Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Apr 3 2026
4/3/202650 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome back in.
0:05Play Travis Buck Sexton show.
0:07Okay, yesterday, during the program, Pam Bondi, Attorney General out.
0:13Not even very much discussion today about the fact that President Trump moved on from
0:19his Attorney General yesterday. These are the names that are at the top right now
0:25of the poly market who will be the next Attorney General prediction markets, Buck.
0:31I'm going to hit these for you.
0:33We talked about a variety of different names.
0:35Lee Zeldin is a pretty big favorite.
0:3753 % right now, coin flip, but he's the favorite to be the next Attorney
0:43General. He is the current EPA head.
0:46Then you have Todd Blanche, who is the interim, was working as the second in
0:51charge of the Department of Justice, has now been elevated.
0:53For those of you certainly who remember, Todd Blanche was President Trump's private attorney during
0:59much of the criminal mess that he had when he was not in office.
1:03They seem to have a very good relationship.
1:05And then in third place, 25 % chance right now that it will be Todd
1:10Blanche. In third place, Judge Jeanine Pirro, who is right now the head of the
1:17D .C. Attorney's Office that has been prosecuting as the District Attorney, basically, of the
1:23District of Columbia. Many of those cases, obviously, also very well known to many of
1:29you as a panelist on The Five, which is the most popular show on cable
1:35before she was elevated into this job.
1:37A couple of other names that are out there, they are substantial underdogs.
1:42Ken Paxton. Now, I don't know, Buck, if Ken Paxton could be confirmed by the
1:49United States Senate. He is the current Attorney General of Texas.
1:53He's been on this program many times.
1:54He is running against John Cornyn in the Senate primary.
1:59This would be kind of a masterstroke for Trump.
2:04Ken Paxton has been a long -time ally of President Trump.
2:08If he were able, and I don't know if he would be able to, but
2:12if he were able to be confirmed by the Senate, remember we only have 53
2:16votes, so assume unified opposition from Democrats, Ken Paxton, maybe could be an incredible choice
2:26because it would end the Senate battle in Texas and basically take Texas and the
2:32amount of money that's going to be spent between now and late May off the
2:36table and kind of put Tallarico down in a way that he would be unlikely
2:42to win. It ends the acrimony of the primary.
2:46Ken Paxton would get a more important, I would argue, job as the Attorney General
2:51than he has right now in the Senate.
2:53Those are the top four.
2:55You and I talked about the fact that we thought Ron DeSantis would be an
2:59amazing Attorney General. I'll stand by that.
3:01If they wanted to go in the Senate, Mike Lee could make a lot of
3:05sense because theoretically he would be easy to confirm.
3:09That's kind of what I would say top five or six.
3:12You mentioned Harmeet Dillon. Where do you see this going?
3:15Do you think the favorites, do you think it's very likely it's going to be
3:17Lee Zeldin and or Todd Blanche?
3:20That's about an 85 % chance according to the prediction markets or do you think
3:25Trump could just go off the board?
3:26I think that Trump is running yet another episode of The Apprentice, The Apprentice Department
3:34of Justice meaning that he wants everyone to be in a tizzy running around thinking
3:40about who could be who will be you know the only person who knows Clay
3:45is Donald Trump. I think that he's probably still considering what his options are.
3:51He's going to listen to different voices over the days ahead.
3:54I think all of these options are strong the ones that he's talking about and
4:00I don't think Ron DeSantis I don't think he will be asked nor do I
4:03think he would take the job quite honestly for a bunch of reasons.
4:06Let me ask you this by the way sorry to cut you off but I
4:09get a lot of responses on this.
4:11What is Ron DeSantis going to do?
4:13He is an elite political talent who has transformed the state of Florida in his
4:18eight years. His term ends in November he's not going to run again.
4:24Byron Donalds I believe is going to be the next governor of the great state
4:28of Florida. I think Byron Donalds is going to do a good job but Ron
4:32DeSantis come November basically I know he'll serve until January when we have a sworn
4:37in swearing in occurring of the new governor.
4:40What is he going to do?
4:42Well the easiest thing would be to go into the private sector and make a
4:45whole bunch of money which I think he could easily do.
4:48The less easy thing that I actually think is the more likely thing is that
4:51he will run for president but he'll run for president as Ron DeSantis would saying
4:56hey I think I'd be the best for this job but I'd also be a
5:00great secretary of state under a J .D.
5:02Vance or a Marco Rubio or whatever administration so I think he's going to run.
5:09I think he's going to run because I think now we've seen running for president
5:12and this has been played out many times in recent elections going back now decades
5:16running for president is a brand enhancing and sometimes cabinet position enabling maneuver.
5:24so why not so that's what i think he's so start i mean and basically
5:29as we have talked about it sounds like he would be out of office but
5:33the presidential primary starts basically in january of 27 when people come out of christmas
5:39and new years the 2028 presidential cycle will begin by january and february and march
5:46everybody will be announcing that they are going to be running for president we'll see
5:50how many they end up actually being i hope everyone enjoyed the one year of
5:54trump's first or trump's second term where we weren't essentially gearing up for either a
6:00midterm or a presidential election because that's the way that this goes we had one
6:03year and now we're in the midterm year yes and then it's going to be
6:06the beginning of the presidential cycle so we're going to be jumping into this right
6:09away but yeah i think i think ron's going to run and i think very
6:12much uh in the way that you know he he even ran the last time
6:16which obviously didn't work against trump didn't work very well at all uh but he'll
6:20run on hey guys i think i'm great for the job but he's not it's
6:23he's he doesn't he's not going to get ugly with fellow republicans i think he'll
6:27probably be if he does run and i'm right he'll be smiling at rubio on
6:30the stage again i don't even know there's a lot of talk as to whether
6:33jd or rubio is the heir apparent i i don't really have a i i
6:38think they're both really solid choices i don't really have a dog in that fight
6:40some people feel very very strongly about it i i'm somewhat agnostic i think they're
6:45both if i thought one was much weaker than the other i'd have a strong
6:48opinion on it but right now i want to see that play out but i
6:51think uh yeah ron would be somebody who if he if he were to run
6:54again it would be um hey let's see what kind of traction i get slash
6:57he would be a really good ag or secretary i don't think he wants to
7:01be the ag at the end of trump's second term quite honestly that's that's where
7:05he doesn't want to go let me give you one it's a sad story justice
7:11alito uh report came down sounds like he's fine but he was hospitalized in march
7:17after a federalist related issue with his health they said he was dehydrated he had
7:23to be taken to the hospital if you are looking at the landscape of available
7:30candidates for the supreme court and you are trying to avoid a katanji brown jackson
7:37situation i think ron de santis would be an incredible supreme court justice i don't
7:45know that anybody else has ever said this alito and um clarence thomas he has
7:51a good relationship with both i don't know that he would want it i haven't
7:54talked to ron de santis about this but i'll tell you a story i don't
7:58think i've told this story on the air before de santis is a legal nerd
8:02and that's not an attack that as an endorsement he reads the actual opinions as
8:08one should as the uh chief executive of a state he is a strong legal
8:14scholar some people would prefer at times to be immersed in the policy details the
8:22challenges of legalities other people kind of float above it i don't think trump is
8:28sitting down pouring through supreme court justices like opinions saying what can you believe this
8:33footnote is this dicta or is this the official opinion i know he was at
8:39the argument on wednesday i think he gets the big picture impact i don't think
8:42he goes into the nitty -gritty i think ron de santis is a nitty -gritty
8:45guy i think ron de santis as a replacement for alito or if clarence thomas
8:52these guys are both 75 plus ish and buck we may lose the senate and
8:58nobody else wants to talk about the fact that if we lose the senate trump
9:03has no ability to appoint new supreme court justices and who knows when the republicans
9:09will have the senate and the presidency again i don't again i i may be
9:14i feel like i'm the only person like hitting this hitting this button and talking
9:18about it but we saw what happened with ruth bader ginsburg when you get to
9:22be 75 if you're having every now and then a little bit of a health
9:25condition it can turn in a hurry and next thing you know ruth bader ginsburg
9:28is getting replaced by amy coney barrett and that reverse could happen right clarence thomas
9:33could be replaced by the equivalent of katanji brown jackson if democrats have the ability
9:38to do this same thing with justice alito i think there needs to be a
9:43real discussion behind closed doors about health and whether in the summer it could make
9:49sense when this term ends in june to have a supreme court confirmation and i'll
9:55just toss that out there the timing would be perfect on a ron de santis
9:59on the supreme court have you heard anybody else ever make that suggestion or have
10:03i blown your mind with this idea no that's up there with uh linda from
10:07arizona talking about deploying ice if this were to happen i've never heard anyone talk
10:11about ron for the supreme court so that would be uh quite he's 45 46
10:16years old so you got a long runway young right as judges would go uh
10:22i think it could make a ton of sense yeah interesting i i i can
10:27see that more than ted ted cruz wants to be president you're you and i
10:30would be in agreement that ted cruz is going to run for president 2028 i
10:35mean period he'll start running in january of 27 yeah people are going to say
10:39oh but what about there's not the same feeling about this which we all very
10:44much heard when people ran including ron de santis against trump it was it's not
10:48their time it has to be trump it has to be trump i do There
10:52is not a unified voice of the Republican Party that I think is going to
10:57insist that there is only one going forward.
11:00I haven't seen that. Maybe Trump, the only way that changes is if Trump says,
11:05everyone, MAGA, J .D., or Marco, but let's assume it's J .D.
11:11J .D. is my guy.
11:12He is the, you know, Trump would have to do that in a very clear,
11:18very concerned, I don't know if he'll do that.
11:21I think if he just kind of says, you know, I'm going to let MAGA
11:23decide, it's up to them, you know, let the Republican base do what it does,
11:28I think you're going to have a lot of people run, actually.
11:31I think it'll be much more interesting.
11:33There's only one Trump, right?
11:34I mean, it's a different thing.
11:35No one else is Trump.
11:36I'm going to give you a crazy take part two that no one else has
11:41said that I don't think anybody else has said.
11:43But I think there's a possibility that Marco Rubio would rather be commissioner of the
11:50NFL after his secretary of state run than vice president.
11:56Because I think he's doing a tremendous job as secretary of state.
12:00We've talked about VP. You know, there's the talk of, hey, Marco's going to run
12:04with J .D. I don't know that Marco Rubio wants to be vice president.
12:08I think he might see it as a demotion relative to what he gets to
12:13do right now as secretary of state.
12:15I think he might be done with government.
12:17To Marco Rubio's credit, he's never made any money.
12:20He's in his 50s. And everybody out there used to talk about Condoleezza Rice wanting
12:25to be one day the NFL commissioner.
12:27Really? Roger Goodell may. Oh, you never heard that story?
12:30Oh, yeah. Tons. Tons, secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, he was a top candidate in
12:35the public arena to be the commissioner of the NFL.
12:38This I do know. Goodell makes like 40 or something million a year, right?
12:42I think there is an argument that the best job in America is commissioner of
12:46the NFL. When you consider the amount of money they make, the fact that you're
12:50selling something that everybody loves, football, I think Marco Rubio could be the, when Roger
12:57Goodell steps down. Remember, Goodell's dad used to be a senator.
13:01I mean, he's of political, you know, background in many ways.
13:05I think Marco Rubio could be the next NFL commissioner.
13:08And I think he would prefer that.
13:10This is where people are going to say you're crazy.
13:11I'd rather be NFL commissioner than vice president.
13:14I think I would, too.
13:16I mean, if you gave me the choice right now, would you rather be VP?
13:18And I say it only in the context of Marco is getting to do the
13:24secretary of state job at an elite level.
13:26Vice president, you're kind of just floating around there, right?
13:30Especially vice president. I think J .D.
13:33has found this to be a tough spot.
13:34When the president is the sun, the moon, the stars, you're sort of a secondary,
13:38by far, satellite there. Marco Rubio as secretary of state, sorry, as next NFL commissioner,
13:46and Ron DeSantis as next Supreme Court justice.
13:49If I hit both those, Buck, I might have to retire because I don't know
13:52that I could hit two more incredible predictions.
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14:47Each day, spend time with Clay and Buck.
14:50Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
14:55Welcome back in, everybody, to the third hour of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
14:59show. Still looking very closely at any updates on the second pilot.
15:06One pilot retrieved successfully after an apparent shoot -down of an F -15 in Iran.
15:14We will continue to monitor this and bring you any updates on it that we
15:19have. Something that I think is going to, well, hopefully going into this Easter weekend.
15:27We'll have both of them back safe and sound and can at least move to
15:33the next thing we have to look at in this conflict, which continues on.
15:37Clay, we have much in the economy, I think, to look at as very powerful,
15:45very strong right now, despite the fact that there are some high gas prices.
15:49We played this one before.
15:50This is from the first hour, but just hit it again.
15:53U .S. economy adding 178 ,000 jobs in March.
15:56This has cut one. The expectation was, what, 60 ,000 jobs and it's 178?
16:01Wow. Yeah. Look, the job market bounced back in a big way in March, and
16:07that is good news. Really blowing away expectations.
16:11Clay, I think one challenge the Trump administration has had from the very beginning with
16:15all of this is they're really, they're almost victims of the...
16:20own success the expectation is that the trump economy will be strong there'll be job
16:25growth uh stock market boom all kinds of productivity on the on the rise and
16:33the american people becoming overall uh more prosperous in a lot of ways that can
16:38be measured i know prices continue to be a major concern for people out there
16:43this is the the challenge of spending trillions of dollars with the covid uh madness
16:49that we should not have spent because we should not have shut down at all
16:53and and the whole thing was uh was just a disaster a debacle from top
16:59to bottom with the government response to all of this here we have um uh
17:04you know a moment in time clay where i think the reality of the trump
17:08economy is apparent in that it is so strong that we don't hear much in
17:14the way of criticism about it and the people that would love to talk about
17:18what a a total mishandling of the economy has occurred on trump's watch have to
17:23say or really have to say nothing because there's not a whole lot that they
17:28can attack here the price issue is still very annoying and certainly the price on
17:32gas i think gas prices are going to go down and i think the overall
17:35issue of prices is really still a hangover from covid you had the highest inflation
17:40in 40 years under biden you had trillions of dollars of completely unnecessary spending and
17:45we have not dealt with the spending really and that's just the truth of it
17:48that if you're going to criticize something it's that both parties refuse to stop spending
17:52too much money and getting us deeper into the debt hole uh that's 100 accurate
17:56i will say sometimes i think we don't notice some of the positive transformative things
18:03that have happened in the early days of trump 2 .0 and i actually see
18:09these two things linked uh one we hit 125 year low in murders which should
18:15be one of the great all -time accomplishments right if you said hey we're gonna
18:21have fewer murders than at any point since 1900 seems like that should be like
18:25a really good thing so you know it's interesting i spoke to and this is
18:30actually maybe a pitch for the clay and buck podcast network i spoke to a
18:34friend uh rafael mangual of the manhattan institute he's their criminal their criminal justice uh
18:43senior fellow analyst writer thinker and we i spoke to him about this yesterday clicks
18:47i said so we're really at the lowest and he says by the way the
18:50answer to your is yes yes certainly the lowest in uh like 60 70 years
18:55i mean they're saying 120 the uh the statistics at some point are not apparently
19:00that really reliable if you go back far enough but i think it's fair to
19:04say that murders although wasn't there a huge spike in murders during prohibition with uh
19:09and capone and all that for anyway but per capita i mean i think you
19:13could go back in time and say the wild west in a pre -1900 era
19:18i think they had a lot of murders you know like i think the murder
19:21rate in tombstone was probably pretty high compared to phoenix today for instance uh in
19:26arizona right was it i want i have to look at that i've never really
19:29oh yeah i think the murder rate was off the charts uh back in the
19:34day and by the way you also just had people disappear so i don't know
19:38that we even found dead bodies that well you know back in the day think
19:41about how easy it would have been to get away with it back in the
19:43day before before video cameras phones forensic analysis fingerprinting all these things it would have
19:50been you know ballistics uh analysis would have been pretty easy to get away with
19:55all kinds of of bad stuff but this was interesting was when i was talking
19:58to rafael about this and you can listen to this on the uh the buck
20:01brief from the clan buck podcast network he said that there are that in the
20:05trump uh the trump program has worked but to talk about why the trump program
20:12of law and crime has worked you have to look at the specific places where
20:15it has been deployed memphis dc and they have really done a phenomenal job memphis
20:21is a great example murder rate down 40 percent uh but they have used federal
20:26resources that have been um really uh collaborating with local resources so that gets around
20:34some of the you know you'll have basically have feds and and cops in the
20:38same you know car or going around together working on gang issues things like that
20:42so that's been brilliant and that has absolutely worked there's some broader though trends about
20:48the murder rate right now uh for example and he he noted this i thought
20:52this was interesting i'd never heard anyone make this case before there's been a precipitous
20:57drop in drinking in this country yeah and and i'm not i'm not trying to
21:03be uh you know church lady over here like put down that beer but there's
21:08been a precipitous uh lowering of drinking in recent years and particularly among younger you
21:13know youngish people and who commits murders what's overwhelming people 18 to 35 i mean
21:18that's really where most of the that's where most of the shootings are happening yeah
21:22the most young men young men who are pre -marriage age 16 to 40 is
21:28like every murder right so i'm not saying you know if if you're sitting on
21:33the on the veranda this weekend enjoying a nice glass of uh of bullet or
21:39something you know is that a good one is that is that uh i look
21:42i i i'm a uh buffalo trace uh family um bourbon guy So I'll probably
21:49have an old -fashioned at some point this weekend.
21:51If you're a 55 -year -old enjoying an old -fashioned this weekend, no one's saying
21:54you're going to go Incredible Hulk, rip your shirt off, and get super violent.
21:57But yes, Bullet is a nice, is a good choice.
22:00Oh, there we go. So, you know, that's one that I think, for example, I
22:06think that's an interesting case to be made.
22:08He says the data backs this up, that the drop in drinking, broadly speaking, results
22:13in less violence and specifically less murder.
22:16Yeah, I think that's accurate.
22:18And also a lot less, he said that people, because of remote work, there is
22:25less concentration of people in cities in some places, and particularly in places, like people
22:34aren't on mass transit in the same numbers, people aren't having the same level of
22:38contact with each other because of so much more remote work.
22:41And that that has, I just thought this was really interesting.
22:45I never thought of this before.
22:46And this is a guy, all he does is look at the numbers.
22:47I should probably invite him on the show.
22:48Yeah, that would be great.
22:49We should have him on to do a deep dive on this, because I think
22:52that's super interesting. But also, and here's the really big one, the overall incarcerated population
23:00under Trump has been going up.
23:03Yeah. And that's really, now the other ones, the other ones are just kind of
23:06interesting data nerd stuff, but that's really, keep bad, scary, violent criminals off the streets,
23:15Clay. This is the big difference.
23:18And this is Trump, U .S.
23:19attorneys, because remember, any drug stuff, gangs can be hit with RICO, any major drug
23:25crimes are federal. A lot of the time, if you're involved with a drug gang,
23:29you're carrying a weapon illegally and you're selling drugs, that's federal.
23:32There's a lot of stuff that falls under federal jurisdiction.
23:35And so it's whether the U .S.
23:37attorneys that Trump has appointed are willing to enforce the law meaningfully or not.
23:42The answer is yes, and people are getting locked up.
23:44And, Clay, murder rate gone down a lot.
23:47It is possible. So that is occurring, Buck, and I would actually connect it with
23:53this one, because it's also incredibly transformative.
23:58And it's not getting very much attention either.
24:01Fewest federal employees, because we added 178 ,000 new jobs this morning, was the official
24:09March number. But simultaneously, we've been firing a lot of people who worked in federal
24:15government, such that, and this is kind of a crazy stat, again, it should be
24:19getting a lot of attention, right now we have the fewest federal employees since 1966.
24:26Not per capita. The fewest federal employees, our tax dollars paying for federal employees since
24:361966. And I know everybody wanted to tap dance on Elon Musk and Doge, and
24:41it's frustrating that a lot of the Doge spending excesses were not ratified into law.
24:49I'm not signifying that's not significant, but the decision to go after the federal workforce
24:56and basically say, hey, we'll pay you to leave and go find a job somewhere
25:01else. We don't need taxpayer dollars to be able to be continuing to do it.
25:05Don't you think that's kind of interesting?
25:07Sometimes it's hard to think big picture because in the day -to -day, there's so
25:12much noise, and it's like we have a fire hose of data that's spraying out
25:17every day, and it's hard to be on top of things.
25:20Two things that happened in the last year.
25:23Lowest murder rate since 1900.
25:26Fewest federal employees since 1966.
25:30Both of those are really transformative data points, which are very beneficial.
25:34Now, Buck, is $39 trillion in debt still way too much?
25:39Yes. Do Democrats and Republicans join hands and just spend money like drunken sailors?
25:45Yes. Are there major structural issues with the level of debt that we have set
25:50in place in the United States?
25:51Yes. But I do think it's worth looking at some of these green shoots of
25:57positivity in Trump's first year and saying, hey, we should really kind of, sometimes this
26:03gets snowed under, in all the noise, who's going to be the next AG, what's
26:08going to happen with the Supreme Court.
26:10I've got a data point for you on that coming back out of the next
26:12break. But I do think these are pretty significant details that are not going to
26:16get the attention they should.
26:19So, yes, it is in fact the case.
26:21I looked this up, Clay.
26:22You're talking about a 21 % decline in the U .S.
26:27national homicide rate from 2024 through 2025.
26:32So that's the one we obviously have the complete year data from.
26:36You're looking at about 4 ,000 to 100 ,000 residents.
26:41So it's 4 per 100 ,000 people murders in the United States.
26:46I'm just reading this off of AI as we're going here.
26:50I believe that's potentially the lowest since at least 1 ,900.
26:54Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
26:55A 125 -year low. And again, I question in 1904, were we great at counting
27:01murders? I have a suspicion that maybe you could have gotten away with a murder
27:04in 1904 compared to now.
27:06So the 2025 drop was especially steep in 31 of 35 large cities tracked by
27:13the Council on Criminal Justice.
27:1540 % plus drops in Denver, Omaha, and now Washington, D .C., of course, is
27:20part of the Trump program.
27:21Clay, a big part of this is just going after, and this is, I think,
27:26something that, you know, we should bring Cash Patel back.
27:28Team, reach out to Director Patel because I want to talk to him about this.
27:31I want to hear from the FBI side.
27:33I don't think they're getting enough credit for this.
27:35I think more needs to be made of this.
27:37Think about how many lives, we're talking about thousands of lives being saved by change
27:41in policy here. And I always have to point this out to people, too.
27:44Yeah, of course, you're saving a life.
27:46That's the most important thing.
27:48But you're also saving, with each life saved in this case, you're talking about a
27:54family that still has a dad, a son, a brother.
27:58Yes. So think of how it affects all of them.
28:01A community that doesn't have to go to a horrific funeral for someone who's, you
28:05know, 20 years old and was shot.
28:07I mean, this story, I can't even talk about it.
28:09This story is a baby was killed in Brooklyn at a shooting.
28:12I mean, this is horrible stuff that happens.
28:14Every time something like that is averted, it's such a blessing.
28:20I think the Jewish word is mitzvah.
28:22It's like it's such a beautiful thing, Yiddish word.
28:28You know, and it's something that the administration needs to be talking to people about
28:32more because this needs to be the way it is going forward.
28:35You have people who are bad, who are violent criminals, who are a threat to
28:38society, need to be the first, the top priority, the number one priority of the
28:43FBI, not people that showed up and took a selfie in the Capitol building for
28:4745 seconds and walked out after they had been guided in by law enforcement officers,
28:52which happened to a lot of people.
28:53OK, that's not actually the top priority of the FBI.
28:5730 percent of FBI officers, Clay, were in some way working on January 6 adjacent
29:02cases. People are being raped and murdered on the streets.
29:05Yes. They're gang members that are torturing people on video and sending it to, you
29:09know, the rival factions. And we got they're chasing down grannies in there with their
29:14fanny packs on because they walked into Statuary Hall for a second.
29:17I mean, you know, really?
29:19This is what the Biden FBI was doing.
29:21It's it's it's disgraceful. Lowest in one hundred and twenty five years.
29:25Twenty twenty five buck. Let me hit you with this data in D .C.
29:29right now. Compared to last season, last year, a sixty six percent decline in murders
29:36year over year. D .C.
29:39is on pace to be the safest maybe that it has ever been in the
29:44history of Washington, D .C., certainly on a per capita basis, but maybe on a
29:48raw databases. Remember when President Trump called in the National Guard, everybody said, you're crazy.
29:54There's no impact that's going to happen here.
29:56Or they lied and said crime wasn't bad.
29:59Sixty six percent decline in murder since last year.
30:02We just don't have to allow murders.
30:04I think that's what we're learning from Memphis in Washington, D .C.
30:07We know what we can do and we can drive it down in a substantial
30:11way. Look, I want to tell you, I'm looking out right now.
30:15I got a ton of new trees that are growing in my yard.
30:20It's spring. It's going to be like eighty five degrees today here in Nashville, maybe
30:24even hotter in Nashville than Miami for the first time in a long time.
30:28And there are a lot of people that are going to be out this weekend
30:31running around with your families for the Easter weekend, but also gardening, getting your homes
30:37ready for the brand new warm weather.
30:40Returning spring has sprung and fast growing trees can hook you up online nursery offering
30:47an amazing variety over two million customers that number growing every day.
30:53And right now you get twenty percent off first time orders.
30:57Fast growing trees dot com.
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31:01That's fast growing trees dot com.
31:04Twenty percent off. I'm putting them in at my house.
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31:10a yard. You can figure out what makes sense in your condo, in your apartment,
31:14in your townhome and in your yard.
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31:28That's fast growing trees dot com.
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31:32Support America. Support the show.
31:35Follow and preset Clay and Buck on the iHeartRadio app.
31:38Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show.
31:42We are joined now by Mike Rogers.
31:45He is going to be the Senate candidate for Republicans running this fall in Michigan
31:52for an open Senate seat there.
31:55Let's bring him in that election.
31:57I believe in Michigan and he can correct me if I'm wrong, is August 4th.
32:00And in particular, Georgia, New Hampshire and Michigan, among others.
32:05But those are right now Democrat held seats.
32:08Mike, we want you to win.
32:10If you win, then there's a virtual certainty Republicans would retain control of the Senate,
32:17because I would imagine you would agree with this.
32:20There's almost no map where Democrats lose their Michigan seat and are able to take
32:26a majority in the Senate.
32:27So this is both important in Michigan, but it's also supremely important nationwide.
32:33Yeah, this this is the number one pickup opportunity in the country.
32:38We're leading all three Democrat candidates in head to head polling.
32:42So they have a prime.
32:43It's going to go all the way to August 4th, which is really late.
32:47We've eliminated our primary. The whole team is on board and backed this particular race,
32:54which is why we're the number one pickup opportunity.
32:56So that's huge, and you're right.
32:58When we win Michigan, they can't take back the Senate.
33:01So if you're looking for a place to invest in a race to make a
33:04difference for the future of the country, Michigan is it.
33:07This is the place to, if you have a few coins left in the back
33:12of those cushions, fellas, this is the place to send that money.
33:16So it's great that you're the Trump -endorsed candidate up there in Michigan.
33:19That will obviously have a lot of residents with the GOP faithful there.
33:24Can you speak to, in your state, independents, swing voters?
33:29What do they look like as a cohort?
33:31Is the primary issue for them just economics?
33:34What do you have to do, essentially, to get over the line here?
33:38Yeah, it's like every election.
33:39Turnout, of course, really matters.
33:41But if you're reaching those who are not just going to say, this is Trump's
33:46guy, I'm going to vote for him, what do those voters in Michigan look like,
33:49and how do you reach them?
33:52Yeah, and so this is going to be that jobs, economy, wrong track for Michigan.
33:57This is a change election, and that's what I think the national pundits may have
34:01missed. The governor has been a Democrat for the last decade, better part of a
34:07decade, and they've had these two Senate seats, they, the Democrats, for 30 years.
34:12We've lost 30 ,000 manufacturing jobs.
34:15Our defense industrial -based operations have moved south.
34:19We went from top -tier education in the country.
34:21We're now 44. Our wage, median wage has kind of flattened out in Michigan.
34:28So I've worked on a factory floor.
34:30I have, you know, been in the military.
34:32I have been in the private sector.
34:34What we're saying is this is the time for change.
34:37You want Michigan back up off her knees and building things again?
34:41Again, I'm the guy to get it done, and we have a plan to make
34:44housing more affordable that doesn't include a big new government program.
34:48We have a way to push down on prices and recapture the defense industrial -based
34:53jobs that we lost over the last few years.
34:56That's all coming back to Michigan.
34:58We will once again be the arsenal of democracy.
35:00So when you look at independents, they just want a better education, they want a
35:05better job opportunity, and they want their kids to make the choice to stay in
35:09Michigan, and we're going to do all those things.
35:11Three -way race. You just hit on it.
35:14Between well -funded Democrat candidates, you don't even know who your opponent's going to be.
35:19You won't know until August 4th.
35:22How much hay can you make, given that you're the guy, while they fight it
35:27out? And again, August 4th is a really late primary.
35:31You know, by the time their primary is decided, there's almost early voting that's going
35:36to be underway. They're going to have to spend a lot of money to pick
35:39a nominee, and then that nominee is going to have to spend a ton of
35:41money to make people aware of who he or she is.
35:45And by the way, we just had a controversy come out of the Democrat side.
35:49One of their candidates, a guy named Abdul El -Sayed, didn't want to condemn the
35:55killing of the Ayatollah because too many people, he said in Dearborn, were sad about
36:00it. And that actually made him go up in the Democrat Party.
36:04This is a pretty radical group that you're running against.
36:07Very radical, and think about it.
36:09He's now the standard bearer for the party.
36:12He's gotten more Act Blue donations because of his embracing the Ayatollah.
36:18And by the way, that came on the heels of him saying that the individual,
36:23the terrorist who tried to kill 140 Jewish schoolchildren in Michigan by driving his car
36:31loaded with explosives into a synagogue, he said, well, if we weren't at war, he
36:37probably wouldn't have done that anyway.
36:39This is a guy whose father was, or excuse me, brother was a commander in
36:43Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. Oh, and by the way, he had been radicalized months before
36:49his brother had been killed in an Israeli strike.
36:52I mean, that just to me is unqualifying.
36:54If you're willing to stand with a terrorist, if you're willing to stand with the
36:58Ayatollah, the leading terrorist sponsor in the world, man, I just think that makes you
37:03unqualified. He's endorsed by Bernie Sanders, very radical.
37:07All of his numbers went up.
37:09That's why people need to pay attention to a place like Michigan.
37:11You cannot allow the Democrats that are this radical getting traction in a place like
37:17Michigan. It would be devastating for us.
37:19And so we've got a lot of work to do, but the other two aren't
37:23any better. One is, you know, one is a Chuck Schumer candidate.
37:27The other one has Chris Murphy as their benefactor.
37:30They've covered the gamut of radical politics in America, and that's why this race becomes
37:35even more important to let that part of the Democrat Party, which candidly, the three
37:41parts of it is all of it, that they're not going to gain ground in
37:45a working -class state like Michigan.
37:48And trust me, I worked on a car factory floor.
37:51I know these people. I know how important these jobs are to the middle class
37:55in Michigan. That's why I think we're going to do exceptionally well.
38:00And I think that's why we're leading.
38:01You know, it's pretty rare for a Republican to lead the Democrat candidates this early.
38:06Normally, we close the gap toward the end.
38:08We're ahead. We've got to keep that momentum.
38:10We've got to keep that momentum.
38:10Thank you. Let them fight it out between now and August while we continue to
38:14build support around the state and build our team as well.
38:20Mike, what do you think about what's going on in Iran?
38:22Obviously, we're still waiting to hear if the second pilot has been retrieved safely.
38:27One pilot has been rescued after his plane was downed in this conflict, in this
38:33situation. What can you tell us?
38:36Yeah, you know, I think, boy, it's really hard when you have to justify every
38:40minute of the war, I think, for the president.
38:43It's unfortunate. I hope they get the second pilot.
38:48They've rescued the first one, which tells you that's an incredible feat in and of
38:51itself. It wasn't that long after they were shot down that they had that one
38:54pilot in custody or retrieved.
38:58You think about what's this phase of the warfare.
39:00It's going closer to the ground, and it's not stealth fighting.
39:04So that first part of this conflict in the last month has all been stealth
39:07fighters, stealth bombers, stealth fighters, delivering payloads that are absolutely decimating the enemy like nowhere
39:15else in the world that it has ever really seen.
39:17And so this next phase, it's clear to me that they're using lower capable aircraft.
39:22The F -15 E -series can be lower.
39:26It can, you know, find smaller targets on the ground and engage them.
39:31And that's what that tells me.
39:33So with that, you know, you have certain shoulder -fired missiles that they can have.
39:38You know, those are hard to get all of them.
39:40You know, you can get a lucky shot, and that sounds like what happened today.
39:43But we have to remember, this is just a phase.
39:46And I'm sure they'll address – the U .S.
39:47will adjust tactics because of this.
39:50But it just tells you how successful they are.
39:52Now they're looking for targets with the ability to have low -flying aircraft.
39:57As we walk away from this with a degraded, if not eliminated, nuclear program capability,
40:04ballistic missiles, which, by the way, made them so dangerous and such terrorist proxy lovers
40:09across the Middle East. That's gone.
40:11The drone program is decimated and really hard to reconstitute.
40:15Being able to build and deploy mines in the Straits, decimated, hard to – that's
40:20a huge win for safety and security of the region and certainly the United States.
40:25For 47 years, we've had every president – seven, I think – talk about we're
40:29going to contain Iran. Matter of fact, Hillary Clinton said when she became president, she
40:33was going to bomb them.
40:35People seem to forget that.
40:37This is the first president that has said, listen, we're not going to let you
40:40get a nuclear weapon. We decimated your program.
40:43You came right back and tried to rebuild it within days.
40:46That tells you we had a problem.
40:47We're not going to do this forever.
40:49I think this is the right thing to do.
40:51I do think it will be over quickly because the military piece of this, they're
40:56getting down to the last targets, which is why you have these low -flying aircraft.
41:00Last question for you. You mentioned this a second ago.
41:03The attempted terror attack, thankfully, was foiled on a Jewish synagogue in Oakland County.
41:12My wife's family, many of them live in Oakland County.
41:15I was just up for a bar and bat mitzvah in Oakland County.
41:19It's a huge Jewish population, large Arab population in that area, too.
41:23Are you seeing Jewish voters recognizing that many Democrats have turned their backs on them?
41:30Again, we mentioned one of the top candidates that you might be running against not
41:35wanting to even mention the Ayatollah being killed because some might be angry.
41:40Is that moving some of that electorate in Oakland County, which is a huge battleground
41:45county and has become, in the Trump era, one of the real bellwethers in your
41:50state? Yeah, I think I've seen some of it.
41:53It's hard to tell. It's, you know, I saw a report where 40 percent of
41:58the Jewish population in New York City voted for Mandami, which is a head scratcher
42:04to me. I don't understand that, how it would be that high, candidly.
42:07And so in Michigan, I think we're experiencing a little bit of that.
42:11I think it's starting to come around.
42:13I do think the attack on the synagogue brings it home.
42:16I can't tell you how many people I've talked to who, in and around the
42:20state, who that was their kind of synagogue, that was their place of choice.
42:24That's where some of them went to school on occasion.
42:27It's the largest synagogue in the state.
42:29So it had a profound impact.
42:31I hope that they're coming to the conclusion.
42:33You can't have a guy who's running, who is now the frontrunner, Abdul El Saeed,
42:38say, I want a Mandami, Michigan, which he did, and wonder how, you know, our
42:44Jewish population in the state can even allow that to happen.
42:48I do see some waking up.
42:50We have a long way to go.
42:51And here's the other thing I think is really important for viewers to understand.
42:54We have other very big Arab populations that are Christian.
42:58Chaldeans, which are Iraqi Catholics, is very big in Michigan.
43:02We have Lebanese Christians really big in Michigan.
43:06And then we have other Muslim groups who are not upset that what they see
43:12happening in Iran. They know that their homelands have been terrorized all across the Middle
43:17East, those Arab countries, by Iran, the leading sponsor of terror.
43:21If they're not able to fund Hamas and Hezbollah and the Houthis and 10 other,
43:26by the way, small terrorist groups operating in that region, guess what?
43:30Things become peaceful. Their families back home become a little more safe.
43:34So we do have a pretty activist Muslim population there that's very pro -Palestine.
43:39They're active and they're working at it, but there's other populations there that I think
43:44we're going to be able to get their votes going into November.
43:47President Trump did quite well with Arab voters in Michigan, as you well know.
43:52And and so there's a lot of people, maybe a nontraditional Democrat voting bases that
43:59are up for grabs. Mike Rogers, how can people help you if they want to
44:03get involved in your Senate campaign, which, as you said, is the top target to
44:08flip a current Democrat held seat?
44:11First of all, Clay is going to call all of his relatives in Oakland County
44:15and say, Mike Rogers just died.
44:17So that's a little phone time.
44:18That's really important. Secondly, go to Rogers for Senate dot com, R -O -G -E
44:23-R -S for Senate dot com.
44:25If you think that a little bit of money can't go a long way, this
44:28is the race. This is the investment.
44:31If you want to protect the future of the country, you've got to get engaged
44:35in a race like Michigan.
44:36Let's win this thing and make it impossible for the Democrats to take back the
44:41Michigan Senate. I think that would be great for the country.
44:44Certainly great for Michigan. Rogers for Senate dot com.
44:46We'd love to have your volunteer time and any small donation coming across in our
44:52donation page means the world to us.
44:54So thanks for thanks for having us.
44:56Yeah, no doubt. I'll be up.
44:58My father -in -law just had his 80th birthday, so we're going to come up
45:01and celebrate that in the Detroit area in two weeks.
45:04So I will make the pitch to all my relatives at that event that they
45:07got to get out and make sure they vote for you.
45:09That's a big speech there, Clay, why this is important.
45:12I'll take over. I'll take over the mic during the 80th birthday party and I'll
45:16get up on stage and make sure they all raise their hands and they're getting
45:18out to vote for you.
45:19Thank you, Mike. Encourage everybody to get out on that Web site.
45:22It could control the future of the United States Senate.
45:25Michigan has a lot of important votes in their hands.
45:28Thank you, sir. Hey, thanks, Clay.
45:30Thanks, Buck. Look, to mark the 25th anniversary of 9 -11, the Tunnel to Towers
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46:50Politics, news, military, moms, health, data, food, and culture.
46:54Find it all in the Clay and Buck Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app or
46:58wherever you get your podcasts.
47:00Closing up shop on Clay and Buck before we send you off for the weekend,
47:04which everyone has been working for.
47:05Even if you weren't working, you were getting ready for it.
47:08So I want to tell you to go check out the Clay and Buck Podcast
47:10Network, which is fantastic. Some might even say fabulous.
47:15Some people are saying thank you for your attention in this matter.
47:18So you do that by going to wherever you get your podcasts.
47:21I think the best place to go is the iHeartRadio app.
47:24And then you can subscribe.
47:26We've got great shows on there.
47:27Carol Markowitz, Tudor Dixon, Dave Rutherford, Ryan Gerdusky's crushing it with It's a Numbers Game
47:33there. People love that podcast.
47:35They're addicted to the political nerd stuff.
47:37So much great stuff there on the Podcast Network.
47:39And over the weekend is a fantastic time to check up and catch up, rather,
47:43on anything that you may have missed.
47:45Clay, are you going to be celebrating Easter?
47:47Or are you going to be a heathen?
47:49I saw you wearing pink last weekend on TV because I was wearing pink.
47:52I will be at church, I believe, on Sunday.
47:55My wife is in charge of all family -related obligations this weekend.
48:00So we've got family in town.
48:03The boys, and you've got a one -year -old.
48:06This is going to start to stack up for you.
48:09It's unbelievable how many sports and events that they have on an average weekend now.
48:16And it's never, like, super close.
48:19But whether it's soccer, my lacrosse, football, I mean, it's just unbelievable.
48:26Every weekend it feels like we have 40 different sporting events.
48:30I don't know if you're able to answer this or if this will get you
48:32in trouble. So you can defer and just kick it into the weekend.
48:34As a dad, what sport that your boys play is the most fun to watch?
48:41Football. Football straight up. I mean, football is the best sport to watch, I think,
48:45in my opinion, no matter what.
48:48Baseball is, I've coached them all.
48:50Baseball, I think, is the most fun to coach because, you know, being a first
48:54-base coach or a third -base coach, you get to actually talk to them during
48:58the game. And I would say that's probably, I mean, I've coached soccer, baseball, football,
49:03basketball, all. And basketball. When do you think you coach the best?
49:09That's a good question. I think baseball, your overall coaching matters the least.
49:15I think probably football, it matters the most.
49:20So I would probably say basketball is the one that I had the most impact
49:24on, at least. It's fun.
49:26I'm going to go play some Paddel this weekend before I go for Easter.
49:29Eat your pistachio ice cream, too.
49:32Speaking truth and having fun.
49:34Clay, Travis, and Buck Sexton.
49:37This is an iHeart Podcast.
49:39Guaranteed human.