CLAY: There’s a great clip where on Morning Joe right behind enemy lines on MSNBC this morning Obama economic adviser Brett Ratner, I believe, basically says, “Hey, the only reason why Joe Biden and the rest of the country is not completely underwater.

BUCK: Steve Rattner. Yeah.

CLAY: Steve Rattner — my bad — is because Joe Manchin actually rejected Joe Biden’s advice.

MSNBC’s @SteveRattner on the inflation crisis: “You almost have to thank @Sen_JoeManchin for blocking” Biden’s $6 trillion Build Back Better bill. pic.twitter.com/YXsl1X7yGh

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 13, 2022

BUCK: Yeah. We said that, what, six months ago?

CLAY: We argued that aggressively on this show.

BUCK: We kept saying that they should be thanking, they should be bended knee begging forgiveness now from Joe Manchin for saving the Democrat Party. You get to 10, 12, 14% inflation, all bets are off, man. At that point, the pain people would feel going into the midterms, you might start to see some blue areas, real blue areas where they have second thoughts about what they’re doing in terms of the voting pattern.

But, I mean, this was Obama’s auto czar, if you remember. This was the guy who restructured the auto industry, and the bondholders got the rough end of the deal because they decided to help out the unions. Anyway, this is the guy who came in and redid it for Obama. And Clay, he sounds like he listens to the Clay and Buck show and borrows our analysis.

CLAY: That’s exactly what I was gonna say. Even Joe Scarborough! Joe Scarborough sounded like a Clay and Buck listener there. And, by the way, it’s worth mentioning, Joe Scarborough used to represent the Panhandle of Florida. That is one of the most conservative regions in the entire country. I know. I got a place there. I absolutely love it.

BUCK: Is he representing Nantucket now? Is that what he represents? Just wondering.

CLAY: (laughing) I don’t know but he sounded… When you listen to that question, it sounded like he listens to the show. And, hey, maybe Joe’s listening. Maybe he’s recognized that the reason this show is growing so much and growing so fast.

BUCK: Are we just right a lot? I mean, I think we need to start thinking about that possibility.

CLAY: Well, we definitely are right a lot. Also have great hair.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: At ClayAndBuck.com, our fabulous website, we have transcripts of the show that are up for your perusing and if you go and look on December 15th of 2021 we’re talking about how Joe Manchin is basically bailing out his party from its own insanity. Remember, Build Back Better was the single Biden agenda that he was pushing — that and mandatory vaccines — more than anything else. The Build Back Better plan, you heard it over and over and over again, and it didn’t go through because of Democrats or a Democrat or two in this case.

Here’s what we were saying December 15th six months ago.

BEGIN ARCHIVE CLIP

CLAY: If the Democrats cannot get this Build Back Better bill done before 2021 ends, then you’re gonna have the holiday break.

And then you move into a midterm election year which could make things even more difficult, potentially, to get done. But Joe Manchin appears to be holding his ground. And one more bit here, Buck. Joe Manchin is also saying now that he may well run for reelection in 2024. Donald Trump won the state of West Virginia by 39 points. If he’s running for reelection, he ain’t backing Build Back Better. I’d be stunned.

BUCK: I think he likes being the most powerful senator at this moment in America.

CLAY: Yeah, he is.

BUCK: I think he enjoys that he’s in a position — and let’s be honest about this. He is the dam holding back the left-wing insanity within his own party here.

END ARCHIVE CLIP

BUCK: Now here we are, and you’ve got Rattner, who was the auto czar under Obama, saying, yeah, he held back the left-wing insanity within his own party.

CLAY: And Joe Scarborough on MSNBC. These are now common talking points because — I think this is very important. You may have friends who are independents, you may have friends who are busy and just don’t spend a lot of time paying attention to politics — what you need to point out is that not only has Joe Biden been, I think, the worst president in any of our lives.

Also he would have been an even worse president by far if he’s gotten to do what he was trying to do, Buck, because right now $1.2 trillion in infrastructure, $1.9 trillion in addition covid spending that only Democrats supported, and he wanted to spend over $5 trillion more on Build Back Better. So if you’re out there right now and maybe you talk to people who are Democrat-leaning.

Maybe you talk to people who are independent voters. You need to make it clear that the only reason why we aren’t in more dire economic straits than we are right now — sitting at 8.6% inflation is — because Joe Biden didn’t get his way, ’cause what they’re trying to argue now — and be prepared for this going forward. They’re gonna say, “Oh, the Republicans obstructed us from being able to enact our agenda.” You better be glad that there was some obstruction because otherwise we’d all be screwed even more than we actually are right now.

BUCK: They should be thankful that we didn’t think that spending another $5 trillion or $6 trillion was a sane thing to do. They should be thankful that we keep pushing back on the Green New Deal nonsense. Gavin Newsom and Justin Trudeau, who really is… Here’s the real question: Is Trudeau the Canadian version of Newsom or is Newsom the American version of Trudeau? I don’t know. They kind of go back and forth. They were announcing a new climate change package. We didn’t have to play the audio on that because who cares. But Ron DeSantis of Florida is pointing out this whole anti-fossil fuel energy thing is an article of religious faith for the Democrat Party now.

CLAY: So that’s Ron DeSantis firing back at the overall disastrous energy policies that are out there right now.