BUCK: As you may know, today is the first day of the January 6 hearings, and there will never be enough January 6 hearings for Democrats all across the spectrum. They use this, first and foremost, as a means of attacking all conservatives, all of their political opponents. This is not just about anybody who broke the law. It’s not about the riots that occurred that day.

This is about trying to defame and undermine — and, therefore, justify a narrative of perpetual offense against conservatism because we’re all supposed to be insurrectionists in their minds. That’s what this is about. This is about collective guilt. And it’s about distracting people from what has occurred under the Biden administration so far.

The things that actually affect your life right now, like the situation of the economy, our wide-open southern border, crime rising in the streets, dysfunction in the major population centers all across America. Democrats not seeming to have a clue about how to get anything done that’s actually good for the American people but, no! It’s much better to have Adam Schiff and others running around telling us that this is just like 9/11.

SCHIFF: Then, uhh, like now, there was some initial opposition of the Bush administration. They thought the — the commission might report negatively on how they didn’t stop 9/11 from happening. But there were enough people of goodwill in both parties to overcome that and come up with a bipartisan product.

But that Republican Party, uh, that was willing to do that in 2001 and 2002 is not Donald Trump’s Republican Party. Uh, had Kevin McCarthy been the leader then, there would have been no 9/11 Commission. Um, there would have been, y’know, an effort that — what? — uhhh, persuade the country that, what, it didn’t happen or it’s overblown or who knows what the explanation would have been.

BUCK: Clay, comparing January 6 to 9/11 is outrageous beyond words. It starts to get alongside, in terms of the exaggeration, when the former CIA director, I believe, said that what Trump was running at our southern border were akin to concentration camps for migrants.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: This is just crazy.

CLAY: It’s crazy, and I wonder how flat this is going to be fall in the general public at large. Right? I understand the idea of for the base, the Democratic Party painting this as an insurrection and everybody is crazy associated with supporting Donald Trump and the way that they’re going to play it. But I feel like this is going to land really flat. Certainly Republicans are gonna dismiss it as balderdash.

But I think independents — and I even think reasonable Democrats — are going to see this as such a vast overreach that I don’t think it’s going to register like Democrats believe it is going to register, and I certainly understand why they’re trying to change the topic, because look.

The truth of the matter is, the Democratic Party might need Donald Trump more than the Republican Party needs Donald Trump, because the Democratic Party has defined itself for so long as the opposition party to Donald Trump that when he is no longer in office, they need to continue to try to dredge and drag up the ghost of Donald Trump in order to kind of shake it out there for their otherwise disunited base to have something to unite on.

Does that make sense to you, Buck?

This is just a desperate attempt, it seems to me, to continue to find something connected to Donald Trump to try to rally they’re base as nothing else seems to be able to rally their base. We see it with CNN and MSNBC. People are turning out, turning off televisions, not paying attention. I also think it serves as a bit of a distraction for the ongoing $3.5 trillion budget that they’re trying to push through as well as all of the infrastructure bill. But this just feels like it’s gonna land flat in a major way.

BUCK: Well, it’s gonna keep going. So we’ll see this for today, the next few days and look at it and analyze it, and people that pay attention to politics will spend time talking about it. Will it really change any minds right now? No, and the midterms are a ways away. But it’s meant to be the installments of constant hysteria and perpetual outrage from the Democrats about what they call “the insurrection.”

And this, then, trains the Democrat base to think of Republicans not as Americans who belong to a different political party and have ideas about how best to reach a better future that differs sometimes from Democrats and that there have to be political compromises. No! “They’re insurrectionists. They’re bad people. You should just spit on them, not literally, but spit in their faces.”

CLAY: Sometimes literally.

BUCK: Well, sometimes literally.

CLAY: If you saw Tucker Carlson get confronted, we’re not very far from people say spit on them literally.

BUCK: The left has normalized that kind of behavior for a long time, of going up to people. They did it to Trump administration officials. I think that’s also a part of what’s so outrageous here. Just on the Tucker issue for a second: There are no Biden officials who get mobbed in restaurants by angry Trump supporters who get chased out of places in front of their children.

Nor do we have conservatives that follow people around when they’re on vacation with their family and act like psychopaths, and Democrats applaud this stuff. They call it “accountability culture.” By the same token, or rather in the same frame of mind here you look and we’re having a conversation, national conversation right now.

CNN and Fox, everything is leading in live coverage with the insurrection, investigate insurrection, Clay. This is the only riot that’s happened the last MS-13 where law enforcement officers were attacked? Is this the only riot where there were lethal incidents that occurred or where there was substantial property damage? No, of course not.

There was a major political narrative of BLM that started in June of 2020 in an election year that was so effective at spreading terror on the streets that businesses boarded up and prepared for absolute mayhem in case the preferred political party of those demonstrators did not win (i.e., Joe Biden). That’s what we actually saw, but that cannot be discussed.

Part of this was that is so disconnected from reality is that with if you’re looking at which political party routinely engages in harassment, political violence, and also defends it broadly… You don’t defend the people that broke the law that day on January 6. I don’t either.

You break the law; you pay the price. Democrats think that firebombing police cars is no big deal when it’s in the name of BLM. They think that trying to burn down a federal courthouse in Portland is no big deal when Antifa is doing it to “stop Trump’s fascism.” These people are nuts!

CLAY: It’s like also why the criminal justice system can’t play favorites based on the politics involved in breaking the law, and I think that’s significant because, Buck, what we saw during the lockdowns last year was when anybody protested the lockdowns, they were awful human beings trying to spread the virus and kill your grandmother.

As soon as those protests moved from being anti-lockdown to being in favor of Black Lives Matter, all of the — and I’m putting it in quotation marks — “scientists” changed their overall view on whether or not it was safe to be able to have mass gatherings of protesters. I think that broke, for many people, the lockdown hegemony, the idea that you should “listen to experts.”

The same thing is happening, I think, in our criminal justice system when you look at the prosecutions that are going on. In fact, this is being argued right now — and I think it’s being smartly argued — by one of the individuals who was arrested in the January 6th incident. He is pointing to the way that prosecutors have responded in Portland and saying, “Wait a minute.

“Why is my client being arbitrarily and capriciously punished to the full extent of the law in many ways and most of the people who are arrested for violating the federal courthouse in Portland are having all their charges dropped?” I think that’s a very valid and reasonable argument to make that points out the dichotomy here that most of our listeners are intelligent enough to get but most people in the media will not analyze or discuss.

BUCK: Also, the notion — and this was actually said repeatedly. I watched the hearings. Obviously, I’m on radio now; the hearings are still going on. But I watched them all morning, and there were some of the officers testifying. One in particular kept saying, “Nobody cares. Nothing is being done.”

Clay, to your point about the arbitrary examine capricious detention and the way the justice system treats Republicans versus treats leftists and Democrats and socialists, there are people who have been held in solitary confinement — allegedly for their own protection, but sure — for now, six months —

CLAY: Right.

BUCK: — who are guilty of no violent crime nor an attempt at what they could point to as a violent crime. Not a single person has been charged with what is under federal statute insurrection or rebellion, which they could if that’s really what happened, but they know they would lose on those charges and one of the police officers is saying there’s no accountability.

They’ve made hundreds of arrests. People are facing years if not decades in some cases in federal prison. People are… They’re pleading guilty to avoid a 10- or 15-year sentence for “obstruction of Congress.” Go see videos about what they did at the state capitol in Wisconsin during the Scott Walker era. They took the whole building over!

Obstruction is now something that people are facing 20 years in prison for? So we have to look at what the reality is here. Because, yes, something happened that should not have happened. It is not on the scale of 9/11. It’s an outrage to say that it is, and they’re going to continue. But to your point about what the purpose this year, they’re gonna keep this go. This is Russia collusion now.

This is the thing that they just feed to their base every night, and they just hope they can get enough people to feel like it’s socially unacceptable to vote Republican the next time around because of the “insurrection,” if they can keep their fingers on power here. Let’s go to back to the security component of this in a second, Clay, if we can.

CLAY: Yeah, I think that’s key, Buck, because the discussion should be, remember, Democrats were furious at the idea that the National Guard should be called in, that police should be mobilized to respond to riots. The most ridiculous thing about the response to January 6th is how immediately all of a sudden Democrats said, “Hey, you know what?

“Maybe we should call in the National Guard! Maybe we should bring in the military to help protect,” which is the argument that Tom Cotton made back in the summer that got the executive editor of the New York Times opinion page fired because they said it was an unsafe opinion to even share! That is, to me, one of the ultimate hypocrisies here among many.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: The hearing into the January 6th riots is underway. And, Buck, we were saying as we went to break that I think by far — and I think you agree with me — the most interesting part of January 6th is not the, quote-unquote, “insurrection.” It’s why was the Capitol so under-protected to allow this to occur?

How do you ensure that the Capitol is never unprotected like this to allow it to occur again? Because to me that’s the real story. They’re saying, “Oh, this could happen every four years! This could happen every two years.” That’s what they’re trying to sell to the American public. But if there had just been decent security outside of the Capitol, this wouldn’t have ever happened. Why is that not a bigger discussion point?

BUCK: Well, that’s also the fundamental falsehood that we see with all this, which is that this is about protecting the Capitol for the future and making sure that this is a lessons learned. This is not going to be a lessons-learned exercise. This is so Democrat members of Congress can go cry on TV about how the entire United States government was almost overthrown by a few hundred people who were unarmed and in a riot. That’s what it is. This is about launching —

CLAY: (laughing) — and often grandmas and grandpas.

BUCK: Adam Schiff and Adam Kinzinger and Jamie Raskin tear up and all the sudden invoke the founders. For their purposes, the founders are no longer bad racist guys, by the way. Now the founders are great.

CLAY: They’re heroes.

BUCK: The Democrats are gonna wrap themselves in the flag and they love them. “Oh, my gosh. George Washington is turning over in his grave because of what happened.” All this stuff you can expect from them. But to the point you’re making, Clay, about security, do you think you’re ever gonna find out — we still don’t know — who shot Ashli Babbitt? Do you think you’re gonna find out, that anyone’s going to get answers as to why Nancy Pelosi — who, remember, Capitol Police responds to Congress.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: There’s a weird setup that a lot of people didn’t know about until this whole thing happened. They didn’t take into account that there was all this concern about possibly violent rioting happening in the days before this, didn’t make any preparations, didn’t get the backup they needed?

I mean, there are levels of failure here from the security apparatus on Capitol Hill. Like that’s a real thing, and there will be no accountability. No one’s going to get in trouble or get fired for that. You’re just gonna watch Jamie Raskin cry and talk about how he doesn’t feel safe anymore when he looks at the American flag, because we almost lost democracy that day yada-yada.

Give me a break. Conservatives on January 6th were all saying, “Oh, my God. What’s this? It’s a terrible idea,” and then, of course, this is where you start to get into that Democrats would call it a “mostly peaceful protest” if it were BLM, because most of the people in D.C. — this is a fact — didn’t break any laws.

CLAY: Well, I also said — and I still believe — that if Trump had won reelection, there would have likely been a Democratic uprising in Washington, D.C. that would have been far larger than this and certainly would have been more expansive in terms of the number of states and cities that there were protests involved in. ‘Cause as you point out, Buck, that’s why they had plywood up all over the country on election night.

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: It wasn’t because they hoped Biden was gonna win.

BUCK: Biden won, and nothing happened. Whether Biden did eventually get called the president and the election was called for him, there weren’t these riots out in the street. We all know what that was in preparation for… We’ll come back to this. At least Republicans some of them see this for what it is. Others are of course trying to get a pat on the head from Pelosi, which is just pathetic.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: You’ve got “Pelosi Republicans.” I actually like that term. I think that works pretty well. Adam Kinzinger — who looks like he’s about to cry at any moment as they discuss the riot on that day — and Liz Cheney, who just decided to go all-in. This is a remarkable thing, and you had this with the Never Trumpers and it continues today.

‘Cause again, the Never Trumpers are the same people who voted for impeachment against Trump. Oh, that’s right, Clay! There was an impeachment over this thing already so we’ve already —

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: There hasn’t been an investigation they say now.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: But we already had an impeachment hearing over this where they said they had enough to know that a sitting president should be removed or rather barred from holding future office. Man, it’s just the weaponization of a political narrative. The whole thing is a sham.

People are going to prison who assaulted officers probably longer than they should, based on what would happen in other circumstances if this were a Democrat situation and they’re just gonna keep acting like this is the defense of our republic and our democracy after they let American cities burn for months and could care less. That’s the reality.

CLAY: To your point, Buck, I think we’re getting a major narrative thing here. It’s not only just going on in the world of politics. This morning — you’re gonna love this, Buck; I’m just seeing one of our writers at Outkick is covering it — one of the ESPN journalists said that he couldn’t enjoy the Olympics because it reminded him of the Capitol riots when he saw the U.S. flag at the Olympics. One of ESPN’s highest paid employees… This is the talking points now. So, this is pretty wild. But I think welcome to the upside-down world. It’s pretty crazy. I mean, it really is.

BUCK: And they’re saying things like it’s like 9/11. In fact, there have been abject morons on MSNBC who have said it’s worse —

CLAY: Worse!

BUCK: — than 9/11 in terms of its long-term implications, which is beyond offensive how stupid and offensive that is but they’ll even say the ones who are less insane. “Oh, it’s the worst attack on Congress since the War of 1812 when the British marched through D.C. and burned down the White House. ”

They forget about the 1954 shooting in the House Chamber where you had three men and won one month enter who all belonged to the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party. They traveled from New York City to Washington D.C. on that day and they opened fire on the House gallery. So I think it’s important to remember that they’re wrong on that. Five congressmen, five members of Congress were wounded in that shooting, Clay.

CLAY: Right.

BUCK: They’re wrong on the facts. They’re wrong on the narrative. They’re wrong on their surrealist interpretation of what the implications are of that day, and it’s just appalling. That any Republican would play along with this when we all know exactly what’s going on here is too much. The Liz Cheneys, they’re gonna switch parties or they’re just again end up consulting for a Democrat think tank when the voters kick their butts out of office. That’s what’s gonna end up happening.

CLAY: Well, and that’s 100% what’s gonna end up happening. And to me I just circle back around to this. I think it’s well said, when you pointed out (laughing) we did have an entire impeachment trial that looked at this in excruciating detail. And the biggest question that’s still out there, if you truly want to stop this from him happening again, Buck?

What you have to do is figure out what kind of security apparatus are we going to have at the Capitol to ensure that doesn’t happen again, right? I mean that’s the only thing that should matter going forward. And, oh, by the way, I would suggest, let’s also go ahead and start holding everybody accountable for all of the violence that took place in what, frankly, is the most violent year, 2020, of many of our lives when it comes to criminal behavior.

And we’re talking about a tiny subset of the criminal behavior and not even discussing all the people that are being let go because of their political leanings during months of, as we well established, mostly peaceful protests.

BUCK: And yet do we think there’s anyone who is facing…? Remember when Trump signed or had the executive order that they were gonna prosecute people from destruction of federal property, which can be up to 10 years? Is there anybody from all those riots all across the country that involved the destruction of federal property that involved mob riots, mob behavior? Remember Rand Paul walking out from the White House —

CLAY: Oh yeah.

BUCK: — and being mobbed with his wife and people assaulting and yelling at them, you know, there’s no accountability on the other side. And then they turn around, the Democrats turn around and look at us. I was furious on January 6th ’cause, one, it was wrong.

CLAY: You knew what was coming.

BUCK: And two, it was a blunder.

I said this on Tucker’s show that night at the time. This has enormously damaged the conservative cause. Their side… They don’t even care about the riots they excuse. “Eh, sometimes you gotta riot. We gotta intimate our political opponents.

“We gotta put our Democrat shock troops with Antifa and BLM activists out on the streets. We have to make store owners afraid! We have to make cops feel like they don’t have the public support anymore for their job we have to destabilize society so we can remake it as revolutionaries.” That’s what they’re trying to do.

CLAY: That’s what they did. That’s basically what Maxine Waters said, and this is where, I think, this leads! So far, we haven’t gotten there but it’s a good discussion and an unfortunate one that I think we probably should have, Buck, but there’s that video that happened with Tucker Carlson which we mentioned a little bit earlier in the program.

When you are confronting people in public in those situations, what you are doing is making people believe that the right thing to do is to have confrontations. And when you have confrontations at some point what happens? Like, to his credit, Tucker Carlson laughed off being confronted like he was. But Democrats…

And we already know the shooting that happened in Alexandria of Steve Scalise that nobody wants to talk about at all. It just disappears. People talking about Charlottesville all of the time. Nobody talks about Ashli Babbitt hardly. It’s amazing what gets memory-holed and what doesn’t in the media’s recollections and their stories.

But I think where we’re headed — and I think this is wildly unfortunate, but I think the temperatures of the day are going to lead to it — is a violent act being perpetrated against someone (media, politics, in that vein) entirely based on their political beliefs and the idea that being on “the right side of history” justifies behavior such as that. That’s what I’m afraid of. I don’t know how much fear you have for a situation like that emerging, but I am very, very much afraid that a situation like that is coming. And I think it’s wildly unfortunate.

BUCK: You brought up the congressional baseball shooting of 2017.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: How many people right now listening could name that shooter off the top of their heads? How many people could even remember some of the basic details? That was pushed aside — pushed aside in a matter of days.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: You had a Bernie Sanders supporter named James Hodgkinson screaming, “This is for health care,” as he at the same time a mass assassination of specifically conservative members of Congress.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: He had a hit list on him, and he was looking for specifically conservatives. Do we all go around, “Oh, my gosh. All the rhetoric from the Democrats, they’re all guilty too”? Did we “wave the bloody shirt” about that shooting so to speak? Did we all pretend like everyone’s guilty? No, we did not. But that’s not how Democrats play the game. It’s very different now.

Clay, you know this. If you’re somebody who’s got neighbors who are gonna try to pressure you in the midterms or if Trump runs again, they’re gonna say, “How could you vote for the insurrectionists?”

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: This is just like it was the Russia traitor, even though that was all a lie. At least this actually happened, but they’re making this a much bigger deal than it was and we all know it.