April 6, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show continues the Monday broadcast with extended live coverage and analysis of one of the most dramatic military operations in modern American history: the successful rescue of both U.S. airmen shot down inside Iran during the ongoing conflict under President Donald Trump. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton open the hour noting the political stakes surrounding the war, arguing that many Democrats are openly hoping for setbacks in Iran to damage Trump politically. They cite new data discussed on CNN indicating that Democrats are in a historically weak position on the generic congressional ballot this early in a cycle with a Republican president, reinforcing the broader political context surrounding the conflict.
The core of Hour 2 is dominated by live, extended remarks from President Donald Trump, carried in real time by the show. Trump details what he calls one of the largest, most complex, and most dangerous combat search‑and‑rescue missions ever attempted by the U.S. military. He explains that after an American F‑15E was shot down deep inside Iran during Operation Epic Fury, both the pilot and the weapons systems officer ejected safely into enemy territory. Trump describes personally ordering an all‑out rescue, fully aware the attempt could have cost far more lives—but reiterating the U.S. military doctrine of “leave no American behind.”
Trump lays out astonishing operational details: the deployment of 21 aircraft initially, expanding to more than 150 total aircraft, including fighters, bombers, tankers, and rescue helicopters; low‑altitude daytime flights through hostile airspace; heavy enemy fire; and deliberate deception operations designed to mislead Iranian forces about the stranded airman’s location. He recounts how the wounded weapons officer climbed into mountainous terrain, treated his own injuries, evaded thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guard and militia personnel, and transmitted his position using emergency signaling gear. Trump also reveals that entire aircraft were deliberately destroyed on Iranian soil to prevent sensitive technology from being captured after contingency landings in wet sand made takeoff impossible.
The hour includes remarks from CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who confirms that intelligence services ran a sophisticated deception campaign and were able to locate the airman hidden in a mountain crevice—described as finding “a needle in a haystack.” Ratcliffe states that Iranian forces were ultimately “embarrassed and humiliated” by the U.S. success. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth adds a powerful human element, explaining that when the downed officer finally activated his emergency transponder, his first message read: “God is good.” Hegseth frames the rescue as unfolding across Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday—calling the airman “reborn” as he was flown out of Iran at sunrise on Easter.
Clay and Buck then step back to analyze the military, moral, and strategic significance of the mission. They argue that spending enormous resources to rescue one service member is not excess, but core to U.S. military culture and morale. Buck stresses that knowing the commander‑in‑chief will make rescues the nation’s top priority directly affects the willingness of Americans to serve in combat. The hosts strongly reject criticism suggesting the rescue was “too costly,” asserting that those same critics would have condemned Trump even more harshly had the airman been captured and exploited by Iran for propaganda.
The discussion broadens into a comparison with the Biden administration, particularly the Afghanistan withdrawal, where 13 Americans were killed in just days and vast quantities of U.S. military equipment were abandoned intact. Clay notes that over more than a month of sustained combat operations against Iran, the Trump administration has suffered 13 total U.S. fatalities, emphasizing the contrast in operational competence and planning.
The remainder of Hour 2 delves into the underlying justification for the war itself. Buck outlines the administration’s view that allowing Iran even the probability of securing nuclear weapons is unacceptable for U.S. national security, comparing it to the permanent existential threat faced by South Korea under a nuclear‑armed North Korea. He argues that Iran’s ruling elites are insulated from suffering and even benefit politically from civilian hardship, making conventional pressure ineffective. Trump’s approach, they argue, represents a deliberate choice to change the strategic reality, even at significant short‑term risk.
The hour closes with breaking updates from Secretary Hegseth indicating that the current day represents the largest volume of U.S. strikes on Iran so far, with even more expected the following day, signaling that t
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome in Everybody. Monday Edition second hour of the Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis Birthday Edition's gonna
hit that one more time at the top pire so
you could all send your birthday wishes to mister Clay.
He has not aged a day in the five years
I've been doing this show with him, So there you go.
Looks exactly the same. Maybe his biceps are a little bigger, Ladies.
(00:22):
That's about it.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I I do, and I'm positive even though I'm old,
I am. I am benching more than I think ever
before in my life because I'm trying to keep up
with my fifteen year old who is uh who's got
a lot of physical advantages on me, frankly, but I'm
going to try to hold him off as long as
I can.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Do You remember when you were a teenager doing things
like walking past like I used to play a fair
amount of pick up basketball. I'd be well, I walk
past in like khaki pants and it you know, true
khaki pants key.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Back in the day, I was tweeting about this when
when jeans like nobody.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I didn't known jeans until I was basically in college.
I just work khaki pants all the time. But I'd
walk back and I just jump into a game. I mean, now,
the amount of stretching and stuff I would have to
do in advance of jumping into a basketball game while
wearing pants and not even athletic like like just normal
pants is a different world that we used to live
(01:18):
in Clay. Now it'd be like, oh my gosh, my achilles.
I couldn't dream of such a thing. So yes, they
The point is fifteen year old rain after church and
we were on and we were running.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
To try to get to the car, and I was like,
I think I might just pull the groin there, like
try trying to make it from church to the car
in the rain.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know, my boys are just sprinting. You know, it
doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
They can go straight from you know, sitting in church
for an hour to full sprint no time at all.
And I was like, oh man, we now even get
a little loose here before I start to try to
run to avoid the rain.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All true. Now we're waiting for Trump. Any moments he'll
be joining us. We'll pick him up live because he's
going to talk about the first of all, the successful
the successful saving operation search and rescue operation for a
second airman. We got the first one very quickly from
the F fifteen to E fighter jet that went down
(02:14):
in Iran. Shot down in Iran, and it was quite
an ordeal to get him out of there, but he
was safely recovered. Now, I think, Clay, there are a
lot of Democrats. It's quite obvious to me there are
a lot of Democrats who are hoping things with the
Iran war. Let's just say it go badly and that
(02:35):
that is reflected in the numbers for Trump. This is
a major hope of the Democrat opposition here at home.
And CNN's Harry Entin has this to say about the
situation with the Democrats and the Senate. I thought everybody
should hear what Democrats are facing at this phase. I
know we're months and months out, but we're going to
(02:56):
be dialing in on this with each passing month.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Play sixteen, this lead is historically low for Democrats at
this point with the Republican president. Because take a look here,
and I'm taking a look at the average of all
the posts dem generic congressional ballot lead at this point
in the cycle with the Republican president. On average, their
leads actually slightly less.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's five with that, all right, So Democrats not in
a great position. But Donald Trump about to address the country,
let's take him live easters.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I think in a lot of different ways, I can
say militarily, it's been one of the best.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
So good afternoon. We have quite a bit to discuss.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
We'll go into a pretty good detail, and we have
the people that are most involved.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
We'll give you exactitude. And we're here today.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
To celebrate the success of one of the largest, most complex,
most harrowing combat searches. I guess you would call it
a search and rescue mission ever attempted by the military. Generally,
when planes are knocked down in war, especially when you're
fighting a strong group, an evil group, you can't really
(04:03):
do this because you send in two hundred men to
pick up one. And it's something that's usually not attempted
as much as you want to attempt. And bad things
happened to that one or two.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
And in this case we did too.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And it might not have been attempted before, but we did,
and we had great talent. We got a little luck too,
I would say, and we were.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
Helped by a lot of people, a lot of great people.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Then it was an honor to be involved with it.
It's very historic. This is a rescue that's very historic.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
It'll go down to the books.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Late Thursday night, an American fifteen fighter jet went down
deep inside enemy territory in Iran, while participating in Operation
Epic Fury, where we're doing unbelievably well well at a
level that nobody's ever seen before. The entire country could
(05:01):
be taken out in one night, and that night might
be tomorrow night. Both members of the crew ejected from
the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil. I immediately
was asked to make a decision. I ordered the US
Armed Forces to do whatever was necessary.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
To bring our brave warriors back home.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
A risky decision because we could have ended up with
one hundred dead as opposed to one or two.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
It's a hard decision to make.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
But in the United States Military, we leave no American behind.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
We don't do it.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Within hours of our Armed forces deployed twenty one military
aircraft into hostile airspace, many flying at very low altitude,
being shot by bullets. You bring rifles into play when
you go in that low but there are also certain
advantages and.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
In broad daylight over Iran four.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Seven hours at times, facing very very heavy enemy fire.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
We have a helicopter, there's got a lot of bullets
in it. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We just realized how good those those weapons are, those
our machines are. Nobody has, Nobody has the equipment that
we have, and nobody has the military that we have,
not even close the most powerful military anywhere in the
world by far. The flight crews and warfighters aboard those
aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members.
(06:32):
This first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located
the pilot of the F fifteen, and he was extracted
from enemy territory by an HH sixty Jolly Green two helicopter.
Fabulous machine as their warriors faced gunfire at very close range.
(06:53):
It's amazing that when you look at the machinery, what happened,
that nobody was even injured. Meanwhile, the second crew member,
weapons system officer, highly respected colonel, had landed a significant
distance away from the pilot. When you're going at those speeds,
even if you go out two or three seconds later,
(07:14):
it's miles, it's miles and miles away because you're going fast.
He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area
teaming with terrors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ROUGH group,
as well as besieged military militia and local authorities. Many
(07:36):
on top of everything else, they told the communities actually
withinside of Iran, the people of Iran. They were given
a tremendous incentive to find this pilot. Despite the peril,
the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous
mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something
(08:00):
they were trained to do in order to evade capture.
They want to always go as far away from the
site of the shootdown. They want to go as far
away because they all head right to that site. You
want to be as far away as you can. And
he was injured, and he was an amazing, amazing thing.
(08:22):
He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds,
and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have
a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them
at all times, and when they go out on these missions,
(08:45):
they make sure they have lots of battery space and
they're in good shape, and this one worked really well,
amazingly saved his life. We immediately mobilized a massive operation
to retrieve him from the mountain and hold out, and
he kept going higher and higher.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
The mountain kept getting.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Rougher and rougher and really very very hard to find.
The second rescue mission involved one hundred and fifty five aircraft,
including four bombers, sixty four fighters, forty eight refueling tankers,
thirteen rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all
over and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted
(09:26):
to have them think he was in a different location
because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands
thousands of people were looking, so we wanted them to
look in different areas. So we were scattered all over
like we were right on top of him. We have
seven different locations where they thought, and they were very confused.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
They said, well, wait a minute, they've.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Got groups here, they've got groups there.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
It's an amazing thing. I was listening to these great people,
these great generals, General Raisin Kane, who's amazing, and Pete
Hegseth was amazing. But I listened to the whole thing.
It was pretty amazing, so that all these.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Different sites where everybody thought he was located, we think
we have him over there, because they have nine planes
circling a little area that's.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Twenty five miles down the coast.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So in a breath taking show of skill and precision, lethality,
and force, America's military descended on the area, the real area,
engage the enemy, rescued, the stranded office had destroyed all
threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of
(10:38):
any kind. The heroic F fifteen weapons system officer had
evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost forty
eight hours. That's a long time when you're in tough
shape and when you're bleeding, it's a long time.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
When we left, as.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
You probably know, we had two large planes, all pretty
old planes.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
He carried a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out, obviously,
because going in we needed to be able to scale mountains,
and we.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Had a lot of equipment.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
But the sand, it was sandy, wet sand, so we
thought there may be a problem taking off because of
the weight of the plane. And then we also had
all the men jumping back onto the planes and they
got pretty well bogged down, and we had a contingency
plan which was unbelievable, where a lighter, faster aircraft came
(11:35):
in and they took them out.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
We blew up the old planes and we blew.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Them up to smithereens because we had equipment on the
planes and frankly, we'd like to take but I don't
think it was worthwhile spending another four hours.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
There taking it off. So we didn't want anybody to have.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
We have the best equipment anywhere in the world. We
didn't want anybody examining our anti aircraft and other equipment.
So these were large planes that were old and pretty old,
and we blew them up and we had faster, lighter
planes come in and they were able to land on
the sand. We needed the bigger planes because we had
(12:13):
so much equipment that we took three helicopters over there
which were very strongly used and couldn't have lived without them,
and they performed unbelievably well, and if you'd see it,
you wouldn't believe it. They came off the plane and
these guys had them, the rotors were off. They rebuilt
these helicopters in less than ten minutes, and that was
(12:37):
one of the more amazing things.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
These are helicopters.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
All right, seem we're going to break in here for
a second, continue to monitor, and we'll bring you back live.
If Trump is still speaking about this, he's just giving
details about the rescue operation, which was incredible and it
was successful. Thankfully. We'll come back here in just a moment,
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Speaker 6 (14:18):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Us all each day, spend time with Clay and buy.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
All right, welcome back in play Travis buck Sexton show,
Trump still talking about the successful rescue of.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
An American crewman. Let's go back in. We'll hear a
couple of minutes.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Here.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We're continuing to monitor in the event that there is
major news.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Here's President Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Sand and at each splains alive and we're waiting and
we're saying, I hope that one can land and take off.
And they came in like magic, boom boom boom, one
after another. Was like genius. So impressed by that because
we were a little concerned. We said, boy, if they
don't get in and get up fast, we're sitting in
(15:10):
the mid and that's called I ran prime right general,
that's where the whole bed is. And here we are
sitting there waiting for a plane. But they came in
so fast and so hard. And these guys knew exactly
what let's go, come on, get in, let's go bois.
They came one right after another, not at the same time.
(15:31):
They don't want to come at the same time. They
had to come right after each other. They didn't have
any room. There was barely any room to land, tiny
little patch of very wet.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Earth and sand.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So I just I'm so proud of the people that
I have standing up here with me, and many others
that worked, I mean so many. Steve Witdcuffs over here
is doing fantastically, Jared Kushner, but the people that are.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Here, the job they did is amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And I think I'm going to introduce the head of
the CIA, and he is a man who's central casting.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Okay, if we cast a.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Movie, he's going to play the head of the CIA's
one of the fields. John Retcliffe. He did a phenomenal
job that night. He did something that I don't know
if you want to talk about it. If you want,
you can, I'm not sure he's supposed to.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
I'm not going to talk about it.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
But he really the CIA was very responsible for finding
this little speck. It's like they used an expression on
one of the shows that General was talking about. It's
like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding this pilot
and the CIA was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
And you may, if you can, you'll talk.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
It might be classified, in which case I'd have to
put him in jail if he talks about it, and
I don't want to put him in jail. He doesn't
deserve that, sir, John do you want to say a
few words.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Thank you, Thank mister President. It's a privilege to be
here with you today to share what we can about
this exceptional mission and directs, the ingenuity and bravery of
those who executed it, as well as the leadership and
resolve of the president who ordered it.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
One thing that has been clear to me in.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
This role is that the flawless military operations that the
Department of War is known for are hostage to flawless intelligence.
We saw that in the skies over Iran in Operation
Midnight Hammer last summer. We witnessed it in Venezuela during
Operation Absolute Resolve. We've seen it against the cartels in
(17:32):
the Western Hemisphere, and we're seeing it every day.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay, we will Operation Epici.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Okay, we will come back in and continue to monitor this.
The CIA director now speaking about the successful rescue of
the of the crewmen, the second one, and I would
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of the questions that may come, but so far not
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(18:01):
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Speaker 1 (18:53):
Welcome back into Clay and Box. So we just had
the president with us, well who carried the presidentation. They
live on the air. He's talking about really just taking
a well deserved victory lap for the United States military.
You know, Clay one thing that people were talking about
with the recovery of the second airman, a weapons officer.
(19:14):
So I believe technically not there's the pilot, there's the
weapons officer. If I get that wrong, my father in law,
who's a fighter pilot himself, will call in and yell
at me. But the reality of why we leave no
man behind and what that means for a spree to
core and for the overall sense of brotherhood, that our
(19:38):
military has the willingness to go out there, whether it's
up in the sky, on the ground, or in the
in the water, to go and fight for this country.
It's it's deeply you know. I can just speak from
reading the accounts of but also understanding historically and from
a strategic as spree to core perspective, it's so important
(20:00):
for our military members to know that when they are
left behind, we will go all out, That our military
will go all out. The commander in chief will make
it the top priority, the top national security priority of
the country for forty eight hours to get you back.
And that is in the minds of everyone who goes
into harm's way that for anyone who is stepping stepping
(20:25):
out down range, whatever it is they're doing, that means
that they know that they're not going to be left there.
And that really does matter a lot, because I saw
people saying, well, we you know, we had. We had
an A ten that took a lot of damage, a
ten Warthog, which is another plane. Ninety percent of you
know this, but for the ten to do another plane,
(20:47):
very heavy armament, plane that does close air support a
lot of the time. Pretty impressive airframe, by the way,
can take a beating and give a beating, unlike a
lot of planes. And then there were other planes also that,
as a president mentioned, we had to leave behind and
blow up. People are saying all this for one man.
You're damn right. That is the ethos of our military.
(21:08):
Whatever gear it takes, whatever the mission set has to be,
to save one of ours who is down behind enemy lines,
we will do it.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It's one hundred percent the right decision. But the thing
that is particularly pernicious about anyone who is trying to
call that into question is if President Trump had said,
you know what, the risk of material is too significant,
will let Iran get this guy, they would have ripped
him to shreds for allowing this prisoner to be taken. Right,
(21:37):
So it isn't even an honest criticism because if the
reverse had happened, all of you know that they would
have ripped Trump for allowing that to happen. And what
I was thinking when this news came out late Saturday night,
Buck is fake the ward because this guy would have
been beaten. I don't know if he would have survived,
(22:02):
and Iran would have used him for propaganda the likes
of which, frankly, we haven't seen in a very very
long time. So the fact that we've been able to
be in a position where essentially we've had nearly when
you consider the scope of the activities that we have
been engaged in Buck, that we would have done all
(22:23):
of this with only thirteen deaths is pretty incredible. And
I mentioned earlier in the program that you're more likely
to have been murdered in Chicago than killed by the
Iranian military since we began this engagement. And there also
is if you remember when we withdrew from Afghanistan, Joe
(22:46):
Biden and that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left behind
tens of billions of dollars in material. We didn't even
like the stuff on fire. Then we just handed it
off to the Talban. We left behind find so much
mechanized warfare for them, and we lost thirteen people because
(23:06):
the suicide bomber got close enough to that chaos and
killed thirteen innocent Americans that we're just trying to evacuate
from Afghanistan. So Trump has engaged in a full military
operation for over a month and we have had thirteen
what lives lost, which again we wish there were zero,
(23:28):
but in terms of organization, Biden lost thirteen trying to
leave Afghanistan just in the space of a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
We either buy into the underlying thesis of Trump's military
action here, I think, or not, And that's really the
point of separation for so many. You either think it
is entirely from a US national security perspective, unacceptable to
continue to have the probability, not the certainty, but the
(23:59):
probability of in Iranian nuclear weapon hanging over our heads.
I honestly believe that this came down to Trump just
got tired of their of their their bs, and he
knew that with the Iranians, the way things were going there.
You know, you see this right with the elites and
the grand niece here who's running around and you know,
(24:21):
Mercedes and at fancy places and five star hotels and
everything else. The elites in a country like Iran, they're
always fine. The people at the top of the oppression pyramid, Yeah,
they can hunger down, they'll be They'll they'll still have
access to whatever oil they can sell on the black
market and everything else. So they're fine with the suffering
of the Iranian people. If anything, Clay, I think they
(24:43):
suffering they view as advantageous to them because it keeps
people on line, it keeps them in check, and it
actually sometimes even consolidates support behind oppressive regimes because you know,
suffering is solidarity or suffering in solidarity. So there's the
reality of a Trump administration that just decided we have
(25:04):
to change the game here because we can't allow this
to continue as it is. And that's for national security
reasons because in Iran that has nukes is going to
be working against US interests in the Middle East knowing
that this can't happen. And what does that look like?
You know, how is it that we could have averted
a situation where you have, for example, North Korea with
(25:28):
conventional armaments as well as nuclear weapons ready to go
at a moment's notice and essentially annihilate all of South Korea.
You know, this is not a This is not something
people say, oh well, but doesn't that show that we
can have stability. I mean, if you're willing to say
that it's okay that people have to live with that
sort of Democles hanging over their head, that a whole nation,
(25:49):
that really the whole world has to deal with that
Trump decided enough enough of these psychos. We're going to
do something about it now. At the cost that you're
talking about right now, it's a very hard thing. It's
a very hard thing for anyone, Clay, who's not themselves
in harm's way to discuss the loss of life in
pursuit of a national security or strategic end without sounding
(26:13):
like easy for you to say. Right So, I think
it's worth noting that we're sitting here in comfortable studios
in America and our beautiful and safe country talking about
the loss of life that we have suffered thirteen people
overseas serving this country, and every one of those losses
is a gut punch and is horrible for the family,
(26:34):
and those are precious lives. Those are our fellow Americans.
They are serving in the military with the understanding or
they were serving and they died as heroes with the
understanding that if the commander in chief truly believes action
must be taken to save many American lives over the
(26:55):
longer term. That's what they're willing to do, right because
otherwise we're not willing to take any military action unless
we're effectively invaded, because you could always lose life. You
could lose a life in a training flight. I mean,
this is going to happen. We actually one of the
most stunning statistics that I ever learned about World War Two.
I know you're in a big World War Two kick
(27:15):
right now, Clay. I can't remember if it was fifteen
or thirty thousand. I think it was thirty thousand, but
it might have been fifteen thousand either way. A huge
amount of people lost in the Pacific theater to transport
accidents in the air, not to combat. Yeah, people lost
effectively in the middle of the Pacific Coach. We lost
thousands and thousands and thousands of people who signed up
(27:38):
to serve their country in the Second World War because
the plane malfunctioned. That's why.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yes, that is true. And I'm reading the Rick Atkinson books,
which are amazing. I'm in the second volume of his
three volume trilogy started in Africa now, reading about the
war in Italy, two things I knew nothing about. That's
why I think contextualizing loss of life, you are more likely,
I mean, that's a crazy stat to think about. You
are more likely to have been murdered in Chicago since
(28:07):
this since this action began, then you are to have
been killed by the Iranians if you serve in the
United States military. That's crazy stat.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Over twenty five I just did the quick search on
AI twenty five thousand, eight hundred and forty four US
aircrew died. Now this is I think across now, so
that's Spacific and European died from aviation accidents, non combat related,
flying from one base to another, from one training to
(28:40):
another training or practice, you know, going through training twenty
five thousand people fuck. Sometimes they had no idea where
they were when weather would come in. I mean, we
think about technology now where planes are always aware of
exactly where they are a lot of times they had
no idea where they were because if the web was bad,
(29:01):
they have to duck down and try to look and
gain you know, figure out where they were. Because they
didn't have the longitudinal longitudinal latitudinal skills to be able.
By the way A couple of breaking news from when
Pete Hegseth was talking and General Raisin Kine is speaking
right now. They're still talking about primarily the mission to rescue.
(29:23):
Pete hag Seth said tomorrow's today's will be the largest
volume of strikes on Iran so far, and tomorrow will
be more than today, So that is some news. And
he also said, Pete Hegseth did that the mission to
rescue was authorized by Trump within two hours in the
(29:45):
middle of the night. You know, Trump doesn't sleep, as
those of you who follow his truth social account understand.
The guy still at eighty years old, sleeps two or
three hours a night. It feels like in many ways,
you know, Joe Biden all he did sleep, which by
the way, is.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Pretty normal for eighty year olds. So there's obviously a
lot of range. But Trump, according to heg Seth, almost
immediately in the middle of the night, was saying, yes,
go get this guy.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And you know, and I know Clay from knowing Secretary
heg Seth on a personal level, the moment that he
knows that there's someone behind enemy lines who needs rescue.
I can tell you without being privy to the conversation,
but I would say with certainty Pete's response is whatever
it takes, anything you need, get it done, get him,
(30:37):
get him, whatever it takes.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
And so we will continue to update you on this.
By the way, markets not really moving very much, which suggests,
at least so far, there has not been much news.
Now we will, I actually think, Buck, the news may
come if President Trump takes questions. Oh, he's already talked.
We played those for you from the Easter egg role earlier.
It may come if he takes questions at the end
of these public comments. And again General came speaking right now,
(31:03):
and we've got a couple more cuts to play for
you from inside of the White House, where the press
briefing is still underway.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
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Life.
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Speaker 6 (33:16):
Two guys walk up to a mic Hey. Anything goes
Clay Travis and buck Sexton. Find them on the free
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Well, welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show. Okay,
we said we would monitor what was being said. President
Trump now back talking. Here are a couple of cuts
that have been going on every network carrying the President
and Hegseth and CIA director and General Kine all throughout
the course of this hour. Here is CIA Director John
(33:52):
Ratcliffe about the successful extra creation extrication of the crew member.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
In addition to the human technical assets deployed by the
President to find our airman, CIA executed a deception campaign
to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airmen.
On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding
and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest
was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible
(34:21):
to the enemy but not to the CIA. That confirmation
was relayed by Secretary Hegsath to the President, and the operation.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Quickly moved to the execution phase.
Speaker 7 (34:31):
Following the successful exfiltration on Saturday night, our intelligence reflects
that the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the
success of this audacious rescue mission.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Okay, that's the CIA Director Bock.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Here is Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, saying, here's what
happened when this guy was downed. How we knew that
he was okay? What his message was? Cut thirty six
when he.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
Was finally able to activate his emergence transponder. His first
message was simple and it was powerful.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
He sent a message God is good.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and
fighting spirit shown through You see shot down on a Friday,
Good Friday, kidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday,
and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the
sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn all
(35:26):
home and accounted for a nation rejoicing God is Good.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
So that is Pete hag Seth putting it in the
context of what was quite the Easter weekend for so
many members of our military and special forces. Buck President
Trump is now taking questions as we set a little
bit ago, that is likely where news may well come.
And Pete hag Seth said also that again today was
going to be the highest amount of bombs that we
(35:53):
have dropped on Iran, and tomorrow could be more than that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It seems to me like the strategy here is to
unleash so much punishment that the people in charge in
Iran finally concede, and essentially their concession would be a
nearly unconditional surrender. I don't know I don't know if
they're going to do it. These you got some real
(36:19):
hard line wackados who are still left behind in this country.
I look, I just I hope that the President's able
to to punish them from the air. Historically, punishing an
enemy like this into submission from the air is a very,
very difficult and unlikely thing to accomplish. But we have
the best air power in the history of the universe
(36:40):
so or not including God, but in the history of Earth.
So there you go. When we come back, we'll give
you more on this talk.
Welcome in Everybody. Monday Edition second hour of the Clay
Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis Birthday Edition's gonna
hit that one more time at the top pire so
you could all send your birthday wishes to mister Clay.
He has not aged a day in the five years
I've been doing this show with him, So there you go.
Looks exactly the same. Maybe his biceps are a little bigger, Ladies.
(00:22):
That's about it.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I I do, and I'm positive even though I'm old,
I am. I am benching more than I think ever
before in my life because I'm trying to keep up
with my fifteen year old who is uh who's got
a lot of physical advantages on me, frankly, but I'm
going to try to hold him off as long as
I can.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
Do You remember when you were a teenager doing things
like walking past like I used to play a fair
amount of pick up basketball. I'd be well, I walk
past in like khaki pants and it you know, true
khaki pants key.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Back in the day, I was tweeting about this when
when jeans like nobody.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I didn't known jeans until I was basically in college.
I just work khaki pants all the time. But I'd
walk back and I just jump into a game. I mean, now,
the amount of stretching and stuff I would have to
do in advance of jumping into a basketball game while
wearing pants and not even athletic like like just normal
pants is a different world that we used to live
(01:18):
in Clay. Now it'd be like, oh my gosh, my achilles.
I couldn't dream of such a thing. So yes, they
The point is fifteen year old rain after church and
we were on and we were running.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
To try to get to the car, and I was like,
I think I might just pull the groin there, like
try trying to make it from church to the car
in the rain.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know, my boys are just sprinting. You know, it
doesn't matter.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
They can go straight from you know, sitting in church
for an hour to full sprint no time at all.
And I was like, oh man, we now even get
a little loose here before I start to try to
run to avoid the rain.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
All true. Now we're waiting for Trump. Any moments he'll
be joining us. We'll pick him up live because he's
going to talk about the first of all, the successful
the successful saving operation search and rescue operation for a
second airman. We got the first one very quickly from
the F fifteen to E fighter jet that went down
(02:14):
in Iran. Shot down in Iran, and it was quite
an ordeal to get him out of there, but he
was safely recovered. Now, I think, Clay, there are a
lot of Democrats. It's quite obvious to me there are
a lot of Democrats who are hoping things with the
Iran war. Let's just say it go badly and that
(02:35):
that is reflected in the numbers for Trump. This is
a major hope of the Democrat opposition here at home.
And CNN's Harry Entin has this to say about the
situation with the Democrats and the Senate. I thought everybody
should hear what Democrats are facing at this phase. I
know we're months and months out, but we're going to
(02:56):
be dialing in on this with each passing month.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Play sixteen, this lead is historically low for Democrats at
this point with the Republican president. Because take a look here,
and I'm taking a look at the average of all
the posts dem generic congressional ballot lead at this point
in the cycle with the Republican president. On average, their
leads actually slightly less.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
It's five with that, all right, So Democrats not in
a great position. But Donald Trump about to address the country,
let's take him live easters.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
I think in a lot of different ways, I can
say militarily, it's been one of the best.
Speaker 5 (03:27):
So good afternoon. We have quite a bit to discuss.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
We'll go into a pretty good detail, and we have
the people that are most involved.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
We'll give you exactitude. And we're here today.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
To celebrate the success of one of the largest, most complex,
most harrowing combat searches. I guess you would call it
a search and rescue mission ever attempted by the military. Generally,
when planes are knocked down in war, especially when you're
fighting a strong group, an evil group, you can't really
(04:03):
do this because you send in two hundred men to
pick up one. And it's something that's usually not attempted
as much as you want to attempt. And bad things
happened to that one or two.
Speaker 5 (04:16):
And in this case we did too.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
And it might not have been attempted before, but we did,
and we had great talent. We got a little luck too,
I would say, and we were.
Speaker 5 (04:29):
Helped by a lot of people, a lot of great people.
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Then it was an honor to be involved with it.
It's very historic. This is a rescue that's very historic.
Speaker 5 (04:40):
It'll go down to the books.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Late Thursday night, an American fifteen fighter jet went down
deep inside enemy territory in Iran, while participating in Operation
Epic Fury, where we're doing unbelievably well well at a
level that nobody's ever seen before. The entire country could
(05:01):
be taken out in one night, and that night might
be tomorrow night. Both members of the crew ejected from
the aircraft and landed alive on Iranian soil. I immediately
was asked to make a decision. I ordered the US
Armed Forces to do whatever was necessary.
Speaker 5 (05:21):
To bring our brave warriors back home.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
A risky decision because we could have ended up with
one hundred dead as opposed to one or two.
Speaker 5 (05:31):
It's a hard decision to make.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
But in the United States Military, we leave no American behind.
Speaker 5 (05:38):
We don't do it.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
Within hours of our Armed forces deployed twenty one military
aircraft into hostile airspace, many flying at very low altitude,
being shot by bullets. You bring rifles into play when
you go in that low but there are also certain
advantages and.
Speaker 5 (05:57):
In broad daylight over Iran four.
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Seven hours at times, facing very very heavy enemy fire.
Speaker 5 (06:05):
We have a helicopter, there's got a lot of bullets
in it. It's amazing.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
We just realized how good those those weapons are, those
our machines are. Nobody has, Nobody has the equipment that
we have, and nobody has the military that we have,
not even close the most powerful military anywhere in the
world by far. The flight crews and warfighters aboard those
aircraft took extraordinary risks to rescue their fellow service members.
(06:32):
This first wave of search and rescue forces successfully located
the pilot of the F fifteen, and he was extracted
from enemy territory by an HH sixty Jolly Green two helicopter.
Fabulous machine as their warriors faced gunfire at very close range.
(06:53):
It's amazing that when you look at the machinery, what happened,
that nobody was even injured. Meanwhile, the second crew member,
weapons system officer, highly respected colonel, had landed a significant
distance away from the pilot. When you're going at those speeds,
even if you go out two or three seconds later,
(07:14):
it's miles, it's miles and miles away because you're going fast.
He was injured quite badly and stranded in an area
teaming with terrors from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ROUGH group,
as well as besieged military militia and local authorities. Many
(07:36):
on top of everything else, they told the communities actually
withinside of Iran, the people of Iran. They were given
a tremendous incentive to find this pilot. Despite the peril,
the officer followed his training and climbed into the treacherous
mountain terrain and started climbing toward a higher altitude, something
(08:00):
they were trained to do in order to evade capture.
They want to always go as far away from the
site of the shootdown. They want to go as far
away because they all head right to that site. You
want to be as far away as you can. And
he was injured, and he was an amazing, amazing thing.
(08:22):
He scaled cliff faces, bleeding rather profusely, treated his own wounds,
and contacted American forces to transmit his location. They have
a very sophisticated beeper type apparatus that is on them
at all times, and when they go out on these missions,
(08:45):
they make sure they have lots of battery space and
they're in good shape, and this one worked really well,
amazingly saved his life. We immediately mobilized a massive operation
to retrieve him from the mountain and hold out, and
he kept going higher and higher.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
The mountain kept getting.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Rougher and rougher and really very very hard to find.
The second rescue mission involved one hundred and fifty five aircraft,
including four bombers, sixty four fighters, forty eight refueling tankers,
thirteen rescue aircraft and more. We were bringing them all
over and a lot of it was subterfuge. We wanted
(09:26):
to have them think he was in a different location
because they had a vast military force out there. Thousands
thousands of people were looking, so we wanted them to
look in different areas. So we were scattered all over
like we were right on top of him. We have
seven different locations where they thought, and they were very confused.
Speaker 5 (09:47):
They said, well, wait a minute, they've.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
Got groups here, they've got groups there.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
It's an amazing thing. I was listening to these great people,
these great generals, General Raisin Kane, who's amazing, and Pete
Hegseth was amazing. But I listened to the whole thing.
It was pretty amazing, so that all these.
Speaker 4 (10:06):
Different sites where everybody thought he was located, we think
we have him over there, because they have nine planes
circling a little area that's.
Speaker 5 (10:15):
Twenty five miles down the coast.
Speaker 4 (10:18):
So in a breath taking show of skill and precision, lethality,
and force, America's military descended on the area, the real area,
engage the enemy, rescued, the stranded office had destroyed all
threats and exited Iranian territory while taking no casualties of
(10:38):
any kind. The heroic F fifteen weapons system officer had
evaded capture on the ground in Iran for almost forty
eight hours. That's a long time when you're in tough
shape and when you're bleeding, it's a long time.
Speaker 5 (10:56):
When we left, as.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
You probably know, we had two large planes, all pretty
old planes.
Speaker 5 (11:03):
He carried a lot.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
We needed a lot more equipment going in than coming out, obviously,
because going in we needed to be able to scale mountains,
and we.
Speaker 5 (11:13):
Had a lot of equipment.
Speaker 4 (11:15):
But the sand, it was sandy, wet sand, so we
thought there may be a problem taking off because of
the weight of the plane. And then we also had
all the men jumping back onto the planes and they
got pretty well bogged down, and we had a contingency
plan which was unbelievable, where a lighter, faster aircraft came
(11:35):
in and they took them out.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
We blew up the old planes and we blew.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
Them up to smithereens because we had equipment on the
planes and frankly, we'd like to take but I don't
think it was worthwhile spending another four hours.
Speaker 5 (11:48):
There taking it off. So we didn't want anybody to have.
Speaker 4 (11:51):
We have the best equipment anywhere in the world. We
didn't want anybody examining our anti aircraft and other equipment.
So these were large planes that were old and pretty old,
and we blew them up and we had faster, lighter
planes come in and they were able to land on
the sand. We needed the bigger planes because we had
(12:13):
so much equipment that we took three helicopters over there
which were very strongly used and couldn't have lived without them,
and they performed unbelievably well, and if you'd see it,
you wouldn't believe it. They came off the plane and
these guys had them, the rotors were off. They rebuilt
these helicopters in less than ten minutes, and that was
(12:37):
one of the more amazing things.
Speaker 5 (12:39):
These are helicopters.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
All right, seem we're going to break in here for
a second, continue to monitor, and we'll bring you back live.
If Trump is still speaking about this, he's just giving
details about the rescue operation, which was incredible and it
was successful. Thankfully. We'll come back here in just a moment,
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Speaker 6 (14:18):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite.
Speaker 5 (14:24):
Us all each day, spend time with Clay and buy.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
All right, welcome back in play Travis buck Sexton show,
Trump still talking about the successful rescue of.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
An American crewman. Let's go back in. We'll hear a
couple of minutes.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
Here.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
We're continuing to monitor in the event that there is
major news.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Here's President Trump.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Sand and at each splains alive and we're waiting and
we're saying, I hope that one can land and take off.
And they came in like magic, boom boom boom, one
after another. Was like genius. So impressed by that because
we were a little concerned. We said, boy, if they
don't get in and get up fast, we're sitting in
(15:10):
the mid and that's called I ran prime right general,
that's where the whole bed is. And here we are
sitting there waiting for a plane. But they came in
so fast and so hard. And these guys knew exactly
what let's go, come on, get in, let's go bois.
They came one right after another, not at the same time.
(15:31):
They don't want to come at the same time. They
had to come right after each other. They didn't have
any room. There was barely any room to land, tiny
little patch of very wet.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Earth and sand.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So I just I'm so proud of the people that
I have standing up here with me, and many others
that worked, I mean so many. Steve Witdcuffs over here
is doing fantastically, Jared Kushner, but the people that are.
Speaker 5 (15:56):
Here, the job they did is amazing.
Speaker 4 (15:58):
And I think I'm going to introduce the head of
the CIA, and he is a man who's central casting.
Speaker 5 (16:06):
Okay, if we cast a.
Speaker 4 (16:08):
Movie, he's going to play the head of the CIA's
one of the fields. John Retcliffe. He did a phenomenal
job that night. He did something that I don't know
if you want to talk about it. If you want,
you can, I'm not sure he's supposed to.
Speaker 5 (16:20):
I'm not going to talk about it.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
But he really the CIA was very responsible for finding
this little speck. It's like they used an expression on
one of the shows that General was talking about. It's
like finding a needle in a haystack. Finding this pilot
and the CIA was unbelievable.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
And you may, if you can, you'll talk.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
It might be classified, in which case I'd have to
put him in jail if he talks about it, and
I don't want to put him in jail. He doesn't
deserve that, sir, John do you want to say a
few words.
Speaker 7 (16:48):
Thank you, Thank mister President. It's a privilege to be
here with you today to share what we can about
this exceptional mission and directs, the ingenuity and bravery of
those who executed it, as well as the leadership and
resolve of the president who ordered it.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
One thing that has been clear to me in.
Speaker 7 (17:11):
This role is that the flawless military operations that the
Department of War is known for are hostage to flawless intelligence.
We saw that in the skies over Iran in Operation
Midnight Hammer last summer. We witnessed it in Venezuela during
Operation Absolute Resolve. We've seen it against the cartels in
(17:32):
the Western Hemisphere, and we're seeing it every day.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
Okay, we will Operation Epici.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Okay, we will come back in and continue to monitor this.
The CIA director now speaking about the successful rescue of
the of the crewmen, the second one, and I would
imagine we may get some proverbial news fireworks in some
of the questions that may come, but so far not
a lot of news about the day headline that Iran
(18:01):
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Speaker 1 (18:53):
Welcome back into Clay and Box. So we just had
the president with us, well who carried the presidentation. They
live on the air. He's talking about really just taking
a well deserved victory lap for the United States military.
You know, Clay one thing that people were talking about
with the recovery of the second airman, a weapons officer.
(19:14):
So I believe technically not there's the pilot, there's the
weapons officer. If I get that wrong, my father in law,
who's a fighter pilot himself, will call in and yell
at me. But the reality of why we leave no
man behind and what that means for a spree to
core and for the overall sense of brotherhood, that our
(19:38):
military has the willingness to go out there, whether it's
up in the sky, on the ground, or in the
in the water, to go and fight for this country.
It's it's deeply you know. I can just speak from
reading the accounts of but also understanding historically and from
a strategic as spree to core perspective, it's so important
(20:00):
for our military members to know that when they are
left behind, we will go all out, That our military
will go all out. The commander in chief will make
it the top priority, the top national security priority of
the country for forty eight hours to get you back.
And that is in the minds of everyone who goes
into harm's way that for anyone who is stepping stepping
(20:25):
out down range, whatever it is they're doing, that means
that they know that they're not going to be left there.
And that really does matter a lot, because I saw
people saying, well, we you know, we had. We had
an A ten that took a lot of damage, a
ten Warthog, which is another plane. Ninety percent of you
know this, but for the ten to do another plane,
(20:47):
very heavy armament, plane that does close air support a
lot of the time. Pretty impressive airframe, by the way,
can take a beating and give a beating, unlike a
lot of planes. And then there were other planes also that,
as a president mentioned, we had to leave behind and
blow up. People are saying all this for one man.
You're damn right. That is the ethos of our military.
(21:08):
Whatever gear it takes, whatever the mission set has to be,
to save one of ours who is down behind enemy lines,
we will do it.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
It's one hundred percent the right decision. But the thing
that is particularly pernicious about anyone who is trying to
call that into question is if President Trump had said,
you know what, the risk of material is too significant,
will let Iran get this guy, they would have ripped
him to shreds for allowing this prisoner to be taken. Right,
(21:37):
So it isn't even an honest criticism because if the
reverse had happened, all of you know that they would
have ripped Trump for allowing that to happen. And what
I was thinking when this news came out late Saturday night,
Buck is fake the ward because this guy would have
been beaten. I don't know if he would have survived,
(22:02):
and Iran would have used him for propaganda the likes
of which, frankly, we haven't seen in a very very
long time. So the fact that we've been able to
be in a position where essentially we've had nearly when
you consider the scope of the activities that we have
been engaged in Buck, that we would have done all
(22:23):
of this with only thirteen deaths is pretty incredible. And
I mentioned earlier in the program that you're more likely
to have been murdered in Chicago than killed by the
Iranian military since we began this engagement. And there also
is if you remember when we withdrew from Afghanistan, Joe
(22:46):
Biden and that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which left behind
tens of billions of dollars in material. We didn't even
like the stuff on fire. Then we just handed it
off to the Talban. We left behind find so much
mechanized warfare for them, and we lost thirteen people because
(23:06):
the suicide bomber got close enough to that chaos and
killed thirteen innocent Americans that we're just trying to evacuate
from Afghanistan. So Trump has engaged in a full military
operation for over a month and we have had thirteen
what lives lost, which again we wish there were zero,
(23:28):
but in terms of organization, Biden lost thirteen trying to
leave Afghanistan just in the space of a couple of days.
Speaker 1 (23:37):
We either buy into the underlying thesis of Trump's military
action here, I think, or not, And that's really the
point of separation for so many. You either think it
is entirely from a US national security perspective, unacceptable to
continue to have the probability, not the certainty, but the
(23:59):
probability of in Iranian nuclear weapon hanging over our heads.
I honestly believe that this came down to Trump just
got tired of their of their their bs, and he
knew that with the Iranians, the way things were going there.
You know, you see this right with the elites and
the grand niece here who's running around and you know,
(24:21):
Mercedes and at fancy places and five star hotels and
everything else. The elites in a country like Iran, they're
always fine. The people at the top of the oppression pyramid, Yeah,
they can hunger down, they'll be They'll they'll still have
access to whatever oil they can sell on the black
market and everything else. So they're fine with the suffering
of the Iranian people. If anything, Clay, I think they
(24:43):
suffering they view as advantageous to them because it keeps
people on line, it keeps them in check, and it
actually sometimes even consolidates support behind oppressive regimes because you know,
suffering is solidarity or suffering in solidarity. So there's the
reality of a Trump administration that just decided we have
(25:04):
to change the game here because we can't allow this
to continue as it is. And that's for national security
reasons because in Iran that has nukes is going to
be working against US interests in the Middle East knowing
that this can't happen. And what does that look like?
You know, how is it that we could have averted
a situation where you have, for example, North Korea with
(25:28):
conventional armaments as well as nuclear weapons ready to go
at a moment's notice and essentially annihilate all of South Korea.
You know, this is not a This is not something
people say, oh well, but doesn't that show that we
can have stability. I mean, if you're willing to say
that it's okay that people have to live with that
sort of Democles hanging over their head, that a whole nation,
(25:49):
that really the whole world has to deal with that
Trump decided enough enough of these psychos. We're going to
do something about it now. At the cost that you're
talking about right now, it's a very hard thing. It's
a very hard thing for anyone, Clay, who's not themselves
in harm's way to discuss the loss of life in
pursuit of a national security or strategic end without sounding
(26:13):
like easy for you to say. Right So, I think
it's worth noting that we're sitting here in comfortable studios
in America and our beautiful and safe country talking about
the loss of life that we have suffered thirteen people
overseas serving this country, and every one of those losses
is a gut punch and is horrible for the family,
(26:34):
and those are precious lives. Those are our fellow Americans.
They are serving in the military with the understanding or
they were serving and they died as heroes with the
understanding that if the commander in chief truly believes action
must be taken to save many American lives over the
(26:55):
longer term. That's what they're willing to do, right because
otherwise we're not willing to take any military action unless
we're effectively invaded, because you could always lose life. You
could lose a life in a training flight. I mean,
this is going to happen. We actually one of the
most stunning statistics that I ever learned about World War Two.
I know you're in a big World War Two kick
(27:15):
right now, Clay. I can't remember if it was fifteen
or thirty thousand. I think it was thirty thousand, but
it might have been fifteen thousand either way. A huge
amount of people lost in the Pacific theater to transport
accidents in the air, not to combat. Yeah, people lost
effectively in the middle of the Pacific Coach. We lost
thousands and thousands and thousands of people who signed up
(27:38):
to serve their country in the Second World War because
the plane malfunctioned. That's why.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yes, that is true. And I'm reading the Rick Atkinson books,
which are amazing. I'm in the second volume of his
three volume trilogy started in Africa now, reading about the
war in Italy, two things I knew nothing about. That's
why I think contextualizing loss of life, you are more likely,
I mean, that's a crazy stat to think about. You
are more likely to have been murdered in Chicago since
(28:07):
this since this action began, then you are to have
been killed by the Iranians if you serve in the
United States military. That's crazy stat.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Over twenty five I just did the quick search on
AI twenty five thousand, eight hundred and forty four US
aircrew died. Now this is I think across now, so
that's Spacific and European died from aviation accidents, non combat related,
flying from one base to another, from one training to
(28:40):
another training or practice, you know, going through training twenty
five thousand people fuck. Sometimes they had no idea where
they were when weather would come in. I mean, we
think about technology now where planes are always aware of
exactly where they are a lot of times they had
no idea where they were because if the web was bad,
(29:01):
they have to duck down and try to look and
gain you know, figure out where they were. Because they
didn't have the longitudinal longitudinal latitudinal skills to be able.
By the way A couple of breaking news from when
Pete Hegseth was talking and General Raisin Kine is speaking
right now. They're still talking about primarily the mission to rescue.
(29:23):
Pete hag Seth said tomorrow's today's will be the largest
volume of strikes on Iran so far, and tomorrow will
be more than today, So that is some news. And
he also said, Pete Hegseth did that the mission to
rescue was authorized by Trump within two hours in the
(29:45):
middle of the night. You know, Trump doesn't sleep, as
those of you who follow his truth social account understand.
The guy still at eighty years old, sleeps two or
three hours a night. It feels like in many ways,
you know, Joe Biden all he did sleep, which by
the way, is.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
Pretty normal for eighty year olds. So there's obviously a
lot of range. But Trump, according to heg Seth, almost
immediately in the middle of the night, was saying, yes,
go get this guy.
Speaker 1 (30:14):
And you know, and I know Clay from knowing Secretary
heg Seth on a personal level, the moment that he
knows that there's someone behind enemy lines who needs rescue.
I can tell you without being privy to the conversation,
but I would say with certainty Pete's response is whatever
it takes, anything you need, get it done, get him,
(30:37):
get him, whatever it takes.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
And so we will continue to update you on this.
By the way, markets not really moving very much, which suggests,
at least so far, there has not been much news.
Now we will, I actually think, Buck, the news may
come if President Trump takes questions. Oh, he's already talked.
We played those for you from the Easter egg role earlier.
It may come if he takes questions at the end
of these public comments. And again General came speaking right now,
(31:03):
and we've got a couple more cuts to play for
you from inside of the White House, where the press
briefing is still underway.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
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Speaker 6 (33:16):
Two guys walk up to a mic Hey. Anything goes
Clay Travis and buck Sexton. Find them on the free
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
Well, welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton show. Okay,
we said we would monitor what was being said. President
Trump now back talking. Here are a couple of cuts
that have been going on every network carrying the President
and Hegseth and CIA director and General Kine all throughout
the course of this hour. Here is CIA Director John
(33:52):
Ratcliffe about the successful extra creation extrication of the crew member.
Speaker 7 (33:58):
In addition to the human technical assets deployed by the
President to find our airman, CIA executed a deception campaign
to confuse the Iranians who were desperately hunting for our airmen.
On Saturday morning, we achieved our primary objective by finding
and providing confirmation that one of America's best and bravest
was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible
(34:21):
to the enemy but not to the CIA. That confirmation
was relayed by Secretary Hegsath to the President, and the operation.
Speaker 5 (34:29):
Quickly moved to the execution phase.
Speaker 7 (34:31):
Following the successful exfiltration on Saturday night, our intelligence reflects
that the Iranians were embarrassed and ultimately humiliated by the
success of this audacious rescue mission.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Okay, that's the CIA Director Bock.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Here is Pete Hegseth, Secretary of War, saying, here's what
happened when this guy was downed. How we knew that
he was okay? What his message was? Cut thirty six
when he.
Speaker 8 (34:57):
Was finally able to activate his emergence transponder. His first
message was simple and it was powerful.
Speaker 5 (35:03):
He sent a message God is good.
Speaker 8 (35:06):
In that moment of isolation and danger, his faith and
fighting spirit shown through You see shot down on a Friday,
Good Friday, kidden in a cave, a crevice all of Saturday,
and rescued on Sunday, flown out of Iran as the
sun was rising on Easter Sunday, a pilot reborn all
(35:26):
home and accounted for a nation rejoicing God is Good.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
So that is Pete hag Seth putting it in the
context of what was quite the Easter weekend for so
many members of our military and special forces. Buck President
Trump is now taking questions as we set a little
bit ago, that is likely where news may well come.
And Pete hag Seth said also that again today was
going to be the highest amount of bombs that we
(35:53):
have dropped on Iran, and tomorrow could be more than that.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It seems to me like the strategy here is to
unleash so much punishment that the people in charge in
Iran finally concede, and essentially their concession would be a
nearly unconditional surrender. I don't know I don't know if
they're going to do it. These you got some real
(36:19):
hard line wackados who are still left behind in this country.
I look, I just I hope that the President's able
to to punish them from the air. Historically, punishing an
enemy like this into submission from the air is a very,
very difficult and unlikely thing to accomplish. But we have
the best air power in the history of the universe
(36:40):
so or not including God, but in the history of Earth.
So there you go. When we come back, we'll give
you more on this talk.
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