BUCK: The CNN headline actually gets at some truth here, some underlying reality. Oh, my gosh!

CLAY: About politics? Is it really?

BUCK: Maybe they’re turning the corner after the CNN+ debacle to, “Let’s just actually live in reality here.” Maybe that’s been a bit of a gut check for CNN in their political reporting. “It’s Been a Very Bad Few Days for Joe Biden” is the CNN headline from earlier today, which I gotta say is true. It has not been a good few days for the Biden administration.

And you can tell that the people who wake up every day and their job is to try to find some explanation for the people out there to understand why things maybe feel like they’re not going so well, there’s problems out there — things are expensive, the gas price — but it’s actually not that bad. It’s actually good. You just don’t realize how it’s so good.

That’s getting to be a challenge — a particularly challenging thing for the Democrat-aligned legacy and corporate media. And I can tell, you know, Clay, to the point that you made earlier in the week about maybe Biden doesn’t want to challenge the mask mandate ruling from that wonderful federal judge —

CLAY: God bless that judge.

BUCK: Mizelle.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Might have to name my firstborn Mizelle. And, you know, the judge did a great job. The ruling was correct. It had all been arbitrary and capricious, stupid beyond words. And people are, in a lot of cases… It’s tough to define whether they’re rejecting the end of the mask mandate because of irrational fear or just because of that part of their brain that has to be, “We’re right.

“We’re the good people. And if this is what my side says, it must be the correct thing.” Biden hasn’t yet challenged it. They say they may challenge the masking rule in court if the CDC tells them, which is fascinating ’cause this is a game they always play. ‘Cause the CDC is in the executive branch.

CLAY: Correct.

BUCK: This is not a thing. I want everyone to understand this. I worked in the CIA for a while. CIA doesn’t have a CIA director who makes decisions about what the agency is going to do that overrules the president. No. The CIA director does what the president tells him, or he gets fired. So, Clay, this is how they are splitting it. This is how they’re going down the middle. Maybe they’ll challenge it by pretending that the CDC has the authority and not the White House to bring the challenge in the first place.

CLAY: Two points to what you just said which is exactly right. One, the reason we have elections is so we know who to hold accountable for the choices that they make! This defeats the entire purpose of elections themselves when you say we’re going to allow unelected bureaucrats to make choices. That’s the first part. It is a fundamental usurpation of the entire democratic process. Second part here, Buck.

This has got really interesting ramifications because what they said was we may challenge it if the CDC decides — I believe on May the 3rd, when the 15 days was scheduled to end — that they need to extend beyond May 3rd. I think that’s the way that they have phrased this. So you could end up in a situation, Buck, where for two weeks, basically, nobody is wearing masks on airplanes.

The TSA not enforcing the mask protocol in any way, and then according to Joe Biden’s own logic if on May the 3rd, the CDC says, “Hey, the mask mandate still needs to be in effect,” after a two-week pause when everybody basically can do whatever they want without having to wear masks, suddenly Joe Biden would say “TSA agents, you have to check masks again — and, by the way, everybody has to put masks to get back on airplanes.”

To me that is an epic bungling of the utmost sincerity, right, which makes it perfect for the Biden administration, because they would have managed to make everyone angry. And, by the way, Buck, what is more arbitrary and capricious than deciding for 15 days you don’t need masks and then suddenly you have to bring the masks back because of the CDC guideline? I think what they’re going to do is they’re trying to give a fig leaf here to make it look like this judge didn’t make the decision and then the CDC is going to say, “Okay, we don’t need the mask mandate anymore,” but they can still blame the Trump judge.

BUCK: I remember when I was a little kid, the game you’d play at summer camp, Simon Says. It was, “Touch your nose! Touch your feet! Jump in the air! Touch your nose!” It’s kind of like with mask policies. It’s N95, it’s double mask, it’s no mask, it’s yes mask. They keep changing it. It’s absurd. It’s idiotic. I’m sorry there are so many adults who got caught up in this.

And I do think at some level, are trying to suppress the embarrassment of knowing that they’ve been played for so long. And here is Scott Gottlieb, who is an establishment covidian, if you will. He was a pro-mask guy, he was a pro-lockdown guy, but he does tend to be a little bit ahead of where the rest of the Democrat herd was willing to go on this stuff. Dr. Leana Wen, for example, is willing to be —

CLAY: Well, she flip-flopped unbelievably, but yes.

BUCK: She was very much the consensus, and then she got about, you know, four to six weeks ahead of the Democrat herd. Here is Scott Gottlieb saying: Yeah, you know what would be helpful? If the CDC was a competent agent.

“The risks here from this ruling aren’t the immediate impact on public health. It was time to lift the mask mandates. The risks are longer term and what this does to potentially erode CDC’s authority,” says @ScottGottliebMD pic.twitter.com/5tE2og0vT9

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) April 20, 2022

BUCK: They have a terrible administrative record. The CDC will never be thought of the same way by anybody who’s honest and paying attention. But also notice that he’s like, “Yeah, the mask mandate should be gone. This is idiotic.” But, meanwhile, you go on social media, Clay, and all the blue checks are, “Some judge who’s not even qualified!” I mean, the White House press secretary, “Judges shouldn’t be making laws!” Do they know how the government works, actually? Do they understand the checks and balances and functions? No, they don’t.

CLAY: Yeah, and I want to play a couple of these cuts because I do think, Buck, it’s on emblematic over a fundamental lack of understanding of the entire way that our government is set up. But first I loved this one. A former Obama official, Dr. Kavita Patel, she wanted you to know that you should carry extra masks. Did you see this, Buck? Carry extra masks to give to people near you. Just listen to this and think what would your reaction be if somebody walked up, “Here’s a mask. I saw you didn’t have one.” I gotta be honest with you, I tend to be pretty easygoing. I wouldn’t respond well here’s what she does.

“Carry some extra masks with you. Carry some rapid tests with you if you’re traveling.” pic.twitter.com/iJxN8CPkmw

— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 19, 2022

BUCK: This is a mental illness.

CLAY: Carry rapid tests with you? First of all, Buck, look…

BUCK: (laughing)

CLAY: I have empathy with anyone who is dealing with kids or parents or whatever else who is sick.

BUCK: (laughing)

CLAY: If someone’s setting next to me on an airplane says, “My mom has cancer. Can you wear this mask?” I would say, “No,” and I would immediately say, “Because it has zero safety to bring to bear for your mom. I hope your mom’s well. I hope she beats cancer.” This is not… This is magical thinking. It’s nonsense. It’s the equivalent of just saying, “Hey, could you sit upside down, stand on your head for this flight? Because I think it might help my mom who has cancer? I mean, it’s basically the equivalent.

BUCK: Yeah. Why not just ask somebody, “Can you just hold your breath as much as possible for the next three hours of this flight? Can you just…? Can you just try to hold your breath and try to breathe the bare minimum amount?” The masks… This is why the real, fundamental issue here — and we haven’t really… You know, this is where the removal of the mandate and our joy at this because of the end of at least the stupidity of this authoritarian boot on our necks — or in this case, masks on our faces.

The removal of the mandate crowds out that we’re not done here because the masks don’t work, folks. The masks do not do anything. Every chart, all the data, all the numbers you can look at for mask mandate and nonmask mandate… Think of all the people you’ve seen, “I did everything right! I wore a mask all the time for a year, and I still got covid!”

CLAY: (laughing) I got eight shots and I got covid. Yes.

BUCK: They’re actually surprised by this, because they haven’t thought through the basics of what’s happening in someone’s day-to-day life. You only go get a strain of covid probably one strain, one time. So that one day when you’re not masked up for your eight hours, whatever, you get it, all the masking that came before and all the masks that comes after doesn’t matter.

So, unless you’re going to live life in a hermetically sealed bubble where no germs and no aerosolized virus can get near you, this is crazy! There is a reason why we never did this before. There have been colds and flus and other things, and there has been no mass masking in the history of America since people were all completely terrified during the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. And you’ll notice we stopped the masking, Clay, as that pandemic ended because everyone was like, “That didn’t do a damn thing.” So this is a fundamental problem still.

CLAY: We’ve got people telling others to travel with rapid tests. So what? You’re gonna find out if you have a light cold or flu? And, what, you’re not gonna go anywhere else? Like, when you’re traveling, you’re already one place. The other thing on this, Buck, is — and I think this is important — note how quickly the conversation has shifted. Here’s the reality of what’s going on. If you want to wear a mask, you can wear a mask for the rest of your life!

The judge in Florida didn’t say “No one can wear masks anywhere anymore when it comes to airplane travel or train travel or anything else.” That isn’t part of a ruling. It’s just you can’t be forced to wear one. There’s a big difference between people who make an individual choice for themselves and people who are saying, “And, oh, by the way, you have to wear a mask too.”

I think you’re a loser personally if you are still wearing masks because they don’t work and all you’re doing when you have the big mask on, is sending me a sign that you have somehow managed to avoid the truth of the data relating to masks for two years, which makes me think you are a loser and also an imbecile. But I’m not gonna walk up to you and grab your mask and rip it off your face and say, “You can’t wear this anymore.” You just can’t force me to wear one.

BUCK: I do think it’s worth pointing out that the pro-masking crowd were okay with the monstrous scenes of people being pulled out of their church, being laid out on the aisle of an airplane. They were fine with the force of the state — the literal physical force of the state — being used to make people do something that was utterly worthless and moronic. And so I do not forgive and forget this.

CLAY: Yep.

BUCK: To your point, we have to live in society with each other and, you know, we should try to be polite and understanding of those around you to the degree that you can. But it is their side, in fact, that was ruthless and willing to brutalize people with their stupidity. It is the unmasked people — the unmaskers, if you will — who are saying, “Okay. Fine.

“You know, if you want to do this, you do this.” We’re not the ones running around that need to force everybody else to do stuff. That’s just not in our nature. And even Joe Biden, for example, is out there now saying… Joe Biden’s telling everybody (summarized), “Yeah, it’s up to you. It’s your choice.”

Biden: “I don’t know” if we will appeal the federal ruling that struck down the mask mandate on planes.

Earlier today Biden said it’s “up to [individuals]” whether they want to wear a mask. pic.twitter.com/l5ATxhThjH

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 19, 2022

BUCK: That’s up to them, he says. So I don’t want any of these blue check whiners and crybabies saying, “It’s making everyone die!” Your president, blue checks and libs, is saying it’s a choice matter now. There you go.

CLAY: I’m sure he’ll walk that back, because he spoke outside. He probably said what he actually believes, but he spoke outside of what his handlers will allow him.