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Clay and Buck

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Baseball Cards Could Teach Biden an Inflation Lesson

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: I was telling Buck that I’m getting ready to go to Dave & Buster’s, ’cause my kids want to go play all the games, for those of you who are familiar with Dave & Buster’s. Did you see, Buck, we bought…? We went to the card shop. My kids are obsessed with card collecting, baseball, football, all those things, and I ended up spending the most money because I bought myself a big box of 1987 baseball cards that we have started to open, still with the old gum, if you remember the old Topps baseball cards.

BUCK: Oh, man. You might break your teeth on that at this point, buddy.

CLAY: Yeah, 35-year-old baseball cards that we’re starting to open, and it’s a lot of fun, but my kids couldn’t resist. The 7 and 11-year-old both tried the gum and they said it tasted like cardboard, but for anybody out there who remembers, it tasted like cardboard 35 years ago when it was new too. But they couldn’t resist. They had to try the gum.

BUCK: Now we’re gonna have some late eighties, early nineties throwback moments. Remember that gum they used to sell that was like a roll of tape ten feet long?

CLAY: Oh, yeah. Bubble Tape.

BUCK: Bubble Tape. Man, I remember running to the corner store after school and everybody was getting Bubble Tape, Airheads.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I think those are still around, Airheads candy. But the best part about Topps and Score… I actually had some baseball cards. I wanted to do whatever my older brother did at that age, and so he had some baseball cards.

CLAY: Topps, Fleer, and Donruss were three biggest. Score cards exist, too, but Topps, Fleer, and Donruss were the big three.

BUCK: I thought, you know, at age 8 or 9 that if I just held onto that Don Mattingly card, I’d be able to slap my butler around in a number of years with it, you know?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: But didn’t really work out that way.

CLAY: Some of those cards, though, have ended up… We went to the baseball card shop. I love just seeing some of them. Some of them have ended up being really, really valuable. But the ’87, ’88, ’89, ’90, when card collecting was basically at its apex, they produced way too much for most of those cards to be very valuable.

BUCK: Right. They inflated!

CLAY: Yeah. There you go.

BUCK: They kind of printed too many cards, and then when you print too many baseball cards, and everybody else has the Don Mattingly rookie card that I have, it turns out that card isn’t worth as much. Maybe we should send this segment to the Biden administration and try to help them understand how inflation works.

CLAY: Joe, you might not understand this, but Hunter, “the smartest man you ever knew,” probably collected baseball cards, and his cards are not worth very much money because there were too many of them printed, much like what you are doing with our nation’s economy right now. What a lesson that is! My kids may actually understand inflation based on this. There you go.

BUCK: Look how it goes. Is there one card…? I would assume, as an outside-of-the-sports-bubble guy, that the Babe Ruth card is the most valuable card of all, but is that not true?

CLAY: Most valuable card historically… Now, it’s starting to change because they’re doing… The new thing, Buck, is scarcity in cards. So, they will get autographed, they now have pieces of uniform that they put in there. They have gotten really smart in limiting the production to drive up the value. But, historically, the Honus Wagner baseball card.

BUCK: Really!

CLAY: The Honus Wagner card, there were only like 180 of them made or something, and he was anti… I can’t remember all the details. I used to know it well. He was anti-smoking, and there was a smoking company that put them out. He demanded that they destroy all of his cards, and so I believe it’s the T206 Honus Wagner card has historically been the most valuable baseball card.

BUCK: You sound like you could open a baseball card memorabilia shop, man. You’ve got some game, buddy.

CLAY: I went to the baseball memorabilia shop yesterday with my boys and I actually remember as a kid, that one of my dream jobs was to own a baseball card collecting shop. That’s how much I was all-in. At the ages 8 to 12 I was obsessed.

BUCK: Remember for a short while I got really into making historical war dioramas in, like, the fourth and fifth grade, and I used to go —

CLAY: (laughing) How did you make fun of me for going to Civil War history camp — own dioramas?

BUCK: Baby steps here, right? I can’t give it all away at the beginning. Oh, yeah —

CLAY: Do you still have them?

BUCK: No. God, no. (laughing) It’s long since gone.

CLAY: What was the diorama you made that you are most proud of?

BUCK: I may have been in a war diorama club in school for a little while. We don’t have to talk about it.

CLAY: I can’t believe there was a club. There were more kids who did this?

BUCK: I took chess lessons for a little while. We have to talk about this? Chess is awesome, by the way.

CLAY: Chess is great.

BUCK: Chess, also, if you’ve got, like, a good spirit to drink, it’s fantastic.

CLAY: So, what was your favorite diorama that you produced?

BUCK: Oh, I was all about World War II. I was blowing up Nazis with little bits of paste and taking little pieces of plastic and stuff left and right. I was all about World War II blowing up the Nazis, ’cause why not? That’s what I had… Something else I wanted to say to you, but I cannot even remember what it is at this point.

CLAY: I’m sure we’ll have time tomorrow to discuss it.

BUCK: More nerd stories. Now, I feel like you know what, Clay? I feel like we’ve opened up the floodgates here. This audience has known us for a year. So we’ll go deep on the nerd stuff with them.

CLAY: My wife still cannot believe she married someone who went to Civil War sleep-away camp.

BUCK: I tell people that about you and I’m just like, “Clay’s a very multifaceted guy. A lot of things about him.” Like, he went to Civil War camp. I went to Bronx Zoo camp to play with the animals. Real thing.

CLAY: What was your favorite animal at the Bronx Zoo?

BUCK: Oh, man, I thought the red panda was really cool.

CLAY: Red panda, underrated animal.

BUCK: Unlike the other panda, the red panda probably won’t rip your face off.

CLAY: Also, tiny and hard to find in trees.

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South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem Returns to C&B

30 Jun 2022

BUCK: Joining us now, the governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem. Governor, great to have you back. Thanks for being with us.

GOV. NOEM: Oh, man, it’s fantastic to be with you guys. How are you doing today?

BUCK: We’re good. We know you got a new book out, Not My First Rodeo. We’ll talk to you about that in a second. I just wanted to get your response, ’cause I know South Dakota has taken a very strong stand as a state on the life issue. I’m sure you heard earlier today, over in Europe, Biden trashing the Supreme Court, saying it’s destabilizing. What do you think about our commander-in-chief saying that about our Supreme Court overseas? Also, what is the state of protecting life right now in your home state, Governor of South Dakota?

GOV. NOEM: Well, number one, I would say every single one of his policies is destabilizing the United States of America. It’s extremely hypocritical to be going after the Supreme Court — especially overseas — when everything he is doing is weakening America, and again with that statement. So, his timing is bad, but so is every one of his instincts, and I guess we just try to muddle our way through until we can get new leaders in place, and it’s not very long until we get the chance to do that. So when it comes to life in South Dakota as far as abortion rights South Dakota back in 2005 passed a trigger law that said:

In the event that Roe is overturned, it would be become illegal to perform an abortion in our state except to save the life of a mother. So, that is the law of the land today, and I’m grateful that South Dakota recognizes that every life is precious. I think that the Supreme Court — by fixing this wrong decision that was made almost 50 years ago — has finally done what we’ve always recognized was the true place this discussion should happen. It should happen at the state level. It should happen by people that are elected close to the public near home. So, it’s the right thing to do, and I’m glad of where — I’m proud of where — South Dakota is. I’m sure they’ll continue to have discussions here. But today I’m grateful for our stand for life.

CLAY: Governor Noem, we had Governor Abbott on earlier this week, and he was talking about the disastrous policies as it pertains to energy that are being embraced by the Biden White House. As the governor of South Dakota, for people who may not see it on the statewide level, what has Joe Biden meant to energy production in South Dakota? How much has he hurt?

GOV. NOEM: Well, we don’t produce energy, really, very much in South Dakota. We have a few rigs, but North Dakota got most of the oil. We got Mount Rushmore, which we’re happy for. We love the — we love Mount Rushmore and what it means to the country. But we are a high-demand energy state. So we have it’s very cold in the winter. It’s hot in the summer. And it’s a long ways to drive anywhere. So we have incredible demands.

And when he affects this kind of energy policy and drives up the cost the way that he has it affects every single family. It’s not an option for South Dakotans to not drive, to not buy gas. Oftentimes their work is 30 to 40 miles away. Their school or activities for their kids are 20 to 30 miles. We just have to go anywhere and get in the car to go get groceries, go to the doctor. So it impacts rural states more and our budgets than it does these urban areas that have other options.

CLAY: First of all, apologies to the Dakotas, where we’re big —

GOV. NOEM: (laughing)

CLAY: — and I now am never gonna get elected anywhere in the Dakotas.

BUCK: Our North Dakota affiliate, Clay, is emailing us.

CLAY: By emailing I’m gonna be destroyed now for missing up the Dakotas. But, Governor, your book, I saw earlier on Fox News talking about the impact of your father’s unexpected death and what it meant for you, and I thought it was such a compelling story that you were telling. For people out there who may not know what happened in your life and the story that you are telling, take us into what you wanted to bring to the nation with this book and what that was like for you as a young person to deal with.

GOV. NOEM: Well frankly, I think a lot of people the first time they heard my name was during covid, when Elizabeth Warren and Rachel Maddow and the left were on national TV night after night kicking me in the head for all the decisions I was making in South Dakota. They called me dangerous and reckless. And I’m sure people from across the country thought, “Who is this lady in South Dakota? She just showed up on the scene.” But that’s not true. This is not my first rodeo. I’ve had a long life running businesses, challenges and serving in the legislature and Congress, and it makes me who I am.

So this book is about politics, but it’s also about my life so far. Losing my dad changed everything. My goal growing up was to be a farmer and rancher. He was my best friend. He was a cowboy, he was tough, and my favorite thing in the whole world to is chase cows or go sit in a tree stand. So what I do today is very, very different than what I had planned, anybody in my family had planned. But when he died at the age of 49, we got hit with death taxes, and I came home, quit college, took over the operation as the general manager, and it made me angry.

I could not believe we had a tragedy; all of a sudden, I owed the federal government hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars that I couldn’t pay. I had to take out loans. I couldn’t even get a bank to finance it. I had to get a couple of wealthy farmers to loan me some money. But it took me 10 years to pay off that debt, and I just started showing up at meetings, passionate about tax reform. So that’s how I got involved in government and politics. My dad had always said, “You don’t complain about things, Kristi. You fix ’em,” and more than anything I wanted to make him proud even though he wasn’t gonna be around to see how I turned out.

BUCK: We’re speaking to South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. She has a new book out — Not My First Rodeo: Lessons From the Heartland — just out this week. One more for you, Governor. We’re heading into what looks like — hopefully — a pretty serious Red Wave. How are you seeing it from your perspective, and what is your view? At a point right now where people in your home state, all across the country are having a tough time paying not just for gas, for food, paying the mortgage, paying the rent. What’s your case for optimism right now? Why should people stay engaged when they might be feeling a little disaffected?

GOV. NOEM: Well, I think for the first time we have so many people that are paying attention. We have folks that never cared much about government and politics that because of what happened in the pandemic now are sitting up and saying, “What is the role of government in our lives? What do we want the government telling us to do and not do?” and recognizing that what Biden is doing is destroying America as we know it. So I think that is a reason to be optimistic.

You know, there’s nothing harder than getting people motivated that don’t care. Now people care. They care passionately. And they’re gonna be engaged. Now, our job as elected leaders and as public officials is to make sure that we’re sharing not just what we think but why we believe what we believe — and the history of this country, the Constitution, the role of government in our lives as our founders intended it. So it’s not a time to get lazy and talk in sound bites and just blow people up for an instant headline. We have to start really recognizing that folks are hungry for information, and they want a way of life that our parents had growing up and that they’re ready to do some work to make sure we get it.

CLAY: You mentioned Mount Rushmore a little bit earlier, Governor Noem. So I’ll at least get that right for the Dakota crew, but I thought one of the most powerful speeches Donald Trump gave during his presidency was there in front of Mount Rushmore with you defending American exceptionalism and American history. You obviously have had a much bigger profile in the years since, certainly rolling through covid and beyond. Do you hope that Donald Trump runs for reelection in 2024, a second term, and are you at all interested in the national political landscape potentially as a vice president for him or potentially running for president yourself?

GOV. NOEM: Well, listen, I talk to the president quite often. He’s gonna run. I don’t know of anybody that can beat him in a primary no matter what they say. He’s got an extreme group of loyal people, a large group of people that support him across this country, which is remarkable. And I just don’t think anybody else can beat him in a Republican primary. Maybe a general election would be challenging.

But I think if he put the team together that shows people that he wants to govern and fix what’s broken with this country, fix it as soon as possible, I think that will be very, very powerful. He would announce who his attorney general is gonna be, his secretary of state, his vice president, all of that is important because this man knows good people, he knows tough people. He also understands tackling a problem and getting it fixed. So if he runs, I’ll certainly support him.

BUCK: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. The book, folks, is Not My First Rodeo: Lessons From the Heartland out this week. Governor, thanks for coming on. Good luck to you.

GOV. NOEM: Oh, you guys too. Have a wonderful day. Appreciate it.

CLAY: That is Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota.

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USC and UCLA Leave Pac-12 for Big Ten

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: They do a funny segment on Fox News where it’s Dana talks about sports, and I feel like Buck talks about sports could be a segment. Have you seen them do that on Fox News on America Reports?

BUCK: No.

CLAY: Bill Hemmer.

BUCK: I will throw a flag on this one because I like to play the sports. I know the sports from the playing of the sports. I just don’t watch the leagues where the people are playing for money.

CLAY: Okay, but you, even on your timeline — for those of you out there who are listening to us, a lot of people listening in California — reports are that UCLA and USC are leaving the PAC-12 to join the Big Ten. The Big Ten has got 14 members right now. I know they’re the Big Ten, but they got 14 numbers. It appears they’re moving to 16. They would join the Southeastern Conference where Oklahoma and Texas are soon to join.

And for those of you out there in Austin listening to us right now, one of the cities that we are number one in — one of many. We will be in Austin, Texas, for the Alabama against Texas game in Austin on September 10th. But, Buck, your timeline — which, obviously, has a lot of political-related leanings because you’re directly from the political world, even on your timeline — people are reacting to USC and UCLA.

BUCK: They’re reacting to this like North Korea just invaded Santa Barbara, California, and we need to, like, get all hands on deck here or something. Yeah, they’re freaking out.

CLAY: You were telling me during a break, this is wild even on your timeline. This is a big story, and I told you off air that a story like this would be breaking and then, boom! It pops.

BUCK: Can I ask you a question that may actually get you in a little trouble, but I know you don’t care so you’ll answer it. Are college football fans generally more devoted than professional league fans?

CLAY: Oh, by far.

BUCK: Really?

CLAY: By far. There is a connection to a college football team that is far deeper, in general, than the connection that exists in the NFL. So, if you’re living in New York City right now, Giants and Jets? Your dad came in the studio and talked about being a big Giants fan. For people right now who are listening to us who are big SC or UCLA fans — or if you’re an Ohio State or Michigan fan listening to us right now — you are far more devoted to those schools that are than you are to your favorite teams.

BUCK: I got that sense in Tuscaloosa, I gotta say. This is a whole other level.

CLAY: It’s a ride or die with the college football program.

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If Trump’s So Bad, Why Do They Have to Lie About Him?

30 Jun 2022

BUCK: The January 6th “insurrection” is something that CNN has been fixated on. It continues to get pretty much daily news coverage from the Democrat media. The reasons for this are obvious, right? Anything other than the voters focusing on what is happening right now. This is very straightforward. The Democrat media apparatus can either run footage and stories — some of it apparently false, by the way; we’ll get into that in a second — about what happened 18 months ago, or they could talk to you about all the failed policies, failed promises, and utter catastrophe. Cataclysm, Clay. We were throwing out some other words.

CLAY: Yes. Apocalypse.

BUCK: It’s a Sharknado of awful. What else do we have?

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: It was pretty amazing to see what a mess the Biden regime was year one. Year two seems like it’s gonna be… It’s even worse. All that going on, but there’s still a fixation on this. I was thinking maybe we would have Liz Cheney, we’d play some Liz Cheney audio just so you know what’s being said. But you know what she’s saying. And it’s irrelevant. I don’t think she’s gonna be in Congress much longer. People recognize this, I think, for what it is. And we had the earlier in the week “star witness,” Cassidy Hutchinson, right?

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: The problem with Ms. Hutchinson’s testimony and that is as we discussed the length, it is hearsay. But beyond that, Trump has come out and issued a very Trumpian statement. He says that Hutchinson was, quote, “a whack job aide to Mark Meadows, who has mental problems,” and insists he would lunge at Secret Service agents because, quote, “They lift 350 pounds and I don’t,” which is interesting ’cause I remember when we were talking about this, we said Trump… There are some things… Look, Trump is a brawler verbally. He throws down. He’ll mock people. I mean, we don’t live in fantasyland here. We know that. But physically assaulting a member of the Secret Service? One, the logistics of it seemed impossible based on the story, Clay, but then also, Trump is 74, I think. He was 72 or 73 at the time.

CLAY: Here’s a good question, Buck. Would you take any 75-year-old man in America against any Secret Service agent?

BUCK: Well, also the Secret Service agents on the presidential detail.

CLAY: That’s what I’m saying. Bad ass.

BUCK: They’re particularly ready to roll. Yeah, no, it’s not something that’s gonna happen. Look, the whole thing was ridiculous. But now we see… I’ll tell you this, Clay. I’ve already realized what the out is going to be, because they’ve forced this. Why aren’t we gonna hear from the Secret Service agents?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Of course, we should here from the Secret Service agents now, right? They’re gonna let this fade, and if anyone pushes, they’re just gonna say, “Oh, well, there’s a special role the Secret Service plays,” and we can’t have them great confidentiality,” which, if they make that argument, I just want everyone to be prepared: There’s no legal block on that. They could absolutely testify. There’s not some Secret Service exemption to being subpoenaed, right? That doesn’t exist. And they’re telling us that we almost “lost our democracy,” and we should all be going to sleep at night crying because of how scary Trump is but they’re not gonna make the Secret Service tell us what actually happened that day because, “Whoa, that’s going too far”? These people, these libs, these Democrat frauds in Congress are ridiculous.

CLAY: Well, and this is why yesterday we took calls, Buck, from attorneys on this, because there are a lot of attorneys working on the January 6th committee, and we had a lot of great callers yesterday pointing out that lawyers can’t do this. In a court of law, you would never be allowed to call someone who is testifying on what someone else said, which is hearsay. Moreover, you have an obligation as an attorney to do at least a little bit of effort to attempt to corroborate the allegations that you are making.

And they didn’t even bother to do that. And it’s worth noting that this was a specially scheduled event. And so they made this calculated decision that the salacious nature of the testimony would overwhelm the fact that there is very little evidence to support any of it. In fact, really the only thing she can testify to directly, I believe, Buck, is that Trump threw a plate and it hit the wall when his attorney general said that there wasn’t evidence to support the allegations of fraud.

BUCK: By the way, I heard that one, and I said Trump might have done that.

CLAY: I totally could see that happening, right?

BUCK: Inappropriate, a little naughty slap on the wrist. “Don’t do that, Mr. President.” But I could see him doing that.

CLAY: It doesn’t surprise me that anyone who has a temper, which a lot of our presidents have had, that when they get news that they do not like, that they would throw a plate against a wall. Buck, have you ever thrown your phone?

BUCK: I have not.

CLAY: Okay. I have thrown my phone, but only into the couch when I knew it wouldn’t break, right? I’ve gotten sports scores before that I didn’t like or I’ve been watching a game that I gambled on and I’m conscious enough — even though I’m disappointed in what I’m seeing happen on television screen — that I will take my phone, not throw it where it could be severely injured, but I’ve got it in my hand and I just throw it into the couch so that it doesn’t actually shatter the screen or anything. So what I’m saying is, it doesn’t surprise me that anybody who is emotional and reacting to news might throw something. But that’s not evidence that you can’t be president of the United States, and that’s really the only thing that she can directly testify to in a court of law is something that she herself as witnessed.

BUCK: Yes, and so we’re left here to say, once again… This is what I say and my liberal associates out there in the world always go crazy when I say this to them, and they say, “How can you still support Donald Trump?” They’ll ask me this. “We’re friends. I’ve known you, Buck, since you were 10 or something.” I have some friends that go way back. “How can you still support Donald Trump?” and I always turn around and say, “If he’s so bad, why do you guys have to always lie about him?” I just want an answer. If he’s so awful… By the way, could we switch to 2019 right now? Who in America doesn’t think that pre-pandemic America under Trump wasn’t way better?

CLAY: I would take a lot of mean tweets and plates thrown at the wall over 8.6% interest and $5 a gallon gasoline.

BUCK: Yeah, and that’s actually… When it comes to politicians, you want them to make decisions and operate within the system in a way that makes your life easier or at least doesn’t make it less good, doesn’t make it harder.

CLAY: Doesn’t make it worse.

BUCK: Doesn’t make it worse. Thank you. And, you know, maybe does a few things to protect your liberty. I’m not asking for the moon here. I’m not asking for that much. But I always point this out because they have to continuously lie about him — and even here’s Jim Jordan who, he’s always ready to put the lies in a half nelson.

CLAY: Buck, to your point — and I’ve had a lot of my friends ask the same thing: How did you vote for Trump? How do you continue to support the idea that Trump could be president?

BUCK: And you were double Trumper, right? So you’re like, you were double Trumper?

CLAY: This is… Well, uh, in ’16 I actually voted Libertarian, which is not a proud moment.

BUCK: What?

CLAY: I know. I know. It’s not a proud moment, Buck.

BUCK: We’ll talk about this offline. Keep going. (laughing)

CLAY: I’m sorry. I apologize to America for voting Libertarian.

BUCK: I’m impressed with your honesty, however.

CLAY: Yeah. For better or worse, I say exactly what I think, which is why my wife is still amazed that I get to talk on the radio for a living.

BUCK: In 2016, after feeling like I was part of the 5% of New York that voted for Donald Trump, I was smiling ear to ear — and the whole city, Clay, it was like a zombie apocalypse movie. Everybody was so freaked out and depressed. It was funny.

CLAY: I did not trust Trump or Hillary in 2016. After four years of Trump — after really like two years — I was like, “This guy, I’m all-in,” and so by ’20, it wasn’t like I was anti him. I was just like, “I don’t trust Hillary, I don’t trust Trump, I don’t know what’s gonna happen here.”

BUCK: Did you go, like, “What is ‘Aleppo’? Gary Johnson? Who was the guy?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Ohhh, man.

CLAY: I voted for Gary Johnson. Now, I live in Tennessee.

BUCK: Yeah, I know, it’s a protest vote.

CLAY: Now, by the way, if you’re out there listening and you’re a Libertarian voter and you live in Georgia or you live in Wisconsin or you live in Pennsylvania, I think you’re an imbecile, because you’re throwing your vote away then. You really are. Because your vote matters a great deal. In fact, if you look at the 2020 returns, if the Democrats had the Green Party on the ballot, they would have lost. Republicans lost hundreds of thousands of votes in toss-up states. Libertarians, if you had to choose between voting for Biden or Trump, you would all go with Trump, and so that fires me up. But, Buck, the argument that I would make — and I make to my friends now when they get upset, and they ask me this question.

BUCK: ‘Cause you have the same thing, right? I have lib friends who are like, “You seem nice and normal. Where are you crazy with your Trump love?” and I’m like, “’Cause Trump is so lovable.”

CLAY: There are some people who won’t speak to me anymore because I am such a public Trump supporter and they’re furious with me. But what I always say is — and I would encourage all of you listening to me right now to just raise the point Buck said — if he’s so bad, how come they have to make so many stories up about him? which is a great point. But also, this. How do they only get things wrong in a negative way? ‘Cause some people say, “Well, media is not perfect.” If the media were just imperfect, every now and then there would be a story come out that hugely favorable to Trump. Like, let’s say he saved eight puppies from an alligator at Mar-a-Lago.

BUCK: He gave everybody else two scoops of ice cream and he only took half a scoop.

CLAY: There would be tons of stories that would come out, as often as they are wrong in a negative way. Can you name me one story, Buck, that has ever occurred that has been positive for Trump that was later proven to be untrue?

BUCK: I was very vocal about this going back to 2017 and Don Jr., for example, would say this a lot. There are a bunch of us — I’m sorry you were saying it then, Clay — pointing out that just by the ratio here, by the laws of mathematics, eventually they would have to say something. It doesn’t have to be positive for Trump, just neutral, “Oh, we got the facts a little wrong on this. Let’s update it.” The things that they get wrong are always, “Trump is worse than Hitler!” Oh, turns out he’s actually not worse than Hitler.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: “But we still think he is. It doesn’t matter that the story was wrong.” But I would just — I would point out again, they lie about him constantly also because what in the record, especially now that we’re under a Democrat regime, Clay, what are they gonna go after, in the actual record of policy? They’ll say, “Oh, he’s so racist.” Really? ‘Cause he actually saw a surge in Hispanic and for the GOP African-American voting. He’s so racist? That’s really the best they can do on the bad policy side? Give me a break.

CLAY: I mean, the lies surrounding Charlottesville, the lies that constantly are trumpeted as if they are evidence of his awfulness — and what we’re really seeing is, Biden and the Democrats are everything they warned us about when it came to Trump. They’re the ones who were trying to force you to go get the covid shot, they’re the ones who were trying to force your kids to wear masks, they’re the ones who were overreaching in terms of federal authority.

Biden has been an authoritarian, as much as he could, leader. The only thing that’s pushed back against Biden’s overwhelming attempts to grab power ironically have been Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin, who have refused to accede, and — hammer this home with everybody out there — things are bad with Biden. They would have been far worse if Biden had truly gotten all of it things that he wanted to do put in place. He has been saved by Manchin, by Sinema, and by the Supreme Court.

BUCK: If Biden was back in the basement just letting the press releases out and not actually doing anything, the country would actually be better off if you look at it.

CLAY: It’d be better if Biden had never passed any legislation.

BUCK: Yep.

CLAY: If he had come in and done nothing, inflation would be way lower, and the country would be in a far better place.

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AZ AG Brnovich Reacts to Breaking News on the Border, College Football

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: Arizona AG, Mark Brnovich, joins us now, and we appreciate you joining us. I know you’re probably very disappointed in the Supreme Court decision on Remain in Mexico. Where does this leave us, for those of us who are concerned about border security, and what does it mean in particular for your state of Arizona now that you’ve had a little bit of time to digest the ruling?

BRNOVICH: Yeah. I think it’s very disappointing because the Supreme Court essentially said the Biden administration can end the Trump-era Remain in Mexico program. It’s very disappointing because the Biden administration has completely abandoned the rule of law at the border. And so, you know, we were successful when our office sued to have Title 42 remain in place; so, that’s one of the tools. But the Remain in Mexico policy was one of the policies that was helping at least partially stem the flow on the border.

And so, as the Biden administration continues to, you know, basically decriminalize and incentivize people coming over here, when the court strikes down this Remain in Mexico policy, that is sending a message to people that want to illegally enter our country all over that it’s okay to do it. So look, it wasn’t the end-all, be-all, but it was one of the first things Joe Biden got rid of and he was sending a message to people that he wasn’t gonna enforce border security. And so, I think that it’s obviously dangerous because border security is national security, and I think that Joe Biden has demonstrated that they’re not just trying to abolish ICE, he’s basically trying to destroy our whole southern border.

BUCK: Attorney General Brnovich, we often look at the border situation first and foremost from the perspective of how many illegal aliens have crossed over and these are important numbers, we should all know this. A part of it that I think gets far less attention and is also very important when we’re speaking about border security is interior enforcement of immigration laws, essentially, the people that are being let into the United States after crossing in illegally — and this goes a little bit to the Supreme Court decision today, which I think was wrongly decided, but nonetheless. Are there active deportations going on, for example, within your state at levels that are similar to what they were under the Trump administration? Have they dropped considerably? Because I think that’s also a place where we can see, “Do they want illegal immigration to stop or are they okay with it in the Biden White House?”

BRNOVICH: And that’s exactly one of the issues, one of the problems is because they aren’t deporting folks and in fact one of our lawsuits involving their internment and permanent guidance of the Biden administration was the fact that under the U.S. Code it says, “They shall,” someone shall “be deported within 90 days of a deportation order,” and there are more than a million people in the country right now with deportation orders that the Biden administration is refusing to deport. And so these are folks, like, literally, you have situations where people are being released from jails, from prisons.

And they’re just being released into our community with paperwork to go report to a probation office somewhere. And, you know, who knows if they’re going to or not going to. And I know from even talking to some of the folks I know in federal law enforcement that even recently here in Arizona, there is a group of a dozen folks from countries on our terror watch list from the Middle East that came over, and before they could be interviewed or questioned, they were released. No one has any idea where those dozen people are going or where they’re at.

So that’s the kind of stuff that should keep up at night. It’s not only the people being released in our community, which I call the “decriminalization, incentivization,” at the same time you question these more than, you know, 400,000 got-aways of people that are trying to evade capture detection, because I’ve been to the southern border numerous times and you have people literally coming over with their roller badge, their luggage. They surrender to the Border Patrol. They’re put in a van, they are processed, and then they’re just released.

But then you have these other folks, you know, the population of Arlington, Virginia, greater than the population of Arlington, Virginia, who literally are crossing 110-degree desert in Texas and Arizona — crossing 20 miles of desert — smuggling drugs and smuggling themselves intuited country, and you have to ask yourself, what do those got-aways have in store for the United States? And that’s the problem, guys. This is like a ticking time bomb, and we are gonna pay the cost not only fiscally. We are gonna pay the cost in lost American lives as a result of the drugs and fentanyl and as a result of these gang members and terrorists coming across our border.

CLAY: Mark Kelly is up for reelection here in November. I know you’re running along with many other Republicans to potentially oppose him. How monumental is this Senate race in Arizona, given how tight everything is right now, 50-50 in the Senate — how vulnerable Kelly is, and the disappointment — coming off the 2020 in Arizona? For people who don’t live in your state, can you contextualize us just how important this race is?

BRNOVICH: I tell folks all the time that Arizonans want an Arizona senator representing them, and Mark Kelly votes are Chuck Schumer 97% of the time. I always say, he votes with Bernie Sanders nine out of 10 times. My goodness, guys, even Bernie’s wife doesn’t agree with him nine out of 10 times, and that’s it is thing. So Mark Kelly represents those East Coast values. But when you have candidates that can’t stand up and give a punch and take a punch and articulate and defend conservative values, we lose.

I’m very proud of the fact that in 2018 I actually was outspent, and I got more votes than Sinema or McSally in the 2018 election cycle because I’m a known entity. I grew up here in Arizona. I’m a first generation American. I live in the same neighborhood I grew up in, and I’m a principled conservative. Ten out of 10 times, people know what I stand for and what I believe, and that’s what’s it’s gonna take to beat Mark Kelly. Arizona has a long history of rejecting self-funders. And if there’s one thing we hate more than self-funders, it’s people from California and the East Coast trying to buy a Senate seat.

CLAY: Attorney General Brnovich, I don’t know how much of a sports fan you are. I am a big —

BRNOVICH: Huge sports fan!

CLAY: Okay.

BRNOVICH: Huge sports fan.

CLAY: So you may have seen this news, you may not have. I may be breaking it for you right now. There are reports that UCLA and USC are leaving the PAC-12, and they would be joining the Big Ten. So the Big Ten would be expanding from 14 to 16 teams. For those of you out there listening who are sports fans, this will be a big deal. You are in the state of Arizona. Arizona and Arizona State are in the PAC-12. Do you have any sort of reaction both as a sports fan and maybe as a lawyer who represents Arizona interests on that story that is just breaking right now as we are talking with you?

BRNOVICH: Okay. I don’t know how much time we have but first and foremost, I actually (unintelligible) game director at one point, so I know a lot about sports and sports gambling, so I actually supported New Jersey’s lawsuit against the NCAA when they struck down the federal prohibitions on sports gambling.

CLAY: Yeah, I was there by the way, AG Brnovich, in the Supreme Court watching that argument. It’s the only Supreme Court argument I’ve ever watched in person so that was a big win for New Jersey striking down PASFA to allow sports gambling, just to give the background on that.

BRNOVICH: We joined in support of that lawsuit. And next time I’m at the Supreme Court, you should come as one of my guests. It will be fun because you’ll be the only other guy wearing Adidas high tops along with me.

CLAY: (laughing)

BRNOVICH: So, so… I supported the right of the athletes to get paid and compensated for using their image, likeness, and name. So I have a healthy distrust of the NCAA. I do think it’s a cartel. Look, my official reaction is, my goodness, the Big Ten, when I think of the big the 10, I think of Wisconsin, you know, Michigan versus Ohio State — the snow and, you know, the big offensive linemen and three yards and a cloud of dust, right? Woody Hayes, Bo Shembechler, all that stuff. Barry Alvarez!

So you think of that when I think of the Big Ten. I don’t think of the West Coast and passing. And I’ll tell you I’m a Sun Devil, you know, I went to ASU I grew up a huge Sun Devil fan and we used to have a saying out here that “The Trojans suck. Even the pope hates condoms.” Can I say that on the air? I don’t know. My point is that, yeah, I’ve never been a big fan of the University of Spoiled Children — and look, there’s a lot of reasons to dislike L.A. and USC and UCLA are two of them.

BUCK: AG Brnovich, en fuego.

BRNOVICH: (laughing)

BUCK: The attorney general, state of Arizona, thank you for being with us, man, we appreciate it.

BRNOVICH: Thanks, guys, as always. Thank you very much.

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Dems Aren’t Done with Covid, But You Can Stop Them in November

30 Jun 2022

JHA: We have demonstrated that we can build vaccines very quickly, but I am worried that we are not spending enough time learning the lessons of this one. I worry that people are tired of this pandemic and want to move on. We all want to move on. But that’s fine, and I think for the average American I totally understand that. For our political leaders, that’s not okay. We’ve gotta learn the lessons of this pandemic, make sure we understand what went right, what went wrong. A lot of things went right. A lot of things went wrong. Um, I don’t know that we’re spending enough time really looking at that carefully and making sure that we learned those lessons and apply them to future pandemics.

BUCK: They have learned none of the lessons.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: Welcome back to Clay and Buck. That’s the White House covid adviser Dr. Ashish Jha. They have learned nothing from all of the wrong. They were wrong about essentially everything. If you were to… Clay, if we sit here and go through a list, they were wrong about how it was spread —

CLAY: Yep.

BUCK: — they were wrong about how lethal it was —

CLAY: Yep.

BUCK: — they were wrong about the effectiveness of masks —

CLAY: Yep.

BUCK: — they were wrong about the effectiveness of lockdowns, they were wrong about preventing people from gathering in public, they were wrong about the effectiveness of vaccine… I mean, I could just sit here and go on. They were wrong about everything.

CLAY: Everything.

BUCK: They fired people from their jobs for not getting a vaccine that did not at all stop the spread, and they’re not done, everybody. That’s why we’re sitting here telling you, please do not forget this. The lunatics are still in charge. Fauci isn’t done. They are still out there.

CLAY: If you want to be a single-issue voter — in general, I’m not a single-issue voter guy. I don’t like the idea that all you care about one thing and you toss everything else on the scrap heap. This November, however, I do think is a single issue-type election, which is if you want to live normally, if you want to have a life where you and your family do not have to constantly be looking over your shoulder to know whether your kids are gonna be in school, whether your kids are gonna have to wear masks.

Whether your kids are gonna have to get covid shots — if you yourself don’t want to be forced to get booster shots for the rest of your life — you have to vote red. You have to vote for Republicans. Even if you’re listening to us right now and that makes you feel a little bit apprehensive — because I guarantee you Buck there’s a lot of people listening to us right now that aren’t traditional Republican voters, but they are fed up. Single-issue voter, if you’re going to be one, has to be on covid. It has to send a message to Democrats, ’cause they’re not done.

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Biden Backs Killing Filibuster for Abortion, But Manchin and Sinema Say No Within Minutes

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: For those of you out there that are paying attention to the Joe Biden administration, Buck, what is amazing to me about Joe Biden — and I don’t mean “amazing” in a good way — is he’s constantly coming out and arguing for principles or policies or political agendas that are shot down within 10 or 15 minutes of him coming out and advocating for them, and this happened again. He’s in Germany, overseas, getting ready to go to Saudi Arabia and bend the knee and beg for them to produce more oil and gas.

Generally speaking, the long-standing American policy has been, you don’t attack domestic politics overseas because it makes America look weaker to be feuding with domestic politics-related issues when we’re on the international stage. Biden can barely talk at this point. I don’t even know if he recognizes what he said and how awful it registered for many people. But I want to listen to you… I said he was in Germany. I apologize. Biden’s actually in Spain right now. Not that it matters very much one way or the other where he is. But this was today in Madrid, Spain, at the NATO summit.

Here was what Joe Biden had to say about the Supreme Court at his press conference:

BIDEN: The one thing that has been destabilizing is the outrageous behavior of the Supreme Court of the United States in overruling not only Roe v. Wade by essentially challenging the right to privacy. We’ve been a leader in the world in terms of personal rights and privacy rights, and it is a mistake — in my view — for the Supreme Court to do what it did.

CLAY: Biden then built on this and argued that he is now in favor of removing the filibuster for purposes of “enshrining Roe v. Wade as a federal right” through congressional action. In order to do that, however, his own party would have to support him, and almost immediately upon Biden saying, “Hey, we need to change the filibuster rules to enshrine Roe v. Wade as federal law,” Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona and Joe Manchin from West Virginia — two Democrats that have consistently opposed much of Biden’s agenda — said they still will not change any of their positions on the filibuster. So enshrining Roe v. Wade as a federal right and eliminating the filibuster for purposes of this issue it appears is not going to happen. Your thoughts, Buck, as you saw all of this play out this morning and just blow up one more time in front of Joe Biden.

BUCK: Isn’t it amazing that Mr. Unity, Joe Biden, who promised to bring the country together, is talking about a “destabilizing” Supreme Court decision and, by doing so, destabilizing things.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: This is a perfect Bidenism. He acts like he is a savior or defender of the system when in fact he’s the one kicking at the load-bearing walls, taking a few swings with the sledgehammer because his polls are in the dumpster and his party is failing and we can all see it and we all know it. So what does he do? The usual, right? Takes shots at the other side, the same talking points you’ve heard before. Also, this “right to privacy,” I guarantee you Joe Biden didn’t actually read the Supreme Court decision last night. Guaranteed. There’s no… He’s a, quote, lawyer, right? He went to law 50 years. This guy is not somebody’s who’s up on the latest jurisprudence.

CLAY: I think finished last in his class at Syracuse.

BUCK: Yes.

CLAY: If I’m not mistaken.

BUCK: A distinguished… I think it might have been second or third-to-last, to be fair.

CLAY: Low ranking in his class at Syracuse.

BUCK: But not blowing anyone away with his intellectual prowess in his twenties —

CLAY: Intellectual acumen. Yes.

BUCK: — nonetheless, and that was Syracuse law school in, like, what seventies?

CLAY: I think way before the seventies.

BUCK: Sixties? He’s old, man, I can’t even keep up.

CLAY: I would think it would have to be the sixties.

BUCK: Sixties. So the point here being, Joe Biden’s got nothing. But I also think “the right to privacy,” this was the concoction, this was the fabrication that all of Roe is built on and was just completely dismantled. What is that right, exactly? Do you have a right to privacy to abuse your spouse because it’s behind closed doors in your home? No, you do not. Do you have a right to abuse your children because of a right to privacy?

This Joe Biden talking point and the whole regime that Biden has around him that’s collapsing, along with the talking points, just shows you, Clay, how desperate they are. I said this before: Gavin Newsom is now… They’re just money machine goes, “Brrr! Send everybody checks! Just start sending people checks in California so they don’t turn on your party,” in a period of high inflation, mind you.

CLAY: Yeah, that’s the craziest thing. California’s solution to inflation — we’re not even making this up — is to send 23 million, I believe it is, households $1,050. So, the way for the government to solve inflation, I guarantee you, is not by the government giving people more money. Buck, there are two things that jump out to me about this aside from the fact that Joe Biden’s own party won’t support his policy. Number one, this, to me, means that the abortion issue is not registering with voters, okay?

And what I mean by that is, if it were registering with voters on a high-intensity level, they wouldn’t be desperate to try to enshrine it in law right now while they have control of Congress. They would use it primarily as an issue for why people need to support ’em. So I don’t think that the abortion issue is really registering like Democrats hoped it would. Second part: If this were to occur, as we have seen with Supreme Court justices, sooner or later what happens is abortion would become tax policy. Let me explain what I mean by that.

When a Democrat or a Republican president comes into office and typically has strong majorities in the House or Senate, what do they do? They change tax policy, the tax rates on capital gains ’cause of different views of how the government should grow the economy — by the way, Republicans are right. (laughs) All of the data reflects that when you stifle growth with high tax rates, you end up choking out so much growth. But you’re constantly shifting the tax policy based on who’s in positions of power at that time.

If this were to happen, Buck, I think what would happen is abortion would constantly be shifting back and forth on a federal level because when Republicans got control of the House and Senate and the White House, they would pass laws that gave states the right, or they would try to put past their own federal legislation, and so you’d constantly be swinging from one direction to another, and it would basically turn abortion into the tax policy where one eight years, the policy is one way and then eight years later, it’s change in the other direction.

BUCK: And of course this would, speaking of destabilize, as Biden said, this would really destabilize any faith that people have —

CLAY: It would be a total crazy thing.

BUCK: — foundational rule of law, right? Because to your point, Clay, okay. The top tax rate federally, 39%, 35%, all right, the only certainties in life, death and taxes, right?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: We know we’re gonna be paying taxes. If you’re a 35% guy fortunate enough to be last year and now, you’re a 39% guy, it’s annoying, but the shift that you’re talking about now that would happen in law would be —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — well, let’s say a medical doctor who provided an abortion for somebody did a year ago is now considered murder, but after the fact, they can’t write in that prosecution.

CLAY: You’re constantly shifting back and forth.

BUCK: — so you’re gonna be now having people who say, the law now says what I did a year ago is murder and I can go to prison. We have Governor Noem on. I think in South Dakota you could face up to a life sentence nor abortion, I believe, or maybe it’s 35 years. We’ll ask about some of this but in some of these states these trigger laws are very serious. So then the federal law could come in, “Oh, no, it’s fine! Everyone has a right to this for all three trimesters,” and then Republicans take charge and it’s, “Oh, no, actually you can go to prison for decades for this.”

Cycles of that will destroy all faith in the rule of law, and everybody should understand that. We know that states have different laws. And they stay with those laws. The federal government coming in to make all 50 states keep shifting? It’s just untenable. That’s why this idea they had of setting up abortion clinics in national parks… What do they think happens when Republicans take control of the Congress?

CLAY: It’s all emblematic, I think, of the craziness that we’re in. If you allow an exemption to the filibuster for purposes of abortion, Republicans are certainly going to, first of all, respond in kind on abortion. But eventually once you create these exceptions, the filibuster’s gone.

BUCK: Yeah, Democrats are such a bunch of whiny little brats on this. They wanted to use the exception of filibuster for H.R. 1, for voting rights; so important; so important.

CLAY: That’s right. They’re constantly trying to craft these exceptions.

BUCK: Everything they want is so important that it’s the one-time break in the filibuster. Seriously, it’s like we’re negotiating with little children who are being terrorists.

CLAY: It also is just going to create a huge mess. So the end result — and Biden had to know this, Buck — is that Sinema and Manchin aren’t changing their positions, and barring some totally unexpected Republican support for this filibuster change, then what Biden said in Spain earlier today was essentially wiped out as a policy imperative within 20 minutes, almost, of him saying it, meaning that he’s really just saying this to try to placate the left wing in his party, knowing, in my opinion, the practical reality of it occurring is virtually zero.

BUCK: I think it’s also bluster from Biden, right? I mean, this is just —

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: — what else is he going to say? What has he delivered for the left-wing base other than a lot of inflation? People don’t remember the checks they were getting six months ago, a year ago, right? That whole… Any goodwill from the inflation machinery that he put in place is gone.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: That’s why now what is he offering? He’s offering Jan. 6 — which we’ll talk more about the latest with that later on — and, what, this?

CLAY: I think it’s such a well said argument. And this is one that I believe Republicans need to be hammering more. Buck, Biden failed with a House and Senate backing him. And not only did he fail in terms of creating the worst economy and maybe the worst overall environment in our country in most of our lives, the only reason it’s not worse is because members of his own party refuse to allow him to do what he wanted to do! Democrats were a disaster, but they were only protected from being… What’s even worse than a disaster? A cataclysm? I don’t even know. It’s a good question. What is a worse word than a disaster?

BUCK: A Bidenism.

CLAY: (laughing) The only reason it’s not an apocalyptic is because they actually opposed what he was trying to do, Buck, and I don’t think Republicans are making that argument strong enough because Biden’s gonna say, “Oh, well, grrr, I didn’t want my own what I wanted to get done.” No, if you had, everything would be worse. Everything would be so much worse if he had actually gotten what he wanted.

BUCK: And all of the things that he could do, and that the federal government could do to improve the situation in a material way — to bring down the cost of energy, to bring down inflation, to increase economic growth, to secure the border, to bring down violent crime across the country, all the things that would work to do that — Democrats are ideologically opposed to. They don’t like the solutions, so we keep suffering as a result.

CLAY: He told us all, Buck, we were gonna have a “winter of death” and tried to make sure that 84 million people had to get the covid shot, and the only thing that stopped that from happening was the Supreme Court!

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Hochul: I Don’t Need Data to Grab Your Guns

30 Jun 2022

BUCK: I sit here, Clay, and I get so frustrated, too, because we’re being lectured by the media constantly about violence nationwide, right? We’re being told that we have to tackle the problem of violence. Of course, we all agree. Violence is horrible. The most serious crimes we have to deal with involve the use of violence, the criminal use of force — and yet what you see is this fixation on the NRA and gun laws instead of the real problem.

The problem is not somebody who wants to have an AR-15 that they have in their home lawfully and take to the range. You can take their 10-round magazine and make it seven or make it five or tell him they’re only allowed to own a blunderbuss or whatever, it’s not going to change the crime problem. That’s why when Kathy Hochul is going out there saying now in response to the Supreme Court decision on New York State’s gun-carry policy… Here’s what she says. Listen to this.

BUCK: Just put aside for a second, she is honestly one of the dumbest people in politics on the scene today.

CLAY: Clearly not a smart person.

BUCK: One of the dumbest people in American politics today. But, beyond that, Clay, notice it’s what’s politically convenient for Democrats. “Gun violence is bad. Shootings are up. Violence across the board is up. Let’s go after people who obey gun laws and harass them more, because they are disproportionately Republican and male and not the base of the Democrat Party,” instead of dealing with where the violence is happening, which is going to be in cities, which is going to involve people with criminal records. They don’t want to touch that issue. “Bail reform laws? That’s not gonna do anything! Plainclothes units? That’s not…” This is their mentality. But, you know, changing the front stock on an AR-15? That’s hero stuff right there.

CLAY: Credit to the media who asked that question because it elucidated the response of, “I don’t need data. I don’t need any actual facts to support my arguments because…” Did you hear that answer? She’s clearly not very smart. But she also, I don’t think, was expecting to get a question like that, which basically said, “Hey, can you provide any facts, evidence to back up your policy at all?” And she said, “I don’t need it,” which is, welcome to Democrats in 2022.

BUCK: The way Democrats deal with crime is what feels good for them to do and what is politically expedient for them to do. Really tackling the problem? No interest. No interest.

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SCOTUS Rules on Remain in Mexico and EPA

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: We want to hit you with a couple of Supreme Court decisions that came down and the reaction to those. The EPA’s power has been severely curtailed, and this is part of a larger issue with agencies taking overwhelming sort of running room to be able to advance causes which the agency cares about, without any congressional oversight or authority. So, this sort of unregulated agency state has been reined in — in particular, the EPA and their ability to regulate carbon emissions — in a 6-3 decision that came down within the last couple of hours.

Also, that’s a positive for those of us out there who believe that democracy should actually matter and are concerned about the federal bureaucracy’s overreach. In a 5-4 decision, however, where John Roberts joined the majority, the Remain in Mexico plan, which had been overwhelmingly successful… Buck, you can speak to this pretty well because you’ve been to the border several times. Donald Trump solved much of the issues that were arising in terms of illegal immigration with a Remain in Mexico policy, which Joe Biden has repealed, and the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, decided that the Biden administration did have the ability, due to the immigration powers residing inside of the executive branch, to overturn that Remain in Mexico policy of Donald Trump. Impact there from your perspective.

BUCK: The Alito dissent is pretty blistering on this one, and it’s when you go and read into it a little bit, what you find is so much of this is rooted in bad-faith execution of the laws by the executive branch. So, Alito starts out by writing, “In 2021, Border Patrol reported 1.7 million encounters with aliens in the borders.” Notice the Supreme Court uses the term “alien,” not “undocumented,” by the way, because that’s actually the federal code term.

“When it appears that one of these aliens is not admissible, may the government simply release the alien in this country and hope that the alien will show up for the hearing at which his or her entitlement to remain will be decided? Congress has provided a clear answer to that question. The answer is ‘no.’ By law, if an alien is not clearly and beyond a doubt entitled to be admitted, the alien shall be detained.” So the problem here… That’s from the Alito dissent.

Four justices, of course, going along with this, five. You had Kavanaugh and Roberts on the wrong side of this one. No surprise with Roberts. Kavanaugh also, honestly, a little… For all the, “Oh, my gosh!” Kavanaugh, he’s like Roberts with a little more hair. He’s really not that reliable. I’m just gonna say it. But you look at this, and what the core of the issue is the Biden administration is using its executive authority to ignore the intent of the law even if the actual verbiage of the law allows for this so that people can continue by the millions to scam our immigration system, enter illegally, and stay forever. Biden could stop this, Clay. DHS, Mayorkas running it, could stop it. They choose not to. That’s what’s at the core of the decision.

CLAY: And if I listened yesterday to our interview with Texas governor Greg Abbott, in addition to the saying that Joe Biden to blame for the 50-plus deaths that recently occurred in those smuggling deaths in the back of the truck, he also said that Mayorkas should be impeached by Republicans after the midterms based on his failure to protect the border. And this certainly is going to be a major topic in the state of Arizona where the direction of United States Senate may well turn. You’ve got Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, all of these states with really important Senate elections where we’re tied 50-50.

Maybe there will be other states that end up in the mix too. But it’s a tougher, much tougher, Senate battleground than it is for the House. Almost a hundred billion percent right now, the House is going to be in Republican control. Speaker Pelosi is going to be gone. But the Senate, Buck, as we’ve talked about for a long time, Democrats are not having to defend as many seats. The seats, many of them that they are defending, are on much safer ground.

And so who controls the Senate in 2022 is going to really kind of be potentially on a razor’s edge. It just may come down to Arizona. We’re talking to Mark Brnovich here in a little bit, the attorney general of Arizona. I know there’s a battle going on for the Republican Senate nomination there to go against Mark Kelly. But this is the kind of issue in Arizona that could be incredibly important, and we’re gonna talk about this issue with him next hour.

BUCK: Democrats are for open borders. The Biden administration is making it so. It’s a clear decision. And if the American people don’t like it, they need to be held — these Democrats need to be held — to account. Just one more thing on the EPA, Clay, before we… I know we’re gonna talk about Biden and the filibuster, ending the filibuster, overturn the system, ’cause they care so much about our sacred democracy until they don’t get their way, then they want to take their ball home and no one else can play with it, right?

But Barack Obama on the EPA thing, he just tweets this stuff:

If we had a bad week in Europe, we could have a nuclear war with Russia. But Obama says the biggest challenge right now — people can’t afford their gas, the border’s wide open, the inflation’s the worst it’s been in 40 years, the biggest challenge to our future — is the theoretical rise of 0.5 degrees Celsius in global climate that we may have over the next 40 to 50 years. I’m crying already.

CLAY: You and I have talked about this on the show quite a bit. Neither of us loses an ounce, a moment’s sleep over the global warming. I just… It’s not even in my top 20 concerns right now.

BUCK: It’s a religious belief for libs who think they’re too smart for religion. It really is. This is their stand-in. This is why they say, “I’m gonna save the planet.” They’re not, actually, and you know what? I got news for them. We’re all gonna die.

CLAY: Wha! How about a way to end the hour, Sexton!

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

JESSICA SCHNEIDER: This is really a blow to the Biden administration and the EPA moving forward on two fronts and it impacts other agencies and how they’ll regulate. This is impacting the administration when it comes to the EPA saying that they can’t broadly regulate power plants, but then agencies as well, saying that if there are these major questions that have political implications, broad economic implications, that agencies basically won’t be given carte blanche to regulate here. So this is a really a major takedown of the administrative state here.

POPPY HARLOW: It is a major takedown of the administrative state.

BUCK: That’s fantastic, isn’t it? I just wanted you to hear that. That was CNN. They’re reacting to that Supreme Court decision with horror. “A takedown of the administrative state! Why don’t we have unelected bureaucrats sitting around in cubicles who can ruin lives and businesses with a stroke of a pen without any accountability and who clock out every day at 4:30 p.m. and could care less what their edicts do to the country?”

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: CNN’s really concerned about this. I just think it’s so funny having worked in the federal government and knowing what the mentality. That wasn’t the EPA. That was the CIA. But a lot of people work in federal government it’s like, “Yeah, I get paid the same either way, folks.” They really don’t care. I mean, you look at what the EPA’s done with its regulation of wetlands, for example. There are people that are getting bankrupted because the EPA decides that the swamp puddle in their backyard that’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes is a “wetland” that has to be protected. I mean, crazy stuff. The administrative state is one of the biggest threats —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — maybe the biggest threat — to the freedom of the American people. So while we didn’t get… I thought we were gonna get a win today actually on Remain in Mexico. We did not. Frustrating. But we did get the win we were expecting the EPA and I just want to say it’s still been a really good run, Clay, with the Supreme Court. And this EPA thing, I know a lot of people think, “Ah, CO2 isn’t a pollutant. We breathe out CO2!” Think about this. This is what this is all rooted in. They’re trying to regulate CO2 levels and CO2 emissions out of power plants? This is crazy.

CLAY: Well, it also builds on, to your point, the constantly expanding powers of the administrative state. Take it away from the ruling today — and remember that the CDC put in place an eviction moratorium — the CDC! — and Joe Biden tried to argue in favor of it, and the Supreme Court struck it down. So all of these administrative states have grown so bloated and powerful because there has been very little pushback on what authority they have to implement policies as an unelected agency.

And sooner or later we needed to have some of those powers regulated, and that’s what we’ve started to see. There will be a lot of attention paid certainly to abortion. There will be a lot of attention paid to the gun decision. This was a very consequential Supreme Court term. But in terms of the long-range legacy of the administrative state, the CDC getting slapped down over the eviction moratorium — and now the EPA getting struck down over this regulatory authority — may be even more significant in the long term in terms of what is permissible and impermissible going forward.

BUCK: I just want to say, anytime we can do a victory dance in the end zone over the administrative state getting a slap-down, we should do it. Because the administrative state, folks? Oh! A lot of you have probably tangled with the bureaucrats of the apparatus before. Ruthless, destructive, and they just don’t care. They just don’t care, it’s the reality.

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Black Adults Murder White Kid at LeBron’s School and He’s Silent

30 Jun 2022

CLAY: Almost no one is discussing 17-year-old Ethan Liming. He was murdered in the parking lot of LeBron James’ high school in Akron, Ohio. They have now done the full autopsy. He was stomped to death. Stomped to death in the parking lot of LeBron James’ high school. His spine was broken. These details are excruciating to even be able to share with you from the autopsy. Joe Kinsey has written about it up at OutKick.com.

But three guys have been charged with stomping this kid to death. This started, Buck, over a water gun. There were kids playing basketball outdoors at LeBron James’ high school. Another kid riding in a car came by with a water gun. Now, the kid who was stomped to death, 17-year-old Ethan Liming, is a white kid. There were three adult black men who stomped him to death, allegedly. Donovan Jones, Tyler Stafford and Deshawn Stafford. They are 21, 19, and 20 years old. Think about how much LeBron James has spoken out related to violence and issues.

Remember he posted a picture of a cop who had fired a shot and said, “You’re next” basically? He hasn’t said a word. He has not mentioned Ethan Liming’s name once. This kid was stomped to death, Buck, in the parking lot of his school, and LeBron James? All of his tweets, all of his Instagram messages, he’s weighed in on every left-wing social justice issue, accused everybody of racism. Three black kids stomped this white kid to death in his parking lot; he hasn’t even mentioned this kid’s name. When we come back, I just want to talk about how focusing on identity over crime has led us to such a disastrous place in our country.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: The situation, as you break it down, with this LeBron James incident… The only reason why this initially went public, Buck, is because they couldn’t figure out who the kids were — and they’re not kids, they’re grown-ups now. But they initially thought maybe they were minors that had stomped this kid to death. So was an initial search. LeBron said nothing about, “Hey, let’s try and catch these guys. Let’s try and make sure that we have justice.” He just sent out a random tweet that said, “Prayers up for the victim” in this situation.

He didn’t name him, didn’t give any indication who the killers may have been, and I just want everyone out there to think about the way that LeBron would have handled this situation if three white kids had stomped a black kid to death in the parking lot of his high school. Do you think he would have only sent out a tweet saying, “Prayers up for the victim,” or would the city of Akron be burning over this incident if you change the races outside of LeBron’s school? Now, the reason why I bring this up is, we have created…

Social media has certainly accelerated it, but we have created the idea that victims only matter based on the identity of who kills them. That’s really the legacy of BLM. It should be “Black Lives Matter” in parenthetical “(when white people are involved in their deaths),” because all of the inner city shootings that go on that are overwhelmingly black-on-black crime, most people don’t even pay attention, and the vast majority of BLM activists don’t even lift a finger when kids are murdered every single day all over this country.

There are thousands and thousands of murder victims getting no justice in this country and the only time, by and large, the media pays attention is when there’s an identity-politics angle to cover. So, LeBron is a perfect example of this because he tweets all the time and incessantly about race-related grievance. But in his own school’s parking lot, when a white kid was stomped to death by three different black kids, LeBron James won’t even utter the name of the white victim.

BUCK: And they were grown men. They were adults.

CLAY: Grown men, and he wouldn’t even ask for people in Akron, his hometown, to help catch the culprits here. He still hasn’t said anything, Buck — and to me, it’s emblematic of what a fraud he is.

BUCK: It’s the same LeBron James who called out the police officer who shot —

CLAY: Yeah, exactly right.

BUCK: — I believe it was Ma’Khia Bryant because she was attacking someone with a knife.

CLAY: He saved someone’s life.

BUCK: He saved a black girl’s life —

CLAY: — with a knife —

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: He saved a black girl’s life and the police officer arrived on the scene and shot the woman to keep her from stabbing to death another person, and LeBron put a picture up of that police officer and said basically, “You’re next,” if I remember correctly, arguing that he was the new Derek Chauvin.

BUCK: One of the most grotesque things a celebrity has done involving police action I’ve ever seen to be honest with you. Another reason why LeBron James is the most famous NBA player. I do not watch the NBA. I do not support the NBA.

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