:35.180 And I think, you know, at a certain point, you have to at least alert people that if you are obstructing justice intentionally out there trying to rile people up, that there are federal consequences.

00:34:48.700 Well, thank you for the call. I love this.

00:34:50.940 How can people who are in Maine right now listening to you and saying, boy, that sounds good.

00:34:54.840 What can they do to help?

00:34:56.980 Well, we are I mean, we are just charging ahead.

00:34:59.420 This this campaign has gone vertical.

00:35:01.360 It's the first time since 1962 that it looks like we could even get a majority rather than a plurality victory and win the House and Senate.

00:35:08.700 So this state could turn red.

00:35:10.400 I encourage them all go to Bobby for Maine dot com.

00:35:14.220 Every dollar counts on the Jimmy Stewart guy in this, not the Mr.

00:35:17.020 Potter. So every dollar counts.

00:35:18.900 And again, it's just Bobby for Maine dot com.

00:35:21.540 Thank you, sir.

00:35:22.360 Good luck.

00:35:22.860 We want you to continue to fight the good fight up there.

00:35:26.080 Larry and Ocala.

00:35:27.320 He's not happy.

00:35:28.140 Ocala is a great place in Florida.

00:35:29.720 You spend any time there, Buck?

00:35:31.580 I've never been to Ocala.

00:35:33.340 It's a good spot.

00:35:34.080 What do you got for us, Larry?

00:35:36.260 Man, it's great.

00:35:37.060 It's good weather.

00:35:38.360 It's getting a little too big.

00:35:39.640 But, you know, everywhere is, I guess, especially in Florida.

00:35:43.140 Man, I think people are missing why we voted for Donald Trump the first time in the first place.

00:35:49.740 We have been lied to over and over about repealing Obamacare.

00:35:54.740 We're going to shrink the size of government.

00:35:57.220 We're going to reduce spending.

00:35:58.900 The Republicans lied to us and lied to us and lied to us.

00:36:02.540 And then they gave us, you know, Ted Cruz.

00:36:04.960 They gave us Marco Rubio.

00:36:06.840 They gave us all these other candidates that we, you know, that we were going to pick from that are conservatives.

00:36:12.500 And we said no.

00:36:13.880 And we said the only way that we can stick our finger in the eye of the Republican Party is to vote for Donald Trump.

00:36:19.940 The guy who acted like a Democrat, but it was a closeted conservative, which was the opposite of the matter of the year.

00:36:24.960 Okay, so let me ask you this.

00:36:26.480 I got you, Larry.

00:36:27.400 You're not happy with Trump first year?

00:36:29.380 No, not at all.

00:36:32.800 Not even a little bit.

00:36:34.320 Now, you have to take out all the things about the border and all this kind of stuff.

00:36:38.960 Those are easy problems that we have.

00:36:42.020 Larry, hold on.

00:36:43.380 Hold on, Larry.

00:36:44.200 Let me pause you here for a sec.

00:36:45.560 I would suggest shutting down the border and making it the most secure it's ever been in the history of our country.

00:36:50.920 And also, if you were listening earlier, having the lowest murder rate in the country since 1900.

00:36:57.520 Record high stock prices.

00:37:00.160 I would suggest those are pretty good accomplishments in general.

00:37:03.480 And not that easy to do, or else we would have done them before.

00:37:07.700 Easily done.

00:37:08.560 Trump did it in less than a year.

00:37:10.020 Very easily done.

00:37:10.960 The difference is the Republican Party don't want it.

00:37:15.120 They don't have the stomach for it. 0.68

00:37:16.340 They just won't do what's required to be done.

00:37:19.000 And also, whenever they pass a tax cut, they make it permanent for the corporate class and then make it temporary for the taxpayer.

00:37:28.160 And then they come back and say, well, in order to keep the tax cuts, we've got to make this big, massive spending bill.

00:37:34.120 So, you would, so, okay, let me ask you this, Larry.

00:37:36.700 If it were 2024 all over again, you would not vote for Trump based on what you've seen so far in year one?

00:37:45.080 Well, let me ask you a quick answer to my question.

00:37:47.660 Come on, Larry.

00:37:49.440 Come on, Larry.

00:37:50.700 I mean, I'm just saying, Larry, who would you vote for?

00:37:52.100 Are you a white dude for Harris?

00:37:54.460 Do you think Kamala would have done a better job?

00:37:56.480 Your argument, the argument for the two-party system is old and outdated.

00:38:02.100 We can no longer say that, oh, well, if you can't vote Republican, who are you going to vote for?

00:38:07.300 Okay, I'm just asking you.

00:38:08.560 If you could go back in time, you're unhappy.

00:38:10.860 But I'm just saying, if you could go back in time, you would not vote for Trump because you're so unhappy with this year?

00:38:16.280 I would not vote for Trump for this reason.

00:38:19.640 I'm a service technician by trade.

00:38:21.520 I diagnose problems and then create solutions to fix them.

00:38:24.580 It's what I do for a living.

00:38:25.840 The first thing we have to do is diagnose the problem.

00:38:29.540 And the Republican Party not listening to its voters is the problem.

00:38:33.800 And once we have that problem, we're diagnosed.

00:38:35.460 Thank you, Larry.

00:38:36.200 Thank you, Larry.

00:38:36.820 I appreciate you diagnosing the problem.

00:38:38.220 I like Larry's passion.

00:38:39.720 I do like Larry's passion.

00:38:41.200 I think he's not the guy you want to call at 2 a.m. if your HVAC goes down, though.

00:38:45.520 I feel like he might be pretty ticked off.

00:38:47.180 I would just say, look, there is a segment.

00:38:49.220 I looked at what's the number.

00:38:50.960 There's something like Trump has the highest approval rating among Republicans.

00:38:55.840 I think that he's ever had in his entire political career right now.

00:38:59.700 That doesn't mean that everybody is in the still Trump camp.

00:39:03.840 But I really think, I mean, again, the lowest murder rate since 1900, a completely secure border, a record high stock prices, rapidly accelerating growth rate in the country and inflation that has come down.

00:39:20.480 I think it's hard to, if you had told me a year ago that we were going to have the lowest murder rate since 1900 and that we would have zero people crossing illegally into the country, I would have thought that was very, very difficult to accomplish.

00:39:33.740 And Trump has done it.

00:39:34.980 In fact, I wouldn't have said there's no way that's going to happen.

00:39:37.820 Ransom in Columbus, Ohio.

00:39:40.020 Ransom.

00:39:40.380 You guys got the golden microphone, and Rush would be proud of you.

00:39:46.820 Thank you.

00:39:47.360 Thank you.

00:39:47.920 Just a couple comments.

00:39:50.120 As far as Minnesota goes, they're doing the hearings in Washington.

00:39:54.860 All the state politicians are testifying with, you know, being sworn in for perjury if they lie, and every one of them have come out and said that they believe that Walls and the AG knew that all this fraud is going on.

00:40:12.000 So I would say that I would like Pam Boddy to do a conspiracy charge against both of those guys, and then she should take on French Fry, mayor there in Minneapolis, because once one politician goes down, guess what? 0.92

00:40:28.520 There's a precedent, and Clay, you're a lawyer.

00:40:31.300 You know that if you have a precedent for one thing, then it's easier to try the next case.

00:40:36.220 And I would like them to come and get my mayor in Columbus, Ohio, because he's labeled us the sanctuary of the city, and the chief of police, and they said openly on video, and you can check it out, that they said in no way, shape, or form do they want to help with ICE, and we just had a big raid there.

00:40:51.920 So all these little people that think that they're great politicians, they need to be accountable to the voters who gave them their trust, and I appreciate you guys.

00:40:59.960 And the last thing I want to say is, can you beat the ban on the Bud Light thing that you did about a year ago?

00:41:08.500 Because you guys kind of hammered that thing, and next thing you know, Bud Light conformed to the will of the people.

00:41:14.800 We need to get our federal judges in there. 0.95

00:41:17.580 Trump can have a great three years here, and then you won't have these problems with these magistrates not signing off for the right thing, and I appreciate you guys.

00:41:27.640 Thank you.

00:41:27.980 Well, thank you for calling. He hit a lot of things there.

00:41:30.040 I do think in the years ahead, what he pointed out about Bud Light, I think it was one of the most transformative, consequential, anti-woke responses that we've seen on any level, and I think it changed fundamentally the way that most, not all, but most companies in America do business, and dragged everybody back to the middle part of the country, insanity, as opposed to insanity.

00:41:54.400 Look, what he's hitting at is, I think, a real question that is very valid, and that is, how in the world can mayors and governors defy federal law and do the sanctuary city aspects?

00:42:10.120 And it was one thing when Biden was in office, and you could then say the immigration policy somewhat signed off and agreed on those.

00:42:18.200 I think it's a real question that's valid across the country, and we will see.

00:42:25.000 I will just say, Buck, as we go to break here and you take us out, one of the most interesting things about these arrests in Minneapolis, Democrats are on their back heels, and they're not fighting these arrests at all.

00:42:38.340 I think the protests in Minneapolis, which they thought initially were going to benefit them quite significantly, maybe the numbers they're seeing nationwide aren't reflecting that most Americans agree that these protesters are making the Democrat Party look better.

00:42:55.980 And now that it's starting to get super cold in Minneapolis, I wonder whether the word is going to go out, hey, guys, this is not the win that we thought it was going to be, because they're not standing up for these guys getting arrested right now at all.

00:43:10.040 Look, home break-ins occur twice every minute on average nationwide.

00:43:14.880 Now, Trump's done a lot to bring down the murder rate nationwide, which is fantastic, but unfortunately, there's still a lot of burglary, a lot of home invasions that happen, and that's just the reality of the country we're in for the foreseeable.

00:43:24.820 So you need to tend to your own defense, that of your family, your household, and Sabre has the best non-lethal products on the market for this.

00:43:33.340 The Sabre home defense launcher, for example, has seven powerful pepper projectiles that will stop the threat in a non-lethal fashion, because when you need to defend yourself, having extra stopping power can change everything, and protection doesn't stop at your front door.

00:43:48.300 When you're on the move, Sabre pepper sprays, pepper gels, and stun guns give you compact, reliable protection wherever life takes you.

00:43:55.780 When safety matters, America chooses Sabre, the number one brand trusted by law enforcement and people nationwide.

00:44:04.300 Sabre is how it's spelled, S-A-B-R-E, S-A-B-R-E.

00:44:08.200 Don't wait for a close call.

00:44:09.400 Get protection now at sabreradio.com, that's S-A-B-R-E, radio.com, or call 844-824-SAFE.

00:44:18.960 You ain't imagining it.

00:44:20.820 The world has gone insane.

00:44:23.520 We claim your sanity with Clay and Buck.

00:44:26.640 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:44:31.200 Canadian women are looking for more, more out of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.98

00:44:37.960 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk Podcast.

00:44:41.620 I'm Jennifer Stewart.

00:44:42.860 And I'm Catherine Clark.

00:44:44.080 And in this podcast, we interview Canada's most inspiring women.

00:44:47.840 Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at different stages of their journey.

00:44:53.580 So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join us.

00:44:56.560 Listen to the Honest Talk Podcast on iHeartRadio, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:45:01.200 Third hour of Clay and Buck starts right now.

00:45:05.420 I can't believe how fast things are flowing along today.

00:45:09.060 Gavin Newsom, a.k.a. Evil Keanu Reeves.

00:45:13.920 He is coming back, I assume, shortly, if he's not already, from Davos, where he, as I understand it, did not actually get to give a speech last minute.

00:45:23.860 Very upset about this, Gavin is. No surprise.

00:45:26.980 I hear he's flying his shirt at half-mast play.

00:45:30.440 He's only got it buttoned halfway right now, which is...

00:45:34.960 This is funny.

00:45:36.440 You know our friend Alexi Lawless ridiculed me recently for buttoning my shirts too tall, too high up.

00:45:44.200 Alexi's like Gavin Newsom, also a Californian.

00:45:46.820 He's like, basically, you should be unbuttoned down to the navel.

00:45:49.720 But it is funny with Gavin Newsom.

00:45:52.300 He's got multiple different buttons undone.

00:45:56.280 We have a California expert who's joining us now, Katie Zachariah, political and legal commentator out on the West Coast.

00:46:03.320 And, Katie, thanks for being with us again.

00:46:05.820 You can weigh in on this.

00:46:06.980 First of all, Gavin Newsom, is he just doing what Californians do by having his shirt unbuttoned to his navel?

00:46:13.240 Or is this specific to Gavin?

00:46:15.840 Also, what happened to his Davos speech?

00:46:18.680 And why is he in Davos in the first place?

00:46:20.640 Well, he's in Davos, as everyone has said, to troll President Trump and extremely unsuccessfully.

00:46:27.880 He was there ahead of him and then just absolutely got eviscerated and left in the corner, as we all saw in the little kids' table when President Trump walked in the room.

00:46:37.720 And he should have been disinvited from the U.S. House when he was going to give this interview with Fortune.

00:46:42.780 And after denigrating the president, who's working a historic, historic national security deal with Greenland, of which our children, grandchildren and their grandchildren will reap the benefits of.

00:46:56.540 Gavin Newsom has nothing better to do, although I could find some things out in California, than to go and criticize President Trump for a board of peace and, you know, Greenland, acquiring Greenland.

00:47:09.500 And we'll do so without any military force.

00:47:12.120 So he doesn't deserve a seat at the big kids' table, honestly.

00:47:17.560 It is funny.

00:47:19.120 Did you see, I think he was called Sparkle Kin or something like that.

00:47:23.840 Now, Buck, you watched the Barbie movie, right? 0.97

00:47:26.540 If I recall, you said it was trash. 0.95

00:47:28.740 I never watched it. 0.96

00:47:30.400 I couldn't even get through it.

00:47:32.060 Couldn't even get through it.

00:47:33.120 Tried. 1.00

00:47:33.600 It was garbage. 1.00

00:47:34.400 I don't care what anybody says. 1.00

00:47:35.820 The only reason I didn't watch it was nostalgia. 1.00

00:47:37.820 It's a garbage movie. 0.97

00:47:38.560 So, Katie, is that inaccurate? 0.99

00:47:40.280 I'm betting that you, this may be typecasting, but my wife saw it.

00:47:43.800 I bet most women saw it.

00:47:45.000 I'm betting you saw the Barbie movie.

00:47:47.180 Is Sparkle Kin a good description of Gavin Newsom?

00:47:51.740 Definitely typecasting.

00:47:53.240 I did not watch it.

00:47:54.640 Oh, wow.

00:47:55.640 I'm not much of a movie buff.

00:47:58.260 And if I do watch a movie, it's going to be like a Braveheart or a Gladiator type of movie.

00:48:03.740 You know, that's Clay's wife's favorite movie, by the way.

00:48:06.820 Gladiator is my wife's favorite movie.

00:48:07.960 You are now forever welcome on the program.

00:48:09.600 Yeah.

00:48:10.740 Great movie.

00:48:11.760 One of the best.

00:48:12.880 And honestly, Secretary Besson put up the meme of this, or someone did on X, and that's where I saw Sparkle Kin.

00:48:20.540 And it does represent Gavin Newsom, but I also think, and I keep repeating this, the severity of a governor, of a second-tier governor, low-rate governor, going out against President Trump needs to be taken seriously, because he is the Democrat frontrunner.

00:48:37.620 I watched Kalshi do this entire platform on Gavin Newsom, is the, not just preferred, but has soared after this trip to Davos to basically troll President Trump as the frontrunner for the Democrat Party.

00:48:51.640 And so here we land, the Democrat Party now has no platform except to troll President Trump, to have wide open borders, to defy ICE, and to allow criminals to run rampant, and to not build and rebuild a city after a year of a $250 billion of wildfire damage, and leave, as Secretary Besson said, the residents of California homeless while you're trolling President Trump.

00:49:16.620 That's what we have from the Democrat Party. And it's actually a pretty serious indictment on all of the people in their party, and no policy positions.

00:49:27.140 Katie, to hit what you just said, Kalshi's favorites to be nominated as the Democrat nominee in 2028.

00:49:36.120 Gavin Newsom has a 35% chance. Second place is AOC at a 10% chance.

00:49:43.840 So he has not only got the lead, he's got a pretty crazy, significantly, Josh Shapiro, 8% chance, Kamala Harris, 6% chance.

00:49:53.620 So you're right. California Governor Gavin Newsom has soared. Do you think he is electable?

00:49:59.760 Now, I know he's awful, and I know he's been a disaster for California, but take that away.

00:50:05.640 Is he, could he beat J.D. Vance? Could he beat Marco Rubio?

00:50:09.820 He, I think, is an adroit politician, sadly. And Democrats have shown, I mean, they almost elected Kamala Harris.

00:50:17.060 I can't imagine Gavin Newsom would be a worse candidate than her.

00:50:19.900 Right. So you look at those seven swing states that President Trump dominated against Kamala Harris, and he can't win a Pennsylvania and a Michigan and a Wisconsin, right?

00:50:33.020 The first place he went was North Carolina to announce his kind of soft campaign, but not really.

00:50:39.800 He did this squishy thing because he knows his state's a dumpster fire.

00:50:42.920 But he's basically gone to North Carolina to soft campaign for the presidential.

00:50:49.120 And you look at these swing states, and I don't think, it's my assessment, he cannot win those swing states against a J.D. Vance.

00:50:57.000 He doesn't work for middle America. 0.96

00:50:59.520 The greasy, kind of slick back hair and California button-down shirt and no policy.

00:51:06.300 It works for the media. It works for X-Hype and to have this press room troll President Trump.

00:51:12.820 But he's not running against President Trump.

00:51:14.660 As you just said, would it be J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio?

00:51:18.320 And then he's going to have to start falling on his policies when he's not trolling President Trump anymore.

00:51:23.640 And what does he have to stand on?

00:51:25.120 And middle America, I think, sees this in Gavin Newsom.

00:51:28.160 So is he electable?

00:51:29.620 In my opinion, he's not.

00:51:31.400 And if the Democrat Party continues going on with Gavin Newsom, maybe we're going to get another clean sweep of those seven swing states with J.D. or Marco.

00:51:42.020 So what's going on, Katie, with, I can't even believe I'm saying this, that Swalwell has been considered the frontrunner to take over Gavin's seat.

00:51:51.400 Because, first of all, that means, Clay, now you're going to have Swalwell six buttons down.

00:51:56.800 Buck, I actually think Swalwell is worse than Gavin Newsom. 0.99

00:52:00.180 Like, I don't think Gavin Newsom is a moron. 1.00

00:52:02.700 I think Swalwell is actually stupid and really kind of diabolical in his stupidity. 1.00

00:52:09.660 All true. 1.00

00:52:10.620 Yes.

00:52:11.000 But now there's some problem.

00:52:12.740 There's some problem with he doesn't even live in California.

00:52:16.880 Do Californians care?

00:52:18.560 What's going on?

00:52:20.820 California.

00:52:21.580 Well, look, you have the situation of the mortgage fraud with Letitia James.

00:52:25.980 And now you look at Swalwell, who wants to run for governor of California, and he's not even a resident of California.

00:52:33.020 So, no, he can't run.

00:52:34.600 And that's real.

00:52:36.540 And as he was trying, but even go back before they expose where his residency is, he was trying to say that he was going to revoke the driver's licenses for ICE agents.

00:52:47.800 Now, why are ICE agents in California to begin with?

00:52:51.200 Because Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris left the border wide open and we're having to deport criminals in our, quote, sanctuary state and sanctuary jurisdiction, which all just got noticed by President Trump.

00:53:03.040 They are going to have federal funding revoked every sanctuary jurisdiction across the country because they are in violation of our supremacy clause.

00:53:11.680 So Swalwell already is just falling flat on his face because he cannot revoke the driver's licenses of ICE agents in California.

00:53:21.140 So it's hot air.

00:53:22.660 And then to see, actually, you're not even a California resident.

00:53:25.900 You can't run.

00:53:27.000 So now they have Swalwell's out.

00:53:28.900 Katie, Katie Porter and the disastrous launch of her campaign.

00:53:33.700 She's out.

00:53:34.500 So you're looking at this kind of who is it?

00:53:37.620 It's are we going to get a Republican?

00:53:39.220 Because, again, the Democrats are just not bringing forth candidates that are electable.

00:53:44.220 Well, I mean, I think it's a really super interesting question that you are asking about at what point do you think and are we there?

00:53:57.680 Californians might finally throw up their hands and be willing to change directions because we've had Steve Hilton on this program a lot.

00:54:04.100 I know he's running an aggressive campaign all over the state of California.

00:54:07.460 What would it take for a Republican to be able to win, in your mind, a statewide elected office again in the state of California?

00:54:16.940 The first thing, and I'm going to go really quickly, federal, we're starting to see an uptick of the SAVE Act.

00:54:23.920 And this is absolutely necessary for the security of our elections going forward and for our win of the 26 midterms.

00:54:30.420 And then to go back to California, voter ID.

00:54:34.140 We have to have voter ID in California.

00:54:36.180 We now have it right currently and we have a law on from that was passed in the Senate and signed by Gavin Newsom that poll workers.

00:54:45.080 It is illegal to ask for a driver's license and proof of ID.

00:54:48.940 It is illegal in California.

00:54:50.680 So Carl DeMaio, our assemblyman, led an assemblyman, led an initiative that's getting a lot of steam, including support, verbal support and ex-support from Elon Musk on voter ID in California.

00:55:02.700 That is going to be on the ballot in 26, this this election cycle.

00:55:07.480 And once that happens, I think we're going to see, including with voter rolls and new conservative and common sense and Republican voter registration.

00:55:16.060 I think we will see a turnaround in California.

00:55:18.780 I may be too optimistic and having lived in California my whole life, but people are sick and tired of these policies.

00:55:27.280 They're sick and tired of the gas prices that are still high fours, low fives.

00:55:31.480 And when we have voter ID and we regulate who goes to the ballot box to vote and you have to be a citizen, it's a game changer.

00:55:40.000 And that's an 80-20 issue, believe it or not, in California.

00:55:43.660 Once that's on the ballot, it's an easy yes for people.

00:55:46.860 And we're going to see, in my mind, a big shift in the electorate, big shift in politicians, but not until then.

00:55:53.200 I don't think 26 is winnable right now for a Republican without voter ID.

00:55:57.100 What's the status, Katie?

00:55:59.780 Sorry, Steve Hilton.

00:56:02.380 What's the status of the wealth tax on the billionaires?

00:56:07.720 Got a lot of media attention the last few weeks.

00:56:11.340 Seems like it's, well, Minneapolis and Davos are certainly leading the news cycle right now.

00:56:17.360 But there was, it seemed, a little bit of, wow, the numbers, you know, the math doesn't math, as the kids say, if these billionaires leave.

00:56:25.660 What's the latest on that?

00:56:28.100 Yeah, that's all driven by our wonderful Ro Khanna.

00:56:31.500 We just have so many great people out of California in politics.

00:56:35.720 Gavin Newsom has actually said he doesn't support this because he knows that all of the wealth will leave California.

00:56:43.120 The status is, I think they're still trying to get this on the ballot.

00:56:46.760 And it's something that's being pushed.

00:56:49.640 But simultaneously, you have a lot of billionaires going to, guess where, Florida, the land of the free and home of the brave.

00:56:57.620 And they're at least relocating their business in 51 percent of their ownership or citizenship.

00:57:05.260 So they're not going to have to pay that tax because it will be retroactive.

00:57:09.080 It will go all the way back to January 1, 2026 for those billionaires.

00:57:14.780 So I think they're hedging their bets.

00:57:17.060 If this works, if it goes through, then they don't want to be part of it.

00:57:20.400 It's unfortunate.

00:57:21.300 Great to talk to you, Katie Zachariah.

00:57:25.400 Keep California sane until we can make it great again because it has been a great place in the past.

00:57:31.300 Thank you so much for being with us.

00:57:33.440 Thank you.

00:57:34.160 Speaking of California, how about Baja bedding sets?

00:57:39.760 That's right, my friends, from Cozy Earth.

00:57:42.420 They're incredible.

00:57:42.980 We've got them here.

00:57:43.760 Everyone loves it, including Ginger.

00:57:45.640 This is where you all find out that, of course, there's the sheets for humans.

00:57:49.760 But those are for Ginger, too, because she sleeps on our bed.

00:57:52.700 So she loves the Baja bedding set.

00:57:55.560 Cozy Earth's first fully matching collection.

00:57:58.440 Sheets, duvet, cover, quilt, the whole shebang,

00:58:00.620 all inspired by the lovely beach setting of Baja, California.

00:58:05.140 For those of you who have never been to that part of Mexico and their coastline,

00:58:08.720 just imagine crystal blue ocean water, sandy white beaches,

00:58:11.880 and waking up to that every morning.

00:58:13.480 That's the Baja, California vibe that Cozy Earth has captured here.

00:58:17.880 They've also upped their towel game with their Luxe bath towels.

00:58:21.760 These towels are incredibly plush and absorbent,

00:58:23.800 kind of towels you want to reach for as you get out of the shower.

00:58:26.380 Like Cozy Earth sheets, these products come with a 100-day trial

00:58:29.280 and a 10-year warranty.

00:58:30.620 They want you to be satisfied.

00:58:32.240 They believe in their product quality.

00:58:34.100 So go online to CozyEarth.com.

00:58:36.440 Use my name, Buck, as your promo code for up to 20% off.

00:58:40.000 That's CozyEarth.com.

00:58:41.680 CozyEarth.com, promo code Buck.

00:58:43.860 And if you get a post-purchase survey,

00:58:46.080 mention you heard about Cozy Earth right here.

00:58:49.620 News and politics, but also a little comic relief.

00:58:53.480 Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.

00:58:55.620 Find them on the free iHeartRadio app

00:58:58.140 or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:59:00.360 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:59:03.120 Guaranteed human.

Verdict with Ted Cruz - January 22, 2026

Bonus： Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jan 22 2026

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript