Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Apr 9 2026
4/9/202657 mincomplete
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0:33T's and C's apply. Welcome in, everybody.
0:35Thursday edition of the Clay and Buck Show.
0:38Let's dive into this, shall we?
0:40We've got more on the Iran dealmaking negotiations underway.
0:45A ceasefire in fits and starts, fits and pieces, but more or less a ceasefire
0:52underway. And we'll tell you where all of that is going.
0:57I want to also get into some stories on the crime front here that are
1:01getting national attention. Fraud, which is also a crime.
1:05I meant violent crime, but fraud, a different kind of violation of law.
1:10And what's going on out in California?
1:12People need to know about this.
1:14I think we talk sometimes about overspending, and we talk about our massive welfare state.
1:20We have almost a socialist redistribution through fraud scheme underway in a whole bunch of
1:27states. Minneapolis got a lot of attention because of the predominantly Somali -American fraud that
1:34was occurring there. But California, they're starting to turn over the rocks there to see
1:39what's underneath. And oh my, is there a lot of fraud.
1:42Also, some Republicans trying to, while we're all very focused on Iran, get a little
1:48sneaky with their Dignity Act, it is called.
1:52I believe it even has a Spanish name that it is being promoted under.
1:57So we will discuss where that is.
2:00We'll be joined by Representative Brandon Gill of Texas on that one.
2:03Spoiler alert, Representative Gill does not want amnesty and does not want anyone getting sneaky
2:08with an amnesty bill by another name.
2:10We'll discuss that with him.
2:12And we'll talk to Steve Yates, our national security guru, on the latest situation here
2:19with the Iran negotiations. Clay, let's hear, J .D.
2:23Vance has been given this.
2:24Now, this is interesting to me on a few levels.
2:27We'll get into some of the specifics in some of these J .D.
2:29soundbites. As we know, in this New York Times article, which I do think that
2:35it's, I would put my money on it's accurate.
2:38I obviously don't know, but based on what the different characters are saying in the
2:43article and what I've heard from people that know the individuals involved and who have
2:47been in some of these conversations, it reads as true.
2:51And it's very clear that J .D.
2:53Vance was the least enthusiastic about the Iran air campaign, Iran aerial war of anybody.
3:02And now he's been assigned the task of trying to spearhead this ceasefire negotiation and
3:09turn it into a truce, an armistice, a longstanding agreement of sorts that we're not
3:15going to have to do this anymore.
3:18So, Vance, first thing he's got to do here, Clay, is clean up some of
3:22what has been said already about this because it was looking pretty bleak yesterday with
3:28the 10 points. This is cut three.
3:29Here he is on the status of these negotiations.
3:31Play it. You have some crazy people at the fringes of the Iranian system who
3:36are leaking anonymously either for propaganda purposes or because they're embarrassed or because they don't
3:41like what happened. And the final point when I say they don't like what happened,
3:45what we know is that the United States accomplished its military objectives.
3:48What we know is the United States could have imposed significant additional military and economic
3:53costs on Iran and still has the capacity to do so.
3:56But we think, thankfully, at this point, I think, have a ceasefire, thanks to the
4:00leadership of the President of the United States.
4:01We have the Iranians promising to open the Straits of Hormuz, and we have a
4:06negotiation that's supposed to start this weekend.
4:08That's the truth. I think it's a good first step.
4:10We're going to see if we can make more progress here in the days to
4:14come. How are you feeling about all this, Clay, today, the day after the big
4:18agreement came down? Look, I think it ultimately comes down to we will know, based
4:27on ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, how these negotiations are going.
4:33And it's what I said yesterday.
4:34So far, ship traffic does not seem to be anywhere near normal rates of ingress
4:41and egress. And until it is somewhat normal, I think it's hard to argue that
4:47things are normalized. Now, right before we came on, there was news that Israel is
4:54going to have direct talks with Lebanon and that, in theory, they may normalize relations.
5:00That seems like it would be a significant outcome here.
5:04Iran is saying that they expect the ceasefire to also encompass Lebanon, and that is
5:12an element of these negotiations.
5:14There are reports that Trump called Netanyahu and said, hey, we need to have some
5:20negotiations underway to stop the bombing in Lebanon as well.
5:24And so, you know, I'm kind of in the trust but verify stage of what
5:30to believe on the ceasefire.
5:32And to me, then we will see when we see the traffic in the Strait
5:39of Hormuz. And I tweeted about this, but I do think one thing is maybe
5:44significant. I don't know if you would sign off on this either, but see what
5:48you think of this. One thing that is being reported is that Iran controls the
5:54Strait of Hormuz. Every article you see, particularly those that are negative in nature, they
5:59say, well, now Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz.
6:03What I would say is Iran has publicly announced basically that they are willing to
6:08enact terrorism. That is blow up boats in the Strait of Hormuz.
6:14I would argue the use of the word control is inaccurate there.
6:19They are willing to engage in acts of terrorism.
6:22They can threaten it more than they can control it.
6:24Yes, we could blow up every boat in the entire Strait of Hormuz in probably
6:3010 minutes if we wanted to.
6:31So could other countries. We're not going to do that.
6:34And so I do think the argument of, well, they control things.
6:40Well, I mean, it's a terroristic threat.
6:42And I hope that it's not going to become a reality.
6:45But again, as we talked about yesterday, I think you have to apply rational actor
6:50theory here, reasonable man theory, as we used to talk about back in the days
6:54in law school. If I owned a hundred million dollar boat filled with oil right
6:58now, I'd be a little bit apprehensive about allowing that boat to go through the
7:03Strait of Hormuz. So until those individual boat owners and the corporations that run them
7:09and the CEOs that are in charge of them feel like their product and their
7:13boats are safe, then they're not going to move.
7:17And so that will be the test to me of how much is there actually
7:22a ceasefire that can be trusted going on.
7:24But I think we'll know by the weekend.
7:27J .D. also making it very clear, this is cut five, that he feels like
7:33U .S. and Trump have all the cards here.
7:36And so this is a negotiation where we're going in with a couple of aces.
7:40I don't really play cards.
7:41That would be good. A couple of aces is usually good, right?
7:43Yes. Very good. Very good poker hand.
7:46Right. And they've got two of the two cards.
7:48Play five. This is one of the things that's going to be one of the
7:51main subjects of negotiation is that we want Iran to not be able to make
7:55a nuclear weapon. We want the nuclear fuel, which is something the president has made
7:59very clear. And again, the way to think about this is the United States has
8:03certain demands and certain things that we want.
8:05The Iranians have things they can get out of the negotiation.
8:08The more that they're willing to give us, I think the more they're going to
8:11get things out of this negotiation.
8:12The president's talked about sanctions relief.
8:14The president's talked about economic partnerships and things like that.
8:18But that's not going to happen unless the Iranians make a firm commitment to stop
8:23anything close to the development of a nuclear weapon.
8:27And frankly, the president has all the cards here.
8:29We've got a lot of leverage.
8:30We've got a lot of things that we can do.
8:32But right now, I think we're in a good spot.
8:34I think we have better cards.
8:36I don't think we have all the cards.
8:38I think that's a little bit more than where the situation is right now.
8:42But more or less, I think J .D.
8:44is on point with this.
8:46Do you think that J .D.
8:48having been opposed to these strikes and the Iranians now presumably having read the New
8:56York Times article like we did, which takes you into the deliberations about this decision,
9:03could that help? And second part here, I would say, I think the leak of
9:09the article actually helps Trump some because people are saying, and you and I know
9:13this is not true, but critics are saying, oh, he's a mad king, right?
9:17They're making like Game of Thrones analogies.
9:19You can't trust him. You have no idea what's going around.
9:21The article about the discussion surrounding what to do with Iran was actually Trump as
9:29basically board chair going around the room asking everybody for their opinions.
9:34Now, if you want to argue, well, people are afraid of saying what they really
9:40think once they know what Trump is likely to do, there's an element of that
9:44in all board room discussions.
9:48When you know what the CEO wants to do, there's a lot of people who
9:51can get themselves to justify it.
9:53But Iran knows that J .D.
9:56was not in favor of this action.
9:59To me, that seems like it could be helpful to him in relationships.
10:03You buy that. Do you think the Iranian negotiators knowing J .D.
10:09is not a hawk could actually make them more likely to deal with them?
10:13Or do you even think it matters who the American negotiators are with J .D.
10:16and Trump on this issue?
10:18You have a built in good cop, bad cop situation.
10:22They both want you to sign the confession.
10:24But J .D. is like, come on, buddy, help me out.
10:27I'll get you a cup of coffee.
10:28Like, let's figure this out.
10:29Whereas Trump is like, let's take him out back, hit him with the truncheon, show
10:33him who's boss. You know, very different approach to this.
10:36So, yes, I do think that there is a, you know, what is it, they
10:40used to say, plate y plomo, I think, silver or lead in the cartels.
10:45You know, it's like take our money or carrots and sticks, carrots and sticks.
10:48Carrots and sticks is a good way.
10:50Another way is mom and dad.
10:51And it could be different.
10:52depending on the situation, but Trump is definitely daddy.
10:55Yeah. But do you, do you want me to have to tell my dad about
10:58this? And by the way, some of you out there are going to be like,
11:00do you want me to have to tell mom about this?
11:02Cause sometimes mom is the one that would, that will swing the sledgehammer harder when
11:07it comes to, uh, to kids.
11:09I wonder when the day will come when my son realizes that like, he really
11:12wants to deal with me.
11:14He doesn't, he doesn't want to escalate to carry Laura is way tougher on the
11:18boys than I am. Um, so it could be different depending on, uh, the, the
11:23family dynamics and also by the way, what the kid has done.
11:26But I do think JD is the kinder, gentler parent in this relationship and that
11:32he can actually say, do you really want me to take this back to Trump?
11:35I mean, I I'm just telling you because ultimately it's Trump's decision on what the
11:41terms of any deal are.
11:43Uh, but I do think the fact that JD was skeptical of the, uh, of
11:47the, uh, action in the first place might help him as the good guy in
11:51this negotiation discussion. I think the Iranians are because it's public information.
11:55I think they're savvy enough to know.
11:57I think they're savvy enough to understand that JD, he backs the president of course,
12:03as his vice president, but his heart isn't in more airstrikes.
12:07Like he doesn't want, he really doesn't want that.
12:09I feel like Trump is Trump's attitude is more.
12:12I'm giving you guys a chance here.
12:14If I have to slap you around Iran, I'll do it again, but I really
12:17would rather not. But JD is like, look, we really don't want to have to
12:21use force again. Let's actually get something workable for the big guy, meaning Trump.
12:26And then we can all move forward and things can get better here.
12:29Uh, so JD is a perfect person to be involved in this.
12:33And it's also bringing him into it in a way where he doesn't have to,
12:36he's not being false to himself at all on this.
12:38You know what I'm saying?
12:39He's getting a chance to end the war that he didn't want in the first
12:42place. That's right. And I think that's a strong place for him to be in.
12:45And I think that Trump, uh, it, it makes a lot of sense for him.
12:49Um, I, I, I look, I'm hopeful too.
12:51I, I'm going to say this to all of you.
12:53I don't really want to be talking about Iran.
12:55I'm, we're going to talk about some things here at home today on the show
12:58too. I'm going to make us get into some things that aren't Iran related because
13:01we got to fix here in America.
13:03And I know it's all the midterms, the midterms.
13:05Yeah. But it's also the promise of Trump's second term.
13:07It's, we got to fix things here at home.
13:10So the sooner we can get this buttoned up with Iran and agreed to in
13:14some way. Now I've said, and I don't, I haven't changed my mind.
13:17I think they're going to agree to agree to agree in the future.
13:21So I think it's going to go two weeks and then, and then we're going
13:23to continue the ceasefire and then we're going to talk through the summer.
13:26And you know, there might be, that's what I think is going to happen here.
13:29I don't think this is going to be a quick fix.
13:31Um, we'll see. I would, I, like I said, Clay, I'd love to be wrong
13:35on this one. I'd love happy Clay to, to be correct.
13:39And Eeyore Buck to be wrong on this one.
13:42I will say, and you, you know, I love watching the markets.
13:46Um, S and P 500 and the Dow are both reacting very positively so far.
13:52Now you can say there was a sell -off before, but they're both rapidly approaching
13:57all time highs. Um, and so, uh, we will see how exactly that ends up
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15:56T's and C's apply. Welcome back in.
15:59Hour number two Clay and Buck show.
16:01We appreciate all of you hanging out with us.
16:06Decent optimism in the markets.
16:10As the highs for the day are hit.
16:13As the ceasefire, which remains fragile, appears to be holding so far.
16:19And. And it is worth noting that stocks are not very far off of their
16:25all -time record highs, just three and a half or so percent away from all
16:31-time record highs. So we will continue to monitor the peace talk and how everything
16:38is going there if there is any major breaking news.
16:43But Buck, I wanted to hit you with a positive news story.
16:47And then I wanted to hit you with a negative news story.
16:50And I think they are both connected.
16:52And I want to get your thoughts on them.
16:55Let's start with the positive since I think in general I tend to be pretty
17:00optimistic, glass half full kind of guy.
17:03In Washington, D .C., our nation's capital in the 250th anniversary year of our founding,
17:11right now an extraordinary story is playing out that is receiving almost no media attention
17:17whatsoever. I mentioned it last night on Sean Hannity's television show.
17:22And I have continued to track it with all of you for some time.
17:27And that is, Buck, Washington, D .C., as I am speaking to you right now,
17:32has seen a 68 % decline in murders in the city compared to last year.
17:41I mean, this is pretty crazy.
17:43There have only been 12 murders in Washington, D .C.
17:48so far this year. Now, again, as a show that loves life more than anyone,
17:53we wish that the murder rate in Washington, D .C.
17:57was zero, but a 68 % decline from last year as we sit here in
18:04early April, Washington, D .C.
18:07is on pace for the lowest recorded murder rate that it has ever experienced in
18:14any of our lives. This comes on the heels of 2025 being, according to the
18:19FBI, the safest year that we have ever seen when it comes to violent murders
18:26in this country in the life of basically, unless you were born in 1899, which
18:31I don't think anybody was, this is the safest year, and still alive anyway.
18:36Some people were born in 1899.
18:38This is the safest year that any of us alive have ever experienced in the
18:42United States. Okay, so, Buck, 68 % decline in Washington, D .C., murders.
18:47Almost no one is talking about it.
18:49Why is that significant? That is a positive.
18:53We've seen the same kind of decline in Memphis.
18:56Here's the negative. Irina Zorutskis, the innocent Ukrainian refugee who came to this country and
19:06was riding Charlotte, North Carolina.
19:08A beautiful young woman who fled the Ukraine war and was here working a job
19:12and trying to do things the right way and what she thought was safe and
19:15welcoming America. was murdered on Charlotte Public Transit.
19:22You've all seen the video.
19:25She's just sitting there on the Charlotte Public Transit and never really has any idea
19:33that she's in danger. A guy happens to be black, stabs her from behind, and
19:39that guy had been arrested over 12 times.
19:43I've seen reports of 12.
19:44I've seen reports of 15 times.
19:46And Charlotte local charges, they are now saying that he is not able to stand
19:54trial for reasons of insanity, and so they are not bringing forward and continuing the
20:01state charges. Now, federal, they're saying they're going to continue to prosecute.
20:06He is being prosecuted on two different fronts, state and federal charges.
20:10But, Buck, when I see this data, we now have pretty tangible evidence that if
20:16we commit the resources and if we allow police and all those supporting police to
20:22do their jobs, we can drive down murders even in the highest crime cities of
20:29America, places like Washington, D .C., which used to be the murder capital of the
20:33country, and places like Memphis, which did become the murder capital of the country.
20:38If we provide the resources and support, we can drive down murders by 50, 60,
20:45nearly 70 % this year in Washington, D .C.
20:49But what we're seeing is, I'm afraid, in New York City, places like Charlotte, blue
20:56cities across the country, certainly Chicago, there is a refusal to just do the things
21:03that would save enormous amounts of life.
21:06And on top of that, Buck, as you well know, but the data reflects, overwhelmingly
21:11the lives saved, they're going to be black.
21:13Because overwhelmingly, and Brown, since Hakeem Jeffries and others who are going to play that
21:19cut for you this hour, want to talk about DEI, black lives matter.
21:24If black lives truly matter, President Trump has probably saved more black lives in Washington,
21:30D .C. and Memphis than any president ever has in the history of the office.
21:36And this, to me, is evidence that we can do this everywhere.
21:40It's just, do we have the will to do it?
21:43This, if I were the Trump team, I would be focusing on this.
21:47I would be... selling it i would be saying we want to drive down murders
21:51to even levels that people didn't think were possible and this is one of our
21:55federal goals over the next couple of years is it an interesting when you think
22:00about the amount of time that most of the democrat corporate media spent on how
22:08much black lives matter during the 2020 2021 period george floyd the sanctification of saint
22:17george floyd uh they cared so much we were all supposed to put up the
22:21black squares a lot of black lives are being saved disproportionately you could say a
22:27lot of black lives are being saved by these trump policies and let's understand what's
22:32really happening here you have federal law enforcement surging resources federal prosecutors working to use
22:39the statutes that they already have at their disposal to put away violent dangerous career
22:46criminals using uh the federal guidelines which by the way there's no parole in the
22:50federal system so they're locking up dangerous people and for the state and local level
22:56they are co uh locating and my understanding clay is in memphis they're they're putting
23:01federal officers in squad cars or whatever they you know call it memphis pd alongside
23:08memphis pd and so they're giving them additional manpower additional resources access to the federal
23:13system when that's called for and you're just seeing law enforcement synergy between federal and
23:20and state and local for the most important highest profile stuff okay no one's getting
23:25thrown in prison forever because they're smoking a joint on a corner and all the
23:29all the libertarian fear -mongering from back in the day sorry libertarians we listen to
23:34you too much on some of this stuff it got way way too far in
23:38the other direction and and it works this stuff is working people are safer they
23:43feel better about their community they feel better about walking down the street where is
23:48the media why isn't cnn having roundtables on hey wow what a great what a
23:53great turnaround in dc amazing in memphis think of all the young black men of
23:58promise who will now grow up and can become dads and business owners and you
24:03know and productive members of their community who are alive because of this policy we
24:08all know why they're not doing it though clay yes can't celebrate the saving of
24:12black lives if donald trump is going to get even a a hint of the
24:17credit for it but doesn't that tell you whether they really care about these people
24:20just see it do the cnn multimillionaire anchors do they care about men from uh
24:26you know black men from low -income communities in memphis and you know really the
24:31outskirts of well southeast dc and then parts of uh like prince george's county which
24:37is in maryland that's where a lot of the violence had been happening traditionally so
24:41do they care they don't care clay it's all just a political foil to attack
24:45trump that's what really matters to them it's pretty sick when you break it down
24:49but i don't see a way i don't see a counter argument that's compelling i
24:53think that's what we see i i just i i look at at this and
24:59i if we had an honest media if we had an honest real quick this
25:05is working better than i even thought it would and i thought it was going
25:07to work bigly sorry go ahead yes no i mean if you had told me
25:12that we were going to be able to drive down murders in washington dc by
25:1668 percent in front and by the way they were low we're talking about 2025
25:22which was a low year for washington dc to begin with in other words trump's
25:28moves drove down the murder rates substantially last year so we're talking about an already
25:35low uh number and we have since driven it down by 68 percent 12 murders
25:42in washington dc memphis down i think it's 50 some odd percent from its highs
25:47why on earth would we not roll out this nationwide what is it around 20
25:56000 people ish die of murder every year in the united states you talk about
26:02the psychic impact um of the murders and what that does to communities imagine if
26:09we could drive that number down nationwide to seven or eight thousand like imagine if
26:13we could do to the nation what we have done for washington dc what that
26:18would mean for everybody just in terms of safety imagine for all of you with
26:23daughters i mean just knowing that they go for a jog in a neighborhood and
26:26that they're going to be fine you know i'm i'm fond of saying this but
26:30it's because it's so we've run the experiment we've seen here what works and doesn't
26:35work we know there's no other side to this we know i'm sorry libs that
26:39you're all wrong and you've always been wrong on this but we know we have
26:43the results we have the data el salvador should be talked about way more in
26:48this context for a country to go from on a per capita basis a top
26:54three homicide place in the world to a top three safe place in the western
27:02hemisphere in what five years ten years maybe only i mean whatever timeline you you
27:09want to lay out very rapidly what did what did bukele do in el salvador
27:14oh you're a gang member you're a predator in your community you want to harm
27:19people you don't want to play by the rules you go into a cell and
27:23it's only about one percent or less of the overall el salvadoran community yeah that
27:29is affected by that move so you can keep 99 of your population incredibly safe
27:35by being willing to incarcerate less than one percent of your population and we're not
27:40willing to do that and i haven't even gotten into we need to be executing
27:44a lot more people and we should bring back firing squads in this country but
27:47that's a broader that that's that's a whole next level of the conversation we're a
27:51ways from there i hope we get back there uh as a as a nation
27:54but certainly on incarceration we need to lock up more people for longer actually but
27:59just lock up people that are actually doing really bad things you know this is
28:03this is the game they like to play not people that walked in and took
28:05a photo of themselves on january 6th no that's not what we should be doing
28:0820 000 murders if we did to the nation what has been successful in washington
28:16dc we would take the numbers from 20 000 murders a year to 6400 that
28:23means you would have 13 600 lives saved every year why wouldn't that be a
28:30huge story why isn't that a completely compelling achievable statistic based on what we have
28:36seen in washington dc and to buck's point if you want to look writ large
28:41el salvador which was one of the most dangerous places in the world is now
28:45one of the safest places and just think of leave aside for a moment obviously
28:50the benefit of saving lives think about what that does economically for the country if
28:56we start eliminating violent crime murders being of course the most violent violent crimes think
29:02about what it does for making neighborhoods safer which allows businesses to thrive think about
29:08what it does for overall uh you know just general growth of economic situations in
29:16the country it's it it's transformative and i think it's achievable and those are two
29:22things that often aren't combined together and i think we should be talking about more
29:28uh how consequential this potentially could be so we'll take some of your talk back
29:32some of your calls by the way uh next hour we're going to talk with
29:35steve yates i don't know if we mentioned this earlier uh but uh steve yates
29:38is going to join us to talk about the situation in iran and then at
29:412 30 congressman brandon gill uh with what's going on on capitol hill and more
29:46all that's still to come but that's next hour we'll take some of your calls
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31:03too sign up today when hanging you're not just learning you're also laughing play and
31:09buck just preset them on the iart third hour of play and buck kicks off
31:14right now we're joined by our friend steve yates he is a senior fellow at
31:18the heritage foundation the former senior national security official in a white house and steve
31:26you are in seoul south korea right now you're joining us i think it's like
31:313 a .m there so you are a dedicated member of the clay and buck
31:36family to show up for us thank you so much for that uh and feel
31:39free to if you want to tell us anything about what you're doing in south
31:42korea by all means but i wanted to first if i could put you in
31:46the situation of you are with let's just say for a conversation vance kushner uh
31:57whitkoff in this islamabad negotiation what are you expecting from the iranians how are you
32:06going to leverage this situation how do you think this thing can and should be
32:11handled from our side yeah buck well i don't envy the task this is this
32:17is a very very big challenge the uh iraq with remnants of the iranian regime
32:21i think our level of trust and implementation has to be very very low so
32:25it's not just trust but verify but how about let's just verify uh and uh
32:30i would say the highest priority right now has to be free flow of goods
32:36uh out of the gulf and through the straight of humus my first question if
32:40i was there with them i'd say why are we in islamabad And is there
32:44a reason why Pakistan is a particularly helpful angle in this conversation?
32:50But I'd try to quickly get to that we have to get some verifiable benchmarks.
32:56There's really no negotiation about that freedom of navigation point.
33:00And I quickly try to bring in the equities of the United Arab Emirates and
33:05some other key allies who can and will bring some capabilities to the table.
33:08And the minding of the nuclear facilities and the remnants of the regime, the political
33:14stuff, that's going to take time.
33:15And so I would put highest priority on what our ultimate national interest has to
33:20be in the near term.
33:23How optimistic are you that the overall situation, let's say that right now we're sitting,
33:30you know, it's April 8th, April 9th.
33:33By the time we get into May and by the time we get into June
33:39and people start to pay a little bit more attention to the midterms, how optimistic
33:43are you that we're going to be able to shift the overall story to what's
33:47going on back here in the country as opposed to externally Iran continuing to pop
33:53up and kind of take over the narrative?
33:56In other words, can we get a solution that turns foreign policy into a significant
34:02but not primary focus of the midterms?
34:05Because I think to a large extent, most people voting come November are going to
34:09be focused on what is going on directly here in the United States.
34:14I think we have to get there.
34:16And every indication is the president is determined to do so.
34:21But to get there, odds are pretty high that we're going to have to take
34:25some significant action somewhere along the way.
34:27My strongest suspicion is that we're going to have to use the resources that are
34:32moving in that direction to absolutely demonstrate control over the waterways.
34:37And I think that the other thing that we may end up having to do
34:40is we're going to have to demonstrate a willingness to strike again as more of
34:46a maintenance mode than a high tempo major military operation.
34:50I think if the president and his team can navigate that de -escalation to maintenance
34:55with some burden sharing among allies that are really reliable, then I think that pivot
35:01to a necessary focus on home comes around that May timeframe and maybe June at
35:06the latest. How do you think the Israeli allies are looking at this situation, Steve?
35:13What would you think is an acceptable outcome from their perspective?
35:18How do they play into all this?
35:19Because we obviously still have the Hezbollah -Lebanon issue, and they're bringing that as part
35:24of the U .S. Essentially, part of the U .S.-Iran negotiation is, hey, America, you've
35:30got to get Israel to play ball on the following thing.
35:33So it's a multi -party card game here.
35:39Yeah, well, I think that part of these negotiations have to be very clear that
35:43this is not two co -equal negotiating parties.
35:46We're big, and we won, and you lost, and we are negotiating the terms of
35:51your continued survival. We are generous and humane people in America, and so we don't
35:57envy the idea of going after you to total obliteration.
36:01But make no mistake about it, we are negotiating the terms of a surrender.
36:08And if we do anything less than that, then there are going to be some
36:11unacceptable outcomes here. I think the Gulf is one of those.
36:14This whole Lebanon thing is a really odd tell by Iran that it's actually them
36:19that is Hezbollah. Why in the world would they care about Hezbollah if it wasn't
36:24really an arm of their own odious regime?
36:29Who's making decisions from Iran?
36:32And I know the Gayatola, my words, not yours.
36:36Little Mo, also my words, not yours, has supposedly put out a statement.
36:40There has been attribution to him, as in people saying, hey, this is the guy
36:46that is actually making decisions.
36:48Do we buy that, or do you think he is a convenient proxy to attach
36:54decisions to while other people are making choices?
36:58And are we even sure who's able to make choices on behalf of Iran at
37:02this point? Well, first, Clay, I support the idea of coming up with names.
37:07I think we do that too little in august foreign policy, and it's useful political
37:11rhetoric. Number two, this is actually one of the hardest parts of this.
37:16We have decapitated the regime a couple or three layers down across a wide range
37:21of different elements of this terror network.
37:25And so we have the problem of when the ceasefire is announced, there's still other
37:29people popping off, probably because they don't have absolute centralized decision -making at this point.
37:35Until there's a real verifiable proof of life, I'm not even convinced the latest iteration
37:41of the Ayatollah is calling any shots, it's more of that convenience you are mentioning.
37:45But there's a separation between the theocratic forces, the military forces, the secret police forces.
37:51And that I hopefully will, in the early parts of this negotiation, get some clarity
37:56about what's happening across the board.
37:58And there's this small issue of 90 million people who are not really represented by
38:02any of those institutions. And we have to make sure we have some visibility and
38:06maybe connectivity with that element of power in Iran too.
38:10And there's this Channel that you guys have mentioned in the console.
38:10But what are those things that you know about early parts of this negotiation?
38:10Speaking of Steve Yates, he is a senior fellow from the Heritage Foundation, a former
38:14senior White House national security official.
38:18And, Steve, you are in South Korea.
38:21You can tell us if you want.
38:23I don't know if it's super secret squirrel.
38:24You don't have to. You can tell us what you're up to there because we're
38:26curious. But also, in terms of the, I was going to say the Asian view
38:31of this, really what I mean is the Chinese view of this situation in Iran.
38:36What are their major takeoff?
38:38I'm sure South Korea has some thoughts on all this, too, so you can weigh
38:41in on that. What is the Asian point of view, East Asian point of view
38:45on this whole Iran mess as it stands?
38:49Yeah, well, I did meet with the National Security Advisor here in South Korea, and
38:54I tried to keep in touch with similar level people in Japan.
38:56These are very important economies to us, involved in very critical industries for us.
39:02And they are reasonably reliable allies when all things considered in what we are doing
39:08in the world. They have obvious concerns about energy flows.
39:13All of these economies are overly dependent on imports from the Middle East.
39:18We have options in the not -too -distant future.
39:21If they, say, buy American, Alaska is an awesome opportunity with some investment on their
39:26part. And so there are some things there, but in the near term, energy, energy,
39:30energy. And the other part they are sensitive to is the strategic flexibility of our
39:35forces. When we move things to surge in one part of the world, where they
39:40came from, those allies become concerned.
39:43North Korea popped off two short -range ballistic missiles while I was here.
39:47There was a nice welcome they gave me.
39:49But nothing super strategic, but they're still on alert about what could be done here
39:55while we are preoccupied in the Middle East.
39:59China, I think it's a mixed bag.
40:01The summit supposedly is still on.
40:03I give it, you know, at least 50 -50 chances of going as scheduled.
40:07But for China, there's been a pretty profound deterrent message of America is not on
40:12decline. And America will act if provoked.
40:16Our national interests are engaged.
40:18They are concerned that Japan has made very, very clear that if China were to
40:22move on Taiwan, that it would be an impact on Japan's national interests they would
40:27have to respond to. So there's a mixed bag there.
40:30They hope that we're blowing up all of our ordinance in the Middle East so
40:33it's not available in the Indo -Pacific.
40:35We have to focus on that.
40:36But for now, I think that they have to take a step back and say,
40:40maybe we should negotiate a little more with Donald Trump.
40:43Steve, I know you're talking about and we've been talking a lot about Iran.
40:47There's actually really positive news coming out of Venezuela as things seem to have calmed
40:53down substantially there. And the implications for Cuba have moved to a back burner, too.
40:59But what do you see happening in Venezuela?
41:02What do you see happening in Cuba?
41:03And how overall could that impact not only what might happen in the Middle East,
41:08but also China and the larger geopolitical climate?
41:13Well, the Venezuela situation, I think, is a real positive so far.
41:18As with everything in the world, we can always take only take the trajectory we're
41:22on and there's no guarantees about things continuing to work.
41:25We're still actually dealing with the remnants of a regime that had been quite problematic
41:29for a long time. But I think Donald Trump got their attention.
41:32And so far, they are behaving the right way and the resource equation is getting
41:36much, much better. So we have much better options in our hemisphere.
41:39And I think the administration is determined to put the pedal to the metal in
41:43that regard. That gives us much safer, more resilient supply chains.
41:47That makes America and our neighbors more safe, secure and powerful.
41:51That gives us better, more safe options when trying to deal with change agents like
41:56China and other parts of the world.
41:58So I see that as conducive to what we're trying to do to get to
42:02the great game, which is to contain the malign influences of China and beat them
42:07in every way, shape or form on economy to space and technology.
42:12What should we do with Cuba?
42:14You know, Trump talks about it as something thrown into the mix here.
42:18It's not. Obviously, it's a much smaller country than than what we're dealing with in
42:23the case of Iran or even Venezuela.
42:25But it's very close. I mean, I feel like I could swim there from here.
42:29Probably not. But maybe Clay could.
42:31It's not far. So what do you think?
42:34What should we do? Well, I hear there's sharks in those waters.
42:38So I'd advise against making the swim.
42:40But it is it is near.
42:43I think that the president is relatively on track on just keeping the pressure and
42:48inducements in place to see if there's a something less than the Venezuela model available
42:54to push that towards transition.
42:56The demonstration of the fact of Venezuela has to have some impact.
43:00The demonstration effect of going after the cartels in Mexico has to have some effect
43:04to do those two things well.
43:07And maybe we get a change in Cuba more by evolution than are having to
43:12go in and do it in a kinetic way.
43:13I think that's far preferable, although I would love to see the day when all
43:17those Cubans in your near abroad are singing and dancing in the streets of Havana
43:22again. Sounds good to me, Steve Yates.
43:26Good to see you, my friend.
43:27Get some sleep. Go save.
43:28Go save the world over there in South Korea.
43:30Thank you. Thank you, Buck.
43:33Thank you, Clay. It's going to be.
43:35It was great. We'll see what happens.
43:38But I do think. I think Cuba on the back burner here is maybe one
43:41that we get a resolution in some way sooner rather than later.
43:45We'll update you, by the way, press conference going on right now in California associated
43:50with fraud and hospice in California.
43:55We'll bring back and talk about everything that's going on there.
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46:03T's and C's apply. All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck.
46:06Buck, as we've been saying to you, we're focusing here today a lot more while
46:10the ceasefire negotiations are underway with Iran.
46:14Back on the home front, which is what matters most to us.
46:17And something that happened that it was kind of hard to believe that this is
46:21what some members of Congress are focused on.
46:23But the Dignidad, as in Spanish for Dignity Act of 2025, was introduced by Congresswoman
46:32Salazar, got some bipartisan votes, goes through a whole bunch of stuff.
46:38And by the way, she's, I think, the district right next to the one that
46:41I live in. I have my Congresswoman, Clay, is the hat wearer.
46:47Yes, the lady, the cowboy hat, the Democrat.
46:49I can't remember her name right now.
46:51I should remember her name.
46:52I'm just my Congresswoman. I work in politics, kind of.
46:54But I'll remember in a second.
46:57But Frederica Wilson. There we go.
46:58Frederica Wilson. But anyway, the Dignidad Act got brought up here.
47:05Congressman Gill out of Texas does not like the Dignidad Act and has had some
47:11public statements about how it looks a whole lot like amnesty.
47:14Congressman Gill, great to have you on the show.
47:16Thanks for calling in. Actually, can I, I just want to play for you first.
47:21What, this was from July of 25, so it's a little ways back.
47:27But this is what Representative Salazar was saying then on local news here in Miami
47:32about the Dignidad Act. Play, this is Cup 15.
47:36We give them dignity. At some point in the future, another legislator will write another
47:41law to give them packs of citizenship.
47:43Right now, what we need to do is to buy peace for these people, allow
47:48them to stay, to continue working because they are needed.
47:52Congressman Gill, I don't, I don't know.
47:55It sounds to me like, how about we just deport the illegals and enforce the
47:58law? What's going on here?
48:01Well, thanks for having me on.
48:02Yeah, the last people that I want to buy peace for are the people who
48:06broke our laws and shouldn't be here to begin with.
48:08I want to buy peace for the Americans whose jobs have been taken by illegal
48:13aliens, whose wages have been suppressed.
48:15Buy peace for the mothers whose children have been slaughtered by fentanyl because we've had
48:19open borders for many years.
48:21Those are the people we ought to be focused on.
48:24And we ran an election last cycle on a platform of mass deportations.
48:29And remember, there was nothing subtle about it.
48:32We were holding up mass deportation signs at the RNC, as we all remember.
48:37That's how we got a trifecta, and the president won the popular vote.
48:42So to turn around and start pushing an amnesty bill, and that's what this is.
48:46This is amnesty, plain and simple.
48:49The Digni -God Act is a bill that would allow 12 million illegal aliens who
48:54are currently in the United States and subject to deportation to be given legal status
48:59and stay here. It would hamstring the president's ability to deport more illegal aliens on
49:04top of that. And it would allow illegal aliens to deport more illegal aliens.
49:06legal aliens who were previously deported under Trump's first administration to come back into the
49:11United States if they meet certain criteria.
49:14So this is a grotesque betrayal of everything we ran on.
49:19I'm kind of shocked we're even talking about it, but here we are, and that's
49:23why I've been fighting so hard to kill this bill.
49:27You're a young guy. I'm guessing that you want to work a lot.
49:31Are you frustrated with the schedule in the House and the Senate that it feels
49:36like you guys are never in session and not passing very many bills?
49:40It has to be infuriating.
49:43It's extremely infuriating. I mean, I ran for office so that I could fight for
49:49my district and the people of Texas and actually get real legislation done, but in
49:54order to do that, you've got to be in session.
49:56I mean, we should have been in session this week whenever DHS isn't funded.
50:01We should be working on a reconciliation bill to fund it, to do other conservative
50:07priorities, and we're not, and it has been extremely frustrating.
50:11So yes, of course we should be there.
50:13We shouldn't be in Washington pushing amnesty bills, but we should be in Washington funding
50:18mass deportations. So, I mean, this is a, they call it a path to citizenship.
50:24It's amnesty, because we've gone through this before, back to the Dignidad Act here.
50:29We've gone back to this before with the Reagan amnesty, unfortunately, which had all these
50:34enforcement mechanisms and, oh, you have to prove this and prove that.
50:37And no, just everybody who was here illegally was made, was made permanent.
50:42And there were people, court cases going on 15 years later with people saying, oh
50:46no, I was covered under this too, right?
50:48So it just creates a huge mess, which people should know about, by the way,
50:52that whenever you, whenever you try to create one class of amnesty, there's going to
50:56be all these people that then sue and they want to be in that class
50:59and there's going to be legislation that make the class bigger.
51:01The whole thing becomes a total mess.
51:04But Brandon, you're in Congress.
51:06Why are Republicans, any Republicans, in the midst of, I might add, a lot of
51:12focus on what's going on in Iran right now, or what has been going on
51:16recently? Why would they put something like this?
51:19It feels kind of sneaky.
51:20Like we have Republicans voting on this right now.
51:23What's going on? You know, it's amazing that this has even come up and I
51:28can't speak to the motives of, you know, I'm Maria is a friend, Mike Lawler,
51:33who's defended this bill as a friend, their colleagues, I can't speak to their motives.
51:37But what I can say is there still is an element in our party who,
51:42who is just handicapped by, by big business interests who want mass migration, who want
51:49more cheap labor flowing across our border constantly, and would love to see illegal aliens
51:55being, being given amnesty, because that just means cheaper labor and bigger profit margins for
52:00them, whether it's big agribusiness or big, big whatever else.
52:04And those are the interests that I think we should be very aware of and
52:09know that they're not the ones who are voting for us.
52:11They're not the ones that we represent.
52:13We represent the people in our district whose lives are being transformed, whose neighborhoods are
52:19unrecognizable now because of open borders and mass migration.
52:23Those are the people who elected President Trump back in 2015 and again in 2020
52:28and again in 2024. Those are the ones that we ought to be looking out
52:32for. So the idea that we should, again, even be discussing amnesty.
52:37And amnesty is the program that gives the left political power.
52:43I mean, the left feeds on illegal immigration as their path to power.
52:48The idea that we would in any way go along with that is nuts.
52:52And by the way, it is a massive and unforgivable betrayal of our voters who
52:57elected us to do the opposite.
52:59You know, if we went down this path, it would tear the Republican Party in
53:04two. And it would be, we would be dealing with this 10 years, 15 years
53:09down the road. How do you think James Tallarico is going to do in November?
53:15You know, I am, I have supported Ken Paxton, but I think regardless of who
53:21gets the Republican nomination, they're going to beat Tallarico.
53:24I mean, you got a guy who has talked about God being non -binary, about
53:29how transgenders need abortion care, about how the Bible gives, you know, has biblical justification
53:37for abortion. I mean, you have a guy who just regurgitated every weird, woke aphorism
53:43that the left came up with over the past several years.
53:46And now it's great to see that all of that is being exposed.
53:50I mean, the people of Texas don't want some kind of weird, you know, weirdo
53:56fake pastor who wants transgenders in their little kids' schools as their senator.
54:02I mean, we just want like a normal conservative to represent us.
54:06So I don't think Tallarico has a chance.
54:10With that said, we've got to make sure that our people turn out to vote
54:13in November and that we do get to the polls to make sure that he
54:17doesn't, doesn't gain any traction.
54:21Congressman Gill, appreciate you joining us from Texas.
54:24Thanks for calling in today.
54:26Hey, thanks for having me.
54:30Clay, I think. Well, no, I was just looking.
54:33I'm looking at my quad.
54:34box melania trump is speaking uh relating to the epstein uh situation it is now
54:41being covered by cnn and msnbc not by fox news i don't know i'm trying
54:47to monitor it we'll give you she just finished we'll give you some takes on
54:52that and maybe some clips um because this is i was not expecting a press
54:56conference uh from the first lady at all much less one on the epstein case
55:02so we will talk about it when we come back i think we're partnering with
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