Verdict with Ted Cruz - BONUS： Daily Review With Clay and Buck - Jun 10 2025

00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.

00:00:02.500 Guaranteed human.

00:00:04.140 Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show podcast.

00:00:09.180 Welcome, everybody.

00:00:10.040 Tuesday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show kicks off right now.

00:00:15.740 We are here in our nation's capital.

00:00:18.600 Probably the best it's been in a long time.

00:00:20.640 It is pretty spectacular.

00:00:22.100 It's very beautiful.

00:00:23.120 Unlike during the inauguration, it is absolutely perfect weather here.

00:00:27.920 So I am not clearing the icicles from my nose and my eyes this time.

00:00:32.800 But we have a lot to talk to you about.

00:00:35.360 And we'll dive into some of it.

00:00:37.320 We're also excited to be setting up some pretty important interviews and sit-downs and chats

00:00:42.820 with the people who make this town run and this White House, which is doing a phenomenal job.

00:00:50.040 Clay, you're going to have to make sure that I don't go over too much of the territory

00:00:54.920 when I was on a flight yesterday that you cover with these L.A. riots.

00:00:58.000 Here's what I've got for the latest.

00:01:00.380 Marines, 700 Marines ordered to assist in Los Angeles.

00:01:05.060 They are expected to arrive.

00:01:07.040 Well, they have been arriving.

00:01:09.360 We've got Mayor Adams of New York City saying that there are anti-ice riots in L.A.

00:01:16.340 that would be totally unacceptable in New York.

00:01:20.040 So they're drawing a pretty hard line on that.

00:01:21.960 When you've seen some other places, Austin, Tampa, where there are reports of some gatherings beginning.

00:01:28.320 We're very clear on this.

00:01:29.700 I think everyone's very clear on this.

00:01:31.560 The right to protest, obviously protected under the First Amendment.

00:01:35.840 The right to loot a footlocker or a CVS or whatever is not, in fact, covered under the First Amendment.

00:01:44.180 And this whole fight over illegal immigration enforcement is absolutely critical for the administration.

00:01:50.520 And, Clay, I'm happy to see so far they are taking the law and order perspective

00:01:56.000 and not backing down one inch because this is setting a tone for the rest of the four years as well.

00:02:00.780 Yeah, what I was talking about yesterday is I do think this is a really concrete difference between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0.

00:02:09.660 And you remember very well, everyone out there does, in the summer of 2020, the entire nation came unglued.

00:02:18.580 And I think a big part of that was Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota, refusing to call out the National Guard in time to bring peace to Minneapolis.

00:02:28.880 And then what happened in Minneapolis skyrocketed, spiraled everywhere.

00:02:33.900 And for many people, it was the end of the COVID restrictions, as you well remember,

00:02:37.880 because Dr. Anthony Fauci suddenly came out after telling people that they couldn't be in any groups at all

00:02:43.780 and said, well, hundreds of thousands of people can actually come out in the streets in March.

00:02:49.340 And many people said, wait a minute, you were telling us that we couldn't go to kids, couldn't go to school.

00:02:53.800 We couldn't have non-essential, remember that phrase, non-essential businesses open.

00:02:59.080 And suddenly you decide that everybody should be able to go out in March in the summer of 2020.

00:03:06.040 And I think in retrospect, Trump wishes that he had called out the National Guard in Minnesota

00:03:11.220 and tried to nip this in the bud.

00:03:13.560 And so I think this is Trump 2.0 saying, we're not going to allow these protests to flourish and take root like we did in 2020.

00:03:21.860 Also, the difference being it's not an election year, which means that whatever the impact is of the Trump response

00:03:29.040 is not immediately going to the ballot box, which is why I think they were apprehensive

00:03:33.560 and I think, quite frankly, slow on dealing with those riots back in 2020.

00:03:38.160 So this is Trump saying, I learned from the first term, we're not going to have this happen.

00:03:41.660 That was one of the biggest mistakes, I would argue, in the Trump first term, was people often talk about Fauci.

00:03:48.680 Look, very hard in that moment to understand all the implications of the CDC

00:03:55.740 and allowing them to set these policies.

00:03:59.580 And I mean, I remember I spoke to Trump in, I've told you about this, I've talked to the audience about this,

00:04:03.600 May of 2020, I talked to you about all this, and he said, look, we're going to leave this to the states.

00:04:08.860 There was a lot that was unknown then. Looting and rioting, we knew that was bad.

00:04:14.480 And there was a period where there was not nearly a firm enough response in 2020.

00:04:19.320 I think that that was a lesson learned for the administration.

00:04:22.080 I think this time around they are showing that it's very easy to draw this line here.

00:04:27.180 Yes, you want to gather lawfully and protest. That's great. That's America.

00:04:32.620 The moment you start blocking highways, throwing rocks at cops, breaking into stores, stealing things,

00:04:40.020 you are in violation of a number of statutes, and the laws still apply to you no matter how upset you are.

00:04:44.980 On this issue of illegal immigration, it's interesting, Clay, I've seen a shift in the conversation on the right

00:04:51.800 from what about the big beautiful bill to this is an all or nothing issue, meaning we either enforce sovereignty

00:04:59.860 and begin to deport some of the 10 million that Biden brought in or nothing else matters.

00:05:04.860 I agree with that. I think if we don't establish secure borders and interior enforcement,

00:05:11.520 we just have a de facto open border and all the implications of this.

00:05:16.780 I mean, what you're seeing in Southern California, the massive expense that is borne,

00:05:22.480 not just by the taxpayers of California, but by the federal taxpayer as well.

00:05:26.560 There's all this money that is funneled from federal dollars to Medi-Cal,

00:05:32.440 which is like California's version of Medicare, you know, Medicaid, rather, Medi-Cal,

00:05:38.660 and the apportionment issue with members of Congress, you have far more Democrat members of Congress.

00:05:46.220 The estimates, I think it's a couple of dozen nationwide.

00:05:49.480 15 to 20 at least. And this is important, I think.

00:05:52.380 I don't think a lot of audience even understands this because I didn't know it.

00:05:55.480 Illegal immigrants get counted for purposes of congressional districts.

00:05:59.860 So when you say roughly 700,000 people are being represented,

00:06:03.720 if there are 20 million illegals, that is helping Democrats because they're overwhelmingly clustered 0.98

00:06:10.240 in sanctuary cities, and otherwise there would be less Democrat representatives. 0.86

00:06:15.760 Enormously important. And it also is a reminder to everybody, as we'll talk,

00:06:20.280 we'll go deep into the law and order aspects of all this and why it's so important that Trump

00:06:25.580 is following through. The administration has to see this through.

00:06:29.220 This is just the beginning of it, too. But, Clay, this is something, what happens in Los Angeles,

00:06:36.120 I think there had been an idea that a lot of people had, oh, that's not really my problem.

00:06:41.740 You know, I live in Nebraska. That's not really my problem.

00:06:45.560 I live in a nice red state. You know, I live in South Carolina.

00:06:49.820 And so if California wants to have two or three, I'm sorry, Los Angeles County alone wants to have

00:06:55.540 two or three million illegals in it. That's their problem. No, it's actually your problem in South 0.97

00:07:00.520 Carolina, too. It's a problem for the whole country. It's a problem because of the balance

00:07:06.160 of power that it is affected by with Congress. And it's a problem because the whole point here

00:07:13.200 that the Democrats are pursuing is to make sure that there's a pathway to voting, not just

00:07:19.540 citizenship, voting for all the illegals who have come here, which would make a de facto one-party 0.97

00:07:24.100 state. So this is everybody's issue. The days where we would tell ourselves, oh, it's just

00:07:28.980 a blue state, red state thing. I think that has passed. I think everyone understands Biden

00:07:32.980 let in 10 million plus illegals on purpose. People keep telling me, I don't know. No one

00:07:37.540 knows. No one knows. I mean, the administration doesn't know. This one doesn't know what the

00:07:42.080 full number that came in under Biden is because it was so out of control that it's impossible

00:07:46.240 to tabulate. We just know that it's officially at least 10 million. That's a massive state of

00:07:52.160 illegals that have been added to the U.S. tally. Totally. I mean, it's more than the people 1.00

00:07:57.900 who live in, I think it's all but like 15 states. I mean, the population of the state

00:08:03.540 of Tennessee where I live, I believe, is around 7 million. So more than the state of Tennessee

00:08:08.920 has been let in in four years just in illegals. And also keep in mind, there's now some focus

00:08:17.200 on the Reagan amnesty, which I've talked about here on the show back in 1986, what happened.

00:08:21.980 Probably the worst thing that Reagan did as president, unfortunately. Reagan did great

00:08:26.080 things, defeated communism, defeated the Soviet Union. But that was bad. And it was much worse 0.64

00:08:32.540 than I think anybody, even Republicans at that time, realized because not only was the amnesty

00:08:39.260 far larger than it was supposed to be. We're signing this law, right? This is back in 1986.

00:08:45.720 And we're going back now 40 years. We're signing this and we're going to get border security.

00:08:50.660 And what you got was an amnesty several times larger, millions of people larger than what

00:08:57.060 they thought it would be because the way the courts went and, you know, everyone was trying

00:09:01.320 to be covered under that amnesty. They were hearing challenges, I think, into the early 2000s.

00:09:06.320 So think about that. In 1986 amnesty, there are people in like 1999 who are saying, I'm

00:09:10.360 covered under that too. And then it was a massive incentive for more illegal immigration for the

00:09:15.580 years and years to come. Can you think about it this time around? If we just said, you know

00:09:18.260 what, we'll take the 10 million who came under Biden. Does any serious person believe that

00:09:22.600 there'd be the political will to stop the next 10 million from coming the next time there's

00:09:26.700 a Democrat administration? No, if anything, it would just become a political inevitability.

00:09:32.660 It would be codified that there'd be another 10 million coming. And our immigration laws are just 0.99

00:09:37.360 a joke. Well, that's why whatever Trump does, they have set in place two different diametrically

00:09:44.080 opposed systems. One is if you come, you are allowed in with virtually no court oversight.

00:09:51.300 It's going to take years for your hearings. And in the meantime, you get to live here. And the second

00:09:56.380 part is if you're trying to deport, you have to have massive court hearings. And it's going to take

00:10:02.520 a substantial amount of effort to get that done. So I think they are gaming the system because

00:10:08.860 they're applying two different rules. Let me also mention this too, as the LA riot continues four

00:10:13.980 days and we see the Apple stores getting rioted. And unfortunately, I saw a jewelry store owner

00:10:19.840 interviewed and we'll play some of that for you throughout the course of the program. In fact,

00:10:23.220 at 1230, so in about 20 minutes from now, we're going to talk with Steve Hilton, who's running

00:10:27.980 for governor. He was out on the streets of Los Angeles last night, what he sees and is experiencing

00:10:34.180 there, what he saw with his own eyes. I think that this is another impact of Elon Musk buying Twitter

00:10:39.580 because when Maxine Waters and other Democrats are coming out, I saw another Democrat congresswoman say,

00:10:45.880 well, this is not much different than a sports celebration when a team wins a title.

00:10:49.520 And then you juxtapose those videos side by side. It is that we talked about yesterday. I want to get

00:10:56.260 your read on this at some point. But when you've got cops with cars burning and you've got the video

00:11:01.300 of the bricks being thrown at them, it's hard to argue. It's a mostly peaceful protest. I think that

00:11:07.680 the fairness of X to allow the full scope of what's truly going on to be seen makes the lies more

00:11:14.480 readily apparent. Also, the videos and the photos, which I was consuming just as you were all weekend

00:11:20.720 long and yesterday on the flight up here as I was doing research for today's show, Clay, the notion

00:11:27.340 that you would, as a person who claims to have a right to be in America, you would be standing

00:11:35.260 around burning cars and holding, holding up the flag of a foreign nation.

00:11:41.620 That is a person who does not belong here, who does not deserve to be here. And I'm not even

00:11:48.820 getting into the legal status that they may or may not have. But you clearly do not have the kind of

00:11:55.060 love and allegiance for this country and for the rule of law that we want for the American people.

00:12:00.940 It is also shown, and we'll get into this, the data very clearly so far supports what Trump is doing

00:12:08.020 as a matter of public opinion. Let me say, if there was 80-20 against Trump on this, I don't care.

00:12:13.360 This is a rule of law issue, but it's not. In fact, Trump is operating with a majority support of the

00:12:19.780 American people. And the more of this that we see, the burning cars, the rioting, the looting, the madness 0.94

00:12:25.220 on the streets and people waving Mexican flags. I know. And saying, I'm so American, I would wave a

00:12:32.880 Mexican flag. Could you imagine? I mean, if I stood in front of a building that was burning in New York

00:12:37.540 City, waving an Irish flag, first of all, the Irish people would be like, you haven't been Irish in 0.97

00:12:40.900 hundreds of years. And second of all, they'd say, what are you doing? That has nothing to do with us.

00:12:45.840 There's something deeper here. And specifically in Southern California, this is very, this is a very

00:12:54.220 precarious issue because you're talking about a group of people who, unlike any other migrant group, 1.00

00:13:00.700 really, the only migrant group we have here in large numbers that has come here illegally that can walk

00:13:06.640 back home and sometimes do drive and go back home are people from Mexico. This is not true of people 1.00

00:13:13.640 from Europe, from Africa, from anywhere else. And so there's something unique and uniquely

00:13:21.000 destabilizing about individuals who think that they can have it both ways. They can maintain this

00:13:28.200 separate Mexican identity while getting all the benefits of being in America and make demands in 0.99

00:13:36.060 this country while actually having citizenship in another country that is right next door.

00:13:41.940 This is something that anybody who's looking at the national security and political implications for

00:13:46.460 this country has to reckon with that in Southern California, there is a and I know that this exists

00:13:52.500 in some other places to different Texas, because it's a red state. But in Southern California, there is

00:13:58.380 it look, you can see this with people going on CNN saying, well, you know, this was part of Mexico.

00:14:04.720 I saw you say, hold on a second. This is part. This was part of Mexico was part of Mexico for like

00:14:09.220 15 years or something. And it's been part of America for a couple of hundred. It was a Spanish colony.

00:14:15.500 Okay. And the Spaniards aren't dancing around saying, hey, this is actually still ours.

00:14:21.740 So it was Mexican for a short while. And then they lost that territory in a war, which is a thing 0.99

00:14:27.640 that happens. You know, that's something that they need to just get used to. So there's a lot going on

00:14:33.080 here that I want to continue to dive into. And Clay, I think this most important fight in the country

00:14:37.800 right now. And I think it's more it's more important than concerns about the debt. If we lose on this,

00:14:42.280 we lose on everything else. If we don't have a country with sovereignty and rule of law and

00:14:46.000 immigration, we don't really have a country. And and I think that's what people are seeing

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00:17:15.320 We got Steve Hilton with us. You all know him from his time at Fox News. He's running for

00:17:20.880 governor of California, which is a job that needs somebody much more competent in the role

00:17:27.660 than what they currently have. That is for sure. He is in L.A. right now. Steve, thanks

00:17:31.940 for being with us. Are you out on the street? I know you've seen a lot. Just trying to give

00:17:35.940 everybody a picture of where you are. So you're out on the streets in L.A. Bring us up to what

00:17:40.040 you have seen up to this point, what the reality has been on the ground.

00:17:43.880 So I mean, I've just popped in doors, so it's not so loud. The thing is very clear. It is a total

00:17:51.920 breakdown of law and order and civilized life and civilization. It is just absolutely shocking to see

00:18:01.440 what's been going on here. The smashed up businesses, most of them, by the way, owned by

00:18:07.400 working class Latinos whose lives are now being completely wrecked. They're not going to get 1.00

00:18:12.020 insurance. No one cares about that. Newsom doesn't care. Karen Bass doesn't care. All they care about 0.93

00:18:16.880 is pandering to their far left activists. So you've got the sort of total lack of care about

00:18:23.720 people's lives being destroyed. But in a way, the most shocking thing, and I put out a video of this

00:18:29.380 just last night. I was walking around after they'd cleared the main riot scene and dispersed the crowd

00:18:35.540 somewhat. And you saw the aftermath, every single surface covered in vile, disgusting graffiti.

00:18:43.460 And there's something so shocking about the scale of it. Literally everywhere you look,

00:18:48.240 F ICE, F Trump, by the way, F Israel a lot. So like, what's that got to do with anything that's

00:18:55.060 going on here? That tells you the kind of people we're dealing with here. And it's just this collapse

00:18:59.940 of standards of civilized behavior. You know perfectly well that not a single person who did

00:19:06.760 this will be held accountable by California authorities, will be prosecuted. All of these

00:19:11.020 things are crimes. I've spoken to DAs and sheriffs. It's very clear that what we've seen happening here,

00:19:16.340 they're felonies. Is anyone going to be prosecuted or held accountable? No, not by California authorities.

00:19:22.800 And so this is why we need to turn this around. This is a real moment, I think, for everyone in

00:19:27.200 California to realize we've got to go in a different direction. We cannot have this weakness and pandering

00:19:32.200 to the political activists instead of standing up for the decent law abiding majority.

00:19:38.600 Western, Steve, I appreciate you coming on. And certainly if I were in California, you'd have my

00:19:43.280 vote next year. But when you see so many people running around waving flags of foreign countries while

00:19:51.780 they are burning down Waymo vehicles or when they are raining down Molotov cocktails onto police

00:19:59.340 vehicles, what does it say not only about the United States and California, but also you've come from

00:20:06.500 England where this is a global struggle for the legitimacy, it seems to me, of Western civilization.

00:20:14.000 What you see here is happening in London. It's happening in Paris. It's happening in Rome.

00:20:18.780 There is, in many ways, I think, an attack on the entirety of Western civilization and values.

00:20:26.380 Do you sense that people in California feel that?

00:20:29.780 Yes, but they don't even know it. This is the thing. Because it's now the product of years and

00:20:34.360 years, decades, really, of creeping indoctrination in this ideology. I mean, whatever you want to call

00:20:43.840 it, wokeism. I made a whole sort of piece on it on my Fox show. We probably discussed it, Clay.

00:20:47.960 You know, a hundred years ago in the Frankfurt School in Germany, the Marxist philosophers,

00:20:55.000 an all-out war on the institutions of a civilized Western society, the family, faith, all of those

00:21:01.600 things. So this has been part of a long-burning plan. And I think because it's now so commonplace

00:21:06.860 throughout, started obviously in academia, but now throughout the public school system and so on,

00:21:11.700 they're not even aware that this is what they're spouting and that these values are what they're

00:21:16.640 upholding, even if you can call them values. I mean, it's just, it's a very serious situation.

00:21:20.980 But the good news is that we're confronting it finally, that we're standing up against it here

00:21:25.980 in America. That's not happening in England. It's not happening anywhere else. And so that is really

00:21:32.220 encouraging. And just as you see these appalling scenes, and I completely agree with it. It's so

00:21:37.420 shocking. I put that in one of my videos yesterday. I was walking around in the daytime in the

00:21:41.640 protest zone. Mexican flags everywhere, other Latin American flags flying. The best I could find

00:21:49.800 was one young guy on the roof of his car waving. It was 50-50. It was the Mexican flag on one side,

00:21:56.700 the stars and stripes on the other. That was the best I could find. I taped a little interview with

00:22:01.980 him. I'll be putting it out later today. Nice kid, but completely unaware of the sort of background to

00:22:08.060 this leftist indoctrination. But as I say, look at what's happening to fight back against it.

00:22:13.900 Look at the success of movements, the turning point, for example, and the youth vote in the last

00:22:20.640 election. We're not letting this go unchallenged. Steve, it's been amazing and kind of horrifying at

00:22:29.480 the same time to see some of what these Democrat leaders, from the governor, Gavin Newsom, down to

00:22:37.420 Mayor Bass of Los Angeles and other officials as well. Their responses to this range from the

00:22:45.060 outrageous to the entirely incoherent. You have on the one hand, they'll say things like,

00:22:50.320 don't be violent. That plays into Trump's hands. I don't know. I think they should be opposed to

00:22:55.160 political violence and assaults on officers and destruction of property, regardless of what that

00:22:59.720 will do to the poll numbers. And then beyond that, it's completely unclear what their objection

00:23:06.360 is, or rather, I should say, I think it is clear that their objection is not to anything other than

00:23:12.320 the enforcement of American immigration laws. There's no claim that federal authorities have

00:23:18.240 done something that is not lawful. They just are saying, whether it's the mayor, the governor,

00:23:22.540 or others, we don't like the enforcement of federal law. No. And you know what was completely

00:23:28.280 right? And the thing that really illustrated that was the almost, you know, like, like, like

00:23:34.800 revoltingly predictable way that when the first news broke of these enforcement actions, one by one

00:23:42.880 up popped on social media, the pandering statements from everybody in charge in Los Angeles. I use that

00:23:51.320 word advisory. Of course, they're not really in charge. One after another, up popped the statement

00:23:56.260 saying, we at this time, we're thinking of our community, all this not blather, pandering to the

00:24:02.400 activist left. And it was the mayor, which is totally predictable. And it was the governor, which was

00:24:08.640 totally predictable. But shockingly, and disturbingly, it was also the police chief, and the DA, every single

00:24:15.680 person in authority in California, putting out pandering statements, instead of saying, very clearly,

00:24:23.000 if you break the law, you will be prosecuted, we will hold you accountable, and we will not tolerate

00:24:30.160 lawlessness and disorder. None that nobody said anything like that. It was all pandering to the left.

00:24:35.820 And that tells you the rot that's gone on for so long in California. And that's what we need to change.

00:24:42.140 And the majority of people understand now what's really going on here, that we have people who are,

00:24:48.260 as I say, not really in charge, but the people at the top who have no interest in protecting the

00:24:54.300 interests of the majority of regular working people who are just being let down all the time by this

00:25:03.260 far left ideology. Steve, this is not standing alone either. January 31st, I think it took several

00:25:11.620 weeks you'll know better than me to put out the fires that were burning all over Los Angeles. I'm

00:25:17.660 not an expert in arson, but thankfully, lighting things on fire intentionally in Los Angeles seems

00:25:24.060 like a bad idea, given the history that we just went through. But also, to me, there's a connecting

00:25:29.840 thread here. And it is of Mayor Karen Bass, and also Governor Gavin Newsom, being unable to make

00:25:36.960 rational, reasonable decisions for the people of Los Angeles and the people of California.

00:25:42.400 Buck and I have talked about this a lot. Buck lived through it in New York City. Things got so bad

00:25:47.120 that people finally said, we need law and order. We need Rudy Giuliani, Mayor Bloomberg. They fixed New

00:25:52.080 York City in many ways, and they had to do it from an outsider perspective. Do you think that's what

00:25:56.980 you could bring? And are Californians, are things getting bad enough where Californians say,

00:26:02.020 we can't keep doing the same one-party decision-making? Yes, that is 100% the central

00:26:10.260 argument. We can't, that I make it, we cannot go on like this. And you can, look, it's all of a

00:26:15.280 piece. The fires, of course, and there's a similar pattern here, right, which is that the extremist

00:26:21.420 policies cause the problem. So with the fires, it was the environmental extremism that meant that you

00:26:27.560 have this tinderbox situation. They didn't clear the brush. They didn't do anything. You've got 0.58

00:26:31.340 residents were fined for protecting their own property by clearing the brush. So they have

00:26:36.760 the extremist policies that cause the problem. And then their response to the problem is totally

00:26:41.760 incompetent. And then they just lash around blaming someone else. Similar pattern here. 0.50

00:26:46.140 It was their extremist policies that caused this problem. The sanctuary, remember, it's the sanctuary

00:26:50.460 state policies that caused this whole situation, because there's no cooperation with federal

00:26:54.960 immigration enforcement and law enforcement, which means that these kinds of enforcement actions

00:27:00.400 are necessary. You don't see this in other states where you've got cooperation between the feds and

00:27:04.740 state and local authorities. So they cause the problem in the first place. Their response is

00:27:08.500 completely incompetent and inadequate. And then they blame someone else in this case, obviously Trump. 0.99

00:27:14.100 But there's another point I want to make, which is, which is about the pattern. Just a couple of

00:27:18.200 weekends ago in Los Angeles, you saw very similar scenes to what we've just witnessed this last past few

00:27:24.800 days. On a smaller scale, you had an illegal party, the roof party that got out of control,

00:27:30.420 the warehouse building, hundreds of people spilling out into the local community, marauding around,

00:27:36.020 smashing up businesses, vandalism everywhere, literally setting cars on fire. They commandeered a

00:27:41.860 police car, jumping all over it, graffiting the police car. What did the LAPD do? Nothing,

00:27:47.700 literally nothing. They stood back and just watched while all this happened. There was not a single

00:27:52.660 arrest. That's what's the problem here. You have people who will not enforce the law and uphold

00:27:58.920 standards of civilized behavior, which is the first responsibility of people in government. And

00:28:03.680 that message I'm drumming home loud and clear. And I think there really will be change in California

00:28:08.280 in 2026 because we cannot go on like this. Steve, real quick before we go, is it dying down or is

00:28:16.860 there a concern here that this could continue or maybe even worsen? I think it is. And I think

00:28:23.440 the president is dying down and that's good to see. And I think it's the direct result of the

00:28:28.600 president's tough response because you, I mean, everywhere you go is the National Guard holding

00:28:34.880 the line. And so I think that that has clearly made a difference. And last night was better than the

00:28:41.360 weekend. And, you know, let's hope tonight is better. It's early morning here still. So there's

00:28:46.520 not nothing going on particularly. But I think that it looks like things are getting more under

00:28:52.920 control. And of course, that's something we welcome. But it's exactly, I think, thanks to the tough

00:28:57.560 federal response, which, of course, all the politicians here, that's there. I mean, for goodness sake,

00:29:02.080 the governor of California spending his most of his time yesterday, you know, posting on X,

00:29:06.680 you know, anti-Trump trolling things and filing lawsuits instead of protecting.

00:29:12.660 It's madness. Madness. Yeah. He apparently he has neither read nor understood the Constitution,

00:29:16.820 Steve, but that's that's not news. We're aware of that one. Steve Hilton, what is your site for

00:29:21.440 the governor's race? Steve Hilton for governor dot com. F.O.R. Steve Hilton for governor dot com.

00:29:27.780 Well, we encourage everybody in California who wants things to change to go to Steve Hilton for

00:29:32.380 California dot com. Keep up the good work. And sorry. Yeah. For governor.

00:29:36.680 And stay safe out there. Fantastic. Great to be with you guys. Thanks.

00:29:41.180 That's Steve Hilton. He's hopefully going to be the next governor of California because God knows

00:29:45.020 they need a lot of help. Tunnel the Towers Foundation makes a lasting difference in real

00:29:49.040 lives like the lives of the Clark family. U.S. Air Force Sergeant Jesse Clark's military service

00:29:54.120 came to an end after chemical exposure caused a large tumor to form in his brain. As a result,

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00:30:34.480 That's all we're asking for at T2T.org. That's T, the number two, T.org.

00:30:41.200 Hey Buck, one of my kids called me an unk the other day. An unk? Yep, slaying evidently for not

00:30:54.700 being hip being an old dude. So how do we un-unk you? Get more people to subscribe to our YouTube 0.99

00:31:01.000 channel. At least that's what my kids tell me. That's simple enough. Just search the Clay Travis

00:31:05.100 and Buck Sexton Show and hit the subscribe button. Takes less than five seconds to help un-unk me.

00:31:11.040 Do it for Clay, do it for freedom, and get great content while you're there. The Clay Travis and

00:31:15.140 Buck Sexton Show YouTube channel. We're up here in Washington, D.C. visiting with many of our friends

00:31:21.180 in Congress as the big beautiful Bill winds winds, I guess is the correct word, its way through the

00:31:28.560 halls of Congress. It's in the Senate right now. And Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin is with

00:31:35.040 us and we are going to do a deep dive on spending, the bill, what should happen from his perspective

00:31:42.220 and where we are headed. So for people out there that really want to dive into some of the nitty

00:31:47.620 gritty about the economic policies in place, we wanted to bring you in because I would say you and

00:31:54.920 Rand Paul, Senator, I think it's fair to say, are probably at the forefront of we are spending way

00:32:01.620 too much money. And your argument has been that essentially, and you correct me if I'm wrong on

00:32:08.780 any of this, but I'm trying to lay it out and then let you make the case. Essentially, we have embedded

00:32:13.340 the government spending that started with COVID that accelerated at a rapid level as the default

00:32:19.140 basis for budgets going forward. Instead of, for instance, after World War II, drastically dialing

00:32:26.520 back spending, we have allowed that spending process to become the basis upon which all budget

00:32:32.740 bills since COVID have been crafted. Is that correct? How do we fix it if it is correct?

00:32:37.800 Well, first of all, welcome to this alternate universe.

00:32:40.240 Thank you.

00:32:40.640 Washington, D.C.

00:32:41.660 You know, we both were former residents here. So we're like reformed swamp creatures.

00:32:46.360 You're smart enough to move out and I come here part time. But no, I mean, you stated the

00:32:52.300 case pretty well. We spent $4.4 trillion in 2019. Pandemic hits, spent $6.5 trillion and

00:32:59.800 we never looked back. And I've probably said this on the show, I don't know of American 0.98

00:33:03.180 family, if they got ill, somebody got ill, they had to borrow $50,000, pay for medical

00:33:07.860 bills. If they got well the next year, they wouldn't keep borrowing $50,000 and keep spending

00:33:11.920 at that level. That's exactly what we've done. So 4.4, this year we'll spend over $7 trillion.

00:33:17.000 That's a 58% increase. Next year about 7.3. And I know these are a lot of numbers, but that's

00:33:21.920 why I do charts. Yep. And you know, what's, what's kind of depressing about my charts is

00:33:25.800 it lays out a pretty depressing reality. Let me throw some more numbers. Under the Bush

00:33:31.140 administration, eight years, they averaged deficits of $250 billion a year. Obama came

00:33:36.700 in his first four years, $1.3 trillion. I mean, that sparked the Tea Party movement.

00:33:41.920 That's why I came into town. The Tea Party movement had an impact. And those deficits in

00:33:46.800 his last term were $550 billion. Trump comes into office, had to do deals with Democrats,

00:33:51.900 his average deficit was $810. Then COVID hit. One year, $3.1 trillion deficit. And again,

00:34:00.680 with responsible leaders like we had in World War II, okay, pandemic's over, time to return

00:34:06.800 to pre-pandemic levels. It's not what Biden did. Biden continued to spend, again, this year

00:34:12.100 about $7 trillion. His average deficit for four years was $1.9 trillion.

00:34:16.580 Okay, wait. So let's, let's jump in right there. Because I think that's very important.

00:34:19.360 And we have the charts to work with, but all of our people all across the country are,

00:34:23.220 they're trying to visualize these numbers as we go. Where, yeah, he's holding it up. I

00:34:28.100 wish we had, oh, we could have some of the, they're really small. Yeah. But tell me this,

00:34:32.900 where is the additional money going? Because here's what happens every time we talk about

00:34:37.940 cutting. And I also have to bring up some of the objections to the objections to the big,

00:34:42.860 beautiful bill. And I want you to address those in a second. But first, anytime we talk about

00:34:46.460 cutting, we could light up the phones for three hours straight here. How dare you? You want to

00:34:51.540 touch my social security? How dare you? You want to touch my Medicare? Well, hold on a second.

00:34:55.860 If those things weren't being touched at $800 billion or a trillion a year, what, where's the

00:35:01.620 extra trillion dollars, give or take, that now is the post-pandemic spending norm? What's that money

00:35:07.700 going? It's literally across the board. And that's where I've laid out with my pre-pandemic levels of

00:35:11.820 spending, that analysis where you take actual total outlays, you exclude social security,

00:35:16.500 Medicare and interest, spend what you need to spend. And then you plus up all those other outlays by

00:35:21.880 population growth inflation. And if you do that for 2019, for example, this year, you'd be spending

00:35:28.280 6.5 versus the seven. You know, if you go back to Clinton or Obama, you'd be spending 5.5 to 6.2.

00:35:34.480 Okay. So again, it's across the board, which is why one of the solutions is we need to forensically

00:35:40.420 audit every line, every program like Doge has done. Okay. So you're telling me then that there

00:35:45.700 is, you know, of, of that spending increase, if it's coming from these, is it not, and you're not

00:35:52.860 going to touch, it sounds to me like you wouldn't touch the non-discretionary spending, right?

00:35:57.060 Because that's, that's, you're taking Medicare, social security and interest. You say that's right.

00:36:00.600 That's part of mandatory, but you also have Medicaid and we've got to fix the Obamacare 1.00

00:36:05.300 portion of that. Get a trillion dollars of other mandatory spending, which is what I

00:36:08.800 mean. Where's that other trillion dollars? That's it's, it's Medicaid and then just everything

00:36:13.260 else. So what they've done over years without, because nobody knows they're doing this because

00:36:18.900 you have these omnibus spending bills and just magically they move discretionary spending

00:36:22.860 into the mandatory accounts. So during COVID that other mandatory, not social security, Medicare

00:36:28.500 or even Medicaid, I think went up, topped out about $2.2 trillion. In 2019, it was $642

00:36:34.820 billion, went to $2.2. It's been ramping down. Last year, I think it was $1.3 trillion.

00:36:39.620 This year it'd be about a trillion. That's a trillion dollars. I mean, discretionary spending

00:36:43.200 is about $1.7.

00:36:44.320 You were a business guy. Trump was, and still is in many ways, a business guy. When you say

00:36:48.520 this to him, what does he say? Because he wants this thing passed with, with gusto. He wants

00:36:53.200 this big, beautiful bill. He believes, I'm sure you, you've talked about these numbers,

00:36:56.960 right? I'm sure. I was in the White House last Wednesday and when my time to talk, I pulled out

00:37:03.900 my chart and said, by the way, I've seen your last 10 appearances. You're too negative, Ron.

00:37:09.660 One of your charts saved the president's life. So this is a different chart than actually saved

00:37:16.820 his life. So one chart saved the president's life. I'm hoping this one saves America.

00:37:21.240 Okay. So he says what? Because the argument here is that they would like to get this bill

00:37:28.540 passed by July 4th on the Senate side. It's already passed the House side. Where are we?

00:37:34.580 Do you think that's likely? How does this get reconciled? How does the Senate, because it's

00:37:41.120 not just you, it's Rand Paul, it's others that have this perspective too, not a huge majority.

00:37:45.800 How does this get solved?

00:37:46.940 So again, just so he told me I was being too negative and I took that to heart. I have been

00:37:51.080 pretty hard. You're generally a very jolly fellow, I will say. I got a smile on my face. Okay, but

00:37:54.880 you got to lay out the reality. So I had a great meeting just a couple hours ago with Vice President

00:37:59.340 Vance and Kevin Hassett. And that was kind of what we arranged the White House. Okay, let's,

00:38:03.880 let's get on the same page. You know, I worked all weekend long. I wrote this report myself. These are

00:38:09.140 all my own charts. I'm the accountant here, right? But we're going to let Kevin Hassett and his economic

00:38:14.080 team go through these, you know, check out the numbers. I'm not sure when we release this,

00:38:18.280 but that's the first thing. You have to, you have to get on the same page. And what I told

00:38:22.200 the president of the White House is the first step in solving any problem is you have to admit you

00:38:25.880 have one. So again, I have, I have been too, too negative because I've been focusing on the macro

00:38:31.180 problem. And I haven't been talking as positively as I should on all the good things in the big,

00:38:36.640 beautiful bill, because there are a lot of good things. We fund the border. We fund defense.

00:38:40.880 This house did a pretty good job of identifying about $1.5 trillion in spending reduction. That's,

00:38:46.200 that's good. We extend current tax. We take an automatic tax increase off the table. We

00:38:50.500 avoid default. Okay. Those are all great things. My only point, and I'm sorry, I have to make it.

00:38:56.120 It just isn't enough. Okay. So what I've been asking for always is a commitment to a, to return to a

00:39:03.080 reasonable pre-pandemic level spending and a process to achieve and maintain it. Now I'm throwing into the,

00:39:09.400 the method because one and done won't work. I mean, this is great progress that we'd be making

00:39:16.620 with the one big, beautiful bill. I don't deny that, but it doesn't solve the problem. So

00:39:20.960 I'm looking for a forcing mechanism. So we come back in this Congress, not, not wait till winning

00:39:27.740 an election. You're telling me this is politically realistic because that's the next, the next question

00:39:31.800 is because, because this is what's being said. And you know, Stephen Miller's a very smart guy in

00:39:35.840 this white house. He's been out there making the case that the objections to this are, um,

00:39:42.320 more about people making a philosophical argument than operating within the reality of what is

00:39:49.700 possible. And that if you don't do it this way, you're going to have to work with Democrats down

00:39:54.120 the line who don't want to work with you. So can you address that? Again, we, we can use another

00:39:58.980 reconciliation process using the fiscal 2026 budget. Um, I have gotten just basically positive

00:40:05.160 feedback from president Trump's ardent supporters and also my supporters. Again, Republicans, we

00:40:11.360 realize we have a massive debt and deficit problem. Are there sad Republicans who won't go along with

00:40:15.080 what you want to do here? Is that, I mean, where's the problem? It seems so logical to us.

00:40:19.940 I would say part of it is marketing. Okay. The house was all focused on getting this thing done.

00:40:25.720 And you know, they, they pulled literally, they pulled $1.5 trillion out of the air. It really

00:40:29.960 wasn't in context. You know, when I saw that, I said, you guys have set the bar way too low.

00:40:34.960 Okay. We, we need trillions of dollars in longterm to get this thing done. But then they assigned more

00:40:41.020 than half of that to ENC, the committee, all they can do is Medicaid. So they just open themselves up.

00:40:46.700 You're going to slash Medicaid for, and you didn't make the case. You realize that what we're trying

00:40:51.780 to do is fix the Obamacare portion of Medicaid called Medicaid expansion that pays a dot when a

00:40:58.280 state puts a buck in for a single childless, you know, working age, able-bodied adult, the federal

00:41:05.680 government puts a nine bucks versus a dollar state puts in for a disabled child. Federal government

00:41:11.140 kicks in a dollar 33. That has led to all kinds of distortions. There was a great article in the

00:41:16.140 Wall Street Journal. A father of a 17 year old autistic child can't get home care for 10 years

00:41:22.100 because he's being crowded out by single adults. That should be worked on welfare. Medicaid is just 0.97

00:41:28.060 the big giant. And so, and so you literally are putting at risk the benefits for the people that

00:41:33.080 we want to help both in Medicare and in Medicaid. So you've got to root out these things, but you have

00:41:38.220 to make the case and you can't make it in five months. So the game plan here. So as I was talking to

00:41:43.400 Vice President, okay, it's going to take time. I propose a budget review panel, hire forensic

00:41:48.300 auditors, take the Doge team, transfer them over this process, a House, a Senate, a White House

00:41:53.180 effort to forensically audit every, all more than 2,000 lines of federal budget, more than 2,600

00:42:00.800 federal programs. And we've never done it. We've never done it. And even this process, you'll notice

00:42:05.100 they've exempted most spending, most programs. They focused on a couple. They get slaughtered in the

00:42:10.060 public opinion because Democrats, it's easy pickings for them because they have the press

00:42:14.920 behind them. I mentioned on the Sunday shows, it's so easy to be a Democrat. You spend, you

00:42:20.080 mortgage your kids' future, you never be held accountable by the media. It's hard doing what

00:42:25.020 we're trying to do. The good news for your listeners is that we're all pretty much on the

00:42:29.580 same page. We want to fix this problem. We just are dealing with something that's very

00:42:33.660 difficult to do.

00:42:34.340 What's timing look like? And how significant is timing from your perspective? Because the

00:42:39.520 White House has said they'd like to have this done in the Senate by July 4th. We know that

00:42:44.000 we don't have a very big majority in the House. So Mike Johnson, Speaker, is going to have to

00:42:48.140 go back and work through whatever conciliation bill is going to come out. What to you does

00:42:54.180 this time frame look like?

00:42:55.460 Well, I think most people thought the House, whatever the House passed, the Senate would

00:42:59.280 water down. I think the opposite is true. I think we're going to make it more conservative.

00:43:03.440 I think we're going to be doing even more reductions in terms of spending. And again,

00:43:07.660 I've got colleagues that are demanding it.

00:43:09.300 And there's some people who agree with you. Chip Roy, for instance, a friend of ours, on

00:43:14.260 the House side, wants way more spending, right? I mean, this was an issue for Mike Johnson.

00:43:18.120 Spending cuts.

00:43:18.840 Yeah, I mean, they voted for it because they kicked the can over to the House or the Senate,

00:43:23.120 hoping we'd make it more conservative.

00:43:24.800 So you talk about the marketing. I'm just going to say this. You know, we've had Senator Rand

00:43:28.400 Paul on the show. We've talked to him. We've heard about on this and so many issues.

00:43:31.560 And a lot of the time, I just think he's making great arguments. But in this moment,

00:43:36.000 to talk about how there's too much money going to the border after 10 million illegals came

00:43:41.140 in under the Obama, I mean, Biden administration, and to say that that's where we're going to

00:43:46.560 start to make the savings happen in a meaningful way. Even if numerically you could start to

00:43:52.320 make, I just think it's malpractice because people, and this is about saving the country

00:43:56.180 and, you know, just to save money when you're trying to save the country. I think people view

00:44:00.800 the urgency of the border and the illegal immigration issue as, you know, the policy

00:44:06.460 equivalent of a war, meaning if we don't do this thing right, we don't have the same America

00:44:10.380 going forward.

00:44:11.340 Well, I'm a really frugal guy, and I don't mind sharpening my pencil on any spending.

00:44:15.400 He is chairman of Homeland Security. He should be doing oversight on this. Again, in the first

00:44:19.960 administration, we've spent $6.6 billion to build 450 miles of wall. Now they're asking

00:44:27.300 $46.5 billion just for the wall.

00:44:31.460 Well, we didn't have enough money to finish the wall, though. I remember that was a problem.

00:44:34.960 But there's not 3,000 or 4,000 miles that have to be built.

00:44:38.420 So again, he's got a wall guy here.

00:44:41.240 He's asking the question.

00:44:42.380 Can you stay with us a little bit?

00:44:43.860 Sure, absolutely.

00:44:44.240 Because there's some more questions, but quickly, and then Buck's got to do a read here.

00:44:47.920 Your time frame, July 4th, any chance in your mind this is done by July 4th?

00:44:52.840 I think that's ambitious. I really think in the Senate we're looking more before August

00:44:57.060 recess.

00:44:57.740 Before August recess. And it has to be done before August recess?

00:45:00.420 Well, just the, you know, Decian's going to expire sometime mid-August to late September,

00:45:05.040 so that's part of the pressure. I mean, that's part of what they do. One of the reasons they

00:45:08.760 bundled this all up is, yeah, I don't want to see taxes increase. I don't want to default

00:45:12.520 on the debt, so that just puts pressure on us. So I've been very out front. Nobody should

00:45:16.740 be surprised. I wrote my first column on reasonable pre-pandemic level spending and options to

00:45:21.820 do it in the Wall Street Journal on January 1st. So again, I've been beating this drum

00:45:26.880 for a while.

00:45:27.300 Ron Johnson in the hot seat. He doesn't like it hot. He prefers it cold. He's from Wisconsin,

00:45:31.700 but we'll keep going. Look, we're not dealing with this debt. You know it, I know it, which

00:45:37.140 means that there's those long-term issues of governance and issues with the dollar. And owning gold is

00:45:44.920 just one way to prepare for that uncertain future. I've been a gold guy for over a decade.

00:45:49.600 My dad gave me my first gold coin when I was in my 20s. He said, you know what? He's a big gold

00:45:54.180 believer, and I've been a big gold believer ever since. I've been building up my gold reserves,

00:45:58.420 and man, the price of gold has seen great appreciation in just the past year, up 40%.

00:46:03.000 I'm also a big history guy. Clay likes to refer to us as history nerds. Has there ever been a time when

00:46:08.420 there's been a civilization in society that said, you know what? You know what I don't need?

00:46:11.380 Gold. No value in that. Yeah. There's a reason for this, all right? And that's why I think you

00:46:16.540 should call the Birch Gold Group. That's who I use. Trump administration's doing a lot to try to

00:46:21.460 right the ship, but they're not going to be able to do it all, and there's a lot more that we have

00:46:24.980 to look at in the future in terms of the spending. Gold makes sense. And by the way, you can invest in

00:46:30.940 gold, or you could just have part of your savings in a gold IRA or 401k. Very solid moves. One of the

00:46:38.160 best ways to protect your savings out there and to diversify with Birch Gold's help. Text my name,

00:46:43.180 Buck, to 989898. I just bought some more gold myself, bars and coins about two months ago. Text

00:46:50.160 Buck to 989898. Birch Gold will send you a free info kit on gold. No obligation, just useful

00:46:56.000 information. Again, text my name, Buck, to 989898, or go to this website, birchgold.com slash buck.

00:47:03.600 Canadian women are looking for more. More out of themselves, their businesses, their elected 1.00

00:47:16.500 leaders, and the world around them. And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk

00:47:20.900 podcast. I'm Jennifer Stewart. And I'm Catherine Clark. And in this podcast, we interview Canada's

00:47:26.520 most inspiring women. Entrepreneurs, artists, athletes, politicians, and newsmakers, all at

00:47:32.120 different stages of their journey. So if you're looking to connect, then we hope you'll join

00:47:36.540 us. Listen to the Honest Talk podcast on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

00:47:42.600 Clay and I in Washington, D.C., our nation's capital. But you're always with us when we're

00:47:48.220 on the air and off the air. Clay, I was getting a salad yesterday right from the airport, you

00:47:53.160 know, trying to stay healthy, trying to be beach ready over here that I can. You know, Clay

00:47:57.900 and I are trying to be trying to be fit radio hosts, which puts us into a that's certainly,

00:48:03.320 by the way, an oxymoron. You know, usually radio hosts. We like our bacon cheeseburgers.

00:48:07.640 But I was in there. And within a few minutes of setting foot in D.C., some of our wonderful

00:48:12.140 listeners came up to me and they said they love the show and they were visiting here.

00:48:16.020 They were not swamp natives, but they were visiting our nation's capital. So it's great to be here

00:48:20.860 with all of you. As you know, we've got a whole bunch of meetings lined up with the people

00:48:25.080 calling the shots here. Some at their request, they said they want to spend some time with

00:48:29.060 us. So we're here doing our D.C. tour so we can touch base with with everybody from the

00:48:34.140 president on down who is running things. And also over the weekend, Clay, you know, we've

00:48:40.420 talked a little bit here about how it would be fun to get you and Laura. We all know Laura

00:48:45.980 is going to be a fantastic shot if she isn't already do a range day. So my brother Mason

00:48:50.940 and I completed the NRA pistol instructor certification course over the weekend, had

00:48:56.400 to call, had to actually go through a bunch of a bunch of range qualifications in order

00:49:01.660 to do it. But we came through. Those of you who are wondering, it's 15 yards, steel sites,

00:49:08.080 20 shots. I know a lot of you are instructors and I know a lot of you are instructors, you

00:49:12.120 know, black belt with three stripes on it, all that. But for those who aren't instructors,

00:49:15.940 it was 15 yards, iron sites. That wasn't a requirement, but our guy wanted us to make

00:49:22.240 sure we were we were dialed in. So it was 15 yards, iron sites, at least I think it was

00:49:26.960 16 or 17 out of 20 in that six inch target. So yeah. So Clay, we can set up a range day

00:49:34.060 for you now. It'd be absolutely fantastic. NRA certified and ready to rock and roll.

00:49:38.760 Big timers. Yeah, that would be a lot of fun because my wife is pretty fired up about 1.00

00:49:45.320 the need for for firearms training. So I mentioned this on Mother's Day. She had the kids and

00:49:51.740 me out on the range getting trained in firearms. I know. I loved it. I saw the photos. I saw

00:49:58.000 the video of it. I don't know how many people wanted to spend their Mother's Day that way,

00:50:01.160 but that's what my wife was. That was brilliant. I was so, so pleased to see it. I'll just tell

00:50:05.000 you that it was fun. During there were about 20 people in this class. We had an excellent

00:50:09.060 instructor down in South Florida, but we had about 20 people in the class and I'd say

00:50:13.300 about half of them. It was only two days, right? It was Saturday and Sunday all day.

00:50:18.200 But at the end, they all came up like, Hey man, love the show. So we had a lot of, I was

00:50:22.020 like, I think we're in a pistol class in South Florida with NRA members. And these are people

00:50:27.300 that shoot a lot, a lot of law enforcement, a lot of a lot of people who the guns are something

00:50:33.120 that they're, they're caring for part of their job who are in the class. And, and we got

00:50:36.460 a lot of Clay and Buck people in there. So it was unsurprising. Yeah. I was like, I think

00:50:39.880 we're with our people here. I looked around. It's like, Oh, we are with our people. I think

00:50:42.880 there's also, I mean, this is not going to surprise you. We were up here for inauguration day,

00:50:46.780 but I do think that there are a lot of people that the Trump team has brought into DC, even

00:50:52.700 though DC is 92% or whatever it is of a Democrat stronghold. You know, I lived here during a Republican

00:51:00.040 administration and I lived here for during at least part of a Democrat. So I was here for

00:51:04.520 the Bush years. Oh, basically second Bush term. I lived the whole second Bush term. I lived

00:51:09.720 in DC, uh, more or less. And the first two years of Obama, I think I was here. And then

00:51:17.200 when you have that transition from one party to the other, it feels like a very different

00:51:23.860 town just based on who's here. And, uh, the vibe I was a kid. So it was less noticeable to

00:51:30.360 me, meaning I was in college. Uh, but I came in at the very end of the Clintons and then the George

00:51:35.640 W. Bush era and then left right before nine 11, which obviously changed things tremendously,

00:51:41.440 uh, for the worse in so many different ways. I mean, one of the reasons we're up here now is

00:51:46.220 obviously to get as many senators in as possible. You heard from Ron Johnson yesterday, we had

00:51:50.080 Tommy Tuberville and Marsha Blackburn in here. We want to talk to as many newsmakers as we can in

00:51:55.020 person, a lot more. We're going to have Marco Rubio in studio with us on Thursday, uh, for a

00:52:01.120 couple of segments, which I think you guys will really enjoy. Secretary of state will dive into

00:52:05.160 some of those Ukraine questions, uh, that so many of you have. And also what's going on, uh, in the

00:52:11.200 middle East with Iran, a lot of different things we can talk about with Marco Rubio. Uh, but my, uh,

00:52:17.660 17 year old and his friend, I've I'm in charge of them. And I was telling you yesterday, we were in

00:52:22.800 Georgetown. I am so thankful that I've got a 17 year old boy because if I had a 17 year old

00:52:28.400 daughter, there's no way she's going to be right. I said, Hey guys, just make sure he and his friend,

00:52:32.340 Hey, make sure you're back by, by dark. Uh, and you guys can run around and you'd be in

00:52:36.820 Georgetown. I'm gonna be honest with you, Buck. If I had a 17 year old daughter, there's no way on

00:52:42.520 planet. I would be letting her run around in Washington, DC. I would be nervous about her 1.00

00:52:48.280 because, cause you have obviously, uh, you know, I have this with my wife where you have the, uh, 0.99

00:52:54.500 location finder on your phone. My wife, Carrie knows where I am at all times. She knows where,

00:52:58.980 uh, she, where, uh, you know, and vice versa. Um, but I know you have that with your boys,

00:53:04.000 but of course, you know, immediate family. Well, if you had a 17 year old daughter,

00:53:07.940 what do you think? She'd have to carry a GoPro around, you know, kind of like a, like a cop,

00:53:11.640 like she has to wear a body cam just to make sure everything is on the up and up.

00:53:14.760 I was glancing down just to make sure, you know, like, Hey, where are they? Uh, when we were,

00:53:19.620 um, having drinks. Um, and, uh, and I, that's when I was like, I mean, if I had a 17 year old

00:53:25.340 daughter, there's no way on the planet, I would be like, Hey, just go wander around it. You and your

00:53:29.840 teenage girlfriend, just go wander around in Georgetown, have as much fun as you want. 1.00

00:53:34.200 Just make sure you're backed by dark. No dad, they would, they would, unfortunately for them,

00:53:38.680 they would have to do every meal with dad. Um, and, uh, and I'm not as much worried about the boys

00:53:43.600 running around. Maybe that's a poor decision by me on parenting, but who's the disciplinarian of

00:53:48.200 you? My wife is way tougher than I am. That's probably not going to surprise you, but, um, 1.00

00:53:53.580 but I actually, I think, I think Carrie is going to be for young James. I think Carrie is going to,

00:53:58.740 I'm going to be busy like buddy. You don't want me to turn this over to your mom, right? I think

00:54:02.620 Carrie is going to be the law and order in our house. She's pretty tough on him. Sometimes it's

00:54:06.360 kind of funny. We both are in that position. I'm going to be the one who's like, ah, you know,

00:54:09.660 stuff happens. It's, um, I already feel a little bit sorry for the girlfriends of these, uh, these

00:54:16.420 boys, because I don't think that my boys, um, that I don't think she's going to go too easy on

00:54:20.840 them. Um, so anyway, I give thanks every single day that I've got three boys instead of three girls.

00:54:26.060 And I was thinking about that yesterday, um, as, uh, as we were rolling through, uh, enjoying,

00:54:31.260 let's dive in. You, you know, this one better than me. I saw some of it over the weekend. I know

00:54:34.860 you talked to Riley Gaines yesterday. There's some updates to this. The Simone Biles, who I

00:54:39.640 remember, I got all this. You got crushed when we just started. Yeah. I mean, crush might

00:54:44.820 be a little strong. There were some, there were some sour leftists out there saying some

00:54:48.100 mean things. How many things have you said on the show that you have gotten ripped for

00:54:52.360 harder than by like national media figures? Very few. Like I, I'm sitting here, I am like

00:54:57.260 deport them by the millions and no problem. Hey, I don't think we need to celebrate Simone

00:55:02.980 Biles stepping away from her team during the Olympics. I didn't say that I wasn't like, oh,

00:55:08.820 she's a coward, you know, whatever. And she's in incredible shape and I'm not, and she's 1.00

00:55:11.640 a world-class gymnast. I just said, you know, if you pull a hammy and you can't finish, it's

00:55:16.740 not, you know, it's not brave. You go on the injured list. You go on the, exactly. That's

00:55:20.400 all I was saying. And I got all these people or so. So, so there's a little, little history

00:55:24.260 here, a little history here. And I got, I actually got, I got, uh, tagged by a few national

00:55:28.300 media figures on that one. But anyway, um, update everybody on the latest here. Cause she

00:55:33.200 said, as I said along too, look, I saw this from afar, Riley Gaines to say Riley Gaines looks

00:55:37.880 like a man. Every guy in our audience is like, nah, sorry. And every gal, I think, but I

00:55:44.780 just, you know, every guy's like, no, it doesn't look like a man. Nice try. It was a tough argument.

00:55:49.100 Um, out of nowhere though, for those of you missed it, Riley was on yesterday talking about

00:55:53.600 this. Simone Biles just ripped her for saying, and all Riley had done that set the precipitated

00:55:58.860 this was Riley shared a photo of a Minnesota high school softball championship team. And a

00:56:06.100 boy was on the girls team, which is absurd and way taller. And all she said was they

00:56:11.820 turned the comments off. So people on social media couldn't react. And out of nowhere, Simone

00:56:16.560 Biles decided to tee off on her and then said, you look like a man, which again, I mean, Simone

00:56:22.760 Biles has done all these body positivity things. Riley is five, you know, she measured herself

00:56:28.080 like five, five or five, six. So now after multiple days of just getting attacked, like

00:56:35.180 crazy for being on the wrong side of this issue, I want to, you haven't seen this. I want to

00:56:39.880 read Simone Biles has some sort of strange PR apology up. And here's what she posted just

00:56:46.340 a little bit ago. I wanted to follow up from my last tweets. I've always believed competitive

00:56:54.080 equity. First of all, Buck, competitive equity, competitive equity is not a thing. Competitive

00:57:01.260 equality is a thing. The entire point of competition is to eliminate equity. We don't want everybody

00:57:08.820 to be the exact same. But I always believe competitive equity and inclusivity are essential

00:57:15.600 in sport. The current system doesn't adequately balance these important principles, which often

00:57:22.440 leads to frustration and heated exchanges. And it didn't help for me to get personal with Riley,

00:57:28.980 which I apologize for. These are sensitive, complicated issues that I truly don't have the

00:57:34.400 answers or solutions to. But I believe it starts with empathy and respect. This is written for her

00:57:40.460 by some PR crisis team. A hundred percent. We know that you and I have been in this game long

00:57:44.520 enough to know that. And she's still still going. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, no, no. The PR team

00:57:50.540 wrote this ridiculous statement. I was not advocating for policies that compromise fairness in women's

00:57:56.280 sports. My objection is to singling out children for public scrutiny in ways that feel personal and

00:58:01.960 harmful. Individual athletes, especially kids, should never be the focus of criticism of a flawed system

00:58:07.260 they have no control over. I believe sports organizations have a responsibility to come up

00:58:12.280 with rules supporting inclusion while maintaining fair competition, which is actually impossible.

00:58:17.440 We all want a future for sport that is fair, inclusive and respectful. Hugs and kisses, Simone.

00:58:22.960 Yeah. Okay. So that was written by a PR team. Yeah. But she realizes there are a few things here.

00:58:27.700 First of all, her position, first and foremost, her position is not just on her real position. I don't

00:58:34.140 mean the PR thing. The thing that she said about Riley, her position on men and women's sports

00:58:39.360 is irrational and indefensible. And then to add on top of that, to go after a, honestly,

00:58:48.100 anyone's appearance based on a political issue like this, you've always really lost just to start

00:58:52.700 off with. I mean, to do the like, you look like a man thing. Fortunately, Riley, you know,

00:58:57.560 we don't have to get into this, but no one thinks Riley looks like a man. I mean, she's very,

00:59:01.100 very lovely woman in very good physical condition. Um, and, uh, I just think that she realized that

00:59:07.760 she did real brand damage here on top of the political issue. You don't attack somebody's 1.00

00:59:12.180 appearance, especially somebody who's really good looking like that's just insane.

00:59:15.020 I think she lit herself on fire here and it took three, four days for her to put out this

00:59:22.060 mealy mouthed jumbly, not particularly well, even with all of the PR dollars that she's spending, 0.88

00:59:30.360 that was just a jumble and nothing. And when you just type out what somebody tells you to say,

00:59:36.700 I would have more respect for, even though I would disagree with her completely. If she just said,

00:59:41.940 I said what I said, I'm right now. Yeah. Own it at least. I know I wouldn't agree with the

00:59:47.900 Clay Travis special right there. I'm doubling down. I'm tripling. I'm not saying that I'm not going to

00:59:52.880 say at some point in my career, something that I didn't intend to say, but in 20 years,

00:59:57.980 it's never happened. So you should apologize. I've been married 20 years. Look, you should

01:00:02.980 apologize if you do things that you don't intend to do and that, that, that are, are not reflective

01:00:09.760 of your intentionality, but that's not this. And also she could have written, she, she could have

01:00:15.440 just written out and said, you know, and we would know it was from her, meaning she actually did the

01:00:19.320 writing. Simone Biles could, could write out on her Twitter or Instagram or wherever this is.

01:00:24.100 And Riley, that was, that was wrong. You know, you're a beautiful young woman and a talented

01:00:28.040 athlete. And I'm sorry that I would, I'm sorry that I would cross the line. There's a heated

01:00:32.060 political issue. And I just want to have respect for all people or whatever, something where she

01:00:36.320 doesn't even have to get too deep into the politics of it, but something that's a little

01:00:39.680 bit heartfelt. This is my PR team came in and cleaned up my mess, which to me is once again,

01:00:46.960 inauthentic. Like, I just don't believe that she wrote this herself. She clearly did not.

01:00:50.880 Of course. But so that's what, so it's, it's not an authentic apology. If it's an authentic

01:00:55.040 apology, you write it yourself. You just say, look, I'm, I crossed the line. My bad. I wouldn't

01:00:58.760 do that again. And, you know, and you could move on from there. But to me, this is just,

01:01:02.820 I still wonder Buck, what is the intent here? She's not that active on social media. She's 0.99

01:01:08.800 not that political. Did someone pay her to attack Riley like this? It doesn't make any sense

01:01:15.120 to me that you would suddenly decide based on a photo of a Minnesota team. She might've seen

01:01:21.960 someone else that she respects and likes, or that wants the approval of. This is just me

01:01:26.320 surmising or analyzing this. And, and she thought that there was an opportunity here to score some

01:01:31.900 points with someone or some group that she wants the admiration of, because I agree with you. This

01:01:37.560 is not, you know, they're, they're like when, when Keith Olbermann's chirping at you, it's because

01:01:41.740 he's always chirping at everybody, right? I mean, it doesn't, that's his job, right?

01:01:45.200 That's what I'm saying.

01:01:45.900 Whatever you agree or disagree. Like most people I think like Simone Biles and now they don't.

01:01:50.760 Yeah. I mean, Keith Olbermann has a constituency, miserable, childless, 65 year old women that he 1.00

01:01:55.280 represents. And that's just the way it goes. And he looks more and more every single day like a

01:02:01.580 miserable, childless, 65 year old lesbian. True story. A friend of mine just got back from a trip 1.00

01:02:06.100 with his family to Ireland. Do you know who he bumped into on the street in Dublin? He bumped into

01:02:11.020 Rosie O'Donnell on the street. That's really. And as a fellow American, he's obviously conservative.

01:02:14.940 He was just kind of like, wait, really? And he asked her, he said, how do you like it here? She

01:02:18.380 said, she doesn't like it. She's going to come home. Of course she doesn't like it. I mean,

01:02:21.560 America, the Irish don't like her. There are maybe, this would be a fun debate. If you're super

01:02:27.500 wealthy as Rosie is, there are only a handful of countries that would be actually better than the

01:02:33.620 United States, even for the South super wealthy. Ireland's not one. She lived in LA. Weather's

01:02:39.080 perfect. You know, she's super rich. I'm not surprised. There's a reason my people look

01:02:43.800 the way we do, you know, not a lot of sunshine, a lot of booze, you know, so I'm just saying

01:02:48.780 the Irish. Yeah, you know, it's true. Don't send me that stuff. You know, it's true. Look, 1.00

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