CLAY: We have talked about inflation hitting a 40-year high — the highest since December of 1981 — 8.6%. Those numbers came out early this morning. We have a disastrous Biden presidency at the southern border, where people are coming across in levels we’ve never seen before. In terms of crime, murder rate skyrocketing at levels we have not seen before. In many of our lives, most of our lives — maybe ever — according to the FBI, if you look at the 2020 numbers. I haven’t seen the official 2021 yet. Like we said, inflation is at its highest in 40 years, in many of our lives.

The average American that is alive today has never seen inflation this high. Stock market down 750 points. And what Democrats are focused on is Donald Trump. So I want to kind of give a road map here. I’m curious how you would analyze this, Buck. Nothing is going to change the butt-kicking that is coming in November, a little bit less than five months from now. I believe Democrats are going to lose the House, and they’re going to lose the Senate.

What this hearing is about, is not even about that. It’s about looking ahead to 2024. It feels like Democrats have already acknowledged that they have no hope for November. And that Joe Biden’s record-low approval ratings which are now below Donald Trump’s and continue to go lower, are not going to be impacted during the summer. That this is going to be a route of potentially epic proportions in November. And so this hearing, Buck, is about one man and one man only, Donald Trump.

He is the Great Satan to Democrats. They are terrified of him. So if you are Trump…? We know a lot of Trump people listen. We know the former president is a fan of the show. If you are Trump, Buck, how do you respond to this show trial, which is effectively the third impeachment trial of Donald Trump? What is the best possible way that he should respond? Here’s what I would say, here’s my advice: “Don’t let them draw you into the fray.” Joe Biden is the story.

If I were Trump, I would put out a simple statement, and I would say, “I look forward to having a real debate over the future of the country, with Joe Biden in years to come. In the meantime, let’s all enjoy the Democrats getting their ass kicked in November, and then we’ll focus on 2024.” That’s what I would say, if Trump were asking me, hey, “How do you respond to being a show trial, going on right now — to effectively a third impeachment?” I think it’s like think a boxer. You’re standing in the ring, and the Democrats are throwing wild punches at you, and most of them are not making any contact at all. What about you?

BUCK: Having watched all of the first session — and I cannot promise more. I mean, it was like staying up to do —

CLAY: More power to you. I can only make it 20 minutes.

BUCK: It was like staying up to do trigonometry homework or something for this audience.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: Like, I’m doing your precalc everybody, so you don’t have to.

CLAY: Give everybody a copy when they come into class, right?

BUCK: They’re watching this stuff. And Liz Cheney reading off the prompter. The whole thing, it was just such a waste of everybody’s time. But here’s one good note from it, I would take. Or rather, one encouraging note. I really do believe that — and it’s so tough, because there’s always variations of the psychology that you’re dealing with, right?

They’re the people who go along with the Biden talking points, because that’s in their interest, and some people who are delusional, and they believe it depending on what the subject is, what the topic is. But here’s what I say about this January 6 riot… But they use the term “riot” a lot. It’s so interesting. They will say “riot,” and it was a riot, but then why are we calling it an “insurrection”? It’s not really an insurrection.

CLAY: It’s called a “coup,” right?

BUCK: A coup. A coup, yeah, and think about how fragile it seems to be, that they suggest that the U.S. government is so fragile, that people who are unarmed would be able to overthrow the government?

CLAY: Yeah. That’s a great point.

BUCK: We have millions of people in this country who work for the federal government. You can’t even calculate, you know, off the top of your head, all the people who work there.

CLAY: It’s the first attempted coup without weapons being used, maybe in world history if that is actually the standard.

BUCK: It’s a crazy idea. But then to analyze it for a second. And this is what I found to be somewhat encouraging. The situation of the Biden Democrats, right? Because really, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer have been a very important part of the debacles that we’ve seen as well. But the situation that the Biden Democrat is as follows: They don’t even have anything to show to bring home, so to speak, for the left-wing base. They didn’t really get them anything.

And people will say, the first six months of a presidency, is when you have to get all your big stuff done. There was no big stuff done, except spending — so far — by Biden. The spending has now turned into a political Achilles’ heel because of inflation. So what I saw — and, by the way, by the way, people say, “Oh, Liz Cheney…” Liz Cheney has not been taken hostage by the Democrats. She’s doing this of her free will, as a, quote, “Republican,” because this is now going to be for our future.

She’ll be like one of these people who goes on MSNBC as a Republican to just attack other Republicans for the amusement of an entirely Democrat audience. Clay, this whole hearing so far for me, is to show the left something that will amuse them, something that will make them feel good about themselves. And make it seems like the Biden regime is not a total failure. Essentially, they’re giving this to the base — to the Democrat base — because they have nothing else to give the base.

And so this is the best that they can do, because Trump isn’t even… It’s one thing to say he’s not in office. Obviously, that’s true. He’s not even running right now for anything. And they still have this obsession. It is because Trump derangement syndrome, along with Fauci worship, is a mental illness. And a lot of voters on the coast have Trump Derangement Syndrome that has not gone away, Clay. You know, they need to call their doctor or take a thing of Tylenol or something.

CLAY: They want Trump the sequel, and that’s what this is, really. Trump the sequel. And here’s the one thing I would say, if you asked me, “Okay. What’s the impact going to be, looking ahead to 2024?” here’s what I think is going to happen. I think Liz Cheney is going to get her ass kicked in Wyoming. I think she’s going to lose her seat. I think she’s going to claim that occurred because she was willing to stand up to Trump and the Republicans.

She is going to use that as justification to argue, that she is going to run for president, in 2024. She is going to get roundly destroyed in the 2024 primary season election, and then Liz Cheney is going to run as an independent, with the idea being that she is going to peel away some people who otherwise would vote for Trump, much like a libertarian candidate did. And honestly, all you libertarians out there listening to us right now, you’re clowns if you voted libertarian candidate in Georgia, in Arizona, in Wisconsin, in Michigan, in Pennsylvania.

Because you made Biden the president, right? I mean, if libertarians hadn’t been on the ballot, or you clown Libertarians had at least made the decision, “Hey, if I live in New York or California, some state where it’s not going to be remotely close in terms of who wins — or even if you live in Alabama, a big red state, right? — vote libertarian if that’s what your heart demands.” But if you live in a toss-up state, in my opinion, and you are voting libertarian — and I’ve voted libertarian before, so I’m criticizing people like me.

BUCK: Really?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Wow.

CLAY And, look, I live in Tennessee. My vote for president really doesn’t matter most years, right? Whoever the Republican is, he’s going to win by 30 points. Now, I’ll vote him in 2024, or her, whoever the person is. But if you live in a toss-up state and you are voting libertarian, I think you’re a bozo. I think you are an imbecile, and you should be making more rational decisions. But I just that’s what they’ll try to do. Liz Cheney is going to run. She is going to get crushed in 2022. She’s going to run, argue she’s a truth teller. Run in ’27.

Nobody likes her. She’s not going to get any support, and then she’s going to say, “I’m going to run as an independent,” trying to peel away a certain amount of Trump voters. And here’s one more prediction. 2024, Buck. I’m putting it on the roster, so you can go look it up. Everybody out there can look at it. In 2024, the Republican presidential nomination is going to come down to Donald Trump against DeSantis. I think that nobody else has any chance of being the nominee. I think DeSantis is going to run. This is my opinion. This is not based on anything I’ve been told. Trump is going to run, and I think it’s going to be a heavyweight fight, between those two guys, over who is the 2024 nominee.

BUCK: All right. Nashville Nostradamus.

CLAY: I’m putting it on the record now. I think whoever is the nominee will win big. I think that’s going to be a battle royale the likes of which we’ve never seen. When was the last real knockdown, drag-out Republican battle for the nomination?

BUCK: Trump in 2016. Had some moments there. There were some tough stuff.

CLAY: There are only two guys, right? I think those are the only two you can get.

BUCK: Yeah. I don’t think anybody right now disagrees with that who’s paying attention to the Republican side of the ledger. But just bringing it back to January 6 here for a second. The one question as I was watching all of this, Clay — because you’re right, they’re making this all about Trump — is, “What do they really want?” Because this is not about a security review. They keep saying, to stop this from ever happening again. There’s really no discussion. There’s no analysis of, what were Capitol Police doing when they were waving people in?

And what were the security breakdowns that occurred? They didn’t show… Actually ,now that they have very clear video of it. The shot of the neck through a door by a Capitol police officer. So they didn’t touch on some of the clear security issues. It was all meant to be very theatrical, and so you come away from this asking a very straightforward question: What do they want people, who weren’t there, who had nothing to do with it, to do?

What do they really think? We’re going to abandon the Republican Party because of this? I mean, are they out of their mind? The answer unfortunately is yes. They are out of their mind. Oh, it’s just that we can never vote for Trump again? No, I’m sorry. They don’t get to make that call for us. The American people get to pass that judgment themselves in the next election. There’s no criminal case to be made against Trump. They totally oversold. “There will be revelations!” There’s no revelations. There was nothing new.

CLAY: It’s all about Trump. It’s all Trump. That’s all it is. Trump, Trump, Trump. Again, which is why I’m saying, the Democrat Party really has no idea. To your point, Buck, all they did was spend money. They didn’t even put in place any lasting programs, right? Build Back Better was about, “Hey, let’s have ten years of spending trillions of dollars, and then make it hard for Republicans to vote against this in ten years when it’s scheduling to end.”

They didn’t even get any of that implemented. They spent a ton of money on infrastructure. Okay. It’s a one-time expense. They gave way too much money of covid recovery. But in terms of actual lasting legacy, Joe Biden has accomplished almost nothing in the past 18 months. And all they can do is the Trump rerun show. It’s Trump, Trump, Trump.

BUCK: Our trial run of Modern Monetary Theory, courtesy of the pandemic as an excuse, via Democrat spending — and there were Republicans who initially went along with it in the early days, and that was not the right move. But we knew less about the virus then. But it didn’t work out well. Some of us were saying all along, “This is crazy,” right? Just paying people to stay home, and we were shouted down. You just want grandma to die.” All this other stuff.

CLAY: The one good criticism was you got called Thanos, which I do think was a funny criticism.

BUCK: Sometimes you have to snap your fingers and see what happens.

CLAY: You’re right.