August 7, 2025 • 60 mins
Make America Safe Again
violent crime in American cities, with Clay spotlighting disturbing incidents in Cincinnati and Memphis. He shares the story of Holly, a mother who was brutally attacked, and critiques the justice system’s failure to keep repeat offenders off the streets. Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno invited Holly to speak out about the crime. Clay praises Judge Jeanine Pirro and President Donald Trump for taking strong stances on law and order, including Trump’s proposal to federalize the D.C. police force and demand a new U.S. census to correct errors from 2020 and prepare for 2030.
The show also explores the political debate over crime statistics, contrasting claims of declining crime rates with real-life safety concerns. Clay argues for empowering police, holding judges accountable, and ensuring cities like Washington D.C. and Memphis become safe again for families.
American Dads are Failing
A deep dive into the rising violent crime in Washington, D.C., spotlighting President Donald Trump's efforts to restore law and order in the capital. Drawing on historical symbolism, Clay reflects on the importance of capital cities, referencing Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to completing the Capitol dome during the Civil War and the newly announced reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery.
The episode features a striking comparison of homicide rates in global capital cities, revealing Washington, D.C.’s alarming rate of 41 per 100,000—far higher than cities like Lima, Nairobi, and Mexico City. Clay argues that a safe and vibrant capital is essential to American exceptionalism and global leadership.
The crisis of fatherlessness in America. Clay explores how the absence of fathers in households correlates with youth violence, poverty, and societal breakdown. He responds to listener feedback, emphasizing that while individual cases vary, the data overwhelmingly shows that intact families—especially with present fathers—lead to better outcomes. The discussion includes racial disparities, with Clay citing historical data showing stronger black family units prior to the Great Society programs and questioning the long-term impact of government dependency.
Talking Left and Living Right
The decline of fatherhood in American homes. Clay and listeners explore how absent fathers—across racial and socioeconomic lines—correlate with rising violent crime, poverty, and social instability. The discussion includes listener emails and calls, including one from Ralph in Cincinnati, who shares his personal struggle for equal custody and critiques the family court system’s bias toward mothers. Clay argues for 50/50 parenting time and criticizes the financial incentives that perpetuate divorce litigation.
Clay promotes YouTube bonus content book reviews, including The Fate of the Day, a volume in the American Revolution trilogy, and thrillers by Mick Herron, Sue Grafton, and Robert Parker. Clay emphasizes the importance of reading and historical literacy for conservative audiences.
SC Sen. Tim Scott on Faith
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, author of One Nation Always Under God: Profiles in Christian Courage, and dives deep into the crisis of fatherlessness in America, the role of faith in family life, and the impact of government policy on household dynamics. Senator Scott joins the program to discuss his book and personal journey growing up in a single-parent household. He highlights the importance of faith, family, and male role models in shaping strong communities. Scott shares statistics on fatherless homes—over 70% among African-American boys and 40% among white working-class families—and calls for a cultural and spiritual revival to restore family values.
The hour also touches on President Trump’s call for a new census, which could shift congressional representation and electoral college influence toward red states. Clay explains how a corrected census could add seats in Florida and Texas while reducing representation in California and New York. In a lighter moment, Clay and Senator Scott discuss college football rivalries, with Scott predicting a strong season for the South Carolina Gamecocks. The conversation showcases Scott’s loyalty and enthusiasm for sports, adding a relatable and entertaining dimension to the hour.
Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome. In Thursday edition, Clay Travis buck Sexton Show appreciate
all of you hanging out with us. Buck is out
traveling with his family on a summer vacation. He will
be back on Monday with me I've got you today and
tomorrow solo. We have an absolutely locked in loaded program.
(00:22):
Senator Marsha Blackburn has announced that she is going to
be running for governor of Tennessee. She will be on
with us at the bottom of this hour. In the
second hour, big battle in North Carolina. Coming to replace
Tom tillis Michael Wattley, who ran the RNC did a
great job in twenty twenty four North Carolina native. He
(00:45):
is going to be the Republican nominee to run against
former Governor Roy Cooper of the state of North Carolina.
This is going to be an epic battle next year.
We will talk with Michael Wattley, who hopefully will be
the next Senator from North Carolina, and then two point
thirty we will speak with Tim Scott, who is the
(01:06):
current Senator from South Carolina, about all of the ongoing
shenanigans in Washington, DC and beyond. So there is the
roadmap of where we are going bottom of the hour,
We've got a bunch of guests, two senators and one
who hopes to be a senator, as well as one
who hopes to be a governor. All of that coming
your direction now. Within that construct, we have got a
(01:31):
lot of stuff going on right now that I want
to dive into. I think, in an incredibly consequential manner.
Trump has demanded that we have a new census. I'm
going to explain why that could be so incredibly consequential,
not only right now because there were a lot of
errors in the twenty twenty census and he believes they
(01:52):
need to be rectified, but also because in twenty thirty
they are going to be seismic differences in the overall
census tallies. And I think this is a battle that
you should be paying a lot of attention to because
it could be incredibly important not only for the midterms,
but also in the twenty twenty eight presidential race and
beyond that in the twenty thirty interplay as it pertains
(02:15):
to the census. But I wanted to start with what
I would say is a genuine acknowledgment that our cities
have become too violent, and it's time to actually put
bad guys behind jail, behind bars in jail. And we
are getting these questions and these viral stories from all
(02:36):
over the country, but I wanted to start with one
that we talked with Bernie Marino about a violent attack
on an innocent woman, Holly who Bernie Marino came on
with us last week and talked all about it. She
has now had a public appearance. Many of you saw
(02:56):
her awfully bruised and battered face, and she now has
spoken out about what happened to her. She appeared with
our friend Senator Bernie Marino of Ohio Cut eleven. This
is what it sounded like.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We need more police officers, but like he said, you
know the judges who are just letting people out with
a slab. The man who attacked me and might have
permanently damaged me forever should never have been on the
streets ever. And the fact that he had just gotten
out of jail previously for something he should have been
(03:32):
in there for years. It's really sad to me because
I can't even fathom how many other people who have
been attacked by the same type of man over and
over and over in Toledo, in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton. Our
streets are being taken over and nobody is doing anything.
I am so sad and I need to be the
(03:56):
voice to help all of the victims that never got
their justice.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well said, Well said by her again. If you heard
Bernie Marino tell her story. She is a mom of
a young special needs child. She went out on a
date in Cincinnati and she got knocked out. She got
in an uber after she got knocked out. Think about
(04:23):
that for a minute. It's an innocent mom. Could have
been any mom in America out for a night out
in a big city Cincinnati. She got slug knocked out
on video. Police came, they didn't do anything, and she
got in an uber and drove home. How does this happen?
(04:47):
And I know that a lot of you out there
are cops and you're listening to me all over the country,
and you are just noding your head because you're saying,
we arrest these bad guys. This guy got out for
a four hundred dollars bail rested. All the time. It's
the same dudes, almost always dudes, same bad guys, time
after time after time. What in the world is going
(05:12):
on here? And I think they're finally we're at a
tipping point, and we finally got a president and we
got enough senators and governors who are standing up and
saying no, We're not going to let this happen. Yesterday
I was talking with you about Look. I love Washington, DC.
I went to college there. I'm a history nerd. It
(05:32):
is a beautiful city. There's way too much crime there.
And what you hear people say is, oh, crime's coming down, Yeah,
from all time highs. How about we actually address the
fact that any significant rate of violent crime is unacceptable
in this country. How about we have a real conversation
(05:55):
about that. And I give credit to Janeine Piro. I'm
going to play some of these audio clips, new DC attorney,
formerly at Fox News, and I give credit to President
Trump for raising this as an issue. Here is Judge
Janine Piro cut two saying, Hey, I'm in charge now,
and this is not going to be acceptable.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Violence against anyone in this district will not be tolerated,
especially violence which has hate at its core and is
the genesis of violence. The President put me here to
do a job to clean up the district, to make
sure that crime doesn't overshadow this phenomenal city, our nation's capital,
(06:39):
and I have, throughout my career fought anti semitism for
thirty two years as a prosecutor and a judge. I
do so. I fight hate crimes with a vengeance. So
don't even think about targeting people in this district because
of who they are or because of where they're from.
I promise you justice will be swift and it will
(07:00):
be certain.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I love her. Let's get Ali. Let's get a request
in for Judge Piro. I think we've had her on
the program in the past, and certainly we overlap quite
a lot at Fox News, so I know her from
the green room at Fox News, and I think it's important. Okay,
you might be sitting around out there and you might
be saying, hey, okay, what's the counter argument to this?
(07:24):
Trump said in fact cut three, Hey, maybe we just
need to take over the DC police force and actually
make something happen.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Here.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Here's cut three.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
I'malized in DC.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Are you considering taking over the DC police is at
an option on the police?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
We're considering it, Yeah, because the crime is ridiculous. I
could show you a chart comparing DC to other locations
and you're not going to want to see what it
looks like. It was just up on television actually that
was showing it.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Now.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
We want to have a great safe capital, and we're
going to have it, and that includes cleanliness and includes
other things. We have a capital that's very unsafe.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you want hires to look at overturning the DC
home will lot.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
We're going to look at that. In fact, they or
the lawyers are already studying it. We have to run DC.
This has to be the best run place in the country,
not the worst run place in the country.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I mean, he's right on all of this, and I
give him credit for coming in and trying to solve
this problem instead of just kind of hiding behind the
security detail as many presidents have done in the past.
They don't actually solve the issues when it comes to violence.
And what the president's referring to is I ran through
this yesterday. I think maybe it was a day before yesterday.
(08:42):
We have one of the highest violent crime rates of
any capital city in the world. Most people, and I
ran through countries. I mean Ethiopia, a DC Baba, which
I'm probably mispronouncing, has a lower rate of violent crime
in its capital city than the United States does. Why
does that happen? Most people, most countries consider their capital
(09:06):
to be a jewel that should represent the best of
their country and not be a place that is filled
with violent crime. And so the rest of the country
may not be as safe and that's unfortunate. But they say, Hey,
the capital city is going to be safe. We're going
to put the resources in to ensure that this isn't happening.
(09:27):
And I give a lot of credit to Trump and
Judge Janine Piro for shining a light on this. And
what's the counter argument? This is really funny to me
because Trump is basically saying, hey, rates of violent crime
are way too high, and I want to do whatever
it takes to get those rates of violent crime down.
DC is far higher than a city like New York City,
(09:49):
for instance, when it comes to rates of violent crime.
New York City is far safer than Washington, DC. What's
the response, Okay, it seems like a good thing, something
that you could be in favor of, no matter what
your politics are. Well. Jessica tar Law, who's also at
Fox News, in fact, used to sit next to Judge
Dennen Piro on the five, a show that many of
(10:10):
you would watch on a regular basis. She says, actually,
crime's down. What are we worried about in DC? Here's
cut four?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
What are democrats thinking when it comes to the nationalization
of GC?
Speaker 5 (10:23):
They're thinking hard, No, why not? Because there's no reason
to have Donald Trump be in charge of.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Trump is about crime?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Well, it actually is about crime, and the good news
is that crime is down dramatically.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So year over.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Year, twenty twenty four had a violent crime drop to
a thirty year low thirty five percent down, and carjackings
cut in half. Robbery's down twenty four percent, homicides down
seventeen percent, assault with a dangerous weapon down fourteen percent.
Just because Big Balls did a terrible job at Doze
does not mean that he deserved this. Any incident is terrible,
But we have.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
To followers to jack. Okay, So how do you argue
against this? How do you argue against a very basic
fact that should be supported by everyone. We need violent
crime rates way down. Moms all over this country need
(11:20):
to be able to go out to dinner in a
city without worrying that they're going to get knocked flat
out on the street by a mob. Of violent thugs
that accost them. I've said for a long time that
one of the ways to know whether your neighborhood is
safe or not is are you okay with your wife,
(11:42):
your girlfriend, your daughter going for a jog around six
o'clock pm in the afternoon evening in your neighborhood. Far
too many American cities and neighborhoods, the answer is no.
And I know there's a ton of you listen to
me right now that if you see your wife getting
your tennis shoes, you're like, hey, I hope you're going
(12:04):
to the gym, because it's a little bit late, might
start to get dark. I don't feel comfortable with you
out on the streets. You've got a daughter, you've got
a granddaughter trying to stay in shape. How many different
parts of America do we not feel comfortable with women
going for jogs or walks or workouts in the neighborhood
because we've just come to accept that violent crime is
(12:27):
a real threat and we don't even want the women
in our lives to be out. Now, some men probably
like me, you don't worry about it that much, But
every woman thinks about it all the time. And that
mom Holly in Cincinnati getting knocked out. I'm sorry. It's unacceptable.
And what's further unacceptable is when we point out this violence,
(12:51):
young intern gets killed randomly in the streets of Washington, DC,
and people say, Okay, well, but you know, in real life,
the rate of violent crime is actually declining. Okay, let's
decline it faster. That's what Trump's saying. And I think
Trump deserves credit, by the way, for the rates of
violent crime beginning to decline in twenty twenty five, fairly significantly,
(13:13):
because I think a lot of you out there nodding
right now. Police officers, you can finally do your jobs again.
You can put some bad guys behind bars. But here
in my home state, Memphis, I talked about this the
other day. I was out in March. I'll tell you
the story a little bit more when we come back,
but because we're going to talk with Senator Blackburn, who
(13:33):
wants to run for governor, I took my son. He
had a sporting event in Memphis. I know a lot
of y'all are listening in Memphis right now. I forgot
my charger and it was March was a night Tennessee
and Kentucky played a basketball game. Needed to charge my
phone and I went downstairs. Maybe they had a charger there,
And I said, well, I'll just go to the grocery store.
And the lady at the counter said, uh, hey, be careful.
(13:58):
It's eight point thirty at night. It's not like it
was two thirty in the morning. She said to me,
be careful. If you're going out to buy a charger
after dark, what are we talking about that going to
a grocery store or a convenience store or a gas
station after dark in a city like Memphis at eight o'clock,
(14:20):
we're not talking about three am. That the front desk
ladies are like, hey, be careful. Buck talked about this.
He went to Saint Louis. He was like, hey, is
there anywhere to walk to go get something to eat?
And they're like, well, you can't walk anywhere. What are
we talking about that? This is just considered to be
a normal part of discourse. This is something that is significant.
(14:41):
Let's let cops do the job. Let's put bad guys
behind bars. Let's make everyone women in particular safe in
every big city in America. That seems like a very
reasonable goal. And I think it's an important conversation that
we need to be having. Speaking of being safe right now,
the IFCJ is doing a lot of work to try
to make people in Israel safe because there are missiles
that might come flying in at any moment. I saw
(15:03):
it for myself on my trip to Israel with a
couple of the crew on this show. You never know
when you're gonna get an alert on your phone and
you're gonna have to run to a bomb shelter, and
when that happens, you want to make sure that you're
close to one and that you're safe. And that's what
the IFCJ does. You can go online check out the
work they do. It's phenomenal at IFCJ dot org. That's
(15:25):
IFCJ dot org. You can also give them a call
find out how you can help everyone be safe from
missile attack in Israel. Eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ.
That's eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. Check them
out online at IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Making America Great Again isn't just one man, it's many.
The Team forty seven podcast Sunday's at noon Eastern in
the Clay and Fuck podcast feed. Find it on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We just
got through talking with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Michael
Wattley will be with us at the bottom of the hour.
He is going to be running for Senate in North
Carolina to try to replace Tom Tillis. Senator Tim Scott
will be with us in the third hour. It's just me,
you and all of us having a good time here
(16:18):
on the rest of today and tomorrow as we are
rolling through so many different stories that are out there.
And we went to break first hour, we talked about
the out of control violence and how President Trump is
trying to get Washington.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
D C.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Back to some form of safety, and I mentioned looking
at capital cities as a proxy for the excellence of
a nation at large. If you're a history nerd like
i am, Washington d C. Was a planned capital city.
And one of the things that's really amazing when you
(16:58):
walk around Washington, d C. Is they designed so many
of these massive roads, and when they designed it, there
was almost nothing there. And if you read the history
of say Washington, d C. From the eighteenth from the
nineteenth century and even the early parts of the nineteen hundreds,
(17:23):
people would talk about how the city was designed for
a country to be the greatest in the history of
the world, but it wasn't there yet, and so as
a result, it was just these massive, massive roads planned
city with almost nothing on either side. And I always love,
(17:46):
if you study history, the metaphor of the Capital Dome.
During the Civil War, Lincoln insisted that the construction of
the Capitol Dome contained in you. And if you look
at old photos in the eighteen sixties of Washington, DC,
you can see them working on that majestic Capital Dome.
(18:10):
And it was very expensive and it required a great
deal of steel. And some people criticized Lincoln, but his
explanation was, the nation is still being built and preserved.
I'm not going to stop work on the nation's capital
because this is an important symbol of what this nation
(18:33):
represents and eventually of the nation coming together and healing anew.
And it's such a profound idea. And I give credit.
I don't know how many of you saw this. Senator sorry,
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseith. They just announced that they're
(18:54):
going to bring back a reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery
that was created by a Confederate veteran, and the idea
is to bring the nation together again and sort of
bind the wounds of the nation. And I think one
of the greatest speech Ha's ever given in the history
(19:17):
of the United States was Lincoln's second Inaugural Address and
the nation as a whole being brought together even with
his killing in Ford's Theater. If you visit d C today,
you'll come across the bridge that connects Virginia and Washington,
d C. And a lot of people don't talk about
(19:38):
it now, but at the time that bridge was created,
it was seen as a symbolic union of North and South,
in particular Robert E. Lee's Arlington, which is on the
bluff overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, d C. You
can stand on the portrait of Arlington or on the
(19:59):
steps on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial and see
those two places. So you have the leader of the
Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, looking directly at Lincoln's memorial,
and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting in some way Arlington as well,
and that union of the bridge, bringing the two sides
(20:22):
of the country back together again was seen at the
time that it was made as a profoundly symbolic statement.
And I think President Trump gets symbol and he understands
that things are more important than maybe what they appear
to be, and that is what symbol is, right, And
(20:45):
so people get mad when he says, well, I want
Alcatraz to exist as a prison. He sees that as
a symbol for a message that he wants to have
out there, Alligator Alcatraz. He grips the public imagination. And
I think what President Trump sees with Washington d C.
Is we can't say that we are a fabulous, undisputed
(21:11):
champion of the global economy and world if kids are
getting mowed down in the streets of Washington d C.
Every day. Our capital city needs to be a jewel.
It needs to be the best of what America can represent,
particularly Washington, d C, which I said historically has existed
(21:35):
for that reason throughout time. They took that location as
opposed to Philadelphia, which had been a capital, as opposed
to New York City, to create something new as a
symbol for a country that was going to be a
global beacon of freedom and opportunity. And how can you
(21:57):
allow violent crime to take it over and not see
that as a direct attack upon American exceptionalism itself. And
think about this. I mentioned this earlier and before, but
capital homicide rates, this is most recent homicide rates forty
one per one hundred thousand Washington, d C. That's a
(22:20):
huge number, forty one per one hundred thousand. Listen to
some of these other capital cities. These other countries don't
stand for that, I think because their leaders understand the
symbolic importance of having a safe and secure and vibrant
and objectively beautiful capital city. Lima, Peru. I don't think
(22:43):
most of you out there say you know what country,
But let me just give you a bunch of these
different countries. Lima, Peru, Havana, Cuba, Nairobi, Kenya. I think
am I right about that? By the way, this is
going to expose my own lack of geographical knowledge. Brazilia, Brazil.
I believe Brazilia, Brazil is also a planned capital. Lagos, Nigeria, Bogota, Colombia.
(23:12):
I think I'm going to pass the test here. Mexico City, Mexico,
Adsa Bobbi a Baba, Ethiopia, Okay, those are other big
capital cities. DC forty one murders per one hundred thousand, Lima,
Peru seven per one hundred thousand, Havana, Cuba four per
(23:34):
one hundred thousand, Nairobi, Kenya five per one hundred thousand. Brazilia.
People talk about how violent and dangerous Brazil is all
the time. Brazilia thirteen per one hundred thousand, Lagos, Nigeria
fifteen per one hundred thousand, Bogota, Colombia eleven per one
(23:56):
hundred thousand, Mexico City eight per one hundred thousand, Adisa Baba,
Ethiopia six per one hundred thousand. It should be a
dark stain on America that our capital city of Washington,
D C. Has five times the murder rate of Mexico's
(24:19):
capital city. What are we doing? That's a national embarrassment. Ethiopia, Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya, Cuba, Peru,
all of them infinitely safer in their capital cities than
(24:40):
you and me and everybody is going around in Washington,
D C. That is a national embarrassment. Now, we just
finished the hour. We had an emailer who said, hey,
maybe we have to go after parents for some of
this violent crime, and I said, I'm a little bit.
I accept it on some level, but I don't accept
it on an other level because I think what you
(25:02):
would see is that many of the kids that are
engaging in violent behavior are actually not living at home.
Grandma and grandpa might be raising them, aunts, uncles, foster parents.
I think, really, when you look at violent crime, what
you see almost overwhelmingly is the absence of father figures
(25:24):
in the household. This is really the root cause. If
you have a dad and a mom in your house,
the odds of you engaging in violent behavior plummet by
a massive amount. Most kids still have moms dads are failing.
(25:48):
So my concern here is you got a sixteen year
old who takes a gun out and shoot somebody, and
then you decide to prosecute mom, who is the only
one that was trying to raise that kid, and dad,
who hasn't shown up for sixteen years, may not even
be on the birth certificate, he doesn't have any consequences
(26:11):
at all. Well, it's him that made it happen. So
my concern when Bo writes in it, and I think it's
an interesting comment, is that what would end up happening
is the moms and the grandma's and the aunts and
all the women who are very often doing their darnedest
to try to raise that kid who's got an absent dad,
(26:33):
and may have an absent grandpa too, because a lot
of what you find out is when dad's not there,
it's often the case that grandpa wasn't there, and unfortunately
that great grandpa wasn't there either, because it's hard to
break that cycle. And some of you out there listening
know what I'm talking about, because you're trying to break
the cycle. You're the dad that's present. You know what
(26:56):
it was like to not have a dad better than anybody.
Concern is when you say, well, let's prosecute the parents,
you got poor mom who's working three jobs and doing
her darnness to take care of a kid that dad
had no interest in. And dad doesn't have any culpability
at all, even though he's actually the cause. So I
(27:19):
think if you go back up the chain of causation,
oftentimes gun violence and violent teenagers actually started when dad
didn't show up at the birth at the hospital. And
dad hasn't been around for sixteen years or seventeen years
to that point. In many ways, these are young men
(27:42):
who have not been raised to be men, and they
are angry at the world and they take out their
anger on the world, and all that anger starts because
dad's not home. So when I think through holding mom accountable,
Mom's doing her best to raise that kid by herself,
and she's got three jobs, and the kid, as a result,
(28:05):
doesn't have somebody at home whipping him into shape like
a dad hopefully would, and he falls in with the
wrong guys in the neighborhood and next thing you know,
he's dealing drugs or he's trying to carjack and Mom's
out there trying to do her best, and then you
come home and you charge her with a crime, and
then she may have two younger kids that she's also
trying to raise, and how does that benefit society? So
(28:28):
that's when I work through it. I like to go
to what caused the problem, not to just what's connected
to the problem. And to me, what caused the problem
is Dad's not there. And I think the number this
is my big you know, get on a preacher box argument.
I think the number one issue that unites much of
(28:51):
what is going on in the country today of a
negative level. Is Dad's not there?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It connects on everything. Families not having enough money to
feed the kids, Dad's not there, Families that are dealing
with incredible violence, Dad's not there. If you go to
the lint. This is my personal opinion. If I could
change one thing, every kid that's born has a dad
at home, I think our national rates of violence would
(29:19):
drop by ninety percent. I think poverty would drop by
ninety percent. I think if dad is home, the overall
collapse of much of what we see going wrong in
American society, it doesn't exist. So my concern responding to
BO is you're actually going to hold accountable the mom,
(29:41):
the grandma, the aunt, the foster family that's trying to
take it, to take this responsibility of dad that he
didn't fulfill, and then they get blamed because everything doesn't
go perfect. That's my concern, and that's why I get
a little bit nervous about holding parents responsible criminally, because
(30:02):
so many people are doing everything they can to help
to try to fill the void that is there because
dad's not home. That's it, right, you go look at
rates of crime, it collapses in every household where dad
is they are raising a sun And by the way,
it's almost all boys. And the data actually reflects meaning
(30:24):
committing the crimes. The data actually reflects that young girls
have far less negative consequences from an absent male figure
in a household than young boys do. Moms do their best.
They can't be dad and mom. I think young girls
see mom and that's an aspirational figure for them. And
it's still better for young girls if dad is home.
(30:46):
But what the data shows is boy's outcomes collapse when
dad's not home. That's the reality. That's a tough conversation.
That's a real conversation that we should be having, but
too many people are afraid to talk about it. Look,
years ago, new legislation created opportunity for four oh one
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Speaker 8 (32:41):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Right before the show started, to thank you for taking
us over one hundred thousand subscribers on the Clay and
Buck YouTube channel, I did a book review segment that
is only going to be up on YouTube, and I'll
give you a little bit of a preview of that.
(33:15):
So many of you are interested in good American history,
good books to read, so I gave two book reviews
and I'm just going to mention them here. You guys
know I love reading about a history, American history in particular.
I am reading The Fate of the Day, which is
volume two of the American Revolution trilogy. I'm holding it
(33:39):
up just so you can see the cover. It's incredible.
I'm about halfway through it. If you want to hear
me talk about it more, you can go to the
YouTube channel. That video will be up. I'm going to
try to do fun things there that are not airing
on the radio program. I also told Ja, hey, if
you're a mystery thriller kind of person, which I am.
(34:02):
I usually have a non fiction book going at the
same time as a fiction book, and I read whichever
I'm in the mood for. I mentioned this on the
show before, but I just finished Mickhron, who is a
London based thriller spy espionage writer. Eight of them the
Slow Horses television version. Maybe some of you have seen
(34:26):
this on Apple TV. I am told it is really good.
I have never watched it, but I can tell you
these books are great. They're eight of them. I love mysteries, thrillers.
I grew up reading initially The Hardy Boys and then
it led into Sue Grafton and Robert Parker and James
Lee Burke. And so anyway, if you are a thriller reader,
(34:50):
Patricia Cornwell you name you guys know all of these
Alex Cross series, all of these you know, I gave
you good reviews for those, and we're going to to
do some fun things on YouTube so you will be
able to dive in there. Okay, we got people who
want to react, and for those of you who want
to get your popcorn out. We led into a discussion
(35:12):
about how almost all issues in America today. In my opinion,
if you had to go to one root cause, absent fathers, White, Black, Asian,
Hispanic absent fathers I think lead to violent crime. And
this actually wasn't planned, but it came out of a
email that bo, one of our VIP readers, wrote in saying, Hey,
(35:32):
if we really want to go after violent crime rates,
let's prosecute parents more often. And I said, my concern
there is that actually dads are absent, and you would
end up going after mom or grandma or maybe even
grandpa who were trying to fill in for the absent dad,
and the person who's the most responsible for everything that
is going on will not be held accountable. And so
(35:54):
that was my concern. And let me hit you with
this because I mentioned that I was going to discuss
it earlier, right before I take your calls. President Trump
has demanded that there be a new census done. And
I've talked about this a lot on the program. Maybe
we'll dive into this a bit more tomorrow, but basically,
Red states would be on tap to add ten House
(36:17):
seats if the census had been done correctly, and Republicans
would add ten, Democrats would lose ten, Florida would add
four seats, Texas would add four seats, California would lose three.
New York would lose two overall, and that's going to
play in big in the electoral college by the time
(36:38):
we get to twenty thirty two. But they screwed up
twenty twenty, so they really should redo the census. And
that is what President Trump has called for. And we
will dive into some of that tomorrow. But again, go
subscribe to the YouTube. You can check out all original
content that is going up there. Vipe Eric black dad
(37:02):
out there. Let me start with this. I was fortunate
to have my dad in the home as a kid,
and my kids have the same good fortune. You are
spot on about LBGT, LBJ and the great society. The
government dictates on the programs essentially force dads out in
order to access the so called benefits. Never have a
(37:22):
people paid such a high price for a block of cheese.
Larry Elder, Deroy Murdoch, and Jason Riley have written and
spoken extensively on this subject. They challenge the black people
out there who've been brainwashed by the liberal culture to
wake up, grow up, and man up. It's good email
from Eric, and I appreciate it. I'm glad he's being
a good dad. Look, it's easy to try to racialize this,
(37:44):
and I try to avoid doing that. I got an email,
and I'll read the email. I'm not going to tell
you who wrote it because I'm not going to put
him on not going to put him on blast. But
he said, he said, why are you not talking about
the fact that this is a huge problem for black
men and nobody will talk about it for black men
(38:06):
and black families. And you're being a coward because you're
not focusing enough on race as it pertains to this issue.
And I'm looking at that email from him right now.
I don't think that's helpful. Honestly, it wouldn't make me
feel better as a white dad. If the white crime
rate was zero and the black crime rate was one hundred,
(38:30):
I wouldn't take lee in that. I wouldn't take enjoyment
in that. If the Hispanic crime rate was zero and
the white crime rate was one hundred, I wouldn't be like, man,
that's great, go Hispanic people, white people, Man, you're the problem.
I don't think you racialize a problem. I think you
(38:50):
actually then divide people what I would argue is kids
without dads is a huge American issue, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic. Now,
I do think that there is a socioeconomic component to this.
In this larger context, I think the government tried to
(39:11):
replace poor dads with the government. And there's a line,
and I think there's some truth to it. You can
racialize the line, but the way I would put it is,
when rich people get a cold, poor people get pneumonia.
If you're black, you probably heard before when white people
get a cold, black people get pneumonia. It is true
(39:34):
when rich people have small problems, poor people get big problems.
And so I think you have to be careful when
you put government policies in place. This is to me
the essence of Democrat politics. They sit around from their
gated mansions and they think, oh my goodness. You know
(39:57):
the real problem with crime in America is the police.
We should take them away. This is Zora and Mundami, right,
all the people with money, they've got protection. Mamdani goes
down to Uganda. He's got a security detail following him everywhere.
(40:18):
He's not worried about crime happening to him because he's
rich enough to have his own security. You ever notice
that none of those politicians who called to defund the
police ever gave up their own personal security details. Well,
wait a minute. If you think all of us should
(40:39):
give up police, how come you need him. That's a
really good question, isn't it. So many people in America
they talk left and they live right. All those media
that right at the New York Times. They're married, raising
(40:59):
their kids. Their kids oftentimes go to private schools, they
live in gated communities. Everybody lecturing you on MSNBC nuclear families.
They want a mom at home, they want a dad
at home. They want to have security for their kids,
they want private school choice for their kids. Why do
(41:20):
they lecture you from a left perspective and then live
like the most conservative person on the planet in their
own life. Because the best way to raise a family
is a nuclear family, mom, dad, both at home with kids.
This is what the data says. They all know it,
they want it for their own families. But if you
(41:42):
try to say, hey, we should do this more, Hey
maybe we should put policies in place that actually make
dads more likely to be at home. As soon as
you raise that issue, oh suddenly they don't want to
have that conversation. So a lot of you want a
wagh in. Let me hit some of these calls. I
appreciate that VIP email and let's see here. Who should
(42:03):
we go to? First? Guys is Ralph and Cincinnati? Ralph?
What you got for us?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Hey?
Speaker 9 (42:09):
Brother? How are you?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Man?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 9 (42:13):
So I think we're looking beyond the obvious. And it's
not a black, a white thing, Hispanic, Asian, or even
a money thing. Because there's a lot of very wealthy
people who've divorced and the mother automatically gets the kids,
and then we hear the stories about their kids driving
very expensive cars and killing their friends. So let's just
(42:34):
avoid the monetary things. I'm gonna ask you a question.
Even you're a lawyer and you have a lot of
colleagues that went into family law, I think the perpetuation
of divorce lines their pockets. The thing is, I'm dealing
with it myself. I want fifty to fifty time with
my kid. I don't want more than fifty to fifty.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
That would be unfair.
Speaker 9 (42:53):
Automatically, the mothers always get custody regardless.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
So if we're going to talk about.
Speaker 9 (43:01):
All the homes, we need to dig deeper. Some of
us fathers want to be involved. Some of us fathers
want to take care of our boys. We're not allowed to.
So in Ohio twice the Senators of the Republic of
the Congress whoever pitched this concept, and both times it
(43:24):
was the Ohio Bar Association that shot it down. Why
because that's their income. How many of your colleagues went
directly to family practice. Some of them were criminals, but
then they went through their divorce and saw him which
they paid an attorney and said, well, I got to
get my money back. So I just want to give
a shout out to dad's out there that want to
(43:45):
be in their kids' wives. Don't give up. Keep fighting.
There's a huge movement happening right now. It's kind of
underground even in Britain. This is a global thing. There's
a movement called Parents against People Against Prance or Alienation.
They're a young man in the United States who started
a website called TUF the Unmarried Father. Those guys suffer
(44:07):
the worst. Are there guys out there that don't want
to be in the family? Sure?
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Were they baby trapped?
Speaker 9 (44:13):
Maybe did they hook up one night and get a
girl pregnant. Maybe we don't know, but there's a lot
more of us out there that want to be in
our kids lives, but we're already labeled deadbeats just because
we're not in the house.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Thank you for the call. No, it's a great call. Look,
I don't This is why, in general, I think any
dad that is fighting to be involved in his kid's
life should be involved in his kid's life right his
or her kid's life. And I think that there are
tons of things in the divorce universe that we have
(44:51):
created that incentivizes divorce and often alienates parents in both directions.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I think there is a religious component to this. I
mentioned that the great society happens. I think also a
decline in religion has led to less men as heads
of households and less men who are expecting to take
on the responsibility. But I think in a divorce context,
(45:21):
in an ideal situation, kids would get fifty percent of
time with their dad in fifty percent of times with
their mom. General rule. Okay, Now, I don't want to
dive into everybody's individual divorce story, but I do think
that one of the constant let me just say this
as a lawyer. One of the consequences of no fault divorce, right,
(45:44):
which is this idea of hey, there's nobody at fault,
we just don't want to be married anymore, is that
sometimes fault matters.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
We typically don't have no fault car accidents, right, Just
think about it. Most people don't want to get into
a car accident. But if you had a cheap car
and you could just run into a Jaguar and you
got rewarded because you intentionally caused some sort of an issue,
(46:16):
the courts would look at you a scance. They would say, well,
you're more responsible for this. And that's the whole point
of like traffic law, right, Hey who did the When
you say nobody's at fault? A part of me is
of the opinion that fault does matter. It's very rare
(46:36):
that fifty percent male fifty percent female is the reason
for the divorce. And I'm talking about the financial side,
not so much the child and the parenting side. But
I do think there should be substantial family court processes
that would actually go to making things better. I'll take
some more of your calls when I come back, but
I do have empathy and sympathy for dads out there
(46:59):
that are trying to be involved in their kids' lives
that feel like the entire apparatus of the court system
is slanted in favor of the moms and they can't
actually do anything to help raise their kids. That is
very frustrating, and I have a great deal of empathy
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Speaker 7 (48:04):
And politics, but also a little comic relief.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Clay Travis at buck Sexton.
Speaker 8 (48:10):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Walk back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Join now
by Senator Tim Scott. He's got a new book, One Nation,
Always under God, profiles in Christian courage and Senator I
appreciate you coming on with me. I believe that part
of the motivation for this book, according to my team,
(48:36):
was you seeing Harrison Butker, who is a field goal
kicker for the Kansas City Chief speaking out about faith
and his family relationships. Why did that strike you to
such a degree, and then did that help to motivate
you to write this book?
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Yes, certainly, I see the attack on Christianity in our
country all over the place, and certainly his story got
so much press. I just kept thinking to myself, why
is it okay to attack the very foundation of the
greatest nation on earth and what we were founded upon?
And I find it to be just utterly ridiculous. Clay
(49:14):
On the attacks that Christianity has to endure, and I
wanted to do something that highlighted and celebrated strong profiles
and Christian courage. Why our country is the greatest country
on the planet, it's because of men and women who
responded to a call in their heart to make something
and someone better outside of themselves. And I'm so thankful
(49:37):
that we have professional athletes rare these days, who take
a strong stand for faith, not just at the microphone
after a game, but literally giving a speech that they
wanted to literally take tiny pieces out of that speech
and find a way to make fun of him and
condemn his faith. Utterly ridiculous to me.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I don't know if you've heard any of the program.
Probably not, you kind of a busy guy, but we've
ended up talking quite a lot today about the decline
of fathers, and I think it in the family household,
and I think it ties in with the book that
you were writing, because one reason that might be happening
is an absence of religion, and a lot of young
men are honestly going back to church. Now. I don't
think you're a dad yet, but I've got three boys.
(50:20):
I think all the time about how to raise them
to be strong, good parents. Why do you think we're
struggling to such an extent with young men and how
do we get black, White, Asian Hispanic dads back in
the family raising strong young men.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
Well, Clay, I think one of the reasons why President
Trump has endorsed the book One Nation Always under God
is because I focus really on that subject matter by
telling my own story of growing up in a single
parent household. And what you just said, Clay, is so important.
It was so casual when you said it, but it
was powerful in my ears. One of the scriptures I'm
really excited about is Proverbs twenty seven seventeen that says
(50:58):
iron sharpens irons, one man sharpens the other. The best
way to do that, Clay, is to have a father
in the household. You just said very casually that you
are there for your three sons. Seventy two to seventy
four percent the numbers escape me of African American boys
do not have their father in the household. Forty percent
(51:20):
of white working class families don't have a father in
the household. That does not tell about the future we
want in this nation. And so you covering fatherhood and
the importance of a male role model in the house
is undeniably the most important thing we can do to
get this nation back on tracks except for faith. Faith
(51:41):
is the foundation family, the most powerful single unit in
the nation. Upon those two, you build an objective standard,
you apply it fairly to everyone. You get a flourishing
country called America. Without that very important building blog called
a family. We as a nation, we don't work, and
(52:01):
we don't work without a faith filled foundation on which
all things stand. So I can spend as much time
as you want to on the importance that a father
plays in the household. I just became a honustat Clay
just a year ago, of three kids that I've inherited
by getting married, and I gotta tell you it changes
(52:25):
your focus to the future. It reminds you of the
importance of a value system, and it underscores why one
nation always under God and these profiles and Christian courage
is something that has as much to do about the
future as it illuminates the past.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
One of the things that we talked about is pre
you think about things only getting better in the country, right,
that's the goal. We want everybody's generation to be better
than it was before. But you and I, if we
went back to nineteen fifty you just ran through some
of those statistics, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic. I know there
been fewer Asian and Hispanic households, but certainly a lot
(53:03):
of white and black households. Dad would have been home
right nineteen fifties America, dad was home raising his kids.
In general, I know there were exceptions. There's people out
there listening. You yourself just said you didn't have a
father in the household. This has been an issue that's
gone on for a long time. How do you think
we change it?
Speaker 4 (53:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's one thing if we were getting a little bit
better every year, But this is one of those things
where you look back and you say, boy, you know what,
seventy years ago, kids growing up in America were more
likely to have a dad in the household. What could
we do? What should we do? I don't even see
this as remotely political, because I think every kid is
way better off with a dad in the household. What
(53:40):
should we be doing to encourage that?
Speaker 7 (53:44):
Well?
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Number one, we need to remind men of their responsibility
and not in fathering a child, but by raising that child.
It's such an important part of it. You know, if
you think about what a father provides for me. The
lack of a father made me very disillusioned about who
I would be growing up, what I could become. Someone
to teach me how to drive, how to shave. That
(54:06):
person was absent, and it makes everything more difficult. I'm
thankful that I became a Christian at a very young
age and I found the father figure needed in understanding
my heavenly Father. And as a result, I could go
to Ephesians two and read about certain attributes or characteristics
I would have. I could go to Galatians three twenty
(54:27):
eight and see that I was adopted in to this
whole family called the Lord's family. But to make it
practical in everyday American household, number one, the man needs
to understand his responsibility. Number two, he needs to be present.
The way that we encourage both, I think, is by
reminding men of that importance. I spoke got a men's
(54:47):
group about two Saturdays go with a couple hundred men
in the room, and I talked about you can be
a male without being a man. A male just tells
you you know who you are a from a DNA perspective,
being a man They're attributing characteristics that come with being
a man. Being responsible, being accountable, being self sacrificing, serving,
(55:13):
not just leading. These are characteristics of being a man.
Being a male may be reproductive. It may be having
a good time on Saturday nights, but not showing up
on Sunday mornings. Being a man says you show up Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday. It's twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week, three sixty five. That's how a man becomes
(55:34):
a father. A male does not necessarily do so.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
The book is One Nation Always under God, profiles in
Christian courage. We're talking to Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
All Right, these are big issues, these are important issues,
but I'm about to put you on the real hot seat.
Who's going to be better this year? South Carolina or Clemson.
Speaker 4 (55:54):
Listen, I know that the polls is.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I can already tell that's a good politician answer to
start with. Listen. For those of you who don't know
both both hope, let me tell people. South Carolina game
costs expect to be very good. Clemson Tigers also expect
to be very good. The biggest rivalry in the state
of South Carolina. Okay, that's the backlog. Now you can
dive in.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Thank you brother to plenty of park player. I know
the poll suggests that Clemson is going to be better.
One pole has them at number six. They have South
Carolina at nineteen. As a lifelong game Cock fan, yes,
I'm a crazy politician, I'm just going to tell you
the truth and where I stand. The game Cocks are
going to have a better season. I know it because
Shane Beemer. He's the man, the myth, and he will
(56:37):
be the legend. And as a result of that, he
will coach his team to a nine to three record.
And the Clemson Tigers, They're going to stumble a couple
of times and they will end up around eight and four,
eight and three. The difference, of course, is we play
in the SEC. They play in the ACC. We're not
talking basketball, we're talking football.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
That's actually I thought you would dodge it. I didn't
think you would pick a side. So I've impressed. But
I love Shane Beemer, really good dude, the head coach
at South Carolina. I also like Dabo, but I know
Shane Beemer. Rebel Lenora's sellers. For those of you out
there who do not know, fabulous quarterback for South Carolina.
What should people know about him? Getting ready for about
(57:22):
three weeks from now when Toby's leather, you know.
Speaker 4 (57:25):
Interesting enough, he turned down more nil money, yeah they
at Carolina than he could have gotten three to four
million dollars more someplace else. That tells me. Number one,
he's a South Line boy born and brad. Number two,
he's committed, which is an unusual characters characteristic. We'd like
to see him fathers as well, by the way. And
(57:45):
number three, he has a strong run game, but he's
been he's been improving his past game, and that to
me is a quintessential quarterback. Can scramble, but thread the needle.
I don't want him to run too much because that's
how you injured. I want them to stay in the pocket,
scramble a little bit and hit that the receiver who's
bringing a ten and out or a goal post. And
(58:07):
when that happens, I think we'll having a good season.
I know as a critical of my Clemson Tigers, and
I'm going to have some emails coming in about that.
But I got to tell you, I love dabble and
Jim Clemens is the best president and university president and
all of America. Clemson's president. But at the end of
the day, a man's got to be where a man
has been his whole life. That's the Carolina game Cock.
Speaker 8 (58:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I actually think and I know there's a lot of
politicians and I'm sure you've seen it in your career
for sure, who try to thread the needle and avoid
picking aside. I actually think sports fans appreciate someone who
picks the side more because the traditional politician tries to
avoid it. Hey, I hope the book does really well.
I appreciate you coming on with us. You got an
open invite anytime you want to come on and keep
(58:51):
up the fighting.
Speaker 4 (58:53):
Thank you. Clear one thing's always on the God available
right now at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
Amen, go check it out. That is Senator Tim Scott.
I'll take some of your calls. Will react really good
feedback so far during the course of the program. And
I want to tell you I mentioned it dog days
a summer here. Do you want to have Joe Biden energy?
That means you know, they never let Biden walk on
the roof of the White House. You know why, because
they were afraid that he might just tumble off. A
(59:20):
secret service wouldn't have let him walk on the roof
of the White House like Trump was. You guys know
at any moment he could have tripped all over himself.
Next thing you know, he's dead, all fallen off the
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Speaker 7 (01:00:24):
Want to begin to know when you're on the go.
The Team forty seven podcasts Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the clan Bug podcast feed.
Find it on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
Welcome. In Thursday edition, Clay Travis buck Sexton Show appreciate
all of you hanging out with us. Buck is out
traveling with his family on a summer vacation. He will
be back on Monday with me I've got you today and
tomorrow solo. We have an absolutely locked in loaded program.
(00:22):
Senator Marsha Blackburn has announced that she is going to
be running for governor of Tennessee. She will be on
with us at the bottom of this hour. In the
second hour, big battle in North Carolina. Coming to replace
Tom tillis Michael Wattley, who ran the RNC did a
great job in twenty twenty four North Carolina native. He
(00:45):
is going to be the Republican nominee to run against
former Governor Roy Cooper of the state of North Carolina.
This is going to be an epic battle next year.
We will talk with Michael Wattley, who hopefully will be
the next Senator from North Carolina, and then two point
thirty we will speak with Tim Scott, who is the
(01:06):
current Senator from South Carolina, about all of the ongoing
shenanigans in Washington, DC and beyond. So there is the
roadmap of where we are going bottom of the hour,
We've got a bunch of guests, two senators and one
who hopes to be a senator, as well as one
who hopes to be a governor. All of that coming
your direction now. Within that construct, we have got a
(01:31):
lot of stuff going on right now that I want
to dive into. I think, in an incredibly consequential manner.
Trump has demanded that we have a new census. I'm
going to explain why that could be so incredibly consequential,
not only right now because there were a lot of
errors in the twenty twenty census and he believes they
(01:52):
need to be rectified, but also because in twenty thirty
they are going to be seismic differences in the overall
census tallies. And I think this is a battle that
you should be paying a lot of attention to because
it could be incredibly important not only for the midterms,
but also in the twenty twenty eight presidential race and
beyond that in the twenty thirty interplay as it pertains
(02:15):
to the census. But I wanted to start with what
I would say is a genuine acknowledgment that our cities
have become too violent, and it's time to actually put
bad guys behind jail, behind bars in jail. And we
are getting these questions and these viral stories from all
(02:36):
over the country, but I wanted to start with one
that we talked with Bernie Marino about a violent attack
on an innocent woman, Holly who Bernie Marino came on
with us last week and talked all about it. She
has now had a public appearance. Many of you saw
(02:56):
her awfully bruised and battered face, and she now has
spoken out about what happened to her. She appeared with
our friend Senator Bernie Marino of Ohio Cut eleven. This
is what it sounded like.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We need more police officers, but like he said, you
know the judges who are just letting people out with
a slab. The man who attacked me and might have
permanently damaged me forever should never have been on the
streets ever. And the fact that he had just gotten
out of jail previously for something he should have been
(03:32):
in there for years. It's really sad to me because
I can't even fathom how many other people who have
been attacked by the same type of man over and
over and over in Toledo, in Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton. Our
streets are being taken over and nobody is doing anything.
I am so sad and I need to be the
(03:56):
voice to help all of the victims that never got
their justice.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well said, Well said by her again. If you heard
Bernie Marino tell her story. She is a mom of
a young special needs child. She went out on a
date in Cincinnati and she got knocked out. She got
in an uber after she got knocked out. Think about
(04:23):
that for a minute. It's an innocent mom. Could have
been any mom in America out for a night out
in a big city Cincinnati. She got slug knocked out
on video. Police came, they didn't do anything, and she
got in an uber and drove home. How does this happen?
(04:47):
And I know that a lot of you out there
are cops and you're listening to me all over the country,
and you are just noding your head because you're saying,
we arrest these bad guys. This guy got out for
a four hundred dollars bail rested. All the time. It's
the same dudes, almost always dudes, same bad guys, time
after time after time. What in the world is going
(05:12):
on here? And I think they're finally we're at a
tipping point, and we finally got a president and we
got enough senators and governors who are standing up and
saying no, We're not going to let this happen. Yesterday
I was talking with you about Look. I love Washington, DC.
I went to college there. I'm a history nerd. It
(05:32):
is a beautiful city. There's way too much crime there.
And what you hear people say is, oh, crime's coming down, Yeah,
from all time highs. How about we actually address the
fact that any significant rate of violent crime is unacceptable
in this country. How about we have a real conversation
(05:55):
about that. And I give credit to Janeine Piro. I'm
going to play some of these audio clips, new DC attorney,
formerly at Fox News, and I give credit to President
Trump for raising this as an issue. Here is Judge
Janine Piro cut two saying, Hey, I'm in charge now,
and this is not going to be acceptable.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Violence against anyone in this district will not be tolerated,
especially violence which has hate at its core and is
the genesis of violence. The President put me here to
do a job to clean up the district, to make
sure that crime doesn't overshadow this phenomenal city, our nation's capital,
(06:39):
and I have, throughout my career fought anti semitism for
thirty two years as a prosecutor and a judge. I
do so. I fight hate crimes with a vengeance. So
don't even think about targeting people in this district because
of who they are or because of where they're from.
I promise you justice will be swift and it will
(07:00):
be certain.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I love her. Let's get Ali. Let's get a request
in for Judge Piro. I think we've had her on
the program in the past, and certainly we overlap quite
a lot at Fox News, so I know her from
the green room at Fox News, and I think it's important. Okay,
you might be sitting around out there and you might
be saying, hey, okay, what's the counter argument to this?
(07:24):
Trump said in fact cut three, Hey, maybe we just
need to take over the DC police force and actually
make something happen.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
Here.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Here's cut three.
Speaker 5 (07:34):
I'malized in DC.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Are you considering taking over the DC police is at
an option on the police?
Speaker 6 (07:40):
We're considering it, Yeah, because the crime is ridiculous. I
could show you a chart comparing DC to other locations
and you're not going to want to see what it
looks like. It was just up on television actually that
was showing it.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Now.
Speaker 6 (07:54):
We want to have a great safe capital, and we're
going to have it, and that includes cleanliness and includes
other things. We have a capital that's very unsafe.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
Do you want hires to look at overturning the DC
home will lot.
Speaker 6 (08:08):
We're going to look at that. In fact, they or
the lawyers are already studying it. We have to run DC.
This has to be the best run place in the country,
not the worst run place in the country.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
I mean, he's right on all of this, and I
give him credit for coming in and trying to solve
this problem instead of just kind of hiding behind the
security detail as many presidents have done in the past.
They don't actually solve the issues when it comes to violence.
And what the president's referring to is I ran through
this yesterday. I think maybe it was a day before yesterday.
(08:42):
We have one of the highest violent crime rates of
any capital city in the world. Most people, and I
ran through countries. I mean Ethiopia, a DC Baba, which
I'm probably mispronouncing, has a lower rate of violent crime
in its capital city than the United States does. Why
does that happen? Most people, most countries consider their capital
(09:06):
to be a jewel that should represent the best of
their country and not be a place that is filled
with violent crime. And so the rest of the country
may not be as safe and that's unfortunate. But they say, Hey,
the capital city is going to be safe. We're going
to put the resources in to ensure that this isn't happening.
(09:27):
And I give a lot of credit to Trump and
Judge Janine Piro for shining a light on this. And
what's the counter argument? This is really funny to me
because Trump is basically saying, hey, rates of violent crime
are way too high, and I want to do whatever
it takes to get those rates of violent crime down.
DC is far higher than a city like New York City,
(09:49):
for instance, when it comes to rates of violent crime.
New York City is far safer than Washington, DC. What's
the response, Okay, it seems like a good thing, something
that you could be in favor of, no matter what
your politics are. Well. Jessica tar Law, who's also at
Fox News, in fact, used to sit next to Judge
Dennen Piro on the five, a show that many of
(10:10):
you would watch on a regular basis. She says, actually,
crime's down. What are we worried about in DC? Here's
cut four?
Speaker 3 (10:19):
What are democrats thinking when it comes to the nationalization
of GC?
Speaker 5 (10:23):
They're thinking hard, No, why not? Because there's no reason
to have Donald Trump be in charge of.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
Trump is about crime?
Speaker 5 (10:32):
Well, it actually is about crime, and the good news
is that crime is down dramatically.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So year over.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Year, twenty twenty four had a violent crime drop to
a thirty year low thirty five percent down, and carjackings
cut in half. Robbery's down twenty four percent, homicides down
seventeen percent, assault with a dangerous weapon down fourteen percent.
Just because Big Balls did a terrible job at Doze
does not mean that he deserved this. Any incident is terrible,
But we have.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
To followers to jack. Okay, So how do you argue
against this? How do you argue against a very basic
fact that should be supported by everyone. We need violent
crime rates way down. Moms all over this country need
(11:20):
to be able to go out to dinner in a
city without worrying that they're going to get knocked flat
out on the street by a mob. Of violent thugs
that accost them. I've said for a long time that
one of the ways to know whether your neighborhood is
safe or not is are you okay with your wife,
(11:42):
your girlfriend, your daughter going for a jog around six
o'clock pm in the afternoon evening in your neighborhood. Far
too many American cities and neighborhoods, the answer is no.
And I know there's a ton of you listen to
me right now that if you see your wife getting
your tennis shoes, you're like, hey, I hope you're going
(12:04):
to the gym, because it's a little bit late, might
start to get dark. I don't feel comfortable with you
out on the streets. You've got a daughter, you've got
a granddaughter trying to stay in shape. How many different
parts of America do we not feel comfortable with women
going for jogs or walks or workouts in the neighborhood
because we've just come to accept that violent crime is
(12:27):
a real threat and we don't even want the women
in our lives to be out. Now, some men probably
like me, you don't worry about it that much, But
every woman thinks about it all the time. And that
mom Holly in Cincinnati getting knocked out. I'm sorry. It's unacceptable.
And what's further unacceptable is when we point out this violence,
(12:51):
young intern gets killed randomly in the streets of Washington, DC,
and people say, Okay, well, but you know, in real life,
the rate of violent crime is actually declining. Okay, let's
decline it faster. That's what Trump's saying. And I think
Trump deserves credit, by the way, for the rates of
violent crime beginning to decline in twenty twenty five, fairly significantly,
(13:13):
because I think a lot of you out there nodding
right now. Police officers, you can finally do your jobs again.
You can put some bad guys behind bars. But here
in my home state, Memphis, I talked about this the
other day. I was out in March. I'll tell you
the story a little bit more when we come back,
but because we're going to talk with Senator Blackburn, who
(13:33):
wants to run for governor, I took my son. He
had a sporting event in Memphis. I know a lot
of y'all are listening in Memphis right now. I forgot
my charger and it was March was a night Tennessee
and Kentucky played a basketball game. Needed to charge my
phone and I went downstairs. Maybe they had a charger there,
And I said, well, I'll just go to the grocery store.
And the lady at the counter said, uh, hey, be careful.
(13:58):
It's eight point thirty at night. It's not like it
was two thirty in the morning. She said to me,
be careful. If you're going out to buy a charger
after dark, what are we talking about that going to
a grocery store or a convenience store or a gas
station after dark in a city like Memphis at eight o'clock,
(14:20):
we're not talking about three am. That the front desk
ladies are like, hey, be careful. Buck talked about this.
He went to Saint Louis. He was like, hey, is
there anywhere to walk to go get something to eat?
And they're like, well, you can't walk anywhere. What are
we talking about that? This is just considered to be
a normal part of discourse. This is something that is significant.
(14:41):
Let's let cops do the job. Let's put bad guys
behind bars. Let's make everyone women in particular safe in
every big city in America. That seems like a very
reasonable goal. And I think it's an important conversation that
we need to be having. Speaking of being safe right now,
the IFCJ is doing a lot of work to try
to make people in Israel safe because there are missiles
that might come flying in at any moment. I saw
(15:03):
it for myself on my trip to Israel with a
couple of the crew on this show. You never know
when you're gonna get an alert on your phone and
you're gonna have to run to a bomb shelter, and
when that happens, you want to make sure that you're
close to one and that you're safe. And that's what
the IFCJ does. You can go online check out the
work they do. It's phenomenal at IFCJ dot org. That's
(15:25):
IFCJ dot org. You can also give them a call
find out how you can help everyone be safe from
missile attack in Israel. Eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ.
That's eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ. Check them
out online at IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 7 (15:43):
Making America Great Again isn't just one man, it's many.
The Team forty seven podcast Sunday's at noon Eastern in
the Clay and Fuck podcast feed. Find it on the
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We just
got through talking with Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Michael
Wattley will be with us at the bottom of the hour.
He is going to be running for Senate in North
Carolina to try to replace Tom Tillis. Senator Tim Scott
will be with us in the third hour. It's just me,
you and all of us having a good time here
(16:18):
on the rest of today and tomorrow as we are
rolling through so many different stories that are out there.
And we went to break first hour, we talked about
the out of control violence and how President Trump is
trying to get Washington.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
D C.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Back to some form of safety, and I mentioned looking
at capital cities as a proxy for the excellence of
a nation at large. If you're a history nerd like
i am, Washington d C. Was a planned capital city.
And one of the things that's really amazing when you
(16:58):
walk around Washington, d C. Is they designed so many
of these massive roads, and when they designed it, there
was almost nothing there. And if you read the history
of say Washington, d C. From the eighteenth from the
nineteenth century and even the early parts of the nineteen hundreds,
(17:23):
people would talk about how the city was designed for
a country to be the greatest in the history of
the world, but it wasn't there yet, and so as
a result, it was just these massive, massive roads planned
city with almost nothing on either side. And I always love,
(17:46):
if you study history, the metaphor of the Capital Dome.
During the Civil War, Lincoln insisted that the construction of
the Capitol Dome contained in you. And if you look
at old photos in the eighteen sixties of Washington, DC,
you can see them working on that majestic Capital Dome.
(18:10):
And it was very expensive and it required a great
deal of steel. And some people criticized Lincoln, but his
explanation was, the nation is still being built and preserved.
I'm not going to stop work on the nation's capital
because this is an important symbol of what this nation
(18:33):
represents and eventually of the nation coming together and healing anew.
And it's such a profound idea. And I give credit.
I don't know how many of you saw this. Senator sorry,
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseith. They just announced that they're
(18:54):
going to bring back a reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery
that was created by a Confederate veteran, and the idea
is to bring the nation together again and sort of
bind the wounds of the nation. And I think one
of the greatest speech Ha's ever given in the history
(19:17):
of the United States was Lincoln's second Inaugural Address and
the nation as a whole being brought together even with
his killing in Ford's Theater. If you visit d C today,
you'll come across the bridge that connects Virginia and Washington,
d C. And a lot of people don't talk about
(19:38):
it now, but at the time that bridge was created,
it was seen as a symbolic union of North and South,
in particular Robert E. Lee's Arlington, which is on the
bluff overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, d C. You
can stand on the portrait of Arlington or on the
(19:59):
steps on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial and see
those two places. So you have the leader of the
Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee, looking directly at Lincoln's memorial,
and the Lincoln Memorial reflecting in some way Arlington as well,
and that union of the bridge, bringing the two sides
(20:22):
of the country back together again was seen at the
time that it was made as a profoundly symbolic statement.
And I think President Trump gets symbol and he understands
that things are more important than maybe what they appear
to be, and that is what symbol is, right, And
(20:45):
so people get mad when he says, well, I want
Alcatraz to exist as a prison. He sees that as
a symbol for a message that he wants to have
out there, Alligator Alcatraz. He grips the public imagination. And
I think what President Trump sees with Washington d C.
Is we can't say that we are a fabulous, undisputed
(21:11):
champion of the global economy and world if kids are
getting mowed down in the streets of Washington d C.
Every day. Our capital city needs to be a jewel.
It needs to be the best of what America can represent,
particularly Washington, d C, which I said historically has existed
(21:35):
for that reason throughout time. They took that location as
opposed to Philadelphia, which had been a capital, as opposed
to New York City, to create something new as a
symbol for a country that was going to be a
global beacon of freedom and opportunity. And how can you
(21:57):
allow violent crime to take it over and not see
that as a direct attack upon American exceptionalism itself. And
think about this. I mentioned this earlier and before, but
capital homicide rates, this is most recent homicide rates forty
one per one hundred thousand Washington, d C. That's a
(22:20):
huge number, forty one per one hundred thousand. Listen to
some of these other capital cities. These other countries don't
stand for that, I think because their leaders understand the
symbolic importance of having a safe and secure and vibrant
and objectively beautiful capital city. Lima, Peru. I don't think
(22:43):
most of you out there say you know what country,
But let me just give you a bunch of these
different countries. Lima, Peru, Havana, Cuba, Nairobi, Kenya. I think
am I right about that? By the way, this is
going to expose my own lack of geographical knowledge. Brazilia, Brazil.
I believe Brazilia, Brazil is also a planned capital. Lagos, Nigeria, Bogota, Colombia.
(23:12):
I think I'm going to pass the test here. Mexico City, Mexico,
Adsa Bobbi a Baba, Ethiopia, Okay, those are other big
capital cities. DC forty one murders per one hundred thousand, Lima,
Peru seven per one hundred thousand, Havana, Cuba four per
(23:34):
one hundred thousand, Nairobi, Kenya five per one hundred thousand. Brazilia.
People talk about how violent and dangerous Brazil is all
the time. Brazilia thirteen per one hundred thousand, Lagos, Nigeria
fifteen per one hundred thousand, Bogota, Colombia eleven per one
(23:56):
hundred thousand, Mexico City eight per one hundred thousand, Adisa Baba,
Ethiopia six per one hundred thousand. It should be a
dark stain on America that our capital city of Washington,
D C. Has five times the murder rate of Mexico's
(24:19):
capital city. What are we doing? That's a national embarrassment. Ethiopia, Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya, Cuba, Peru,
all of them infinitely safer in their capital cities than
(24:40):
you and me and everybody is going around in Washington,
D C. That is a national embarrassment. Now, we just
finished the hour. We had an emailer who said, hey,
maybe we have to go after parents for some of
this violent crime, and I said, I'm a little bit.
I accept it on some level, but I don't accept
it on an other level because I think what you
(25:02):
would see is that many of the kids that are
engaging in violent behavior are actually not living at home.
Grandma and grandpa might be raising them, aunts, uncles, foster parents.
I think, really, when you look at violent crime, what
you see almost overwhelmingly is the absence of father figures
(25:24):
in the household. This is really the root cause. If
you have a dad and a mom in your house,
the odds of you engaging in violent behavior plummet by
a massive amount. Most kids still have moms dads are failing.
(25:48):
So my concern here is you got a sixteen year
old who takes a gun out and shoot somebody, and
then you decide to prosecute mom, who is the only
one that was trying to raise that kid, and dad,
who hasn't shown up for sixteen years, may not even
be on the birth certificate, he doesn't have any consequences
(26:11):
at all. Well, it's him that made it happen. So
my concern when Bo writes in it, and I think it's
an interesting comment, is that what would end up happening
is the moms and the grandma's and the aunts and
all the women who are very often doing their darnedest
to try to raise that kid who's got an absent dad,
(26:33):
and may have an absent grandpa too, because a lot
of what you find out is when dad's not there,
it's often the case that grandpa wasn't there, and unfortunately
that great grandpa wasn't there either, because it's hard to
break that cycle. And some of you out there listening
know what I'm talking about, because you're trying to break
the cycle. You're the dad that's present. You know what
(26:56):
it was like to not have a dad better than anybody.
Concern is when you say, well, let's prosecute the parents,
you got poor mom who's working three jobs and doing
her darnness to take care of a kid that dad
had no interest in. And dad doesn't have any culpability
at all, even though he's actually the cause. So I
(27:19):
think if you go back up the chain of causation,
oftentimes gun violence and violent teenagers actually started when dad
didn't show up at the birth at the hospital. And
dad hasn't been around for sixteen years or seventeen years
to that point. In many ways, these are young men
(27:42):
who have not been raised to be men, and they
are angry at the world and they take out their
anger on the world, and all that anger starts because
dad's not home. So when I think through holding mom accountable,
Mom's doing her best to raise that kid by herself,
and she's got three jobs, and the kid, as a result,
(28:05):
doesn't have somebody at home whipping him into shape like
a dad hopefully would, and he falls in with the
wrong guys in the neighborhood and next thing you know,
he's dealing drugs or he's trying to carjack and Mom's
out there trying to do her best, and then you
come home and you charge her with a crime, and
then she may have two younger kids that she's also
trying to raise, and how does that benefit society? So
(28:28):
that's when I work through it. I like to go
to what caused the problem, not to just what's connected
to the problem. And to me, what caused the problem
is Dad's not there. And I think the number this
is my big you know, get on a preacher box argument.
I think the number one issue that unites much of
(28:51):
what is going on in the country today of a
negative level. Is Dad's not there?
Speaker 4 (28:56):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
It connects on everything. Families not having enough money to
feed the kids, Dad's not there, Families that are dealing
with incredible violence, Dad's not there. If you go to
the lint. This is my personal opinion. If I could
change one thing, every kid that's born has a dad
at home, I think our national rates of violence would
(29:19):
drop by ninety percent. I think poverty would drop by
ninety percent. I think if dad is home, the overall
collapse of much of what we see going wrong in
American society, it doesn't exist. So my concern responding to
BO is you're actually going to hold accountable the mom,
(29:41):
the grandma, the aunt, the foster family that's trying to
take it, to take this responsibility of dad that he
didn't fulfill, and then they get blamed because everything doesn't
go perfect. That's my concern, and that's why I get
a little bit nervous about holding parents responsible criminally, because
(30:02):
so many people are doing everything they can to help
to try to fill the void that is there because
dad's not home. That's it, right, you go look at
rates of crime, it collapses in every household where dad
is they are raising a sun And by the way,
it's almost all boys. And the data actually reflects meaning
(30:24):
committing the crimes. The data actually reflects that young girls
have far less negative consequences from an absent male figure
in a household than young boys do. Moms do their best.
They can't be dad and mom. I think young girls
see mom and that's an aspirational figure for them. And
it's still better for young girls if dad is home.
(30:46):
But what the data shows is boy's outcomes collapse when
dad's not home. That's the reality. That's a tough conversation.
That's a real conversation that we should be having, but
too many people are afraid to talk about it. Look,
years ago, new legislation created opportunity for four oh one
ks and iras. These retirement accounts shift the responsibility from
(31:08):
employers saving money to you. Meant to empower you to
control your own financial future. And look, gold has been
a part of everybody's portfolio basically throughout all of time.
Gold has been a method to buy and sell so
many different objects throughout time. Gold is at record highs
because it's seen as a hedge against inflation. Have you
(31:29):
thought about including gold in your own portfolios, in your
four to oh one k's in your savings. Maybe you're
nervous about the devaluation of the overall American currency because
inflation's been so high, because the Fed's printing so much money.
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Speaker 8 (32:41):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (32:55):
Right before the show started, to thank you for taking
us over one hundred thousand subscribers on the Clay and
Buck YouTube channel, I did a book review segment that
is only going to be up on YouTube, and I'll
give you a little bit of a preview of that.
(33:15):
So many of you are interested in good American history,
good books to read, so I gave two book reviews
and I'm just going to mention them here. You guys
know I love reading about a history, American history in particular.
I am reading The Fate of the Day, which is
volume two of the American Revolution trilogy. I'm holding it
(33:39):
up just so you can see the cover. It's incredible.
I'm about halfway through it. If you want to hear
me talk about it more, you can go to the
YouTube channel. That video will be up. I'm going to
try to do fun things there that are not airing
on the radio program. I also told Ja, hey, if
you're a mystery thriller kind of person, which I am.
(34:02):
I usually have a non fiction book going at the
same time as a fiction book, and I read whichever
I'm in the mood for. I mentioned this on the
show before, but I just finished Mickhron, who is a
London based thriller spy espionage writer. Eight of them the
Slow Horses television version. Maybe some of you have seen
(34:26):
this on Apple TV. I am told it is really good.
I have never watched it, but I can tell you
these books are great. They're eight of them. I love mysteries, thrillers.
I grew up reading initially The Hardy Boys and then
it led into Sue Grafton and Robert Parker and James
Lee Burke. And so anyway, if you are a thriller reader,
(34:50):
Patricia Cornwell you name you guys know all of these
Alex Cross series, all of these you know, I gave
you good reviews for those, and we're going to to
do some fun things on YouTube so you will be
able to dive in there. Okay, we got people who
want to react, and for those of you who want
to get your popcorn out. We led into a discussion
(35:12):
about how almost all issues in America today. In my opinion,
if you had to go to one root cause, absent fathers, White, Black, Asian,
Hispanic absent fathers I think lead to violent crime. And
this actually wasn't planned, but it came out of a
email that bo, one of our VIP readers, wrote in saying, Hey,
(35:32):
if we really want to go after violent crime rates,
let's prosecute parents more often. And I said, my concern
there is that actually dads are absent, and you would
end up going after mom or grandma or maybe even
grandpa who were trying to fill in for the absent dad,
and the person who's the most responsible for everything that
is going on will not be held accountable. And so
(35:54):
that was my concern. And let me hit you with
this because I mentioned that I was going to discuss
it earlier, right before I take your calls. President Trump
has demanded that there be a new census done. And
I've talked about this a lot on the program. Maybe
we'll dive into this a bit more tomorrow, but basically,
Red states would be on tap to add ten House
(36:17):
seats if the census had been done correctly, and Republicans
would add ten, Democrats would lose ten, Florida would add
four seats, Texas would add four seats, California would lose three.
New York would lose two overall, and that's going to
play in big in the electoral college by the time
(36:38):
we get to twenty thirty two. But they screwed up
twenty twenty, so they really should redo the census. And
that is what President Trump has called for. And we
will dive into some of that tomorrow. But again, go
subscribe to the YouTube. You can check out all original
content that is going up there. Vipe Eric black dad
(37:02):
out there. Let me start with this. I was fortunate
to have my dad in the home as a kid,
and my kids have the same good fortune. You are
spot on about LBGT, LBJ and the great society. The
government dictates on the programs essentially force dads out in
order to access the so called benefits. Never have a
(37:22):
people paid such a high price for a block of cheese.
Larry Elder, Deroy Murdoch, and Jason Riley have written and
spoken extensively on this subject. They challenge the black people
out there who've been brainwashed by the liberal culture to
wake up, grow up, and man up. It's good email
from Eric, and I appreciate it. I'm glad he's being
a good dad. Look, it's easy to try to racialize this,
(37:44):
and I try to avoid doing that. I got an email,
and I'll read the email. I'm not going to tell
you who wrote it because I'm not going to put
him on not going to put him on blast. But
he said, he said, why are you not talking about
the fact that this is a huge problem for black
men and nobody will talk about it for black men
(38:06):
and black families. And you're being a coward because you're
not focusing enough on race as it pertains to this issue.
And I'm looking at that email from him right now.
I don't think that's helpful. Honestly, it wouldn't make me
feel better as a white dad. If the white crime
rate was zero and the black crime rate was one hundred,
(38:30):
I wouldn't take lee in that. I wouldn't take enjoyment
in that. If the Hispanic crime rate was zero and
the white crime rate was one hundred, I wouldn't be like, man,
that's great, go Hispanic people, white people, Man, you're the problem.
I don't think you racialize a problem. I think you
(38:50):
actually then divide people what I would argue is kids
without dads is a huge American issue, White, Black, Asian, Hispanic. Now,
I do think that there is a socioeconomic component to this.
In this larger context, I think the government tried to
(39:11):
replace poor dads with the government. And there's a line,
and I think there's some truth to it. You can
racialize the line, but the way I would put it is,
when rich people get a cold, poor people get pneumonia.
If you're black, you probably heard before when white people
get a cold, black people get pneumonia. It is true
(39:34):
when rich people have small problems, poor people get big problems.
And so I think you have to be careful when
you put government policies in place. This is to me
the essence of Democrat politics. They sit around from their
gated mansions and they think, oh my goodness. You know
(39:57):
the real problem with crime in America is the police.
We should take them away. This is Zora and Mundami, right,
all the people with money, they've got protection. Mamdani goes
down to Uganda. He's got a security detail following him everywhere.
(40:18):
He's not worried about crime happening to him because he's
rich enough to have his own security. You ever notice
that none of those politicians who called to defund the
police ever gave up their own personal security details. Well,
wait a minute. If you think all of us should
(40:39):
give up police, how come you need him. That's a
really good question, isn't it. So many people in America
they talk left and they live right. All those media
that right at the New York Times. They're married, raising
(40:59):
their kids. Their kids oftentimes go to private schools, they
live in gated communities. Everybody lecturing you on MSNBC nuclear families.
They want a mom at home, they want a dad
at home. They want to have security for their kids,
they want private school choice for their kids. Why do
(41:20):
they lecture you from a left perspective and then live
like the most conservative person on the planet in their
own life. Because the best way to raise a family
is a nuclear family, mom, dad, both at home with kids.
This is what the data says. They all know it,
they want it for their own families. But if you
(41:42):
try to say, hey, we should do this more, Hey
maybe we should put policies in place that actually make
dads more likely to be at home. As soon as
you raise that issue, oh suddenly they don't want to
have that conversation. So a lot of you want a
wagh in. Let me hit some of these calls. I
appreciate that VIP email and let's see here. Who should
(42:03):
we go to? First? Guys is Ralph and Cincinnati? Ralph?
What you got for us?
Speaker 4 (42:09):
Hey?
Speaker 9 (42:09):
Brother? How are you?
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Man?
Speaker 1 (42:11):
I'm fantastic.
Speaker 9 (42:13):
So I think we're looking beyond the obvious. And it's
not a black, a white thing, Hispanic, Asian, or even
a money thing. Because there's a lot of very wealthy
people who've divorced and the mother automatically gets the kids,
and then we hear the stories about their kids driving
very expensive cars and killing their friends. So let's just
(42:34):
avoid the monetary things. I'm gonna ask you a question.
Even you're a lawyer and you have a lot of
colleagues that went into family law, I think the perpetuation
of divorce lines their pockets. The thing is, I'm dealing
with it myself. I want fifty to fifty time with
my kid. I don't want more than fifty to fifty.
Speaker 4 (42:52):
That would be unfair.
Speaker 9 (42:53):
Automatically, the mothers always get custody regardless.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
So if we're going to talk about.
Speaker 9 (43:01):
All the homes, we need to dig deeper. Some of
us fathers want to be involved. Some of us fathers
want to take care of our boys. We're not allowed to.
So in Ohio twice the Senators of the Republic of
the Congress whoever pitched this concept, and both times it
(43:24):
was the Ohio Bar Association that shot it down. Why
because that's their income. How many of your colleagues went
directly to family practice. Some of them were criminals, but
then they went through their divorce and saw him which
they paid an attorney and said, well, I got to
get my money back. So I just want to give
a shout out to dad's out there that want to
(43:45):
be in their kids' wives. Don't give up. Keep fighting.
There's a huge movement happening right now. It's kind of
underground even in Britain. This is a global thing. There's
a movement called Parents against People Against Prance or Alienation.
They're a young man in the United States who started
a website called TUF the Unmarried Father. Those guys suffer
(44:07):
the worst. Are there guys out there that don't want
to be in the family? Sure?
Speaker 4 (44:12):
Were they baby trapped?
Speaker 9 (44:13):
Maybe did they hook up one night and get a
girl pregnant. Maybe we don't know, but there's a lot
more of us out there that want to be in
our kids lives, but we're already labeled deadbeats just because
we're not in the house.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
Thank you for the call. No, it's a great call. Look,
I don't This is why, in general, I think any
dad that is fighting to be involved in his kid's
life should be involved in his kid's life right his
or her kid's life. And I think that there are
tons of things in the divorce universe that we have
(44:51):
created that incentivizes divorce and often alienates parents in both directions.
Speaker 4 (44:59):
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I think there is a religious component to this. I
mentioned that the great society happens. I think also a
decline in religion has led to less men as heads
of households and less men who are expecting to take
on the responsibility. But I think in a divorce context,
(45:21):
in an ideal situation, kids would get fifty percent of
time with their dad in fifty percent of times with
their mom. General rule. Okay, Now, I don't want to
dive into everybody's individual divorce story, but I do think
that one of the constant let me just say this
as a lawyer. One of the consequences of no fault divorce, right,
(45:44):
which is this idea of hey, there's nobody at fault,
we just don't want to be married anymore, is that
sometimes fault matters.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
Right.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
We typically don't have no fault car accidents, right, Just
think about it. Most people don't want to get into
a car accident. But if you had a cheap car
and you could just run into a Jaguar and you
got rewarded because you intentionally caused some sort of an issue,
(46:16):
the courts would look at you a scance. They would say, well,
you're more responsible for this. And that's the whole point
of like traffic law, right, Hey who did the When
you say nobody's at fault? A part of me is
of the opinion that fault does matter. It's very rare
(46:36):
that fifty percent male fifty percent female is the reason
for the divorce. And I'm talking about the financial side,
not so much the child and the parenting side. But
I do think there should be substantial family court processes
that would actually go to making things better. I'll take
some more of your calls when I come back, but
I do have empathy and sympathy for dads out there
(46:59):
that are trying to be involved in their kids' lives
that feel like the entire apparatus of the court system
is slanted in favor of the moms and they can't
actually do anything to help raise their kids. That is
very frustrating, and I have a great deal of empathy
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Speaker 7 (48:04):
And politics, but also a little comic relief.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Clay Travis at buck Sexton.
Speaker 8 (48:10):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (48:15):
Walk back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Join now
by Senator Tim Scott. He's got a new book, One Nation,
Always under God, profiles in Christian courage and Senator I
appreciate you coming on with me. I believe that part
of the motivation for this book, according to my team,
(48:36):
was you seeing Harrison Butker, who is a field goal
kicker for the Kansas City Chief speaking out about faith
and his family relationships. Why did that strike you to
such a degree, and then did that help to motivate
you to write this book?
Speaker 4 (48:53):
Yes, certainly, I see the attack on Christianity in our
country all over the place, and certainly his story got
so much press. I just kept thinking to myself, why
is it okay to attack the very foundation of the
greatest nation on earth and what we were founded upon?
And I find it to be just utterly ridiculous. Clay
(49:14):
On the attacks that Christianity has to endure, and I
wanted to do something that highlighted and celebrated strong profiles
and Christian courage. Why our country is the greatest country
on the planet, it's because of men and women who
responded to a call in their heart to make something
and someone better outside of themselves. And I'm so thankful
(49:37):
that we have professional athletes rare these days, who take
a strong stand for faith, not just at the microphone
after a game, but literally giving a speech that they
wanted to literally take tiny pieces out of that speech
and find a way to make fun of him and
condemn his faith. Utterly ridiculous to me.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
I don't know if you've heard any of the program.
Probably not, you kind of a busy guy, but we've
ended up talking quite a lot today about the decline
of fathers, and I think it in the family household,
and I think it ties in with the book that
you were writing, because one reason that might be happening
is an absence of religion, and a lot of young
men are honestly going back to church. Now. I don't
think you're a dad yet, but I've got three boys.
(50:20):
I think all the time about how to raise them
to be strong, good parents. Why do you think we're
struggling to such an extent with young men and how
do we get black, White, Asian Hispanic dads back in
the family raising strong young men.
Speaker 4 (50:35):
Well, Clay, I think one of the reasons why President
Trump has endorsed the book One Nation Always under God
is because I focus really on that subject matter by
telling my own story of growing up in a single
parent household. And what you just said, Clay, is so important.
It was so casual when you said it, but it
was powerful in my ears. One of the scriptures I'm
really excited about is Proverbs twenty seven seventeen that says
(50:58):
iron sharpens irons, one man sharpens the other. The best
way to do that, Clay, is to have a father
in the household. You just said very casually that you
are there for your three sons. Seventy two to seventy
four percent the numbers escape me of African American boys
do not have their father in the household. Forty percent
(51:20):
of white working class families don't have a father in
the household. That does not tell about the future we
want in this nation. And so you covering fatherhood and
the importance of a male role model in the house
is undeniably the most important thing we can do to
get this nation back on tracks except for faith. Faith
(51:41):
is the foundation family, the most powerful single unit in
the nation. Upon those two, you build an objective standard,
you apply it fairly to everyone. You get a flourishing
country called America. Without that very important building blog called
a family. We as a nation, we don't work, and
(52:01):
we don't work without a faith filled foundation on which
all things stand. So I can spend as much time
as you want to on the importance that a father
plays in the household. I just became a honustat Clay
just a year ago, of three kids that I've inherited
by getting married, and I gotta tell you it changes
(52:25):
your focus to the future. It reminds you of the
importance of a value system, and it underscores why one
nation always under God and these profiles and Christian courage
is something that has as much to do about the
future as it illuminates the past.
Speaker 1 (52:42):
One of the things that we talked about is pre
you think about things only getting better in the country, right,
that's the goal. We want everybody's generation to be better
than it was before. But you and I, if we
went back to nineteen fifty you just ran through some
of those statistics, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic. I know there
been fewer Asian and Hispanic households, but certainly a lot
(53:03):
of white and black households. Dad would have been home
right nineteen fifties America, dad was home raising his kids.
In general, I know there were exceptions. There's people out
there listening. You yourself just said you didn't have a
father in the household. This has been an issue that's
gone on for a long time. How do you think
we change it?
Speaker 4 (53:20):
Right?
Speaker 1 (53:20):
It's one thing if we were getting a little bit
better every year, But this is one of those things
where you look back and you say, boy, you know what,
seventy years ago, kids growing up in America were more
likely to have a dad in the household. What could
we do? What should we do? I don't even see
this as remotely political, because I think every kid is
way better off with a dad in the household. What
(53:40):
should we be doing to encourage that?
Speaker 7 (53:44):
Well?
Speaker 4 (53:44):
Number one, we need to remind men of their responsibility
and not in fathering a child, but by raising that child.
It's such an important part of it. You know, if
you think about what a father provides for me. The
lack of a father made me very disillusioned about who
I would be growing up, what I could become. Someone
to teach me how to drive, how to shave. That
(54:06):
person was absent, and it makes everything more difficult. I'm
thankful that I became a Christian at a very young
age and I found the father figure needed in understanding
my heavenly Father. And as a result, I could go
to Ephesians two and read about certain attributes or characteristics
I would have. I could go to Galatians three twenty
(54:27):
eight and see that I was adopted in to this
whole family called the Lord's family. But to make it
practical in everyday American household, number one, the man needs
to understand his responsibility. Number two, he needs to be present.
The way that we encourage both, I think, is by
reminding men of that importance. I spoke got a men's
(54:47):
group about two Saturdays go with a couple hundred men
in the room, and I talked about you can be
a male without being a man. A male just tells
you you know who you are a from a DNA perspective,
being a man They're attributing characteristics that come with being
a man. Being responsible, being accountable, being self sacrificing, serving,
(55:13):
not just leading. These are characteristics of being a man.
Being a male may be reproductive. It may be having
a good time on Saturday nights, but not showing up
on Sunday mornings. Being a man says you show up Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
and Saturday. It's twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week, three sixty five. That's how a man becomes
(55:34):
a father. A male does not necessarily do so.
Speaker 1 (55:37):
The book is One Nation Always under God, profiles in
Christian courage. We're talking to Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina.
All Right, these are big issues, these are important issues,
but I'm about to put you on the real hot seat.
Who's going to be better this year? South Carolina or Clemson.
Speaker 4 (55:54):
Listen, I know that the polls is.
Speaker 1 (55:57):
I can already tell that's a good politician answer to
start with. Listen. For those of you who don't know
both both hope, let me tell people. South Carolina game
costs expect to be very good. Clemson Tigers also expect
to be very good. The biggest rivalry in the state
of South Carolina. Okay, that's the backlog. Now you can
dive in.
Speaker 4 (56:15):
Thank you brother to plenty of park player. I know
the poll suggests that Clemson is going to be better.
One pole has them at number six. They have South
Carolina at nineteen. As a lifelong game Cock fan, yes,
I'm a crazy politician, I'm just going to tell you
the truth and where I stand. The game Cocks are
going to have a better season. I know it because
Shane Beemer. He's the man, the myth, and he will
(56:37):
be the legend. And as a result of that, he
will coach his team to a nine to three record.
And the Clemson Tigers, They're going to stumble a couple
of times and they will end up around eight and four,
eight and three. The difference, of course, is we play
in the SEC. They play in the ACC. We're not
talking basketball, we're talking football.
Speaker 1 (56:59):
That's actually I thought you would dodge it. I didn't
think you would pick a side. So I've impressed. But
I love Shane Beemer, really good dude, the head coach
at South Carolina. I also like Dabo, but I know
Shane Beemer. Rebel Lenora's sellers. For those of you out
there who do not know, fabulous quarterback for South Carolina.
What should people know about him? Getting ready for about
(57:22):
three weeks from now when Toby's leather, you know.
Speaker 4 (57:25):
Interesting enough, he turned down more nil money, yeah they
at Carolina than he could have gotten three to four
million dollars more someplace else. That tells me. Number one,
he's a South Line boy born and brad. Number two,
he's committed, which is an unusual characters characteristic. We'd like
to see him fathers as well, by the way. And
(57:45):
number three, he has a strong run game, but he's
been he's been improving his past game, and that to
me is a quintessential quarterback. Can scramble, but thread the needle.
I don't want him to run too much because that's
how you injured. I want them to stay in the pocket,
scramble a little bit and hit that the receiver who's
bringing a ten and out or a goal post. And
(58:07):
when that happens, I think we'll having a good season.
I know as a critical of my Clemson Tigers, and
I'm going to have some emails coming in about that.
But I got to tell you, I love dabble and
Jim Clemens is the best president and university president and
all of America. Clemson's president. But at the end of
the day, a man's got to be where a man
has been his whole life. That's the Carolina game Cock.
Speaker 8 (58:29):
You know.
Speaker 1 (58:30):
I actually think and I know there's a lot of
politicians and I'm sure you've seen it in your career
for sure, who try to thread the needle and avoid
picking aside. I actually think sports fans appreciate someone who
picks the side more because the traditional politician tries to
avoid it. Hey, I hope the book does really well.
I appreciate you coming on with us. You got an
open invite anytime you want to come on and keep
(58:51):
up the fighting.
Speaker 4 (58:53):
Thank you. Clear one thing's always on the God available
right now at Amazon.
Speaker 1 (58:58):
Amen, go check it out. That is Senator Tim Scott.
I'll take some of your calls. Will react really good
feedback so far during the course of the program. And
I want to tell you I mentioned it dog days
a summer here. Do you want to have Joe Biden energy?
That means you know, they never let Biden walk on
the roof of the White House. You know why, because
they were afraid that he might just tumble off. A
(59:20):
secret service wouldn't have let him walk on the roof
of the White House like Trump was. You guys know
at any moment he could have tripped all over himself.
Next thing you know, he's dead, all fallen off the
roof of the White House. Guy, I can't even walk.
Do you want Biden energy? Do you want people watching
you thinking, oh my goodness, is this guy gonna make
it from one side of the room to another? Or
do you want Trump energy? Get hooked up right now
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Speaker 7 (01:00:24):
Want to begin to know when you're on the go.
The Team forty seven podcasts Trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern in the clan Bug podcast feed.
Find it on the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get
your podcasts.
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On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.