August 30, 2023 • 36 mins
Kevin O'Leary, Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank, joins Clay and Buck to discuss the uncertain future of the American economy and which states he's putting his money into and which he's pulling out of. Colorado school district told 12-year-old kid he can't wear "racist" Gadsden Flag patch on his backpack. Audio from Mitch McConnell's latest health incident.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
All right, third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off now.
Phenomenal guests joining us in this moment. Kevin O'Leary, mister
wonderful from Shark Tank, entrepreneur, investor and the guy who
says often the most amusing stuff on the Shark Tank Show. Kevin,
thanks for being here, great to beer.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you. Let's start.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I know you're up on Capitol Hill. You're trying to
advocate for the small business men and women of America,
which is super important obviously, really the engine of economic
growth in so many ways. What headwinds are they running
into right now under this administration?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Like what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
What is this White House or this Congress doing wrong
when it comes to the small businesses of America.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Well, let me paint the picture, because I deal with
this every day. I've got over thirty portfolio companies, primarily
FIRSTUS second generation families in America. You know, we think
about our economy. A lot of people don't know this.
The S and P five hundred massive companies, biggest index
in the world, but they only represent forty percent of employers.
And many of the people at work for the S
(01:12):
and P five hundred, those giant companies, those employees are
outside of the United States, almost in some cases half
of them, depending on the company. So domestically, who employs
all of us? It's small business. And so what I'm
frustrated about is right now, you remember the beginning of
this latest banking crisis when Silicon Valley Bank and unfortunately
(01:32):
run by idiots, went to zero, but that caused a
ripple effect, and what's occurring now is the regulators of
small regional banks there's about four thousand, one hundred and
sixty of them, which really bank and provide credit for
small business in America, are under tremendous pressure. They're being
required to change how much capital they have liquid on
(01:52):
their balance sheets, and basically what that means is they're
closing their loan books, so it's very, very hard to
borrow money anymore. This is happening at the same time
that Congress has done a trillion dollars with a paper
printing which even hasn't gone off the door yet, and
it's called the Inflation Reduction Act the IRA, and the
other one is the Chips and Science Act. All of
(02:15):
that money is one of the big guys, all of it,
not some of it, all of it, one hundred percent
of it to S and P five hundred companies. So
he asked me why the stock market's doing so well.
It's because it's got this unlimited lift of printed paper
to go to them for free. It's basically free money,
and yet nothing for the small guy, nothing, absolutely nothing.
Now that is totally screwed up, imbalanced, not fair. And
(02:38):
I'd argue on American.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Am I crazy? And the answer may well be yes,
So don't be afraid to say that. People out there like, yes,
you're crazy. It seems to me that we have never
had a more financially illiterate group of leaders, both Republicans
and Democrats, but in particular the Democrat Party has totally
lost its way when it comes to business. As a
(03:02):
guy who is focused primarily on business, do we have
good representatives from a financial perspective at all in your mind?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know, it's a great question. And my answer is,
having now spent almost a year and a half going
to Congress and sometimes twice a month, it's a mixed bag.
And it's really about executional skills at the state level,
and where I look at states, I look at the governor.
You can consider the governor of state as the CEO.
(03:31):
A lot of the policy around what happens. So I've
stopped investing in states like New York, for example, or
Massachusetts or California. I don't put a diame in those places.
They're not open for business and their taxes are too high.
My new focus is on places like North Dakota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Those let's call.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The managers, governors, senators, whatever you want. They're executing towards
pro business, whether it be big or small, and they've
made it that. There's a very interesting dynamic occurred after
the pandemic. We have competition between states. Now, why would
you ever put money in Massachusetts where Elizabeth Warren wants
to take it from you if you're successful, or where
(04:16):
AOC make sure that no new jobs come to her jurisdiction.
Why would you even go there? Why fight with those people?
If they want to destroy their states, let them do that.
I'll take my money and go to where I welcomed,
where I can sit now with the Governor Bergham, who's
now running for president, and say what can we do
together here? What can we invest in? Same with Florida,
same with Texas. So I want to encourage people to
(04:39):
make economic decisions wisely and to make sure that the
people that vote for these individuals. And I'm not saying
Elizabeth Warren isn't a very successful politician.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
She is.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I just hate her policies, and I think that's a
fair debate to have. I'm going to be going to
the legislature in Massachusetts in October. I do some work
at Harvard where teach you, you know, young entrepreneurs and engineers,
and I want to make sure that we can get
into a solid debate about good policy investcy.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
If we could get you and some of their staffs
actually listen to the show, Kevin, we're speaking of Kevin o'liary,
mister wonderful of Shark Tank. For anybody who's joining us
in progress here, if we can get you to sit
down with all of the Republican candidates right now at once,
and you could give them one thing that you believe
would be most important, useful, powerful for helping small business
(05:32):
and really with it, just the broader economy. I mean,
if you could get one thing right in front of them.
So whether it's Trump or whomever, if they end up
beating Biden, they could pursue it. What would it be
Right now?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I see this trum. I'd call it imbalance between the
support that the SMP is getting the big companies in
America and what we're not doing for small business. And
so we have programs, we have two big ones right now,
and I want to be very specific about this, and
I've actually done this with both Republicans and Democrats. Set
them down. When I get to the hill and very
(06:06):
fourtthenth they'll take a meeting and their staff just as
importantly and say, okay, let me get this right. You
have authorized a trillion dollars for the S and P
five hundred and two specific acts, the Chips and Science Act,
and the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRA. Where in those bills,
because I've looked at them, you show me anywhere where
you're supporting small business, your own constituents, in your own geography,
(06:30):
that represents sixty percent of the jobs created in your state.
Where's the support for them? And there isn't a single
active act right now at a time when they need
it more than the big guys, the big guys have
no trouble raising money right now. The cost of capital
for small businesses four to five percent, all the way
up to eleven to seventeen percent in a matter of
(06:51):
eighteen months, and nobody cares about them. So the only
act I know that's active, and I know you guys
promote this quite a bit on your platform, the Employee
Retention Credit.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I also do that.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I've got a business called Wondertrust dot com and all
of my companies have applied for this and hundreds more.
And I go out of my way to say to
those senators and governors, you extend this act for me
for twenty four months for everybody in America that deserves
to get access to this capital that they actually paid into.
Because what's going on here is my companies and many
(07:25):
others millions more market during the pandemic in twenty twenty
twenty twenty one, we paid our employees. We paid them
even though they couldn't work, We kept them on payroll,
We invested in them, our businesses and America. And now
you give us nothing. I don't get it, and that
has not fallen on deaf years. I've even gone all
the Way to the Way Means Committee, and I've talked
(07:47):
to the chairman and said, think about this. You're going
to have to do something for these small guys when
things get worse in the months ahead. Meanwhile at the
farm you've made sure that everybody in the SMP is
just dripping with camps and nothing for the small guy.
Extend this act for twenty four months.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
We've talked a lot on this program about red getting
redder and blue getting bluer. You just kind of hinted
at this about the importance of federalism. The governor, the
CEO of a state. I don't know what state your
home base is in now you can maybe tell people,
because I'd be curious. But if you were advising someone
young today and they were saying, Hey, I'm thinking about
(08:26):
starting a small business, and I could base that small
business anywhere in the country, where would you tell them
it would make sense to go, And how much of
that I feel fortunate bucks now in Florida. I'm in Tennessee.
We have no state income tax. The idea that I
would pay fourteen or fifteen percent of my hard earned
income to the state of New York, or to California
(08:47):
or to any other state is crazy to me, but
I'm curious. We get a lot of questions Buck and
I do. Hey, let's say you're twenty years old and
you're about to graduate from college and you're interested, or
you're just twenty years old and you've got an entrepreneurship bug.
Where would you tell them if they could go anywhere
in the country that you see the most dynamic business
environments that they should consider founding a company.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I mean, you know that's you've hit the nail
on the head. There's a reason Nashville has exploded over
the last eighteen years. There's very few cities growing as
fast as Nashville. Why a well managed state with no
state tax. The same things happening in Florida, The same
things happening in Texas. The same thing is happening in
(09:30):
North Dakota. They just lowered their state tax. It's not
zero yet, but they're on their way there. Every state
that I look at that has moved towards pro business
and lower state tax is growing. So if you're starting
a business, and I advise all of my young entrepreneurs, look,
you can run a business today from anywhere, because forty
percent of your employees are not going to work in
(09:51):
your headquarters. That's post pandemic. That's what's occurred. That's our
new economy America two point zero digital. And that means,
don't stick it in a place where they hate you,
where they put regulation on you, where they overtax you,
and they don't want you to start a business, they
don't want any jobs. Don't put it anywhere near AOC
for example. And why would you ever do it in
(10:12):
Massachusetts where Elizabeth ware wants to tax you if you're successful.
What built this country and makes it great is entrepreneurs,
and that's who apploys sixty percent of the people. We
now have this fantastic dynamic of states competing with each other.
Reward the good managers, the good governors, the senators with
your vote and your business, and make sure that you're
(10:35):
punitive to ones that are not pro business, and let's
hope they get voted out of power because they are
not doing their job and not carrying forward the American dream.
Anytime you tax someone into oblivion and you just take
the government and overregulate rules, you are forcing those businesses
to do the right thing. And that's simply move that's
(10:57):
how it works.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Kevin, How worried are you about a major downturn in
the economy over the next call it year or so.
I mean, we've been told for many months. I used
to see the Goldman Sachs projection, oh sixty percent likelihood
of our recession in the next quarter whatever. Going back
now for a while under the Biden administration's tenure, are
(11:21):
do you feel like we're out of the woods or
are we still just hoping and praying?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You know? That's that is the question for every investor
in America trying to figure out this extraordinary situation we're in.
I mean, let's just take stalk of what we know.
We know that we have had the fastest rate high
cycle in almost history. It's very rare that we've gone
from basically zero to five percent in a matter of months.
That never happens. And of five and a half percent,
(11:50):
we also know, and this is extraordinary and I've never
seen it before, we're still at full employment. Anything under
four percent unemployment is full employment. So not only is
your cost of have gone through the roof, but you
still can't hire anybody to work in your business. And
at the same time, we have the trillion dollars of
free helicopter money coming in these two acts I talked
about the IRA and the CHIPSAC and so this is
(12:12):
a really strange force. We have inflation going up, and
yet we're still printing money like a South American dictatorship.
I mean, it's just unbelievable what's going on here. We
actually don't need all this money at this point, but
we're trying to do some things. And you can blame
any administration because they're always trying to figure out ways
(12:33):
to print money and get votes. I get that, But
this situation now is an extraordinary one because we've got
a lot of pressure points. So when people tell me, well,
you know, there's a sixty percent chance of a recession
in the next six months, they have no idea what's
going to happen. Nobody does. And so when we're planning
(12:54):
in our businesses, which we do each week, we plan
for every outcome right now, like a soft landing. But
nobody knows that with certainty. So you've really got to
conserve your cash. You've got to make sure that you
have access to capital for inventory, and you've got to
keep an eye on your receivables and run your business
is a good manager, same for a state, same idea
for the country. And so we're at an inflection point
(13:16):
where rather a remarkable presidential cycle coming up here for
a million different reasons, and you guys have talked about
it quite a bit. But at the end of the day,
what you're voting for, and I don't care what part
of you're with, vote for good policy. What drives America
is good policy. I've never made money in politics. I
make money in good policy, and capital and money, domestic
(13:39):
and international, falls a path of least resistance. You want
to make America, America and American business the least resistive.
You want everybody to invest their money here.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Quickly, last question for you, what's the best investment you've
ever made in your life?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What is the one that you regret not investing in?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Because people think a lot about the successes, but I'm
also curious what you passed on and you're like, oh,
I was an idiot.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I should have one hundred percent gone all in on that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, that's that's a good one. Let me tell you
what I've learned. And this goes back to Shark Tank.
I've been doing Shark Tank for fifteen years, I've seen
thousands of pitches. I've looked at thousands of deals, and
each year, I do you know, fifteen seventeen, twenty deals,
whatever it is, And I'm pretty sure when I'm making them,
i know what I'm doing, and I'm saying to myself,
that's going to be a winner. That's going to be
(14:27):
a winner. You basically think you know. The truth is
you have no idea. What happens three, four or five
years later is the ones that you thought were dogs
end up being monster hits. I'll give you an example
when I just had a huge liquidity event in this
woman comes on three years ago. Anna Sky was her
name Skaya, Anna Skaya, and she had a company called
(14:48):
bass Pause. You take a swab, you stick it in
a cat where the sun doesn't shine. You send it
into the lab and she tells you your cat DNA
and it can help the cat have a longer life.
And I said to her, what are you out of
your friggin mind. I can buy you're this is twenty
nine ninety five. I can buy a new cat for
five bucks. A lot of cat people didn't like that comment.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
In America, I invest my wife cat, I get it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I don't you know.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Anyways, what happened was she said she was so compelling,
such a great entrepreneur, such a really driving force on
that set. No one wanted to invest in her, and they
thought the whole idea was stupid.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I gave her the dough.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Three years later, she sells the business to one of
the largest pet divisions of a giant pharmaceutical company for
over fifty million cash. It was one of my best
outcomes ever. And I thought, that gives you an example.
You just have no idea. It's serendipitous luck sometimes. So
I do a lot of deals, and you know I've
(15:49):
been working with let me give example Barbara for example.
She doesn't even look at the numbers, looks at it.
So I like the guy.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I like the gal.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I'm going to invest in him. And by the way,
the only reason Barbara gets to ARCT take every years,
I buyer a new broom.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Kevin O'Leary, everybody, mister wonderful. That's a great line we
got with that website.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's wonder trust dot com. And I've got a team
of people I've been doing this with all my companies
that will figure out whether you do actually and are
eligible for the ERC the Employee Retention Credit up to
twenty six dollars per employee. I work very hard at this.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I want hey, thanks for being all this. We were
about to hit a break. Mister wonderful Kevin O'Leary, thank
you so much.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Take Care Innovation Refunds the company helping so many small
businesses get a tax refund through the Employee Retention Credit.
You just heard mister wonderful talking about it. Tax refund
for businesses that kept employees on payroll for parts of.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. You can get hooked up.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Go to Innovation Refunds dot com to see if you qualify.
No upfront charges. They don't get paid unless you get paid.
It doesn't cost you a dime. Callum if it's easier.
One eight four three refunds one eight four three refunds
Innovation Refunds dot Com. One truth revealed after another Clay
Travis and buck Sexton walk about in Clay Travis buck
(17:10):
Sexton Show.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
We got a big story that.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Popped that what was interesting and it continues sort of
this battleground of what kids can and cannot say and
what they're being taught in public schools, and it dealt
with the Gadsden flag, which is a revolutionary era flag
that has to do with it has a rattlesnake says.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Don't tread on me.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
We're gonna talk about the history of that and what
happened when a school district tried to ban it by
saying it was in some way an endorsement of slavery.
I think you guys are going to enjoy that discussion
that we're gonna have. And also Harriet Tubman's statue in Philadelphia,
Buck white guy not allowed to make it because only
(17:57):
a black person evidently can do a statue of Harriet Tubman.
We will dive into both of those. We want to
tell you history. Both of these directly connected to it.
Really important kind of matters where your kids are being
taught and what they are being taught. And that's why
our friends at Hillsdale College matter so much and do
such an incredible job. College kids back on campus right now,
(18:20):
and Hillsdale College is delivering on teaching the Constitution and
the enduring words that deliver our freedoms. They've been explaining
and defending our freedoms since the eighteen forties. They're still
at it these days. In addition to teaching college kids,
Hillsdale has a K to twelve lifelong learning system that
they're sharing as well. If you're not doing so already,
(18:42):
one of the best ways go get signed up for Imprimus,
Hillsdale's digestive liberty. You can get it for free at
clayanbuckfo Hillsdale dot com. You will love Imprimus featuring the
best and smartest and conservative constitutional thought. Clayanbuck for Hillsdale
dot com. Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show.
(19:03):
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. It's a
couple of updates. It appears, and we know many of
you in the state of Florida are listening to us,
and you may be listening to us on your car
phone or on a battery operated sorry, a car radio
or a battery operated radio, as there have been a
(19:23):
lot of people lose power. It appears most of the
hurricane has now passed through much of Florida and is
now into Georgia, and we'll soon be in the Carolina.
So we know we have people listening all throughout the
pathway of that storm, and we'll continue to update you
on that to the best of our ability. A little
(19:43):
bit of breaking news. The next Republican Debate, which is
taking place at the end of September, going to be
moderated by Dana Perino and Stuart Varney.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It will air on Fox Business.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It appears the third Republican Debate will now take place
in Tuscolosa, Alabama, on the University of Alabama campus. And
the other bit of news that is out there is
what we were just teasing you about as we went
to break, which is this Gadsden flag controversy that has
(20:19):
blown up in the Colorado Springs area, I believe of
the state of Colorado. A kid went to school with
a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack and he was
told he was not allowed to have that patch on
his bag at school. He was lectured by his teachers.
(20:39):
He was told it was in some way connected to slavery.
Buck I would just start here. Now the school district
has backed down. They have acknowledged that this is actually
a flag made famous during the Revolutionary.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
War which threatened Britain.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Hey, if you effectively try to take away our rights,
it has a rattlesnake on it. We will essential bite
back that don't tread on me flag. It has nothing
to do with slavery. But I would just start here, Buck,
if this kid had gone and had a rainbow flag
on his backpack at school, do you think there's any
(21:15):
way this Colorado school district would have ever said to him,
you can't have that badge on your backpack and you're
not allowed to be in school.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I mean, the politics of this are are very apparent
right away, and I think, Clay.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
You know what, my man, You're gonna just take over
because the fire alarm in my building is going off. Everybody,
I gotta step outside for a minute.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
You can if you just heard that Buck in his Miami,
Miami place, there now is a fire alarm going off.
I think he's fine, Like everybody's gonna be fine, but
he'll be back. Maybe join us at the last segment
here if that alarm stops going off in the background.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
But I do think this is very.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Emblematic of the world in which we live today, where
certain political speech is not only allowed, it's embraced. And
so if this kid on his backpack had been walking
in with a gay pride flag, or if he had
had for instance, a BLM logo on his backpack. No
(22:24):
one would have said to him, Hey, you can't have
that political statement on your backpack. You aren't allowed kid
to be able to come to school with that insignia.
This is unacceptable. You are in some way in violation
of the school district. And in fact, if that had
(22:44):
ever happened, it would have been on CNN's Leads story,
MSNBC would have been all over it, and the school
district would have been forced to apologize. I give credit
to this kid for actually knowing history. There is a
massive lack of historical knowledge in this country today and
I think, frankly it's being exploited by Democrats to try
(23:06):
to sell the idea through the sixteen nineteen project and
many other also connected to that, aspects of our history,
this idea that America is an awful racist place and
as a result, nothing that was created by our founders
can be justified. That's really what this is about. And
(23:27):
make no mistake, I think trying to police this kid
from having the Gadsden flag, pulling down monuments, tearing down
historical records, that's what this is all about. The idea
is to delegitimize the foundational documents of the United States,
because if you do that, then why does anybody have
(23:47):
to care what's said in the Constitution. Why does anybody
have to care about any aspect of our nation's founding documents.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
If the people who were involved in creating those founding documents.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Were awful, hypocritical slave owners who didn't understand basic human rights,
and therefore everything that they tried to bring to bear
in this country is not rooted in pursuit of justice
and the last best hope of free government in the world.
It's actually just a collection of awful racists who bear
(24:23):
no semblance of connection to this country today, and therefore
we don't have to be bound by any ideas they
put out. That's what they're trying to do, that's the essence.
That's why they're trying to tear down all the statues.
And that's one of the things that I think Trump
got one hundred percent right, because while Joe Biden told
the fundamental lie that the reason he ran for president
was because of Donald Trump's response to Charlottesville, Trump's response
(24:47):
to Charlottesville was actually one hundred percent correct. You go
back and look at the transcript of everything he said.
Trump said, they're not going to stop with tearing down
statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and everybody
else who was connected to the Civil War. To these
Confederate generals, They're going to take the next step, and
(25:09):
they are then, as you well saw happen, They're then
going to say, oh, Abraham Lincoln's unacceptable. What did they
do in San Francisco? They tried to rename every school
that had a white guy on it. They tore down
statues of Ulysses S. Grant, who actually fought against the
Confederate generals. Because in an absence of historical knowledge, you
can convince people that anything is the truth, and there
(25:31):
is no precedent and there is no foundation. And if
you're constantly shifting what is allowed to be celebrated in
this country, then ultimately you create no foundational historical agreement.
And I say, this is a history nerd. Buck's a
history nerd too. We both have spent much of our
life studying history. And that's why I have ultimately a
(25:54):
lot of faith that we're going to end up in
a better place than we are right now. Because ultimately
I believe that we are going to come through this
difficulty and end up in a better place than we
are right now. And I think that's why it's so
important for everybody out there to have this historical knowledge
(26:17):
and understand that when they attack, you might say, why
do you care about a kid who's going to school
in Colorado State and what the school district says he
can and cannot do? Because this is emblematic of what's
happening all over the country and they will do this
to anyone if they have the ability.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
To do so.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And so this is a big part of what is
actually taking place. All Right, we'll see if bucks fire
alarm has gone off, We'll see if he can come
back and finish up the program with us. In the meantime,
some Americans are starting to speculate there's a government plan
to change our currency system. The same people speculating believe
we'll hear about it sooner than later. Two According to
(26:58):
former Wall Street inside Tika Tawari, the government could soon
make such an announcement. The speculation is our printed currency
would be replaced with a new digital version. Tika Tawari's
warning that the official announcement could come in the next
few months he's exposing the government plan in a video
and showing you the three steps you need to take
to prepare. Go to Dollar Recall dot Com to watch
(27:22):
the video and further inform yourself that website again, Dollar
Recall dot Com paid for by the Palm.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Beach Research Group. Clay and Buck twenty four to seven
and subscribe today.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Buck has
had a fire alarm go off in his studio, so
he may or may not be able to rejoin us.
Do you ever wonder what live radio is like? This
is why the podcast guys can make a lot of money.
There's no doubt about it. Doing a podcast way easier
than doing a live radio show. I like both, by
(27:57):
the way, lots of good podcasts out there. But if
an alarm goes off during podcast taping, you just say, Okay,
we'll wait till the alarm goes off. Alarm goes off
during a live radio show, boom, you just keep rolling.
Big story that is going to I think continue to
build is surrounding Mitch McConnell. I think we have some
audio of Mitch McConnell and it's uncomfortable. It's unfortunate. It's
(28:22):
not just Mitch McConnell. Dianne Feinstein has a power of attorney.
She can't actually make choices in her own life. Her
family is able to obligate her contractually, yet she is
still representing the Senate in California. You've got John Fetterman,
who anybody who watched that debate immediately checked himself into
(28:46):
a hospital as soon as he got to Washington, DC.
He's still not physically able to do the job of senator.
And you've got Joe Biden, who it's reckless that he's
president now, and the idea that he would try to
be president for years longer is also unacceptable. We have
a minimum age for president of thirty five, and obviously
(29:10):
people have different mental capabilities. Donald Trump is far more
mentally sharp than Joe Biden is heck, Bernie Sanders is
a year older than Joe Biden.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
He's way sharper.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And I saw today Warren Buffett turned ninety three and
he's still making elite investment decisions on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway.
So everybody has different mental faculties. I think most people
out there, if they're being honest, would say that in general,
mental ability peaks in the forties or fifties in terms
(29:46):
of your ability to make decisions. I was reading in
the Wall Street Journal yesterday. If you've ever wondered, hey,
when is the peak ability to make financial decisions on average?
According to the Wall Street Journal, fifty four years old.
When you are fifty four years old, you are at
your peak to make intelligent financial decisions because you've had
(30:08):
enough experience as an adult to learn.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
But that's so called wisdom.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
But you haven't moved past your cognitive abilities beginning to decline.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I think about this all the time. For radio, I
don't know what you know.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
An athlete might peak at twenty seven or twenty eight
years old. When do you peak in terms of being
able to process information and speak on the radio? I
think everybody's different. I would like to think that it's
in the fifties or sixties.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
People think about this all the time. For instance, if
you're an attorney, you can't fly an airplane after the
age of sixty five commercial airplane because airlines think that
you don't have the physical ability after the age of
sixty five on average to be entrusted with the entire
life of everybody that's on a commercial airline flight.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
And again I said.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
When this the clip initially went public with Mitch McConnell
just in the last hour or so, how would you
feel if you walked onto an airline and Joe Biden
was the pilot of your airplane. Would you feel as
you stepped foot onto that airline? Would you think to yourself, boy,
I'm really glad Joe Biden is flying this airplane.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Of course you wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Well, how in the world, then, can we justify Joe
Biden being able to be in charge of every aspect
of American life. It's crazy. He couldn't run a gas station.
Maybe he could be a Walmart greeter. But just about
every single one of you who run a small business
or work at a major business, I think you would
be challenged to find a job that Joe Biden could
(31:41):
have and do successfully. And yet he's in charge of
the whole nation. And certainly there are different mental and
physical capacities. But if you can't be president until thirty five,
how in the world are we talking about a guy
who's eighty two running and clearly has the mental and
physical faculty. The decline of Joe Biden running to be president.
(32:02):
It's reckless. Well, it's not just on the Republican side,
it's not just on the Democrat side. This is sadly
an issue everywhere. Here is a clip. I think you'll
be able to hear it, a bit of Mitch McConnell's.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Talks about what running for re election in twenty five six?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Did you hear the question senator running for reelection in
twenty twenty six? All right, I'm sorry you are running
you in a minute, Okay, somebody else have a question,
please speak up?
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
So it went bad, And for those of you, again,
I would encourage you can go watch the video if
you want to see it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It's not a.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Video that anybody's happy to see. Certainly, we don't want
anybody in their eighties or any age to be losing
their mental and physical capacity. But interestingly, the question was
about whether Mitch McConnell was going to run for reelection
in twenty twenty six, which feels reckless, just as it
feels reckless to me for Joe Biden to run for
(33:05):
reelection in twenty twenty four. Hecke's reckless for Joe Biden
to be in office right now, given all the difficult
decisions he has to make on a daily basis. And
remember everybody out there listening to us right now in
the Bluegrass State. We've got the number one show in Louisville.
We've got a massive audience in Lexington. I know many
of you are listening all over the state of Kentucky
(33:26):
right now. If you're saying, okay, well, Mitch McConnell, I
know he's a Senate majority leader. I don't know how
this is going to be a major issue going forward.
We're basically in a fifty to fifty Senate and there
is a governor's race going on this fall. Daniel Cameron,
all of you need to vote for him because there's
a Democrat in office right now and he's running for reelection,
(33:49):
and if that Democrat wins, he has said that he's
going to appoint a Democrat in the event that Mitch
McConnell we're not able to serve out the rest of
his term. Now, a bunch of you in Kentucky are saying,
wait a minute, Clay, we passed the bill. Yeah, I
understand there's a bill passed where the Kentucky legislature, which
(34:10):
is majority Republican, is saying we get to pick three
names in the Republican party to present to the governor,
and he has to pick one of those three names.
But Andy Basheer has said he doesn't think that's constitutional,
and so we're going to end up in a major
court battle where Kentucky could end up with either a
Democrat senator who's appointed by Andy Basheer, and then there's
(34:33):
a court battle over whether that senator can take office,
or it may be the case that Kentucky doesn't have
a sitting senator, both of which could end up in
the wake of the twenty twenty four election. Think about this, now,
you could end up in a situation where Republicans have
a small majority. Let's say Trump wins or a Republican wins,
(34:57):
and it's a fifty to fifty Senate and the VP
is breaking the tie. Well, if Mitch McConnell's not there
and Kentucky either has a Democrat senator or they have
no senator, then Democrats would take back control of the Senate.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
And obviously, if Joe Biden somehow gets elected again or
another Democrat does, then Democrats would have the tie break,
and that Senate seat could also be massively significant in
terms of their ability to pass legislation or put.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Somebody on the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
It's a really big deal, and it is a mess
right now in the state of Kentucky if you care
about this. Regardless of everything else, Andy Msheer has been
wrong on everything COVID. I couldn't believe how much more
locked down Kentucky was than my home state of Tennessee,
and I know many of you out there experienced it
(35:50):
in the state of Kentucky. That by itself is a
reason why you should be voting for Daniel Cameron.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
But even if you.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Don't particularly care, think about what they will do. They
will appoint a Democrat senator if Andy Basheer wins and
Kentucky sticks with a Democrat governor, a Democrat governor who
failed on all things COVID and actually made things far
worse for most of the residents of the state of Kentucky.
(36:17):
Kentucky's a red state, it should have a red governor,
and Daniel Cameron is the right choice there. It matters
a great deal regardless. But when you consider Mitch McConnell's
health and the court battle looming over any potential replacement
in the event that that were necessary toccur between now
and twenty twenty six. This, by itself is why it
is so important that Daniel Cameron be elected this fall.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I appreciate all of you.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Buck, with the fire alarm going off in his studio,
he'll be back with us tomorrow. We'll be back with
you on Thursday. Should be a lot of fun. Appreciate
all the time you spend with us every single day.
This has been playing, Buck,
Welcome to today's edition of the Clay Travis and Buck
Sexton Show podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
All right, third hour of Clay and Buck kicks off now.
Phenomenal guests joining us in this moment. Kevin O'Leary, mister
wonderful from Shark Tank, entrepreneur, investor and the guy who
says often the most amusing stuff on the Shark Tank Show. Kevin,
thanks for being here, great to beer.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Thank you. Let's start.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
I know you're up on Capitol Hill. You're trying to
advocate for the small business men and women of America,
which is super important obviously, really the engine of economic
growth in so many ways. What headwinds are they running
into right now under this administration?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Like what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (00:45):
What is this White House or this Congress doing wrong
when it comes to the small businesses of America.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
Well, let me paint the picture, because I deal with
this every day. I've got over thirty portfolio companies, primarily
FIRSTUS second generation families in America. You know, we think
about our economy. A lot of people don't know this.
The S and P five hundred massive companies, biggest index
in the world, but they only represent forty percent of employers.
And many of the people at work for the S
(01:12):
and P five hundred, those giant companies, those employees are
outside of the United States, almost in some cases half
of them, depending on the company. So domestically, who employs
all of us? It's small business. And so what I'm
frustrated about is right now, you remember the beginning of
this latest banking crisis when Silicon Valley Bank and unfortunately
(01:32):
run by idiots, went to zero, but that caused a
ripple effect, and what's occurring now is the regulators of
small regional banks there's about four thousand, one hundred and
sixty of them, which really bank and provide credit for
small business in America, are under tremendous pressure. They're being
required to change how much capital they have liquid on
(01:52):
their balance sheets, and basically what that means is they're
closing their loan books, so it's very, very hard to
borrow money anymore. This is happening at the same time
that Congress has done a trillion dollars with a paper
printing which even hasn't gone off the door yet, and
it's called the Inflation Reduction Act the IRA, and the
other one is the Chips and Science Act. All of
(02:15):
that money is one of the big guys, all of it,
not some of it, all of it, one hundred percent
of it to S and P five hundred companies. So
he asked me why the stock market's doing so well.
It's because it's got this unlimited lift of printed paper
to go to them for free. It's basically free money,
and yet nothing for the small guy, nothing, absolutely nothing.
Now that is totally screwed up, imbalanced, not fair. And
(02:38):
I'd argue on American.
Speaker 4 (02:41):
Am I crazy? And the answer may well be yes,
So don't be afraid to say that. People out there like, yes,
you're crazy. It seems to me that we have never
had a more financially illiterate group of leaders, both Republicans
and Democrats, but in particular the Democrat Party has totally
lost its way when it comes to business. As a
(03:02):
guy who is focused primarily on business, do we have
good representatives from a financial perspective at all in your mind?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
You know, it's a great question. And my answer is,
having now spent almost a year and a half going
to Congress and sometimes twice a month, it's a mixed bag.
And it's really about executional skills at the state level,
and where I look at states, I look at the governor.
You can consider the governor of state as the CEO.
(03:31):
A lot of the policy around what happens. So I've
stopped investing in states like New York, for example, or
Massachusetts or California. I don't put a diame in those places.
They're not open for business and their taxes are too high.
My new focus is on places like North Dakota, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
Those let's call.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
The managers, governors, senators, whatever you want. They're executing towards
pro business, whether it be big or small, and they've
made it that. There's a very interesting dynamic occurred after
the pandemic. We have competition between states. Now, why would
you ever put money in Massachusetts where Elizabeth Warren wants
to take it from you if you're successful, or where
(04:16):
AOC make sure that no new jobs come to her jurisdiction.
Why would you even go there? Why fight with those people?
If they want to destroy their states, let them do that.
I'll take my money and go to where I welcomed,
where I can sit now with the Governor Bergham, who's
now running for president, and say what can we do
together here? What can we invest in? Same with Florida,
same with Texas. So I want to encourage people to
(04:39):
make economic decisions wisely and to make sure that the
people that vote for these individuals. And I'm not saying
Elizabeth Warren isn't a very successful politician.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
She is.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
I just hate her policies, and I think that's a
fair debate to have. I'm going to be going to
the legislature in Massachusetts in October. I do some work
at Harvard where teach you, you know, young entrepreneurs and engineers,
and I want to make sure that we can get
into a solid debate about good policy investcy.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
If we could get you and some of their staffs
actually listen to the show, Kevin, we're speaking of Kevin o'liary,
mister wonderful of Shark Tank. For anybody who's joining us
in progress here, if we can get you to sit
down with all of the Republican candidates right now at once,
and you could give them one thing that you believe
would be most important, useful, powerful for helping small business
(05:32):
and really with it, just the broader economy. I mean,
if you could get one thing right in front of them.
So whether it's Trump or whomever, if they end up
beating Biden, they could pursue it. What would it be
Right now?
Speaker 1 (05:45):
I see this trum. I'd call it imbalance between the
support that the SMP is getting the big companies in
America and what we're not doing for small business. And
so we have programs, we have two big ones right now,
and I want to be very specific about this, and
I've actually done this with both Republicans and Democrats. Set
them down. When I get to the hill and very
(06:06):
fourtthenth they'll take a meeting and their staff just as
importantly and say, okay, let me get this right. You
have authorized a trillion dollars for the S and P
five hundred and two specific acts, the Chips and Science Act,
and the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRA. Where in those bills,
because I've looked at them, you show me anywhere where
you're supporting small business, your own constituents, in your own geography,
(06:30):
that represents sixty percent of the jobs created in your state.
Where's the support for them? And there isn't a single
active act right now at a time when they need
it more than the big guys, the big guys have
no trouble raising money right now. The cost of capital
for small businesses four to five percent, all the way
up to eleven to seventeen percent in a matter of
(06:51):
eighteen months, and nobody cares about them. So the only
act I know that's active, and I know you guys
promote this quite a bit on your platform, the Employee
Retention Credit.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I also do that.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
I've got a business called Wondertrust dot com and all
of my companies have applied for this and hundreds more.
And I go out of my way to say to
those senators and governors, you extend this act for me
for twenty four months for everybody in America that deserves
to get access to this capital that they actually paid into.
Because what's going on here is my companies and many
(07:25):
others millions more market during the pandemic in twenty twenty
twenty twenty one, we paid our employees. We paid them
even though they couldn't work, We kept them on payroll,
We invested in them, our businesses and America. And now
you give us nothing. I don't get it, and that
has not fallen on deaf years. I've even gone all
the Way to the Way Means Committee, and I've talked
(07:47):
to the chairman and said, think about this. You're going
to have to do something for these small guys when
things get worse in the months ahead. Meanwhile at the
farm you've made sure that everybody in the SMP is
just dripping with camps and nothing for the small guy.
Extend this act for twenty four months.
Speaker 4 (08:05):
We've talked a lot on this program about red getting
redder and blue getting bluer. You just kind of hinted
at this about the importance of federalism. The governor, the
CEO of a state. I don't know what state your
home base is in now you can maybe tell people,
because I'd be curious. But if you were advising someone
young today and they were saying, Hey, I'm thinking about
(08:26):
starting a small business, and I could base that small
business anywhere in the country, where would you tell them
it would make sense to go, And how much of
that I feel fortunate bucks now in Florida. I'm in Tennessee.
We have no state income tax. The idea that I
would pay fourteen or fifteen percent of my hard earned
income to the state of New York, or to California
(08:47):
or to any other state is crazy to me, but
I'm curious. We get a lot of questions Buck and
I do. Hey, let's say you're twenty years old and
you're about to graduate from college and you're interested, or
you're just twenty years old and you've got an entrepreneurship bug.
Where would you tell them if they could go anywhere
in the country that you see the most dynamic business
environments that they should consider founding a company.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
Well, I mean, you know that's you've hit the nail
on the head. There's a reason Nashville has exploded over
the last eighteen years. There's very few cities growing as
fast as Nashville. Why a well managed state with no
state tax. The same things happening in Florida, The same
things happening in Texas. The same thing is happening in
(09:30):
North Dakota. They just lowered their state tax. It's not
zero yet, but they're on their way there. Every state
that I look at that has moved towards pro business
and lower state tax is growing. So if you're starting
a business, and I advise all of my young entrepreneurs, look,
you can run a business today from anywhere, because forty
percent of your employees are not going to work in
(09:51):
your headquarters. That's post pandemic. That's what's occurred. That's our
new economy America two point zero digital. And that means,
don't stick it in a place where they hate you,
where they put regulation on you, where they overtax you,
and they don't want you to start a business, they
don't want any jobs. Don't put it anywhere near AOC
for example. And why would you ever do it in
(10:12):
Massachusetts where Elizabeth ware wants to tax you if you're successful.
What built this country and makes it great is entrepreneurs,
and that's who apploys sixty percent of the people. We
now have this fantastic dynamic of states competing with each other.
Reward the good managers, the good governors, the senators with
your vote and your business, and make sure that you're
(10:35):
punitive to ones that are not pro business, and let's
hope they get voted out of power because they are
not doing their job and not carrying forward the American dream.
Anytime you tax someone into oblivion and you just take
the government and overregulate rules, you are forcing those businesses
to do the right thing. And that's simply move that's
(10:57):
how it works.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Kevin, How worried are you about a major downturn in
the economy over the next call it year or so.
I mean, we've been told for many months. I used
to see the Goldman Sachs projection, oh sixty percent likelihood
of our recession in the next quarter whatever. Going back
now for a while under the Biden administration's tenure, are
(11:21):
do you feel like we're out of the woods or
are we still just hoping and praying?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
You know? That's that is the question for every investor
in America trying to figure out this extraordinary situation we're in.
I mean, let's just take stalk of what we know.
We know that we have had the fastest rate high
cycle in almost history. It's very rare that we've gone
from basically zero to five percent in a matter of months.
That never happens. And of five and a half percent,
(11:50):
we also know, and this is extraordinary and I've never
seen it before, we're still at full employment. Anything under
four percent unemployment is full employment. So not only is
your cost of have gone through the roof, but you
still can't hire anybody to work in your business. And
at the same time, we have the trillion dollars of
free helicopter money coming in these two acts I talked
about the IRA and the CHIPSAC and so this is
(12:12):
a really strange force. We have inflation going up, and
yet we're still printing money like a South American dictatorship.
I mean, it's just unbelievable what's going on here. We
actually don't need all this money at this point, but
we're trying to do some things. And you can blame
any administration because they're always trying to figure out ways
(12:33):
to print money and get votes. I get that, But
this situation now is an extraordinary one because we've got
a lot of pressure points. So when people tell me, well,
you know, there's a sixty percent chance of a recession
in the next six months, they have no idea what's
going to happen. Nobody does. And so when we're planning
(12:54):
in our businesses, which we do each week, we plan
for every outcome right now, like a soft landing. But
nobody knows that with certainty. So you've really got to
conserve your cash. You've got to make sure that you
have access to capital for inventory, and you've got to
keep an eye on your receivables and run your business
is a good manager, same for a state, same idea
for the country. And so we're at an inflection point
(13:16):
where rather a remarkable presidential cycle coming up here for
a million different reasons, and you guys have talked about
it quite a bit. But at the end of the day,
what you're voting for, and I don't care what part
of you're with, vote for good policy. What drives America
is good policy. I've never made money in politics. I
make money in good policy, and capital and money, domestic
(13:39):
and international, falls a path of least resistance. You want
to make America, America and American business the least resistive.
You want everybody to invest their money here.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Quickly, last question for you, what's the best investment you've
ever made in your life?
Speaker 3 (13:55):
What is the one that you regret not investing in?
Speaker 4 (13:59):
Because people think a lot about the successes, but I'm
also curious what you passed on and you're like, oh,
I was an idiot.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
I should have one hundred percent gone all in on that.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
Yeah, that's that's a good one. Let me tell you
what I've learned. And this goes back to Shark Tank.
I've been doing Shark Tank for fifteen years, I've seen
thousands of pitches. I've looked at thousands of deals, and
each year, I do you know, fifteen seventeen, twenty deals,
whatever it is, And I'm pretty sure when I'm making them,
i know what I'm doing, and I'm saying to myself,
that's going to be a winner. That's going to be
(14:27):
a winner. You basically think you know. The truth is
you have no idea. What happens three, four or five
years later is the ones that you thought were dogs
end up being monster hits. I'll give you an example
when I just had a huge liquidity event in this
woman comes on three years ago. Anna Sky was her
name Skaya, Anna Skaya, and she had a company called
(14:48):
bass Pause. You take a swab, you stick it in
a cat where the sun doesn't shine. You send it
into the lab and she tells you your cat DNA
and it can help the cat have a longer life.
And I said to her, what are you out of
your friggin mind. I can buy you're this is twenty
nine ninety five. I can buy a new cat for
five bucks. A lot of cat people didn't like that comment.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
In America, I invest my wife cat, I get it.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
I don't you know.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Anyways, what happened was she said she was so compelling,
such a great entrepreneur, such a really driving force on
that set. No one wanted to invest in her, and they
thought the whole idea was stupid.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
I gave her the dough.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Three years later, she sells the business to one of
the largest pet divisions of a giant pharmaceutical company for
over fifty million cash. It was one of my best
outcomes ever. And I thought, that gives you an example.
You just have no idea. It's serendipitous luck sometimes. So
I do a lot of deals, and you know I've
(15:49):
been working with let me give example Barbara for example.
She doesn't even look at the numbers, looks at it.
So I like the guy.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
I like the gal.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
I'm going to invest in him. And by the way,
the only reason Barbara gets to ARCT take every years,
I buyer a new broom.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Kevin O'Leary, everybody, mister wonderful. That's a great line we
got with that website.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
It's wonder trust dot com. And I've got a team
of people I've been doing this with all my companies
that will figure out whether you do actually and are
eligible for the ERC the Employee Retention Credit up to
twenty six dollars per employee. I work very hard at this.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I want hey, thanks for being all this. We were
about to hit a break. Mister wonderful Kevin O'Leary, thank
you so much.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
Take Care Innovation Refunds the company helping so many small
businesses get a tax refund through the Employee Retention Credit.
You just heard mister wonderful talking about it. Tax refund
for businesses that kept employees on payroll for parts of.
Speaker 3 (16:46):
Twenty twenty and twenty twenty one. You can get hooked up.
Speaker 4 (16:48):
Go to Innovation Refunds dot com to see if you qualify.
No upfront charges. They don't get paid unless you get paid.
It doesn't cost you a dime. Callum if it's easier.
One eight four three refunds one eight four three refunds
Innovation Refunds dot Com. One truth revealed after another Clay
Travis and buck Sexton walk about in Clay Travis buck
(17:10):
Sexton Show.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
We got a big story that.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Popped that what was interesting and it continues sort of
this battleground of what kids can and cannot say and
what they're being taught in public schools, and it dealt
with the Gadsden flag, which is a revolutionary era flag
that has to do with it has a rattlesnake says.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Don't tread on me.
Speaker 4 (17:33):
We're gonna talk about the history of that and what
happened when a school district tried to ban it by
saying it was in some way an endorsement of slavery.
I think you guys are going to enjoy that discussion
that we're gonna have. And also Harriet Tubman's statue in Philadelphia,
Buck white guy not allowed to make it because only
(17:57):
a black person evidently can do a statue of Harriet Tubman.
We will dive into both of those. We want to
tell you history. Both of these directly connected to it.
Really important kind of matters where your kids are being
taught and what they are being taught. And that's why
our friends at Hillsdale College matter so much and do
such an incredible job. College kids back on campus right now,
(18:20):
and Hillsdale College is delivering on teaching the Constitution and
the enduring words that deliver our freedoms. They've been explaining
and defending our freedoms since the eighteen forties. They're still
at it these days. In addition to teaching college kids,
Hillsdale has a K to twelve lifelong learning system that
they're sharing as well. If you're not doing so already,
(18:42):
one of the best ways go get signed up for Imprimus,
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best and smartest and conservative constitutional thought. Clayanbuck for Hillsdale
dot com. Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show.
(19:03):
Appreciate all of you hanging out with us. It's a
couple of updates. It appears, and we know many of
you in the state of Florida are listening to us,
and you may be listening to us on your car
phone or on a battery operated sorry, a car radio
or a battery operated radio, as there have been a
(19:23):
lot of people lose power. It appears most of the
hurricane has now passed through much of Florida and is
now into Georgia, and we'll soon be in the Carolina.
So we know we have people listening all throughout the
pathway of that storm, and we'll continue to update you
on that to the best of our ability. A little
(19:43):
bit of breaking news. The next Republican Debate, which is
taking place at the end of September, going to be
moderated by Dana Perino and Stuart Varney.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
It will air on Fox Business.
Speaker 4 (19:57):
It appears the third Republican Debate will now take place
in Tuscolosa, Alabama, on the University of Alabama campus. And
the other bit of news that is out there is
what we were just teasing you about as we went
to break, which is this Gadsden flag controversy that has
(20:19):
blown up in the Colorado Springs area, I believe of
the state of Colorado. A kid went to school with
a Gadsden flag patch on his backpack and he was
told he was not allowed to have that patch on
his bag at school. He was lectured by his teachers.
(20:39):
He was told it was in some way connected to slavery.
Buck I would just start here. Now the school district
has backed down. They have acknowledged that this is actually
a flag made famous during the Revolutionary.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
War which threatened Britain.
Speaker 4 (20:54):
Hey, if you effectively try to take away our rights,
it has a rattlesnake on it. We will essential bite
back that don't tread on me flag. It has nothing
to do with slavery. But I would just start here, Buck,
if this kid had gone and had a rainbow flag
on his backpack at school, do you think there's any
(21:15):
way this Colorado school district would have ever said to him,
you can't have that badge on your backpack and you're
not allowed to be in school.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
No.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
I mean, the politics of this are are very apparent
right away, and I think, Clay.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
You know what, my man, You're gonna just take over
because the fire alarm in my building is going off. Everybody,
I gotta step outside for a minute.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
You can if you just heard that Buck in his Miami,
Miami place, there now is a fire alarm going off.
I think he's fine, Like everybody's gonna be fine, but
he'll be back. Maybe join us at the last segment
here if that alarm stops going off in the background.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
But I do think this is very.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
Emblematic of the world in which we live today, where
certain political speech is not only allowed, it's embraced. And
so if this kid on his backpack had been walking
in with a gay pride flag, or if he had
had for instance, a BLM logo on his backpack. No
(22:24):
one would have said to him, Hey, you can't have
that political statement on your backpack. You aren't allowed kid
to be able to come to school with that insignia.
This is unacceptable. You are in some way in violation
of the school district. And in fact, if that had
(22:44):
ever happened, it would have been on CNN's Leads story,
MSNBC would have been all over it, and the school
district would have been forced to apologize. I give credit
to this kid for actually knowing history. There is a
massive lack of historical knowledge in this country today and
I think, frankly it's being exploited by Democrats to try
(23:06):
to sell the idea through the sixteen nineteen project and
many other also connected to that, aspects of our history,
this idea that America is an awful racist place and
as a result, nothing that was created by our founders
can be justified. That's really what this is about. And
(23:27):
make no mistake, I think trying to police this kid
from having the Gadsden flag, pulling down monuments, tearing down
historical records, that's what this is all about. The idea
is to delegitimize the foundational documents of the United States,
because if you do that, then why does anybody have
(23:47):
to care what's said in the Constitution. Why does anybody
have to care about any aspect of our nation's founding documents.
Speaker 3 (23:56):
If the people who were involved in creating those founding documents.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
Were awful, hypocritical slave owners who didn't understand basic human rights,
and therefore everything that they tried to bring to bear
in this country is not rooted in pursuit of justice
and the last best hope of free government in the world.
It's actually just a collection of awful racists who bear
(24:23):
no semblance of connection to this country today, and therefore
we don't have to be bound by any ideas they
put out. That's what they're trying to do, that's the essence.
That's why they're trying to tear down all the statues.
And that's one of the things that I think Trump
got one hundred percent right, because while Joe Biden told
the fundamental lie that the reason he ran for president
was because of Donald Trump's response to Charlottesville, Trump's response
(24:47):
to Charlottesville was actually one hundred percent correct. You go
back and look at the transcript of everything he said.
Trump said, they're not going to stop with tearing down
statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson and everybody
else who was connected to the Civil War. To these
Confederate generals, They're going to take the next step, and
(25:09):
they are then, as you well saw happen, They're then
going to say, oh, Abraham Lincoln's unacceptable. What did they
do in San Francisco? They tried to rename every school
that had a white guy on it. They tore down
statues of Ulysses S. Grant, who actually fought against the
Confederate generals. Because in an absence of historical knowledge, you
can convince people that anything is the truth, and there
(25:31):
is no precedent and there is no foundation. And if
you're constantly shifting what is allowed to be celebrated in
this country, then ultimately you create no foundational historical agreement.
And I say, this is a history nerd. Buck's a
history nerd too. We both have spent much of our
life studying history. And that's why I have ultimately a
(25:54):
lot of faith that we're going to end up in
a better place than we are right now. Because ultimately
I believe that we are going to come through this
difficulty and end up in a better place than we
are right now. And I think that's why it's so
important for everybody out there to have this historical knowledge
(26:17):
and understand that when they attack, you might say, why
do you care about a kid who's going to school
in Colorado State and what the school district says he
can and cannot do? Because this is emblematic of what's
happening all over the country and they will do this
to anyone if they have the ability.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
To do so.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
And so this is a big part of what is
actually taking place. All Right, we'll see if bucks fire
alarm has gone off, We'll see if he can come
back and finish up the program with us. In the meantime,
some Americans are starting to speculate there's a government plan
to change our currency system. The same people speculating believe
we'll hear about it sooner than later. Two According to
(26:58):
former Wall Street inside Tika Tawari, the government could soon
make such an announcement. The speculation is our printed currency
would be replaced with a new digital version. Tika Tawari's
warning that the official announcement could come in the next
few months he's exposing the government plan in a video
and showing you the three steps you need to take
to prepare. Go to Dollar Recall dot Com to watch
(27:22):
the video and further inform yourself that website again, Dollar
Recall dot Com paid for by the Palm.
Speaker 3 (27:30):
Beach Research Group. Clay and Buck twenty four to seven
and subscribe today.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
Welcome back in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Buck has
had a fire alarm go off in his studio, so
he may or may not be able to rejoin us.
Do you ever wonder what live radio is like? This
is why the podcast guys can make a lot of money.
There's no doubt about it. Doing a podcast way easier
than doing a live radio show. I like both, by
(27:57):
the way, lots of good podcasts out there. But if
an alarm goes off during podcast taping, you just say, Okay,
we'll wait till the alarm goes off. Alarm goes off
during a live radio show, boom, you just keep rolling.
Big story that is going to I think continue to
build is surrounding Mitch McConnell. I think we have some
audio of Mitch McConnell and it's uncomfortable. It's unfortunate. It's
(28:22):
not just Mitch McConnell. Dianne Feinstein has a power of attorney.
She can't actually make choices in her own life. Her
family is able to obligate her contractually, yet she is
still representing the Senate in California. You've got John Fetterman,
who anybody who watched that debate immediately checked himself into
(28:46):
a hospital as soon as he got to Washington, DC.
He's still not physically able to do the job of senator.
And you've got Joe Biden, who it's reckless that he's
president now, and the idea that he would try to
be president for years longer is also unacceptable. We have
a minimum age for president of thirty five, and obviously
(29:10):
people have different mental capabilities. Donald Trump is far more
mentally sharp than Joe Biden is heck, Bernie Sanders is
a year older than Joe Biden.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
He's way sharper.
Speaker 4 (29:21):
And I saw today Warren Buffett turned ninety three and
he's still making elite investment decisions on behalf of Berkshire Hathaway.
So everybody has different mental faculties. I think most people
out there, if they're being honest, would say that in general,
mental ability peaks in the forties or fifties in terms
(29:46):
of your ability to make decisions. I was reading in
the Wall Street Journal yesterday. If you've ever wondered, hey,
when is the peak ability to make financial decisions on average?
According to the Wall Street Journal, fifty four years old.
When you are fifty four years old, you are at
your peak to make intelligent financial decisions because you've had
(30:08):
enough experience as an adult to learn.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
But that's so called wisdom.
Speaker 4 (30:13):
But you haven't moved past your cognitive abilities beginning to decline.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
I think about this all the time. For radio, I
don't know what you know.
Speaker 4 (30:21):
An athlete might peak at twenty seven or twenty eight
years old. When do you peak in terms of being
able to process information and speak on the radio? I
think everybody's different. I would like to think that it's
in the fifties or sixties.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
You know.
Speaker 4 (30:34):
People think about this all the time. For instance, if
you're an attorney, you can't fly an airplane after the
age of sixty five commercial airplane because airlines think that
you don't have the physical ability after the age of
sixty five on average to be entrusted with the entire
life of everybody that's on a commercial airline flight.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
And again I said.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
When this the clip initially went public with Mitch McConnell
just in the last hour or so, how would you
feel if you walked onto an airline and Joe Biden
was the pilot of your airplane. Would you feel as
you stepped foot onto that airline? Would you think to yourself, boy,
I'm really glad Joe Biden is flying this airplane.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Of course you wouldn't.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
Well, how in the world, then, can we justify Joe
Biden being able to be in charge of every aspect
of American life. It's crazy. He couldn't run a gas station.
Maybe he could be a Walmart greeter. But just about
every single one of you who run a small business
or work at a major business, I think you would
be challenged to find a job that Joe Biden could
(31:41):
have and do successfully. And yet he's in charge of
the whole nation. And certainly there are different mental and
physical capacities. But if you can't be president until thirty five,
how in the world are we talking about a guy
who's eighty two running and clearly has the mental and
physical faculty. The decline of Joe Biden running to be president.
(32:02):
It's reckless. Well, it's not just on the Republican side,
it's not just on the Democrat side. This is sadly
an issue everywhere. Here is a clip. I think you'll
be able to hear it, a bit of Mitch McConnell's.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Talks about what running for re election in twenty five six?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
That's true.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Did you hear the question senator running for reelection in
twenty twenty six? All right, I'm sorry you are running
you in a minute, Okay, somebody else have a question,
please speak up?
Speaker 3 (32:38):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (32:38):
So it went bad, And for those of you, again,
I would encourage you can go watch the video if
you want to see it for yourself.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
It's not a.
Speaker 4 (32:45):
Video that anybody's happy to see. Certainly, we don't want
anybody in their eighties or any age to be losing
their mental and physical capacity. But interestingly, the question was
about whether Mitch McConnell was going to run for reelection
in twenty twenty six, which feels reckless, just as it
feels reckless to me for Joe Biden to run for
(33:05):
reelection in twenty twenty four. Hecke's reckless for Joe Biden
to be in office right now, given all the difficult
decisions he has to make on a daily basis. And
remember everybody out there listening to us right now in
the Bluegrass State. We've got the number one show in Louisville.
We've got a massive audience in Lexington. I know many
of you are listening all over the state of Kentucky
(33:26):
right now. If you're saying, okay, well, Mitch McConnell, I
know he's a Senate majority leader. I don't know how
this is going to be a major issue going forward.
We're basically in a fifty to fifty Senate and there
is a governor's race going on this fall. Daniel Cameron,
all of you need to vote for him because there's
a Democrat in office right now and he's running for reelection,
(33:49):
and if that Democrat wins, he has said that he's
going to appoint a Democrat in the event that Mitch
McConnell we're not able to serve out the rest of
his term. Now, a bunch of you in Kentucky are saying,
wait a minute, Clay, we passed the bill. Yeah, I
understand there's a bill passed where the Kentucky legislature, which
(34:10):
is majority Republican, is saying we get to pick three
names in the Republican party to present to the governor,
and he has to pick one of those three names.
But Andy Basheer has said he doesn't think that's constitutional,
and so we're going to end up in a major
court battle where Kentucky could end up with either a
Democrat senator who's appointed by Andy Basheer, and then there's
(34:33):
a court battle over whether that senator can take office,
or it may be the case that Kentucky doesn't have
a sitting senator, both of which could end up in
the wake of the twenty twenty four election. Think about this, now,
you could end up in a situation where Republicans have
a small majority. Let's say Trump wins or a Republican wins,
(34:57):
and it's a fifty to fifty Senate and the VP
is breaking the tie. Well, if Mitch McConnell's not there
and Kentucky either has a Democrat senator or they have
no senator, then Democrats would take back control of the Senate.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
It's a big deal.
Speaker 4 (35:13):
And obviously, if Joe Biden somehow gets elected again or
another Democrat does, then Democrats would have the tie break,
and that Senate seat could also be massively significant in
terms of their ability to pass legislation or put.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Somebody on the Supreme Court.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
It's a really big deal, and it is a mess
right now in the state of Kentucky if you care
about this. Regardless of everything else, Andy Msheer has been
wrong on everything COVID. I couldn't believe how much more
locked down Kentucky was than my home state of Tennessee,
and I know many of you out there experienced it
(35:50):
in the state of Kentucky. That by itself is a
reason why you should be voting for Daniel Cameron.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
But even if you.
Speaker 4 (35:56):
Don't particularly care, think about what they will do. They
will appoint a Democrat senator if Andy Basheer wins and
Kentucky sticks with a Democrat governor, a Democrat governor who
failed on all things COVID and actually made things far
worse for most of the residents of the state of Kentucky.
(36:17):
Kentucky's a red state, it should have a red governor,
and Daniel Cameron is the right choice there. It matters
a great deal regardless. But when you consider Mitch McConnell's
health and the court battle looming over any potential replacement
in the event that that were necessary toccur between now
and twenty twenty six. This, by itself is why it
is so important that Daniel Cameron be elected this fall.
Speaker 3 (36:41):
I appreciate all of you.
Speaker 4 (36:42):
Buck, with the fire alarm going off in his studio,
he'll be back with us tomorrow. We'll be back with
you on Thursday. Should be a lot of fun. Appreciate
all the time you spend with us every single day.
This has been playing, Buck,
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