March 6, 2026 • 36 mins
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana joins the show to talk about the controversial DHS advertising scandal, the future of the Department of Homeland Security, the SAVE Act debate, crime and prosecutorial studies, geopolitical listener insights, and signature Clay & Buck pop culture banter. Clay and Buck ask him about the $250 million DHS advertising campaign featuring Noem, which Kennedy calls “spending porn.” Senator Kennedy talks about confronting Noem on questionable management decisions. Noem falsely claimed under oath that President Trump approved the ad campaign. President Trump called Kennedy personally, furious and insisting he never approved the spending or related no bid contracts. Kennedy signals major red flags involving: Newly formed companies receiving taxpayer-funded ad contracts. Potential ties between contractors and Noem’s associates. Possible obstruction of the department’s Inspector General investigations. Senator Kennedy on Noem’s Ouster, Perjury Concerns & DHS Corruption Questions. Kennedy suggests the firing was inevitable given mounting signs of: Misleading testimony under oath, improperly bid contracts, excessive self-promotional spending, internal dysfunction and IG obstruction. Although he avoids claiming outright perjury, Kennedy strongly implies a credibility crisis for Noem and confirms ongoing congressional scrutiny. The Future of DHS: Senator Markwayne Mullin Considered for Leadership. Clay and Buck explore potential successors with Kennedy, who praises Senator Markwayne Mullin as: Tough, experienced, and smart, a strong manager with real-world business experience - someone likely to be confirmed easily. This segment highlights Trump administration personnel decisions and the future trajectory of DHS under new leadership. Kennedy also discusses his bestselling book “How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will”, which has spent more than 20 weeks on the New York Times list. He shares: How the audiobook took 20 hours to record at his kitchen table. Why the book focuses on real Washington stories over policy lectures. How humor and storytelling connect better with readers than heavy political theory Brianna Lyman of The Federalist also joins as a guest to discuss the SAVE Act, legislation aimed at requiring documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections. Key points include: The current federal voter registration system runs largely on the “honor system.” Examples of non citizens voting due to lax safeguards, including cases in Georgia. North Carolina and 2020 House races decided by just a handful of votes, showing how even small numbers of illegal ballots matter. Approximately 80% of voters support the SAVE Act. DOJ lawsuits against states attempting to tighten citizenship verification. Procedural battles in the Senate over filibuster rules. Trump’s comments on potential negotiations surrounding the bill.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and buck
Sexton Show podcast. Welcome back in our number two Clay
Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out
with us. We were rolling through the Friday edition of
the program, taking you into the weekend. Big breaking news
happened yesterday when DHS Secretary Christy Nome was let go
(00:24):
while we were live on the air near the end
of the second hour, and a big reason why I
believe this guy's questions of her on Tuesday. We are
joined now by Senator John Kennedy of the great State
of Louisiana, and Senator let's just dive in right off
the top. What was your reaction when you saw that
(00:44):
Christy Nome was out? Were you surprised? Did you expect it?
Take us into your process there as you came to
see that news.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I wasn't surprised. Like the secretary, I think she she
did many good things, uh. In fact, I started my
questioning by congratulating her on her success in securing our
southern border and implementing the President's plan. But there have
(01:17):
been a number of management decisions and certain management behavior
at the department in the last or four months that
I think have. They were really distracting from the President's
agenda and our agenda, and the quarter of a billion
(01:40):
dollars of advertising campaign that that featured the Secretary prominently
has always bothered me. I'm i'm, I'm very opposed to
spending porn. But anyway, my point is I didn't tell anybody.
I didn't get anybody's permission. I just decided to ask
(02:03):
the secretary some pretty tough questions. And when I asked
her about the advertising campaign, I was a little surprised.
That's why I asked her twice that she basically said
the President approved every bit of it, and I didn't
believe that. That night, about nine point thirty, I got
(02:26):
a phone call from the President. He was mad as
a mama wasp. He told me he had nothing to
do with it. He wasn't aware of the advertising advertising campaign.
He would not have approved a quarter of a billion dollars,
He wouldn't have approved no bid contracts to allegedly the
(02:49):
friends of the secretary, and I had a feeling that
he was gonna make a change. He ran a couple
of names by me about new secretary. She asked me
from my opinion on a few and that was the
end of the conversation. But I could tell that in
(03:10):
all likelihood that the secretary was she was as dead
as Woodrow Wilson. You know, I can tell when the
president's made up his mine and he usually acts pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Dead as Woodrow.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
What also, what about I was just gonna say, I
was also I'm not surprised at Mark Wayne, because we
talked about Mark Wayne, and I told me, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We'll get into that in a second. But when you
say Trump was mad as a mama wasp, what does
that sound like? You talk to President Trump a lot.
What does that sound like when you get a call
from the president and he's that angry, that conversation sounds
like what take us into take it into what that
experience is.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, he wasn't He wasn't screaming or anything, but he
was angry. I mean, I could tell him angry. And
he started off by saying, I hope you know that
I would never spend this kind of money on something
like that when we're scratching and clawing to try to
reduce our spending and therefore reduce our debt. And you know,
(04:20):
he was very firm, I'll put it that way. But
he wasn't screaming, but I could tell he was going
to make a change.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Senator Kennedy, can you tell us a little bit more
about First of all, how could such a huge How
could anyone think that such a huge budget for an
ad campaign for a government employee, not the president, would
do anything other than raise a lot of eyebrows. And
(04:49):
then also you mentioned this contracting. This seems like this
is quite a messy thing. If there's money that is
going taxpayer dollars going in large sums to newly formed
corporations right before they are dolled out, what do we
know about this? And is there going to be further
(05:09):
looking into this?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yes, it's gonna be looked at very carefully. I sit
on the Appropriations Committee, but even if I didn't, when
it comes to taxpayer money, I'm pretty cheap, guys, I
would state treasurers losing outa for seventeen years. I'sweak when
I walk, and when I see spending porn or what
looks to me like spending porn, I'm gonna call it out.
(05:35):
I don't care who who did it. These ads cost
the quarter of a billion dollars they figured are they
featured rather the secretary prime on that you've seen them,
She's on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. I
think any fair minded person would look at these ads
(05:57):
and say, well, there could be a number of purposes,
but they're primarily to promote the secretary. And uh, I
think during during my questioning of the Secretary, asked her,
I said, did you bid these out? I mean, and
(06:19):
she said yes, and I knew that was an act.
She didn't get the names of the people who got
this quarter of a billion dollars off of the recruiter.
I think some of them she knew beforehand, and some
of these were brand new companies. I don't know all
the details. But uh, I think what disturbed me the
(06:40):
most from the testimony was that she, you know, uh,
she basically blamed the president and said, you know, he
okayed it and he didn't and uh uh you see
the consequence.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Now you're a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I believe I'm a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You said the president said he didn't do it. She
said he did. She said he did it under oath.
I mean to me, when you say something that is
untrue under oath, I mean, I think that sets off
a lot of alarm bells for people out there. Do
you think, based on what you know, that she lied
under oath about this?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, it's over with.
We've in again. I liked the Secretary. She did many
good things, but we were at we've had a lot
of management problems. In fact, if I had only ten
minutes to question her, I got the two subjects I
had eight to talk to her about.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, the Senator, can I jump in there? Because another
thing that's gotten a lot of attention to headlines is
the allegations about the Secretary not just having an extramarital relationship,
and their allegations that I know that she has denied
them in the past, but with somebody who's a special
government employee, so essentially traveling with her on taxpayer funded
(08:03):
aircraft and going everywhere and in the chain of command,
that is the allegation. Was it fair for Democrat to
ask about that? And is it true that the President
was unhappy with her responses?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He and I didn't talk about that. By he, I mean,
of course, I mean the President. I don't know if
there's those allegations are true, that they were raised by
a number of people in our hearing, they will, look,
this is not likely to be over. One of the
things I wanted to talk to her about but haven't
(08:37):
is management at the department has been obstructing their inspector
general who works for us in Congress, and his job
is find waste and corruption and and and and that
sort of thing. And uh, I know he's going to
continue to probe. My guess is there will be others.
But but look, this is fair.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Is it a fair question? Is it a fair question?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Though, Senator to ask, given that involves somebody who might
be in chain of command in your estimation, is it
a fair question?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, look, I don't you know, I'm pretty libertarian, guys,
but ninety percent of my philosophy is, don't hurt somebody
unless it's trying to hurt you first, and don't take
other people's stuff and leave me alone. So I don't
really care that much about someone's sex life. But now
if it's a government employee, for example, in Congress, if
(09:32):
if a congressman or woman has an affair with somebody
who works for you, it's illegal. But my guess is
it's just a guess. But it's not going to come
for me. This stuff is not going to go for
a way away for a while. I would like to
know about the court of a billion dollars that was
(09:52):
spent and who got it, whether we can recoup any
of it. But again, guys, it wasn't personal. I'm doing
my job, my job. I consider this to be spending
porn and I'm gonna call it out every single time.
And my experience with the President is that he didn't
like it either, which.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
He was no, yeah, you said he was mad. I
wrote it down because I love the quote Matt as
a Mama Watts. Let's talk about something positive, because you
started to talk about it a little bit earlier. Senator
Mark Wayne Mullen, you said the President bounced a bunch
of names off you, potentially as replacements for Secretary Nome.
What can you tell us? We love Mark Wayne Mullen.
(10:33):
He was on this program with us Tuesday. Now he's
got a big promotion. Who knows, maybe you'll get a
big promotion after this interview too. But Mark Wayne Mullen
now headed the DHS. As someone who worked alongside of him,
what should we know? What kind of job do you
think he'll do.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well. Mark Wayne's tough at a time, not yes, I
he A, he's smart, b he's tough. See, he's a
good businessman. I told all this to the President. He's
a good businessman, which means he's a pretty good manager.
(11:10):
And as I told the folks yesterday and d even
if all things, all those things weren't true, I wouldn't
say otherwise because because Mark Win would whip my ass.
He's like a cage fighter or something. I don't note.
But I like Barklay and I think he'll do a
good job, and I think he'll be easily confirmed. He
(11:33):
already has some ideas about some of the changes that
he wants to make. And it's you know, new blood
doesn't it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Sometimes you've got a best selling book, Buck Sexton also
has a best selling book. You guys have been on
the New York Times bestseller list together. What's it been
like my best selling author? People are buying your book
like crazy. I'll let you pitch it. Not the unique.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I'm just gonna say, I think Senator has an unfair
advantage with the audio book with that accident. I'm just
going to tell you I think it's unfair. There should
be like a different category for charming Southern accent audiobook.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
But go ahead, Senator well Man.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You know it took like twenty hours to record that
audio book. Oh my gosh, I had no idea to
take so long. Look, the name of the book is
How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will.
Harper Cobbins was the publisher. That wasn't my first choice
for a title. My first choice was always be yourself
(12:35):
unless you suck, but they wouldn't let me use that type,
so we settled on this one. You write a book,
it was a lot of work, you know, all nights
and weekends at my kitchen table, and you finish it
and you have no idea what's how it's going to do.
So I'm not trying to be humble here, I mean,
(12:56):
honest to god, I had no idea, and I really
was surprised. I mean, might been on the New York
Times Best Settler list for twenty one weeks and I'm
I'm gratified. I think it's because it's not a policy book.
It's a story book. I use stories to talk about policy.
The stories or some of them are bizarre, some of
(13:17):
them are funny. All them are true. If I hope
if you read the book, I talk about my colleagues
to talk about what it's really like. If you read
the book, I hope it'll make you think. It may
discourage you, may it may make you want a day drink.
But every every bit of it is true.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Senator Kennedy, we appreciate you. You always got an invitation
on the program. Thanks for thanks. Down the spending porn.
And by the way, I'm a fellow Vanderbilt graduate, so
it's always good to see van some success.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Go doors. Listen, guys, gonna take the rest of the
day off and also pay your taxes. We need the money.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Okay, all right, we're on it is I kidd do
We appreciate his time. Interesting comments there on a variety
of different fronts. We come back, we'll unpack them a
little bit. We're also scheduled to be joined by Breonna
Lyman here on the Friday edition of the program. I
want to tell you all about my friends at price picks.
You can play in all fifty states. I'm up in
DC right now, from one coast to the other. You
(14:17):
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Underway gonna be really cool. Not too far from the
NHL NBA playoffs, March Madness is officially here. It is
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not too far till Augusta. Now with the Masters all
of that, you can play along in all fifty states.
(14:39):
Buck has played. It's easy to pick more or less.
Even if you're not a diehard sports person, you will
enjoy it. I'm telling you go check it out. Price
picks dot com, code Clay, that is pricepicks dot com,
code c Lay.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
We have a bunch of talkbacks I wanted to get
to from all of you, uh, including I like this one, Clay.
It's a Fridays. We have some fun ones here. We
have Breonna Lyman by the way from the Federalists joining
us shortly talk about the Save Acts.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
And we were saying, talk more about the Save Act.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yes, we will, We'll talk about it. We'll keep talking
about it. They should pass it. They should force the
filibuster on the floor.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
We agree with.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
All of this, uh, but here this talkback see Mike
in Boston. Let's hear from Mike.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Bushwine Dino's from Huddo Texas. This is Bill and it's
so nice that Clay knows so much about the Kurds,
and it's wonderful to hear him way in Yuck yuck.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
All right, they say the wrong one.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That was a Dad Joe Kurds in way in case
you missed that one, I was gonna we now play
the correct one, which bock I was like, that doesn't
sound like Boston to me. No, I know that was
very not Boston on the accent. All right, second time,
Mike in Boston, let's go fuck.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
That is to day your best take. I completely agree,
and you have no idea how many people push back
on the Dark Knight versus Batman Begins. But Batman Begins
is one of a kind. There is no other origin
story that is that solid. I mean, you cheer for
his transformation from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It's the best out there.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Fully agree, Well said, thank you, Mike and Boston.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
A stute elite level take, as Clay would say, elite
level take on the Batman movies.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I need to go back and rewatch the Batman movies.
This is one thing you're gonna have to look forward to,
which is one of the coolest. There's a lot of
great things about raising kids, but if you're around our age,
getting to take your kids and rewatch a lot of
the movies that you loved when you were a kid
and get to see it again fresh through their eyes
is really really fun. For those of you out there
(16:56):
that are around bucking mind's age eighties nineties, if you
grew up with a lot of the great eighties and
nineties movies, man do they hold up.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And a lot of kids, like.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
When I'm in the car now driving with my son,
he wants to listen to eighties rocks. It's actually really funny, said.
The music's way better when you guys are growing up, Dad,
so much better.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Eighties music was Eighties music is fantastic, honestly timeless. Nineties
I think is a little more of an acquired taste.
I love it, but I can understand but the best
music in the eighties is truly truly timeless, unlike Taylor
Swift's music, which will fade out within a matter of decades.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Well, you know, kids today, they understand that I'm right,
that she is the beatles of her modern era.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
And I was reading this morning on.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The way doing prep.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know, Taylor Swift's so popular book.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
She went to a crappy mall in London to film
a video and it got so popular that the mall
is now packed. That's how amazing she is. She brought
old London malls back to life.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Think back to twenty years ago. It's two thousand and six,
George W. Bush's president. You take twenty thousand dollars from
your savings account of two thousand and six and you
just invested in gold. You know it would be worth
today one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars. Okay, So
a lot of Ford thinking Americans are going Hold on
a second, I see the trend here. Diversifying a portion
of savings into gold into precious metals makes sense. Gold's
(18:17):
value shot up sixty five percent and twenty twenty five
and there's a plenty of reasonablieve gold's gonna go this year.
But over the long term gold increases in value. My friends,
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(18:39):
eight ninety eight ninety eight to receive your free infoKit
on gold no obligation. Text Buck to ninety eight ninety
eight ninety eight for Birch Golds. We are now joined
by Brionna Lyman of The Federalist. She has done a
(19:02):
ton working and writing about the Save Act, and we'll
start there, but I also want to get into Remind
me to ask Brianna about the study out there that
says if you vote Republican, you actually save lives, which
is a pretty good thing.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
We knew that.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
We knew that before the study, but we'll take data too,
so why not. And we'll get to Brianna on that.
She's also doing a great series on America two fifty.
But let's start with this. We've got a super close race.
I believe it's in the North Carolina Senate. The last
I saw Brianna was it came down to two votes.
This is a state Senate and the Save Act. Now
(19:39):
we've got Ken Paxton down in Texas saying, hey, if
you'll pass the Save Act, I'll consider dropping out of
this race because he wants for John Cornyan to support it.
There's around eighty percent of voters who support this. I
know many people out there are frustrated. What's the latest
on it? And how in the world can we not
get basic voter integrity, vote with a license, vote with
(20:03):
a vote voter, the photo ID pasted.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Yeah, and I'm happy you brought up that North Carolina
race because it is still down to two votes. And
when you have elections that are literally decided by two votes,
it doesn't make election security less important. It makes it
more important. It makes things like the Save Act more
important because remember, the Save Act would require documentary proof
of citizenship to register to vote and then voter ID.
(20:29):
Right now, the only thing standing between a non citizen
and our free and fair elections is a little square
box in the federal registration form that says you attest
under penalty of surgery that you're a citizen, aka the
honor system. And that is absolutely not enough. And so
when you look at races like this one in North Carolina,
when you look at mary Nette Miller Meeks in twenty twenty,
(20:49):
she won her congressional race by six votes, imagine if
six non citizens had cast a ballot in that race,
that could have quite literally changed a congressional seat, change
the balance of Congress. That is unacceptable. And right now
you have leaders in the Senate like Leader of Food,
who is dragging his feet on legislation. Like you said,
that is popular nationwide amongst Republicans, Democrats, Blacks, Latinos, whites,
(21:13):
you name it. Everyone's saying this is common sense legislation,
and yet it's not being done.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What entirely is in the SAVE Act?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I mean you mentioned it's clearly about election integrity, but
what are all the different pieces that it contains. Are
there any things that aren't getting attention that would be
really important for election integrity? It's just people are talking
about the SAVE Act. I think it's important that everyone
also know what's in it.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Yeah, what the SAVE Act does. So there's the nineteen
ninety three NVRA, the National Voter Registration Act, And what
that does right now is it actually hamstrings the government
from requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Because I think
it was twenty thirteen the Supreme Court I think wrongly
interpreted that nineteen ninety three law to prohibit states from
(22:01):
requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote. So if you
think of Arizona, Arizona has two registration forms. You can
prove that you are a citizen and vote in state
and federal elections. But if you can't prove that you're
a citizen, you can only vote in federal elections. And
so what the SAYBAC would do is it amends that law.
It fixes the problem we've had for thirty years and
(22:21):
says no, you have to require documentary proof of citizenship.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Right.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
States should not be sued by the Obama and Biden
dojs for trying to make their elections more secure. President
Trump seemed to hint in a truth social post that
he wanted to add no trends and kids maybe into
the whole sayback negotiations. I think that was a bit unclear.
But right now, the two biggest things proof of citizenship
to register and voter ID. And a lot of people
(22:46):
will say, well, we already have safeguards, and they cite
things like HAVA and HA, which are early two thousands legislation.
Do you know in a state like California, let's say
you don't have your driver's license or your social security right,
you have no identification. You can still register to voting.
You know how you get to prove your identity your
gym membership. What protocols do you go to to get
(23:08):
a gym membership? Nothing.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
You just take a.
Speaker 7 (23:10):
Picture of a little thing and they say, okay, here's
your name. You can come to the gym and you
can use that to verify your identity to vote. So
our elections are so insecure, and when you have twenty
million people in this country, legally we can't take chances.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Brionna.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
One of the things that I would just point out
is the contrary argument does not exist, right because the
argument is, well, it's racist to require voter ID. That's
insane as we as you said, black, white, Asian, Hispanic,
people of all different backgrounds agree that you should have
to have voter ID photo ID to vote. So really,
isn't this just an implicit acknowledgment from Democrats that they're
(23:45):
cheating and worried that they might get caught because otherwise
none of the other arguments stand up.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Yeah, there is no legitimate reason. And if you talk
about let's go over first of all, the race is something, right,
remember Jim Crow two point zero in Georgia, why was
that to twenty one she told us that black people
would never be able to vote again. CNN and the
Washington Post actually did articles after the first big election
after our legislation went through, and they interviewed black voters
who said it was actually easier to vote now than
(24:12):
it had been in the past. They weren't incumber, they
weren't prohibited from voting, so that never actually manifested, right,
It was just that raw raw. Then you have claims
that this will disenfranchise voters, and again I bring it
back to these smaller races that are decided by razor
thin margins.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Take this.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
In December, a woman from the Bahamas who was not
a citizen admitted to the Georgia State Election Board she
has voted in multiple elections. Not because she was trying
to do something illegal, but she said, look, they kept
sending me papers. I thought I was eligible, so I
did it right. It wasn't nefarious, but there was no
security in safeguards to stop her. Imagine she had cast
a vote in this North Carolina race and one other
(24:51):
non citizen did that, right, that would change the outcome
of an election that actually disenfranchises American citizen so Republicans
and Democrats who say, well, oh well, this is my
disenfranchised people, think about the Americans being disenfranchised by non
citizens voting.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Speaking to brionn Alignment of the Federalists and Brianna, the
folks who write into us are saying, we got to
pass the Save Act. It's critical to pass the Save Act.
And we have a problem here, of course, which is
one Majority Leader Thoon does not seem willing to push
for this. But even beyond that, without a sixty vote threshold,
(25:31):
there's the threat of filibuster, not an actual talking filibuster
that is assumed to be enough to shut this down.
So that means that it doesn't get passed. Right, So
what is the best thing Let's say we could get.
We could get Majority Leader Thoon to sit down right
now with all of us. What should he do in
this situation, given how important election integrity is and how
(25:55):
much sense and how much support from the general public
this Save Act has.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
Yeah, and chip Roy actually wrote a letter explaining the
talking filibuster, which is that, you know, Leader Foon has
to basically call and have Democrats. They have to follow
the rules and they have to talk. They get two
times to talk each Once they stop talking, they don't
get to resume, right, And if Republicans were to enforce
already standing procedures, Democrats would eventually just run out of time.
(26:23):
And then you can hold a regular vote in which
you only need fifty one votes to pass this legislation,
which we know we have because Fetterman is on our side.
And if a Republican is going to resign themselves to say, well,
we you know, we don't want to get rid of
the philibuster, but we want this legislation pass, then they're
admitting they're never getting it passed. Republicans are never in
our lifetime likely going to get a filibuster proof majority.
(26:46):
That is silly thinking. So what Republicans like Fun are
saying is well, I guess we're just going to have
to settle for only doing things that Democrats want. But
just remember something, Chuck Schumer has made it very clear
when Democrats take back power, nothing including nuking the philibus,
is off the table. When Democrats take back Congress, whether
it's in twenty twenty six, twenty eight, whenever, they will
(27:06):
do what's necessary to push their agenda. And I wish
Republicans would have the appetite to do the same on
legislation that is universally popular. This is not a fifty
to fifty issue. It is an eighty twenty issue.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
We're talking to Breonna Lyman of the Federalist. All Right,
everybody out there who's fired up about the Save Act,
we are fired up. We want it to happen. But
let me ask you about this, which is actually a
very positive story I was reading about this week. There
is now data out and I believe you wrote about
this or have talked about this as well, saying that
if you vote Republican, particularly when it comes to DAS
(27:38):
and the prosecution of violent crimes, the data reflects lives
are saved because there's far less violent crime. Seems like
kind of an important story that should get more attention.
What did the data show? What does it tell us
and why is it significant?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (27:54):
Yeah, this was data that was kind of I feel
like hidden, and granted, you know, the Iran War started,
so it didn't get buried. But what it shows is
that despite people telling us that if you both for
a progressive prosecutor or being compassionate and empathetic, that compassion
comes at a very deadly cost. And what the study
by a Vanderbilt professor and a Wellesley College professor found
(28:15):
is that when you narrowly elect a Republican prosecutor over
a left wing counterpart, you see a reduction in depths
among young men six point six percent. That is not
a drop in the bucket. That is a substantial decrease.
And obviously, you know, you don't need to study, you know,
to show this, but Republican prosecutors they actually want to
hold criminals accountable. They send them to jail, and most importantly,
(28:39):
they levy consequences on these criminals that do come with
the consequence of restricting their access to firearms. It reduces
suicide among young men. It also reduces other forms of
gun violence. And so you think to yourself, Democrats hate
gun violence. Everybody hates gun violence. But Democrats also hate
the Second Amendment. Instead of taking away the Second Amendment
from law abiding citizens, if you want to reduce gun violence,
(29:02):
elect of Republican prosecutor. Tell your progressive prosecutors. What they're
doing is not only not working, but it's deadly and
dangerous for people that Democrats claim they want to help.
They want to help victims of gun violence. This is
how you do it. Be a tough on crime prosecutor.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Greana Lyman. Great to have you with us from the Federalists.
Come back soon.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
In Israel, citizens are on high alert. Any hour, any minute,
next to incoming missile or drone might be headed in
their direction. The vulnerable population of Israel is the most effective.
That's the young, that's the old, that's those without substantial resources.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they're on the
ground preparing large scale distributions of life saving food, first aid,
(29:45):
and emergency essentials for security personnel. I saw it for
myself on the ground. What the IFCJ does. They build
brand new store bomb shelters. They build new underground hospitals.
Because hospitals are to targeted, believe it or not, they
have to turn parking garages into their emergency wards and
into their own hospitals. They do incredible work to take
(30:09):
care of everybody in Israel, and right now they could.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Use your help.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ as bombs rain
down in Israel, you can go online at IFCJ dot
org and help the people there. This is the Fellowship
of Christians and Jews, IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
We've got a lot of talkbacks, a lot of conversation
with comic Ferry coming in here, and we will get
to it. Let's see podcast listener, David and Tennessee a
bone to pick with those of us from the Crockett
Coffee world, which you should all be joining, by the way,
Crockett Coffee dot com. But here's what David has to
(31:03):
say talkback beat.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Play as a fellow born and raised Tennessee, and I'm
shaking my head that you called Davy Crockett a legendary Texan.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
He was born in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Dude, Did I do that? Do we have a I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Can we go to the tape and see I remember
this was a conversation when we were making fun of
Jasmine Crockett. Did I called Jasmine Crockett a legendary Texan
in mock derision that might have happened to I just
want to go to the transcript if I would like
to apologize to the state of Tennessee. Although I would
say Davy Crockett is both.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
A Tennessee and Texan legend but his legend was sort
of enshrined forever because of the Alamo in Texas. But
he was legendary just based on being a congressman in
Tennessee and a great bear hunter and all these other things.
So one point thought of as a possible presidential candidate.
(31:58):
By the way, this is a great email in from
a VIP Tony. This is the amount of brain trust
that listens to this show every day and the experience
that all of you bring to these conversations. It's truly incredible.
VIP email Tony. I was a civil affairs team chief
in Mosul and Nineveh Province in the surge. So I
was outside Tony. I was there about a year before you.
(32:19):
I was outside the wire every day meeting with practically
everyone shakes government officials, business people, bottom line, up front.
Some of the greatest fighters I ever watched were Kords.
As late as two thousand and eight two thousand and nine,
there were still Peshmerga compounds in eastern Mosil flying the
Kurdish flag. The Kurds also protected the ancient Assyrian Christian
communities in eastern Nineva Province. Your strategic assessment is spot on.
(32:42):
We need to be leery of fomenting ethnic conflict in
a very complicated area. The spillover effects could be worse,
and with the administrations trying to achieve that's a guy
who knows me. He's talking about with the Kurds obviously,
and with that whole region of the world. Yeah, Clay,
the Kurdish enclave in Iran, there's a little bit in
the northeast, I think, the very tiny bit, but it's
really all in the northwest. It's like ten percent of
the country. So yeah, I mean, can the Kurds sure
(33:06):
they can help us there and maybe they can create
a kind of rearguard area for strategic projection for whatever
the resistance may be. But it's it gets very complicated.
But yeah, and the pesh I knew SF guys, I
knew Task Force guys, Seals Delta, and they were like
the Kurds. Look, they didn't have the sophisticated TTPs we did,
(33:27):
and they didn't have the same wiz bangs they could
call upon.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
But you give a Curd to rusty ak and.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Say, man that post, he'll stay there and fight until
he runs out of m O and you know, we'll
die trying. He'll die in defense of his team and
his people. So I had full credit to the Kurds.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for those people, Clay.
When I would travel outside the wire, anytime we went
any Kurdish compound, anywhere we went felt totally safe. Not
(33:52):
the case with the Sunni Arab compounds I went to.
But that's a whole other conversation. All right, A podcast listener,
Wendy play it.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
I just wanted to say something about the new rule
for United Airlines and the headphone usage. I just want
to know how I get that instilled in my own
home with my husband who is constantly playing tiktoks in
the background of my life, and I'm like, put in
your headphones.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Oh man, I'm with her on this one. Clay, you
got you gotta you gotta control your own sound in
the home too. You gotta use the headphones if someone
else isn't watching what you're watching. This is just basic courtesy.
You have stepped into a big sound battle. I landed
up here in DC, and I immediately go into my
my my mentions, and bucks come after the leaf blowing community,
(34:47):
which I've come after before too, and we.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Do need some civility. We just had Breonna Lyman, who
was great talking about the fact that if you elect
Republican das, you save lives. I think we need to
go after big leaf. I don't understand and why we
can't create leaf blowers first of all, that don't get
used at six am in neighborhoods, which you people are
are terrorists who bring out the leaf blowers early in
(35:11):
the morning especially.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I agree, sorry agree.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Why do they have to be so loud? We have
cars that make no noise. In fact, electric vehicles like
my Tesla make so little noise that they actually had
to add noise because pedestrians were in danger because in neighborhoods,
you wouldn't hear a car coming and you start to
cross the street and boom, you get hit. Why can't
there be leaf blowers? This is my request for you,
(35:35):
American brilliant technologists that make no noise at all.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Why is that some people seem to think that their
leaf blowers should sound like a chainsaw? Yeah, and I disagree.
I don't think we need to have because that's essentially
the same noise. I mean, it sounds like someone's using
a chainsaw out there and anytime. I'm walking down a beautiful,
quiet street here these days, on an otherwise perfect Miami day,
(35:59):
I've got like three leaf blower is going at all time, yes.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Early in the morning, everywhere. I think, And how about
most of the leaf blowers are just blowing their leaves
into their neighbor's yard, and then the other guy blows
the leaves back to the other side. You're just in
You're not actually making anything cleaner. We'll take some. We
got some more funny talkbacks. It's Friday, final hour of
the week. Up next, open phone lines. Let's hang and
(36:24):
have some fun here on Clay and Buck
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and buck
Sexton Show podcast. Welcome back in our number two Clay
Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all of you hanging out
with us. We were rolling through the Friday edition of
the program, taking you into the weekend. Big breaking news
happened yesterday when DHS Secretary Christy Nome was let go
(00:24):
while we were live on the air near the end
of the second hour, and a big reason why I
believe this guy's questions of her on Tuesday. We are
joined now by Senator John Kennedy of the great State
of Louisiana, and Senator let's just dive in right off
the top. What was your reaction when you saw that
(00:44):
Christy Nome was out? Were you surprised? Did you expect it?
Take us into your process there as you came to
see that news.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I wasn't surprised. Like the secretary, I think she she
did many good things, uh. In fact, I started my
questioning by congratulating her on her success in securing our
southern border and implementing the President's plan. But there have
(01:17):
been a number of management decisions and certain management behavior
at the department in the last or four months that
I think have. They were really distracting from the President's
agenda and our agenda, and the quarter of a billion
(01:40):
dollars of advertising campaign that that featured the Secretary prominently
has always bothered me. I'm i'm, I'm very opposed to
spending porn. But anyway, my point is I didn't tell anybody.
I didn't get anybody's permission. I just decided to ask
(02:03):
the secretary some pretty tough questions. And when I asked
her about the advertising campaign, I was a little surprised.
That's why I asked her twice that she basically said
the President approved every bit of it, and I didn't
believe that. That night, about nine point thirty, I got
(02:26):
a phone call from the President. He was mad as
a mama wasp. He told me he had nothing to
do with it. He wasn't aware of the advertising advertising campaign.
He would not have approved a quarter of a billion dollars,
He wouldn't have approved no bid contracts to allegedly the
(02:49):
friends of the secretary, and I had a feeling that
he was gonna make a change. He ran a couple
of names by me about new secretary. She asked me
from my opinion on a few and that was the
end of the conversation. But I could tell that in
(03:10):
all likelihood that the secretary was she was as dead
as Woodrow Wilson. You know, I can tell when the
president's made up his mine and he usually acts pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Dead as Woodrow.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
What also, what about I was just gonna say, I
was also I'm not surprised at Mark Wayne, because we
talked about Mark Wayne, and I told me, okay.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
We'll get into that in a second. But when you
say Trump was mad as a mama wasp, what does
that sound like? You talk to President Trump a lot.
What does that sound like when you get a call
from the president and he's that angry, that conversation sounds
like what take us into take it into what that
experience is.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Well, he wasn't He wasn't screaming or anything, but he
was angry. I mean, I could tell him angry. And
he started off by saying, I hope you know that
I would never spend this kind of money on something
like that when we're scratching and clawing to try to
reduce our spending and therefore reduce our debt. And you know,
(04:20):
he was very firm, I'll put it that way. But
he wasn't screaming, but I could tell he was going
to make a change.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Senator Kennedy, can you tell us a little bit more
about First of all, how could such a huge How
could anyone think that such a huge budget for an
ad campaign for a government employee, not the president, would
do anything other than raise a lot of eyebrows. And
(04:49):
then also you mentioned this contracting. This seems like this
is quite a messy thing. If there's money that is
going taxpayer dollars going in large sums to newly formed
corporations right before they are dolled out, what do we
know about this? And is there going to be further
(05:09):
looking into this?
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Yes, it's gonna be looked at very carefully. I sit
on the Appropriations Committee, but even if I didn't, when
it comes to taxpayer money, I'm pretty cheap, guys, I
would state treasurers losing outa for seventeen years. I'sweak when
I walk, and when I see spending porn or what
looks to me like spending porn, I'm gonna call it out.
(05:35):
I don't care who who did it. These ads cost
the quarter of a billion dollars they figured are they
featured rather the secretary prime on that you've seen them,
She's on a horse in front of Mount Rushmore. I
think any fair minded person would look at these ads
(05:57):
and say, well, there could be a number of purposes,
but they're primarily to promote the secretary. And uh, I
think during during my questioning of the Secretary, asked her,
I said, did you bid these out? I mean, and
(06:19):
she said yes, and I knew that was an act.
She didn't get the names of the people who got
this quarter of a billion dollars off of the recruiter.
I think some of them she knew beforehand, and some
of these were brand new companies. I don't know all
the details. But uh, I think what disturbed me the
(06:40):
most from the testimony was that she, you know, uh,
she basically blamed the president and said, you know, he
okayed it and he didn't and uh uh you see
the consequence.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Now you're a lawyer.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
I believe I'm a lawyer.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
You said the president said he didn't do it. She
said he did. She said he did it under oath.
I mean to me, when you say something that is
untrue under oath, I mean, I think that sets off
a lot of alarm bells for people out there. Do
you think, based on what you know, that she lied
under oath about this?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, it's over with.
We've in again. I liked the Secretary. She did many
good things, but we were at we've had a lot
of management problems. In fact, if I had only ten
minutes to question her, I got the two subjects I
had eight to talk to her about.
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Well, the Senator, can I jump in there? Because another
thing that's gotten a lot of attention to headlines is
the allegations about the Secretary not just having an extramarital relationship,
and their allegations that I know that she has denied
them in the past, but with somebody who's a special
government employee, so essentially traveling with her on taxpayer funded
(08:03):
aircraft and going everywhere and in the chain of command,
that is the allegation. Was it fair for Democrat to
ask about that? And is it true that the President
was unhappy with her responses?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
He and I didn't talk about that. By he, I mean,
of course, I mean the President. I don't know if
there's those allegations are true, that they were raised by
a number of people in our hearing, they will, look,
this is not likely to be over. One of the
things I wanted to talk to her about but haven't
(08:37):
is management at the department has been obstructing their inspector
general who works for us in Congress, and his job
is find waste and corruption and and and and that
sort of thing. And uh, I know he's going to
continue to probe. My guess is there will be others.
But but look, this is fair.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Is it a fair question? Is it a fair question?
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Though, Senator to ask, given that involves somebody who might
be in chain of command in your estimation, is it
a fair question?
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Well, look, I don't you know, I'm pretty libertarian, guys,
but ninety percent of my philosophy is, don't hurt somebody
unless it's trying to hurt you first, and don't take
other people's stuff and leave me alone. So I don't
really care that much about someone's sex life. But now
if it's a government employee, for example, in Congress, if
(09:32):
if a congressman or woman has an affair with somebody
who works for you, it's illegal. But my guess is
it's just a guess. But it's not going to come
for me. This stuff is not going to go for
a way away for a while. I would like to
know about the court of a billion dollars that was
(09:52):
spent and who got it, whether we can recoup any
of it. But again, guys, it wasn't personal. I'm doing
my job, my job. I consider this to be spending
porn and I'm gonna call it out every single time.
And my experience with the President is that he didn't
like it either, which.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
He was no, yeah, you said he was mad. I
wrote it down because I love the quote Matt as
a Mama Watts. Let's talk about something positive, because you
started to talk about it a little bit earlier. Senator
Mark Wayne Mullen, you said the President bounced a bunch
of names off you, potentially as replacements for Secretary Nome.
What can you tell us? We love Mark Wayne Mullen.
(10:33):
He was on this program with us Tuesday. Now he's
got a big promotion. Who knows, maybe you'll get a
big promotion after this interview too. But Mark Wayne Mullen
now headed the DHS. As someone who worked alongside of him,
what should we know? What kind of job do you
think he'll do.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Well. Mark Wayne's tough at a time, not yes, I
he A, he's smart, b he's tough. See, he's a
good businessman. I told all this to the President. He's
a good businessman, which means he's a pretty good manager.
(11:10):
And as I told the folks yesterday and d even
if all things, all those things weren't true, I wouldn't
say otherwise because because Mark Win would whip my ass.
He's like a cage fighter or something. I don't note.
But I like Barklay and I think he'll do a
good job, and I think he'll be easily confirmed. He
(11:33):
already has some ideas about some of the changes that
he wants to make. And it's you know, new blood
doesn't it doesn't hurt.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Sometimes you've got a best selling book, Buck Sexton also
has a best selling book. You guys have been on
the New York Times bestseller list together. What's it been
like my best selling author? People are buying your book
like crazy. I'll let you pitch it. Not the unique.
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I'm just gonna say, I think Senator has an unfair
advantage with the audio book with that accident. I'm just
going to tell you I think it's unfair. There should
be like a different category for charming Southern accent audiobook.
Speaker 4 (12:10):
But go ahead, Senator well Man.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
You know it took like twenty hours to record that
audio book. Oh my gosh, I had no idea to
take so long. Look, the name of the book is
How to Test Negative for Stupid and Why Washington Never Will.
Harper Cobbins was the publisher. That wasn't my first choice
for a title. My first choice was always be yourself
(12:35):
unless you suck, but they wouldn't let me use that type,
so we settled on this one. You write a book,
it was a lot of work, you know, all nights
and weekends at my kitchen table, and you finish it
and you have no idea what's how it's going to do.
So I'm not trying to be humble here, I mean,
(12:56):
honest to god, I had no idea, and I really
was surprised. I mean, might been on the New York
Times Best Settler list for twenty one weeks and I'm
I'm gratified. I think it's because it's not a policy book.
It's a story book. I use stories to talk about policy.
The stories or some of them are bizarre, some of
(13:17):
them are funny. All them are true. If I hope
if you read the book, I talk about my colleagues
to talk about what it's really like. If you read
the book, I hope it'll make you think. It may
discourage you, may it may make you want a day drink.
But every every bit of it is true.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Senator Kennedy, we appreciate you. You always got an invitation
on the program. Thanks for thanks. Down the spending porn.
And by the way, I'm a fellow Vanderbilt graduate, so
it's always good to see van some success.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Go doors. Listen, guys, gonna take the rest of the
day off and also pay your taxes. We need the money.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Okay, all right, we're on it is I kidd do
We appreciate his time. Interesting comments there on a variety
of different fronts. We come back, we'll unpack them a
little bit. We're also scheduled to be joined by Breonna
Lyman here on the Friday edition of the program. I
want to tell you all about my friends at price picks.
You can play in all fifty states. I'm up in
DC right now, from one coast to the other. You
(14:17):
can play along pricepicks dot Com code Clay. You get
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(14:39):
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Even if you're not a diehard sports person, you will
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Speaker 3 (15:00):
We have a bunch of talkbacks I wanted to get
to from all of you, uh, including I like this one, Clay.
It's a Fridays. We have some fun ones here. We
have Breonna Lyman by the way from the Federalists joining
us shortly talk about the Save Acts.
Speaker 4 (15:13):
And we were saying, talk more about the Save Act.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Yes, we will, We'll talk about it. We'll keep talking
about it. They should pass it. They should force the
filibuster on the floor.
Speaker 4 (15:21):
We agree with.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
All of this, uh, but here this talkback see Mike
in Boston. Let's hear from Mike.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
Bushwine Dino's from Huddo Texas. This is Bill and it's
so nice that Clay knows so much about the Kurds,
and it's wonderful to hear him way in Yuck yuck.
Speaker 4 (15:46):
All right, they say the wrong one.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
That was a Dad Joe Kurds in way in case
you missed that one, I was gonna we now play
the correct one, which bock I was like, that doesn't
sound like Boston to me. No, I know that was
very not Boston on the accent. All right, second time,
Mike in Boston, let's go fuck.
Speaker 6 (16:01):
That is to day your best take. I completely agree,
and you have no idea how many people push back
on the Dark Knight versus Batman Begins. But Batman Begins
is one of a kind. There is no other origin
story that is that solid. I mean, you cheer for
his transformation from the beginning.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
It's the best out there.
Speaker 4 (16:26):
Fully agree, Well said, thank you, Mike and Boston.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
A stute elite level take, as Clay would say, elite
level take on the Batman movies.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I need to go back and rewatch the Batman movies.
This is one thing you're gonna have to look forward to,
which is one of the coolest. There's a lot of
great things about raising kids, but if you're around our age,
getting to take your kids and rewatch a lot of
the movies that you loved when you were a kid
and get to see it again fresh through their eyes
is really really fun. For those of you out there
(16:56):
that are around bucking mind's age eighties nineties, if you
grew up with a lot of the great eighties and
nineties movies, man do they hold up.
Speaker 4 (17:03):
And a lot of kids, like.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
When I'm in the car now driving with my son,
he wants to listen to eighties rocks. It's actually really funny, said.
The music's way better when you guys are growing up, Dad,
so much better.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
You're right.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Eighties music was Eighties music is fantastic, honestly timeless. Nineties
I think is a little more of an acquired taste.
I love it, but I can understand but the best
music in the eighties is truly truly timeless, unlike Taylor
Swift's music, which will fade out within a matter of decades.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
Well, you know, kids today, they understand that I'm right,
that she is the beatles of her modern era.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
And I was reading this morning on.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
The way doing prep.
Speaker 4 (17:41):
You know, Taylor Swift's so popular book.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
She went to a crappy mall in London to film
a video and it got so popular that the mall
is now packed. That's how amazing she is. She brought
old London malls back to life.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Think back to twenty years ago. It's two thousand and six,
George W. Bush's president. You take twenty thousand dollars from
your savings account of two thousand and six and you
just invested in gold. You know it would be worth
today one hundred and sixty five thousand dollars. Okay, So
a lot of Ford thinking Americans are going Hold on
a second, I see the trend here. Diversifying a portion
of savings into gold into precious metals makes sense. Gold's
(18:17):
value shot up sixty five percent and twenty twenty five
and there's a plenty of reasonablieve gold's gonna go this year.
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(18:39):
eight ninety eight ninety eight to receive your free infoKit
on gold no obligation. Text Buck to ninety eight ninety
eight ninety eight for Birch Golds. We are now joined
by Brionna Lyman of The Federalist. She has done a
(19:02):
ton working and writing about the Save Act, and we'll
start there, but I also want to get into Remind
me to ask Brianna about the study out there that
says if you vote Republican, you actually save lives, which
is a pretty good thing.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
We knew that.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
We knew that before the study, but we'll take data too,
so why not. And we'll get to Brianna on that.
She's also doing a great series on America two fifty.
But let's start with this. We've got a super close race.
I believe it's in the North Carolina Senate. The last
I saw Brianna was it came down to two votes.
This is a state Senate and the Save Act. Now
(19:39):
we've got Ken Paxton down in Texas saying, hey, if
you'll pass the Save Act, I'll consider dropping out of
this race because he wants for John Cornyan to support it.
There's around eighty percent of voters who support this. I
know many people out there are frustrated. What's the latest
on it? And how in the world can we not
get basic voter integrity, vote with a license, vote with
(20:03):
a vote voter, the photo ID pasted.
Speaker 7 (20:07):
Yeah, and I'm happy you brought up that North Carolina
race because it is still down to two votes. And
when you have elections that are literally decided by two votes,
it doesn't make election security less important. It makes it
more important. It makes things like the Save Act more
important because remember, the Save Act would require documentary proof
of citizenship to register to vote and then voter ID.
(20:29):
Right now, the only thing standing between a non citizen
and our free and fair elections is a little square
box in the federal registration form that says you attest
under penalty of surgery that you're a citizen, aka the
honor system. And that is absolutely not enough. And so
when you look at races like this one in North Carolina,
when you look at mary Nette Miller Meeks in twenty twenty,
(20:49):
she won her congressional race by six votes, imagine if
six non citizens had cast a ballot in that race,
that could have quite literally changed a congressional seat, change
the balance of Congress. That is unacceptable. And right now
you have leaders in the Senate like Leader of Food,
who is dragging his feet on legislation. Like you said,
that is popular nationwide amongst Republicans, Democrats, Blacks, Latinos, whites,
(21:13):
you name it. Everyone's saying this is common sense legislation,
and yet it's not being done.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
What entirely is in the SAVE Act?
Speaker 3 (21:22):
I mean you mentioned it's clearly about election integrity, but
what are all the different pieces that it contains. Are
there any things that aren't getting attention that would be
really important for election integrity? It's just people are talking
about the SAVE Act. I think it's important that everyone
also know what's in it.
Speaker 7 (21:40):
Yeah, what the SAVE Act does. So there's the nineteen
ninety three NVRA, the National Voter Registration Act, And what
that does right now is it actually hamstrings the government
from requiring proof of citizenship to vote. Because I think
it was twenty thirteen the Supreme Court I think wrongly
interpreted that nineteen ninety three law to prohibit states from
(22:01):
requiring documentary proof of citizenship to vote. So if you
think of Arizona, Arizona has two registration forms. You can
prove that you are a citizen and vote in state
and federal elections. But if you can't prove that you're
a citizen, you can only vote in federal elections. And
so what the SAYBAC would do is it amends that law.
It fixes the problem we've had for thirty years and
(22:21):
says no, you have to require documentary proof of citizenship.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
Right.
Speaker 7 (22:25):
States should not be sued by the Obama and Biden
dojs for trying to make their elections more secure. President
Trump seemed to hint in a truth social post that
he wanted to add no trends and kids maybe into
the whole sayback negotiations. I think that was a bit unclear.
But right now, the two biggest things proof of citizenship
to register and voter ID. And a lot of people
(22:46):
will say, well, we already have safeguards, and they cite
things like HAVA and HA, which are early two thousands legislation.
Do you know in a state like California, let's say
you don't have your driver's license or your social security right,
you have no identification. You can still register to voting.
You know how you get to prove your identity your
gym membership. What protocols do you go to to get
(23:08):
a gym membership? Nothing.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
You just take a.
Speaker 7 (23:10):
Picture of a little thing and they say, okay, here's
your name. You can come to the gym and you
can use that to verify your identity to vote. So
our elections are so insecure, and when you have twenty
million people in this country, legally we can't take chances.
Speaker 4 (23:22):
Brionna.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
One of the things that I would just point out
is the contrary argument does not exist, right because the
argument is, well, it's racist to require voter ID. That's
insane as we as you said, black, white, Asian, Hispanic,
people of all different backgrounds agree that you should have
to have voter ID photo ID to vote. So really,
isn't this just an implicit acknowledgment from Democrats that they're
(23:45):
cheating and worried that they might get caught because otherwise
none of the other arguments stand up.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
Yeah, there is no legitimate reason. And if you talk
about let's go over first of all, the race is something, right,
remember Jim Crow two point zero in Georgia, why was
that to twenty one she told us that black people
would never be able to vote again. CNN and the
Washington Post actually did articles after the first big election
after our legislation went through, and they interviewed black voters
who said it was actually easier to vote now than
(24:12):
it had been in the past. They weren't incumber, they
weren't prohibited from voting, so that never actually manifested, right,
It was just that raw raw. Then you have claims
that this will disenfranchise voters, and again I bring it
back to these smaller races that are decided by razor
thin margins.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Take this.
Speaker 7 (24:29):
In December, a woman from the Bahamas who was not
a citizen admitted to the Georgia State Election Board she
has voted in multiple elections. Not because she was trying
to do something illegal, but she said, look, they kept
sending me papers. I thought I was eligible, so I
did it right. It wasn't nefarious, but there was no
security in safeguards to stop her. Imagine she had cast
a vote in this North Carolina race and one other
(24:51):
non citizen did that, right, that would change the outcome
of an election that actually disenfranchises American citizen so Republicans
and Democrats who say, well, oh well, this is my
disenfranchised people, think about the Americans being disenfranchised by non
citizens voting.
Speaker 3 (25:07):
Speaking to brionn Alignment of the Federalists and Brianna, the
folks who write into us are saying, we got to
pass the Save Act. It's critical to pass the Save Act.
And we have a problem here, of course, which is
one Majority Leader Thoon does not seem willing to push
for this. But even beyond that, without a sixty vote threshold,
(25:31):
there's the threat of filibuster, not an actual talking filibuster
that is assumed to be enough to shut this down.
So that means that it doesn't get passed. Right, So
what is the best thing Let's say we could get.
We could get Majority Leader Thoon to sit down right
now with all of us. What should he do in
this situation, given how important election integrity is and how
(25:55):
much sense and how much support from the general public
this Save Act has.
Speaker 7 (26:01):
Yeah, and chip Roy actually wrote a letter explaining the
talking filibuster, which is that, you know, Leader Foon has
to basically call and have Democrats. They have to follow
the rules and they have to talk. They get two
times to talk each Once they stop talking, they don't
get to resume, right, And if Republicans were to enforce
already standing procedures, Democrats would eventually just run out of time.
(26:23):
And then you can hold a regular vote in which
you only need fifty one votes to pass this legislation,
which we know we have because Fetterman is on our side.
And if a Republican is going to resign themselves to say, well,
we you know, we don't want to get rid of
the philibuster, but we want this legislation pass, then they're
admitting they're never getting it passed. Republicans are never in
our lifetime likely going to get a filibuster proof majority.
(26:46):
That is silly thinking. So what Republicans like Fun are
saying is well, I guess we're just going to have
to settle for only doing things that Democrats want. But
just remember something, Chuck Schumer has made it very clear
when Democrats take back power, nothing including nuking the philibus,
is off the table. When Democrats take back Congress, whether
it's in twenty twenty six, twenty eight, whenever, they will
(27:06):
do what's necessary to push their agenda. And I wish
Republicans would have the appetite to do the same on
legislation that is universally popular. This is not a fifty
to fifty issue. It is an eighty twenty issue.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
We're talking to Breonna Lyman of the Federalist. All Right,
everybody out there who's fired up about the Save Act,
we are fired up. We want it to happen. But
let me ask you about this, which is actually a
very positive story I was reading about this week. There
is now data out and I believe you wrote about
this or have talked about this as well, saying that
if you vote Republican, particularly when it comes to DAS
(27:38):
and the prosecution of violent crimes, the data reflects lives
are saved because there's far less violent crime. Seems like
kind of an important story that should get more attention.
What did the data show? What does it tell us
and why is it significant?
Speaker 2 (27:53):
Yeah?
Speaker 7 (27:54):
Yeah, this was data that was kind of I feel
like hidden, and granted, you know, the Iran War started,
so it didn't get buried. But what it shows is
that despite people telling us that if you both for
a progressive prosecutor or being compassionate and empathetic, that compassion
comes at a very deadly cost. And what the study
by a Vanderbilt professor and a Wellesley College professor found
(28:15):
is that when you narrowly elect a Republican prosecutor over
a left wing counterpart, you see a reduction in depths
among young men six point six percent. That is not
a drop in the bucket. That is a substantial decrease.
And obviously, you know, you don't need to study, you know,
to show this, but Republican prosecutors they actually want to
hold criminals accountable. They send them to jail, and most importantly,
(28:39):
they levy consequences on these criminals that do come with
the consequence of restricting their access to firearms. It reduces
suicide among young men. It also reduces other forms of
gun violence. And so you think to yourself, Democrats hate
gun violence. Everybody hates gun violence. But Democrats also hate
the Second Amendment. Instead of taking away the Second Amendment
from law abiding citizens, if you want to reduce gun violence,
(29:02):
elect of Republican prosecutor. Tell your progressive prosecutors. What they're
doing is not only not working, but it's deadly and
dangerous for people that Democrats claim they want to help.
They want to help victims of gun violence. This is
how you do it. Be a tough on crime prosecutor.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
Greana Lyman. Great to have you with us from the Federalists.
Come back soon.
Speaker 7 (29:22):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
In Israel, citizens are on high alert. Any hour, any minute,
next to incoming missile or drone might be headed in
their direction. The vulnerable population of Israel is the most effective.
That's the young, that's the old, that's those without substantial resources.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, they're on the
ground preparing large scale distributions of life saving food, first aid,
(29:45):
and emergency essentials for security personnel. I saw it for
myself on the ground. What the IFCJ does. They build
brand new store bomb shelters. They build new underground hospitals.
Because hospitals are to targeted, believe it or not, they
have to turn parking garages into their emergency wards and
into their own hospitals. They do incredible work to take
(30:09):
care of everybody in Israel, and right now they could.
Speaker 4 (30:12):
Use your help.
Speaker 1 (30:13):
Eight eight eight four eight eight IFCJ as bombs rain
down in Israel, you can go online at IFCJ dot
org and help the people there. This is the Fellowship
of Christians and Jews, IFCJ dot org. That's IFCJ dot org.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
We've got a lot of talkbacks, a lot of conversation
with comic Ferry coming in here, and we will get
to it. Let's see podcast listener, David and Tennessee a
bone to pick with those of us from the Crockett
Coffee world, which you should all be joining, by the way,
Crockett Coffee dot com. But here's what David has to
(31:03):
say talkback beat.
Speaker 6 (31:05):
Play as a fellow born and raised Tennessee, and I'm
shaking my head that you called Davy Crockett a legendary Texan.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
He was born in Tennessee.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
Dude, Did I do that? Do we have a I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:20):
Can we go to the tape and see I remember
this was a conversation when we were making fun of
Jasmine Crockett. Did I called Jasmine Crockett a legendary Texan
in mock derision that might have happened to I just
want to go to the transcript if I would like
to apologize to the state of Tennessee. Although I would
say Davy Crockett is both.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
A Tennessee and Texan legend but his legend was sort
of enshrined forever because of the Alamo in Texas. But
he was legendary just based on being a congressman in
Tennessee and a great bear hunter and all these other things.
So one point thought of as a possible presidential candidate.
(31:58):
By the way, this is a great email in from
a VIP Tony. This is the amount of brain trust
that listens to this show every day and the experience
that all of you bring to these conversations. It's truly incredible.
VIP email Tony. I was a civil affairs team chief
in Mosul and Nineveh Province in the surge. So I
was outside Tony. I was there about a year before you.
(32:19):
I was outside the wire every day meeting with practically
everyone shakes government officials, business people, bottom line, up front.
Some of the greatest fighters I ever watched were Kords.
As late as two thousand and eight two thousand and nine,
there were still Peshmerga compounds in eastern Mosil flying the
Kurdish flag. The Kurds also protected the ancient Assyrian Christian
communities in eastern Nineva Province. Your strategic assessment is spot on.
(32:42):
We need to be leery of fomenting ethnic conflict in
a very complicated area. The spillover effects could be worse,
and with the administrations trying to achieve that's a guy
who knows me. He's talking about with the Kurds obviously,
and with that whole region of the world. Yeah, Clay,
the Kurdish enclave in Iran, there's a little bit in
the northeast, I think, the very tiny bit, but it's
really all in the northwest. It's like ten percent of
the country. So yeah, I mean, can the Kurds sure
(33:06):
they can help us there and maybe they can create
a kind of rearguard area for strategic projection for whatever
the resistance may be. But it's it gets very complicated.
But yeah, and the pesh I knew SF guys, I
knew Task Force guys, Seals Delta, and they were like
the Kurds. Look, they didn't have the sophisticated TTPs we did,
(33:27):
and they didn't have the same wiz bangs they could
call upon.
Speaker 4 (33:30):
But you give a Curd to rusty ak and.
Speaker 3 (33:32):
Say, man that post, he'll stay there and fight until
he runs out of m O and you know, we'll
die trying. He'll die in defense of his team and
his people. So I had full credit to the Kurds.
I have a tremendous amount of respect for those people, Clay.
When I would travel outside the wire, anytime we went
any Kurdish compound, anywhere we went felt totally safe. Not
(33:52):
the case with the Sunni Arab compounds I went to.
But that's a whole other conversation. All right, A podcast listener,
Wendy play it.
Speaker 8 (34:02):
I just wanted to say something about the new rule
for United Airlines and the headphone usage. I just want
to know how I get that instilled in my own
home with my husband who is constantly playing tiktoks in
the background of my life, and I'm like, put in
your headphones.
Speaker 3 (34:23):
Oh man, I'm with her on this one. Clay, you
got you gotta you gotta control your own sound in
the home too. You gotta use the headphones if someone
else isn't watching what you're watching. This is just basic courtesy.
You have stepped into a big sound battle. I landed
up here in DC, and I immediately go into my
my my mentions, and bucks come after the leaf blowing community,
(34:47):
which I've come after before too, and we.
Speaker 1 (34:49):
Do need some civility. We just had Breonna Lyman, who
was great talking about the fact that if you elect
Republican das, you save lives. I think we need to
go after big leaf. I don't understand and why we
can't create leaf blowers first of all, that don't get
used at six am in neighborhoods, which you people are
are terrorists who bring out the leaf blowers early in
(35:11):
the morning especially.
Speaker 4 (35:11):
I agree, sorry agree.
Speaker 1 (35:14):
Why do they have to be so loud? We have
cars that make no noise. In fact, electric vehicles like
my Tesla make so little noise that they actually had
to add noise because pedestrians were in danger because in neighborhoods,
you wouldn't hear a car coming and you start to
cross the street and boom, you get hit. Why can't
there be leaf blowers? This is my request for you,
(35:35):
American brilliant technologists that make no noise at all.
Speaker 3 (35:38):
Why is that some people seem to think that their
leaf blowers should sound like a chainsaw? Yeah, and I disagree.
I don't think we need to have because that's essentially
the same noise. I mean, it sounds like someone's using
a chainsaw out there and anytime. I'm walking down a beautiful,
quiet street here these days, on an otherwise perfect Miami day,
(35:59):
I've got like three leaf blower is going at all time, yes.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
Early in the morning, everywhere. I think, And how about
most of the leaf blowers are just blowing their leaves
into their neighbor's yard, and then the other guy blows
the leaves back to the other side. You're just in
You're not actually making anything cleaner. We'll take some. We
got some more funny talkbacks. It's Friday, final hour of
the week. Up next, open phone lines. Let's hang and
(36:24):
have some fun here on Clay and Buck
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