Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Mar 5 2026

Conflict Accelerates Tech

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton discuss the geopolitical consequences of the ongoing conflict. They examine the paralysis of international shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, rising global oil prices, and how extended military engagement could impact U.S. domestic politics—especially with Democrats preparing to tie gas‑price volatility to Trump’s foreign‑policy strategy ahead of the 2026 midterms. They also discuss the administration’s unprecedented stance that President Trump intends to influence the selection of Iran’s next leader following the assassination of the Ayatollah, raising questions about regime change, constitutional monarchy possibilities, and whether Iran’s military factions might accept a U.S.-favored successor.

The hosts then explore historical parallels, comparing modern drone‑ and intelligence-driven warfare to conflicts such as the Gulf War and the 2003 Iraq invasion, suggesting that advances in technology have made “boots on the ground” less essential. This leads to a broader conversation about whether internal Iranian opposition could rise up without military backing and why genuine regime change is impossible unless parts of Iran’s armed forces defect.

Trump's Texas Tactics

Clay and Buck analyze the fallout from the Texas primary and the growing expectation that President Trump will endorse a candidate in the Texas Senate race. They emphasize how critical the Texas seat is to preserving the GOP’s narrow Senate majority and outline the broader 2026 Senate landscape—highlighting difficult Republican battles in Maine and North Carolina, as well as opportunities in Georgia. The hosts examine how a Trump endorsement, whether for John Cornyn or Ken Paxton, signals a deliberate effort to maintain Senate control ahead of potential Supreme Court vacancies.

A major portion of the hour is devoted to the explosive controversy surrounding Democratic candidate James Talarico, whose far‑left ideological positions, past tweets, and public comments have become a focal point of criticism. Clay and Buck dissect his rhetoric comparing himself to biblical figures, his claims about “white skin” being a societal contagion, and his promotion of Dr. Fauci memorabilia—framing Talarico as a deeply out‑of‑touch progressive misaligned with Texas voters. They compare him to figures like Jasmine Crockett and Beto O’Rourke, arguing that Democrats continue to misjudge which candidates appeal to mainstream Texans. They also break down the Republican strategic calculus, suggesting that Trump may back Cornyn to avoid draining resources needed for more competitive races across the country.

Kristi Noem is Fired

President Trump has fired DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, marking the first removal of a cabinet secretary in this administration. Clay and Buck react in real time as Fox News reports the termination and the appointment of Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma as the new acting head of the Department of Homeland Security. They recount the scandals that contributed to Noem’s downfall—including reports of inappropriate spending, allegations about personal relationships, and a controversial $200 million DHS ad campaign featuring her—describing widespread bipartisan dissatisfaction after her congressional hearing. The hosts speculate on what the leadership change means for border security, immigration policy, and future DHS operations.

Nerding Out with Ryan

Political data analyst Ryan Girdusky, host of It’s a Numbers Game, to break down the dramatic firing of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who was removed just minutes before stepping onstage at an event in Nashville. The hosts analyze President Trump’s official announcement elevating Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma to DHS Secretary, noting that Noem’s reassignment to “Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas” signals a clear demotion. The hour digs into the controversies that precipitated her removal—especially the explosive $200 million DHS ad campaign featuring Noem, allegations that she misled Congress, and her attempt to shift blame to President Trump. Girdusky adds further context about long‑simmering internal frustrations over Noem’s self‑promotion, image‑driven leadership style, and political alliances, all of which contributed to her rapid downfall.

The conversation then pivots to the 2026 Senate landscape, with a heavy focus on the Texas Senate race. Girdusky breaks down why the Trump team appears intent on securing Texas early, explaining that Republicans must lock down states like Texas, Ohio, Iowa, Alaska, and Montana to maintain Senate control. He critiques Ken Paxton’s underwhelming primary performance and praises John Cornyn’s unexpectedly str

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to the Thursday edition of the Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton Show. Great to be here with all
of you across this great land of ours. We have
updates on the air campaign against Iran, the War from
the Sky, continuing on President Trump weighing in with his
assessment of how this is going so far. Concerns rising

(00:23):
as the Strait of Horror Moves has become a bit
of a ghost town, not a lot of shipping going
through there because of concerns about Iranian reprisals, oil prices
jumping a little bit, some are starting to hit the
Pannikin button.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
On that one.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
We will look at the analysis and where things actually
are and what is likely to happen. More on that
Texas Senate race. More on James Tallarico, and I have
to say some of the chatter online is, guys, we
have to hold some of these clips until closer to
the election because some of them are truly astonishing, and
the fact that Democrats believe that this is a person

(01:05):
who will win a Senate seat in Texas. I wouldn't
want this person in charge of the mister softy stand
on the corner. This guy is a loon. This guy
is crazy, but we'll get into it. But he quotes
the Bible. So if you work for the New York Times,
anybody who kind of sounds like this and quotes the
Bible has to be a godly man and so he

(01:26):
must know something. Even though he thinks that Jesus all
about trans all about transing the youth, Big Jesus huge
into transing the kids. According to James Tallerico, we'll talk
more about this, and also I'm a little too excited
about this actually, but apparently it's not the first of
its kind. But a rule, a rule for the Skies

(01:49):
has nothing to do with our air warn iran, a
rule for the Skies when it comes to air travel,
that is, I think in defense of Western civilization. I
think finally the savages are on their back heels thanks
to a United Airlines rule that if you you know,
you know, Clay. I don't want to get into right

(02:10):
now because we have more important things. But this gets
me very excited. And you know what it has to
do with headphone usage on planes. The savages can no
longer have their way with just playing their iPads and
their phones with no headphones. So we all have to
hear whatever garbage they're watching or listening to.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
It is.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
There's a bunch We're gonna have some fun and also
talk about serious things that are going on right now.
I love the James Tallerico story because this thing is
just an utter disaster. We're gonna go to Israel, by
the way, at the bottom of this hour with Yell
Extein and hear what it's like in Israel right now,
and then our buddy Ryan Gardusky's gonna be on with
us to talk to some of this Tallarico and decision

(02:57):
making as it pertains to the Senate as the primaries
have started. But Buck, I think the biggest and most
important thing about Iran right now, if you look at
the overall trajectory of where we're headed, is what is
the exit strategy for Iran in the context of to

(03:20):
what extent.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
Are they going to reach a leader that we are
okay with?

Speaker 4 (03:26):
Because I would suggest I'm curious if you would how
you would analyze this Iran strategy right now I think
is going to be, Hey, we'll just take as many
bombs as necessary, and the president is not going to
stay committed to this long range and all we've got
to do is with stand four or five weeks of

(03:47):
significant bombing and then we'll stick our heads up, see
who is still around, and we'll just elevate somebody. I
think this is what the government in power right now
is thinking. The next diet is not going to be
a lot different than the past. Dyea tola, and we
will try to rebuild from the destruction that is there.

(04:07):
I think the question is to what extent is the
new leader signed off on by America and what is
the time frame? Because I think the longer this goes on,
the tougher it gets for Trump. But the reality is
when we're bombing from a distance, I don't think it
really impacts a lot of Americans in a very significant way. Well,

(04:27):
this is what I mentioned war angle, the oil price
is situation. The oil prices spike is something that certainly
if this continues on and if it happens along the
lines what we saw with the Russia Ukraine War, where
I think it got up to one hundred and twenty
something dollars a barrel at one point because of concerns
over access to fossil fuels, to gas and natural gas

(04:54):
and oil. So that's something that they have to take
into consideration here the Straight of Horn moves he is
a strategic choke point. About twenty percent of the world's
global oil supply does go through that straight, and there
are currently hundreds of ships, tankers, et cetera idling, not
really sure where they're going and what they're going to

(05:15):
do because they're not going to be able to enter
or exit the straight under the current circumstance.

Speaker 2 (05:20):
That has to change.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Trump meanwhile saying this has cut fourteen. Things are going
great from the aerial warfront, even better than he expected
them to play fourteen.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
We're doing very well on.

Speaker 5 (05:33):
The warfront.

Speaker 3 (05:34):
To put it mildly, I would say, somebody said, on
the scale of ten, where would you're ready?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
I said, about a fifteen. The leadership is just rapidly going.
Everybody that seems to want to be a leader, they
end up dead.

Speaker 1 (05:47):
And it's an amazing, amazing thing that's taking place. And
he's saying on a scale of ten, I would rate
it about fifteen. Seems to be very pleased with how
this is going so far that we are in a
position to essentially destroy all of the offensive capability. But

(06:10):
one of the big parts of this is tracking and
destroying what they call the missile cities. Wall Street Journal
had a big piece on this. These underground bunkers essentially
where they store a lot of missiles, and then they
have these mobile missile launchers. Those are like the first
things that US and Israeli planes are looking to pick off.
Not only are we picking them off at the moment

(06:31):
they move to try to fire, but also we're destroying
those bunkers in place, caving them in, and so all
of a sudden, thousands of missiles will no longer be
accessible to the Iranian regime. The military out gunning that
we are seeing right now is I think far beyond
what a lot of people would have expected.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
I think that's completely right.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
And again, one of the things that is so interesting,
and you know this because you're a military history person
as well, is conflict accelerates technological advance, and initially wars
are fought on the technology of the past war. Everybody says, hey,
this would have beaten the past war, and then you

(07:14):
start to see an evolution rapidly. You've seen it with
Ukraine and Russia. I think there is an argument and
I'm not sure you know how long it's going to exist.
But I think there's an argument that boots on the
ground is not a requirement anymore like it would have
been in the past, because you can find and track

(07:35):
people through the technology, technological sophistication and evolution that we
have seen in a way that didn't exist in the past.
And let me hit you with this question, Buck, because
I was thinking about it this morning as I was
doing my prep. When we did the first Gulf War,
I think a lot of people thought, hey, we should
have continued on. This is the one in nineteen ninety ish,

(07:57):
and we could have taken out Saddam Hussein. We didn't,
and then we went back in in two thousand and
three and all of the disaster that ensued from there.
In today's technology, we would have just been able to
wipe out Saddam Hussein without ever having to have the
mass troops in the same way. And I wonder how

(08:18):
that would have changed nineteen ninety and two thousand and
three if we have been able to decapitate Saddam Hussein
like we did with the Aya Tola. And I do
think that President Trump, who just said to Axios Kamani's son.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Is a lightweight.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
This is their are reports that the Ayah Toola's forty
some odd young son is going to be elevated. I
have to be involved in the appointment, President Trump to Axios,
I have to be involved in the appointment. So the
current kid that they're trying to elevate, I say, kid,
he's in his forties, according to Trump, is a lightweight.

(08:58):
And Trump says, I need to be involved in the
choice that they make as to who the next leader is.
So I think what you're seeing is the White House
sees this as a Venezuela like situation. Now the wild
card here is is it possible that there could be
people out there who are rising up inside of Iran.

(09:22):
You're skeptical on that that it's more difficult without us
being boots on a ground to actually have a regime change.

Speaker 1 (09:29):
Well, I gotta tell you, And we have so many veterans,
g WAT veterans listening right now, many of whom serve
tours of combat in Iraq, many of whom served multiple tours,
spent years of their lives over there. And you start
talking about using the Kurds as the cleanup force for Iran,

(09:50):
which is being reported all over the place, And now
the White House has said no, no.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
We're not confirming that. We're not denying it.

Speaker 1 (09:55):
They're not confirming it. But everybody who remembers the days
in Iraq knows that the Kurds, they have a utility.
They they are good allies for what they are in
the areas that are Kurdish. But the moment that you
start telling people who are non Kurdish that the Kurdish overlord,

(10:16):
so to speak, have.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Arrived, you get big problems.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
There's big problems in Iraq and it could cause I think,
big problems in Iran. And I think that's why the administer,
the administration knows. I don't think they're going to do that.
I think they'll want the Kurds to just do what
they did in Iraq, stabilize the more Kurdish portions of Iran.
And the point here is Clay, we got to find
somebody else that has some kind of federalist unifying capability

(10:44):
here to get them. First of all, you have to
get out of You have to ouse the people who
still have control of the guys with the guns, which
has not happened yet. We've taken out the major military equipment,
but until people aren't afraid that men with masks and
AK forty sevens will come in the middle night and
execute them in front of their families for speaking out.
This thing is a long way from over. We have

(11:06):
to get through that phase, which means we need somebody
with ground ground strength of some level, and then we
have to have somebody who will oversee a transition to
elections and a Basically, I think what they want is
a constitutional monarchy. Rather, I think that would be the
best situation. You bring back the Shaw, You have a constitution,

(11:26):
you have elections, the Shaw is kind of a figurehead
for a period of time. Maybe that's the way, but
this is the big missing piece here. I mean, I
feel much better about what's going to happen in Venezuela,
or I should say higher confidence level about what's going
to happen in Venezuela over the next three years than
I're on right now.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
It's just an unknown. I think all that is is
well said.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Here's one thing that I would I would say, I
think the way we could get out as we declare victory,
we allow someone that we don't think is actually anywhere
near as bad as the Ayatola to come to power
and here's the stick.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
The cart is okay, you're the new ruler of Iran.
Here's the stick. Buck.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
We have demonstrated that we can kill any leader of
Iran basically whenever the president of the United States or
Israel decides to do so. And I would think that
if you get a new ruler, that the president is
in some way in favor of that in the back
of their mind, knowing wait a minute, that could be

(12:29):
me too, makes it far more likely that they are
going to follow the direction of the president. And I
think two of urge extent Marco Rubio and look, that's
the deal that Delse Rodriguez has right now.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
In Venezuela.

Speaker 4 (12:44):
They if you read what happened there, they said, hey,
we took Maduro. She was like, no way, and they
were like, here's a video of him. He's in our possession.
You either are going to work with us, or we're
going to take you out and prosecute you too. And
I have to believe that those are the kind of
conversations that are going to take place in Iran.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Now.

Speaker 4 (13:05):
In an ideal world, you would end up with a
constitutional monarchy, and you would have sane rulers and you
would have a brand new regime that comes in, and
Iran would become a flourishing marketplace of ideas in a
way that it was prior to the rise of the
Islamic Republic.

Speaker 2 (13:22):
That might be too optimistic.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
So having a ruler that we know doesn't have the
ability to get nuclear weapons is a supreme success. As
we said yesterday, if we could go back in time
and keep North Korea from having nuclear weapons, the world
would be much safer.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
Here.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
We may well have done that for Iran. And what
I come back to is this is the antithesis of
what most politicians do. Most politicians just worry about the
time when they're in office, and then they leave big
messes for the next politician to have to try to
clean up. Trump is making, here, to his credit, a
generational decision that he will not personally necessarily benefit from

(14:03):
very much in the next two years and change that
he has to be president of the United States, and
that is actually incredibly commendable. Trump is trying to do
a lot of things right now that I think are
generational in nature that will not injure directly to his benefit.
In fact, if you look, as you mentioned at the
price of gas in the short term. It honestly has

(14:26):
a political cost that is more substantial for him than
the benefit that he will get out of it.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
We shall see.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
That's my biggest takeaway from all of this. People that
are saying it's great, people that are saying it's terrible.
No one knows yet. I have a lot of faith
in Trump and his team, but it is faith. It
is not a done deal. So let's see what they're
able to pull off here they have, just like with tariffs,
I said, Trump has earned the right to have us say,

(14:55):
all right, sir, see this through.

Speaker 2 (14:57):
This is why we elected you.

Speaker 6 (14:59):
All right.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
If you took twenty one thousand dollars from your savings
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worth about one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars today.
That's more than eight hundred percent increase over two decades.
Smart Americans have been diversifying a portion of their savings
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(15:20):
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(15:41):
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Speaker 6 (15:53):
Making America Great Again isn't just one man, It's many.
The team forty seven podcasts at.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck podcast feed.

Speaker 6 (16:03):
Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get
your podcasts.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Welcome in our number two Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show.
We appreciate all of you hanging out with us. We're
going to talk with Ryan Gardusky in the third hour.
We were just talking with Yile Eckstein in Israel in
the first hour of the program. Let's talk about a
couple of things here, Buck that I think are interesting

(16:30):
on the American political front. First of all, the fallout
of what happened in the Texas primary on Tuesday has
led to reports that President Trump is potentially going to
endorse and that he is ready to have a nominee

(16:51):
in the Senate in Texas. What is that telling us
about the landscape in general? I think it is that
President Trump is really seriously focused on preserving the majority
in the Senate. The House, I think is going to
be more challenging because there are a lot of different

(17:13):
races to focus on. In the Senate, We've got a
fifty three forty seven advantage for the Republicans right now,
given the JD vance breaks the ties, that means that
Democrats would have to pick up four different seats. And
if you look at the way the landscape of the
different states are setting up, Maine is going to be

(17:35):
tough for Susan Collins. That is a blue state that
I know they break it up and that there is
a red part of that blue state. But Susan Collins
seems to be almost the only Republican that can win
in Maine.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
Right now.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
You've got a really difficult race shaping up in North
Carolina open Senate seat. Michael Wattley is going to be
going up against Roy Cooper. Roy Cooper is a popular
former governor who been elected statewide before, So that is
going to be a tough battle. And then you've got Georgia,
which is probably the best opportunity of Republicans to pick

(18:11):
off an existing seat where Usoff is running. But you
start to run through all these different maps and it
almost becomes impossible for Democrats to win control of the
Senate if Texas is preserved. And so I think President
Trump is making a calculated decision about what exactly he

(18:34):
wants to do to preserve that Senate majority. And you say, Okay,
what's going on with that Senate majority? I think there's
a decent chance buck that one of the older Supreme
Court justices, maybe even more than one of the older
Supreme Court justices, decides to step down, given the fact
that we have basic majority, gets a Supreme Court justice

(18:54):
life tenure. I don't know how long it's going to
be until Republicans have control of the Senate and the
presidency again. Might happen this year, but you would like
to have it happen for the next couple of years,
given the ages that everybody is in the Senate right now.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
So there's gonna be a lot of focus on the
House and we know what they will do.

Speaker 4 (19:14):
They will impeach it will become difficult to get anything
through Congress at all. I would argue it's very difficult
to get everything through Congress now. But Ken Paxton, who
we just reached out to to invite on the program,
has just said he would drop out of the Senate
race if the Save Act were passed and they ended

(19:34):
the filibuster in order to do so. I think this
is an intriguing political situation that we're in because John Thune,
now the leader of the Senate, is put on the
hot seat a bit here because he knows that basically
his preservation of a Senate majority is almost guaranteed if

(19:54):
they passed the Save Act.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
But that.

Speaker 4 (19:59):
Is the challenge that we face, and again we have
an offer out to paston. There have been reports that
Trump is going to endorse Cornyn, the sitting incumbent.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
One bit of update for all of you out there,
there is a live.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
Press conference update in Austin, Texas on the shooter that
killed multiple people in an Austin nightclub bar shooting scene
and so were run. We are running on that and
we will get you an update on that information. Although Buck,
I think, as we said on the program, when you
show up in a Iranian T shirt kind of a

(20:38):
suggestion that maybe you're acting out as a basis of
terrorism for that behavior.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
So we will we will talk about all of that.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
Now, what's your assessment here, Buck as you analyze this
again the Texas Senate. To me, it's the the larger
story here is President Trump sees that Texas seat if
it's in Republican hands. The map just doesn't add up
for Democrats very easily. Maybe you get Maine, maybe you

(21:10):
get North Carolina. You might be favored there, but then
you would have to flip Ohio, you would have to
flip Texas. We just had Steve Danes step down in Montana.
But Montana would be a tough flip. And that presumes
that you win the toss ups in Trump states, in Georgia,
in Michigan that kind of map. Iowa's out there too,
but seems difficult. I think Trump feels, if he has

(21:33):
Texas in his back pocket, that the Senate majority is confirmed,
and I think that's motivating a lot of his actions.

Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yeah, I think that the Senate's looking good for Republicans overall.
I think that you.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
Are going to have a tougher time with the House,
and this is the conventional wisdom that everyone has on this,
because it's probably going to be the case. I would say,
James taller Rico, here he is, this is seven. He says,
They're gonna call me a radical leftist and a fake Christian,
maybe because you are, James, but let's talk about this

(22:08):
play seven.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
They're scared of the movement we are building. They're gonna
throw everything they have at us. They're gonna call me
a radical leftist. They're gonna call me a fake Christian.
They'll call our movement on Texan, on'n American, They'll call
us a threat. The only truth is we are a threat.
We are a threat to their corrupt system. Two thousand

(22:31):
years ago, when the powerful few at the top hurt
those at the bottom, that barefoot rabbi didn't stay in
his room and pray. He walked into the seat of
power and flipped over the tables of injustice. To those
who love this state, to those who love this country,
to those who love our neighbors, it's time to start

(22:52):
flipping tables.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
Oh, just comparing himself to Jesus. This guy, very humble,
very humble, fellow, Sames Tallarico. This tweet has been getting
more attention.

Speaker 2 (23:03):
This was him.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Speaking or rather tweeting, after the Ahmad arbery case. He wrote,
this is in a twenty twenty White skin gives me
and every white American immunity from the virus, but we
spread it wherever we go through our words, our actions,

(23:26):
and our systems. We don't have to be showing symptoms
like a white hood or a Confederate flag to be contagious.
Our inherent racism, as white people play, is contagious, and
we have to seek to contain that contagion by just
having our white skin. This guy doesn't think he's a leftist.

(23:46):
I mean, I really won't to ask the question between
the God is trans or non binary? You gotta trans
the kids. Abortion is exactly what Jesus had in mind.
Loves Jesus loves abortion. It's great to kill babies, and
white skin is a form of contagion that pollutes society
everywhere it goes. If these are all his positions, if

(24:08):
he is not a leftist, who is a leftist? I
want to know if he is not to the left
of the Democrat Party, who is I'm just curious.

Speaker 4 (24:17):
I'm gonna say this, and some of you are going
to say he can't be serious, Clay, I'm serious. I
think he may be crazier than Jasmine Crockett.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
Oh no, I think so too. I think so too.

Speaker 4 (24:26):
It's possible that this guy is further left wing than
Jasmine Crockett was, and I think he's crazier.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
I mean, he posted did you see this? I shared this?

Speaker 4 (24:38):
In December of twenty twenty one, he said his favorite
Christmas gift was a Doctor Fauci action figure, and he
said that everybody in Texas needed to make sure that
they got their COVID shot and had gotten their most
recent round of boosters December of twenty one.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Yeah, that's you know.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
December of twenty one is a lot of people. You know,
March in April twenty twenty, you go back in time.
By May of twenty twenty. Somehow you and I were
smart enough to be able to deduce everything that had
to do with COVID. So I'm giving people passes in
March and April of twenty twenty and kind of the
confusion of the moment. But by May of twenty twenty,
like the whole COVID game, the rig job should have

(25:20):
been a parent. If you were paying attention December of
twenty one, posting a Fauci Action figure. You are a
committed left winger, and you mentioned this a little bit
in the first hour. But I think tall Rico actually
is a interesting dynamic because it feels very much like

(25:40):
Tim Walls. This is people who are leftists, left wing
women largely trying to pick guys that they think will
appeal to normal guys and failing miserably because they don't
understand how to talk to normal dudes. Remember when they

(26:02):
try to call Tim Wall's coach Walls, and they put
him in the plaid shirt and they gave him a gun,
and they sent him out and they said, look, he
wears boots. He's a totally normal guy. And then totally
normal guys watched Tim Walls and they said, this is
not a totally normal guy. James Tallerico is a lesbians
idea of a white guy that will appeal to normal

(26:24):
white guys and normal men out the Christian to Christians, specifically, just.

Speaker 1 (26:29):
Because he does the I talk about Jesus thing, He's
going to appeal to anybody who believes in Jesus. This
is the New York Times editorial Board version of a
white Christian guy from Texas who other people who go
to Christian Christian churches are going to find common ground with.
It's it's absurd that again, they just have no idea.

(26:52):
It's like a different species to them.

Speaker 4 (26:54):
If it's like an alf they're trying to translate a
language and that they don't really understand and find someone
who they think can speak to people that they recognize
they have lost.

Speaker 2 (27:05):
And so I just don't think.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
There's going to be any any ability here whatsoever UH
to UH to corral voters now on the Paxton front
and the UH and the corn In front. I think
this is a tactical decision from Trump that he wants
to allocate resources so that we can make a real

(27:31):
run in Michigan. He knows that Georgia is going to
be a pick up a ble. He knows that Maine
and North Carolina are going to be super difficult battlegrounds
in theyeat Ohio and Iowa and UH and Texas and
Montana and all these other different states. And he's trying
to figure out how we can spend the least amount
of money necessary in Texas to win this race. And

(27:54):
I think Trump has been convinced that that is by
him endorsing John Corny. Now, Cornin beat Paxton by a
small margin of votes in the primary, and I believe
what happened was the Cornin people went back to Trump
and they said, ken Paxton wasn't able to beat us

(28:14):
head to head in the Republican primary. You have to
get over fifty percent support in order to be the
official nominee. So we have the runoff in late May,
and they are saying he's not going to be able
to beat us in May, either whether you believe it
or not. And then there's going to be one hundred
million dollars spent or more in this additional primary potentially,

(28:38):
and then you're going to have to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars more if Paxton is the nominee in
order to beat tall Rico. Now here's what I would say.
I think whoever the Republican nominee is is going to
beat tall Rico. I think they're going to raise a
lot of money for him, just like they did for Beto.
But I think this guy is actually a far less
appealing version of Beto. I think he's crazier. I think

(29:02):
he's got further left winging opinions. Just Sato's a little
more handsome.

Speaker 2 (29:08):
Beto's a better looking guy.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Better looking guy, you know, Beto in those Wrangler jeans,
a little more, a little more exciting to the ladies
and some of the guys than Talla Rico is. So
you know, we can just call it out. We'll say
say it like it is. But I think that this
guy is I think this guy is toasting the election.
I think there's no chance. And now you should never

(29:30):
say that Texans. You need to show up, you need
to vote, you need to make sure that this doesn't
end up happening. But they're they're not even running a
passable version of a Texas Centrist in this campaign. They're
running a a an ardent leftist. I mean, he is
a leftist. There's no way around that. Just because you

(29:50):
talk about God doesn't mean you aren't a leftist. In fact,
there are a lot I can speak from the Catholic
church side of this, there are a lot of commi
Catholics running around, including in the clergy, which is very disappointing.

Speaker 4 (30:01):
Well, I think also you could see where Jasmine Crockett
had a base black female voters in particular, were going
to show up for her in a substantial way. I'm
not sure what James tall Rico's base is, and so
again I think either Paxton or Cornyn would win. But
I do believe that now that we're in sort of
strategic season for analyzing, there's been a lot of talk

(30:24):
about the quality of Senate nominees in different states, and
we've talked about this before. In Georgia, Republicans have lost
three straight Senate races that they should have won, just
point blank. Three straight Senate races in Georgia were all winnable.
Warnock and Assa are not great candidates, and Georgia Republicans

(30:46):
have not been able to get across the finish line
because they haven't had a good enough nominees. Meanwhile, Brian
Kemp wins by eight points. Every other office in the
state overwhelmingly comfortable wins. We got to get better nominees
across the board, and so I think this is the
strategic analysis. We'll open up phone lines. A lot of
Texans will have strong thoughts on this. We also have

(31:07):
invited Paxton and corn In both on the program. As
this is playing out in real time, but in the meantime,
you heard us talk with the isle Xtein just a
little bit ago. Conflict in the Middle East is putting
Israeli citizens in harms way again. The threat is real
and it's intense, and as a result, we need as
many bomb shelters in Israel as possible. We need as

(31:28):
many places underground to be able to keep people safe.
They've got hospitals underground. Now we saw what they have
to do because they're so afraid of bomb hitting hospitals.
We need life saving food, first aid and emergency essentials.
The IFCJ is helping to ensure hospitals, emergency rooms, and
shelters are stocked with critical medical supplies. Aid focused on

(31:49):
Israel's most vulnerable, the sick, the elderly, children, families. But
the Fellowship needs your most generous gift today to make
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eight or eight eight if CJ. That's eight eight eight
or eight eight if CJ. You can also go online
at IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
Spend time with Clay.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
And find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever
you get your podcast.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. You know, Buck,
there's a lot of good news out there, and I
don't think we discussed this on the program yet. I
saw this and I thought to myself, you know what,
we should dive into this. And I meant to mention
it a day or so ago. But your home state
of Florida. I know there's a lot of frustration out there.

(32:50):
People say, oh, you know, what's the impact? Nothing ever changes.
It doesn't matter who wins races, it's all going to
turn into I think a Sometimes people just get so
much negativity running. And I do think this is important
and worth breaking down Florida voter registration.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
Did you see this?

Speaker 4 (33:16):
This is from a guy named Michael Pruser who does
the data on this. Let me hit you with some
numbers because I think Governor Ron DeSantis and a lot
of the Republican Floridian establishment has not gotten enough attention.
And I do believe the story of Florida is occurring
across many different states simultaneous. According to the most recent

(33:40):
numbers that came out, this is the beginning of March.
So through the end of February, Republicans now have an
advantage of nearly one point five million overall voters in
the state. That is five point five million registered Republicans
in Florida. They are now four point four million registered Democrats.

(34:05):
Now that's a pretty impressive overall outcome. But what's interesting,
Buck is if you go back to just let's see
just twenty sixteen, right as Trump was coming into office,
right before DeSantis came into office, there were just four
point five million registered Republicans and there were four point

(34:27):
nine million registered Democrats. So Democrats have lost about five
hundred thousand and Republicans have added roughly a million. Palm
Beach County, which was used to be a bastion of
the Democrat Party, is going to flip red very soon.
I believe that will leave only three counties, three or

(34:50):
four counties total that even have a Democrat majority. So
if you're out there and you're frustrated, and I get it,
and you say, hey, who gets elected doesn't matter. And
I know there are some of you out there in
the market because we hear from them all the time. Florida,
I think is an incredible story about what happens when
there are good policies put in place, when there are smart,

(35:14):
committed Republican leaders put in place, and when they execute.
And I would argue right now that Florida is the
base of the Republican Party. And for those of you
out there who can remember Florida as the ultimate swing
state battleground in all of the nation, it's really.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Kind of incredible to see.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
And sometimes we miss progress that is occurring because it's
easier to focus on negative stories and it's easier to
be upset on a day to day basis. But Florida
is one of the greatest success stories in Republican Party history.
If you look at what's happened over the last decade,
and you, as a Floridian now buck are part of
that mass influx of people. I actually think Florida is

(35:59):
pois to become even more of a leader in Republican
Party circles going forward. It's really an incredible story. And
I don't think he gets talked about enough in a
positive way.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
No, I think it's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (36:13):
It's obviously I live here and I'm so pleased to
see how well everything is going.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
So the numbers speak for themselves. Fortress Florida is stronger
than ever.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Ron de Santis, who has stepped away from the national
spotlight a bit in the last couple of years, but
he has done a phenomenal job as governor, and I
think there's still some very worthwhile stuff that he's trying
to get through in his last year. And it shows
you that you can have reasonable, competent people in charge

(36:48):
of state government. It is a thing that can happen,
and it's a good thing when it happens. It makes
people safer, it makes businesses more prosperous, it makes your
day to day life more efficient, to streets are clean.
I mean all these things that you'd like to think
all government is doing at some level, or rather all
necessary government is functioning in a way to make your
life better or at least not make your life worse.

(37:11):
And unfortunately, in New York City, I experienced the other
side of this, so I know what it is like
on both sides of this coin. I know what it's
like to be in a place New York where the
people in charge are in some cases ideologically dedicated to
destroying your quality of life and taking from you and

(37:32):
blaming you for the problems that some of their policies
are exacerbating. And I've seen the other side of it,
where you are welcomed and if you are law abiding,
you have the benefit of law enforcement around you. So
therefore you get to lead a safer, more orderly, and
more pleasant existence. And that is what we have in Florida.

(37:52):
So yeah, man, it's great. And I just the people
that are still holding out in some of these other
places who are I'm not talking about the Republicans who
live in California.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
I get it, you got family there, you love your state.
It's a beautiful state. You want to go.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
I mean the Democrats who are still in these states
who don't get it. I don't understand what they don't
get at this point, well I do. It's a delusion,
like a manufactured delusion. Which is a fantastic book that
all of you should get from the New York Times
bestseller list last week.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
I highly recommend it.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
It is a spectacular book. I get sold many copies,
and I do believe that one of the big untold
stories right now is Florida is an example of the
census and how the census is going to swing in
a really transformative way for the map. The map is

(38:48):
not going to change until twenty thirty, but the legacy
of COVID when you look at what's happened with Texas,
with Tennessee, with Florida, there are a lot of other
states to point to as well. Is Democrats' ability to
win nationwide elections is going to be severely curtailed starting

(39:09):
in twenty thirty. Now, twenty twenty eight is still going
to be a battle that's fought on. Frankly, a map
that has shifted in Republican Party directions. But all of
this is going to be I think a super important
story that is not getting enough attention. And buck this
doesn't even take into account what I think the Supreme

(39:30):
Court is going to do. And again this is not
being I'm trying to be positive here because there's so
many things that I think don't get enough attention. I
was thinking about the Florida numbers and the fact that
people are voting with their feet because of the leadership
of Ron DeSantis and others. But also look at what
the Supreme Court's likely to do when it comes to
race based congressional districts. I don't think they're going to

(39:53):
give their ruling in time to impact the twenty twenty
six midterm cycle, because I think they're going to say
it's too political, but they, I believe, are going to
do away with race based congressional districts. Right now, it
is considered constitutional to say, hey, we're going to have
a majority black district, and we'll draw that district so

(40:14):
that it encompasses all these different interstates and neighborhoods. And
you look at some of the most jerry mannered communities
out there, many of them are race based drawn districts
for black voters. The country has actually become so much
more diverse with Hispanic and Asian and other people of
different backgrounds that this black white dynamic and black based

(40:37):
districts I think are not going to be allowed. And
you say, Okay, Clay, what's the impact of that going
to be by twenty twenty eight. That could swing twenty
seats towards Republicans because those districts being not able to
be jerrymandered that way. So if you think about that ruling,

(40:57):
which I think is going to come down this summer,
and then you think about what's going to happen with
the twenty thirty census and using Florida as an example
of how population has shifted, the map for twenty thirty
and beyond is going to be massively in favor of
red states.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
And here's something else.

Speaker 4 (41:17):
I think the acceleration of voters from blue states is
going to move even faster because if you look at
the budgets of New York and California, for example, they
spend way more than a state like Florida or Texas,
big states would spend, and they get far weaker results.
And I think that is all going to Again, this

(41:39):
is big picture talking next five six years, All of
that is going to that transformation is going to occur
even more rapidly. So I understand a lot of people
out there saying, and I get it because I'm impatient.
I want things to happen as quickly as they possibly can.
I don't think that we're talking enough about how much
difference that's going to make in the years ahead. Now,

(42:00):
should we still pass the Save Act and ensure that
federal elections are reliable and that we do something crazy
like require somebody to show up with a photo photo
ID in order to vote. Yes, that is a non
non negotiable to me. It should happen, and I understand
how that can be frustrating when things like that aren't happening.

(42:21):
But I do think the larger trend lines here are
not being talked about enough and they are incredibly favorable.
And this is what good governance does. People do notice
and they vote with their feet.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
Indeed, that's excellent. Clay's good at the whole stump speech thing. Everybody.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
I think he's getting any ideas it could be kind
of a wide open field in twenty twenty eight. Laara,
we should talk. I'd be a great chief of staff.
I'm just saying. I'm just throwing it out there, mister
Klay Travis, you have the political gift of gab. Sir,
I feel like I'm ready to move to Tennessee, and
I live in Florida. It's already great here.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
I just think that again, results really do matter, and
sometimes it's frustrating when you don't see those results in
real time.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Look at Florida, it really is a great story.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
You've never lived in a deeply dysfunctional well, I sctouldn't
say that you lived in DC.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
But well, we got breaking news wow wow up on
the screen.

Speaker 4 (43:22):
Oh boy, I was asking I was asking Buck if
we should bring this up because there was a bunch
of noise.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
I've got the vapors. I've got the vapors. Christine Noaman
has been fired. Everybody Christine Noman has been fired. They're
telling me, oh, lord.

Speaker 4 (43:38):
Man, this is the first Cabinet secretary to be removed
from office. We were talking off air about the fact
that the odds and the prediction markets had gone to
ninety percent that she was out. Wall Street Journal has
really kind of come after with a bunch of stories
about spending, and so Christy turns out someone who's corrupt,

(43:59):
cheats on her huh, been in shoots dogs for fun,
isn't the best person to put in charge of maybe
your most important federal agency. I'm glad the administration is
moving in the right direction here. So now who is
going to be the DHS secretary? That's gonna be the
next question. So christineoam out. That's breaking news. Just came
up on Fox News as an alert. There's a possibility
I guess that Tom Homan could be could slash she

(44:22):
should say alleged.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
By the way, with all of that alleged, these are
all allegations of course, Yes, Christine Home is gonna step
down and Tom Holme is taking over.

Speaker 4 (44:32):
Maybe I don't know. I'm not sure who that next
person is going to be. Breaking News will come back
and talk about who might be. Oh wow, she's being
replaced by Mark Wayne Mullen, Oklahoma Senator.

Speaker 2 (44:46):
Here.

Speaker 4 (44:46):
We just just on the show this week, friend of
the show, Mark Wayne Mullen. That's according to breaking news
from from Fox News, senator from Oklahoma will now take
over as the head of DHS currently.

Speaker 1 (45:01):
The hearing was disastrous from Republican and Democrat side of things.
We didn't really cover the hearing, but no im had
a hearing on Capitol Hill. She was asked about a
special government employee who travels with her who is not
her husband, and that did not go over well. She
was asked a number of things that did not go
over well, including a two hundred million dollar ad campaign
starring her. That's taxpayer dollars, everybody, two hundred million dollars.

(45:26):
So President Trump, this is big news. So look, we're
gonna go to break, we'll come back and we'll talk
about it. This is the first Cabinet secretary in two
point zero. There's been a lot of stability so far.
This is the first Cabinet secretary out. Michael Walls has
shifted right. They moved him to Ambassador to the UN
if I'm not mistaken from inside of the government. So

(45:48):
that's the biggest move prior to now.

Speaker 4 (45:50):
But again, breaking news, Christy nom Out and Senator Mark
Wayne Mullen of Oklahoma up now to be the new
head of DHS. We'll talk about that we come back again.
Breaking news coming down right now as well.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
I just love to see this Trump administration making smart
decisions and doing the best thing for the American people
and for the mission. That's where I come down on
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Speaker 2 (47:54):
Ain't imagining it. The world has gone insane.

Speaker 6 (47:58):
We claim your sanity with Clay and fucking find them
on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (48:06):
Third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off now. Our
friend Ryan Gradusky joins us.

Speaker 2 (48:10):
He is the host.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
It's a numbers game, a fantastic podcast breaking down all
the data in politics. You can be smarter than all
your friends about what's happening in these elections and the
polls and all the things going on. Check out It's
a numbers game on the Clay and Buck podcast network. Ryan,
thank you for being back with us. I want to
get to Texas. I want to get to all that stuff,
but first I have to ask you. You might have

(48:34):
heard the big breaking news Christine nom fired from DHS
and has some Actually, Clay, do you want to read
what the job is that she's now being moved to
because it's it's a doozy Go ahead.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
Yes, President Trump has posted on truth Social and by
the way, we should mention she's speaking right now here
in Nashville. So they demoted her and then she's going
directly in front of the media right now to speak.
So here in Nashville, so that seems like a difficult

(49:06):
spot where I am here is what President Trump posted.
I am pleased to announce the highly respected United States
Senator from the great state of Oklahoma, Mark Wayne Mullen,
will become the United States Secretary of Homeland Security effective
March thirty first, twenty twenty six. The current Secretary, Christy Noam,
who have served us well and has had numerous and

(49:27):
spectacular results, especially on the border. We'll be moving to
be Special Envoy for the Shield of the Americas, our
new security initiative in the Western Hemisphere. We are announcing
on Saturday in Durral, Florida. I thank Christy for her
service at Homeland and then a very strong endorsement of

(49:51):
Mark Wayne Mullen as her replacement.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
Again, she is speaking right now, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
Has she been sent to the archives because special envoy
to something I've never heard of before.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
It doesn't sound that good.

Speaker 5 (50:02):
Yes, she might as well be ambassador to Greef. That's
not when she's on the outs. This has been the
rumors about Christine Home and the dislike on Christian Home
has been going on. Basically since she became DHS secretary.
The very expensive four foot long weaves and wigs and
the press conferences, and it's been a lot, a lot

(50:23):
of people have them liked her. Her association quote unquote
with with a former Trump campaign manager, Corny Lewandowski, has
not done favors from anyone in the interior of the
Trump administration of the close people associate with him who
do not like Corey Lewandowski. So there was a lot
going And basically what Trump said is he accused her

(50:43):
of lying to Congress, which is a federal crime. He
said that he knew nothing about the two hundred million
dollar ad featuring Christie Nome. I don't know. I imagine
there'll be another congressional investigation of Democrats take the House.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
Yeah, this is a this is interesting. Again, she's speaking
right now, and I would just suggest to you.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
She tried, she tried to throw Trump under the bus.
Is actually what happened here. She got caught with her
hand in the til two hundred million dollars of Christy
Nome's face everywhere. You're a government employee, like you're not
running for office right now, and she says, well, Trump
said it was okay, and Trump is saying, I did
not say that was okay.

Speaker 2 (51:26):
So it is a it is a mess.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
This is the first cabinet secretary to uh to lose
his or her job. And again, if you're looking on
the Senate side, uh Ryan confirmation for senators who rise
to or ascend or I guess it could theoretically be
a demotion depending on your perspective, but usually it's seen
as a promotion to become a cabinet secretaries. Usually they

(51:53):
get confirmed fairly rapidly, as sort of a Senate nod
in their direction. And so I would think, I think
this will not be something that gets bogged down in
a significant way. But what it does mean is Oklahoma
is going to need a new senator and what is
a fairly even United States Senate right now?

Speaker 5 (52:15):
Yeah, And I haven't had a chance to look up
the process of how they either appoint or nominated senator
remember the Senate. The current governor of Oklahoma is very moderate,
especially on immigration. He has said that he doesn't believe
that illegals are going to vote there or the Democrats
want illegals to vote, and he has been very complimentary

(52:36):
towards illegal alliance. There's another can running for governor who
has called for basically unvetted immigration. So Oklahoma and James
Langford worked with Biden on a bill that would have
given them, you know, five thousand illegals crossing a day. Oklahoma,
for a conservative state, has not always elected the best people.
Martin Wayne Mullen is definitely the most conservative member of
the delegation. So it'll be said to see him go,

(52:59):
but it will be very interesting who is his replacement.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
More details coming out here. Bill Malusian reports Senator Kennedy
of Louisiana had that contentious back and forth, said that
when he told Trump about it, Trump was quote mad
as a murder hornet that Christy Nome claimed he approved
the two hundred million dollar ad contract. Kennedy said he

(53:27):
was upset by that contract. He called the White House,
told them in advance he was going to press her
on that at the hearing, and the White House was
not opposed to it. So this feels a little bit
like a political hit where Senator Kennedy, who is a Republican.
Usually you guys all watch these hearings, Usually Republican witnesses

(53:50):
Cabinet members are treated pretty kindly by the party that
is the same as theirs and grilled on the opposite side.
When this hearing, as Buck mentioned, last hour, kind of
went off the rails a little bit and Republicans came
after her. It was a sign that there was disapproval

(54:10):
on both sides. And now again Mark Wayne Mullin is
in and Christy Noam is out.

Speaker 1 (54:17):
I would just add to this Ryan that it's not
over Minneapolis. From what we can tell, Minneapolis seems to
have played very little. Now I'm sure that that's you know,
you could say that that was compounded into all of this,
But it's not that she messed up the messaging in Minneapolis,
which I think she certainly did. It's that when push
came to shove, she tried to shove Trump under the bus,

(54:40):
because there's no way to justify a two hundred and
twenty million dollar ad budget starring you as a government
employee about a government program.

Speaker 5 (54:49):
Yeah, it was there. As I said before, there had
been a number of people who really questioned why she
ever got the job. They dad never liked her in
that position, They didn't like her with her I mean,
south Park humerized it very well. But the fact that
she has this expensive makeup ads and these expensive makeup

(55:10):
jobs and these giant weeds, and is on television every
thirty second kind of promoting herself that it doesn't come
as a shock that they did not oppose. Tenator Kennedy
wanting to ask her about this, and it's yeah, it
sounds like this is there's been a lot of blood,
no love loss between the two for a very very well.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
I just I bring this up, Clay, just because to
me it's Trump is loyal to people who are loyal
to him, and Christy Nomes's main asset had been an
unflinching loyalty to Donald Trump. I will say that for her,
she was unflinchingly loyal to Donald Trump because she thought
it benefited her. And then when she got grilled and
the heat was on, she turned on Trump and Trump
said see you later. That's what I see happening here.

(55:54):
So I don't disagree either.

Speaker 5 (55:56):
Ryan.

Speaker 4 (55:56):
I'm gonna ask you about the larger Senate issues at
because now Mark Wayne Mullen factors in a bit here.
But Senator Fetterman has already said, as a member of
the Homeland Security Committee, ranking member of the subcommittee, I'm
not sure how many of my fellow Democrats will vote
to support Mullen as the next DHS secretary.

Speaker 2 (56:18):
But I am I.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
So he is saying aye. He is saying that he
is yes, which would get us theoretically to fifty four.
I don't think you can overlook sometimes these cabinet battles
can get really contentious. It sounds like Trump is making
a choice here for somebody that he thinks will get
confirmed quite easily coming out of the Senate. But let's

(56:42):
talk about the Senate here for a minute. Ryan, Texas.
This is what we initially had you on to talk about.
We know that Maine and North Carolina, where there are
Republican senators currently in position, there are going to be
tough battles, right Susan Collins and the open seat in
North Carolina, Georgia and Michigan and.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Maybe to an extent, Minnesota.

Speaker 4 (57:05):
There's been some optimism that Republicans could put Democrat seats
in play, but really, so long as Republicans keep Texas, Iowa, Montana,
states like that, Ohio.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
And Alaska.

Speaker 4 (57:21):
A good one to bring up how much of what's
going on right now in Texas is really just about
the Trump White House saying we need to make sure
that Texas is not a seat on the board, because
if you take Texas off, the math starts to get
more difficult.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
Yeah, I mean, listen. Part of it is is that
Paxton underperformed. He did very poorly in this primary. Cornyn
spent a fortune, but to his credit, he was pulling
in the low thirties and ended up and I'm coming
out number one. He had Corny come out with thirty
percent as the polls said. I'm sure this call would

(57:59):
not be being made right now. But Paxon underperformed polling.
He was up by five to six points in most polls.
He ended up being down by a point and a half.
Paxton had the fight of his life and I'll give
sorry Cornyn did by the fight of his life, and
I give credits to the old man. He came out
slug and and he won. So there's no there. Had
he come in a second or a distance second, he

(58:20):
would not be getting this treatment right now. But you can't.
I said this in my podcast episode that comes out
tomorrow for a numbers game. Do you remember a single
moment during this campaign where Paxton actually had a viral moment?
I had a reason for running for office, sat there
and really nailed down why Corn was an insufficient Republican senator.

(58:43):
I don't remember it. I don't and I paid us
all the time. Paxton was completely mia and I talked
to people in Texas who said he's a very lazy
campaigner and he's overly exaggerated constantly, and there was a
case to be made against cornn but Paxton doesn't look
like he was ever going to be the want to
really work for it the way that it was needed
to be.

Speaker 1 (59:03):
Can we Clay, Let's let's keep Ryan through to talk
Tall Rico and the general year in a second, because
I want to talk to you about those numbers, Tall Rico,
how that'll plays out. These clips, Ryan, I mean you've
heard some of them. We might even able to play
one or two when we come back. They're wild. The
stuff that this tallar Rico guycess. I mean, it's pretty astonishing.
So stay through with us if you ken. It's a
numbers game. Is Ryan's podcast. We'll talk about the Texas

(59:25):
general matchup, as well as how this primary continues to
play out and the overall Senate picture.

Speaker 2 (59:32):
We'll return to that here with Ryan Gardusky in a second, Clay,
no doubt.

Speaker 4 (59:35):
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