August 3, 2024 • 11 mins
Adam Johnston joins Buck Sexton as a first-time guest on the show. Adam is a contributor to The Federalist, The Blaze, and runs his own Substack, Conquest Theory. In this episode, they dive into the media's role in shaping political narratives, the upcoming election, and the challenges faced by figures like Kamala Harris and Trump. Adam also provides insights on JD Vance's stance on family values and the impact of media propaganda on political outcomes.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Buck Brief. Adam Johnston joins
us on this episode for the first time. He's a
contributor to the Federalist the Federalists dot com, The Blaze,
and also has his own substack, Conquest Theory. Robert. Great
to Sorry, Adam, Great to have you on the show.
My friend tell me I was thinking of Robert Conquest
from Conquest, uh, because we're just talking about that. Tell
(00:42):
me this. Actually, let's start with this. How do we meet?
Kind of tell them how we met? This is a
great story. I love this story. You you d me,
you told me this. I think people should do. This
is so I'm so can I say, I'm so proud,
so happy for you. Go a house.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Absolutely so yeah. Back in a way, back in the
day twenty seventeen, when you were still at the Blaze.
I believe too that you were at the Blaze, but
maybe you had just kind of moved on. I was,
you know, I was always listening to your podcast over there,
and I was inspired. I was inspired by everything that
you say. And I kind of learned a lot in
that regard, and I was like, you know what, maybe
(01:18):
I should start, you know, writing and putting my thoughts
out there as well. But I was a little hesitant
to get into expressing myself politically at least, so I
just say a DM on Facebook on Messenger because I
had connected with you there, and you just encourage me.
You said, hey, just put yourself out there, you know,
say what you got to say, and just keep your
shield high if you will, which is what you're saying,
(01:39):
is here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I love it, man, that's great, and congrats and look
at you the Federalists, the Blaze, great sites, and I
know your substacker is growing fast too, and and I'm
just so glad to have another patriot and sharp mind
in the movement trying to help save the country. So
we welcome to the party, as a McClain says die
hard Adam. With that in mind, tell me what you
(02:04):
think we're facing here with I can't say it's unprecedented
because the media lize all the time about well everything right,
especially with regard to Democrats and politics, but they're really
trying to tell us with Kamala Harris that what we
know ain't so like what she said, even on video
she didn't say how does that shake out in the
(02:27):
election as you see it?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, well, this is like nineteen eighty four level historical
revisionism here, where it's like whatever she said, well it's
not quite what she meant, or you know, yeah, she
wasn't technically the borders are, but she was in charge
of the border. And it's really a lot of gaslighting
by the media. And the media basically does this because
the media is essentially they craft the narrative, they further
(02:50):
the narrative, and then they attack people for poking holes
in the navator narrative. And unfortunately, the media really is
very powerful in this regard. And you can see it
where the Trump assassination attempt has almost been put on
the back page and it's one of the most significant
(03:11):
stories in American history, not only that it happened, but
how did it happen. And if this was on a
Democrat side, you would have a full blown investigation, it
would be front page news every day. But it's kind
of memory hold, if you will, And to the point
where they're even talking about, well, was Trump really shot.
We don't know, rage, what do you call it? The
(03:33):
FBI director just said, well, we're not really sure. So
it's one of those things where the media is very
powerful in this sense and can basically control what most
people not only talk about but think about.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You know, Politico recently put something out that said that
Kamala Harris is going to face unprecedented threats as a
presidential candidate because she is a woman and a woman
of color specifically. And look, I'm not even getting into
like whatever they think the threats are that she faces
(04:09):
so much as Trump was just weeks ago shot and
I do not think that ever, ever, Ever, at Politico,
they were writing stories about, how, you know, calling Trump
Hitler and saying he's a fascist. The cover of The
New Republic the month before Trump was shot had him
with a Hitler mustache on, So.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Though, It's like Trump just got shot and we're reading
articles about how there's such a big threat against Kamala
Harris for the Secret Service to handle. I mean, I
don't want anyone being hurt as a function of political
violence at all, period.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's just like, come on, guys, Yeah, And to
that point, the article basically said, you know that Secret
Service has taken that into account as if they're going
to step up their protection. And then meanwhile on the
other side, they were saying, you know, Trump really has
to stop doing his outdoor rallies, which is like, okay, well,
how about we step up the Secret Service protection for
Trump the way he wanted the Secret Service protection stepped up.
(05:08):
So maybe this would have happened to either candidate, because
as you said, we don't want political violence. But it's
all the focus now is on we have to protect
Kamala Harris and the focus is no longer on Trump
and the iconic images that came out of that day
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So yeah, and also with the the investigation the Secret
Service is doing, isn't it pretty insane that we don't
even have a real like when the Secret Service. She's
not fired or resigned whatever, but when she came out
that that day, when she gave her testimony, and it
went really badly for her, as I think it should have.
(05:45):
But actually I take that back. What happened was horrible
and she should lose her job, but she could have
been better. You know, she could have gone out with
a little more dignity, like just told the truth and
taken responsibility and instead, you know, she didn't have any answers,
and she was evasive and kind of smarmy. We still, though,
don't have like it seems like no one has come
forward to provide really important answers, all in one place,
(06:10):
an official timeline, you know, official information about this. They're
saying that the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald
Trump where he was shot, despite what the NBI director
seems to think, it's gonna take sixty days. Why does
it take sixty days. Let us know everything about the timeline,
what the shooter had, what we know about his training.
(06:30):
You know, they say he had no online presence. That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, they never do. Yeah, it's very interesting because it's
almost and I hate to be conspiratoral because I do
not want to be conspirat total, but it's very hard
to look at the situation and not think that they
want this out of the media spotlight for the next
sixty days. They want to build up Kamala Harris. They
want to kind of set that narrative, run with it,
(06:55):
build support behind her, and then oh, by the way,
they're going to kind of leak this stuff over the
next sixty ninety days and whatnot, and it's not going
to be a huge story. It's just kind of kind
of fade away. And then we're going to go right
into the election.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Let's talk about JD. Vance and the attacks on him
right now and how you think he's going to play
into this election. But first up, I'm a firearms guy
and I love Bear Creek Arsenal. Bear Creek Arsenal is
the best quality firearms at the best price you'll find
anywhere in the market. I've got Bear Creek rifles pistols,
and they're very accurate, very reliable, very durable. They're comfortable
(07:29):
to shoot, they feel good in your hands. You can
tell they're well made. And Bear Creek Arsenal are patriots.
There are a lot of gun companies out there that,
believe it or not, don't even want to get involved
in conservative media. Oh maybe we shouldn't talk about, you know,
the fact that we make guns. We don't want the
big Biden administration to come and get us. True story.
By the way, Barckreek Grarsenal's like, we believe in the
Second Amendment, we believe in the right to bear arms
(07:50):
to the American people, and we stand with those who
stand with us. So I love the Barrack Creek Arsenal guys.
They're North Carolina, all American, and they make great products
at unbeatable prices. So trust me, if you're thinking about
getting a new rifle for deer hunting season, or you're
just thinking about adding to your collection, whether you want
to also just get upber to modify. But I mean,
(08:11):
they're fully completed rifles, they're fully completed handguns. You gotta
try them. They're so good. Go to Barcreek Arsenal dot com.
Use promo code buck for ten percent off your first order.
That's Bearcreek Arsenal dot com. Use promo codebuck You'll get
ten percent off your first order. Some exclusions apply, all right, Adam,
So Jdvans that they're trying to say that JD. Vance
(08:32):
is going to be a problem for the Trump ticket
because of what he has said about childless cat ladies
or something like that. What do you think about this?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well? I think Jdvans. I think, of course they're going
to parse whatever he says to craft whatever the narrative
they want. But Jdvans was essentially saying that we need
to reward good behavior, if you will, from a citizen standpoint,
and punish negative behavior. And the good behavior he wants
to reward are the people that have children, have formed
(09:01):
families that form the foundations of nations, and that maybe
if somebody is making the same amount of money that
does and have children, well we should give tax breaks,
if you will, to the families that do have children.
And that's you know, the child tax credit. That's nothing.
It seemed like both parties actually like that, but until
Jadvance brought it up. But I think that's something we
(09:23):
have to get back to, which is what do we
want to encourage in this country? Because neutrality is a myth.
You're either going to encourage good behavior, and good behavior
is not. It's objective, it's not subjective, it's whatever you want.
You know. One side has their own version and vision
for the country, and I think it's important for the
GOP and Conservatives in general to foster that vision, and
(09:46):
I think jd Vance is really good at that, especially
for being so young.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are you worried about how this is going to go
with Kamala and Trump or are you cautiously optimistic?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm worried because I think
we're going to see one of the biggest propaganda pushes
in American history. And I think you're I mean, and
if you look at just the last eight years, right,
you had the DNC essentially rigged the primaries against Bernie
and then twenty twenty, you know, they fortified the election,
(10:20):
and then in twenty twenty four they really kind of
propped up Biden to be the person they didn't really
want anybody to run against him. And then when they
found out after the debate, which you couldn't make the argument,
they actually kind of set him up to fail. But
let's just say that they didn't. Well. After the debate,
you know, then the whole machinery came around and said
(10:42):
you're out of here, and now we're just going to
install whoever we want to install, and you're going to
go through all that trouble. I feel like you're going
to go through a lot more trouble to try to
get him to win. So while I feel like head
to ahead, I think Trump, if he stays on message,
I think he's going to do well and he should win,
especially if he you know, focuses on the battleground states
and tries to bring people along in those areas. But
(11:03):
you know, it's hard to You don't know what the
media is going to do behind the scenes, and that
does worry me because Kamala does have that you know,
TikTok presence and whatnot. And I think that's where also
I think JD fans can be can be a help
to Trump.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Adam Johnston an honor, my friend. You here, what are
we eight eight years later? And uh, you dial it man.
So many people say how can I get into media?
And I tell them and you know, look, if they
don't want to do it, that's fine, but I don't
hear from them again. It's great to have somebody reach
out and I'm like, go for it, man, And now
here you are. And you know, keep writing for the Federals,
(11:39):
keep writing for the Blaze. I'm sure I'll see you
on Fox before long. And uh, and people check out
Conquest Theory on substack and Adam God blessed man. Thanks
so much, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
You're listening to The Buck Sexton Show podcast, make sure
you subscribe to the podcast on the iHeartRadio app or
wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, everybody, Welcome to the Buck Brief. Adam Johnston joins
us on this episode for the first time. He's a
contributor to the Federalist the Federalists dot com, The Blaze,
and also has his own substack, Conquest Theory. Robert. Great
to Sorry, Adam, Great to have you on the show.
My friend tell me I was thinking of Robert Conquest
from Conquest, uh, because we're just talking about that. Tell
(00:42):
me this. Actually, let's start with this. How do we meet?
Kind of tell them how we met? This is a
great story. I love this story. You you d me,
you told me this. I think people should do. This
is so I'm so can I say, I'm so proud,
so happy for you. Go a house.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Absolutely so yeah. Back in a way, back in the
day twenty seventeen, when you were still at the Blaze.
I believe too that you were at the Blaze, but
maybe you had just kind of moved on. I was,
you know, I was always listening to your podcast over there,
and I was inspired. I was inspired by everything that
you say. And I kind of learned a lot in
that regard, and I was like, you know what, maybe
(01:18):
I should start, you know, writing and putting my thoughts
out there as well. But I was a little hesitant
to get into expressing myself politically at least, so I
just say a DM on Facebook on Messenger because I
had connected with you there, and you just encourage me.
You said, hey, just put yourself out there, you know,
say what you got to say, and just keep your
shield high if you will, which is what you're saying,
(01:39):
is here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I love it, man, that's great, and congrats and look
at you the Federalists, the Blaze, great sites, and I
know your substacker is growing fast too, and and I'm
just so glad to have another patriot and sharp mind
in the movement trying to help save the country. So
we welcome to the party, as a McClain says die
hard Adam. With that in mind, tell me what you
(02:04):
think we're facing here with I can't say it's unprecedented
because the media lize all the time about well everything right,
especially with regard to Democrats and politics, but they're really
trying to tell us with Kamala Harris that what we
know ain't so like what she said, even on video
she didn't say how does that shake out in the
(02:27):
election as you see it?
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, well, this is like nineteen eighty four level historical
revisionism here, where it's like whatever she said, well it's
not quite what she meant, or you know, yeah, she
wasn't technically the borders are, but she was in charge
of the border. And it's really a lot of gaslighting
by the media. And the media basically does this because
the media is essentially they craft the narrative, they further
(02:50):
the narrative, and then they attack people for poking holes
in the navator narrative. And unfortunately, the media really is
very powerful in this regard. And you can see it
where the Trump assassination attempt has almost been put on
the back page and it's one of the most significant
(03:11):
stories in American history, not only that it happened, but
how did it happen. And if this was on a
Democrat side, you would have a full blown investigation, it
would be front page news every day. But it's kind
of memory hold, if you will, And to the point
where they're even talking about, well, was Trump really shot.
We don't know, rage, what do you call it? The
(03:33):
FBI director just said, well, we're not really sure. So
it's one of those things where the media is very
powerful in this sense and can basically control what most
people not only talk about but think about.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
You know, Politico recently put something out that said that
Kamala Harris is going to face unprecedented threats as a
presidential candidate because she is a woman and a woman
of color specifically. And look, I'm not even getting into
like whatever they think the threats are that she faces
(04:09):
so much as Trump was just weeks ago shot and
I do not think that ever, ever, Ever, at Politico,
they were writing stories about, how, you know, calling Trump
Hitler and saying he's a fascist. The cover of The
New Republic the month before Trump was shot had him
with a Hitler mustache on, So.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Though, It's like Trump just got shot and we're reading
articles about how there's such a big threat against Kamala
Harris for the Secret Service to handle. I mean, I
don't want anyone being hurt as a function of political
violence at all, period.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's just like, come on, guys, Yeah, And to
that point, the article basically said, you know that Secret
Service has taken that into account as if they're going
to step up their protection. And then meanwhile on the
other side, they were saying, you know, Trump really has
to stop doing his outdoor rallies, which is like, okay, well,
how about we step up the Secret Service protection for
Trump the way he wanted the Secret Service protection stepped up.
(05:08):
So maybe this would have happened to either candidate, because
as you said, we don't want political violence. But it's
all the focus now is on we have to protect
Kamala Harris and the focus is no longer on Trump
and the iconic images that came out of that day
as well.
Speaker 2 (05:22):
So yeah, and also with the the investigation the Secret
Service is doing, isn't it pretty insane that we don't
even have a real like when the Secret Service. She's
not fired or resigned whatever, but when she came out
that that day, when she gave her testimony, and it
went really badly for her, as I think it should have.
(05:45):
But actually I take that back. What happened was horrible
and she should lose her job, but she could have
been better. You know, she could have gone out with
a little more dignity, like just told the truth and
taken responsibility and instead, you know, she didn't have any answers,
and she was evasive and kind of smarmy. We still, though,
don't have like it seems like no one has come
forward to provide really important answers, all in one place,
(06:10):
an official timeline, you know, official information about this. They're
saying that the investigation of the attempted assassination of Donald
Trump where he was shot, despite what the NBI director
seems to think, it's gonna take sixty days. Why does
it take sixty days. Let us know everything about the timeline,
what the shooter had, what we know about his training.
(06:30):
You know, they say he had no online presence. That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Yeah, they never do. Yeah, it's very interesting because it's
almost and I hate to be conspiratoral because I do
not want to be conspirat total, but it's very hard
to look at the situation and not think that they
want this out of the media spotlight for the next
sixty days. They want to build up Kamala Harris. They
want to kind of set that narrative, run with it,
(06:55):
build support behind her, and then oh, by the way,
they're going to kind of leak this stuff over the
next sixty ninety days and whatnot, and it's not going
to be a huge story. It's just kind of kind
of fade away. And then we're going to go right
into the election.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Let's talk about JD. Vance and the attacks on him
right now and how you think he's going to play
into this election. But first up, I'm a firearms guy
and I love Bear Creek Arsenal. Bear Creek Arsenal is
the best quality firearms at the best price you'll find
anywhere in the market. I've got Bear Creek rifles pistols,
and they're very accurate, very reliable, very durable. They're comfortable
(07:29):
to shoot, they feel good in your hands. You can
tell they're well made. And Bear Creek Arsenal are patriots.
There are a lot of gun companies out there that,
believe it or not, don't even want to get involved
in conservative media. Oh maybe we shouldn't talk about, you know,
the fact that we make guns. We don't want the
big Biden administration to come and get us. True story.
By the way, Barckreek Grarsenal's like, we believe in the
Second Amendment, we believe in the right to bear arms
(07:50):
to the American people, and we stand with those who
stand with us. So I love the Barrack Creek Arsenal guys.
They're North Carolina, all American, and they make great products
at unbeatable prices. So trust me, if you're thinking about
getting a new rifle for deer hunting season, or you're
just thinking about adding to your collection, whether you want
to also just get upber to modify. But I mean,
(08:11):
they're fully completed rifles, they're fully completed handguns. You gotta
try them. They're so good. Go to Barcreek Arsenal dot com.
Use promo code buck for ten percent off your first order.
That's Bearcreek Arsenal dot com. Use promo codebuck You'll get
ten percent off your first order. Some exclusions apply, all right, Adam,
So Jdvans that they're trying to say that JD. Vance
(08:32):
is going to be a problem for the Trump ticket
because of what he has said about childless cat ladies
or something like that. What do you think about this?
Speaker 1 (08:40):
Well? I think Jdvans. I think, of course they're going
to parse whatever he says to craft whatever the narrative
they want. But Jdvans was essentially saying that we need
to reward good behavior, if you will, from a citizen standpoint,
and punish negative behavior. And the good behavior he wants
to reward are the people that have children, have formed
(09:01):
families that form the foundations of nations, and that maybe
if somebody is making the same amount of money that
does and have children, well we should give tax breaks,
if you will, to the families that do have children.
And that's you know, the child tax credit. That's nothing.
It seemed like both parties actually like that, but until
Jadvance brought it up. But I think that's something we
(09:23):
have to get back to, which is what do we
want to encourage in this country? Because neutrality is a myth.
You're either going to encourage good behavior, and good behavior
is not. It's objective, it's not subjective, it's whatever you want.
You know. One side has their own version and vision
for the country, and I think it's important for the
GOP and Conservatives in general to foster that vision, and
(09:46):
I think jd Vance is really good at that, especially
for being so young.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Are you worried about how this is going to go
with Kamala and Trump or are you cautiously optimistic?
Speaker 1 (09:58):
So I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm worried because I think
we're going to see one of the biggest propaganda pushes
in American history. And I think you're I mean, and
if you look at just the last eight years, right,
you had the DNC essentially rigged the primaries against Bernie
and then twenty twenty, you know, they fortified the election,
(10:20):
and then in twenty twenty four they really kind of
propped up Biden to be the person they didn't really
want anybody to run against him. And then when they
found out after the debate, which you couldn't make the argument,
they actually kind of set him up to fail. But
let's just say that they didn't. Well. After the debate,
you know, then the whole machinery came around and said
(10:42):
you're out of here, and now we're just going to
install whoever we want to install, and you're going to
go through all that trouble. I feel like you're going
to go through a lot more trouble to try to
get him to win. So while I feel like head
to ahead, I think Trump, if he stays on message,
I think he's going to do well and he should win,
especially if he you know, focuses on the battleground states
and tries to bring people along in those areas. But
(11:03):
you know, it's hard to You don't know what the
media is going to do behind the scenes, and that
does worry me because Kamala does have that you know,
TikTok presence and whatnot. And I think that's where also
I think JD fans can be can be a help
to Trump.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Adam Johnston an honor, my friend. You here, what are
we eight eight years later? And uh, you dial it man.
So many people say how can I get into media?
And I tell them and you know, look, if they
don't want to do it, that's fine, but I don't
hear from them again. It's great to have somebody reach
out and I'm like, go for it, man, And now
here you are. And you know, keep writing for the Federals,
(11:39):
keep writing for the Blaze. I'm sure I'll see you
on Fox before long. And uh, and people check out
Conquest Theory on substack and Adam God blessed man. Thanks
so much, Thank you.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So much for having me on. I really appreciate it.
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