BUCK: In New York now, Clay, we got signs up everywhere. You gotta mask up in gyms again. This is the thing that made me hate Fauci almost more than anything else, because you have people who are on the treadmill… I’m not a treadmill guy, obviously. (laughing) But people who are on the treadmill are choking and coughing. It’s so stupid. One after the other they come in behind me, and they see me in no mask, and they take their masks off.

Finally, I think people are realizing, “This is just stupid. It’s too stupid. Oh, a couple of weeks ago it was safe. Now it’s not safe,” and we had this — and you sent this out to our team last night — the CEOs of Southwest and American Airlines. Remember planes are the place they never budged on masking. And here they are saying that masks on planes don’t really do anything. That’s what they’re telling us. Clip number 5, sir.

SOUTHWEST CEO GARY KELLY: I think the case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment. It’s very safe and very high quality compared to any other indoor setting.

SEN. ROGER WICKER: Mr. Parker?

AMERICAN AIRLINES CEO DOUG PARKER: I concur. The aircraft’s the safest place you can be. That’s true of all of our aircraft. They all have these HEPA filters and the same airflow.

CLAY: So what’s funny about that, Buck, is that was, by the way, Senate testimony; so they’re under oath there. The American and Southwest CEOs are both retiring. They are gonna be replaced, and I think that’s probably why they felt comfortable actually saying that. But I love that the other CEO immediately said, “I concur,” because it’s all a sham. I love it.

By the way, this is not getting anywhere near as much attention as I think it should be getting because anyone out there who has to travel — and I’m flying tomorrow — that is the place where you talk about being in the gym and being furious about the fact that you have to wear a mask. Thankfully I’ve never had to do that where I live. But the idea that you have to put a mask on to get on an airplane and the fact that I have to put a mask on to walk through an airport terminal infuriates me.

I understand there’s people out there saying, “What’s the big deal? It doesn’t really matter that much.” It does matter. If you tell me to do something that is totally not helpful and is actually making me comply with a stupid rule for no reason, I’m gonna be furious about it and I love — finally, after 18 months — the fact that we’ve got the CEOs of Southwest and American lines coming out and pointing out what is indisputably true which is masking makes no sense and all the petty tyrant flight attendants who were constantly walking up and down the aisle telling you that you took your mask down too long to take a sip or eat some pretzels, they’re all completely a sham. It’s all cosmetic theater. There’s no basis in reality for it whatsoever.

BUCK: The airlines have been the place of greatest mask-surdities. We all know. This is the place where they’re the most absurd, the most. I was on that Spirit Airlines flight — remember I live tweeted this — when they escorted people off the plane. That was for — and we all had to wait 45 minutes, then they had to bring the paperwork people, that was because they had it beneath their nose a few times. Okay, that was what the full offense was.

It was below the nose. I’ve been on planes where they’ve woken people up from slumber to say, “Your mask has dipped below your nose, sir.” These people are sociopaths, and, I’m sorry, I’ve talked to people work at airlines. They don’t have to do this. But I guess there are a lot of libs working for the airlines these days or they’re so terrified of the libs around them as passengers. But this is just one example, yet again, of what we’ve said all along here.

The notion that you’re at so much risk on an airplane. So you get on a plane, you gotta mask up, but then you go into a restaurant in how many different places in America and you sit there for a few hours with people without masks on eating? I got my coffee this morning ’cause I couldn’t make it myself — I usually do. I was in a rush I got it at, you know, Starbucks. I know, I know. Boo me later. I’m at Starbucks. I get my coffee and there are people that are in line with masks on. Everyone sitting down is unmasked. Someone explain this to me, Clay. They act like this is going to stop Omicron? You’ve gotta be kidding me.

CLAY: What about just on the airplane itself? You can eat a snack and drink with your mask off, but as soon as you’re done, you have to put it back up. You’re taking your mask off to eat and drink, and the one thing that really… My wife gets frustrated ’cause I point it out every time but I feel like I have to tell somebody. Obviously I can tell everybody on the radio but when I’m walking through the airport terminal… I live in Nashville, right? When you walk through the Nashville airport anteriorly there are a couple of different bar restaurants inside of Nashville that they built so that you sit at a bar and look out into the terminal.

In other words, instead of facing towards the wall or facing inwards on the restaurant there is a line of bars where you can sit and look as everybody walks past you while you sit there and have dinner while you have a beer whatever you’re doing — while they, by the way, have a live stage with live music going on as well. You can literally from those seats, Buck, reach out and touch anybody who is walking by.

You are breathing directly into the middle part of the terminal. You have to have a mask on in the terminal as you walk past these people. The people sitting at the bar eating and drinking — literally who could reach out and touch you — do not have to wear masks. This is a childlike absurdity, and really what it reminds me of, Buck, is the kind of rules that authoritarian regimes put in place. For anyone who’s ever studied history, they have all of these illogical rules which are often based on a leader who is not a rational person, and everybody is trying to jump through the hoops to make sure that they are complying with whatever absurdity is the daily rule of the regime.