00:11:55.380So, again, this is what we talked about before,
00:11:59.040and I think you got the benefit of actually seeing it.
00:12:02.960I suspect, Buck, that they will agree to disagree.
00:12:06.720I saw Marco Rubio had some sort of strong comments on what would happen with Taiwan,
00:12:12.180and some people out there say, why should we care?
00:12:14.460And I do think it's worth pointing this out. If we don't get the semiconductors, if we don't get the chips, basically all of AI and all of the investment that's going on right now that is propelling much of the economic growth in this country would cease to exist.
00:12:34.080So China's in trouble because they don't produce a lot of oil and gas related to the Strait of Hormuz.
00:12:39.980We would be in trouble if China controlled all of Taiwan's semiconductor chips.
00:12:45.140That's a pretty good way, I think, of distilling the danger geopolitically that each country would face.
00:12:51.860Yeah, the modern economy, as we know, would come to a screeching halt without the supply of chips from Taiwan.
00:12:57.840No one disagrees with that, I might add.
00:21:25.500It was a huge movie theater near downtown Nashville.
00:21:29.960Breadwinner, and I was thinking about this, and it's interesting we brought up, like, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Rick Moranis, Ghostbusters.
00:31:43.840That's one of the most true things that I think has ever been said.
00:31:46.880The culture shift, I'm optimistic, has become significant.
00:31:50.180I think Nate Bargatze's movie, The Breadwinner, being made.
00:31:53.120I think the fact that the most popular comedian in America right now is a clean comedian is evidence of there being a desperate desire for something that people can share together.
00:32:04.380I think one reason sports has gotten popular, new ratings highs, Buck,
00:32:08.460is because there is a desperate demand in this streaming age
00:32:12.660for still big events that we all come together and experience together.
00:32:16.940And so I think culture matters in that context in a massive way.
00:32:20.480I think Bergazi and there are others who aren't as clean as his comedy is,
00:32:24.140but there are others who are actually doing, truly doing comedy now,
00:32:27.400whereas we've gotten used to particularly the late night hosts
00:32:31.220are leftist commentators who make fun of people.
00:32:34.380that's what who make fun of republicans that's actually what they are they're not comedians
00:32:38.100they are leftist political commentators who make fun of trump and people who vote for trump
00:32:42.980Nate Borghazi is a comedian anyone can go to his shows and they will laugh because it is funny and
00:32:50.080it is meant for everyone and that's actually the way it should be it should be meant to make people
00:32:54.740laugh uh not to be a constant lecture by dimwits who are reading off of a prompter all right when
00:33:01.460we talk about the people of israel we're talking about people connected to a promise it's a promise
00:33:04.920made by god one he's never broken and one that continues even today and that matters especially
00:33:10.040when the israeli population has been subjected to ongoing missile and drone attacks let alone
00:33:14.400the terror they experienced by hamas several years ago it's a call for all of us to respond and show
00:33:18.980our support the international fellowship of christians and jews are the non-profit organization
00:33:23.160that's built a bridge of support between christians following the word of god and the jewish
00:33:27.540population in need ifcj are on the ground in israel their team delivers food cares for the
00:33:33.020vulnerable remind those who serve that they're not alone join us in praying for peace in the
00:33:38.080middle east throughout israel and beyond visit this website pray ifcj.org that's pray ifcj.org
00:33:45.180miss the show while you're on the go wind down your day with the daily review podcast
00:33:50.260find it on the iheart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts welcome back in play travis
00:33:56.520buck sexton show we are joined now by our friend senator dave mccormick of pennsylvania had a great
00:34:03.560dinner at his house the night before the white house correspondence dinner and actually we
00:34:08.920finished the dinner at your house uh senator thanks for having wife and i over among uh among
00:34:15.380others an awesome time and your wife uh dina powell mccormick who is now at facebook we'll
00:34:21.560get into all the different political machinations on uh on pennsylvania and more and what's going on
00:34:27.440in the senate but she's in beijing right now have you been able to talk to her text with her hear
00:34:32.980from her what has she said about that state visit uh trip so far yeah well listen thanks good good
00:34:39.400to be with you guys now i'm super proud of her you know she's the president of meta so it's a big
00:34:43.760deal um we haven't i haven't had a chance to get much of a download on the trip i just know she's
00:34:48.140there safe. And she told me she was in the dinner and it was amazing. But, you know, it's an
00:34:53.960important it's an important trip. And, you know, I always start this by saying I think I think we
00:34:59.180got to we got to talk about China is the true adversary that it is. Our starting point has to
00:35:05.160be that China is vying for global superpower to replace America. And so I really applaud the
00:35:11.580president's efforts at diplomacy. But we should have no doubt that we're dealing with a country
00:36:37.820One, it's not exactly trade, but I think we've made a lot of progress and the president will
00:36:42.400double down on the fentanyl pre-factors and stopping the flow of those into Mexico and
00:36:48.840into the United States. That's what has killed almost 100,000 Americans a year for the last
00:36:53.940four or five years. I think it'll be a big focus on farm products, soybeans, big deal
00:36:58.740that China buys soybeans, buys natural gas, buys petroleum. And in a time when Iran is
00:37:06.860and the strait is closed, I think American energy is going to be an area where we hopefully can find
00:37:12.220common ground. It sounds like from the reporting that there's been an agreement on the H200
00:37:17.980chips from NVIDIA. Frankly, I'm not in favor of that. Respectfully, I disagree with that. I think
00:37:24.540it's not going to do anything but accelerate China's AI rise. But that was a decision I think
00:37:32.620made, and that's very valuable to China. I think that's probably allowing them to make
00:37:36.180some pretty significant concessions on the other side. And so, you know, I think the way I
00:37:41.780talk about this, I think there's probably some tactical wins that the president's going to be
00:37:46.500able to bring back and say, we've made real progress. Also making sure that China lives
00:37:51.540up to the commitments it's made in the past. You're traveling around all over the ultimate
00:37:57.120battleground state of Pennsylvania. I want to get kind of your read on what you see on the ground
00:38:02.460in Pennsylvania. You won a close election, thankfully, Senate seat. John Fetterman is
00:38:08.240also there. You have a very good relationship with Fetterman. I'm curious what you think his
00:38:12.700political future is going to be. And generally, when you're going around and talking to your
00:38:17.400constituents all over Pennsylvania, what are they telling you they care about the most as
00:38:22.140the midterms get closer and closer? Yeah, I think it's I mean, I think they feel
00:38:27.820mostly pretty good. Jobs, jobs, jobs. And the economy is the focus. I mean, they're certainly
00:38:34.280very, very focused on Iran and other things. But I think they're really seeing the benefit
00:38:38.900of a number of the big things President Trump has done, particularly energy dominance
00:38:43.580for an energy state. We're the second largest producer of energy. We're the fourth largest
00:38:48.340natural gas reserves in the world. So, Clay, if we were a country, we'd be number four.
00:38:53.280And I was in Pennsylvania last week. I visited Shippingport. They're making a big coal conversion to natural gas. That's going to be 1.1 gigawatts, thousands of jobs building the energy capability and also the data centers.
00:39:07.420I also went to or I've got to download a Homer City. This is a place that they're building 4.4 gigawatts of energy. That's 1% of domestic energy demand. So huge job creation from advanced manufacturing data centers and energy. I think they're feeling some more money in their pockets because of the Working Families Tax Cut Act. $3,500 on average, 11% more money in the pockets of folks.
00:39:33.460But I also think they're feeling that that jump in gas prices. If you're living paycheck to paycheck, which a lot of Pennsylvanians are, $52,000 a year is the median income. And if gas goes up a buck and a quarter, man, you feel it. And so I don't want to downplay that they're feeling. And I think they know that we can't let Iran have a nuclear weapon. So they support the president. But they're feeling the bite. And I think they're hoping and I'm hoping that that will come to an end relatively quickly.
00:40:00.660You have a good relationship with Senator Fetterman, also from Pennsylvania.
00:40:05.520I know he voted for your friend, Kevin Warsh, to be put on as chair of the new Fed board.
00:40:34.000He votes 80 percent of the time or more with Democrats.
00:40:37.280So it's not like we agree on everything, but we look for areas where we can do good things for Pennsylvania, whether it's fentanyl or whether it's funding for the highways or whatever it is.
00:41:07.180I've never asked him what he plans to do.
00:41:09.000I've never tried to encourage him to change parties.
00:41:12.920I think he needs to do what's best for him.
00:41:15.560But I think he's a pretty unique person.
00:41:18.600And the thing, it's interesting, Clay.
00:41:19.940I mean, of all the stuff we've done in Pennsylvania, the Energy and Innovation Summit, the jobs, all the investment that's coming, the thing people pull me aside and say the most about is the fact that he and I work together.
00:41:31.280And I think, you know, maybe it's because Pennsylvania is a purple state.
00:43:36.200You can't live in this world of uncertainty where you allocate capital and then it gets re-litigated.
00:43:42.520That's the reason three pipelines were canceled in Pennsylvania since 2019.
00:43:47.920So this could be a big deal for the economy.
00:43:49.860It's an area where I think we can find enough bipartisan support because the permitting, the accelerating and permitting, would be across everything.
00:48:03.640They could not acknowledge this energy revolution, what was required.
00:48:06.820So she's going to have to get she's going to have to get very much a Ph.D. in what the issues are for working people before she's going to be able to win nationwide and certainly win in Pennsylvania.
00:51:20.920We discussed it in the first hour of the program.
00:51:23.660I'm sure we will discuss it some with Senator Dave McCormick of Pennsylvania, who will join us at the bottom of the hour.
00:51:30.060His wife, Dina Powell McCormick, is in Beijing right now with President Trump as one of those executives that traveled with the president on the China state visit.
00:51:41.920We will see if Senator McCormick has gotten any feedback from his wife.
00:51:46.000buck one thing that uh i'm sure is going on is you've been to china before what did you do about
00:51:51.840phones when you were in china because i i if i were elon musk or i was dina power mccormick or
00:51:58.960the tim uh cook the ceo of apple right now uh yensen wong all the nvidia ceo i imagine they
00:52:06.380had to get special phones didn't they wouldn't you want a special phone when you went into china
00:52:10.960i brought nothing electronic with me when i went to china at all uh at all uh and i was advised not
00:52:18.120to and i knew about this from my previous life what the capabilities of the chinese surveillance
00:52:24.100state are and uh when i was there i rented a smartphone which of course could not use it
00:52:31.600could not go on google or facebook or these other sites uh but i rented a smartphone and knew that
00:52:39.060everything that i did was under full surveillance the whole time so that's the way that you have
00:52:44.320to operate when you're in well with and you leave it behind but you don't bring anything
00:52:48.260you don't buy anything electronic heavens no and bring it back with you either you leave that
00:52:52.600smartphone there and you hope that they haven't been able to get into your passwords and stuff
00:52:56.940when you've accessed things overseas so you got to be very very careful because they will so you
00:53:01.820would you would probably just advise basically those ceos to just not take communication devices
00:53:07.640while they're over there, and almost just because of the piracy that goes on,
00:53:13.240the state espionage, the stealing of assets.
00:53:17.980I would probably just say don't even worry about trying to have a phone
00:53:21.380while you're in China, or I would imagine the United States is creating
00:53:25.800some form of a skiff, right, that they are able to communicate from
00:58:35.520like when you raise your hand and swear to tell the whole truth that is a courtroom proceeding
00:58:42.920the equivalent of it when you're testifying to congress wasn't she california attorney general
00:58:48.180am i forgetting not only was she california attorney general buck she sat on the senate
00:58:52.960judiciary committee which makes this one of the dumbest takes that i have ever heard she's calling
00:58:58.280for a criminalization of a crime that has already been criminalized and that uh people have been
00:59:04.440prosecuted for violating now perjury as we have talked about on this program before is a very hard
00:59:10.040charge to prove because you have to prove knowledge intent uh perjury is just a high standard
00:59:16.440um and so it is very difficult oftentimes to get a perjury conviction but look i mean let's just
00:59:24.220focus on this puerto rico and washington dc that would be four in theory four new democrat seats
00:59:31.700if we know buck that democrats will do away with the filibuster what she is trying to do is say we
00:59:38.820need to get to 50 plus the president which would get a tie break and then we can add those two
00:59:44.420states that will get us to 54 and democrats are then gambling that if they get four extra senate
00:59:50.920seats that they would be able to hold control of the senate uh for many years to come particularly
00:59:58.260Literally, if we abolish the Electoral College, I guess she would go straight popular vote at that point, which, of course, is interesting and ironic and a little bit funny because she lost the national popular vote to Trump.
01:00:09.560So she would have lost whether the Electoral College existed or not.
01:00:14.340Obviously, money would be spent very differently if the Electoral College were abolished and the winner-take-all system would be different.
01:00:22.120my point on all this is this is a radical i understand she's probably going to say the
01:00:28.920cover is well i'm just brainstorming ideas i'm not saying i'm going to endorse him
01:00:32.720but expanding the supreme court expanding the senate uh neutralizing red states from cheating
01:00:39.640whatever that means expanding potentially the house of representatives if democrats get back
01:00:45.600into power all of the time that you guys out there listening to me uh and buck have spent
01:00:51.440fighting with each other is going to be so much wasted energy because you're fighting over subtle
01:00:58.760differences of political perspective and democrats will just drop a political neutron bomb on you
01:01:05.660and you've been in knife fights and instead you're going to have nuke weapons dropped on you
01:01:10.460and and it's it's also an answer to anyone who has the question out there still have the democrats
01:01:17.320moderated have they pivoted have they shifted in response to trump's 2024 win absolutely not
01:01:25.480so you're wondering hey have they have they learned their lesson um the lesson they've learned
01:01:31.740is as soon as they're in power they are going to unleash the fury on us as much as they possibly
01:01:38.480can get as crazy as they can um everything that we can point to and say we've been they've been
01:01:45.220proven wrong they will go back and try to do those wrong things again whether it's the border or
01:01:50.280crime or spending or anything they will make a mess of all these things again which is why
01:01:56.040it's so important that the republicans maintain power and that trump stays on message and keeps
01:02:02.480the focus here with the agenda going forward to get as much done as possible so that whoever the
01:02:07.660republican nominee is can run with a powerful party record uh and record of trump achievements
01:02:14.720behind him or her uh probably going to be him but nonetheless that's where i see all of this
01:02:20.140and kamala harris oh she was she was speaking by the way clay i didn't know this the team told me
01:02:25.860this uh she was speaking to a quote win with black women virtual meeting so this is why her
01:02:35.760your vernacular was noted but again i she as long as she knows this and if i were at kamala
01:02:42.500harris's campaign manager uh which uh would be an awful job but if i were that person and i got paid
01:02:49.240a billion dollars if kamala were the nominee i would say kamala this campaign is black women
01:02:57.220directed black women as long as they stay in your corner you're going to be the nominee
01:03:02.280there is nobody else that has a contingent of the democrat electorate this is why i'm saying
01:03:08.840poly market cal she like these prediction markets where you can go and you can wager on who the
01:03:14.420nominee is you can get kamala 10 to 1 she's only 10 chance right now the favorite is gavin newsom
01:03:21.320what's gavin newsom's base that's never leaving him i don't think it exists could he be more
01:03:27.260appealing what are you talking about wine moms who are on marriage number three who are thinking
01:03:34.780wow that guy is handsome see the wind blowing through his hair what a silver fox look at how
01:03:39.780that shirt is buttoned i will say our friend alexi lawless and gavin newsome they do more
01:03:48.060alexi law is going to be the head uh fox commentator for the world cup we were hanging
01:03:52.380out this weekend this week in dc alexi and gavin they have more unbuttoned dress shirts than
01:03:59.900anybody i've ever seen like you can basically see their belly buttons like you walk in and you're
01:04:04.540like alexi needs to add like eight chains i'm surprised gavin newsom hasn't gone with the uh
01:04:09.240the long chain to uh to further expose the navel for the uh unbuttoned shirt
01:04:13.600making jokes about all this i really don't think gavin newsom has a base i think a lot of black
01:04:20.260women are never leaving kamala and buck i think there's a lot of white women like that crazy woman
01:04:25.840who was fine with uh getting shoved down the stairs because she didn't want a black guy to
01:04:29.980get incarcerated she's gonna like kamala too because it allows her to tell her friends
01:04:34.800i'm gonna support kamala i think the only if if kamala is able to get around the newsom
01:04:41.680speed bump then i think that her chances get very real very quickly i mean it's really between those
01:04:49.220too in the state of california and because think about the donors early on i mean they're going to
01:04:55.080be fighting over every they're fighting over all the same political real estate right away yes same
01:05:01.880donors they're both from california they're both going to be trying to use the networks that they
01:05:06.100have there so we we shall see i just buck again people can tell me i'm crazy on this black women
01:05:13.160aren't leaving her and all that money matters for other attributes but if you get into you only need
01:05:19.420to win like 30 of the electorate to win most of these primaries i'm just gavin's not i'm i still
01:05:25.240think gavin's going to be the nominee and he's not drinking chardonnay with clay anymore clay is a
01:05:29.280fair weather gavin friend that's that much we have established no i think that's fair that is
01:05:33.600fair no more trips to the vineyard for clay that's for sure all right a week from today we'll be
01:05:38.560getting ready for memorial day weekend do you know when the first national observance of a
01:05:42.640Memorial Day took place and what it was called?
01:05:44.740Clay will probably know because he's a Civil War nerd.
01:05:47.380Memorial Day started in 1868 and was originally called Decoration Day.
01:05:51.200It was a day set aside to decorate the grave sites of Union soldiers
01:05:54.380who died in the Civil War, more than 600,000.
01:05:56.980Decoration Day was officially changed to Memorial Day
01:05:59.560and established as a federal holiday by Congress in 1971.
01:06:03.440For a lot of people, it marks the kickoff to summer.
01:06:05.780But next week, when someone wishes you a happy Memorial Day weekend,
01:06:08.700take a moment to honor the legacy our men and women in uniform left behind remember their
01:06:14.860courage and pause to recognize the responsibility that comes with the freedom that they secured for
01:06:19.660all of us with their sacrifice sure uh enjoy the time off if you're not working but also remember
01:06:25.440to appreciate the rights we enjoy and how they came to be in this country because of that ultimate
01:06:30.880sacrifice that others made before us our friends at americans for prosperity take this all to heart
01:06:37.080We know you do, too, especially the military families in this audience.
01:06:40.660What about your neighbors and friends?