Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Sep 3 2026

C&B Break down President Trump's appearance at a White House Rose Garden event, where he touted what he described as the accomplishments of his administration during its first 19 months. Trump pointed to stock market gains, record exports, manufacturing growth, and historically high employment levels as evidence of economic success. Clay and Buck examined how Republicans should communicate these achievements to voters ahead of the midterms, while emphasizing that economic concerns and affordability remain top issues for many Americans.

The hosts spent considerable time discussing inflation, gas prices, economic messaging, and voter sentiment, arguing that the inflation surge during the Biden administration remains a central political issue. Clay contended that Democrats created the affordability challenges now facing American families and are attempting to portray themselves as the solution to problems they originally caused. The hosts debated how Republicans can more effectively explain the relationship between inflation, energy costs, consumer prices, and economic policy. They compared current campaign messaging strategies to historical examples, including Barack Obama's efforts to frame economic recovery after the 2008 financial crisis. Listener calls later in the hour reinforced discussions about rising energy costs, fuel prices, and public frustration with economic conditions.

Houston radio host Michael Berry provided an in-depth analysis of the closely watched contest between Republican Senator Ken Paxton and Democratic challenger James Talarico. Berry argued that Texas remains a fundamentally Republican state despite massive out-of-state financial support flowing into Talarico's campaign. The discussion examined voter turnout, campaign strategy, and the growing national significance of Texas as Republicans work to protect a critical Senate seat. The hosts also noted upcoming appearances in Texas by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance as the administration increases its involvement in competitive midterm races.

A major portion explored concerns among Republican voters about Talarico's growing media presence and advertising campaign. Clay, Buck, and Berry discussed Talarico's political positions on issues including immigration, energy, firearms, transgender policies, and cultural values. They argued that many Texas voters are only beginning to learn about the Democratic nominee and suggested that increased scrutiny of his record could become a decisive factor as the campaign enters its final stretch. The conversation repeatedly returned to the broader theme of whether Texas voters will view the election as a referendum on Paxton's performance as attorney general or on Talarico's policy platform and ideological alignment with the national Democratic Party.

The hosts also examined internal divisions within the Democratic Party, with Berry describing a growing struggle between traditional Democrats and a newer, more progressive wing. They connected the Texas race to larger national political trends, arguing that candidates such as Talarico and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed reflect ideological shifts that could create challenges for Democrats in swing states and battleground races. The discussion extended to key Senate contests around the country, with particular attention paid to Michigan, where the hosts suggested the race could play a major role in determining future Senate control.

Attorney General Todd Blanche joined the show, he discussed the Trump administration's Department of Justice priorities, including violent crime reduction, border security, fraud prevention, drug trafficking enforcement, and public safety initiatives. The conversation focused heavily on law enforcement efforts in Atlanta, where federal, state, and local agencies are working together through Homeland Security task forces to combat narcotics trafficking, gang activity, human trafficking, and financial crimes. Blanche highlighted recent prosecutions involving repeat drug offenders and criminal networks accused of distributing fentanyl and other narcotics while allegedly trafficking weapons to Mexican cartels, presenting these cases as examples of the administration's broader law-and-order agenda.

Clay and Buck asked Blanche about reports showing homicide rates continuing to decline nationwide. Blanche argued that improvements in public safety are the result of coordination between federal agencies, border enforcement, local police departments, prosecutors, and community-level law enforcement partnerships. The hosts described the decline in violent crime as one of the most underreported stories in the country and discussed how crime reduction has become a central message of the administration heading into the 2026 midterm election season.

The discussion then shifted to government fraud, COVID-era relief programs, welfare

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. I want to talk
about some of the things that President Trump covered last
night at the Rose Garden dinner because he went over
a whole slew of issues. But first, Clay, you might
have seen this story. We talk about the Clay and
Buck Podcast Network, which is an assemblage of fantastic hosts, very,

(00:22):
very diverse. And I mean, in terms of the shows
they do, not like not necessarily D.I. diversity, but diverse
kinds of shows. National security focus, political focus, health focus.
We have different things. Kind of mom, normie focused. We
have a whole bunch of stuff. But they're great shows.
And they're on demand for you on the Clay and
Buck Network to check out whatever you want. Also remember

(00:43):
this show, if you missed the beginning of the show
or you can't listen to the second or the third hour,
all three hours of this show are put up every
day as individual podcasts that you can listen to per hour,
if you will, or per hour of the show, which
is It means if you can only listen live for
one hour, go check us out and the others later
on when you're making dinner, doing the dishes, or just

(01:04):
going for a walk or at the gym. But, Clay,
I'm thinking about the Podcast Network because one of our
Clay and Buck Podcast Network alumni, Mr. Sean Parnell, story
about him yesterday a bunch of places. This one, Semaphore.
I think Politico also had a piece that he is emerging.
He's the Pentagon's chief spokesman, and he is emerging as

(01:26):
a top contender for for the role of Army Secretary.
So for those who don't know, the way it goes,
the DOD hierarchy on the civilian side, you have President
of the United States, Secretary of Defense, and then the
service secretaries who are co-equal, Secretary of the Army, Secretary

(01:49):
of the Navy, Secretary of the Air Force. So the
Secretary of the Army is a senior civilian official who
has to be Senate-confirmed. It's a non-cabinet rank, but it
has to be Senate-confirmed, who reports directly to the Secretary
of Defense. And he serves as the chief executive officer
of the Department of the Army, responsible for its administration, readiness, manpower, budget,

(02:12):
et cetera. Let me just say, I could not think
of a better person who is perfectly placed within this
administration already to take on this role that our friend
Sean Parnell, Clay, I think he, I know he would
do a phenomenal job. He is a war fighter. He's
a patriot. He has the total confidence and respect of

(02:36):
both Secretary of War Hegseth and of President Trump, as
he should. Sean has earned that. I've known Sean almost
15 years now. He is a really good man and
would do a great job. So it's one of these
things where, you know, they have the... the news stories
that are coming out and the backroom stuff. And the,

(02:56):
and sometimes you see something go, well, that would be great.
You know, this is a story about a, an appointment
that I think would be a huge asset to the
administration and nothing but upside. So I really hope that,
that president Trump gives us long consideration. And, and I,
I couldn't recommend anyone more highly for the role than,
than Sean Parnell, who's already serving in a senior Pentagon role.

(03:17):
And like I said, Has the war fighters know and
love him? I mean, the guy saw real combat in Afghanistan,
you know, did this stuff when you think about military.
His book, Outlaw Platoon, was a great book, Clay. I
read it many years ago. And he could be in
a very key role here for the Army as part
of Pete Hegseth's transformation of really the focus and readiness

(03:39):
of the modern American military. So I saw this story
and I just thought, oh, look, there's Sean. Sean could
end up being like the top five roles, civilian roles
within the entire military, you know, military hierarchy, which would
be great. He would be great at it.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
And whatever you think of the situation there right now,
I think at a bare minimum, Pete Hegseth deserves to
have guys that he can trust. that are on his team.
And that doesn't mean that everybody has to agree on
every single issue, but I just look at it and

(04:21):
if you know that people are working contra to the
policies that you're trying to put in place, it's impossible
to run any of those jobs.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
I mean, you know this.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
This is the challenge that so many probably the CIA
director is dealing with right now, the FBI, you're already
going to have an organization that probably voted for a
person different than you did when you are coming in
as that representative. Now, the military is a little bit different, right?
Because I know Trump won the overall military vote. I

(04:52):
don't know how he would have done with high-level general voting.
But any organization, if you don't get to bring your
guys in, to be a part of your overall organization
that you know can execute your agenda, it's impossible to
be successful. And so to me, this is really kind
of a no-brainer. I mean, Sean has done a really

(05:13):
good job. He's been with Pete since Pete got to
become the Secretary of War. And I think Sean would
do a phenomenal job in executing Pete's agenda, and Pete
can trust him.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
So this feels like a no-brainer to me. Well, Sean
is the guy that you would want in your actual
foxhole and he's also the guy you'd want in your
political dc swamp dealing with the bureaucracy foxhole too so
uh couldn't recommend that's why we brought him onto the
podcast network and Couldn't recommend him more. Just if any

(05:45):
of you are wondering, we tried to hire Caroline Leavitt
for the podcast network before she became the secretary or
the White House press secretary. And before that, the spokeswoman
for the Trump campaign. So I do think a little bit,
a little bit, pretty good eye for talent over here.
And I believe our former health podcaster, Dr. Nicole Sapphire,

(06:05):
is the surgeon general. That's right.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
I mean, it is kind of interesting.

Speaker 2 (06:10):
We had two different part of the Clay and Buck
podcast networks that were hired into prominent roles in the
Trump administration. They went straight from doing shows for us
to going straight into the Trump administration. And Buck himself
could have been the head of the CIA. Pays a
little bit less. I would have been good. I would

(06:31):
have been good.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
And I would say that that job, a lot of
those jobs... When I talk to people that have them, Clay,
the stuff that grinds you down with it I think
is not– and this is certainly true of what Trump
has had to deal with, although he has a somewhat
superhuman endurance and energy for pushing through nonsense and for
taking all that incoming. But it's just the– you know

(06:54):
what you want to get done or you know it
will make a thing better, and then all the– bizarre, unnecessary,
and annoying things that stand in the way. This is
what I hear from everybody who takes on any of
these roles. We know a lot of people that have
served in cabinet roles all the way down to deputy
assistant secretary. They all say the same thing, which is

(07:17):
getting the bureaucracy to work in a way that they
can pursue the agenda and pursue the goals is the
day-to-day struggle and it just kind of drives you nuts
so anyway there's that uh speaking of the bureaucracy and
getting things to work trump was in the rose garden
last night and uh he had a dinner and here's
what he said about how they're doing in 19 months

(07:39):
it's kind of amazing 19 months this trump term too
has already gone this is cut 10 here's his assessment
of how it's all coming along.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
In 19 months we've achieved more than any administration in
the history of our country. This is the best start
to a presidency in terms of production that we've ever
had in this country. The stock market has hit 80
all-time record highs in just a year and a half.
Think of that. So it's hit 80 all-time record highs
since the election. American exports are at the all-time high.

(08:11):
So exporting that's a good thing because you're making it
and you're exporting it we're manufacturing things in other words
again so they're at the highest they've ever been exports
let's think of that that's a big one and a
very big one also is today we have more americans
working than at any time in the history of our country.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
So clay he's saying big wins all around and i
do want This to be much more of what the
focus is for these Republicans going into the midterms. A
lot of really good things have been achieved in 19 months,
and I think there's a lot more to come. It
gets harder, though, if Democrats take the House and certainly
if they take the Senate. That's 100 percent true.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
Look, I talked about yesterday I was with Senator Marsha Blackburn,
soon to be Governor Marsha Blackburn, and they were running
through what their polling shows them is likely to be
the most important issues for the fall. And in Tennessee, overwhelmingly,
it's the economy and affordability. Here is what I would
encourage the Trump team to start to focus on. I

(09:16):
also think this translates across the board in any.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
Of these elections.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
35 or so super intense races in both the House
and the Senate. Democrats are the party that caused the
affordability issue. Joe Biden came into office 2021.

Speaker 1 (09:32):
Inflation was 1.9%. By June of 2022, it was 9.1%.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
The reason why you are frustrated about cost of goods
is the choices that the Democrat administration of Joe Biden made.
They now, 19 months later, are arguing they are the
ones who will cure the affordability issue. This is like

(09:57):
the arsonist saying, now I know how to put the
fire out. They caused the issue that is bothering people
still the most, and they are arguing, if you give
us the keys back, this time we will solve the
issue that we created in the first place. That I
think is a compelling pitch that the Trump team just

(10:17):
needs more time to fix the problem of the Biden team.
And it actually addresses affordability. Things are getting better, right?
It was 9.1%. Gas prices were over $ 5 a gallon
just four years ago. Everything is better. Everything is not perfect, right?
The average inflation I think now is 2.7, 2.8%.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Goal is 2%.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
We're not there yet.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
And again, In order to get there, the way to
get there is not to let the people who created
the problem in the first place back into positions of power.
I think that's an argument that could be understandable to people.
It doesn't disrespect the cost of goods. Now, good argument,

(11:00):
bad argument. What do you think of that take?

Speaker 1 (11:04):
It's good. It just has to be shorter, pithier and
able to fit on a bumper sticker for the purposes
of the election.

Speaker 4 (11:09):
Right.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
This is the challenge. is that walking people through the
reality of the inflationary cycle the Democrats kicked off and
how this has created long-term challenges for the economy the
Trump administration is still handling, but at least is handling
the proper way and doing what is necessary to bring
down those prices while we are seeing a tremendous surge

(11:30):
in prosperity of our manufacturing. You talked about goods being
sent overseas, the AI boom, all of this. Yes, all true, Clay,
but it needs to just be Things are going to
get better. Prices are going down. You know, this is
the problem is that you have to just punch out
with what the thing is. And I just wanted to
say that it's a little bit like if you have

(11:54):
some things you want to fix in your house, you
don't want to just light the house on fire and
then start from scratch. That would be very counterproductive. But
that's kind of what electing Democrats turns into. It's, oh, well,
it's not perfect. But if I put these people in charge,
they're going to ruin everything. They're going to make everything.
I should say they'll make everything worse. They will improve

(12:14):
no aspect of the economy that will help the average,
everyday American. They'll make it all worse. And they'll then
blame the Republicans for the situation they inherited. So the
cycle just continues on.

Speaker 2 (12:27):
I just think that argument, yes, more succinct. I'm not
hearing it anywhere. And I think it's probably the best
way to respond to affordability. Letting the arsonists back in
control of the firefight is not a great way to
solve the fire.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, you remember Obama had the whole, they drove us
into a ditch. Remember that?

Speaker 4 (12:47):
Yes. Yes.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
You know, come along here and say you want to
get us out of the ditch. No, I mean, it's 100%
and it worked. It did work because the economy was
cratering in 2008.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
But it worked even by 2012. He said as a
big part of his pitch, hey, we are solving the problem.
We're not there yet. And enough people bought it. Mitt
Romney didn't do a great job on the other side,
as many of you can recognize. But enough people bought
the things are getting better argument. I think the things
are getting better argument and they're worse is one. that

(13:21):
should be deployed more aggressively.

Speaker 1 (13:23):
All right, guys. At some point, you're going to have
to just deal with the reality of aging and how
it affects our energy. As we get older as guys,
we start to lose some pep in our step. That's
just what happens. Your energy starts to wane. You don't
want to admit it, but that's what's going on. But
there is a solution to this. There are many solutions
in a sense. You've got to bring them all together.
But one of the baseline things to do is boost

(13:45):
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(14:06):
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(14:27):
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Looking for normal in a world of crazy? Clay and

(14:48):
Buck have your back. Welcome back in, Clay and Buck.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
We appreciate all of you hanging out with us as
we're rolling through the Thursday edition of the program. We
are joined now by our friend that many of you
listened to earlier in the day, in Houston in particular,
later in the day in other places as well. Michael Berry.
And let's dive right in off the top here. We

(15:14):
have so many people asking what's going on down in Texas.
What's going on with Tallarico Paxton. You're there on the ground.
How optimistic are you in the Paxton race? How pessimistic
are you? Where would you assess us about 60 days
out when we know obviously early voting starts sooner rather

(15:34):
than later.

Speaker 1 (15:35):
And by the way, Vice President J.D.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Vance going to be doing a White House press briefing
any moment. We will be running on that. Caroline Leavitt
has left. There is no White House press secretary that
has been named to take her place yet. And so
the vice president, J.D. Vance, will be answering questions from
the media momentarily. But back to that race in Texas, Michael,

(15:58):
thanks for coming on. What should we know? How pessimistic
or optimistic are you right now?

Speaker 5 (16:04):
Well, if people show up and vote the way they
have in the past, Texans care about this state. They're
just now beginning to really focus on who Tallarico is,
and he cannot withstand the scrutiny.

Speaker 6 (16:15):
J.D.

Speaker 5 (16:15):
Vance, who you mentioned, will be in Houston next Wednesday.
The president again next Thursday. It's the first midterm convention
we've seen in modern American history. Look, we're taking this very,
very seriously. Trump won Texas in 16, 20, and 24,
and 24 were the largest number of votes. A Texas
record was 6.4 million, 56% of the votes. This is

(16:37):
a Republican state that wants a Republican senator. Ken Paxton
defeated the 24-year, very unpopular sitting John Cornyn. He's won
statewide three times before. California is pouring a lot of
money into this state to make a third Senate seat
for them and New York. And Texans are realizing that
the guy that was sold to them as a country
preacher is an absolute freak, and he does not agree

(17:00):
with us on anything. He's a Democrat socialist. He wants
open borders. He's anti-beef, kill oil and gas, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian,
gun grabber. That's not going to sell in Texas.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
Well, you know, last night, Michael, czar, last night Trump
was speaking in the Rose Garden, and he had a name.
I hadn't heard this one before. I've heard Talafrico, but
this is cut 12, guys. Mike, I'll let you react
to this one. Here's Trump talking about Talacripo, play 12.

Speaker 3 (17:29):
He was maybe the best attorney, and everybody admits it.
He was a great attorney general in Texas, and he's
running against Talacripo now. And this guy, he has that
name for a reason.

Speaker 6 (17:42):
He's terrible.

Speaker 3 (17:44):
He's radical left. Now he says he loves meat. You
know what he does? He eats meat and he goes
outside and he throws up all over the place. Because
in Texas, if you don't eat meat, you're in deep trouble.
It's not a good thing not to be able to
eat meat. He was wearing a mask six months ago.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
He had a mask on.

Speaker 3 (18:01):
When somebody's wearing a mask six months ago, you're in
deep trouble.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
I mean, is that really true that he's wearing a mask?
And also, was he trying to win in Texas, but
he's a vegan or vegetarian?

Speaker 4 (18:12):
He was a vegan.

Speaker 5 (18:13):
They're a vegan campaign. This is the cattle industry state.
He's tried to grab guns three different times. We are
gun owners. The NRA has moved here. But you know
the creepiest thing, and the word creep is correct. The
president is smart with these labels. There's an ick factor
to him. His big issue is transing kids.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
He was a schoolteacher for a brief period of.

Speaker 5 (18:36):
Time, and he was asked recently, what's your favorite thing?
Not your family, not your friends. What's something that's really
special and wonderful to you? And he said, trans children.
And there was a collective gasp. Oh, we can't let
the voters in suburban Texas see this sort of craziness.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
This is weird.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
He's voted against a bill banning transgender surgery for minors, Buck.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Multiple times.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
This guy is an absolute, he's called us a Christo-fascist.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
He said he's a Christian who hates Christianity. There really
is a creep.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
Factor as if at any moment there's going to be
a big news story that pops and you're going to go.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
You know what?

Speaker 4 (19:17):
I'd believe that about that guy.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
You said that Texans are starting to pay attention. What
should in your opinion, Texans be doing now? We're going
to get Ken Paxton on again soon. I've been texting
with him some this week. I'm confident he's going to win.
I think he's a great candidate. He's been statewide. Maybe
you can help for people out there who don't know.
He's been attacked unlike almost anybody in the history of

(19:43):
the state of Texas, and he still won multiple times statewide.
So this idea that somehow Texans aren't familiar with Ken Paxton,
I think, is untrue. I do believe that a lot
of Texans are not familiar with James Tallarico and. I
want to ask you about the Beto race against Ted
Cruz back in the day. Beto was a great candidate.

(20:06):
And I can understand why people thought, hey, he might
be able to pull off a win. Tallarico is an
awful candidate. Are people just not taking him seriously enough?
Because as Buck just laid out, you got a vegan
pro trans weirdo. who is running for office and Texans
just think there's no way this guy's going to win.

(20:26):
Whereas Beto was actually pretty compelling. He was a great candidate.
Am I wrong here?

Speaker 1 (20:31):
How would you assess this?

Speaker 5 (20:32):
You are dead on Ted Cruz beat Beto by one
percentage point. President Trump came in at the end and
really rallied the forces. And he's doing the same thing
for Paxton. The national Republican establishment led by Karl Rove,
which is why Fox is trashing Paxton every day.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
It's amazing what they're doing.

Speaker 5 (20:51):
Karl Rove would rather a Democrat win because he got
defeated with the candidate he owned, which was John Cornyn.
So Rove and the establishment and the other senators, they're
not spending any money on Paxton. So we're counting on
Trump to bring in a lot of money, which he's
committed to do. Elon has committed to bring in a
lot of money. Ted Cruz is bringing in from his
pack a lot of money, and it's out on the hustings.

(21:11):
Paxton's going to work his butt off.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
What people are.

Speaker 5 (21:13):
Going to have to see is it's not a referendum
on Paxton. It's a referendum on Tallarico because you don't
want to send him there for six years. But Paxton's record, Clay,
is amazing. He's brought over $ 5. 1 billion back to Texas.
He sued Meta in one. He sued Google in one.
He sued Big Pharma in one. He sued the Purdue
folks with the pain medication. He sued these Medicare fraudsters

(21:36):
in one. He's the best attorney general in the country.
So did he go through a divorce?

Speaker 4 (21:40):
Was it unpleasant? Yeah. I haven't known anybody who went
through a pleasant divorce. It's ugly.

Speaker 5 (21:45):
It's unfortunate all the way around. But there's a lot
of things that the outside public doesn't see and doesn't
need to know.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
Is he going to do a good job? Yeah.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
He's a mechanic who's going to fix your car. He's
a quarterback that's going to score touchdowns. He's a senator
who's going to vote for Trump, and that's why Trump's
supporting him. So we can be proud of the senator
he will be, and we would be ashamed of who
Tallarico is.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
So we're talking to Michael Baer, everybody. It's our talk
based out of Houston. You're all familiar with his show. Michael,
we're getting people that write in, call in, all of
the above, and they're upset because they say, I'm seeing, again,
I don't live in Texas, so I'm not seeing it,
but they're saying, I'm seeing all over local TV, all

(22:26):
over the airwaves, nothing but Tallarico ads. Obviously, this guy's
getting a lot of money from out of state. I'm
sure plenty of money from in state, too, but a
lot of money from out of state. And it's all
over the place. They feel like there's saturation. There's Tallarico
saturation going on. They're living in a Tallarico world, right?
And where's Paxton? Are you telling us that the cavalry

(22:46):
is coming and you're going to be seeing a lot
more Paxton and you're confident in that? Or is there
a little bit more of a wake-up call where Paxton's
people thought, oh, we didn't need to spend money, but
now we're going to have to, right? Is this tactical
or is this a reorienting of Paxton's campaigns?

Speaker 4 (23:03):
No, it's scrambling.

Speaker 5 (23:05):
I mean, if you win the Super Bowl the next season,
you start having had less time off and less time
to regroup and less, you don't get the first round
draft pick. Paxton, I mean, Tallarico had an easy, easy
primary with Jasmine Crockett, but he pissed off a lot
of black voters and he's really struggling with black voters.
He's pandering in a manner right now that makes Tim

(23:26):
Walz look authentic. It's sad for him. So he's struggling
with black voters really badly. And Paxton started with zero.
The Republican establishment.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
Spent over $ 100.

Speaker 5 (23:35):
Million attacking him. And as soon as he came out
of that, then California, Reid Hoffman, Epstein buddy and the
like is after him. And they're pouring all this money.
I mean, the last number I saw, I know you
have the Attorney General on shortly, he can tell you.
Last number I saw was they spent 70 million just
since then. Paxton started at zero. So he's going out,

(23:55):
Cruz is helping him. President Trump is weighing in heavily now.
Elon is very involved.

Speaker 4 (23:59):
He's got the big TerraFab project here.

Speaker 5 (24:01):
He wants his new home state to have the right
US senator. I mean, Paxton would be a great senator
because he's been a great attorney general. And once people
see his actual record and who Tallarico is, they're going
to turn to Paxton.

Speaker 4 (24:16):
I would argue that the.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
Election just began two days ago, September 1st. That's when
the independents and the moderates start paying attention. They realize
Tallarico is a guy who grew up in a Bible
Belt state in a small town where they played Friday
night football and Sunday morning church. And they wear guns.
And they work in the oil field. And he's against
all of that. He comes back home to Texas from

(24:38):
Harvard looking like Rachel Maddow and sounding like the love
child of Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders. It's not going
to fly in Texas. And Texans are paying attention to
it now.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
You mentioned black voters. Jasmine Crockett ran a campaign. I said,
I don't know if you echoed it, that I actually
thought Jasmine Crockett was a bigger threat to Ken Paxton,
more talented politician, believe it or not, more normal for
a lot of Texans. I'm not saying Jasmine Crockett was

(25:08):
a was a perfect representation of Texas by any stretch
of the imagination. But I think she's a better representation
of the Democrat Party in Texas than Tallarico is. And
for casual voters, I think she likely would have had
better appeal. What is going to happen with black voters?
Is there a great deal of reticence there? Is Jasmine
Crockett going to be on the campaign trail? How is

(25:29):
that all playing out? A lot of talk about the
Republican side. What about the Democrat side?

Speaker 4 (25:35):
Well, Clay, you guys have talked about it. Nice profile
in The Wall Street Journal yesterday, by the way. Wow.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Not too bad. The Wall Street Journal is saying something nice. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (25:43):
You know, the Democrat Party is in the middle of
an absolute rift, a civil war, kind of like what
we went through with the Republican Party in 2016 when
all these voters came to the table and said, hey,
we're taking over this party. The Tea Party folks, the
MAGA folks, the Trump folks, the populists, the nationalists, the Christians.
And there was this resettling of the table, and we're

(26:05):
still at the tail end of that. The Democrats are
just beginning this.

Speaker 4 (26:08):
So Tallarico can't decide.

Speaker 5 (26:10):
On Monday if he's a Democrat socialist or if he
wants to pretend he's a Texan in a rented truck,
no joke, and a cowboy hat that didn't fit, and Chris'
new cowboy getup that he's never worn before. I mean,
he's wrong on every single– he wanted an open border
with a front porch and Democrat socialist. He is out
of touch, and he does not have black support– He

(26:32):
is sort of this new DSA candidate, whereas Jasmine was
the old-style black Democrat, and the old Democrats are really struggling.
You hear this with Bill Maher, or you see what
Fetterman's saying, or you're seeing what Rahm Emanuel's saying out
of Chicago, or listen to James Carville in Louisiana. This
new breed, which Tallarico is part of, it gives a
great discomfort to Texans. It's like watching Tim Walsh do

(26:55):
jazz hands as he comes out on the stage, and
you see Tallarico, and you go, I see a lot
of frightening similarities.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
Michael, before we let you go, I'm just wondering, outside
of your home state of Texas, where, by the way,
Clay and I have to come down there and visit.
You've got your buddy Jesse Kelly just down the road.
We've got fun stuff to do when we come down
to Texas. We'll go drink with Ted Cruz or somebody
who's down there. We'll have a lot of fun. We've
got to come visit, but beside that, Outside of your
home state, what is the Senate race that you are

(27:26):
either most concerned about or most dialed in on because
of how important it is? Those things kind of bleed together,
but which one are you really looking at and following
with the most intensity?

Speaker 5 (27:38):
I'll tell you that Texans are so proud of Florida
and what Florida has become since DeSantis won in 2018.
And he barely won over a guy that ended up
butt naked and drugged out of his mind in a
hotel room a few weeks, a few months later, the
former mayor of Tallahassee. I'm not worried about the Florida
seat against Nixon. I am worried about Michigan, and I'm

(27:59):
watching Michigan closely, and it's going to be interesting to
see how many Democrats are willing to go over for
Rogers and vote for a Republican and hold their nose
because they realize Abdul El-Sayed is a– they can't dress
him up in cowboy duds like they do Tallarico. You know,
they can only make him so local. He has too
much of a past in his Hassan Piker Association. I

(28:21):
think that race, if Republicans can win that seat and
hold Texas, this is going to be a good next
two years, next six years.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Michael Baer, everybody. Zara Talk out of Houston. Great to
talk to you, buddy. Thanks for being here with us.

Speaker 4 (28:33):
Thank you, guys. Always appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
Clay, it's going to be okay in Texas. Paxton, it's
going to be okay. If Michael says it's going to
be okay, yeah, it's going to be okay. I'm not worried.
I'm not worried. A little bit of sunshine. Coming to
our buddy there. All right. Something else that I really
want you to focus in on for a second is
pre-born clinics. They're so, so important because they're saving the
lives of tiny babies in the womb. And they're doing

(28:55):
this every day all across America. In fact, they set
up their clinics in places where the abortion rates are
highest because they want to be that alternative right there
on the front lines where moms with a crisis, unexpected
pregnancy are getting pressured. They're being told that Go to
one of those places that does an abortion, quote, take

(29:16):
care of it. Preborn's there saying, no, no, let's bring
it into this world, this baby. Let's bring your little
boy or little girl into the world and bring blessings
and joy to all those around you. And that is
an incredibly beautiful message, and it's what preborn is doing
every day. Now, they start this process with the ultrasound
because they bring the mom in, and she might have

(29:36):
heard a lot of things. Oh, it's a clump of cells. Oh,
it doesn't.

Speaker 4 (29:40):
Matter.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
No, it's more than that. It's your baby. And with
that ultrasound, mom meets that baby for the first time
in a scientific way, but it's a godly connection between
mother and child. And then over 80% of the time,
that mom chooses life. For those of you who can,
please consider donating today to Preborn. $ 28 would be a
gift that would sponsor an ultrasound for one of these moms.

(30:03):
And you could be that person who steps up and
helps a mom bring her little baby in the world.
I went to a preborn clinic in Miami just to
visit with them and see what they do. And there
was a little girl running around the office. And her
mom told me, she's like, I thought I was alone.
I thought I couldn't do this. And now she has
this beautiful little girl, maybe five, six years old, running
around the office, giggling, having a great time. And I

(30:25):
just said, you know, this is a really important organization.
And I really hope that some of you are going
to step up and help them because it's important. Go
to preborn.com slash buck, preborn.com slash B-U-C-K. $ 28 would sponsor
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(30:46):
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Sponsored by Preborn. It's like having your house at the
perfect temperature all the time. Preset Clay and Buck on

(31:07):
the iHeart app. Third hour of Clay and Buck kicks
off right now. And we are very thankful to be
joined by the Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche.

Speaker 4 (31:17):
Mr.

Speaker 1 (31:17):
Attorney General, thank you for calling in. I believe you're
in the Atlanta area. Appreciate you making the time for us. Yeah,
no problem.

Speaker 6 (31:25):
Yes, I am. I'm in Atlanta. It's great to be here.
Thanks for letting me join.

Speaker 1 (31:29):
And I know that the work being done there by U.S.
Attorney Theodore Hertzberg has been phenomenal. It's been getting press
even at the national level because it's going right to
some of the priorities, the top priorities of the Department
of Justice under this Trump administration. Can you speak to that,
some of what has been worked on specifically in the

(31:50):
Atlanta area, some of the cases you're highlighting there? as
examples of the sorts of high-profile drug trafficking, corruption, and
other cases that are an absolute focus for your Department
of Justice?

Speaker 4 (32:06):
Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 6 (32:07):
So, yes, Atlanta is a shining star at the Department
of Justice for the great work that they're doing combating
violent crime, combating violence, the narcotics problem in Georgia and
Atlanta and everywhere in the country, fraud, which is a
big issue in every city, but Atlanta is not excluded
from that. And so down here, what they do, like

(32:29):
in a lot of our cities, is the Homeland Security
Task Force, which is A group of federal, state, and
local law enforcement kind of get around a big table,
and they tackle a problem, whether it's a gang, whether
it's a fraud problem, whether it's human trafficking. And that's
what they've been doing here. I think there's two great
cases to talk about that I think your listeners will

(32:49):
resonate with them. The first is a guy that they
just indicted this week. He's a drug dealer. He was
arrested in North Carolina. for selling heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl
in large quantities in the Atlanta and neighboring areas. Now,
you might say, no big deal, there's drug dealers that
are arrested every day. Well, this guy has the amazing

(33:12):
badge of honor of having been convicted of a drug
felony for selling cocaine in 1999, went to prison, got
convicted again in 2010 for selling marijuana, went to prison,
got convicted again in 2020 of selling large quantities of drugs,
got sentenced to a federal– 10 years in prison. Okay,

(33:33):
so now you have a guy who's been convicted three
times of selling drugs all over Georgia. And then President Biden,
in his wisdom– commuted his sentence right at the end
of his term. This guy got out and now is
allegedly dealing drugs again. And so you have an individual
who's literally dedicated his life to poisoning Georgians. And thankfully,

(33:55):
the U.S. attorney is doing a great job in that case.
The second case, which is just as, I think, phenomenal
from a law enforcement standpoint, is there's a group of
individuals who were selling fentanyl and other drugs in the Now,
what they were doing with the money is they were
going and purchasing weapons, including high-caliber magazines and handheld, hand-fed

(34:21):
submachine guns, and shipping them to the cartels in Mexico.
And so we've already arrested and convicted 17 guys, but
we've just arrested some more participants in this scheme. And
if you think about that, What you have is you
have drug dealers peddling poison to people in Atlanta, fentanyl,

(34:41):
kills dozens of people every single day, and then taking
the profits, going and buying guns and getting the guns
shipped down to Mexico to the cartels. So the perfect
two examples of real crime happening, but that you have
a great U.S. attorney executing on President Trump's agenda, stopping it.

Speaker 2 (35:01):
This ties in also with what I think is probably
the most underreported story of the Trump second administration so far,
which is we're on pace to set an all time
record low for murders in twenty twenty six last year,
at least going back to nineteen hundred. Last year was
that record. They're down about 20 percent so far in 2026. Yeah.

(35:23):
What can you tell us about that data? And do
you agree that it should be talked about way more?
Because based on that data, you've never been less likely
to be a victim of murder in the country, maybe
in the history of the United States.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
Oh, man.

Speaker 6 (35:38):
Listen, I totally agree with you. It drives me bananas
that I'll stand in front of a bunch of reporters
and they'll ask me questions about anything under the sun
except for that issue. Because if you think about that,
you're right. Since over 125 years, we've never had the
murder rate this low. So what does that mean? Does
that mean the federal government and federal law enforcement are
doing everything? Absolutely positively not. Does that mean that it's

(36:02):
just the state and locals? Absolutely positively not. What this shows,
and the reason why the murder rate is so low,
is because it's an all-government, everybody approach. It means that
our borders are secure. It means that everybody's working together
to arrest bad guys so they can't go out and
commit murder. It means that our local cops... are doing
what they need to do in the schools. They're doing

(36:23):
what they need to do in our communities to keep
violence from happening. And guess what?

Speaker 4 (36:27):
That is all.

Speaker 6 (36:28):
Because of President Trump. It's all because he ran and
he said, what we're going to do is we're going
to make America safe again. in every way that we can.
So not only with the border, not only with the FBI,
not only with the DEA, but also with our sheriffs
and our police department. And yet this is something that
everybody should be shouting from the rooftops because you're right.

(36:48):
That means if you're in this country, you're a lot
less likely to be the victim of a violent crime
or murder than at any point really in our history
for the past 125 years.

Speaker 1 (36:58):
Speaking to Attorney General Todd Blanch and Mr. Attorney General,
also in the Atlanta... jurisdiction, there was someone named Atala
Williams who was sentenced to six years, six months in
prison for taking bribes for millions in fraudulent COVID relief loans.
First of all, it's more good work by a U.S.
attorney's office out of Atlanta, but it's also indicative or

(37:22):
ties into an issue that I know is top of,
because the vice president is really ahead of a task
force on it, and that is just all the fraud.
In this case, talking about bribes, but also more broadly,
just the defrauding of the system that's going on. How
is your DOJ tackling those problems, and what are the

(37:43):
kind of primary areas of fraud that you're going to
be looking to bring prosecutions against?

Speaker 6 (37:50):
Yes, I mean, that is the focus. I was talking
to our U.S. attorney today, and he said to me, wow,
President Trump and this administration have a lot of priorities.
And I said, that's absolutely right.

Speaker 4 (38:00):
We do.

Speaker 6 (38:01):
And then he very much agreed and is enthusiastic about it.
And fraud is certainly one as well. I think the
case you just spoke of, you're right. She not only
was accepting bribes, but she was also applying for fraudulent
loans herself. So not only accepting bribes to help others,
But also doing it herself. So, yes, we're working closely
with the vice president, with the task force. We just

(38:22):
started a fraud division whose primary and sole purpose is
to root out fraud everywhere. But then every U.S. attorney's office,
including here in Atlanta, has an entire section and group
of prosecutors trying to do that. And here's the focus.
There are many, many individuals out there. Many of them
are here illegally, but some are not. who are literally

(38:43):
just stealing money from the federal government. Your tax dollars
are going right to the federal government, and they're right
into somebody's pocket so they can buy a Ferrari. So
this isn't about a single mother trying to feed her kids.
This isn't about a doctor who maybe just checks the
slightly right form to say that there was a certain
type of procedure when it really was a different procedure,

(39:03):
all of which are still potentially crimes. We're talking about
pure thievery. We're talking about individuals who say they're running
a homeless shelter, for example, and collecting millions of dollars
from the federal government, and there's no shelter, and there's
nobody homeless, they're not providing any service. We're talking about
the daycare center fraud that have been talked about. So
we have these programs that gives millions and millions of

(39:24):
dollars to states to give to what should be a
good program, helping the most needy. among us have access
to daycare and after-school care. And this money is– there's
no daycare center. There's no after-school care. There's no kids.
It's just going into people's pockets. We've seen tremendous success
already just in the past several months with the vice

(39:44):
president and the work that we're all doing. I expect
that if folks pay attention to you and to other
media over the next several months, they're going to continue
to see great work. We're going all over the country
for the next several months. with takedowns and with really
positive results in this space. And what everybody should know
is every time we arrest somebody, we are saving this

(40:06):
country anywhere from, however, depending on the fraud, a million
to sometimes $ 100 million in money that was stolen from
the FISC.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
I know that you can't comment on cases that are ongoing.
So we're getting a lot of people saying, ask about Fauci,
ask about Comey, ask about a lot of these other
different cases. The lawyer, I don't want to get you
in trying to comment on those because of your position.
So let me ask you about a case that was
recently decided, the ballroom that President Trump is building. The

(40:36):
Supreme Court basically said you guys can do that. I
thought it was super interesting. I'm curious your take. They
went and looked at standing, which used to be kind
of a significant aspect of any case to prove a
concrete injury, basically. And you can't say, hey, I'm a
person who walks by the White House and I felt
injured by the way that the White House was being

(40:57):
in changed. I was at the White House Correspondents Dinner,
the first one when the shooting happened. A lot of
people saw that chaos. The need for a ballroom to
me is beyond a shadow of a doubt. What did
the court say? the Supreme Court, and why was it significant?
I'll let you analyze it.

Speaker 4 (41:14):
Yes.

Speaker 6 (41:14):
So I was at the Correspondence Center, too, and that's
the best example anybody can give on why we need
a ballroom. But beyond that, it's not just a room
for people, for the president and future presidents to host dinners,
but it's also incredibly important for the safety of the
president and his family and his leadership. And so this
was something that needed to be done for a very
long time. And so the I'll talk about the case

(41:37):
in a second. But don't forget that not a dollar
of tax dollars– no tax dollars went to this. This
is all privately raised funds from companies and places in
this great country who wanted to see this ballroom built.
And further, what you had in the design and the
construction of it was a lot of process and thought
so that it looks beautiful. It's right in line with

(42:00):
the way the White House looks today. And presidents for
the next 50, 100 years are going to get to
enjoy it. Now, what the Supreme Court said is you're right,
is that just because somebody walks by and observes and says,
you know what, I might not like the way it looks.
That doesn't give you standing to sue. And when a
non-lawyer that's told that, it's almost common sense. And so

(42:22):
what we had in D.C. and at the D.C. Circuit
before we got to the Supreme Court is we had
judges that really were not looking at the– in our view,
weren't looking at the underlying reason and cost and what
we were saying we.

Speaker 1 (42:34):
Wanted to do.

Speaker 6 (42:35):
They were just more or less saying, I don't like
President Trump, and you can't build a ballroom. And so we're– look,
we were very happy for the Supreme Court to rule
the way we did, the way that it did. We
weren't surprised because we knew that we were right on
the law. And what we were saying to the court
is the same thing that President Trump's been saying over
and over again, which is that this is a privately

(42:57):
funded effort and that Congress long ago– gave the executive,
which is President Trump, permission to make changes to buildings
like the White House, which is exactly what he's doing here.
We're excited. You should be excited because hopefully, if not
next year, then the year after that, the Correspondence Center

(43:17):
will be in that great ballroom. It's going to be beautiful.
It's going to be a great place to celebrate this country.
And we're really happy. And just to give a shout out,
to our lawyers, the lawyers on this case, the Civil
Division and the Solicitor General's Office, the White House Counsel's Office.
They worked for really the past year in achieving the
result we got last week. So it was a good day.

(43:40):
It's all good.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
Attorney General Todd Blanch, appreciate you making the time for us.
Please keep it up. Come back on any time you
want to talk about some of these top initiatives from
the Trump White House. And also give our regards and
tell U.S. Attorney Hertzberg he's doing a great job. Our
Atlanta listeners would want me to pass that along.

Speaker 6 (43:58):
Absolutely. I'd love to join you guys again, and thank
you for having me on. You guys are great, and
keep up the good work.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
Will do, sir. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (44:08):
Look, I want to tell you guys, that's the Attorney
General of the United States, Todd Blanche. We'll get to
some of your calls. You can react to that. Does
that mean we've had pretty much everybody on, Buck? I
think in the entire administration from a cabinet perspective. I
can't think of any that have not been on at
some point in time since they've become cabinet secretaries.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
Marco comes on, but he comes on to talk to
you about football, even though he's got six jobs in
the six cabinet roles. But it's okay.

Speaker 2 (44:36):
Yeah, we got a cut for that with J.D. Vance,
who continues to answer questions in the White House right now. Look,
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Speaker 2 (46:22):
Welcome back in clay and buck. We are rolling through
the Thursday edition of the program. A lot of you
immediately weighing in on my potentially contentious take that the
90s are better than the 80s. They are the two
best decades, I believe, in American history. I think what
unites both of them, Buck, is Reagan was an incredibly

(46:48):
popular president in the 1980s. I think we talked about
this when we were talking about the presidential power rankings
last week that President Trump posted. I think that Reagan
is the best president of my life by a substantial margin.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Bill Clinton, though, was also really, really popular in the 90s.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
And he got elected basically by saying Democrats are crazy
and I'm going to be a new type of Democrat. Now,
I don't know that people expected that he was going
to have an affair with his intern. And that would
certainly play very different in the 21st century than it
did at.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
The end of the 20th.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
But, Buck, to me, the 90s were the better decade. Now,
I've said this before. If you are having a dinner party...
And you're worried about what the topics are going to be.
You know, you're like, oh, my God, Lindsay Clancy might
come up and the women are going to lose their
minds or you're going to talk about Trump and people
are going to get really fired up. I'm telling you,

(47:51):
the best debate that could occur that will actually make people.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Like each other more is 80s versus 90s. Are you saying.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
Even younger than me, that you would take the 80s
over the 90s? You can consider movies, music, economy, culture, president,
like all these different things you can roll together.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
You would take 80s over 90s? I think as a decade,
you probably do take the 80s over the 90s. Now,
to be clear, where we started on this, was that
Ryan Reynolds, who is married to Blake Lively, was trashing
the 80s as this messy, bad decade, when really, for America,

(48:39):
both the 80s and 90s were overwhelmingly prosperous. We had
the Persian Gulf War in the early 90s, and then
Clinton got us involved in some stuff in the Balkans,
but we didn't have a Vietnam War. We didn't have
a World War I or a World War II. We
didn't even have a Korean War. We didn't have anything
of that scale in either of those decades. So start

(49:02):
with that. I think it's really hard to have a
great decade when you're losing a lot of your best
and bravest young men in a conflict somewhere. So other
things would be going on too, but I think that's
a very good start. America was at relative peace. I
understand Persian Gulf War, but the first... Persian Gulf war
was kind of a, like a mopping up operation from

(49:22):
day one. And I, I, the music is an interesting
call for me and the movies are an interesting call
for me. I, I, I don't know. I think you're
at a really, uh, immovable object unstoppable force situation i
could be persuaded either way but i could not be
persuaded that what ryan reynolds said which is like the

(49:43):
80s was a bloody and horrible decade it's like what
are you for america that's the thing for other places
maybe yeah i wouldn't have wanted to be you know
in afghanistan.

Speaker 2 (49:53):
He's also our age roughly So he actually lived through
some of the 1980s, I think. I think Ryan Reynolds
is 42, 43-ish, if I were guessing. He's also, Buck,
not a total moron in that he's been successful from
a capitalistic perspective. I don't understand how these guys can't

(50:14):
just walk down the red carpet.

Speaker 1 (50:16):
Isn't he Canadian? Is he Canadian? Is he Canadian? I think, yeah,
he's Canadian. There we go. Problem solved. Now we know.
He's Canadian. So he doesn't like all that muscular Reagan
optimism morning in America. He's one of those. And by
the way, I know we have Canadians listen to the
show and you're on board with us and everything else.
But a lot of Canadian, a lot of you Canucks

(50:36):
running around up there living under a blanket of freedom
provided by America. I might add, just speaking honestly here,
living lives of prosperity because the guy next door to
you is your best buddy who will stop any bullies
from messing with you. You're going to give us the
80s was a bad decade?

Speaker 2 (50:56):
He's going to turn 50 in October next month. So
he remembers the 80s. Yeah, he does look pretty good
for 50. But he does, way better than me. He does, though,
remember what the 1980s were. And here's my historical analogy, Buck.
The 1980s were a final repudiation of 1968, right? Reagan

(51:22):
won to a large extent on let's bring normalcy back
to America. I think there's an argument out there from
a historical perspective that our modern day 1968 was 2020
and that what we have seen since 2020 is on
into 2021 and whatnot was a peak woke era that

(51:43):
was destabilizing. And what we have seen and what certainly
the Trump reelection in 2024 represented was in some way
a return for some form of normalcy. If I want
to be optimistic, I think we could have a generation
that things go back to being somewhat normal. And let
me build on that too, Buck, because the other part
of this is the country is aging and older people

(52:07):
are are saner, generally speaking. They've actually seen things happen.
They have perspective. And they also tend to vote more conservative.
And so I think that we may be trending towards
an era, and I think even the way AOC is
talking suggests that she might see it coming, where this

(52:29):
sort of revolutionary, even though they're having a flare-up right
here with the are going to be roundly, soundly rejected
by normal people across America. That would be my optimistic take.
I also think with the fall of the wall and
the dissolution.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
Of the Soviet Union, not only was there a spread
of incredible optimism. Now, again, that bridges. That's 80s into 90s, right?
So this is where decades or just numbers.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
People forget because Reagan gave the tear down the wall speech,
but it wasn't until George H.W. Bush was president that
the Berlin Wall actually came down. A lot of people
think that was Reagan. Reagan was the force behind it occurring,
but it was his vice president in charge when it
did happen.

Speaker 1 (53:18):
I will tell you, though, if you're talking about more
timeless movies. I actually think now the nineties had better
production value, better technology to work with in the film industry.
So that's a huge advantage, but I think the eighties
might have, I might actually have it beat. You got
ET ghostbusters, Raiders of the lost, the last lost arc,

(53:40):
princess bride, the Goonies, karate kid, die hard, the Terminator aliens, predator,
all eighties movies, nineties movies, If you're looking at the
top of the top in terms of overall popularity, you
get Shawshank Redemption, which I actually enjoyed watching, but it's
an absurd movie.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
The whole thing.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Everyone in prison is kind of jolly, remorseful, but friendly fellow.
Not everybody, obviously, but a lot of them are. I
think it's a little too.
Schmaltzy, a little too aww at the end. But anyway, Goodfellas,
Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, Fight Club, The Matrix,
I do love The Matrix, Pulp Fiction, Terminator 2, those

(54:21):
are accordingly the best movies of the 90s. Look, that's
an amazing lineup, too. You don't have something similar for
the first decade of the 21st century. The movies are
just not as good. And then this last decade, the
movies have turned into trash. We also had more, I
would argue, American dominance globally with our culture, certainly in
the 80s and 90s than we do today. I think

(54:42):
that's true. I think that's true as well. I do
think music is better in the 90s. it was more
diverse in terms of the type of music that was ascendant.
If you go back and look at rock music, rap music,
country music, there was a wider variety of excellence than
had existed in the past. I will say, do you

(55:05):
know who Ella Langley is? Ella Langley, no. You really
don't know who Ella Langley is? I wouldn't lie to
all these people listening on the radio. No, I don't
know who Ella Langley is. I know Ella Langley, CIA headquarters,
where all the magic happens. Ella Langley, Leaving Texas, do

(55:26):
you know that song? Oh, she's the new country singer
with the big first song. I just forgot her name. Yeah, okay,
I do know who that is.

Speaker 2 (55:34):
Okay, so she is about to have the longest tenured
number one overall hit potentially in history of music. I
think she's had a number one, the Leaving Texas song.
has been number one now for 20 weeks. When I
think about the culture changing, the fact that a country
music song is now dominating and it comes on the
heels of Morgan Wallen and we can run through any

(55:56):
number of country artists that are all having their quote-unquote moments,
I do think it suggests that the culture overall is
changing and we're moving back in the direction of the
80s and the 90s. Now, to your point, Buck, here's
what we need. Actually really good movies to start being
made again. And that's why I have argued to bring
it home that Paramount should come back to leave California,

(56:19):
come to Nashville, and make Nashville the Hollywood of the heartland.
Let's go to break here, by the way.

Speaker 6 (56:24):
J.D.

Speaker 2 (56:25):
Vance just walked out to start a press briefing today.
In the White House, he's speaking right now. We will
monitor that and give you the absolute latest on anything
he might say. And we'll take your calls. We've got
loaded lines, not surprisingly. Plus, I've got a sports story
that I was trying to explain to Buck. And we
may get into that a little bit because it has

(56:46):
truly become insane.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
I actually got fired up over it, to be fair.
And it is not the WNBA. Not the WNBA. And
I got fired up. So that tells you something about
the sports story. Thousands of places on the Internet have
a file with your name on it, your home address,
your cell phone number, your email address. There's more, your
medical conditions, age, how you vote, your kids' names. You
can't read that file, but anyone with a credit card

(57:08):
can buy it. That file is a product of a
multibillion-dollar industry called data brokers. Your file is collected, packaged,
and sold, and this is legal. But every scam call,
every phishing text that knows way too much about you, someone...
Paid for your file. Last year, Americans lost a record
$ 20 billion plus to fraud. Scammers didn't get lucky. They

(57:30):
got prepared. I did something about my file. We both have.
We're using an online company called Incogni. That may be
a new name to you, but Incogni goes broker by
broker and forces each one to delete your file. The
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wipes it again. Go to incogni.com slash buck right now

(57:52):
for 60% off. That's spelled I-N-C-O-G-N-I. Incogni.com slash buck is
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gets you 60% off at incogni.com slash buck. Miss the
show while you're on the go?

Speaker 2 (58:10):
Wind down your day with the Daily Review podcast. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.