CLAY: We are live at Mar-a-Lago, about to be joined by former Nevada attorney general Adam Laxalt, who is one of the top candidates to help Republicans split back the Senate. We’ll talk with him in just a moment. I want to give you a little bit of a detail here, Joe Biden addressing the nation said that — I’m reading, quote — Putin is, quote, “setting up a rationale to take more territory by force to go much further.

“This is the beginning of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.” So we certainly will be talking more and more about the situation in Ukraine in day, next day, maybe days into the future. But we bring in now live here at Mar-a-Lago Trump-endorsed candidate in the great state of Nevada, Adam Laxalt. What are you saying? First of all, thanks for joining us here at Mar-a-Lago.

Not a bad place to be, although there’s a lot of pretty impressive places in your state as well, these incredible edifices certainly in Las Vegas and beyond. What are you hearing from people on the ground as you get enmeshed in your Senate campaign? And for people out there who may not live in your state, what is the larger Senate picture, and why does your race matter so much when it comes to Republicans taking back control of the Senate?

LAXALT: Sure. Let me just say that, first, thanks on for having me on, guys.

BUCK: Good to be here.

LAXALT: This is a great venue. Pretty cool to do a show here. You know, I’ve just never seen anything like it. You know, the average voter in all corners of my state… We’re a very big state, for your listeners. You can drive, three, four hundred miles in between counties. There’s such an acute sense of anger, fear, concern. People really think that the America that we all love, the America that has made us — the values that have made us — the greatest nation on earth, that they’re on the ropes.

And, you know, it’s funny. I do a lot of interviews, and especially if it’s anything in the kind of mainstream, they always think that these are talking points, and you can tell they glaze over when I say something like this, and I want to say, “Come. Leave your bubble, and come out to a state like Nevada and speak to real voters because they feel like that everything is going wrong.” Everything. There are no bright spots right now.

BUCK: To that point, I mean, people are often motivated whether they’re writing restaurant reviews or they’re voting, it’s generally what upsets them that motivates them, right? What’s gone wrong. You’re talking about that. For people in the state of Nevada, what are the top two or three things that have them particularly fired up and that you think could lead to a strong outcome for Republicans going into this midterm?

LAXALT: Well, I’ll start with covid, because that’s extra topical. Last week there was no sign, no rumors, no hinting that we were gonna get masks lifted. And you guys are probably following this. All the sudden a bunch of blue state governors are lifting masks — and out of nowhere, there’s a press conference announced and the very next morning they’re all lifted.

And as we pointed out, went after the governor, went after Senator Masto who clapped and supported the decision, that the infection rate was actually higher that day than when he put masks in in August. And so every single… Their maps, their tracker, every single county in Nevada was still red. Now, I didn’t think we should have mask mandates in the first place; obviously I applaud the decision.

But it just showed what a joke all this was. And there was no science. And, in fact, someone from his task force who’s was an epidemiologist was caught unsuspected by a reporter and said, “You know, where does the science come from? ” And he said, “We weren’t consulted,” and so it just tells you everything you need to know.

You mentioned that amazing video, those young kids from Las Vegas that went viral, and as he like to say, that’s the natural state, right? No one wanted to be in masks, these kids never needed to be in masks, and, meanwhile, we had this big protest in one of our universities of college kids, that were complaining that we should put masks back on.

CLAY: We played the audio.

LAXALT: And, you know, it’s just… You want to laugh, but it’s just so sad and pathetic that they would want to protest for less freedom and for the government to regulate them more. It’s like, “Hey, guys, you can wear masks until the day you die if that’s what you want to do but to have it as a mandate is not the way we should go.”

CLAY: We talked about this because I landed in Las Vegas on an evening around 9 o’clock, and the mask mandate went into place at midnight. So I went to the hotel with my wife — we were there for a couple of birthday parties — and we were able to not wear masks all throughout casino from 9 to midnight. At midnight, it was like Cinderella’s carriage flipping back into a pumpkin.

Somebody snapped their things and started walking around saying, “You have to put a mask on now.” So you could be in the casino all day, you could be hangs out, playing whatever you wanted to do, having an incredible time, and then at midnight — we were on the casino floor — they walked around and they started making that switch.

And the amount of people who were just looking around, this is not scientific, this is completely absurd, I’m glad that they made that switch. But one of the things about Vegas, why people want to go there, is to have freedom and experience maybe things that they can’t do in their hometown or their home state. And so the idea of this Nanny State existing even in your state of Nevada was driving people bonkers. And it’s great that it’s changed, but to your point, there was no method or metrics by which they made this choice.

LAXALT: Well, and we’re in the state of Florida, which is also a tourism state, and this was proof positive that this could have been done a different way.

CLAY: Yes.

LAXALT: And our state chose the opposite. We’ve been locked down, there have been masks, and it’s killed our economy. Right now we have the highest unemployment in America, we have one of the largest small business losses in America, and so it had real serious, lasting economic consequences. All unnecessary. We had increased drug overdose, we have increased domestic violence, all the things that people like me and I’m sure people like you were warning a year ago.

There is another side of the coin, the lockdowns, and we were all ignored or all told that that shouldn’t go in the equation. Here in Florida, the governor put those in the equation and said quite clearly there’s another way to do it. So the good news, I think, is that people have awoken to just how terrible hour leaders have been.

I think a reckoning is coming. It’s not just the economy. I mean, the schools were devastated the last few years. Parents are outraged by the masks and the remote learning, and so we have problems across the board. And I think that people are ready for — absolutely ready for — change.

BUCK: We’re speaking to Adam Laxalt. He’s running for Senate in Nevada, and to that end, I wanted to ask you. Clay and I are already day in and day out pounding the drum over we need a massive victory, a massive red wave in these midterm elections to send a message and to restore freedom, yes. Also just normal life! This is one of the things that I think got people so fired up on behalf of the truckers up in Canada.

This notion that we can go on almost endlessly without being able to live normal lives. So that’s all in play, and it really does matter a lot. What should people know about your Senate race, your Democrat opponent, and how you see — you’re somebody who’s watching this, I’m sure, very closely — the GOP chances generally in the Senate going into this critical midterm election.

LAXALT: Yeah, first and foremost, I mean, are we gonna experience a red wave in this country? I think absolutely. People are ready for change. They’re tired of the Biden leadership that has failed at basically every single turn. But it’s important for people to understand the Senate map is as small as can be. We must win Georgia and Nevada. We must win these two states. If we do not win these two states, we cannot win the Senate.

And I won’t go into all the states — you guys can do that for the next number of months — but take any word for it: Without these two states we cannot take the majority in the U.S. Senate. Now, the good news is that Trump lost Nevada by only two points. That’s with them changing our election system and 90 days out and giving us mail-in balloting, ballot harvesting and all those things. So it’s a razor-thin state.

My opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto, only won by two five years ago while Harry Reid was the sitting majority leader, her patron saint, drove everything to her, drove all the resources. And so this is an absolutely winnable state. And one thing President Trump did was he absolutely moved the Hispanic community to nearly 40% in Las Vegas. He clearly won big chunks of blue-collar workers in Las Vegas.

And so these America First policies that we’re trying to actually go after the American dream and give people a chance at a better life, they were working, and they were effective, and people now know the stark contrast that all these things have gone to hell, frankly. And so we have between that and what happened to schools and lockdowns, this combination of me being able to prosecute the case that the Biden administration and left-wing policies for American and Nevada, they fail.

They fail at every turn. They fail at the border — which has increased crime and increased trafficking and drug overdoses — they’ve failed obviously in the economy, they’re failing right now with Ukraine and foreign policy, and so, you know, this is my job is to go on offense every single day.

BUCK: Where should folks go to learn more — especially your Nevada listeners — about your campaign, Adam?

LAXALT: AdamLaxalt.com.

CLAY: Last question really quick you’ve got a 6-week old. You’ve got four kids 8 and under. In addition to running for Senate do you get any sleep at all? How is the 6-week-old doing?

LAXALT: (chuckles) Well, anybody that’s had a newborn the answer right now is categorically, no. I am not getting any sleep. My wife is still bearing a lot of the brunt of the sleep deprivation. But, no, I have not slept through the night in about six weeks. But that’s okay. We’re blessed, and this is…

I know it sounds corny, but this is why I’m doing this. This is why we’re all fighting for the future of our country. I have four children that if we do not turn America around, they will not be raised in the same America I was raised in. That’s the stakes we are faced with, and that’s what drives me every single day.

BUCK: Adam Laxalt, man, thank you.

CLAY: I think the exact same thing. I got three young kids. I feel the same way.