Hour 1 - Crickets from Iran

4/21/202637 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome in Tuesday edition, Clay Travis, Buck Sexton show.
0:10Okay, we got so many different stories, as has been the case for some time,
0:16that we are all following, beginning with President Trump letting us all know that J
0:22.D. Vance is headed to Pakistan for round two of the negotiations.
0:28But President Trump called in to CNBC.
0:31We'll get into all that.
0:32Let me also give you a little bit of a roadmap of where we're headed.
0:35Hour two, Molly Hemingway has got a brand new book out about Justice Alito and
0:40also the behind -the -scenes story of the Supreme Court over the past several years.
0:45I think there's going to be, and already have been, many bombshells coming out of
0:49her book. Buck, Molly is super talented, wrote all about the Kavanaugh ridiculousness.
0:56I loved the reading of that story.
1:00Justice on Trial. That's right.
1:02Great book. Rigged, also a very, very good book.
1:06Very talented writer. I believe, if I remember correctly, her mom, big fan of the
1:11Clay and Buck show, if I remember the last time we had her on.
1:15Does it surprise anyone that her mom is also brilliant and loves Clay and Buck?
1:18Of course not. Zero surprise.
1:19So if mom is listening now, we are excited to have your daughter on in
1:24the second hour of the program, and congrats on having such a successful daughter who's
1:29got a brand new book that is selling a lot of copies, and we will
1:31discuss. Bottom of the second hour, Michelle Tafoya running for Senate in Minnesota, under the
1:38radar race there in a Senate seat that is currently held by Democrats, but is
1:44one of many that New Hampshire, Michigan, Georgia, Democrat -held seats, any one of those
1:52flips in the midterms, and we are talking about zero percent chance of Democrats taking
2:00back control of the Senate.
2:01So we will dive into that with Michelle Tafoya.
2:03Remember, it wasn't very long ago that everybody was saying, oh, what's happening in Minneapolis
2:08is going to be the biggest story on the planet when it comes to the
2:13midterms. And instead, it's like, yeah, what happened in Minneapolis kind of has vanished.
2:19But let's go into the biggest story out there, which is everything surrounding Iran as
2:25we gear up for negotiation in Pakistan 2 .0.
2:29President Trump called into CNBC before the stock market opened this morning.
2:34Stock market, by the way, roughly flat, has not moved much on Monday or Tuesday
2:39after setting all -time record highs as recently as Friday.
2:46But President Trump had a lot to say.
2:48I'm going to pull some of these cuts.
2:50We will react to them, Buck.
2:51By the way, ton of talkbacks.
2:53Lots of you want to react to everything that we have already been talking about
2:56this week, and we look forward to those as well.
2:58Call 800 -282 -2882 if you would like to join us on this program.
3:03As Buck has said, thesis statements as you're open.
3:07The first 10 seconds defines your future as a caller.
3:12Own it. That was actually a caller, and I just stole from the caller because
3:16if you're calling in, I feel like we're allowed to use your intellectual property.
3:19He said, thesis in 10 seconds, and that was the phrase, and I think that
3:24that's a very good thing.
3:25By the way, people are saying, but I want to know.
3:28We need to know what you're talking about, and then we can help guide if
3:32things are getting a little long or we need to get into something.
3:35But if you're talking to us and you're taking a preamble and it goes 30
3:40seconds, then we get a little off the rails.
3:42Or 30 minutes. We have a lot of guys who call in, and the first
3:46thing they say is, my city or my state or my name is a little
3:49bit different. Nobody knows who you are.
3:51Make your argument, and then maybe you can be one day like Linda, and you
3:56can be driving American policy.
3:59Light him up, Linda. Oh, wait, that's a different Linda.
4:02Different. Arizona Linda. Coast to coast Linda.
4:04We've got double Lindas. Double Lindas dominating the national political discourse by just calling this
4:09show. Okay, Trump saying, hey, we totally control.
4:14And by the way, we should also mention, as we discussed yesterday, if you are
4:18in Virginia, get out and vote no on whether they should redistrict and turn 11
4:25seats in Virginia from a 6 to 5 Democrat lead, which roughly equates with the
4:31overall voting population in that state, to 10 to 1, which is a radically gerrymandered
4:38congressional district, the likes of which does not exist in any purple state in America.
4:45This is the most aggressive redistricting attempt that we have seen anywhere.
4:50Okay, with that in mind, Trump, we totally control the Strait of Hormuz.
4:55This is the essence of the dispute at this point in time.
4:59The rift with Iran cut three.
5:01They killed 42 ,000 people over the last two months.
5:05And, you know, you get to a point where people don't want to mention that.
5:09They don't like mentioning that.
5:1042 ,000 unarmed protesters, innocent unarmed protesters, many of them hung.
5:15So we're not dealing with the nicest group of people, but we're dealing with them
5:19very successfully. And the blockade has been a tremendous success.
5:22They said two days ago, we will open.
5:24straighter said no we're not going to open the straight until we have a final
5:27deal no no we want to open the straight they said we're not opening we
5:31totally control the straight just so you understand for all the fake news out there
5:34yeah and look i give trump credit here buck for the use of the word
5:39control was used by some elements of the president's adversaries in some way to try
5:45to suggest iran was winning the war obviously we have a blockade in place for
5:49those of you who have been following and i understand it's kind of a confusing
5:53thing to be following legitimately minute to minute the dispute in the straight right now
5:57so far as i can simplify it buck is the u .s says they will
6:02not fully end the blockade until iran agrees to peace plans iran is saying the
6:08straight should be open during the ceasefire but if the united states insists on keeping
6:13its blockade in place then iran is not going to allow the straight to be
6:17open either i think that gets to the essence of it but so this is
6:21one of the big disputes um your take at if at all i think i
6:25sum that up pretty well as to where we are at this exact moment yes
6:31i think that we don't really know where we are at this exact moment in
6:36the sense that the end of the movie hasn't happened yet so it's very tough
6:40to say whether this is uh a great a great victory brilliant strategic move we're
6:47not we can we can estimate it and we can analyze where it stands right
6:51now but i'm telling you the the iranians the one thing that i know they're
6:56really good at meaning the people who are in charge there is creating the grounds
7:03for endless talking where they just know they'll cheat as soon as they can because
7:09they've had decades of practice at this and they know that it's very hard to
7:13enforce things right it's very hard once you've started to get to the table it's
7:18a bad look when you say we're in negotiations and then we're going to hit
7:22them we're going to hit them again we're going to hit them again right then
7:24they start to look like they're the victims meaning the regime of the victims so
7:27clay i i the one part of this uh that i should have known or
7:32rather i i should have uh tempered my enthusiasm a little bit was trump saying
7:35oh we're just going to blockade them and the straight is open not really it's
7:39actually not really how it goes so that part of it is is still to
7:43be now you could say no we do have the military power to project and
7:48we can allow ships through but yeah if the ships don't buy it if the
7:53other ships that are going through don't feel safe it doesn't matter and that's where
8:00we're in a little bit of a jam here that's where things uh were a
8:03lot of bit of a jam in the straight of four moves so yeah i
8:06i think that trump is is incur rather trump is doing what he always does
8:10which is selling the the end state you know selling the glorious um victory a
8:19little early in this process but there's still reason to believe that he can get
8:23us there that's that's where i would put it uh but i i'm some of
8:28my hesitation about this clay from the very beginning yeah this is this stuff is
8:31really hard actually this stuff is very difficult to get where you want it to
8:35go and the other side i mean trump said yeah they've killed all these people
8:38i keep pointing out we say hey what about all the people that should rise
8:43up in resistance they killed 40 000 people yeah they weren't just killing protesters everybody
8:48when they're killing protesters in the street they're sending the secret police they're sending assassination
8:54squads to go after it's a police state they know who's talking they know who's
9:00a problem and they were liquidating resistance members during this too of course because if
9:06you were an evil tyrant wouldn't you do that the other part of this as
9:12jd vance travels to pakistan you by the way you want to talk about a
9:18tough trip you mentioned traveling flying all the way to pakistan for like to work
9:2321 straight hours negotiating turn around leave and then fly back to pakistan this is
9:30he can sleep he could sleep on the plane on the river it's not that
9:34i don't know this is this is not very fun um here is trump saying
9:38the ceasefire ends tomorrow uh saying i do not want to extend the deadline he's
9:44threatening that he's going to resume airstrikes uh here is trump on the negotiations with
9:50iran in pakistan uh and the deadline cut for the deadline for the ceasefire is
9:56tomorrow if it looks like things are progressing will you not necessarily extend it to
10:03a definitive amount of time but will you let it keep going if there's uh
10:07progress in the talks before taking uh well i don't want to do that we
10:12don't have that much time because by the time both parties get there as you
10:15know they just got the okay to go forward which i do they were going
10:18to do anyway i mean i don't think they had a choice they have to
10:21negotiate uh play i said at the beginning of this process two weeks ago and
10:27i said mark it down we're going to get to the end of the ceasefire
10:30and we're going to have an awesome agreement to extend the ceasefire to talk about
10:34the agreement does anyone want to take the other side of that bet right now
10:38i don't think so i think the likelihood is and i'll just say this that
10:45we're going to see flare -ups here for the next few months um and well
10:52hold on By the way, CNN is reporting that J .D.
10:55Vance has not yet left for Pakistan.
10:59I don't know to what extent or how long that flight is.
11:03Not short. But there has been some talk, Buck, that because it's a much.
11:09Like 12 to 14 hours?
11:10I'm trying to remember Afghanistan.
11:10It's like a 12 -hour, 13 -hour flight, I think.
11:14It's so much of a shorter flight for Iran to be able to get to
11:19Pakistan that there is some jockeying over, well, when are your leaders going to leave?
11:26Well, when are our leaders going to leave?
11:27Because I think one thing you don't want to do, Buck, is have J .D.
11:30Vance take off for Pakistan and then just turn around and come back to the
11:34United States before he even lands there, right?
11:37Because Iran suddenly says, well, the talks are off.
11:40We're kind of at a disadvantage.
11:42Sounds ridiculous, I know. But we're kind of at a disadvantage because our travel is
11:46such that when he boards the plane and starts his transit, Iran actually has a
11:52little bit of leverage to suddenly make us look bad, I'm just saying, by saying,
11:57well, we're refusing to go, and then J .D.
11:59Vance either has to go and potentially not meet, or they just turn Air Force
12:03Two around and he lands back in the United States.
12:08Are any of you feeling like, and I'm sorry, I'd love to sit here and
12:14just chant USA, USA, and say that we've kicked ass and everything is awesome?
12:17We have kicked ass, but everything is not awesome.
12:20This is not done, and there's a lot that remains to be seen here.
12:25Do you feel like the Iranians are acting like people who are cornered?
12:29And when I say the Iranians, we all know I'm talking about their leadership.
12:33Does it look like they feel defeated?
12:35Like they have no choice?
12:37Like they are desperate for a deal?
12:41No, I don't think so.
12:43Are we being honest about this?
12:45I don't think that it looks like they're desperate for a deal.
12:48So, you know, this is where things go.
12:50I don't know. Some of the people that spent a lot of time in this
12:53part of the world before this administration came along were concerned that this is going
12:58to be a, again, I'm not saying we're not going to get there.
13:01We might get there. But just want to level set expectations, as they say.
13:05It's not easy stuff. It's not as easy as just blow them up for a
13:09couple of weeks, and then they'll do anything you want.
13:11Now, Trump knows that. I know that's an oversimplification.
13:14But we need to strap in here a little bit.
13:16The idea that we're just going to go in there, kick their ass, and then
13:19they're going to say, fine, what do you want, is not what is happening.
13:25That's not what is happening.
13:26For whatever we want to say.
13:27Now, maybe we bleed them out more, Clay, with the economic embargo or the blockade.
13:32Fine. That's going to take weeks, maybe months.
13:35I think the challenge, and we'll get into this, I think one of the biggest
13:38challenges we're facing right now is there is still a battle for who has actual
13:44power inside of Iran. There is a bit of a power vacuum.
13:47And if you are seen inside of Iran as bending the knee too much to
13:52the United States, then your political adversaries in the state, in the country, are likely
13:59to try to wipe you out, right?
14:01So one of the biggest challenges I think we're dealing with right now is who
14:05is actually in control in Iran and who can make a deal, who has the
14:11authority to actually make deals.
14:13Remember, we still haven't even seen the Gayatollah.
14:16We don't know where he is.
14:17We don't know what he's going to do.
14:19Counterpoint, Captain Optimism. And by the way, everyone's rooting for you on this one, so
14:22I'm having fun here. I get to put on the heel in wrestling.
14:26But counterpoint, we haven't seen a single street protest.
14:29We haven't seen any uprising anywhere in the country of any significance whatsoever since we
14:35bombed the regime to smithereens.
14:38We have seen nothing on the streets.
14:40We haven't even seen the beginnings.
14:42So they were willing to go out in the streets and face machine gun fire
14:45very bravely before we did all this.
14:47But now we've done all this.
14:49Where is our glorious uprising?
14:51Even the beginnings of it.
14:52Where is the ember that will start the fire?
14:54It's a great question. It hasn't existed.
14:57And early on, you could say it hasn't existed because we're bombing and there's nervousness
15:02and danger and fear from being outside.
15:05What a ceasefire. But now, two weeks of ceasefire, and there has been zero, as
15:10you said, embers of internal revolt.
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16:26Looking for normal in a world of crazy?
16:29Clay and Buck have your back.
16:31Welcome back in to Clay and Buck.
16:34Let's take a quick one here because we've got a fast turnaround.
16:37Chris from Franklinton, North Carolina, this is Talk Back B.
16:41He listens on 106 .1 FM.
16:43Play it. Everybody knows what a Karen is, and so I think now that we
16:48have these strong, free -thinking, intelligent women on the right side and two of them
16:56are associated with your show and they're named Linda, so now women that characterize with
17:03those traits on the Republican side should henceforth be referred to as Lindas.
17:08Not bad. I like it, actually.
17:11Yeah. Linda is an American patriot trying to make things better.
17:16for everyone out there in the country, and it's paying homage to the different parts
17:22of the country that Lindas have already had an impact on, the East Coast and
17:27the West Coast. I'm with it.
17:29I like it. I like where his head's at on that one, and we've got
17:33Arizona Linda. We've got Light Em Up Linda, both making fantastic contributions to this program
17:38and really to policy discourse in America today.
17:42It's no doubt. All right, when we come back, we'll dive back into the Iran
17:45situation, which is never going to end.
17:48Also, Buck, I don't know if you saw this.
17:50I'll lead with this. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut cheering on the fact that Iran
17:57might have had success against our blockade, even though it wasn't actually true.
18:02If you haven't seen this, we'll talk about it when we come back.
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19:00Say clay and buck. Welcome back in.
19:03Play Travis Buck Sexton show.
19:06Okay. I mentioned that I was going to update you.
19:11I don't know if we have Trey Yanks reacting to this, but there was a
19:16report out there from Iranian sources that at least 26 Iranian Shadow Fleet vessels bypassed
19:25the U .S. blockade. Chris Murphy, senator from Kentucky, tweeted awesome.
19:32After being obliterated online since last night, he now came back and said, okay, Twitter,
19:40I can't believe I need to clarify this, but obviously Trump's bungled mismanagement of this
19:46war is not awesome. It's a disaster.
19:50He should end the war immediately.
19:51My tweet was something called sarcasm.
19:57I know this is a little bit like when Trump said, I thought it was
20:02the doctor when he posted the Jesus video.
20:06And I do not believe that Chris Murphy, senator from Connecticut, was saying sarcastically awesome.
20:16Although, again, it's a defense that I think you might need to get when you
20:21are being called out for being a traitor.
20:24In fact, Trey Yankst on Fox News also said the story that he was reacting
20:31to was 100 % made up, so he's reacting to Iranian disinformation online as a
20:38sitting U .S. senator and cheering it on.
20:41Here is Trey Yankst on Fox News discussing that.
20:45Listen. The United States is allowing any vessels who are passing through this area to
20:50make their way to their final destination as long as they're not coming from Iranian
20:54ports. There were some reports overnight indicating that 26 vessels from Iran's Shadow Fleet were
21:00able to make it past the U .S.
21:01blockade. There is no evidence of that.
21:04And despite what one Democratic senator talked about, there is a concerted effort by the
21:08United States to ensure that any vessels that are coming from Iranian ports are turned
21:13around or seized, as we saw with that one cargo ship over the weekend.
21:16So, Trey, that was just Iranian propaganda, right?
21:19Yes, absolutely. And the Shadow Fleet that the senator is talking about is used to
21:24directly fund Iranian proxies across the Middle East, including Hamas, the Houthis, and Hezbollah, who
21:29are directly responsible for killing U .S.
21:32citizens. And so the Shadow Fleet is a very serious problem.
21:34It is not getting past the U .S.
21:36blockade, according to all reports and information that we have from the region.
21:40But it is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:43Navy says they will crack down on, not just in the Persian Gulf, but also
21:46around the world. It is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious issue that the U .S.
21:47Navy is a very serious OK, I do think, Buck, this is kind of a
21:50new world that we live in where the Democrat Party has become so reflexively anti
21:57-America that a senator would react to Iranian propaganda, share it online and say it
22:07was awesome. And then after it's up for a full day and you're getting criticized
22:12in a significant degree, you come back and say, hey, you know what?
22:18That was sarcasm. I don't know.
22:21Look, I think this is a good question for you, too, because you went into
22:24into the government after 9 -11.
22:26And for all of you out there, I just I don't remember an era.
22:31You might not be happy with the choice to have gone to war in Afghanistan
22:36or have gone to war in Iraq.
22:37But I don't remember an era where someone would cheer for an adversary who is
22:44in the government. Can you remember that where somebody is just like, yay, like I'm
22:48so glad that the person that is America's adversary is having success and then that
22:53you would leave it up for 24 hours and then come back.
22:56After it's been proven to be Iranian, you know, lies, propaganda and just try to
23:01say, oh, it was sarcasm.
23:03I mean, I can take you back to 2007.
23:05Nancy Pelosi and all of the Democrats she was leading in Congress were hoping for
23:09the surge in Iraq to fail to stabilize the country.
23:12Well, that's why I was asking you like.
23:14No, absolutely. I'm just telling you, you know, and I know people who are briefing.
23:18I know somebody who actually briefed Pelosi on data about the surge and how deaths
23:23for civilians, deaths for U .S.
23:25soldiers, attacks on U .S.
23:26soldiers are way down. And he described her reaction to me as disappointed.
23:32Because it mattered more that they have control here.
23:35Politically, she wanted to failure, too.
23:37She saw it as an advantage politically.
23:39And so she was willing to have us fail.
23:41Now, was she saying it publicly?
23:44I mean, they were very clearly like they were positioning themselves with it has no
23:49chance. This is terrible. Bush has ruined everything, the whole thing.
23:52And then when it happened, it was we shouldn't have been there in the first
23:54place. This is all a disaster.
23:56So but it was very clear to anybody in the government at the time that
23:59the Democrats were absolutely. And by the way, Obama ended up winning in 2008.
24:03I mean, you can see how all this was going, but they did not.
24:07They weren't even willing to be happy for the Bush administration that the absolute maelstrom
24:13of of carnage in Iraq had been somewhat stabilized, somewhat stabilized in 2008 with the
24:22with the surge. So, yeah, no, there's there's plenty of plenty of many such cases,
24:26many such cases of Democrats rooting against American interests in the most clear and obvious
24:32way, as long as it benefits their power.
24:35I mean, the perfect example of this is they love the open border.
24:38They pretend not to. But we know they do because they open the border.
24:41Right. Yes. So there's lots of ways in which Democrats show you who they're actually
24:44who they are voting for or rather who they are rooting for in this process.
24:49And I said, I said, I said all along when when Obama got full credit
24:53as commander in chief, he did for ordering the bin Laden raid.
24:57Everyone was like, wow, that was pretty amazing.
24:58They got bin Laden. Yeah.
25:00Nobody was saying, oh, man, I wish shield team six had to divert.
25:04And there were mechanical problems and that they didn't get bin Laden and that they
25:07had to land in, you know, India because they couldn't actually go into Pakistani airspace.
25:12You know, no, we were like, OK, that was good.
25:14So this is the difference in Democrats and Republicans among many.
25:17I will say the fact that he, after a day, felt compelled to come back
25:22and say, oh, it was sarcasm is a sign that even for Democrats, he must
25:28have been getting blowback that he said.
25:30Awesome. Because the fact that he comes back and says that it's sarcasm, I think
25:35that there was even even this guy, Clay, as our friend Mark Levin would say,
25:42backbencher. This guy doesn't matter.
25:44This guy, this guy's a clown.
25:46This this this dude away from Murphy from Connecticut is he's a jerk.
25:51Is it the other Connecticut Senator Blumenthal who lied about serving in Vietnam?
25:56This is quite the duo that Connecticut has brought.
25:59Now you're you're you're you're stepping into something.
26:02It's a little bit of a sensitive area for me, Clay, just because I love
26:05Connecticut as a state. I spent a ton of time in Connecticut.
26:08It's the coast is beautiful.
26:10The interior is beautiful. Not a huge Hartford fan, but I love Connecticut as a
26:14state. And I want us to take it over, meaning I want we need a
26:18plan here for Republicans from elsewhere in the country where where we can like, you
26:22know, I need I need 10 ,000 from Wyoming.
26:25I need 10 ,000 from Idaho.
26:28You know, we need to take over Connecticut, get those two Senate seats.
26:32We should not have this communist madness running what is a beautiful state in New
26:37England. And it just makes me Massachusetts.
26:39Sorry, you're on your own.
26:40You're on your own. You got the Patriots, at least right.
26:43You're on your own, Massachusetts, Connecticut, though.
26:45I think we could flip Connecticut.
26:46We could Florida, Connecticut with not that many.
26:49I'll check right now. Not that many people moving there.
26:52And you would have an escape valve from New York.
26:55You're never going to flip New York.
26:56You have an escape valve from New York City craziness.
26:59That's beautiful and well run.
27:01I mean, I think that's the benefit that's occurred in New Jersey.
27:04Right. New Jersey was within five points of flipping to the Republican Party in the
27:092024 election. And what Connecticut, to your point as a New Yorker, I'm going to
27:15plead. Fifth on New Jersey.
27:16We've got a lot of listeners there.
27:17I'm just going to plead the fifth.
27:18I'm going to plead the fifth.
27:18It would only take a couple of hundred.
27:20The bridge and tunnel crowd?
27:21You're not a huge fan of the bridge and tunnel crowd?
27:23Love my bridge and tunnel crowd.
27:25Excuse me, sir. What do you think of people from New Jersey who come into
27:28Manhattan for the weekend? What is your take on it?
27:31You see what this is?
27:32Clay's just trying to stir up trouble right now.
27:35We need to fix Iran.
27:36I know enough. I know enough about the tension that exists between people who live
27:42in New York City and the bridge and tunnel crowd that comes roaring in on
27:47Fridays and Saturdays and takes over Manhattan and then rolls back out on the bridge
27:51and tunnels. I went to college on the East Coast.
27:54I know the tension is real.
27:55I will say, New Jersey on the East Coast, most hated of the states on
28:03the East Coast, I just don't know very many people outside of New Jersey who
28:08love, and now I'm really stepping into it, who love New Jerseyans.
28:13I'm going to tell you something.
28:14I think that's a fair take.
28:14This is true, and I'm not just kissing up the New Jerseyans because, really, we
28:18have a ton of northern New Jerseyans who listen to the show on their way
28:22into New York and the tri -state area.
28:23That's not why I'm kissing up to you right now.
28:25If you look at surveys of state -by -state happiness for the people who live
28:31there, New Jersey actually does very well.
28:35There's a lot of ignorance around New Jersey from non -New Jerseyans because the 95
28:41corridor going into New York City is what, it's gross, and New Jerseyans know that,
28:47and The Sopranos is the most famous New Jersey show of all time, and that
28:50kind of gives a very specific slice of New Jersey.
28:54There's parts of New Jersey that are beautiful.
28:57Oh, look, I mean, Bedminster, where President Trump has his place, is pretty fantastic.
29:02But everybody from New Jersey went to school at GW.
29:06So I feel like I know the entire state of New Jersey because everyone that
29:10could— You went to school with the bridge and tunnel crowd.
29:12Yes, that is who goes to GW, by the way.
29:13It's all people from Long Island and New Jersey.
29:16Entire state of New Jersey and all of Long Island went to school at GW
29:21when I was there. I know every single one of you that is from those
29:25areas. So here you go.
29:28By the way, total registered voters, I'm going back to Connecticut here for a second.
29:34Unaffiliated registered voters, 41%. Yes.
29:38Democrats are 35%. Republicans are 21%.
29:44And we're not talking about this total of 2 .3 million voters.
29:48A few hundred thousand people, we moved to Connecticut.
29:51I'm telling you, we got two Senate seats.
29:53This is not a crazy— It is a crazy plan, but it's not the craziest
29:58plan. Bach, this is where people get nervous when they hear this plan of yours
30:02because everyone listening to us on the West Coast is saying, this is what they're
30:06trying to do to Idaho.
30:07This is what they're trying to do to Wyoming.
30:09This is what they're trying to do for Montana.
30:12So many people from California, this is what they already did to Colorado.
30:16This is what they're trying to do to Arizona.
30:19So many Californians are getting frustrated by the situation and the cost of living in
30:24California. Go look at the numbers.
30:26Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming.
30:34The number of Californians that are fed up and are just moving a little bit.
30:38Also, by the way, people from Washington State, people from Oregon, just moving a little
30:43bit across the border. This is where a lot of people in the West start
30:46to get nervous because your Connecticut plan, they may actually be doing it on the
30:51Democrat side with so many different Western states that tend to vote red.
30:54This is why our Texas listeners, they look at Austin, which has got great stuff
31:00in a lot of ways, but politically it's a mess.
31:03They look at Austin as kind of the breach in the wall, right?
31:06Because that's where you have such a concentration.
31:08It is the blueberry in the middle of the red soup, if you will, and
31:14that is the beachhead for Democrat madness.
31:18And unfortunately, you have two things that often coincide.
31:20This is true in many states.
31:21A state capital with a huge university or a big university town, you often get
31:26commie. I'm sorry? Nashville. Yeah.
31:29You're describing the nervousness in my home state associated with my home state.
31:33You got those two dynamics, Madison, Wisconsin.
31:38Madison's the capital of Wisconsin, right?
31:40I'm not messing that up, am I?
31:41Yeah. Sorry. Wisconsin listeners are like, how dare you?
31:44By the way, Clay, 2024 election.
31:46Just to give you a sense of how not crazy this plan is.
31:49Operation Flip CT Red. Kamala got 992 ,000 votes.
31:55Trump got 736 ,000 votes.
31:58Yeah, it's not many. A couple of hundred thousand people, my friends.
32:02A couple of hundred thousand people, and we could flip Connecticut red.
32:07It's even easier in Vermont, but Vermont's like, you know, that's a...
32:12Isn't it true that Connecticut is the lowest taxed state in the Northeast?
32:18No, New Hampshire. Other than New Hampshire.
32:21New Hampshire has no state income tax.
32:23Live and go to New York City without difficulty.
32:26I think Connecticut is the lowest taxed.
32:28Back on Maine, because I have looked at this, because I've looked at places where
32:31we might escape in the summertime, and so I've looked at all the tax regulations.
32:35You're right now funding the entire New York City government.
32:39It's very sad. New Jersey, New York.
32:43New York, Massachusetts, crazy tax situation.
32:47Yes. But I think Connecticut, of the places that you could live and still go
32:52into New York City without supreme difficulty, is the lowest tax.
32:55You're right about New Hampshire.
32:56It's like a tax paradise.
32:58New Hampshire, no state income tax, which is a great thing for the state of
33:00New Hampshire. I don't know the situation in Maine, but I would assume Maine is
33:03pretty high tax, too, actually.
33:05I think Maine's got a pretty big welfare state, unfortunately.
33:08So I'm telling you, Connecticut is the weak link in the communist chain in the
33:13Northeast, and Connecticut is beautiful, particularly in the fall.
33:18Beautiful state. So I know, this is a dream of mine, because I just don't
33:22like that New England is, other than New Hampshire, New England is just Commieville.
33:26Like, how do we see?
33:27Now, Clay's whole theory is if we had settled west to east, nobody would even
33:31live. It would be like Wyoming in the Northeast.
33:33How dare you is all I have to say.
33:35How dare you? Whether, if we, this is a great take of mine, if we
33:39had settled the country west to east, no one would live in the Northeast.
33:44This is madness. I'm 100 % right.
33:47This is really, you know, I don't even know what to, sometimes with Clay, I
33:50don't even know what to say to him.
33:51All right, look, where I live, it may be the same as where you live,
33:54where your roof has got to be in good shape or you got problems.
33:57You're just talking about the Northeast, places that get snow.
33:59Your roof takes a beating, right?
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35:16Clay and Buck, just preset them on the iHeart app.
35:19Welcome back into Clay and Buck.
35:21Let's get some talkbacks here, some quick ones.
35:23We'll get into it. We have Molly Hemingway up next, the brilliant, the wonderful, the
35:26talented Molly Hemingway. Is that next?
35:27Or is that, yes, we do.
35:29She's got a great new book out with a huge revelation about something relating to
35:32the Supreme Court you all need to hear.
35:34But let's get these talkbacks quick.
35:35Sean from Indianapolis. This is C, hit it.
35:38Just wanted to say, there's not going to be an uprising in Iran until somebody
35:43drops millions of weapons into the cities so the folks have something to fight with.
35:51That's all I'm saying. All right, interesting idea.
35:54Podcast listener Alex from Charleston, South Carolina.
35:56He's attacking Clay, so let's hear what he has to say.
35:59All right, play it. Hello, Buck.
36:00You are spot on being a former militarily oriented.
36:04Clay, you're a drunken frat boy.
36:06I'm sorry. This is Alex from Charleston, South Carolina, former Marine.
36:12Any field grade officer in our service would have advised Mr.
36:16Trump that boots on the ground is going to be the only way to win
36:20this. But he didn't listen.
36:22We need to do boots on the ground.
36:25Hi, Clay. First of all, I don't even think drunken frat boy is that big
36:29of an insult because that's not a bad life.
36:31But I will say, especially at an SEC school, I will say he's actually criticizing
36:38me and I have the same opinion on this particular issue as you.
36:41If we're not going to put boots on the ground, I think it's going to
36:45be very difficult to try to get any sort of substantial uprising based on the
36:50evidence that we've seen so far.
36:52All I heard was he said Buck is spot on and then some shade was
36:56thrown at you. So that sounds good.
36:59Drunken frat boy hour next.
37:00This is an iHeart podcast.
37:03Guaranteed human.