Hour 1 - Iran Optimism
3/17/202639 mincomplete
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0:33T's and C's apply. Welcome in as we get rolling on the Tuesday edition of
0:40the program. A lot of news to keep you all updated with as Iran continues
0:46to dominate the news cycle.
0:49Woke up this morning to news that many of the prominent remaining leaders of Iran
0:55Iran were wiped out overnight with additional strikes.
1:01And things seem to be going really, really well.
1:05I think this is, Buck, right off the top, one of these examples of where
1:11largely the media doesn't do a, and there are a lot of these examples, but
1:15a very fair job of just contextualizing exactly what is going on.
1:19And this is going to blow people's minds.
1:22I shared an article, and I was stunned too, from Al Jazeera that actually went,
1:28did you see this article?
1:29I was blown away by how good it was.
1:33I read it because you shared it.
1:34It was quite good analysis.
1:35And I've looked, and I try to read everything.
1:40And to a large extent, what you read right now is, oh, this is a
1:45disaster. What in the world is Trump doing?
1:47And we'll put this up on Clay and Buck, and you can go check it
1:50out at Clay Travis. I thought it was a really reasoned, analytical, logical analysis of
1:57exactly what has been going on in Iran.
1:59And I think it's honestly an indictment of the American media that there haven't really
2:04been pieces like this, right?
2:06There's like very surface level, oh, Trump sucks, oil and gas is now expensive.
2:12There's no idea what's going on.
2:14And then you push back, like we said, when this initially started, we said, wait
2:18a minute, everybody agreed that Iran couldn't have nuclear weapons.
2:23Yes, Democrat, Republican, Independent. And then you say, okay, well, Iran was working to get
2:28nuclear weapons. At some point, they were going to have them.
2:30That's a logical reality. And then you get to, okay, what can we do to
2:34stop them from getting nuclear weapons?
2:37And Democrats seem to be of the position that it is, well, not this.
2:42Okay, so not this. But meanwhile, they all said for a long time, hey, we
2:49should do this. And I give credit to Peter Doocy.
2:52I think we have this audio.
2:53I thought it was kind of funny.
2:55Yesterday, we played the audio of President Trump saying he had gotten a call from
2:59a former president, but he didn't want to let everybody know who the former president
3:02was, saying, hey, I wish I had done this.
3:05And yesterday in the Oval Office, after we went off the air, Peter Doocy followed
3:10up on that statement, which was made earlier in the day yesterday.
3:14And I thought this was pretty funny, Buck.
3:15He said, was it President George W.
3:18Bush? And President Trump said no.
3:20And then he said, well, was it, there's not very many former presidents, right?
3:23So we're talking about a relatively limited number of people who could be involved.
3:26This is cut three. I thought this was pretty funny.
3:30It's quite clear that President Clinton is the one who called President Trump and that
3:35President Clinton has said, according to Trump, hey, I wish I had done what you
3:39have done on Iran. Listen to cut three as Trump doesn't quite say it, but
3:45basically does say it. I just want to ask you about something very interesting that
3:48you said twice today. They talked to another former president about the Iran strikes.
3:53Was it George W. Bush?
3:55No. Was it Bill Clinton?
3:57I don't want to say.
4:00I don't want to say.
4:01Because a member of a party, a member of a party, they have Trump derangement
4:10syndrome, but it's somebody that happens to like me and I like that person who's
4:16a smart person. But that person said, I wish I did it.
4:21Okay? But I don't want to get into who.
4:23I don't want to get him into trouble.
4:25Maybe, hey, you know what?
4:27I think you probably know.
4:29You know, it's interesting. And maybe he'd be proud.
4:32I could even ask him that.
4:33Would you like me to reveal your name to Peter at Fox?
4:38Well, at least you have high ratings.
4:40Your ratings are through the roof, Peter.
4:42Thank you for noticing. All right.
4:45So all of that very funny.
4:47We said yesterday, hey, this is former President Bill Clinton.
4:50The only other one we could think about was George W.
4:53Bush. And Trump specifically said it was not him.
4:55And so I think this is where you're kind of in a difficult position.
5:00If you are Democrats now, you're trying to oppose an act that is overwhelmingly acknowledged
5:06to be a good one.
5:08That is, take out terrorists and keep them from getting a nuclear bomb.
5:13And basically, all they are left with is the price of oil and gas, which
5:18is predicated on the free flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.
5:22And, Buck, the markets... seem to be kind of of the opinion yeah this is
5:28this is effectively over the price of oil and gas is not surging one way
5:33or the other now i think it's going to come back down relatively soon and
5:38this is where we are like it's it's a pretty successful operation so far you
5:43know we're wearing the same color t -shirt again today this is becoming a thing
5:47where clay and i spend so much time together that we don't we need to
5:50start coordinating i don't know what this is we're on like the same i'm even
5:54wearing a clay and buck t -shirt um which uh which is even the next
5:58step on uh coordination here uh just you know we're we are uh we got
6:02to figure this out but anyway for those of you who are watching on the
6:04youtube um clay a couple things first of all happy saint patrick's day to everybody
6:08happy saint patty's day yes um you have trump right now as we are talking
6:14to you live with the prime minister of ireland uh we'll bring you anything relevant
6:19to our discussions in the news cycle from that of course trump is going to
6:22be like saint patrick one of the best saints love the saint patrick green little
6:27leprechauns everywhere all over um he'll say some nice things ireland interesting interestingly enough unfortunately
6:34clay um has not learned or rather the leadership has not learned the lessons of
6:38the rest of europe and they may now have the president of ireland going off
6:44on how saint patrick's day really is a day of globalization and migration that's actually
6:51what it has become instead of a celebration of irishness and we can get into
6:54this more later i don't want to do the iran thing though is we're blowing
6:57them up have you been to ireland by the way have you ever been it
7:00is the next place on the list that carrie and i have decided we're going
7:04i loved scotland even though it turns out it's basically like a communist enclave in
7:10the north of the united kingdom i mean it's very left wing very awesome geographically
7:14it's super cool it's beautiful i love it i mean it's this beautiful country but
7:17i just wish the politics of it were quite a bit different and unfortunately the
7:21same thing you know they say ireland is the cuba of europe side note cuba
7:27having a good time we're gonna get into cuba as well today so we have
7:33all these things floating around the ether i didn't mean to do a divert you
7:36from iran talk here but the iran the situation in iran is we killed we
7:41killed the head of the besiege we killed one of their other senior uh defense
7:46men like senior defense guys i forget the besiege is the militia that i've been
7:49telling you about they're the ones whose job is to know everybody in the neighborhood
7:53and anybody who goes out and does anything again you know protest or tries anything
7:57against they just kill them that's their whole job that's what the besiege is so
8:01the head of the besiege he's toast good news and then another senior iranian military
8:07response official he's also gone good news on that front these are terrible people they
8:12order the execution of people without trial they torture people like i'm usually not a
8:16bloodthirsty individual at all but i'll tell you some of these guys gots to go
8:21and they're gone so that's a good thing and uh trump is continuing on with
8:25the plan here um and i think that clay they will be able to start
8:30getting those ships going again in strait of hormuz that's going to happen and as
8:33that happens the the anxiety around oil flows and everything else will open up uh
8:39quite a bit and that will be good so we'll see where this uh where
8:44this happens i do not see any reason for panic from anyone right now based
8:47on what trump is doing i saw the senior resignation joe kent we have we've
8:52had him on the show right we've had at some point i think for sure
8:55i think we ran for congress i think we had him on for sure in
8:5722 that's right lost a very close race uh and we certainly have had him
9:02on i don't think we've had him on since he joined the trump administration but
9:05that's getting a lot of attention do you know joe kent well like what's your
9:08i don't know how to take i've interviewed him i've interviewed him a few times
9:11i like on a personal level i like the guy a lot of respect for
9:14him a lot of respect for not only his service but also the sacrifice that
9:18he has made you know he lost his wife in syria yes working alongside special
9:24operations there and a suicide bombing so uh a lot of love for joe kent
9:28from me as just a general love and respect as a general thing um leaving
9:34this way i actually think that this is more people should do this instead of
9:39staying in jobs i'm not saying that he's right but we'll get into the analysis
9:42of what he thinks about this war but i am saying if you are working
9:46for an administration and you truly believe that in the area you're working right if
9:52you work at the treasury department i don't think you have to resign because you
9:56know you disagree with something that's going on in dhs but right if you're if
10:01you're working on an issue and you truly cannot in good conscience as he said
10:04in his resignation letter continue on with it you should resign you should resign so
10:09i i respect because otherwise you're just going to be a direct obstacle to the
10:12president's prerogatives and that isn't a healthy thing to do inside of an administration and
10:18you don't have the right to do that you don't have the right just to
10:21to work at the pleasure of the president or to have your job at the
10:24pleasure of the president and to try to be an obstacle to his agenda i
10:28mean if you know even if you think it's illegal and you would be better
10:31because you can try to throw sand in the gears no you take that to
10:35you know the doj good luck with that you take it to an inspector general
10:38and you know you resign so i respect that move nctc is a total waste
10:43of time the whole thing should be scrapped defunded it's a joke so just understand
10:47that nctc is essentially useless trust me i know nctc doesn't do Break down NCTC
10:53and say why you think it's useless because you're way more plugged in on this
10:57than the average than me and also the average listener.
11:00Well, and I also say this for, you know, I on also a personal level
11:04and I always want to say that not be not to be like, we know
11:07these people because we're so cool.
11:09It's so that you can assess that.
11:12It's like disclosing when you have a vested interest.
11:15It's like when I like when we're friends with somebody, we're friends with Pete Hegseth.
11:18I also think he's doing a great job in the Department of War, but people
11:22should know we're friends with the guy because that does affect your perception of individuals.
11:25Right. I was not friends with Kristi Noem, so I was able to be very,
11:29very straightforward on a lot of those things.
11:32So I can tell you guys this NCTC came out of post 9 -11 reordering
11:38and rearranging of government. And NCTC was supposed to be the tip of the spear
11:45of duty to warn preventing another terrorist 9 -11 incident.
11:50Right. But the CIA already had the counterterrorism center, CTC, which is where I work.
11:54And so for the first 10 years of its existence, all you had was this
11:58bloated bureaucracy of CTC. I'm sorry, NCTC and CTC.
12:03A lot of acronyms, folks fighting each other as if that's going to prevent, you
12:07know, who has primacy. That's not going to prevent a terrorist attack.
12:10Total waste of time. CIA should have primacy on that issue working with the FBI.
12:14OK, that's one. And then the other thing is the DNI.
12:17I like Tulsi Gabbard. I think she's a good person.
12:19I think she's a patriot.
12:20And I think she's doing everything she can in the role she has.
12:23I also think she should come out and say the DNI should be scrapped.
12:27I think she should say, I'm going to do all the reforms I can in
12:29this job while I can.
12:30And then we should we should go to Congress and unroll this thing because they
12:34don't have the authority to really oversee the community in a meaningful way.
12:38In theory, they do. But in practical impact, meaning the way it was designed is
12:42is different than what the way it actually is run.
12:45They have the they have the mandate, Clay, to oversee the intelligence community.
12:49They don't have the DNI does not have the power to meaningfully do that, which
12:54means replacing people that you think need to be replaced.
12:57If you need to fire the CIA director or the FBI director, in theory, that
13:01would be the role of this.
13:03And they do not have the capability to do that.
13:05Yeah. So I'm just NCTC is, I think, a total waste of time.
13:09I'm sorry for some of you who work there or have worked there.
13:11But and I come from CTC.
13:13So, Clay, it's a little bit of like an Auburn, Alabama thing.
13:16Yeah, fair. Right. But I think it's a total waste of time.
13:19And then in terms of his assessment of the war, I just don't.
13:23And like I said, I respect Joe Kent, not throwing any shade at Joe Kent
13:26at all. I don't think that anyone twists Donald Trump's arm and pushes him into
13:31something. I don't think that I don't think that Israel, which is what the which
13:35is what the claim is in Joe's resignation letter.
13:37I don't think Israel is in a position and some people can disagree with this.
13:41It's fine. But I don't think Israel is in a position to say, hey, Trump,
13:44start a massive aerial campaign against Iran now because we want it.
13:48Not because not because you think it's good for America.
13:51It can be good for America and good for Israel.
13:53And I think Donald Trump sees it that way.
13:55I don't think he did it because someone else told him to do it.
13:59I don't think we've seen Trump do that with like really.
14:02I don't think Trump would do anything that anyone told him to do.
14:05In fact, I think Trump's whole career to a large extent is doing the opposite
14:10of what many people in positions of power have told him to do.
14:13He trusts his gut. And what I would come back with as we go to
14:16break here, Buck, to think about is there's evidence of Trump saying that we should
14:20do all of the things that we have done in Iran decades ago.
14:25Maybe we can go pull some of those.
14:27Have you guys seen that circulating of Trump out publicly doing interviews long before he
14:32was a politician talking about seizing Karge Island, talking about wiping out the Ayatollah?
14:37I think Trump has had a long simmering anger, as many people his age have,
14:43with Iran dating all the way back to 1979 when they seized our embassy.
14:47And I think he sees this as a score settling in many different ways.
14:51But if we can grab that audio, I think it puts to rest.
14:54There is the, I don't know, 10 percent, 15 percent, I would say, of the
14:58Trump base that is out there arguing, oh, this is all just because of Israel.
15:03It's the Jews. And I think, frankly, you guys are out to lunch on that
15:09argument. I don't I don't think it's a good one at all.
15:11I don't think Trump can be bullied into doing anything he doesn't believe is in
15:15the best interest of the country, for better or worse.
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16:32Saving America. One thought at a time.
16:36Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
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16:54Sending pounds across the pond, spending reyes in Rio, or getting paid in dollars for
16:59your side gig. You'll get the mid -market exchange rate on every transaction.
17:03Plus, most transfers arrive in less than 20 seconds.
17:06Join 15 million customers internationally.
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17:12T's and C's apply. Welcome back into Clay and Buck.
17:15So, we have a lot going on with Iran right now.
17:19President Trump continuing with the mission.
17:22And that's something that we will bring you more details on.
17:26But also, I wanted to point this out, Clay, because I mentioned this before.
17:29In the background, this would normally get a lot more attention, but because of what's
17:33going on in Iran, it's quite a bit secondary in news coverage.
17:38Cuba is in basically a blackout situation now because of the embargo.
17:44Because we're not letting oil get to the island of Cuba anymore.
17:47It's not coming from Venezuela.
17:48This is cut one. Listen to this.
17:50This is CNN. Quickie news into CNN.
17:52Cuba's electrical grid has suffered a complete and total collapse.
17:56This is according to the country's power operator.
17:59It's the first nationwide blackout since the U .S.
18:02effectively shut off the flow of oil to Cuba.
18:06Clay, here's Trump on Cuba.
18:08Play two. A lot of Cubans have said, oh, boy, would they love to go
18:11back. I think Cuba, I don't know, in its own way, if, you know, tourism
18:15and everything else, it's a beautiful island, great weather.
18:18They're not in a hurricane zone, which is nice for a change, you know.
18:22They won't be asking us for money for hurricanes every week.
18:26But I think Cuba's the end.
18:28You know, all my life I've been hearing about the United States and Cuba.
18:31You know, when will the United States do it?
18:33But I do believe I'll be the honor of having the honor of taking Cuba.
18:40That's a big honor. Taking Cuba.
18:42Taking Cuba in some form, yeah.
18:44Taking Cuba. I mean, whether I free it, take it, I think I can do
18:49anything I want with it.
18:50You want to know the truth?
18:51They're a very weakened nation right now.
18:55They were for a long time.
18:57Taking Cuba, Clay. We should talk more about that, too.
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19:50Welcome back in. Clay Travis, Buck Sexton Show.
19:54We're going to get into Cuba because I think Cuba is an interesting discussion.
19:58Top of the next hour.
19:59I know we've got a lot of Cuban listeners, but Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, they're all
20:05connected, by the way. Big baseball game happening in Miami tonight between Venezuela and the
20:14United States. Buck, I might talk about this in the third hour a bit, but
20:17the scene if Trump went to this game and threw out the first pitch from
20:23all of the Venezuelan expats and all of the pro -America fans that are going
20:29to be at this game.
20:30If you're a sports fan at all, I'm telling you, put it on tonight.
20:33This World Baseball Classic has been awesome in Buck's backyard in Miami.
20:38It's going to be an electric scene.
20:40I'm watching it tonight going to a sports bar with a couple of buddies down
20:43here and my kids. Okay, let me hit you with this.
20:48President Trump just now with the Prime Minister, is it the Prime Minister, I think,
20:52of Ireland, answering questions from the media, and here are a lot of what he
20:58has said. Let's see. Trump, I wanted to play this.
21:03This is cut 34. Trump said years ago that you have to attack Karg Island.
21:11That is the primary deposit or departure point of Iranian oil, and he just addressed
21:18that. Again, he's been saying this for decades, so anyone out there saying, oh, the
21:22only reason Trump's doing this is Israel, cut 34.
21:25Listen. I said you have to attack Karg Island.
21:30You have to attack them years ago where they were acting up.
21:32They've been acting up for 37, 47, I guess now 48 years.
21:37For 48 years, they've been bad players, vicious players, and you can't let them have
21:42a nuclear weapon. If they got a nuclear weapon, I would say they would have
21:45used it within 24 hours after that.
21:47Thank you. And they would have had it if we didn't bomb them out from
21:51a great raid with the B -2 bombers eight months ago or so.
21:56You would have had a nuclear war in the Middle East and maybe beyond.
22:01I think it would have hit Europe.
22:03Maybe not Ireland, but it would have hit Europe.
22:05I think you would have been a nice piece of it.
22:07It all gets you. It's big enough that you would have been affected.
22:10They would have hit Europe.
22:11All right. And then Trump says, we're not ready to leave yet, but we'll be
22:16leaving in the near future.
22:19Not putting an exact timetable on Iran, but letting everybody know this is not a
22:24forever war. Cut 35. We're not ready to leave yet, but we will be leaving
22:29in the near future. We'll be leaving in pretty much the very near future.
22:34But right now they've been decimated from every standpoint.
22:39And again, we've had great support from countries in the Middle East.
22:44Great support. But we've had no support from, essentially, no support from NATO.
22:49And then he's there with the prime minister of Ireland.
22:52He teed off on the current leader of the UK, England's Starmer.
22:57And he said, look, he's no Churchill.
23:00Cut 33. Well, he hasn't been supportive.
23:04And I think it's a big mistake.
23:06You know, they make a lot of money on trade with the United States.
23:10I did. I went out of my way.
23:12As you know, they couldn't make a deal with Biden because they had no real
23:17administration to make a deal with Biden.
23:19But we made a deal.
23:20We made a good deal for them.
23:21And frankly, probably wasn't appreciated.
23:24I do look forward to seeing the king.
23:27He's going to be coming, as you know, very shortly.
23:30But I was disappointed because Keir was willing to send two aircraft carriers after we
23:36won. Because essentially, there's no threat for the aircraft carriers right now.
23:41And I said, no, no.
23:42We want things sent before the war, not after the war is won.
23:46So, yeah, I'm disappointed with Keir.
23:48I like him. I think he's a nice man, but I'm disappointed.
23:53Okay, so President Trump, just moments ago in the Oval Office, Buck, I think it's
23:58going to be hard to attack Trump very long on this.
24:01Because to your point, if you were setting an over -under of when major operations
24:06cease in Iran, I think you said yesterday, April 1st, thereabouts, I would be stunned.
24:12What are we sitting at right now?
24:13The 17th? I would be stunned if a month from now, we're still engaged in
24:18acts. So, look, we're talking about relatively short -lived process at this point in time.
24:24Hopefully, Trump won't end it on March 31st and then announce a full -scale ground
24:29invasion on April 1st. Psych.
24:33April Fool's. That would be quite an April Fool's joke.
24:38I'm just saying. I don't think Trump will do that.
24:40But he has been known to make some jokes.
24:43So, yeah. Yeah. I'm just laughing at the stock market reaction if we actually had
24:49Trump -April Fool's reactions. Can you imagine?
24:51Like, oh, my goodness. It would be the fastest crash and the fastest rebound in
24:56the stock market we've ever seen.
24:57If he's like, we're going in heavy.
24:59We're sending in 100 ,000 soldiers into Iran.
25:02Just kidding. April Fool's. You could see it in real time.
25:05Like, just completely go nuts.
25:08But, look, Trump is very clear on what the mission is here.
25:11He's going to finish this up and it will be done.
25:13And I suppose, Clay, that the idea is there'll be a different tone of negotiation
25:21from the Iranians going forward.
25:23Like, do you guys want this kind of stuff or do you want to, you
25:26know, basically Trump says you got the easy way and the hard way.
25:29And the Iranians were like, hard way because they didn't think he would do it.
25:33And he's Trump, so he did it.
25:35And now I think he'll go back to them again and it will be, do
25:38you want the easy way or hard way part two?
25:39And maybe since he's taken out so much of the existing leadership, whoever is in
25:44charge going forward will say we're willing to be a little bit more constructive in
25:48these negotiations on a whole range of things.
25:51I think that's the best that's the best possible outcome as I see it right
25:55now. I don't see anything else.
25:57I know we talked something about yesterday about the Gayatola, little Mo, as I called
26:01him. Did you see the report that came out?
26:04I think I saw it this morning.
26:05I'm not sure initially when it came out that they said he happened to go
26:09for a walk moments before the attack happened, which is the only reason he's still
26:15alive right now. That's the first explanation I've seen because it has felt strange that
26:22his dad, his wife, his son, and I think his brother all died in that
26:28attack. And somehow he survived.
26:29We don't know very much about him.
26:31We don't know very much about his condition, but that is a bit strange that
26:36he managed to go for a walk at the exact moment that the attack happened.
26:41And just tossing it out there, that is the report about how he survived.
26:46Now, he may be dead because we still have not heard him talk.
26:50We still have not seen any video of him.
26:52At a minimum, as we played for you yesterday, there have been reports that he
26:55was severely injured. But I do think anytime, look, you were in the CIA.
27:00So anytime somebody happens to go for a walk right before a major bomb goes
27:05off, a part of my, I was just going to say my alarm bells go
27:09on that, that's either an incredibly unbelievable coincidence.
27:14If that report is. True.
27:17Or maybe, maybe he had a little bit of a heads up about what might
27:22have been happening. I'm just tossing it out there.
27:24It just seems strange right before the whole place gets wiped out that you decide
27:28to go for a walk on the street.
27:30That's weird. To borrow from our friend, the actor from The Fugitive, it's a bit
27:34hinky. It's a little hinky that you can't just know that your leader or you
27:40can't prove that your leader is in fact fine.
27:42There is something hinky about that.
27:44Something a bit strange. A bit unusual.
27:46It's a clue. I sent you that video after Friday.
27:49We had the guy from The Fugitive on, among many other movies that he had
27:54done. And it is kind of crazy that they actually filmed the fugitive scene on
28:01St. Patrick's Day in Chicago live during the St.
28:06Patrick's Day parade. And there's an interview of Tommy Lee Jones as he is going
28:11through the parade. If you watch that, a lot of times I just think, hey,
28:15they just staged this. There's no way they actually filmed part of the movie during
28:19the St. Patrick's Day parade.
28:20No, they did. It's a cool video footage of The Fugitive from that day.
28:24They were filming in Chicago.
28:26And Tommy Lee Jones gets interviewed on WGN.
28:29Tommy Lee Jones in his heyday in the 90s.
28:32Fantastic. Great in that movie.
28:35Great. You know, in the early 2000s, No Country for Old Men.
28:37Just forget about his appearance in one of those really bad Batman movies.
28:41Don't even. Oh, I forgot about that one.
28:43Or no. No, he was Two -Face.
28:45He was Two -Face. Right, guys?
28:46I don't even know. He was in one of those Batman movies that I'm pretty
28:49sure the studio that owns the rights to it lit all the copies on fire.
28:53But Tommy Lee Jones back in the day was fantastic.
28:56Clay, you're very optimistic about all things in Iran right now.
29:00Super. And look, I tend to be optimistic in general.
29:04But I trust Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.
29:09I just think they've been phenomenal on most of their foreign policy.
29:12And I think if you look at how well things are going in Venezuela, and
29:16if you question how well things are going in Venezuela, you know they're going well
29:21because there's no media coverage.
29:23We have a predisposition in the United States for negative media coverage across the board.
29:29Things go poorly. They get more coverage.
29:31Things go well. They get less coverage.
29:33We just opened back up the embassy in Venezuela for the first time, I think,
29:37since 2013 -ish was what I saw.
29:40And we've now raised the American flag there.
29:43I think we're going to be out of Iran quickly.
29:45I suspect that we're going to eventually figure out who we can negotiate with and
29:50deal with. I think one of the challenges in Iran right now the president's dealing
29:53with is who actually has power and who can make promises and who can engage
29:58in any sort of rapprochement as it currently exists.
30:04And Cuba, which we're going to talk about at the top of the next hour.
30:07Buck, you said it. Ordinarily, what's going on in Cuba would be a top story.
30:13I remember, what was it, four or five years ago when we first started on
30:17the program together, if I'm remembering the math correctly.
30:19There were protests in Cuba, and we talked about that as the lead story.
30:24Remember when they had the huge protests?
30:26People were waving American flags.
30:27Then the Cuban government rose up and pushed back against them.
30:29That was during Biden's administration.
30:32But the fact of where we are right now with Cuba is kind of extraordinary
30:37by itself. And I think it's directly connected to Venezuela and to Iran.
30:42Here's one other thing as we go to break here to think about, Buck.
30:45Russia and China have done nothing for Iran.
30:49Remember when everybody out there was like, World War III will start.
30:52China is not going to let Iran get wiped out.
30:55Russia is not going to let Iran get wiped out.
30:57This is the weakest alliance.
31:00It's like a WWE alliance for those of you who are wrestling fans where you
31:05look over your shoulder when you're in a tag team match and your boy is
31:09now in cahoots with the other side.
31:15There was no alliance here.
31:16There is no support anywhere for Iran from any country.
31:20It's kind of extraordinary to see just based on the way we were all told.
31:24Oh, you got to be careful.
31:26Iran's got powerful allies. Yeah, they ran and they were not there at all.
31:30I want to tell you, Tunnel to the Towers, born on America's darkest day of
31:349 -11. We're coming up on the 25th anniversary of 9 -11.
31:38We are in the 25th anniversary year.
31:42And we've got a story here about one of America's heroes, Robert Welsh, New York
31:47City firefighter. Robert served as a police officer before his appointment to the fire department
31:52in 2001. Just weeks after the 9 -11 attacks, he was on the front lines
31:57of recovery efforts. Robert dedicated nearly two decades of his life to protecting his community.
32:02He coached youth sports, shared a great life with his wife Jennifer and their three
32:06kids. But Robert lost his courageous battle with 9 -11 related cancer, leaving behind his
32:12family. In this 25th anniversary year of 9 -11, we continue to see the toll
32:18that day is still taking on heroes and their families.
32:21Tunnel to the Towers honored Robert by paying the Welsh family's mortgage.
32:27Show your support as both Buck and I have done.
32:29We love this organization. Frank Siller does an amazing job.
32:33I'm happy to be able to help them.
32:35You can join us and donate $11 a month.
32:38Amplify your impact with a car or land donation.
32:41Go to T2. t .org.
32:44That's T, the number two, t .org.
32:49Patriots, radio hosts, a couple of regular guys, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton.
32:55Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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33:29T's and C's apply. Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck.
33:33We'll get some of your talk back, some of your thoughts about all of this
33:36for sure. We'll also discuss the situation of Cuba.
33:42Because I think, Clay, there was a time when Trump could say some aggressive things
33:47about the future of Cuba, and a lot of people might have dismissed it and
33:51said, you know, that's just Trump being Trump.
33:54But given what's happened in Venezuela, given what's going on right now in Iran, and
33:59the fact that Cuba is effectively in the dark, the power grid is down.
34:03Yes. But you have to think about what this means, everyone.
34:05This means no lights. Yes, it also means refrigeration is down.
34:10It means communications are down.
34:13Logistics, computers, you know, to the degree they have them.
34:17These are all huge problems.
34:20Yes. And you have to wonder what stops this and what the outcome is going
34:25to be if this continues on.
34:27Well, this is what we said on the program.
34:29Everybody focused on Venezuela. But really what Venezuela did was isolate Cuba because Venezuela had
34:36been providing millions of barrels of oil at reduced prices to Cuba.
34:41Mexico had to. So there was sort of this Latin American beneficial treatment that Cuba
34:48was getting. And once you replaced Maduro, Delcy Rodriguez, as part of her coming into
34:55power, was told, hey, the free treatment basically for Cuba is done and Cuba's isolated.
35:03And I think President Trump will talk about this at the top of the next
35:06hour. I think President Trump has got a significant decision to make.
35:10And certainly Marco Rubio does our secretary of state, who probably knows more about Cuba
35:14than anybody in the government based on his family's history.
35:18What do we do? There's 8 .5 million Cubans in Cuba.
35:22I believe there's 1 .6 million ish Cubans, many of whom are listening to us
35:27right now, majority in South Florida, but all over the country.
35:32Cuba is a jewel of the Caribbean.
35:35It could rapidly become an economic heavyweight.
35:39I really do believe that.
35:41And well, in tourism. Yeah, tourism.
35:44Well, yeah, but I mean, but I mean, people could live instead of driving around
35:48the 1950s, you know, cars, given the proximity to the United States.
35:53Every cruise ship would be stopping in Cuba.
35:56You would be flooded with United States tourists.
35:59Again, it used to be Las Vegas before it was Las Vegas.
36:03I think Cuba would really be a very successful economic turnaround story.
36:10But how do we handle it?
36:11And how do we end up with somebody who is outside of the Communist Party
36:16in charge of Cuba? And again, there's a Supreme Court case, Buck, that's not getting
36:21a lot of attention that has to do with the takings.
36:2495 % of Cuban property was owned by United States interest in terms of corporate
36:30property. And the Communist government just took it away.
36:34And so I think there's probably a lot of American companies with claims to assets
36:39in Cuba that would love the opportunity to have access to those again.
36:43So all of that is playing out to say nothing of the geopolitical implications of
36:47not having an enemy of the country within 90 miles of Key West.
36:52I think this is a potentially transformative time.
36:55And it has a bit of an echo feeling for when the Berlin Wall came
37:00down to me because of Venezuela, Iran and Cuba, all American adversaries being staggered collectively
37:07as one. I think it's a big picture story that is being undercovered, under discussed,
37:12and potentially could be foundationally transformational to the country.
37:17That's my optimistic side. Buck, as the pessimist, probably will say the communists will stay
37:22in power. Iran's going to be the exact same.
37:26We're just going to have to bomb them every few years.
37:28And well, you are somewhat optimistic on Venezuela, at least.
37:31Venezuela is going to be a little bit better than it was.
37:33What happened to Greenland, by the way?
37:35I thought we were on the cusp of doing a Clay and Buck show from
37:38Greenland, but apparently not. How about Alberta?
37:42That's actually potentially a play.
37:44Trump tweeted that Venezuela could be the 51st state.
37:47There's talk that Alberta is going to try to secede from Canada.
37:51That's their oil and gas behemoth in America's top hat.
37:55And they want to come join us down here in the good old USA.
37:57People forget Ulysses Grant, big fan of trying to take the Dominican Republic into the
38:04American fold. Something that doesn't get a lot of attention.
38:08People forget this from history, but you know.
38:11Sometimes we see something and we're like, you know what, that place is nice.
38:14I like the weather. Let's go check it out.
38:16Let's take it. This is an iHeart Podcast.
38:49Guaranteed human.