Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Apr 15 2026

Clay: Justice DeSantis?

Clay Travis and Buck Sexton react to Tax Day frustrations and government spending waste, using New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a taxpayer-funded grocery store as a case study in what they argue are the failures of socialism, government inefficiency, and price controls. The hosts explain grocery store profit margins, competition, and loss leaders to argue that a government-run grocery store in New York City would likely become a costly failure and a “slow-motion train wreck” for taxpayers.

They also speculate about a possible upcoming Supreme Court vacancy. Clay and Buck discuss reporting and prediction market data suggesting Justice Samuel Alito—or potentially Justice Clarence Thomas—could voluntarily retire while President Donald Trump and Republicans control the Senate. They analyze the strategic timing of such a move, debate whether post–Roe v. Wade America would calm Supreme Court confirmation battles and argue that Democrats will continue to politicize judicial nominations over issues like abortion, birthright citizenship, and transgender rights. The hosts also discuss the likelihood of personal attacks on any conservative judicial nominee, referencing the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation fight as a warning.

The conversation then turns to potential Supreme Court nominees, with Clay Travis making a high-profile case for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as a long-term, intellectually serious nominee who could serve for decades. Mike Lee is also mentioned, and both hosts debate the merits of appointing political figures versus Federalist Society–backed judges. The discussion frames Supreme Court appointments as one of the most lasting legacies of a presidency.

FBI Director Kash Patel

An interview with FBI Director Kash Patel, who outlines the Trump administration’s nationwide crime crackdown. Patel cites dramatic drops in violent crime, including homicide reductions of 40–60% in cities such as Washington, D.C., and Memphis, crediting federal-state task force cooperation, aggressive gang prosecutions, and strong support for law enforcement. He explains how FBI agents work alongside local police, state prosecutors, and the Department of Justice to dismantle gang networks, combat fentanyl trafficking, and lower overdose deaths nationwide.

Patel also addresses large-scale government fraud investigations, confirming that Medicare, Medicaid, and other public-benefit fraud schemes are a top FBI priority. He details major busts in Minnesota and California involving hundreds of millions of dollars and emphasizes that the bureau is aggressively targeting those who steal taxpayer funds. The discussion ties fraud enforcement to broader concerns about fairness on Tax Day and accountability within government.

Tax Day: Money Not Well Spent

Clay presents federal income tax statistics to argue that the U.S. tax burden is already heavily concentrated on high earners, noting that roughly half of Americans pay no federal income taxes while the top 1%, 10%, and 25% cover the vast majority of total revenue. He expresses frustration with government spending inefficiency and wasted taxpayer dollars, tying the issue to broader debates about fairness, accountability, and economic incentives.

Clay and Buck sharply criticize New York City’s high taxes, expanding government budgets, and proposals to raise taxes further on affluent residents, arguing these policies are accelerating population and capital flight to states like Florida and Texas. They return repeatedly to mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s proposal for a city-subsidized grocery store, portraying it as a textbook socialist experiment destined to fail. The hosts break down grocery store economics, emphasizing razor-thin profit margins, high logistical costs in New York City, and the necessity of scale—concluding that a government-run grocery store would likely lead to shortages, waste, and higher long-term costs for taxpayers.

NY Rep. Elise Stefanik 

An interview with Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York, blending sharp political analysis, higher education controversy, tax policy, and cultural flashpoints. The hour opens with Stefanik reacting to what Clay and Buck describe as failed progressive governance in New York, including rising taxes, population outmigration, and Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s proposed government‑run grocery store. Stefanik argues that single‑party Democratic rule and socialist policy ideas have driven businesses and taxpayers out of the state, warning that additional taxes on high earners and second‑home owners will further erode New York’s tax base while doing little to help working families.

A core focus of Hour 3 is Stefanik’s new book, Poisoned Ivys: The

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome it, everybody to the Wednesday edition of The Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton Show. And we are stacked, my friends,
not just with great news stories, very interesting and important
things to discuss there. We've also got some guests to

(00:21):
speak with all of you about it, including at the
bottom of this hour, we will have the director of
the FBI Cash Ptel joining us talking about crime fighting. Clay,
you ask for miracles, I give you the FBI director.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
So he will be with us, and gonna need new
FBI guys.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
I think they're probably hiring in some new FBI guys,
getting some good people on that team. So a lot
going on there. We're gonna have some fun with this.
It's not gonna be fun for the people that end
up shopping there. But Zoran Mamdani is setting up a
government run grocery store in New York. Will take clear.
Are you already up on the stats here? By the way,

(01:03):
did you already see this one gonna?

Speaker 4 (01:05):
Because I'm fired up because today's tax day and wasted money.
And when I saw that, Mom, Donnie is gonna waste
you hit us with the numbers. But to try to
get one grocery store government run he's gonna spend thirty
million dollars, Yeah, and three years to build a grocery
store that he has already scaled back the promise of

(01:27):
it's not everything will be cheaper, because he might have
had somebody who knows something about the grocery business to
explain to him, you're operating with a one to two
percent profit margin. It's just scale that makes this a business.
But you are razor thin on the margins. It's not
you know, your if you were think about it. People

(01:48):
who understand capitalism, I e.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
All of you. If one grocery store.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
Was selling a can of Goya beans for three dollars
and another grocery store was selling them for two dollars,
people would go to the other one, right, I mean this,
there's competition. This is why grocery stores have to do
things Like a lost leader. You might say, Buck, why
is it that I could go in and get London
broyle at a nice, nice cut of meat London broil

(02:14):
at my local grocery store at this great price.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Because they're actually losing money on that to.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Get you into the store so that they can get
you to get some other things that they might make
some money back on, right, So we'll get into some
more clay, because it's really the key thing about it, though,
is everyone knows this will be a disaster. Everyone knows
that Mam Donnie's project is going to be a cautionary tale.
But he is a kamie and so he can't stop

(02:42):
real government grocery stores have never been tried. That's where
we're going on this one. That is where this is heading.
It is a slow motion financial train wreck for the
City of New York. I'm already too excited about it.
We will come back to the story, I promise you.
I wanted to start clay because obviously we got to
get to the crime situation with the FBI Director Cash

(03:05):
Ptel Director Pateel at the bottom here. But Trump has
had two things that I know are high on your radar. Aaran,
which will give you the latest update on But I
actually want to start with this Clay because I'm hearing stuff.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
You're hearing stuff. Friends.

Speaker 3 (03:20):
We might be faced with a Supreme Court vacancy here,
a voluntary vacancy meaning you know, no, we're all wishing
for the good health of all of the Supreme Court members.
This is just someone saying, look, I'm old, I'm stepping down.
The speculation is it will be Alito or perhaps Thomas.
I think Alito is more likely personally. Trump was asked

(03:41):
about this by Fox News's Maria Bartiromo. This has cut
one hit it.

Speaker 5 (03:45):
It's probably not easy to give up for people, you know,
they reach a certain age. Hinsburg could not do it,
and she really hurt herself within the Democrat Party. People
are very angry at her because I got to appoint
people instead of Biden. So you don't know if you're
going to be naming putting another nomination forward.

Speaker 6 (04:05):
Okay, you've got a biggest possible, you know in theory.

Speaker 5 (04:08):
In theory it's two or three. They tell me if
you just reread statistics and could be two, could be three,
could be one. I don't know. H I'm prepared to
do it. But when you mentioned Alito, he is a
great Justice Clay.

Speaker 3 (04:21):
The team player move here from Alito, who I think
is seventy six, that's right, The team player move is wild.
Trump is the president and while we have the Senate,
he would get nothing but applause for me. You and
I'm sure this audience step aside. Now let someone else

(04:42):
take the reins.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
What say you, We've been ahead of the story on this,
and I give credit. This is where the prediction markets
polymarket in particular really got my attention as I'm running
through to see that Alito is favored to step down,
and if he's going to step down, we got big
decisions coming in June, which will be the end of

(05:03):
this Supreme Court term, and then you have a little
bit of a dead period, and it would be make
a lot of sense while Republicans control the Senate and
the Presidency, to get a new Supreme Court justice in
before the October term. So you have nine justices ready
to go. And look, I hope Republicans retain the Senate

(05:25):
for two years thereafter, for the final two years of
Trump's two point zero term. But it's not guaranteed. And
so if you want to guarantee that, for instance, you
could be replaced by potentially Buck, a actual one of
your clerks, which again is something that a lot of

(05:47):
Supreme Court justices love to do. You know the person
that is going to replace you, you feel good about
their judicial philosophy, and you go through the confirmation process
with that new individual. I do wonder Buck whether now
that Roe v. Wade has been overturned, will there be
a calmer Supreme Court justice process. I know Democrats are

(06:10):
going to score their political points and they're going to
lose their minds, but will it be calmer than it
has been in past years? Because we were all told
if Roe v. Waighte ever gets overturned, the seas will
be boiling right like things will fall apart, And it's
actually not happened at all.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
It's really not even a top ten political issue in
the country anymore for what determines certainly national elections, because
it's now up to the states, which is what it
should have been. It really should have been all along.
But nonetheless, Clay and that was always the Scalia position
on this. It's funny you asked that question, and I'm like, yes,

(06:50):
of course, in a rational act or environment, the Supreme
Court temperature should be turned down post Row. But no,
I don't think so. They'll find some they'll find some
way to make this.

Speaker 4 (07:06):
You know.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
The other big issue that comes to mind is the
birthright citizenship, and that that's some of my Democrats are
clearly deranged about. But I think trans rights is another
thing that gets them about as not quite as animated
as abortion. But the far left fringe wants a Supreme
Court that will create a special carve out for trans rights.

(07:27):
There's no question about that. And so they will fight
tooth and nail on it for that. I think so
so the answers. I think they will not be able
to get the same mobilization. But there will be plenty
of crazies who treat the Supreme Court like it's there.
It's the end of the world if they don't get
some communist maniac in robes.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
Yeah, and look, I also would point out, I mean,
we're dealing with this with Swallwell, which has brought back
the echo of Kavanaugh. They're gonna any guide that they find.
We're kind of in this era now where it feels
to me Buck, unless you are well, it doesn't even matter.
I was gonna say, unless you have only slept with

(08:07):
one person in your entire life and only kissed one
woman in your entire life, that you're almost going to
get attacked. And somebody's going to say, oh, so and so,
if you're a guy and you're getting you're up for
a big job. So and so is a sexual abuse
or a rapist. He dated women who were too young,
and I was thinking, well, maybe if you only married

(08:27):
one woman you were a virgin when together, they'll just
make it up anyway, right, Like we're kind of in Kavanaugh.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Kavanaugh hadn't led some some playboy lifestyle at all.

Speaker 2 (08:37):
Yes, he was.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
He was a boy scout. It was a boy scout
of the first order. And I mean that, you know,
in a good way as a boy scout. And yet
they still tried to they completely fabricated things about him.
But Clay, who is your I mean, we could do
this right now. Now. Look, we're getting a little ahead
of this. There's still some rumors coming out. Obviously Trump
is being asked about it, so it is now in

(08:58):
the news cycle. But I have heard from people who
have heard from people who have heard from people that
there is going to be a vacancy soon and everyone
is I think pretty confident it would be Aldo, but
who knows, could be Thomas if that happens.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
Who is our pick? Who is the move for Supreme Court?
I got it.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
Look, there's a lot of judges that might be phenomenal
that I don't have at my fingertips right now. I'd
have to see what the Federalist Society puts forward. If
you're asking me, off the top of my head, though,
Mike Lee would be really good. Mike Lee would be great.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
I'll give you one that I don't know if it's
going to get any attention, but I think it would
be a home run Ron DeSantis.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
I don't know that one hundred percent he would do it.
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (09:47):
I don't know that Ron wants it. I think that's
I think Ron wants to run stuff. I don't think
he wants to be a judge personally. That's just my sense.

Speaker 4 (09:54):
I think he might like being a judge really is.
And I say this in a favorable way for him.
Him he is a law nerd. And I'll tell you
a story. I don't know if I've told this story
on the air before, but a few years ago, there
was a Sunshine Summit that was put on by Florida.
I spoke at the event, and I was sitting at

(10:14):
the table with James Utmeyer, who is now the very
accomplished Attorney General of the State of Florida doing a
really good job. He was the chief of staff for
Ron DeSantis at the time. Marco Rubio is there Byron
Donald's a lot of the guys that are friends of
ours and have been on the program a lot over
the years. And I sat down, I said, where is DeSantis?
And Utemeyer told me he's in a back room reading

(10:39):
all of the latest court opinions coming down in the
state of Florida, from cover to cover, so that he
is completely prepared for them. So everybody else is this
is one hundred percent true. Everybody else is walking Yes,
everybody else is walking around like kissing babies, posing for photos.

(10:59):
And Santis, who was the keynote as the governor of Florida,
as you would anticipate, is in the back reading opinions. Again,
I do think Ron DeSantis would make a very good senator.
He's obviously been an excellent governor. He would make a
great cabinet member. A part of me thinks that he
might be open to the idea of being a Supreme

(11:21):
Court justice. And so if you asked me someone who
is in the political realm who would be a great
Supreme Court justice, you mentioned Mike Lee. I don't disagree
with that. I think he likes being in the Senate,
But I do think Ron DeSantis, remember his term is
up in November, So the timing of it could be
pretty perfect. Right, So you've got his term as governor

(11:45):
coming to an end, and again I'm not sure that
Trump is going to go to a political figure. It's
somewhat of a rarity and there will be a lot
of as you just mentioned Buck Federalist Society recommendations, guys
and gals who have been former Alito clerks that he
would be very excited I think to have succeed him.

(12:05):
But if you wanted me to go with a political name,
I think Ron DeSantis would be a outstanding, outstanding Supreme
Court justice. Remember he's also only forty six or forty seven,
so you would get him for thirty years.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
I think he would be phenomenal.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
Quite honestly, he's certainly because this is where IQ you know,
is Ron the funniest guy?

Speaker 7 (12:27):
No?

Speaker 2 (12:27):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (12:28):
And also our sense of comedians and comedy and politics
now because of Trump is forever the bar has been
said very high on what makes a politician funny. No
one since Reagan has had anything approaching Trump's timing and
comedic ability. I'm just saying, in terms of the charisma factor,
you don't care about a Supreme Court justice having super
high charisma. You want super high intellect, understanding and honestly wisdom,

(12:53):
and Ron hits all of those notes very well. I
just think that he still thinks maybe one day he's
going to run for the big job, which I don't
think you can do if you're Supreme Court.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
No, no, no, it's it's true.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
I would say this. It also would be an easy vetting,
like whatever you think about Ron DeSantis. When you run
for president, they go through your past with a fine
tooth comb, Like there, what are you going.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
To say about him?

Speaker 4 (13:14):
I mean, he's already I just think it would be
he would be outstanding at it. You know, you'd have
him for thirty years. He's run for president. He may
be looking at it and saying, look, JD. Vance is
the guy in twenty eight it's gonna be hard to
be JD. Marco Rubio is out there. He may look
at that. Look, he's still relatively young, forty six or
forty seven. I mean, you know we elect presidents over seventy,

(13:36):
so twenty five years from now, I mean, he's still
got a long career. But I think he's a legal nerd,
and I think he would be a phenomenal pick for
the next thirty years to serve on the Supreme Court.
And I look, the Supreme Court justice is the ultimate
legacy that every president gets, but president gets eight years. Again,
I'm just saying, Ron DeSantis, somebody of his age could

(13:58):
be on the Supreme Court for thirty or even remember
John Paul Stevens State, sorry suitor, I think stayed on
until he was ninety, right, So I mean he could
be on for forty five years.

Speaker 2 (14:10):
So again, if.

Speaker 4 (14:12):
He's healthy, it's an appointment. That is I think the
most important thing in many ways that presidents do. We
were just talking about how in a post Row world
the Supreme Court feels different. Democrats were saying forever that
the world would end. Didn't end. But unfortunately abortion didn't
end either. It's still happening all across the country in

(14:34):
states with very liberal abortion law, so babies are losing
their lives at very similar levels to what was happening
before Roe versus Way was overturned. This is why I
think it's so important to do what you can to
act on your pro life principles and save tiny babies
in the womb right now, not next year, not the

(14:55):
next Supreme Court term, whatever it may be, save babies now.
So Preborn clinics allow you to do that because if
you support these preborn clinics, you are helping moms who
come into the clinics and just need compassion and truth.
And what happens is they have this ultrasound process and
the baby is shown to mom via ultrasound, and then

(15:17):
there's a discussion about all the support that these preborn
clinics are going to give that mom for the tiny
life growing inside per womb. Over eighty percent of the
time when Preborn has a mom see the baby on ultrasound,
the choice is for life. And so many of these mothers,
I've met them, So many of these mothers have been
pushed to abortion elsewhere, told that's their only choice.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
Step in and save babies. Today, Preborn is attempting to
welcome more than ten thousand women into their clinics nationwide
this month in April alone. So here is my ask.
I know you're busy, and I know prices are high,
and I know times are tied for a lot of people,
But if you can consider saying yes to a gift
of just twenty eight dollars, that twenty eight dollars. There's

(15:59):
a reason for that number. It's because that's how much
an ultrasound costs. So if you can give twenty eight dollars,
you will be helping a mom get that ultrasound and
helping a life be saved via preborn clinics. And if
you can do one hundred and forty dollars, that would
help five moms make that decision for life in a
preborn clinic. Twenty eight dollars, one hundred and forty dollars.

(16:22):
Whatever you can spare to donate, use your cell phone
dial pound two fifty and say the keyword baby. That's
pound two five zero and say baby. Or go to
preborn dot com, slash buck, preborn dot com slash b
u c K sponsored by Preborn Last.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
Learn and hang with the guys. Clay and Buck.

Speaker 6 (16:43):
Pre said on the iHeart.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
App, welcome back in here to Clay and Buck.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
I was just talking to a really good friend of
mine who lives in Washington, DC UH and he was
saying that the city feels like a different city and
Trump's initiative on crime there is not only making people safer,
he says, there's such a life and vitality in certain neighborhoods.
He hasn't seen a long time. Real estate prices are

(17:09):
going up and it's really been great for our nation's capital.
Well what happened? Oh, we all know. Let's talk to
somebody who can speak to us though with particular insight
and expertise. The director of the FBI, Cash Betel, is
with us now. Director Patel, honored to have you with
us against Earth.

Speaker 7 (17:25):
Thank you, thanks so much for having me back on.

Speaker 3 (17:28):
Let's just talk about this violent crime crack down nationwide,
but give us some of the highlights of where this
has had a particular work. And then Director, I want
to ask you about what does it mean for the
federal and the local departner, Like, I want you to
take us into the mechanics of how this has worked
a bit so we can understand it. But first if
you would just where are we seeing huge results from

(17:50):
federal law enforcement FBI leading the charge working to bring
down violent crime rates.

Speaker 7 (17:55):
Here's a great news for America everywhere, literally everywhere, thanks
to President Trump resourcing and backing the blue and law
enforcement and giving the American people the security blanket that
they so well deserve. We have launched out on what
you just announced. President Trump's task forces in Washington, DC
and places like Memphis, where the violent crime rates have

(18:15):
been dropping by fifty and sixty percentage points across the board.
Memphis was a per capital homicide capital of America. We
chopped that down by forty percent thanks to President Trump's
leadership and establishment of the task force. But you hit
it right on its head. It's not just the FBI.
The FBI is the lead law enforcement agency, but we're
working with our state and local partners in every single

(18:35):
jurisdiction that we have because President Trump has stressed interagency
cooperation at the state and federal level. And when you
let good costree cops, when you remove the bureaucracy, and
when you know that your law enforcement personnel in the field,
and when they know that they have the support of
their leadership structure and their government and their president, they're
going to go out there and do the work. And
that's why the homicide rate dropped twenty points across the

(18:57):
entire country. That's why we have twenty percent less opiate
overdose debts in America in one year. Long those two
would be monumental achievements. But President Trump and this FBI
have done so much more.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Washington, d C is a great example. You just mentioned it.
I just looked at the current data. The murder rates
down fifty percent off last year, and last year was
one of the lowest murder rates on record. I would
imagine with America to fifty that's a focus. If cities
like Chicago actually got behind what we're seeing in Memphis
and we're seeing in DC, what do you think the

(19:33):
crime the murder rate. Let's just focus on murder. How
much murder. How many lives could be saved if you
had real support from blue cities like we've seen in
DC and Memphis. What kind of life saving opportunity would
be out there?

Speaker 7 (19:48):
Hundreds And you know this as well as anybody. You
cover it tragically, you see these gang shootings, and that's
where the FBI's focus has been on those localized streak gangs. Yes,
we're looking at the national security threat, large foreign terist organizations,
the narco traffickers, the MS thir teams of the world,
but a lot of these offshoots and these localized street gangs.
We've done in places like Philadelphia where we literally eliminated

(20:11):
an entire street gang in Weymouth and we would do
the same thing in Chicago if they let us in.
But you highlighted it. President Trump has offered to go in,
and they have an elected leadership there that is in
favor of politics over protecting its people. I mean, Claying Buck.
You guys know this better than anyone. You see kids
five years of age, seven years of age get caught
up in gang shootings and murdered. And you would think

(20:34):
that the people of those towns want their city secure.
And I think the people do, It's just their elected
leadership is prioritizing politics over public safety. And to me,
that's just a tragedy. We could save hundreds of lives
in places like Chicago.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
Well, we totally, we totally agree, Director Battella. It's remarkable
and also unfortunately really frustrating to see how clear the
results are and yet and the unwilling to admit that
this Trump initiative, which you are part of, the tip
of the spear on and the FBI and the men
and women of the FBI, they won't admit that this

(21:07):
is working and saving lives. They'd rather things continue to
be a problem in some of these cities because you're
not getting that same level of cooperation. I want to
ask you about the fraud stuff coming up in a second,
so we definitely need to get to that. But first up, though,
can you just talk us through a little bit what
does it mean in Memphis now? What is different on
the ground in terms of how law enforcement is working together.
You know, we invited the mayor of Memphis on and

(21:29):
he still has an open invite to come talk to
us about this and just to congratulate him on how
well things are going in the city with this federal partnership.
But what does it mean You have FBI guys who
are doing like riding along with state troopers. Are they
just coordinating back at headquarters? How does it look?

Speaker 7 (21:45):
It's a variety of things. But you have to attack
the gang network, as I was mentioning earlier, and that's
what we did in Memphis. But you also have to
get state and local prosecutors willing to bring those tough
street times in state and local court. And we were
able to do that in Memphis. Which you also have
to do is expand your fedal prosecutions. And thanks to
the DOJ presidence there, the FBI is leading the prosecutions
of violent gang offenders, murderers, rapists, and drug dealers and

(22:09):
putting them in federal court every single chance we get.
So you have to have a jurisdiction that's willing to
let us in and not take over, but also have
a jurisdiction that is a police force and a prosecution
force willing to take that on. And that's what was
congregated in Memphis thanks to President Trump's leadership. You saw
the direct result of how we reduced people said, you

(22:29):
can't save Memphis. The per capital rate for homicides is
the highest in the country, and it's been like that
for years. There's no way you can do that. We
did it in six months. It shows you we could
do it there, we could do it in Chicago. But
more importantly for the folks around America that are listening
to this, we're doing it in every single country. I mean,
when you seize enough fentanyl to kill one hundred and
seventy eight million Americans, a thirty one percent increase, that's

(22:50):
just the FBI seizures under President Trump's leadership. Think about
how many lives we saved in towns across America, how
many overdoses we presented for tragedies, like kids in high
schools that we used to see around the country are
diminishing greatly.

Speaker 4 (23:03):
Less seriously, here USA Hockey. That was so awesome and
I can only imagine how cool it was to be
there representing the United States government and be able to
celebrate with those guys. Were you even blow I know,
we know that there are a lot of truly insane,
broken brain democrats were even though you surprised by how

(23:26):
much they came after you for celebrating a gold medal win.
By the way, something that Jimmy Carter did, something that
Walter Mondel did back when we beat when we won
the gold medal the last time. I mean that to
me kind of characterized how much they've lost their minds.

Speaker 7 (23:43):
I think, Yet I guess it doesn't surprise me. What
was important was we were there for the Milan Olympics.
The FBI was leading the security for two hundred and
fifty thousand Americans that went to Milan for the Winter Olympics.
The FBI is responsible for the upcoming Club World Cup
where we have what sixty four matches across the country,
and ultimately the twenty twenty Olympics. So we learned through
every evolution, and thankfully, due to the FBI and President

(24:05):
Trump and DHS, we haven't had any significant security incidences
at F one, at the Super Bowl, at the Club
World Cup, and that's what we're doing. And I was
fortunate enough to there, to be there with the men's
hockey team and my friends on the team and celebrating
something that hadn't been done in what fifty out of
my Matt's terrible fifty some years. So I was glad

(24:26):
to be celebrating for America at a historic time. And
I was glad that we were able to provide the
security necessary to make sure our athletes and our American
citizens that attended the Olympics could go there safely and
return safely. And that's our focus, and that's always going
to be our focus. I'll always ignore the.

Speaker 3 (24:42):
Noise we're speaking an FBI director at Patel And just
for the record, mister director, I too love patriotism, freedom
and Americans kicking ass at sports. But now I got
to take us in another I'm taking this another direction
here for a second, if I could, because we have
a lot of people and they're asking us this question,
and we keep saying, well, this is you know, we

(25:05):
got to see how the investigations go. There's a process,
there's but there is a really and I'm sure it's
high up on your radar, a sense that there is
systematic and just massive fraud going on defrauding the federal government,
whether it's Medicare, Medicaid, all kinds of different payments under

(25:25):
those systems, just lots of things in the fraud category
at enormous scale, hundreds of millions, billions of dollars. Does
the FBI, first of all, is that a priority right now?

Speaker 2 (25:37):
Do you have the.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
Resources to be able to deal with this? And are
full investigations underway of places like what happened in Minneapolis
and people talking about that now California is up on
people's radar. Even Gavin Newsom started to say, Yeah, there's
a lot of fraud. Talk to us about that.

Speaker 7 (25:52):
Yeah, fraud has always been a priority. These complex investigations
are what the FBI does best. And thanks to the
Vice President, leadership and dj on the task Force able
to get after it with even more resources we've ever had.
But we've been on it since we've gotten in the seat.
Last summer alone, I was in Minneapolis before everything went down,
and we took down a two hundred and fifty million
dollar fraud for a program called Feeding Our Futures, where

(26:13):
people defrauded a program in the state of Minneapolis that
was used to feed poor children. We did that last summer.
We connected it to the statewide fraud investigations that we
have going there and in places like California. We just
had a massive takedown just last week with our US
Attorney's office there, I think, on a fifty five million
dollar fraud program. And so we're not stopping but mapping

(26:34):
out these networks under our NSPM seven initiative. We're taking
entire data sets from around the country and the world
and says who's funding these things? Then more importantly, who
is taking the taxpayer dollar and enriching themselves unlawfully? And
everyone that is doing that is a target and is
going to continue to be a target under the President

(26:55):
the Vice President's Task Force.

Speaker 3 (26:58):
So you are you are looking into this, there's a
t ask force and people because right now, mister Director,
there's a sense that people are just getting away with
this all over the place, that there's so much fraud
that it's like impossible to track it all down. Sounds
like you're saying, no, the Bureau was on it. The
resources are there, because if we're a country where people

(27:18):
can steal millions, billions, whatever it is, when you count
this up, there's a sense it's tax day to day,
and it's you know a lot of people say, okay,
so I have to pay my federal income tax.

Speaker 2 (27:29):
I have to do this the right way.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
But a lot of people can get away with just
cheating the system to the tune of huge sums of money.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
So that is not going to be allowed on President
Trump's watch.

Speaker 6 (27:39):
It hasn't been allowed.

Speaker 7 (27:40):
And I'll tell you what happened. And you know this,
when you let rampant fraud in the prior administration explode,
we are the ones left cleaning it up. And we
are doing that, just like we did with the violent
crime initiatives across the country that drop the murder rate
and so many other ways in which we're protecting violent crimes,
are violent crimes against children a rup. We're doing the
same thing on the fraud front, cleaning up the past

(28:01):
failures of the prior administration. And we're not going to
stop until we have every fraud investigation complete. I have
hundreds of fraud investigations, large scale fraud investigations open around
the country that we've been working for fourteen straight months,
and people are I'm glad are paying attention to our
publicized wins and we got a lot more coming cash.

Speaker 4 (28:19):
I'm going to go back completely unserious, because you probably
get asked all sorts of serious questions. But Pete, but
Buck and I were just talking off air. Pete Hegseth.
You probably saw this posted a video of him bench
pressing three hundred and fifteen pounds. That is a ridiculous
amount to be able to bench press. But I know
that you are pretty serious workout guy too. What's your

(28:44):
bench and has it gone up since you became FBI director.

Speaker 7 (28:47):
No, I just I'll just say I think Pete's got
me on that one. But I did push up and
pull up challenge. You know, it's it's it's I think
it's great. It's also inspiring to our workforces. Yeah, prioritize
fitness because look, we are the premier law enforcement agency
in the world, and I'm not asking you to be
a Navy seal, but if I'm asking to take down
bad guys in the streets and chase them down, then
you've got to be able to do a couple of

(29:08):
push ups and pull ups, and so our standards are
going to meet the requirements of the dynamic threat landscape,
and leaders like Pete and myself, we're willing to go
out there and maintain our fitness levels to what we can.
We're just asking our workforce to do the same. And
I think it's inspiring. And if folks out there want
to make fun of us, what would you rather have Pete,
myself and the other leaders doing what we're doing, or
three hundred and fifty pounds overweight people leaving this Department

(29:30):
of War in the Federal Guber of Investigation. It's an example.
We set leadership out front and we're going to continue
to do it.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
Will you be at the UFC fight? By the way,
are you looking forward to that?

Speaker 7 (29:40):
You know I'm a big MMA guy and you Dana's
a dear friend. And as you know, the FBI for
the first time did its historic partnership with the UFC
at Quantico. We had ten world champions come in and
train three hundred and fifty agents for a weekend. So
it's a big part of what we're doing here to
provide the resources and training for our agents, and so
I'm looking forward to that fight at the White House.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
FBI Director Cash Pttel, good work, sir, thank you for
making the streets safer. Great to talk to you, and
we'll have you back soon.

Speaker 7 (30:09):
Yep, thanks so much for having me.

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Speaker 8 (31:20):
Level up your brain and balance out your day with
the right amount of information and entertainment. Clay Travis and
Buck Sexton on the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 6 (31:30):
Or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Welcome back in.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
We will update you a bit on the White House
press conference that is currently going on. Caroline Levitt fielding
questions right now from Peter Deucy of Fox News.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
We will give you the latest there.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
But Buck, it is tax Day and I flagged this
as I was doing my research because we hear so
much about how often we are living in a completely
unfair tax system, and so these numbers are a couple
of years old, and I'm sure that they have continued

(32:09):
to be to be addressed and to continue to move
so that the so called rich are paying even more
and more. But Let's start here, because I do think
it's worth mentioning every single tax day that arises. Roughly
half of all Americans pay no federal income taxes. So

(32:29):
if you are paying tax at all today, or you
have paid tax at all during the past year federal
income tax then you are paying more than half of
Americans are. And in fact, as we all know, a
lot of people get refunds that they didn't ever pay
in the first place, So you're getting paid my dollars,

(32:52):
your dollars going to people that did not actually pay
any taxes. Here's some stats for you. The top one
percent pays forty and this is rough. It's actually increased
I since I think since then pays forty percent of
all income taxes. The top ten percent pays seventy two

(33:12):
percent of all income taxes, and the top twenty five
percent pays eighty seven percent of all income taxes. So
in the United States, if you are in the seventy
five percent of earners below the top twenty five percent,

(33:33):
you only pay thirteen percent of all federal income tax dollars.

Speaker 2 (33:39):
Does that seem like money well spent?

Speaker 4 (33:41):
And the older I get, the more frustrated and angry
I am about the money that I pay that gets
completely wasted, and the fact that, like many of you
out there, I work two of the five days every
week directly to pay the federal government. So every time

(34:02):
you hear me on Monday and Tuesday on this radio program,
I am not actually making any money at all. It's
going straight to the government. It's kind of crazy to
think about it. And the same is true for many
of you out there now.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
Buck. That is never enough. Though.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
So New York City, which I believe we said the
other day, has a bigger government than the state of Florida.
New York State is about twice as big as the
state of Florida's government.

Speaker 2 (34:31):
But I believe New York.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
City by itself has a bigger budget than the entire
state of Florida.

Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yet it is not enough.

Speaker 4 (34:40):
And Kathy Hokeel and Mom Donnie are now saying, Hey,
if you have a second home in New York City
that costs five million dollars or more, they're gonna ratchet
up the tax rates on you to a significant degree.
And you know what's gonna happen, Buck, Phones are ringing
in Florida, phones are ringing in Texas. Phones are bring

(35:00):
it in Tennessee because you're paying forty percent, and then
you add another thirteen percent, over half of your money
before you even pay property taxes. If you live in
New York City, is going to the city, the state, well,
and the federal government.

Speaker 3 (35:14):
The good news, though, Clay is sure the taxes are high.
Sure people are fleeing New York and California high tax
jurisdictions continuously now. But the good news is that Mamdanni
is focusing on the really important stuff, like building a
government run grocery store that will cost thirty million dollars
and take three years. Here it is Mamdanni making his

(35:38):
case yesterday in Harlem in Manhattan. This is cut eleven.
Let's hear from Kwame Mamdani, the governor of New York.
I'm sorry to the mayor of New York City. Here
he is play on New York City.

Speaker 9 (35:51):
It is time for a grand experiment once again. Just
as LaGuardia used government to respond to the challenges of
the Great Depression, we will use use government to respond
to rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city will subsidize
a core set of staples. A private operator will run
the store, but the answer to the standards to the

(36:12):
city will set. These standards include requirements that at our stores,
bread will be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper, grocery shopping
will no longer be an unsolvable equation, and workers will
be treated with dignity.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
Okay, so unless he's going to subsidize this directly with
tax dollars, which is just a way just a welfare program,
then right, it's just a version of food stamps, except
you got to go get the food. You don't just
get the money to get the food. This has a
zero percent chance of working the way that is planned.
I think he even maybe at some level, knows that.

(36:51):
And this is why the three year timeline up when
he's up for mayor I might add for reelect three
year timeline is no problem for him because he gets
to keep talking about how great this is going to
be until people realize this is going to be like
a Soviet Union grocery store with really good prices on
bread that isn't even on the shelves.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
How do you think he's really this dumb? Can we
play that cut again? Does he I mean, does he
really think.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
That grocery stores are gouging people, and that running a
grocery store is the greatest business that's ever existed in
the history of mankind. I mean, play that cut again
if we could, because anyone who believes any of this
is a complete moron. Mom, Donnie's not a complete more Like,

(37:43):
surely he unders like and this makes it worse right
because he knows he's lying. Surely he understands what you
said earlier in the program, and all of you know,
the profit margin on groceries is among the lowest profit
margins of any capital of any capital intensive business on
the planet.

Speaker 3 (38:02):
You can This is one of the things I like
about AI, just like I like X, because it shows
more of reality now to people like you see, like
crimes that are happening and how awful they are and
who's committing them. And the media doesn't get to just say, oh,
we have no idea. You can just do really quick
data analysis now you don't have to. It's way better
than Google. At this on groc Clay. It's The Food

(38:24):
Industry Association says that the average profit in twenty twenty
four for a grocery store average one point seven percent
per item, one point seven percent. If someone thinks that's
price gouging. They're an imbecile, They're an ignoramist. They know nothing,
but an ignoramis runs the city of New York right now.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
Unfortunately. I mean, this is just such basic reas.

Speaker 4 (38:52):
Play this again because and I understand people get frustrated.
And we've talked about this with gas prices too. The
gas stations are not gouging you. They're not making very
much money on gas. Grocery stores is one of the worst,
most difficult businesses that you could possibly get into, because
it is so incredibly difficult to actually make a consistent profit.

(39:14):
But listen to Mom, Donnie, he's gonna I mean, this
is just of all the arguments you could make. I'm
going to run a grocery store and it's going to
be way cheaper and you're going to get a way
higher quality product. Is one of the dumbest arguments I've
ever heard of Democrat make. It's right up there with
defund the police. But listen to this again. It's just
not true. Buck just gave you the data.

Speaker 2 (39:35):
New York City.

Speaker 9 (39:36):
It is time for a grand experiment once again, just
as LaGuardia used government to respond to the challenges of
the Great Depression. We will use government to respond to
rising prices and unaffordable groceries. The city will subsidize a
core set of staples. A private operator will run the store,
but the answer to the standards that the city will set.

(39:58):
These standards include requirement that at our stores, bread will
be cheaper, eggs will be cheaper, grocery shopping will no
longer be an unsolvable equation, and workers will be treated
with dignity.

Speaker 4 (40:12):
Okay, so he's saying they're gonna subsidize the price of
groceries buck, which means taxpayers are going to give money
to buy groceries, software program other people, which means everybody
has less it's it's less efficiency.

Speaker 3 (40:27):
I would actually just prefer that they be honest about
this and like increase the you know, EBT benefits or
whatever the food stamps benefits. At least people we all
know exactly what's going on. But he said only for staples.
Now this brings up some really interesting So he's like
milk and bread, no one is poor, and I mean
no one because of the price of milk and bread.

(40:50):
There are other things where red meat has gotten a
lot higher spot but milk and bread is not actually
where people are. The budget is finally just too constrained.
That's not what's breaking the breaking the soap, the proverbial
camel's back. There are other things and other budgetary matters
that are far but by the way, that cost of
health care, the cost of housing like those are things
if you're in New York City that are crushing people.

(41:11):
The expectation that people are going to spend forty fifty
sixty percent on rent. And you might say, oh, well,
mam Donni wants to help with that too. He's going
to make that worse. You want to deal with that issue,
then you have to deal with all the regulations in
New York City that artificially constrain supply. But they don't
believe in supply and demand in Kami mam Doniville. They

(41:32):
think they can just wave a magic Marxist wand clay
on this issue of the milk and bread. Also, New
York City was where they ran an experiment some years
ago about food deserts, and the whole premise was I've
talked about this in the show before, so I'll give
you a short version, but it's really interesting and the
New York Times was who did a story on it.
It was under the Obama administration, No surprise federal program. Hey,

(41:56):
you know why they aren't eating enough arugula in low
income high c You know why they aren't really digging
into the quen wa. It's because we haven't subsidized it.
If we only made it cheaper, the arugula and the
quene wa and the free range, you know, duca la range, it.

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Would be flying off the shelves.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
You know what they found when they did this project,
this pilot project that the so called food desert by
giving people artificially cheap access to radishes, and by the way,
I'm being serious, those were the kinds of foods that
are didn't change buying behavior at all. You know what
people wanted to buy, particularly with food stamps, soda chips
and candy. Yep, soda chips and candy, biggest items ever.

(42:44):
Go to a grocery store in a low income area.
I've been to them because of my time at the
NYPD long story we talk about another time. It've been
to many of them actually, and clay, that's what they're
mostly selling at the front. It's not because people don't
have access to cheap produce, they don't want it. So
they're also going to call up against this issue. They're
going to make milk and bread really cheap, and you

(43:04):
know what's going to happen. They're going to run out
of the milk and the bread. Their milk and the
bread is not going to be well stocked. It's not
going to be what people want, and they're going to
find out that's actually not what people are buying anyway.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
Also, of all the places to deliver food too, the
cost to get product into New York City has to
be off the charts. Yeah, so even if you were
going to run a government funded grocery store, I think
it would fail everywhere. Kansas City did this recently and

(43:34):
they had to shut down because they couldn't keep produce
on the shelves and they couldn't keep a product and
nobody wanted it. Getting product to New York City, to
a grocery store is going to be virtually impossible. And
this is going to be an unmitigated disaster. Just put
a pin in this. It's going to fail epically. I
doubt whether it will ever even really start to run,

(43:55):
and it's going to cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars,
which they've got to raise more money because they keep
spending and wasting what they get.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Publics is a very well known Florida based grocery chain.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
I go to Publics all the time.

Speaker 3 (44:11):
They then annual net sales is something like forty million
dollars billious public data million sorry.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
Per per store. Oh, forty million in sales per store.

Speaker 3 (44:23):
Now this is where you start to see, okay, there
is a profit motive here, meaning if you if you
sell forty million dollars of groceries at a one or
two percent profit margin, you're making money. And that's when
you've covered everything that's with taxes and everything else. But
you know you're you're doing fine. And if you do
one hundred of these, now you've really got a big business.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Right.

Speaker 3 (44:44):
The point is it's all about scale and what they're
going to do at this grocery store that New York
City is going to run, which I'm telling you is
going to be the sad give it six months after opening,
it'll be the saddest, most pathetic grocery store you've ever seen.
They don't understand the way they scale actually works, so
they think, oh, well, we're going to sell three million
dollars of groceries just thirty percent cheaper than everybody else

(45:07):
in the city, and it's going to be a disaster
and the whole thing is going to collapse. And I think, Mom,
Donnie knows it, Clay, but he's doing it anyway because
it's about the story. It's not about the groceries. It's
not about helping people with their costs. It's the talking point.

Speaker 4 (45:23):
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(45:46):
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Speaker 6 (46:54):
Clay and fucking just preset them on the iHeart ass.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off.

Speaker 6 (47:00):
Now.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
We are joined by congresswoman out of the Great State
of New York at least Stephonic. She also has a
new book out, Poisoned IVS, The inside account of the
academic and moral rock at America's elite universities, just came
out yesterday. Congress woman. Great to have you, thanks for
being here.

Speaker 10 (47:19):
Great to be with you, guys. I've been looking forward
to this.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (47:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:23):
I am a New Yorker, I think forever, because I
lived there for so many years, born and raised, and
so I'm always caught between loving the Empire state and
particularly New York City, and also watching from afar as
it's turned into such a mess. So with that in mind,
we're going to get your book in just a second.
But we were just talking about mom Donnie's grocery store

(47:46):
in New York and how this is just emblematic of
another bad idea that's going to cost money not help
people who could use some financial relief. What does he
really not know that this is going to be a mess.
How is Kathy Hochl so incompetent. I have a lot
of questions, Congresswoman.

Speaker 10 (48:03):
We have a lot to cover because the rot is
so deep in New York when you have a state
that single party Democrat rule and the Socialist Party has
hijacked today's Democrat party in New York and Franklin. Nationwide,
today on tax Day, as Americans are filing their taxes,
and particularly in a high tax state like New York.
What does Kathy Hokill do. She breaks her promise and says, oh,

(48:25):
she's gonna raise taxes higher, further forcing people to run
away from New York, further forcing businesses out. And this
is because she is beholden to the socialists. On top
of that, you have mom Donnie, who is celebrating his
first one hundred days where he couldn't shovel snow off
the streets, where he has been embroiled in huge political
fights with the New York City Council, which is controlled

(48:48):
by Democrats, and he put forth this grocery store plan
that's going to cost the taxpayers thirty million dollars. But
the kicker is they're not going to open un till
twenty twenty nine, which highlights this socialist insanity. You know,
if we were to rely on government grocery stores, there
would be hunger lines out the door. It is a
total abuse of taxpayer dollars. And frankly, thank goodness for

(49:11):
the free market in New York State that we have
had that built up the city of New York that
is crumbling under failed socialist leadership.

Speaker 4 (49:19):
We're talking to Elis Stefanik. You certainly saw and heard
when Kathy Hokel told former New Yorkers like Buck, just
moved to Florida, then the tax returned, So I did.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
I couldn't disobey Kathy. I said, fine, Kathy, I'm out.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
So the tax returns have collapsed as many people Buck,
Sean Hannity, even just in this radio world, have decided
to go from New York to Florida. And now she's
begging Floridians to come back to New York. Meanwhile, they're
talking about added taxes on second homes. I believe it
is the correct that the budget for the City of

(49:55):
New York is bigger than the entire budget for all
of Florida. How much much of this is just complete mismanagement,
and how much is pushing out the people who actually
pay the taxes blowing up in the face of Democrats
like Mam Donnie and Hochel.

Speaker 10 (50:10):
It is total mismanagement. And this is what happens when
you have single party rule. Democrats in the state of
New York control the state Senate, control the Assembly, control
the Governor's office, as well as New York City. And
it's not just a Democrat in New York City. It's
a socialist, as we know in Mam Donnie, and you know,
Kathy Hokele and other Democrats have liked to say, oh,
it's because of the weather. That's nonsense. It's because of

(50:33):
the policies. And she encouraged people to leave this great
state of New York. And of course now they're begging
them to come back. But newsflash, they're not coming back.
It's going to be higher and higher taxes under single
party Democrat rule. I've been proud to be the leading
Republican fighting against this and frankly in this tax bill.
And people can quibble about this, but I represent New Yorkers.

(50:53):
I raised that state and local tax deduction, which for
a high tax state like New York, I needed to
deliver a tax cut for my concents, and I did.
And that's something that the Democrats never will even consider.
They're never going to consider cutting taxes. And if you
look at Florida, a higher population, the entire the budget
of medicaid in New York State is more than the

(51:14):
entire budget of Florida. It is totally mismanaged in a disaster.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
It's unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
All Right, we're talking to Congresswoman at least defonic from
New York. I still love you New York, but you
have to stop being insane. But there are many New
Yorkers who feel the same way, Congress women who are
listening right now, and they're sticking it out. So I
respect that, and you were one of them. You still
have to live there too. So we got a book, though.
Let's talk about your book for a second. Poisoned Ivies,
The Inside account of the academic and moral rot at

(51:41):
America's elite universities Poisoned Ivies for short, You guys can
go get on an Amazon. Yeah, my brother went to
an Ivy League school. I went to work for Glenn
Beck instead of going to an Ivy League school for
an NBA. There's been a lot of lunacy on display.
What are you getting into here in the book? Is
this mostly about all the hamas lovers running wild in
the quadrangles?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
What's happening here?

Speaker 10 (52:04):
So as you remember, Yes, the book is Poisoned Ivies.
This was about the university president's hearing where you had
the presidents of Penn, Mit and Harvard. It became the
most viewed testimony in the history of Congress, more than Watergate.
More than any other congressional hearing. And that was when
I asked them a direct question, does calling for the
genocide of Jews violate your university's code of conduct? And
they essentially equivocated and said it depends on the context.

(52:27):
This was, of course, after the Hamas attacks against Israel
on October seventh, as we saw universities in the US,
particularly the Ivy League, be engulfed with anti Semitism. But
it's not just about anti Semitism.

Speaker 2 (52:38):
This is a much.

Speaker 10 (52:39):
Broader moral and academic rot. If you look at the
radical professors at these schools, if you look at the
foreign dollars flowing to these schools, the percentage of increases
of foreign students, for example, at Columbia, forty percent of
students at Columbia are foreign students, and that includes literally
students who publicly chant not just death to Israel, but

(53:02):
death to America and are affiliated with Hamas terrorist organizations.
So the book goes into all of that. It's a
behind the scenes look at the hearing. It's already the
number one bestseller in nonfiction on Amazon nationwide because people
care about education, because it's about educating our next generational
leaders and I'll tell you the next generation of leaders
aren't going to come from these schools. It not only

(53:24):
highlights the bad actors, but the good actors. And I
know one of you will be very proud that Vanderbilt
is highlighted as a positive example and people are voting
with their feet in their wallets.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
I was just gonna say this because I think it's
such an interesting example. I went to Vanderbilt and met
my wife there. We loved the school, but they had
to protest. After October seventh, kids on campus tried to
take over the main Kirkland Hall there. The chancellor, Daniel Diermeier,

(53:55):
walked in. He said, uh huh. He called in the
Metro Nashville. They arrested all of the protesters immediately, and
they kicked the students out of school buck They didn't
allow them to finish the semester. They were done, and
something interesting has happened. I was talking with some of
the top Vanderbilt administrators recently. I don't know if you

(54:16):
know this a lease, but they said that they're yield.
That is, the kids that get invited to come to Vanderbilt,
get admitted, get it, admission to offer. They have a
higher yield now than Columbia University. So Vanderbilt League, yeah,

(54:36):
they now get So if you have a kid and
they go get admitted to Columbia, and you have a
kid they get admitted to Vanderbilt, the kid that it
gets admitted to Vanderbilt is more likely to go to
Vanderbilt than the kid that gets admitted to Columbia.

Speaker 2 (54:47):
And I asked, I said, how's this happening?

Speaker 4 (54:49):
They said, our applications from New York City, LA and
Chicago skyrocketed after all of the protests on the Ivy
League camp. So there are real significant consequences that you
are writing about that are potentially remaking where the most
elite talented kids in the country decide to go to school.

Speaker 10 (55:12):
Absolutely, and to add further information on that, it is
now more competitive to get into Vanderbilt than some of
the Ivy League schools. So not only are they highlighting
the matriculation rates so those that accept if they get
into both schools, but the applications, as you point out,
have skyrocketed. People are voting with their feats in their wallets.

(55:32):
Parents are rightly scrutinizing it because when you think about it,
and I'm a parent, my son is only four, but
we think a lot about his educational journey in the
years to come. I don't want him to go to
college for political indoctrination. It should be about academic excellence
and connections to good paying jobs after they graduate. So
the book not only talks about the institutions that are rotten,

(55:54):
but it highlights places like Vanderbilt. One other example is Dartmouth,
the sole ivy that actually enforced the rules, very similar
to how Vanderbilt did. I highlight innovative schools like University
at Austin, but it's a broader, really indictment of these
what used to be elite schools, and what's really sad
about it, I myself graduated from one of them. A

(56:15):
lot of those schools, the Harvard's depends, the Columbia's predated
the founding of our country. Are older than two hudred
and fifty years and we're part of the fabric initially
of our American Revolutionary War principles. It has fallen so
far to the radical left, and it's deeply out of
touch with everyday Americans.

Speaker 2 (56:34):
You mentioned your son.

Speaker 4 (56:35):
I actually met him in the elevator along with your
husband at the Republican National Convention a couple of years ago.
So hello to your husband. I'm presuming your son's not
a listener yet, but your husband said he was so. Yeah,
but you mentioned you mentioned something there that I thought
was super interesting about your own kid. A lot of
times people would aspire when I was a kid, when

(56:55):
Buck was a kid, Hey, you can go to Harvard
one day if you just work really hard, And that
was an aspiration in the eighties and nineties for a
lot of people.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Is that changing in your mind?

Speaker 4 (57:06):
And how do they fix it if it is not
the same kind. I think there's a lot of people
out there that listen to us that would have said, Hey,
in nineteen eighty eight, my kid went to Harvard, it
would have been the greatest thing I could have ever
thought of. By twenty twenty six, I don't know that
the same desire is there. How do they fix it?

Speaker 10 (57:23):
Well, it's a good question. I mean my family, it
was an extraordinary achievement. I'm the first member of my
immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college.
I was very proud to get admitted to Harvard. I
had a great experience there. Twenty years ago of course
it was left leaning, but it was not like it
is today in terms of the absolute bending of the
knee to this anti Americanism and just the failure of

(57:44):
strong leadership and a lack of focus on academic excellence.
These schools are not going to fix themselves. What I
realized after the hearing was despite all of the public pressure,
despite donors withholding their funds, despite these shifts and matriculation rates,
they still don't get it. They are digging deeper and deeper.
That's why the executive actions by the Trump administration that
we have worked very closely with, and the legislative actions

(58:06):
and the leverage of tax payer dollars, that's the only
way to make them listen. Coupled with the DOJ lawsuits,
those are all incredibly important. It needs to be multifaceted
because they are not going to fix themselves. The schools
that are smart are innovating and outgrowing, like Vanderbilt and
others who are understanding this is a huge opportunity and
an earthquake broadly in higher education.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
I just want to say a congresswoman, he said, you're
your boy. I believe is for mine is one and
I've already enrolled him for Florida prepay down here, So
I'm already I'm already taking the steps because to get
into the University of Florida too.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
By the way, like state schools in the South at least,
are skyrocketing since what happened.

Speaker 3 (58:48):
Now, UF, which my wife is a is an alumni
alumna of University of Florida. I think got over one
hundred thousand applications this year. Congresswoman, which is and.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
The and UF.

Speaker 10 (59:03):
It is highlighted as one of the positives. Again, most
of the chapters are the deep dives on the rotten ibies,
but I thought it was important to end on a
positive note at the schools that are doing it right,
and University of Florida is one of them. And you know,
particularly at the time when you saw these Prohamas encampments,
Ben Sass was head of the University of Florida system

(59:23):
and he took very similar to Deermeyer at Vanderbilt. They
enforced the rules immediately and they correctly focused on the
academics instead of allowing this political indoctrination. And frankly it
was criminal activity. That's why this DOJ lawsuit is so
important to hold these schools accountable when they are not
protecting civil rights of American Jewish students. And I myself

(59:46):
am not Jewish, I am Catholic. I just it was
so unrecognizable to me, and we had heard from so
many students these horrific stories that it was important to
lead in Congress, and I think we did that in
the hearing heard around the world.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Congressman, we'll have to have you back because you can
answer the question Brown University is it really a school
or is it just a commune with drum circles? But
that will be for next time. The book is Poisoned IVS.
Go get your copy today. It's number one on Amazon,
doing phenomenally. Congressman, thank you for all your work. Congrats
on the book, and we'll talk to you soon.

Speaker 10 (01:00:21):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (01:00:24):
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