BUCK: We gotta spend some time out in Pennsylvania together, Clay, ’cause we need to help rally the troops, so to speak, for Dr. Oz. We need that seat. I could even see the whole thing coming down to it. You and I are so focused in on Herschel and Dr. Mehmet Oz getting victories here for the Republicans. I mentioned this before, and it ties right into the crime issue we started off the show with. Here is — end mass incarceration is the phrase they use, and they actually mean, just let people out of prison. You have a mandate to just have fewer people in prison. Are there fewer people committing serious crimes in that area? Don’t worry about that. Just fewer people in prison. Here is Fetterman. He is a left-wing guy. We’ve also got him saying he is liking Bernie Sanders’ policies across the board. But here he is on crime. Play it.
FETTERMAN: I was on a panel with Secretary Wetzel earlier before the pandemic hit, and he said something remarkable that I agree with. He said we could reduce our prison population by a third and not make anyone less safe in Pennsylvania. And that’s a profound statement.
CLAY: I don’t think that’s true at all. Yeah.
BUCK: Hold on. It’s a profoundly stupid statement.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: He said this, Clay, give or take two years ago. We’ve seen the results. You started off saying Philadelphia has its highest murder rate ever —
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: — last year. It is on pace to beat that this year. They have, in the jail system around — you know, in and around Philadelphia dramatically by about 30% reduced the prison population. I know they’re gonna say, “Correlation is not causation.” We’re to believe that’s a coincidence, Clay? I don’t think so. Fetterman is a left-wing loon.
CLAY: Fetterman would be the worst Senate candidate to win in a very long time, if you just consider what he believes and what the average Pennsylvanian believes. Let me just hit you with a bunch of different ideas, and then I’m gonna capstone it with the audio of him endorsing Bernie Sanders.
Fetterman believes — this also happened in the state of Pennsylvania — that biological men should be able to compete against women. He a hundred percent has already endorsed the idea of Lia Thomas competing — remember the male swimmer who decided to become a woman and dominated and went out and won an NCAA championship in the 500, I believe. That is endorsed by Fetterman.
Fetterman is anti-fracking. He is completely, as Buck just pointed out, come out in favor, essentially, of defund the police and let people out of prison. He also said that he endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016 because Bernie Sanders is right on virtually every issue and there’s almost no distinguishing between he and Bernie Sanders. Listen to this.
FETTERMAN: And that’s why I endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2016, because I believe he is where the party needs to be and where the party should be. And, you know, he and I agree on virtually every issue.
CLAY: “He and I agree on virtually every issue,” Buck. Now, that was Fetterman when he was still healthy. Here’s the other thing about Fetterman. He’s coming off a very serious stroke. He can barely talk right now. So in addition to right now having a nominee who agrees with Bernie Sanders on everything, who thinks that men should be able to compete against women, who doesn’t believe in funding the police, who doesn’t believe in prosecuting criminals, in fact, wants them to get out of prison and out of jail.
Buck, he is not healthy enough to even do the job. This is worse than Joe Biden in 2020 hiding in his basement because Fetterman’s health issues, he almost died just a few months ago. Now, I hope he gets well and I hope he’s eventually able to get back to some form of normalcy in his life. But how in the world can Pennsylvanians vote for a guy who may not even be healthy enough to go to the Senate floor and cast votes for them? This is an incredibly important race. And I know many people out there still dealing with it. They love Kathy Barnette or they love Dave McCormick, and that was a brutal, really difficult Republican primary. But at some point you gotta grow up and deal with the fact that life requires choices. And you may not love Dr. Oz, but he is a billion times better than John Fetterman as a Senate candidate.
BUCK: You go to war with the Republican Party you have, folks. You know? Unfortunately that’s the deal. That’s the way it is. That’s why these people like Liz Cheney, who end up doing the bidding of the other side as some effort they claim to purify the Republican Party of Trumpism or whatever. No, you’re actually just helping the lunatic libs get their way and make things worse for people in this country. I mean, you know, I wake up every morning and I go to sleep every night, Clay — I know you do, too — thinking about things that have been done in this country, decisions that have been made by leaders that are bad.
CLAY: Yes.
BUCK: And that need to stop and that need to change, as well as things that I’m really proud of, I mean, things that I believe showed real leadership. I mean, for me, you know, we often talk about Ron DeSantis as a governor on this show. Florida as a beacon of freedom and hope for so many people in blue state America across the country was a very real thing during the covid pandemic which is why I still stay on this issue of the CDC. I’m not letting bygones be bygones with them. No one’s been fired. No one’s lost their job. They made other people get fired, right? So, you know, this stuff matters, is basically the point of it all. These decisions, these ways forward matter.
CLAY: We met with a bunch of people in Salt Lake City yesterday, who are supporters of the show. They came out here to the studio. Fantastic meeting with them. You went out to dinner with one of the group last night.
BUCK: My real estate friends last night, yes, sir.
CLAY: And so one of the things they asked is, you know, “How do you guys end up doing the show that you’re doing now?” And I’m still every day so fired up to be able to get out of bed and feel fortunate to get to do what we do, Buck, because I love sports. Everybody out there knows that. I’m gonna be on the road, I’m excited to be on the road for college football season which starts in eight days so if you need something to be looking forward to. But who wins games doesn’t really matter. What happens in November matters to such a massive degree.
So when I hear people out there say, “Well, Dr. Oz is not my preferred candidate” or “I wish” — look. I understand. I understand that there are very few times where you’re going to have the perfect candidate at the perfect time, that perfectly encapsulates and represents everything that you believe. And, oh, by the way, the only person that you should agree with a hundred percent of the time on anything is yourself.
BUCK: I thought you were gonna say your spouse, by the way. Mrs. Travis and I are gonna have a talk later.
CLAY: And even, I was gonna say even if you agree with yourself all the time, you should be questioning yourself aggressively to make sure that you’re examining data and making rational decisions. And part of making rational decisions is picking the best of two options. And Fetterman — I get so fired up about this because Fetterman is the worst candidate that Democrats have put forth to try to flip a Senate seat that may well be able to do it if people in Pennsylvania don’t wake up that I have ever seen, Buck.
I mean, Bernie Sanders winning — that’s basically what’s going on — Bernie Sanders winning Pennsylvania is a disaster for Pennsylvanians, for all the Steeler fans out there, for all the Eagles fans, Nittany Lions fans. Bernie Sanders represents everything that you hate. And if you’re not going to war for Dr. Oz right now, you are blowing it.
CLAY: Yeah.
BUCK: — you are the soldiers. You are the shock troop. Spreading this message, talking to you every day, you talking to your family, your friends, mobilizing in your communities, spreading the word, that is how we say — we’re just two guys talking to all of you. You are the ones that go out there and make it happen and vote and organize and stand on principle and do things — you are the force multipliers for what we talk about here every single day. I want us to be in a place where in Pennsylvania people really digging in and arguing over whether the Steelers or the Eagles — I know them —
CLAY: There you go. Boom.
BUCK: Thank you.
CLAY: And by — and Friday, Buck, when you were out I told Dr. Oz, hey, when the Steelers and the Eagles play, which I think is just a couple of weeks before Election Day, I’m gonna go up there and I’ll help him campaign at that game.
BUCK: I see a vision not just for Pennsylvania, but for the whole country. What our mission is is when the streets are safe enough, the economy’s strong enough, the border is secure enough, education is full of enough choice and good enough that people sitting around and really getting into the argument over whose team is gonna win the game is a great usage of their time because we’ve got the big things covered. That’s what I’m hoping for.
CLAY: Yeah. I took this job in many ways because I wanted sanity to return in 2022 and for there to be a check on Joe Biden and then to make sure that there’s a Republican who’s elected in 2024, whoever that nominee may be. And that requires sometimes going out, getting your hands dirty and being willing to fight. And sometimes you gotta fight with somebody that you don’t necessarily think is the perfect representation of your candidacy. So look. Pennsylvanians, you gotta sack up. You gotta stop complaining, and you gotta go down and take out this guy Fetterman because he’s a disaster and he doesn’t represent you.
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