BUCK: If you read the CNN headlines, it was like Churchill during The Blitz.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: It was the most remarkable story at this town hall with CNN you could possibly imagine. Joe Biden, the great statesman of our era — a man with a vision worthy of Pericles or Abraham Lincoln or someone famous from past times. Here is Joe Biden just wowing us with his wisdom, his eloquence, and his vision for America.

BIDEN: That’s underway just like the other question that’s a logical — and I’ve heard you speak about it, because you’re always… I’m not being solicitous, but you… (sputters) You’re always straight up about what you’re doing. And the question is whether or not we should be in a position where you, uh, um, err, are are… Why can’t the — the — the experts say: We know that this virus is, in fact, uh, um, uhhh, er (sputtering) “is going to be — or excuse me… (sputtering) We — we — we know all the drugs approved are not temporarily approved but permanently approved.

LEMON: Mmm.

BIDEN: That’s underway, too. I expect that to occur quickly!

LEMON: Well, that being… It means…? You mean for the FDA?

BIDEN: For the FDA.

BUCK: I gotta say, Clay, here you got a guy it’s like those videos you see of a drunk guy running away from cops and it’s all, “Oh, he’s going! Is the train gonna stay on the tracks?” That’s the feeling you have the whole time. This is the great leader that the Democrats elected to save the country and unite us all.

CLAY: Buck, it is “traveshamockery” (if you remember that coined phrase) that after all of the discussion about Donald Trump’s mental faculties, they made him take a cognitive test, they talked about after we could see the 25th Amendment. When you hear Joe Biden, it is like being at Thanksgiving — and I hate to analogize this, but I think almost everyone listening to us has had this happen in their life.

When you are with a family member who is elderly and no longer has complete control of their faculties, and they may start one story and they end up going in two or three different directions, and you’re wondering if they’re going to be able to land the story plane. Joe Biden can’t cognitively — I really believe this — work through in real time in his brain.

And I think it’s wildly unfortunate. We’ve talked about this off air, Buck. One change… Look, our Constitution is an incredible document. One change that I wish we had made? You have to be 35 years old to be elected president. I wish they had said, “You can’t be older than 65 to also be elected president.” Age limits at the top end I think make a lot more sense than age limits at the bottom end.

And I listen to Joe Biden, that answer, I mean, it’s just sad. Can you imagine him talking to Vladimir Putin? Can you imagine him talking to Chairman Xi? Can you imagine what he’s like when he is tired, when all of the pressure is upon him? This is bad now. And we still have 3-1/2 more years of this at minimum, Buck, and they may try a Weekend at Bernie’s style, drag him across the finish line in 2024 ’cause they’re afraid of Kamala.

BUCK: Or a lot of people feel like he will step down. I just feel like there’s another part of this where the fact that Democrats… You know the old fable, the emperor with no clothes. The fact that Democrats all walk around acting like we’re supposed to think that this is normal is deeply unsettling and depressing. The idea that we can’t at least all agree that we can see this.

And as you rightly pointed out they were saying there needed to be… The Democrats, CNN, Washington Post, that whole apparatus of leftist power, they were sall saying that Trump needed to be imminently removed from office.

CLAY: That’s right.

BUCK: Not even convince to do step down, removed from office because of deterioration of his mental faculties or essentially say just that he was crazy. They weren’t even saying he was suffering from senility. And so they made this an issue for four years, and now they pretend not to see what we’re all seeing and hearing.

CLAY: Not only did they make it an issue, Buck, they brought on doctors! Remember “believe the science”? They brought on doctors to analyze his cognitive abilities and whether or not they are declining. And they talk all the time now about how our democracy is in danger because of court reporting rights and everything else and how you’re trying to overule the American democracy.

They wanted him removed from office, a democratically elected president, because they do not trust his faculties — and now Joe Biden. I think we should play that clip multiple times multiple times during the course of today shoves not because I’m trying to pick on Joe Biden, but just think about what the reaction would have been in a town hall if Trump had been that unable to explain an answer to a basic question relating to vaccine approval. It would have been everywhere.

Democrats really are you do not pretend that this is not a real issue when I think every single person listening to us right now, again, has been at that Thanksgiving table, they’ve been at Christmas, and they know what a cognitive decline looks like in a loved one. And I don’t see how you can listen to Joe Biden regularly and not see that exactly going on here.

BUCK: There were two focuses last night, really, of the town hall on CNN, and it is remarkable to see how, oh, CNN, they’re just… It’s like in high school before the homecoming game or college. You had all the festivities and the hype session. Everyone at CNN loves this guy; it’s a free commercial for him. That much was all obvious.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: Here’d Joe Biden on under 12 years old in school and masks.

BIDEN: Everyone over the age — uh, under the age of 12 should probably be wearing a mask in school. That’s probably what’s gonna happen. Secondly, those over the age of 12 who are able to get vaccinated — if you’re vaccinated, you shouldn’t wear a mask. If you aren’t vaccinated, you should be wearing a mask.

BUCK: Clay, I just got a text from a friend of mine as we’re here on air sending me an article from Fauci saying exactly what Biden said, not for kids but for everybody that now even if you’re vaccinated you should wear a mask. I’ve been saying this for months that the lull would end, and they would all of a sudden say we have to go back to this, which is why I didn’t want to give up the fight.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: And you know what we’re gonna start doing soon? People like you and me and everyone who’s with us and everyone who’s listening and agrees with us they’re gonna start shutting you down on social. They’re gonna start with shadow banning. They’re gonna start with the algorithms not showing us your stuff to people and then it’s just gonna be you’re done you’re off. That’s how they’re gonna shut it down.

CLAY: This, Buck, is why we wanted radio. You and I had had this conversation. We said social media… You and I are digital natives. We said we could feel pressure in the wake of Donald Trump, that this was not going to be the ended of bannings on social media. So the ability we have to talk to the largest radio audience in the country every single day… It’s an incredible privilege, but this is what’s gonna happen.

Look, I landed last night, Buck, in L.A., and I have started to make my way around L.A., and this was the first city that has now reinstituted the mask mandate. And when I walked into my hotel last night there were signs telling me that I had to have my mask on. And when you’re trying to get your hotel and you’re talking to the guy, there’s a huge Plexiglas, display that distinguishes between me and the person working at the front desk.

Now, I will say this, to your point: I know you’ve been the anti-mask bandit in your gym. I will say on a very positive level, I went down to the gym this morning; it was packed. And nobody was wearing a mask. And so I do think regular people are rebelling against the stupidity of the mask.