BONUS: Daily Review with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton - Apr 17 2025
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Welcome, everybody. Thursday edition of the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show kicks off right now. Much to discuss with all of you. Harvard, also known as Harvard to some of our Bostonite listeners, is facing an IRS move under Trump's administration to rescind the tax exempt status of this state.

Store Read University, and this is getting a lot of attention from Democrats who realize that their cathedral, if you will, which is elite higher education, is coming under attack.

pressure in a way that they really have never before. We also have that. I don't think we got to the DOJ transgender athlete main story yesterday, Clay, right? We had mentioned it, so we want to spend a little time on that one today. And it goes to the issues of safety concerns and whether there are safety concerns for some of the, or yeah, for young women who end up having to compete in

With these individuals who are trans. We had a special guest yesterday who appeared in the White House to speak out. Patty Morin, whose daughter was killed by an illegal alien in Maryland. She spoke at the White House and that will bring you some of her thoughts. Also, Clay, just a little side note, because I'll take any excuse to throw shade at George Clooney. George Clooney.

was sitting down with CNN to talk about the bravery of writing his op-ed to finally say that Biden, it is not brave when you are caught. I'm just going to say there is no bravery when your team has already fumbled the ball and the other team is trying to take it into your end zone. We shall discuss a little bit of that. First thing, though, Clay, I know you are deep on the reading on this one. You were going deep down the rabbit hole because new information came out

While the Maryland Democrat senator was down in El Salvador yesterday, there are a lot of memes flying around about this that some of you may have seen online. But the Maryland senator who went down there decided that he was going to make Mr. Abrego Garcia a major concern. This is now the primary method, the primary avenue of attack against the Trump administration today.

I think, Clay, we're getting into a place where they have made this all about due process and the system. And I think there's a strong argument for Trump at this point that you can't have an illegal brought back into America for the purpose of kicking him out of America. There's just something inherently crazy about that. But also, their martyr in this case, Mr. Abrego Garcia, we have found out

This may be a politically forget about the legal wrangling. This may be a politically unwise choice for Democrats to go all in for the return of this alleged MS-13 gang member.

I said six months ago when Trump won that I thought the resistance to a large extent on a deportation front would come when Democrats found an individual that they believed was unjustly deported and tried to use that anecdote as a way to attack the entire deportation concept in general. And they did. And they picked this Kilmar Garcia guy who,

and said, oh my goodness, this is a Maryland dad. There's no basis whatsoever to have deported him. He's not a gang member. He hasn't done anything wrong. He's a loving dad. And evidence keeps coming out that this is totally wrong and embarrassing. And after we went off the air yesterday, the police reports, which I think we hinted were coming, of him...

him for being an alleged wife beater were released, and they're bad. They're bad. Look, domestic violence is always difficult for the courts to reconcile because many times women end up staying with the man that they accuse of domestic abuse. But the detail, the evidence, it's pretty awful, and it suggests that this guy is a wife beater.

On top of that, there also was a subsequent report from the Tennessee Star that this illegal immigrant gang member was pulled over in the state of Tennessee with seven different individuals in his car that the state of Tennessee police believed was human trafficking.

And that they then made a call to the FBI in the Biden regime. And the Biden regime FBI said, let him go.

So just factually now, Buck, and a lot of this has been released. You can go look it up for yourself. If somebody on your Facebook page is talking about this being a loving Maryland father, this guy was arrested with gang members in gang paraphernalia in cash and adjudicated MS-13 gang member per evidence from authorities.

is in the state of Maryland, a documented wife beater in the state of Tennessee, according to the report from the Tennessee Star, was pulled over and suspected of human trafficking and let go by the Biden FBI. And he is illegally in the country. All of this is undisputed, factually accurate information.

And the Democrats decided that this is the hill that they will fight on. This is where they need to draw the line on who needs to be let back in the country, such that one of the 47 Democrat senators traveled to the state of Maryland, sorry, from the state of Maryland to El Salvador to try and argue that that individual needed to be let back into the country. I think this buck has blown up in their faces.

I would expect that you will see an attempt to kind of run from this guy and pretend that all of this has not happened because for all of it to come out, I can't think of a less positive face for the deportation is wrong movement than the guy basically that they have picked.

And I thought the Trump administration yesterday with the mom of the Maryland resident, sadly, who was beaten to death by an illegal immigrant. I watched yesterday. She was the special guest for Caroline Leavitt in the White House press briefing room yesterday.

mom's story was hard to hear I think for anyone out there but she wanted to share what happened to her daughter and there were no questions afterwards and they walked out and I think the Maryland sort of juxtaposition between an American citizen being brutally beaten raped to death and what's going on with Maryland Senator is just awful optics here is here is this mother that Clay was just talking about speaking yesterday in the White House cut to to have a

a senator from Maryland who didn't even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that's not even an American citizen.

Why does that person have more right than I do or my daughter or my grandchildren? I don't understand this. Clay, somehow the rule of law means that illegals have all of these layers upon layers of processes to prevent them from being deported, but there aren't all these layers and layers to...

prevent them from coming into the country, those laws don't get focused on, don't get talked about by Democrats. And also, and I know that this is something that Democrats would find very contentious, but I don't care. I think it's true. Of course, if you let 10 million people into the country with no vetting who are illegals, you're going to let murderers, rapists, gang members in. It was an active choice for them to do this.

Biden and his cronies and his handlers and the Democrat leadership and the machinery around it decided to let in these people. There's no question about this because now it's down 95 percent. OK, and it didn't take long. So that means it was a choice. So they decided to let people in.

And that decision led to dangerous illegals. I know it's a small percentage of the overall illegals who came into the country. It doesn't matter. None of them are supposed to be here under the law. Dangerous illegals, which resulted in things like Lakin Riley's rape and murder, which resulted in things like Patty Morin's daughter being killed. And the government now gets all, or the Democrats, I should say, get all haughty about the due process rights of non-Americans. I mean, I...

I think people have just realized, no, we're not doing this thing anymore. We don't do this thing where there are all these special rights for illegals, but Americans are told too hard to enforce the law. We're a nation of immigrants, so all these illegals have special privileges. I mean, a question for anybody out there listening right now. We have millions of people listening. Is there a single person who thinks this guy should be brought back into the country?

You can call us. I mean, I would love to hear the argument for why a wife-beating gang member that the state of Tennessee believed was engaged in illegal human trafficking when he was pulled over a couple of years ago, illegally in this country, why should he be brought back in the country? Why should he have been here in the first place? Open forum. He'll say, oh, you know, you don't hear both sides of an argument. Sometimes you get that. Okay.

Why should this guy be brought back into the country? Is there a single person out there listening to us, biggest radio show in the country that's on air right now, is there a single one of you that believes that this guy should be brought back? Buck, I think this is a 90-10 issue. I think there are 10% of Democrats, let's say, who legitimately believe there should be no borders basically anywhere in the world that would say, oh, this guy should be brought back.

I think it's a 90-10 issue right now, even in Maryland, which is a very blue state. You know who hasn't really spoken up very much about this? Wes Moore, the governor.

I think he sees this politically and he says, wait a minute. Why would I put my legitimacy as the governor of the citizens of Maryland on the line over a wife-beating gang member from El Salvador who is illegally here and may well have been involved in human trafficking based on getting pulled over per a Tennessee police report? Why should that guy be here? I mean, I...

I can ask again. Yeah. I mean, I don't even know what the argument is. I also would say, why are Democrats clearly more mobilized and outraged over this situation than over anything that has happened to an American at the hands of an illegal alien criminal over the last four years? Nothing even comes close.

So it's not like we're just picking two random things and, oh, well, it's a busy world and there's a lot of things they can focus on. There is not a single instance of Democrats deciding that they are going to mobilize and make a national issue of anyone who has been raped, murdered, carjacked, assaulted by, I don't just mean an illegal in this generic sense of, well, there's a lot of illegals,

Clay illegals who have already had deportation orders, who have already been arrested, who have had sanctuary cities decide they weren't going to share information with the feds, who have the Democrats have been complicit in all of this. Yeah, they are openly complicit in this violation of sovereignty, this violation of law. And now they want to lecture us on the law.

Man, the only things I want to say to them, I can't say on the radio without getting a fine. Honestly, that's how I feel. I will just point out something that I said yesterday. Who you choose to be the avatar of your policy matters a great deal.

And they have chosen poorly in the words of the last crusade, uh, uh, Indiana Jones, right? They have chosen a very poor individual to be the stand in for why Trump's deportation orders are cruel and unnecessary and unfair and potentially illegal. The United States public overwhelmingly says a wife beating illegal immigrant human trafficker potentially who is, uh,

who is not supposed to be here, gang member of MS-13. This guy needs to go.

I think they chose really poorly. I just really do. I agree with you. I thought the Democrats would at least play along a bit with the, we're going to deport the illegal criminal MS-13 types, but what about the Dreamers? I thought that was the pivot. What about the hardworking so-and-so and so-and-so who are, no, they're actually, this is the hill they want to fight on. And that is the critical point, Clay. They don't want to deport anyone.

The Democrat Party's actual emotional position on this is they all should stay. And I don't just mean the ones who we all know, people that work hard, who are in the country illegally. And, you know, that it gets to be a more interesting conversation. I still think if you're illegal, you should have to go home to your home country. But they think that the gang members also should stay. This is like they're in the fabric of America now.

It's insane. It's insane. We'll keep talking about this. Alright, April 15th has come and gone, and we're happy that at least on Tax Day, we're able to give you guys a bit of a diversion from what's not a fun day for a lot of people, and especially if you didn't file or you're just kind of hiding out from the IRS. You figure, will they ever really get to me? That's not the right attitude. They will. They will. I just went through a two-year audit. Trust me. They will find you at some point, and it can be a real nightmare. I've had to

to deal with the tax authorities. Clay said to deal with the tax authorities. Look, there's no shame in it. You just want to take action and get it addressed sooner than later. It's better monetarily. It's better in all respects to take action on it now. So if you're out there and you haven't filed,

or you have some problems with the IRS, call the experts at Rush Tax Resolution. Because every day you wait, that threat from the IRS grows. Seizing your assets, garnishing your paycheck, targeting your business over payroll taxes. They can even revoke your passport. I know you might have that sinking feeling in your gut, and it's never a good day to be...

All of a sudden, in your mind, it's like, oh, I have to reach out and deal with this. It's never fun. But the sooner you do it, the better. That's the truth. Tell them when you call Rush Tax Resolution that Clay and Buck sent you. 877-554-RUSH. 877-554-RUSH. Get a free IRS transcript investigation. Rush Tax is the only company we trust and recommend. A lot of listeners have already been helped out there, and their tax nightmares are over. Think about that relief.

Rush Tax will only take your case if they know that they can help you, period. Call now, 877-554-RUSH. That's 877-554-RUSH, or go online to RushTaxResolution.com.

Making America great again isn't just one man, it's many. The Team 47 Podcast, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. The newest focus, MS-13 gang member deported. We'll take a couple of your calls, 800-282-2882 if anybody out there wants to defend it. But I did think this was interesting.

I said I think this is a 90-10 issue, and I think this is going to blow up in the Maryland senator's face. And Harry Enten over at CNN said, I don't know if you've seen this yet, Buck, most Americans support deporting all illegal immigrants now. This is a profound shift from when Trump first entered office, and certainly I think it's a function of wherever you live,

the 10 million plus illegal immigrants who entered during Biden's term in office have changed the overall perspective on Americans when it comes on how to deal with illegal immigrants. Play cut one from CNN this morning.

Deport all undocumented immigrants. Voters favoring the government trying to deport all 11 million of them. Back in 2016, just 38% of voters wanted the government to try to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Compare it to where we are in 2025.

56% the majority, the American people have come a long way on this issue, much closer to Donald Trump. And I think that's a big part of the reason why Americans are increasingly saying the country is on the right track when it comes to immigration policy and why Donald Trump's net approval rating on that issue is in the positive. Okay, 56% want all illegal immigrants sent back to their countries.

What do you think the percentage is, Buck? Do you sign off on my 90-10 if you ask people, hey, illegal immigrant from El Salvador, gang member of MS-13, wife beater, potential human trafficker having been pulled over,

If it's 56% for everybody, it's got to be 90-10, I think, for this guy in particular, which circles back around on Trump has won this issue for everyone, but in particular for this guy to become the avatar of Democrat resistance policy when it comes to illegal immigrants is, I think, an all-time miscalculation.

Well, we know the Democrats are capable of the most epic political miscalculations because we've seen some of them recently, right? Bringing the charges against Trump. I think that was the ultimate political boomerang. They let that thing rip and it has come back and whacked them right in the face. Now with Trump presidency 2.0, I think that running Biden to the point that they did

Buck Island, may you forever stay strong. Yes. Those of us who thought they would push through, it's all right. We're still recovering. We're still doing some wreckage dives. How much longer do you think Biden needed to last in order for Buck Island to remain extant? Or do you think, in retrospect now, that they really would have gone nuclear, that the Chuck Schumers and the Nancy Pelosi's would have gone directly public to force him out?

No, I honestly, all kidding aside, I believe that if a couple of things had gone a little bit differently and they had decided to put Biden forward and have him do a few live events, that they, I think it was razor, I mean, obviously I thought he was going to be, I think it was razor's edge that...

that they pushed him out. And can I just be clear? It was moronic to push him out. They got smoked. I understand the polls showed that he had had a really bad moment there, but I think he could have gained ground. Kamala never had a path. There was never a pathway for Kamala, right? And I think that we obviously saw that in the election. So I gave the Democrats credit for being savvier than they actually were in that instance, which brings me to this one, Clay.

There's not who's who's really on the calls, who's really, you know, making the decisions from the top of the. I mean that across the board, Democrat Party, CNN, MSNBC, Industrial Complex, New York Times. Who has the most power right now in the Democrat Party to set the agenda for Trump resistance?

I mean, I think it's AOC, which we're going to talk more about. I mean, I think that they're trying to build her up. I think it might be Rachel Maddow because I think she's the only person that has a substantial audience in the party. I think people want to be liked by her. She's not a bomb. Have you ever seen her really tangling with people in public? All she does is the kind of...

standard anti-Trumpism on her show. Like, she's not calling anybody out. She's not herding cats, so to speak, within the Democrat Party, right? So I'm just saying, who is the enforcer? Who is the brain? Who is the leadership? I don't think they have one at all. That's why I think the nominee is going to be in 2028, someone who's not even in politics right now. And this is where, though, Clay, to the point about Abrego Garcia...

Them making another political blunder here, it's not surprising. Why would that be surprising? Who's in charge right now? They're just chasing. They're like the kids, young kids. I coach soccer. Clay and I both played soccer back in the day. When you have young kids playing soccer, they all just crowd the ball and nobody knows what's going on and they're all just sort of kicking the ball at each other. It's like a little mob. It's a scrum. That's the Democrats. That's true. Yeah. They're just all kicking the ball. They don't know where it's going. They're just like, it's Trump. Kick it.

I do think that if you look at what, let's leave aside the judiciary, because they have clearly emerged as Trump 2.0. This is what I was kind of talking about. They sort of haphazardly and almost drunkenly stumble from one talking point to another.

It wasn't very long ago that everybody suddenly was saying, oh, you can't afford eggs now. Well, wholesale egg prices have collapsed. They're actually lower than when Biden was in office. That story's gone. And then what was everybody focused on? The stock market. Oh, my goodness. The tariff battles, the stock market. It's unsustained. Stock market, same price it was roughly in September right now. That story, given that we have not seen as much vacillation in stock prices, that story has vanished.

Then it's, oh my goodness, you took a Maryland dad. You took a Maryland man. Oh, but actually he's a wife beater and a human trafficker and a gang member and a bad dude. And so all of these things have kind of collapsed. She's not a Maryland man.

Yeah, he's an El Salvador. Yeah, that's true, too. But this is critical. This is critical. He's not a Maryland man. And they do this with this has been the case with the media for a long time. It's always whenever an illegal does something horrible. It's, you know, Minnesota man, Maryland man, Kansas man. No, that is absolute nonsense.

Nonsense. It's a lie. It's very dishonest. I mean, am I Baghdad man? I was in Baghdad for a while. Am I Baghdad man? This is crazy. Yeah. No, it's a good point. You are the person. It's either where you live and are from or your nationality. It doesn't get to be where you are at some period of time.

Right. If I crossed over state lines and got in trouble in Texas, nobody would say like Texas man does it. No, I live in Florida. Yeah. I mean, they can't just make this up as they go along. This is their their failure to make him an avatar. We got a couple of callers, by the way, who want to weigh in. Paul in Kentucky. What do you think? OK. Paul's cell phone. No bad connection. Fail. All right. Shannon. Shannon in South Dakota. What you got?

Yeah, so the issue is, good guy, bad guy, he was convicted of no crimes. He was charged with no crimes. Well, he's illegally here, though.

Sure, sure. So do you think he could be deported? There was a protective order. He absolutely can be deported. I think one of the issues is that we deported him to a prison. We do not ship people to other countries. We didn't deport him to a prison. Hold on. We sent him to El Salvador, and El Salvador decided that he should be in prison there.

Sure. And the reason that they didn't want to send him back there was fear of reprisal from other gang members or something like that. But they knew he was going to a prison. We don't control what anybody does when we send them back to their country. So you think he should still be here? No, I think that we could have deported him. That's fine. Given his due process, the Supreme Court, I read it. They

They violated his due process and illegally shipped him to a country where he was immediately put into prison. And we don't put people in prison for accusations. We didn't put him in prison. Pete Hegseth is not in prison for his accused rape. Trump is not in prison. Well, Pete Hegseth is a citizen of the United States, and actually he was investigated by the state of California, and they determined that didn't happen.

No, they didn't determine it to happen. They determined that they didn't have enough. It was a he said, she said, just for clarification. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. When you investigate someone to see if they committed a crime and you choose not to bring charges in that crime,

That's pretty strong evidence that you didn't commit a crime, right? Because if you think that they might have committed a crime and you are bringing charges, then you would take it to the jury to determine whether or not they committed a crime.

The standard of is, would a jury be able to convict him based on the evidence that is provided? It is not a determination of guilt or not guilty. So you are of the opinion. If I said right now, hey, we've got to investigate...

whatever your name is in South Dakota, I think he's committed a crime. And if in South Dakota they investigated it and chose not to bring charges against you, you think the standard would be, well, they didn't determine I didn't commit a crime. They determined there wasn't enough evidence to convict me of a crime. That's how you'd want to be identified as a caller on the program? That is...

As a standard. Whether or not I want to be accused of a crime, anybody who's been accused of a crime is already underneath scrutiny at that point in time. Especially if, again, the investigators look into it. All right, so what's your position here? Do you want him sent back? What is your actual advocacy that you have called in to advocate for here? Sure.

I would like to get him out of prison. Get him to a place where he's not going to be put in prison unless we convict him of a crime. If they want to charge him for a crime here, fine, go ahead, which they have not done. Okay, but he's not in prison in the United States. Thanks for the call. We're just kind of going around in circles here. Look,

He is not put in prison here. He is illegally here. He has been investigated for wife beating based on his own wife's position. He was investigated for human trafficking in Tennessee, and the Biden FBI said, hey, let him go. We know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is not supposed to be here. He was arrested with other MS-13 game members.

gang members with many different aspects of gang affiliation directly connected to him. And he was sent to El Salvador, El Salvador, which is now one of the safest countries in the world. Thanks to what Bukele has done there, made the determination that he should be in prison because they believe that he is a gang member.

Well, I also think that it's not, you can't expect the American people, to me this even goes to more just common sense and fundamental belief about where the country is and what's happening here. You cannot expect us all to say, you know what, all the laws about keeping illegals out and finding and deporting illegals

Those aren't really laws like that. Sorry, there's too much going on, too much complexity. But if you do anything to an illegal that does not give him his five different versions of a day in court, that does not take into account that any judge at any time can keep the law cannot be anyone can come here and no one gets kicked out.

There's just a rejection of that. I reject that premise, okay? And that seems to be where the Democrats are on this. I also think that somebody out there thinking, hey, I'm here illegally. If I get stopped, I might end up in a prison back in my home country. Maybe I should leave is not a bad message to be sending, right? I mean, honestly, like this guy...

is, I think, quite clearly, based on all the evidence, a bad dude who should not be here. And the fact that they would make him the avatar and that the best defense that we got is some guy from South Dakota says, oh, I don't think he should be in prison in El Salvador. Well, shouldn't his home country be able to determine whether they believe that he is a threat or not and apply the laws of their home country as it pertains to their citizen?

And again, if this guy had come here and he had been a sterling man of character and all of those things, he would still be here illegally and he would still be subject to deportation. But he was not. He is a gang member based on all the evidence. You can go read it. He is potentially engaged in human trafficking based on a Tennessee police report. He is clearly based on his own wife.

someone who has beaten her and she has needed to seek the protection of the state. Like, I'm not losing or weeping at all for this guy. Well, that's exactly the point. And that's where I was going to go now is just I don't care. This guy's problem, not my problem. He's gone. He's not an American. Sorry. You know, they can whine. They're trying to make us care about this. And I think that increasingly they are finding they're unable to do so.

I don't care. It's not my problem. He wasn't supposed to be here. He's not a good guy. End of story. I'm sick of this country being exploited by people who think that the only laws that are the laws are the ones that are in their interest, the illegals' interest, and not the interest of the American people.

So I take a step back. It's more of a philosophical thing for me is what I'm saying. I'm just we've had enough. OK, we had 10 million come in under Biden. This is madness. We're getting rid of the worst, the worst right now. And I'm sorry if it's not perfect. You know, sometimes you got to drop a bomb on the building and get the bad guy and bad things happen.

Let me also say this, because he tried to pivot and attack Pete Hegseth on this. I think this is actually really significant, and I know this has been something that matters to you too. He tried to say, well, they investigated it, and they chose not to bring charges, but that doesn't mean that he didn't commit a rape. That argument, it needs to vanish, right? Because if you have a woman who can anonymously accuse a man,

of inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature. The authorities actually investigate it. They choose not to bring charges against

You can't then say, well, he may have raped her, but they just chose not to bring charges. No, if you get investigated and they don't bring charges, I'm sorry, anonymous, your name gets dragged through the mud and everything else. I think we need to make it the standard that we say, this didn't happen. Not, well, they decided they couldn't convict beyond a reasonable doubt, so that doesn't mean he didn't rape her. That is just, I'm sorry, that line of thought is,

In this era, when you can levy any accusation against someone at all that you want, and then when authorities investigate and don't bring it, you still say, well, it didn't mean he didn't do it. I'm over that era. I think that is, frankly, indefensible. I also think, yeah, as soon as the guy started, you were much more polite to him than I would have been if I was handling that. But I would just say, because you and I agree, the Pete thing, it's...

There's no there there. But anyway, and the cops found there's no there there. Trust me, they weren't giving the Fox News host in California the benefit of the doubt. There was no doubt. That's well said, too. There's no privilege of being a Fox News host in California when you're accused of wrongdoing. Investigated for sexual assault. So, Pete, there's zero doubt in my mind that Pete did not actually break any laws there whatsoever. Beyond that, though, this is where I think people just...

We keep being told, oh, you know what? We got to break. We'll come back. We'll keep the conversation going. Rapid Radios does incredible work right there. Look, if you're dealing with something that could be catastrophic, we just had tons of tornadoes rolling through the middle part of the country. My family was down in our

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Also, if you've got kids, maybe you don't want them on the Internet, rapidradios.com, 60% off, free UPS shipping, plus a free protection bag, ad code radio for an extra 5% off. That's rapidradios.com. Go there today. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, voices of sanity in an insane world. We have some breaking news just to update you on this. A suspect in custody and five reportedly missing.

uh killed at florida state university down here in my home state of florida we are following this uh the the updates will be coming to us more throughout this hour so just wanted to let you know that this is the breaking news out there it is spreading rapidly people are finding out about this terrible shooting at florida state university we'll have more for you on that later this hour as more details come in we've got the team pulling together all of the relevant information as we speak

We now want to speak to Attorney General Ken Paxton of the state of Texas. He joins us now from Dallas. Mr. Attorney General Paxton, appreciate you calling in, sir. Hey, glad to be on. I appreciate you having me on. It's going to be a fun year coming up.

We know you've announced your Senate run, and so that's very exciting for you and your team that you're going to be throwing your hat on the ring for that. I want to talk to you more about that. In the meantime, though, I thought...

Perhaps you could just give us your perspective. If a state attorney general is involved in multiple mortgage frauds, if that is found to be true, shouldn't that state attorney general, I'm sure you're familiar with what's going on in New York and Attorney General Letitia James and the allegations that are out there right now. Aren't you, Attorney General Paxson, held to a higher standard as a chief law enforcement officer in your state? And shouldn't that be the case in New York as well?

Well, certainly not necessarily a higher standard, but she had to be held to the standard that everybody else is, which is if she's violating the law, she should be held accountable for that. And if she's committed a crime, she should be prosecuted for that. And obviously that would affect her ability to continue as attorney general of New York.

A lot of discussion. Well, first of all, let's allow you to tell our audience who may not have heard otherwise. You have had a lot of success in Texas electoral politics already. You've won a lot of battles. You've fought a lot of battles. People have come after you aggressively. And you are going to be running now for the Senate first.

from Texas that is next year, but the process is underway. When's the primary? What do you expect it to look like? And for people out there that may not have been familiar with you in the past, why are you the right choice? So the primary is the first Tuesday of March, so we're approximately 10 and a half months away from the primary. And obviously John Corners, our current senator, has been there for 23 years, going on 24. He'd like to stay 30.

For one, I think that's too long. And for two, I don't feel like he's done a good job representing our people. I don't think he's done a good job, and I think it's time for a change. So that's why I'm running. There's a lot of issues that I'm frustrated and I think our voters are frustrated with.

And it takes a lot of effort to win a statewide race in Texas. You need name ID, you need money, and there just aren't that many people that have the name ID or the ability to raise funds that can go against the sitting incumbent, especially in the state of Texas, which is...

We may have just lost him there for a sec. If we want to make sure he gets his cell phone. He's in Dallas right now. He's begun the campaign. And he was just laying out, Buck, what is going to be probably, I think it's fair to say, the biggest Republican primary battle in 2026 anywhere in the country.

John Cornyn, who has been in office for some time, current sitting Texas senator, and Ken Paxton, who is the attorney general right now of Texas, very well known, but I wanted you guys to hear from him exactly the choice that he was making, is going to be a big, expensive, huge battle. He just laid it out March of next year. So let me ask you, just Attorney General Paxton, because this is going to be a primary a lot of people spend.

time thinking about and involved in will be a lot of dollars. And for anyone who's listening, I just want to be clear. We will because we don't endorse in primaries. We will have an invite out to Senator Cornyn as well so he can make his case. But Attorney General Paxton, where have you broken with

uh, uh, Cornyn on, on a major issue. I mean, what you said that you're not, you don't agree with some of the positions he's taken and some of what he's done to represent the state of Texas. Can you get, can you give us some examples so we can just start to understand what the differences are between the two of you? Sure. I'll give you a couple of examples. First was his, his push for the gun restrictions that he was able to pass,

with the encouragement of Joe Biden. And he was able to do that, restricting gun ownership rights. Very unpopular position in Texas, particularly in the primary, as you might imagine. And I remember after it was done that Donald Trump came out and called him a rhino and President Biden congratulated him on doing a great job. That will never happen with me. You will never see me congratulated by a president like Joe Biden. Another issue that he's been very

very bad on is the border. He's criticized Trump's building of the wall over and over. He said negative things about it, not wanting to do it. He's insinuated that he would be for amnesty. Those are both very unpopular positions in Texas. We're a border state. We need all the protection we can get, not less.

And then, of course, he's not been a fan of President Trump. In 2016, he called President Trump an albatross around our neck. And in 2024, he said he was not endorsing President Trump, that we should move on, and that he also insinuated that President Trump had committed crimes and potentially should be held accountable for those crimes. So those are three of the issues that I think are important to our voters and I think

Those are very much distinguish me from him. So let's dive into this in particular. You just mentioned President Trump. I think he won the state of Texas by 12, 14 points. You probably know the exact margin, but it wasn't close.

I'm assuming that if he hasn't already, that he is going to be endorsing you pretty wholeheartedly for this office. Given that you have worked quite a lot with Trump when it comes to the border, when it comes to legal-related issues, how effective do you think you would be working with Trump in 2027 if you're able to hold that right hand up and become the next senator from Texas?

Yeah, certainly the endorsement is up to him. I don't presume anything, but I will say this. I've had a great working relationship with President Trump from almost the day he got into office. I didn't know him, but we went back and forth on many, many issues while he was in his first term. I've kept in touch with him since then during the times he was out of office.

and have been a big supporter. As a matter of fact, I was one of two elected officials that showed up at Mar-a-Lago. The other was Troy Nels, Congressman Troy Nels, that actually showed up when he announced. Because if you'll remember, when he announced, there was a lot of issues swirling about his legal issues. A lot of Republicans were keeping their distance because DeSantis was on the move. And I was there with Troy Nels because, one, I knew that President Trump would do a great job. And, two, I'm loyal to people that I trust and I believe in.

Thank you.

this back and forth, right? The media is completely drilled into now this Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is being currently held in El Salvador. I wanted to just hear what you think about all of the objections that are coming from some people about this.

the process, the judge that's involved, what you think should happen. You handle these kinds of decisions as an attorney general for our second biggest state. What do you think about what's going on here?

Well, I think this judge has crossed the line. This is the executive branch. This judge has crossed the – we're all about separation of powers. The judiciary is supposed to be the weakest branch, and they are supposed to stay out of the legislative side, and they are supposed to stay out of the executive side. This judge is clearly –

stepped into the shoes of the executive role and taking control of the situation. I think that's wrong, and I think that needs to stop. I think Congress needs to act and stop these nationwide injunctions that aren't based in any fact or law. I think there are narrow cases that we used against Joe Biden when it was a nationwide issue, but this one is clearly in the purview of the executive, and this judge just needs to be stopped.

How has life in Texas changed since Joe Biden left office, Trump came in, in particular when it comes to the border? We talk about it on the program because basically the border has ceased to be an issue at all. It is now secure. What does that look like? What does it feel like in Texas?

I mean, I think people are excited. They feel safer. The costliness of it has gone down. Obviously, for us, it meant a lot of expense from law enforcement, health insurance, all kinds of different issues, education. That's our cost. And the federal government never stepped in, even though they were inviting these people in and working with the cartels to get them across the border. They were not helping us financially at all.

And so it's a huge relief to us. And obviously our legislature spent billions of dollars trying to protect the border in lieu of the Biden administration doing just the opposite. So it has a tremendous financial impact, but it's also I think people just feel safer knowing that we have a president that's protecting our border.

We're number one in Austin, off and on. We're number one in San Antonio, off and on. We are number one in Houston, off and on. I say off and on because on a weekly, monthly basis, things can evolve. But we have monster audience across the entire state of Texas, and we appreciate all of you listening right now. We're also newly on in Dallas, which is where I think you are right now.

When you look at this March primary that is coming up next year, I know the answer is everywhere in terms of where will this race be decided. But in particular, what areas, what does turnout look like? A lot of times people don't show up necessarily in big numbers for primaries. What does it take for you to beat an incumbent senator who certainly is going to have a lot of money as well?

Well, I mean, we've already done three polls with three different pollsters. I did one with Trump's pollster that had me up by 25. I did one with Ted Cruz's pollster that has me up by 25. And we did a third one just to make sure it's 27. So the I mean, a lot of it's already baked in. They know John Cornyn's been in office for over 40 years.

They know me. I've been in the Attorney General's office for 11 years now. And so I think the primary voters are really educated. I feel very strongly that we are going to do well everywhere, and it's all based on record. And he's going to have to spend some time. His record is not what the voters want. He's not going to be talking about his record. He's not going to be talking about mine because my record is –

a record that the voters like, he's going to be going negative personally. That's his line of attack, and he's got to pray that somehow Trump does not, that he endorses him, because that would be his only way of getting into the game, and he's still going to lose. Do you think it's possible he drops out, decides not to run?

look, I don't presume anything. He said he's running. I'm playing, I'm playing this for, you know, I'm going to run against John corner. So that would be a great question for him. I'm sure no matter what he's thinking in his head, um,

It's got to cross his mind if he's that far down. He's pulled it. He knows that he's behind by double digits. And look, I've been to the Republican convention. The last time he spoke that he dared to speak to the Republican voters, that was three years ago. He got booed for 30 straight minutes. And I'm not talking to quiet booze. I'm talking loudly booed for 30 minutes. And that was all based on what he did with the restrictions on gun ownership in our state. Attorney General Paxton, appreciate you being with us, sir. Best of luck to you. We'll talk to you again soon. Hey, have a great day. Thanks for having me on.

That's going to be a battle buck. It's going to be interesting to see how all of that shakes out. But maybe you're in Texas listening to us right now. As I just said, Austin, I might have forgotten to say Austin. We're number one a lot of the time. Houston, we're number one a lot of the time. San Antonio, we're number one a lot of the time. Now on in Dallas as well. You know what you can do in that state?

All over Texas, you can play PrizePix. PrizePix.com, code CLAY right now, all over the state of Texas, all over the state of California, all over the state of Georgia. If you're feeling left out, you can get $50 right now. All you have to do is go to PrizePix.com, code CLAY, get signed up. You play $5, you get $50. If you love Major League Baseball, I'm a big fan of the Braves.

Maybe you want to go get signed up. You can play along with the season. If you love the NBA, if you love the NHL, if you are just a big sports fan, you like the Masters that just played out, you got the U.S. Open, British Open still to come as we move through the golf season, get hooked up. All you have to do is pick more or less on any athlete out there, and you can be on your way to having a lot of fun and hopefully making a bundle of cash in the process. Price picks. My name, Clay.

That's prizepix.com. Must be present in certain states. Visit prizepix.com slash Clay for restrictions and details and get 50 bucks right now. prizepix.com. My name, Clay. News and politics, but also a little comic relief. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, welcome back into Clay and Buck.

Maybe at the end of this we'll do... I did want to get into our discussion about heightism in the world of dating and mating and marriage. Yeah, let's do it now. Let's do it now. Do you want to do it now? Yeah, I mean, I feel like at the end of the show we can have some fun. There's dark stories that are out there. The Florida State shooting, things like that. I'm sure we're going to get into that when there's more detail tomorrow. But...

You know, there's a wide variety of topics any given day. All right, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's get to work. Let's start with this. Let's pull up Producer Allie. Allie, can you pull up your camera? I like this. Hot seat. Hot seat for Producer Allie, who's going to her first Rangers game tonight, along with Producer Greg and Producer Mock. They are in studio in their Rangers gear. So the Clay and Buck team in New York is going to be at the Rangers game tonight. Producer Allie never been to a hockey game. All right.

Allie, you are married to Gerard, and he is fabulous, and Buck and I are both very big fans of his. How tall is Gerard? Gerard is 6'4". 6'4". And how tall are you, Allie? I am 5'3". All right, you are 5'3". We have said prior, my wife is 5'2", Buck's wife is 5'3", that both of them have told us that if we were 5'8",

We would not have been their dating partner and not their married partner. I will say this too, by the way, Buck. My mom is 5'4". My dad is 6'3". I bet if my dad had been 5'8", I bet I wouldn't exist. Just tossing that out there. I've never asked my mom if she would have dated him if he was 5'8". She may be listening. She can let me know. But Allie, if Gerard had been 5'8", would you have ever started dating him as a 5'3 woman? Oh, wow. You too.

I was also attracted to other things about Gerard. If he was 5'8", would you have dated him? Yes. 5'6"? Oh, my goodness. Yes. I think she's lying to us. I think because when I brought this up as we went to break at the end of the last hour, 5'4".

Oh, Clay. Oh, I can answer. There's no way. There's no way. I don't believe she would have. I think he was under six feet. I'll give you this. I don't. I understand like male female dynamic. I understand if women, although some women don't mind if a guy. There are women who don't mind if a guy is shorter than her, especially if they're like you're six foot tall woman now in heels. Right. You're six three ish. Right. Probably six three. Would you rather be a super tall woman or a short man? Yeah. I think you had to choose.

Super tall woman. You'd rather be a 6'5 woman than like a 5'4 man? I mean, I'm identifying now as a 6'5. 6'5 woman would be, I mean, you're like bigger than a WNBA center at that. Aren't the WNBA centers like 6'3? You're a giant woman if you're like 6'2 or bigger, right? I mean, that's very rare height for a woman. It's like being a 7' man.

So, you know, I think it's I think it's, you know, women. Anyway, some women will date shorter than them. I don't I understand a woman saying I don't want to date a guy shorter than me. Again, what the data shows is that women like an amusement park ride have in their minds at least. And it shows that they act on this when it comes to online dating a height cut off.

And every nature show you watch shows the species and how they attract each other and the male birds will puff up and the lizards will make their...

gills go larger whatever you know what i'm saying but to me that's that's like muscles that's you know that's maybe if you like someone's eyes you know there's all these physical attributes but for it seems to me that height for women for male physical alley question i mean this is not fair because gerard has a six pack and a six four this is gonna you know now we're really if if gerard

We'll take Gerard out of this. If you have to pick for a guy, height 6'4", or Gerard-level physique, what are we going for here? Oh, my goodness. If we're just going purely off physical? Yeah. I don't know.

I suppose the fit, the fitness. Okay, so she would go with the fitness. That makes more sense to me. I think Ali is in a distinct minority there because I think most women, they just, there's this height thing, dude. I have, Clay, I'm six feet tall. I have come across women who have basically been like, you know,

Almost like they're doing me a favor. This is obviously before I met Carrie, but I was single for many, many years in New York. They're like, I kind of grandfathered you in. If I had known you weren't quite 6'2", it is wild. And they're very open about this, too, because it's so objective that they don't feel bad saying it. It's not like they're like, I wish you were better looking. That's just mean. But you're a little on the short side for me. They'll just say it to your face. But you know what really sealed the deal for me is humor. Yeah.

Personality and humor. Funny is underrated. You're like an emotionally stable, spiritually wholesome, very kind person. Allie's an outlier for depth as a human being. There are a lot of people who are superficial out there. I think that's top three for most women. I think height is one, money is two, and I think more women will admit to the height thing than the money thing.

There's not a lot of rich guys with ugly women. I'm just saying it is not happened very often that you see a super rich guy with an unattractive. But here's again, I understand humor. Why you want a rich guy? I understand. I'm not saying that that it's not superficial or that, you know, we don't wish that there was romance beyond that. But being able to provide romance.

Unless a guy is playing in the NBA or is like a tight end in the NFL, him being 6'6 means nothing. This is what I don't understand, but women love this. I think Ali's right. I think it's total biology. I think historically, the bigger gorilla was able to protect...

the female gorilla from smaller gorillas. And so I think biologically women are attracted to bigger men because they have the ability to protect clay biologically. Look at UFC. But see, this is where I get. Look at you at most UFC fighters are almost all of them are five, eight to six, one or six. There's very few that are tall.

Certainly very arbitrary. But I think this is straight biology. I think it's just like caveman days. If you were bigger, stronger, and faster, you were more likely to be able to kill an animal and provide for the female baby that you had. By the way, average UFC fighter height is 5'10".

Yeah, I just... Yeah. Those nature documentaries also point out lions. Lions, the male lion, the bigger mane, attract the female with the fuller... Well, see, mane, I get a little more... I'm like, a great mane is something that I can get behind. You know what I'm saying? I think it's just power, and historically, the more...

like size you had as a man, the more power you tended to have. Like let's say, do we still have David in Scottsdale, Arizona? Is he a short guy calling in? We've ruined his day. No, he's six, three.

Okay. David, what have you got for us? Hi, guys. I'm 6'3". My girlfriend's 5'2". One of the first things she said is two things. She almost didn't date me because she felt bad that she was taking a tall person. But the big thing is her tall...

girlfriends do not like short girls taking the tall guy. Oh, that's an interesting point. I hadn't even thought about the anger that short girl with tall guy can provoke. Because if you're 5'9", chick, and your girlfriend who's 5'3", takes the 6'2", guy, I get it. I do think there's something to your argument, Buck, in an Instagrammable age. Everybody wants the perfect photo.

And I think there's a lot of girls out there. Yeah, they wear heels and they're wearing a fancy dress and they're going to a cocktail party or they're going to a formal event of some sort. They don't want to post a photo standing next to a guy who's shorter than them because they think it doesn't make the photo look as good.

I think that is in the Instagram of the age. I think that's even more popular. That is my thesis, that social media and online dating has created this rush of interest in the height situation. We got Walker in Augusta, Georgia. Hey, guys.

Hey, guys. Love the show. And hearing you guys talk today reminded me of a story. So I'm retired law enforcement. I was on 22 years on SWAT, and I was the team leader. And we had a business guy that basically sponsored our team, gave us, you know, for extra equipment, stuff like that. And we invited him out to the range. He was shooting with us. And we were standing around the ammo table. We were jamming mags, waiting for the next iteration to come on. And we're all, like, 6'2 and taller.

All of us are big dudes. And he is 5'6". And he's standing there and he's jamming mags and he's looking around, looking around. He looks in and said, I'll tell you what, y'all are some big guys.

But if I stay in my wallet, I'm 6'6", like that. And we all said, yes, sir, you're exactly right. And to that fact, he has a hot wife. I am not going to lie. He is what we call in the culture, he is what we call, Walker, a short king. That is what the millennials and Gen Z now, he's a short king. That's really funny. That's a great line. And by the way.

Is there something to short guy being driven to be far more successful than tall guy because he knows that he has to be economically successful to get the best looking girl in a way that tall guy doesn't? In other words, is tall guy lazy enough

Because if you're 6'2", or whatever, you have that height advantage for you. And 5'6", guy is like, I'm going to do all the work. I'm going to put in all the extra time. Maybe. That would actually make some sense, right? Here's a way to test it, Buck. This would be actually fascinating.

How much correlation is there between super wealth? I don't mean like, you know, you're making a good living. I mean like you're a hedge fund guy. How much correlation is there between hedge fund guy? Like you're making tens of millions of dollars a year and average height guy. Are hedge fund guys taller or shorter on average than like finance, bro? I,

I want to get to it. We haven't had a lady on the phone lines yet. We got so much coming in, though. It's so funny what, you know, we're sitting here, we're talking about, like, saving the republic and, you know, the Constitution and birthright citizenship. We get some calls. We talk about hiding, dating. Kaboom! Everybody's like, wow, I got to tell you. Geraldine in Los Angeles. What's going on, Geraldine?

It's funny that you mentioned that, Buck, because I have tried so many times to get on the air with y'all, and this is the time I made it through. But I do have a feeling it's about women dating short men. Allie, Producer Allie is absolutely correct. It's evolutionary. Women are attracted to providers and protectors, and generally that means bigger, stronger, taller men who can protect us. And men are attracted to breeders, which is where the 36, 24, 36 bust to waist to hip

ratio comes in. However, I think you are wrong, Buck. I think more women are as evolved as producer Ali than you think because I think more women will compromise on things like... Oh, Gerilyn. I love where your head's going. The data does not support what you're saying. Where do you think people compromise? No, you're absolutely right about the data. That's 100% true. I just think

that you're, I think if I'm on a dating app, I'm a divorced woman. I'm 40. I live in LA. I'm attracted to big, strong manly men, but there's not that many of them in LA. By the way, Henry Cavill, if you're listening, I've been waiting for you to knock on my door for several years. Just come and propose. Henry Cavill is a malugian for sure. I agree. Yes.

Yeah, that's your comparison. That's your standard of beauty that you compare to. Now, you're right that you never see a rich man with an ugly woman, but you will see a beautiful woman with an ugly man very often, especially in the church. Of course.

because there are a lot of women who are smart enough to realize they need to be dating somebody who's a good communicator who is not too cocky to be a poor mate who is reliable and going to be a steady partner to raise the children with than somebody who's simply hot and I think it's again evolutionary that men are attracted to beautiful women more than women are attracted to

Okay, I'm not going to do the evolutionary thing. I actually agree with a lot of what she had to say there. I think she's nailed a bunch. No, she's a very, Gerilyn, you're a very astute, very high-Q listener. We have so many of them, and we appreciate when you call in. But let me ask you this.

Do you agree with the thesis that height has become far more of a focus among women in the dating pool in America than it was, say, 20 or 30 years ago? Because that's really my thesis is that online dating, Instagram, social media has made this a thing. Whereas you used to not be able to say six foot. Some women say six, two and above. I know that exists.

I think that it's always been important. So, no, I reject this thesis. I don't need to become more important. I think now we just have the data to prove that it's important. All right. Well, Gerilyn, I'm just going to tell you something. If you're a single lady in L.A., you set the – if you're on a dating app, not making any assumptions, but if you're on a dating app, you set that filter to 5'8 plus.

you're going to get short kings. It's going to be great. Just let those short kings make their pitch to you, and I'm telling you, you'll call in, you'll be like, I found the love of my life. Anyway, that's my little bit of advice. Thank you, Geraldine, for calling in. Great call. We'll take more of this. We're having some fun with this one. And we'll take, obviously, some talkbacks, too, some of the guys, some of the gals. You want to get a little salty on the talkback, go to the iHeartRadio app.

All right, we've got to talk about gold for a second. Inflation is still a problem. You see Trump's having a little back and forth with Jerome Powell over the Fed. He's got problems to fix. Trump's going to fix them, but it's going to take some time. And in the meantime, you should position yourself. And that's where gold comes in.

Putting a portion of your savings and 401k in the one commodity that continues to increase with time and hold value over the span of time makes a lot of sense. That is gold. So if you're concerned about diversifying properly and taking action today to protect your savings from getting just constantly eaten by inflation.

I encourage you to have a free consultation with a Birch Gold precious metal specialist. They're really good people. I bought my latest gold purchase from Birch Gold. First step is to text my name, Buck, to 989898. Receive your free no-obligation info kit on gold. Learn how to hold gold and silver in a tax-sheltered account. Birch Gold can help you convert an existing IRA or 401k into a gold IRA for no money out of pocket. Text my name, Buck, to 989898 today.

Want to be in the know when you're on the go? The Team 47 Podcast. Trump highlights from the week, Sundays at noon Eastern in the Clay and Buck Podcast feed. Find it on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.