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Clay and Buck

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RNC Threatens Pullout from Presidential Debates

13 Jan 2022

BUCK: You see this breaking news, Clay? I thought this was interesting as we talk about how the media has failed the people in covid, but they’ve failed more broadly — and for much longer — than that in national politics to just be honest about who they are. To pretend that journalism is a profession of just fact and un-bias? It’s all a lie. It’s propaganda. This just broke last hour.

“The Republican National Committee said Thursday in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates that it is prepared to ‘prohibit future Republican nominees from participating in CPD-sponsored debates’ unless the commission makes a number of significant changes…” Essentially the RNC is saying, “We’re not gonna offer up Republican candidates.” They’re gonna have to say they’re not gonna take part in ABC, CNN.

It is crazy. It is insane for Republicans to think — and look what’s happened in recent years. Look at what Candy Crowley did to Mitt Romney at CNN. Look at what goes on with Stephanopoulos, that guy Harwood who’s at CNN, CNBC before. These people are rabid partisans who hate Republicans, and then they act as if they’re gonna get a fair shake in the debates? I think this is a big step forward. I like this.

CLAY: I think it’s intriguing. The bigger question it raises, too, is how combative are both the Democrat and the Republican potential nomination contests going to be? If Trump runs — and I think we both presume that he will — will there be other Republicans running against him on the Republican side, is the number-one question.

The number-one question on the Democratic side is going to be, will Joe Biden attempt to run again at 82 years old? And if so, what sort of challenges, if any…? By the way the answer to the question we asked yesterday, “Who was the last president to run for reelection and not make it out of the primary?” Chester A. Arthur, I believe, was the answer.

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Confused Biden and Veep Double Down on Failed Covid Strategy

13 Jan 2022

BUCK: Joe Biden we’re talking about in the first segment today, and I don’t know what to do about this, Clay, ’cause you keep going back and forth. There’s a part of me that thinks this guy reminds me of some of the seniors I’ve known in my own life where they’ve reached that phase where they need care, comfort, and family taking care of them. So I don’t want to be mean about it because obviously we’re all going there. We’re all gonna be there.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: Then there’s the other side of it. They’ve made this guy the president, right? We’re not making fun of somebody who’s at a family occasion or something or who’s spending… This is someone who has the nuclear codes and is clearly not up to the job. However, then you look at his VP, Kamala Harris, who is definitely not too old for the job. We can say that. But when you hear things like this — and this is important too. This is about the doubling down in the face of covid that’s going on right now. Here is Kamala Harris when asked on NBC News about their covid strategy, and this is her response.

CRAIG MELVIN: At what point does the administration say, “You know what? This strategy isn’t working; we’re gonna change strategies”? Six former administration officials last week wrote that open letter urging the administration to change course, to change strategy. Is it time?

HARRIS: It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. Every day. It is time for us to agree that there are things and tools that are available to us to slow this thing down.

BUCK: It is time for us to do what we have been doing, and that time is every day. What does that even mean, Clay?

CLAY: Well, first of all, it sounds like Veep — for anybody out there who is also a fan of Julia Louis Dreyfus — the dark, satirical comedy on HBO. Also, it reminds me of someone who has been trained in how to to respond to questions but has no confidence whatsoever in their ability to respond to questions. Sometimes I’ve seen this, Buck, ’cause of my sports days.

Young athletes who were 18 and 19 years old are sometimes repeating the question that you ask them as a part of answering the question, right? So it sounds like she’s been overly media trained. But I wonder, on some level, how much of this is just… This is what one-party governance does. Kamala Harris came out of California where the Democrats have complete control of that state.

And as a result, she never really had to get in the trenches and throw punches in a real campaign. We saw when she tried to do it for president, she dropped out before we even started voting, and Democrats had soundly rejected her as a presidential candidate because of answers to questions like those. And remember — it’s crazy to even think about now, Buck, but — the idea back in the day when Joe Biden added Kamala Harris as his vice-presidential running mate was, “Well, Biden’s gonna step down at some point and hand the presidency to Kamala Harris and allow her potentially to run as the incumbent.”

BUCK: I thought that was the plan. Did you think…? I thought initially that was the plan.

CLAY: I felt like in many ways that it was, and what we’ve seen at least in the first year of the Biden administration is, as incompetent and out of sorts as Joe Biden is, Kamala Harris is worse. And at least Joe Biden you can point to and say, “Well, he is 78 years old. He’s past his prime. He no longer has it.” You should say like when an athlete is aging, “Hey, he doesn’t have his fastball anymore.” I’m not sure Joe Biden even has a change-up anymore. He doesn’t have a pitch — and Kamala’s worse, which is an unbelievable indictment of her, because she doesn’t have the 78-year-old excuse.

BUCK: Here she is — speaking of worse, right — and I really do reiterate what I said yesterday here because I think it resonated with some folks and I put it out on Twitter. If this was the Trump administration, they would impeach him over what’s happening right now for dereliction of duty. Is that even an impeachable offense? Doesn’t matter. They would impeach him. Nancy Pelosi would 100 percent billion percent impeaching him.

CLAY: If covid was the exact same way, Trump would have been impeached at least for a third time.

BUCK: And it’s also amazing as we see Biden stumbling and bumbling around us that so many of the chattering classes of the Democrats were obsessed with talking about the 25th Amendment with the last president. You and I do a lot of live performance, Clay, and we know who’s good at this and we know who’s got skills. Trump live in front of 40, 50, 60,000 people for hours at a time?

That guy is at another level from other politicians that we’ve seen and they’re saying the 25th Amendment should be invoked. Meanwhile, with Joe Biden, they’ve forgotten what the 25th Amendment is. It’s stunning when you see the lack of consistency. But then again you have Kamala Harris, to your point about Veep. Here she is asked about the testing shortage, which would be a huge issue if it were Donald Trump, but it’s of course Joe Biden.

CRAIG MELVIN: The 500 million tests that have been ordered that are being sent to every American. Do we know when those are going out?

HARRIS: (pause) Shortly. They — they’re —

CRAIG MELVIN: Next week?

HARRIS: They’re gonna go out shortly. They’ve been ordered. They’ve been ordered. We… I have to look at the current information. I think it’s gonna be by next week. But soon. Absolutely soon. And it is a matter of urgency for us.

CRAIG MELVIN: Should we have done that sooner?

HARRIS: (long pause) We are doing it.

CRAIG MELVIN: But should we have done it sooner?

HARRIS: We are doing it!

BUCK: (laughing) She’s terrible.

CLAY: So bad.

BUCK: She’s terrible.

CLAY: And I’ll just speak to myself ’cause some people said, “Hey, why did you decide to get tested for covid at all it?” The answer’s because I wanted to be able to say with certainty to the audience that I had it, but also there’s no tests anywhere, right? That was the criticism that we got of Trump. I know Biden tweeted about it. “Where are the tests, Mr. President?”

The idea that these 500 million ordered tests followed by 500 more million tests are gonna somehow alter anything is fundamentally not true — and I wish, Buck, they would stop saying that these tests are free. They aren’t free. Our tax dollars are paying for them. It gets me so frustrated every time when I hear them say, “Oh, these tests are gonna be free!

“Oh, you can go get the covid vaccine; it’s free!” No. We’re paying tens of billions, if not trillions of dollars mortgaging our future as a nation. These are not free tests. We’re all paying for them. You’re just not having to pull the money directly out of your wallet, so people are dumb and they don’t realize where the money’s coming from.

BUCK: Can we all be honest too? These tests are going to arrive maybe hate February, early March.

CLAY: Well, after Omicron’s done.

BUCK: Omicron is he gonna be plummeting, and they’re gonna be sending tests to you at home, and they’re gonna be taking a victory lap saying, “See? Because you have a test at home now, Omicron is plummeting!” They don’t teach basic logic in schools anymore, it seems. They don’t teach reason, and they certainly don’t teach statistics, because everything that they do… It’s like how can they think… What is sending a test going to do? Clay, they’re gonna send a test to your home. What are you gonna do with that test? You’ve already had Omicron. You’re good. So now what?

CLAY: I don’t know. I legitimately don’t know what the purpose of these tests are at all. And, by the way, the people who were the most neurotic are not going to be satisfied by the tests. Let’s say you have a sniffle, and you take a test and it’s a negative. Well, let’s say the next day your sniffle is worse. Are you telling me those neurotic people are gonna say, “Hey, I don’t need to test again”?

In general, testing doesn’t make a lot of sense. I looked up the free testing in my neighborhood. In order to get a free testing appointment in my neighborhood, I would have had to wait ’til Monday. Well, by that point, Buck, I would have been back to a hundred percent — or else I’m so severe ill that I would have to go to the hospital, which is unlikely. But it makes no sense.

BUCK: When I had the upper-respiratory thing we were talking about — we were both real sick in the October, November time frame — and I went to get the test around then, I remember… It was actually right before Thanksgiving, I think. I remember being told at the testing center, “Oh, you can go with the free city test. You just won’t find out what your results are for two or three days.”

CLAY: Yeah, right.

BUCK: I’m not gonna find out…? So what am I supposed to do? So I had to go to the like fancy, expensive test place and pay $250 out of pocket to get a normal test in 15 minutes, which is obviously what everybody needs, but it’s all…Friends, they’re just lying to you all the time about all this stuff, ’cause they’re incompetent.

CLAY: That’s right. I paid a hundred bucks for a test. They called me 15 minutes after they swabbed me and told me I was positive.

BUCK: Yeah, that’s the Nashville price.

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Cruz Control: Ted Rips Media on Mask Questions

13 Jan 2022

CLAY: First of all, the Biden address today — to the extent you can call it an address — was, as we play a couple of the clips, an embarrassment. Maybe more embarrassing was the end where they tried to shunt all of the different media out of the room where they had shown up to hear him read his statement. And there were many different questions being tossed at Joe Biden that he ignored. And one of them was a great one, which I would love to hear somebody in the Biden administration try to address, which we just talked about a little bit.

It was, “If Dr. Fauci is now saying everyone is going to get covid in Omicron, why should there be a vaccine mandate at all?” I don’t think there’s an easy answer for that. But it demonstrates, in many ways I think, the complicity of the media at large that almost no one is willing to ask those questions, to follow the logical path. And if they are asked, they are not answered by the administration. And this ties in with yesterday. Ted Cruz was set to address a gaggle of media at the Senate, and they were upset because he was not wearing his mask. If you haven’t heard this, enjoy.

CRUZ: Well, listen, I think there’s been wild hypocrisy from the Biden administration when it comes to covid policies, whether mask mandates, where Joe Biden rightly said we shouldn’t have mandates — whether vaccine mandates, where Joe Biden said we shouldn’t have vaccine mandates. And, by the way, on the question of hypocrisy, you just asked, “You people at the podium are speaking without masks!”

Just once I’d like to see a reporter say to Joe Biden when he stands (bangs fist) at the damn podium in the White House without a mask, “Mr. President, why aren’t you wearing a mask?” Just once I’d like to see you say to Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, when she stands at the podium (bangs) with no mask, “Ms. Psaki, why don’t you have a mask?”

BUCK: This so essential, Clay, because, first of all, I love Cruz control there. Just throwing down.

CLAY: Fired up! You could hear him slamming the podium there.

BUCK: He’s going for it, and this is also now… This is a tool, masking, because we all know that it’s arbitrary and capricious and idiotic at this point. “Mask up between bites!” I got people yelling at me in my own building in New York City — I don’t think I told you this — a guy was carrying a whole bunch of packages, like six or seven big packages. I walked past him. We’re actually in the elevator area. He’s walking into the elevator, and he turns to shout at me, “Put your mask on, sir,” and then he drops his packages all over the floor. And that is what we call karma.

CLAY: I don’t think I could live in New York City.

BUCK: That is what we call karma.

CLAY: I couldn’t deal with that. I couldn’t deal with that in California. I’m like, I don’t remember the last time somebody… I don’t think anybody’s ever lectured me about masks here.

BUCK: Here’s the essential point, though. It’s not that this guy’s just lecturing me about masks, Clay, is that he is — I am certain, okay — going to go either tonight or tomorrow into a crowded restaurant or bar full of unmasked people and think that somehow he’s being safe from the virus. These people are out of their minds, but they love this because — and this why the Ted Cruz thing is so important — it gives them an ability to poke and prod and harass The Other,” the unmasked, the people they don’t like.

CLAY: That’s right, and that’s the problem overall, I would say, overarching here with everything Joe Biden is saying, right? Biden ran on the idea that I’m gonna be the grandfatherly figure to bring the country back together. Try to square that campaign promise with the speech that he gave in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon. Try and square that campaign promise with his continued insistence on saying that for the unvaccinated, it’s going to be a winter of death. That is not what has happened at all.

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Rush Digs Deep Into the Biden-Hillary Rivalry

13 Jan 2022

Be sure to listen daily to Rush’s Timeless Wisdom podcast here or on iHeartRadio. It’s absolutely essential information from America’s Forever Anchorman.

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EIB 24/7: Clay & Buck’s Show Prep

13 Jan 2022

  • New York Post: A taste of Southern lied in Georgia y’all
  • The Hill: Hawley introduces bill banning lawmakers from making stock trades in office
  • CNSNews: $1,051,873,000,000: Record Federal Tax Collections Top $1 Trillion in 3 Months
  • Daily Wire: Here Are The Products That Will Empty Your Wallet As Inflation Soars
  • Quinnipiac: Political Instability Not U.S. Adversaries, Seen As Bigger Threat, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Nearly 6 In 10 Think Nation’s Democracy Is In Danger Of Collapse

  • AP: Wholesale prices jumped a record 9.7% in 2021
  • New York Post: ‘Profoundly unpresidential’: Read Mitch McConnell on Biden’s insulting Georgia speech
  • BizPacReview: Psaki calls criticisms of Biden’s profoundly unpresidential, insulting speech ‘hilarious’
  • HotAir: Fun: Tom Cotton delivers his favorite pro-filibuster Chuck Schumer speech

  • FOXNews: AP tells staff to ‘avoid emphasizing’ COVID case counts amid shift in covering pandemic
  • New York Post: These ‘invincibles’ have never had COVID — and they want to know why
  • Breitbart: China Insists ‘No Lockdown’ for Genocide Olympics as More Regions Go Under
  • PJ Media: Supreme Court Does Joe Biden’s Dirty Work by Delaying Ruling on Vaccine Mandate
  • Gateway Pundit: Veritas Documents Reveal DC Bureaucrats Had Evidence Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine Were Effective in Treating Covid
  • Daily Caller: Politicizing COVID-19 From The Start – Victor Davis Hanson
  • Legal Insurrection: Mass Formation Psychosis. The Madness of Crowds. And The End Of Progressive America

  • JustTheNews: Dems’ voting overhaul bill gives qualified voters $25 to donate to candidates for public office
  • New York Post: Blue States Are Ruining Kids’ Lives for No Reason Karol Markowicz
  • American Greatness: Energy Department Spent Over $1 Billion on Failed Carbon-Cutting Projects
  • Daily Wire: Government Worried NASA Astronauts Not Diverse Enough, Says Agency Lacks ‘Comprehensive Demographic’ Data To Measure Its ‘Diversity, Equity, Inclusion’ Goals
  • Mediaite: Jake Tapper’s Dishonest Hand-Wringing About Biden’s Voting Rights Speech Puts Him on the Side of Bull Connor
  • NewsBusters: New York Times Wails ‘A Degree of Voter Suppression May Have Become All But Assured’
  • Breitbart: Hans von Spakovsky: Democrats Push ‘Big Lie’ of ‘Voter Suppression’ to ‘Make It Easy to Cheat in Elections’
  • New York Post: How high did Team Biden’s conspiracy against parental protests go?
  • New York Post: Memoir by Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle details how his cheating, drug abuse destroyed their marriage
  • PJ Media: CNN Ratings Crater Nearly 90%, Jeff Zucker Needs to Go
  • Federalist: Volunteers Scramble To Rescue Afghan Allies Abandoned By U.S. State Department
  • Daily Caller: Biden Nominee Jessica Clarke Muffs John Kennedy’s ‘Basic’ Question During Hearing: ‘You Want To Take Another Crack At That?’
  • American Greatness: 458 Police Officers Died in the Line of Duty in 2021, the Deadliest Year on Record

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    Biden Fights Filibuster, Desperate to Dismiss 7% Inflation

    12 Jan 2022

    CLAY: Odds are you’re probably better at your job than Joe Biden is at his no matter what you do for a living, and that is where we begin today. A new high in inflation in the Biden regime — 7% — announced early this morning. That is the highest since 1982. We also have reaction to the speech that Joe Biden gave in the state of Georgia, and a question that is lingering out there: What has Biden done well?

    BUCK: It’s amazing, Clay, to see how Joe Biden at this stage has already transferred from the guy who is supposed to be uniting the country. There’s been this massive transition of the initial promise of Joe Biden, and that is that he was supposed to be a moderate kind of bulwark against the craziest on the left. Now he’s running around making references to clearly tie Republicans to George Wallace, to Jefferson Davis to… It’s absolutely nuts what’s going on, and it just goes to show you it was all a fraud. This notion of Cuddly Old Joe was a fraud.

    CLAY: There’s no doubt. Total fraud. And I believe we have a cut to your point. Jefferson Davis? This is how far back Joe Biden is going now to try to make these historical analogies. Listen to what he said yesterday in Georgia.

    BIDEN: To protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights! So I ask every elected official in America, “How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be on the side — the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” This is the moment to decide, to defend or elections, to defend our democracy!

    CLAY: Just crazy.

    BUCK: Clay, here you have a guy who is going along with this Democrat pretense that it’s the 1960s and they’re the good guys. That’s essentially what this is. They’ve created this narrative of, “We’re in a new civil rights movement.” Meanwhile, these different states where they say there’s voter suppression, and the data show all-time high African-American turnout.

    For example, in the Carolinas or you look at what’s going on in Georgia right now, but they claim that there’s a Republican claim of racist voter suppression. They throw everything in together now with the “insurrection” is somehow tied to the assault on our democracy which then somehow turns into, “To protect our democracy, we need ballot harvesting and no voter ID.” That’s really what this is all about. Change the election rules at the federal level, ram it down all the states’ throats so that they can win elections that they would otherwise lose. That’s what this really means.

    CLAY: I think the panic that sets in in the aftermath of 2020 was, Buck, they threw everything they could at Donald Trump. They had Twitter and Facebook suppressing actual news. They had all sorts of brand-new rules because of the pandemic for mail voting, for absentee voting. And even with all those changes, Buck, they won by 20,000 votes. People, change 20,000 of their opinions, right? 10,000 voters in Georgia, 10,000 voters in Arizona, 20,000 voters in Wisconsin, and the election is flipped.

    So if 20,000 people change their mind — that’s basically one NHL or one NBA arena — in a country that has 150 million plus voting. That’s how close they were to losing even with an election taking place in the middle of covid. And to me this speech that Biden gave in Georgia yesterday represents a fundamental inability to figure out what he’s going to be able to do even before he loses his majority in the House and in the Senate.

    Because, Buck, the votes are not there even if they needed 50 votes because already Manchin and Sinema have said they’re not gonna do it. You’ve got Shaheen in New Hampshire who doesn’t really want to change the rules. You’ve got Montana’s senator — Baucus, I believe — who doesn’t want to change the rules, and Mark Kelly (who is the other Senator in Arizona) doesn’t really want to change the rules either. So you’ve got at least four or five Democrats that are opposed to changing the rule on the filibuster as well.

    BUCK: Right. So it’s not even just an issue of do they have the votes for this legislation — and there are different versions of it, right? There is the Freedom to Vote Act, which is the huge federalization of elections or the For the People Act, essentially two versions of the same thing with different titles. Then there’s the smaller John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which is the one they’re talking about where they’re very much focusing in on this.

    This is the 1960s all over again, this is about civil rights eras — and it’s actually about, you know, preclearance for states going to the federal government before they could even move a polling place because of what had been the 1970s-based restrictions, right, that they used for preclearance before, that got struck down by the Supreme Court. So now they want to reinstitute that through legislation, right?

    They changed what was in the Voting Rights Act, because it didn’t make sense anymore. But, Clay, to your point about this — we’re getting all down deep into this analysis of it — this is really just a “Republicans are racist” campaign. That’s it. They’re not gonna change the filibuster. It’s not gonna happen. So they want to give big speeches where it’s “Republicans are racist” to get base turnout in the midterms for the Democrat.

    CLAY: And I don’t even think that works anymore. Maybe I’m totally wrong. Maybe there is a large segment of the population that is going to turn their head the minute that somebody says “everything is racist” which is basically the foundation right now of the entire Democratic Party. But I think we’re at a “boy who cried wolf” scenario, Buck, where when you yell it so many times, and we’ve had so many clear, nonracial-related issues…

    Whether it’s Jussie Smollett, whether it’s a different rate crime that has been blown up by the media and then in your local jurisdictions at a college or a high school; the investigation actually occurs and it’s not actually a hate crime. I think the Democrats have gotten to the “boy who cried wolf” scenario where screaming “everything is racist” really just draws attention to the fact that they don’t have any underlying plan here, and look.

    We don’t think Build Back Better can get passed. We know that their votes are not there to change the filibuster. What is Congress going to do with Biden for the rest of this year? Because we know by May or June, they’re gonna shut down effectively and let everybody go home and campaign. Twenty-six Democrats have already decided they’re not gonna run for reelection, which is a strong sign in the House that they anticipate that they’re gonna get walloped there.

    I’m at a loss, because we talk about this existential question. It’s a big-picture question. What can Biden point to and say is better than a year ago when he took over, Buck? And the more I think about it, the only thing I think he can argue is that the stock market is up. But that’s really a function of just pouring trillions of dollars into the marketplace.

    BUCK: Everyone understands that right now, if you want $100 in the bank and you leave it there for a year, even in a high-yield savings account, you’re losing money every year.

    CLAY: You’re losing 7%.

    BUCK: So this is why people are piling money and money and more money into the stock market and ETFs and mutual funds, because otherwise — forget about yield, you’re actually just trying to keep even with inflation right now.

    CLAY: Keep above water.

    BUCK: If someone could guarantee you 7% a year… Bernie Madoff, just to keep this in context, was guaranteeing everybody, as we know, based on a Ponzi scheme, 10% a year. Just think about that, every year 10%, every year 10%. You’re losing 7% now just based upon inflation, and this is the Biden economy that we’re dealing with — and, Clay, there’s also so much of this that’s just cause and effect.

    People should remember now who was pushing for defund the police, the undermining of law enforcement, and who supports progressive prosecutors in major cities? The Democrat Party. Who wanted to pay people as long as possible, as often as possible, as many of them as they could all across the country to stay home while some people were working during covid?

    There are a lot of other people being told to stay home. As we know, the whole stay-home thing was a terrible idea. But, you know, they piled all this money up that they were spending, trillions and trillions of dollars in additional spending, and we have inflation. You look at all these decisions that have been made by the Biden regime and the Democrats around him.

    I think we have to call it “the regime” because it really is the advisors. You know, the mayor of the palace, so to speak, in the White House is making a lot of calls here, whether we’re talking about Ron Klein or whomever. And to your point about what can they point to that actually it looks like it’s some kind of a success? I posed this to you the other day. I’m like, Clay, you’re a super adept guy. I would want you doing crisis comms for me more than pretty much anybody else I know. There’s no “there” there. So now what do we have? Republicans are racist.

    CLAY: I sat around and was thinking about this this morning when the number came out at 7% — and I always think this is instructive, by the way. This is good advice no matter what you do for a living. Pretend you’re the boss and you have to make the decision yourself. Even if you’re not making the decision yourself, it’s good to put yourself in those shoes and go through the mental exercises of how the boss is going to reach a decision.

    And right now — whether we like it or not — the Biden regime, as Buck said, is the boss of the country. What would you be pointing to and say, “Boy. America is lucky we were here over the last year because of Biden. I can look at China, but China is almost entirely — to Biden’s credit, small measure of credit. All he’s done is keep most of Donald Trump’s policies in place for China, and then I look…

    I guess you can look at the stock market and say the stock market is up. But other than that, the border, murder rates, inflation at a 40-year high, nearly. When you consider what’s going on with the supply chain crisis and the inability of people to get, oftentimes, what they’re trying to get inside of the stores. When you look at covid hospitalizations set a new high yesterday. They’re likely to set another new high today.

    Covid cases are at a new high. I just challenge you. This is the existential, larger picture question that gets asked many times in elections. It really cuts to the nitty-gritty of it. “Are you better off today than you were a year ago?” I think there are very few people in America that can say, “Hey, you know what? Everything’s better in this country now because of Joe Biden.” I don’t think there’s anything he can argue, and that’s why he’s focused on chasing windmills in some way trying to label the Republicans as racist because they won’t change voting laws.

    BUCK: I like the Don Quixote reference, by the way, for the folks at home.

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    The Little Lab Coat Tyrant Calls GOP Senator a “Moron”

    12 Jan 2022

    SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: Yes or no, would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public? A financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?

    FAUCI: I don’t understand why you’re asking me that question! My financial disclosure is public knowledge and has been so for the last 37 years or so, or 35 years. (sputtering)

    SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: The big tech giants are doing an incredible job of keeping it from being public. We’ll continue to look for it. Where would we find it?

    FAUCI: All you have to do is ask for it! You’re so misinformed, it’s extraordinary.

    SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: Why am I asking for them? This is a huge issue.

    SEN. PATTY MURRAY: Senator Marshall, Dr. Fauci has answered you. It is public information, and he’s happy to give it to you. If you were to ask.

    FAUCI: What a moron. Jesus Christ.

    BUCK: (laughing) Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show. Fauci, the little Smurf, getting a little hot under the collar there. He didn’t like it. “Look, these financial disclosures are public information!” But you can tell Fauci… This is what this guy does, actually. This is what he lives for. He’s a make-believe scientist in so many ways. He might as well be the Bill Nye the Science Guy.

    Who, if you’re wondering, has an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell but is “the Science Guy,” and here you have Fauci, Clay, getting all sassy and saucy with a Senator yesterday because obviously Rand Paul rattled him a little bit, as he tends to. But Fauci actually says — and we can play it here. He claims he’s not political after doing things like this, after these bureaucratic fights he has.

    FAUCI: How do we stop the misinformation and disinformation? And anybody who really wants to be objective and look at the some of the preposterous things that are said out there that are based on no fact — just, you know, everything from wild conspiracy theories to just not really understanding. Well, to understanding by putting out something that isn’t true. Thaat’s gonna make this whole thing tough.

    I wish we could reset this and say, “You have your political differences. I’m not a political person. (sputtering) You — you know that occasion you know me from decades, zero political interest. But maybe we could put the political stuff aside and say, if we want to fight politically, let’s end this outbreak first, get back to normal life and then go back to our political ideologies.”

    BUCK: He is such a liar as well as such a failure. It’s remarkable.

    CLAY: Well, if that were true, he would do this radio show. If he truly doesn’t care about politics at all and he’s trying to reach the biggest possible audience, he wouldn’t have declined to come on this radio show multiple times when we will have offered him that opportunity. And, by the way, having testified in Congress, it’s kind of hard to accidentally leave your mic on there. I feel like that was intentional by Fauci.

    Now, he may say, “Oh, I didn’t know the mic was still on,” but you’re testifying in front of Congress. You take your mask off, so people can read your lips anyway. I think he wanted to insult that senator and then claim that he didn’t know that his mic was still on. But the larger context addressed toward Dr. Fauci there, Buck, would be he talks about all the misinformation that is out there. When will they accept the blame — meaning Fauci, the CDC, Rochelle Walensky?

    So many people who are, quote, “scientific experts,” when will they accept the blame for so much that they have put out there being untrue? They told us this spring, the end of the winter, “If you get the covid vaccine, you will never spread covid. It stops with you. You will never have any covid. Breakthrough cases are exceedingly rare.” There’s a ton of people listening to us right now who are double vaxxed, maybe even boostered, and they’ve got covid — or, Buck, they know somebody who is double vaxxed and boosted and got covid.

    You told us not to wear masks, then to wear masks, then we could take ’em off, then you told us we had to put ’em back on. When did they accept blame for all the messages that they’ve gotten wrong? I don’t see any of that. I don’t ever see Fauci showing up, Buck, and saying, “Hey, you know what? In retrospect, we got that wrong,” or, as you’ve said a lot, Buck, “I never see Fauci saying, ‘That’s too much. Kids outside eating lunch on buckets is too much.'”

    BUCK: Clay, there’s a wine bar near me that makes you wear your mask until your drinks arrive, as if that’s a help. They have this policy in the window. It’s crazy.

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    Democrat Chattering Class Talks Up Hillary 2024

    12 Jan 2022

    BUCK: Is she really gonna do it? Is this possible or is this crazy talk about in the political world with Biden’s just plummeting and really just dropping, it feels like, month after month approval ratings, particularly on things like the economy. His overall rating’s very low. Here is just a smattering of headlines from the last 24 hours. “CNN: Destructing the Case For a 2024 Hillary Clinton Bid.” Wall Street Journal. This was the big one, by the way, the one that got a lot of this conversation going, a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Doug Schoen.

    The piece was “Hillary Clinton 2024 Election Comeback.” Daily Mail: “Hillary vs. Trump, the Rematch — Two Democratic Operatives Say Hillary is the Best Option to Win.” Oh, it was Andrew Stein as well as Doug Schoen in that Wall Street Journal opinion piece. So you got the political, chattering classes — of which Clay and I are technically a part, I suppose. We’re more chill. We don’t chatter, but nonetheless, we got people talking about all this stuff.

    Here’s what I would say, and it reminds me a little bit of how we learned about some of the other intelligence services throughout history and some of the gray hairs at the agency — CIA when I worked there — they would point out to us that you always have to remember. When I was a CIA, Clay, we had rules right? We had rules we had to operate under. Laws, congressional oversight.

    The KGB and various intel services throughout history, they do basically whatever they want as long as the regime is okay with it. So they have a tremendous lauded for operation, they have a tremendous ability to maneuver because they have no integrity or legal system to speak of to protect. Think of the Clinton machine as absolutely bereft of ethics, morals, manners. Whatever works. Whatever will get it done.

    I think, Clay, part of pitch here, yes, Biden is weak, he’s plummeting, the whole thing. Hillary still has never really conceded that she lost in 2016, and now that we’ve seen the insurrection narrative come to play, Hillary can say, “I’m the only one who can set right, not only what went wrong in 2020 but with the Trump phenomenon in 2016 that was really a Russian disinformation operation.” I think she’ll say anything, and I think that she has a hole in her soul that will only be filled by being president.

    CLAY: So many interesting angles to go through here. So let’s start with this. This is predicated to a large extent on them being able to push Biden to the side — and, remember, there’s a lot of Hillary and Biden drama out there because Joe Biden effectively pushed — sorry, Barack Obama effectively pushed — Joe Biden to the side and said, “I’m supporting Hillary in 2016.”

    Now, you can argue there were all sorts of things going on in Biden’s personal life. He had lost his son, and he wasn’t necessarily focused on politics in the same way. But Hillary angled her way in to get the nod from Barack Obama as the heir apparent for a third term of the Obama administration. Hillary then runs, loses to Trump, and basically since then has been quiet in many ways in terms of advancing any sort of political agenda.

    Now as we look at Joe Biden: 7% inflation, unable to hand covid in any way, border is a mess, murders are setting new highs. Everything that Biden touches… Somebody sent me a message and said, “You need to start calling it ‘the Bidas touch’ instead of the Midas touch. Everything Joe Biden touches, the Bidas touch, turns to crap,” and now Hillary is younger than Joe Biden just by a couple of years older.

    BUCK: She’s 74, right?

    CLAY: Yeah, 74 right now. So she’s four years younger than Joe Biden right now, and it seems as if this is an attempt to kneecap Joe Biden, right? You tell me how read this, because I don’t believe that that editorial goes up in the Wall Street Journal without Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints all over it. It’s somebody who has worked closely with the Clintons in the past. The Wall Street Journal, to their credit, furthering the opinion-based conversation.

    But she wants it to look like there is a “Draft Hillary” movement. “Oh, I couldn’t say no, right?” We know how this is gonna play out. Hillary’s not gonna be seen as the person who wants to lead the charge. It’s there’s gonna be — I would bet — a steady drumbeat of we need Hillary. Hillary is the best option for the Democratic Party, and that’s because both Biden they’re terrified at 78 of trying to rerun for reelection, and because they have to figure out a way to get Kamala Harris off the stage, because otherwise it’s racist and sexist if she’s not the nominee.

    At least you’re just accusing Hillary Clinton of racism, ’cause you at least are putting up a woman. And other than Stacey Abrams — we talked about this yesterday, Buck — I’m not sure there’s a black woman that you could even point to and say, “Okay, she can run against Kamala and be better known,” which is why all this would tie in with — I still think — Justice Breyer stepping down at the Supreme Court and then persuading Kamala to take a Supreme Court seat and be the first black woman on the Supreme Court.

    BUCK: Look, it’s a ways away, and as we always say, so much can change between now and then but if nothing else the fact that this is even a conversation that is not… Let’s be clear. Sure, this was published in the Wall Street Journal, which is a right-of-center publication, right? But it was written by two Democrat operatives. Doug Schoen’s a very well-known guy; Andrew Stein is also known in Democrat circles. So these guys have their finger on the pulse. We’ve already gone through a whole cycle of Kamala cannot be the one who steps in, and that was coming from a lot of Democrats that I know.

    CLAY: No doubt.

    BUCK: There are Democrats who behind closed doors and increasingly out in the open will say — and, remember, what they want first and foremost, more than being consistent, more than being moral? They want power. So if they think Kamala is going to deliver power into the hands of either another Trump four years or some other Republican, they will push her aside, because power is the singular goal for the Democrat Party, above and beyond anything else. It’s not even close.

    So then you get to, okay, Kamala already they’ve said, “This probably not gonna work.” Joe Biden is enfeebled, not only by just age and the realities, I think, of his intellectual limitations — to put it mildly — but also by the lack of success of the policies and the fact that as a guy to push forward the Democrat agenda. He essentially sold people on something that isn’t what he offers, and this is what we started out the show talking about.

    Biden came in saying effectively… You know, he was hiding in the basement but it was we’ll restore normalcy, we’ll defeat covid an all this anxiety — this craziness that they were fomenting — will be controlled in a Biden presidency. We’ve seen that’s a total lie. You’ve got incredibly aggressive left-wing policy being pushed all across the country by the Democrat Party.

    And Biden is effectively a figurehead and not one that anyone particularly respects very much. So this is all lining up as a reality. You say, “Who else?” You have… There will be discussion — you can almost set your watch to it — of the “draft Michelle Obama to run as the Democrat nominee,” and the Obama name is still big. The Obamas are still probably the most formidable brand.

    CLAY: That’s how you cancel out Kamala, by the way. That’s the way to just shunt Kamala completely to the side is bring in Michelle Obama.

    BUCK: I know people within I’m friends with some Democrats who are friends with some Democrats who know Michelle Obama, and what I’ve always been told by them is that she loves having sky-high elite and Democrat approval ratings and being ultrawealthy and doing whatever she wants and has no interest. That’s what I’ve always been told. Now, maybe that’s just the narrative for now, right, so that there’s no focus on this.

    CLAY: It also helps her get drafted to have no interest.

    BUCK: Of course.

    CLAY: You’re always more attractive if you claim you’re not interested in something.

    BUCK: Yeah. You always want to be in the James — what, James Garfield role? “I don’t even want to be president,” and then all of a sudden you end up being the president. Hillary, though, give me your odds. You do a lot of betting in sports. I won’t ask for odds here, but would this be a…? In your mind, is she a formidable opponent for whoever the Republican is, if, in fact, she becomes the Democrat nominee if Joe Biden steps aside? Do you think that Hillary’s got what she needs to make it close?

    CLAY: It’s a great question. I think that Hillary is a better candidate than Joe Biden. I think she is a far better candidate than Kamala Harris.

    BUCK: I think she’s smarter. I think we need to be honest. I think she’s a smarter person, more capable.

    CLAY: There’s no doubt. She has a resume of achievement. She’s been secretary of state. She’s been a senator. Whether or not you believe that that resume was well done, she has that in her background so she’s under… She is well experienced in prominent roles of United States government. Where I would say this gets fascinating to me is how do you get Joe Biden not to run, right?

    Because I don’t know that Hillary… Although it would be great for us, great political theater if Hillary would challenge a sitting president, tell me, Buck, can you remember off the top of your head — because I can’t — who was the last sitting president to run for reelection and not get his party’s nomination? Not like Lyndon Johnson, “Hey, I’m not gonna seek reelection” when you could have run. But off the top of my head, I can’t even think of who a sitting president has been that lost his party’s nomination.

    BUCK: I think we could see that if Biden decides he’s going for it, I think he is the nominee. But it’s a question.

    CLAY: No one’s gonna be able to bump him out.

    BUCK: No one’s going to. The power of incumbency is so strong that there’s no way. The only way this happens for Hillary is this Biden steps aside and they figure out some way. Maybe it is that Breyer seat’s on the Supreme Court for Kamala Harris. Look, as remarkable as people might think that plan sounds, Sonia Sotomayor is on the Supreme Court, and she thinks that there are a hundred thousand kids in the hospital with covid.

    CLAY: Yeah, right.

    BUCK: So, you know, they can make room for whoever they want if the Democrats have the votes, –and they will, especially if some of the identity politics considerations are strongly in favor of the move — and so then you see this pathway opening up. But ultimately, look, I understand that at some level Clay and I are engaged here. There’s a lot of this in politics, as you know: Speculation but informed speculation. But the only reason this is even possible — and no one thinks this is laughable. The only reason this is possible is because the Biden regime is still effectively in free fall, and no one knows how far it’s gonna go before it actually hits the dirt, so to speak.

    CLAY: I think it’s also a function, Buck, of how weak the Democrat bench for contenders for president is, right? Let’s just run through. You got Kamala, you got Mayor Pete, you’ve got Castro, Beto. Start to run through the people who ran for president, and you look at them and say, “Man, that’s really weak,” whereas look at the Republicans, regardless of who you might support.

    Let’s put Trump off on the side. There are a lot of people out there that would say, “Hey, I would love for Ron DeSantis to run.” There are Nikki Haley people, there are Tim Scott people, there are Marco Rubio people, there are Ted Cruz people. The bench for the Republicans is much stronger, it seems to me, than the bench is for the Democrats, which is why they basically would have to pull Hillary out of retirement.

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    Woke Insurance? It’s the New Normal in Hollywood

    12 Jan 2022

    CLAY: I was reading, and I shared with you, there’s a great Substack piece up from Bari Weiss about Hollywood trying to grapple with woke universe taking over in L.A., and what it’s doing for hiring. I don’t know if you watch Curb Your Enthusiasm. Did you watch the most recent season at all?

    BUCK: I’ve seen some of it. You are up on the TV pop culture, too.

    CLAY: Yeah, well, I mean, I try. The way I dial out’s watching shows with my wife late at night now. So I watch Curb, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and there’s a great satire that is not directly acknowledged that’s going on throughout the entirety of the season. Every time that Larry meets with an entertainment executive — Netflix, Hulu, HBO, whoever it is — there’s a white guy in charge, and the white guy has a coterie of three advisers who are the most diverse and inclusive group you could possibly imagine there for every meeting with them.

    And it’s almost like the piece that Barry White House’s Substack has up, talks about the need for woke insurance because people in high levels of prominence in Hollywood are terrified to say what they actually think, and so they surrounded themselves with “diverse and inclusive” audiences to try to protect themselves.

    BUCK: This all comes right out of the academy. This is really what it is.

    CLAY: Yeah. Right.

    BUCK: The diversity czars, or when I was at Amherst it was, “diversity educators,” they called them, were people whose only job was to walk around, have meaningless forums that nobody would attend except for a few students who wanted to whine about how everything is racist.

    CLAY: Total losers. Total losers were going to diversity inclusion seminars in college.

    BUCK: I also love the… This was a common theme at Amherst. You’d have a white kid who grew up in the wealthiest suburbs of Boston or maybe in Westchester area of New York —

    CLAY: Yeah.

    BUCK: — in his parents’ Range Rover. No offense, Clay. I know you’re a Range Rover guy — in his parents Range Rover who would get up at the podium and be like, “We are so racist at this school.” It’s so obvious, man. Just give it a break. There was so much of that that would go on. But this comes right out of the school system, the university system where they’ve been creating this, really, army of diversity educators for years so that they can seem less racist.

    And now it’s gone into corporate America and all of the rest of it. You have all this corporate inclusion training.

    BREAK TRANSCRIPT

    BUCK: This piece that Bari Weiss has on her Substack is fascinating, ad I’ll just say before we even get into it: I think this is why, in part, there’s so much garbage content from Hulu and Netflix and these other places, because there are all these considerations that go into show running — making a show — that have nothing to do with, “Does the audience like this? Is this great content?” It’s all about politics. But take it away.

    CLAY: Yeah. It’s a fascinating article on the Substack here, Bari Weiss’ Substack. You can go read it. I tweeted it out earlier today. It’s called Hollywood’s New Rules, and the two authors are Peter Kiefer and Peter Savodnik. Basically, their entire argument is… Listen to this opening paragraph, Buck. It will sound like something you would anticipate. But the number of people that were even willing to be quoted in here is insanely low, because people are so afraid.

    We were talking about Aaron Rodgers and Novak Djokovic and Kyrie Irving and how all three of them have such success as athletes that they feel comfortable speaking out. No one will even talk about this in Hollywood. But this is the opening of the article: “A few years ago, the editor-in-chief of The Hollywood Reporter pitched a story to the newsroom. He had just come back from lunch with a well-known agent, who had suggested the paper take a look at the unintended consequences of Hollywood’s efforts to diversify.

    “Those white men who had spent decades writing scripts — which had been turned into blockbuster movies and hit television shows — were no longer getting hired. The newsroom blew up. The reporters, especially the younger ones, mocked the idea that white men were on the outs. The editor-in-chief, normally self-assured, immediately backtracked. He looked rattled,” and what is amazing here is the article is about “[t]he ‘explosion of woke,’ as one longtime producer put it…”

    It has taken over completely in Hollywood to the extent, Buck, I didn’t even recall this — did you know this? — by 2024, a movie will not be eligible for Best Picture unless it meets a diversity requirement by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. You have to check a box that you have enough people of diverse background in order to be capable of winning a Best Picture!

    BUCK: It’s not even for the actors on the screen. It’s everything. It’s top to bottom.

    CLAY: Yes.

    BUCK: It is the writers, the producers, it’s the camera people, it’s everything put together. Now, what you see here is really effectively unconstitutional and illegal, but we’ve had what the Supreme Court has called “the racial entitlement state” building for a long time where they play these games. Here, for example, is one of the games that’s being played in Hollywood right now: “Oh, they’re not quotas. We’re just only going to hire certain BIPOC people,” black, indigenous, Pacific… I actually keep forgetting the whole thing.

    CLAY: I don’t even know what all these acronyms stand for anymore.

    BUCK: I’m usually pretty good on the left-wing jargon.

    CLAY: BIPOC is a phrase that’s used.

    BUCK: Oh. Black Indigenous Person of Color.

    CLAY: Okay.

    BUCK: I remember now. ‘Cause they change all the time. I read the left-wing crazy stuff so that I can bring it to your attention.

    CLAY: So does Asian count in this BIPOC?

    BUCK: Well, Asians actually have this categorization that is deeply offensive — and I am sort of quoting the left-wing version of this — where they call them “white adjacent.”

    CLAY: Oh, yeah.

    BUCK: When you think about it, this gets into some of the ugliest parts of racism around the world in the past. And of course a lot of Americans unfortunately on the left on too ignorant and stupid to know that racism actually exists all over the world and in much more open and real ways, including in nonwhite societies, by the way, or predominantly nonwhite societies.

    There’s all kinds of racism, and of course religious bigotry and other things. But drilling down here for a second, they have quotas; they just don’t call them quotas. This is what they’ve done on the university system for a long time. This is why, you know, whatever their percentage is at Harvard of black students — say it’s 15% or 12% — somehow it’s the same every year, but there’s no quota, right?

    What they’re doing in Hollywood right now is forgetting about the basic principle of each person’s equality and hiring the best person for the job and replacing it with, we need to make up for “historic injustice” by being unjust to — let’s just say it — white males today in Hollywood. That is what the Bari Weiss piece is saying. That is the thrust of it, and the only argument against this is, “Shut up or you’ll never work again,” Clay. That’s the situation in Hollywood.

    CLAY: Yeah, and they’re not even hiding the quotas that they’re doing. In this article, I couldn’t believe it. CBS… A pretty big company, CBS. They have mandated that writers’ rooms be at least 40% BIPOC for this year. Next year, they have to be at least 50% BIPOC, and so you’re judging people entirely based on the color of their skin as to whether or not they get a job.

    And there are all these stories in here about how writers who are working on shows don’t even feel comfortable speaking honestly in their writing rooms. And, Buck, I’ve done a little bit… I spend a lot of time and have spent a lot of time in L.A. over the years, so I have a lot of friends out there. But the way that you end up with a humorous show is you have a lot of really funny people sitting around a table throwing out ideas, and sometimes those ideas are uncomfortable.

    Sometimes they are bordering on totally inappropriate. Sometimes they are totally inappropriate. In fact, there was a great lawsuit involving the Friends television show where some of the writers filed a lawsuit accusing sexual harassment in the writing room based on the topics that were discussed, and they said, “No, no, no!” To the credit of the court, they said, “The way that you create something new is by having unvarnished conversations,” right, “effectively, in the creative classes.”

    Hollywood — and I talked to a buddy about this recently. His argument was Hollywood used to be, L.A. in general used to be the place where you went if you were a little bit different. If you were gay. If you were maybe a person of color and you wanted to try to find an opportunity. If you were Jewish — which is how Hollywood was founded — all these recent immigrants who are Jewish set up the movie industry effectively in L.A.

    It was a place for eccentrics and people outside the bounds of normal, “acceptable,” in quotation marks, discourse, and that’s usually what creative people are. Now that same person argued that Hollywood and L.A. has become the most stultifying place anywhere in the country ’cause if you don’t have the right opinion, you aren’t allowed to be employed, and you also can’t even speak.

    BUCK: It’s like the faculty lounge for the women and gender studies department of Wesleyan University is in charge of what you get to watch on Netflix now, not just in the executive suite, but all the way down to the producers. I’m sure even the caterers. People involved in every aspect of this now are covered by these are stealth quotas, okay? That is what they do.

    This is the game the left plays ’cause a quota, an actual hard quota that you would put out there saying, “We are only doing X ore Y,” that often leads to lawsuits. You’re not allowed. You can’t do that in hiring, you can’t do that openly. But they’re getting away with it right now, ’cause it’s an obvious violation of the equal-protection clause, obvious violation of anti-discrimination statues. But, of course, anti-white discrimination has been not just normalized but turned into a goal —

    CLAY: Badge of honor.

    BUCK: — and an open badge of honor for the left. And it’s fascinating to watch this play out because all the situations are happening exactly as we would think. Now the left starts to consume its own. They create an actual hierarchy of victimhood so you get sort of points for being in this level. You’re still a victim but less of a victim, points for that level depending on are you black, are you Asian, are you Hispanic?

    And what’s fascinating is that they also don’t want to admit this but it’s true, there is a reality here — this is true in the college admission system where you actually have objective markers. But what is happening in Hollywood — and they won’t say this, but we know it’s happening, because otherwise why do they have to have those quotas in place? — is they are taking somebody who’s just not as funny to be a writer, but who happens to be a woman or they’re taking someone who’s not as funny to be a writer, to be a producer, whatever the case may be — and we’re talking about comedy here, but it could be anything.

    CLAY: Drama, could be anything.

    BUCK: They’ll be not as talented — that’s a better word to use — not as skilled in the medium, but they fit a criteria that appeals to the left that is about skin color or gender or gender identity. And I really do believe this is why you have a lot of… It’s amazing how much money is poured in to absolutely horrible shows that nobody watches at Amazon, Hulu, Netflix, et cetera. Amazing.

    CLAY: Well, and the argument too in this piece — and I would encourage people to read it we’ll share it from the Clay and Buck Twitter account — is that it’s setting itself up for a monster class-action lawsuit because one part of the story just features emails from executives saying, “Hey, you can’t get this job because the person who’s gonna be hired has to be a woman of color.”

    Or “you can’t get this job because they have a white person already working in a role like this, so it has to be a diversity hire” literally written in emails. And so the possibility here, Buck, is that a class-action lawsuit, if people were willing to bring it — and that’s one of the challenges, too, ’cause you’re basically cutting your own throat in the industry. It would be, I think, staggering to see what is actually being discussed in many ways surrounding the situation in L.A.

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    Former Senator Loeffler on Voting Rights in Georgia

    12 Jan 2022

    CLAY: We’ve been talking quite a bit about Joe Biden’s address yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, where he attempted to argue that, if you don’t support changing the filibuster, you are a modern-day Jefferson Davis. You are a modern-day supporter of George Wallace and so on. We bring in now, former senator from Georgia Kelly Loeffler, and I’ll say this right off the top, congratulations to the Georgia Bulldogs and the Atlanta Braves, because the state of Georgia had been a while without championships and suddenly you’ve got two in pretty short order. Congrats, Senator.

    SEN. LOEFFLER: Well, go Dawgs and go Braves. We were so proud to bring home the National Championship. We have the best team in the country, but we also have the best fans in the country, and that was certainly the biggest news yesterday, not Joe Biden bringing his pack of lies to Georgia, but so proud of the Dawgs.

    CLAY: So, what did you think of the speech? You’ve lived in Georgia for a long time. You know the people there. Joe Biden decides not to pay attention to the roaring rates of covid, to inflation, to the fact that kids I think in Atlanta as well, all over the country, many cities are not able to be in person right now. Instead, he shows up and decides to divide us. What did you think of his speech and the arguments that he made?

    SEN. LOEFFLER: Well, Clay, the word I keep hearing and seeing is “unpresidential,” and I just saw Leader McConnell strip the bark off of President Biden from the Senate floor — and basically as incoherent and fact-free as that speech was yesterday, it was very clear why we have to check on power in Washington, and I think Georgians are saying, “What was that all about? We need to move on. What was that?”

    Because today the inflation report comes out — up 7%, no end in sight — and so, you know, it’s really hypocrisy when these are the same Democrats that used the filibuster 300 times when I was in the Senate in 2020. Filibuster after filibuster to stop the Senate from working during a pandemic, and so it just shows you: They have the House, the Senate, the White House, and that power is never enough. They always want more. So Georgians are not having it. They’re moving on with their lives, and they want answers as to what’s going on in the economy.

    BUCK: Hey, Ms. Loeffler, it’s Buck, and I know that you’re very involved in the voter integrity issue now. We had, obviously, Biden, Kamala Harris making their speeches yesterday and suggesting really as though, in not just Georgia but all across the country, there’s some return to the disenfranchisement and racism of the pre-Civil Rights era in America. Was pretty astonishing to hear what they were saying. What is the reality right now in Georgia of what voter integrity measures should be put in place for this upcoming election and certainly in time for the next presidential election, and what is it that the Democrats really want to get on their side?

    SEN. LOEFFLER: You’re exactly right, Buck. When you boil that speech down, he was calling half the country racist. He was calling 52 members of the Senate racist. Is this a president that not only promised to stop the virus but promised to unite the country? And probably the most divisive speech we’ve certainly heard in Georgia and probably in the country. Not what we need at this time. I’m standing on the side of election integrity because, frankly, the Democrats can’t admit that that’s part of voting rights!

    You have a right, when you vote, to know that your voice will be heard at the ballot box, that your vote will be counted and not canceled by fraudulent votes. And they just have a hard time acknowledging that integrity is an important part of voting rights. So, what part of the bill don’t they like? Voter ID? Well, 77% of black voters support voter ID. So they’re talking about always being on “the right side of history.” They’re clearly on the wrong side of it, and the wrong side of the issue, if they really care about voting rights.

    BUCK: We’re talking to former Senator Kelly Loeffler in Georgia to discuss Joe Biden’s ridiculous speech yesterday. What is the talk in Georgia political circles about Stacey Abrams supposedly having a conflict and not being able to be there for Biden’s speech? Why wasn’t she there, in your mind? And what does it say that she was not there? …

    SEN. LOEFFLER: Yes. It’s not a loaded question. It’s actually pretty clear that Abrams did not want to be there to lend Biden any of her political capital in a state that she’s running in. But her shadow organizations were outspoken against his visit. They told him to get back to Washington and get the work done. And, you know, he was here in Georgia at a time when obviously we’re celebrating the National Championship.

    But more importantly, Georgia has been open for business for a year and a half. Our unemployment rate is 2.9%. We want someone to come here and say, “This is how Washington’s getting out of the way so that you can get back to work and get kids back to school,” and they don’t want to talk about it because they don’t have any answers. They don’t care about that, because they owe everything to politics, and they feel like they owe nothing to the American people.

    So I think that you know that was kind of a sideshow and a distraction from the real issue that Biden isn’t governing. I think he owes the American people an apology. The American people deserve so much better than this right now. Look what we just went through for the past two years of the pandemic, and then he comes in and tramples voters and their voices this way, that is suppression, when you’re telling voters that they’re racist that that they need to open up ballots to anyone who wants to vote. We saw that in my own election in the Senate runoffs. Hundreds of thousands of voters stayed home because they didn’t think their vote counted.

    BUCK: I want to ask you about that. Do you think that we have gotten all the answers that we need about everything that happened in the election process — in Georgia specifically — in 2020?

    SEN. LOEFFLER: Absolutely not. Georgians don’t have the answers they need. We need answers on the $50 million of Big Tech money that came in. I filed an open-records request with the secretary of state and respected a lawsuit to ask, “How is that money spent?” and the list goes on. There have been virtually no prosecutions of hundreds of cases of election fraud that haven’t been wrapped up, and now we’re back into an election year, and the list goes on.

    And so, we need accountability so that those voters will come back because we are on the ground through greater Georgia doing the work every day. We never took the tent down after 2020. We kept going and said, “We are gonna contact everyone who’s been disenfranchised, everyone who’s disengaged,” and even unregistered. We’re out registering voters. So we’re not gonna give up, and we’re not gonna succumb to these false allegations that Biden’s making against Georgians, and I think it’s gonna motivate people to get out.

    CLAY: Senator Loeffler, appreciate you making the time. Congrats again to the Bulldogs and the Braves, belatedly. We hope to talk to you again soon.

    SEN. LOEFFLER: Sounds great. Thanks, y’all.

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