BUCK: If you have any parting thoughts for little Fauci, you could share them with us. And if you have anything that you want to remind anybody of, I think it’s so important that we continue to tell everybody — or to jog our memories — about what was done in the name of Fauciism because your first real opportunity to vote in response to it — and people will say, “Oh, 2020.” No, that was too early. A lot of people of good faith were saying, “Well, hold on. We gotta see and maybe the vaccines will be a total cure and maybe…”

We know that was all wrong now. Now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt; so this is your first real opportunity to hold people accountable for what they did and what was going on. And I think that’s part of the slight change in sentiment right now going to the political side of the equation. In some polls Clay and I want to break down for you, things are moving in the right direction. Look, we were surrounding the alarm bell in the last few weeks because some of the — particularly over the Senate.

Let’s just say it. Some of these Senate races weren’t looking like they should at this stage, in our minds. We want a Republican-majority Senate. We’re looking pretty good in the House. But Clay and I are both firmly in the “It needs to be wipeout, a Red Wave camp. It’s not enough to have a little, skinny majority in the House.” But on the Senate side, there’s been some move in the right direction. And then just in terms of national sentiment, there’s a new NBC poll that finds 74% of Americans are saying the country is on the wrong track.

NBC’s Chuck Todd: “Americans are angry, they’re disappointed, and they are worried about the future of this country.”

A new NBC poll finds 74% of Americans say the country is on the wrong track. pic.twitter.com/i2QjUcWfUk

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 21, 2022

A whole bunch of other polls, two over the weekend, showing massive loss of faith in a lot of major institutions. People are very concerned with inflation, which is not a surprise. And, really, inflation is just the pain point in the broader economy that’s concerning people. It’s really just the economy that everyone’s feeling uneasy about. And some people are already really feeling the pain on that one. If you break down the polls, though, you can also see that there is some…

‘Cause Gallup just did a whole range of polls on the institutions. But on the issues, Clay, immigration — illegal immigration specifically — is high. And I do think that’s a place where, if Republican candidates can connect, the lawlessness of illegal immigration and the impact of illegal immigration on the economy in a lot of these — certainly states like Arizona, but even in states far from the border.

Because of the unprecedented numbers, the Biden administration moving people who are illegal to these places, the drain on resources — which even Democrats are complaining about — I think that’s an area where there could be a lot of gains made on the Republican side of things. What are you seeing, and also in those Senate races, what’s making you feel — I’m a little more optimistic today. I know you are too.

CLAY: Yeah, look. Let me give you one large-picture poll. And I understand as a caveat everybody out there can say, “Well, I don’t trust the polls. They’ve been wrong in a variety of different races, certainly in ’16; even in ’20 they remember biased against Republicans clearly.” So every time we talk about polling, it is with that understanding, that caveat involved here. But this was a pretty good result that came out yesterday. Generic congressional vote, Republicans were plus two.

That would be a landslide-like number to have Republicans plus two. And then there are a couple of Senate races that… Look, we know Adam Laxalt against Cortez Masto in Nevada is gonna be an absolute battle. There were dueling polls. One had Laxalt up. The other one that had Cortez Masto up. That has come out in the last couple of days. But one that came out yesterday — and this is from Trafalgar Group, and it tends to lean a little bit Republican.

But they have Fetterman only up three or four points on Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, and this is one where a lot of people have said, “Oh, you know what? It’s a double-digit race. This is not gonna be close,” and what we have said is just, “Hey, buckle up. There are going to be a lot of attacks as Fetterman gets better known.” This is a guy who supports the ending of fracking, who said, “I agree with Bernie Sanders on everything,” who wants to take away your ability out there to basically make a living in Pennsylvania as the state exists now.

This is a guy who didn’t even make a living himself in his thirties and forties and now is very unhealthy, and Dr. Oz has challenged him to five different debates all over the state of Pennsylvania. And so far, Fetterman hasn’t accepted any of these debates. And we’re not even sure if he’s gonna be able to debate at all. And what I would say out there is if you are listening to us right now in Pennsylvania… We know what a disaster Philadelphia is.

Highest murder rate basically in the city’s history is what they’re on track for in 2022. You got dudes pretending to be girls swimming in women’s swimming races at the University of Pennsylvania. This is Joe Biden on steroids, because Joe Biden in 2020 hid in his basement, but John Fetterman is far more — from a health perspective — in danger. He almost died from this stroke that he had. He’s very fortunate to be alive.

But I’m not sure that he’s gonna be healthy enough to even be in the Senate and working in Washington, D.C. He has barely done any public events. So, Buck, when you start to look at the way these numbers are moving, I would say the strength for Republicans right now is Florida, Ron DeSantis is going to win a landslide election for the state of Florida over whoever the Democrats nominate. Looks like Charlie Crist.

In Texas, Beto is getting crushed now — I think it’s not gonna be particularly close — and Greg Abbott’s plan to bus people to D.C. and New York City looks like genius. And I think Brian Kemp in Georgia is going to comfortably beat Stacey Abrams. So, three big red states there with incumbent Republican governors. All three of those guys look like they are going to coast, and you would hope if you are Herschel Walker that there may be some coattails there with Brian Kemp that would potentially allow a Senate pickup seat in Georgia. Herschel is gonna be obviously running in a tight race against Warnock. I feel like Herschel’s gonna get across the finish line there.

BUCK: It makes a huge difference whether or not we have even a bare majority, even a one-seat majority in the Senate in terms of confirmations, the kind of judges… Look, let’s all be clear about this. The Biden regime will put total activist, leftist judges in as many slots as they possibly can, even if the Biden agenda is stalled out because they don’t have the seats necessary in the House to get anything important passed. So it really does matter.

And it also matters because there needs to be a referendum on the decision that have been made up to this point. And the just insanity of the recent Biden Build Back Broke plan that just went through. I mean, Clay, there was an analysis over the weekend. I’m trying to remember exactly who it’s from, but there is a provision, part of the inflation act — which, as we know, doesn’t do anything to address inflation.

CLAY: Actually, could make inflation worse.

BUCK: Probably make it a little worse.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: It’ll probably make it a little worse. But they know that they have to seem like they’re addressing the concerns of the American people. So they called the bill that’s a tax-and-spend, Green New Deal, lunatic giveaway — they call that bill — an inflation bill, while they’re actually doing nothing on inflation, as Clay says, probably making it worse; so they can spend a whole bunch of money and tax people. But it looks like small businesses… The Joint Committee on Taxation — that’s what I was trying to find here — estimates between 78% and 98% of the additional $200 billion the IRS is supposed to collect is gonna come from small businesses making $200,000 or less annually.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: And why is this okay? Democrats despise the individual who owns and builds his own business, as a rule. They love Big Business. Big Business and Big Government are friends. Never forget that. They can engage in anti-competitive practices. They can get the government to make sure the regulations strangle their competitors. They can’t afford the legal and accounting bills to do all the nonsense. That could actually be a big competitive advantage for large corporations.

The War on Small Business continues…
“80% of new IRS revenue will come from small businesses earning under $200K: tax experts ”

By @LJMoynihan; h/t @JesseKellyDC https://t.co/VJTj8m6YCB

— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) August 20, 2022

Small businesses, the individual serving their communities, providing a service that they want? Big libs don’t like that stuff at all. So they’re fine with squeezing small businesses, Clay. So that’s who… They kept saying, “Oh, nobody who makes less than $400,000 a year as an individual.” If you own a business that made 150 grand last year, maybe you’ve got a couple of employees? IRS is coming after you ’cause you don’t write big checks to Democrat PACs.

CLAY: What’s proving of that is there was a amendment offered that said, “Hey, these 87,000 new IRS agents,” one small measure of hope is that… By the way, they’re not gonna be able to hire 87,000 IRS agents because nobody wants those jobs. So I do think the government’s gonna have a hard time getting these guys and girls hired. But they tried to pass an amendment saying, “Hey, these 87,000 IRS agents will not conduct all of the different accounting and dive-ins and everything else,” which we know is gonna happen.

“They won’t swoop in and do this against people making less than $400,000. They’re not gonna audit you. They’re not gonna be coming after you,” and Republicans voted all in favor of that. “Hey, don’t go after people making $400,000 or less.” Democrats refused to allow that amendment to pass. So they implicitly are acknowledging that most of the focus is not gonna be on the billionaires or the hundred millionaires because the people who have that kind of wealth in their past have got incredible accountants and incredible tax lawyers already. They’re gonna come after — and, frankly, there’s not enough money to recover from those guys and gals ’cause there’s not enough of them. They’re gonna have to come after the vast majority of taxpayers, which is people making $400,000 or less.

BUCK: Can I just say, though, Clay, we should be fair here, all right? We need to always be fair. The libs, the Democrats do want to point out, for people who are falling behind on their mortgage payment, running up credit card bills, having their wages eaten away by inflation, there are, like, totally tax credits to help them buy a $60,000 electric car.

CLAY: (laughing) I saw that, yeah.

BUCK: Totally some tax credits for that.