Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in Wednesday edition Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show. It
was an incredible performance from jd Vance last night that
I think is going to have significant momentum for the
Trump Vance ticket as we roll into October. One of
(00:21):
the things that I think many people have wanted for
some time is for there to be an articulate version
of the Trump argument and Trump gets to in my opinion,
I think Bucks two the right place on many, if
not most issues facing the country today. But he is
(00:42):
a bull in a china shop getting there, breaking all
sorts of things in the process. And if you go
back and look at much of the media attacks on Trump,
it's actually for the process, not the end result. And
what stood out to me last night, and we're going
to play a lot of cuts for you, and I'm
curious to hear all of Buck's take on this as well,
(01:03):
but what stood out to me last night was jd
Vance was incredibly articulate at making arguments both for himself
and for Trump when they tried to attack him based
on what Trump had said and Tim Walls, I just
I'm sorry, he's not up for this job. And I
(01:26):
thought as the debate went on, it probably was becoming
clearer and clearer to so many people out there that
had been sold a false bill of goods about what jd.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Vance was.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
They tried to attack him as weird, and I can
only imagine the cognitive dissonance associated with that as you
watched this forty year old father of three, what completely calm, normal, steadfast,
talented as he dissected arguments and buck. To me, the
ultimate big takeaway from the VP debate at its most
(02:02):
foundational level is it's the most important choice that you
make as president once you're the nominee, and it tells
us a lot about you.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
The fact that Trump picked JD.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Vance, who is a brilliant, stellar communicator and advocate, and
Kamala Harris picked Tim Walls, who was a doddering, buffoonish
liar who actually only got picked I think because Josh
Shapiro happens to be Jewish, and I think we're going
to get into that, and I think it's going to
become a larger criticism on the left of Kala. But
(02:38):
Kamala picked a boon, Trump picked a stud and last
night that ultimately reflected well on Trump, and I thought
poorly on Kamala. What was your kind of big picture
takeaway from last night.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
I can't think of a better debate performance on the
Merits on a presidential or vice presidential stage in my
memory than what I saw from JD Vance last night. Now,
Trump has had some incredibly effective debate performances. Obviously, Joe
Biden's campaign ended after one. Trump beating all of the
(03:13):
Republicans in the twenty sixteen primary was a sight to see.
But I think we all should be honest. Trump's version
of winning the debate is a little different from what
you would think of if you had been on like
Lincoln Douglas or policy debate team in high school. Right,
Trump is with the one liners and the jokes and
the performance, and that's not the same kind of thing
(03:36):
that you saw on display last night. Look, I thought
it was a really respectful and substantive debate. I thought
that there was a nice level of decorum and decency
showed by both candidates. I think JD put on a
clinic on the Merits for how to disassemble your opponent's arguments,
(03:58):
stay on message, speak with clarity and eloquence so he
gets an A plus.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
Walls from me was better than I thought he would
be Oh he was okay. He was a little better
than I thought he would be.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Now that this is always about what are your expectations, right,
I thought that he would go in there where there's oh,
you know, a fancy J. D.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Waltz with his Yale degree. He didn't do that.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
He didn't do the mud slinging kind of idiot talking
points that I had expected. Look, he got he got
nailed on the China visit issue, which was just bizarre
the way that he handled that. But I guess he
doesn't want to say, look, I just lied, and you
guys called me to lie.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
There.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
There are a range of areas where I think he
did really poorly. The only place where I think he
managed to sound like somebody who knows anything about anything
was on healthcare. To be fair, I thought that he
handled Look, he's lucky he's in the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's like if you asked the governor of North the
about oil, they're gonna know oil. Minnesota is a big
healthcare state, so it was a little bit of a
sweet spot for him. The thing that I thought was
most impressive for JD.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Vance.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
You know, there's this thing that people say after debates,
and people said it after the ABC News debate, Clay,
if you're complaining about the refs, you're losing. Actually not
always true, Yeah, because the refs were terrible, as in,
the moderators were absolute partisan garbage, and JD. Vance still
handily won the debate. It was three on one and
(05:33):
he smoked all three. I mean, some of the all
the framing of the questions meant to help, meant to
help Walls. The way they fact checked or you know,
they kind of corrected or whatever they want to call it,
JD and not Walls couldn't have been more obvious.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Whenever it was time to ask a follow up of Walls,
it was, what do you want to add to that?
Speaker 3 (05:53):
They're big tim you know, I mean they might as
well have been giving him a shoulder rub on the screen.
But I just want to go because I think this
is so important, Clay. After the ABC News to.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Be people were, oh, you're complaining about Muir, it's because
you lost. Trump didn't look at the numbers, didn't lose
that debate by public opinion. And beyond that, the moderator
was garbage. The moderators in this were garbage. Brennan and
whatever the other lady's name, oh don O'Donnell. They were
(06:22):
clearly partisan hacks, and JD.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
Vance smoked them. So just remember that the next time
someone's like, if you're complaining about the refs, no, it
is possible to have terrible refs and win the game.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
And JD did, And what he did was what I
wish Trump had done, because let's play that clip.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I think it's so important.
Speaker 1 (06:42):
Trump never directly confronted David Muir and whatever the Lindsay
Nelson or Davis or whatever the heck her name was
at ABC, even though they were constantly trying to fact
check him when they tried, and I only remember buck
one time where they tried, and was so devastating JD.
Vance's response to them, which illuminated that he understood the
(07:06):
issue so much better than they did, and also demonstrated
just how much of partisan hacks they were that they
had to turn off his microphone. I thought that was
the moment where he took complete control of the debate.
Let's play that for people out there. It's the one
thing I wish Trump had been willing to do during
(07:28):
his debate against Kamala Harris, because I think it would
have brought into the open for more people just how.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
Rigged and biased it was. But listen to that from last.
Speaker 5 (07:37):
Night, just to clarify for our viewers', Springfield, Ohio does
have a large number of Haitian migrants who have legal
status temporary protective. But thank you, senator. We have so
much to get to, Margaret.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I think it's important economy things. Margaret.
Speaker 6 (07:53):
The rules were that you got in a fact check,
and since you're fact checking me, I think it's important
to say what's actually going on. So there's an application
called the CBP one app where you can go on
as an illegal migrant, apply for asylum or apply for
parole and be granted legal status at the wave of
a Kamala Harris open border Wand that is not a
(08:15):
person coming in applying for a green cart and waiting
for ten years. Thank you, Senator, of a legal immigration
Margaret bye.
Speaker 5 (08:22):
Thank you senator for describing the legal product.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Have so much to get.
Speaker 7 (08:27):
The senator the book since nineteen ninety, thank you, gentlemen.
Speaker 6 (08:33):
App has not been on the books.
Speaker 5 (08:38):
Gentlemen, the audience can't hear you because your mics are cut.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
There was no reasons, Yes, I agree.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
You know, no reason immute is Mike there And that
was just sort of spiteful garbage from these moderators. First
of all, listen to the the by the facts and
by the by the reality. It sounds like he listens
to the Clay and buckshow and immigration. I'll be honest
with you talking about this DVP one app talking about
and this is what I try to say to people,
and I get frustrated.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
We discussed this here a lot on the show.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Whatever you think the problem of a legal immigration is,
it's actually worse because Biden Harris have abused laws to
bring in even more people through what is essentially an
emergency immigration process of if you don't take me, I'm
gonna die. If you don't take me, I'm gonna be tortured. Well,
that's supposed to be like for an actual emergency, not
(09:28):
ten million or five million or however many millions of
people have come into the country. That's what they've allowed
to happen. It's critical. So I thought Clay that exchange
was important on the merits right, on the actual substance
of the policy, but also to not let them get
away with that. I mean to do this little you know,
look they.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
Turn their mic off.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
I mean I was sitting watching this with I did
a bit with Tommy Layer and Pete hegg Seth. We
were all watching it together and Pete's wife said, oh, man,
that's like a mom treats the kids, where you just
like Pete's kind of a allusion. Clay Well, his wife
(10:09):
was there, Who's fantastic? And she was saying, and she
used to be a producer at Fox News, but she
was saying. Her immediate reaction was and I get it.
It does remind me of what a parent does to
a toddler that is misbehaving, just turning off the mics.
But I thought it was impossible to ignore from that
point forward once he directly confronted them, first of all,
(10:31):
how much smarter he is than they are. Let's be clear,
you can rip jd Vance for opinions you disagree with
him on. But the reason I thought that he would
win is I think there was a massive IQ differential
between jd Vance and Tim Walls. I think Tim Walls
is not a very smart man. I think jd Vance
are really smart.
Speaker 3 (10:50):
He come across as as likable though to you would
you say, or more likeable than you anticipated.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Walls. Yeah, that was where.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
I compare him to Kamala's I mean, if you look
at those two, Tim Wallas is far more affable than
Kamala Harris in terms of.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
One thing I was thinking Buck was if we hadn't
gotten Biden dropping out, can you imagine what jd Vance
would have done to Kamala Harris.
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Oh, that's the only part of last night that was
disappointing for me. It would have been almost worth it
just to have that whole situation.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I mean, it would have been an a visceration the
other thing I'll say, and we need to kind of
dive into this more.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I also think this is.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Why I know people get mad when people sit for
these antagonistic interviews, but iron sharpens iron. Jd Vance was
ready for them to hit him with the most biased,
the most unfair, the most rigged questions because he has
been sitting for these interviews. He was prepared. He didn't
(11:50):
need to go through a ton of prep. And I
thought Walls when he got one actually confrontational question crumbled
because they've tried to hide him. And actually, you do
a disservice to your candidate when you don't allow them
to be aggressively questioned, because then when it happens, they crumble.
It's like in sports when you don't play against any
good competition and suddenly you're down in a game. Are
(12:13):
you going to go and get a different level of
commitment and excellence or are you going to crumble? If
you haven't tested yourself. Most people crumble. And I thought
that's what Walls did. If he had really gotten aggressively
questioned Buck, I think he would have fallen apart even
worse than I thought he did under that line of
question eight.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
But I really do think, and I know maybe it
sounds like I'm like, you know, mister Rogers inviting everybody
to the neighborhood or something, but it was nice to
have a debate where put us on the mono is
are trash. We've called that out, so let's be clear.
I wish, I wish we would stop this thing of
like we need to have Democrat partisans hosting.
Speaker 2 (12:51):
Like it's radulous.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
It put it on Rogan, put it on, I mean
our show. It's funny because like you know, we'd be
considered right wing. I guess whatever, fine, but you would
do a phenomenal job as moderators of it. I mean, unbelieva.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Here's the thing.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
Questions don't have to be rigged. You could just say, hey,
Tim Walls, about ten million, about ten million people have
come across the border through non legal or sort of
super legal means under Kamala's watch. What do you think
about that? And what are you going to do about
it going forward?
Speaker 2 (13:22):
Hey?
Speaker 3 (13:22):
JD Vance, if Trump is president, how is he going
to stop?
Speaker 6 (13:25):
That?
Speaker 7 (13:25):
Was?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
You can ask questions, I agree where the answer is
what matters. Last night it was the usual thing of like, well,
Tim Wall, since you care about women's rights to bodily
autonomy and don't want to turn them into slaves of
their wombs, you know, And then it's JD. Van's, Jady Van,
since you're like a misogynist pig, what do you think?
I mean, it's very obvious what they will.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
And even on Hurricane Helene, it's not hey, why is
there not a more federal resources being committed? It's all
this impacts climate change. I mean, I think it was
the second friggin question that they asked.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
You'll come back people, some of your people that believe
climate change is that level of important. So the same
mentality and the same IQ as people that walk around
with masks on outside still for COVID, I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (14:10):
A lot of those overlaps for sure.
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Speaker 8 (16:52):
Clay Travison, Buck Sexton mic drops that never sounded so good.
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Speaker 3 (17:02):
Podcasts Our two Clay end Buck kicks off. Now let's
jump right into it with an economic deep dive. Art
Laugher joins us. Now, doctor Art Laugher, former Reagan economic advisor,
a guy behind a Laugher curve, makes sense and author
brilliant minds all that good stuff, Doctor Laffer, appreciate you
(17:25):
being with us.
Speaker 7 (17:26):
My pleasure, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. By
the way, I love your show.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Thank you well.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
You have excellent taste in radio as well as being
an economic piece. So tell us this, tell us this, sir,
if you would, if we were to give a you know,
not just the talking points obviously, that's why we have
you on to give us the reality of it, right,
the Biden Kamala economy of the last four years. If
you were prepping let's say, Trump to go into a
(17:52):
debate and make the case about what it is, what
has actually gone wrong, what has gone right? I mean,
what is your scorecard for the US economy under the
stewardship of Biden the last four years.
Speaker 7 (18:04):
Well, you know, if I were Trump doing this, I
would first place tell the story of what I did
as Trump during my first term, and it's my opinion
and as an economist, and I'm just talking about economics,
and that's it is. It was the single best first
term of any president in US history from the standpoint
of economics. And the energy policy was terrific. As you know,
(18:28):
we were energy independent because of decontrol because of his
policies there, Biden and Harris went the exact opposite direction.
He also did an amazing job with Operation Warp Speed
I mean he developed a vaccine in ten months, little
less than ten months. It was a phenomenal vaccine. By
spending some money and by getting rid of all the
(18:50):
red tape, people expected it would take six years or so,
and it didn't be did it in ten months. I
mean amazing right to try. You know, the idea that
if you've got a turn disease, you can try any
drug you'd like to do and not have to have
FDA approval. I think that was phenomenal as well. One
I think that was done in the debate with Vance
(19:10):
and Waltz was that medical transparency, price transparency. The executive order.
Trump did a phenomenal job on that. The Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act worked perfectly. I mean, it really did
pay for itself in the first two years, and it
brought the rates down me much more competitive, led to
firm economic growth, and there were no delays, no mistakes
(19:33):
made in that bill. The death tax was reduced quite substantially.
All of that was done, the personal income tax drop
from thirty nine six to thirty seven. There were a
couple of pass throughs there. I mean, he did a
superb job. And then you compare that with Biden, who
raised tax rates, who did a lot of spending. You know,
(19:54):
Trump did spending by the way, once the pandemic hit,
which I don't think should have been done, at least
a lot of it shouldn't have been. But Biden did
it the whole time there and just wasted the money.
And I think the operation of the FED under Biden,
under Powell and Biden's term led to very high inflation
as well. So the way I take it is in
(20:14):
almost every single area of economics, Trump far exceeds Biden,
not only in volume but in direction. I think Trump
did tax cuts, Biden did tax increasesment of government spending.
Trump did tax spending cuts until the pandemic, and Biden
did the increases right from the get go. I mean,
look at defense again, the same thing there. The one
(20:38):
thing I would really juxtapose where I where I Trump
and Biden, where I Trump and Biden or Harris is
the role played by you know, by peace through strength,
the sort of the old Reagan doctrine of peace through strength,
where Trump really followed it precisely in Biden and Harris
did just the opposite policy. They did war through weakness.
(21:03):
And so that's where that's where I'd come out on
the two teams, and Trump is just amazing on economics
and on international politics.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
Okay, I wanted to have you on, Doctor Laffer, and
I appreciate it. I've gotten to meet you a couple
of times. You live in Nashville. I think you got
one hundred and sixty three grandkids, which I'm glad to
have your genes, because we need as much intelligence in
economics as we can. But I want to dive in
because you're so good at explaining this. You have advised
or been involved with high level politicians for forty fifty years.
(21:35):
I mean, like you said, going back to Reagan.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
First, I was in nineteen seventy. I was in the
White House at George Schultz's right hand person in nineteen seventy.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Okay, going all the way back to nineteen seventy. I
look and hear Kamala Harris speak, and I think to myself,
she is functionally, it seems to me economically illiterate, at
least with what she is saying publicly. She's talking about
price controls on grocery stores. This grocery stores have one
of the lowest level profits we've got in any industry
(22:05):
out there, she says that price gouging is going on
and seems to be citing things like what would happen
with Hurricane Helene. We have laws that are in place
that you shouldn't be able to suddenly charge ten dollars
a gallon for a milk or for a gallon of
gas or whatever else because there's a natural disaster. She
doesn't seem to understand what those price cap regulations are
(22:26):
associated with. Since nineteen seventy Where does Kamala Harris rank
to you from an economic policy perspective? Let's say there's
just people out there making a decision. Hey, I just
wanted the best economy out there because I think a
rising tide lifts all boats. That's what the president should do,
That's what the federal government should do. Where does Kamala
rank in your experience?
Speaker 7 (22:46):
Well, I'm one hundred and six percent with you on
the rising tide. The Kennedy model. Is this the perfect
model for this? To be honest with you, I mean,
if you judge her by Biden that she was complicit
in all of the Biden policies, you know she's a
big spending liberal Democrat, clear and simple and buying votes
from other groups and causing the economy to weigh underperform.
(23:07):
I mean, that would be the perfect example. Price controls
is just something she naturally grabs to because she's been
raised in government all of her life, so she thinks,
if there's a problem, always go to government for a solution,
and price controls. I don't think she's aware of all
the problems we had with price controls under Nixon, and
they just didn't work. They caused all sorts of dislocations,
(23:29):
and I don't think she understood. She's just trying. She's
just trying to explain or trying to justify, or trying
to make excuses for why there was such high inflation
under Biden Harris, and that you get the gougers, et cetera,
when in fact it was it was her economic policies
and slowed economic growth. It was hers and Biden's economic
monetary policies that increase the monetary base. The balanceship sheet
(23:52):
of the Fed, I mean, what was it in two
thousand and eight. I think the balance sheet was at
eight fifty eight billions something like that, fifty eight billion,
and at its peak under Biden Harris, it was at
nine point three trillion. I mean, is it any wonder
we had in high inflation under them? That was exactly
what happened. And they also caused the economy to slow
(24:13):
way way down, which further added to inflationary pressure. So
this is what she's trying to do, and she's just
trying to find excuses and to see if something sticks
by throwing it against the wall. I'm not sure how
she'll behave once she's in office, though.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
What do you think, doctor Laffer, Let's pretend that COVID
doesn't happen.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Trump in February.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Of twenty twenty, I think we had the strongest economy
in the history of the United States, White, Black, Asian,
Hispanic wages arising, inflation's one point four percent or whatever
the heck it was two and a half percent, mortgage rates.
People have more money in their pocket. If COVID doesn't happen.
And we're having this conversation right now, how good do
(24:54):
you think a second term? Because I think Trump would
have won without COVID for sure. How good do you
think the second Trump term would have been for the economy?
Speaker 2 (25:03):
And where do you think we'd be sitting right now?
Speaker 7 (25:06):
Well, you know, I think everyone agrees with you that
Trump would have won in a landslide and maybe get
forty nine states. I think even Saturday Night Live conceded
that time and time until the COVID hit, and the
COVID became the perfect opportunity, opportunity for the Democrats to
try to knock him down, and they succeeded, and that
if it hadn't have occurred, I think we would have
(25:28):
had the best presidency ever in US history. His first
term was singularly the best in economics of any presidency
in its first term period. And I really went through
a bunch of them there with you. But there was
a lot more in deregulation, ten deregulations for everyone, the
Supreme Court that he appointed, and I'm not talking social
(25:48):
issues now here, I'm talking just economics. They reigned back
all the regulatory agencies to not be able to legislate
through regulations through the regulatory agencies. I mean, how cool
is that? I mean, all of this stuff, I think Trump,
with the Supreme Court he had, with the Congress he
would have had as well, could have done a job
even better than Reagan did on the second term. And
(26:10):
Reagan's second term was spectacular I mean Reagan got the
highest tax rate in his two terms, from seventy percent
to twenty eight percent. He raised the lowest rate from
twelve and a half percent to fifteen. He went from
eleven tax brackets to two tax brackets. He cut the
corporate rate from forty six to thirty four. I mean
(26:31):
he got rid of all those deductions, exemptions, exclusions, and loopholes.
I mean, we got a vote in the Senate for
the bill for the eighty six Tax Act of ninety
seven to three. We got all the Libs to vote
with us because it was the right thing to do.
I think Trump could have matched that easily and done
an even better job than Reagan did if he had
not had the pandemic and been elected. So I'm really
(26:54):
very sad that he wasn't reelected. Without the pandemic. I mean,
it would have been just nominal period. We would have
been We wouldn't have had any of these wars in
the Middle East, we wouldn't be in the Ukraine, we
wouldn't have Houti rebels firing rockets at our ships or
any of that stuff. It would have been pieced through strength,
and the strength is in the economy. As well as
defense and strength.
Speaker 3 (27:16):
We think an art laugher and art. I'm sorry, I
just wanted to say, if you could take take us
for a look ahead. Let's say that the American people
do the right thing and Donald Trump does win for
more years. A lot of it will be the reinstituting
of policies that you've been discussing that were so successful.
But what would you add to that or what would
(27:37):
you say would be top of the economic agenda for
Trump term two to really get things cooking again.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
I really think price transparency, health transparency. You know, there
is a huge you know, we've had a huge reduction
in our life expectancy relative to the OECD over the
last fifty plus years, and a huge increase in the
cost of healthcare over that same time period, again relative
to the OECD. I mean, we have been suffering enormously
(28:04):
because we don't have price transparency. You don't know what
the prices are, you don't know what the qualities are.
It's all hidden in insurance companies, policies, et cetera. And
we need price transparency, which I think Trump should do.
I think Trump will do it, and I think it
will have an enormous impact. Remember, healthcare is something like
twenty percent of GDP, and to have a non market
(28:26):
economy as twenty percent of the GDP is just killing us.
I mean literally and figuratively that I talk is the
single most important thing to do.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
We're talking to doctor Art Laugher. Last question for you
at Actually, my sixteen year old who is a junior
in high school right now, wanted me to ask you
about this.
Speaker 2 (28:44):
Oh, he's fired up.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
About the national debt and the concept he does debate,
and the concept of modern monetary theory.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
And he wants to know.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
And I said, I'm talking to a super smart economist
on the show. He knows who you are, he studied
your work. I think he's going to major in economics
when he gets older. He wants to know at what
rate does our national debt become so crippling that no
matter what political party you are are supporting, it becomes
(29:15):
incredibly difficult to get the economy rolling because of the
weight of that national debt.
Speaker 7 (29:21):
I think we're miles and miles and miles away from
that type of crux. If you look at debt, you
should never compare it to GDP. You know, everyone says
it's one hundred and twenty percent of GDP or whatever
the numbers are. You should always compare debt to wealth
or debt service to GDP. If you look at debt
to wealth, you know it's too high, but it's not critical.
(29:43):
Don't jump out the window. If you look at debt
service to GDP, it's still too high, but we have
plenty from to be able to grow our way out
of this debt. And remember always that it's not debt
that's the problem. Debt is a tool. It's the spread.
If you use the spending to pay people not to work,
(30:04):
that's killed your economy. If you use the spending to
create jobs, output employment by cutting taxes and by increasing
defenses we did under Reagan, it's the biggest boon to
economic growth you can imagine. So I would tell your son,
you know, don't get overly worried about the debt. It's
not a debt problem. We can grow out of this
(30:24):
debt with good policies very easily, and which shouldn't be
People shouldn't be on the edge of their chairs jumping
out the windows. It's not the biggest problem. We need
a low rate, broad based flat tax, spending restraints, sound money,
minimal regulations, and free trade, and this economy will take
care of debt in minutes for our laugh.
Speaker 2 (30:45):
For appreciate you being with us, sir, my.
Speaker 7 (30:47):
Pleasure, Thank you very much for having me, and say
hell Lord to that child of yours.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
I will for sure, sir, thank you.
Speaker 7 (30:54):
I hope the answer was okay for him.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
He'll love it. He's in class for now, but we'll
play it for him. Yeah, it's the deal. Thank you,
my friends.
Speaker 3 (31:03):
There's a lot of instability overseas, and there's still this
chance that you might have for more years of a
Democrat administration. I know, I don't think it's going to happen,
but it could happen, and then the printing would be
going on, inflation would rise. What can you do now
to prepare so that you can protect your savings? Gold,
my friends, Gold is a smart investment strategy. Just look historically.
(31:26):
I don't just been the last year or ten years,
look last thousand years. Gold is a store of value,
and when you invest a portion of your savings in gold,
you are diversifying against the effects of inflation, crazy out
of control spending all of it and birch gold can
also assist you in converting an IRA or four to
one K into an IRA in gold.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
That's right, Birch Gold.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
That's who I trust when it comes to gold purchases
or transferring your IRA into gold. You don't have to
pay a penny out of pocket to do that. By
the way, text my name Buck for more information. You
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Speaker 8 (32:18):
Two guys walk up to a mic, anything goes Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio
app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show appreciate all of you hanging
out with us. We are rolling through the Wednesday edition
of the program, reacting to.
Speaker 2 (32:39):
Last night's debate.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
And the incredibly dominant performance from jd Vance, the waffling
performance from Tim Walls. The gambling markets have spoken Trump.
You know, guys know I like following this, Trump is
now dead even with Kamala close to flipping the favorite
in the wake of last night's performance, both of them
(33:04):
dead on fifty to fifty. So if you are a
betting person right now, basically we are in the fourth
quarter of the game's tied and anything can happen, So
dead even Trump, Kamala, Buck and I both believe Trump
is going to pull it out. But two things for
you that we haven't talked about so far. And one
of our emailers raised this as an issue, so I
want to give him credit for it. But it also
(33:27):
was something that I got texted to me, Britt writes
in the in the Clay and Buck vip E mail bag. Here,
I get most of my news from the radio, so
I haven't seen jd Vance in action before, but I
would have to believe that Clay is enthralled with jd
Vance's eyes. Now, look, the fact that I think Bill
(33:52):
Alugen's a good looking man has led many of you
to jump here to the jd Vance's eyes had to
captivate me. Say this, Buck, optics and cosmetics matter, and
I want to get your read on this. I got
a text from one of our OutKick women who works
on the show works on the OutKick website. She said
(34:16):
that a lot of her girlfriends were texting her during
the debate, saying they didn't realize how good looking jd
Vance was.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
Interesting.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I also thought, when you put those two boxes side
by side, jd Vance had the superior answers. But Buck,
as you well know, much of television is cosmetic. It
doesn't matter what you say, it's how you look while
you say it. I thought that Tim Walls constantly looking
(34:48):
in jd Vance's direction and snapping his head around a
lot too body language wise, was not a good look
for him. I also think, and this is look, I
look older, probably than my age, and we've gone from
You know when you remember these days, Buck, when you're
like sixteen or seven, you're very well preserved. I can't
(35:09):
I can't let that go in yours. But hold on,
when you're sixteen or seventeen, everybody wants to look older.
I remember when I moved into my freshman dorm, there
was an eighteen year old from Minnesota that looked forty two,
and we were like, this guy's going to be able
to get us beer anywhere in the city. Nobody's asking
for this guy's id and then as you get older,
you're like you pivot and you're like, well, I wish
(35:30):
I look younger than my age, right. I think JD
looks younger than forty. I think that Tim Walls looks
older than sixty. When you put Tim Walls in Kamala
Harris side by side, I don't think you would think
that they are the same age. The reason why I
bring this up we talked in the first hour about
how if you had bought into the caricature of JD.
(35:51):
Vansis some awful right wing idea logue who's going to
drag women out of their houses if they get pregnant,
make sure they're on a registry, all this crazy stuff,
the Handmaid's Tale style that they have been peddling on MSNBC.
What you actually saw was a good looking guy with
three kids seven in under, who is eminently reasonable and rational.
(36:13):
And if you looked at Tim Walls, I thought you
saw a guy who was old and frazzled and a
bit bedraggled, and that side by side cosmetic I think
may well have registered with some independent voters. Am I
crazy buck? Or did you pick up on that too?
In the double box often shots. I mean, are you
(36:34):
telling me that Jeddie Vance is hotter than Tim Wallas Clay?
Is that what we're going is better looking? But also
he looked ahead. I think there's something to be said.
And I don't know what coaching these guys get and
gals get for debates it You know how when you
do some things on television buck they are counter to
how you would behave in real life. But if you
don't do them, you look weird. And I've said this before,
(36:57):
but for instance, if you stare somebody straight down in
a conversation, it's weird. Eventually we avert gaze like it
doesn't like if you just stare somebody in their eyes,
that makes them uncomfortable. If you don't stare at the
camera on a television show, you look the exact opposite.
You look sketchy and untrustworthy. I think when Walls was
(37:18):
looking at jd Vance, that might be normal in a
debate room, but it doesn't look normal on television. It
made him look like he had something to hide.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Yeah, look, I mean I think that jd Vance did.
I think he's in a different level intellectually and debate wise,
and across the board from where Tim Walls is. Some
people are writing in by the way, I'm getting at
a little bit of heat, which fine, a little bit
of heat that you know, why do you think Tim.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
Walls is likable?
Speaker 3 (37:46):
I'm saying he's more likable than Kamala the same way
that I said Hillary is more likable than Kamala, which
people disagree with too, which is fine. I think that
I think that Tim Walls came across better than I
thought he would, because what I had seen of him
up to this point was utter buffoonery. I mean truly
clown level stuff. He was okay up there, he wasn't.
(38:09):
No one's expecting him to be really smart. And I'm
just trying to be honest, you know, assessing this as
I would if I were like grading a debate tournament,
which the thing I used to do back in the day.
I thought that for him, he did okay. I give
him like a B. I think JD gets an A plus, right,
So that's my fair assessment of it. I mean, I
(38:30):
think that honestly, Kamala and Trump, when they went head
to head on the substance, it was a little closer
than I wanted it to be. And I think that
on the style, Trump actually was much more favorable than
a lot of the punditry thought he was based on
the polling and the numbers afterwards. Walls wasn't particularly strong
(38:50):
on anything other than you know, the healthcare answer. I
think was his best moment is the truly best moment.
People in the punditry class, we were going to talk
about it January sixth. Thing, they're saying that that's all.
That's well, if you're if you're bar for winning a
debate against Jade Vance, is you just talk about January
sixth and say that it was really bad, Well, then
(39:11):
anyone you know that Joe Biden could win a debate
against Jade Vance, I guess as long as you kept
him awake long enough. So I don't think that he
got any I don't think he had any powerful moments.
I don't think he ever cornered JD on anything. I
do really like the JD beat, the three on one
against the two moderators who were just again people say
(39:32):
why would they do that, because I mean, I don't
even know who runs CBS News these days, but whoever
runs CBS News is a big lib and he or
she who writes the checks wanted the performance that that,
you know, little Margaret and little Nora gave on that stage.
They don't care about fair. They care about making sure
(39:55):
that the seven figure gravy train for being a glorified
QVC model essentially is continuing. Okay. So that's what that's
all about. That's what people shouldn't be surprised that they
weren't particularly fair, you know. So, I think that those
were the key takeaways Clay on it that I had,
and I think overall on the border, Vance did really well.
(40:17):
On the economy, he did really well on the abortion issue.
I think he took the position that this is the
best position that Republicans have right now from an electoral perspective,
which is it's not.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
A federal issue. Roe v. Wade was horrible law. Okay.
Roe v. Wade was I make the law whatever I want.
That's what it is.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
That was the Supreme Court version of we just make
it up if we think it's really important, which means
you don't need a legislature. You don't even need an
executive branch, you just need a super legislature of the
Supreme Court.
Speaker 2 (40:45):
Roe v. Wade was garbage law.
Speaker 3 (40:48):
Beyond that, we have this thing of making everything a
federal law in this country, which we absolutely should not do,
and it is a huge erosion of our rights as
a result of it, leaving it to the states. This
phase is the only thing that Republicans can do with
the current legal regime that we have and try to
persuade people and try to, you know, have the debate
(41:08):
and have the conversation. But that's like the point, right
this is our system is actually set up for that
to occur.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Two other things, and you're right on all that. Two
other things that stood out to me. I thought jd
Vance did a really good job shouting out his wife.
And there are a lot of women out there that
had been uncomfortable with jd Vance based on the way
that he was characterized. I think I can speak for you.
I know I can speak for me. I think who
(41:36):
a man or woman picks as his life or her
life partner tells you almost more about them than anything else.
Your wife super smart. My wife's super smart. Both accomplished.
Jd Vance marrying a yell law grad who has now
given him and they have as a family three young
(41:56):
kids and her working in a major life law firm
while also being a former Supreme Court clerk. His wife
is an incredibly accomplished woman, and I think him addressing
that directly while also talking about the fact that he
was raised by a drug addict mom and a grandma
(42:17):
who helped to carry four car raise him, care for
him when his mom could not, I think that's a
really hard thing for a woman not to be impressed by,
which is why the caricature of JD I thought was
so unfair. So I think he helped himself with women.
But the other thing is if this race is going
to be decided by voters in Big ten states Michigan, Wisconsin,
(42:40):
Pennsylvania in particular, if you're a guy or a gal
in those three states, Tim Walls was picked directly to
try to peel off some of those voters. I think
JD Vance seems like the more normal, likable guy to
people in those what I call Big ten states. So
I think JD did a really good job with solidifying
(43:03):
his perspective with women who might have been not that
enamored of him, but after watching him, said, man, he's
nothing like what they told us he was. And I
think also the Big ten voters, the men and women there,
the high school educated, the story about my mom was
a drug addict and my grandma raised me. I mean,
this is the opposite of a silver spoon. I think
(43:25):
that connects honestly with a lot of people who were
not born with silver spoons in their mouth, unlike I mean, look,
Trump and Kamala both had a lot of advantages. Even
though Kamala always tries to say she was a middle
class kid, her parents were both PhDs. I mean, that's
not a normal life to grow up with. I think
JD connects with a lot of those people better than Waltz.
Speaker 2 (43:45):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
And I would also add that on the attacks of
the kind of war on women's stuff that the Democrats
always tried out, it was a little bit of that
last night. I just also say, whenever they talk about abortion,
notice that they don't talk about abortion, right to bodily
autonomy and to make her own decisions. And this isn't
(44:05):
about what kind of cast role you're making for dinner.
This is a big issue and it's about abortion and
the fact that they can't speak honestly about it. And also,
I mean it should be very straightforward. Does Minnesota demand
protection under law for a baby who survives an abortion.
People who say babies don't survive abortions are wrong.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
They do. That is a fact.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
Okay, So does the law demand that a baby who
survives the abortion procedure needs to be provided with Careen Minnesota?
Speaker 2 (44:34):
Yes or no?
Speaker 3 (44:35):
We need you know, if we had a media that
cared at all about anything, we would get an honest,
you know, anything, honest, we'd get an answer on that.
But Clay, the idea that Vance, who, as you point out,
has you know, lovely, lovely and accomplished wife, three kids,
from all we can tell, seems to have a happy
home and personal life, and and you know again has
(44:55):
an accomplished wife as well as a you know, a
devoted mom from what we what we know. And then
Donald Trump.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Who okay, you know, yeah, I mean Donald Trump's problem
might be he likes women a little too much.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
I mean, he's been very three times and he owned
the Miss Universe contest that they are going to be
the American Taliban and put women in you know, the
handmaiden's tail handmaid's tail clothing. This is an insane argument, right,
Donald Trump is going to be the one that's like
(45:27):
making women into you know, the Handmaid's Tale. The whole
thing is absurd, some dystopian future. But he's like some
radical extremists when it comes to women. Really, the guy
married to the Eastern European supermodel, Like, do they hear
themselves when they make these idiotic, idiotic arguments every day?
Speaker 1 (45:43):
No, that's funny. And here's one little thought. I'll leave
you with too, and we'll take some of your calls.
We got Trey Yanks from Israel who's going to join
us the botom of the hour, but we'll take some
more of your calls. I think there's also a lot
of left doing women that secretly want to marry somebody
like JD Van's and in their head they can't find
that guy. And when they watched him on stage, they're like, oh,
(46:07):
he's got three kids under seven, he married a lawyer wife,
he went to law school himself. He is forty years old.
He is trying to build the life for his own
family that he did not have personally because he had
an absent father. And I know there are a lot
of people out there listening to us right now that
have had broken homes. And when you have the opportunity
(46:28):
to create a family for yourself. You know better than
anybody what it feels like to not have a dad
or a mom in your life, and you want to
avoid ever creating that situation for your family. And I
think JD has tried to answer that. And that's the
ultimate irony of all of this buck is so many
of these left wingers, they talk left, but they live
(46:52):
right in their own lives. They get married, they have kids,
they stay married, they buy a home, they want to.
Speaker 2 (46:58):
Live in the best school.
Speaker 3 (46:59):
This ste I mean that the leaders of the Democrat
Party aren't a bunch of purple haired nos ring anarchists
what a chef. Yes, but it's so important because I
think it in the back of their mind when they
watch JD, they're torn because they actually want that in
their own life, but they have to pretend that they don't.
And I think there's a cognitive dissonance that registers with them.
(47:21):
And I think that that really worked for JD in
the way that he performed.
Speaker 2 (47:25):
He wasn't the boogeyman.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
He wasn't the big, bad, awful guy who's going to
drag women by their hair off the porch if they
get pregnant. In fact, He actually said he even understood
why women got abortions because he had one of his
friends from high school that didn't have a guy she
wanted to be with and felt like she was going
to be in some way dealing with that for the
rest of her life and it wouldn't allow her to
fulfill the ambitions that she had with her life, which
(47:46):
I actually thought was a strong moment, and again I
think it connected with some of those swing voters out there.
But I want to tell you right now, I love
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Trust me, right now. Tomorrow, buck, I'm gonna give everybody
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(48:09):
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Speaker 2 (48:33):
So you're going to be with me again?
Speaker 3 (48:34):
Oh dude, I'm rolling with after the big victory last week.
I'm riding this Clay train to Riches in Glory. Here
I see mister Derrick Henry is on the list for
this week possibly and I'm I have heard his name
for being very good. So I just want to say.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
That brand for almost two hundred yards. Buck, He's a beast,
and we're gonna have picks. By the way, maybe you
don't love the NFL Major League Baseball postseason underway out
of college football, You guys know I love all that.
Just get fifty bucks. I'm gonna give you a winner.
Buck's gonna ride with us. And if you hate me
and you think I'm a moron, you can fade me.
You can take the exact opposite. Maybe you win that way.
(49:11):
I know you couldn't hate me and think I'm a
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Speaker 8 (49:18):
You know him as Conservative Radio hosts now just get
to know them as guys on This Sunday Hang podcast
with Clay and Fuck. Find it in their podcast feed
on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Welcome back in Clay, Travis Buck Sexton Show. Reacting to
Tim Walls versus JD Vance and the big win for
JD Vans last night based on even CNN's polling. I
saw buck that had JD Vance winning when they never
buy and large ever have a Republican winning. The only
time I can remember it in the last decade or
so was when Trump knocked out Joe Biden, and Biden
(49:55):
was just so awful on June twenty seventh. Maybe Mitt
Romney first debate two thousand twelve, but they're rare where
they say, hey, look this guy won. I saw a
lot of the swing state voter polling undecided voters who
were watching were more impressed by JD Vance. Even the
Washington Post has a lead story up about that right
now where they try to have a focus group, and
(50:17):
obviously anytime you have any group of twenty or twenty
five people, it's a little bit arbitrary how they respond.
Speaker 2 (50:23):
You don't know the internal dynamics of the room.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
But everything that I saw has jd Vance doing better
than Tim Walls, which is why if Walls was selected
to try to appeal to people in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin,
it doesn't seem like that has really worked and that
jd Vance is having a strong pull there in those states.
(50:46):
By the way, we're supposed to be joined by Trey
yankst Fox News in this segment. You might imagine things
are a little bit chaotic in Israel right now, so
we may or may not officially get him on the
line here, but I did want to mention Buck one
story that has that has come down. We have Trey. Now,
Trey is with us. Trey Yanks, you got a brand
(51:07):
new book out. Appreciate you joining us here on Clay
and Buck, but I just want to start before we
get to the book. Yesterday, the attack of Iran on Israel.
I believe it is one hundred and eighty one missiles
I think is the final number. What was that experience
like for you and what are you hearing about what
happens now?
Speaker 9 (51:28):
Yeah, well, thank you guys for having me. It was
a surreal experience in many ways, you know, I've been
reporting on the ground here in the Middle East for
more than six years for Fox, and this is only
the second time that I've lived through a ballistic missile
attack here, and one other time when Iran launched a
ballistic missile attack and I was reporting in Baghdad. But
(51:48):
to see these missiles streaming to the skies of Israel
and some of them getting intercepted, others actually impacting the ground,
it was significant, and it was a major escalation as
we look at this story comes next because the Israelis
have said time and time again that they will respond
if an attack of this scale happened. So as it
was happening in real time, the first thing that I
(52:10):
was thinking was how is Isra are going to respond
to this? And initial reports indicate it will be a
heavy response.
Speaker 2 (52:17):
Trey, It'll be a heavy response.
Speaker 3 (52:20):
That's something that came up and last night in the
debate between Vance and Waltz, I mean, can you just
give us a sense as to how how is the
current sentiment right now in Israel about the support that
they have received or perhaps lack of support on some
areas when it comes to the Biden administration and what
(52:43):
their approach has been since October seventh.
Speaker 9 (52:45):
Particularly, it's interesting because you get a variety of responses,
and you know, we talk to everyone involved, from the
commandos who are currently in southern Lebanon to the soldiers
that were fighting over the past year in Gaza. Is
Defense Minister Joel Galand, and there is a common sentiment
among Israeli officials of frustration as it relates to the
(53:07):
relationship with the United States. They're thankful for some support
and frustrated with other support. And I'll just give you
one example. Back in the middle of the war between
Israel and Hamas and Gaza, remember that the Biden administration
slowed the weapon shipments to Israel. They were still allowing
certain ammunition and certain bombs to make their way to Israel,
but others were put on pause temporarily, and there was
(53:29):
frustration among the Israelis because those bombs weren't for Gaza.
They were to basically target Hasbela positions in the war
that we're watching unfold now. And so behind the scenes,
the relationship continues. It's very close, and their coordination is
also quite high. When you think about even the response
last night, as these ballistic missiles were streaming through the sky.
(53:51):
US Central Command was involved in shooting some of them down,
but publicly there can be some disagreements, and that's part
of the story that we cover here, mostly focused on
the day to day actions on the ground and what's
taking place amid the war now that's unfolding in the
northern part.
Speaker 2 (54:06):
Of the country.
Speaker 1 (54:07):
We're talking to Trey Yanks, chief foreign correspondent for Fox
on the Ground in Israel. The book that he has
Black Saturday and Unfiltered account of the October seventh attack
on Israel and the war in Gaza, was released yesterday. Trey,
what was your experience like on October seventh? Where were you,
(54:29):
How did you become aware of what was happening, and
what was that day like.
Speaker 2 (54:33):
For someone in Israel in your experience?
Speaker 9 (54:37):
So I got a call on October seventh at seven
oh three am in the morning from my producer and
she said, something's happening in the south. And normally when
something's happening in the south, it's a rocket attack. And
we knew that rockets were being fired not only in
southern Israel but also into central Israel, and so we
thought this was sort of the status quo of an
(54:57):
attack from Gaza launched by hamasro Islamic jih. Maybe there
was something that we missed, and this was the initial
thought process. Maybe there was a targeted assassination that the
Israelis took out a commander. Something didn't make sense. And
as we got closer to the Gods of Border to
start reporting in the location that we always report from,
we slowly started to piece together what was happening. And
(55:19):
when we stopped at one intersection and got out of
the car, we could hear gunfire in the distance, and
this was the first major sign that something was wrong,
something was different. And as we reported throughout the day,
that intersection turned into a triage point and we watched
soldiers and civilians wounded by gunfire he worked on in
front of us. Some died, others were taken to hospitals
(55:39):
in southern Israeli cities, and a war erupted between Israel
and Hamat that still continues today.
Speaker 3 (55:48):
Pray in the book, I know you get into some
of this, but you know we were heartbroken here. We
covered October seventh from thousands of miles away way, but
it was felt all too real and horrific. Just as
the details came in for all of us, including everyone
(56:08):
listening all over the country. What do you want people
to know about what happened that day? And I mean
there were some people who came out in the media
and elsewhere afterwards to say, well, some aspects of what
was initially claimed were unverified, or there was some exaggeration
(56:28):
or anything like that. I wanted you, as somebody who's
on the ground and has seen and been to these
places yourself, what is true and what is not about
the commentary that came out after October seventh.
Speaker 9 (56:44):
I think there are a lot of people who have
opinions about the war that's unfolding, and I'm not one
of those people. I carry very few opinions about this
conflict or others were focused on the facts on the ground,
and that's what you'll see when you read Black Saturday,
and it's also what you'll see when you watch Fox
and you see our reports live from the ground in
not only this war zone, but war zones around the world.
(57:06):
The morning of October seventh was quite confusing from an
information standpoint, and I was very careful with what we
were gathering and also very careful with what we were
putting out to the public understanding that this was such
a real, time breaking new situation that I needed to
be patient with a lot of the information. And that's
a critical point that I make in the book, and
it's something that I really believe in. It's patients and
(57:26):
information because I'd rather be right than first. And it
doesn't matter if it's covering the war between Israel and
Hamas and the times that we were entering the Gaza strip,
or if it's the war that's unfolding now between Israel
and Hezbolah. When people talk about this conflict, I think
there's another really important thing to remember, and this probably
(57:46):
gets more to the core of your question. October seventh
massacre was the largest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
That is an objective fact. The Israeli response against Gaza
has led to the highest death toll among Palestinian civilians
in the history of their people. These are two facts
that are true at the same time, and that's why
I encourage people to have empathy for those who are
(58:09):
affected by this war. Because there are millions of people
in the region. They have a variety of viewpoints, they
have a variety of opinions and they do a variety
of different actions, and so often when people talk about
the Middle East, or they talk about Israelis and Palestinians,
they want to very quickly put people into two camps.
But the reality is, and I talk about this in
Black Saturday, is that the people who live on the
ground here and experience this every day exists on a spectrum,
(58:32):
and I think the only information that you should trust
about what is happening as it relates to the war
in Gaza or the war that's taking place right now
between Israel and Hesbla, is information that properly covers all viewpoints,
that gives you a true understanding of the complexities and
the uncomfortable truths about war. Because war is not pretty,
(58:53):
it's complicated, it's complex. But at the end of the day,
we have to get to the bottom line facts because
if you don't, and we saw this throughout the past year,
it can lead to other consequences that have really serious implications,
not just for the region, but for the whole world.
Speaker 1 (59:08):
Trey, we talk a lot about post traumatic stress for
soldiers when they return from places where they've deployed based
on what they've seen. I'm curious for you and other
reporters and other individuals who are civilians who are outside
of combat roles. How do you process, contemplate and remain
able to do your job based on what you have seen?
Speaker 2 (59:31):
And how do you manage that? And what have you
found to work?
Speaker 1 (59:36):
And what would you say to maybe somebody out there
who is listening to us right now, and maybe they're
a kid and one day they think, Hey, I'd like
to be a journalist like Trey is what have you learned?
Speaker 7 (59:47):
Well?
Speaker 9 (59:48):
I tell my team something very often, and it's something
that I tell myself very often. It's actually the background
on my phone and it's stay focused on the mission.
And that's something that guides me remembering what my mission is,
and that is to provide fair, objective, and truthful journalism
to our audience and to my readers. But it's challenging
to cover a story like this. We witness death and
(01:00:08):
destruction in firsthand, and I think on a high level,
it's remembering to be empathetic and understanding of everyone involved
in the stories that we cover and try to get
to the core of why people do what they do.
And on a more simple level, it's seem horrific things
and then knowing that you need to process the aftermath
(01:00:29):
of that in a healthy way, not turning to drugs
and alcohol to deal with the thoughts that you have
and the memories that you have of these scenes not
only in southern Israel, but also in Gaza. And for me,
that's cold exposure, that's eating healthy, that's working out, that
is talking about mental health and not being afraid to
discuss it, because I think that's also a critical component
(01:00:51):
in all of this. And if you're listening and you're
someone who is afraid to talk about mental health, I'd
encourage you to speak to your friends, speak to your
loved ones, speak to a trained professional like a therapist.
You don't have to be afraid to talk about your mind.
And it doesn't make you less cool, it doesn't make
you any less afraid than we all are to be
here in this life and on earth. And for me,
(01:01:13):
I think that it has been an opportunity to be
able to talk about mental health because I think a
lot of people watch what we do and they see
us go into these battle zones and embedded with militaries
and on the front lines of conflict around the world,
and they say, Wow, that guy's he's cool. He's there,
he's on the front lines. He's seen it. And I
want to be a voice for people who are afraid
to speak out about mental health and say, look, I
(01:01:34):
talk about it. You can talk about it too, and
you can go a step further. Not only talk about it,
but you can think of healthy ways to handle your mind.
You can do the cold exposure, you can do the
working out, the running, and you can try to have
a healthy lifestyle so that you can create an environment
for yourself to flourish and be the best version of yourself.
Speaker 1 (01:01:53):
Trey yngra He is the chief foreign correspondent for Fox
on the Ground in Israel, the author of Black Saturday,
Unfiltered account of the October seventh attack on Israel in
the War on Got War in Gaza in bookstores now.
Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
We appreciate your time. Stay safe, Thank you guys.
Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Look, I want to tell you, speaking of what Trey
has seen in Israel, certainly there's still people who have
very vivid memories of what happened in this country. On
September eleventh, and last weekend was the annual Tunnel to
Towers five K Run and Walk in New York City.
Our producer Ali and her husband Gerard did it along
with tens of thousands of fellow patriots. The event retraces
(01:02:33):
firefighters Steven Siller's footsteps from the foot of the Battery
tunnel to the Twin Towers, where he raced on nine
to eleven to try to save lives and in the
process sacrificed his own. Steven's brother, Frank Siller, friend of
the show, started the five K, which pays homage to
the three hundred and forty three FDNY firefighters, law enforcement officers,
(01:02:54):
thousands of civilians who lost their lives that day. If
you're watching on the live stream, you'll see the video
that Ali shot, which we also shared on social media.
It was pouring rain that day, but it didn't stop
the nearly forty thousand participants from coming together and doing
the event. Proceeds support Tunnel to Towers programs, including those
(01:03:16):
benefiting first responders catastrophically injured service members. They have events
all year round. I'm gonna be up helping to raise
money at their golf outing in a couple of weeks.
You can go find an event near you at t
twot dot org, or you can donate and thank them
for the incredible work they're doing, just like both Buck
(01:03:36):
and I have done. You can donate eleven dollars a
month at t twot dot org. That's t the number
two t dot org.
Speaker 8 (01:03:45):
Play Travis and Buck Sexton telling it like it is.
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app, or wherever you
get your podcasts