August 7, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show delivers a powerful mix of political insight, cultural commentary, and campaign strategy. Clay Travis opens the hour with a deep dive into the rising violent crime in Washington, D.C., spotlighting President Donald Trump's efforts to restore law and order in the capital. Drawing on historical symbolism, Clay reflects on the importance of capital cities, referencing Abraham Lincoln’s commitment to completing the Capitol dome during the Civil War and the newly announced reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery.
The episode features a striking comparison of homicide rates in global capital cities, revealing Washington, D.C.’s alarming rate of 41 per 100,000—far higher than cities like Lima, Nairobi, and Mexico City. Clay argues that a safe and vibrant capital is essential to American exceptionalism and global leadership.
A central theme of Hour 2 is the crisis of fatherlessness in America. Clay explores how the absence of fathers in households correlates with youth violence, poverty, and societal breakdown. He responds to listener feedback, emphasizing that while individual cases vary, the data overwhelmingly shows that intact families—especially with present fathers—lead to better outcomes. The discussion includes racial disparities, with Clay citing historical data showing stronger black family units prior to the Great Society programs and questioning the long-term impact of government dependency.
The hour also features an exclusive interview with RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, who is running for U.S. Senate in North Carolina. Whatley outlines his campaign to replace Senator Thom Tillis, focusing on economic growth, public safety, military support, and alignment with President Trump’s America First agenda. He critiques Democratic opponent Roy Cooper’s record, including vetoes on bills protecting women's sports and his inadequate response to Hurricane Helene. Whatley emphasizes the importance of grassroots engagement and fundraising in what is expected to be the most expensive Senate race of 2026.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show our number two.
Buck on the road for the next couple of days
with his family on a summer break. He'll be back
with me on Monday. Appreciate all of you hanging out
with us. We just got through talking with Senator Marsha
Blackburn of Tennessee. Michael Wattley will be with us at
(00:22):
the bottom of the hour. He is going to be
running for Senate in North Carolina to try to replace
Tom Tillis. Senator Tim Scott will be with us in
the third hour. It's just me, you and all of
us having a good time here on the rest of
today and tomorrow as we are rolling through so many
different stories that are out there. And we went to
break first hour, we talked about the out of control
(00:47):
violence and how President Trump is trying to get Washington,
DC back to some form of safety, and I mentioned
looking at capital cities as a proxy for the excellence
of a nation at large. If you're a history nerd
like i am, Washington, d C was a planned capital city.
(01:10):
And one of the things that's really amazing when you
walk around Washington, d C. Is they designed so many
of these massive roads, and when they designed it, there
was almost nothing there. And if you read the history
of say Washington, d C. From the eighteenth from the
(01:32):
nineteenth century, and even the early parts of the nineteen hundreds,
people would talk about how the city was designed for
a country to be the greatest in the history of
the world, but it wasn't there yet, and so as
a result, it was just these massive, massive roads planned
(01:57):
city with almost nothing on either side. And I always love,
if you study history, the metaphor of the Capital Dome.
During the Civil War, Lincoln insisted that the construction of
the Capital Dome continue, and if you look at old
(02:18):
photos in the eighteen sixties of Washington, DC, you can
see them working on that majestic Capital Dome. And it
was very expensive and it required a great deal of steel.
And some people criticized Lincoln, but his explanation was, the
nation is still being built and preserved. I'm not going
(02:40):
to stop work on the nation's capital because this is
an important symbol of what this nation represents, and eventually
of the nation coming together and healing anew And it's
such a profound idea, and I give I don't know
how many of you saw this Senator Sorry Secretary of
(03:06):
Defense Pete Hegseith. They just announced that they're going to
bring back a reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery that was
created by a Confederate veteran. And the idea is to
bring the nation together again and sort of bind the
wounds of the nation. And I think one of the
(03:30):
greatest speech has ever given in the history of the
United States was Lincoln's second Inaugural Address and the nation
as a whole being brought together even with his killing
in Ford's Theater. If you visit DC today, you'll come
across the bridge that connects Virginia and Washington, d C.
(03:52):
And a lot of people don't talk about it now,
but at the time that bridge was created, it was
seen as a symbolic union of North and South, in
particular Robert E. Lee's Arlington, which is on the bluff
overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D C. You can
stand on the portrait of Arlington or on the steps
(04:16):
on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial and see those
two places. So you have the leader of the Confederate Army,
Robert E. Lee, looking directly at Lincoln's memorial and the
Lincoln Memorial reflecting in some way Arlington as well. And
that union of the bridge, bringing the two sides of
(04:38):
the country back together again, was seen at the time
that it was made as a profoundly symbolic statement. And
I think President Trump gets symbol and he understands that
things are more important than maybe what they appear to be,
and that is what symbol is, right, And so people
(05:02):
get mad when he says, well, I want Alcatraz to
exist as a prison. He sees that as a symbol
for a message that he wants to have out there,
Alligator Alcatraz. He grips the public imagination. And I think
what President Trump sees with Washington d C. Is we
can't say that we are a fabulous, undisputed champion of
(05:27):
the global economy and world if kids are getting mowed
down in the streets of Washington, d C every day.
Our capital city needs to be a jewel. It needs
to be the best of what America can represent, particularly Washington,
d C, which I said historically has existed for that
(05:51):
reason throughout time. They took that location as opposed to Philadelphia,
which had been a capital as a posed to New
York City, to create something new as a symbol for
a country that was going to be a global beacon
of freedom and opportunity. And how can you allow violent
(06:13):
crime to take it over and not see that as
a direct attack upon American exceptionalism itself. And think about this.
I mentioned this earlier and before, but capital homicide rates,
this is most recent homicide rates forty one per one
hundred thousand Washington, d C. That's a huge number, forty
(06:38):
one per one hundred thousand. Listen to some of these
other capital cities. These other countries don't stand for that,
I think because their leaders understand the symbolic importance of
having a safe and secure and vibrant and objectively beautiful
capital city. Lima, Peru. I don't think most of you
(06:59):
out there say you know what country, But let me
just give you a bunch of these different countries. Lima, Peru, Havana, Cuba, Nairobi, Kenya.
I think, am I right about that? By the way,
this is going to expose my own lack of geographical knowledge. Brazilia, Brazil.
I believe Brazilia, Brazil is also a planned capital. Lagos, Nigeria, Bogata, Colombia.
(07:27):
I think I'm going to pass the test here. Mexico City, Mexico,
Adisa a Baba, Ethiopia. Okay, those are other big capital cities.
DC forty one murders per one hundred thousand, Lima, Peru
seven per one hundred thousand, Havana, Cuba, four per one
(07:50):
hundred thousand, Nairobi, Kenya five per one hundred thousand, Brazilia.
People talk about how violent and dangerous Brazil is all time.
Brazilia thirteen per one hundred thousand, Lagos, Nigeria fifteen per
one hundred thousand, Bogata, Colombia eleven per one hundred thousand,
(08:13):
Mexico City eight per one hundred thousand, Adisa Baba, Ethiopia
six per one hundred thousand. It should be a dark
stain on America that our capital city of Washington, D C.
Has five times the murder rate of Mexico's capital city.
(08:37):
What are we doing? That's a national embarrassment. Ethiopia, Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya, Cuba, Peru,
all of them infinitely safer in their capital cities than
you and me and everybody is going around in Washington,
(08:58):
D C. That is a national embarrassment. Now we just
finished the hour. We had an emailer who said, hey,
maybe we have to go after parents for some of
this violent crime. And I said, I'm a little bit.
I accept it on some level, but I don't accept
it on another level because I think what you would
see is that many of the kids that are engaging
(09:22):
in violent behavior are actually not living at home. Grandma
and Grandpa might be raising them, aunts, uncles, foster parents.
I think, really, when you look at violent crime, what
you see almost overwhelmingly is the absence of father figures
in the household. This is really the root cause. If
(09:47):
you have a dad and a mom in your house,
the odds of you engaging in violent behavior plummet by
a massive amount. Kids still have moms dads are failing.
So my concern here is you got a sixteen year
old who takes a gun out and shoots somebody, and
(10:11):
then you decide to prosecute mom, who is the only
one that was trying to raise that kid, and dad,
who hasn't shown up for sixteen years, may not even
be on the birth certificate, he doesn't have any consequences
at all. Well, it's him that made it happen. So
(10:32):
my concern when Bo writes in, and I think it's
an interesting comment, is that what would end up happening
is the moms and the grandma's and the aunts and
all the women who are very often doing their darnedest
to try to raise that kid who's got an absent dad,
and may have an absent grandpa too, because a lot
(10:52):
of what you find out is when dad's not there,
it's often the case that grandpa wasn't there, and unfortunately
that great grand Paul wasn't there either, because it's hard
to break that cycle. And some of you out there
listening know what I'm talking about, because you're trying to
break the cycle. You're the dad that's present. You know
what it was like to not have a dad better
(11:14):
than anybody. So my concern is when you say, well,
let's prosecute the parents, you got poor mom who's working
three jobs and doing her darnness to take care of
a kid that dad had no interest in. And dad
doesn't have any culpability at all, even though he's actually
the cause. So I think if you go back up
(11:37):
the chain of causation, oftentimes gun violence and violent teenagers
actually started when dad didn't show up at the birth
at the hospital, and dad hasn't been around for sixteen
years or seventeen years to that point. In many ways,
these are young men who have not been raised to
(11:59):
be in and they are angry at the world and
they take out their anger on the world, and all
that anger starts because Dad's not home. So when I
think through holding mom accountable, Mom's doing her best to
raise that kid by herself, and she's got three jobs
(12:20):
and the kid, as a result, doesn't have somebody at
home whipping him into shape like a dad hopefully would,
and he falls in with the wrong guys in the
neighborhood and next thing you know, he's dealing drugs or
he's trying to carjack and Mom's out there trying to
do her best, and then you come home and you
charge her with a crime. And then she may have
two younger kids that she's also trying to raise, and
(12:42):
how does that benefit society? So that's when I work
through it. I like to go to what caused the problem,
not to just what's connected to the problem. And to me,
what caused the problem is Dad's not there, And I
think the number this is my big you know, get
on a pre box argument. I think the number one
(13:04):
issue that unites much of what is going on in
the country today of a negative level is Dad's not there.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It connects on everything. Families not having enough money to
feed the kids. Dad's not there, families that are dealing
with incredible violence, Dad's not there. If you go to
the lint. This is my personal opinion. If I could
change one thing, every kid that's born has a dad
at home, I think our national rates of violence would
(13:35):
drop by ninety percent. I think poverty would drop by
ninety percent. I think if dad is home, the overall
collapse of much of what we see going wrong in
American society, it doesn't exist. So my concern responding to
BO is you're actually going to hold accountable the mom,
(13:56):
the grandma, the ant, the foster family that's trying to
take it, to take this responsibility of dad that he
didn't fulfill, and then they get blamed because everything doesn't
go perfect. That's my concern, and that's why I get
a little bit nervous about holding parents responsible criminally, because
(14:18):
so many people are doing everything they can to help
to try to fill the void that is there because
Dad's not home. That's it, right. You go look at
rates of crime. It collapses in every household where dad is,
they are raising a sun And by the way, it's
almost all boys. And the data actually reflects meaning committing
(14:40):
the crimes. The data actually reflects that young girls have
far less negative consequences from an absent male figure in
a household than young boys do. Moms do their best.
They can't be dad and mom. I think young girls
see mom and that's an aspirational figure for them. And
it's still better for you, young girls if dad is home.
(15:01):
But what the data shows is boys outcomes collapse when
dad's not home. That's the reality. That's a tough conversation.
That's a real conversation that we should be having, but
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Speaker 1 (17:11):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. We'll take
some of your calls here in a little bit before
the program is out of this hour and certainly next
hour as well. But we're about to head down to
or over to, depending on what part of the country
you're in, maybe up to North Carolina to go talk
(17:31):
with Michael Wattley, who is potentially going to be hopefully
going to be the next Senator from North Carolina as
we get wrapped in for what will probably be the
single most expensive Senate battle in twenty twenty six. So
we will break down all of that with him and
what he's expecting to see going forward. A lot of
you want to weigh in with what I just said.
(17:52):
We will hit some of those before the end of
the hour. Eight hundred and two to two eight A two.
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Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us.
We are rolling through the Thursday edition of the program,
and we head now to the great state of North Carolina,
where Michael Wattley is engaged in the campaign to become
the next Senator to represent the state of North Carolina.
(19:20):
We had you on, I know for sure, in Milwaukee
right after President Trump survived his assassination attempt. I'm not
sure if we've had you on since then. So first
let me say congratulations on an incredibly well done job
in the twenty twenty four election on behalf of the
Republican National Committee and getting everything done there. And now
(19:43):
tell us about the campaign that you are embarking upon
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Well, it's very exciting. I mean, the opportunity to be
the next Senator from the great state of North Carolina
and fight every single day for every single community and
every single family, and you know, be an ally for
President Trump and make sure that we are moving that
great state and our entire country forward.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
What is your expectation for what this campaign is going
to look like? Expectations are I think it's basically written
in stone that Roy Cooper is going to be the
Democrat nominee. He's been elected statewide before. Tom Tillis is
a Republican senator that is stepping down. So this is
an important seat given the fifty three forty seven current
(20:29):
balance in the Senate. I said, it's probably going to
be the most expensive race in twenty twenty six. You're
going to have to raise a lot of money. You're
going to be running around like crazy. What should people
know about this race, both in North Carolina and outside, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Look, you are absolutely right, it's going to be the
most expensive Senate race in the country. So we're going
to need everybody to go to widelypersenate dot com and
make sure that they contribute and they support. But you know,
we're looking in excess of five to six hundred million
dollar dollar I think will be spent all in on
that race. And it is the marquee Senate race in
the entire country because it's going to be, you know,
(21:08):
a big hold for the Republicans in a very purple state.
North Carolina is a fifty to fifty state. President Trump
managed to win by three point two percent in this
last election cycle, and when we have a fully informed electorate,
we're going to be in a good position to hold
that race. But you know, Roy Cooper did win two
(21:28):
times in a row. So we know that he's going
to bring a ton of money to the race, and
it's going to be competitive. But when people sit back
and really truly think about what they want for the state,
they want a strong economy, they want safe kids and communities,
and they're really going to want to make sure that
our military bases are getting what they need to protect
(21:49):
our interests and allies around the world, and our vets
are getting the support that they need for having done
that over the course of their careers. So I am
in a much better position than Roy Cooper to work
with President and make sure that we're going to deliver
for North Carolina and really truly move that state forward.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I'm sure you've seen it, but this is something that
really strikes me. I live next door in Tennessee Roy Cooper.
I saw a viral video of him several months ago
where he was asked whether men should be able to
compete in women's sports, and he ran from answering it.
He actually has tried to support it on some levels
even though he got elected. Isn't he really culturally out
(22:28):
of step with the average North Carolinian?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
He is?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know, he voted he vetoed three different bills that
would keep boys out of girls' sports. You know, so
this guy is definitely out of out of step with
the state. You know, I think that if you look
at his votes when he was a state legislator, you
look at his vetos, you know, it is basically safe
to say he's going to fight harder every day for
you know, tax hikes, and he's going to fight for
(22:55):
boys and girls sports, and he's going to fight to
take away your pickup trucks. And on the other hand,
you know, I don't think that's really where the state is.
That's certainly not where I am. I'm going to fight
for a very strong economy, state kids, state schools, and
we're really making sure that we are going to be
in a position to move that state forward.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
How are things going in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene?
Obviously the timing of this storm, right in the middle
of a major election calendar cycle like it was in
twenty four helped to bring a spotlight to it, but
the Biden administration's response was frankly indefensible. Over the weeks
and months after there, I flew into Ashville, I saw
(23:35):
it myself. How are things now, things are.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Better, you know, And honestly, we've had story after story
after story that have come out basically saying that between
Joe Biden, FEMA, and Roy Cooper, they were nowhere to
be found after that storm hit on September twenty seventh,
and it wasn't until January twentieth when Donald Trump came
into office and said, we are going to take care
of North Carolina. He asked me to help make sure
(24:00):
that we got the resources into the state to be
able to help them. And since then, we have seen
billions of dollars that is going you know, from the
federal government to homeowners, to small business owners, and to
the local governments to make sure they're getting the relief
that they want. And you know, President turned around and
asked me to turb on a FEMA reform Commission to
(24:21):
be able to review FEMA and make sure that the
response that we saw from the federal and state governments
last year never happens again.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
President Trump won North Carolina twenty sixteen, twenty twenty twenty four.
You were instrumental in all three of those wins in
the state. Why do you think he has had such
appeal in North Carolina, And how do you think he
will impact next year's midterm election.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know what Donald Trump does better than anybody else
in our lifetime is he listens to the voters, understands
the issues that they care about, and put solutions on
the table. And so, you know, he has been completely
in sync with North Carolin line of voters who want
to see a strong economy, want to see say communities,
and really truly want America to be the best country
(25:07):
in the world. And that's what he's putting on the table.
He's delivering every day. You know, today is two hundred
days into his term, and you can just see that
this is the most transformative, you know, term in our lifetime. Really.
I mean, it's remarkable what he has been able to
do in just two hundred days and set us up
on a track because he's delivering on the promises that
(25:29):
he made. So the voters of North Carolina trust him,
they voted for him, They're going to listen to him.
And coming in as a Trump endorsed candidate in this
race gives me a tremendous leg up. It's not just
in the in the primary, but it's in the general
where I'm going to be facing off against Roy Cooper
because the voters really like that America First agenda, and
(25:51):
we're going to make sure that we deliver for North
Carolina First.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
It's fifteen months roughly until the actual midterm election day.
What does a fifteen month campaign look like from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, look, I mean I as the state Party chair,
I went to every single county, all one hundred North
Carolina counties every year, and I got a chance to
meet with people in every single community. I think you
need to do that. I think you need to be
out there. I think you need to have the conversations.
You know, North Carolina is an amazingly diverse state. We
have the second largest banking center in the entire country.
(26:28):
We have ag and agribusiness are the number one business
for North Carolina is farming. We also have rural communities,
and we have Charlotte and Raleigh, So it is it
is a state where you're going to have to go
out and talk to every single community, and I think
that we're going to take a lot of time to
do that. We're also going to have to make sure
that we have the resources there to go out and
(26:49):
tell our story all day every day, and it's just
going to be a matter of working every single day
so that people in the state know. You know that
you listen to them, you understand what they care about,
and you're putting solutions on the table.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Look, we're willing able to help you as much as
we possibly can. I know it's going to be a
big battle over the next fifteen months. Just let us
know when you need to come on when we can help, because,
like you just said, that five hundred and six hundred
million dollar bill for this race, it's going to be
almost impossible to escape.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, it really is. And I appreciate that. You know,
you guys, you have such a good finger on the pulse.
You know, and your listeners all across this country know
exactly what we're talking about when we say that there
are two visions for America in this country right now,
the Democrats are absolutely going hardcore, straight left. They haven't
(27:40):
learned a thing from the twenty twenty four election cycle.
They're doubling down on stupid. The Democratic agenda right now
is open borders, inflationary spending, and a week America. That's
where Roy Cooper lives, that is his ideological center is
far left and that's not what North Carolina needs. So
we're going to need everyone, one of your listeners to
(28:00):
go to wadleypercentate dot com, make a contribution, join the movement,
and make sure we keep that seat red and that
Donald Trump is going to have an ally in the
Senate and North Carolina is going to have a champion
in the Senate.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
We got your back. We appreciate you. Let us know
how we can help in the next fifteen months.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Excellent, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
That's Michael Wattley, who we hope is the next Senator
from North Carolina. We'll take some of your calls, We'll
get some of your talkbacks, some of your emails when
we come back. In the meantime, I want to tell
you I mentioned it. I've got three boys seventeen, fourteen,
ten years old. You know, when we had our first kid,
I didn't know what to expect, but I wanted to
make sure that if something God forbid happened to me,
(28:43):
that that kid was going to be taken care of.
And I bet that a lot of you out there,
dad's moms, grandma's grandpas have had the same thoughts as
you have looked at your younger family members. Maybe you're
out there every single week, it feels like every month, holidays,
trying to mediate the disputes that go on in your family.
Everybody out there knows what that feelings like. Hey, who
(29:06):
can sit at the same table? Hey are we even
going to go to the same place? Have you thought
about what your family will do when you're not there
to solve all the problems when you're not there to
be the peacemaker. Have you thought about who's going to argue?
Have you thought about who's going to get in screaming matches?
Couldn't you maybe do something to try to keep that
(29:28):
from happening? The answer is yes, it's a will and
a trust. And I know that can sound a little
bit intimidating, and maybe it's not the greatest thing to
think about, But if you think about in the context
of trying to solve family problems, and if you think
about it in the context of trying to keep your
kids and grandkids, your cousins, your aunts, your uncles from
all fighting over what you might want if you weren't there,
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Speaker 3 (30:35):
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Speaker 1 (30:45):
Welcome back in Clay, Travis Vox Sexton show a lot
of people reacting to our discussions so far. Let me
get to some of the talkbacks. A lot of dads. Look,
let me say this before we hear from some dads.
I understand that lots of relationships can be toxic right
(31:09):
on both the male and the female side. So I'm
not trying to dear abby your individual relationships or call
guys out who are trying to be involved in their kids'
lives but have relationship issues with the moms such that
that doesn't happen, because I feel like when I talk
about generalized stories and this is this is true, and
(31:32):
I understand it. On some level, people want to call
in and give me anecdotes while the generalize why the
generalized story isn't true. For instance, if I said to you,
and this is not a very serious thing, women tend
to like taller men. Inevitably people reach out and they're like, well,
(31:53):
I'm a woman and I like shorter men. Okay, your
individual experience doesn't erase the general rule. Right, general rule,
men like women who are not overweight. General rule exception,
some men they like overweight women. Right, So your individual
(32:17):
experience doesn't cancel out the fact that women are far
more likely to be raising children in absent male father
households than women are to be blocking dads who want
to be super involved from being involved. Does that make sense?
(32:39):
So I'm going to take some of these calls, but
your individual interaction with your wife or the mother of
your children. Doesn't erase the fact that overwhelmingly this is
an issue. And by the way, do you know where
it is the biggest issue black families? Right, there's some
(32:59):
element out there where you're not allowed to talk about
racial difference, but this is one, and I talk about
it in my new book because I've been thinking about
these kind of things a lot. And obviously I think
about it because I'm a dad and I'm raising boys,
and I want them to be good dads one day
and raise boys and girls of their owns that'd be
my grandkids. I want them to be strong leaders and
(33:21):
foundational rocks for their families. If you go and look
democrats out there are people on the left they will say, well,
the black family. The reason why black men are not
as present as fathers who are Asian, for instance, right,
Like you ever wonder why Asian crime rates in the
(33:42):
United States are like a pinprick of what Black crime
rates are. For instance, go look at the percentage of
Asian dads that are in the house raising their kids.
It's almost a direct correlation. So Asian families buying law large.
Dad is there. Black families A lot of times dad
(34:04):
is not there. Kids are the unfortunate result who commit
violent acts. It's far more likely for a black kid
with or with a parent that's not there to commit
a violent act. So my point on this is you
look at the data and you extrapolate beyond it, and
what's really interesting is people say, well, that's racism, right,
(34:27):
and in fact, everybody just hold on. I'm going to
take your cause because I don't want to rush you.
I will take your calls. At the top of the
next hour, I'll hit the talkbacks. Everybody, just hang on
with me. We don't have a guest. At the top
of the hour, will continue this conversation. But they'll say, oh, well,
that's because of racism. You know what's really astounding and
gets almost no attention. Black fathers were present before Lbj's
(34:55):
Great Society. That stuns a lot of people because you think, oh, well,
there was a lot more racism. You're right in the
nineteen twenties, in the nineteen thirties and the nineteen forties.
In the nineteen fifties, you were far more likely if
you were a black kid to be born in a
house with a mom and a dad. In the twenties, thirties, forties,
(35:18):
fifties pre civil rights? How did that happen? Why isn't
there any discussion about that? Wait a minute. I was
told those were the most racist times ever and that
was completely unacceptable to have black families. Well, the black
family unit was stronger before civil rights. I think, can
(35:40):
people get riled up? They don't like me trying to
explain what the data shows. You can go look it up.
It's one hundred percent sury. I think the black family,
to a large extent traded the black dad for big government,
and big government became the father figure of the black family.
(36:03):
And also this happened with white families and Asian families
and Hispanic families too, But it's the most pronounced. Go
look at it. Think about that. Why would black fathers
have been far more likely to be present in the
home in the nineteen fifties than in the twenty twenties.
How does that happen? How did seventy years later we
go backwards in terms of the role of father figures
(36:24):
in many different communities in this country. How does that happen?
We're told that progress is always happening, Yet for many
kids out there, your dad is less likely to be
present now than it was in the nineteen fifties, and
what has that meant and why does it, in my opinion,
directly correlate with acts of violence skyrocketing in this country.
(36:47):
We'll talk about it. I'll take some of your calls.
You guys can all react. Get you popcorn, Third hour
playing Buck coming up.
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show our number two.
Buck on the road for the next couple of days
with his family on a summer break. He'll be back
with me on Monday. Appreciate all of you hanging out
with us. We just got through talking with Senator Marsha
Blackburn of Tennessee. Michael Wattley will be with us at
(00:22):
the bottom of the hour. He is going to be
running for Senate in North Carolina to try to replace
Tom Tillis. Senator Tim Scott will be with us in
the third hour. It's just me, you and all of
us having a good time here on the rest of
today and tomorrow as we are rolling through so many
different stories that are out there. And we went to
break first hour, we talked about the out of control
(00:47):
violence and how President Trump is trying to get Washington,
DC back to some form of safety, and I mentioned
looking at capital cities as a proxy for the excellence
of a nation at large. If you're a history nerd
like i am, Washington, d C was a planned capital city.
(01:10):
And one of the things that's really amazing when you
walk around Washington, d C. Is they designed so many
of these massive roads, and when they designed it, there
was almost nothing there. And if you read the history
of say Washington, d C. From the eighteenth from the
(01:32):
nineteenth century, and even the early parts of the nineteen hundreds,
people would talk about how the city was designed for
a country to be the greatest in the history of
the world, but it wasn't there yet, and so as
a result, it was just these massive, massive roads planned
(01:57):
city with almost nothing on either side. And I always love,
if you study history, the metaphor of the Capital Dome.
During the Civil War, Lincoln insisted that the construction of
the Capital Dome continue, and if you look at old
(02:18):
photos in the eighteen sixties of Washington, DC, you can
see them working on that majestic Capital Dome. And it
was very expensive and it required a great deal of steel.
And some people criticized Lincoln, but his explanation was, the
nation is still being built and preserved. I'm not going
(02:40):
to stop work on the nation's capital because this is
an important symbol of what this nation represents, and eventually
of the nation coming together and healing anew And it's
such a profound idea, and I give I don't know
how many of you saw this Senator Sorry Secretary of
(03:06):
Defense Pete Hegseith. They just announced that they're going to
bring back a reconciliation monument at Arlington Cemetery that was
created by a Confederate veteran. And the idea is to
bring the nation together again and sort of bind the
wounds of the nation. And I think one of the
(03:30):
greatest speech has ever given in the history of the
United States was Lincoln's second Inaugural Address and the nation
as a whole being brought together even with his killing
in Ford's Theater. If you visit DC today, you'll come
across the bridge that connects Virginia and Washington, d C.
(03:52):
And a lot of people don't talk about it now,
but at the time that bridge was created, it was
seen as a symbolic union of North and South, in
particular Robert E. Lee's Arlington, which is on the bluff
overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D C. You can
stand on the portrait of Arlington or on the steps
(04:16):
on the backside of the Lincoln Memorial and see those
two places. So you have the leader of the Confederate Army,
Robert E. Lee, looking directly at Lincoln's memorial and the
Lincoln Memorial reflecting in some way Arlington as well. And
that union of the bridge, bringing the two sides of
(04:38):
the country back together again, was seen at the time
that it was made as a profoundly symbolic statement. And
I think President Trump gets symbol and he understands that
things are more important than maybe what they appear to be,
and that is what symbol is, right, And so people
(05:02):
get mad when he says, well, I want Alcatraz to
exist as a prison. He sees that as a symbol
for a message that he wants to have out there,
Alligator Alcatraz. He grips the public imagination. And I think
what President Trump sees with Washington d C. Is we
can't say that we are a fabulous, undisputed champion of
(05:27):
the global economy and world if kids are getting mowed
down in the streets of Washington, d C every day.
Our capital city needs to be a jewel. It needs
to be the best of what America can represent, particularly Washington,
d C, which I said historically has existed for that
(05:51):
reason throughout time. They took that location as opposed to Philadelphia,
which had been a capital as a posed to New
York City, to create something new as a symbol for
a country that was going to be a global beacon
of freedom and opportunity. And how can you allow violent
(06:13):
crime to take it over and not see that as
a direct attack upon American exceptionalism itself. And think about this.
I mentioned this earlier and before, but capital homicide rates,
this is most recent homicide rates forty one per one
hundred thousand Washington, d C. That's a huge number, forty
(06:38):
one per one hundred thousand. Listen to some of these
other capital cities. These other countries don't stand for that,
I think because their leaders understand the symbolic importance of
having a safe and secure and vibrant and objectively beautiful
capital city. Lima, Peru. I don't think most of you
(06:59):
out there say you know what country, But let me
just give you a bunch of these different countries. Lima, Peru, Havana, Cuba, Nairobi, Kenya.
I think, am I right about that? By the way,
this is going to expose my own lack of geographical knowledge. Brazilia, Brazil.
I believe Brazilia, Brazil is also a planned capital. Lagos, Nigeria, Bogata, Colombia.
(07:27):
I think I'm going to pass the test here. Mexico City, Mexico,
Adisa a Baba, Ethiopia. Okay, those are other big capital cities.
DC forty one murders per one hundred thousand, Lima, Peru
seven per one hundred thousand, Havana, Cuba, four per one
(07:50):
hundred thousand, Nairobi, Kenya five per one hundred thousand, Brazilia.
People talk about how violent and dangerous Brazil is all time.
Brazilia thirteen per one hundred thousand, Lagos, Nigeria fifteen per
one hundred thousand, Bogata, Colombia eleven per one hundred thousand,
(08:13):
Mexico City eight per one hundred thousand, Adisa Baba, Ethiopia
six per one hundred thousand. It should be a dark
stain on America that our capital city of Washington, D C.
Has five times the murder rate of Mexico's capital city.
(08:37):
What are we doing? That's a national embarrassment. Ethiopia, Colombia, Nigeria, Brazil, Kenya, Cuba, Peru,
all of them infinitely safer in their capital cities than
you and me and everybody is going around in Washington,
(08:58):
D C. That is a national embarrassment. Now we just
finished the hour. We had an emailer who said, hey,
maybe we have to go after parents for some of
this violent crime. And I said, I'm a little bit.
I accept it on some level, but I don't accept
it on another level because I think what you would
see is that many of the kids that are engaging
(09:22):
in violent behavior are actually not living at home. Grandma
and Grandpa might be raising them, aunts, uncles, foster parents.
I think, really, when you look at violent crime, what
you see almost overwhelmingly is the absence of father figures
in the household. This is really the root cause. If
(09:47):
you have a dad and a mom in your house,
the odds of you engaging in violent behavior plummet by
a massive amount. Kids still have moms dads are failing.
So my concern here is you got a sixteen year
old who takes a gun out and shoots somebody, and
(10:11):
then you decide to prosecute mom, who is the only
one that was trying to raise that kid, and dad,
who hasn't shown up for sixteen years, may not even
be on the birth certificate, he doesn't have any consequences
at all. Well, it's him that made it happen. So
(10:32):
my concern when Bo writes in, and I think it's
an interesting comment, is that what would end up happening
is the moms and the grandma's and the aunts and
all the women who are very often doing their darnedest
to try to raise that kid who's got an absent dad,
and may have an absent grandpa too, because a lot
(10:52):
of what you find out is when dad's not there,
it's often the case that grandpa wasn't there, and unfortunately
that great grand Paul wasn't there either, because it's hard
to break that cycle. And some of you out there
listening know what I'm talking about, because you're trying to
break the cycle. You're the dad that's present. You know
what it was like to not have a dad better
(11:14):
than anybody. So my concern is when you say, well,
let's prosecute the parents, you got poor mom who's working
three jobs and doing her darnness to take care of
a kid that dad had no interest in. And dad
doesn't have any culpability at all, even though he's actually
the cause. So I think if you go back up
(11:37):
the chain of causation, oftentimes gun violence and violent teenagers
actually started when dad didn't show up at the birth
at the hospital, and dad hasn't been around for sixteen
years or seventeen years to that point. In many ways,
these are young men who have not been raised to
(11:59):
be in and they are angry at the world and
they take out their anger on the world, and all
that anger starts because Dad's not home. So when I
think through holding mom accountable, Mom's doing her best to
raise that kid by herself, and she's got three jobs
(12:20):
and the kid, as a result, doesn't have somebody at
home whipping him into shape like a dad hopefully would,
and he falls in with the wrong guys in the
neighborhood and next thing you know, he's dealing drugs or
he's trying to carjack and Mom's out there trying to
do her best, and then you come home and you
charge her with a crime. And then she may have
two younger kids that she's also trying to raise, and
(12:42):
how does that benefit society? So that's when I work
through it. I like to go to what caused the problem,
not to just what's connected to the problem. And to me,
what caused the problem is Dad's not there, And I
think the number this is my big you know, get
on a pre box argument. I think the number one
(13:04):
issue that unites much of what is going on in
the country today of a negative level is Dad's not there.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
I didn't.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
It connects on everything. Families not having enough money to
feed the kids. Dad's not there, families that are dealing
with incredible violence, Dad's not there. If you go to
the lint. This is my personal opinion. If I could
change one thing, every kid that's born has a dad
at home, I think our national rates of violence would
(13:35):
drop by ninety percent. I think poverty would drop by
ninety percent. I think if dad is home, the overall
collapse of much of what we see going wrong in
American society, it doesn't exist. So my concern responding to
BO is you're actually going to hold accountable the mom,
(13:56):
the grandma, the ant, the foster family that's trying to
take it, to take this responsibility of dad that he
didn't fulfill, and then they get blamed because everything doesn't
go perfect. That's my concern, and that's why I get
a little bit nervous about holding parents responsible criminally, because
(14:18):
so many people are doing everything they can to help
to try to fill the void that is there because
Dad's not home. That's it, right. You go look at
rates of crime. It collapses in every household where dad is,
they are raising a sun And by the way, it's
almost all boys. And the data actually reflects meaning committing
(14:40):
the crimes. The data actually reflects that young girls have
far less negative consequences from an absent male figure in
a household than young boys do. Moms do their best.
They can't be dad and mom. I think young girls
see mom and that's an aspirational figure for them. And
it's still better for you, young girls if dad is home.
(15:01):
But what the data shows is boys outcomes collapse when
dad's not home. That's the reality. That's a tough conversation.
That's a real conversation that we should be having, but
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Speaker 1 (17:11):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. We'll take
some of your calls here in a little bit before
the program is out of this hour and certainly next
hour as well. But we're about to head down to
or over to, depending on what part of the country
you're in, maybe up to North Carolina to go talk
(17:31):
with Michael Wattley, who is potentially going to be hopefully
going to be the next Senator from North Carolina as
we get wrapped in for what will probably be the
single most expensive Senate battle in twenty twenty six. So
we will break down all of that with him and
what he's expecting to see going forward. A lot of
you want to weigh in with what I just said.
(17:52):
We will hit some of those before the end of
the hour. Eight hundred and two to two eight A two.
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Family owned. Check them out. Welcome back in clay Buck
Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out with us.
We are rolling through the Thursday edition of the program,
and we head now to the great state of North Carolina,
where Michael Wattley is engaged in the campaign to become
the next Senator to represent the state of North Carolina.
(19:20):
We had you on, I know for sure, in Milwaukee
right after President Trump survived his assassination attempt. I'm not
sure if we've had you on since then. So first
let me say congratulations on an incredibly well done job
in the twenty twenty four election on behalf of the
Republican National Committee and getting everything done there. And now
(19:43):
tell us about the campaign that you are embarking upon
in North Carolina.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Well, it's very exciting. I mean, the opportunity to be
the next Senator from the great state of North Carolina
and fight every single day for every single community and
every single family, and you know, be an ally for
President Trump and make sure that we are moving that
great state and our entire country forward.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
What is your expectation for what this campaign is going
to look like? Expectations are I think it's basically written
in stone that Roy Cooper is going to be the
Democrat nominee. He's been elected statewide before. Tom Tillis is
a Republican senator that is stepping down. So this is
an important seat given the fifty three forty seven current
(20:29):
balance in the Senate. I said, it's probably going to
be the most expensive race in twenty twenty six. You're
going to have to raise a lot of money. You're
going to be running around like crazy. What should people
know about this race, both in North Carolina and outside, Well.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
Look, you are absolutely right, it's going to be the
most expensive Senate race in the country. So we're going
to need everybody to go to widelypersenate dot com and
make sure that they contribute and they support. But you know,
we're looking in excess of five to six hundred million
dollar dollar I think will be spent all in on
that race. And it is the marquee Senate race in
the entire country because it's going to be, you know,
(21:08):
a big hold for the Republicans in a very purple state.
North Carolina is a fifty to fifty state. President Trump
managed to win by three point two percent in this
last election cycle, and when we have a fully informed electorate,
we're going to be in a good position to hold
that race. But you know, Roy Cooper did win two
(21:28):
times in a row. So we know that he's going
to bring a ton of money to the race, and
it's going to be competitive. But when people sit back
and really truly think about what they want for the state,
they want a strong economy, they want safe kids and communities,
and they're really going to want to make sure that
our military bases are getting what they need to protect
(21:49):
our interests and allies around the world, and our vets
are getting the support that they need for having done
that over the course of their careers. So I am
in a much better position than Roy Cooper to work
with President and make sure that we're going to deliver
for North Carolina and really truly move that state forward.
Speaker 1 (22:06):
I'm sure you've seen it, but this is something that
really strikes me. I live next door in Tennessee Roy Cooper.
I saw a viral video of him several months ago
where he was asked whether men should be able to
compete in women's sports, and he ran from answering it.
He actually has tried to support it on some levels
even though he got elected. Isn't he really culturally out
(22:28):
of step with the average North Carolinian?
Speaker 3 (22:31):
He is?
Speaker 2 (22:32):
You know, he voted he vetoed three different bills that
would keep boys out of girls' sports. You know, so
this guy is definitely out of out of step with
the state. You know, I think that if you look
at his votes when he was a state legislator, you
look at his vetos, you know, it is basically safe
to say he's going to fight harder every day for
you know, tax hikes, and he's going to fight for
(22:55):
boys and girls sports, and he's going to fight to
take away your pickup trucks. And on the other hand,
you know, I don't think that's really where the state is.
That's certainly not where I am. I'm going to fight
for a very strong economy, state kids, state schools, and
we're really making sure that we are going to be
in a position to move that state forward.
Speaker 1 (23:14):
How are things going in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene?
Obviously the timing of this storm, right in the middle
of a major election calendar cycle like it was in
twenty four helped to bring a spotlight to it, but
the Biden administration's response was frankly indefensible. Over the weeks
and months after there, I flew into Ashville, I saw
(23:35):
it myself. How are things now, things are.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
Better, you know, And honestly, we've had story after story
after story that have come out basically saying that between
Joe Biden, FEMA, and Roy Cooper, they were nowhere to
be found after that storm hit on September twenty seventh,
and it wasn't until January twentieth when Donald Trump came
into office and said, we are going to take care
of North Carolina. He asked me to help make sure
(24:00):
that we got the resources into the state to be
able to help them. And since then, we have seen
billions of dollars that is going you know, from the
federal government to homeowners, to small business owners, and to
the local governments to make sure they're getting the relief
that they want. And you know, President turned around and
asked me to turb on a FEMA reform Commission to
(24:21):
be able to review FEMA and make sure that the
response that we saw from the federal and state governments
last year never happens again.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
President Trump won North Carolina twenty sixteen, twenty twenty twenty four.
You were instrumental in all three of those wins in
the state. Why do you think he has had such
appeal in North Carolina, And how do you think he
will impact next year's midterm election.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
You know what Donald Trump does better than anybody else
in our lifetime is he listens to the voters, understands
the issues that they care about, and put solutions on
the table. And so, you know, he has been completely
in sync with North Carolin line of voters who want
to see a strong economy, want to see say communities,
and really truly want America to be the best country
(25:07):
in the world. And that's what he's putting on the table.
He's delivering every day. You know, today is two hundred
days into his term, and you can just see that
this is the most transformative, you know, term in our lifetime. Really.
I mean, it's remarkable what he has been able to
do in just two hundred days and set us up
on a track because he's delivering on the promises that
(25:29):
he made. So the voters of North Carolina trust him,
they voted for him, They're going to listen to him.
And coming in as a Trump endorsed candidate in this
race gives me a tremendous leg up. It's not just
in the in the primary, but it's in the general
where I'm going to be facing off against Roy Cooper
because the voters really like that America First agenda, and
(25:51):
we're going to make sure that we deliver for North
Carolina First.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
It's fifteen months roughly until the actual midterm election day.
What does a fifteen month campaign look like from your perspective.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Well, look, I mean I as the state Party chair,
I went to every single county, all one hundred North
Carolina counties every year, and I got a chance to
meet with people in every single community. I think you
need to do that. I think you need to be
out there. I think you need to have the conversations.
You know, North Carolina is an amazingly diverse state. We
have the second largest banking center in the entire country.
(26:28):
We have ag and agribusiness are the number one business
for North Carolina is farming. We also have rural communities,
and we have Charlotte and Raleigh, So it is it
is a state where you're going to have to go
out and talk to every single community, and I think
that we're going to take a lot of time to
do that. We're also going to have to make sure
that we have the resources there to go out and
(26:49):
tell our story all day every day, and it's just
going to be a matter of working every single day
so that people in the state know. You know that
you listen to them, you understand what they care about,
and you're putting solutions on the table.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
Look, we're willing able to help you as much as
we possibly can. I know it's going to be a
big battle over the next fifteen months. Just let us
know when you need to come on when we can help, because,
like you just said, that five hundred and six hundred
million dollar bill for this race, it's going to be
almost impossible to escape.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Yeah, it really is. And I appreciate that. You know,
you guys, you have such a good finger on the pulse.
You know, and your listeners all across this country know
exactly what we're talking about when we say that there
are two visions for America in this country right now,
the Democrats are absolutely going hardcore, straight left. They haven't
(27:40):
learned a thing from the twenty twenty four election cycle.
They're doubling down on stupid. The Democratic agenda right now
is open borders, inflationary spending, and a week America. That's
where Roy Cooper lives, that is his ideological center is
far left and that's not what North Carolina needs. So
we're going to need everyone, one of your listeners to
(28:00):
go to wadleypercentate dot com, make a contribution, join the movement,
and make sure we keep that seat red and that
Donald Trump is going to have an ally in the
Senate and North Carolina is going to have a champion
in the Senate.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
We got your back. We appreciate you. Let us know
how we can help in the next fifteen months.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Excellent, Thank you, sir.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
That's Michael Wattley, who we hope is the next Senator
from North Carolina. We'll take some of your calls, We'll
get some of your talkbacks, some of your emails when
we come back. In the meantime, I want to tell
you I mentioned it. I've got three boys seventeen, fourteen,
ten years old. You know, when we had our first kid,
I didn't know what to expect, but I wanted to
make sure that if something God forbid happened to me,
(28:43):
that that kid was going to be taken care of.
And I bet that a lot of you out there,
dad's moms, grandma's grandpas have had the same thoughts as
you have looked at your younger family members. Maybe you're
out there every single week, it feels like every month, holidays,
trying to mediate the disputes that go on in your family.
Everybody out there knows what that feelings like. Hey, who
(29:06):
can sit at the same table? Hey are we even
going to go to the same place? Have you thought
about what your family will do when you're not there
to solve all the problems when you're not there to
be the peacemaker. Have you thought about who's going to argue?
Have you thought about who's going to get in screaming matches?
Couldn't you maybe do something to try to keep that
(29:28):
from happening? The answer is yes, it's a will and
a trust. And I know that can sound a little
bit intimidating, and maybe it's not the greatest thing to
think about, But if you think about in the context
of trying to solve family problems, and if you think
about it in the context of trying to keep your
kids and grandkids, your cousins, your aunts, your uncles from
all fighting over what you might want if you weren't there,
why not just control that and tell them exactly what
(29:51):
you want. That's the purpose of a trust in a Will.
It's why I have one, It's why I think you
should have one. You can do it without even having
to have a lay. It doesn't have to be crazy expensive.
Just go to trustinwill dot com and use my name Clay.
You get twenty percent off and they'll walk you right
through the process to make decisions to make things better
(30:13):
for you and your family when you're not there, to
keep them from all fighting, arguing, and frankly, maybe not
even knowing what you would want to happen after you
are gone. Make it clear at trustinwill dot com slash Clay.
That's my name, Clay for twenty percent off Trustinwill dot
com slash Clay. You ain't imagining it.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
The world has gone insane. We claim your sanity with
Clay and funding. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Welcome back in Clay, Travis Vox Sexton show a lot
of people reacting to our discussions so far. Let me
get to some of the talkbacks. A lot of dads. Look,
let me say this before we hear from some dads.
I understand that lots of relationships can be toxic right
(31:09):
on both the male and the female side. So I'm
not trying to dear abby your individual relationships or call
guys out who are trying to be involved in their kids'
lives but have relationship issues with the moms such that
that doesn't happen, because I feel like when I talk
about generalized stories and this is this is true, and
(31:32):
I understand it. On some level, people want to call
in and give me anecdotes while the generalize why the
generalized story isn't true. For instance, if I said to you,
and this is not a very serious thing, women tend
to like taller men. Inevitably people reach out and they're like, well,
(31:53):
I'm a woman and I like shorter men. Okay, your
individual experience doesn't erase the general rule. Right, general rule,
men like women who are not overweight. General rule exception,
some men they like overweight women. Right, So your individual
(32:17):
experience doesn't cancel out the fact that women are far
more likely to be raising children in absent male father
households than women are to be blocking dads who want
to be super involved from being involved. Does that make sense?
(32:39):
So I'm going to take some of these calls, but
your individual interaction with your wife or the mother of
your children. Doesn't erase the fact that overwhelmingly this is
an issue. And by the way, do you know where
it is the biggest issue black families? Right, there's some
(32:59):
element out there where you're not allowed to talk about
racial difference, but this is one, and I talk about
it in my new book because I've been thinking about
these kind of things a lot. And obviously I think
about it because I'm a dad and I'm raising boys,
and I want them to be good dads one day
and raise boys and girls of their owns that'd be
my grandkids. I want them to be strong leaders and
(33:21):
foundational rocks for their families. If you go and look
democrats out there are people on the left they will say, well,
the black family. The reason why black men are not
as present as fathers who are Asian, for instance, right,
Like you ever wonder why Asian crime rates in the
(33:42):
United States are like a pinprick of what Black crime
rates are. For instance, go look at the percentage of
Asian dads that are in the house raising their kids.
It's almost a direct correlation. So Asian families buying law large.
Dad is there. Black families A lot of times dad
(34:04):
is not there. Kids are the unfortunate result who commit
violent acts. It's far more likely for a black kid
with or with a parent that's not there to commit
a violent act. So my point on this is you
look at the data and you extrapolate beyond it, and
what's really interesting is people say, well, that's racism, right,
(34:27):
and in fact, everybody just hold on. I'm going to
take your cause because I don't want to rush you.
I will take your calls. At the top of the
next hour, I'll hit the talkbacks. Everybody, just hang on
with me. We don't have a guest. At the top
of the hour, will continue this conversation. But they'll say, oh, well,
that's because of racism. You know what's really astounding and
gets almost no attention. Black fathers were present before Lbj's
(34:55):
Great Society. That stuns a lot of people because you think, oh, well,
there was a lot more racism. You're right in the
nineteen twenties, in the nineteen thirties and the nineteen forties.
In the nineteen fifties, you were far more likely if
you were a black kid to be born in a
house with a mom and a dad. In the twenties, thirties, forties,
(35:18):
fifties pre civil rights? How did that happen? Why isn't
there any discussion about that? Wait a minute. I was
told those were the most racist times ever and that
was completely unacceptable to have black families. Well, the black
family unit was stronger before civil rights. I think, can
(35:40):
people get riled up? They don't like me trying to
explain what the data shows. You can go look it up.
It's one hundred percent sury. I think the black family,
to a large extent traded the black dad for big government,
and big government became the father figure of the black family.
(36:03):
And also this happened with white families and Asian families
and Hispanic families too, But it's the most pronounced. Go
look at it. Think about that. Why would black fathers
have been far more likely to be present in the
home in the nineteen fifties than in the twenty twenties.
How does that happen? How did seventy years later we
go backwards in terms of the role of father figures
(36:24):
in many different communities in this country. How does that happen?
We're told that progress is always happening, Yet for many
kids out there, your dad is less likely to be
present now than it was in the nineteen fifties, and
what has that meant and why does it, in my opinion,
directly correlate with acts of violence skyrocketing in this country.
(36:47):
We'll talk about it. I'll take some of your calls.
You guys can all react. Get you popcorn, Third hour
playing Buck coming up.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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