Hour 2 - Gov't Spending Porn
3/6/202639 mincomplete
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0:32And stream on Hulu. Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton
0:38Show podcast. Welcome back in.
0:40Hour number two. Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show.
0:43Appreciate all of you hanging out with us.
0:45We are rolling through the Friday edition of the program.
0:48Taking you into the weekend.
0:50Big breaking news happened yesterday.
0:53When DHS Secretary Christy Noem was let go.
0:57While we were live on the air near the end of the second hour.
1:02And a big reason why, I believe, this guy's questions of her on Tuesday.
1:07We are joined now by Senator John Kennedy of the great state of Louisiana.
1:12And Senator, let's just dive in right off the top.
1:15What was your reaction when you saw that Christy Noem was out?
1:20Were you surprised? Did you expect it?
1:22Take us into your process there as you came to see that news.
1:28I wasn't surprised. Look, I like the secretary.
1:36I think she did many good things.
1:40In fact, I started my questioning by congratulating her on her success in securing our
1:47southern border and implementing the president's plan.
1:49But there have been a number of management decisions and certain management behavior at the
1:59department in the last four or four months that I think have – they were
2:05really distracting from the president's agenda and our agenda.
2:11And the quarter of a billion dollar advertising campaign that featured the secretary prominently has
2:22always bothered me. I'm very opposed to spending porn.
2:29But anyway, my point is I didn't tell anybody.
2:33I didn't get anybody's permission.
2:36I just decided to ask the secretary some pretty tough questions.
2:41And when I asked her about the advertising campaign, I was a little surprised.
2:46That's why I asked her twice, that she basically said the president approved every bit
2:53of it. And I didn't believe that.
2:59That night, about 9 .30, I got a phone call from the president.
3:03He was mad as a mama wasp.
3:08He told me he had nothing to do with it.
3:12He wasn't aware of the advertising campaign.
3:15He would not have approved a quarter of a billion dollars.
3:19He wouldn't have approved no -bid contracts to allegedly the friends of the secretary.
3:26And I had a feeling that he was going to make a change.
3:31He ran a couple of names by me about new secretaries.
3:36He asked me for my opinion on a few.
3:40And that was the end of the conversation.
3:43But I could tell that in all likelihood that the secretary was as dead as
3:51Woodrow Wilson. You can tell when the president's made it up his mind.
3:55And he usually acts pretty quickly.
3:57Dead as Woodrow Wilson. I was just going to say I was also not surprised
4:05at Mark Wayne because we talked about Mark Wayne.
4:07And I told him, OK, we'll get into that in a sec.
4:11But when you say Trump was mad as a mama wasp, what does that sound
4:16like? You talk to President Trump a lot.
4:18What does that sound like when you get a call from the president and he's
4:21that angry? That conversation sounds like what?
4:25Take us into what that experience is.
4:28Well, he wasn't he wasn't screaming or anything, but he was angry.
4:33I mean, I could tell he was angry.
4:35And he started off by saying, I hope, you know, that I would never spend
4:42this kind of money on something like that.
4:45When we're scratching and clawing to try to reduce our spending and therefore reduce our
4:49debt. And and, you know, he was very firm.
4:56I'll put it that way.
4:57But he wasn't screaming. But I could tell he was going to make a change.
5:03Senator Kennedy, can you tell us a little bit more about, first of all, how
5:09could such a huge How could anyone think that such a huge budget for an
5:14ad campaign for a government employee, not the president, would do anything other than raise
5:22a lot of eyebrows? And then also, you.
5:25mentioned this contracting, this seems like this is quite a messy thing.
5:30If there's money that is going, taxpayer dollars going in large sums to newly formed
5:37corporations right before they are doled out, what do we know about this?
5:42And is there going to be further looking into this?
5:46Yes, it's going to be looked at very carefully.
5:49I sit on the appropriations committee, but even if I didn't, when it comes to
5:55taxpayer money, I'm pretty cheap, guys.
5:58I was state treasurer in Louisiana for 17 years.
6:02I squeak when I walk.
6:04And when I see spending porn, or what looks to me like spending porn, I'm
6:08going to call it out.
6:09I don't care who did it.
6:11Um, these ads cost a quarter of a billion dollars.
6:18Um, they figured, or they featured rather the secretary, Prima, you've seen them.
6:24Um, she's on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore.
6:28Uh, I think any fair -minded person would look at these ads and say, well,
6:33there could be a number of purposes, but, uh, they're primarily, uh, to, to, uh,
6:41promote the secretary. And, uh, um, I think during, during my questioning of the secretary,
6:50I asked her, I said, did you bid these out?
6:52I mean, and she said, yes.
6:55And I knew that wasn't accurate.
6:58Um, she, she didn't get the names of the people who got this quarter of
7:02a billion dollars off ZipRecruiter.
7:05I think some of them she knew beforehand.
7:08And some of these were brand new companies.
7:10I don't know all the details, but, uh, I think what disturbed me the most
7:15from the testimony was that she, you know, uh, she basically blamed the president and
7:21said, you know, he, he okayed it and he didn't.
7:25And, uh, uh, you see the consequence.
7:30Now you're a lawyer, I believe I'm a lawyer.
7:34Um, you said the president said he didn't do it.
7:37She said he did. She said he did it under oath.
7:42I mean, to me, when you say something that is untrue under oath, I mean,
7:46I think that sets off a lot of alarm bells for people out there.
7:50Do you think based on what you know, that she lied under oath about this?
7:55I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, it's over with.
7:59Um, we've, and again, I like the secretary.
8:02She did many good things, but we were at, we've, we've had a lot of
8:07management problems. Uh, in fact, if I had only 10 minutes to question her, I
8:12got to two subjects. I had eight to talk to her about.
8:15Well, can I, Senator, can I, can I jump in there?
8:18Because another thing that's gotten a lot of attention to headlines is the allegations about
8:23the secretary, not just having an extramarital relationship and their allegations.
8:29And I know that she has denied them in the past, but with somebody who's
8:33a special government employee. So essentially traveling with her on taxpayer funded aircraft and going
8:39everywhere and in the chain of command, that is the allegation.
8:43Was it fair for Democrats to ask about that?
8:45And is it true that the president was unhappy with her responses?
8:50He and I didn't talk about that.
8:52Um, he, by he, of course, I mean, the president, I don't know if those
8:56allegations are true. Um, that they, they, they were raised by a number of people
9:03in our hearing. They will look, this is not likely to be over.
9:08One of the things I wanted to talk to her about, but haven't is management
9:13at the department has been obstructing their inspector general who works for us in Congress
9:19and his job is to find waste and corruption and, and, and, and that sort
9:23of thing. And, uh, um, I know he's going to continue to probe.
9:29My guess is there will be others, but, but look, this isn't personal.
9:33Is that a fair, is it a fair question?
9:34Is it a fair question though, Senator, to ask, given that it, that involves somebody
9:38who might be in chain of command in your estimation?
9:40Is it a fair question?
9:42Well, I'm okay. I don't, you know, I'm pretty libertarian guys, but 90 % of
9:48my philosophy is don't hurt somebody unless they're trying to hurt you first and don't
9:53take other people's stuff and leave me alone.
9:55So I don't really care that much about someone's, um, um, um, sex life.
10:01But now if it's a government employee, for example, in Congress, if, uh, if, uh,
10:06if a, if a congressman, uh, a woman has an affair with somebody who works
10:10for you, it's, it's illegal.
10:12Um, but I, my guess, my guess is it's just a guess, but it's not
10:18going to come from me.
10:19This stuff's not going to go for a way for a while.
10:22I would like to know, uh, about the quarter of a billion dollars that was
10:26spent and who got it, whether we can recoup any, any of it.
10:30But again, guys, it wasn't personal.
10:33I'm doing my job. That is my job.
10:35I consider this to be spending porn and I'm going to call it out every
10:39single time. And, uh, my experience with the president is that he doesn't like it
10:46either. And he was, no, yeah, you said he was mad.
10:50I wrote it down. Cause I love the, uh, quote mad as a mama wasp
10:54let's talk about something positive because you started to talk about it a little bit
10:57earlier uh senator mark wayne mullin you said the president bounced a bunch of names
11:02off you potentially as as replacements for secretary noem what can you tell us we
11:07love mark wayne mullin he was on this program with us tuesday now he's got
11:10a big promotion who knows maybe you'll get a big promotion after this interview too
11:14uh but mark wayne mullin now head of the dhs as someone who worked alongside
11:19of him what should we know what kind of job do you think he'll do
11:21well um mark wayne's tough as a pine knot guys i i uh he a
11:29he's smart uh b he's tough steve um he's a good businessman i told all
11:39this to the president he's a good businessman uh which means he's a pretty good
11:44manager and uh as i told the folks yesterday and d even if all things
11:49all those things weren't true i wouldn't say otherwise because because mark wayne would whip
11:54my ass i mean he he's like a cage fighter or something i don't know
12:00uh but i like mark wayne and i and i think he'll do a good
12:04job and i think he'll be easily confirmed um he he already has some ideas
12:09about some of the changes that he wants to make and and it's you know
12:14new blood doesn't doesn't hurt sometimes you've got a best -selling book buck sexton also
12:22has a best -selling book you guys have been on the new york times bestseller
12:26list together what's it been like to be a best -selling author people are buying
12:29your book like crazy i'll let you pitch it not that you need i just
12:32i'm gonna say i i think senator has an unfair advantage with the audiobook with
12:36that accent i'm just gonna tell you i think it's unfair there should be like
12:40a different category for uh for charming southern accent audiobook but go ahead senator well
12:47man you you know it it took like 20 hours to record that audiobook oh
12:51my gosh uh i had no idea it takes on look the name of the
12:55book is how to test negative for stupid and why washington never will harper collins
13:01is a publisher uh that wasn't my first choice for a title my first choice
13:06was uh have always be yourself unless you suck but they wouldn't let me use
13:12that type so we settled on this one you write a book it was a
13:17lot of work you know nights and weekends at my kitchen table and you you
13:22finish it and you have no idea what's how it's going to do um so
13:28i'm not trying to be humble here i mean honest to god i had no
13:31idea and i really was surprised i mean we might have been on the new
13:35york times bestseller list for 21 weeks and and i'm i'm gratified i think it's
13:42because it's not a policy book it's a story book i use stories to talk
13:47about policy uh the stories are some of them are bizarre some of them are
13:52funny all of them are true um if i hope if you read the book
13:56i talk about my colleagues talk about what it's really like um if you read
14:02the book i hope it'll make you think um it may discourage you may may
14:06make you want a day drink but every every bit of it is true senator
14:12kennedy we appreciate you you always got an invitation on the program thanks for trying
14:17to take down the spending porn and by the way i'm a fellow vanderbilt graduate
14:21so it's always good to see vandy guys have some success go doors listen guys
14:26y 'all take the rest of the day off and also pay your taxes we
14:30need the money okay all righty we're on it is uh senator john kennedy we
14:35appreciate his time uh interesting comments there on a variety of different fronts we come
14:39back we'll unpack them a little bit uh we're also scheduled to be joined by
14:41brianna lyman uh here on the friday edition of the program i want to tell
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15:23prize picks .com code c l a y abc wednesdays the emmy winning comedy scrubs
15:38is all new this is a whole new chapter for me no more sad sack
15:42that's what i'm talking about i want both of our sacks to be fun you
15:45two idiots are perfect for each other from executive producers of ted lasso and shrinking
15:49we were all a part of this victory now get those nachos out of the
15:53premium warmer nachos feels like there's more applause for the nachos than my speech the
15:59new season of scrubs wednesdays 8 7 central on abc and stream on hulu we
16:05have a bunch of talkbacks i wanted to get to from all of you uh
16:09including i like this one clay it's a fridays we have some fun ones here
16:12um we have brianna lyman by the way from the uh federalist joining us shortly
16:16talk about the save vaccine we're saying talk more about the save Yes, we will.
16:21We'll talk about it. We'll keep talking about it.
16:23They should pass it. They should force the filibuster on the floor.
16:26We agree with all of this.
16:28But here, this is Talkback C.
16:30Mike in Boston. Let's hear from Mike.
16:35Bushwine Dittos from Hutto, Texas.
16:38This is Bill. And it's so nice that Clay knows so much about the Kurds.
16:45And it's wonderful to hear him weigh in.
16:49Yuck, yuck. All right, they played the wrong one.
16:52That was a dad joke.
16:53Kurds and weigh, in case you missed that one.
16:55I was going to say, when he started talking, Buck, I was like, that doesn't
16:58sound like Boston to me.
16:59No, I know. That was very not Boston on the accent.
17:02All right, second time. Mike in Boston.
17:05Let's go. Buck, that is, to date, your best take.
17:09I completely agree. And you have no idea how many people push back on The
17:13Dark Knight versus Batman Begins.
17:16But Batman Begins is one of a kind.
17:18There is no other origin story that is that solid.
17:23I mean, you cheer for his transformation from the beginning.
17:28It's the best out there.
17:30I fully agree. Well said.
18:01Thank you, Mike in Boston.
18:0280s, 90s. If you grew up with a lot of great 80s and 90s movies,
18:07man, do they hold up.
18:08And a lot of kids, like when I'm in the car now, driving with my
18:12son, he wants to listen to 80s rock.
18:14It's actually really funny. The music's way better when you guys were growing up, Dad.
18:17So much better. Yeah, you're right.
18:1980s music was fantastic. Honestly, timeless.
18:2390s, I think, is a little more of an acquired taste.
18:26I love it, but I can understand.
18:28But the best music in the 80s is truly, truly timeless.
18:32Unlike Taylor Swift's music, which will fade out within a matter of decades.
18:36Well, you know, kids today, they understand that I'm right, that she is the Beatles
18:41of her modern era. And I was reading this morning on the way doing prep,
18:46you know, Taylor Swift's so popular, Buck, she went to a crappy mall in London
18:49to film a video. And it got so popular that the mall is now packed.
18:54That's how amazing she is.
18:56She brought old London malls back to life.
18:59Think back to 20 years ago.
19:01It's 2006. George W. Bush is president.
19:03You take $20 ,000 from your savings account in 2006, and you just invested in
19:07gold. You know what it would be worth today?
19:10$165 ,000, okay? So a lot of forward -thinking Americans are going, hold on a
19:15second. I see the trend here.
19:17Diversifying a portion of savings into gold, into precious metals, makes sense.
19:21Gold's value shot up 65 % in 2025.
19:24And there's plenty of reason to believe gold's going to go up this year.
19:27But over the long term, gold increases in value, my friends.
19:31Birch Gold Group can help you convert.
19:33An existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold.
19:36They can also send you gold or silver right to your home.
19:39That's what I've done. I get my gold from Birch Gold Group.
19:42Text my name, Buck, to 989898 to receive your free info kit on gold.
19:47No obligation. Text Buck to 989898.
19:52The Birch Gold Group. We are now joined by Breonna Lyman of The Federalist.
20:04She has done a ton working and writing about the SAVE Act.
20:09And we'll start there. But I also want to get into, remind me, to ask
20:14Breonna about the study out there that says if you vote Republican, you actually save
20:18lives, which is a pretty good thing.
20:20We knew that before the study.
20:23But we'll take data, too.
20:24So why not? And we'll get to Breonna on that.
20:26She's also doing a great series on America 250.
20:29But let's start with this.
20:32We've got a super close race.
20:33I believe it's in the North Carolina Senate.
20:36The last I saw, Breonna, was it came down to two votes.
20:39This is a state Senate.
20:42And the SAVE Act. Now we've got Ken Paxton down in Texas saying, hey, if
20:48you'll pass the SAVE Act, I'll consider dropping out of this race because he wants
20:53for John Cornyn to support it.
20:55There's around 80 % of voters who support this.
20:58I know many people out there are frustrated.
21:00What's the latest on it?
21:02And how in the world can we not get basic voter integrity?
21:06Vote with a license. Vote with a photo ID.
21:10Passed. Yeah, and I'm happy you brought up that North Carolina race because it is
21:14still down to two votes.
21:16And when you have elections that are literally decided by two votes, it doesn't make
21:20election security less important. It makes it more important.
21:25It makes things like the SAVE Act more important.
21:28Because remember, the SAVE Act would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote
21:32and then voter ID. Right now, the only thing standing between a non -citizen and
21:37our free and fair elections is a little square box in the federal registration form
21:41that says you attest under penalty of perjury that you're a citizen, a .k .a.
21:45the honor system. And that is absolutely.
21:47And that is absolutely. not enough.
21:49And so when you look at races like this one in North Carolina, when you
21:52look at Mary Annette Miller -Meeks in 2020, she won her congressional race by six
21:56votes. Imagine if six non -citizens had cast a ballot in that race.
22:01That could have quite literally changed a congressional seat, changed the balance of Congress.
22:05That is unacceptable. And right now you have leaders in the Senate, like Leader Thune,
22:10who is dragging his feet on legislation, like you said, that is popular nationwide amongst
22:15Republicans, Democrats, Blacks, Latinos, whites, you name it.
22:18Everyone's saying this is common sense legislation, and yet it's not being done.
22:23What entirely is in the SAVE Act?
22:27I mean, you mentioned it's clearly about election integrity, but what are all the different
22:32pieces that it contains? Are there any things that aren't getting attention that would be
22:37really important for election integrity?
22:39It's just people are talking about the SAVE Act.
22:41I think it's important that everyone also know what's in it.
22:44Yeah, and what the SAVE Act does, so there's the 1993 NVRA, the National Voter
22:49Registration Act, and what that does right now is it actually hamstrings the government from
22:55requiring proof of citizenship to vote, because I think it was 2013, the Supreme Court,
23:00I think wrongly, interpreted that 1993 law to prohibit states from requiring documentary proof of
23:08citizenship to vote. So if you think of Arizona, Arizona has two registration forms.
23:12You can prove that you are a citizen and vote in state and federal elections,
23:16but if you can't prove that you're a citizen, you can only vote in federal
23:20elections. And so what the SAVE Act would do is it amends that law.
23:23It fixes the problem we've had for 30 years and says, no, you have to
23:27require documentary proof of citizenship, right?
23:30States should not be sued by the Obama and Biden DOJs for trying to make
23:35their elections more secure. President Trump seemed to hint in a truth social post that
23:39he wanted to add no trans and kids maybe into the whole SAVE Act negotiations.
23:44I think that was a bit unclear, but right now the two biggest things, proof
23:47of citizenship to register and voter ID, and a lot of people will say, well,
23:52we already have safeguards, and they cite things like HAVA and HAV, which are early
23:562000s legislation. Do you know in a state like California, let's say you don't have
24:01your driver's license or your Social Security, right?
24:04And you have no identification.
24:06You can still register to vote, and you know how you get to prove your
24:09identity? Your gym membership. What protocols do you go to to get a gym membership?
24:14Nothing. You just take a picture in front of a little thing, and they say,
24:16okay, here's your name. You can come to the gym, and you can use that
24:19to verify your identity to vote.
24:21So our elections are so insecure, and when you have 20 million people in this
24:24country illegally, we can't take chances.
24:27Brianna, one of the things that I would just point out is the contrary argument
24:31does not exist, right? Because the argument is, well, it's racist to require voter ID.
24:36That's insane. As you said, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, people of all different backgrounds agree
24:41that you should have to have voter ID, photo ID to vote.
24:45So really, isn't this just an implicit acknowledgement from Democrats that they're cheating and worried
24:51that they might get caught?
24:52Because otherwise, none of the other arguments stand up.
24:55Yeah, there is no legitimate reason.
24:58And if you talk about, let's go over, first of all, the racism thing, right?
25:01Remember Jim Crow 2 .0 in Georgia?
25:03Boy, was that 2021? They told us that black people would never be able to
25:06vote again. CNN and the Washington Post actually did articles after the first big election,
25:11after our legislation went through, and they interviewed black voters who said it was actually
25:15easier to vote now than it had been in the past.
25:18They weren't encumbered. They weren't prohibited from voting.
25:20So that never actually manifested, right?
25:22It was just that rah -rah.
25:24Then you have claims that this will disenfranchise voters.
25:27And again, I bring it back to these smaller races that are decided by razor
25:32-thin margins. Take this. In December, a woman from the Bahamas who is not a
25:37citizen admitted to the Georgia State Election Board she has voted in multiple elections, not
25:41because she was trying to do something illegal, but she said, look, they kept sending
25:45me papers. I thought I was eligible, so I did it, right?
25:47It wasn't nefarious, but there was no security and safeguards to stop her.
25:51Imagine she had cast a vote in this North Carolina race, and one other non
25:56-citizen did that, right? That would change the outcome of an election.
26:00That actually disenfranchises American citizens.
26:03So Republicans and Democrats who say, well, oh, well, this might disenfranchise people, think about
26:08the Americans being disenfranchised by non -citizens voting.
26:12Speaking to Breonna Lyman of The Federalist, Breonna, the folks who write in to us
26:17are saying, we've got to pass the SAVE Act.
26:20It's critical to pass the SAVE Act.
26:22And we have a problem here, of course, which is, one, Majority Leader Thune does
26:28not seem willing to push for this.
26:31But even beyond that, without a 60 -vote threshold, there's the threat of filibuster, not
26:38an actual talking filibuster that is assumed to be enough to shut this down.
26:42So that means that it doesn't get passed, right?
26:47So what is the best thing?
26:49Let's say we could get Majority Leader Thune to sit down right now with all
26:54of us. What should he do in this situation, given how important election integrity is
27:00and how much sense and how much support from the general public this SAVE Act
27:04has? Yeah. And Chip Roy actually wrote a letter explaining the talking filibuster, which is
27:11that, you know, Leader Thune has to basically call and have Democrats, they have to...
27:15all the rules, and they have to talk.
27:17They get two times to talk each.
27:18Once they stop talking, they don't get to resume, right?
27:21And if Republicans were to enforce already standing procedures, Democrats would eventually just run out
27:27of time. And then you can hold a regular vote in which you would only
27:30need 51 votes to pass this legislation, which we know we have because Fetterman is
27:35on our side. And if a Republican is going to resign themselves to say, well,
27:40we don't want to get rid of the filibuster, but we want this legislation passed,
27:43then they're admitting they're never getting it passed.
27:45Republicans are never in our lifetime likely going to get a filibuster -proof majority.
27:51That is silly thinking. So what Republicans like Thun are saying is, well, I guess
27:55we're just going to have to settle for only doing things that Democrats want.
27:58But just remember something, Chuck Schumer has made it very clear when Democrats take back
28:01power, nothing, including nuking the filibuster, is off the table.
28:06When Democrats take back Congress, whether it's in 2026, 28, whenever, they will do what's
28:11necessary to push their agenda.
28:13And I wish Republicans would have the appetite to do the same on legislation that
28:17is universally popular. This is not a 50 -50 issue.
28:20It is an 80 -20 issue.
28:23We're talking to Breonna Lyman of The Federalist.
28:25All right. Everybody out there who's fired up about the SAVE Act, we are fired
28:28up. We want it to happen.
28:29But let me ask you about this, which is actually a very positive story I
28:33was reading about this week.
28:34There is now data out, and I believe you wrote about this or have talked
28:38about this as well, saying that if you vote Republican, particularly when it comes to
28:42DAs and the prosecution of violent crimes, the data reflects lives are saved because there's
28:49far less violent crime. Seems like kind of an important story that should get more
28:53attention. What did the data show?
28:55What does it tell us?
28:56And why is it significant?
28:58Yeah. Yeah. This was data that was kind of, I feel like, hidden.
29:02And granted, you know, the Iran war started, so it didn't get buried.
29:05But what it shows is that despite people telling us that if you vote for
29:09a progressive prosecutor being compassionate and empathetic, that compassion comes at a very deadly cost.
29:15And what the study by a Vanderbilt professor and a Wellesley College professor found is
29:20that when you narrowly elect a Republican prosecutor over a left -wing counterpart, you see
29:26a reduction in deaths among young men.
29:286 .6%. That is not a drop in the bucket.
29:31That is a substantial decrease.
29:33And obviously, you know, you don't need to study, you know, to show this.
29:36But Republican prosecutors, they actually want to hold criminals accountable.
29:41They send them to jail.
29:42And most importantly, they levy consequences on these criminals that do come with the consequence
29:48of restricting their access to firearms.
29:51It reduces suicide among young men.
29:53It also reduces other forms of gun violence.
29:56And so you think to yourself, Democrats hate gun violence.
30:00Everybody hates gun violence. But Democrats also hate the Second Amendment.
30:02Instead of taking away the Second Amendment from law -abiding citizens, if you want to
30:06reduce gun violence, elect a Republican prosecutor.
30:09Tell your progressive prosecutors what they're doing is not only not working, but it's deadly
30:12and dangerous for people that Democrats claim they want to help.
30:15They want to help victims of gun violence.
30:17This is how you do it.
30:19Be a tough -on -crime prosecutor.
30:23Breonna Lyman, great to have you with us from The Federalist.
30:25Come back soon. Thanks for having me.
30:29In Israel, citizens are on high alert.
30:31Any hour, any minute, next to incoming missile or drone might be headed in their
30:36direction. The vulnerable population of Israel is the most effective.
30:39That's the young. That's the old.
30:40That's those without substantial resources.
30:43The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they're on the ground preparing large -scale distributions
30:48of life -saving food, first aid, and emergency essentials for security personnel.
30:53I saw it for myself on the ground what the IFCJ does.
30:57They build brand new bomb shelters.
31:01They build new underground hospitals because hospitals are targeted, believe it or not.
31:05They have to turn parking garages into their emergency wards and into their own hospitals.
31:11They do incredible work to take care of everybody in Israel.
31:16And right now, they could use your help.
31:18888 -488 -IFCJ. As bombs rain down in Israel, you can go online at ifcj
31:27.org and help the people there.
31:29This is the Fellowship of Christians and Jews, ifcj .org.
31:34That's ifcj .org. ABC Wednesdays.
31:48The Emmy -winning comedy Scrubs is all new.
31:51This is an all new chapter for me.
31:52No more sad sack. That's what I'm talking about.
31:55I want both of our sacks to be fun.
31:57You two idiots are perfect for each other.
31:59From executive producers of Ted Lasso and Shrinking.
32:01We were all a part of this victory.
32:03Now, get those nachos out of the preemie warmer.
32:07Nachos! Feels like there's more applause for the nachos than my speech.
32:10The new season of Scrubs, Wednesdays 8, 7 central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
32:16We've got a lot of talkbacks, a lot of conversation and commentary coming in here,
32:22and we will get to it.
32:26Let's see. Podcast listener David in Tennessee, a bone to pick with those of us
32:32from the Crockett Coffee world, which you should all be joining, by the way, CrockettCoffee
32:36.com. But here's what David has to say.
32:39Talkback beat. Clay, as a fellow born and raised Tennessean.
32:43I'm shaking my head that you called Davy Crockett a legendary Texan.
32:49He was born in Tennessee, dude.
32:51Did I do that? Do we have a tape?
32:54I don't know. Can we go to the tape and see?
32:56I remember this was a conversation when we were making fun of Jasmine Crockett.
33:00Did I call Jasmine Crockett a legendary Texan in mock derision?
33:05That might have happened too.
33:06I just want to go to the transcript.
33:08If I would like to apologize to the state of Tennessee, although I would say
33:12Davy Crockett is both a Tennessee and Texan legend.
33:16His legend was sort of enshrined forever because of the Alamo in Texas, but he
33:22was legendary just based on being a congressman in Tennessee and a great bear hunter
33:28and all these other things.
33:30So one point thought of as a possible presidential candidate.
33:33By the way, this is a great email in from VIP Tony.
33:36Tony, this is the amount of brain trust that listens to this show every day
33:41and the experience that all of you bring to these conversations.
33:44It's truly incredible. VIP email, Tony, I was a civil affairs team chief in Mosul
33:49and Nineveh province in the surge.
33:51So I was outside, Tony, I was there about a year before you.
33:54I was outside the wire every day, meeting with practically everyone, sheikhs, government officials, business
33:59people. Bottom line up front, some of the greatest fighters I ever watched were Kurds.
34:04As late as 2008, 2009, there were still Peshmerga compounds in eastern Mosul flying the
34:09Kurdish flag. The Kurds also protected the ancient Assyrian Christian communities in eastern Nineveh province.
34:15Your strategic assessment is spot on.
34:17We need to be leery of fomenting ethnic conflict in a very complicated area.
34:21The spillover effects could be worse than what the administration is trying to achieve.
34:24That's a guy who knows what he's talking about with the Kurds, obviously, and with
34:27that whole region of the world.
34:29Yeah, Clay, the Kurdish enclave in Iran, there's a little bit in the northeast, I
34:33think, the very tiny bit, but it's really all in the northwest.
34:36It's like 10 % of the country.
34:38So, yeah, I mean, can the Kurds?
34:40Sure, they can help us there, and maybe they can create a kind of rear
34:43guard area for strategic projection for whatever the resistance may be, but it gets very
34:50complicated. Yeah, and the PESH, I knew SF guys, I knew task force guys, SEALs,
34:55Delta, and they were like, the Kurds, look, they didn't have the sophisticated TTPs we
35:02did, and they didn't have the same whiz -bangs they could call upon, but you
35:06give a Kurd a rusty AK and say, man that post, he'll stay there and
35:09fight until he runs out of ammo and will die trying.
35:11He'll die in defense of his team and his people.
35:15So, full credit to the Kurds.
35:17I have a tremendous amount of respect for those people.
35:19Clay, when I would travel outside the wire, any time we went, any Kurdish compound
35:24anywhere we went, felt totally safe.
35:27Not the case with the Sunni Arab compounds I went to, but that's a whole
35:30other conversation. All right. A, podcast listener, Wendy, play it.
35:36I just wanted to say something about the new rule for United Airlines and the
35:43headphone usage. I just want to know how I get that instilled in my own
35:47home with my husband, who is constantly playing TikToks in the background of my life,
35:54and I'm like, put in your headphones.
35:58Oh, man. I'm with her on this one, Clay.
36:01You got to control your own sound in the home, too.
36:04You got to use the headphones if someone else isn't watching what you're watching.
36:07This is just basic courtesy.
36:10You have stepped into a big, sound battle.
36:13I landed up here in D .C., and I immediately go into my mentions, and
36:19Buck has come after the leaf -blowing community, which I've come after before, too.
36:24And we do need some civility.
36:25We just had Breonna Lyman, who was great, talking about the fact that if you
36:28elect Republican DAs, you save lives.
36:31I think we need to go after Big Leaf.
36:33I don't understand why we can't create leaf blowers, first of all, that don't get
36:39used at 6 a .m.
36:40in neighborhoods, which you people are terrorists who bring out the leaf blowers early in
36:46the morning, especially on the weekend.
36:47I totally agree. Sorry. Agree.
36:49Why do they have to be so loud?
36:50We have cars that make no noise.
36:52In fact, electric vehicles, like my Tesla, make so little noise that they actually had
36:57to add noise because pedestrians were in danger because in neighborhoods, you wouldn't hear a
37:03car coming and you start to cross the street and boom, you get hit.
37:06Why can't there be leaf blowers?
37:08This is my request for you, American brilliant technologists, that make no noise at all.
37:13Why is that not possible?
37:14Some people seem to think that their leaf blower should sound like a chainsaw.
37:18Yeah. And I disagree. I don't think we need to have, because that's essentially the
37:23same noise. I mean, it sounds like someone's using a chainsaw out there.
37:27And anytime I'm walking down a beautiful, quiet street here these days on an otherwise
37:32perfect Miami day, I've got like three leaf blowers going at all times.
37:37Yes. Early in the morning, everywhere.
37:40I agree. And how about most of the leaf blowers are just blowing their leaves
37:45into their neighbor's yard and then the other guy blows the leaves back to the
37:48other side. You're just in, you're not actually making anything cleaner.
37:52We'll take some, we got some more funny talkbacks.
37:55It's Friday, final hour of the week.
37:57Up next, open phone lines.
37:58Let's hang and have some fun here on Clay and Buck.
38:02We'll be right back. We'll be right back.
38:09We'll be right back. ABC Wednesdays, the Emmy -winning comedy Scrubs is all new.
38:15This is a whole new chapter for me.
38:17No more sad sack. That's what I'm talking about.
38:20I want both of our sacks to be fun.
38:22You two idiots are perfect for each other.
38:23From executive producers of Ted Lasso and Shrinking.
38:26We were all a part of this victory.
38:28Now get those nachos out of the preemie warmer.
38:32Nachos! Feels like there's more applause for the nachos than my speech.
38:35The new season of Scrubs, Wednesdays, 8, 7 central on ABC and stream on Hulu.
38:41The new season of Scrubs, Wednesdays, 8 central on ABC and stream on ABC.