November 14, 2025 • 36 mins
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show delivers a politically charged and investigative deep dive into the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, the California gubernatorial race, and the broader failures of Democrat-led governance. The hour opens with President Donald Trump’s explosive post on Truth Social, calling for a federal investigation into Epstein’s financial ties with prominent Democrats including Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, and institutions like JP Morgan Chase. Clay and Buck argue that renewed focus on Epstein is a strategic distraction by Democrats to deflect from the political damage caused by the recent government shutdown. They assert that if Trump had any real connection to Epstein’s crimes, Democrats would have weaponized it years ago during their aggressive legal campaigns against him.
The hosts explore the mystery surrounding Epstein’s wealth, questioning how someone with no major business ventures or hedge fund credentials could amass hundreds of millions of dollars. They highlight suspicious wire transfers, unexplained real estate gifts, and the lack of transparency from major banks. Buck shares insights from XAI search results, noting that no definitive public explanation exists for Epstein’s financial empire, which raises serious questions about institutional accountability and political protection.
The conversation then shifts to California politics with a live interview featuring Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton. Hilton criticizes Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for their failure to rebuild homes destroyed in wildfires nearly a year ago. He describes a bureaucratic nightmare where residents are trapped in a loop between insurance companies and permitting offices, despite public promises of streamlined recovery. Hilton also slams California’s water mismanagement, accusing state leaders of wasting valuable rainwater to protect the delta smelt instead of supporting agriculture in the Central Valley.
Hilton outlines his campaign platform, which includes $3 gas, cutting electric bills in half, eliminating state income tax on the first $100,000 of income, and ending abusive litigation practices that target small businesses. He explains how California’s Private Attorney General Act has enabled trial lawyers to file extortionate lawsuits, costing businesses millions annually. Hilton promises to appoint reform-minded officials to dismantle these systems without needing legislative approval.
The interview also touches on the political climate in San Francisco and San Jose, where pragmatic Democrat mayors are beginning to reject far-left policies. Hilton argues that California’s one-party rule has led to systemic failure across education, affordability, and public safety, and calls for balanced governance. He shares his experience as a senior advisor in the UK government and emphasizes his readiness to implement executive reforms from day one.
The hour wraps with humorous banter about Eric Swalwell potentially entering the governor’s race, jokes about mashed potatoes and Fang Fang, and listener feedback on the hosts’ lack of handyman skills. Clay and Buck close the segment by previewing the next hour and thanking their audience for sticking with them through a week of hard-hitting political coverage.
Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8
For the latest updates from Clay & Buck, visit our website https://www.clayandbuck.com/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
In hour number two Clay Travis buck Sexton Show, we
hope all of you are having a great Friday. We're
going to head out to La talk with the California
gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, friend of ours, about the situation
in LA. As Gavin Newsom attempts to elevate his profile
(00:21):
and argue that he's done a good job out in California.
We'll see what the latest is there. But as we
begin the second hour of the Friday edition of the program,
I teased this which has happened in the last hour
or so President Trump on.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Truth Social Posts.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
As follows now that the Democrats are using the Epstein hoax,
involving Democrats not Republicans, to try and deflect from their
disastrous shutdown and all of their other failures. I will
be asking A. G. Pambondi and the Department of Justice,
together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate
(01:09):
Jeffrey Epstein's involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers,
Reid Hoffman, JP, Morgan Chase, and many other people and
institutions to determine what was going on with them and him.
This is I'm reading from President Trump another Russia, Russia,
(01:30):
Russia scam with all the arrows pointing to the Democrats.
Records show these men and many others spent large portions
of their life with Epstein and on his island. Stay tuned,
triple exclamation points. All right, So buck you and I
(01:51):
earlier this week said, beyond a shadow of doubt, what
I believe is true and what I've seen many other people,
even begrudgingly people on the left come around and discuss.
Which is President Trump's association with Epstein was dropped at
the time that it was earlier this week to try
(02:12):
to distract from the fact that Democrats had acted a
disastrous shutdown and had suddenly decided they needed to bend
the knee, and as a result, they were trying to
basically just distract from a storyline that otherwise would be
told associated with their own failures. I've said for a
(02:32):
long time, and we'll open up the phone lines eight
hundred two two two eight eight two. It's Friday. You
guys can weigh in on this if you would like.
I've said for a long time, if President Trump were
involved in any kind of significant way with Jeffrey Epstein,
do you think Joe Biden would have said on it
for four years while he was trying to bankrupt President Trump,
(02:56):
while they were going through Milania's underway drawer at Mar
A Lago, while they were charging him with criminal offenses
in South Florida and in New York and in Georgia
and all of these places. Do you really think that
they would have been in the situation where they were
(03:20):
just not paying attention to wrongdoing that Trump was involved
with Epstein. It's crazy, It doesn't add up. I totally
co sign on that, and I would add to a clay.
You could even take a few steps back and say, is.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It likely that maybe, just maybe the one figure who
has done more to defeat the forces of the demonic
left than anybody else in America in the last decade,
that they lied about in every imaginable way, the Russia
collusion hoax. They were telling everybody that he was working
(03:55):
with Putin on some secret Kremlin nonsense. You know that
the lies that they have told about Donald Trump are
completely absurd. They lied about all that, and then they
brought four bogus criminal prosecutions. The guy almost made up
to eighty years old, never once indubted for anything, then
four all held to coincide with an election year, and
(04:18):
then also civil suits brought including I mean, what the
Letitia James one was preposterous beyond words. What is more
likely that this is yet another effort to lie about
Donald Trump, to try to bring him down, or even
just to slow him down a bit. I don't think.
I think they know they're not going to bring him down,
but to slow him down politically or clay. After all
(04:39):
of those lies, they finally found the one. They found
this smoking gun in the Epstein files that they've had
for many, many, many years and gone through a million times. Already,
give me a break, like this is just this is absurd,
This is not serious. People cannot make this argument to
me and be taken seriously correct.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And so Trump is now saying, Okay, if you want
to aggressively go back into the Epstein.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Story, Why would we not, Why would we not.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Decide that we're going to actually go to what is
the real only mystery I think of Epstein at this point,
which is how did he actually get all the money
that he had? And I understand some people out there like, oh,
you know, you don't really break down the difference of wealth.
(05:34):
But there's a big difference between being worth ten million
dollars and being worth one hundred million dollars. And there's
a big difference between being worth one hundred million dollars
and five hundred million dollars or seven hundred million dollars.
And as you get up in those big numbers, it
becomes almost impossible to be worth five hundred million dollars
(05:57):
or more. And they're not too be a really traceable
way that your wealth exists. Now, maybe you inherited it.
There's lots of super rich people out there that inherit
vast sums of money that occurs, and but that's connected
to at some point a windfall that someone in the
family got. You're a Walton air because Sam Walton did
(06:20):
what he did with Walmart. You're an air of the Rockefellers,
or of the Gettys, or any of these numbers of
these families that are just as.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Easy as wealth imaginable to trace, because it's already been
traced before he's got everybody already knows so. But you can't.
But I'm just here to tell you you can't be
worth over five hundred million dollars without typically there being
something that you created, something massive that you owned and
you sold. Except for Jeffrey Epstein, how.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Is he so incredibly wealthy despite the fact that he's
never really created anything. He's never founded a company that
was wildly successful, he's never made you know, he's not
a hedge fund guy who has multi billions of dollars
that he's managing and he's taken a share of. It
(07:15):
just doesn't add up. And so Trump is asking, Hey,
how about these banks start to explain some of these transactions.
And I think that's a really great question, because Buck,
I will tell you the banks typically pay a lot
of attention if a million dollars is being wired from
one place to another.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I was looking and reading about this. There were times
when there were tens of millions of dollars being wired
around to Epstein, some of these transactions were over one
hundred million dollars, Buck, Clay, in the world is going
on here? Have you ever have you ever seen the
place that was rated on the Upper East Side in
(07:55):
the seventies, Have you ever told this spectacular? I mean
so I grew up a few blocks from there, and
I always knew growing growing up there that the townhouses
between Madison and Fifth Avenue in the sixties, the seventies
and some of the eighties truly used to belong to
industrial barons of the turn of the century. I mean
(08:16):
some of them they're now museums or their embassies or
you know, they've transformed a lot of them. But the
ones that are still lived in by people, I think
they say that that house that he lived in was
a sixty to eighty million dollar townhouse if it's a
true mansion, a mansion in one of the most expensive
for square foot real estate places on the planet. And
(08:40):
he was given it. He didn't purchase it, it was
given to him. That's a very strange move. And you
look at a lot of the other things here too.
Look this guy. There's the idea that they're going to
be able to get away with not having more transparency
(09:01):
on this, I think is just that's just going to
fall by the wayside. They're going to because now the
Democrats have opened and they're selectively picking oh what about this,
what about this, trying to insinuate things. There's no they're
no wrongdoing of any kind than anything they've released. They're
just oh so and so said this they're releasing selective
hearsay from Epstein in order to try to make at
(09:22):
some level, I'm annoyed because now it is working and
that we're all talking about this instead of the huge
Democrat failure of the shutdown. We're talking about this instead
of instead of affordability, which Democrats won't that's going to
be the as I said, you're gonna hear about that
until we're all just so sick of the word. But
you know, used to be pay your fair share. That
was the thing we were hearing from Democrats ad nauseum
(09:43):
in the Obama era. Pay your fair share, Pay your
fair share. It's gonna be affordability. But Clay, when Trump
weighs in on this one, I think he might have
wrong footed some of his critics here because why can't
we on what basis could we be excluded from seeing
the finance of all of this. That's a great question.
So what I've been asking for a long time. That's
(10:05):
always the thing that has not added up to me
at all. And that's always the component of this that
I've heard people say, oh, we know, and then I
always say, well, but the public doesn't know. We should
know what happened here. That's a lot of money. That's
a lot of money, right, I mean they went after
Donald Trump with thirty four felony charges for a book
(10:28):
keeping not even error, just keeping the books the way
that he wanted to over what was it one hundred
and fifty grand? Oh basically yes, right, It wasn't like
something like that. It was like one hundred something grand
for the for the you know, the NDA payment. And
they don't they can't tell us this the idea that
he was a financial advisor too. I know something about this.
I know some financial advisors. One percent is pretty standard
(10:52):
in the industry. So please don't call it and say, buck,
I'll get you a great deal. You know, I'll do
half a percent, right, I'm just saying about one percent?
Is you usually what an asset manager for individuals will take.
Some will take two. But that can be a little,
you know, that's all that that People will say that
feels like a lot, especially over time. How do you
get from I manage assets really for really wealthy people,
(11:15):
as Jeffrey Epstein's to I'm worth six hundred million dollars
that clay they have found correct. This guy was operating
at a level of wealth and sophistication. I'm sure there
was money stashed in accounts that has not been found.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And his argument, because I've read this, the argument seems
to be that he was really good at finding tax
avoidance strategies. Okay, there are lots of those guys out
there that are pretty good at finding tax avoidance strategies.
And I read some of these emails where he's saying, Hey,
I expect to be paid eighty million dollars this year.
(11:52):
It just doesn't add up, and so I give Trump
credit here. I think this is a this is a
move that going to make some people. Can I justarticularly
these banks.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I just want to say that the first thing that
comes up from groc Okay, for anyone who says, oh
it's shut up, this is no one or this is
the first you grock, I will say, this is a
big thing for me. Clay, I always wondered, when am
I when are those are those leftists at Google going
to lose my search business? They have I grock now
(12:24):
over Google every time if I'm just looking for basic information.
I grock over Google every time I went into greg
which is the x AI search. For any of you
who don't have it. It's very useful, I'm gonna tell you,
and it gives very good information. I use it for
a whole range of things. And I am an I'm
an investor. Just a full disclosure. I'm an investor also
(12:46):
in an Xai. But here's what comes up. The origins
of Jeffrey Epstein's wealth remain one of the most debated
and opaque aspects of his life. No definitive, fully documented
at explanation has been made public. Much of what is
known has come from court documents, investigative reporting, and statements
by people who knew him, Clay, no definitive explanation has
(13:10):
been made public. That is unacceptable. That is unacceptable. I
mean it clearly could who was given him the money?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And there's been a financial accounting on his death because
when you die, obviously as a part of the will
and the estate, they have to figure out what your
assets are. There've been the huge lawsuits, so the Epstein
victims have gotten paid out substantial, like over one hundred
million dollars I think, among other dollars. I think is
(13:41):
even more than that. So there's been a financial settlement
of some sort there. But yeah, how the money ever
got there. Nobody can really explain how he went from
a guy buck He worked as a teacher at a
Manhattan private school, so I mean he had no money, right,
(14:01):
I mean, we probably got some teachers out there listening him.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
In after taked his credentials to get that job too.
And this guy's been to fraudster his whole life. In
addition to everything else, he ends up being worth hundreds
of millions of dollars. It just again, it does not
add up. And I think a lot of you out
there they've skipped over where the money came from that
(14:24):
allowed him to even have this lifestyle. But I think
it's the most important question out there. So Trump is
saying now, and Trump has no love lost for a
lot of these banks because they debanked him. As Eric
Trump has come on and talked about with us. Suddenly
the Trump organization after his first term couldn't even have
bank accounts, So good for him. I like this move.
(14:45):
Let's talk about something happy and joyous and take a
turn into the holidays here for a second. Look. I'm
not saying that I try to just get it all
done at once, but I did all of the gifts
from my family in New York. I'm talking new sheets, pillows, blankets,
amazing stuff. Jall came from Crozy Earth. In fact, my
mom was just telling me that she was all wrapped
(15:07):
up in her Cozy Earth bubble blanket last night. Absolutely
fan and they needed up there in New York. Sorry,
getting a little cold up there. Unlike Miami, Cozy Earth
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Hanaka gifts, whatever birthday gifts you got coming up, get
it all right at Cozy Earth. The quality is incredible.
Kerry and I were sleeping on Cozy Earth sheets last night.
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(15:31):
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Speaker 3 (16:13):
Stories of Freedom, Stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Each day, spend time with Clay and buy.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Welcome back in here to play and Buck. Kind of
a tight turnaround, So let's just get into well, a
few things coming up. Don't we have a guest at
one thirty or am I imagining it? Steve Hilton's Steve Hilton. Yes,
that's what I thought. Thank you. So we're going to
have a California deep dive on what's going on on
(16:48):
that side of things, and it's interesting to us as always.
California is where we have so many fantastic listeners. Are
two biggest states for listenership, well at mirrors population, but
it's California and Texas. We have a lot of Republicans
who are behind enemy lines. They're still trying to bring
some sanity to the Golden State. And I love California.
(17:09):
I just don't love its government. But as a state,
it's a fabulous place.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
So maybe the most beautiful. I'm gonna get anger emails
over this. I think California is the most geographically beautiful
of all the states when you think about the variety
of this. First of all, the state's huge, but you
think about the redwood forest in the north, You think
about the incredible beaches of Orange County and San Diego,
(17:36):
and you think about the mountains where you can ski
and basically the perfect weather by and large of la
I think it's the most of all the country, the
most geographically, most geographically benefited. Is that the wrong word?
Most privileged? Most spectacular, what's the gifted? It's just atful place.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Else is blessed. There's a good word. You know what
else is great? Rapid radios.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
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(18:26):
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(18:47):
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Speaker 1 (18:57):
Check them out rapid radios dot Com.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Welcome back in play Travis buck Sexton Show. We are
joined now by our friend candidate for Governor of California,
Republican candidate for Governor, Steve Hilton. And Steve, we appreciate
you giving us the time here on a Friday, as
I know you're campaigning all over the state. What is
(19:21):
the latest on the rebuild in LA? And I believe
there is the answer is virtually nothing. But how much
are you hearing from people that are just fed up
over the inability of people to rebuild the homes that
they lost in the wildfires coming up on nearly a
year ago.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Now, so I last because it's laughable, Clay, it's just unbelievable. Apologies,
it's for the noise. I'm on the road. I don't
know if you can hear in the middle of a
very major storm pouring with rain, of course, which Gavin
Newsome and the idiots in charge are going to let
run out into the ocean instead of storing it and
(20:03):
getting it to our great egg industry. I'm in the
central valley of farmland all around me not going to
get this water because they're going to send it out
to the ocean to protect the Delta smelt. That's another story.
On the Palisades, it's laughable. They haven't done anything. All
the time, I'm there hearing from people who are so
incredibly frustrated. They get just sent from one ridiculous bit
(20:26):
of bureaucracy to the next. They go to the building department,
it's a different person each time. They say, we can't
give you a permit until you get your insurance. Do
you go to the insurance. They say, we can't give
insurance until you get a permit, and it's just round
and round. This is all months after Karen Bass ludicrously
made an announcement saying I have just signed an executive
(20:47):
order streamlining permitting to help rebuild LA. Nothing's happened. And
here's the reason why, when you actually look behind that.
I actually watched the video of the press conference where
she made the announcement. Here are the words she actually,
I have just signed an executive order tasking agency heads
with developing paths forward to streamlining bermitting. They're in a nutshell.
(21:11):
You have the explanation as so why nothing works in California.
You've got these ridiculous machine politicians who have no clue
how anything works, never done a real job in their lives,
no understanding of how to make change happen. Totally ideologically driven,
not practical, and that's why we're in such a mess.
That's why last bit of news for you today, just
(21:34):
seen a poll just come out showing me in the
lead in the governor's race, ahead of all the candidates,
including all the Democrats. People are sick of this nonsense
in California, and it's time for change. We're going to
get that change next year.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Well, that was the next place I wanted to go
with you, Steve, which is you have to think that
at some point the people have suffered enough, regardless of
where they're ideologically aligned, At some point you just want
stuff to work. At some point, you just want to
be safe. You're sick of waiting in lines that never
get anything done anyway, And I was wonder if you
(22:07):
could speak to what we saw in San Francisco recently.
It came to our attention that the mayor of San
Francisco now isn't some Republican, not a MAGA guy, but
isn't completely certifiably insane, and was willing to take a
more reasonable approach toward Trump's offer of trying to assist
(22:28):
in the cleanup. So do you view that as indicative
of what's going on more statewide where people are seeing
the craziness for what it is? Is that more specific
to San Francisco? I wanted your take on what's going
on up there.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, No, it's really interesting. I mean the mayor you're
speaking about, Daniel Leering, he's a friend of mine. I've
known him for years. He's a Democrat, but he's a
non crazy Democrat, let's use that term. And he's definitely
the kind of person that you either he's focusing on
practical things, is not an id logue. There's another mayor,
(23:02):
less well known in San Jose, just the other end
of the San Francisco Bay, Matt Mayhan, who's also got
that more pragmatic approach. So you've now got the Bay
Area with two major mayors who are in that category,
and it does show that people are waking up now.
The Bay Area obviously very heavily democratic, and so it's
not surprising that you're going to have Democrats elected they're
(23:27):
a Republican really wouldn't be able to make it work
in the Bay Area. I think, however, statewide, I think
that exact same mood that I'd say desperation for change
is what will help me win next year as governor
as a Republican because across the state it's a much
(23:47):
more republican state actually than people think. The base Republican
vote in California it's been pretty steady for the last
twenty years or so. It's just over forty percent. So
that's a gap that is big, but it's not unbridgable
and the scale of their failure every single measure you
look at. We are the worst performing state in America,
(24:09):
highest unemployment rate, highest poverty rate, highest cost of burrs,
rent home prices, the worst business climate in America ten years,
and are, according to Chief Executive magazine US News and
World Report rankings, fiftieth out of fifty for affordability, fiftieth
out of fifty for opportunity, the worst reading scores in
(24:31):
the country. I mean, it just goes on and on.
They've failed on every front and people are really sick
of it. That the difference this time is they're going
to have a really strong, clear, common sense, positive alternative
that I'm laying out there. Three dollar gas, your electric
bills cut in half, a home you can afford to
buy your first hundred thousand of income free of state
(24:52):
income tax. They've never had. It's going to be a
real shock to them, I think, to face a candidate
like me who's got the business experience, the government reform experience,
the media platform. They to take them on, and I'm
going to take them apart. And I'm really looking forward
to it.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Isn't it interesting? Steve? That was all really well laid out.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
There are lots of states that have Democrats and Republicans
involved that can be successful. There are tons of red
states that basically have just said, hey, Democrats, thanks, but
no thanks. Maybe they still have power in some way
a little bit like in Nashville area where I live,
which is a deeper red state, but Nashville's a little
(25:33):
bit blue. But anything that Democrats completely control, that is
where there is no alternative party, you have abject failure.
Do you get the sense like it doesn't mean that
Californians have to believe that Republicans have all the answers,
but just to say, hey, maybe a monolithic commitment to
(25:54):
Democrats is not getting us the best possible result. Are
you picking up on that when you're tryingling around the
state and making your.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Arguments one hundred I was just fat to say exactly that, Clay,
which is that you know, and I get real, you
know when we do our town halls and have meetings,
real nodding along when I make the point that, look,
we've now had fifteen years of one party rule. They've
controlled every statewide office, super majority in the legislature, all
(26:22):
the big cities and the big counties, next year, it
will be sixteen years of party rule. And I say, look,
you don't have to become a Republican. Let's just agree
it's not healthy to have one party rule for so long.
It never is, never works anywhere, So let's just have
a bit of balance. Even when I'm elected governor as
a Republican, frankly, looking at you know, we're going to
(26:45):
fight for every Republican candidate, and I'm actively on the
road supporting other Republicans at every level because we've got
to elect more Republicans. But it looks like they'll still
have certainly a majority, probably still a supermajority in the legislature.
So it's just a bit of balance that we're looking for.
That argument I think goes over very well. I've seen
it on people's faces, and it's part of the story.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I don't know, Steve, if you sat through the pretty
positive spin, but the Schwarzenegger Netflix bio movie that they
made a couple of maybe a year or two ago. Anyway,
I bring it up because, oh, okay, you have seen it.
I bring it up because one thing that the governator
(27:28):
as we all call him, who was at least theoretically
a Republican. Something that he said is once he got
into office, that it was impossible to do anything because
the machinery of the state, the government bodies, regulatory agencies,
public sector unions statewide are so powerful and so entrenched
that you can't really do anything. What do you say
(27:50):
to that? How could you break I'm sure there's some
truth to that, but how do you break through that
if you're given a mandate by the people of California
as governor?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Well, the difference is, and Arnold's a good friend of mine,
I've known him for twenty years. The difference is that
I will go into this with government reform experience. So
I was senior advisor to the Prime Minister in the UK,
my office right next to the cabinet room. There. I'm
not saying it's a direct read across, of course not,
but it's a similar sized economy and government bureaucracy and
(28:24):
I and neither am I saying that what we did there.
Remember I wasn't the decision maker. I was senior advisor.
It was some perfect success, far from it, but I
learned how the system works. I learned how bureaucrats work
and how incredibly aggressive you need to be in order
to make change happen. The other lesson you compare President
(28:44):
Trump this time around to the first time around, the
years that were spent in running up to twenty twenty four,
getting ready, having the executive orders drafted, the personnel decisions made,
the legal arguments clarified and ready to go. I'm doing
that work right now on a whole range of issues. Look,
we don't have a massive team or resources like President
(29:06):
Trump had in between twenty twenty and twenty four, but
that work is vital. I'll give you a really specific example,
one that is very close to your hearts. For example,
the issue of biological boys and girls sports. So I
went to the Track and Field Championships in Clovis actually
here in the Central Valley, back in the summer when
that scandal popped up again, and I didn't just want
(29:27):
to complain about it. I wanted to lay out what
I would do about it. And so part of one
of the people on my team is Governor Pete Wilson's
top legal advisor, and ian I said to him, Look,
how are we going to deal with this, that scandal
of biological boys in girls' sports and locker rooms all
goes back to a law that was passed in twenty
thirteen AB. Twelve sixty six. Now, we did the work
(29:48):
on that, and it turns out that the governor has
the power to initiate a process to overturn legislation that
violates the California State Constitution. We think that law violates
the constitution in two specific ways. Section twenty eight, Section
thirty one. I won't go into the details, but there's
a good example of how when you if you're properly
prepared and ready for battle with the right attitude, I
(30:09):
think you really can do a lot. The governor's role
is much more powerful than people think. You appoint thousands
of people to hundreds of state agencies and you can
direct their work. That's how I'm going to open up
the oil industry so we get three dollar gas. That's
how I'm going to end the scandal of these extortionate
lawsuits that are crippling every small business. There's a whole
(30:30):
range of things where actually by appointing the right people,
kicking out the idea logues and they're going to bureaucrasts,
and putting common sense people into these agencies, you can
make change happen pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Can I just real quick on the lawsuits. I know
about this from friends Steve, who just sell product nationwide
that even if you're selling something as straightforward as like
food that California, there are these troll law firms and
all they do is bring suits for the most you know,
if you don't have that there's some like carcinage that
(31:00):
theoretically exists in the you know, the beats that you're selling,
they'll sue you in California exactly.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
And by the way, why it's another example of the corrupt,
rotten system in California because trial lawyers. If you look
at the donations to Democrat politicians, specifically Gaven Newsom by category,
the number one donor to Gavin Newsom over his years
in the office in California government unions number two.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Trial lawyers, not surprising, and they and the.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Same with the legislature. So they create all this legislation
that creates opportunity for litigation. So that's another thing you've
got to fight and be ready for because it's crippling
businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. And as
someone who's run a business out I used to run restaurants.
It's a nightmare. It's at the best of times, in
(31:49):
California is the absolute worst because of these people and
what they're doing. But we really can change this. I mean,
for example, there's something called the Private Attorney General Act,
which has passed in two thousand and four in California.
Sounds obscure, but if you're in a restaurant or bar,
or farm or anything, you're being hit by these extortionate
lawsuits all the time and you have to settle, and
it costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions
(32:11):
of dollars a year. It's basically a cost of doing business.
I've got a plan to end that pretty much overnight
by actually understanding how that law is supposed to work,
appointing a labor commission who's going to be on the
side of business. That can make the whole thing go
away without any recourse to the legislature. So there's actually
a lot of things you can get done if you
really know what you're doing and you're properly prepared.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Steve Quick on the way out here, have you seen
any impact on the California governor's race based on Mom
Donnie winning in New York City.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Did it sort of rustle the.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Democrats out there to think, way, maybe we're going farther
left wing than I thought. I know there's a lot
of cross pollination between New York City and LA in particular,
or San Francisco too. Any reaction that you've seen in
California from that win.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Well, I don't know what. I don't know what category
to put this in clay. But the latest news on
the governor's race is our friend Eric Swollwell it's about
to jump in the race. We hear next week, So
he's sensing I don't know whether he's sensing an opportunity here.
I can't decide who I'd rather face swoll Well with
(33:20):
the endless opportunity for fang fang jokes or Katie Porter
with the endless opportunity for mashed potato jokes. It's a
tough choice that one.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Here we go, All right, Steve, when do we see
you on the debate stage? When does this thing hold
heat up in California? You're gonna be next summer. When
does it actually happen? When does it come together?
Speaker 5 (33:39):
The primary is in June. The filing deadline is March,
so I would imagine that you know, between March is
probably the kickoff when we know exactly who all the
candidates are going to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
We look forward to you laying it straight for Fang
Fang and mashed potatoes and all the rest. Thank you
so much, Steve. Great to have you on.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Fantastic, great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I want you, guys to put the name Preborn at
the very top of your list for worthy nonprofit organizations
that this holiday season could really use your support. They
have two goals. The first is to save unborn babies
from the terrible tragedy of abortion, and the second is
to help the pregnant women carrying those unborn babies. And
this all comes down to saving the lives of unborn
(34:21):
children every day, because when a mom to be walks
into a preborn clinic, she's welcomed with open arms, love
and support, and she's introduced to her baby through an ultrasound,
and for the first time she sees life, not loss,
and has offered hope filled choices. When she chooses life,
Preborn continues walking with her for up to two years,
providing maternity clothes, diapers, counseling, and so much more. As
(34:42):
you think about your year end giving. Consider the greatest
investment you could ever make, the gift of life. As
the year closes out, Your tax deductible donation can be
the difference between life and death for a tiny baby.
Right now, using your cell phone, dial pound two five
zero and say the keyword baby pound two five zero
say baby. Or visit preborn dot com slash buck. All
(35:04):
gifts are tax deductible. Preborn is a five star rated charity.
Good are Preborn dot com slash buck sponsored by Preborn.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Stories are Freedom Stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Us all each day.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Spend time with Clay and find them on the free
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Welcome back in to Clay and Buck. At least one
of us likes pennies. Here we go, not sure which one.
Here we go. VIP email from Tony. Guys, when Uncle
Bill was on with you, you never asked him about Paton.
You were gonna ask him about the General's death. The
accident was only a fender bender. Please have him back
(35:48):
noted fair. We just we are having too much fun
chatting with Uncle Bill, so we forgot about that one.
But he's with us every couple of weeks, so we'll
have him back, we'll ask him.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
That's producer Rally's fault. She should have reminded us that
we said we would do that, so you know, we
don't cast blame or try to dodge responsibility ourselves. But
that one's Ali's fault. Again, not shifting blame, but Ali
should have made sure we didn't forget that.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Let's take ms from Phoenix Listens on KFYI on the talkback, ff.
Speaker 6 (36:16):
I really don't understand how you guys could have grown
up to the age that you are and not know
anything about anything as far as it comes to a
house or a car working on it. That's just insane
to me. I mean, and you wrote a book called balls.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, okay, I mean called out here, but I mean
I wish I could. You know, Carrie's dad said make
sure you marry a guy who knows how to swing
a hammer. That was his advice to her. Didn't missed
on that one.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I gotta say, did find a guy who could talk
in the radio, and that's super manly. When we come back,
we'll close out the week. Thanks for hanging out with
all of us, even though we can't fix anything.
Welcome back.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
In hour number two Clay Travis buck Sexton Show, we
hope all of you are having a great Friday. We're
going to head out to La talk with the California
gubernatorial candidate, Steve Hilton, friend of ours, about the situation
in LA. As Gavin Newsom attempts to elevate his profile
(00:21):
and argue that he's done a good job out in California.
We'll see what the latest is there. But as we
begin the second hour of the Friday edition of the program,
I teased this which has happened in the last hour
or so President Trump on.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Truth Social Posts.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
As follows now that the Democrats are using the Epstein hoax,
involving Democrats not Republicans, to try and deflect from their
disastrous shutdown and all of their other failures. I will
be asking A. G. Pambondi and the Department of Justice,
together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate
(01:09):
Jeffrey Epstein's involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers,
Reid Hoffman, JP, Morgan Chase, and many other people and
institutions to determine what was going on with them and him.
This is I'm reading from President Trump another Russia, Russia,
(01:30):
Russia scam with all the arrows pointing to the Democrats.
Records show these men and many others spent large portions
of their life with Epstein and on his island. Stay tuned,
triple exclamation points. All right, So buck you and I
(01:51):
earlier this week said, beyond a shadow of doubt, what
I believe is true and what I've seen many other people,
even begrudgingly people on the left come around and discuss.
Which is President Trump's association with Epstein was dropped at
the time that it was earlier this week to try
(02:12):
to distract from the fact that Democrats had acted a
disastrous shutdown and had suddenly decided they needed to bend
the knee, and as a result, they were trying to
basically just distract from a storyline that otherwise would be
told associated with their own failures. I've said for a
(02:32):
long time, and we'll open up the phone lines eight
hundred two two two eight eight two. It's Friday. You
guys can weigh in on this if you would like.
I've said for a long time, if President Trump were
involved in any kind of significant way with Jeffrey Epstein,
do you think Joe Biden would have said on it
for four years while he was trying to bankrupt President Trump,
(02:56):
while they were going through Milania's underway drawer at Mar
A Lago, while they were charging him with criminal offenses
in South Florida and in New York and in Georgia
and all of these places. Do you really think that
they would have been in the situation where they were
(03:20):
just not paying attention to wrongdoing that Trump was involved
with Epstein. It's crazy, It doesn't add up. I totally
co sign on that, and I would add to a clay.
You could even take a few steps back and say, is.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
It likely that maybe, just maybe the one figure who
has done more to defeat the forces of the demonic
left than anybody else in America in the last decade,
that they lied about in every imaginable way, the Russia
collusion hoax. They were telling everybody that he was working
(03:55):
with Putin on some secret Kremlin nonsense. You know that
the lies that they have told about Donald Trump are
completely absurd. They lied about all that, and then they
brought four bogus criminal prosecutions. The guy almost made up
to eighty years old, never once indubted for anything, then
four all held to coincide with an election year, and
(04:18):
then also civil suits brought including I mean, what the
Letitia James one was preposterous beyond words. What is more
likely that this is yet another effort to lie about
Donald Trump, to try to bring him down, or even
just to slow him down a bit. I don't think.
I think they know they're not going to bring him down,
but to slow him down politically or clay. After all
(04:39):
of those lies, they finally found the one. They found
this smoking gun in the Epstein files that they've had
for many, many, many years and gone through a million times. Already,
give me a break, like this is just this is absurd,
This is not serious. People cannot make this argument to
me and be taken seriously correct.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
And so Trump is now saying, Okay, if you want
to aggressively go back into the Epstein.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Story, Why would we not, Why would we not.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Decide that we're going to actually go to what is
the real only mystery I think of Epstein at this point,
which is how did he actually get all the money
that he had? And I understand some people out there like, oh,
you know, you don't really break down the difference of wealth.
(05:34):
But there's a big difference between being worth ten million
dollars and being worth one hundred million dollars. And there's
a big difference between being worth one hundred million dollars
and five hundred million dollars or seven hundred million dollars.
And as you get up in those big numbers, it
becomes almost impossible to be worth five hundred million dollars
(05:57):
or more. And they're not too be a really traceable
way that your wealth exists. Now, maybe you inherited it.
There's lots of super rich people out there that inherit
vast sums of money that occurs, and but that's connected
to at some point a windfall that someone in the
family got. You're a Walton air because Sam Walton did
(06:20):
what he did with Walmart. You're an air of the Rockefellers,
or of the Gettys, or any of these numbers of
these families that are just as.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Easy as wealth imaginable to trace, because it's already been
traced before he's got everybody already knows so. But you can't.
But I'm just here to tell you you can't be
worth over five hundred million dollars without typically there being
something that you created, something massive that you owned and
you sold. Except for Jeffrey Epstein, how.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
Is he so incredibly wealthy despite the fact that he's
never really created anything. He's never founded a company that
was wildly successful, he's never made you know, he's not
a hedge fund guy who has multi billions of dollars
that he's managing and he's taken a share of. It
(07:15):
just doesn't add up. And so Trump is asking, Hey,
how about these banks start to explain some of these transactions.
And I think that's a really great question, because Buck,
I will tell you the banks typically pay a lot
of attention if a million dollars is being wired from
one place to another.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I was looking and reading about this. There were times
when there were tens of millions of dollars being wired
around to Epstein, some of these transactions were over one
hundred million dollars, Buck, Clay, in the world is going
on here? Have you ever have you ever seen the
place that was rated on the Upper East Side in
(07:55):
the seventies, Have you ever told this spectacular? I mean
so I grew up a few blocks from there, and
I always knew growing growing up there that the townhouses
between Madison and Fifth Avenue in the sixties, the seventies
and some of the eighties truly used to belong to
industrial barons of the turn of the century. I mean
(08:16):
some of them they're now museums or their embassies or
you know, they've transformed a lot of them. But the
ones that are still lived in by people, I think
they say that that house that he lived in was
a sixty to eighty million dollar townhouse if it's a
true mansion, a mansion in one of the most expensive
for square foot real estate places on the planet. And
(08:40):
he was given it. He didn't purchase it, it was
given to him. That's a very strange move. And you
look at a lot of the other things here too.
Look this guy. There's the idea that they're going to
be able to get away with not having more transparency
(09:01):
on this, I think is just that's just going to
fall by the wayside. They're going to because now the
Democrats have opened and they're selectively picking oh what about this,
what about this, trying to insinuate things. There's no they're
no wrongdoing of any kind than anything they've released. They're
just oh so and so said this they're releasing selective
hearsay from Epstein in order to try to make at
(09:22):
some level, I'm annoyed because now it is working and
that we're all talking about this instead of the huge
Democrat failure of the shutdown. We're talking about this instead
of instead of affordability, which Democrats won't that's going to
be the as I said, you're gonna hear about that
until we're all just so sick of the word. But
you know, used to be pay your fair share. That
was the thing we were hearing from Democrats ad nauseum
(09:43):
in the Obama era. Pay your fair share, Pay your
fair share. It's gonna be affordability. But Clay, when Trump
weighs in on this one, I think he might have
wrong footed some of his critics here because why can't
we on what basis could we be excluded from seeing
the finance of all of this. That's a great question.
So what I've been asking for a long time. That's
(10:05):
always the thing that has not added up to me
at all. And that's always the component of this that
I've heard people say, oh, we know, and then I
always say, well, but the public doesn't know. We should
know what happened here. That's a lot of money. That's
a lot of money, right, I mean they went after
Donald Trump with thirty four felony charges for a book
(10:28):
keeping not even error, just keeping the books the way
that he wanted to over what was it one hundred
and fifty grand? Oh basically yes, right, It wasn't like
something like that. It was like one hundred something grand
for the for the you know, the NDA payment. And
they don't they can't tell us this the idea that
he was a financial advisor too. I know something about this.
I know some financial advisors. One percent is pretty standard
(10:52):
in the industry. So please don't call it and say, buck,
I'll get you a great deal. You know, I'll do
half a percent, right, I'm just saying about one percent?
Is you usually what an asset manager for individuals will take.
Some will take two. But that can be a little,
you know, that's all that that People will say that
feels like a lot, especially over time. How do you
get from I manage assets really for really wealthy people,
(11:15):
as Jeffrey Epstein's to I'm worth six hundred million dollars
that clay they have found correct. This guy was operating
at a level of wealth and sophistication. I'm sure there
was money stashed in accounts that has not been found.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
And his argument, because I've read this, the argument seems
to be that he was really good at finding tax
avoidance strategies. Okay, there are lots of those guys out
there that are pretty good at finding tax avoidance strategies.
And I read some of these emails where he's saying, Hey,
I expect to be paid eighty million dollars this year.
(11:52):
It just doesn't add up, and so I give Trump
credit here. I think this is a this is a
move that going to make some people. Can I justarticularly
these banks.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
I just want to say that the first thing that
comes up from groc Okay, for anyone who says, oh
it's shut up, this is no one or this is
the first you grock, I will say, this is a
big thing for me. Clay, I always wondered, when am
I when are those are those leftists at Google going
to lose my search business? They have I grock now
(12:24):
over Google every time if I'm just looking for basic information.
I grock over Google every time I went into greg
which is the x AI search. For any of you
who don't have it. It's very useful, I'm gonna tell you,
and it gives very good information. I use it for
a whole range of things. And I am an I'm
an investor. Just a full disclosure. I'm an investor also
(12:46):
in an Xai. But here's what comes up. The origins
of Jeffrey Epstein's wealth remain one of the most debated
and opaque aspects of his life. No definitive, fully documented
at explanation has been made public. Much of what is
known has come from court documents, investigative reporting, and statements
by people who knew him, Clay, no definitive explanation has
(13:10):
been made public. That is unacceptable. That is unacceptable. I
mean it clearly could who was given him the money?
Speaker 2 (13:20):
And there's been a financial accounting on his death because
when you die, obviously as a part of the will
and the estate, they have to figure out what your
assets are. There've been the huge lawsuits, so the Epstein
victims have gotten paid out substantial, like over one hundred
million dollars I think, among other dollars. I think is
(13:41):
even more than that. So there's been a financial settlement
of some sort there. But yeah, how the money ever
got there. Nobody can really explain how he went from
a guy buck He worked as a teacher at a
Manhattan private school, so I mean he had no money, right,
(14:01):
I mean, we probably got some teachers out there listening him.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
In after taked his credentials to get that job too.
And this guy's been to fraudster his whole life. In
addition to everything else, he ends up being worth hundreds
of millions of dollars. It just again, it does not
add up. And I think a lot of you out
there they've skipped over where the money came from that
(14:24):
allowed him to even have this lifestyle. But I think
it's the most important question out there. So Trump is
saying now, and Trump has no love lost for a
lot of these banks because they debanked him. As Eric
Trump has come on and talked about with us. Suddenly
the Trump organization after his first term couldn't even have
bank accounts, So good for him. I like this move.
(14:45):
Let's talk about something happy and joyous and take a
turn into the holidays here for a second. Look. I'm
not saying that I try to just get it all
done at once, but I did all of the gifts
from my family in New York. I'm talking new sheets, pillows, blankets,
amazing stuff. Jall came from Crozy Earth. In fact, my
mom was just telling me that she was all wrapped
(15:07):
up in her Cozy Earth bubble blanket last night. Absolutely
fan and they needed up there in New York. Sorry,
getting a little cold up there. Unlike Miami, Cozy Earth
products are phenomenal. You can get all of your Christmas gifts,
Hanaka gifts, whatever birthday gifts you got coming up, get
it all right at Cozy Earth. The quality is incredible.
Kerry and I were sleeping on Cozy Earth sheets last night.
Clay's got them in his houses. They're phenomenal. You will
(15:31):
love the quality right now get forty percent off at
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bamboo fabric that's breatheable so you never overheat. They also
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(15:53):
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this holiday season.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Stories of Freedom, Stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
Each day, spend time with Clay and buy.
Speaker 4 (16:22):
Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Welcome back in here to play and Buck. Kind of
a tight turnaround, So let's just get into well, a
few things coming up. Don't we have a guest at
one thirty or am I imagining it? Steve Hilton's Steve Hilton. Yes,
that's what I thought. Thank you. So we're going to
have a California deep dive on what's going on on
(16:48):
that side of things, and it's interesting to us as always.
California is where we have so many fantastic listeners. Are
two biggest states for listenership, well at mirrors population, but
it's California and Texas. We have a lot of Republicans
who are behind enemy lines. They're still trying to bring
some sanity to the Golden State. And I love California.
(17:09):
I just don't love its government. But as a state,
it's a fabulous place.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
So maybe the most beautiful. I'm gonna get anger emails
over this. I think California is the most geographically beautiful
of all the states when you think about the variety
of this. First of all, the state's huge, but you
think about the redwood forest in the north, You think
about the incredible beaches of Orange County and San Diego,
(17:36):
and you think about the mountains where you can ski
and basically the perfect weather by and large of la
I think it's the most of all the country, the
most geographically, most geographically benefited. Is that the wrong word?
Most privileged? Most spectacular, what's the gifted? It's just atful place.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Else is blessed. There's a good word. You know what
else is great? Rapid radios.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
We are blessed to be able to stay in touch
with so many of our family members. But how many
people out there don't want your kids having a cell
phone too soon? But maybe you want those kids to
be able to get on the bike and right around
in the neighborhood. May maybe you want them to meet
with neighborhood kids, play woofletball, play touch football. So if
my son does on a regular basis and we stay
(18:26):
in touch with him Rapid Radio. Maybe you got elderly
family members who don't use cell phones that well, maybe
they live in places where you don't have a consistent
cell phone signal, you're gonna love rapid radios. My mother
in law has a rapid radio because she doesn't get
great signal in her house. But the rapid radio works flawlessly.
My son, my ten year old eleven year old, now
(18:47):
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Speaker 1 (18:57):
Check them out rapid radios dot Com.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Welcome back in play Travis buck Sexton Show. We are
joined now by our friend candidate for Governor of California,
Republican candidate for Governor, Steve Hilton. And Steve, we appreciate
you giving us the time here on a Friday, as
I know you're campaigning all over the state. What is
(19:21):
the latest on the rebuild in LA? And I believe
there is the answer is virtually nothing. But how much
are you hearing from people that are just fed up
over the inability of people to rebuild the homes that
they lost in the wildfires coming up on nearly a
year ago.
Speaker 5 (19:40):
Now, so I last because it's laughable, Clay, it's just unbelievable. Apologies,
it's for the noise. I'm on the road. I don't
know if you can hear in the middle of a
very major storm pouring with rain, of course, which Gavin
Newsome and the idiots in charge are going to let
run out into the ocean instead of storing it and
(20:03):
getting it to our great egg industry. I'm in the
central valley of farmland all around me not going to
get this water because they're going to send it out
to the ocean to protect the Delta smelt. That's another story.
On the Palisades, it's laughable. They haven't done anything. All
the time, I'm there hearing from people who are so
incredibly frustrated. They get just sent from one ridiculous bit
(20:26):
of bureaucracy to the next. They go to the building department,
it's a different person each time. They say, we can't
give you a permit until you get your insurance. Do
you go to the insurance. They say, we can't give
insurance until you get a permit, and it's just round
and round. This is all months after Karen Bass ludicrously
made an announcement saying I have just signed an executive
(20:47):
order streamlining permitting to help rebuild LA. Nothing's happened. And
here's the reason why, when you actually look behind that.
I actually watched the video of the press conference where
she made the announcement. Here are the words she actually,
I have just signed an executive order tasking agency heads
with developing paths forward to streamlining bermitting. They're in a nutshell.
(21:11):
You have the explanation as so why nothing works in California.
You've got these ridiculous machine politicians who have no clue
how anything works, never done a real job in their lives,
no understanding of how to make change happen. Totally ideologically driven,
not practical, and that's why we're in such a mess.
That's why last bit of news for you today, just
(21:34):
seen a poll just come out showing me in the
lead in the governor's race, ahead of all the candidates,
including all the Democrats. People are sick of this nonsense
in California, and it's time for change. We're going to
get that change next year.
Speaker 1 (21:46):
Well, that was the next place I wanted to go
with you, Steve, which is you have to think that
at some point the people have suffered enough, regardless of
where they're ideologically aligned, At some point you just want
stuff to work. At some point, you just want to
be safe. You're sick of waiting in lines that never
get anything done anyway, And I was wonder if you
(22:07):
could speak to what we saw in San Francisco recently.
It came to our attention that the mayor of San
Francisco now isn't some Republican, not a MAGA guy, but
isn't completely certifiably insane, and was willing to take a
more reasonable approach toward Trump's offer of trying to assist
(22:28):
in the cleanup. So do you view that as indicative
of what's going on more statewide where people are seeing
the craziness for what it is? Is that more specific
to San Francisco? I wanted your take on what's going
on up there.
Speaker 5 (22:40):
Yeah, No, it's really interesting. I mean the mayor you're
speaking about, Daniel Leering, he's a friend of mine. I've
known him for years. He's a Democrat, but he's a
non crazy Democrat, let's use that term. And he's definitely
the kind of person that you either he's focusing on
practical things, is not an id logue. There's another mayor,
(23:02):
less well known in San Jose, just the other end
of the San Francisco Bay, Matt Mayhan, who's also got
that more pragmatic approach. So you've now got the Bay
Area with two major mayors who are in that category,
and it does show that people are waking up now.
The Bay Area obviously very heavily democratic, and so it's
not surprising that you're going to have Democrats elected they're
(23:27):
a Republican really wouldn't be able to make it work
in the Bay Area. I think, however, statewide, I think
that exact same mood that I'd say desperation for change
is what will help me win next year as governor
as a Republican because across the state it's a much
(23:47):
more republican state actually than people think. The base Republican
vote in California it's been pretty steady for the last
twenty years or so. It's just over forty percent. So
that's a gap that is big, but it's not unbridgable
and the scale of their failure every single measure you
look at. We are the worst performing state in America,
(24:09):
highest unemployment rate, highest poverty rate, highest cost of burrs,
rent home prices, the worst business climate in America ten years,
and are, according to Chief Executive magazine US News and
World Report rankings, fiftieth out of fifty for affordability, fiftieth
out of fifty for opportunity, the worst reading scores in
(24:31):
the country. I mean, it just goes on and on.
They've failed on every front and people are really sick
of it. That the difference this time is they're going
to have a really strong, clear, common sense, positive alternative
that I'm laying out there. Three dollar gas, your electric
bills cut in half, a home you can afford to
buy your first hundred thousand of income free of state
(24:52):
income tax. They've never had. It's going to be a
real shock to them, I think, to face a candidate
like me who's got the business experience, the government reform experience,
the media platform. They to take them on, and I'm
going to take them apart. And I'm really looking forward
to it.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Isn't it interesting? Steve? That was all really well laid out.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
There are lots of states that have Democrats and Republicans
involved that can be successful. There are tons of red
states that basically have just said, hey, Democrats, thanks, but
no thanks. Maybe they still have power in some way
a little bit like in Nashville area where I live,
which is a deeper red state, but Nashville's a little
(25:33):
bit blue. But anything that Democrats completely control, that is
where there is no alternative party, you have abject failure.
Do you get the sense like it doesn't mean that
Californians have to believe that Republicans have all the answers,
but just to say, hey, maybe a monolithic commitment to
(25:54):
Democrats is not getting us the best possible result. Are
you picking up on that when you're tryingling around the
state and making your.
Speaker 5 (26:01):
Arguments one hundred I was just fat to say exactly that, Clay,
which is that you know, and I get real, you
know when we do our town halls and have meetings,
real nodding along when I make the point that, look,
we've now had fifteen years of one party rule. They've
controlled every statewide office, super majority in the legislature, all
(26:22):
the big cities and the big counties, next year, it
will be sixteen years of party rule. And I say, look,
you don't have to become a Republican. Let's just agree
it's not healthy to have one party rule for so long.
It never is, never works anywhere, So let's just have
a bit of balance. Even when I'm elected governor as
a Republican, frankly, looking at you know, we're going to
(26:45):
fight for every Republican candidate, and I'm actively on the
road supporting other Republicans at every level because we've got
to elect more Republicans. But it looks like they'll still
have certainly a majority, probably still a supermajority in the legislature.
So it's just a bit of balance that we're looking for.
That argument I think goes over very well. I've seen
it on people's faces, and it's part of the story.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
I don't know, Steve, if you sat through the pretty
positive spin, but the Schwarzenegger Netflix bio movie that they
made a couple of maybe a year or two ago. Anyway,
I bring it up because, oh, okay, you have seen it.
I bring it up because one thing that the governator
(27:28):
as we all call him, who was at least theoretically
a Republican. Something that he said is once he got
into office, that it was impossible to do anything because
the machinery of the state, the government bodies, regulatory agencies,
public sector unions statewide are so powerful and so entrenched
that you can't really do anything. What do you say
(27:50):
to that? How could you break I'm sure there's some
truth to that, but how do you break through that
if you're given a mandate by the people of California
as governor?
Speaker 5 (28:00):
Well, the difference is, and Arnold's a good friend of mine,
I've known him for twenty years. The difference is that
I will go into this with government reform experience. So
I was senior advisor to the Prime Minister in the UK,
my office right next to the cabinet room. There. I'm
not saying it's a direct read across, of course not,
but it's a similar sized economy and government bureaucracy and
(28:24):
I and neither am I saying that what we did there.
Remember I wasn't the decision maker. I was senior advisor.
It was some perfect success, far from it, but I
learned how the system works. I learned how bureaucrats work
and how incredibly aggressive you need to be in order
to make change happen. The other lesson you compare President
(28:44):
Trump this time around to the first time around, the
years that were spent in running up to twenty twenty four,
getting ready, having the executive orders drafted, the personnel decisions made,
the legal arguments clarified and ready to go. I'm doing
that work right now on a whole range of issues. Look,
we don't have a massive team or resources like President
(29:06):
Trump had in between twenty twenty and twenty four, but
that work is vital. I'll give you a really specific example,
one that is very close to your hearts. For example,
the issue of biological boys and girls sports. So I
went to the Track and Field Championships in Clovis actually
here in the Central Valley, back in the summer when
that scandal popped up again, and I didn't just want
(29:27):
to complain about it. I wanted to lay out what
I would do about it. And so part of one
of the people on my team is Governor Pete Wilson's
top legal advisor, and ian I said to him, Look,
how are we going to deal with this, that scandal
of biological boys in girls' sports and locker rooms all
goes back to a law that was passed in twenty
thirteen AB. Twelve sixty six. Now, we did the work
(29:48):
on that, and it turns out that the governor has
the power to initiate a process to overturn legislation that
violates the California State Constitution. We think that law violates
the constitution in two specific ways. Section twenty eight, Section
thirty one. I won't go into the details, but there's
a good example of how when you if you're properly
prepared and ready for battle with the right attitude, I
(30:09):
think you really can do a lot. The governor's role
is much more powerful than people think. You appoint thousands
of people to hundreds of state agencies and you can
direct their work. That's how I'm going to open up
the oil industry so we get three dollar gas. That's
how I'm going to end the scandal of these extortionate
lawsuits that are crippling every small business. There's a whole
(30:30):
range of things where actually by appointing the right people,
kicking out the idea logues and they're going to bureaucrasts,
and putting common sense people into these agencies, you can
make change happen pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (30:40):
Can I just real quick on the lawsuits. I know
about this from friends Steve, who just sell product nationwide
that even if you're selling something as straightforward as like
food that California, there are these troll law firms and
all they do is bring suits for the most you know,
if you don't have that there's some like carcinage that
(31:00):
theoretically exists in the you know, the beats that you're selling,
they'll sue you in California exactly.
Speaker 5 (31:06):
And by the way, why it's another example of the corrupt,
rotten system in California because trial lawyers. If you look
at the donations to Democrat politicians, specifically Gaven Newsom by category,
the number one donor to Gavin Newsom over his years
in the office in California government unions number two.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Trial lawyers, not surprising, and they and the.
Speaker 5 (31:28):
Same with the legislature. So they create all this legislation
that creates opportunity for litigation. So that's another thing you've
got to fight and be ready for because it's crippling
businesses of all sizes and in all sectors. And as
someone who's run a business out I used to run restaurants.
It's a nightmare. It's at the best of times, in
(31:49):
California is the absolute worst because of these people and
what they're doing. But we really can change this. I mean,
for example, there's something called the Private Attorney General Act,
which has passed in two thousand and four in California.
Sounds obscure, but if you're in a restaurant or bar,
or farm or anything, you're being hit by these extortionate
lawsuits all the time and you have to settle, and
it costs you hundreds of thousands of dollars, sometimes millions
(32:11):
of dollars a year. It's basically a cost of doing business.
I've got a plan to end that pretty much overnight
by actually understanding how that law is supposed to work,
appointing a labor commission who's going to be on the
side of business. That can make the whole thing go
away without any recourse to the legislature. So there's actually
a lot of things you can get done if you
really know what you're doing and you're properly prepared.
Speaker 2 (32:33):
Steve Quick on the way out here, have you seen
any impact on the California governor's race based on Mom
Donnie winning in New York City.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
Did it sort of rustle the.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Democrats out there to think, way, maybe we're going farther
left wing than I thought. I know there's a lot
of cross pollination between New York City and LA in particular,
or San Francisco too. Any reaction that you've seen in
California from that win.
Speaker 5 (32:59):
Well, I don't know what. I don't know what category
to put this in clay. But the latest news on
the governor's race is our friend Eric Swollwell it's about
to jump in the race. We hear next week, So
he's sensing I don't know whether he's sensing an opportunity here.
I can't decide who I'd rather face swoll Well with
(33:20):
the endless opportunity for fang fang jokes or Katie Porter
with the endless opportunity for mashed potato jokes. It's a
tough choice that one.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
Here we go, All right, Steve, when do we see
you on the debate stage? When does this thing hold
heat up in California? You're gonna be next summer. When
does it actually happen? When does it come together?
Speaker 5 (33:39):
The primary is in June. The filing deadline is March,
so I would imagine that you know, between March is
probably the kickoff when we know exactly who all the
candidates are going to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
We look forward to you laying it straight for Fang
Fang and mashed potatoes and all the rest. Thank you
so much, Steve. Great to have you on.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Fantastic, great to be with you.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
I want you, guys to put the name Preborn at
the very top of your list for worthy nonprofit organizations
that this holiday season could really use your support. They
have two goals. The first is to save unborn babies
from the terrible tragedy of abortion, and the second is
to help the pregnant women carrying those unborn babies. And
this all comes down to saving the lives of unborn
(34:21):
children every day, because when a mom to be walks
into a preborn clinic, she's welcomed with open arms, love
and support, and she's introduced to her baby through an ultrasound,
and for the first time she sees life, not loss,
and has offered hope filled choices. When she chooses life,
Preborn continues walking with her for up to two years,
providing maternity clothes, diapers, counseling, and so much more. As
(34:42):
you think about your year end giving. Consider the greatest
investment you could ever make, the gift of life. As
the year closes out, Your tax deductible donation can be
the difference between life and death for a tiny baby.
Right now, using your cell phone, dial pound two five
zero and say the keyword baby pound two five zero
say baby. Or visit preborn dot com slash buck. All
(35:04):
gifts are tax deductible. Preborn is a five star rated charity.
Good are Preborn dot com slash buck sponsored by Preborn.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Stories are Freedom Stories of America, inspirational stories that you unite.
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Us all each day.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
Spend time with Clay and find them on the free
iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Welcome back in to Clay and Buck. At least one
of us likes pennies. Here we go, not sure which one.
Here we go. VIP email from Tony. Guys, when Uncle
Bill was on with you, you never asked him about Paton.
You were gonna ask him about the General's death. The
accident was only a fender bender. Please have him back
(35:48):
noted fair. We just we are having too much fun
chatting with Uncle Bill, so we forgot about that one.
But he's with us every couple of weeks, so we'll
have him back, we'll ask him.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
That's producer Rally's fault. She should have reminded us that
we said we would do that, so you know, we
don't cast blame or try to dodge responsibility ourselves. But
that one's Ali's fault. Again, not shifting blame, but Ali
should have made sure we didn't forget that.
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Let's take ms from Phoenix Listens on KFYI on the talkback, ff.
Speaker 6 (36:16):
I really don't understand how you guys could have grown
up to the age that you are and not know
anything about anything as far as it comes to a
house or a car working on it. That's just insane
to me. I mean, and you wrote a book called balls.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
Yeah, okay, I mean called out here, but I mean
I wish I could. You know, Carrie's dad said make
sure you marry a guy who knows how to swing
a hammer. That was his advice to her. Didn't missed
on that one.
Speaker 2 (36:48):
I gotta say, did find a guy who could talk
in the radio, and that's super manly. When we come back,
we'll close out the week. Thanks for hanging out with
all of us, even though we can't fix anything.
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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