October 8, 2025 • 49 mins
What Comey's Around
Buck broadcasts live from Washington, D.C., sharing firsthand observations of the city during the ongoing government shutdown. He describes how the absence of federal workers has transformed D.C. into a “ghost town,” raising questions about the size and necessity of the federal bureaucracy. Buck argues that the shutdown highlights the bloated nature of government and suggests that essential services continue to function without the non-essential workforce.
The hour dives into breaking news on James Comey’s trial, where the former FBI Director pleaded not guilty to federal charges of lying to Congress and obstructing proceedings. Buck critiques the hypocrisy of Democrats warning about “dangerous precedent,” pointing out years of lawfare against Donald Trump and his allies.
Rush Warned Us
Buck revisits Comey’s controversial history, including the Martha Stewart prosecution and his role in targeting General Michael Flynn, framing the trial as a symbolic pushback against a two-tiered justice system—even if conviction remains unlikely. Buck played an old clip from Rush Limbaugh in May of 2017, where he warned us about Comey and Brennan.
Nasty, Nasty
California politics, spotlighting Katie Porter’s controversial interview meltdown during her gubernatorial campaign. Buck plays portions of the viral CBS exchange where Porter clashes with a reporter over questions about Trump voters, abruptly ends the interview, and accuses the journalist of being “argumentative.”
Buck critiques Porter’s temperament and dives deeper into her record, citing past allegations of abusive behavior toward her ex-husband and staff, as well as Politico reports on her toxic workplace reputation. He frames these revelations as critical for voters evaluating Porter’s bid to succeed Gavin Newsom and possibly position herself for a future presidential run.
Welfare and Warfare
An in-depth interview with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who breaks down the mechanics of the shutdown and the stalled negotiations in Congress. Paul explains that Democrats previously supported current spending levels but are now holding out for Obamacare subsidies, which were designed as temporary pandemic measures.
He argues these subsidies primarily benefit wealthier Americans, worsen deficits, and may even extend benefits to illegal immigrants—despite laws prohibiting such allocations. Paul warns that both parties are complicit in reckless spending, projecting U.S. debt to hit $40 trillion, and calls for structural reforms like his Penny Plan to balance the budget within five years.
The discussion expands to foreign aid cuts, entitlement reform, and the political calculus behind shutdown strategies. Paul predicts Democrats will cave after a weekend of left-wing pressure but cautions that bipartisan overspending remains unchecked. He also proposes a market-driven solution to rising healthcare costs: allowing consumers to join large buying groups like Costco for collective bargaining on insurance—a move he says could dramatically lower premiums.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
People ask us all the time how we can save
the next generation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We've got our show and the info is an antidote.
But we also have a couple books coming out, Clay.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
That's right, and you can pre order both of them
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Speaker 2 (00:14):
You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter too.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Mine's called Balls, How Trump young men in sports saved America.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And mine is manufacturing delusion How the Left uses brainwashing,
indoctrination and propaganda against you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Both are great reads. One might even say they would
make fabulous gifts.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Indeed, so do us a solid and pre order yours
on Amazon today. Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Continuing Government Shutdown edition.
And I got a lot of news to talking about today,
and we're going to be joined by a couple of
Senators to discuss some of it. Senator Ran Paul in
(00:52):
the second hour, Senator Ron Johnson in the third hour.
I am here in our nation's capital, so figure should
talk to some of the lawmens and legislators and people
making the decisions. And they have a little more time
on their hands because of this shutdown situation. We've also
got Trump weighing heavily on the National Guard deployment to Chicago.
(01:15):
He's got some choice Trump words. James Comy his trial.
I've got updates for you on that. I've also got
a well, some Pambondi hearing stuff that we can discuss
a little bit of. I just wanted to start with
this though. DC is absolutely lovely right now. It is
(01:37):
incredible being here now. Some of it might be the
increase in safety because of the Trump agenda, but just
hear me out, the government shutdown means that this city
is wide open. There's no one clogging the streets, the
roadways are wide open. You can drive anywhere. It is
(01:57):
a ghost town in all the best ways. So I'm
having a great time. I'm walking around the broad boulevards,
barely a soul in sight. The restaurants, you can get
a table anywhere. I can drive around. DC has among
the worst traffic congestion areas in the entire country. DC
is pretty much always a top five contender and often
(02:20):
a top three for the worst traffic. And you have
hundreds of thousands of government workers who are currently on furlough,
not going into these massive federal buildings pushing a bunch
of paper around. So the city is great. I gotta
say this shutdown, it's a fantastic time to be in
this town and having some meetings with various stakeholders and
(02:43):
movers and shakers here, some of it off the record,
but it's interesting stuff that's going on, that much, I
can tell you. Some people are saying very interesting meetings,
very interesting for mister Buck. But yeah, I have to
check in on my people here in DC. Sometimes I'm
just saying it's a great time. But why should you
care that?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
What do we need all these government workers for? If
everything seems fine without them going to their jobs. I
think it's a fair ask. Remember the Pentagon is still
going public safety. There's essential and non essential services in
this town, and the non essential includes a lot of
people who I think are remote remote workers anyway or
(03:23):
have been, and everything seemed to be functioning just fine.
I don't know. Maybe if you have to wait in
line longer than normal, or you can't get into the
certain areas of a national park, you're upset. But for me,
walking around our nation's capital, it feels like the swamp
has been cleared. It's great, and I think that it's
(03:48):
a reminder that we have a massive and bloated federal
bureaucracy and if there are some changes made to that
as part of the shutdown, to me, that is a
good thing. That is a good thing. But yeah, I
think this is one of the You have perfect weather,
no bureaucrats, and you can drive anywhere here in this
(04:09):
town now in less than ten minutes. This is the
best version of DC I can remember. Right, This is great.
So I'm having a lot of fun here and I'm
down here of course, our in our DC iHeart studio.
All right. Now, with that said, we've got some updates
on a whole range of things. Oh, this is what
I was looking for when I started off the show.
(04:29):
Katie Porter, we will discuss this. She's running for governor.
She's a congresswoman. She is not a particularly affable one
and may have done some real damage dur a campaign.
You're just gonna have to hear this exchange, but I
will play that one for you. Has gone megaviral. She
(04:50):
can be very nasty, kind of a nasty exchange with
a journalist who's trying to ask her some questions. So
we will get we will get to that as well,
Katie Porter situation. But as I had to mention to you,
we have as of this morning update here on the
James Comy trial. I believe it is going to be
(05:13):
happening January fifth. It is set for so that's pretty quick.
They're they're moving pretty fast on this one. And here
is Fox News is Bill Hammer. This is from this morning,
just with that breaking news and laying out some of
what's going on here for Sankta Komy play it. Here
is the breaking news.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
The former FBI director James Comby in front of a
judge moments ago and a hearing that we did not
think would last long.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And apparently that is the case.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
He has entered a plea of not guilty to two
charges federal level. Now are producers inside the courtroom say
the former director accused of lying to Congress obstructing a
congressional proceeding. End of the plea moments ago in front
of the judge Michael Knockmanoff appointed by Joe not guilty
(06:01):
on both federal charges. He's accused of lying in front
of Congress back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So that is the update inside the courtroom, so now
he's going to trial. One of the most hilarious arguments
against this that I keep seeing all over the place
from the Libs is, oh my gosh, the precedent that
has been set here. What would you do, Republicans if
(06:26):
people started to use prosecutors' offices as weapons of politics?
And to this you just want to say, have you
been asleep for the last decade? Do you have any
idea what has gone on with four different criminal cases
brought against Donald Trump, all of which were bogus civil
cases brought against Trump by the State of New York
(06:48):
in one case, and by a woman who claims from
thirty years ago, thirty something years ago, Trump grabbed her
in a department store. The stuff that they have done,
the lawfair they have done against Trump and his family
alone has done tremendous damage to the public's faith in
(07:09):
all of these different facets of our criminal justice system,
or just our justice system of the courts too, because
some of it was civil. This is atrocious. I mean,
the things that have gone on here, the precedents that
have already been set. Now they want to tell us
we should be worried about going too far in the
other direction. No, they already did this. In fact, what
(07:32):
they have done, what the Democrats have done specifically with
the targeted lawfair against Donald Trump, among many others. It's
really Trump and Trump world, everybody who is Trump adjacent
all the way to January sixth, defendants, right, it's the
whole Trump movement that they have used the prosecutor's office.
(07:54):
They have used lawfare as a tool as a weapon
to to ruin lives, to put tremendous pressure on people,
to financially drain them, to undermine them, to malign them,
to defame them. All of that they have already done.
They sent an FBI team tomorrow Lago and they went
(08:16):
through Malania's sock drawer. And libs want to lecture us
about James Comy, who allegedly lied under oath facing the music.
I'm sorry, is there some special carve out for being
a six foot ten jerk who uses the law in
order to puff himself up and is part of his
(08:38):
own just malignant narcissism. Is there some carve out where
he doesn't have to actually face the music the way
that he has made so many others and I think
entrapped people and abuse the law, most notably General Flynn.
I like to fill in these gaps too, so no
one can say, well, you just said he's abusing, and
no I like to give you the specifics to remind everybody,
(08:58):
to remind everybody that James Comy thought it was funny
to use the Logan Act, which no serious human being
thinks anybody can or would be prosecuted under, as a
total pretext. It's like the equivalent of a swatting call.
It is a bad faith use of law enforcement to
go after the General Michael Flynn, the incoming National Security advisor.
(09:21):
I know it feels like that was a long time ago,
but there hasn't been Well maybe you don't feel that way,
but they'll say that, but there's been no justice for that.
That ambush hasn't been punished. And James Comy thinks that
he's a clever guy for the whole thing, and he
thinks that what was that book? I think was Higher Power?
Is that right? Higher power or something like that. I'm
(09:45):
now the real question you might ask is is James
Comy's book a more brutal read than Kamala is one
hundred and seven days. I cannot answer that question. Because
I haven't read Comy's book, but I will tell you
that is some if competition. That is, you know, Superman
versus Iron Man with the like the super suit. You know.
(10:06):
I mean, that is tough stuff, really really preposterous that
James Comy would think anybody would want to read his
memoir and on his book tour. But such as things are,
he is now facing the music and there's the possibility.
I think it's slim. I don't want to over promise
and under deliver. Ever on this show, I think it
is slim. But here's what I will tell that he
(10:28):
will actually be convicted because it's a it's a Northern
Virginia jury. I was just saying, how much fun, how
much fun DC is with no government bureacrats running around.
They all live in Arlington mostly, you know, they live
a lot of them inside or just outside of the Beltway.
It's going to be a very favorable pool for James Comy.
(10:48):
But here's why I view this is so important. The
message is received, whether Comy is found guilty or not,
the message is received that there will at least be
an effort to hold the other side to the law
and not create a system This is really important. A
system where we are held to an extra legal standard
(11:12):
and they are held to a sub legal standard, or
rather they get to break the law and get away
with it. Meanwhile, they get to prosecute us Trump for
not breaking the law, and we do nothing in response.
We have to at least establish that we will bring
charges against people who have been involved in this law
(11:34):
fair involved in using the government the deep state, however
you want to describe it, to take out people for
purely political reasons. Well, if they break the law in
that process, there will be some form of accountability. And
now there is going to be I think a pretty
high probability just based on the jury pool that calm me,
will be found. In my mind, he'll be found not guilty.
(11:55):
He'll be acquitted on this. But let's see, let's see,
it's a pretty straightforward thing. Did he lie or did
he not lie? Let's see what kind of case the process.
I know, I don't want to I don't want to
prejudge anything here. Let's see what is produced in that court.
You don't need to call me and say, buck, you're
already getting ahead of the cart before the horse here.
(12:17):
I know, but I just I like to manage our
expectations for where this is going. It's it's still a
steep climb. This is a little bit of ice skating
uphill here to think that James Comey is going to
actually be convicted. But the fact that the charge has
been brought alone sends a message we are not going
to just lie down and accept a two tiered system
(12:39):
of justice in this town, Washington, DC, or anywhere else
for that matter. And that is important. That is something
that we all have to recognize as a necessary step
because otherwise it's, you know, heads they win, tails we lose.
Did I do that one right? That's always always feel
like I'm gonna get that one. It's like Bush when
(13:01):
he's like fool me once, can't get fooled again. You know,
it's tougher to say it, especially on a live radio
show than you think it's gonna be, you know, But
that's where this is right now, my friends. That is
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Speaker 5 (14:44):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton mic drops that never sounded
so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. I've been warning people
for years about this comy guy, and I wish if
the president at the time had pulled me aside and
asked me early on in his first term, I would
have shared all you have to know about James Comy.
You would know from the way he acted with respect
(15:15):
to the Martha Stewart prosecution, a prosecution that nobody in
his office but him wanted to bring a prosecution for
which there was no crime, not even any money made
or lost. It was just the whole thing was absurd.
And Martha Stewart is a huge Democrat who does not
like Trump and does not like Republicans. And this is
just about what's what's fair and decent. It's not about politics.
(15:39):
But Komy really has always thought of himself as like
the high priest of the DOJ. So much of Komy,
I will tell you this, so much of Komy reminds
me of Fauci. Fauci is like the the you know,
the the Liliputian version of Komy. They have the same
(15:59):
person soonality type. They pretend it's all about the cause
of the institution, it's really all about them. And they
get this uh, this solyopsism word of the day, solepsism
from all of this, And you like that one. That
producer rally likes that one. And I'm not the only
one warning you about this guy, or have been warning
(16:21):
about this guy for a long time. The great Rush
Limbaugh back in twenty nineteen, he saw exactly who James
Comy was and also knew about his past, which we
should all be reminded of. Played two.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
How many of you have heard or thought that James
call me was a lifelong Republican. I have I've always
thought that James call me was a lifelong Republican. I've
been told that James call Me as a lifelong Republican.
Turns out not to be true. Are you wearing of
James Comey used to be a Communist. In a two
thousand and three interview with New York Magazine, James call
(16:58):
Mey said before voting for Jamie Jimmy Carter nineteen eighty,
he'd been a communist. He admitted, I'd moved from communists
to whatever I am. Now now we know that John Brennan,
Obama's CIA director, was a communist, or at least had
voted for the Communist Party, But I.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Had never heard this about Komy.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Now we find out that under Obama, the CIA director
and the FBI director both had histories of not just flirtation,
but serious immersion into communism. And like the KGB always said,
no one ever leaves the KGB, nobody ever leaves this
(17:43):
way of thinking.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Isn't that interesting? You start to see how for some
of these individuals there was an ideological foundation of communism.
And these are people who are at the top of
the national security operat us in this country in recent years, communism,
and then they become some malleable chameleon in politics just
(18:10):
so they can weave their way through the bureaucracy. But
do you think they've ever really changed their collectivist foundation.
Rush didn't think that Komi had, or Brendan for that matter,
and he was right. He warned us about this, and
now perhaps there will be some accountability for the misdeeds
that were done. But we're not going to hold our
(18:31):
breath on Kmy. We're going to see. Look, as you know,
I've always been a big reader. I love books, that's
certainly true. I also like writing a lot, and when
I'm not on radio, I've been busy creating a weekly
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(19:15):
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Second hour of play in Buck kicks off right now.
We're gonna have Senator Ranpaul joining us at the bottom
about the government shutdown, which I have to say for
(19:37):
my own reasons. Here in DC, I am loving every
minute of It's amazing. I feel like I could hop
on an electric scooter and just do a little tour
of the town and not have to stop anywhere because
there's no one on the streets. It's fabulous, you know.
I just put a little scarf on, you know, in
case it gets Chiley on the scooter and I go
Capitol Building, Georgetown, stop by the White House, High five, Steve. Look,
(20:00):
see how everybody's doing. That's the kind of day it
is over here. It's wonderful, wonderful. They have all the bureaucrats,
you know, jostling together, and you know, making the line
at Starbucks one hundred people long. None of that stuff.
This government shutdowns pretty nice, Pretty nice. So let's dive
into politics in California for a minute show we because
(20:24):
a lot of you have seen this. It's gone viral,
as you know. We have Steve Hilton on to talk
about his run for governor in that state. Gavin Newsom, Hey, everybody,
how you doing. He's turned out he is going to
run for president quite obviously, and he has to give
up his governor's mansion to whoever the next person to
(20:45):
win that contest is going to be. And it's looking
right now, at least on the Democrat side of things,
it's looking like Katie Porter is the likeliest to win. Now,
every state has different rules about how this stuff goes. California,
as I understand it, and some of you live there,
so you're gonna know this better than I do, has
like a top two situation, so you have all these
(21:07):
people that are gonna be running, and then the top
two vote getters are going to be in the general
election the ballot in November of twenty twenty six. I
think that's right. If it's wrong, my team will tell
me in a moment and I'll correct it. But I
think that's basically how it goes. But Katie Porter is
(21:28):
getting a lot of attention she probably did not want
right now. In fact, the newsweek headline here is Katie
Porter's chances of winning California governor election suffer blow. And
let's get into why that is. She sat down with
a journalist. She sat down with a journalist and had
(21:49):
the exchange team, can I do this actually, Producer Mike,
Let's do a little play pause here, right, So I'm
gonna play it. I'm gonna say, all right, let's pause
for a second here because this is a long one.
It's a couple minutes long. So I want to get
in and out of this SoundBite, but I want you
to hear the whole thing, because wow, Katie Porter comes
across as a really nasty and unlikable person and unprofessional.
(22:12):
So let's start this off. This is a CBS interview
with Julie Watts of CBS News California. Come on, it's CBS,
and this is communist broadcasting services like this, this is
not this is home team stuff, reporter, but if you
ask her real questions, she apparently doesn't like it. This
is how it goes play it.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
What do you say to the forty percent of California
voters who you'll need in order to win, who voted
for Trump?
Speaker 7 (22:36):
How would I need them in order to win?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
A man?
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Well, unless you think you're going to get sixty percent
of the vote, you think you'll get sixty percent?
Speaker 8 (22:43):
All everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote
for you. That's what you're in a general election.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Yes, if it is me versus a Republican, I think
that I will win the people who did not vote
for Trump.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
What if it's you versus another Democrat?
Speaker 7 (22:54):
I don't intend that to be the case.
Speaker 8 (22:57):
So how do you not intend that to be the case?
Do you? Are you going to ask them not to run?
Speaker 7 (23:02):
You know, I'm saying I'm going to build the support.
I have the support already in terms of name recognition,
and so I'm going to do the very best I
can to make sure that we get through this primary
in a really strong position.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But let me be clear with you.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
I represented Orange County. I represented a purple area. I
have stood on my own two feet and one Republican
votes before. That's not something every candidate in this race
can say if you're from a deep blue area, if
you're from LA or you're from Oakland, you don't have
an experience.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
You just said you don't need those Trump voters, So
you asked me if I needed them to win, So
you don't.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
What is your question?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
The question is, oh, well, let's pause there for a second.
Let's pause there for a second because it's about to
get really good. Everybody. I want to keep you on
the edge of your seats. Argumentative, argumentative. I got to
tell you, as a conservative dealing with the media like
that's like a like a hiatsu massage. That's not argumentative, Like,
are you kidding me? That's she can't handle that, that's
(23:55):
getting her all. Oh, oh, you're just hearing the beginning
of Hurricane order unleashed. Here. Things are gonna get worse.
Keep playing it.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
It's the same thing I asked everybody that this is
being called the empowering voters to stop Trump's power graph.
Speaker 8 (24:10):
Every other candidate has answered this question this is not
and I said, I support it. So and the question is,
what do you say to.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
The forty percent of voters who voted for Trump.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you
need them to win part that I don't understand. I'm
happy to answer the question. Answer the question as you
haven't written, and I'll answer.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
And we've also asked the other candidates do you think
you need any of those forty percent of California voters
to win?
Speaker 8 (24:32):
And you're saying no, you don't.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every
vote I can. And what I'm saying to you.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Is that, well to those voters. Okay, so you I
don't want.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
To keep doing this, I'm gonna call it thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Whoa, whoa, Hey, hit the pause button. Hit the pause button.
She can't handle that. What exactly is the look is?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Is the reporter maybe or things getting a little lost
in translation here about the numbers. Looks she's a CBS journalist.
She's trying to you know, she could be doing like
sideline reporting for the NFL or something, and she happens
to be here with this politician who cares here she
is and she's trying to just she's just trying to
do like a decent job. This is not a gotcha.
(25:13):
I know gotcha every time I used to go on CNN.
It was like an ambush and I had to fight
through it. I know what gotcha is like, This is
not gotcha. This is trying to just clarify a point.
But also you can tell Katie Porter has decided Congressman
Porter has decided to really you know, sink her teeth
into this, and uh, I think just comes across as ogrish,
(25:35):
if you will, I use that term people like that
one online ogrish as in befitting of an ogre. It's
not nice, not nice. The way she's acting here, not nice.
Keep playing it.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
You're not gonna do the interview with them?
Speaker 7 (25:49):
Nope, not like this. I'm not not with seven follow
ups to every single question you ask.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
Every other candidate has.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
I don't care.
Speaker 8 (25:55):
I don't care.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you
asked me about every year you on this list. And
if every question you're going to make up a follow
up question, then we're never going to get there and.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
We're just going to circle around.
Speaker 7 (26:07):
I ask the gable had to do this before ever.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
You've never had to have a conversation to end in order. Okay,
but every other candidate has done this.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
What part of I'm me. I'm running for governor because
I'm a leader, So I am going to make so.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
You're not going to answer questions from reporters. Okay, why
don't we go through?
Speaker 6 (26:27):
I will continue to ask follow up questions because that's
my job as a journalist, but I will go through
and ask these and if you don't want to answer,
you don't want to answer, so nearly every legislative.
Speaker 7 (26:37):
I don't want to have an unhappy experience for you,
and I don't want this all on camera.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either.
I would love to continue to ask these questions so
that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels
about every one of these issues that they care about.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Okay, isn't that amazing? Also notice the manipulation there. I'm
not a psychiatrists, so I'm not going to say that
has hints of maybe borderline personality disorder or causing a
problem and then saying right away that you're not the
one who wants to cause the problem that you just
(27:13):
cause you know, I'm not going to diagnose this, but
I can tell you this. There are people who could
strikes me as not a good moment for Katie Porter.
But let's if you want maybe you're saying, you know,
maybe she had a bad day. Uh, she wants to
be the governor of the fifth largest economy in the world.
You know, maybe we should just say look to the
(27:35):
record and get a sense as to what is the
real Katie Porter. Like, you know, anyone can have a
bad day, right, anyone can have a bad day. Maybe
you want to I mean, I don't particularly want to
take that position on this, but I want to bring
you this story from twenty twenty three, Representative Katie Porter
scalded ex husband's scalp with boiling potatoes. Documents I shall
(28:01):
read the former husband, a Representative Katie Porter said the
California Democrat frequently abused him verbally this is from The
New York Post, and through toys, books, and other objects
at him during their marriage, even pouring scalding hot mashed
potatoes on his head during a fight. According to divorce records.
(28:22):
Matthew Hoffman, who filed for divorce from Porter in twenty thirteen,
said a request for a restraining order dated April thirtieth
of that year that he was routinely called a bleeping
idiot and a bleeping incompetent by his rage prone spouse,
who also shattered a glass coffee pot on their kitchen
counter in March twenty twelve when she felt their house
(28:43):
wasn't clean enough. She's delightful, delightful. She would not have
let me have a cell phone because she said, quote,
your too bleeping dumb to operate it.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
When she gets angry, I'm quoting here. When she gets angry,
she will claw and scratch her arms and then say
to me, look what you made me do again. I
am not a psychiatrist, but google borderline personality disorder. Uh,
Google some of what's going on here, the creation of
the problem, and then the pretense ones you've created it
(29:21):
that you don't want drama. I'm the I'm not the
one starting the fire here. I don't want anyone starting
fires when you've thrown the gasoline all over the fire
you started. Now, I know, I know what the Democrats
would say here. They'd say, oh, but he retracted that,
and she ended up Oh you mean that his far
more powerful spouse and the very serious money interests aligned
(29:43):
behind her were able to get him to retract something
that he had already put it in a divorce proceeding
because they made him an offer he probably he couldn't refuse. Yeah, okay,
but that did happen. So he retracted those things. But
he said all those things in court documents and they
were on which I think is interesting. Again, I'm just
looking at the totality of evidence. Are we going to
(30:04):
say that Katie Porter had a bad day or were
we getting a window into this member of Congress who
wants to be the governor of California and from there
probably would see yourself as running for president. So I
think it's a pretty fair game to get into all this.
But you may say, Buck, divorce proceedings can get ugly.
I mean, who among us hasn't thrown boiling hot potatoes
(30:25):
at somebody in a fit of rage at some point,
Well all of you, I'm sure. But you know we're
trying to be generous here. I'm trying to take the
maximum benefit point of view for the ogrish Katie Porter,
the bullying Katie Porter here, and so that I would
then just say, well, clearly, she would have a lot
(30:48):
of people who would come forward who have worked with
her to speak to what an impeccable character she has.
What a kind and encouraging boss and mentor she is,
And for that, I bring you Politico Katie Porter and
the bad boss problem. Oh, hold on a second, this
(31:10):
isn't that at all. This is pretty bad quote. Some
former staffers have said that she is I'm trying to
find the quotes here basically deeply abusive and nasty and
prone to fits of rage and temper tantrums. And yeah,
(31:33):
it's abusive to staff, has a massive staff turnover problem.
Sixty five percent of her staff turned over during her
time there, and everyone basically says, at least that has
worked for her says that she's horrible and really mean.
So are we gonna put these data points together? I
think we should. I think we should. I don't think
we can do the benefit of the doubt thing anymore.
(31:54):
Between the scalding hot potatoes thrown at her ex the
staffers who say that she is a brutish and nasty woman,
and now this the rating of a reporter for nothing,
I mean it was. It was a nothing burger and
she was not having it. So I just think that
(32:14):
everybody in California should know. And my broader lesson on
this is somehow the really nasty people in politics, I mean,
the really nasty people in politics are always Democrats. I'm
not saying there aren't people on the Republican side that
can be a little slimy and you know not, but
if you're talking about somebody who's really an abusive son
of a gun situation, you know, Democrats, there's a reason
(32:38):
for that. I know they want to say it's a
both sides thing, but it's not a both sides thing.
And in fact, most of the Republicans that I know
on the hill, and I know many of their staffers,
their staffers all say they're fantastic people and they really
look up to them. That's very common, very common. I
don't I mean, I don't hear that. I hear stuff
(32:59):
about the Democrats. Oh you're like buck Well. Who else
I don't know. Maybe Amy Klobershar of a senate as
Senate fame who is famous for eating her salad with
a comb and throwing things at staffers. Yeah, true stories.
Those are the allegations, at least allegations throwing things at staffers,
eating salad with a comb. You know, do you have
(33:19):
any I don't know any Republicans who eat salad with
a comb and throw and throw things at their staffers.
I'm just saying I do not know of that happening,
so if you do, please call in and tell me.
All right, Look, Israel represents the only true democracy in
the Middle East. They've been a steady ally of the
US since nineteen forty eight, particularly when we needed friends
in that part of the world. Israel is also home
to the Jewish people, same people with a rich history
(33:41):
that has benefited Christians alike for centuries. If you're of
the Christian faith, you likely had a Bible lesson or
who that tells the story of the Jewish people, and
you read or heard the words emphasizing the care and
protection of looking after those that are Jewish, God's chosen people.
Many Christians in America are standing with Israel this month
by participating in a growing movement created by the International
(34:01):
Fellowship of Christians and Jews. It's called Flags of Fellowship.
This country wide effort, the Flags of Fellowship, unites churches
across America planning over one million Israeli flags across our
land show the world that Israel is not alone. To
get more information about how you can join the Flags
of Fellowship Movement. Visit IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You don't know what you don't know, right, but you
could on the Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck Bodjazz.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. We are
joined by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Senator Paul, always
appreciate you making time for us today.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
No problem, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Government shutdown so far, I gotta say it's pretty nice
walking around the streets of DC. I know that's a
very basic view of things, but government seems to be
working reasonably well for a so called shutdown. What is
as as you see it, at issue today? Why have
we seen no progress in the Schumer shutdown negotiations?
Speaker 9 (35:07):
Well, I think the great irony of this situation is
that every Democrat in the Senate and every Democrat versally
in the House as well, voted for these spending levels
in December of last year. So this continuing resolution has
spending levels that were actually set under Biden. These are
the Biden spending levels, and every Democrat has previously voted
for them. The reason they're not voting for them now,
(35:29):
at least according to the Democrats is, well, we want
to renew these temporary Obamacare subsidies. Well, that's moving the goalpost,
because these people have all voted for the spending bill
before and it doesn't include the Obamacare subsidies, never has
And the reason the Obamacare subsidies are expiring is because
that's the law that the Democrats wrote. They wrote them
(35:51):
to be temporary because they were trying to cram a
lot of spending into a reconciliation bill and the only
way they could do it was to make things temporary. Really,
this is all on the Democrats, and eventually they will
fold and they will vote to reopen the government.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Now, why are the if you could dig into this
a bit, Senator Paul, why are these subsidies for Obamacare
both so important to Democrats and so necessary?
Speaker 9 (36:20):
Well, you know, the argument with Obamacare when it started,
you know, background twenty ten, was that it was going
to keep healthcare insurance prices from going up and make
health care more affordable. It turns out, if you look
at healthcare insurance prices, they've gone up ever since. There's
been no slowdown in the increase in healthcare prices. In fact,
when you subsidize something, you're increasing the demand for it.
(36:42):
You actually are, in all likelihood increasing the price of things.
But they haven't been successful. These Obamacare subsidies aren't really
going for the poor. They're actually going to relatively rich
people now. And like I say, they were brought in
by the Democrats during the pandemic. They were said to be, oh, well,
(37:03):
people are having a tough time to the pandemic. We're
going to give them extra money. The real problem, though,
that nobody discusses around here, is there is no money
to give these people. I mean, the money literally has
to be borrowed from China or printed up by the
subtle Reserve. We're two trillion dollars short with the current
levels of welfare and warfare, frankly, and we're two dollars
(37:25):
short a year. Where's the money come from. It's the
best to be borrowed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, well with gold that I think four thousand dollars
announced now. I mean, I think people are starting to
see that the printing press is very much in use unfortunately.
And I wanted to know if you could also look
into or explain to us a little bit, Senator Paul,
the argument over whether some of this funding or whatever
(37:49):
the portion may be, makes it to subsidize care for illegals.
You're an MD as well as a senator, so you
have a particular insight into this. What is the truth
of that.
Speaker 9 (38:00):
Well, it's confusing in the sense that we do have
many laws that say welfare is not supposed to go
to illegal aliens, but we also have laws that they
illegal aliens aren't supposed to vote either, and we know
for a fact that illegal aliens are The most recent
prominent case of them voting was a guy that was
that superintendent from Des Moines who was here in the
(38:22):
country illegally and registered to vote and voting in Maryland
and had been for some time. So we know that
the states, particularly the Democrats states that have very lax
rules California and others, they just don't really police the
situation all. So we do know that illegal people illegally
in the country are voting. We also know that they're
(38:42):
receiving healthcare as well. So in legislation then previously passed
by Republicans, language was explicitly put in to say it
cannot and should not happen, and the Democrats are trying
to repeal that language now and try to make it
such that states could make the decision to get of
welfare and you know, voting privileges to illegal aliens.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Senator Paul, this isn't the first. I think this is
the eleventh shutdown, right, but this isn't your first rodeo
with this. And I think in the past what has
been at least a narrative the media pounds, whether it's
really fair or true or not, is Oh, the Republicans
are being blamed. This is going to hurt Republicans politically.
I'm certainly not seeing that. And I don't think whatever
(39:26):
data that can be trusted on this, to the degree
can be trusted, shows that. What is the as you
see it for the Democrats I'll speak to specifically if
you can speak to it, maybe on just the Senate side.
What is their calculation here? Why have they decided that
this is the hill they want to fight on.
Speaker 9 (39:45):
I think they're miscalculated. They also, I think the Republicans
have not hit them hard enough yet. I mean the Republicans,
I'm about the only one I hear reminding people that
the Democrats all voted to these spending levels nine months ago.
They're the exact same spend levels. The one reason Republicans
don't bring this up is Republicans used to be critical
of the Biden spending levels, but now the Republicans are
(40:07):
all voting for the spending levels. That's why I'm really
the only Republican voting against not only the Democrats spending levels,
but voting against the Republican levels because they incurred a
deficit this year of about two trillion and are projected
to incur a deesit next year of about two point
one trillion. So I think both parties are terrible in
(40:28):
the deficit. I'm voting against both the Republican and the
Democrat plan because the one thing that is bipartisan up
here is spending money we don't have.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
We're going to be at forty trillion then in this
debt really soon. And you know, Elon Musk came in
with DOGE, and there seemed to be this moment in time,
Senator where there was at least the beginnings of a
willingness to do something about this. It does not look
like that has really to come to fruition. And maybe
that's putting it too gently that we're even trying to
(40:59):
turn the spending curve around do you think that there
will be I know the White House has spoken about this,
some substantial trimming of federal employees that will occur during
the shutdown. How does that work?
Speaker 9 (41:13):
We know those did a lot of good things. I
was a big supporter Elon Musk and the things he
brought to government. We did end up voting on two
recision packages or one, but then they did one as
a pocket recision, and so about twelve billion and four
and aid was reduced. You know, I've been championing reductions
in foreign aid for a decade here and introduced over
(41:35):
thirty five bills to do it. This is the first
time we've done it since I'm here. But the problem
is the Continuing Resolution that Republicans have put forward spends
at the currently appropriated levels for four and aid that
doesn't include the twelve billion dollars in cuts. So basically,
if they passed the continuing Resolution that Republicans want everybody
to vote for now, it'll let the four and aid
(41:56):
back in it. And so if you want to get
rid of four and eight again, we will have to
do the same thing again next year. So taking away
the twelve billion that didn't become the new baseline. It's
not a lower baseline for four and eight. They're going
back to the original one with this continuing resolution. So
another reason not to be too excited about what the
Republicans have put forward is that we're going to start
(42:16):
all over again with the things that does put forward
and the recision packages. We have to do it again
next year.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Do you think there's any realistic scenario where there's a
willingness on the Republican side to make what has to
happen for real cuts to be made. I mean, I
feel like we've been talking about this, you have, I
have a lot of everybody listening now talking about this,
going back to the origins of the Tea Party. So
this is looking like what fifteen years of When are
(42:44):
we going to make cuts? The debt is too high?
The debt is too high. We just discussed that it's
going to be at forty trillion dollars. When do we
decide to do something about this or is it just
a waste of discussion at this point because we haven't
suffered the economic fallout from our profligate spending, is going
to do anything about it?
Speaker 9 (43:02):
Well, the lay of the land is this, there are
no Democrats that will vote to cut one penny of
one dollar of federal spending. On the Republican side, there's
a lot of lip service. But when I presented my
Penny Plan budget, which would balance over five years. I
did this two weeks ago, thirty six Republicans supported it.
Now that's the high water mark. That's the most I've
(43:24):
gotten before. But it also means that I think about
sixteen Republicans do not support it. These sixteen Republicans often
are the leaders of the spending committees, the appropriations committees,
and so there isn't a desire among them really to
cut spending. And so until we have a Republican majority
and a majority of those Republicans are willing to cut,
(43:46):
we don't get anywhere. It also doesn't help when people say, well,
we're not going to look at Social Security or Medicare
and Medicaid. We'll do it sometime in two or three
years from now. We'll make the date in the future.
All of these things, when you take them off limits,
and you don't do anything to food stamps, if you
take all of these entitlements off the table, you really
(44:07):
need there isn't enough waste in TRAUD to cut to
actually balance the budget.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Well, what do we have to do? I mean, is
this turning into the entitlements discussion again, which nobody wants
to touch.
Speaker 9 (44:17):
And it's about elections. You need more hardcore people. I
think the people out there, you know that I meet
as I travel a country, they are ready to cut spending.
They are ready for more significant cuts, and they're ready
for somebody who'd introduce a balanced budget. So I think
if my penny planned budget were surveyed among the public,
(44:37):
among the Republican public, I think you'd get ninety percent
of the vote, you know. But up here I'm getting
about sixty percent of the Republicans for it. So really,
the Republicans up here are all getting the message. They
need to get the message that the debt is a
real problem and it's time to start cutting spending. But
a lot of them haven't got that message yet.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
How long do you think this shutdown is going to last?
And is it a big deal to you? Whether it
goes for another day or another two weeks, does it
really make much difference? How do you see that The rumor.
Speaker 9 (45:06):
Is that the Democrats have a left wing socialist rally
in DC this weekend, and they're afraid of their left wing,
they're afraid of the socialists, and so they have to
show they're putting up a fight for the Obama the
free stuff, the Obamacare free subsidies. So the rumor is
they will fight through the weekend and then give in.
Next week, they'll give in because there'll be some sort
(45:28):
of public public promise that will negotiate on the subsidies.
And frankly, there probably are fifteen Republicans that will vote
to increase or keep the Obamacare subsidies. They don't care
that it has to be borrowed, they don't care that
it's more big government. So what will happen is all
the Democrats will be for that fifteen or twenty Republicans
(45:49):
will vote with them, and big government always wins. But
I think the public's getting increasingly frustrated with it. So
there's going to be a time at which the public
is going to say, let's you know, let's throw some
of the bums out.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Why do we need subsidies if Obamacare makes healthcare cheaper,
that seems to be a conundrum. Center.
Speaker 9 (46:09):
Yeah, one of the things we could do, and I've
proposed this for years now, I proposed that we let
people consumers, people who buy health insurance, let them bargain collectively.
What I mean by that is, if you belong to Costco,
there are forty four million members of Costco. If Costco
were to buy your insurance for you, my guess is
(46:30):
Costco can get a better price than you can individually.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
If my wife could buy her insurance from Costco, by
the way, it would have happened yesterday if she loves Costco.
So keep going.
Speaker 9 (46:40):
And the rule that's keeping us from doing this is
a federal rule that says you can buy insurance with
a group if you all have to be in the
same employment. You have to be ditch stickers or carpenters
or welders. You can buy your insurance together, but you
can't be in multiple different employment, which is a really
dumb rule. And last Trump administration, I got him to
(47:05):
do an executive order. It was challenged in court. But
I have a bill that would do this. It would
change what's called the Arissa law, and it would let
anybody wants to join any group by insurance. And then
what you'd have is you'd have a head of this
cost codes health insurance buying would sit down with a
head of the big insurance companies and you'd really get
a much better price. And so that's the one thing
(47:27):
you could do that is a market phenomenon. It's a
way of injecting the market that actually would bring down
health care costs.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Senator rand Paul always appreciate you, sir, Thanks for making
the stop today with us.
Speaker 9 (47:39):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It was a time when dinner was more than just
a meal. It was the hour every day when family
came together. Actually, you know what I'm gonna tell you
something right now. There was the Jesuit headmaster of my
high school when my parents did the first parent teacher day.
He sat all the parents together in the auditorium and
he said, you know, one of the most important things
you can do with your kids is have dinner together.
(48:03):
True story. This is a guy who's been an educator
for like forty years and very very smart guy. He said,
one of the most important things.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
I know people were travel busy, but the point is
when you can, you should do it. And Good Ranchers
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Speaker 5 (49:16):
Check it out today news and politics, but also a
little comic relief. Clay Travis at buck Sexton. Find them
on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
People ask us all the time how we can save
the next generation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
We've got our show and the info is an antidote.
But we also have a couple books coming out, Clay.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
That's right, and you can pre order both of them
right now and be book nerds just like us.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
You'll laugh, you'll nod, and you'll get smarter too.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Mine's called Balls, How Trump young men in sports saved America.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
And mine is manufacturing delusion How the Left uses brainwashing,
indoctrination and propaganda against you.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Both are great reads. One might even say they would
make fabulous gifts.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Indeed, so do us a solid and pre order yours
on Amazon today. Welcome everybody to the Wednesday edition of
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, Continuing Government Shutdown edition.
And I got a lot of news to talking about today,
and we're going to be joined by a couple of
Senators to discuss some of it. Senator Ran Paul in
(00:52):
the second hour, Senator Ron Johnson in the third hour.
I am here in our nation's capital, so figure should
talk to some of the lawmens and legislators and people
making the decisions. And they have a little more time
on their hands because of this shutdown situation. We've also
got Trump weighing heavily on the National Guard deployment to Chicago.
(01:15):
He's got some choice Trump words. James Comy his trial.
I've got updates for you on that. I've also got
a well, some Pambondi hearing stuff that we can discuss
a little bit of. I just wanted to start with
this though. DC is absolutely lovely right now. It is
(01:37):
incredible being here now. Some of it might be the
increase in safety because of the Trump agenda, but just
hear me out, the government shutdown means that this city
is wide open. There's no one clogging the streets, the
roadways are wide open. You can drive anywhere. It is
(01:57):
a ghost town in all the best ways. So I'm
having a great time. I'm walking around the broad boulevards,
barely a soul in sight. The restaurants, you can get
a table anywhere. I can drive around. DC has among
the worst traffic congestion areas in the entire country. DC
is pretty much always a top five contender and often
(02:20):
a top three for the worst traffic. And you have
hundreds of thousands of government workers who are currently on furlough,
not going into these massive federal buildings pushing a bunch
of paper around. So the city is great. I gotta
say this shutdown, it's a fantastic time to be in
this town and having some meetings with various stakeholders and
(02:43):
movers and shakers here, some of it off the record,
but it's interesting stuff that's going on, that much, I
can tell you. Some people are saying very interesting meetings,
very interesting for mister Buck. But yeah, I have to
check in on my people here in DC. Sometimes I'm
just saying it's a great time. But why should you
care that?
Speaker 3 (03:00):
Well?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
What do we need all these government workers for? If
everything seems fine without them going to their jobs. I
think it's a fair ask. Remember the Pentagon is still
going public safety. There's essential and non essential services in
this town, and the non essential includes a lot of
people who I think are remote remote workers anyway or
(03:23):
have been, and everything seemed to be functioning just fine.
I don't know. Maybe if you have to wait in
line longer than normal, or you can't get into the
certain areas of a national park, you're upset. But for me,
walking around our nation's capital, it feels like the swamp
has been cleared. It's great, and I think that it's
(03:48):
a reminder that we have a massive and bloated federal
bureaucracy and if there are some changes made to that
as part of the shutdown, to me, that is a
good thing. That is a good thing. But yeah, I
think this is one of the You have perfect weather,
no bureaucrats, and you can drive anywhere here in this
(04:09):
town now in less than ten minutes. This is the
best version of DC I can remember. Right, This is great.
So I'm having a lot of fun here and I'm
down here of course, our in our DC iHeart studio.
All right. Now, with that said, we've got some updates
on a whole range of things. Oh, this is what
I was looking for when I started off the show.
(04:29):
Katie Porter, we will discuss this. She's running for governor.
She's a congresswoman. She is not a particularly affable one
and may have done some real damage dur a campaign.
You're just gonna have to hear this exchange, but I
will play that one for you. Has gone megaviral. She
(04:50):
can be very nasty, kind of a nasty exchange with
a journalist who's trying to ask her some questions. So
we will get we will get to that as well,
Katie Porter situation. But as I had to mention to you,
we have as of this morning update here on the
James Comy trial. I believe it is going to be
(05:13):
happening January fifth. It is set for so that's pretty quick.
They're they're moving pretty fast on this one. And here
is Fox News is Bill Hammer. This is from this morning,
just with that breaking news and laying out some of
what's going on here for Sankta Komy play it. Here
is the breaking news.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
The former FBI director James Comby in front of a
judge moments ago and a hearing that we did not
think would last long.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
And apparently that is the case.
Speaker 4 (05:41):
He has entered a plea of not guilty to two
charges federal level. Now are producers inside the courtroom say
the former director accused of lying to Congress obstructing a
congressional proceeding. End of the plea moments ago in front
of the judge Michael Knockmanoff appointed by Joe not guilty
(06:01):
on both federal charges. He's accused of lying in front
of Congress back in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
So that is the update inside the courtroom, so now
he's going to trial. One of the most hilarious arguments
against this that I keep seeing all over the place
from the Libs is, oh my gosh, the precedent that
has been set here. What would you do, Republicans if
(06:26):
people started to use prosecutors' offices as weapons of politics?
And to this you just want to say, have you
been asleep for the last decade? Do you have any
idea what has gone on with four different criminal cases
brought against Donald Trump, all of which were bogus civil
cases brought against Trump by the State of New York
(06:48):
in one case, and by a woman who claims from
thirty years ago, thirty something years ago, Trump grabbed her
in a department store. The stuff that they have done,
the lawfair they have done against Trump and his family
alone has done tremendous damage to the public's faith in
(07:09):
all of these different facets of our criminal justice system,
or just our justice system of the courts too, because
some of it was civil. This is atrocious. I mean,
the things that have gone on here, the precedents that
have already been set. Now they want to tell us
we should be worried about going too far in the
other direction. No, they already did this. In fact, what
(07:32):
they have done, what the Democrats have done specifically with
the targeted lawfair against Donald Trump, among many others. It's
really Trump and Trump world, everybody who is Trump adjacent
all the way to January sixth, defendants, right, it's the
whole Trump movement that they have used the prosecutor's office.
(07:54):
They have used lawfare as a tool as a weapon
to to ruin lives, to put tremendous pressure on people,
to financially drain them, to undermine them, to malign them,
to defame them. All of that they have already done.
They sent an FBI team tomorrow Lago and they went
(08:16):
through Malania's sock drawer. And libs want to lecture us
about James Comy, who allegedly lied under oath facing the music.
I'm sorry, is there some special carve out for being
a six foot ten jerk who uses the law in
order to puff himself up and is part of his
(08:38):
own just malignant narcissism. Is there some carve out where
he doesn't have to actually face the music the way
that he has made so many others and I think
entrapped people and abuse the law, most notably General Flynn.
I like to fill in these gaps too, so no
one can say, well, you just said he's abusing, and
no I like to give you the specifics to remind everybody,
(08:58):
to remind everybody that James Comy thought it was funny
to use the Logan Act, which no serious human being
thinks anybody can or would be prosecuted under, as a
total pretext. It's like the equivalent of a swatting call.
It is a bad faith use of law enforcement to
go after the General Michael Flynn, the incoming National Security advisor.
(09:21):
I know it feels like that was a long time ago,
but there hasn't been Well maybe you don't feel that way,
but they'll say that, but there's been no justice for that.
That ambush hasn't been punished. And James Comy thinks that
he's a clever guy for the whole thing, and he
thinks that what was that book? I think was Higher Power?
Is that right? Higher power or something like that. I'm
(09:45):
now the real question you might ask is is James
Comy's book a more brutal read than Kamala is one
hundred and seven days. I cannot answer that question. Because
I haven't read Comy's book, but I will tell you
that is some if competition. That is, you know, Superman
versus Iron Man with the like the super suit. You know.
(10:06):
I mean, that is tough stuff, really really preposterous that
James Comy would think anybody would want to read his
memoir and on his book tour. But such as things are,
he is now facing the music and there's the possibility.
I think it's slim. I don't want to over promise
and under deliver. Ever on this show, I think it
is slim. But here's what I will tell that he
(10:28):
will actually be convicted because it's a it's a Northern
Virginia jury. I was just saying, how much fun, how
much fun DC is with no government bureacrats running around.
They all live in Arlington mostly, you know, they live
a lot of them inside or just outside of the Beltway.
It's going to be a very favorable pool for James Comy.
(10:48):
But here's why I view this is so important. The
message is received, whether Comy is found guilty or not,
the message is received that there will at least be
an effort to hold the other side to the law
and not create a system This is really important. A
system where we are held to an extra legal standard
(11:12):
and they are held to a sub legal standard, or
rather they get to break the law and get away
with it. Meanwhile, they get to prosecute us Trump for
not breaking the law, and we do nothing in response.
We have to at least establish that we will bring
charges against people who have been involved in this law
(11:34):
fair involved in using the government the deep state, however
you want to describe it, to take out people for
purely political reasons. Well, if they break the law in
that process, there will be some form of accountability. And
now there is going to be I think a pretty
high probability just based on the jury pool that calm me,
will be found. In my mind, he'll be found not guilty.
(11:55):
He'll be acquitted on this. But let's see, let's see,
it's a pretty straightforward thing. Did he lie or did
he not lie? Let's see what kind of case the process.
I know, I don't want to I don't want to
prejudge anything here. Let's see what is produced in that court.
You don't need to call me and say, buck, you're
already getting ahead of the cart before the horse here.
(12:17):
I know, but I just I like to manage our
expectations for where this is going. It's it's still a
steep climb. This is a little bit of ice skating
uphill here to think that James Comey is going to
actually be convicted. But the fact that the charge has
been brought alone sends a message we are not going
to just lie down and accept a two tiered system
(12:39):
of justice in this town, Washington, DC, or anywhere else
for that matter. And that is important. That is something
that we all have to recognize as a necessary step
because otherwise it's, you know, heads they win, tails we lose.
Did I do that one right? That's always always feel
like I'm gonna get that one. It's like Bush when
(13:01):
he's like fool me once, can't get fooled again. You know,
it's tougher to say it, especially on a live radio
show than you think it's gonna be, you know, But
that's where this is right now, my friends. That is
the situation. I was just talking before I came on
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I'm a little disappointed, but its cashmere. It's very fancy.
It's very nice, actually, she said, she said, touch the
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Speaker 5 (14:44):
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton mic drops that never sounded
so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. I've been warning people
for years about this comy guy, and I wish if
the president at the time had pulled me aside and
asked me early on in his first term, I would
have shared all you have to know about James Comy.
You would know from the way he acted with respect
(15:15):
to the Martha Stewart prosecution, a prosecution that nobody in
his office but him wanted to bring a prosecution for
which there was no crime, not even any money made
or lost. It was just the whole thing was absurd.
And Martha Stewart is a huge Democrat who does not
like Trump and does not like Republicans. And this is
just about what's what's fair and decent. It's not about politics.
(15:39):
But Komy really has always thought of himself as like
the high priest of the DOJ. So much of Komy,
I will tell you this, so much of Komy reminds
me of Fauci. Fauci is like the the you know,
the the Liliputian version of Komy. They have the same
(15:59):
person soonality type. They pretend it's all about the cause
of the institution, it's really all about them. And they
get this uh, this solyopsism word of the day, solepsism
from all of this, And you like that one. That
producer rally likes that one. And I'm not the only
one warning you about this guy, or have been warning
(16:21):
about this guy for a long time. The great Rush
Limbaugh back in twenty nineteen, he saw exactly who James
Comy was and also knew about his past, which we
should all be reminded of. Played two.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
How many of you have heard or thought that James
call me was a lifelong Republican. I have I've always
thought that James call me was a lifelong Republican. I've
been told that James call Me as a lifelong Republican.
Turns out not to be true. Are you wearing of
James Comey used to be a Communist. In a two
thousand and three interview with New York Magazine, James call
(16:58):
Mey said before voting for Jamie Jimmy Carter nineteen eighty,
he'd been a communist. He admitted, I'd moved from communists
to whatever I am. Now now we know that John Brennan,
Obama's CIA director, was a communist, or at least had
voted for the Communist Party, But I.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Had never heard this about Komy.
Speaker 3 (17:21):
Now we find out that under Obama, the CIA director
and the FBI director both had histories of not just flirtation,
but serious immersion into communism. And like the KGB always said,
no one ever leaves the KGB, nobody ever leaves this
(17:43):
way of thinking.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
Isn't that interesting? You start to see how for some
of these individuals there was an ideological foundation of communism.
And these are people who are at the top of
the national security operat us in this country in recent years, communism,
and then they become some malleable chameleon in politics just
(18:10):
so they can weave their way through the bureaucracy. But
do you think they've ever really changed their collectivist foundation.
Rush didn't think that Komi had, or Brendan for that matter,
and he was right. He warned us about this, and
now perhaps there will be some accountability for the misdeeds
that were done. But we're not going to hold our
(18:31):
breath on Kmy. We're going to see. Look, as you know,
I've always been a big reader. I love books, that's
certainly true. I also like writing a lot, and when
I'm not on radio, I've been busy creating a weekly
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(18:53):
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(19:15):
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Second hour of play in Buck kicks off right now.
We're gonna have Senator Ranpaul joining us at the bottom
about the government shutdown, which I have to say for
(19:37):
my own reasons. Here in DC, I am loving every
minute of It's amazing. I feel like I could hop
on an electric scooter and just do a little tour
of the town and not have to stop anywhere because
there's no one on the streets. It's fabulous, you know.
I just put a little scarf on, you know, in
case it gets Chiley on the scooter and I go
Capitol Building, Georgetown, stop by the White House, High five, Steve. Look,
(20:00):
see how everybody's doing. That's the kind of day it
is over here. It's wonderful, wonderful. They have all the bureaucrats,
you know, jostling together, and you know, making the line
at Starbucks one hundred people long. None of that stuff.
This government shutdowns pretty nice, Pretty nice. So let's dive
into politics in California for a minute show we because
(20:24):
a lot of you have seen this. It's gone viral,
as you know. We have Steve Hilton on to talk
about his run for governor in that state. Gavin Newsom, Hey, everybody,
how you doing. He's turned out he is going to
run for president quite obviously, and he has to give
up his governor's mansion to whoever the next person to
(20:45):
win that contest is going to be. And it's looking
right now, at least on the Democrat side of things,
it's looking like Katie Porter is the likeliest to win. Now,
every state has different rules about how this stuff goes. California,
as I understand it, and some of you live there,
so you're gonna know this better than I do, has
like a top two situation, so you have all these
(21:07):
people that are gonna be running, and then the top
two vote getters are going to be in the general
election the ballot in November of twenty twenty six. I
think that's right. If it's wrong, my team will tell
me in a moment and I'll correct it. But I
think that's basically how it goes. But Katie Porter is
(21:28):
getting a lot of attention she probably did not want
right now. In fact, the newsweek headline here is Katie
Porter's chances of winning California governor election suffer blow. And
let's get into why that is. She sat down with
a journalist. She sat down with a journalist and had
(21:49):
the exchange team, can I do this actually, Producer Mike,
Let's do a little play pause here, right, So I'm
gonna play it. I'm gonna say, all right, let's pause
for a second here because this is a long one.
It's a couple minutes long. So I want to get
in and out of this SoundBite, but I want you
to hear the whole thing, because wow, Katie Porter comes
across as a really nasty and unlikable person and unprofessional.
(22:12):
So let's start this off. This is a CBS interview
with Julie Watts of CBS News California. Come on, it's CBS,
and this is communist broadcasting services like this, this is
not this is home team stuff, reporter, but if you
ask her real questions, she apparently doesn't like it. This
is how it goes play it.
Speaker 6 (22:30):
What do you say to the forty percent of California
voters who you'll need in order to win, who voted
for Trump?
Speaker 7 (22:36):
How would I need them in order to win?
Speaker 1 (22:37):
A man?
Speaker 6 (22:38):
Well, unless you think you're going to get sixty percent
of the vote, you think you'll get sixty percent?
Speaker 8 (22:43):
All everybody who did not vote for Trump will vote
for you. That's what you're in a general election.
Speaker 7 (22:47):
Yes, if it is me versus a Republican, I think
that I will win the people who did not vote
for Trump.
Speaker 8 (22:53):
What if it's you versus another Democrat?
Speaker 7 (22:54):
I don't intend that to be the case.
Speaker 8 (22:57):
So how do you not intend that to be the case?
Do you? Are you going to ask them not to run?
Speaker 7 (23:02):
You know, I'm saying I'm going to build the support.
I have the support already in terms of name recognition,
and so I'm going to do the very best I
can to make sure that we get through this primary
in a really strong position.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
But let me be clear with you.
Speaker 7 (23:12):
I represented Orange County. I represented a purple area. I
have stood on my own two feet and one Republican
votes before. That's not something every candidate in this race
can say if you're from a deep blue area, if
you're from LA or you're from Oakland, you don't have
an experience.
Speaker 6 (23:26):
You just said you don't need those Trump voters, So
you asked me if I needed them to win, So
you don't.
Speaker 7 (23:31):
I feel like this is unnecessarily argumentative.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
What is your question?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
The question is, oh, well, let's pause there for a second.
Let's pause there for a second because it's about to
get really good. Everybody. I want to keep you on
the edge of your seats. Argumentative, argumentative. I got to
tell you, as a conservative dealing with the media like
that's like a like a hiatsu massage. That's not argumentative, Like,
are you kidding me? That's she can't handle that, that's
(23:55):
getting her all. Oh, oh, you're just hearing the beginning
of Hurricane order unleashed. Here. Things are gonna get worse.
Keep playing it.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
It's the same thing I asked everybody that this is
being called the empowering voters to stop Trump's power graph.
Speaker 8 (24:10):
Every other candidate has answered this question this is not
and I said, I support it. So and the question is,
what do you say to.
Speaker 6 (24:17):
The forty percent of voters who voted for Trump.
Speaker 7 (24:20):
Oh, I'm happy to say that. It's the do you
need them to win part that I don't understand. I'm
happy to answer the question. Answer the question as you
haven't written, and I'll answer.
Speaker 6 (24:27):
And we've also asked the other candidates do you think
you need any of those forty percent of California voters
to win?
Speaker 8 (24:32):
And you're saying no, you don't.
Speaker 7 (24:33):
No, I'm saying I'm going to try to win every
vote I can. And what I'm saying to you.
Speaker 8 (24:37):
Is that, well to those voters. Okay, so you I
don't want.
Speaker 7 (24:41):
To keep doing this, I'm gonna call it thank you.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
Whoa, whoa, Hey, hit the pause button. Hit the pause button.
She can't handle that. What exactly is the look is?
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There?
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Is the reporter maybe or things getting a little lost
in translation here about the numbers. Looks she's a CBS journalist.
She's trying to you know, she could be doing like
sideline reporting for the NFL or something, and she happens
to be here with this politician who cares here she
is and she's trying to just she's just trying to
do like a decent job. This is not a gotcha.
(25:13):
I know gotcha every time I used to go on CNN.
It was like an ambush and I had to fight
through it. I know what gotcha is like, This is
not gotcha. This is trying to just clarify a point.
But also you can tell Katie Porter has decided Congressman
Porter has decided to really you know, sink her teeth
into this, and uh, I think just comes across as ogrish,
(25:35):
if you will, I use that term people like that
one online ogrish as in befitting of an ogre. It's
not nice, not nice. The way she's acting here, not nice.
Keep playing it.
Speaker 8 (25:47):
You're not gonna do the interview with them?
Speaker 7 (25:49):
Nope, not like this. I'm not not with seven follow
ups to every single question you ask.
Speaker 8 (25:53):
Every other candidate has.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
I don't care.
Speaker 8 (25:55):
I don't care.
Speaker 7 (25:56):
I want to have a pleasant, positive conversation, which you
asked me about every year you on this list. And
if every question you're going to make up a follow
up question, then we're never going to get there and.
Speaker 8 (26:06):
We're just going to circle around.
Speaker 7 (26:07):
I ask the gable had to do this before ever.
Speaker 8 (26:11):
You've never had to have a conversation to end in order. Okay,
but every other candidate has done this.
Speaker 7 (26:18):
What part of I'm me. I'm running for governor because
I'm a leader, So I am going to make so.
Speaker 8 (26:23):
You're not going to answer questions from reporters. Okay, why
don't we go through?
Speaker 6 (26:27):
I will continue to ask follow up questions because that's
my job as a journalist, but I will go through
and ask these and if you don't want to answer,
you don't want to answer, so nearly every legislative.
Speaker 7 (26:37):
I don't want to have an unhappy experience for you,
and I don't want this all on camera.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
I don't want to have an unhappy experience with you either.
I would love to continue to ask these questions so
that we can show our viewers what every candidate feels
about every one of these issues that they care about.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Okay, isn't that amazing? Also notice the manipulation there. I'm
not a psychiatrists, so I'm not going to say that
has hints of maybe borderline personality disorder or causing a
problem and then saying right away that you're not the
one who wants to cause the problem that you just
(27:13):
cause you know, I'm not going to diagnose this, but
I can tell you this. There are people who could
strikes me as not a good moment for Katie Porter.
But let's if you want maybe you're saying, you know,
maybe she had a bad day. Uh, she wants to
be the governor of the fifth largest economy in the world.
You know, maybe we should just say look to the
(27:35):
record and get a sense as to what is the
real Katie Porter. Like, you know, anyone can have a
bad day, right, anyone can have a bad day. Maybe
you want to I mean, I don't particularly want to
take that position on this, but I want to bring
you this story from twenty twenty three, Representative Katie Porter
scalded ex husband's scalp with boiling potatoes. Documents I shall
(28:01):
read the former husband, a Representative Katie Porter said the
California Democrat frequently abused him verbally this is from The
New York Post, and through toys, books, and other objects
at him during their marriage, even pouring scalding hot mashed
potatoes on his head during a fight. According to divorce records.
(28:22):
Matthew Hoffman, who filed for divorce from Porter in twenty thirteen,
said a request for a restraining order dated April thirtieth
of that year that he was routinely called a bleeping
idiot and a bleeping incompetent by his rage prone spouse,
who also shattered a glass coffee pot on their kitchen
counter in March twenty twelve when she felt their house
(28:43):
wasn't clean enough. She's delightful, delightful. She would not have
let me have a cell phone because she said, quote,
your too bleeping dumb to operate it.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
When she gets angry, I'm quoting here. When she gets angry,
she will claw and scratch her arms and then say
to me, look what you made me do again. I
am not a psychiatrist, but google borderline personality disorder. Uh,
Google some of what's going on here, the creation of
the problem, and then the pretense ones you've created it
(29:21):
that you don't want drama. I'm the I'm not the
one starting the fire here. I don't want anyone starting
fires when you've thrown the gasoline all over the fire
you started. Now, I know, I know what the Democrats
would say here. They'd say, oh, but he retracted that,
and she ended up Oh you mean that his far
more powerful spouse and the very serious money interests aligned
(29:43):
behind her were able to get him to retract something
that he had already put it in a divorce proceeding
because they made him an offer he probably he couldn't refuse. Yeah, okay,
but that did happen. So he retracted those things. But
he said all those things in court documents and they
were on which I think is interesting. Again, I'm just
looking at the totality of evidence. Are we going to
(30:04):
say that Katie Porter had a bad day or were
we getting a window into this member of Congress who
wants to be the governor of California and from there
probably would see yourself as running for president. So I
think it's a pretty fair game to get into all this.
But you may say, Buck, divorce proceedings can get ugly.
I mean, who among us hasn't thrown boiling hot potatoes
(30:25):
at somebody in a fit of rage at some point,
Well all of you, I'm sure. But you know we're
trying to be generous here. I'm trying to take the
maximum benefit point of view for the ogrish Katie Porter,
the bullying Katie Porter here, and so that I would
then just say, well, clearly, she would have a lot
(30:48):
of people who would come forward who have worked with
her to speak to what an impeccable character she has.
What a kind and encouraging boss and mentor she is,
And for that, I bring you Politico Katie Porter and
the bad boss problem. Oh, hold on a second, this
(31:10):
isn't that at all. This is pretty bad quote. Some
former staffers have said that she is I'm trying to
find the quotes here basically deeply abusive and nasty and
prone to fits of rage and temper tantrums. And yeah,
(31:33):
it's abusive to staff, has a massive staff turnover problem.
Sixty five percent of her staff turned over during her
time there, and everyone basically says, at least that has
worked for her says that she's horrible and really mean.
So are we gonna put these data points together? I
think we should. I think we should. I don't think
we can do the benefit of the doubt thing anymore.
(31:54):
Between the scalding hot potatoes thrown at her ex the
staffers who say that she is a brutish and nasty woman,
and now this the rating of a reporter for nothing,
I mean it was. It was a nothing burger and
she was not having it. So I just think that
(32:14):
everybody in California should know. And my broader lesson on
this is somehow the really nasty people in politics, I mean,
the really nasty people in politics are always Democrats. I'm
not saying there aren't people on the Republican side that
can be a little slimy and you know not, but
if you're talking about somebody who's really an abusive son
of a gun situation, you know, Democrats, there's a reason
(32:38):
for that. I know they want to say it's a
both sides thing, but it's not a both sides thing.
And in fact, most of the Republicans that I know
on the hill, and I know many of their staffers,
their staffers all say they're fantastic people and they really
look up to them. That's very common, very common. I
don't I mean, I don't hear that. I hear stuff
(32:59):
about the Democrats. Oh you're like buck Well. Who else
I don't know. Maybe Amy Klobershar of a senate as
Senate fame who is famous for eating her salad with
a comb and throwing things at staffers. Yeah, true stories.
Those are the allegations, at least allegations throwing things at staffers,
eating salad with a comb. You know, do you have
(33:19):
any I don't know any Republicans who eat salad with
a comb and throw and throw things at their staffers.
I'm just saying I do not know of that happening,
so if you do, please call in and tell me.
All right, Look, Israel represents the only true democracy in
the Middle East. They've been a steady ally of the
US since nineteen forty eight, particularly when we needed friends
in that part of the world. Israel is also home
to the Jewish people, same people with a rich history
(33:41):
that has benefited Christians alike for centuries. If you're of
the Christian faith, you likely had a Bible lesson or
who that tells the story of the Jewish people, and
you read or heard the words emphasizing the care and
protection of looking after those that are Jewish, God's chosen people.
Many Christians in America are standing with Israel this month
by participating in a growing movement created by the International
(34:01):
Fellowship of Christians and Jews. It's called Flags of Fellowship.
This country wide effort, the Flags of Fellowship, unites churches
across America planning over one million Israeli flags across our
land show the world that Israel is not alone. To
get more information about how you can join the Flags
of Fellowship Movement. Visit IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 5 (34:23):
You don't know what you don't know, right, but you
could on the Sunday Hang with Clay and Buck Bodjazz.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. We are
joined by Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky. Senator Paul, always
appreciate you making time for us today.
Speaker 9 (34:40):
No problem, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Government shutdown so far, I gotta say it's pretty nice
walking around the streets of DC. I know that's a
very basic view of things, but government seems to be
working reasonably well for a so called shutdown. What is
as as you see it, at issue today? Why have
we seen no progress in the Schumer shutdown negotiations?
Speaker 9 (35:07):
Well, I think the great irony of this situation is
that every Democrat in the Senate and every Democrat versally
in the House as well, voted for these spending levels
in December of last year. So this continuing resolution has
spending levels that were actually set under Biden. These are
the Biden spending levels, and every Democrat has previously voted
for them. The reason they're not voting for them now,
(35:29):
at least according to the Democrats is, well, we want
to renew these temporary Obamacare subsidies. Well, that's moving the goalpost,
because these people have all voted for the spending bill
before and it doesn't include the Obamacare subsidies, never has
And the reason the Obamacare subsidies are expiring is because
that's the law that the Democrats wrote. They wrote them
(35:51):
to be temporary because they were trying to cram a
lot of spending into a reconciliation bill and the only
way they could do it was to make things temporary. Really,
this is all on the Democrats, and eventually they will
fold and they will vote to reopen the government.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Now, why are the if you could dig into this
a bit, Senator Paul, why are these subsidies for Obamacare
both so important to Democrats and so necessary?
Speaker 9 (36:20):
Well, you know, the argument with Obamacare when it started,
you know, background twenty ten, was that it was going
to keep healthcare insurance prices from going up and make
health care more affordable. It turns out, if you look
at healthcare insurance prices, they've gone up ever since. There's
been no slowdown in the increase in healthcare prices. In fact,
when you subsidize something, you're increasing the demand for it.
(36:42):
You actually are, in all likelihood increasing the price of things.
But they haven't been successful. These Obamacare subsidies aren't really
going for the poor. They're actually going to relatively rich
people now. And like I say, they were brought in
by the Democrats during the pandemic. They were said to be, oh, well,
(37:03):
people are having a tough time to the pandemic. We're
going to give them extra money. The real problem, though,
that nobody discusses around here, is there is no money
to give these people. I mean, the money literally has
to be borrowed from China or printed up by the
subtle Reserve. We're two trillion dollars short with the current
levels of welfare and warfare, frankly, and we're two dollars
(37:25):
short a year. Where's the money come from. It's the
best to be borrowed.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, well with gold that I think four thousand dollars
announced now. I mean, I think people are starting to
see that the printing press is very much in use unfortunately.
And I wanted to know if you could also look
into or explain to us a little bit, Senator Paul,
the argument over whether some of this funding or whatever
(37:49):
the portion may be, makes it to subsidize care for illegals.
You're an MD as well as a senator, so you
have a particular insight into this. What is the truth
of that.
Speaker 9 (38:00):
Well, it's confusing in the sense that we do have
many laws that say welfare is not supposed to go
to illegal aliens, but we also have laws that they
illegal aliens aren't supposed to vote either, and we know
for a fact that illegal aliens are The most recent
prominent case of them voting was a guy that was
that superintendent from Des Moines who was here in the
(38:22):
country illegally and registered to vote and voting in Maryland
and had been for some time. So we know that
the states, particularly the Democrats states that have very lax
rules California and others, they just don't really police the
situation all. So we do know that illegal people illegally
in the country are voting. We also know that they're
(38:42):
receiving healthcare as well. So in legislation then previously passed
by Republicans, language was explicitly put in to say it
cannot and should not happen, and the Democrats are trying
to repeal that language now and try to make it
such that states could make the decision to get of
welfare and you know, voting privileges to illegal aliens.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Senator Paul, this isn't the first. I think this is
the eleventh shutdown, right, but this isn't your first rodeo
with this. And I think in the past what has
been at least a narrative the media pounds, whether it's
really fair or true or not, is Oh, the Republicans
are being blamed. This is going to hurt Republicans politically.
I'm certainly not seeing that. And I don't think whatever
(39:26):
data that can be trusted on this, to the degree
can be trusted, shows that. What is the as you
see it for the Democrats I'll speak to specifically if
you can speak to it, maybe on just the Senate side.
What is their calculation here? Why have they decided that
this is the hill they want to fight on.
Speaker 9 (39:45):
I think they're miscalculated. They also, I think the Republicans
have not hit them hard enough yet. I mean the Republicans,
I'm about the only one I hear reminding people that
the Democrats all voted to these spending levels nine months ago.
They're the exact same spend levels. The one reason Republicans
don't bring this up is Republicans used to be critical
of the Biden spending levels, but now the Republicans are
(40:07):
all voting for the spending levels. That's why I'm really
the only Republican voting against not only the Democrats spending levels,
but voting against the Republican levels because they incurred a
deficit this year of about two trillion and are projected
to incur a deesit next year of about two point
one trillion. So I think both parties are terrible in
(40:28):
the deficit. I'm voting against both the Republican and the
Democrat plan because the one thing that is bipartisan up
here is spending money we don't have.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
We're going to be at forty trillion then in this
debt really soon. And you know, Elon Musk came in
with DOGE, and there seemed to be this moment in time,
Senator where there was at least the beginnings of a
willingness to do something about this. It does not look
like that has really to come to fruition. And maybe
that's putting it too gently that we're even trying to
(40:59):
turn the spending curve around do you think that there
will be I know the White House has spoken about this,
some substantial trimming of federal employees that will occur during
the shutdown. How does that work?
Speaker 9 (41:13):
We know those did a lot of good things. I
was a big supporter Elon Musk and the things he
brought to government. We did end up voting on two
recision packages or one, but then they did one as
a pocket recision, and so about twelve billion and four
and aid was reduced. You know, I've been championing reductions
in foreign aid for a decade here and introduced over
(41:35):
thirty five bills to do it. This is the first
time we've done it since I'm here. But the problem
is the Continuing Resolution that Republicans have put forward spends
at the currently appropriated levels for four and aid that
doesn't include the twelve billion dollars in cuts. So basically,
if they passed the continuing Resolution that Republicans want everybody
to vote for now, it'll let the four and aid
(41:56):
back in it. And so if you want to get
rid of four and eight again, we will have to
do the same thing again next year. So taking away
the twelve billion that didn't become the new baseline. It's
not a lower baseline for four and eight. They're going
back to the original one with this continuing resolution. So
another reason not to be too excited about what the
Republicans have put forward is that we're going to start
(42:16):
all over again with the things that does put forward
and the recision packages. We have to do it again
next year.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Do you think there's any realistic scenario where there's a
willingness on the Republican side to make what has to
happen for real cuts to be made. I mean, I
feel like we've been talking about this, you have, I
have a lot of everybody listening now talking about this,
going back to the origins of the Tea Party. So
this is looking like what fifteen years of When are
(42:44):
we going to make cuts? The debt is too high?
The debt is too high. We just discussed that it's
going to be at forty trillion dollars. When do we
decide to do something about this or is it just
a waste of discussion at this point because we haven't
suffered the economic fallout from our profligate spending, is going
to do anything about it?
Speaker 9 (43:02):
Well, the lay of the land is this, there are
no Democrats that will vote to cut one penny of
one dollar of federal spending. On the Republican side, there's
a lot of lip service. But when I presented my
Penny Plan budget, which would balance over five years. I
did this two weeks ago, thirty six Republicans supported it.
Now that's the high water mark. That's the most I've
(43:24):
gotten before. But it also means that I think about
sixteen Republicans do not support it. These sixteen Republicans often
are the leaders of the spending committees, the appropriations committees,
and so there isn't a desire among them really to
cut spending. And so until we have a Republican majority
and a majority of those Republicans are willing to cut,
(43:46):
we don't get anywhere. It also doesn't help when people say, well,
we're not going to look at Social Security or Medicare
and Medicaid. We'll do it sometime in two or three
years from now. We'll make the date in the future.
All of these things, when you take them off limits,
and you don't do anything to food stamps, if you
take all of these entitlements off the table, you really
(44:07):
need there isn't enough waste in TRAUD to cut to
actually balance the budget.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
Well, what do we have to do? I mean, is
this turning into the entitlements discussion again, which nobody wants
to touch.
Speaker 9 (44:17):
And it's about elections. You need more hardcore people. I
think the people out there, you know that I meet
as I travel a country, they are ready to cut spending.
They are ready for more significant cuts, and they're ready
for somebody who'd introduce a balanced budget. So I think
if my penny planned budget were surveyed among the public,
(44:37):
among the Republican public, I think you'd get ninety percent
of the vote, you know. But up here I'm getting
about sixty percent of the Republicans for it. So really,
the Republicans up here are all getting the message. They
need to get the message that the debt is a
real problem and it's time to start cutting spending. But
a lot of them haven't got that message yet.
Speaker 2 (44:55):
How long do you think this shutdown is going to last?
And is it a big deal to you? Whether it
goes for another day or another two weeks, does it
really make much difference? How do you see that The rumor.
Speaker 9 (45:06):
Is that the Democrats have a left wing socialist rally
in DC this weekend, and they're afraid of their left wing,
they're afraid of the socialists, and so they have to
show they're putting up a fight for the Obama the
free stuff, the Obamacare free subsidies. So the rumor is
they will fight through the weekend and then give in.
Next week, they'll give in because there'll be some sort
(45:28):
of public public promise that will negotiate on the subsidies.
And frankly, there probably are fifteen Republicans that will vote
to increase or keep the Obamacare subsidies. They don't care
that it has to be borrowed, they don't care that
it's more big government. So what will happen is all
the Democrats will be for that fifteen or twenty Republicans
(45:49):
will vote with them, and big government always wins. But
I think the public's getting increasingly frustrated with it. So
there's going to be a time at which the public
is going to say, let's you know, let's throw some
of the bums out.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Why do we need subsidies if Obamacare makes healthcare cheaper,
that seems to be a conundrum. Center.
Speaker 9 (46:09):
Yeah, one of the things we could do, and I've
proposed this for years now, I proposed that we let
people consumers, people who buy health insurance, let them bargain collectively.
What I mean by that is, if you belong to Costco,
there are forty four million members of Costco. If Costco
were to buy your insurance for you, my guess is
(46:30):
Costco can get a better price than you can individually.
Speaker 2 (46:33):
If my wife could buy her insurance from Costco, by
the way, it would have happened yesterday if she loves Costco.
So keep going.
Speaker 9 (46:40):
And the rule that's keeping us from doing this is
a federal rule that says you can buy insurance with
a group if you all have to be in the
same employment. You have to be ditch stickers or carpenters
or welders. You can buy your insurance together, but you
can't be in multiple different employment, which is a really
dumb rule. And last Trump administration, I got him to
(47:05):
do an executive order. It was challenged in court. But
I have a bill that would do this. It would
change what's called the Arissa law, and it would let
anybody wants to join any group by insurance. And then
what you'd have is you'd have a head of this
cost codes health insurance buying would sit down with a
head of the big insurance companies and you'd really get
a much better price. And so that's the one thing
(47:27):
you could do that is a market phenomenon. It's a
way of injecting the market that actually would bring down
health care costs.
Speaker 2 (47:35):
Senator rand Paul always appreciate you, sir, Thanks for making
the stop today with us.
Speaker 9 (47:39):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (47:42):
It was a time when dinner was more than just
a meal. It was the hour every day when family
came together. Actually, you know what I'm gonna tell you
something right now. There was the Jesuit headmaster of my
high school when my parents did the first parent teacher day.
He sat all the parents together in the auditorium and
he said, you know, one of the most important things
you can do with your kids is have dinner together.
(48:03):
True story. This is a guy who's been an educator
for like forty years and very very smart guy. He said,
one of the most important things.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
Now.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
I know people were travel busy, but the point is
when you can, you should do it. And Good Ranchers
certainly believes in that. Good Ranchers is calling Americans back
to the table from now through Thanksgiving. Good Ranchers is
encouraging families to sit down and share a meal every Thursday.
Doesn't have to be fancy, just has to be together.
And here's the fun part. Every week, one lucky winner
(48:30):
will win a free Thanksgiving ham for just sharing a
photo of their gathering on their Instagram story and tagging
at Good Ranchers and using the hashtag back to the Table.
That's hashtag back to the table. So visit good ranchers
dot com. Use my name Buck as your code. When
you subscribe for an additional forty dollars off your initial
order plus free meat for life. You get to pick
that free meat gift. It's delicious. Code Buck and forty
(48:53):
dollars off plus free meat for life. It's a great deal.
I eat the last meal I made with Kerry last weekend.
We had Good Ranchers filats. I think it was boned
in New York strip or maybe it was boned in RIBBEI.
I get them both from Good Ranchers. It's all delicious.
But I was working my magic on my cast iron
with Good Ranchers. It was delicious and I'm gonna be
doing it again this weekend. Go to good ranchers dot
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(49:15):
dollars off free meat for life.
Speaker 5 (49:16):
Check it out today news and politics, but also a
little comic relief. Clay Travis at buck Sexton. Find them
on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
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