August 19, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show zeroes in on President Trump’s aggressive plan to restore law and order in Washington, D.C., following his declaration that the city’s crime levels are unacceptable for the nation’s capital. The hosts detail Trump’s sweeping measures, including the removal of homeless encampments, deployment of National Guard troops, and a surge in federal and local law enforcement presence. Within just one week, the D.C. Police Union reports dramatic results: robberies down 46%, carjackings down 83%, car theft down 21%, and violent crime down 22%. Clay and Buck argue that these numbers prove what they’ve long maintained—crime is a matter of political will, not complexity.
The discussion expands to the political fallout of Trump’s crackdown, highlighting a surprising New York Times editorial admitting failures of the “defund the police” movement and acknowledging that progressive policies contributed to lawlessness in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. The hosts contrast this with Trump’s results-driven approach, warning Democrats that if his strategy works in D.C., it could reshape the national conversation on crime. They also cite Maureen Dowd’s column cautioning Democrats that Trump is “100% right” on this issue, signaling a major shift in media tone.
Listeners hear White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announce that 465 arrests have been made since August 7, including violent offenders and an MS-13 gang member, as well as the removal of four more homeless encampments. Clay and Buck stress the broader implications: if Trump can cut D.C.’s crime rate in half, why can’t similar strategies be applied to other high-crime cities like Memphis, Chicago, and Philadelphia? They argue that focusing enforcement on the most dangerous neighborhoods, as New York City did in the 1990s, could dramatically improve public safety nationwide.
The hour also tackles quality-of-life issues, from locked-up toothpaste in drugstores to the economic toll of urban crime. The hosts blast the failures of lenient bail policies and call for tougher sentencing for repeat offenders, reviving the debate over three-strikes laws. They emphasize that a small percentage of habitual criminals drive most violent crime, and removing them from the streets is key to restoring safety.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us as we are rolling
through the Tuesday edition of the program and again continuing
to follow yesterday's big events with Zelenski and all of
the leaders of Europe visiting the White House. But an
(00:24):
ongoing story that began last week, if I remember correctly,
on Monday, just eight days ago, the President of the
United States decided the level of violence in Washington, d
C is unacceptable for a capital city. And given the
fact that much of the decision making for Washington, d
(00:46):
C is under federal control, Trump has set about a
massive rehabilitation of Washington, d C. And one of the
things that he has done that has already I think
been insignificant is he said, We're not gonna let people
just put up tents and sleep in property all over Washington,
(01:09):
d C.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I went up.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Two years ago, I think it was to visit Washington, DC,
a city that I lived in for four years in college,
and a city that Buck lived in for multiple years
as well. So we actually have decent ideas of what
Washington d C is like, can be like.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And should be like. And I was blown.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Away by the number of homeless encampments that had been
allowed to occur in parks throughout the city. And I
don't mean somebody is sleeping in them. I mean somebody
basically is saying, this is my permanent home. And I know, Buck,
you saw a lot of these homeless encampments and it
(01:56):
kind of rocked and was ridiculous to you too, Because
I'm not claiming DC was perfect when either you or
I lived there, but it was a city where you
couldn't just decide, Hey, in the middle of this park,
I'm going to put up a tent and this is
my home now, and I'm going to permanently live here.
(02:17):
I'm not saying homeless people didn't exist, but you just
didn't have these homeless encampments. So one of the first
things Trump did is Supreme Court has basically given states
and cities the ability to clean homeless encampments up. And
in fact, the new mayor of San Francisco I was
reading the other day, has basically said we're done with
this in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But Trump came.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Through almost immediately and tore down all of these homeless encampments,
swept everything up and said no longer. We're going to
beautify the community. So that was one step. But here
is the DC Police Union. They shared this yesterday. One
week of increased federal attention in DC, they have brought
(03:02):
in National Guard troops from all over the place. They
have been arresting people. Listen to these numbers DC crime
since the announcement of federal control versus the seven days prior.
This is from the DC Police. Robbery down forty six percent,
(03:23):
carjackings down eighty three percent, car theft down twenty one percent,
violent crime down twenty two percent.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
In the one week.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That we have seen a surge of police on the streets, overwhelmingly,
the numbers have been moving in a very positive direction.
A couple of other things here buck Mariene Dowd, who
probably is the most famous columnist at the New York Times,
I think maybe Thomas Friedman. Marine daud has been there
(04:00):
a long time. She lives in Washington, d C. She
shared her sister story about her sister's car getting stolen
and how common it was in Washington, DC, And she
actually said Democrats have to be careful because Trump can
be imperfect, but he's basically one hundred percent right on this,
(04:21):
and I thought, to her credit, I mean, that was
an interesting column that I read on Sunday. I also
saw this in the Sunday New York Times. And I
don't know if you saw this, Buck, but it kind
of blew my mind. This is the New York Times
lead editorial. This is the newspaper talking about crime. The
(04:41):
second lesson involves the importance of law enforcement. During the
twenty twenty protest, many progressives embrace calls to defund the police,
and some prominent Democrats, including Kamala Harris, AOC and Mayor
Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, supported defund movement but police funding. Nonetheless,
(05:04):
the protesters seem to have an effect. Some officers, dishearten
quit their jobs. And it continues, and it says and
I thought I was taking crazy pills. Basically, this was
an unacceptable position to have. That it was unacceptable for
(05:24):
this argument to be out there. They also they also said, hey,
COVID shutdowns were a disaster. It basically sounded like Clay
and Buck four years ago. But it is interesting how
the Democrat conversation on this story has changed.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, it's one of these areas where whatever the numbers
may be, and there's even a lot of pushback going
on right now from Trump and his team about whether
the numbers are honest. When it comes to crime in DC,
people know what they've experienced, and people know what they're
dealing with, and you've had It reminds me a little
of the remember the required genuflection during COVID from people
(06:03):
when they would say I've come down with COVID. You know,
some like thirty five year old staffer at Politico would
tweet out, I've come down with COVID and and I'm
gonna be okay, but I just want to say I'm
thankful that I am vaccinated and boosted. It's like, oh,
you're thankful that you got a vaccine and got sick anyway,
(06:24):
And you know this was the you tell these things,
you remind yourselves of these things now and it feels
like it's not real.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
There were some of this clay with DC's really safe.
I've lived here for five years.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I've only been mugged once, only had one car stolen,
only had you know, three incidents where people threatened to
like stab me in the street.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
But other than that in five years, it's really good.
Listen to this from the New York Times editorial. I
felt like I was taking crazy pills on Sunday again.
I read it, so all of you don't have to
but listen to what they wrote. This is the newspaper.
This is not one random guest editorial. This is what
the newspaper said. Virtually all sides in the defund the
(07:07):
Police debate made mistakes. Among the most damaging was the
growing belief among Democrat officials that enforcing the law could
be counterproductive when it involved low level offenses such as
public drug use, shoplifting, and homeless encampments. Some Democrats believed
enforcement of these laws disproportionately hurt minority groups and did
(07:29):
not contribute much to public safety. This argument never made
much sense, especially given polls showed strong support for basic
law enforcement across racial and income groups. Listen to this buck,
and the real world results were miserable. Parts of San Francisco, Seattle, Portland,
(07:49):
and other cities came to feel lawless, with people defecating
and shooting up in public and store owners locking up
items to reduce theft or simply close their shops. The
defund movement is considered a failure, and many of its
old backers have distanced themselves, and it just continues with
(08:11):
even says with crimes starting to fall, there's a risk
public officials will become complacent. Democrat leaders in particular should
remember the lessons. I mean, I've read all this and
I thought this sounds like our radio show. I mean
to specifically be pointing out San Francisco, Portland and Seattle,
(08:33):
where I know a lot of you out there are
listening to us right now and rip the Democrats to
shreds on defund the police. Now, it wasn't that long
ago that even saying all these things, they would say, oh,
you're racist, or oh you don't have any idea what
you're talking about. Now, suddenly with Trump in office, Democrats,
some of them, at least their allies in the New
(08:54):
York Times, are willing to acknowledge that they blew it
and that they created these awful scenarios. And again, what
if what Trump is doing actually works in DC?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's what they're terrified of. That's the real story here.
I think they're terrified. Additionally, not maybe quite as much,
but it's it will be bad. You see the headline
of the Washington Post right now, breaking news Justice Department
probes whether DC police manipulated data to make crime rates
uppear lower. So you have the Trump g DOJ saying
(09:32):
show me these numbers again because a big part of
the you can't do that, Trump, and it's not even
worth doing that because crime rates are down so much
from the last year. Oh really, does anyone really think
that crime rate should sudden drop thirty percent in DC
for no apparent reason.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's what we're supposed to believe.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
There was no special initiative, there was no crackdown, there
was no change from the prosecutors. Crime rates, violent and
major crimes are down a third from a year ago,
and they're still too high, Which isn't that interesting even
if that were true. The crime rate is still too high.
But Clay, what happens if it's clear that the books
were cooked here by DC, you know, additionally to everything
(10:12):
else we're talking about, Because I think there's a very
real chance that that's what we find out here. Does
the stat that DC today is as bad as New
York City in nineteen ninety stun you? Because I think
for people who live in New York City, that is
a crystallizing Holy crap. Imagine in nineteen ninety if people
in New York City had said, oh, everything's perfect, everything's fine,
(10:34):
that's basically what they're trying to say about d C.
And right now it's levels. Right now, DC crime is
at the levels of the worst in New York City
before Giuliani even came into office, before they decline the
homicide rate by ninety percent, that is where DC is
on a per capita basis, is where New York City
(10:55):
was in nineteen ninety. Yeah, and you know, you look
at places that had that the BLM murder spike, which
is what happened. Yes, nice work, BLM. A lot of
murders going up all over the country. That's with that
movement that democrats and CNN pundits and assorted liberal millionaires
were all, Oh, it's a Kamala Harris, big BLM supporter,
(11:15):
big BLM fan. You know, a lot of let's have
as many race riots and anti police mayhem as possible
in the streets of America during a during a pandemic.
No less, but Clay Chicago had about eight hundred homicides
that year. Eight hundred. Chicago's a quarter the size.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of New York City. You'd have thirty two.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
One hundred murders in Chicago if it were New York
City size per capita. When you start to extrapolate, when
you start to expand out what these data sets are
telling you the same thing. I think there was a
year recently where Philadelphia had something like six hundred murders,
which was the all time high for its You know again,
I can't. You guys are very fastidious. What was the
(11:54):
thing that I got wrong just a moment ago. Oh,
I said the DA from Massachusetts, and all the bass
all the Bostonians and all the Massachusetts listens were like,
that's Rhode Island, Buck, Rhode Island. Don't put that on us.
So apparently that DA was from Rhode Island who went
crazy at the cops. But back to our numbers here, Clay,
you're looking at a crime rate in DC today that's
(12:17):
so bad that it would mirror the crime rate in
New York City when residents said we're fed up, we
can't take this anymore. Takes whatever it takes, and that's
what Juliani stepped into and did whatever it takes. So
the fact that the liberal intelligentsia, for the most part,
some of them realize this is a losing issue for them,
are saying DC's safe. I've only been mugged five times,
(12:40):
had two cars stolen, been punched in the face twice.
You know, in the last three years. It hasn't been
that bad. They really It's like they have Stockholm syndrome
or something. It's like that the criminal class in d
C has somehow managed to get the Politico and Washington
Post writers of America to think that they deserve to
(13:02):
get beat up and robbed.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And also to just lie.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I mean, the other thing here is most of the
arrest I think forty eight percent of them are happening
in Ward seven and eight. I believe it is of
DC where the violent crime rates are the most significant,
which suggests some of the lessons of what they did
in New York City to make it far safer, which
is focus where the crime is the worst. Because the
(13:30):
crime is not evenly spit spread across the entire city
or state or everywhere else, is actually making a big difference. Look,
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Speaker 1 (15:05):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. We've got a lot
of different comments that have rolled in, and yesterday was
so serious because we had the breakdown going on of
what exactly the story was going to be surrounding Zelenski
and the European leaders all in office. So let's hit
(15:27):
some of these talkbacks from a wide variety of different
topics over the past few days. What is the most
recent When you just texted me Gg, let's hear gg.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Claim Buck fabulous show today.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I appreciate it. Everybody now calling the show fabulous? Do
you appreciate the wordplay? We'll take it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
By the way, some people take us very seriously when
we're not intending to be seriously. I think this might
have been Ali's dad who called in this is AA
my Mark and Phoenix is upset that Ali, who, by
the way, totally blew it the other day about when
the flight was going to land in Alaska. But we
don't draw attention to her mistakes. That's just not something
we would do, even though she totally blew it. Here
(16:10):
is Mark upset from Phoenix.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
Clay and Buck. You better be nice to produce her. Ali.
Never let never make her bow or scrape or do
any of this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Again.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
She's doing a great job and you guys are basically
lucky to have her. Okay, so just back up, don't
ever do that again, and have a great weekend and
take care by.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We would never wait hold on a second, al, we
messed up. I'm apprecire her dad calling in? No, I
was gonna say, was that Moby? I think it was
Moby good Buck off the top, Yeah, that I think.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Don't tell Gerard.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Sounded like Moby was calling incredibly good looking husband of Alli.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I think that was Moby. Ali.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Do you your your old boyfriend Moby? Did you have
to put the bat signal up? The Moby signal as
it were? Where is she's hiding? She's just leaving us,
She's icing us out right now.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Because you're I just crawled under my desk. Was that Mobiy?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Did you have him call in because you thought we
were being too tough.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
On You's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I would not be surprised. We like to have fun
on the show. Producer Ali does a phenomenal job. We
are very lucky to have her, even though she really
screwed up and told us again not to draw attention
to it, that the Air Force one had already landed
in Alaska. Thankfully it didn't land eventually after Ali said
it did by several hours. But again, we don't draw
attention to anybody screw ups on this show. This is
(17:37):
speaking of screw ups. I am using the word fabulous
too much. This is let's see, this is BB Jeffrey,
which we got Clay.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
It's not that you say fabulous, it's how you say fabulous. Fabulous.
This is all right, fabulous, maybe not so much.
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Speaker 1 (18:54):
Welcome back, ed Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Caroline Levett
is having a White House press conference right now, and
we started off this hour giving you some of the
data on Washington, DC crime, and I thought I would
let you hear it from Caroline Levitt herself.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Here is cut thirty six.
Speaker 7 (19:14):
President Trump's efforts to make DC safe again are working.
There have been a total of four hundred and sixty
five arrests since the start of this operation. On Thursday,
August seventh. Last night, there were a total of fifty
two arrests, including the arrest of an illegal alien MS
thirteen gang member with convictions for DWI and drug possession.
(19:36):
Thanks to President Trump's leadership in the outstanding work of
both federal and local law enforcement, dangerous gang members like
the one picked up last night will not be allowed
on the streets of our nation's capital. Other arrests last
night included assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing, parole
violation for robbery, murder, outstanding warrant for attempted murder, assault
(19:57):
on federal law enforcement officer, and felony a s all.
Four more homeless encampments were also removed during yesterday's reporting period.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
How can anyone be opposed to any of this? I mean,
other than your reflexively Trump is Hitler stupidity, right because Trump,
as we said earlier, is trying to win the Nobel
Peace Prize by ending as many different wars as possible.
How can anyone with a functional and rational brain here
(20:26):
everything that Caroline Levitt just said. Four hundred and sixty
five arrests you heard, many of them for violent acts,
and four hundred and sixty five arrest DC I believe
has a population of around seven hundred thousand, so that's
not an insubstantial portion of the overall population. I remember,
we've talked about it. How many hard and fast criminals
do you think live in DC? One thousand, twenty five hundred,
(20:52):
A few thousand. Yeah, this is where I mean a
couple of things. One is the the Democrats have underestimate
that the attitude about illegals in this country who commit
crimes is you're getting in trouble with the law and
you're not even supposed to be here, Like that is
completely unacceptable, right, Yes, this is and any other country.
Could you imagine if what do you think would happen,
(21:14):
you know, if you were in Japan as an illegal,
not even there as a as a visitor on a
visa or something, and you committed a crime, you think
they'd be like, you know what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Let's keep this guy around. Let's let's keep him around
for a bit.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Let's not send him back to his home country that's
actually responsible for him and that he is and that
has sovereignty over him legally.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So so that that's one part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
And then the other part is that you you don't
actually have to lock up that many people to have
a huge effect on crime, because it is serious criminals
who are repeat offenders who are the overwhelming problem in
these major cities. These known gang members who are out,
you know, they on an attempted murder beef. They're out
(21:55):
after you know, five years or something, and now they're
back out there and now they're robbing people again, and
they haven't gotten Remember, people don't get caught for every
crime they commit.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's another part of this too. Actually, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The notion that someone is let's say, carjacking a person,
and you think that's the first crime that person's committed.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You think the.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Carjacker is like, you know what, I was going to
go for a walk in the park today, but instead
I'm going to use an illegal handgun, hold it up
at someone's head, threatened to murder them and take their vehicle. No,
they've been doing all kinds of crimes that aren't even
listed in the statistics up to that point, maybe even
aren't reported up to that point.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
So to your point, Clay, if.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
You take a couple thousand people in DC and a
lot of other places by the way, a couple thousand
people and lock them up, everybody's a lot safer.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And I also think this ties in with quality of life.
You and I when we were in New York City.
I think it was a couple of years ago. I
think you had to buy like toothpaste or something.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Oh, you were shocked by that was in my not
to interrupt you, that was my actual drug store that
I used to go to all the time to get,
you know, toothpaste and whatever. That was where I lived.
I could not believe when I walked in there and
I was just back up in New York City when
I guest hosted what Fox and Friends in March, I
think I had to go get shaving cream because I
(23:11):
had forgotten it. I had to ask somebody to come
unlock the shaving cream for me. And why do I
mention that these are major quality of life things that
make you feel like you're living under siege. When you
can't walk into a grocery store and buy shaving cream,
or you can't buy a toothpaste without somebody having to
(23:33):
unlock it, it's a sign that we have had society collapse.
I'm sorry, it just is. And a lot of you
know that feeling where you walk in and you think
where am I living? That every single product in the
entire CVS or Walgreens or whatever it is is under
lock and Key And let me say this. I live
(23:53):
in obviously many most of you guys know Nashville Tennessee area.
Memphis down the road west from where I am has
one of the highest rates of violent crime anywhere in
the world. It's unacceptable if Trump is able to lower
the rate of violent crime in d C. I would
(24:15):
be very supportive of the governor of Tennessee saying we're
marshaling all resources and putting them to work in Memphis
to lower the crime rate there.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And we're going to.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Use as a as a as sort of a roadmap
what Trump did in DC. Why would we not do
this everywhere?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know, this is there's a question why we would
not do it everywhere? With Clay also showing that it
can be done, establishes a new baseline going forward, because
what you have in a lot of places is essentially
a politics of urban despair.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know, crime happens. You know this, this attitude has
to be this way.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
D C has been, you know, crappy when it comes
to for as long as you and I have been alive. Okay, yes,
we're getting old now. DC has been a mess for
going on fifty years or more. And there are other
cities in Detroit, other cities that come to mind too,
that have just been these holes of crime, and.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
And when people really see that in a way that
the media has to cover, it changes the whole conversation
going forward, because then it's not what do we do
we don't know? No, it's do you want this to
go away or not? Do you want the problems to
be fixed or do you want the problems to endure?
And how are you voting? Who are you putting in
(25:36):
power to deal with this? It becomes a choice instead
of apathy or despair. And that's why I think it's
so important, in addition to what you're talking about, which
is just the tactical replication which will happen in other cities.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, and look, and the reason why I mentioned, you know,
DC as a potential roadmap, as a temple potential example.
I live in a red state, We have a red governor,
we have read senators. Eight of the nine congressmen are Republicans.
But Memphis has blue city leadership, and that leadership has failed.
(26:09):
New York Times just told you the leadership failed in
San Francisco, in Seattle, in Portland, If The New York
Times is mentioning that that is true, then there is
no real argument to the other side. I mean, they're
the left wing Bible right now, So why I mean,
I just mean this honestly. I'm not the governor of Tennessee,
you know, but if I were, I would be looking
(26:32):
at what's going on in Washington, d C. And I
would be thinking, why can't we solve this mess in
Memphis once and for all in the same way that
Trump is going after the mess in DC.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Let's assume that Tennesseeans make a very wise move and
put our friends Senator Blackburn in the governor's mansion going forward, right, Yeah,
for example, there's somebody who has governor I think would
work hand in glove with federal resources from the Trump
administration to make Memphis success story.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Memphis should be. Look.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I haven't been there, but I actually thought at one
point about investing in the city of Memphis some years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So I did some research on investing in property there.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I didn't end up doing it, and the crime was
a big crime, was a big problem because it affects
property values.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Around the city.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
But it should be awesome, you know, it's on the
river there. It's got a vibrant downtown, obviously, incredible music scene,
great food. Memphis should be a great city. The fact
that when the first thing a lot of people, at
least outside of Memphis, maybe inside, I don't know, think
about when it comes to that city now nationally as Wow,
there's a lot of shootings there, which is just that's
heartbreaking because it should be a great town and it
(27:39):
has everything there to be a great town. And you know,
ninety nine percent of the people who live there would
make it a great town if it was just up
to them. But there's one percent that need to be
taken off the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
I will give you two good examples of what you
just said. My son, one of my sons, had a
sporting event in Memphis. I think I've said this on
the air before, but it was in March. We went
and stayed in a hotel because he had an all
day sporting event going on in Memphis area. The next day,
I forgot my cell phone charger and I was thinking, well,
I don't want my phone to die. I'm going to
(28:13):
go buy a new cell phone charger at a gas station.
I went down to the front desk and you've had
this happen. You talked about it. In Saint Louis. The
front desk clerk said, be careful. Said, it's eight o'clock
on a Friday night, and you're telling me to be
careful going to a gas station to buy a charger.
No one in America should have that. Now, if it's
(28:36):
three am, four am, I still think you should be safe.
But I understand you're out super late eight o'clock on
a random Friday night in Memphis. Be careful going to
buy a charger unacceptable. Another part of this when I
grew up in Nashville, and most states have examples of this.
(28:57):
Two big cities they have kind of a rivalry.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Dallas and Houston have a rivalry. Nashville and Memphis have
a rivalry. Tampa and Miami have rivalries, and Jacksonville and Orlando,
like all these different cities right inside the states, there's
kind of like a little bit of a rivalry. We
had a real rivalry when I was a kid, Nashville
or Memphis, which is the better city. I haven't heard
that argument in fifteen years. Even when I started in media,
(29:23):
you could occasionally still have fun locally, you know, kind
of gigging people about that rivalry, which a good natured rivalry.
I haven't had that heard that argument made in almost
a generation now because Nashville made rational mayoral choices mostly
now you can question some of the recent ones, but
made rational choices and just left Memphis in the rear view.
(29:47):
And there isn't a comparison between those two cities. In fact,
many of you listening in Memphis right now have friends
and family that finally got fed up with the crime
and said I can't raise my family here.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's too dangerous.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This is a real issue, and it's as if we
just say, oh, there's nothing that can be done. My
question for everybody is, what if Trump's right like he
was on the border. Everybody said, oh, the border can't
be fixed. It's important. Now border's most secure it's ever
been in any of our lives. What if Trump makes
DC crime drop by fifty percent? Suddenly you have to
(30:22):
start having conversations about why can't we solve some of
these problems that we claim are unsolvable. I think it's
just a will issue, not an ability issue, and so
I think this is super, super interesting, and I am
cautiously optimistic that we are going to see a real
difference there. Speaking of a real difference, God, I love
(30:46):
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Speaker 4 (32:09):
You can count on and some laughs too, Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I'm drinking my Crockett coffee here my over Mountain Club mug,
which I highly recommend you go get at Crocketcoffee dot com.
Company that you are all are building. We appreciate it.
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Speaker 2 (32:39):
We have calls here Kevin in New York City? What's
going on? Kevin Hi?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Great show, guys, listen and tremendous support for Trump and
what he's doing in DC and arresting four hundred over
four hundred people is great, but what happens like we
have an only loose states, they have a failed judicial system,
no jail, no bail, and what happens when those four
hundred people get let out three hours later?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Well, I think this is where Judge Janine Piro, being
the head attorney in DC, is going to have more
say over what happens there. Right, So, I think a
lot of the CASU list bell a lot of the
lenient treatment that has gone towards people who are arrested.
Remember the one group that got no lenient treatment at all,
(33:32):
in fact, they got the book thrown at them when
they were lowering felonies to misdemeanors for almost everybody else
they were elevating misdemeanors for felonies was the January sixth defendants.
So it's not that they can't be cruel, and cruel
is the wrong word.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
They can't be.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Difficult, they can't treat criminals like criminals should be treated.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
It's that they have only focused on doing that to
political opponents as opposed to the actual truly violent perpetrators, who,
as Buck said, you don't just carjack one time, you
don't accidentally end up stealing someone's car. You've done twenty
other crimes probably before you make your way to carjacking.
(34:19):
Most people stare step their way to more violent and
more dangerous offensive. Well, this is why I also think
there was this whole campaign to get rid of California
had a three strikes law. Other places have had it
as well. I think that there should be, you know,
states that are serious about this stuff. If it's your
third time committing a serious felony, it should be there
(34:39):
should be a mandatory whatever, it's five years, or you
gotta go away for a while. Okay, you gotta get rehabbed,
you gotta spend some time thinking about your choices, and
you've got to stop being a problem for your fellow
human beings who don't want to live around crime and
the threat of serious criminality.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So these are mistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
These are mistakes that were all made really in the
late nineties early two thousands, when things got safe, people
started saying, let's get rid of things, and it was
always oh, but someone went away for stealing a thing
of toothpaste. Okay, well, you know, no one should go
that's not a felony, and no one should go away
for stealing a tough of toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
All right.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
This is like when people said, oh, people are getting
locked up for weed for twenty years for having a joint.
Not really, I mean maybe blue Moon. This is hugely important.
I'm glad you brought this out. Most of those guys,
they're almost all men. They're pleaing down to a lesser
charge when they get when they are accepting a punishment
for a look, they're not getting charged. That's like the
(35:35):
eighth different charge that they have, and as part of
a plea agreement, they plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Most people who are pleading guilty to low level offenses
actually have a second or third level offense that is
more significant above that one, and that is their plea deal.
So a lot of times you're not getting an honest
(35:56):
evaluation of a criminal pass. When we come back, we're
going to be joined by Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt. Then Buck,
I am hopping into a car because I am speaking
down in Chattanooga, Tennessee to the young Republicans tonight. I'm
also going to be visiting our friends at Legacy Box,
who have an incredible factory down there, so you will
(36:17):
finish up a shop after we talk with Eric Schmidt,
can you get some good video content for our amazing
YouTube channel with you and the young Republicans and maybe
also you at the amazing factory.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Of our legacy box brand. That is a good idea.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I am not great at taking photo or video of
anything that I do, so yes, I will ask the younger,
more savvy social people there to hopefully get videos and
be able to post it.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
It should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I'm looking forward to head and down spending some time
with a bunch of y'all in Chattanooga later tonight. But
up next we got Missouri Senator Eric Smitt
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us as we are rolling
through the Tuesday edition of the program and again continuing
to follow yesterday's big events with Zelenski and all of
the leaders of Europe visiting the White House. But an
(00:24):
ongoing story that began last week, if I remember correctly,
on Monday, just eight days ago, the President of the
United States decided the level of violence in Washington, d
C is unacceptable for a capital city. And given the
fact that much of the decision making for Washington, d
(00:46):
C is under federal control, Trump has set about a
massive rehabilitation of Washington, d C. And one of the
things that he has done that has already I think
been insignificant is he said, We're not gonna let people
just put up tents and sleep in property all over Washington,
(01:09):
d C.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
And I went up.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Two years ago, I think it was to visit Washington, DC,
a city that I lived in for four years in college,
and a city that Buck lived in for multiple years
as well. So we actually have decent ideas of what
Washington d C is like, can be like.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
And should be like. And I was blown.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Away by the number of homeless encampments that had been
allowed to occur in parks throughout the city. And I
don't mean somebody is sleeping in them. I mean somebody
basically is saying, this is my permanent home. And I know, Buck,
you saw a lot of these homeless encampments and it
(01:56):
kind of rocked and was ridiculous to you too, Because
I'm not claiming DC was perfect when either you or
I lived there, but it was a city where you
couldn't just decide, Hey, in the middle of this park,
I'm going to put up a tent and this is
my home now, and I'm going to permanently live here.
(02:17):
I'm not saying homeless people didn't exist, but you just
didn't have these homeless encampments. So one of the first
things Trump did is Supreme Court has basically given states
and cities the ability to clean homeless encampments up. And
in fact, the new mayor of San Francisco I was
reading the other day, has basically said we're done with
this in San Francisco.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
But Trump came.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Through almost immediately and tore down all of these homeless encampments,
swept everything up and said no longer. We're going to
beautify the community. So that was one step. But here
is the DC Police Union. They shared this yesterday. One
week of increased federal attention in DC, they have brought
(03:02):
in National Guard troops from all over the place. They
have been arresting people. Listen to these numbers DC crime
since the announcement of federal control versus the seven days prior.
This is from the DC Police. Robbery down forty six percent,
(03:23):
carjackings down eighty three percent, car theft down twenty one percent,
violent crime down twenty two percent.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
In the one week.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
That we have seen a surge of police on the streets, overwhelmingly,
the numbers have been moving in a very positive direction.
A couple of other things here buck Mariene Dowd, who
probably is the most famous columnist at the New York Times,
I think maybe Thomas Friedman. Marine daud has been there
(04:00):
a long time. She lives in Washington, d C. She
shared her sister story about her sister's car getting stolen
and how common it was in Washington, DC, And she
actually said Democrats have to be careful because Trump can
be imperfect, but he's basically one hundred percent right on this,
(04:21):
and I thought, to her credit, I mean, that was
an interesting column that I read on Sunday. I also
saw this in the Sunday New York Times. And I
don't know if you saw this, Buck, but it kind
of blew my mind. This is the New York Times
lead editorial. This is the newspaper talking about crime. The
(04:41):
second lesson involves the importance of law enforcement. During the
twenty twenty protest, many progressives embrace calls to defund the police,
and some prominent Democrats, including Kamala Harris, AOC and Mayor
Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, supported defund movement but police funding. Nonetheless,
(05:04):
the protesters seem to have an effect. Some officers, dishearten
quit their jobs. And it continues, and it says and
I thought I was taking crazy pills. Basically, this was
an unacceptable position to have. That it was unacceptable for
(05:24):
this argument to be out there. They also they also said, hey,
COVID shutdowns were a disaster. It basically sounded like Clay
and Buck four years ago. But it is interesting how
the Democrat conversation on this story has changed.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Well, it's one of these areas where whatever the numbers
may be, and there's even a lot of pushback going
on right now from Trump and his team about whether
the numbers are honest. When it comes to crime in DC,
people know what they've experienced, and people know what they're
dealing with, and you've had It reminds me a little
of the remember the required genuflection during COVID from people
(06:03):
when they would say I've come down with COVID. You know,
some like thirty five year old staffer at Politico would
tweet out, I've come down with COVID and and I'm
gonna be okay, but I just want to say I'm
thankful that I am vaccinated and boosted. It's like, oh,
you're thankful that you got a vaccine and got sick anyway,
(06:24):
And you know this was the you tell these things,
you remind yourselves of these things now and it feels
like it's not real.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
There were some of this clay with DC's really safe.
I've lived here for five years.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
I've only been mugged once, only had one car stolen,
only had you know, three incidents where people threatened to
like stab me in the street.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
But other than that in five years, it's really good.
Listen to this from the New York Times editorial. I
felt like I was taking crazy pills on Sunday again.
I read it, so all of you don't have to
but listen to what they wrote. This is the newspaper.
This is not one random guest editorial. This is what
the newspaper said. Virtually all sides in the defund the
(07:07):
Police debate made mistakes. Among the most damaging was the
growing belief among Democrat officials that enforcing the law could
be counterproductive when it involved low level offenses such as
public drug use, shoplifting, and homeless encampments. Some Democrats believed
enforcement of these laws disproportionately hurt minority groups and did
(07:29):
not contribute much to public safety. This argument never made
much sense, especially given polls showed strong support for basic
law enforcement across racial and income groups. Listen to this buck,
and the real world results were miserable. Parts of San Francisco, Seattle, Portland,
(07:49):
and other cities came to feel lawless, with people defecating
and shooting up in public and store owners locking up
items to reduce theft or simply close their shops. The
defund movement is considered a failure, and many of its
old backers have distanced themselves, and it just continues with
(08:11):
even says with crimes starting to fall, there's a risk
public officials will become complacent. Democrat leaders in particular should
remember the lessons. I mean, I've read all this and
I thought this sounds like our radio show. I mean
to specifically be pointing out San Francisco, Portland and Seattle,
(08:33):
where I know a lot of you out there are
listening to us right now and rip the Democrats to
shreds on defund the police. Now, it wasn't that long
ago that even saying all these things, they would say, oh,
you're racist, or oh you don't have any idea what
you're talking about. Now, suddenly with Trump in office, Democrats,
some of them, at least their allies in the New
(08:54):
York Times, are willing to acknowledge that they blew it
and that they created these awful scenarios. And again, what
if what Trump is doing actually works in DC?
Speaker 3 (09:07):
That's what they're terrified of. That's the real story here.
I think they're terrified. Additionally, not maybe quite as much,
but it's it will be bad. You see the headline
of the Washington Post right now, breaking news Justice Department
probes whether DC police manipulated data to make crime rates
uppear lower. So you have the Trump g DOJ saying
(09:32):
show me these numbers again because a big part of
the you can't do that, Trump, and it's not even
worth doing that because crime rates are down so much
from the last year. Oh really, does anyone really think
that crime rate should sudden drop thirty percent in DC
for no apparent reason.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
That's what we're supposed to believe.
Speaker 3 (09:49):
There was no special initiative, there was no crackdown, there
was no change from the prosecutors. Crime rates, violent and
major crimes are down a third from a year ago,
and they're still too high, Which isn't that interesting even
if that were true. The crime rate is still too high.
But Clay, what happens if it's clear that the books
were cooked here by DC, you know, additionally to everything
(10:12):
else we're talking about, Because I think there's a very
real chance that that's what we find out here. Does
the stat that DC today is as bad as New
York City in nineteen ninety stun you? Because I think
for people who live in New York City, that is
a crystallizing Holy crap. Imagine in nineteen ninety if people
in New York City had said, oh, everything's perfect, everything's fine,
(10:34):
that's basically what they're trying to say about d C.
And right now it's levels. Right now, DC crime is
at the levels of the worst in New York City
before Giuliani even came into office, before they decline the
homicide rate by ninety percent, that is where DC is
on a per capita basis, is where New York City
(10:55):
was in nineteen ninety. Yeah, and you know, you look
at places that had that the BLM murder spike, which
is what happened. Yes, nice work, BLM. A lot of
murders going up all over the country. That's with that
movement that democrats and CNN pundits and assorted liberal millionaires
were all, Oh, it's a Kamala Harris, big BLM supporter,
(11:15):
big BLM fan. You know, a lot of let's have
as many race riots and anti police mayhem as possible
in the streets of America during a during a pandemic.
No less, but Clay Chicago had about eight hundred homicides
that year. Eight hundred. Chicago's a quarter the size.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Of New York City. You'd have thirty two.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
One hundred murders in Chicago if it were New York
City size per capita. When you start to extrapolate, when
you start to expand out what these data sets are
telling you the same thing. I think there was a
year recently where Philadelphia had something like six hundred murders,
which was the all time high for its You know again,
I can't. You guys are very fastidious. What was the
(11:54):
thing that I got wrong just a moment ago. Oh,
I said the DA from Massachusetts, and all the bass
all the Bostonians and all the Massachusetts listens were like,
that's Rhode Island, Buck, Rhode Island. Don't put that on us.
So apparently that DA was from Rhode Island who went
crazy at the cops. But back to our numbers here, Clay,
you're looking at a crime rate in DC today that's
(12:17):
so bad that it would mirror the crime rate in
New York City when residents said we're fed up, we
can't take this anymore. Takes whatever it takes, and that's
what Juliani stepped into and did whatever it takes. So
the fact that the liberal intelligentsia, for the most part,
some of them realize this is a losing issue for them,
are saying DC's safe. I've only been mugged five times,
(12:40):
had two cars stolen, been punched in the face twice.
You know, in the last three years. It hasn't been
that bad. They really It's like they have Stockholm syndrome
or something. It's like that the criminal class in d
C has somehow managed to get the Politico and Washington
Post writers of America to think that they deserve to
(13:02):
get beat up and robbed.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
And also to just lie.
Speaker 3 (13:07):
I mean, the other thing here is most of the
arrest I think forty eight percent of them are happening
in Ward seven and eight. I believe it is of
DC where the violent crime rates are the most significant,
which suggests some of the lessons of what they did
in New York City to make it far safer, which
is focus where the crime is the worst. Because the
(13:30):
crime is not evenly spit spread across the entire city
or state or everywhere else, is actually making a big difference. Look,
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Speaker 4 (14:50):
Want to begin to know when you're on to go.
The Team forty seven podcast trump highlights from the week
Sundays at noon Eastern. In the Clay and Buck podcast,
speed find It on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. We've got a lot
of different comments that have rolled in, and yesterday was
so serious because we had the breakdown going on of
what exactly the story was going to be surrounding Zelenski
and the European leaders all in office. So let's hit
(15:27):
some of these talkbacks from a wide variety of different
topics over the past few days. What is the most
recent When you just texted me Gg, let's hear gg.
Speaker 5 (15:41):
Claim Buck fabulous show today.
Speaker 2 (15:43):
I appreciate it. Everybody now calling the show fabulous? Do
you appreciate the wordplay? We'll take it.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
By the way, some people take us very seriously when
we're not intending to be seriously. I think this might
have been Ali's dad who called in this is AA
my Mark and Phoenix is upset that Ali, who, by
the way, totally blew it the other day about when
the flight was going to land in Alaska. But we
don't draw attention to her mistakes. That's just not something
we would do, even though she totally blew it. Here
(16:10):
is Mark upset from Phoenix.
Speaker 6 (16:12):
Clay and Buck. You better be nice to produce her. Ali.
Never let never make her bow or scrape or do
any of this other stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:19):
Again.
Speaker 6 (16:20):
She's doing a great job and you guys are basically
lucky to have her. Okay, so just back up, don't
ever do that again, and have a great weekend and
take care by.
Speaker 3 (16:31):
We would never wait hold on a second, al, we
messed up. I'm apprecire her dad calling in? No, I
was gonna say, was that Moby? I think it was
Moby good Buck off the top, Yeah, that I think.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
Don't tell Gerard.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
Sounded like Moby was calling incredibly good looking husband of Alli.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I think that was Moby. Ali.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
Do you your your old boyfriend Moby? Did you have
to put the bat signal up? The Moby signal as
it were? Where is she's hiding? She's just leaving us,
She's icing us out right now.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Because you're I just crawled under my desk. Was that Mobiy?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
Did you have him call in because you thought we
were being too tough.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
On You's my uncle.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I would not be surprised. We like to have fun
on the show. Producer Ali does a phenomenal job. We
are very lucky to have her, even though she really
screwed up and told us again not to draw attention
to it, that the Air Force one had already landed
in Alaska. Thankfully it didn't land eventually after Ali said
it did by several hours. But again, we don't draw
attention to anybody screw ups on this show. This is
(17:37):
speaking of screw ups. I am using the word fabulous
too much. This is let's see, this is BB Jeffrey,
which we got Clay.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
It's not that you say fabulous, it's how you say fabulous. Fabulous.
This is all right, fabulous, maybe not so much.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
I had no idea if this was such a controversial
thing that I've been doing. Our federal government has a
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What can be done about it? My friends, we're worried
about where the Social Security Trust Fund goes. We're worried
about how we're going to fund these obligations. Well, Jim
Rickards thinks there's hope for a funding solution. Who's Jim Rickards,
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fifty year government insider. He's got a point of view
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he thinks that investors who understand why could make a
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(18:42):
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Speaker 1 (18:54):
Welcome back, ed Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Caroline Levett
is having a White House press conference right now, and
we started off this hour giving you some of the
data on Washington, DC crime, and I thought I would
let you hear it from Caroline Levitt herself.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Here is cut thirty six.
Speaker 7 (19:14):
President Trump's efforts to make DC safe again are working.
There have been a total of four hundred and sixty
five arrests since the start of this operation. On Thursday,
August seventh. Last night, there were a total of fifty
two arrests, including the arrest of an illegal alien MS
thirteen gang member with convictions for DWI and drug possession.
(19:36):
Thanks to President Trump's leadership in the outstanding work of
both federal and local law enforcement, dangerous gang members like
the one picked up last night will not be allowed
on the streets of our nation's capital. Other arrests last
night included assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing, parole
violation for robbery, murder, outstanding warrant for attempted murder, assault
(19:57):
on federal law enforcement officer, and felony a s all.
Four more homeless encampments were also removed during yesterday's reporting period.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
How can anyone be opposed to any of this? I mean,
other than your reflexively Trump is Hitler stupidity, right because Trump,
as we said earlier, is trying to win the Nobel
Peace Prize by ending as many different wars as possible.
How can anyone with a functional and rational brain here
(20:26):
everything that Caroline Levitt just said. Four hundred and sixty
five arrests you heard, many of them for violent acts,
and four hundred and sixty five arrest DC I believe
has a population of around seven hundred thousand, so that's
not an insubstantial portion of the overall population. I remember,
we've talked about it. How many hard and fast criminals
do you think live in DC? One thousand, twenty five hundred,
(20:52):
A few thousand. Yeah, this is where I mean a
couple of things. One is the the Democrats have underestimate
that the attitude about illegals in this country who commit
crimes is you're getting in trouble with the law and
you're not even supposed to be here, Like that is
completely unacceptable, right, Yes, this is and any other country.
Could you imagine if what do you think would happen,
(21:14):
you know, if you were in Japan as an illegal,
not even there as a as a visitor on a
visa or something, and you committed a crime, you think
they'd be like, you know what we're gonna do.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Let's keep this guy around. Let's let's keep him around
for a bit.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Let's not send him back to his home country that's
actually responsible for him and that he is and that
has sovereignty over him legally.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
So so that that's one part of it.
Speaker 3 (21:34):
And then the other part is that you you don't
actually have to lock up that many people to have
a huge effect on crime, because it is serious criminals
who are repeat offenders who are the overwhelming problem in
these major cities. These known gang members who are out,
you know, they on an attempted murder beef. They're out
(21:55):
after you know, five years or something, and now they're
back out there and now they're robbing people again, and
they haven't gotten Remember, people don't get caught for every
crime they commit.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
That's another part of this too. Actually, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
The notion that someone is let's say, carjacking a person,
and you think that's the first crime that person's committed.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
You think the.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
Carjacker is like, you know what, I was going to
go for a walk in the park today, but instead
I'm going to use an illegal handgun, hold it up
at someone's head, threatened to murder them and take their vehicle. No,
they've been doing all kinds of crimes that aren't even
listed in the statistics up to that point, maybe even
aren't reported up to that point.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
So to your point, Clay, if.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
You take a couple thousand people in DC and a
lot of other places by the way, a couple thousand
people and lock them up, everybody's a lot safer.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And I also think this ties in with quality of life.
You and I when we were in New York City.
I think it was a couple of years ago. I
think you had to buy like toothpaste or something.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Oh, you were shocked by that was in my not
to interrupt you, that was my actual drug store that
I used to go to all the time to get,
you know, toothpaste and whatever. That was where I lived.
I could not believe when I walked in there and
I was just back up in New York City when
I guest hosted what Fox and Friends in March, I
think I had to go get shaving cream because I
(23:11):
had forgotten it. I had to ask somebody to come
unlock the shaving cream for me. And why do I
mention that these are major quality of life things that
make you feel like you're living under siege. When you
can't walk into a grocery store and buy shaving cream,
or you can't buy a toothpaste without somebody having to
(23:33):
unlock it, it's a sign that we have had society collapse.
I'm sorry, it just is. And a lot of you
know that feeling where you walk in and you think
where am I living? That every single product in the
entire CVS or Walgreens or whatever it is is under
lock and Key And let me say this. I live
(23:53):
in obviously many most of you guys know Nashville Tennessee area.
Memphis down the road west from where I am has
one of the highest rates of violent crime anywhere in
the world. It's unacceptable if Trump is able to lower
the rate of violent crime in d C. I would
(24:15):
be very supportive of the governor of Tennessee saying we're
marshaling all resources and putting them to work in Memphis
to lower the crime rate there.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
And we're going to.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Use as a as a as sort of a roadmap
what Trump did in DC. Why would we not do
this everywhere?
Speaker 3 (24:34):
You know, this is there's a question why we would
not do it everywhere? With Clay also showing that it
can be done, establishes a new baseline going forward, because
what you have in a lot of places is essentially
a politics of urban despair.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
You know, crime happens. You know this, this attitude has
to be this way.
Speaker 3 (24:56):
D C has been, you know, crappy when it comes
to for as long as you and I have been alive. Okay, yes,
we're getting old now. DC has been a mess for
going on fifty years or more. And there are other
cities in Detroit, other cities that come to mind too,
that have just been these holes of crime, and.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
It doesn't have to be that way.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
And when people really see that in a way that
the media has to cover, it changes the whole conversation
going forward, because then it's not what do we do
we don't know? No, it's do you want this to
go away or not? Do you want the problems to
be fixed or do you want the problems to endure?
And how are you voting? Who are you putting in
(25:36):
power to deal with this? It becomes a choice instead
of apathy or despair. And that's why I think it's
so important, in addition to what you're talking about, which
is just the tactical replication which will happen in other cities.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, and look, and the reason why I mentioned, you know,
DC as a potential roadmap, as a temple potential example.
I live in a red state, We have a red governor,
we have read senators. Eight of the nine congressmen are Republicans.
But Memphis has blue city leadership, and that leadership has failed.
(26:09):
New York Times just told you the leadership failed in
San Francisco, in Seattle, in Portland, If The New York
Times is mentioning that that is true, then there is
no real argument to the other side. I mean, they're
the left wing Bible right now, So why I mean,
I just mean this honestly. I'm not the governor of Tennessee,
you know, but if I were, I would be looking
(26:32):
at what's going on in Washington, d C. And I
would be thinking, why can't we solve this mess in
Memphis once and for all in the same way that
Trump is going after the mess in DC.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
Let's assume that Tennesseeans make a very wise move and
put our friends Senator Blackburn in the governor's mansion going forward, right, Yeah,
for example, there's somebody who has governor I think would
work hand in glove with federal resources from the Trump
administration to make Memphis success story.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
Memphis should be. Look.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
I haven't been there, but I actually thought at one
point about investing in the city of Memphis some years ago.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So I did some research on investing in property there.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
I didn't end up doing it, and the crime was
a big crime, was a big problem because it affects
property values.
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Around the city.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
But it should be awesome, you know, it's on the
river there. It's got a vibrant downtown, obviously, incredible music scene,
great food. Memphis should be a great city. The fact
that when the first thing a lot of people, at
least outside of Memphis, maybe inside, I don't know, think
about when it comes to that city now nationally as Wow,
there's a lot of shootings there, which is just that's
heartbreaking because it should be a great town and it
(27:39):
has everything there to be a great town. And you know,
ninety nine percent of the people who live there would
make it a great town if it was just up
to them. But there's one percent that need to be
taken off the streets.
Speaker 1 (27:52):
I will give you two good examples of what you
just said. My son, one of my sons, had a
sporting event in Memphis. I think I've said this on
the air before, but it was in March. We went
and stayed in a hotel because he had an all
day sporting event going on in Memphis area. The next day,
I forgot my cell phone charger and I was thinking, well,
I don't want my phone to die. I'm going to
(28:13):
go buy a new cell phone charger at a gas station.
I went down to the front desk and you've had
this happen. You talked about it. In Saint Louis. The
front desk clerk said, be careful. Said, it's eight o'clock
on a Friday night, and you're telling me to be
careful going to a gas station to buy a charger.
No one in America should have that. Now, if it's
(28:36):
three am, four am, I still think you should be safe.
But I understand you're out super late eight o'clock on
a random Friday night in Memphis. Be careful going to
buy a charger unacceptable. Another part of this when I
grew up in Nashville, and most states have examples of this.
(28:57):
Two big cities they have kind of a rivalry.
Speaker 5 (28:59):
You know.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
Dallas and Houston have a rivalry. Nashville and Memphis have
a rivalry. Tampa and Miami have rivalries, and Jacksonville and Orlando,
like all these different cities right inside the states, there's
kind of like a little bit of a rivalry. We
had a real rivalry when I was a kid, Nashville
or Memphis, which is the better city. I haven't heard
that argument in fifteen years. Even when I started in media,
(29:23):
you could occasionally still have fun locally, you know, kind
of gigging people about that rivalry, which a good natured rivalry.
I haven't had that heard that argument made in almost
a generation now because Nashville made rational mayoral choices mostly
now you can question some of the recent ones, but
made rational choices and just left Memphis in the rear view.
(29:47):
And there isn't a comparison between those two cities. In fact,
many of you listening in Memphis right now have friends
and family that finally got fed up with the crime
and said I can't raise my family here.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
It's too dangerous.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
This is a real issue, and it's as if we
just say, oh, there's nothing that can be done. My
question for everybody is, what if Trump's right like he
was on the border. Everybody said, oh, the border can't
be fixed. It's important. Now border's most secure it's ever
been in any of our lives. What if Trump makes
DC crime drop by fifty percent? Suddenly you have to
(30:22):
start having conversations about why can't we solve some of
these problems that we claim are unsolvable. I think it's
just a will issue, not an ability issue, and so
I think this is super, super interesting, and I am
cautiously optimistic that we are going to see a real
difference there. Speaking of a real difference, God, I love
(30:46):
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(31:27):
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(31:48):
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Speaker 4 (32:09):
You can count on and some laughs too, Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:19):
I'm drinking my Crockett coffee here my over Mountain Club mug,
which I highly recommend you go get at Crocketcoffee dot com.
Company that you are all are building. We appreciate it.
Delicious coffee. You will absolutely love it. The Mushroom coffee
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Speaker 2 (32:39):
We have calls here Kevin in New York City? What's
going on? Kevin Hi?
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Great show, guys, listen and tremendous support for Trump and
what he's doing in DC and arresting four hundred over
four hundred people is great, but what happens like we
have an only loose states, they have a failed judicial system,
no jail, no bail, and what happens when those four
hundred people get let out three hours later?
Speaker 1 (33:08):
Well, I think this is where Judge Janine Piro, being
the head attorney in DC, is going to have more
say over what happens there. Right, So, I think a
lot of the CASU list bell a lot of the
lenient treatment that has gone towards people who are arrested.
Remember the one group that got no lenient treatment at all,
(33:32):
in fact, they got the book thrown at them when
they were lowering felonies to misdemeanors for almost everybody else
they were elevating misdemeanors for felonies was the January sixth defendants.
So it's not that they can't be cruel, and cruel
is the wrong word.
Speaker 2 (33:49):
They can't be.
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Difficult, they can't treat criminals like criminals should be treated.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
It's that they have only focused on doing that to
political opponents as opposed to the actual truly violent perpetrators, who,
as Buck said, you don't just carjack one time, you
don't accidentally end up stealing someone's car. You've done twenty
other crimes probably before you make your way to carjacking.
(34:19):
Most people stare step their way to more violent and
more dangerous offensive. Well, this is why I also think
there was this whole campaign to get rid of California
had a three strikes law. Other places have had it
as well. I think that there should be, you know,
states that are serious about this stuff. If it's your
third time committing a serious felony, it should be there
(34:39):
should be a mandatory whatever, it's five years, or you
gotta go away for a while. Okay, you gotta get rehabbed,
you gotta spend some time thinking about your choices, and
you've got to stop being a problem for your fellow
human beings who don't want to live around crime and
the threat of serious criminality.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
So these are mistakes.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
These are mistakes that were all made really in the
late nineties early two thousands, when things got safe, people
started saying, let's get rid of things, and it was
always oh, but someone went away for stealing a thing
of toothpaste. Okay, well, you know, no one should go
that's not a felony, and no one should go away
for stealing a tough of toothpaste.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
All right.
Speaker 3 (35:12):
This is like when people said, oh, people are getting
locked up for weed for twenty years for having a joint.
Not really, I mean maybe blue Moon. This is hugely important.
I'm glad you brought this out. Most of those guys,
they're almost all men. They're pleaing down to a lesser
charge when they get when they are accepting a punishment
for a look, they're not getting charged. That's like the
(35:35):
eighth different charge that they have, and as part of
a plea agreement, they plead guilty to a lesser charge.
Most people who are pleading guilty to low level offenses
actually have a second or third level offense that is
more significant above that one, and that is their plea deal.
So a lot of times you're not getting an honest
(35:56):
evaluation of a criminal pass. When we come back, we're
going to be joined by Missouri Senator Eric Schmidt. Then Buck,
I am hopping into a car because I am speaking
down in Chattanooga, Tennessee to the young Republicans tonight. I'm
also going to be visiting our friends at Legacy Box,
who have an incredible factory down there, so you will
(36:17):
finish up a shop after we talk with Eric Schmidt,
can you get some good video content for our amazing
YouTube channel with you and the young Republicans and maybe
also you at the amazing factory.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Of our legacy box brand. That is a good idea.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
I am not great at taking photo or video of
anything that I do, so yes, I will ask the younger,
more savvy social people there to hopefully get videos and
be able to post it.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
It should be a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (36:43):
I'm looking forward to head and down spending some time
with a bunch of y'all in Chattanooga later tonight. But
up next we got Missouri Senator Eric Smitt
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