November 7, 2025 • 32 mins
Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani is considering whether to retain current NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch when he takes office. If Tisch does not stay on, former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison is said to be a top contender for the role, according to sources close to Mamdani’s transition team. Mark takes your calls! Mark interviews WOR midday Host Clay Travis from Clay and Buck. Clay has a new book out called "Balls." Did the Democrats try to use sports to highlight and promote the LGBTQ community?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now it is the Mark simonshell on sevent tenor hey, well,
thank god it Friday. Oh my god, they get this
week over with. We got a lot to get to.
We'll get to a crazy mom Donnie, and what's he
(00:20):
going to do with the police department. We've got some
intel on that. We'll get to that coming up. We'll
get to at least Stephonic running for governor. There should
be the end of Kathy Hoko. We'll get to MSNBC.
They're in their final week now of being MSNBC, and
a lot more to get to the shutdown. There might
(00:40):
be some kind of vote today, not necessarily to end
the shutdown, but to begin towards the end of the
Who knows what these people are going to do. The
shutdown continues today's day. They do that ten cut in
flights at a lot of airports. Now, it sounds bad,
and it is bad, but it's not as bad as
you think because we did this before. Remember they were
(01:02):
having problems with Newark Airport and the controllers, traffic controllers,
and it was all messed up, and they decided to
cut the flights ten percent for a while. So we
went through this already at Newark. They'll do this at
a number of airports, and what they cut are the
emptiest flights they can find. They are not a lot
of empty flights nowadays, but some less populated than others.
(01:23):
They'll cut those and combine them. So if you're traveling,
you'll see some delays. You'll also see some really crowded,
cramped planes, fewer flights and more people on each plane shutdown.
The problem is the polling is all over the map.
Some show that the Republicans are getting the blame, some
(01:43):
show Democrats are getting the blame. One of the problems
it's hard to poll because President Trump the idea when
he did the shutdown was to make it as the
least painful that he could make it. Don't cut anything
you don't have to cut. And you know when Obama
did the shutdown, he was the opposite. He tried to
(02:03):
make it as painful as possible. They wanted to make
the Republicans look bad, so they closed down a lot
more than they had to close down. They closed down everything,
and they deliberately tried to make it very painful for
the public. They closed down things that you didn't even
need to close it. Neither were World War iiO monuments
that don't require any staffing of any kind, but they
(02:24):
still close those down, that put that yellow barricade tape
all over it, just to make it look as ugly
as they could. The president doing the opposite. Here. Hey
Elis Stefanic has announced she is running for governor. This
was not unexpected. Here she is.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It is clear we need a new generation leader to
step up and bring common sense and deliver results the
issues that I hear from not just in my district,
but all across the state. People are struggling with high
taxes in New York State. It's an affordability crisis. If
you look at utility rates, insurance rates, it is running
families in small businesses out of this state.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, see, now it's an interesting situation. You just had
a guy win the mayoralty, a Democrat, and he ran
on affordability and that sort of stuff, which is odd
because it's the Democrats that caused it. The Democrats have
run every inch in New York for the last fifteen years.
Democrats at mayors, governors, legislature, city council. The whole thing's
(03:24):
been run by Democrats. So if it's an affordability crisis
and this crisis, and in that crisis, it's all the
Democrats fault. That would make sense to switch parties if
that party just gave you all these problems, switch parties
so it'll be easier for Stephonic to campaign on that.
Hochel can try campaigning on affordability. But she's been in
charge for eight years, and before that, Cuomo for years,
(03:48):
and it's her legislature, all Democrats, So it's going to
be tough, very to Here's the Stephanic's first campaign commercial.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
From the ashes of Kathy Hockel's failed policies, New York
Real Rise like we always do. The spirit of the
empire state cannot be broken. All we need is a
courageous leader ready for the fight. At least Dephonic will
make New York affordable and safe.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now Stephanic an upstate congresswoman, and you remember in those
hearings where Hokel had to testify in the congressional hearings,
it was Stephonic that really went after her on crime,
on everything else. I want to make sure you understand
that this simply says that we will cooperate with Ice.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, it does not say that I read what it says,
and let me talk to you about the results. Do
you know who secure a kan is? You should, as
the governor of New York State?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Do you know refresh my recollection?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
He was an illegal migrant in New York and do
you know what crime he committed in addition to being
here legally?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
No, I do not, you do not.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This was widely reported. He found a fifteen year old girl,
threatened her with a metal pull, told her to get
into the back seat of his car, He took her
clothes off, and he violently raped her in Albany, New York.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, now, Hokel had a really rough time testifying in
front of Stefanic. I'm sure this will be used in commercials.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
These are horrific crimes.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
In their heart, they're horrific crimes that are committed on
your watch. You sign this executive order on your first
day in office. You sign it again and again this January.
We deserve a governor who stands up for law abiding
New Yorkers, doesn't put illegals first, but actually puts New
Yorkers first. I appreciate Rather than going after the viral moment,
I suggest you no, no, no, I'm standing up for
(05:33):
New Yorkers rather than addressing the illegals in New York.
You are prioritizing your far left sanctuary state policies, which
you put in place with executive orders.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So based on this kind of stuff, it would be
pretty easy I think for Stefanic to beat Hochel in
any debate now is the only complication for Stephanic. Bruce Blakeman,
I'm hearing, wants to run for governor. Bruce Blakeman is
the best county executive in America, done a phenomenal job
in Nassau County, just got re elected. Governor's race would
(06:04):
be next year, we'd be you know, Nassau County will
not be happy to lose Blakeman, but it's worth it
if he can be the governor because then he can
fix the whole state. So at least Stephonic would have
to go through a primary battling Bruce Blakeman. That won't
be easy. I mean, you know, I'd have to go
with Blakeman on that. You know, like Stephonic, but Blakeman's
(06:25):
the best, and in a not national, but a big
statewide race for governor, New York City is half the
votes in a governor's race, New York City is half
the votes. Now, if you study the history of this,
you got to win at least thirty five percent of
New York City as a Republican to get elected governor,
you got to win thirty five percent of New York City.
(06:47):
It's not easy to do as a Republican. But in
the primary, that's a little different. So it'd be Blakeman
against Stephonic in the primary, and who knows, who knows
who else the other people will jump in there. You
never know, Maybe Andrew Giuliani will try it again. Maybe
who knows, Maybe Lee Zelden Board in Washington may come
(07:08):
try it again. But Blakeman, Stephanic. It's a great situation
to have a couple of great candidates. So we'll see
who gets through that primary. Mom, Donnie, Now, the big,
big nightmare is the police department. That's the problem. He's
already named five people on his transition team. They're all
(07:28):
ex to Blasio, people to Blasio administration, one's from the
Adams administration. But the most important thing is keep people safe.
If you got safe streets, you got everything. So will
Jessica stay as police commissioners? She hadn't said anything yet.
Now this could get interesting. We'd want her to stay.
(07:49):
She's done a good job. She might not stay just
simply because she doesn't want to work with Mom Donnie,
or she doesn't like some of his policies. And if she,
you know, she'll want to run against him in four years,
so she may not want to stay if she leaves.
Who's the police commissioner. This is the big fear with
Mom Donnie. Everybody thinks he's going to put Al Sharpton
in charge of the police department or something like that,
(08:11):
some crazy left wing sort of a character. This is
the big, big worry. But this is not bad news.
Apparently this is from the inside of the Mom Donnie world.
If he has to pick up police commissioner right now,
highest on his list is the Suffolk County Police Commissioner,
Rodney Harrison, and he's not a bad guy. Rodney Harrison,
(08:35):
Suffolk County Police Commissioner. He's been there for a couple
of years. He ran the I actually ran the department
and left at the end of Steve Balloone's term as
county executive. But he's the guy that he formed the
task force that finally got the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
He was with the NYPD. He retired in twenty twenty
(08:55):
one as chief of department. That's the highest uniform position,
so everybody thinks is a good guy police. Former Police
Commissioner of Suffolk Rodney K. Harrison looks like that right
now would be Mom Donnie's choice. And if Jessica Tish
will stay, it looks like they'll make Harrison the deputy
mayor in charge of public safety, so he'd be overseeing
(09:18):
her and I don't know what their relationship is, if
she'd want to work under him, But we'll see Tish.
I think we'll wait and see who's appointed, who's going
to be what before she decides anything. Now, for the
last thirty years, new mayors have always ended up bringing
in their own police commissioner. It's just tradition, you know.
(09:41):
When Rudy Giuliani took over, Ray Kelly was the police
commissioner out. He's the greatest police commissioner ever ever. And
I remember talking to Rudy Juliana at the time. He
knew that. He just said, I can't keep you know,
a previous guy. I have to have my own commissioner.
They some just think they got to have their own
person in there. So it's highly unusual to keep a
(10:02):
police commissioner. We'll see if this is the one time
where it actually actually happens. Now, you keep hearing everybody's
gonna leave. People are all going to run away from
New York. They always say they said that when Deblasio
so off. Some people did, but not as many as
your thought. It's not as bad as you think. George
Santos has announced he's leaving New York. He's George Santos
(10:26):
leaving New York. He lives in Queen's actually, so he
said he can't stay here under mom Donnie. But I
don't think that's a great loss that George Santos is leaving. Now,
you could say, well, why don't he just move to
Nasau County, Bruce Blakeman, you can trust him. Well, that's
where Santos had all his trouble in Nassau County. I
don't think he wants to go back there. Hey, congratulations
(10:49):
Elon Musk, who was the richest man in the world.
That's quite an honor, quite a headline. To be the
single richest man on earth. That's an incredible unbelievable accomplishment. Well,
now another accomplishment. He's now the highest paid guy in
the history of the world, biggest compensation package ever in
the history of the world. Tesla the board of directors
(11:12):
approved his new pay package, which is the new pay
package is one trillion dollars with a t one trillion dollars.
It's unbelievable. But apparently he threatened to leave the company
if he didn't get it, and the Tesla board was
scared as can be. They don't think the company can
(11:33):
exist without Musk. Now, to get the trillion, he'll have
to hit a series of performance marks. He's fifty four
years old. He uh oh, hey, he's still the richest guy.
He's the richest guy in the world. Four hundred and
ninety billion. Four hundred and ninety billion. I think about that.
(11:54):
If you had four billion, you'd be unbelievably rich. But
four hundred and ninety billion. Let's say there was a
hole in your pocket and you didn't know it, and
ninety billion fell out of your pocket and you lost it.
You're still worth four hundred billion. It wouldn't really matter.
I don't even know why you even work. This is
like five hundred billion. If you put that, if you
(12:17):
just invested it, you'd have five billion a year in income.
Five billion a year in income. You couldn't spend that
if you tried. But guys like this love to work.
He'll be awarded all kinds of stock in twelve tranches
first round. If it hits, there's all kinds of targets
(12:37):
you have to have to sell. He has to deliver
twenty million vehicles, Tesla hats has to hit two trillion
in valuation. He has to deliver one million of the
Optimus human eyed robots. Yeah, that's next. The robots are coming.
If they get all the hurdles, Tesla stock would explode
(12:57):
and be worth eight point five trillion, with must getting
a quarter. That's so, that's how they'll end up with
a trillion dollars in income. And let's say it doesn't
work out well and they only hit two benchmarks, then
he'll earn twenty six billion from that. This is unbelievable.
You know, he'll be earning more money than Mark Zuckerberg,
(13:18):
Tim Cook, and Jensen Huang in the video combined. Combined,
seventy five percent of shareholders voted in favor of the
proposal that just terrified of losing him. They don't think
anybody else could run the company like that. Unbelievable. Hey,
Dave Portnoy, here's another one. Portnoy says he's gonna pull
(13:39):
Barstool from New York City. Their headquarters is here. He's threatening,
he says, I hate the guy. He's threatening to pull
out and move Barstool. Portnoy just bought a thirty million
dollar house in Miami, so I imagine that's where he'd
move it. You know, people go, you know, on their phone.
That's how they are in the You read the newspaper
(14:01):
on the computer, you read your websites, you read your
book on a kindle, you do all that. That's all
changing slowly. People don't want to read anymore. It's incredible
how lazy people are getting. And wait till AI takes over,
you're going to see laziness like you've never seen. So
a lot of people don't want to read a book
on a kindle. They want talking books. They don't have
to hold it, look at it, move their eyes. They
(14:23):
don't want to have to do that. They want to
just have a talking book. Well, it's affecting everything else
newspapers are starting to realize they've got to start talking.
It can't just be print. The New York Times has
been working very hard on what they call the post
text era, so they're quickly moving to platforms where everybody's
(14:45):
talk and all the writers doing audio and video. So
when you go to the New York Times, you don't
have to tire yourself out reading. You can just listen
and watch. So all their big writers columns are turning
into talking heads. But this, this is the big thing.
Audio video. At some point, if you've got no time
machine and went to five years from now, there might
(15:05):
not be any print of any kind anymore. Everything is
just talking and video. Hey, oh, you will be with
us later this hour, Clay Travis. Clay Travis will be here.
In a few minutes. We'll talk to Clay Travis. He's
got a new book out. And then, uh, well, a
lot more to get to and we'll take some calls. Next.
Eight hundred three two one zero seven ten is the number.
(15:28):
Eight hundred three two one zero seven ten.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If you're listening to Mark on the iHeartRadio app, save
time and tap the preset button.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Now.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Now back to the Mark Simone Show.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
On woor Hey, let's take some calls. Let's go to
David in Brooklyn. David, how you.
Speaker 8 (15:47):
Doing, Hey, good morning, How are you good? Okay, I
just want to if you give me thirty seconds, I
make my point. You speaking yesterday that the election turnout
was only forty five percent, So I want to explain
to something my training statistics. I think forty five percent
is actually too high. And I'll top thank to you.
Why New York City does not have a system of
(16:08):
people removing themselves from the from the voting world, meaning
when someone registers to vote in New York, then they
move to Florida, they move wherever. They don't call up.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
People do not know. That's a good point. The actual
total might be higher, but people aren't.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
By the way, you don't have to say give me,
give me thirty sevents. Be interesting. If you're really interesting,
you can stay on. You'll be on for ten minutes.
If it's not so interesting, it might be ten seconds.
Let's go to Mike in Florida. Mike, how you doing,
good morning?
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Mark, Yes, Mike, just to get off the politics for
a couple of seconds. I was cruising YouTube and I
came across a bunch of Neil Sidaka videos and I
was wondering if you were friends with him, and also,
how short is Neil Sidaka?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
He looked.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It was one where he's dancing, he's singing. There's a
bunch of dancing girls, and he looks like he comes
up to their waist.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, no, he's not. He's a good friend of mine.
He's not. He's not tall, but I would say he's
five nine probably okay, maybe he's five five to nine.
But he You know, when they put you in the
show with the dancing girls, they're always like six feet tall,
these dancers. So true. Yeah, but he does.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He's pushed. He's in his eighties. I know that. Yeah,
you can see how he's doing because if you're follow
him on Facebook or online, probably on YouTube too. Every
couple of days in his own apartment over there on
the Upper East Side, he makes these videos. Him at
the piano and he sings some of his songs. He
(17:34):
might want to get a little better dressed for them.
It's usually him and his pajamas.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
He's an underrated genius.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I say, Oh, he's a brilliant guy, and he's one
of the few artists in the world. Like some of
those videos, you'll see him do laughter in the rain,
just at the piano. He's one of the few guys
in real life can When he does it, it sounds
exactly like the like the recording, exactly like the record.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
That's impressive.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know how many times you go to a concert
and they're doing their hit and it doesn't sound anything
like the single that you've heard for years, But now
Sadaka sounds perfect. Thanks for calling, Mike. Let's go to
Aaron in Indianapolis. Aaron, how you doing good?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Boarding Mark?
Speaker 9 (18:11):
I want to talk about the new incoming New York mayor. Yes,
I think I think we should extend the peace offering
and send him some gift boxes of hand sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I don't know what that means, but I think we
should send him to Indianapolis. Let him run your town
for a little while. It didn't like that. I had
a lot of silence there. Let's go to Bill in Pennsylvania. Bill,
how you doing okay?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Mark? It's I'm wondering why right ways like Stepanic use
the word affordability. Those are the leftwards, but we should
be using your slogan common sense.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, we use that a lot. Now President Trump uses
that a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
I know, but it should be the rallying cry. Everybody
says that they that these people are saying, you know,
afford a bill, and they're going to wait across the
country with that slogan. We should respond by saying common says.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, we do, we do, we do. President Trump, as
they say, he says it a lot. You can't decide
what the big slogan is. You can just keep saying it.
Then you see what catches on. For some reason, the
affordability caught on with the public. They like the word,
you know, it's like branding. Sometimes it catches on, sometimes
it doesn't. But affordability it's a big issue right now.
(19:28):
But you got a lot of the president's policies and
a lot of the things in the pipeline going through
the economy that will bring prices down. So in six
months prices might be a lot lower, and then it
won't be a very good word for a campaigning anymore.
Let's go to Susan and Brooklyn. Susan, how you doing, Hi?
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Great Mark, love your show. I just have to make
a comment. I received my two hundred dollars inflation refund
check from local And the thing is they tell you
on this to keep the stub on the top to
file with your twenty twenty five taxes. And it even
says it on the check. This is insane. I'm being
(20:06):
taxed on money that I was already taxed on.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Well, I don't know. Does that means you have to
pay taxes on it just because you have to keep
the stub?
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Well, it says this refund is issued on your income
tax return for the years shown below, tax year twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I don't know. You got to ask an account. That might
mean you don't have to pay tax on How come
I didn't? I didn't get it? Check? How come I
didn't get one?
Speaker 6 (20:27):
I don't know. Maybe you make too much money? What
can I say?
Speaker 8 (20:30):
Mark, have a good.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Day, all right, thanks for calling. Hey, we'll take a
break for the news, get caught up on everything, and
when we come back, we'll talk to Clay Travis. Last
night was the Patriot Awards in Long Island, Fox News,
Fox Nation. They do this great Patriot Awards. First Lady
was there, Erica Kirka. Clay Travis was there. He's also
got a new book out. We'll talk to him about that.
(20:55):
But first let's get all the latest news. Let's get
caught up on everything on seven to.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Ten Insight from the inside. This is seven to ten
Wrson Show.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Well with us right now, Clay Travis superstar. Of course
you listen to Buck and Clay and every day twelve
noon to three, the Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show noon
to three every day right after me. You seem all
over television of course OutKick all that stuff. And he's
a best selling author. This is another bestseller that has
just come out. His new book is called Balls. It's
(21:31):
actually a fascinating book. And Clay Travis, thanks for actually
coming into the studio.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Well, thank you for having me. Most importantly, thanks for
being a tremendous lead in for the show for all
these years. And you are dominating in New York City
as you long have, and we appreciate you passing the
baton to us at noon, and we get to talk
to a lot of people all over the country and
certainly a lot of people in New York who are grappling,
(21:57):
as we were talking about off air, with what has
been a challenging week, I think to say the.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Least, Yeah, it's been a long week. I don't know.
We'll get through this. And let's talk about the book first.
That's an interesting subject because it's called Balls, but it's
about sports, and you know, I never thought about it.
I read this book the Democrats going into all these
dangerous areas with people, but screwing around with sports. Yeah,
(22:23):
that's bad.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Well. I think there's a sense among young men that
they have been villainized for many things that they've had
absolutely nothing to do with at all. And I think,
when when I think about my lifetime, I feel I
grew up in the era that girls and boys should
be treated equally under the law, and Title nine probably
(22:47):
is a is a strong component of the era that
I grew up in. But it wasn't that there was
something wrong with being male or being female. It was
that both sexes should be able to respond to be
the highest level of success possible, which seemed very very
healthy to me. And then in the last I would
(23:07):
say decade, certainly we moved into a world where being
male would there was something wrong with it and something
toxic with it. And so many young men who are
growing up in this era are looking around and saying
there's a couple of anecdotes in here, but one of
my favorite is one of my kids friends came home
(23:28):
one day with me and he said, mister Clay, we
learned today at school that white men cause all the
problems in the world and we're the reason that everything
is awful. And they told us, you know that we
have all this power, and he said, my mom doesn't
even let me pick what I eat for dinner. Mister Clay,
what power do I have? And it's a silly, funny anecdote,
(23:52):
but I think it kind of gets at the representative
issue here, which is we have created a world where
young men feel like they're blamed for everything, given credit
for nothing, and in this twenty twenty four election, they
pushed back against that in a pretty aggressive way.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So do you think democrats targeted sports thinking it's too
macho or was it just a yeah.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
I don't know how targeted it was or how much
it was just a natural outgrowth of their attempt to
take overall culture. But this book goes into to me
when it really began in earnest and you may remember
this story, some of your listeners will, but it kind
of feels like a long time ago now. Because so
many stories have happened since. But Michael Sam was a
(24:40):
star defensive end for the Missouri football team in the
SEC SEC player of the Year defensively, I think, but
like a lot of guys going to the pros, they
saw him as not an ideal fit. He wasn't big
enough to play defensive end, he wasn't fast enough to
play linebacker. There were all these issues, and so he
ended up getting drafted late. And when he got drafted,
(25:02):
he made out with his boyfriend on ESPN. You know,
they were sitting there with a camera right in his face.
And then the entire Michael Sam's story was obsessively covered
by ESPN. And that was the first time I remember
someone becoming a star of coverage without being a star
(25:23):
on the field. The only reason people were following that
story was because he was gay. And when I go
back and look at it now, then you had Caitlin
Jenner's situation, certainly Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. They tried
to turn sports into politics by any other name. And
you know, I came one of my prior books as
(25:43):
Republicans by Sneakers Too, which is from the Jordan era.
When hey, I want my excellence in athletics to speak
to anybody, why would I want a way into politics
and alien eight half the country, which I actually think
is the way that a super smart sports league or
a super smart athlete would be. And by the way,
this all culminated to me with Leah Thomas winning a
(26:08):
women's swimming title as a man.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And also for those people who.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Remember it in the twenty twenty bubble when the NBA
players actually took their own names off the back of
their jerseys and replace them with political slogo, which is
it's all crazy, but that is chronicled here as what
we saw in twenty twenty four was I think a
backlash to that era.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, get the book. It's fascinating. It's Klay Travis's new
book called Balls, and it really explores all this. But
why did guys like Roger Goodell, Why did they cave
to this? Why didn't they stand up for their sports?
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Because they did what was best for them personally that
was worse for the league's I think it's such a
good question. If you're an old white guy and you're
making forty million dollars a year, as Roger Goodell is,
and your league is made up of majority black athletes.
Do you want to be the guy that steps in
front of the media train to be seen immediately by
(27:07):
all of the sports media as the old, racist, white
guy who is trying to run the league. I think
he recognized, and certainly the owners did that this was
bad for the overall brand of the league and bad
for the outreach of audience. But they did what was
in their best interest to preserve their jobs as opposed
(27:28):
to what was in the league's best interest.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Now, there are some psychologists to say that's the reason
the Democrats go so crazy about Donald Trump, that's the
reason for this Trump arrangements in him, that he's such
an old fashioned, macho, kind of fifties kind of guy,
and you think that's part.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Of the well, look, I think the reason why the
left hates football in general is because it represents alpha masculinity.
I mean, there is no woman who's ever going to
make a football team, And in order to play football
at a high level, you have to be a physical
beast who puts your body on the line every single play.
(28:06):
And you know, there's a reason that football, and obviously
it's much less serious, has been analogized so often to warfare,
because it's just physical carnage on the field, our most aggressive.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
There's a great.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
Quote at West Point one of their football coaches, and
I'm not going to remember it perfectly, but on you know, basically,
the idea was at West Point, we train men through
football to be able to eventually win on battlefields because
it's about following orders, it's about being in the right position,
(28:42):
and so there's always been a militaristic component of football
that I think also makes left wingers a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, talking about Clay Travis Gain his latest book, it's
already a bestseller, but go get the book. It's called Balls.
You'll love this book. Hey, Clay Travis, you founded OutKick Now. Yeah,
you way back in the beginning all the big sports
sports Illustrated, ABC, ESPN. How come they didn't see you
coming out? How did you get ahead of them?
Speaker 7 (29:09):
It is I think we have the most culturally influential
sports site now at OutKick, and Fox now owns it,
and we have a lot of impact. I think that's
part of what I write about in the book is
I think there's an advantage to being sort of a
speed ship a speedboat when everybody else is an aircraft
(29:33):
carrier because it allows you to adjust on the fly
quickly and see oncoming issues without having to run everything
through a bureaucracy in order to make it happen. And
so I think also the thing that is remarkable to
me is not that OutKick worked and continues to work
so well for Fox. It's that no one's ever competed
(29:56):
with us.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You know.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
I sometimes look around and I say, boys like I
invented beer, and nobody else will come out with their
own version of a beer. So that's maybe the most
remarkable thing about it. And if people aren't familiar with
the story of OutKick in sports, I think there's a
business and entrepreneurial story that is built into into this
book as well.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Absolutely, we'll get the book. It's a brand new book
from Clay Travis. It's called Balls. You will love the book.
Listen to Clay Travis and Buck Sesson today noon to three,
and of course you'll see them all over television. But
the book is called Balls. Go get it. Clay Travis,
thanks for starting.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Thank you for killing it for us for so many
years as the lead in. We really love this station
and everything you guys do and we look forward to
talking with you guys for years and years to come.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
All right, we'll do it again soon. Thank your Mark.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Simon show on WR.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Oh, I don't know, it's been quite a week. You
got the mom putting together a transition team. Another big
fear besides what he'll do with the police department, is
the anti Semitism of Mom Donnie, the anti Semitism that
surrounds him. You know, he's been going on Morning Joe
(31:15):
there that crazy Morning Joe Swamp Joe at MSNBC, and
also a regular guest on the show is the director
of the ADL, you know, the Defense League. So apparently
Joe Scarborough has decided to arrange a meeting between them.
(31:37):
You know, it's one of the biggest institutions that represent
Jewish New Yorkers. He said, it's important that they sit
down with Mom Donnie and engage with each other because
the Defense League has pointed out, you know, Mam Doniel
bragged that he went to a synagogue, but they'll point
out the only team he goes to a synagogue, it's
an anti Zionist synagogue. So this will be interest now.
(32:00):
The only problem is it's Morning Joe it's MSNBC, so
Scarborough says, So we may may add Al Sharpton to
the meeting, but we'll see, you know. And it's one
thing to just go meet with these people. It's just
a gesture and you need much more than gestures. Here. Hey,
we'll we had a lot to get to in the
(32:20):
next hour. We'll get back to mom Donnie and we'll
get to we'll get to MSNBC. It's their final week
coming up. There'll be no more MSNBC. It's not going
to switch to something called ms now. But rebranding is very,
very dangerous. We'll talk about that in the next hour. Now,
I'm here every day ten to noon, or you could
(32:41):
listen to the podcast that way, you can listen to
any time you want, day or night. And by the way,
if you're a podcast listener, there's a bonus segment that's
not on the air that you'll get every weekend back
after the news seven to WR
Now it is the Mark simonshell on sevent tenor hey, well,
thank god it Friday. Oh my god, they get this
week over with. We got a lot to get to.
We'll get to a crazy mom Donnie, and what's he
(00:20):
going to do with the police department. We've got some
intel on that. We'll get to that coming up. We'll
get to at least Stephonic running for governor. There should
be the end of Kathy Hoko. We'll get to MSNBC.
They're in their final week now of being MSNBC, and
a lot more to get to the shutdown. There might
(00:40):
be some kind of vote today, not necessarily to end
the shutdown, but to begin towards the end of the
Who knows what these people are going to do. The
shutdown continues today's day. They do that ten cut in
flights at a lot of airports. Now, it sounds bad,
and it is bad, but it's not as bad as
you think because we did this before. Remember they were
(01:02):
having problems with Newark Airport and the controllers, traffic controllers,
and it was all messed up, and they decided to
cut the flights ten percent for a while. So we
went through this already at Newark. They'll do this at
a number of airports, and what they cut are the
emptiest flights they can find. They are not a lot
of empty flights nowadays, but some less populated than others.
(01:23):
They'll cut those and combine them. So if you're traveling,
you'll see some delays. You'll also see some really crowded,
cramped planes, fewer flights and more people on each plane shutdown.
The problem is the polling is all over the map.
Some show that the Republicans are getting the blame, some
(01:43):
show Democrats are getting the blame. One of the problems
it's hard to poll because President Trump the idea when
he did the shutdown was to make it as the
least painful that he could make it. Don't cut anything
you don't have to cut. And you know when Obama
did the shutdown, he was the opposite. He tried to
(02:03):
make it as painful as possible. They wanted to make
the Republicans look bad, so they closed down a lot
more than they had to close down. They closed down everything,
and they deliberately tried to make it very painful for
the public. They closed down things that you didn't even
need to close it. Neither were World War iiO monuments
that don't require any staffing of any kind, but they
(02:24):
still close those down, that put that yellow barricade tape
all over it, just to make it look as ugly
as they could. The president doing the opposite. Here. Hey
Elis Stefanic has announced she is running for governor. This
was not unexpected. Here she is.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
It is clear we need a new generation leader to
step up and bring common sense and deliver results the
issues that I hear from not just in my district,
but all across the state. People are struggling with high
taxes in New York State. It's an affordability crisis. If
you look at utility rates, insurance rates, it is running
families in small businesses out of this state.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Okay, see, now it's an interesting situation. You just had
a guy win the mayoralty, a Democrat, and he ran
on affordability and that sort of stuff, which is odd
because it's the Democrats that caused it. The Democrats have
run every inch in New York for the last fifteen years.
Democrats at mayors, governors, legislature, city council. The whole thing's
(03:24):
been run by Democrats. So if it's an affordability crisis
and this crisis, and in that crisis, it's all the
Democrats fault. That would make sense to switch parties if
that party just gave you all these problems, switch parties
so it'll be easier for Stephonic to campaign on that.
Hochel can try campaigning on affordability. But she's been in
charge for eight years, and before that, Cuomo for years,
(03:48):
and it's her legislature, all Democrats, So it's going to
be tough, very to Here's the Stephanic's first campaign commercial.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
From the ashes of Kathy Hockel's failed policies, New York
Real Rise like we always do. The spirit of the
empire state cannot be broken. All we need is a
courageous leader ready for the fight. At least Dephonic will
make New York affordable and safe.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Now Stephanic an upstate congresswoman, and you remember in those
hearings where Hokel had to testify in the congressional hearings,
it was Stephonic that really went after her on crime,
on everything else. I want to make sure you understand
that this simply says that we will cooperate with Ice.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
No, it does not say that I read what it says,
and let me talk to you about the results. Do
you know who secure a kan is? You should, as
the governor of New York State?
Speaker 4 (04:42):
Do you know refresh my recollection?
Speaker 2 (04:45):
He was an illegal migrant in New York and do
you know what crime he committed in addition to being
here legally?
Speaker 5 (04:50):
No, I do not, you do not.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
This was widely reported. He found a fifteen year old girl,
threatened her with a metal pull, told her to get
into the back seat of his car, He took her
clothes off, and he violently raped her in Albany, New York.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, now, Hokel had a really rough time testifying in
front of Stefanic. I'm sure this will be used in commercials.
Speaker 6 (05:10):
These are horrific crimes.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
In their heart, they're horrific crimes that are committed on
your watch. You sign this executive order on your first
day in office. You sign it again and again this January.
We deserve a governor who stands up for law abiding
New Yorkers, doesn't put illegals first, but actually puts New
Yorkers first. I appreciate Rather than going after the viral moment,
I suggest you no, no, no, I'm standing up for
(05:33):
New Yorkers rather than addressing the illegals in New York.
You are prioritizing your far left sanctuary state policies, which
you put in place with executive orders.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
So based on this kind of stuff, it would be
pretty easy I think for Stefanic to beat Hochel in
any debate now is the only complication for Stephanic. Bruce Blakeman,
I'm hearing, wants to run for governor. Bruce Blakeman is
the best county executive in America, done a phenomenal job
in Nassau County, just got re elected. Governor's race would
(06:04):
be next year, we'd be you know, Nassau County will
not be happy to lose Blakeman, but it's worth it
if he can be the governor because then he can
fix the whole state. So at least Stephonic would have
to go through a primary battling Bruce Blakeman. That won't
be easy. I mean, you know, I'd have to go
with Blakeman on that. You know, like Stephonic, but Blakeman's
(06:25):
the best, and in a not national, but a big
statewide race for governor, New York City is half the
votes in a governor's race, New York City is half
the votes. Now, if you study the history of this,
you got to win at least thirty five percent of
New York City as a Republican to get elected governor,
you got to win thirty five percent of New York City.
(06:47):
It's not easy to do as a Republican. But in
the primary, that's a little different. So it'd be Blakeman
against Stephonic in the primary, and who knows, who knows
who else the other people will jump in there. You
never know, Maybe Andrew Giuliani will try it again. Maybe
who knows, Maybe Lee Zelden Board in Washington may come
(07:08):
try it again. But Blakeman, Stephanic. It's a great situation
to have a couple of great candidates. So we'll see
who gets through that primary. Mom, Donnie, Now, the big,
big nightmare is the police department. That's the problem. He's
already named five people on his transition team. They're all
(07:28):
ex to Blasio, people to Blasio administration, one's from the
Adams administration. But the most important thing is keep people safe.
If you got safe streets, you got everything. So will
Jessica stay as police commissioners? She hadn't said anything yet.
Now this could get interesting. We'd want her to stay.
(07:49):
She's done a good job. She might not stay just
simply because she doesn't want to work with Mom Donnie,
or she doesn't like some of his policies. And if she,
you know, she'll want to run against him in four years,
so she may not want to stay if she leaves.
Who's the police commissioner. This is the big fear with
Mom Donnie. Everybody thinks he's going to put Al Sharpton
in charge of the police department or something like that,
(08:11):
some crazy left wing sort of a character. This is
the big, big worry. But this is not bad news.
Apparently this is from the inside of the Mom Donnie world.
If he has to pick up police commissioner right now,
highest on his list is the Suffolk County Police Commissioner,
Rodney Harrison, and he's not a bad guy. Rodney Harrison,
(08:35):
Suffolk County Police Commissioner. He's been there for a couple
of years. He ran the I actually ran the department
and left at the end of Steve Balloone's term as
county executive. But he's the guy that he formed the
task force that finally got the Gilgo Beach serial killer.
He was with the NYPD. He retired in twenty twenty
(08:55):
one as chief of department. That's the highest uniform position,
so everybody thinks is a good guy police. Former Police
Commissioner of Suffolk Rodney K. Harrison looks like that right
now would be Mom Donnie's choice. And if Jessica Tish
will stay, it looks like they'll make Harrison the deputy
mayor in charge of public safety, so he'd be overseeing
(09:18):
her and I don't know what their relationship is, if
she'd want to work under him, But we'll see Tish.
I think we'll wait and see who's appointed, who's going
to be what before she decides anything. Now, for the
last thirty years, new mayors have always ended up bringing
in their own police commissioner. It's just tradition, you know.
(09:41):
When Rudy Giuliani took over, Ray Kelly was the police
commissioner out. He's the greatest police commissioner ever ever. And
I remember talking to Rudy Juliana at the time. He
knew that. He just said, I can't keep you know,
a previous guy. I have to have my own commissioner.
They some just think they got to have their own
person in there. So it's highly unusual to keep a
(10:02):
police commissioner. We'll see if this is the one time
where it actually actually happens. Now, you keep hearing everybody's
gonna leave. People are all going to run away from
New York. They always say they said that when Deblasio
so off. Some people did, but not as many as
your thought. It's not as bad as you think. George
Santos has announced he's leaving New York. He's George Santos
(10:26):
leaving New York. He lives in Queen's actually, so he
said he can't stay here under mom Donnie. But I
don't think that's a great loss that George Santos is leaving. Now,
you could say, well, why don't he just move to
Nasau County, Bruce Blakeman, you can trust him. Well, that's
where Santos had all his trouble in Nassau County. I
don't think he wants to go back there. Hey, congratulations
(10:49):
Elon Musk, who was the richest man in the world.
That's quite an honor, quite a headline. To be the
single richest man on earth. That's an incredible unbelievable accomplishment. Well,
now another accomplishment. He's now the highest paid guy in
the history of the world, biggest compensation package ever in
the history of the world. Tesla the board of directors
(11:12):
approved his new pay package, which is the new pay
package is one trillion dollars with a t one trillion dollars.
It's unbelievable. But apparently he threatened to leave the company
if he didn't get it, and the Tesla board was
scared as can be. They don't think the company can
(11:33):
exist without Musk. Now, to get the trillion, he'll have
to hit a series of performance marks. He's fifty four
years old. He uh oh, hey, he's still the richest guy.
He's the richest guy in the world. Four hundred and
ninety billion. Four hundred and ninety billion. I think about that.
(11:54):
If you had four billion, you'd be unbelievably rich. But
four hundred and ninety billion. Let's say there was a
hole in your pocket and you didn't know it, and
ninety billion fell out of your pocket and you lost it.
You're still worth four hundred billion. It wouldn't really matter.
I don't even know why you even work. This is
like five hundred billion. If you put that, if you
(12:17):
just invested it, you'd have five billion a year in income.
Five billion a year in income. You couldn't spend that
if you tried. But guys like this love to work.
He'll be awarded all kinds of stock in twelve tranches
first round. If it hits, there's all kinds of targets
(12:37):
you have to have to sell. He has to deliver
twenty million vehicles, Tesla hats has to hit two trillion
in valuation. He has to deliver one million of the
Optimus human eyed robots. Yeah, that's next. The robots are coming.
If they get all the hurdles, Tesla stock would explode
(12:57):
and be worth eight point five trillion, with must getting
a quarter. That's so, that's how they'll end up with
a trillion dollars in income. And let's say it doesn't
work out well and they only hit two benchmarks, then
he'll earn twenty six billion from that. This is unbelievable.
You know, he'll be earning more money than Mark Zuckerberg,
(13:18):
Tim Cook, and Jensen Huang in the video combined. Combined,
seventy five percent of shareholders voted in favor of the
proposal that just terrified of losing him. They don't think
anybody else could run the company like that. Unbelievable. Hey,
Dave Portnoy, here's another one. Portnoy says he's gonna pull
(13:39):
Barstool from New York City. Their headquarters is here. He's threatening,
he says, I hate the guy. He's threatening to pull
out and move Barstool. Portnoy just bought a thirty million
dollar house in Miami, so I imagine that's where he'd
move it. You know, people go, you know, on their phone.
That's how they are in the You read the newspaper
(14:01):
on the computer, you read your websites, you read your
book on a kindle, you do all that. That's all
changing slowly. People don't want to read anymore. It's incredible
how lazy people are getting. And wait till AI takes over,
you're going to see laziness like you've never seen. So
a lot of people don't want to read a book
on a kindle. They want talking books. They don't have
to hold it, look at it, move their eyes. They
(14:23):
don't want to have to do that. They want to
just have a talking book. Well, it's affecting everything else
newspapers are starting to realize they've got to start talking.
It can't just be print. The New York Times has
been working very hard on what they call the post
text era, so they're quickly moving to platforms where everybody's
(14:45):
talk and all the writers doing audio and video. So
when you go to the New York Times, you don't
have to tire yourself out reading. You can just listen
and watch. So all their big writers columns are turning
into talking heads. But this, this is the big thing.
Audio video. At some point, if you've got no time
machine and went to five years from now, there might
(15:05):
not be any print of any kind anymore. Everything is
just talking and video. Hey, oh, you will be with
us later this hour, Clay Travis. Clay Travis will be here.
In a few minutes. We'll talk to Clay Travis. He's
got a new book out. And then, uh, well, a
lot more to get to and we'll take some calls. Next.
Eight hundred three two one zero seven ten is the number.
(15:28):
Eight hundred three two one zero seven ten.
Speaker 3 (15:32):
If you're listening to Mark on the iHeartRadio app, save
time and tap the preset button.
Speaker 1 (15:37):
Now.
Speaker 7 (15:38):
Now back to the Mark Simone Show.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
On woor Hey, let's take some calls. Let's go to
David in Brooklyn. David, how you.
Speaker 8 (15:47):
Doing, Hey, good morning, How are you good? Okay, I
just want to if you give me thirty seconds, I
make my point. You speaking yesterday that the election turnout
was only forty five percent, So I want to explain
to something my training statistics. I think forty five percent
is actually too high. And I'll top thank to you.
Why New York City does not have a system of
(16:08):
people removing themselves from the from the voting world, meaning
when someone registers to vote in New York, then they
move to Florida, they move wherever. They don't call up.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
People do not know. That's a good point. The actual
total might be higher, but people aren't.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Hey.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
By the way, you don't have to say give me,
give me thirty sevents. Be interesting. If you're really interesting,
you can stay on. You'll be on for ten minutes.
If it's not so interesting, it might be ten seconds.
Let's go to Mike in Florida. Mike, how you doing,
good morning?
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Mark, Yes, Mike, just to get off the politics for
a couple of seconds. I was cruising YouTube and I
came across a bunch of Neil Sidaka videos and I
was wondering if you were friends with him, and also,
how short is Neil Sidaka?
Speaker 1 (16:50):
He looked.
Speaker 4 (16:51):
It was one where he's dancing, he's singing. There's a
bunch of dancing girls, and he looks like he comes
up to their waist.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Well, no, he's not. He's a good friend of mine.
He's not. He's not tall, but I would say he's
five nine probably okay, maybe he's five five to nine.
But he You know, when they put you in the
show with the dancing girls, they're always like six feet tall,
these dancers. So true. Yeah, but he does.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
He's doing it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
He's pushed. He's in his eighties. I know that. Yeah,
you can see how he's doing because if you're follow
him on Facebook or online, probably on YouTube too. Every
couple of days in his own apartment over there on
the Upper East Side, he makes these videos. Him at
the piano and he sings some of his songs. He
(17:34):
might want to get a little better dressed for them.
It's usually him and his pajamas.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
He's an underrated genius.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
I say, Oh, he's a brilliant guy, and he's one
of the few artists in the world. Like some of
those videos, you'll see him do laughter in the rain,
just at the piano. He's one of the few guys
in real life can When he does it, it sounds
exactly like the like the recording, exactly like the record.
Speaker 4 (17:55):
That's impressive.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
You know how many times you go to a concert
and they're doing their hit and it doesn't sound anything
like the single that you've heard for years, But now
Sadaka sounds perfect. Thanks for calling, Mike. Let's go to
Aaron in Indianapolis. Aaron, how you doing good?
Speaker 5 (18:10):
Boarding Mark?
Speaker 9 (18:11):
I want to talk about the new incoming New York mayor. Yes,
I think I think we should extend the peace offering
and send him some gift boxes of hand sandwiches.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
I don't know what that means, but I think we
should send him to Indianapolis. Let him run your town
for a little while. It didn't like that. I had
a lot of silence there. Let's go to Bill in Pennsylvania. Bill,
how you doing okay?
Speaker 5 (18:36):
Mark? It's I'm wondering why right ways like Stepanic use
the word affordability. Those are the leftwards, but we should
be using your slogan common sense.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, we use that a lot. Now President Trump uses
that a lot.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
I know, but it should be the rallying cry. Everybody
says that they that these people are saying, you know,
afford a bill, and they're going to wait across the
country with that slogan. We should respond by saying common says.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Well, we do, we do, we do. President Trump, as
they say, he says it a lot. You can't decide
what the big slogan is. You can just keep saying it.
Then you see what catches on. For some reason, the
affordability caught on with the public. They like the word,
you know, it's like branding. Sometimes it catches on, sometimes
it doesn't. But affordability it's a big issue right now.
(19:28):
But you got a lot of the president's policies and
a lot of the things in the pipeline going through
the economy that will bring prices down. So in six
months prices might be a lot lower, and then it
won't be a very good word for a campaigning anymore.
Let's go to Susan and Brooklyn. Susan, how you doing, Hi?
Speaker 6 (19:44):
Great Mark, love your show. I just have to make
a comment. I received my two hundred dollars inflation refund
check from local And the thing is they tell you
on this to keep the stub on the top to
file with your twenty twenty five taxes. And it even
says it on the check. This is insane. I'm being
(20:06):
taxed on money that I was already taxed on.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Well, I don't know. Does that means you have to
pay taxes on it just because you have to keep
the stub?
Speaker 6 (20:12):
Well, it says this refund is issued on your income
tax return for the years shown below, tax year twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
I don't know. You got to ask an account. That might
mean you don't have to pay tax on How come
I didn't? I didn't get it? Check? How come I
didn't get one?
Speaker 6 (20:27):
I don't know. Maybe you make too much money? What
can I say?
Speaker 8 (20:30):
Mark, have a good.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Day, all right, thanks for calling. Hey, we'll take a
break for the news, get caught up on everything, and
when we come back, we'll talk to Clay Travis. Last
night was the Patriot Awards in Long Island, Fox News,
Fox Nation. They do this great Patriot Awards. First Lady
was there, Erica Kirka. Clay Travis was there. He's also
got a new book out. We'll talk to him about that.
(20:55):
But first let's get all the latest news. Let's get
caught up on everything on seven to.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
Ten Insight from the inside. This is seven to ten
Wrson Show.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Well with us right now, Clay Travis superstar. Of course
you listen to Buck and Clay and every day twelve
noon to three, the Clay Travis Buck Sexton Show noon
to three every day right after me. You seem all
over television of course OutKick all that stuff. And he's
a best selling author. This is another bestseller that has
just come out. His new book is called Balls. It's
(21:31):
actually a fascinating book. And Clay Travis, thanks for actually
coming into the studio.
Speaker 7 (21:36):
Well, thank you for having me. Most importantly, thanks for
being a tremendous lead in for the show for all
these years. And you are dominating in New York City
as you long have, and we appreciate you passing the
baton to us at noon, and we get to talk
to a lot of people all over the country and
certainly a lot of people in New York who are grappling,
(21:57):
as we were talking about off air, with what has
been a challenging week, I think to say the.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
Least, Yeah, it's been a long week. I don't know.
We'll get through this. And let's talk about the book first.
That's an interesting subject because it's called Balls, but it's
about sports, and you know, I never thought about it.
I read this book the Democrats going into all these
dangerous areas with people, but screwing around with sports. Yeah,
(22:23):
that's bad.
Speaker 7 (22:24):
Well. I think there's a sense among young men that
they have been villainized for many things that they've had
absolutely nothing to do with at all. And I think,
when when I think about my lifetime, I feel I
grew up in the era that girls and boys should
be treated equally under the law, and Title nine probably
(22:47):
is a is a strong component of the era that
I grew up in. But it wasn't that there was
something wrong with being male or being female. It was
that both sexes should be able to respond to be
the highest level of success possible, which seemed very very
healthy to me. And then in the last I would
(23:07):
say decade, certainly we moved into a world where being
male would there was something wrong with it and something
toxic with it. And so many young men who are
growing up in this era are looking around and saying
there's a couple of anecdotes in here, but one of
my favorite is one of my kids friends came home
(23:28):
one day with me and he said, mister Clay, we
learned today at school that white men cause all the
problems in the world and we're the reason that everything
is awful. And they told us, you know that we
have all this power, and he said, my mom doesn't
even let me pick what I eat for dinner. Mister Clay,
what power do I have? And it's a silly, funny anecdote,
(23:52):
but I think it kind of gets at the representative
issue here, which is we have created a world where
young men feel like they're blamed for everything, given credit
for nothing, and in this twenty twenty four election, they
pushed back against that in a pretty aggressive way.
Speaker 1 (24:10):
So do you think democrats targeted sports thinking it's too
macho or was it just a yeah.
Speaker 7 (24:17):
I don't know how targeted it was or how much
it was just a natural outgrowth of their attempt to
take overall culture. But this book goes into to me
when it really began in earnest and you may remember
this story, some of your listeners will, but it kind
of feels like a long time ago now. Because so
many stories have happened since. But Michael Sam was a
(24:40):
star defensive end for the Missouri football team in the
SEC SEC player of the Year defensively, I think, but
like a lot of guys going to the pros, they
saw him as not an ideal fit. He wasn't big
enough to play defensive end, he wasn't fast enough to
play linebacker. There were all these issues, and so he
ended up getting drafted late. And when he got drafted,
(25:02):
he made out with his boyfriend on ESPN. You know,
they were sitting there with a camera right in his face.
And then the entire Michael Sam's story was obsessively covered
by ESPN. And that was the first time I remember
someone becoming a star of coverage without being a star
(25:23):
on the field. The only reason people were following that
story was because he was gay. And when I go
back and look at it now, then you had Caitlin
Jenner's situation, certainly Colin Kaepernick taking a knee. They tried
to turn sports into politics by any other name. And
you know, I came one of my prior books as
(25:43):
Republicans by Sneakers Too, which is from the Jordan era.
When hey, I want my excellence in athletics to speak
to anybody, why would I want a way into politics
and alien eight half the country, which I actually think
is the way that a super smart sports league or
a super smart athlete would be. And by the way,
this all culminated to me with Leah Thomas winning a
(26:08):
women's swimming title as a man.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And also for those people who.
Speaker 7 (26:13):
Remember it in the twenty twenty bubble when the NBA
players actually took their own names off the back of
their jerseys and replace them with political slogo, which is
it's all crazy, but that is chronicled here as what
we saw in twenty twenty four was I think a
backlash to that era.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
Well, get the book. It's fascinating. It's Klay Travis's new
book called Balls, and it really explores all this. But
why did guys like Roger Goodell, Why did they cave
to this? Why didn't they stand up for their sports?
Speaker 7 (26:45):
Because they did what was best for them personally that
was worse for the league's I think it's such a
good question. If you're an old white guy and you're
making forty million dollars a year, as Roger Goodell is,
and your league is made up of majority black athletes.
Do you want to be the guy that steps in
front of the media train to be seen immediately by
(27:07):
all of the sports media as the old, racist, white
guy who is trying to run the league. I think
he recognized, and certainly the owners did that this was
bad for the overall brand of the league and bad
for the outreach of audience. But they did what was
in their best interest to preserve their jobs as opposed
(27:28):
to what was in the league's best interest.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Now, there are some psychologists to say that's the reason
the Democrats go so crazy about Donald Trump, that's the
reason for this Trump arrangements in him, that he's such
an old fashioned, macho, kind of fifties kind of guy,
and you think that's part.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Of the well, look, I think the reason why the
left hates football in general is because it represents alpha masculinity.
I mean, there is no woman who's ever going to
make a football team, And in order to play football
at a high level, you have to be a physical
beast who puts your body on the line every single play.
(28:06):
And you know, there's a reason that football, and obviously
it's much less serious, has been analogized so often to warfare,
because it's just physical carnage on the field, our most aggressive.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
There's a great.
Speaker 7 (28:20):
Quote at West Point one of their football coaches, and
I'm not going to remember it perfectly, but on you know, basically,
the idea was at West Point, we train men through
football to be able to eventually win on battlefields because
it's about following orders, it's about being in the right position,
(28:42):
and so there's always been a militaristic component of football
that I think also makes left wingers a little bit uncomfortable.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Well, talking about Clay Travis Gain his latest book, it's
already a bestseller, but go get the book. It's called Balls.
You'll love this book. Hey, Clay Travis, you founded OutKick Now. Yeah,
you way back in the beginning all the big sports
sports Illustrated, ABC, ESPN. How come they didn't see you
coming out? How did you get ahead of them?
Speaker 7 (29:09):
It is I think we have the most culturally influential
sports site now at OutKick, and Fox now owns it,
and we have a lot of impact. I think that's
part of what I write about in the book is
I think there's an advantage to being sort of a
speed ship a speedboat when everybody else is an aircraft
(29:33):
carrier because it allows you to adjust on the fly
quickly and see oncoming issues without having to run everything
through a bureaucracy in order to make it happen. And
so I think also the thing that is remarkable to
me is not that OutKick worked and continues to work
so well for Fox. It's that no one's ever competed
(29:56):
with us.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
You know.
Speaker 7 (29:58):
I sometimes look around and I say, boys like I
invented beer, and nobody else will come out with their
own version of a beer. So that's maybe the most
remarkable thing about it. And if people aren't familiar with
the story of OutKick in sports, I think there's a
business and entrepreneurial story that is built into into this
book as well.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Absolutely, we'll get the book. It's a brand new book
from Clay Travis. It's called Balls. You will love the book.
Listen to Clay Travis and Buck Sesson today noon to three,
and of course you'll see them all over television. But
the book is called Balls. Go get it. Clay Travis,
thanks for starting.
Speaker 7 (30:33):
Thank you for killing it for us for so many
years as the lead in. We really love this station
and everything you guys do and we look forward to
talking with you guys for years and years to come.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
All right, we'll do it again soon. Thank your Mark.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Simon show on WR.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Oh, I don't know, it's been quite a week. You
got the mom putting together a transition team. Another big
fear besides what he'll do with the police department, is
the anti Semitism of Mom Donnie, the anti Semitism that
surrounds him. You know, he's been going on Morning Joe
(31:15):
there that crazy Morning Joe Swamp Joe at MSNBC, and
also a regular guest on the show is the director
of the ADL, you know, the Defense League. So apparently
Joe Scarborough has decided to arrange a meeting between them.
(31:37):
You know, it's one of the biggest institutions that represent
Jewish New Yorkers. He said, it's important that they sit
down with Mom Donnie and engage with each other because
the Defense League has pointed out, you know, Mam Doniel
bragged that he went to a synagogue, but they'll point
out the only team he goes to a synagogue, it's
an anti Zionist synagogue. So this will be interest now.
(32:00):
The only problem is it's Morning Joe it's MSNBC, so
Scarborough says, So we may may add Al Sharpton to
the meeting, but we'll see, you know. And it's one
thing to just go meet with these people. It's just
a gesture and you need much more than gestures. Here. Hey,
we'll we had a lot to get to in the
(32:20):
next hour. We'll get back to mom Donnie and we'll
get to we'll get to MSNBC. It's their final week
coming up. There'll be no more MSNBC. It's not going
to switch to something called ms now. But rebranding is very,
very dangerous. We'll talk about that in the next hour. Now,
I'm here every day ten to noon, or you could
(32:41):
listen to the podcast that way, you can listen to
any time you want, day or night. And by the way,
if you're a podcast listener, there's a bonus segment that's
not on the air that you'll get every weekend back
after the news seven to WR
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