July 8, 2025 • 35 mins
In Hour 3 of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, the hosts deliver a compelling and wide-ranging discussion centered on U.S. energy policy, the future of nuclear power, and the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence. The hour features an in-depth interview with U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, who outlines the Trump administration’s “Make Energy Great Again” (MEGA) strategy. This includes ending half a trillion dollars in federal subsidies for wind, solar, and electric vehicles, which Wright argues have destabilized the power grid and driven up electricity costs. He emphasizes a return to fossil fuel production on federal lands, streamlined permitting, and targeted tax credits for next-generation nuclear, geothermal, and hydroelectric technologies.
The conversation shifts to the affordability of gasoline, with Wright noting a 25–30 cent per gallon drop in prices over the past year despite global instability. He attributes this to increased domestic production and a shift in Middle East dynamics, particularly regarding Iran. The hosts and Wright also explore the urgent need for massive energy infrastructure expansion to meet the exponential power demands of AI technologies, warning of a looming 200-gigawatt shortfall if current coal plant closures proceed without adequate replacement.
Later in the hour, journalist Selena Zito joins the show to discuss her new book, Butler: The Untold Story of the Near Assassination of Donald Trump and the Fight for America’s Heartland. Zito recounts her firsthand experience at the rally where Trump was shot in the ear, describing the chaos, the president’s resolve, and the symbolic power of his raised fist. She reflects on how the event transformed Trump’s sense of purpose and galvanized support across the political spectrum. The hosts predict that Trump’s reaction in Butler will become an iconic moment in American history, likening it to Lincoln at Gettysburg.
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/
Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton:
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Secretary, appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We know we were just You're just in a marathon
cabinet meeting. As a member of the cabinet, a lot
covered there. Wanted to just jump into what is in
the big beautiful bill that affects directly US national energy policy?
Like what do we need to know about what's coming?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Actually quite a bit, but let me start out with
maybe the biggest thing is it's the ending of about
a half a trillion dollars of subsidies that would be
paid out in the next ten years, so you know,
roughly fifty billion a year. We've been paying these for
many years and the biggest component to them is to
(00:43):
pay people to put wind and solar on our electricity grid,
and subsidies to help rich people by evs. And so
the problem of these subsidies is they not only cost
the taxpayers that half a trillion dollars, but at the
and they make our electricity grids more expensive and less stable,
(01:03):
so we have to pay twice. So I think reducing
the pressure the cost of these subsidies and the pressure
on the cost and stability of our grid is going
to be a big win for Americans.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
When you look at at the price of gas. I
think that's a big story.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Doesn't mean talking in the price of gasoline in affordability terms.
So it's just tremendous. That's a significant expense that all Americans,
all of us pay every week to get to our jobs,
to go on vacations, visit our grandmothers, and travel with
our kids. If you make gasoline prices expensive, you just
shrink the Life Administration's record. We have gasoline twenty five
(01:43):
to thirty cents a gallon cheaper today than it was
twelve months ago. And that's going through a period of
major conflict in the Middle East, but major productive conflict
in the Middle East, hopefully ending the forty six years
of a ran at the troublemaker in the Middle East
and really the threat to global peace, probably the largest
(02:06):
global threat to peace over the last forty five years.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
We're speaking to the Secretary of the UIST Department of Energy,
Chris Wright, and mister Secretary, if you could lay out
for us, what does a make energy great again? You know,
mega mega What does a make energy great again policy
under Trump look like going forward?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Does it include nuclear?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Is it new technology applied to fossil fuels, Like, what
is the Trump administration trying to accomplish so that not
only are we doing as much as we can with
the technology we have and the resources we have in
the past, but that we do new things, innovative things
going forward.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Oh great, setting of that table. So I mentioned that
getting rid of a half a trillion dollars to make
energy expensive. There's also in the one big Beautiful bill
just returning to room of law and allowing oil, gas
and coal producers to produce again on federal lands across
the country. This will lower baseline energy prices in the
(03:09):
coming years and decades in front of us. I squeezed
that one in there real quick. But there's also I'm
a free market guy, so I'm not a fan of subsidies,
but we do have tax credits in there for a
finite period of time for next generation nuclear and for
geothermal and for uprates if we can get more power
out of hydro, have a cheaper to build big reactors. Yeah,
(03:32):
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
No, I was going to ask, it's exactly what you
were going into, which is what does that look like?
Because nuclear unfortunately became a boogeyman. What does it look like?
And what percentage you think of our power could come
from nuclear in the years ahead, given the Trump administration's
willingness and your willingness to thwenty.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Percent of electricity today. So after a natural gas, which
is by far and away the leader, nuclear is second.
But yeah, I mean that could yeah, a couple of
decades from now, that could be or fifty percent of
our electricity from nuclear. We've got to build a lot
to do that. But this is America. We can build
a lot. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC, has just
(04:11):
made it so expensive, so slow, and so risky to
develop nuclear power in the country. We basically stopped doing
it for the last few decades. So we need regulatory
reform at the NRC. We need regulatory reform from NEFA
so that it's just a check are we being smart
about the environment, not a weaponized thing. You could just
have lawsuits and stop anything from being built. We need
(04:35):
to have a five permit on federal lands. Department of
Energy will be in charge of that. We will have
next generation test reactors running twelve months from today at
our Idaho National Lab facilities. There like the technology is
there at the private capital is there? The interest is there?
We just need the government to get out of the
way and let capitalism and free market forces bring us
(04:59):
a very excit few decades with rapid growth in nuclear energy.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
We're talking to Energy Secretary Chris right Buck just asked,
and you are hearing a lot of talk about the
need for nuclear power.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Underscoring all of.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
This based on the people that I talk to, is
there isn't enough discussion about all of the power and
energy that's going to be necessary for AI. That the
amount that this is going to demand, the amount that
it's going to soak up is just off the charts.
That I imagine is something you're spending a decent amount
(05:33):
on as well, Uh, for AI, for the AI revolution
to take place and for America to lead. What sort
of energy do we need to create that isn't being
created now? Is that accurate based on what you're seeing now?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You're absolutely right. Any give the numbers real quick. We
had so here we are twenty twenty five five years
from now, we're going to need probably at least another
one hundred gigawatts of generation. A gigawat is like a
big coal power plant, a big natural gas plant, a
nuclear plant. Some nuclear plants are two or three gigawatts,
but one hundred gigawatts of additional power five years from now.
(06:11):
And in the current plan, there is a plan to
shut down one hundred gigawatts of mostly coal plants over
the next five years. If we did all that, we'd
have to build two hundred gigawatts of new power generation
to meet that projected demand. And what's in the queue
right now that's visible or applying for a permit or
(06:32):
acquiring land of firm capacity about twenty gigawatts, So a
gaping hole. Which is why this administration in my department
are going to be very carefully scrutinizing does it make
sense to shut down that coal power plant like the
one they tried to shut down in Michigan and over
one gigawatte power plant fifteen years left the plant life,
(06:53):
and for political reasons we want to get rid of coal.
We're going to shut that puppy down. I used emergency
power is to keep it open. Two days in that
same Midwest grid there was a blackout. Like we've just
got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by closing
existing plants, and we've got to make it much much
easier for American businesses, to build new natural gas plants,
(07:16):
to build new new parent plants, to build new geothermal
and next generation electricity generating capacity. Just wind and solar
just is simply not an answer. You know, it's really
hot in DC today, but the wind is still no
wind power at time of peak demand. And the winner
it's really cold at night, but we don't have any
solar power. And when you're in a cold of the
(07:36):
huge cold front, it's again a high pressure system, no wind.
So we've just got to get smart about energy in
the United States again. But it's business and private entrepreneurs
that are going to drive this. We just need the
government to be out of the way and a credible
partner for permitting and any other infrastructure that needs to
(07:57):
be built to support it. But I'm up with this.
This is a America. We can build things again.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One more for you, mister Secretary, Thank you for being
with us in terms of exports for particularly oil and
natural gas. I know we've been doing very well. And
America is really the world's fossil fuel the true fossil
fuel superpower. We don't necessarily think of ourselves that way,
but I think the numbers certainly bear that out. Is
(08:25):
there going to be would you expect it an increase
in that? And how how do you see it affecting
global demand?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, there's going to be a huge increase of that.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
The United States is already by far the largest exporter
of natural gas in the world, and we will double
that in the next five years, and in the five
or seven years after that, we could double it again,
so America would just be the dominant supplier of natural
gas around the world. That's twenty five percent of global
energy comes from natural gas.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It's the fastest growing source of energy on the planet.
So super excited about where all this could go.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And I've got no we like the optimism.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Thanks for joining us right after cabinet meeting. Secretary of
Energy Chris Wright, Thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Love to show you guys run keep up the great work.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Can I just say I love what The Secretary of
Energy is a high energy guy.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You know, he's not low energy, he's high energy.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Running around there in the background, we'll break down some
of that. Continue to take your calls and what we've
got Selena Zito, who is going to take us to Butler, Pennsylvania,
It's almost the one year anniversary of Donald Trump nearly
being assassinated taking a bullet in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania.
She had one of the upfront views of that event.
(09:52):
She's got a brand new book out about that day
in particular, and we will discuss that with Earth Bottom
of this hour. In meantime, decision about healthcare coverage, which
plans right for you and your family?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They don't come easily.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Choices of a gotten more limited, less appealing, and frankly,
often very confusing something as important as health insurance. You
want to feel good about the decisions you're making. Why
settle for a government plan like the Affordable Care Act
when there's a better option, one that puts you in control.
There's a solution to finding good healthcare coverage called.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Ease for Everyone.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It offers affordable healthcare for as low as two hundred
and sixty two bucks a month. You can keep your doctor,
never pay a deductible, and access over four hundred prescription
drugs for free. Go online to the website see what
plan is right for you and your family. Ease for
Everyone developed buy some more very forward thinking experts right
here in Nashville. You'll be speaking with people that live
(10:46):
in your world, can speak your language, answer your questions.
Visit Ease for Everyone dot com slash Clay and join today.
That's Ease for Everyone dot com slash Clay.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Clay, Travis and Bucks Sex and Mic drops that never
sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. We're gonna
hit some of your talkbacks. As we are rolling through,
what did we hear? Worre's producer Greg saying that that
they have gotten to me, according to a caller, and
I just somebody text me what they said, Greg, But
(11:30):
what did I get?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Like? If they got to me?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
What did I get back? Is it a cheap deal? I?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The positive, the positive on on a I just had
a woman out here it is wouldn't go on the air.
She said she could hear it in your voice they
gotten to you, and that you're covering for all the
Epstein people. And she's not an idiot.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Produced overnessor Greg is ready is ready to weigh in
on they got you? How they got you? How did
they get me? You took the call? She didn't want
to go on the air, but I just what did
I get back?
Speaker 7 (12:07):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What? What? What is her theory?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Now?
Speaker 8 (12:10):
She didn't know exactly what the goods were that they
had on you, but you know you must have done
something dirty at some point and that they're keeping that
from coming out.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
So now doesn't know how they got you? Played go
Who am and I an asset for? Did she think Russia? Israel? China?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like what America?
Speaker 8 (12:32):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Maybe I didn't. Yeah, no clue And she could.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Hear it in my voice though. I just want to
know who got me?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, well that's a good question. I don't.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
She can call back in let me know who got me?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And what did I get agent of the of the
SEC commissioners or something?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
What did I get back?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
The benefit right now that I would say that's the
number one benefit of when I sold my company is
I can just I can at some point. My wife
doesn't ever think I'll do it, but I can just
take my phone, throw it as far into the ocean
or the lake as I want to, and throw up
the peace sign and just vanish never have to work again.
(13:11):
That's a luxury. That's like went in the lottery. That's
what I feel like.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, this is exactly what somebody who've been got
would say.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
If they got they got Yeah, I guess so. But
if they got me, then I'll have to keep working
because they would get no benefit if I just quit.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No, that's too obvious. That's too obvious.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
If they've got you, they don't actually give you anything
because then they've really got you. So you pretend that
you didn't get anything.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
But so let's see, Okay, people are some of you,
I would say, I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Really that the hornets are coming for you. You kick
the nest. I told you this was gonna happen. We
we we should you know you should.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Just I think, look, I will just keep pulling the
thread and if the hornet stings me, I just kicked
the hornet's nest, and eventually I'm going to be immune
to the hornet stings, which is.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Where I am logically.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Logically, why would you think that every Democrat and every
Republican would decide to protect everyone, Like the conspiracy is
so deep that it involves every single person in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Want to talk immigration enforcement, but here we are, here.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We are with the Epstein Epstein.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Well, I mean it's an obsession out there, and I
just think logically, if you look at it, it doesn't
add up.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Do I think here some talkbacks GG Randy Form Orlando,
play it, play him Buck.
Speaker 8 (14:54):
That's a false dichotomy. No, Bengino wouldn't do it just
to save his career or just or to protect Epstein.
But he might do it to protect Trump. The names
might be so big and dark. He might do it
to protect his own family, Cash and Bondy and him.
They may all do it to protect their own families
and children from the dark state.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Come on, man, you're being naive.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That guy sounds crazy. You ever listen to somebody and
be like, that's a passionate. He's passionate, one of our
passionate listeners.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
He's crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
You think that Trump is on the Epstein list, and
Dan Bongino is like, first of all, what is the
Epstein list? And you think Democrats didn't put out that
Trump was on it? Democrats lied about Trump for a decade.
You think if he was sleeping with underage girls on
video that they wouldn't have dropped this a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I mean again, just as logically, play it out.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I know, and you know, and yes, that's not a
good theory. But we're getting inundated with this now, and
I don't think that we're going to get anywhere by
I see.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
This is where I think you shine a light on
the crazy town, and crazy town eventually.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Looks back on tright. This is I told you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The second people tell Clainn I have to talk about
something there, I'm never don't send me your emails like
you need to get Clay to get off this on
some of their subject because there are.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Guys and Instaid.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Dan Bongino is covering for Trump, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I know, man, okay, but we all know it's insane.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
We all know you like fifteen percent of people are
crazy on this thing, and I just think they need
to be less crazy. And maybe you'd be less crazy
if you watch more sports and you went to Prize Picks,
and you watched Prize Picks and use code Clay, you
would get fifty dollars Right now with the All Star
Game coming up, My Atlanta Braves are awful. They can't
(16:49):
win any games, but they are hosting the All Star
Game and they're hosting the Home Run Derby, and you
will get hooked up in a big way can play
all over the country. Use my name Clay, and when
you play five dollars, you get fifty dollars. Kickback. Major
League Baseball underway. Not too long until the NFL and
college football will be back, and that is going to
(17:11):
be an exciting time. Come August ish, my son's already
doing his ninth grade football practice. Get hooked up now,
go to prizepicks dot com. Use my name Clay. That's
prizepicks dot com, My name Clay. Do it today pricepicks
dot com code Clay for fifty fuss, Lee, Travis, and
Buck Sexton on the front lines of truth.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. We are joined by
our friend Selena Zito. Book comes out today. I've got
a copy because you know, I know some people. Butler,
the Untold Story of the near assassination of Donald Trump
and the fight for America's heartland. Selena, you do great reporting.
You're an excellent writer.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You were right there that day in Butler as those
shots ran out.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Tell us what was it?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
Like? What happened? Yeah? So you know when you're in
a report and you aren't, your day starts out a
certain way, like you're going to do this, this and this,
and nine times out of ten that's not what happens.
And so that day I was supposed to interview President
Trump for five minutes before the rally. That changed about
(18:23):
two hours after. I'm in ad Butler and it's going
to be five minutes after the rally, and then they say, well,
you want to like fly to Bedminster with the president
and do the interview on the plane. I'm like, wow,
I never get an invite like that. I'm in and
then five minutes before he's supposed to go on stage,
(18:45):
they come rushing back and say it's go time. And
I just assumed that they changed their mind and I
was going to do it before the rally. So I
raced through it along with my daughter, whos a photo journalist.
She did the cover of the book, and race through
the crowd. We get to the behind the stage and
I asked the young man, like, where we are we
(19:06):
doing this interview? And the President's around the bend. He
comes back and he says, I'm not doing the interview
right now, You're still going to Bedminster. He just wanted
to say hi to you, And so that moment of
him just wanting to say hi, he asked about my grandchildren.
And I've interviewed President Trump dozens of times, and at
(19:29):
that moment, I'm then now stuck because i can't get
back to the press riser and I'm supposed to leave
with him to go to Bedminster along with my daughter.
So they put me in the buffer area. The buffer
is sort of this well that goes around the stage,
and they said, just follow him out and then get
over on the other side. Towards the end, you can
(19:49):
just jump in the motorcake. That's why I ended up
being just four feet away from the president when he
was shot, was right. If you can see me and
a lot of the photos just to is that would
have been his left.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Selena, this is I've got the book in front of
me right now, and I read the opening chapter already.
It's fabulously well done, and I'm actually looking forward to
reading it. And we get a lot of books, and
I'm not able to read all of them. But we're
coming up on the one year anniversary. Do you find
it as hard as I do? As I think Buck does,
(20:24):
and as I imagine the vast majority of people out
there listening do that we still know almost nothing about
this guy who got onto the roof with that gun.
Not much about his background, not much about his motivation
on that day, not even that much about how he
came to come as close as he did to killing
the president of the United States, which, by the grace
(20:45):
of God, he did not achieve. But we're in a
completely different universe. If that bullet is one quarter inch
closer to the president, what do you think now, having
been there, having witnessed it, does it still seem improbable
that all of this happened.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
It does seem improbable that all of this happened. And
you'll find out in the book. The President calls me
the first thing the next morning, and he, you know,
President Trump's a little hilarious if you don't haven't picked
up on that. The first thing he says is, hey,
this is President Trumpake, I don't know that, right, And
(21:22):
then then he goes, I'm so I want to make
sure you're okay, your daughter's okay, and I'm so sorry
that we didn't get to do that interview. And that's
that's this moment with him, right that you really understand,
like this is this is not the person you always
think he is. And we have we go on that day,
(21:43):
and it's detailed in the book We Go On that day,
he calls me seven times, and he really talks about
the improbability that he didn't die, and he questions about
purpose and about God, not in a fanatical religious way,
(22:04):
but in a way that is very thoughtful. And you know,
you know, why didn't I die?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Do I know?
Speaker 7 (22:11):
How do I have this new purpose? And I think
he answers that question every day. Whether you agree or
not with everything that he does, he answers that question
every day since he was sworn in in January. They
does have purpose. This is not the presidency of a
man going into his second term. This is a president'sy.
(22:33):
This is not a lame duck presidency. He is approaching
this as someone who who was spared by God, and
he says that many times to me, but also as
someone that has a purpose and he is meant to
fulfill it and he's going to go head down straight
into it because you never know what's going to happen
(22:54):
to you.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I think that what you just said is so important,
and I think people are picking up on it now.
I think even Democrats are the biggest difference between Trump
one point zero and Trump two point zero is the
quality of the people he surrounded himself with. Yes, But
also Trump is making decisions that he thinks are generationally
in the interest of the country, and he's not concerned
(23:16):
at all with anyone who might disagree with him. And
I think that's partly because he feels spared based on
what happened that day in Butler.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
So I had an interview coming out with him this
week on Friday in the Washington Post, and he talks
about that in a very meaningful and profound way. And
you know, part of who he surrounds himself also has
to do with Butler. Like Butler changed everything. It didn't
just change the American electorate. It didn't just change our
(23:46):
coalitions and galvanize people. And people will read that detail
as I continue to cover the election in a way
that none of you have sasaw because the reporters were
writing something completely different than what I was reporting in
that moment. But everything changed in that moment. And I
(24:08):
think this nuggets important because it goes to understanding Trump
in a way that people don't understand, and it goes
to understanding why he's going to do what he's going
to do because God saved him. And that is the
moment that he says, fight, fight, fight. And I asked
him about it the next day, and I asked him
again about it two weeks ago, he said, and I
(24:29):
just wanted to revisit it with him, and he had
the same exact answer, because I didn't know if you
would remember that or not, right, that was a pretty
crazy day. The next day he said, I was not
Donald Trump in that moment. I had an obligation to
be someone who shows resolves and be a symbol of
the country, be a symbol of grit and exceptionalism, and
(24:51):
we will go undefeated. And that is what America has
always meant to me. And I had an obligation as
a former president and possible the next president to show
that because in a lot of ways, because I didn't
want people to panic there and they didn't, by the way,
but also I didn't want people watching panicking out in
(25:12):
the streets. I had an obligation to be presidential, not
to be Donald Trump, to represent the office in the
country with resolves.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Selena, Honestly, wasn't that just the most amazing thing you've
ever seen a president do? Amazing even for President Trump,
who's done a lot of incredible stuff. Clay and I
still sit there and think, I can't. It's hard to
believe even when you watch the video, even when we
saw it the first time as it was happening, that
a president took a bullet through the year, was bleeding
on stage and turned to his people and raised a
(25:47):
fist and told them to fight.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Yeah, it was. Is that process that went through his head,
that understanding that it was more he wasn't he was
a man there, he was a president. He was America
in that moment, right, you know that symbol of our
country when you think about the American eagle, right, perseverance
and strength and grit. He knew that people needed to
(26:16):
know that he was fighting, that the country was fighting,
and that something as dark as demonic as what Thomas
Matthew Crooks attempted to do and would have caused immense
chaos and unrest in this country was not succeeded. And
he wanted to show that America is resilient. I don't know,
(26:36):
and I remember him telling me that, and my reaction was, well, wow,
that's the because it was it was, it was it
was to think on your feet like that after you've
been shot. I mean, most people would be in the
fetal position, right And I'm watching him he remember, I'm
(26:56):
only four feet away, and I'm watching him like struggle
with his secret service because he wants his shoes on,
and damn it, he's going to get his shoes on.
He is not walking off of that stage in his
stocking feet across gravel. Were you able to be the
United States?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Were you able to go to slop? I'm just kind
of curious when something like that happens. Were you able
to immediately contextualize the historic moment of what had occurred
and the fact that I think for hundreds of years
people are going to be watching that video and it's
going to become even more iconic after the passions of
the moment start to fade because Democrats have whatever they
(27:39):
think about Trump. But I think fifty one hundred years
from now, long after anyone who is listening to us
today is not here, that moment is going to become
so indelible and so iconic an American life. Did you
understand that or feel that immediately? And second part, did you, like,
were you able to sleep that night? Just kind of
(28:00):
curious when you have that experience how long it takes
you to come down off the adrenaline rush, just based
on where you were to say nothing of him.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
I'm still not come down from it. And you know,
I knew exactly. You know, as a journalist, you know,
part of your job, even if it's a tiny thread,
you're always covering history every day.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yep.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
But I knew in that moment, you know. And he
talks about purpose, but I also talk about purpose. There
is a reason I was there, right, and there was
a reason I was supposed to chronicle this, and I
knew that that was what my purpose was and to
be able to tell this story. And because I have
(28:51):
a gift of total recall, right, I can remember every smell,
every like I think and collor right like I can
smell and taste and feel everything in that moment. And
and when they when people say when they've been in
in a in a in a tragic situation, the time
slows down. Then that was very true for me. And
(29:13):
and I watched the entire thing in in in in
these these very fine layers. And because I have the
gift of recall, and plus I have my recorder on
and I'm talking that I record everything that happens. I
can hear everything the president says. But also I'm talking
to my recorder, so I don't forget anything. And and
(29:36):
I had and I probably started the book. And I
didn't even think about a book. I just thought, well,
I need to write this story.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
And I did.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
But you know, people came to me, it's like, you need,
you have an obligation to write this book. And and
so I immediately started writing it. While as I'm writing it,
I'm still continuing to cover an extraordinarily historic election. That
I believe is that I'm watching it that other people
aren't covering what's happening. They're covering what they wish was happening.
(30:08):
They're covering what they hope happens. But I'm on the
ground there in Pennsylvania, in the middle of somewhere in Pennsylvania,
and I'm covering this and seeing this entire country change,
not just in the rural areas but in the suburbs.
I'm watching these young mothers who was who have never
put a Trump hat on in the next weekend, have
(30:32):
them on at their kids' soccer games because and there's
interviews in the book and they say, hey, he can
take a bullet for me. I can wear a damn
hat and not worry about what people say to me.
Everything changed in that moment.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Butler the untold story of the near assassination of Donald
Trump and the fight for America's heartland. Selena Zido's book
out today. Selena's great. We really love her work. Get
yourself a copy. Selena, Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
Oh thanks you guys, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
You know, as parents will protect our children at any cost,
especially in our own home, and to do that right,
you need to have the right tools. That's where Saber
comes in that the number one pepper spray brand trusted
by law enforcement. Saber is spelled Sabri and the website
is Saber radio dot com Saber radio dot com plan
I both have their products in our homes. I've actually
given a bunch of their products to family members as
(31:26):
well so they can protect themselves all over the country.
Pepper Spray Projectile Launcher in particular, is a great product
that you should check out. But Clay's wife, my wife,
they both like having non lethal options and items to
protect themselves and to have on their person and readily accessible.
This is where Saber comes in. The pepper sprays, pepper gels,
(31:48):
a whole range of personal on home defends non lethal products. Yeah,
I got a lot of lethal stuff. I got a
lot of guns here too, but there's no reason not
to have those non lethal options. So you can have
force escalation. For a lot of people out there, they
prefer that non lethal first response. So check out what
Saber has for you. Go to Saber radio dot com
(32:09):
s A b r E radio dot com. You'll save
fifteen percent there Saber s A b R E radio
dot com or call eight four four A two four safe.
That's eight four four eight two four safe.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history
on the Team forty seven podcast playin Book Highlight Trump
Free plays from the week Sundays at noon Eastern. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Welcome Back in Clay Travis bock Sexton show, Gotten Gotten Caught.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
They gotcha. I don't know how they got you. I
don't know what they got you with, but they got you.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
They got me.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
By the way, let me say this, I mentioned it
when we were talking with Selena Zido. I read the
opening of her new book, Butler, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And I do believe that sometimes in.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
The constant flow of history, we miss the things that
are going to resonate historically long after we're gone. I
really feel like Butler, Pennsylvania is going to be a
Gettysburg like moment for presidents in the decades in the
(33:33):
years to come, and people are out there saying, oh,
you're crazy. Remember Lincoln at Gettysburg was panned overwhelmingly in
the immediate aftermath of that speech. I think Trump's reaction
in Butler, after Trump is off the stage is going
to become more iconic as more become aware of it,
(33:54):
because then we talked about it. And I'm proud of
the show we did on the Monday right after, because
I think we captured that historical moment. The way that
he behaved is the most badass reaction in the history
of the modern presidency, such that if that were a movie,
all of us would have said, there's no way the
(34:14):
president would have behaved like that.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And I think it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
You know, in the the immediate aftermath, fifty percent of
people or whatever it is, don't like Trump, and so
they don't want to give him any credit. I think
as the passions of his presidency fade, I think the
bravery of that moment is going to echo and reverberate
even more in our historical consciousness.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think the passions of some of our esteemed audience
will fade over the next twenty four hours, after you
have been poking, sir, poking at some of them, and
you know that's that's.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Off, That's all fine and good.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Tomorrow will be a new day, everybody, new day, new news,
new stuff going on. And yes, indeed, I think Selena's book,
by the Way, is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I'm going to be I'm gonna be reading it. I
got a copy of right here.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
She's always done great at work, and she's also a
really nice lady.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
And she is basically writing the first draft of history
because she was there, eyewitnessed to experience what happened in Butler.
And I'm telling you generations that we know not of
are going to be reading about that day and going
to be impressed by it and inspired by it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I really do believe.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
All right, tomorrow you guys can find out who I've
been got by.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Maybe I'll reveal it. Russia, China, so who is it?
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Who is it?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We'll have fun tomorrow
The Secretary, appreciate you being with us.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
We know we were just You're just in a marathon
cabinet meeting. As a member of the cabinet, a lot
covered there. Wanted to just jump into what is in
the big beautiful bill that affects directly US national energy policy?
Like what do we need to know about what's coming?
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Actually quite a bit, but let me start out with
maybe the biggest thing is it's the ending of about
a half a trillion dollars of subsidies that would be
paid out in the next ten years, so you know,
roughly fifty billion a year. We've been paying these for
many years and the biggest component to them is to
(00:43):
pay people to put wind and solar on our electricity grid,
and subsidies to help rich people by evs. And so
the problem of these subsidies is they not only cost
the taxpayers that half a trillion dollars, but at the
and they make our electricity grids more expensive and less stable,
(01:03):
so we have to pay twice. So I think reducing
the pressure the cost of these subsidies and the pressure
on the cost and stability of our grid is going
to be a big win for Americans.
Speaker 4 (01:15):
When you look at at the price of gas. I
think that's a big story.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Doesn't mean talking in the price of gasoline in affordability terms.
So it's just tremendous. That's a significant expense that all Americans,
all of us pay every week to get to our jobs,
to go on vacations, visit our grandmothers, and travel with
our kids. If you make gasoline prices expensive, you just
shrink the Life Administration's record. We have gasoline twenty five
(01:43):
to thirty cents a gallon cheaper today than it was
twelve months ago. And that's going through a period of
major conflict in the Middle East, but major productive conflict
in the Middle East, hopefully ending the forty six years
of a ran at the troublemaker in the Middle East
and really the threat to global peace, probably the largest
(02:06):
global threat to peace over the last forty five years.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
We're speaking to the Secretary of the UIST Department of Energy,
Chris Wright, and mister Secretary, if you could lay out
for us, what does a make energy great again? You know,
mega mega What does a make energy great again policy
under Trump look like going forward?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Does it include nuclear?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Is it new technology applied to fossil fuels, Like, what
is the Trump administration trying to accomplish so that not
only are we doing as much as we can with
the technology we have and the resources we have in
the past, but that we do new things, innovative things
going forward.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Oh great, setting of that table. So I mentioned that
getting rid of a half a trillion dollars to make
energy expensive. There's also in the one big Beautiful bill
just returning to room of law and allowing oil, gas
and coal producers to produce again on federal lands across
the country. This will lower baseline energy prices in the
(03:09):
coming years and decades in front of us. I squeezed
that one in there real quick. But there's also I'm
a free market guy, so I'm not a fan of subsidies,
but we do have tax credits in there for a
finite period of time for next generation nuclear and for
geothermal and for uprates if we can get more power
out of hydro, have a cheaper to build big reactors. Yeah,
(03:32):
go ahead.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
No, I was going to ask, it's exactly what you
were going into, which is what does that look like?
Because nuclear unfortunately became a boogeyman. What does it look like?
And what percentage you think of our power could come
from nuclear in the years ahead, given the Trump administration's
willingness and your willingness to thwenty.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
Percent of electricity today. So after a natural gas, which
is by far and away the leader, nuclear is second.
But yeah, I mean that could yeah, a couple of
decades from now, that could be or fifty percent of
our electricity from nuclear. We've got to build a lot
to do that. But this is America. We can build
a lot. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the NRC, has just
(04:11):
made it so expensive, so slow, and so risky to
develop nuclear power in the country. We basically stopped doing
it for the last few decades. So we need regulatory
reform at the NRC. We need regulatory reform from NEFA
so that it's just a check are we being smart
about the environment, not a weaponized thing. You could just
have lawsuits and stop anything from being built. We need
(04:35):
to have a five permit on federal lands. Department of
Energy will be in charge of that. We will have
next generation test reactors running twelve months from today at
our Idaho National Lab facilities. There like the technology is
there at the private capital is there? The interest is there?
We just need the government to get out of the
way and let capitalism and free market forces bring us
(04:59):
a very excit few decades with rapid growth in nuclear energy.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
We're talking to Energy Secretary Chris right Buck just asked,
and you are hearing a lot of talk about the
need for nuclear power.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Underscoring all of.
Speaker 4 (05:12):
This based on the people that I talk to, is
there isn't enough discussion about all of the power and
energy that's going to be necessary for AI. That the
amount that this is going to demand, the amount that
it's going to soak up is just off the charts.
That I imagine is something you're spending a decent amount
(05:33):
on as well, Uh, for AI, for the AI revolution
to take place and for America to lead. What sort
of energy do we need to create that isn't being
created now? Is that accurate based on what you're seeing now?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
You're absolutely right. Any give the numbers real quick. We
had so here we are twenty twenty five five years
from now, we're going to need probably at least another
one hundred gigawatts of generation. A gigawat is like a
big coal power plant, a big natural gas plant, a
nuclear plant. Some nuclear plants are two or three gigawatts,
but one hundred gigawatts of additional power five years from now.
(06:11):
And in the current plan, there is a plan to
shut down one hundred gigawatts of mostly coal plants over
the next five years. If we did all that, we'd
have to build two hundred gigawatts of new power generation
to meet that projected demand. And what's in the queue
right now that's visible or applying for a permit or
(06:32):
acquiring land of firm capacity about twenty gigawatts, So a
gaping hole. Which is why this administration in my department
are going to be very carefully scrutinizing does it make
sense to shut down that coal power plant like the
one they tried to shut down in Michigan and over
one gigawatte power plant fifteen years left the plant life,
(06:53):
and for political reasons we want to get rid of coal.
We're going to shut that puppy down. I used emergency
power is to keep it open. Two days in that
same Midwest grid there was a blackout. Like we've just
got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot by closing
existing plants, and we've got to make it much much
easier for American businesses, to build new natural gas plants,
(07:16):
to build new new parent plants, to build new geothermal
and next generation electricity generating capacity. Just wind and solar
just is simply not an answer. You know, it's really
hot in DC today, but the wind is still no
wind power at time of peak demand. And the winner
it's really cold at night, but we don't have any
solar power. And when you're in a cold of the
(07:36):
huge cold front, it's again a high pressure system, no wind.
So we've just got to get smart about energy in
the United States again. But it's business and private entrepreneurs
that are going to drive this. We just need the
government to be out of the way and a credible
partner for permitting and any other infrastructure that needs to
(07:57):
be built to support it. But I'm up with this.
This is a America. We can build things again.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
One more for you, mister Secretary, Thank you for being
with us in terms of exports for particularly oil and
natural gas. I know we've been doing very well. And
America is really the world's fossil fuel the true fossil
fuel superpower. We don't necessarily think of ourselves that way,
but I think the numbers certainly bear that out. Is
(08:25):
there going to be would you expect it an increase
in that? And how how do you see it affecting
global demand?
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Yeah, there's going to be a huge increase of that.
Speaker 5 (08:37):
The United States is already by far the largest exporter
of natural gas in the world, and we will double
that in the next five years, and in the five
or seven years after that, we could double it again,
so America would just be the dominant supplier of natural
gas around the world. That's twenty five percent of global
energy comes from natural gas.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
It's the fastest growing source of energy on the planet.
So super excited about where all this could go.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
And I've got no we like the optimism.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Thanks for joining us right after cabinet meeting. Secretary of
Energy Chris Wright, Thank you so much, sir.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Love to show you guys run keep up the great work.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Can I just say I love what The Secretary of
Energy is a high energy guy.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You know, he's not low energy, he's high energy.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Running around there in the background, we'll break down some
of that. Continue to take your calls and what we've
got Selena Zito, who is going to take us to Butler, Pennsylvania,
It's almost the one year anniversary of Donald Trump nearly
being assassinated taking a bullet in the ear in Butler, Pennsylvania.
She had one of the upfront views of that event.
(09:52):
She's got a brand new book out about that day
in particular, and we will discuss that with Earth Bottom
of this hour. In meantime, decision about healthcare coverage, which
plans right for you and your family?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
They don't come easily.
Speaker 4 (10:04):
Choices of a gotten more limited, less appealing, and frankly,
often very confusing something as important as health insurance. You
want to feel good about the decisions you're making. Why
settle for a government plan like the Affordable Care Act
when there's a better option, one that puts you in control.
There's a solution to finding good healthcare coverage called.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Ease for Everyone.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
It offers affordable healthcare for as low as two hundred
and sixty two bucks a month. You can keep your doctor,
never pay a deductible, and access over four hundred prescription
drugs for free. Go online to the website see what
plan is right for you and your family. Ease for
Everyone developed buy some more very forward thinking experts right
here in Nashville. You'll be speaking with people that live
(10:46):
in your world, can speak your language, answer your questions.
Visit Ease for Everyone dot com slash Clay and join today.
That's Ease for Everyone dot com slash Clay.
Speaker 6 (10:58):
Clay, Travis and Bucks Sex and Mic drops that never
sounded so good. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. We're gonna
hit some of your talkbacks. As we are rolling through,
what did we hear? Worre's producer Greg saying that that
they have gotten to me, according to a caller, and
I just somebody text me what they said, Greg, But
(11:30):
what did I get?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Like? If they got to me?
Speaker 4 (11:34):
What did I get back? Is it a cheap deal? I?
Speaker 3 (11:38):
You know.
Speaker 4 (11:40):
The positive, the positive on on a I just had
a woman out here it is wouldn't go on the air.
She said she could hear it in your voice they
gotten to you, and that you're covering for all the
Epstein people. And she's not an idiot.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Produced overnessor Greg is ready is ready to weigh in
on they got you? How they got you? How did
they get me? You took the call? She didn't want
to go on the air, but I just what did
I get back?
Speaker 7 (12:07):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:08):
What? What? What is her theory?
Speaker 3 (12:09):
Now?
Speaker 8 (12:10):
She didn't know exactly what the goods were that they
had on you, but you know you must have done
something dirty at some point and that they're keeping that
from coming out.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
So now doesn't know how they got you? Played go
Who am and I an asset for? Did she think Russia? Israel? China?
Speaker 1 (12:30):
Like what America?
Speaker 8 (12:32):
No?
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Maybe I didn't. Yeah, no clue And she could.
Speaker 4 (12:35):
Hear it in my voice though. I just want to
know who got me?
Speaker 1 (12:37):
Yeah, well that's a good question. I don't.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
She can call back in let me know who got me?
Speaker 2 (12:42):
And what did I get agent of the of the
SEC commissioners or something?
Speaker 1 (12:47):
What did I get back?
Speaker 4 (12:48):
The benefit right now that I would say that's the
number one benefit of when I sold my company is
I can just I can at some point. My wife
doesn't ever think I'll do it, but I can just
take my phone, throw it as far into the ocean
or the lake as I want to, and throw up
the peace sign and just vanish never have to work again.
(13:11):
That's a luxury. That's like went in the lottery. That's
what I feel like.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
I mean, this is exactly what somebody who've been got
would say.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
If they got they got Yeah, I guess so. But
if they got me, then I'll have to keep working
because they would get no benefit if I just quit.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
No, that's too obvious. That's too obvious.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
If they've got you, they don't actually give you anything
because then they've really got you. So you pretend that
you didn't get anything.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
But so let's see, Okay, people are some of you,
I would say, I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Really that the hornets are coming for you. You kick
the nest. I told you this was gonna happen. We
we we should you know you should.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Just I think, look, I will just keep pulling the
thread and if the hornet stings me, I just kicked
the hornet's nest, and eventually I'm going to be immune
to the hornet stings, which is.
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Where I am logically.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Logically, why would you think that every Democrat and every
Republican would decide to protect everyone, Like the conspiracy is
so deep that it involves every single person in.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Want to talk immigration enforcement, but here we are, here.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
We are with the Epstein Epstein.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
Well, I mean it's an obsession out there, and I
just think logically, if you look at it, it doesn't
add up.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Do I think here some talkbacks GG Randy Form Orlando,
play it, play him Buck.
Speaker 8 (14:54):
That's a false dichotomy. No, Bengino wouldn't do it just
to save his career or just or to protect Epstein.
But he might do it to protect Trump. The names
might be so big and dark. He might do it
to protect his own family, Cash and Bondy and him.
They may all do it to protect their own families
and children from the dark state.
Speaker 1 (15:15):
Come on, man, you're being naive.
Speaker 4 (15:18):
That guy sounds crazy. You ever listen to somebody and
be like, that's a passionate. He's passionate, one of our
passionate listeners.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
He's crazy.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
You think that Trump is on the Epstein list, and
Dan Bongino is like, first of all, what is the
Epstein list? And you think Democrats didn't put out that
Trump was on it? Democrats lied about Trump for a decade.
You think if he was sleeping with underage girls on
video that they wouldn't have dropped this a decade ago.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
I mean again, just as logically, play it out.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
I know, and you know, and yes, that's not a
good theory. But we're getting inundated with this now, and
I don't think that we're going to get anywhere by
I see.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
This is where I think you shine a light on
the crazy town, and crazy town eventually.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Looks back on tright. This is I told you.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The second people tell Clainn I have to talk about
something there, I'm never don't send me your emails like
you need to get Clay to get off this on
some of their subject because there are.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Guys and Instaid.
Speaker 4 (16:20):
Dan Bongino is covering for Trump, which is insane.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
I know, man, okay, but we all know it's insane.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
We all know you like fifteen percent of people are
crazy on this thing, and I just think they need
to be less crazy. And maybe you'd be less crazy
if you watch more sports and you went to Prize Picks,
and you watched Prize Picks and use code Clay, you
would get fifty dollars Right now with the All Star
Game coming up, My Atlanta Braves are awful. They can't
(16:49):
win any games, but they are hosting the All Star
Game and they're hosting the Home Run Derby, and you
will get hooked up in a big way can play
all over the country. Use my name Clay, and when
you play five dollars, you get fifty dollars. Kickback. Major
League Baseball underway. Not too long until the NFL and
college football will be back, and that is going to
(17:11):
be an exciting time. Come August ish, my son's already
doing his ninth grade football practice. Get hooked up now,
go to prizepicks dot com. Use my name Clay. That's
prizepicks dot com, My name Clay. Do it today pricepicks
dot com code Clay for fifty fuss, Lee, Travis, and
Buck Sexton on the front lines of truth.
Speaker 9 (17:33):
Welcome back into Clay and Buck. We are joined by
our friend Selena Zito. Book comes out today. I've got
a copy because you know, I know some people. Butler,
the Untold Story of the near assassination of Donald Trump
and the fight for America's heartland. Selena, you do great reporting.
You're an excellent writer.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
You were right there that day in Butler as those
shots ran out.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Tell us what was it?
Speaker 7 (18:02):
Like? What happened? Yeah? So you know when you're in
a report and you aren't, your day starts out a
certain way, like you're going to do this, this and this,
and nine times out of ten that's not what happens.
And so that day I was supposed to interview President
Trump for five minutes before the rally. That changed about
(18:23):
two hours after. I'm in ad Butler and it's going
to be five minutes after the rally, and then they say, well,
you want to like fly to Bedminster with the president
and do the interview on the plane. I'm like, wow,
I never get an invite like that. I'm in and
then five minutes before he's supposed to go on stage,
(18:45):
they come rushing back and say it's go time. And
I just assumed that they changed their mind and I
was going to do it before the rally. So I
raced through it along with my daughter, whos a photo journalist.
She did the cover of the book, and race through
the crowd. We get to the behind the stage and
I asked the young man, like, where we are we
(19:06):
doing this interview? And the President's around the bend. He
comes back and he says, I'm not doing the interview
right now, You're still going to Bedminster. He just wanted
to say hi to you, And so that moment of
him just wanting to say hi, he asked about my grandchildren.
And I've interviewed President Trump dozens of times, and at
(19:29):
that moment, I'm then now stuck because i can't get
back to the press riser and I'm supposed to leave
with him to go to Bedminster along with my daughter.
So they put me in the buffer area. The buffer
is sort of this well that goes around the stage,
and they said, just follow him out and then get
over on the other side. Towards the end, you can
(19:49):
just jump in the motorcake. That's why I ended up
being just four feet away from the president when he
was shot, was right. If you can see me and
a lot of the photos just to is that would
have been his left.
Speaker 4 (20:03):
Selena, this is I've got the book in front of
me right now, and I read the opening chapter already.
It's fabulously well done, and I'm actually looking forward to
reading it. And we get a lot of books, and
I'm not able to read all of them. But we're
coming up on the one year anniversary. Do you find
it as hard as I do? As I think Buck does,
(20:24):
and as I imagine the vast majority of people out
there listening do that we still know almost nothing about
this guy who got onto the roof with that gun.
Not much about his background, not much about his motivation
on that day, not even that much about how he
came to come as close as he did to killing
the president of the United States, which, by the grace
(20:45):
of God, he did not achieve. But we're in a
completely different universe. If that bullet is one quarter inch
closer to the president, what do you think now, having
been there, having witnessed it, does it still seem improbable
that all of this happened.
Speaker 7 (21:01):
It does seem improbable that all of this happened. And
you'll find out in the book. The President calls me
the first thing the next morning, and he, you know,
President Trump's a little hilarious if you don't haven't picked
up on that. The first thing he says is, hey,
this is President Trumpake, I don't know that, right, And
(21:22):
then then he goes, I'm so I want to make
sure you're okay, your daughter's okay, and I'm so sorry
that we didn't get to do that interview. And that's
that's this moment with him, right that you really understand,
like this is this is not the person you always
think he is. And we have we go on that day,
(21:43):
and it's detailed in the book We Go On that day,
he calls me seven times, and he really talks about
the improbability that he didn't die, and he questions about
purpose and about God, not in a fanatical religious way,
(22:04):
but in a way that is very thoughtful. And you know,
you know, why didn't I die?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
Do I know?
Speaker 7 (22:11):
How do I have this new purpose? And I think
he answers that question every day. Whether you agree or
not with everything that he does, he answers that question
every day since he was sworn in in January. They
does have purpose. This is not the presidency of a
man going into his second term. This is a president'sy.
(22:33):
This is not a lame duck presidency. He is approaching
this as someone who who was spared by God, and
he says that many times to me, but also as
someone that has a purpose and he is meant to
fulfill it and he's going to go head down straight
into it because you never know what's going to happen
(22:54):
to you.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
I think that what you just said is so important,
and I think people are picking up on it now.
I think even Democrats are the biggest difference between Trump
one point zero and Trump two point zero is the
quality of the people he surrounded himself with. Yes, But
also Trump is making decisions that he thinks are generationally
in the interest of the country, and he's not concerned
(23:16):
at all with anyone who might disagree with him. And
I think that's partly because he feels spared based on
what happened that day in Butler.
Speaker 5 (23:24):
Yes.
Speaker 7 (23:24):
So I had an interview coming out with him this
week on Friday in the Washington Post, and he talks
about that in a very meaningful and profound way. And
you know, part of who he surrounds himself also has
to do with Butler. Like Butler changed everything. It didn't
just change the American electorate. It didn't just change our
(23:46):
coalitions and galvanize people. And people will read that detail
as I continue to cover the election in a way
that none of you have sasaw because the reporters were
writing something completely different than what I was reporting in
that moment. But everything changed in that moment. And I
(24:08):
think this nuggets important because it goes to understanding Trump
in a way that people don't understand, and it goes
to understanding why he's going to do what he's going
to do because God saved him. And that is the
moment that he says, fight, fight, fight. And I asked
him about it the next day, and I asked him
again about it two weeks ago, he said, and I
(24:29):
just wanted to revisit it with him, and he had
the same exact answer, because I didn't know if you
would remember that or not, right, that was a pretty
crazy day. The next day he said, I was not
Donald Trump in that moment. I had an obligation to
be someone who shows resolves and be a symbol of
the country, be a symbol of grit and exceptionalism, and
(24:51):
we will go undefeated. And that is what America has
always meant to me. And I had an obligation as
a former president and possible the next president to show
that because in a lot of ways, because I didn't
want people to panic there and they didn't, by the way,
but also I didn't want people watching panicking out in
(25:12):
the streets. I had an obligation to be presidential, not
to be Donald Trump, to represent the office in the
country with resolves.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
Selena, Honestly, wasn't that just the most amazing thing you've
ever seen a president do? Amazing even for President Trump,
who's done a lot of incredible stuff. Clay and I
still sit there and think, I can't. It's hard to
believe even when you watch the video, even when we
saw it the first time as it was happening, that
a president took a bullet through the year, was bleeding
on stage and turned to his people and raised a
(25:47):
fist and told them to fight.
Speaker 5 (25:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (25:51):
Yeah, it was. Is that process that went through his head,
that understanding that it was more he wasn't he was
a man there, he was a president. He was America
in that moment, right, you know that symbol of our
country when you think about the American eagle, right, perseverance
and strength and grit. He knew that people needed to
(26:16):
know that he was fighting, that the country was fighting,
and that something as dark as demonic as what Thomas
Matthew Crooks attempted to do and would have caused immense
chaos and unrest in this country was not succeeded. And
he wanted to show that America is resilient. I don't know,
(26:36):
and I remember him telling me that, and my reaction was, well, wow,
that's the because it was it was, it was it
was to think on your feet like that after you've
been shot. I mean, most people would be in the
fetal position, right And I'm watching him he remember, I'm
(26:56):
only four feet away, and I'm watching him like struggle
with his secret service because he wants his shoes on,
and damn it, he's going to get his shoes on.
He is not walking off of that stage in his
stocking feet across gravel. Were you able to be the
United States?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Were you able to go to slop? I'm just kind
of curious when something like that happens. Were you able
to immediately contextualize the historic moment of what had occurred
and the fact that I think for hundreds of years
people are going to be watching that video and it's
going to become even more iconic after the passions of
the moment start to fade because Democrats have whatever they
(27:39):
think about Trump. But I think fifty one hundred years
from now, long after anyone who is listening to us
today is not here, that moment is going to become
so indelible and so iconic an American life. Did you
understand that or feel that immediately? And second part, did you, like,
were you able to sleep that night? Just kind of
(28:00):
curious when you have that experience how long it takes
you to come down off the adrenaline rush, just based
on where you were to say nothing of him.
Speaker 7 (28:10):
I'm still not come down from it. And you know,
I knew exactly. You know, as a journalist, you know,
part of your job, even if it's a tiny thread,
you're always covering history every day.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yep.
Speaker 7 (28:28):
But I knew in that moment, you know. And he
talks about purpose, but I also talk about purpose. There
is a reason I was there, right, and there was
a reason I was supposed to chronicle this, and I
knew that that was what my purpose was and to
be able to tell this story. And because I have
(28:51):
a gift of total recall, right, I can remember every smell,
every like I think and collor right like I can
smell and taste and feel everything in that moment. And
and when they when people say when they've been in
in a in a in a tragic situation, the time
slows down. Then that was very true for me. And
(29:13):
and I watched the entire thing in in in in
these these very fine layers. And because I have the
gift of recall, and plus I have my recorder on
and I'm talking that I record everything that happens. I
can hear everything the president says. But also I'm talking
to my recorder, so I don't forget anything. And and
(29:36):
I had and I probably started the book. And I
didn't even think about a book. I just thought, well,
I need to write this story.
Speaker 3 (29:43):
And I did.
Speaker 7 (29:44):
But you know, people came to me, it's like, you need,
you have an obligation to write this book. And and
so I immediately started writing it. While as I'm writing it,
I'm still continuing to cover an extraordinarily historic election. That
I believe is that I'm watching it that other people
aren't covering what's happening. They're covering what they wish was happening.
(30:08):
They're covering what they hope happens. But I'm on the
ground there in Pennsylvania, in the middle of somewhere in Pennsylvania,
and I'm covering this and seeing this entire country change,
not just in the rural areas but in the suburbs.
I'm watching these young mothers who was who have never
put a Trump hat on in the next weekend, have
(30:32):
them on at their kids' soccer games because and there's
interviews in the book and they say, hey, he can
take a bullet for me. I can wear a damn
hat and not worry about what people say to me.
Everything changed in that moment.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
Butler the untold story of the near assassination of Donald
Trump and the fight for America's heartland. Selena Zido's book
out today. Selena's great. We really love her work. Get
yourself a copy. Selena, Thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (31:01):
Oh thanks you guys, have a great day.
Speaker 2 (31:05):
You know, as parents will protect our children at any cost,
especially in our own home, and to do that right,
you need to have the right tools. That's where Saber
comes in that the number one pepper spray brand trusted
by law enforcement. Saber is spelled Sabri and the website
is Saber radio dot com Saber radio dot com plan
I both have their products in our homes. I've actually
given a bunch of their products to family members as
(31:26):
well so they can protect themselves all over the country.
Pepper Spray Projectile Launcher in particular, is a great product
that you should check out. But Clay's wife, my wife,
they both like having non lethal options and items to
protect themselves and to have on their person and readily accessible.
This is where Saber comes in. The pepper sprays, pepper gels,
(31:48):
a whole range of personal on home defends non lethal products. Yeah,
I got a lot of lethal stuff. I got a
lot of guns here too, but there's no reason not
to have those non lethal options. So you can have
force escalation. For a lot of people out there, they
prefer that non lethal first response. So check out what
Saber has for you. Go to Saber radio dot com
(32:09):
s A b r E radio dot com. You'll save
fifteen percent there Saber s A b R E radio
dot com or call eight four four A two four safe.
That's eight four four eight two four safe.
Speaker 6 (32:24):
Keep up with the biggest political comeback in world history
on the Team forty seven podcast playin Book Highlight Trump
Free plays from the week Sundays at noon Eastern. Find
it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Welcome Back in Clay Travis bock Sexton show, Gotten Gotten Caught.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
They gotcha. I don't know how they got you. I
don't know what they got you with, but they got you.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
They got me.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
By the way, let me say this, I mentioned it
when we were talking with Selena Zido. I read the
opening of her new book, Butler, and it's fantastic.
Speaker 1 (33:03):
And I do believe that sometimes in.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
The constant flow of history, we miss the things that
are going to resonate historically long after we're gone. I
really feel like Butler, Pennsylvania is going to be a
Gettysburg like moment for presidents in the decades in the
(33:33):
years to come, and people are out there saying, oh,
you're crazy. Remember Lincoln at Gettysburg was panned overwhelmingly in
the immediate aftermath of that speech. I think Trump's reaction
in Butler, after Trump is off the stage is going
to become more iconic as more become aware of it,
(33:54):
because then we talked about it. And I'm proud of
the show we did on the Monday right after, because
I think we captured that historical moment. The way that
he behaved is the most badass reaction in the history
of the modern presidency, such that if that were a movie,
all of us would have said, there's no way the
(34:14):
president would have behaved like that.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
And I think it.
Speaker 4 (34:17):
You know, in the the immediate aftermath, fifty percent of
people or whatever it is, don't like Trump, and so
they don't want to give him any credit. I think
as the passions of his presidency fade, I think the
bravery of that moment is going to echo and reverberate
even more in our historical consciousness.
Speaker 2 (34:33):
I think the passions of some of our esteemed audience
will fade over the next twenty four hours, after you
have been poking, sir, poking at some of them, and
you know that's that's.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Off, That's all fine and good.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
Tomorrow will be a new day, everybody, new day, new news,
new stuff going on. And yes, indeed, I think Selena's book,
by the Way, is fantastic.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I'm going to be I'm gonna be reading it. I
got a copy of right here.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
She's always done great at work, and she's also a
really nice lady.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
And she is basically writing the first draft of history
because she was there, eyewitnessed to experience what happened in Butler.
And I'm telling you generations that we know not of
are going to be reading about that day and going
to be impressed by it and inspired by it.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I really do believe.
Speaker 4 (35:20):
All right, tomorrow you guys can find out who I've
been got by.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Maybe I'll reveal it. Russia, China, so who is it?
Speaker 3 (35:28):
Who is it?
Speaker 1 (35:29):
We'll have fun tomorrow
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
Hosts And Creators
Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
Show Links
WebsiteNewsletterPopular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.