December 31, 2025 • 34 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show with guest host Brian Mudd delivers a powerhouse discussion on major national issues and breaking developments. This hour features two high-profile guests: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, offering insider perspectives on policy, governance, and accountability. The segment opens with updates on border security and immigration enforcement, highlighting the ramp-up of operations with thousands of new ICE and Border Patrol agents. Congressman Donalds joins to break down President Trump’s 20-point plan to Save America, reviewing key accomplishments from the first 11 months of Trump’s second term. Topics include tax cuts, energy reform, border security, and ending global conflicts, as well as the Herculean effort in Congress to pass legislation despite a narrow majority. Donalds also addresses the looming battle over healthcare reform, emphasizing the need to overhaul Obamacare and shift subsidies to empower consumers rather than insurance companies. He outlines proposals like price transparency, association health plans, and regulatory reforms aimed at lowering costs and restoring a free-market approach. The conversation then pivots to the Minnesota fraud scandal, a massive case of alleged corruption tied to federal childcare programs, with estimates reaching $8 billion in fraudulent activity dating back to 2018. Donalds previews upcoming House Oversight Committee hearings, stressing the need for strict audit controls and accountability in federal programs. Later, Attorney General James Uthmeier weighs in on the scandal, calling it “unbelievable corruption and gross negligence” and detailing how states like Florida are proactively combating fraud and waste. Uthmeier underscores the importance of law enforcement support, immigration enforcement, and fiscal responsibility, crediting Trump’s leadership for record-low crime rates and improved border security. Additional highlights include: The expiration of ACA subsidies and its impact on healthcare affordability. The role of investigative journalism in exposing fraud. Broader implications for state-level governance, election turnout, and public safety. Uthmeier’s insights on Trump’s policies driving affordability, energy independence, and job protection. This hour is packed with actionable insights on immigration, healthcare reform, fraud prevention, and Trump’s policy successes, making it essential listening for anyone following 2026 midterm elections, conservative policy priorities, and government accountability.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Whether it's Minnesota and the fraud or Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicago,
Los Angeles, those operations continue and we're going to ramp
that up.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know, we've got ten.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Thousand new ICE agents coming on board, several thousand US
Border Battle agents coming on board.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
That is Customs and Border Patrol commander at Greg the
Vino talking about ramping up operations, talking about the scandal
in Minnesota as well.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nothing like an onion.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Every layer you'd feel back there is more fraud and
it's like, holy cow, these people were ridiculous. And as
we take a look at a couple of things. First hour,
we walked through the twenty point plan to save America
by President Trump. We walked through the successes. I'm going
to have the receipts, the very specific receipts on that
(00:51):
coming up later in the show. One of the men
who has had a hand in that success congressionally man,
we've had that new arrow House majority of this year.
None of it's been easy. But it happens to be
a Congressman Byron Donalds who's joining us now. Not only
is congressman, he's also the Trump endorsed candidate to be
the next governor of the state of Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It is good to talk to you, Congressman.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Happy New Year, Happy New Years to you, Brian. How's
it going for you?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Things are going pretty well, I think for a lot
of people, better than they even realize. One of the
notes kind of going through Trump's twenty point plan to
Safe America is that a lot of people, I think
take for granted how much success we've had in eleven
plus months, in part because so much of it happened
so quickly and so much gets accomplished every day. Tell
us a little bit from your perspective and also congressionally,
(01:42):
what it's been like during this eleven plus month period
of this second term.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well, first, I think it's important in looking back over
this year, you got to remember where the country was
a year ago. Like a year ago, we were overrun
open borders. Our economy was a flat mess. Prices were
extremely high, Wages for every worker in our country were
down when you adjusted foreg inflation. You had stupid mandates
(02:09):
coming out of the federal government. I could go on
and on and on, and so what President Trump came
in and did is exactly what you told the people
he would do. On the campaign trail Day one, shut
the border down, immediately started moving to our economy. In Congress,
the part we played was getting his tax cut agenda,
his energy reform agenda, and his border security deportation agenda
(02:31):
through Congress, and that was not easy. There were long
conversations for months in Congress just amongst Republicans about how
we were going to put it together, how much spending
were we going to cut that, what was that going
to look like, and so it was a herculean effort
for the first six months of Congress. We were able
to get that done. July fourth, the President signed that
into law, and then we had to deal with the
(02:53):
Democrats in their idiocy around government shutdown. We had to
deal with that. We still need to reform the Unaffordable
Care Act, that monstrosity left to us by the Democrats.
I think Republicans have a responsibility to fix it for
all Americans. At this point, it doesn't even matter whose
fault it is. We got to fix it, although it
is the Democrat's fault. Let me make sure that's crystal clear.
But we have a responsibility to fix it. The President's
(03:15):
plans around that makes sense. We're going to tackle that
in a new year, but a lot's been accomplished. And
last thing, and I don't want to filibuster, but the
last thing. This time last year, there were eight global conflicts,
all looking to bring America into them, and President Trump
came in and he started ending these conflicts. That's a
tremendous success for a president coming in to one of
(03:36):
the worst disasters ever left by our predecessor because Joe
Biden frankly wasn't even governing the place. It was the
auto pen and a bunch of radicals in his administration.
And so the success of President Trump, Congress's role in
that has been monumental, but we still have a long
way to go.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Brian Mudd with Congressman Byron Donald's talking about the Trump
successes here through the first eleven plus months and also
what faces the country now. You mentioned healthcare, So today
is that day. There had been a lot of debate.
There was the longest partial government shut down in American history,
and large parts centered around the idea of Obamacare subsidies
(04:14):
being extended, the COVID era subsidies. So you talk about
the path forward, what does that look like and what
is your thought as today those ACA subsidies do expire.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, the bill that I think is most promising has
been offered by Senator Rick Scott and Representative of August Slugger.
And what that bill would do was bring is bring
fundamental regulatory reforms to Obamacare, essentially changing the very nature
of it, so you get away from the crazy mandates
that are that are driving up health insurance costs. Second
(04:49):
big thing is it follows what the President wants to do,
giving those subsidies to the American people, letting them have
purchasing power in health care, as opposed to with going
directly to the health insurance companies. That's a design of
the Democrats. They wanted to empower the healthcare companies. We
need to be empowering the American people. We do that
in Florida when it comes to school choice in Florida,
(05:11):
the decision that we made was we're going to give
parents to purchasing power, not give it directly to the bureaucracy.
So it's the same kind of philosophy. You give purchasing
power to people, let them make their health care purchases,
You get rid of the crazy mandates and allow for
a free flowing marketplace. There's things like price transparency at hospitals,
long overdue, association health plans. We just passed that in
(05:34):
the House before we left for Congress this year. But
association and health plans. What that would allow is is
if you have a bunch of auto body shops, a
bunch of plumbers, a bunch of electricians, they can actually
create an association, add more people into that risk pool
and actually have lower cost health insurance for those people,
or realtors or any type of association you can think about.
(05:56):
These are all the things we should be doing at healthcare.
But you have to take the subsidies away from these
health insurance companies. People need to have that purchasing power
for themselves to buy the health insurance that they need
to get them access to care they that they require
for their lives. That's the path forward. We need to
be moving that out of the House. And then if
you want to talk about subsidies, subsidies are brought in
(06:17):
at the tail end to try to help get people
over this hump which was created by Democrat policy. Because
more subsidies aren't going to fix the problem. It's only
going to mask the high costs and the costs are
going to continue to rise if we don't fix the
problem the problems Obamacare. President Trump is right on this,
soa Centator Scott and Representative Flugor their bill is if
I think the best bill out there.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right now, I agree with you entirely, and if you
are interested in the Rick Scott proposal, if you're interested
in trump Care, if you will. On the third hour
of the November twenty eight show, the day after Thanksgiving,
well I was guesting for claim Bug. I ended up
breaking that down comprehensive analysis. So go check out the
claim Buck podcast from November twenty eighth and get everything
(06:59):
on that.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The problem isn't the lack of subsidies Obamacare is the crisis.
And it's crazy that unless ninety two percent of all
policies taken out are paid for by people who don't
use those policies, and eighty percent of the costs of
those insurance plans is paid for through these subsidies, then
(07:22):
then we have a crisis. All that does is make
everything else less affordable for everyone else paying for their
health care, and then these subsidies for everybody on these
exchange based policies and it's not very complicated. We're really
good consumers. If we're actually tasked with being consumers of healthcare,
we're pretty darn't good at finding a good deal. We
(07:42):
just don't know what the heck anything costs, and it's
backcraft crazy for people to walk into a medical establishment
side a piece of paper says I have no idea
what the heck's going to happen when I walk through
this door. The doctor at this point might not either.
They can't tell me what it's going to cost. And
I'm going to agree to sign something as whatever happens
in there and whatever it ends up costing, and whatever
(08:05):
my insurance company doesn't pay for.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I got it. I got that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We would tell anybody they're nuts if we had that
happen in any other aspect of life, like walking through
a store. So until we have legitimate consumer driven health
care getting the government out of the way, we're never
going to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Brian. If you look at an economists of en sharing
this chart for decades, you look at the industries that
have little to know governmental subsidies, and what happens in
those industries. Prices are stable or they actually decrease over time,
while quality increases. But if you look at the injury industries,
healthcare and higher education or number one, number two, where
(08:42):
you have high levels of governmental subsidies, essentially what Milton
Friedman said, the worst way to spend money spending other
people's money on other people. When you have situations like that,
the price always increases, the quality decreases, you get more frustration.
You're talking about doctors. The two most frustrated groups of
people in healthcare today are doctors and patients. That's a problem,
(09:04):
and that's why it needs to have a complete overhaul.
And I think Republicans, you know, instead of look here,
here's the deal on Capitol Hill, I think a lot
of Republicans, not all, but a lot, are still licking
their wounds from the Obamacare battles of twenty ten and
twenty fourteen. But it is now proven that that plan
is not working for families in our country. So instead
of being instead of fighting the last war, we need
(09:25):
to be bold and we need to be aggressive, come
out with our policies, pushed very strongly for them. And
if Democrats decide that they don't want to go along
with bringing real market centered, patient centered reforms into healthcare.
Then that's their responsibility, not ours. We have a responsibility
to provide solutions, and President Trump is more than willing
to lead the way.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Brian Mud with Congressman Byron Donalds. So week from today,
the House Oversight Committee is going to begin hearings pretending
to the fraud in Minnesota. And you know, I mentioned
every time we learn more about this situation, like an onion,
you peel back a layer and it gets far worse.
You're on the House Oversight Committee, So tell us your
(10:06):
thoughts about this at this point in the process and
what you anticipate a week from today.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Well, at this point I know that you know, committee
staff is going through all the details. We're gonna come back,
We're going to get a briefing book on all this,
and then we're going to start bringing in officials from
the state of Minnesota. I think that these hearings are
going to be very revealing, not just to what's happening
in Minnesota, but to the real rot that goes on
in these federal programs. So one, I'm very excited that
(10:35):
we're finally having these hearings. I think they're overdue. Who
needs to come in or Tim Walls and the Attorney
Attorney General Ellison, Keith Ellison. They need to come in
and testify under oath about these things. But the third thing,
once the investigations are done, we have to go into
the budget and we have to make sure that there
are real audit controls around these programs if we're going
(10:55):
to continue these programs, and I stress if, because some
of these programs really have no business being the responsibility
of the federal government. These are legacy projects, legacy programs
that have been in the budget for a long time.
Hard to get them out of there. But we have
to do the heavy lifting and get that done because
we can't have situations where billions of dollars are being
wasted yet the American people are trying to scramble how
(11:17):
to figure out how to make ends. Me it's atrocious,
and so yeah, I'm all for the hearings, but the
real work is going to be in the budgetary process.
We have a government funding deadline coming up January thirty.
I think that we need to have a full court
press on exposing all of this stuff and then call
the Democrats, quite frankly, in the Senate, call the Senate
Democrats to the carpet. Are you going to actually reform
(11:38):
spending in a meaningful way. Make sure there's real audits,
real eligibility criterias put in because most people don't know
a lot of these programs, these grant programs, there's no
eligibility framework that you can audit. They have a general
like honor system eligibility framework, but there's no teeth to it.
We got to put teeth into these programs. Require real
(12:01):
accountability in these programs, and then you have to be
willing to turn the money off if there's elements of
fraud and that typically does not happen in a lot
of these grant programs that come out of a federal government,
and that needs to change.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We have just about a minute left.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But one thing that came to mind with all of
this is so it remains to be seen if the
Walls administration is incompetent or complicit, And while incompetence seems
very likely, something that crossed my mind. We see this
time and again with leftist dates. So they're like, you
know what, some supremacy cause and the constitution doesn't really matter.
I want sanctuary policies. I'm going to put sanctuary policies
(12:38):
in place. You know, we want to illegal immigrants to vote.
We're going to go ahead and make that happen here.
We've seen it with CDLs and everything. What are the
odds that many federal programs are being abused by leftist
administrations around the country because they're getting the money and
then doing whatever the heck they want to with it.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
They're very high. My view, or my gut tells me
Minnesota is just a tip of the iceberg. And I
don't think it's in competency. I think it's complicity. I
think you have elected officials from heavy blue states who
allow for this mouthfeass to occur because they get political
payback on the backside.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I think that is well said Congressman. Happy New Year
to you, Thank you so much for taking the time.
And may God bless.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Hey, God bless everybody. Happy new Year. Everyone see you.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And again that is Congressman Byron Donald's also running to
be the next governor of Florida. I'm Brian mudd In
for Clay and Buck.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history
on the Team forty seven podcast. Playin Buck Highlight Trump
Free plays from the week Sundays at noon Eastern. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Whether it's Minnesota and the Fraud or Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicago,
Los Angeles. Those operations continue and we're going to ramp
that up. You know, we've got ten thousand new ICE
agents coming on board, several thousand US Bortagagel agents coming
on board.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yes, Customs and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bavino and the
Calvary on the way. As operations do continue to ramp up.
It's been an incredible eleven plus months as we're ready
to ring in twenty twenty six, and this is going
to be a pivotal year, a critical year that.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Is coming up.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
A lot of times people throw it away, Oh it's
the midterm election year. Now Trump is is on a mission,
and what he's accomplished against his twenty point plan to
say of America has already been remarkable. What needs to
happen from here is going to be exceptional. One of
the things that we're talking about a few minutes ago
with Congressman Byron Donald's healthcare today happens to be the
(14:54):
day that ACA subsidies will expire.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And a lot of people are freaking out about that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
And one of the things that really drives me crazy
in this debate is the conflating of health care and
insurance policies. Insurance does not equal healthcare. In fact, insurance
for most people is an obstacle to health care. What
do I mean by that? Let me give you an
just speaking of the ACA policies themselves, how much money
(15:23):
do you think you spent all in on healthcare this year?
Think about all your health care needs? How much do
you think you spent? You got a number. If you're
the average American, you spend just over fifteen hundred bucks
an actual health care stuff. Okay, that is the per
person average, all ages, all insurance statuses, but the actual
(15:46):
stuff you needed. Now, just speaking of the average ACA
plan per person, you know how much that was this year?
Fifty nine hundred dollars. Fifty nine hundred dollars. So where
is the crisis? Is it the health insurance or is
it that we don't have any money left for health
(16:08):
here by the time we're done covering the cost of
insurance so often is the.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Issue we got to talk back?
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Here?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Looks like for my neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We've got Michael from South Florida.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
Well, pleas on you if it isn't Brian Mud. Brian,
you have been missed, my friend. Thank you so much
for coming on the air. Congratulations for covering for Clan
and Bucks. Plug your shows where you are, what you're doing.
Plug your shows all day on the show. Please your
voice is terribly missed down here your incredible coverage of
(16:44):
South Florida. Wishing you and your family an incredible happy
New Year and looking forward.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
To seeing and hearing more of you next year.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Appreciate the kind words. Be right back, Brian Mudd in
for claim Buck, Slay Travis and Buck Sexton on the
front law of truth.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Department of Justice as we speak is continuing to execute
search warrants and subpoenas. People will be in handcuffs as
a result of the fraud that Governor Walls has allowed.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
To occur for many, many years.
Speaker 8 (17:21):
The Department of Homeland Security is conducting door to door
investigations on the ground at potential fraud site.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yeah, so defensive steps in because the state is incompetent complicit.
Both made White House Press Secretary of Caroline Levitt on
the fraud taking place in Minnesota. Estimates up to eight
billion dollars and potential fraud could exist. I mean, it's
got all the makings, you know, you talk about plots here,
(17:49):
you got the somalis you you've got people that are
in on the fix, You've got in competence, you name
it here. One of the things I want to try
to figure out, Okay, well, what would a competent attorney
general do? How does something like this happen and play
out for years without anybody seemingly noticing at this state level?
(18:14):
Join us is not the attorney general in Minnesota, but
rather one who is competent who might be able to
explain this to us. Florida's Attorney General, James ou Smeyer,
Happy New.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Year, Happy New Year, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So what the heck?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Just when you start, I've mentioned it's like an onion,
you peel back a layer and it's like, oh my gosh,
this is actually much worse here in terms of the
fraud that is being uncovered. Can you kind of walk
us through this situation and help us understand what we're
seeing here?
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Yeah, I mean this is unbelievable corruption and gross negligence
of epic proportions that can only exist after decades of
systematic poor leadership. When you are supportive of illegal immigration,
when you want to welcome people in from other countries
and jeopardize our national security, when you are pro welfare
(19:13):
and want to find ways to hand you know, government
giveaways to people, especially immigrants, this type of fraud is
going to happen. So the only way to combat this
is to expose it. Put people behind bars significant lengthy convictions.
That sends a message both to you know, the frauds
(19:34):
for consumers, but also to the public officials that may
have knowingly allowed it to happen, that the buckstops here,
it will never happen again. And if you facilitate this madness.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You're going to do a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So the Department of Health and Human Services has said
that they are freezing all federal childcare payments to the
state of Minnesota, and we talked about getting to the
potential eight billion dollar figure in fraud, talked about the going.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Back to twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
To your point, you know, one of the Minnesota is
a good trivia question. A lot of people don't realize
that the bluest state has been Minnesota. They are the
oldest state to have voted for a Republican for president.
You have to go all the way back to Nixon
to find the time every other state has voted for
a Republican before then. In fact, Reagan, the one state
(20:24):
he didn't clear was Minnesota, and that was by less
than one point. To Mondale, it happened to be his
home state. And so to your point, that also has
been president and state politics as well. And so you've
had this culture that has evidently allowed all of this
to take place. There seemingly was this thought at the
onset by the ag Ellison, by Governor Walls, that they
(20:49):
would just be able to dismiss this, you know, sweep
it under the rog say we're investigating this. And then
it kept getting so bad that now they're like, okay,
well we're that's getting to and we're getting tough. And
what should a state be doing in a situation like this,
if you came into this situation as attorney general, what
(21:11):
would you do?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Well?
Speaker 9 (21:13):
I think every state needs to be conducting significant oversight
right now. I know in Florida we certainly are. I
mean we've started with our own doge operation several months
back that's highlighted, you know, billions of dollars in fraud
and wasteful spending. At the local level, a lot of
city and county commissions that are abusing taxpayer dollars, often
(21:36):
with illicit means. Our Office of Attorney General has a
Medicaid fraud unit that continuously goes out and looks at
recipients of funding and ensured that money's going.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Where it needs to be going for the right reasons.
So I think.
Speaker 9 (21:51):
States have a major duty to their taxpayers to shine
a light, follow the money and ensure that we're not
engaged in wasteful spending and abuse.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And we'll be doing it here in Florida.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
I know a lot of the red states are and
it's sad that blue states you rightfully called out. Minnesota
is one that I think, you know, people are not
aware how liberal it's been for a long time. It
is certainly no longer a swing state. States like that
appear to be the ones allowing the criminal activity to
go on, not just in this context, but in you know,
murders and brutal crimes across the country. So it seems
(22:25):
like Republican states are common sensical and protecting consumers and
promoting public safety, and the leftist states are the opposite.
And so it's not a surprise that we see people
walking with their feet and moving to states like Florida, Georgia,
Texas and others.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Prim I talking with Florida's Attorney General James Uthmeyer, and
one of the things we've seen in this situation with
Minnesota is that you've had once again the the exposure
by a citizens by those that are trying to do
the work that Minnesota should have done. In this case
Nick Shirley, who has had a instrumental role recently and
(23:07):
showing hey, you know what, some of these daycare facilities
not been in operation for a long time. You have
people that are seemingly being walked in and then they're
walked out a few minutes later. In your professional opinion,
is it possible to be this incompetent as an attorney
general for something so pervasive to be going on, or
(23:29):
do you think that there could be more to the
story here in terms of involvement within high levels of
state government.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
You know, I don't want.
Speaker 9 (23:38):
To judge, but you know, bring the verdict before the
evidence has been fully assessed. But it seems difficult for
me to believe that these large amounts of funds that
have been fraudulently transferred could occur without certainly gross negligence,
if not criminal conduct at the part of top level
officials in the state, certainly malpractice for an attorney general
(24:02):
to be at the helm and this type of activity
to be happening.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Right under their nose.
Speaker 9 (24:07):
And you know, props to this investigative journalism. I mean,
this young guy should get a Pulitzer for going in
and having such you know, well reasoned and documented evidence
to highlight this gross abuse. So I'm glad the federal
government has been on it. It's great to see HHS
and the Department of Justice actively following this illicit behavior.
(24:30):
I hope people do time behind bars. It needs to happen.
We need to send a message if you steal from
the taxpayers, you need.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
To go to jail.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
One of the things that I did in the first hours,
take a look at President Trump's twenty point plan to
save America, what he ran on last year, and what
he has worked on and delivered, at least to a
certain extent, every single one of those in the first
eleven plus months this year.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I think at times, he can be a of his
own success.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Moving so quickly, having so much success, people kind of
forget or like, what have you done for me lately?
From your perspective as the attorney general of the State
of Florida, the impact of Trump's policies, what has the
leadership there? What does it meant for you? What does
it meant for your state?
Speaker 9 (25:20):
Well, the nature of my role, I'm hyper focused on
public safety and immigration enforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I think the.
Speaker 9 (25:27):
President has delivered on almost all of his promises. It's
not all of them, I mean everything from the no
tax on tips, which you know, most people thought was
a campaign gimmick and it sounded good but couldn't get done.
And then, by god, he got it done. He said
he was going to shut down the border for once
and for all, and he did that, and we are
seeing the positive ramifications of that. Fentanyl busts are down
(25:51):
double digits in many parts of our state. You know,
a very deadly drug, a new level of warfare products
coming in from China over the southern border, and by
shutting down the southern border, we have significantly diminished that
threat to our families and our children. You know, a
threat that people were struggling to find a cure for.
(26:13):
But if you shut down the border, if you support
law enforcement, which we've done, you know, in record fashion.
Here in Florida, the crime rate goes down, and we've
got fifty plus year crime rates across the state. In
big cities like Jacksonville, the murder rates have been cut
in half over the last three four years. So it's
not rocket science. If you support law enforcement, give them
(26:35):
the tools the funding to be successful, shut down the border,
and stand by our brave law enforcement, you do get results.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, and then also the detention and deportation of the
pad on brave. So one thing I'd become remarkable was
that by the end of the Buying administration, the average
non citizen in this country was nine times more likely
to commit a crime other than being here.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Illegally in the first place. People kind of looked right
past that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Greater than nine times more likely to commit a crime than, say,
your mate, the average American happy to be born here.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So you take a look.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
At year two that we're getting ready to head into
with Trump, what is it that would be most helpful
from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Where do we need to where's their work to do.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Well.
Speaker 9 (27:21):
It's clear the President has shifted the theme a little
bit towards affordability. I think a lot of people at
home are struggling. I know they were excited to see
record low gas prices this holiday season, so you know
that the pro energy efforts are starting to show some benefits.
But we've got to find more ways to help people
with you know, the burdens they face every day property taxes.
(27:45):
We're trying to take a big chunk out of those
here in Florida this year, getting rid of a lot
of the out of country labor that takes away jobs
from Americans. Here in Florida, we have the number one
university system that I would say most of the calls
I get are from you know, big aircraft companies looking
for labor, you know, abusing H one B programs when
(28:06):
they have students at their fingertips that are here that
just need some training and an opportunity to succeed. So
I hope the President will continue in this effort.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
In Florida.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
We're still going to be working to support them to
be his number one state. Ally, clawing back abuse of spending,
doing our own state doge, finding ways to put more
money into the pockets of our taxpayers and not corporate elitists.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
To that, I say amen, and certainly on the property
tax piece as well, I definitely hope we make big
time progress there. Florida's Attorney General, James Ofthmeyer, really appreciate
the time.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Speaker 9 (28:43):
Always a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
You bet all right. So, one of the things that
we often, I think and talked about. It's easy to
take for granted how much Trump has accomplished. One of
the things I think we often will do is not
necessarily control what we can control. And one of the
things that we can control the people that we put
(29:08):
in place to make decisions. And you know a lot
of people will talk about Florida and the things that
the state gets right. The right people in the right
places makes all the difference. You know, you can only
help people that want to help themselves at a certain level, right,
and that's what we continue to see. So, you know,
for a state like Minnesota, the crisis that's going on there,
well you have fifty plus years of them, you know,
(29:31):
voting for the left, and the waste fraud abuse, these
types of problems not necessarily a big surprise, and so
controlling what we can control turning out in elections at
all levels.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
One of the things that drives.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Me nuts is that you'll have local only elections and
will often see turnout that's below thirty percent across much
of the country. A lot of people pay attention to
the special elections that Democrats fared well in across the
country this year, and they try to read into it,
but there is a question about why people who voted
for Trump don't turn out. What I mean, often it's
(30:06):
the elections that happen closest to you that have the
biggest impact in your daily life. And so that's one
of the things we all can control heading into the
midterm election years. Not just about the midterm elections that's huge,
but it's also about what happens close to us too.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I'm Brian Mudd in for Claim Buck.
Speaker 10 (30:23):
Saving America One Thought at a Time and Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 8 (30:42):
This fraud in Governor Wallace's state in Minnesota is something
that Trump administration has been working on since day one
and since Nick Shirley's journalism really brought this issue further
to light. We have surged resources across the board.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
To the state White House.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Press Secretary Carline Levitt on the scandal in Minnesota that
could run up to eight billion dollars and date back
to twenty eighteen, pretty remarkable. Hey, there probably on in
for claim buck We were talking with Florida's Attorney General
James Athmeier about that situation. Talking about surge resources, I
(31:19):
mean the scorecard so far in what has been uncovered.
You had Attorney General Pam Bondi say that the Justice
Department has been on it for months. You had Caroline saying, hey,
we're surging resources there. Bondi said, so far, we've charged
ninety eight individuals, eighty five of Somali descent, and more
(31:43):
than sixty have been found guilty and there are more
prosecutions coming. So buckle up, lawmakers. We do know that
the whole Somali connection, where you know, if anybody questioned,
well you're just being a racist, that had some play
and why this went on for as long as it did,
(32:05):
and that hits at the level of incompetence or if
you did have the Walls administration that was complicit. Either way,
people like the other way. As soon as you had
these somalies that were, oh, you're you're racist. If you're
going to investigate us, we have Matt in Connecticut who
wanted to weigh in on this. Matt, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
Hey, thanks for having me, you bet. So the reason
I'm calling is because I kind of made an interesting discovery.
I was watching all this stuff and I'm looking at
these facilities that Nick Shirley was videotaping. I noticed they're
all like, really small. My wife's been in daycare in
her career before. I'm in construction. I know when you
(32:48):
build a commercial facility, a lot of these places have
space requirements. So I looked into it for the state
of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota actually has a per
child license thirty five square foot usable space requirement. So
what that means is if a facility is excuse me sorry,
(33:10):
if a facility is licensed for ninety nine kids, they
need three thousand, four hundred sixty five square feet of
usable space. So that thiscludes hallway, bathrooms, kitching's offices. So
you're talking about a facility that needs to be four
thousand square feet. The first facility that he actually put
on video was the one with ninety nine licensed kids.
(33:30):
It was in a strip mall. They also require outdoor
facilities seventy five square foot for child up to thirty kids.
So forgetting back, he's being there, not being there.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, it's good work on your part. And in fact,
if you want a job with the FEDS, your investigative
work I think could go a long way. You might
see about apply. And so yeah, there's a lot to
the story for sure. And that's where you have to wonder, Okay,
how much of this was known, how high We're going
to hear a lot more about that coming up a
(34:01):
week from today when the House Oversight Committing hearings begin.
Be right back with Trump's receipts from twenty twenty five.
Bryan Mudd end for Clay and Buck Clay, Travis and
Buck Sexton on the front lines of truth.
Whether it's Minnesota and the fraud or Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicago,
Los Angeles, those operations continue and we're going to ramp
that up.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You know, we've got ten.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Thousand new ICE agents coming on board, several thousand US
Border Battle agents coming on board.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
That is Customs and Border Patrol commander at Greg the
Vino talking about ramping up operations, talking about the scandal
in Minnesota as well.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Nothing like an onion.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
Every layer you'd feel back there is more fraud and
it's like, holy cow, these people were ridiculous. And as
we take a look at a couple of things. First hour,
we walked through the twenty point plan to save America
by President Trump. We walked through the successes. I'm going
to have the receipts, the very specific receipts on that
(00:51):
coming up later in the show. One of the men
who has had a hand in that success congressionally man,
we've had that new arrow House majority of this year.
None of it's been easy. But it happens to be
a Congressman Byron Donalds who's joining us now. Not only
is congressman, he's also the Trump endorsed candidate to be
the next governor of the state of Florida.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
It is good to talk to you, Congressman.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
Happy New Year, Happy New Years to you, Brian. How's
it going for you?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Things are going pretty well, I think for a lot
of people, better than they even realize. One of the
notes kind of going through Trump's twenty point plan to
Safe America is that a lot of people, I think
take for granted how much success we've had in eleven
plus months, in part because so much of it happened
so quickly and so much gets accomplished every day. Tell
us a little bit from your perspective and also congressionally,
(01:42):
what it's been like during this eleven plus month period
of this second term.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Well, first, I think it's important in looking back over
this year, you got to remember where the country was
a year ago. Like a year ago, we were overrun
open borders. Our economy was a flat mess. Prices were
extremely high, Wages for every worker in our country were
down when you adjusted foreg inflation. You had stupid mandates
(02:09):
coming out of the federal government. I could go on
and on and on, and so what President Trump came
in and did is exactly what you told the people
he would do. On the campaign trail Day one, shut
the border down, immediately started moving to our economy. In Congress,
the part we played was getting his tax cut agenda,
his energy reform agenda, and his border security deportation agenda
(02:31):
through Congress, and that was not easy. There were long
conversations for months in Congress just amongst Republicans about how
we were going to put it together, how much spending
were we going to cut that, what was that going
to look like, and so it was a herculean effort
for the first six months of Congress. We were able
to get that done. July fourth, the President signed that
into law, and then we had to deal with the
(02:53):
Democrats in their idiocy around government shutdown. We had to
deal with that. We still need to reform the Unaffordable
Care Act, that monstrosity left to us by the Democrats.
I think Republicans have a responsibility to fix it for
all Americans. At this point, it doesn't even matter whose
fault it is. We got to fix it, although it
is the Democrat's fault. Let me make sure that's crystal clear.
But we have a responsibility to fix it. The President's
(03:15):
plans around that makes sense. We're going to tackle that
in a new year, but a lot's been accomplished. And
last thing, and I don't want to filibuster, but the
last thing. This time last year, there were eight global conflicts,
all looking to bring America into them, and President Trump
came in and he started ending these conflicts. That's a
tremendous success for a president coming in to one of
(03:36):
the worst disasters ever left by our predecessor because Joe
Biden frankly wasn't even governing the place. It was the
auto pen and a bunch of radicals in his administration.
And so the success of President Trump, Congress's role in
that has been monumental, but we still have a long
way to go.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Brian Mudd with Congressman Byron Donald's talking about the Trump
successes here through the first eleven plus months and also
what faces the country now. You mentioned healthcare, So today
is that day. There had been a lot of debate.
There was the longest partial government shut down in American history,
and large parts centered around the idea of Obamacare subsidies
(04:14):
being extended, the COVID era subsidies. So you talk about
the path forward, what does that look like and what
is your thought as today those ACA subsidies do expire.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Well, the bill that I think is most promising has
been offered by Senator Rick Scott and Representative of August Slugger.
And what that bill would do was bring is bring
fundamental regulatory reforms to Obamacare, essentially changing the very nature
of it, so you get away from the crazy mandates
that are that are driving up health insurance costs. Second
(04:49):
big thing is it follows what the President wants to do,
giving those subsidies to the American people, letting them have
purchasing power in health care, as opposed to with going
directly to the health insurance companies. That's a design of
the Democrats. They wanted to empower the healthcare companies. We
need to be empowering the American people. We do that
in Florida when it comes to school choice in Florida,
(05:11):
the decision that we made was we're going to give
parents to purchasing power, not give it directly to the bureaucracy.
So it's the same kind of philosophy. You give purchasing
power to people, let them make their health care purchases,
You get rid of the crazy mandates and allow for
a free flowing marketplace. There's things like price transparency at hospitals,
long overdue, association health plans. We just passed that in
(05:34):
the House before we left for Congress this year. But
association and health plans. What that would allow is is
if you have a bunch of auto body shops, a
bunch of plumbers, a bunch of electricians, they can actually
create an association, add more people into that risk pool
and actually have lower cost health insurance for those people,
or realtors or any type of association you can think about.
(05:56):
These are all the things we should be doing at healthcare.
But you have to take the subsidies away from these
health insurance companies. People need to have that purchasing power
for themselves to buy the health insurance that they need
to get them access to care they that they require
for their lives. That's the path forward. We need to
be moving that out of the House. And then if
you want to talk about subsidies, subsidies are brought in
(06:17):
at the tail end to try to help get people
over this hump which was created by Democrat policy. Because
more subsidies aren't going to fix the problem. It's only
going to mask the high costs and the costs are
going to continue to rise if we don't fix the
problem the problems Obamacare. President Trump is right on this,
soa Centator Scott and Representative Flugor their bill is if
I think the best bill out there.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
Right now, I agree with you entirely, and if you
are interested in the Rick Scott proposal, if you're interested
in trump Care, if you will. On the third hour
of the November twenty eight show, the day after Thanksgiving,
well I was guesting for claim Bug. I ended up
breaking that down comprehensive analysis. So go check out the
claim Buck podcast from November twenty eighth and get everything
(06:59):
on that.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
You're exactly right.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The problem isn't the lack of subsidies Obamacare is the crisis.
And it's crazy that unless ninety two percent of all
policies taken out are paid for by people who don't
use those policies, and eighty percent of the costs of
those insurance plans is paid for through these subsidies, then
(07:22):
then we have a crisis. All that does is make
everything else less affordable for everyone else paying for their
health care, and then these subsidies for everybody on these
exchange based policies and it's not very complicated. We're really
good consumers. If we're actually tasked with being consumers of healthcare,
we're pretty darn't good at finding a good deal. We
(07:42):
just don't know what the heck anything costs, and it's
backcraft crazy for people to walk into a medical establishment
side a piece of paper says I have no idea
what the heck's going to happen when I walk through
this door. The doctor at this point might not either.
They can't tell me what it's going to cost. And
I'm going to agree to sign something as whatever happens
in there and whatever it ends up costing, and whatever
(08:05):
my insurance company doesn't pay for.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
I got it. I got that.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
We would tell anybody they're nuts if we had that
happen in any other aspect of life, like walking through
a store. So until we have legitimate consumer driven health
care getting the government out of the way, we're never
going to solve the problem.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Brian. If you look at an economists of en sharing
this chart for decades, you look at the industries that
have little to know governmental subsidies, and what happens in
those industries. Prices are stable or they actually decrease over time,
while quality increases. But if you look at the injury industries,
healthcare and higher education or number one, number two, where
(08:42):
you have high levels of governmental subsidies, essentially what Milton
Friedman said, the worst way to spend money spending other
people's money on other people. When you have situations like that,
the price always increases, the quality decreases, you get more frustration.
You're talking about doctors. The two most frustrated groups of
people in healthcare today are doctors and patients. That's a problem,
(09:04):
and that's why it needs to have a complete overhaul.
And I think Republicans, you know, instead of look here,
here's the deal on Capitol Hill, I think a lot
of Republicans, not all, but a lot, are still licking
their wounds from the Obamacare battles of twenty ten and
twenty fourteen. But it is now proven that that plan
is not working for families in our country. So instead
of being instead of fighting the last war, we need
(09:25):
to be bold and we need to be aggressive, come
out with our policies, pushed very strongly for them. And
if Democrats decide that they don't want to go along
with bringing real market centered, patient centered reforms into healthcare.
Then that's their responsibility, not ours. We have a responsibility
to provide solutions, and President Trump is more than willing
to lead the way.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Brian Mud with Congressman Byron Donalds. So week from today,
the House Oversight Committee is going to begin hearings pretending
to the fraud in Minnesota. And you know, I mentioned
every time we learn more about this situation, like an onion,
you peel back a layer and it gets far worse.
You're on the House Oversight Committee, So tell us your
(10:06):
thoughts about this at this point in the process and
what you anticipate a week from today.
Speaker 4 (10:12):
Well, at this point I know that you know, committee
staff is going through all the details. We're gonna come back,
We're going to get a briefing book on all this,
and then we're going to start bringing in officials from
the state of Minnesota. I think that these hearings are
going to be very revealing, not just to what's happening
in Minnesota, but to the real rot that goes on
in these federal programs. So one, I'm very excited that
(10:35):
we're finally having these hearings. I think they're overdue. Who
needs to come in or Tim Walls and the Attorney
Attorney General Ellison, Keith Ellison. They need to come in
and testify under oath about these things. But the third thing,
once the investigations are done, we have to go into
the budget and we have to make sure that there
are real audit controls around these programs if we're going
(10:55):
to continue these programs, and I stress if, because some
of these programs really have no business being the responsibility
of the federal government. These are legacy projects, legacy programs
that have been in the budget for a long time.
Hard to get them out of there. But we have
to do the heavy lifting and get that done because
we can't have situations where billions of dollars are being
wasted yet the American people are trying to scramble how
(11:17):
to figure out how to make ends. Me it's atrocious,
and so yeah, I'm all for the hearings, but the
real work is going to be in the budgetary process.
We have a government funding deadline coming up January thirty.
I think that we need to have a full court
press on exposing all of this stuff and then call
the Democrats, quite frankly, in the Senate, call the Senate
Democrats to the carpet. Are you going to actually reform
(11:38):
spending in a meaningful way. Make sure there's real audits,
real eligibility criterias put in because most people don't know
a lot of these programs, these grant programs, there's no
eligibility framework that you can audit. They have a general
like honor system eligibility framework, but there's no teeth to it.
We got to put teeth into these programs. Require real
(12:01):
accountability in these programs, and then you have to be
willing to turn the money off if there's elements of
fraud and that typically does not happen in a lot
of these grant programs that come out of a federal government,
and that needs to change.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
We have just about a minute left.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
But one thing that came to mind with all of
this is so it remains to be seen if the
Walls administration is incompetent or complicit, And while incompetence seems
very likely, something that crossed my mind. We see this
time and again with leftist dates. So they're like, you
know what, some supremacy cause and the constitution doesn't really matter.
I want sanctuary policies. I'm going to put sanctuary policies
(12:38):
in place. You know, we want to illegal immigrants to vote.
We're going to go ahead and make that happen here.
We've seen it with CDLs and everything. What are the
odds that many federal programs are being abused by leftist
administrations around the country because they're getting the money and
then doing whatever the heck they want to with it.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
They're very high. My view, or my gut tells me
Minnesota is just a tip of the iceberg. And I
don't think it's in competency. I think it's complicity. I
think you have elected officials from heavy blue states who
allow for this mouthfeass to occur because they get political
payback on the backside.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
I think that is well said Congressman. Happy New Year
to you, Thank you so much for taking the time.
And may God bless.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
Hey, God bless everybody. Happy new Year. Everyone see you.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
And again that is Congressman Byron Donald's also running to
be the next governor of Florida. I'm Brian mudd In
for Clay and Buck.
Speaker 5 (13:35):
Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history
on the Team forty seven podcast. Playin Buck Highlight Trump
Free plays from the week Sundays at noon Eastern. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:57):
Whether it's Minnesota and the Fraud or Charlotte, North Carolina, Chicago,
Los Angeles. Those operations continue and we're going to ramp
that up. You know, we've got ten thousand new ICE
agents coming on board, several thousand US Bortagagel agents coming
on board.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Yes, Customs and Border Patrol Commander Greg Bavino and the
Calvary on the way. As operations do continue to ramp up.
It's been an incredible eleven plus months as we're ready
to ring in twenty twenty six, and this is going
to be a pivotal year, a critical year that.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Is coming up.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
A lot of times people throw it away, Oh it's
the midterm election year. Now Trump is is on a mission,
and what he's accomplished against his twenty point plan to
say of America has already been remarkable. What needs to
happen from here is going to be exceptional. One of
the things that we're talking about a few minutes ago
with Congressman Byron Donald's healthcare today happens to be the
(14:54):
day that ACA subsidies will expire.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And a lot of people are freaking out about that.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
And one of the things that really drives me crazy
in this debate is the conflating of health care and
insurance policies. Insurance does not equal healthcare. In fact, insurance
for most people is an obstacle to health care. What
do I mean by that? Let me give you an
just speaking of the ACA policies themselves, how much money
(15:23):
do you think you spent all in on healthcare this year?
Think about all your health care needs? How much do
you think you spent? You got a number. If you're
the average American, you spend just over fifteen hundred bucks
an actual health care stuff. Okay, that is the per
person average, all ages, all insurance statuses, but the actual
(15:46):
stuff you needed. Now, just speaking of the average ACA
plan per person, you know how much that was this year?
Fifty nine hundred dollars. Fifty nine hundred dollars. So where
is the crisis? Is it the health insurance or is
it that we don't have any money left for health
(16:08):
here by the time we're done covering the cost of
insurance so often is the.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Issue we got to talk back?
Speaker 6 (16:14):
Here?
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Looks like for my neck of the woods.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We've got Michael from South Florida.
Speaker 7 (16:22):
Well, pleas on you if it isn't Brian Mud. Brian,
you have been missed, my friend. Thank you so much
for coming on the air. Congratulations for covering for Clan
and Bucks. Plug your shows where you are, what you're doing.
Plug your shows all day on the show. Please your
voice is terribly missed down here your incredible coverage of
(16:44):
South Florida. Wishing you and your family an incredible happy
New Year and looking forward.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
To seeing and hearing more of you next year.
Speaker 3 (16:51):
Appreciate the kind words. Be right back, Brian Mudd in
for claim Buck, Slay Travis and Buck Sexton on the
front law of truth.
Speaker 8 (17:08):
Department of Justice as we speak is continuing to execute
search warrants and subpoenas. People will be in handcuffs as
a result of the fraud that Governor Walls has allowed.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
To occur for many, many years.
Speaker 8 (17:21):
The Department of Homeland Security is conducting door to door
investigations on the ground at potential fraud site.
Speaker 3 (17:29):
Yeah, so defensive steps in because the state is incompetent complicit.
Both made White House Press Secretary of Caroline Levitt on
the fraud taking place in Minnesota. Estimates up to eight
billion dollars and potential fraud could exist. I mean, it's
got all the makings, you know, you talk about plots here,
(17:49):
you got the somalis you you've got people that are
in on the fix, You've got in competence, you name
it here. One of the things I want to try
to figure out, Okay, well, what would a competent attorney
general do? How does something like this happen and play
out for years without anybody seemingly noticing at this state level?
(18:14):
Join us is not the attorney general in Minnesota, but
rather one who is competent who might be able to
explain this to us. Florida's Attorney General, James ou Smeyer,
Happy New.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
Year, Happy New Year, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
So what the heck?
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Just when you start, I've mentioned it's like an onion,
you peel back a layer and it's like, oh my gosh,
this is actually much worse here in terms of the
fraud that is being uncovered. Can you kind of walk
us through this situation and help us understand what we're
seeing here?
Speaker 9 (18:50):
Yeah, I mean this is unbelievable corruption and gross negligence
of epic proportions that can only exist after decades of
systematic poor leadership. When you are supportive of illegal immigration,
when you want to welcome people in from other countries
and jeopardize our national security, when you are pro welfare
(19:13):
and want to find ways to hand you know, government
giveaways to people, especially immigrants, this type of fraud is
going to happen. So the only way to combat this
is to expose it. Put people behind bars significant lengthy convictions.
That sends a message both to you know, the frauds
(19:34):
for consumers, but also to the public officials that may
have knowingly allowed it to happen, that the buckstops here,
it will never happen again. And if you facilitate this madness.
Speaker 2 (19:44):
You're going to do a lot of time.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
So the Department of Health and Human Services has said
that they are freezing all federal childcare payments to the
state of Minnesota, and we talked about getting to the
potential eight billion dollar figure in fraud, talked about the going.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
Back to twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
To your point, you know, one of the Minnesota is
a good trivia question. A lot of people don't realize
that the bluest state has been Minnesota. They are the
oldest state to have voted for a Republican for president.
You have to go all the way back to Nixon
to find the time every other state has voted for
a Republican before then. In fact, Reagan, the one state
(20:24):
he didn't clear was Minnesota, and that was by less
than one point. To Mondale, it happened to be his
home state. And so to your point, that also has
been president and state politics as well. And so you've
had this culture that has evidently allowed all of this
to take place. There seemingly was this thought at the
onset by the ag Ellison, by Governor Walls, that they
(20:49):
would just be able to dismiss this, you know, sweep
it under the rog say we're investigating this. And then
it kept getting so bad that now they're like, okay,
well we're that's getting to and we're getting tough. And
what should a state be doing in a situation like this,
if you came into this situation as attorney general, what
(21:11):
would you do?
Speaker 4 (21:13):
Well?
Speaker 9 (21:13):
I think every state needs to be conducting significant oversight
right now. I know in Florida we certainly are. I
mean we've started with our own doge operation several months
back that's highlighted, you know, billions of dollars in fraud
and wasteful spending. At the local level, a lot of
city and county commissions that are abusing taxpayer dollars, often
(21:36):
with illicit means. Our Office of Attorney General has a
Medicaid fraud unit that continuously goes out and looks at
recipients of funding and ensured that money's going.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
Where it needs to be going for the right reasons.
So I think.
Speaker 9 (21:51):
States have a major duty to their taxpayers to shine
a light, follow the money and ensure that we're not
engaged in wasteful spending and abuse.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
And we'll be doing it here in Florida.
Speaker 9 (22:02):
I know a lot of the red states are and
it's sad that blue states you rightfully called out. Minnesota
is one that I think, you know, people are not
aware how liberal it's been for a long time. It
is certainly no longer a swing state. States like that
appear to be the ones allowing the criminal activity to
go on, not just in this context, but in you know,
murders and brutal crimes across the country. So it seems
(22:25):
like Republican states are common sensical and protecting consumers and
promoting public safety, and the leftist states are the opposite.
And so it's not a surprise that we see people
walking with their feet and moving to states like Florida, Georgia,
Texas and others.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Prim I talking with Florida's Attorney General James Uthmeyer, and
one of the things we've seen in this situation with
Minnesota is that you've had once again the the exposure
by a citizens by those that are trying to do
the work that Minnesota should have done. In this case
Nick Shirley, who has had a instrumental role recently and
(23:07):
showing hey, you know what, some of these daycare facilities
not been in operation for a long time. You have
people that are seemingly being walked in and then they're
walked out a few minutes later. In your professional opinion,
is it possible to be this incompetent as an attorney
general for something so pervasive to be going on, or
(23:29):
do you think that there could be more to the
story here in terms of involvement within high levels of
state government.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
You know, I don't want.
Speaker 9 (23:38):
To judge, but you know, bring the verdict before the
evidence has been fully assessed. But it seems difficult for
me to believe that these large amounts of funds that
have been fraudulently transferred could occur without certainly gross negligence,
if not criminal conduct at the part of top level
officials in the state, certainly malpractice for an attorney general
(24:02):
to be at the helm and this type of activity
to be happening.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Right under their nose.
Speaker 9 (24:07):
And you know, props to this investigative journalism. I mean,
this young guy should get a Pulitzer for going in
and having such you know, well reasoned and documented evidence
to highlight this gross abuse. So I'm glad the federal
government has been on it. It's great to see HHS
and the Department of Justice actively following this illicit behavior.
(24:30):
I hope people do time behind bars. It needs to happen.
We need to send a message if you steal from
the taxpayers, you need.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
To go to jail.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
One of the things that I did in the first hours,
take a look at President Trump's twenty point plan to
save America, what he ran on last year, and what
he has worked on and delivered, at least to a
certain extent, every single one of those in the first
eleven plus months this year.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
I think at times, he can be a of his
own success.
Speaker 3 (25:01):
Moving so quickly, having so much success, people kind of
forget or like, what have you done for me lately?
From your perspective as the attorney general of the State
of Florida, the impact of Trump's policies, what has the
leadership there? What does it meant for you? What does
it meant for your state?
Speaker 9 (25:20):
Well, the nature of my role, I'm hyper focused on
public safety and immigration enforcement.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
I think the.
Speaker 9 (25:27):
President has delivered on almost all of his promises. It's
not all of them, I mean everything from the no
tax on tips, which you know, most people thought was
a campaign gimmick and it sounded good but couldn't get done.
And then, by god, he got it done. He said
he was going to shut down the border for once
and for all, and he did that, and we are
seeing the positive ramifications of that. Fentanyl busts are down
(25:51):
double digits in many parts of our state. You know,
a very deadly drug, a new level of warfare products
coming in from China over the southern border, and by
shutting down the southern border, we have significantly diminished that
threat to our families and our children. You know, a
threat that people were struggling to find a cure for.
(26:13):
But if you shut down the border, if you support
law enforcement, which we've done, you know, in record fashion.
Here in Florida, the crime rate goes down, and we've
got fifty plus year crime rates across the state. In
big cities like Jacksonville, the murder rates have been cut
in half over the last three four years. So it's
not rocket science. If you support law enforcement, give them
(26:35):
the tools the funding to be successful, shut down the border,
and stand by our brave law enforcement, you do get results.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
Yeah, and then also the detention and deportation of the
pad on brave. So one thing I'd become remarkable was
that by the end of the Buying administration, the average
non citizen in this country was nine times more likely
to commit a crime other than being here.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
Illegally in the first place. People kind of looked right
past that.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Greater than nine times more likely to commit a crime than, say,
your mate, the average American happy to be born here.
Speaker 2 (27:07):
So you take a look.
Speaker 3 (27:09):
At year two that we're getting ready to head into
with Trump, what is it that would be most helpful
from your perspective?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
Where do we need to where's their work to do.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
Well.
Speaker 9 (27:21):
It's clear the President has shifted the theme a little
bit towards affordability. I think a lot of people at
home are struggling. I know they were excited to see
record low gas prices this holiday season, so you know
that the pro energy efforts are starting to show some benefits.
But we've got to find more ways to help people
with you know, the burdens they face every day property taxes.
(27:45):
We're trying to take a big chunk out of those
here in Florida this year, getting rid of a lot
of the out of country labor that takes away jobs
from Americans. Here in Florida, we have the number one
university system that I would say most of the calls
I get are from you know, big aircraft companies looking
for labor, you know, abusing H one B programs when
(28:06):
they have students at their fingertips that are here that
just need some training and an opportunity to succeed. So
I hope the President will continue in this effort.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
In Florida.
Speaker 9 (28:16):
We're still going to be working to support them to
be his number one state. Ally, clawing back abuse of spending,
doing our own state doge, finding ways to put more
money into the pockets of our taxpayers and not corporate elitists.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
To that, I say amen, and certainly on the property
tax piece as well, I definitely hope we make big
time progress there. Florida's Attorney General, James Ofthmeyer, really appreciate
the time.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Happy New Year, Happy New Year.
Speaker 9 (28:43):
Always a pleasure, Thank you.
Speaker 3 (28:45):
You bet all right. So, one of the things that
we often, I think and talked about. It's easy to
take for granted how much Trump has accomplished. One of
the things I think we often will do is not
necessarily control what we can control. And one of the
things that we can control the people that we put
(29:08):
in place to make decisions. And you know a lot
of people will talk about Florida and the things that
the state gets right. The right people in the right
places makes all the difference. You know, you can only
help people that want to help themselves at a certain level, right,
and that's what we continue to see. So, you know,
for a state like Minnesota, the crisis that's going on there,
well you have fifty plus years of them, you know,
(29:31):
voting for the left, and the waste fraud abuse, these
types of problems not necessarily a big surprise, and so
controlling what we can control turning out in elections at
all levels.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
One of the things that drives.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Me nuts is that you'll have local only elections and
will often see turnout that's below thirty percent across much
of the country. A lot of people pay attention to
the special elections that Democrats fared well in across the
country this year, and they try to read into it,
but there is a question about why people who voted
for Trump don't turn out. What I mean, often it's
(30:06):
the elections that happen closest to you that have the
biggest impact in your daily life. And so that's one
of the things we all can control heading into the
midterm election years. Not just about the midterm elections that's huge,
but it's also about what happens close to us too.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I'm Brian Mudd in for Claim Buck.
Speaker 10 (30:23):
Saving America One Thought at a Time and Clay Travis
and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 8 (30:42):
This fraud in Governor Wallace's state in Minnesota is something
that Trump administration has been working on since day one
and since Nick Shirley's journalism really brought this issue further
to light. We have surged resources across the board.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
To the state White House.
Speaker 3 (30:59):
Press Secretary Carline Levitt on the scandal in Minnesota that
could run up to eight billion dollars and date back
to twenty eighteen, pretty remarkable. Hey, there probably on in
for claim buck We were talking with Florida's Attorney General
James Athmeier about that situation. Talking about surge resources, I
(31:19):
mean the scorecard so far in what has been uncovered.
You had Attorney General Pam Bondi say that the Justice
Department has been on it for months. You had Caroline saying, hey,
we're surging resources there. Bondi said, so far, we've charged
ninety eight individuals, eighty five of Somali descent, and more
(31:43):
than sixty have been found guilty and there are more
prosecutions coming. So buckle up, lawmakers. We do know that
the whole Somali connection, where you know, if anybody questioned,
well you're just being a racist, that had some play
and why this went on for as long as it did,
(32:05):
and that hits at the level of incompetence or if
you did have the Walls administration that was complicit. Either way,
people like the other way. As soon as you had
these somalies that were, oh, you're you're racist. If you're
going to investigate us, we have Matt in Connecticut who
wanted to weigh in on this. Matt, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 6 (32:27):
Hey, thanks for having me, you bet. So the reason
I'm calling is because I kind of made an interesting discovery.
I was watching all this stuff and I'm looking at
these facilities that Nick Shirley was videotaping. I noticed they're
all like, really small. My wife's been in daycare in
her career before. I'm in construction. I know when you
(32:48):
build a commercial facility, a lot of these places have
space requirements. So I looked into it for the state
of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota actually has a per
child license thirty five square foot usable space requirement. So
what that means is if a facility is excuse me sorry,
(33:10):
if a facility is licensed for ninety nine kids, they
need three thousand, four hundred sixty five square feet of
usable space. So that thiscludes hallway, bathrooms, kitching's offices. So
you're talking about a facility that needs to be four
thousand square feet. The first facility that he actually put
on video was the one with ninety nine licensed kids.
(33:30):
It was in a strip mall. They also require outdoor
facilities seventy five square foot for child up to thirty kids.
So forgetting back, he's being there, not being there.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, it's good work on your part. And in fact,
if you want a job with the FEDS, your investigative
work I think could go a long way. You might
see about apply. And so yeah, there's a lot to
the story for sure. And that's where you have to wonder, Okay,
how much of this was known, how high We're going
to hear a lot more about that coming up a
(34:01):
week from today when the House Oversight Committing hearings begin.
Be right back with Trump's receipts from twenty twenty five.
Bryan Mudd end for Clay and Buck Clay, Travis and
Buck Sexton on the front lines of truth.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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