September 3, 2026 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show focused on the high-stakes Texas Senate race, the battle for control of the U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterm elections, Democratic Party divisions, American culture, and a lively debate over whether the 1980s or 1990s represented America's greatest modern decade. The hour opened with an extended interview featuring Houston radio host Michael Berry, who provided an in-depth analysis of the closely watched contest between Republican Senator Ken Paxton and Democratic challenger James Talarico. Berry argued that Texas remains a fundamentally Republican state despite massive out-of-state financial support flowing into Talarico's campaign. The discussion examined voter turnout, campaign strategy, and the growing national significance of Texas as Republicans work to protect a critical Senate seat. The hosts also noted upcoming appearances in Texas by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance as the administration increases its involvement in competitive midterm races.
A major portion of Hour 2 explored concerns among Republican voters about Talarico's growing media presence and advertising campaign. Clay, Buck, and Berry discussed Talarico's political positions on issues including immigration, energy, firearms, transgender policies, and cultural values. They argued that many Texas voters are only beginning to learn about the Democratic nominee and suggested that increased scrutiny of his record could become a decisive factor as the campaign enters its final stretch. The conversation repeatedly returned to the broader theme of whether Texas voters will view the election as a referendum on Paxton's performance as attorney general or on Talarico's policy platform and ideological alignment with the national Democratic Party.
The hosts also examined internal divisions within the Democratic Party, with Berry describing a growing struggle between traditional Democrats and a newer, more progressive wing. They connected the Texas race to larger national political trends, arguing that candidates such as Talarico and Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed reflect ideological shifts that could create challenges for Democrats in swing states and battleground races. The discussion extended to key Senate contests around the country, with particular attention paid to Michigan, where the hosts suggested the race could play a major role in determining future Senate control.
Another major topic during Hour 2 was a cultural debate sparked by actor Ryan Reynolds' criticism of the 1980s. Clay and Buck strongly pushed back against Reynolds' characterization of the decade, launching into an extended discussion comparing the 1980s and 1990s as defining periods in modern American history. The hosts highlighted economic growth, political stability, cultural influence, blockbuster movies, popular music, and American global leadership during both decades. They argued that the United States experienced an unusual period of prosperity, optimism, and confidence as the Cold War ended and American culture became dominant worldwide. The discussion evolved into a broader examination of how different generations interpret historical periods and how personal experiences shape nostalgia.
Clay advanced the case for the 1990s as America's greatest modern decade, citing strong economic conditions, technological innovation, expanding cultural influence, and broad political popularity enjoyed by leaders from both major parties. Buck countered with a defense of the 1980s, highlighting Ronald Reagan's presidency, the cultural impact of iconic films, the resurgence of American confidence, and the events leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Together, they compared the music, movies, foreign policy successes, and social climate of both eras while arguing that neither decade resembles today's political and cultural environment.
The conversation also touched on broader themes involving American culture, conservatism, populism, and the post-2020 political environment. Clay argued that the country may be experiencing a reaction against the excesses of progressive politics and "woke" cultural movements, comparing Trump's political resurgence to Reagan-era efforts to restore normalcy following periods of social upheaval. The hosts discussed shifting demographics, changing voting patterns, country music's growing cultural influence, and signs that mainstream American culture may be moving back toward more traditional values. Country music's commercial success, particularly the popularity of newer artists, was cited as evidence of larger cultural trends reshaping entertainment and public attitudes.
The latter part of Hour 2 featured listener calls and audience participation surrounding the "1980s versus 1990s" debate. Callers weighed in with perspectives on music, entertainment, race relations, and American society. One caller
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in, Clay and Buck. We appreciate all of
you hanging out with us as we're rolling through the
Thursday edition of the program. We are joined now by
our friend that many of you listened to earlier in
the day, in Houston in particular, later in the day
in other places as well.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And let's dive right in off the top here. We
have so many people asking what's going on down in Texas.
What's going on with Tallarico Paxton. You're there on the ground.
How optimistic are you in the Paxton race? How pessimistic
are you? Where would you assess us about 60 days
(00:41):
out when we know obviously early voting starts sooner rather
than later.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And by the way, Vice President J.D.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Vance going to be doing a White House press briefing
any moment. We will be running on that. Caroline Leavitt
has left. There is no White House press secretary that
has been named to take her place yet. And so
the vice president, J.D. Vance, will be answering questions from
the media momentarily. But back to that race in Texas, Michael,
(01:08):
thanks for coming on. What should we know? How pessimistic
or optimistic are you right now?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, if people show up and vote the way they
have in the past, Texans care about this state. They're
just now beginning to really focus on who Tallarico is,
and he cannot withstand the scrutiny.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
J.D.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Vance, who you mentioned, will be in Houston next Wednesday.
The president again next Thursday. It's the first midterm convention
we've seen in modern American history. Look, we're taking this very,
very seriously. Trump won Texas in 16, 20, and 24,
and 24 was the largest number of votes. A Texas
record was 6.4 million, 56% of the votes. This is
(01:47):
a Republican state that wants a Republican senator. Ken Paxton
defeated the 24-year, very unpopular sitting John Cornyn, he's won
statewide three times before. California is pouring a lot of
money into this state to make a third Senate seat
for them in New York, and Texans are realizing that
the guy that was sold to them as a country
preacher is an absolute freak, and he does not agree
(02:10):
with us on anything. He's a Democrat socialist. He wants
open borders. He's anti-beef, kill oil and gas, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian,
gun grabber. That's not going to sell in Texas.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Well, you know, last night, Michael, czar, Last night, Trump
was speaking in the Rose Garden, and he had a name.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I hadn't heard this one before. I've heard Talafrico, but
this is cut 12, guys. Mike, I'll let you react
to this one.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Here's Trump talking about Talacripo, play 12.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
He was maybe the best attorney, and everybody admits it.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
He was a great attorney general in Texas, and he's
running against Talacripo.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And this guy, he has that name for a reason.
He's terrible. He's radical left. Now he says he loves meat.
You know what he does?
Speaker 6 (02:58):
He eats meat and he goes outside and he throws
up all over the place.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Because in Texas, if you don't eat meat, you're in
deep trouble.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
It's not a good thing not to be able to
eat meat. He was wearing a mask six months ago.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
He had a mask on. When somebody's wearing a mask
six months ago, you're in deep trouble.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I mean, is that really true that he's wearing a mask?
And also, was he trying to win in Texas, but.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He's a vegan?
Speaker 7 (03:23):
He was a vegan. They're a vegan campaign.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
This is the cattle industry state. He's tried to grab
guns three different times. We are gun owners. The NRA
has moved here. But you know the creepiest thing, and
the word creep is correct. The president is smart with
these labels. There's an ick factor to him. His big
issue is transing kids. He was a schoolteacher for a
(03:46):
brief period of time, and he was asked recently, what's
your favorite thing? Not your family, not your friends. What's
something that's really special and wonderful to you? And he said,
trans children.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
And there was a collective gasp.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh, we can't let the voters in suburban Texas see
this sort of craziness.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
This is weird.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's voted against a bill banning transgender surgery for minors, Buck.
multiple times. This guy is an absolute, he's called us
a Christo-fascist. He said he's a Christian who hates Christianity.
There really is a creep factor as if at any
moment there's going to be a big news story that
pops and you're.
Speaker 7 (04:26):
Going to go, you know what? I'd believe that about
that guy.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You said that Texans are starting to pay attention. What
should in your opinion, Texans be doing now? We're going
to get Ken Paxton on again soon. I've been texting
with him some this week. I'm confident he's going to win.
I think he's a great candidate. He's been statewide. Maybe
you can help for people out there who don't know.
He's been attacked, unlike almost anybody in the history of
(04:53):
the state of Texas, and he's.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Still won multiple times statewide.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So this idea that somehow Texans aren't familiar with Ken Paxton,
I think, is untrue. I do believe that a lot
of Texans are not familiar with James Tallarico. I want
to ask you about the Beto race against Ted Cruz
back in the day. Beto was a great candidate. And
I can understand why people thought, hey, he might be
(05:20):
able to pull off a win. Tallarico is an awful candidate.
Are people just not taking him seriously enough? Because as
Buck just laid out, you got a vegan pro trans weirdo.
who is running for office and Texans just think there's
no way this guy's going to win. Whereas Beto was
actually pretty compelling. He was a great candidate. Am I
(05:40):
wrong here?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
How would you assess this?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You are dead on Ted Cruz beat Beto by one
percentage point. President Trump came in at the end and
really rallied the forces. And he's doing the same thing
for Paxton. The national Republican establishment led by Karl Rove,
which is why Fox is trashing Paxton every day.
Speaker 7 (05:59):
It's amazing what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Karl Rove would rather a Democrat win because he got
defeated with the candidate he.
Speaker 7 (06:05):
Owned, which was John Cornyn.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So Rove and the establishment and the other senators, they're
not spending any money on Paxton. So we're counting on
Trump to bring in a lot of money, which he's
committed to do. Elon has committed to bring in a
lot of money. Ted Cruz is bringing in from his
pack a lot of money, and it's out on the hustings.
Paxton's going to work his butt off. What people are
going to have to see is it's not a referendum
on Paxton. It's a referendum on Tallarico because you don't
(06:28):
want to sit in there for six years. But Paxton's record, Clay,
is amazing. He's brought over $ 5. 1 billion back to Texas.
He sued Meta in one. He sued Google in one.
He sued Big Pharma in one. He sued the Purdue
folks with the pain medication. He sued these Medicare fraudsters
in one. He's the best attorney general in the country.
(06:49):
So did he go through a divorce?
Speaker 8 (06:50):
Was it unplanned?
Speaker 7 (06:51):
Pleasant? Yeah. I haven't known anybody who went through a
pleasant divorce. It's ugly. It's unfortunate all the way around.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
But there's a lot of things that the outside public
doesn't see and doesn't need to know. Is he going
to do a good job?
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
He's a mechanic who's going to fix your car. He's
a quarterback that's going to score touchdowns. He's a senator
who's going to vote for Trump, and that's why Trump's
supporting him. So we can be proud of the senator
he will be, and we would be ashamed of who
Tallarico is.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So, Michael, we're talking to Michael Baer, everybody. It's our
talk based out of Houston. You're all familiar with his show. Michael,
we're getting people that write in, call in, all of
the above, and they're upset because they say, I'm seeing, again,
I don't live in Texas, so I'm not seeing it,
but they're saying, I'm seeing all over local TV, all
(07:36):
over the airwaves, nothing but Tallarico ads. Obviously, this guy's
getting a lot of money from out of state. I'm
sure plenty of money from in-state, too, but a lot
of money from out of state. And it's all over
the place. They feel like there's saturation. There's Tallarico saturation
going on. They're living in a Tallarico world, right? And
where's Paxton? Are you telling us that the cavalry is
(07:57):
coming and you're going to be seeing a lot more
Paxton and you're confident in that? Or is there a
little bit more of a wake-up call where Paxton's people thought, oh,
we didn't need to spend money, but now we're going
to have to, right? Is this tactical or is this
a reorienting of Paxton's campaigns?
Speaker 7 (08:14):
No, it's scrambling.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I mean, if you win the Super Bowl the next season,
you start having had less time off and less time
to regroup and less, you don't get the first round
draft pick. Paxton, I mean, Tallarico had an easy, easy
primary with Jasmine Crockett, but he pissed off a lot
of black voters and he's really struggling with black voters.
He's pandering in a manner right now that makes Tim
(08:36):
Waltz look authentic. It's sad for him. So he's struggling
with black voters really badly. And Paxton started with zero.
The Republican establishment.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Spent over $ 100.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Million attacking him. And as soon as he came out
of that, then California, Reid Hoffman, Epstein buddy and the
like is after him.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
And they're pouring all this money.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I mean, the last number I saw, I know you
have the Attorney General on shortly, he can tell you.
Last number I saw was they spent 70 million just
since then. Paxton started at zero. So he's going out,
Cruz is helping him. President Trump is weighing in heavily now.
Elon is very involved. He's got the big TerraFab project here.
He wants his new home state to have the right
US Senator. I mean, Paxton would be a great Senator
(09:17):
because he's been a great Attorney General. And once people
see his actual record and who Tallarico is, they're going
to turn to Paxton. I would argue that the election
just began two days ago, September 1st. That's when the
independents and the moderates start paying attention. They realize Tallarico
is a guy who grew up in a Bible Belt
state in a small town where they played Friday night
(09:40):
football and Sunday morning church. And they wear guns. And
they work in the oil field. And he's against all
of that. He comes back home to Texas from Harvard
looking like Rachel Maddow and sounding like the love child
of Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders. It's not going to
fly in Texas. And Texans are paying attention.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
To it now.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You mentioned black voters.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Jasmine Crockett ran a campaign campaign I said, I don't
know if you echoed it, that I actually thought Jasmine
Crockett was a bigger threat to Ken Paxton, more talented politician.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Believe it or not, more normal for a lot of Texans.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I'm not saying Jasmine Crockett was a perfect representation of
Texas by any stretch of the imagination. But I think
she's a better representation of the Democrat Party in Texas
than Tallarico is. And for casual voters, I think she
likely would have had better appeal there. What is going
to happen with black voters? Is there a great deal
of reticence there? Is Jasmine Crockett going to be on
(10:38):
the campaign trail? How is that all playing out? A
lot of talk about the Republican side. What about the
Democrat side?
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Well, Clay, you guys have talked about it. Nice profile
in The Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Speaker 9 (10:48):
By the way.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Thank you. Not too bad.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
The Wall Street Journal is saying something nice.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know, the Democrat Party is in the middle of
an absolute rift, a civil war, kind of like what
we went through with the Republican Party in 2016 when
all these voters came to the table and said, hey,
we're taking over this party. The Tea Party folks, the
MAGA folks, the Trump folks, the populists, the.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Nationalists, the Christians. And there was this.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Resettling of the table, and we're still at the tail
end of that. The Democrats are just beginning this. So
Tallarico can't decide on Monday if he's a Democrat socialist
or if he wants to pretend he's a Texan in
a rented truck, no joke, and a cowboy hat that
didn't fit, and Chris' new cowboy getup that he's never
worn before. I mean, he's wrong on every single– he
(11:35):
wanted an open border with a front porch and Democrat socialist.
He is out of touch, and he does not have
black support– He is sort of this new DSA candidate,
whereas Jasmine was the old-style black Democrat, and the old
Democrats are really struggling. You hear this with Bill Maher,
or you see what Fetterman's saying, or you're seeing what
Rahm Emanuel's saying out of Chicago, or listen to James
(11:57):
Carville in Louisiana. This new breed, which Tallarico is part of,
it gives a great discomfort to Texans. It's like watching
Tim Walsh do jazz hands as he comes out on
the stage, and you see Tallarico, and you go, I
see a lot of frightening similarities.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Michael, before we let you go, I'm just wondering, outside
of your home state of Texas, where, by the way,
Clay and I have to come down there and visit.
You've got your buddy Jesse Kelly just down the road.
We've got fun stuff to do when we come down
to Texas. We'll go drink with Ted Cruz or somebody
who's down there.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We'll have a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
We've got to come visit, but beside that, outside of
your home state, what is the Senate race that you
are either most concerned about or most dialed in on
because of how important it is? Those things kind of
bleed together, but which one are you really looking at
and following with the most intensity?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I'll tell you that Texans are so proud of Florida
and what Florida has become since DeSantis won in 2018.
And he barely won over a guy that ended up
butt naked and drugged out of his mind in a
hotel room a few weeks, a few months later, the
former mayor of Tallahassee. I'm not worried about the Florida
seat against Nixon. I am worried about Michigan, and I'm
(13:09):
watching Michigan closely, and it's going to be interesting to
see how many Democrats are willing to go over for
Rogers and vote for a Republican and hold their nose
because they realize Abdul El-Sayed is a– they can't dress
him up in cowboy duds like they do Tallarico. You know,
they can only make him so local. He has too
much of a past in his Hassan Piker Association. I
(13:32):
think that race, if Republicans can win that seat and
hold Texas, this is going to be a good next
two years, next six years.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Michael Bearer, everybody. Zara Talk out of Houston. Great to
talk to you, buddy. Thanks for being here with us.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
Thank you, guys. Always appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Clay, it's going to be okay in Texas. Paxton, it's
going to be okay. If Michael says it's going to
be okay, yeah, it's going to be okay. I'm not worried.
I'm not worried. A little bit of sunshine. Coming to
our buddy there. All right.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Something else that I really want you to focus in
on for a second is pre-born clinics. They're so, so
important because they're saving the lives of tiny babies in
the womb. And they're doing this every day all across America.
In fact, they set up their clinics in places where
the abortion rates are highest because they want to be
that alternative right there on the front lines where moms
(14:18):
with a crisis, unexpected pregnancy are getting pressured. They're being
told that Go to one of those places that does
an abortion. You know, quote, take care of it. Preborn's
there saying, no, no, let's bring it into this world,
this baby. Let's bring your little boy or little girl
into the world and bring blessings and joy to all
those around you. And that is an incredibly beautiful message,
(14:40):
and it's what preborn is doing every day. Now, they
start this process with the ultrasound because they bring the
mom in, and she might have heard a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh, it's a clump of cells. Oh, it doesn't matter. No,
it's more than that. It's your baby.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
And with that ultrasound, mom meets that baby for the
first time in a scientific way, but it's a godly
connection between mother and child. And then over 80% of
the time, that mom chooses life. For those of you
who can, please consider donating today to Preborn. $ 28 would
be a gift that would sponsor an ultrasound for one
of these moms. And you could be that person who
(15:15):
steps up and helps a mom bring her little baby
in the world. I went to a Preborn clinic in
Miami just to visit with them and And see what
they do. And there was a little girl running around
the office. And her mom told me. She's like, I
thought I was alone. I thought I couldn't do this.
And now she has this beautiful little girl, maybe five,
six years old, running around the office, giggling, having a
great time. And I just said, you know, this is
(15:36):
a really important organization. And I really hope that some
of you are going to step up and help them
because it's important. Go to preborn.com slash buck. Preborn.com slash B-U-C-K.
$ 28 would sponsor.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
An ultrasound session.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
$ 280 would sponsor 10 ultrasounds. That could be 10 little
babies that get a chance at life because of your
donation today. Preborn.com slash buck. Preborn.com slash buck. Or you
can just dial pound 250 on your phone and say
the keyword baby. Dial pound 250 say baby. Sponsored by Preborn.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's like having your house at the perfect temperature all
the time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Preset Clay and Buck on the iHeart app.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. We will
get to talkbacks and emails and all of that good stuff.
But Clay, this was weird. And this is cultural. So
I want to get into this for a second here.
Ryan Reynolds, the actor... trashed the 80s. Play 28. I'll
(16:41):
probably call for it to be shortened, but play.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
It, guys.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
What's interesting about when you get far enough away from
a time period that's quite distinct, I think there's always
a lovely feeling associated with it. It's almost like you
pave over all the trauma with, like, puppy dogs and
ice cream. And the 80s was a brutal, brutal.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Time for people. It was a f * * *
ing mess.
Speaker 10 (16:57):
Like, you know, people forget that it was, like, that
was a tremendous strife. Sociopolitical tensions everywhere. You know, we're still, like,
pretty fresh off, like, a Cuban Missile Crisis, which is only.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Like, what, 15, 20 years before.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
So, you know, it's a tumultuous period.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
But you look back at it now, and you're like, oh, yeah, time. Popcorn, cocaine. Like, no,
it was like a really scary. So I think, you know,
I think when you.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Look back, I can't hear this guy should stick to
acting and launching vodka brands or tequila brands or whatever
it is that he's doing on the side. Clay, his
analysis of the 80s could not be more wrong. The
80s may be the greatest decade of America pre-Trump, for sure, ever.
The 80s is a time of absolute peak Americana, incredible movies,
(17:39):
incredible music, the fall of the wall, all the incredible
stuff that started in motion, particularly by the late 80s.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I think the 80s is the A-plus decade. What is
this guy talking about?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I would go 90s over 80s. Really contentious take for
me there, but I understand.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Can we come back to this? Can we come back
to this?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But the fact that they can't keep actors from just saying,
go see my movie and smiling on red carpet is
really kind of amazing because they always step all into it.
If you want to have great food in your home,
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(18:22):
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(18:43):
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That's GoodRanchers.com, code Clay. GoodRanchers.com, code Clay. Welcome back in,
Clay and Buck. We are rolling through the Thursday edition
of the program.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You immediately weighing in on my potentially contentious take that
the 90s are better than the 80s. They are the
two best decades, I believe, in American history. I think
what unites both of them, Buck, is Reagan was an
incredibly popular president in the 1980s. I think we talked
(19:24):
about this when we were talking about the presidential power
rankings last week that President Trump posted. I think that
Reagan is the best president of my life by a
substantial margin.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Bill Clinton, though, was also really.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Really popular in the 90s, and he got elected basically
by saying Democrats are crazy and I'm going to be
a new type of Democrat.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Now, I don't know that people expected. that he was
going to have an affair with his intern.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And that would certainly play very different in the 21st
century that it did at the.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
End of the 20th.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But Buck, to me, the nineties were the better decade.
Now I've said this before, If you are having a
dinner party and you're worried about what the topics are
going to be, you're like, oh, my God, Lindsay Clancy
might come up and the women are going to lose
their minds or you're going to talk about Trump and
people are going to get really fired up. I'm telling
(20:24):
you the best debate that could occur that will actually
make people like each other more is 80s versus 90s.
Are you saying even younger than me? that you would
take the 80s over the 90s? You can consider movies, music, economy, culture, president,
(20:44):
all these different things you can roll together.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You would take 80s over 90s?
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I think as a decade, you probably do take the
80s over the 90s. Now, to be clear, where we
started on this was that Ryan Reynolds... who is married
to Blake Lively, was trashing the 80s as this messy,
bad decade, when really, for America, both the 80s and
(21:13):
90s were overwhelmingly prosperous. We had the Persian Gulf War
in the early 90s, and then Clinton got us involved
in some stuff in the Balkans, but we didn't have
a Vietnam. We didn't have a World War I or
a World War II. We didn't even have a Korean War.
We didn't have anything of that scale. In either of
(21:34):
those decades. So start with that. I think it's really
hard to have a great decade when you're losing a
lot of your best and bravest young men in a
conflict somewhere. So, you know, other things would be going on, too.
But I think that's a very good start. America was
at relative peace. I understand Persian Gulf War. But the
first Persian Gulf War was kind of like a mopping
(21:54):
up operation from day one. And the music is an
interesting call for me. And the movies are an interesting
call for me.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I think you're at a really immovable object, unstoppable force situation.
I could be persuaded either way, but I could not
be persuaded that what Ryan Reynolds said, which is like
the 80s was a bloody and horrible decade. It's like,
what are you for America? That's the thing for other places, maybe. Yeah,
I wouldn't have wanted to be, you know, in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
He's also our age, roughly. So he actually lived through
some of the 1980s, I think. I think Ryan Reynolds
is 42, 43-ish, if I were guessing. He's also not
a total moron in that he's been successful from a
capitalistic perspective. I don't understand how these guys can't just
(22:46):
walk down the red carpet.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Isn't he Canadian? Is he Canadian? Is he Canadian? I think, yeah,
he's Canadian. There we go. Problem solved. Now we know.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
He's Canadian.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
So he doesn't like all that muscular Reagan optimism morning
in America.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
He's one of those.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And by the way, I know we have Canadians listen
to the show and you're on board with us and
everything else. But a lot of Canadian, a lot of
you Canucks running around up there living under a blanket
of freedom provided by America. I might add, just speaking
honestly here, living lives of prosperity because the guy next
door to you is your best buddy who will stop
(23:24):
any bullies from messing with you.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You're going to give us the 80s was a bad decade?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
He's going to turn 50 in October next month. So
he remembers the 80s. Yeah, he does look pretty good
for 50. But he does, way better than me. He does, though,
remember what the 1980s were. And here's my historical analogy, Buck.
The 1980s were a final repudiation of 1968, right? Reagan
(23:54):
won to a large extent on let's bring normalcy back
to America. I think there's an argument out there from
a historical perspective that our modern day 1968 was 2020.
And that what we have seen since 2020 on into
2021 and whatnot was a peak of woke era that
(24:16):
was destabilizing and what we have seen and what certainly
the Trump re-election in 2024 represented was in some way
a return for some form of normalcy. If I want
to be optimistic, I think we could have a generation
that things go back to being somewhat normal. And let
me build on that too, Buck, because the other part
of this is the country is aging and older people
(24:40):
are saner. Generally speaking, they've actually seen things happen. They
have perspective and they also tend to vote more conservative.
And so I think that we may be trending towards
an era. And I think even the way AOC is
talking suggests that she might see it coming where this
(25:02):
sort of revolutionary, even though they're having a flare up
right here with the Democrat socialist sort of revolutionary left
wing ideas are, are going to be roundly, soundly rejected
by normal people across America. That would be my optimistic take.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I also think with the fall of the wall and
the dissolution of the Soviet Union, not only was there
a spread of incredible optimism. Now, again, that bridges. That's
80s into 90s, right? So this is where decades.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Or just numbers.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
People forget because Reagan gave the tear down the wall speech,
but it wasn't until George H.W. Bush was president that
the Berlin Wall actually came down. A lot of people
think that was Reagan. Reagan was the force behind it occurring,
but it was his vice president in charge when it
did happen.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I will tell you, though, if you're talking about more
timeless movies. I actually think now the nineties had better
production value, better technology to work with in the film industry.
So that's a huge advantage, but I think the eighties
might have, I might actually have it beat. You got
ET ghostbusters, Raiders of the lost, the last lost arc,
(26:13):
princess bride, the Goonies, karate kid, die hard, the Terminator aliens, predator,
all eighties movies, nineties movies, If you're looking at the
top of the top in terms of overall popularity, you
get Shawshank Redemption, which I actually enjoyed watching, but it's
an absurd movie.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
The whole thing.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Everyone in prison is like this kind of jolly, remorseful,
but friendly fellow. Not everybody, obviously, but a lot of
them are. And the whole thing, I think it's a
little too schmaltzy, a little too, oh, at the end.
But anyway, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, Fight Club,
The Matrix.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I do love The Matrix.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Pulp Fiction. Terminator 2, those are accordingly the best movies
of the 90s. Look, that's an amazing lineup, too. You
don't have something similar for the first decade of the
21st century. The movies are just not as good. And
then this last decade, the movies have turned into trash.
We also had more, I would argue, American dominance globally
with our culture, certainly in the 80s and 90s than
(27:13):
we do today.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I think that's true. I think that's true as well.
I do think music is better in the 90s. It
was more diverse in terms of the type of music
that was ascendant. If you go back and look at
rock music, rap music, country music, there was a wider
variety of excellence than had existed in the past.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I will say, do you know who Ella Langley is?
Ella Langley, no. You really don't know who Ella Langley is?
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I wouldn't lie to all these people listening on the radio. No,
I don't know who Ella Langley is. I know Ella Langley,
CIA headquarters, where all.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
The magic happens.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Ella Langley, Leaving Texas. Do you know that song?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Oh, she's the new country singer with the big first song.
I just forgot her name. Yeah, okay, I do know
who that is.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Okay, so she is about to have the longest tenured
number one overall hit potentially in history of music. I
think she's had a number one. The Leaving Texas song
has been number one now for 20 weeks. When I
think about the culture changing, the fact that a country
music song is now dominating and it comes on the
heels of Morgan Wallen, and we can run through any
(28:29):
number of country artists that are all having their quote-unquote moments,
I do think it suggests that the culture overall is changing,
and we're moving back in the direction of the 80s
and the 90s. Now, to your point, Buck, here's what
we need. Actually really good movies to start being made again.
And that's why I have argued to bring it home
that Paramount should come back to leave California, come to Nashville,
(28:53):
and make Nashville the Hollywood of the heartland. Let's go
to break here, by the way.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
J.D.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Vance just walked out to start a press briefing in
the White House. He's speaking right now. We will monitor
that and give you the absolute latest on anything he
might say. And we'll take your calls. We've got loaded lines,
not surprisingly. Plus, I've got a sports story that I
was trying to explain to Buck. And we may get
into that a little bit because it has truly become insane.
(29:20):
I actually got fired up over it, to be fair.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And it is not... The WNBA. Not the WNBA. And
I got fired up. So that tells you something about
the sports story.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
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your name on it, your home address, your cell phone number,
your email address.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
There's more.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
Your medical conditions, age, how you vote, your kids' names.
You can't read that file, but anyone with a credit
card uh can buy it that file is a product
of a multi-billion dollar industry called data brokers your file
is collected packaged and sold and this is legal but
every scam call every phishing text that knows way too
much about you someone paid for your file Last year,
(29:57):
Americans lost a record $ 20 billion plus to fraud. Scammers
didn't get lucky. They got prepared. I did something about
my file. We both have. We're using an online company
called Incogni. That may be a new name to you,
but Incogni goes broker by broker and forces each one
to delete your file. The opt-out forms they bury, Incogni
finds them. And when they try to sneak your information
(30:19):
back on their list, Incogni wipes it again. Go to
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Speaker 2 (30:41):
Miss the show while you're on the go?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Wind down your day with the Daily Review Podcast. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well, I knew this would happen, Clay.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
70 super fans have already come for us. with all
their gripes, with their bell-bottoms, with their BGs, with their.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Oh, actually, no, that's not even... Jimmy Hendrix would be 60s, right?
That's how much I know about the 70s. Well, a
little bit of the 70s.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
When did he die? I don't remember.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
But they're coming for us with their bell-bottoms, their disco music,
and their really bad hairstyles and tight T-shirts.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
A lot of polyester shirts with big collars.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Billy from Georgia... Oh, I'm sorry. Paul, VIP email from
Paul Buck. What rock were you under? Cars were ugly.
Music was horrible. Disco clothes were embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
We had Reagan. I think he's confusing the seventies and
the eighties. No one thinks of the eighties as disco.
Am I missing something?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
We've got loaded lines, but I wonder if Todd Blanche,
who's going to be our guest in the next segment.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Get the Attorney General to weigh in on his favorite decade.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Get the Attorney General to weigh in and see if
he can just decide the issue for the nation, which
is better, the 80s or the 90s. I bet he's
going to say 80s because one of the defining aspects
of which decade you like the most is at what
age were you the youngest and having the most fun?
And so those of us who are around my age,
(32:11):
your age, a lot of us say the 90s. And
then if you're five or six years younger than me,
a lot of you say the 80s. If you're a
decade younger, a lot of you say the 70s. That's
the way the math works. Most of you are wrong.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It's the 1990s. That's the greatest decade in the history
of the United States. Clay, who we got on the lines?
Let's get to it. We got loaded lines. Let's see.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Greg in Charleston, he is saying the 1970s are better.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Should I just hang up on him? Here he is.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Hey, how y'all doing?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Great. We're fine until your crazy take. Go ahead.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
Hey, I've got some, uh, both some street cred and
some academic cred on this. I was a recording artist
all through the touring recording artist in the eighties, had
a couple of records out. It was a Nashville songwriter
in the nineties and, uh, By the way, Clay, I
(33:07):
got my undergrad in music business at MTSU.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
That's where my parents went. Go Blue Raiders.
Speaker 9 (33:16):
All right, yeah, true blue. I got my master's from
Miami in music business, and I'm working on my Ph.D.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
Right now.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
In entertainment. So the 90s, I'll have to agree with you, Clay,
that was the best decade for country music. One of
the interesting things about that, though, is there was a
lot of covers done in the 90s that were of
70s music. And so to qualify, I think really it
(33:50):
was the late 60s through about 1977 or 1978 that
has often been called the golden age of American popular music.
I would argue that from a theoretical and classical perspective,
(34:14):
that was the absolute, unequivocal, culturally best decade of all time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Thank you for the call, and congratulations on all the success.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Go Blue Raiders.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Art has a good point, and I do think this
is significant. People of different racial groups were getting along
much better in the 80s and the 90s. Now, I
know some of you are going to say, Clay, do
you remember the L.A.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Riots?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Rodney King, O.J., all of that. Yes, there were racial divisions.
I actually don't think they were as pronounced in the
80s and the 90s as they were surrounding George Floyd.
Art in Washington, Georgia, fire away.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Yeah, I'm an old boomer. I grew up in the
60s and the 70s. So I remember the racial tensions
from those days, which is why for me, when I
think about the 80s and the 90s, I look at
them pretty equally because we didn't have the racial divisions.
Speaker 7 (35:14):
We got along.
Speaker 8 (35:15):
People were peaceful for the most part. I mean, yeah,
we had our problems, but nothing like we have today.
And When I look at history over the past few decades,
it seems to me that right around 2009 when Obama
came in is when we started to stumble backwards. It's
almost like we've gone back in time to where now
(35:35):
we have a lot of racial animosity, a lot of
racial division. And I'm just trying to figure out how
did we get here and how do we return back?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I think it's a great question. Buck, thank you for
the call.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Art, my thesis on this, and I'm curious if you
would sign on. is Obama 2012. 2008 Obama was a
very optimistic version for America that he won and ran on.
2012 was, hey, we've got to get the black vote
out no matter what. And I think really identity politics
(36:10):
in the Democrat Party started in 2012 in earnest, Certainly
with Hillary 2016, I'm with her, knocked the glass ceiling down.
I think all of that continued to accelerate, and Kamala ran,
and I think Kamala will run again, the most identity
politics-laden election of all time, and I think that provided
(36:33):
a lot of disunity across racial lines.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Coming up here, we'll talk to Attorney General Blanch about
some of the top initiatives of this DOJ and much more,
so be sure you stick around here on Clay and Buck.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Talking to a Cadman official as one does.
Welcome back in, Clay and Buck. We appreciate all of
you hanging out with us as we're rolling through the
Thursday edition of the program. We are joined now by
our friend that many of you listened to earlier in
the day, in Houston in particular, later in the day
in other places as well.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Michael Berry.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
And let's dive right in off the top here. We
have so many people asking what's going on down in Texas.
What's going on with Tallarico Paxton. You're there on the ground.
How optimistic are you in the Paxton race? How pessimistic
are you? Where would you assess us about 60 days
(00:41):
out when we know obviously early voting starts sooner rather
than later.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
And by the way, Vice President J.D.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Vance going to be doing a White House press briefing
any moment. We will be running on that. Caroline Leavitt
has left. There is no White House press secretary that
has been named to take her place yet. And so
the vice president, J.D. Vance, will be answering questions from
the media momentarily. But back to that race in Texas, Michael,
(01:08):
thanks for coming on. What should we know? How pessimistic
or optimistic are you right now?
Speaker 3 (01:15):
Well, if people show up and vote the way they
have in the past, Texans care about this state. They're
just now beginning to really focus on who Tallarico is,
and he cannot withstand the scrutiny.
Speaker 4 (01:25):
J.D.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Vance, who you mentioned, will be in Houston next Wednesday.
The president again next Thursday. It's the first midterm convention
we've seen in modern American history. Look, we're taking this very,
very seriously. Trump won Texas in 16, 20, and 24,
and 24 was the largest number of votes. A Texas
record was 6.4 million, 56% of the votes. This is
(01:47):
a Republican state that wants a Republican senator. Ken Paxton
defeated the 24-year, very unpopular sitting John Cornyn, he's won
statewide three times before. California is pouring a lot of
money into this state to make a third Senate seat
for them in New York, and Texans are realizing that
the guy that was sold to them as a country
preacher is an absolute freak, and he does not agree
(02:10):
with us on anything. He's a Democrat socialist. He wants
open borders. He's anti-beef, kill oil and gas, anti-capitalism, anti-Christian,
gun grabber. That's not going to sell in Texas.
Speaker 5 (02:20):
Well, you know, last night, Michael, czar, Last night, Trump
was speaking in the Rose Garden, and he had a name.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
I hadn't heard this one before. I've heard Talafrico, but
this is cut 12, guys. Mike, I'll let you react
to this one.
Speaker 5 (02:35):
Here's Trump talking about Talacripo, play 12.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
He was maybe the best attorney, and everybody admits it.
Speaker 6 (02:42):
He was a great attorney general in Texas, and he's
running against Talacripo.
Speaker 4 (02:49):
And this guy, he has that name for a reason.
He's terrible. He's radical left. Now he says he loves meat.
You know what he does?
Speaker 6 (02:58):
He eats meat and he goes outside and he throws
up all over the place.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
Because in Texas, if you don't eat meat, you're in
deep trouble.
Speaker 6 (03:06):
It's not a good thing not to be able to
eat meat. He was wearing a mask six months ago.
Speaker 4 (03:10):
He had a mask on. When somebody's wearing a mask
six months ago, you're in deep trouble.
Speaker 5 (03:15):
I mean, is that really true that he's wearing a mask?
And also, was he trying to win in Texas, but.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
He's a vegan?
Speaker 7 (03:23):
He was a vegan. They're a vegan campaign.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
This is the cattle industry state. He's tried to grab
guns three different times. We are gun owners. The NRA
has moved here. But you know the creepiest thing, and
the word creep is correct. The president is smart with
these labels. There's an ick factor to him. His big
issue is transing kids. He was a schoolteacher for a
(03:46):
brief period of time, and he was asked recently, what's
your favorite thing? Not your family, not your friends. What's
something that's really special and wonderful to you? And he said,
trans children.
Speaker 7 (03:57):
And there was a collective gasp.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Oh, we can't let the voters in suburban Texas see
this sort of craziness.
Speaker 7 (04:04):
This is weird.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's voted against a bill banning transgender surgery for minors, Buck.
multiple times. This guy is an absolute, he's called us
a Christo-fascist. He said he's a Christian who hates Christianity.
There really is a creep factor as if at any
moment there's going to be a big news story that
pops and you're.
Speaker 7 (04:26):
Going to go, you know what? I'd believe that about
that guy.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
You said that Texans are starting to pay attention. What
should in your opinion, Texans be doing now? We're going
to get Ken Paxton on again soon. I've been texting
with him some this week. I'm confident he's going to win.
I think he's a great candidate. He's been statewide. Maybe
you can help for people out there who don't know.
He's been attacked, unlike almost anybody in the history of
(04:53):
the state of Texas, and he's.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
Still won multiple times statewide.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
So this idea that somehow Texans aren't familiar with Ken Paxton,
I think, is untrue. I do believe that a lot
of Texans are not familiar with James Tallarico. I want
to ask you about the Beto race against Ted Cruz
back in the day. Beto was a great candidate. And
I can understand why people thought, hey, he might be
(05:20):
able to pull off a win. Tallarico is an awful candidate.
Are people just not taking him seriously enough? Because as
Buck just laid out, you got a vegan pro trans weirdo.
who is running for office and Texans just think there's
no way this guy's going to win. Whereas Beto was
actually pretty compelling. He was a great candidate. Am I
(05:40):
wrong here?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
How would you assess this?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
You are dead on Ted Cruz beat Beto by one
percentage point. President Trump came in at the end and
really rallied the forces. And he's doing the same thing
for Paxton. The national Republican establishment led by Karl Rove,
which is why Fox is trashing Paxton every day.
Speaker 7 (05:59):
It's amazing what they're doing.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Karl Rove would rather a Democrat win because he got
defeated with the candidate he.
Speaker 7 (06:05):
Owned, which was John Cornyn.
Speaker 3 (06:06):
So Rove and the establishment and the other senators, they're
not spending any money on Paxton. So we're counting on
Trump to bring in a lot of money, which he's
committed to do. Elon has committed to bring in a
lot of money. Ted Cruz is bringing in from his
pack a lot of money, and it's out on the hustings.
Paxton's going to work his butt off. What people are
going to have to see is it's not a referendum
on Paxton. It's a referendum on Tallarico because you don't
(06:28):
want to sit in there for six years. But Paxton's record, Clay,
is amazing. He's brought over $ 5. 1 billion back to Texas.
He sued Meta in one. He sued Google in one.
He sued Big Pharma in one. He sued the Purdue
folks with the pain medication. He sued these Medicare fraudsters
in one. He's the best attorney general in the country.
(06:49):
So did he go through a divorce?
Speaker 8 (06:50):
Was it unplanned?
Speaker 7 (06:51):
Pleasant? Yeah. I haven't known anybody who went through a
pleasant divorce. It's ugly. It's unfortunate all the way around.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
But there's a lot of things that the outside public
doesn't see and doesn't need to know. Is he going
to do a good job?
Speaker 7 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
He's a mechanic who's going to fix your car. He's
a quarterback that's going to score touchdowns. He's a senator
who's going to vote for Trump, and that's why Trump's
supporting him. So we can be proud of the senator
he will be, and we would be ashamed of who
Tallarico is.
Speaker 5 (07:15):
So, Michael, we're talking to Michael Baer, everybody. It's our
talk based out of Houston. You're all familiar with his show. Michael,
we're getting people that write in, call in, all of
the above, and they're upset because they say, I'm seeing, again,
I don't live in Texas, so I'm not seeing it,
but they're saying, I'm seeing all over local TV, all
(07:36):
over the airwaves, nothing but Tallarico ads. Obviously, this guy's
getting a lot of money from out of state. I'm
sure plenty of money from in-state, too, but a lot
of money from out of state. And it's all over
the place. They feel like there's saturation. There's Tallarico saturation
going on. They're living in a Tallarico world, right? And
where's Paxton? Are you telling us that the cavalry is
(07:57):
coming and you're going to be seeing a lot more
Paxton and you're confident in that? Or is there a
little bit more of a wake-up call where Paxton's people thought, oh,
we didn't need to spend money, but now we're going
to have to, right? Is this tactical or is this
a reorienting of Paxton's campaigns?
Speaker 7 (08:14):
No, it's scrambling.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
I mean, if you win the Super Bowl the next season,
you start having had less time off and less time
to regroup and less, you don't get the first round
draft pick. Paxton, I mean, Tallarico had an easy, easy
primary with Jasmine Crockett, but he pissed off a lot
of black voters and he's really struggling with black voters.
He's pandering in a manner right now that makes Tim
(08:36):
Waltz look authentic. It's sad for him. So he's struggling
with black voters really badly. And Paxton started with zero.
The Republican establishment.
Speaker 7 (08:44):
Spent over $ 100.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Million attacking him. And as soon as he came out
of that, then California, Reid Hoffman, Epstein buddy and the
like is after him.
Speaker 7 (08:54):
And they're pouring all this money.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
I mean, the last number I saw, I know you
have the Attorney General on shortly, he can tell you.
Last number I saw was they spent 70 million just
since then. Paxton started at zero. So he's going out,
Cruz is helping him. President Trump is weighing in heavily now.
Elon is very involved. He's got the big TerraFab project here.
He wants his new home state to have the right
US Senator. I mean, Paxton would be a great Senator
(09:17):
because he's been a great Attorney General. And once people
see his actual record and who Tallarico is, they're going
to turn to Paxton. I would argue that the election
just began two days ago, September 1st. That's when the
independents and the moderates start paying attention. They realize Tallarico
is a guy who grew up in a Bible Belt
state in a small town where they played Friday night
(09:40):
football and Sunday morning church. And they wear guns. And
they work in the oil field. And he's against all
of that. He comes back home to Texas from Harvard
looking like Rachel Maddow and sounding like the love child
of Abdul El-Sayed and Bernie Sanders. It's not going to
fly in Texas. And Texans are paying attention.
Speaker 7 (09:57):
To it now.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
You mentioned black voters.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Jasmine Crockett ran a campaign campaign I said, I don't
know if you echoed it, that I actually thought Jasmine
Crockett was a bigger threat to Ken Paxton, more talented politician.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Believe it or not, more normal for a lot of Texans.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
I'm not saying Jasmine Crockett was a perfect representation of
Texas by any stretch of the imagination. But I think
she's a better representation of the Democrat Party in Texas
than Tallarico is. And for casual voters, I think she
likely would have had better appeal there. What is going
to happen with black voters? Is there a great deal
of reticence there? Is Jasmine Crockett going to be on
(10:38):
the campaign trail? How is that all playing out? A
lot of talk about the Republican side. What about the
Democrat side?
Speaker 7 (10:45):
Well, Clay, you guys have talked about it. Nice profile
in The Wall Street Journal yesterday.
Speaker 9 (10:48):
By the way.
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Thank you. Not too bad.
Speaker 7 (10:50):
The Wall Street Journal is saying something nice.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
You know, the Democrat Party is in the middle of
an absolute rift, a civil war, kind of like what
we went through with the Republican Party in 2016 when
all these voters came to the table and said, hey,
we're taking over this party. The Tea Party folks, the
MAGA folks, the Trump folks, the populists, the.
Speaker 7 (11:11):
Nationalists, the Christians. And there was this.
Speaker 3 (11:13):
Resettling of the table, and we're still at the tail
end of that. The Democrats are just beginning this. So
Tallarico can't decide on Monday if he's a Democrat socialist
or if he wants to pretend he's a Texan in
a rented truck, no joke, and a cowboy hat that
didn't fit, and Chris' new cowboy getup that he's never
worn before. I mean, he's wrong on every single– he
(11:35):
wanted an open border with a front porch and Democrat socialist.
He is out of touch, and he does not have
black support– He is sort of this new DSA candidate,
whereas Jasmine was the old-style black Democrat, and the old
Democrats are really struggling. You hear this with Bill Maher,
or you see what Fetterman's saying, or you're seeing what
Rahm Emanuel's saying out of Chicago, or listen to James
(11:57):
Carville in Louisiana. This new breed, which Tallarico is part of,
it gives a great discomfort to Texans. It's like watching
Tim Walsh do jazz hands as he comes out on
the stage, and you see Tallarico, and you go, I
see a lot of frightening similarities.
Speaker 5 (12:12):
Michael, before we let you go, I'm just wondering, outside
of your home state of Texas, where, by the way,
Clay and I have to come down there and visit.
You've got your buddy Jesse Kelly just down the road.
We've got fun stuff to do when we come down
to Texas. We'll go drink with Ted Cruz or somebody
who's down there.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
We'll have a lot of fun.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
We've got to come visit, but beside that, outside of
your home state, what is the Senate race that you
are either most concerned about or most dialed in on
because of how important it is? Those things kind of
bleed together, but which one are you really looking at
and following with the most intensity?
Speaker 3 (12:48):
I'll tell you that Texans are so proud of Florida
and what Florida has become since DeSantis won in 2018.
And he barely won over a guy that ended up
butt naked and drugged out of his mind in a
hotel room a few weeks, a few months later, the
former mayor of Tallahassee. I'm not worried about the Florida
seat against Nixon. I am worried about Michigan, and I'm
(13:09):
watching Michigan closely, and it's going to be interesting to
see how many Democrats are willing to go over for
Rogers and vote for a Republican and hold their nose
because they realize Abdul El-Sayed is a– they can't dress
him up in cowboy duds like they do Tallarico. You know,
they can only make him so local. He has too
much of a past in his Hassan Piker Association. I
(13:32):
think that race, if Republicans can win that seat and
hold Texas, this is going to be a good next
two years, next six years.
Speaker 5 (13:38):
Michael Bearer, everybody. Zara Talk out of Houston. Great to
talk to you, buddy. Thanks for being here with us.
Speaker 7 (13:44):
Thank you, guys. Always appreciate you.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Clay, it's going to be okay in Texas. Paxton, it's
going to be okay. If Michael says it's going to
be okay, yeah, it's going to be okay. I'm not worried.
I'm not worried. A little bit of sunshine. Coming to
our buddy there. All right.
Speaker 5 (13:57):
Something else that I really want you to focus in
on for a second is pre-born clinics. They're so, so
important because they're saving the lives of tiny babies in
the womb. And they're doing this every day all across America.
In fact, they set up their clinics in places where
the abortion rates are highest because they want to be
that alternative right there on the front lines where moms
(14:18):
with a crisis, unexpected pregnancy are getting pressured. They're being
told that Go to one of those places that does
an abortion. You know, quote, take care of it. Preborn's
there saying, no, no, let's bring it into this world,
this baby. Let's bring your little boy or little girl
into the world and bring blessings and joy to all
those around you. And that is an incredibly beautiful message,
(14:40):
and it's what preborn is doing every day. Now, they
start this process with the ultrasound because they bring the
mom in, and she might have heard a lot of things.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Oh, it's a clump of cells. Oh, it doesn't matter. No,
it's more than that. It's your baby.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
And with that ultrasound, mom meets that baby for the
first time in a scientific way, but it's a godly
connection between mother and child. And then over 80% of
the time, that mom chooses life. For those of you
who can, please consider donating today to Preborn. $ 28 would
be a gift that would sponsor an ultrasound for one
of these moms. And you could be that person who
(15:15):
steps up and helps a mom bring her little baby
in the world. I went to a Preborn clinic in
Miami just to visit with them and And see what
they do. And there was a little girl running around
the office. And her mom told me. She's like, I
thought I was alone. I thought I couldn't do this.
And now she has this beautiful little girl, maybe five,
six years old, running around the office, giggling, having a
great time. And I just said, you know, this is
(15:36):
a really important organization. And I really hope that some
of you are going to step up and help them
because it's important. Go to preborn.com slash buck. Preborn.com slash B-U-C-K.
$ 28 would sponsor.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
An ultrasound session.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
$ 280 would sponsor 10 ultrasounds. That could be 10 little
babies that get a chance at life because of your
donation today. Preborn.com slash buck. Preborn.com slash buck. Or you
can just dial pound 250 on your phone and say
the keyword baby. Dial pound 250 say baby. Sponsored by Preborn.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
It's like having your house at the perfect temperature all
the time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Preset Clay and Buck on the iHeart app.
Speaker 5 (16:18):
Welcome back in here to Clay and Buck. We will
get to talkbacks and emails and all of that good stuff.
But Clay, this was weird. And this is cultural. So
I want to get into this for a second here.
Ryan Reynolds, the actor... trashed the 80s. Play 28. I'll
(16:41):
probably call for it to be shortened, but play.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
It, guys.
Speaker 10 (16:43):
What's interesting about when you get far enough away from
a time period that's quite distinct, I think there's always
a lovely feeling associated with it. It's almost like you
pave over all the trauma with, like, puppy dogs and
ice cream. And the 80s was a brutal, brutal.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Time for people. It was a f * * *
ing mess.
Speaker 10 (16:57):
Like, you know, people forget that it was, like, that
was a tremendous strife. Sociopolitical tensions everywhere. You know, we're still, like,
pretty fresh off, like, a Cuban Missile Crisis, which is only.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
Like, what, 15, 20 years before.
Speaker 10 (17:08):
So, you know, it's a tumultuous period.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
But you look back at it now, and you're like, oh, yeah, time. Popcorn, cocaine. Like, no,
it was like a really scary. So I think, you know,
I think when you.
Speaker 5 (17:17):
Look back, I can't hear this guy should stick to
acting and launching vodka brands or tequila brands or whatever
it is that he's doing on the side. Clay, his
analysis of the 80s could not be more wrong. The
80s may be the greatest decade of America pre-Trump, for sure, ever.
The 80s is a time of absolute peak Americana, incredible movies,
(17:39):
incredible music, the fall of the wall, all the incredible
stuff that started in motion, particularly by the late 80s.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
I think the 80s is the A-plus decade. What is
this guy talking about?
Speaker 1 (17:51):
I would go 90s over 80s. Really contentious take for
me there, but I understand.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Can we come back to this? Can we come back
to this?
Speaker 1 (18:00):
But the fact that they can't keep actors from just saying,
go see my movie and smiling on red carpet is
really kind of amazing because they always step all into it.
If you want to have great food in your home,
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American meat into your home. You know, they took away
(18:22):
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Would you like to have good American meat that you
know was raised by high standards in the United States
is exactly what Good Ranchers does. And right now, when
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(18:43):
beef bundle that is included four pounds in your first order.
That's GoodRanchers.com, code Clay. GoodRanchers.com, code Clay. Welcome back in,
Clay and Buck. We are rolling through the Thursday edition
of the program.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
A lot of.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
You immediately weighing in on my potentially contentious take that
the 90s are better than the 80s. They are the
two best decades, I believe, in American history. I think
what unites both of them, Buck, is Reagan was an
incredibly popular president in the 1980s. I think we talked
(19:24):
about this when we were talking about the presidential power
rankings last week that President Trump posted. I think that
Reagan is the best president of my life by a
substantial margin.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Bill Clinton, though, was also really.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Really popular in the 90s, and he got elected basically
by saying Democrats are crazy and I'm going to be
a new type of Democrat.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Now, I don't know that people expected. that he was
going to have an affair with his intern.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
And that would certainly play very different in the 21st
century that it did at the.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
End of the 20th.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
But Buck, to me, the nineties were the better decade.
Now I've said this before, If you are having a
dinner party and you're worried about what the topics are
going to be, you're like, oh, my God, Lindsay Clancy
might come up and the women are going to lose
their minds or you're going to talk about Trump and
people are going to get really fired up. I'm telling
(20:24):
you the best debate that could occur that will actually
make people like each other more is 80s versus 90s.
Are you saying even younger than me? that you would
take the 80s over the 90s? You can consider movies, music, economy, culture, president,
(20:44):
all these different things you can roll together.
Speaker 2 (20:46):
You would take 80s over 90s?
Speaker 5 (20:50):
I think as a decade, you probably do take the
80s over the 90s. Now, to be clear, where we
started on this was that Ryan Reynolds... who is married
to Blake Lively, was trashing the 80s as this messy,
bad decade, when really, for America, both the 80s and
(21:13):
90s were overwhelmingly prosperous. We had the Persian Gulf War
in the early 90s, and then Clinton got us involved
in some stuff in the Balkans, but we didn't have
a Vietnam. We didn't have a World War I or
a World War II. We didn't even have a Korean War.
We didn't have anything of that scale. In either of
(21:34):
those decades. So start with that. I think it's really
hard to have a great decade when you're losing a
lot of your best and bravest young men in a
conflict somewhere. So, you know, other things would be going on, too.
But I think that's a very good start. America was
at relative peace. I understand Persian Gulf War. But the
first Persian Gulf War was kind of like a mopping
(21:54):
up operation from day one. And the music is an
interesting call for me. And the movies are an interesting
call for me.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (22:05):
I think you're at a really immovable object, unstoppable force situation.
I could be persuaded either way, but I could not
be persuaded that what Ryan Reynolds said, which is like
the 80s was a bloody and horrible decade. It's like,
what are you for America? That's the thing for other places, maybe. Yeah,
I wouldn't have wanted to be, you know, in Afghanistan.
Speaker 1 (22:26):
He's also our age, roughly. So he actually lived through
some of the 1980s, I think. I think Ryan Reynolds
is 42, 43-ish, if I were guessing. He's also not
a total moron in that he's been successful from a
capitalistic perspective. I don't understand how these guys can't just
(22:46):
walk down the red carpet.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Isn't he Canadian? Is he Canadian? Is he Canadian? I think, yeah,
he's Canadian. There we go. Problem solved. Now we know.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
He's Canadian.
Speaker 5 (22:57):
So he doesn't like all that muscular Reagan optimism morning
in America.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
He's one of those.
Speaker 5 (23:03):
And by the way, I know we have Canadians listen
to the show and you're on board with us and
everything else. But a lot of Canadian, a lot of
you Canucks running around up there living under a blanket
of freedom provided by America. I might add, just speaking
honestly here, living lives of prosperity because the guy next
door to you is your best buddy who will stop
(23:24):
any bullies from messing with you.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
You're going to give us the 80s was a bad decade?
Speaker 1 (23:29):
He's going to turn 50 in October next month. So
he remembers the 80s. Yeah, he does look pretty good
for 50. But he does, way better than me. He does, though,
remember what the 1980s were. And here's my historical analogy, Buck.
The 1980s were a final repudiation of 1968, right? Reagan
(23:54):
won to a large extent on let's bring normalcy back
to America. I think there's an argument out there from
a historical perspective that our modern day 1968 was 2020.
And that what we have seen since 2020 on into
2021 and whatnot was a peak of woke era that
(24:16):
was destabilizing and what we have seen and what certainly
the Trump re-election in 2024 represented was in some way
a return for some form of normalcy. If I want
to be optimistic, I think we could have a generation
that things go back to being somewhat normal. And let
me build on that too, Buck, because the other part
of this is the country is aging and older people
(24:40):
are saner. Generally speaking, they've actually seen things happen. They
have perspective and they also tend to vote more conservative.
And so I think that we may be trending towards
an era. And I think even the way AOC is
talking suggests that she might see it coming where this
(25:02):
sort of revolutionary, even though they're having a flare up
right here with the Democrat socialist sort of revolutionary left
wing ideas are, are going to be roundly, soundly rejected
by normal people across America. That would be my optimistic take.
Speaker 5 (25:18):
I also think with the fall of the wall and
the dissolution of the Soviet Union, not only was there
a spread of incredible optimism. Now, again, that bridges. That's
80s into 90s, right? So this is where decades.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
Or just numbers.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
People forget because Reagan gave the tear down the wall speech,
but it wasn't until George H.W. Bush was president that
the Berlin Wall actually came down. A lot of people
think that was Reagan. Reagan was the force behind it occurring,
but it was his vice president in charge when it
did happen.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I will tell you, though, if you're talking about more
timeless movies. I actually think now the nineties had better
production value, better technology to work with in the film industry.
So that's a huge advantage, but I think the eighties
might have, I might actually have it beat. You got
ET ghostbusters, Raiders of the lost, the last lost arc,
(26:13):
princess bride, the Goonies, karate kid, die hard, the Terminator aliens, predator,
all eighties movies, nineties movies, If you're looking at the
top of the top in terms of overall popularity, you
get Shawshank Redemption, which I actually enjoyed watching, but it's
an absurd movie.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
The whole thing.
Speaker 5 (26:31):
Everyone in prison is like this kind of jolly, remorseful,
but friendly fellow. Not everybody, obviously, but a lot of
them are. And the whole thing, I think it's a
little too schmaltzy, a little too, oh, at the end.
But anyway, Goodfellas, Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, Fight Club,
The Matrix.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
I do love The Matrix.
Speaker 5 (26:51):
Pulp Fiction. Terminator 2, those are accordingly the best movies
of the 90s. Look, that's an amazing lineup, too. You
don't have something similar for the first decade of the
21st century. The movies are just not as good. And
then this last decade, the movies have turned into trash.
We also had more, I would argue, American dominance globally
with our culture, certainly in the 80s and 90s than
(27:13):
we do today.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
I think that's true. I think that's true as well.
I do think music is better in the 90s. It
was more diverse in terms of the type of music
that was ascendant. If you go back and look at
rock music, rap music, country music, there was a wider
variety of excellence than had existed in the past.
Speaker 2 (27:35):
I will say, do you know who Ella Langley is?
Ella Langley, no. You really don't know who Ella Langley is?
Speaker 5 (27:47):
I wouldn't lie to all these people listening on the radio. No,
I don't know who Ella Langley is. I know Ella Langley,
CIA headquarters, where all.
Speaker 7 (27:54):
The magic happens.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Ella Langley, Leaving Texas. Do you know that song?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Oh, she's the new country singer with the big first song.
I just forgot her name. Yeah, okay, I do know
who that is.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
Okay, so she is about to have the longest tenured
number one overall hit potentially in history of music. I
think she's had a number one. The Leaving Texas song
has been number one now for 20 weeks. When I
think about the culture changing, the fact that a country
music song is now dominating and it comes on the
heels of Morgan Wallen, and we can run through any
(28:29):
number of country artists that are all having their quote-unquote moments,
I do think it suggests that the culture overall is changing,
and we're moving back in the direction of the 80s
and the 90s. Now, to your point, Buck, here's what
we need. Actually really good movies to start being made again.
And that's why I have argued to bring it home
that Paramount should come back to leave California, come to Nashville,
(28:53):
and make Nashville the Hollywood of the heartland. Let's go
to break here, by the way.
Speaker 4 (28:57):
J.D.
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Vance just walked out to start a press briefing in
the White House. He's speaking right now. We will monitor
that and give you the absolute latest on anything he
might say. And we'll take your calls. We've got loaded lines,
not surprisingly. Plus, I've got a sports story that I
was trying to explain to Buck. And we may get
into that a little bit because it has truly become insane.
(29:20):
I actually got fired up over it, to be fair.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
And it is not... The WNBA. Not the WNBA. And
I got fired up. So that tells you something about
the sports story.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
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Speaker 2 (29:34):
There's more.
Speaker 5 (29:35):
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You can't read that file, but anyone with a credit
card uh can buy it that file is a product
of a multi-billion dollar industry called data brokers your file
is collected packaged and sold and this is legal but
every scam call every phishing text that knows way too
much about you someone paid for your file Last year,
(29:57):
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but Incogni goes broker by broker and forces each one
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(30:19):
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Speaker 2 (30:41):
Miss the show while you're on the go?
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Wind down your day with the Daily Review Podcast. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Well, I knew this would happen, Clay.
Speaker 5 (30:52):
70 super fans have already come for us. with all
their gripes, with their bell-bottoms, with their BGs, with their.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Oh, Jimmy.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
Oh, actually, no, that's not even... Jimmy Hendrix would be 60s, right?
That's how much I know about the 70s. Well, a
little bit of the 70s.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
When did he die? I don't remember.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
But they're coming for us with their bell-bottoms, their disco music,
and their really bad hairstyles and tight T-shirts.
Speaker 2 (31:16):
A lot of polyester shirts with big collars.
Speaker 5 (31:21):
Billy from Georgia... Oh, I'm sorry. Paul, VIP email from
Paul Buck. What rock were you under? Cars were ugly.
Music was horrible. Disco clothes were embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Okay.
Speaker 5 (31:33):
We had Reagan. I think he's confusing the seventies and
the eighties. No one thinks of the eighties as disco.
Am I missing something?
Speaker 2 (31:41):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
We've got loaded lines, but I wonder if Todd Blanche,
who's going to be our guest in the next segment.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Get the Attorney General to weigh in on his favorite decade.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Get the Attorney General to weigh in and see if
he can just decide the issue for the nation, which
is better, the 80s or the 90s. I bet he's
going to say 80s because one of the defining aspects
of which decade you like the most is at what
age were you the youngest and having the most fun?
And so those of us who are around my age,
(32:11):
your age, a lot of us say the 90s. And
then if you're five or six years younger than me,
a lot of you say the 80s. If you're a
decade younger, a lot of you say the 70s. That's
the way the math works. Most of you are wrong.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
It's the 1990s. That's the greatest decade in the history
of the United States. Clay, who we got on the lines?
Let's get to it. We got loaded lines. Let's see.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
Greg in Charleston, he is saying the 1970s are better.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Should I just hang up on him? Here he is.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
Hey, how y'all doing?
Speaker 2 (32:42):
Great. We're fine until your crazy take. Go ahead.
Speaker 10 (32:45):
Yes.
Speaker 9 (32:46):
Hey, I've got some, uh, both some street cred and
some academic cred on this. I was a recording artist
all through the touring recording artist in the eighties, had
a couple of records out. It was a Nashville songwriter
in the nineties and, uh, By the way, Clay, I
(33:07):
got my undergrad in music business at MTSU.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
That's where my parents went. Go Blue Raiders.
Speaker 9 (33:16):
All right, yeah, true blue. I got my master's from
Miami in music business, and I'm working on my Ph.D.
Speaker 7 (33:23):
Right now.
Speaker 9 (33:26):
In entertainment. So the 90s, I'll have to agree with you, Clay,
that was the best decade for country music. One of
the interesting things about that, though, is there was a
lot of covers done in the 90s that were of
70s music. And so to qualify, I think really it
(33:50):
was the late 60s through about 1977 or 1978 that
has often been called the golden age of American popular music.
I would argue that from a theoretical and classical perspective,
(34:14):
that was the absolute, unequivocal, culturally best decade of all time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Thank you for the call, and congratulations on all the success.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Go Blue Raiders.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Art has a good point, and I do think this
is significant. People of different racial groups were getting along
much better in the 80s and the 90s. Now, I
know some of you are going to say, Clay, do
you remember the L.A.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
Riots?
Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yes, I do.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Rodney King, O.J., all of that. Yes, there were racial divisions.
I actually don't think they were as pronounced in the
80s and the 90s as they were surrounding George Floyd.
Art in Washington, Georgia, fire away.
Speaker 8 (34:58):
Yeah, I'm an old boomer. I grew up in the
60s and the 70s. So I remember the racial tensions
from those days, which is why for me, when I
think about the 80s and the 90s, I look at
them pretty equally because we didn't have the racial divisions.
Speaker 7 (35:14):
We got along.
Speaker 8 (35:15):
People were peaceful for the most part. I mean, yeah,
we had our problems, but nothing like we have today.
And When I look at history over the past few decades,
it seems to me that right around 2009 when Obama
came in is when we started to stumble backwards. It's
almost like we've gone back in time to where now
(35:35):
we have a lot of racial animosity, a lot of
racial division. And I'm just trying to figure out how
did we get here and how do we return back?
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I think it's a great question. Buck, thank you for
the call.
Speaker 1 (35:46):
Art, my thesis on this, and I'm curious if you
would sign on. is Obama 2012. 2008 Obama was a
very optimistic version for America that he won and ran on.
2012 was, hey, we've got to get the black vote
out no matter what. And I think really identity politics
(36:10):
in the Democrat Party started in 2012 in earnest, Certainly
with Hillary 2016, I'm with her, knocked the glass ceiling down.
I think all of that continued to accelerate, and Kamala ran,
and I think Kamala will run again, the most identity
politics-laden election of all time, and I think that provided
(36:33):
a lot of disunity across racial lines.
Speaker 5 (36:37):
Coming up here, we'll talk to Attorney General Blanch about
some of the top initiatives of this DOJ and much more,
so be sure you stick around here on Clay and Buck.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
Talking to a Cadman official as one does.
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