CLAY: Breaking news! We need to add a breaking news sounder to the show’s audio here. I was hoping we’d get to announce this before the show ended today. Twitter has officially been purchased by Elon Musk. The news literally just broke within the last minute or two. They have stopped the trading of Twitter stock. I am reading directly from CNBC.com.

Headline: “Twitter Accepts Elon Musk’s Buyout Deal. Twitter’s Board Has Accepted Billionaire Elon Musk’s Offer to Buy the Social Media Company and Take It Private — The announcement…” I’m reading directly from CNBC. “The announcement ends a week-long saga kicked off when Musk offered to buy the company at $54.20 per share.”

They adopted a poison pill in an attempt to find another bidder, but this is now official. They have announced… This is a massive, massive win, Buck. For people who value an open marketplace of ideas and believe in a robust debate, this is exactly what our country has needed. We’re starting to stack some dubs, I’m telling you –

BUCK: Yeah.

CLAY: — as sanity is starting to return.

BUCK: This is huge, folks. I honestly believe because there’s also gonna be some second-order effects on some of the other platforms who are gonna realize, you know, right now the system is: You say something on YouTube — let’s say about masks — that’s true but they say it’s not true — you put that same content on Facebook, you put that up on Twitter; they all ban you, right?

And so where do you go? You had nowhere to go, basically. Rumble. I mean, there’s some startups and some places where you can go. But you don’t have the same reach yet. I wish those companies well. I use them and we post on them and we’re trying to help and be a part of that too.

But when one of the megaplatforms, one of the big players already is going to allow free speech, that’s going to be such a market advantage that Facebook now, when they do their, “Oh, you violated our terms of service guidelines.” You’d be like, “All right. So, I’m just doubling down on Twitter now,” and that’s gonna have a huge impact ’cause I think they’re not gonna be able to continue.

When everybody is in on the censorship game, when there’s censorship collusion, it’s easy to crush an idea like “masking on planes is moronic,” which it was, by the way. But now they won’t be able to do that anymore. Not the same thing, assuming Elon follows through on everything he says.

CLAY: Well, it seems… It’s a done deal, fait accompli, according to the reports. They stopped the trading of the stock.

BUCK: No, I mean if he does it when he’s running it.

CLAY: Oh. Yeah, he’s bought the company. Right. We’re hoping.

BUCK: This is In Elon We Trust, Clay. That’s what’s going on here.

CLAY: Yeah, right. And, look, you’re talking about a guy who is the most influential, powerful person in the world now. When you look at running SpaceX, running Tesla, and now owning Twitter, Elon Musk is the most powerful person in the world, and I hope that he is going to live up to the First Amendment ideals that he has continued to espouse.

Man, if he does, this changes everything, and obviously a big topic I’m sure we’ll debate and discuss it tomorrow, Buck, will be what’s gonna happen with President Trump’s account? But go on down the line. What’s gonna happen to the Babylon Bee, to Alex Berenson, to the innumerable people that have been banned?

BUCK: Do we have to throw a “Welcome Back, Berenson” party here on the show?

CLAY: We need to get him on tomorrow.

BUCK: I think we gotta have a, “Welcome back, Berenson,” moment here ’cause we’ve been trying to get Alex’s word out there to the world. Soon he’ll be able to do it on Twitter.

CLAY: What a day.