Hour 1 - Next Leader of Iran?
3/6/202637 mincomplete
0:00This is an iHeart Podcast.
0:02Guaranteed human. Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show podcast.
0:09Welcome, everybody, to the Friday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.
0:15Clay is heading to us from the airport.
0:17He'll be joining in progress.
0:18It is me, the Buckster, leading you in this deep dive into everything you need
0:24to know. All the things happening right now all across this land of ours, all
0:28across the world, in fact.
0:30We have some things to talk about, like new jobs report.
0:34Not good. Not a good jobs report.
0:37We'll discuss a little bit.
0:3892 ,000 jobs lost. Now, they're going to revise this.
0:42It could change. I get all that.
0:44But obviously, any economic news that is not, if it's fantastic economic news, the media
0:50doesn't want to talk about it because they don't want to give Trump credit.
0:52And if it's even a little negative, it's all they want to talk about when
0:59it comes to the economy.
1:00So, we're going to look at that a little bit.
1:02We're going to look at that.
1:03We've also got the aftermath of the firing of Kristi Noem by Trump from DHS.
1:10It was a long time coming.
1:12It should have happened months and months ago, quite honestly.
1:15But there's a lot of back and forth over this.
1:18We may be joined by, do we still have Senator Kennedy on the DACA team?
1:21Is Senator Kennedy of Louisiana, who was involved in that hearing, he's coming on the
1:26show. We're going to talk to him.
1:28We're going to talk to the good senator from the great state of Louisiana about
1:32the situation with, well, around, first and foremost, and DHS.
1:37But look, there's the single biggest thing happening right now is the U .S.
1:44slash Israeli aerial campaign against Iran and now against regional proxies of Iran.
1:53There have been strikes in the southern suburbs of Lebanon.
2:03So, that is interesting. Lebanon is at a tipping point as it seeks to curb
2:08Hezbollah's influence. Countries waiting to see if the government seizes on this moment to disarm
2:13the Iranian -backed armed group and how the militants will respond.
2:17And so, Israeli military pounding Hezbollah on the southern edge of the Lebanese capital.
2:25This is just worth noting because they're going after, we're going after.
2:29We're with the Israelis on this.
2:31We are allies in this mission.
2:32That is the reality of the situation.
2:35So, it is a we situation.
2:38And we're going after Hezbollah, a primary proxy army of the mullahs in Tehran.
2:47And, man, are we pounding the Iranians, Iranian regime, not Iranian civilians.
2:54But we are pounding military assets and government assets hard.
2:59This is, in fact, Trump speaking about this.
3:02This is cut one. You can hear it from the commander -in -chief.
3:04Play it. The United States military, together with the wonderful Israeli partners, continues to totally
3:17demolish the enemy far ahead of schedule and at levels that people have never seen
3:23before, actually. We're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability every single hour, knocking
3:31them out like nobody thought was possible.
3:34As soon as they set off a missile within four minutes, the launcher gets hit.
3:41They don't know what's happening.
3:42And they're calling. They're saying, how do we make a deal?
3:45I said, you're being a little bit late.
3:47And we want to fight now more than they do.
3:52Trump has said no Iran deal now without unconditional surrender.
3:58Once again, calling on all members.
4:02So what we have here is an escalation and a line in the sand.
4:10President Trump has had enough of the Iranians, the mullahs, the IRGC, playing all these
4:19games, pretending like they want to negotiate when really they just want to stall.
4:25Certainly when Republicans like Trump are in office, they want to stall.
4:28Democrats will make concessions and stupid deals, but with Trump, they're trying to just play
4:33games and play for time.
4:34He decided enough is enough.
4:37And there's no need to sit and wait for Iran to improve or expand upon
4:43its ballistic missile capability, which I might add was always left out of that disastrous
4:48Obama deal. Remember, the Obama -Iran deal did not cover ballistic missiles.
4:53So the Iranians were free to build up those stockpiles.
4:56And as we have seen, those stockpiles are now being dramatically reduced by the air
5:03campaign. It is incredible the efficiency, the technology, the skill, the precision with which U
5:11.S. planes and Israeli planes are able to.
5:16We don't just have aerial superiority.
5:18We are dominating their airspace.
5:20We are the airspace now.
5:22We have complete and total control over it.
5:25and it did not take very long so you can pick any targets you want
5:30to hit now the big question becomes as we have discussed who is going to
5:36take over who is going to be in charge of this country or really perhaps
5:41a caretaker regime for a transition to what we would like to have democratic elections
5:49i'm sure uh and so that is people keep asking me like how do i
5:54think this is going to go i think if there was a clear plan we
5:58would already know what the clear plan is this is a little bit of uh
6:02kentucky windage you could say this is a little bit of just let it fly
6:08got to figure this one out as we go but trump decided the alternative was
6:13worse here he is saying to all members of the security services just put down
6:18your arms full amnesty that is the way forward play cut too i'm once again
6:24calling on all members of the iranian revolutionary guard the military and the police to
6:29lay down their arms they're only going to be killed and now is the time
6:33to stand up for the iranian people and help take back your country you're going
6:37to have a chance after all these years to take back your country accept immunity
6:43we'll give you immunity and we'll be uh giving you really the right side of
6:48history because that's what it is so you'll be perfectly safe with total immunity or
6:54you'll face absolutely guaranteed death and i don't want to see that it's true one
7:03of the components of this that is different from even what we were dealing with
7:0820 years ago the intelligence apparatus that we and the israelis can bring to bear
7:17on iran from the sky electronically and otherwise and on the ground is such that
7:25we can take anybody out trump is just taking anybody out that he chooses to
7:31that gives you a lot of leverage one of the challenges of air campaigns in
7:37the past has been you always needed people with guns to go door to door
7:42house to house and pull the other guy out of his out of his fighting
7:47position out of his foxhole so to speak i mean that that's part of this
7:51but if we are so capable that we can take out anybody we want any
7:57member of the leadership i mean here you go israel just says this is an
8:01update the israeli military destroyed a bunker used by iran's supreme leader in a new
8:08onslaught they're just taking apart the entire military infrastructure of of iran right now that's
8:15and there's nothing the iranians can do about it there's nothing the mullahs can do
8:19there is no uh you know secret super weapon option that they have and i
8:26wonder how long this continues before it's clear that they're not really in charge of
8:31their own country if you can't control your airspace and you can't keep any leadership
8:36alive without the say -so of the united states and israel are you really in
8:41control so we are entering a new phase remember this brings together drones it brings
8:48together surveillance technology that's even beyond people that ask me like what do you think
8:53they have guys i've been out i haven't had a clearance in over a decade
8:57now so there's all kinds of new whiz bangs that i read about just like
9:02you but the technology and the mapping capability and the human terrain assessments that they
9:09can do are way beyond what you could have done in the early 2000s when
9:14we went into iraq far greater precision uh the munitions are much more targeted and
9:22precise as well our ability to shoot things out of the sky that they try
9:25to fire at us is far better i mean you are seeing a dominant military
9:33performance on display right now we haven't seen anything really like it since persian gulf
9:38war one nothing that comes at this level and that was uh that was quite
9:45different in its own way so i think that the trump administration feels like this
9:50is going so far to plan and i think that they are having to do
9:57some improvisation as they move along to figure out who's going to be in charge
10:03people talk about the kurds the kurds are great in kurdish areas i'm very pro
10:07everyone i know who was u .s military in iraq ever i know who is
10:11intel in iraq was tended to be very pro kurdish they fight they they are
10:18reliable in their own areas but they have limitations because you take them out of
10:23kurdish areas and there are problems all of a sudden all these old ethnic conflicts
10:27come together so you got that help in iran in some in some capacity you
10:32got to figure out what you're going to do with the persian who's going to
10:34be the figurehead of the persian majority i don't know people are saying some descendant
10:39of the shah that could be complicated i don't know uh if the administration was
10:46certain i think they would have already started to lay out that plan for us
10:49but i also believe that there's Some wisdom in this approach of let's just, as
10:56Rubio said, and I said it to you, defang the snake.
10:59Let's remove their capability to hit us or any of our friends and say, when
11:04do you want to talk?
11:04Let us know when you want to talk, Mullis.
11:06Your missiles are disappearing. Your stockpiles are getting blown up or entombed by our bunker
11:14busters. How much longer do you want this to go on for?
11:17We did try it the nice way.
11:19We tried it the nice way for a long time.
11:22And I would argue the Obama administration tried it the far too nice way, bending
11:25the knees, sending them pallets of cash, you know, whatever.
11:28We tried that for a long time.
11:31They weren't willing to play ball.
11:33They were playing games so that they could get to a nuke.
11:37It's very obvious. There's no reason for them to have caused all these problems if
11:42they weren't planning to get nuclear weapons.
11:45And then they wouldn't be in this position because there would be red lines.
11:50And I think we might have already – if Iran had nukes and we were
11:53doing to them what we've already done in the early days here, would they have
11:56fired them? Yes. People have been saying to me, Buck, do you think Iran would
12:00have fired nukes? I don't know as a first strike, but what we're doing now,
12:04yes, I think the mullahs probably would say we're going to take a shot at
12:07Tel Aviv. Let's see if we can hit it.
12:08Or Jerusalem or where – well, probably Tel Aviv.
12:11But, yes, I think the mullahs would do that.
12:14Now they can't. Now they can't.
12:16So we're entering a different phase.
12:18Things in Venezuela are already starting to move in a more positive direction.
12:21Look, we have to understand, Trump is remaking the world in an image of stability
12:30and safety in a way that a lot of people, including Trump voters, didn't anticipate.
12:35I didn't know he was going to do all this stuff.
12:37He didn't say he was going to do all this stuff.
12:40So far it's working. We should all pray that it does work because it could
12:44be so enormously beneficial to all these different regions, whether it's Venezuela slash Cuba and
12:51what that would do for Latin America, for the Caribbean basin, what we see with
12:55Iran and the Middle East, the removal of these proxies and everything else.
12:59You know, these places don't have to be dysfunctional, problematic for the global community hellholes.
13:07It doesn't have to be that way.
13:09There are plenty of places that we don't sit around spending a lot of time
13:13worrying about, plenty of countries, and this is bold stuff from the administration.
13:19There's no two ways about it.
13:22So I am just very hopeful that this will continue as it has been and
13:27that we'll start to see a coalescing of anti -regime forces coming together on the
13:37ground. We saw the protest movements, but this stuff is very hard.
13:41You know, it's think about it this way.
13:44Okay, you think that a new you think that a new government is possible in
13:48Iran. You hate the mullahs.
13:50When is it safe for you to go outside and start talking to people about
13:53this? When are you willing to join that march?
13:56And think that you're not going to get mowed down by IRGC or besiege elements
14:02with PKMs, you and your whole family.
14:06This is tricky. This is tricky.
14:09So I think that's part of why Trump is saying, put down your guns now,
14:14because I can tell you this, if they start going after civilians, I think Trump
14:19is going to hit military elements even harder.
14:21And we're talking about blowing up barracks or whatever he's got to do.
14:25So we shall see. Wondering what you think about all of this?
14:28Definitely give us a call, 800 -282 -2882.
14:31We'll continue to analyze it, make sense of it, and dive into it together.
14:36Here in Miami, new homeowners quickly learn about three things.
14:39Air conditioning systems, hurricane -proof windows, and what condition is the roof in?
14:44That last question that's often most important.
14:46A house needs an intact roof throughout every season and every weather condition.
14:50If your roof is giving you trouble, Erie Home is here to help.
14:53Erie Home is a 50 -year -old company specializing in making sure the roof on
14:56your house is in excellent shape.
14:58They start by providing a free roof inspection.
15:01They'll inspect your roof for any problems using a 25 -point inspection.
15:05If your roof needs replacement, Erie Home offers all kinds of options, including the use
15:09of newer metal materials that are made to mimic the look of the roof you
15:12have now. These new metal materials allow your new roof to last up to two
15:16or three times longer than traditional shingle roofs with proper care and maintenance.
15:20Take advantage of their offer.
15:21Your new roof from Erie Home comes with a 50 -year transferable warranty.
15:25So if you sell your home, you're providing even more value in the selling process.
15:29Schedule your free inspection at eriehome .com slash buck today and get a discount off
15:34the installation price. That's E -R -I -E home dot com slash buck.
15:39This discount is maximized at $1 ,200.
15:41Valid on new roofing installation only.
15:43Minimum purchase required and restrictions apply.
15:45See rep for warranty or promotional details.
15:49Clay, I am told, is in the building in D .C., so he'll be on
15:53air with us shortly. And he'll be talking about some big sports stuff going on.
15:59The sports ball conversation. We are here talking about the Iran.
16:05This is a war. You can call it an air war, but it is a
16:08war. I know people maybe are shying away from that term because it has a
16:12lot of implications. But this is, you know, if there's such a thing as submarine
16:18warfare, for example, remember unrestricted...
16:20submarine warfare was a big deal in the second world war um if there's submarine
16:25warfare there's aerial warfare and we are definitely doing that so uh and just just
16:30a note on the terminology of this this is not a a kinetic ongoing contingency
16:37operation for no no this is this is us destroying the iranian military by the
16:43way i noted the team brought this up to my attention here's former general petraeus
16:46the former five star or four star five star sorry forced a four star right
16:52he's i don't know whatever yeah i'll the team will correct me on that one
16:55sorry here he is this cut five i'm just trying to get this in play
16:58it in this case i actually see the military missions uh being accomplished fairly steadily
17:04here uh the trajectory is very good you know first and foremost of course they
17:09went after the air and ballistic missile defenses took those down whatever had been reconstituted
17:14after the israelis took them apart in the early days of the 12 -day air
17:17campaign and that's crucial because we don't want to be restricted to just the f
17:21-35 stealth fighter bombers and the b2 stealth bombers uh we want to bring in
17:26the big ones the b -52s the b -1 bombers and they are flying now
17:30uh almost at will i i would argue that we have actually achieved air supremacy
17:35not just air superiority but but again i think people are cautious in making that
17:39declaration i said dominance same idea by the way four stars sorry there is a
17:44five star rank for general of the whole army but he was not that i'm
17:47trying to remember i'm speaking fast today i gotta cover a lot of ground he
17:50was a four star general all right uh we have clay joining us shortly and
17:55uh we gotta talk to all the towers here born on america's darkest day of
17:589 -11 the towers foundation has been helping american heroes ever since like detective victor
18:02vargas he dedicated his life to service he was a united states air force veteran
18:06became an nypd detective after 9 -11 victor joined the search and recovery efforts at
18:11ground zero but it was a selfless act that would cost him his life later
18:14on on the 25th anniversary of 9 -11 we continue to see the toll that
18:18it's taking on heroes and their families victor fought pancreatic cancer with courage leaving behind
18:23his wife adriana and their four children tunnel the towers honored victor by paying off
18:27the vargas family's mortgage you can help families like the vargas's with tunnel to towers
18:32help bring home and hope and security to them join us in donating eleven dollars
18:37a month and amplify your impact with a car land donation go to t2t .org
18:42that's t2t .org the combination of our ingenuity the skill the professionalism the discipline and
18:58then the sheer weight of the capabilities of the u .s military what you're going
19:03to see may look routine it might start to be like oh another boat oh
19:08another launcher oh another drone facility what it takes to do this uh with the
19:13precision that we do is world class no one else can do it and it's
19:17world class americans uh like the ones i saw here like the ones that are
19:21coming home that we're going to greet home that are the engine of what makes
19:25our country great and so i'm so grateful for folks like those here at centcom
19:29at central command there's our secretary of war pete hegseth laying out that it is
19:36absolutely the case nobody can even begin to do what our pilots our airmen and
19:43women are doing in this uh campaign against iran we are now joined by clay
19:50travis co -host of the clay and buck who is with us mr clay we've
19:55been talking iran stuff um not a whole lot of well more targets getting blown
20:01up more losses for the iranians uh or through the iranian regime hezbollah taking some
20:09hits on the outskirts of beirut now the israelis are doing some cleanup operations there
20:15too it looks like the plan is to get everything done from the sky and
20:20then figure out the ground as we go yeah and iran may have gotten smart
20:24enough not to announce any new leaders did you see that the reports are that
20:28iran has recognized that if they announce new leaders they're going to get killed um
20:32i don't know about you but uh i don't know it's like uh like we
20:36said a little while ago you don't want to be al -qaeda number two because
20:38al -qaeda number two didn't last very long they were always uh quickly tracked down
20:43i think we have established that whomever iran puts in charge we can take out
20:48and that's why i think the primary story as it pertains to this current uh
20:54attack plan that's going on is at what point does iran uh say okay here's
21:01our guy are you okay with these guys do they go i mean is it
21:05a little bit like the draft are they going to president trump and they're like
21:09hey here are the four guys we're thinking about naming as the next uh head
21:13of iran uh which of these four are any of these four acceptable trump has
21:18said he wants to basically pick the leader you've been involved in this i mean
21:22and by the way this is kind of a challenge i mean i'm kind of
21:24jokingly saying it's like the nfl draft but you're trying to project how someone will
21:29be as a leader who has never been a leader before so you got all
21:34sorts of promises probably being made but what really matters is what's the relationship like
21:39who is the delcy rodriguez where everything seems to be going very well with venezuela
21:43right now is there that person inside of iran that the cia you If you
21:48were still in the CIA, this is probably one of the things that they have
21:51huge teams of people doing right now, I would imagine.
21:54As all the leadership is getting wiped out, they're trying to do deep dives on
21:58whomever the candidates are to potentially take over and try to figure out who can
22:03they have a relationship with, who is trustworthy at all.
22:06In real time, I would imagine that's, to a large extent, what the data analysis
22:11is consisting of. This is what Benjamin Hall is saying.
22:16He's getting messages, this is Benjamin Hall of Fox, right, Fox News?
22:20Fox News is Benjamin Hall, saying that he's getting messages from the people of Iran
22:24that they will rise up.
22:26This is cut seven, play it.
22:27The primary objective is to remove the threat, it's to remove the missiles, it's to
22:30hit the nuclear programs, and it's to make sure they can't rebuild those programs as
22:34well. That's the primary goal, and that, I believe, will happen in a few weeks.
22:37The question is regime change.
22:38How long does that take afterwards?
22:40And I was getting messages, very, very rare, from people inside Tehran who support this
22:44action and who was saying just today, you reduce that hierarchy, you get rid of
22:48the leaders, and we will rise up.
22:50President Trump has said it as well.
22:51The people of Iran have to do this.
22:53So if you can tear apart the regime, you can tear apart their weapons program,
22:57the people of Iran should do it.
23:00We hope so. This is the huge question, and this has been a question for
23:06decades now. Will this ever happen?
23:09Will there be a, I guess, a Persian spring instead of an Arab spring where
23:15the dictator is thrown out by a popular uprising on the streets?
23:22We'll see. You worked on this back in the day because it's been a story
23:26that has emerged before. I was reading this morning, getting ready for the show.
23:31You actually have a lot of expertise on this, I would think, although I don't
23:34know how much it's changed in the last 20 -some -odd years.
23:37What's the Kurdish situation? How many people do they have?
23:40How armed are they? To what extent?
23:43Everybody's talking now about them potentially uprising.
23:46There's different reports about whether or not it's going to happen.
23:48But I haven't seen anybody say, hey, they have 10 ,000 people with guns.
23:52They have 20 ,000. Do we have any sense for how many people they could
23:56mobilize as part of any sort of invading force?
23:59Because I know this was talked about back in the days of Iraq.
24:02I mean, how viable of an uprising, in your mind, is it likely to be
24:08able to produce? Or is this just kind of a harebrained scheme that's unlikely to
24:12go very far? I can tell you, in the case of Iraq, I actually talked
24:16about this a little bit at the very start today.
24:19In the case of Iraq, it was the Kurds were very reliable at securing the
24:26areas of Iraq that were historically Kurdish.
24:30One of the big problems was that there are cities, notably Mosul was one of
24:36them, and then places like the Allah and there was Kirkuk.
24:42There were a number of cities in Iraq that there was like a Kurdish part
24:47and a non -Kurdish part.
24:49And then it's who does security.
24:51I mean, the Tigris River cut Mosul in half.
24:53I was in Mosul and remember this issue.
24:56And the northern part of the river was essentially largely Kurdish provided.
25:01This is going back to 2006, 2007, 2008, largely Kurdish.
25:05The southern part of the city or the southern half of the city was like
25:09Sunni Arab hellscape suicide bombings going off all the time.
25:13It was craziness. So I think in Iran, where you have roughly 15 to 20
25:17percent of the population is Kurdish, it's actually pretty similar to what it is in
25:20Iraq, by the way. You can use the Kurds for stability operations where they are,
25:28which is helpful. But, you know, you can't just like have Kurdish columns going into
25:35Tehran and be like, we're in charge now.
25:37That's not going to happen.
25:39Yeah. And again, this comes back to you worked on this.
25:41I know we talked about it earlier this week.
25:43But I wonder if at some point they're going to start talking about dividing up
25:46Iran like they talked about back in the day, dividing up Iraq.
25:49I don't know that that's a viable option.
25:51But I was given a Kurdistan T -shirt.
25:54I don't have it anymore.
25:55But it was like with like its own flag and the whole thing.
25:57And they're like, yeah, we love you up here.
25:59I'm like, you guys are kind of declaring your own country.
26:02That's a whole other thing.
26:04Well, I mean, this may or may not surprise a lot of people out there.
26:08But one of the largest populations of Kurdish people in America is Nashville.
26:13I mean, it's on. So I went to school with a ton of Kurdish kids.
26:18You're a man who knows your Kurds.
26:20I did not. I actually am somewhat knowledgeable about the idea.
26:23You know, they're considered one of the largest stateless ethnic groups in the world.
26:28And this is why there's such a there's something like 15 to 20 million Kurds,
26:32I think, worldwide is the estimate.
26:33So it's a pretty big population.
26:36Most of it is dispersed across southeastern Turkey, Iraq and Iran.
26:42That's really the Kurdish crescent.
26:44And the Kurds were promised, I think it was by the League of Nations, maybe
26:50Woodrow Wilson. There was talk of giving the Kurds a state in the Middle East,
26:54and they kind of got screwed out of that.
26:56And there's been some, let's just say, frustration over that for a long time.
27:02And this is evidenced by my favorite Kurdish saying is the Kurds have only one
27:06friend, the mountains, because they've had to just go up into the mountains and fight
27:10and defend themselves over and over and over again.
27:14So, yeah. And the Turks called.
27:15This is unexpected, Buck, but I looked it up to confirm Nashville actually has the
27:20largest Kurdish population in the United States.
27:23The largest. And there is an area of Nashville called Little Kurdistan because so many
27:30people relocated after the Gulf War and ended up in Nashville.
27:33So I went to school with a bunch of kids that were Kurdish.
27:36And so I remember being steeped in hearing about all of this.
27:40And so the question is, obviously, is there any viable alternative?
27:45It seems like a lot of people are putting faith in this.
27:48I'm sure we have some U .S.
27:49mill listening who work with the Kurds in Iraq.
27:51If you guys want to weigh in on this, you know a heck of a
27:53lot more about it than even I do.
27:54I was I was only there for a few months at a time and and
27:57really not. I was really just trying to help the task force target bad guys.
28:01I wasn't really deep in with it with the Kurds, embedded with them, training them.
28:05I know some of you were, you know, in base with on a base with
28:08them probably for 10, 12 to 15 months at a time.
28:10So if you have some thoughts on this, anybody who were who was working with
28:14them, part of the training operations, special forces.
28:18I mean, I remember going to I went to special forces compounds, Clay, where it
28:21was just SF guys and then some Kurds running security for them.
28:26I mean, that was the level of trust that that people would have in them.
28:29The Kurds at different times in the Iraq war were really the only really the
28:36only group that U .S.
28:37mill and and the agencies, various agencies could trust to stand and fight when when
28:43when the bullets started to fly.
28:45And they had far less problems with infiltrators, you know, people that were actually Al
28:50Qaeda in Iraq or whatever.
28:52So, look, there's a lot.
28:54I'm I've I always have sort of a soft spot for the Kurds, so much
28:58so that actually I get a little aggravated with Turkey, with Turkey sometimes over it.
29:02I've always been very pro Kurdish.
29:04I think a lot of U .S.
29:05Miller pro Kurdish because of their experience with them.
29:07But in the Iran context, for what we're looking at now, useful to a point,
29:12useful to probably secure some areas that will be we won't have to worry about.
29:18But you're going to you're going to need the Persian majority, the Farsi speaking Persian
29:23majority to coalesce into some sort of process here.
29:28And the biggest thing is going to be getting the security services that I mentioned
29:34this before. When people can walk out in Tehran on the street and and chant
29:41and whatever and have no fear of any security service opening up on them, then
29:46we will have turned a corner.
29:48I think there is still that very much that fear right now.
29:52So we'll see. Yeah, for sure.
29:55That's really I did not know that about Nashville.
29:57I mean, I know there are some ethnic enclaves of immigrants and, you know, there's
30:01a huge Ethiopian population in the D .C.
30:04area, for example. A lot of Ethiopian friends who live in D .C.
30:08You know, there's a lot of El Salvadorans in the like Maryland and northern Virginia
30:12area. Like you get these groups that I did not know the Kurds are.
30:16That's actually a nice choice for them.
30:17I got to say, well done, Kurds.
30:19Nashville, pretty close to the mountains.
30:20I don't remember how exactly it happened.
30:22But but yeah, it's a huge population.
30:24And if you remember back in the day when they had the first elections in
30:28Iraq, Nashville was one of the places that allowed the voting to occur here because
30:33there was such a huge Kurdish population.
30:35Yeah. Yeah. Very interesting. Learn something every day.
30:39Yeah, you learn something every day.
30:40There's not a day that goes by without our sun speed doing something so cute
30:44that I have to take a photo of it or a video of it.
30:46iPhones make that easy. And that's life in 2026.
30:49But 20 plus years ago, you had to have a camcorder and record it on
30:53a cassette or a VHS tape and then label it and then keep it somewhere.
30:56Well, if you're part of that videotape generation, let's get all that precious content digitized
31:02today so you can relive and share those memories again.
31:05And Legacy Box makes that easy.
31:07They put everything on digital files that live in the cloud.
31:10You can access them on your iPhone, iPad, computer, or smart TV, just like I
31:14can with videos of Speed and Ginger.
31:17Legacy Box has done this now for a million and a half families, including our
31:21own. It's going to be so cool when Speed grows up and he's able to
31:25see his family roots, grandparents, things that happened 20, 30 years ago because we've transferred
31:30those tapes onto video. Don't wait for this.
31:33Don't wait for your old media to fade.
31:35Preserve it now for future generations and lots of fun today with Legacy Box.
31:41Go to LegacyBox .com slash buck and get 50 % off.
31:44That's LegacyBox .com slash B -U -C -K.
31:56We are continuing to roll.
31:57I'm up here in Washington, D .C.
31:59As we get ready for everything, Senator Kennedy is going to join us at the
32:03top of the next hour.
32:04And to a large extent, Buck, I can't wait, honestly, from Louisiana, Senator Kennedy, to
32:10hear what he's going to say because it seems that his questioning of the DHS
32:17Secretary Noem and the amount of $220 million that was spent on an advertising campaign
32:23may well have been the final precipitating event that led to her being removed.
32:30So we will be talking to the senator here in a few moments.
32:33And I would just say to everybody, maybe get your popcorn because I feel like
32:37Senator Kennedy is usually pretty entertaining with a lot of homespun wisdom.
32:42But I think he... Might be bringing a little bit of a bazooka with him
32:46on this interview in a bit.
32:47Well, there's reporting that is out already that says that Noam, the last straw, was
32:54saying that Trump approved the $220 million.
32:57There's also reporting that for Trump, the last straw was the way that she answered
33:02the questions about her special government employee advisor, Corey Lewandowski.
33:08So both of those have gotten a lot of focus right now.
33:11But one thing I do know for sure about Trump is if most of your
33:16currency is, and I mean like 99 % of it, is your loyalty to Trump,
33:22you better stay loyal to Trump and not crack under oath and try to throw
33:29him under the bus or involve him in some problem that you've got.
33:32That was a very big mistake, regardless of what the reporting all says on this.
33:38By the way, we've got a VIP email from Michael who says, Buck, I was
33:41with ISG in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, starting in Erbil, which is up in
33:46the north, and moving to Baghdad.
33:49Remind your listeners of what happened in Halabja in 1988 with the Kurds and what
33:53Saddam did to those people.
33:54Yeah, he dropped sarin gas on them.
33:56He gassed. The Kurds tried to rise up.
33:58And Saddam just, with helicopters, he had air superiority.
34:03There was no Kurdish air force really to speak of.
34:05And they were, they gassed people, villages in Halabja.
34:08It was where thousands of people killed.
34:10So, yeah, Saddam was a very bad guy.
34:12And the Kurds suffered horribly under the Saddam regime.
34:16But that meant when Saddam was gone, they were willing to fight.
34:19Look, some of this, Clay, this brings up another part of the conversation.
34:23Do the Iranian people, do they have a stomach to step up for their own
34:32freedom? It's being offered to them right now.
34:35Not on a silver platter because they're going to take casualties and losses.
34:39That's going to happen. But do they want it?
34:43Do they want to be free of the tyrant?
34:45We'll see. We'll see what ends up happening with that.
34:47Jack in Nashville says there's a lot of Kurds in Nashville.
34:51What's going on, Jack? Well, I was just going to refer you to a book
34:57called Sellout by a guy named Shiffers.
35:00And it's predominantly about the Clinton impeachment.
35:03But we got the Kurds here because of Clinton and Gore's immigration policies, the same
35:09policies that brought the Somalians to Minnesota and the Cubans down to Florida.
35:18And the theory was that they're going to try and swing purple states blue or
35:24even red states blue and we're going to put the immigrants there.
35:27And it's a very good book.
35:31You know, the guy that wrote it is a pretty hardcore Chicago Democrat.
35:35But it's worth referencing there.
35:39But that's how we got them all.
35:41All right. Thank you for the call for calling in.
35:43Clay, interesting, interesting little historical tidbits.
35:45I know you like history, although maybe not this region of history as much.
35:49Saladin, Salahuddin, was a Kurd, in fact.
35:53Richard the Lionheart's great opponent in the Crusades was Kurdish.
35:57Something that, let me tell you, the Kurds certainly remember.
36:01Probably the greatest general of that period of history from the Muslim side.
36:07But, yes, Saladin was a Kurd.
36:09I think I mentioned this on the program, the Rick Atkinson book about World War
36:15II. I've been reading about the battles in North Africa.
36:19He's such an amazing writer that he has gone all the way into Hannibal and
36:22the way different ways that attacks happened back in those days.
36:26And now it's got me super fascinated to read more about that era as well.
36:30But the Rick Atkinson books on Revolutionary War, World War II, can't recommend them highly
36:35enough. When we come back, Senator Kennedy with a two -by -four.
36:38I think y 'all are probably going to enjoy this.
36:40Keep hanging with us. This is an iHeart Podcast.
36:53Guaranteed human.