Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Nov 20 2025

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. If you're trying to grow spiritually while juggling a busy life, Intouch.org is a great place to pause and refocus. You can dive into practical teaching from Dr. Charles Stanley, read a quick devotional, or check out free study guides that speak to real life situations. Whether you need direction, comfort, or just a little encouragement, there's something helpful waiting for you. See how it can support your day at intouch.org. Life moves fast. At American Military University, they're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cybersecurity, IT, space studies, and more are designed for service members, veterans, and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step, wherever life takes you. American Military University, made for what's next. Learn more at amu.apus.edu. Across America, advanced technology is working behind the scenes, strengthening our nation. It protects our war fighters, advances life-saving health care, combat cyber threats, and defends the critical infrastructure that keeps our country moving. At GDIT, we power the systems that help America operate, connect, and stay secure. Every hour, every mission, every day. GDIT, behind America's invisible advantage. The first ever X-Games League Championship is going down live, and New Orleans has the call. Three days of elite action sports, a season's worth of competition, coming down to one final weekend. Watch July 24th through 26th on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN 2. Or stream on the ESPN app, X Games YouTube, Kik, Roku Sports Channel, and Amazon. The championship starts July 24th. Don't miss the moment it becomes history. These days, it seems like AI agents are just about everywhere you turn, every field and every function. But without identity, you can't trust they'll serve your business instead of jeopardizing it. Fortunately, ACTA helps you get identity right by securing your AI agents' identities, giving you a single layer of control, a single standard of trust. So whether an AI agent supports a single user or your entire enterprise, with ACTA, you'll turn risk into opportunity. Secure every agent. Secure any agent. to Secures AI. Welcome back in, everybody, to Clay Ann Buck. We're talking about the Zohran Mamdani Zohran Mamdani. He is going to be in the White House tomorrow. So he's got that going for him, which is nice. But we are looking at what this is going to be like. VIP email from Pamela. Thanks, Buck, for reminding me to laugh sometimes at the Democrat antics rather than just feel anger or fear. It's much healthier to recognize it for what it is. Keep the faith. Preserve my sanity. You guys are the best. Well, yes, yes, indeed. Thank you. We try. We try to be happy warriors here. We're in the fight, but... Look, the day to day is stressful and hard enough. We want you to come here, get a lot of great information, get insights, you know, have people like Ron DeSantis and Senator Ron Johnson fill you in on what's happening from the very top levels of government, respectively, in their different spheres.

but also have fun, you know, we want you to have fun, obviously, every day. Because it's more fun for us, too. So I really appreciate that. I just had to open up with the Jasmine Crockett thing today. Do you realize that a man named Jeffrey Epstein? You know, I grew up in Manhattan, and I think there were several Jeffrey Epstein's in my general vicinity. I didn't even think about it until now. Oh, my gosh. It's amazing. It is amazing. Also, VIP email from William writes, Hey, Bach, to continue the fun, we should go to Jasmine's website and donate to her campaign using the name Jeffrey Epstein. Well, don't donate in someone else's name, but I get the joke. And yeah, it's, oh, man, funny, funny stuff, funny stuff. All right. Now we got this Zohran Mamdani meeting tomorrow. What's really at issue here? And I think that there's going to be an effort to, well, first of all, there's going to be an effort to make momdaniism. And Clay and I have talked about this a lot, an issue for the midterms. I don't know how much, how well that will work. I think the cost of things is a huge decider of where this midterm is going to go, whether, you know, who've. Who makes the case that they're better at handling costs? I was just actually reading a couple of days ago. Peace. I can't remember Wall Street Journal near time. I read all these different newspapers constantly, so I can't keep straight sometimes where I read it. As you know, one of the Big Zohran Mamdani plans is a rent freeze. I'm going to freeze the rent. And this is one of these ideas that I get it. It sounds good. Look, oh, the rent's going to be frozen. A lot of people, now, it doesn't sound good of your landlord. We'll get to that. But, oh, you know, the rent's going to be frozen. Because, yeah, New York rent is very high. Why is New York rent very high? This is true in a lot of cases. Okay, a lot of places. New York is a test case for this, but it's same thing's true for house building in Los Angeles County. Is that the county? L.A. It's L.A. County, right? Yeah, Los Angeles County. Same thing's true in a lot of very left-wing districts in this, and counties in this country. What makes the cost so high are things like labor cost, regulatory cost, and then market conditions as well. Do a lot of people want to live where you want to live? There's also a supply and demand aspect of it, but there are artificial constraints on the supply and demand as a result of government intervention. This is where Hayek, it's a little dry, but Hayek's road to serfdom is so good because Hayek makes the case that, and it's very important to remember, government intervention in markets begets more government intervention in markets. The more the government tries to play God, so to speak, in where you can live and what you pay and what you can buy and all this.

then there's this tendency for them to say, oh, we've created a distortion in the market. Let's fix it with more government regulation. And you all see this in your day-to-day life. Whenever the government has done something, you're like, well, that's a dumb idea. What happens later? Whenever it realizes a dumb idea, does the government say, let's stop doing the dumb thing? No, they generally want to do another dumb thing to fix the dumb thing that they should not have done in the first place. And with that, I bring you rent control or rent freeze, both of them applicable here, in New York City. Oh, let's just freeze the rent. Well, does that freeze the cost? Does that freeze taxes on the people who own these buildings? You know, this is where you start to see the destructive hand of government and markets. And Zohran Mamdani fundamentally does not... This is where he's a commie. Well, we'll just, you know, we'll give more to people and then they'll have more stuff and everybody will be happy. But no, what about the hand that takes? What about the government hand that says, well, that's mine now, and I'm going to give it to somebody else, that redistributive mechanism. You think about housing stock in New York City. There are 50,000, 50,000. um housing units mostly apartments some multi-families and homes and stuff but 50,000 places where a person or a family could live that are off the market off the market entirely and in disrepair unlivable they've got you know they had a some kind of a flood or they have an asbestos problem or they have whatever it is and you know why they're off the market and not going to be on the market Because New York City passed laws that make it impossible for them, for the landlords to recoup the cost of what it would be to make the place livable. So you want to talk about artificial housing constraints. These are already, these are domiciles that would be ready to go. You've got to put some money into them. But the landlords realize if I can only, if I have to spend, let's just make this kind of simple, a one-bedroom. a one-bedroom apartment. And if I spend $50,000, I'm a landlord in New York, right, there we go, I spend $50,000 to bring that apartment up to code, make it nice, make it, you know, clean, safe, somebody's going to want to live there. But I can only raise the rent from what it used to be $50 a month, $100 a month, I'm never going to recoup my investment. I would need to raise the rent, you know, $1,000 a month or $1,500 a month or whatever it may be. And they won't allow it. And so as a result, the of all these young people, like, I can't afford to live in New York. Well, that's because the idiot politicians who run New York City, which is only possible also. The New York bureaucracy is only possible because of the 1% of high earners in New York who fund all of the madness. Also true in California. If 1% of New Yorkers left, I mean, that full 1% of top earners, if all of them left, the whole city budget, I mean, you'd lose half of the revenue. Be gone. So because New York has such a concentration of extremely high earners, they're able to get away with a lot of really bad policy. It's a bit like a national government that has a tremendous amount of oil. They can get away with a lot of really bad policy because.

oil is going to pay a lot of the bills. And that's like having an ATM machine that's just spewing out money. When you have, I think New York has more, obviously, more billionaires than anywhere else in the country and more extreme high earners, although the Bay Area, maybe the Bay Area actually now, I'd have to look at the numbers because of all the tech stuff. There's tremendous high earners there too. But if you had... a flight of just even half of that one percent, the whole city, even 25 percent of that 1 percent, 10 percent of that 1 percent. The city budget just can't work, can't function. You start to think about how you get a state and that a federal bailout or something. So my problem with Zohran Mamdani, my Zohran Mamdani ism is he has no response to what I said other than to grin and tell people, we're going to make it better for you. What I just explained is the reality that there are artificial constraints on housing that make the existing housing more expensive. And instead of dealing with those constraints and letting the market, a lot of people want to live in New York, they could build a lot more housing in New York. But instead of dealing with that properly, he's going to punish the people that you actually need to incentivize landlords, builders, developers. He's going to punish them more and make the problem worse. Make scarcity a bigger issue. This is exactly what's going to go on. And then there's the immigration and enforcement side of – oh, wait, sorry, here we go. Zohran Mamdani on day one plan. This is why I was thinking about this. I got so fired up. The first order of business is to freeze the rent. Play 13. I think the first order of business will frankly be the rent guidelines board and freezing the rent for more than 2 million rent-stabilized tenants. That is something that happens on an annual basis here in New York City. The other two, as you referred to, is making buses fast and free and delivering universal child care. And just this past week, I had a great meeting with the governor where we spoke about our shared focus on affordability agenda and on universal child care particularly. And this is something that will take a period of time. These are all promises that I intend to keep over the time that I am mayor. And I also know that what they... had the potential to do is transform New Yorker's ability to live in the city. This is true. I know this is going to sound flipping. You know where they had universal child care as a matter of policy? The Soviet Union. They did. You think it was any good? No. No. You did not want your kids to be in that. But they did have it so they could have mom and dad in the factories. The factories that didn't produce very much. The factories where they pretended to work and the owners pretended to or the government pretended to pay them because they were the owners. It's astonishing that this is where we are. A rent freeze in New York. This guy got elected. This is the problem with Democrats, everybody. And I know for a lot of you're like, Buck, I live in Texas. Why do I care? Because this is Democrats at the national level, too. This is how they think about everything. They approach it like a child would approach the problem. Instead of looking at what caused it and brought it to this point, it's like, well, what band-aid can I put on it to make it better now? What lipstick can I put on the pigs, so to speak, to make it prettier? They don't actually look at root causes. They pretend to care about root causes. They don't care about root causes. They pretend to care about what got us here. The worst thing you can do for housing affordability in New York City overall,

is more stupid policy that makes it impossible for there to be more units on the market, more units being built. That's the worst thing you can do. And that's what he's doing. So this guy got elected largely on an issue where not only will he fail to make it better, he is inevitably going to make it worse. And this is the part that will really drive a lot of us crazy and certainly a lot of New York is crazy. And he will take no responsibility for it when he fails. It'll be somebody else. It'll be the rich, the fat cats, the millionaires and the billionaires. It'll be some class warfare nonsense. Or it's Donald Trump's. It'll actually probably be Donald Trump's fault. Which is one of the reasons why I think Trump and Zohran Mamdani meeting tomorrow is so interesting because Zohran Mamdani has Trump built up as the boogeyman who will be the excuse for whatever failures Zohran Mamdani has in New York City. whatever real market or real economic failures there are, he'll say, well, it's Trump's fault. Does he have to explain that? No, it's just going to be something that he says that makes him feel good. So we'll see. I'll take your calls on this. And also I want to talk about this video that was made, this video that was put out like a commercial about not obeying illegal orders from a bunch of Democrat politicians, including a senator, a Elissa Slotkin, who I know. She wants to be president, by the way. It's not going to happen, but. Talk about that coming up here in a little bit. When tragedy strikes, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation honors America's heroes and their families, heroes like United States specialist Andy Kingsley. Andy served our nation with honor as part of the 82nd Airborne Division. Throughout his distinguished career, he received various awards and decorations, including a purple heart. But while Andy was deployed, he was severely injured. The incident resulted in the loss of his right leg, partial vision loss, vision loss, a traumatic brain injury, and more. He spent over a year at Walter Reed National Medical Center learning how to navigate life with his injuries. Living with severe combat injuries can make even life's daily tasks challenging. That's why receiving a specially adapted mortgage-free smart home from Tunnel to Towers has been life-changing for Andy. It allows him to live with greater independence and dignity. This is the power of giving to Tunnel to Towers. Many more heroes like Andy need your support. Donate $11 a month at tunnel to towers at T2.org. That's T the number two T.org. Sometimes all you can do is laugh, and they do a lot of it with the Sunday hang. Join Clay and Buck as they laugh it up in the Clay and Buck podcast feed on the IHard Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Life moves fast. At American Military University, they're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cybersecurity, IT, space studies, and more are designed for service members, veterans, and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step, wherever life takes you. American Military University, made for what's next. Learn more at AMU.apus.edu. Vital doesn't always mean visible. Across America, advanced technology is working behind the scenes, strengthening our nation. It protects our war fighters, advances life-saving health care, combats cyber threats, and defends the critical infrastructure that keeps our country moving. At GDIT, we power the systems that help America operate, connect, and stay secure. Every hour, every mission, every day. GDIT, behind America's invisible advantage.

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So one, if you look at what's pinching people, property taxes is one of the biggest thing that's pinching people, particularly young families. Why? Because property valuations have gone up. And so you'll have somebody that's had a house for 30 years. They're homesteaded. You have a young family bought a house three years ago. Their valuation is way higher, so they're paying a much higher amount in property taxes. You have to sell a house. Maybe you get transferred from Miami to Tampa. You buy high tax basis, and you're there. So we do have homestead protection. It does limit the increases, but even that, it compounds 3% a year. So taxes is something that we're completely in control of. I can't control the price of housing. I mean, we can do some things to have a good market. You know, we have done big insurance reforms and we now have 17 new companies come in. And our biggest insurer Peninsula just did a rebate or just did a 8% reduction. And so we're having no, no storms this year. So we think there'll be positive things there. But ultimately, that's a private market. We control the tax. So here are some numbers. If you, in the state of Florida gets no property tax revenue. I have a surplus. I have a maxed out rainy day fund. I don't get property tax revenue. I don't need it. So anyone that tells you, oh, the state's going to have to raise that. No, we, we, we, I fact, I'm going to give money to some of these local governments that are more fiscally constrained to make up. So that's the first thing. It's all administered and decided by your local authorities and they get 100% of the revenue. If you go to COVID, you go right before COVID 2019, local governments in Florida brought in the total of $32 billion in property taxes. You know how much they're bringing in today six years later? $56 billion. Now, listen, we have had inflation, we've had population growth, but it didn't been that much. And so they're spending this money that this gusher of property tax revenue, they're spending. And we've been doging the local governments, Blaze in Goliah, our CFO's doing a fantastic job. You know, he's exposing hundreds of millions of dollars in Miami-Dade in Jacksonville and all these places that they're overspending. So that's just the first thing. We've had a huge increase in the size and scope of local governments because they're getting this. Now, another fact, if you take all the property tax revenue, you have residential and business. The residential, the majority of it is non-homesteaded Floridians. So second homes, snowbirds, Airbnb rentals, you name it. That's the majority of residential property tax revenue. And then you have... the corporate or the business tax revenue. So the total amount of residential Florida homestead property tax revenue is between 30 and 33% of all of this. Now, mind you, the budgets have gone up way more than 30% in the last few years. So our view is, well, let's, if you own your home and then you stop paying taxes in 20 years, the government takes it from you.

So is that really home ownership? And I think Florida, we're in a situation and we're still working on the particulars because the details do matter and we're going to have something very positive for all this. But we are in a unique position where so much of our tax base is comprised of people that aren't even full-time residents. People that own these big luxury, you know, houses, are they staying for three months? I'd rather them pay the tax than have. you know, a cop that's got a house worth $400,000 in Miami. So we have the luxury of being able to relieve our citizens of more and more burden of taxation. So that's the nature of it. Now, you've mentioned there have been some stuff. All I can tell you is like having watched debates, when you all of a sudden start seeing the same talking points sprouting up just like magically, you know that that's coordinated, right? That's an op. So there's some people out there who don't want to see this. And it's being orchestrated. But none of the arguments really make sense against it. And a lot of these people, I think all of them don't even live in Florida. So we have a specific way we want to go for Floridians that'll make a difference. Another thing, Buck, just because there's a whole, you've got to think out what are the incentives and how this. So for example, I don't want to do a situation where it's going to incentivize people to flood into the state to claim a tax benefit from other states. So it's going to be structured in a way. that you know what you elected Zohran Mamdani you're not going to just be able to come down here and get and get no homestead property tax like that you know you're going to have to be somebody that's been here for longer now any citizen who's here now you're 100 percent so there's all these different things that we're working on we're working on it very smartly and i've got a lot of people that are working on it but the goal is to have something on the ballot in november of 2026 where voters will be able to vote for it um or not Well, you know where I stand on this one, and I've been talking about it for a while, and I think it's really important. And one thing that I see is also a lot of people who would perhaps even want to move within this state, they don't want it, you know, if they want to get a little more space or whatever it may be, they're worried if they have to pay at the new rate on property. You know, property tax creates all these often, I think, problematic disincentives in the market. So that's an issue that. people don't talk about enough. But the opposition to this, you know, I've seen, I know actually some of the people publicly who are very like, no, you have to, someone has to pay the taxes. Is it just some philosophical, oh, we can't give away more to the boomers or are there special interests who are aligned against this? Because honestly, I think, and I'm sure you know this, other states are looking to see how this goes here and they might want to do some restructuring too. Yeah, well, first of all, I think it's both. I don't think it's, I don't think those are mutually exclusive. But, you know, there's this argument that somehow this is a quote, giveaway to boomers. Now, first of all, Buck, I think you and I agree. If, if I reduce your taxes, I'm not giving you anything. Like, like, you, that's your property. You own it. It's not the government. And so we go in this.

situation where like are you an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or an obama view where everything belongs to the government and then government determines you know what you get to keep no my default is you own your home you you get your income you get 100% of your income in florida's when i have an income tax um any tax we cut you're just keeping more uh of what you already have had you earned your home you purchased that home So philosophically, when they're talking about giveaway with respect to reducing taxes, to me, that's a leftist argument. Second, and you brought it up indirectly. Elderly people, now there are some elderly that are getting strapped with the taxes, too, because they're on fixed income. Their taxes don't go up as much because they're homesteaded, but it still compounds over many years, and so they're being in a situation where it's tough. If you're in a typical residential community in Florida and you have somebody that's lived in a home for 30 years, and then you have a young couple that bought a house, say, in 2021, that young couple is going to have a much higher tax basis for property tax. They are going to pay way more in property tax than the elderly homeowner who's been grandfathered in on the homestead limitation for the last however many decades. So if you're doing a homestead exemption. the young family, they gain way more with respect to the total dollar amount that they're doing. So I think of what it does is that when you have people out of state, they don't understand how Florida works, you know, they somehow think that like, you know, elderly person has a half million dollar home, young couple has a half million dollar home. Oh, yeah, the elderly is getting as the same benefit. In reality, that is just not the way it works because of people having owned their home. So, you know, I think that it's, um, It clearly is not being done with people that are actually in Florida want to do. But I do think some of it is special interest, but I do think some of it is ideological. And I think it's more of a less bent. Yeah, again, I totally agree with that one. And this audience already knows that, so that's not anything new. I'm a little surprised to see some of the voices, quite honestly, that are on the right who seem to have a problem with this. I think it's bizarre. But anyway, I actually wanted it if I could. Now, you probably saw this, Governor. Tomorrow, Trump and Zohran Mamdani are meeting. And I just think this is an opportunity for you. Just in the broadest terms, we have a huge Florida audience, we have a huge New York audience, and obviously people all across the country are listening. You have more people in this state, right? 21 million. And half the budget, yeah, half the budget of New York, how is that possible? Like, what is New York doing? How is it spending twice as much money with less people? Well, not only that, Buck, New York City has 8 million people. And New York City's budget is bigger than the entire state of Florida's budget. And we have close to 23 and a half million people. And that's before Zohran Mamdani, you know, takes over the grocery stores and does things that's going to cost even more, buddy. Yeah. It's crazy what would happen. So I think a lot of it is.

You know, they direct money to special interest. They have different people who are kind of part of their patronage network. In Florida, you look what we spend money on. You know, obviously, you know, we have a federal state that does Medicaid as all states do, where we didn't expand it under Obamacare. But we do have that portion. Education, the state has a big role in helping to fund school districts as well as our school choice scholarship program, which has a half a million students on it now. infrastructure. I've been able to accelerate projects all around the state of Florida. So we're delivering some. five or 10 years ahead of schedule. And that's meaningful for people in terms of their family time and not to be in traffic so much. And I know there's other, we got a lot of work in some other areas. Miami's tougher because it's harder to build in different areas. But in other parts of the state, we've made really good progress, I think, on that. And then we've done the biggest conservation program and environmental restoration with Florida's Everglades, which is a huge success that we've done. We did a Florida wildlife corridor because we don't want the whole state to be a concrete jungle. So we're spending money on things that really matter to people, but that's really what we spend it on. I think New York, it's all about kind of whoever's in the barnacles attached to the ship and all the different constituencies in the Democratic Party. They're doing it. And it's interesting. They'll say, oh, well, you know, they pay better pension benefits. you know, for their police officers in fire. Well, the thing is, a lot of those people move to Florida and spend those pensions in Florida. So it's like you're doing that and it's like benefiting our economy down here because you're driving these people away. But I really think, you know, in terms of, there's obviously a big difference between the president and Zohran Mamdani. Zohran Mamdani's going to do dumb things in terms of the economy. He's going to try to raise taxes. He's obviously going to be governed by a local agenda, educational stuff or all that. But the number one thing that's going to try to people out of that city is that he hates the police. He wanted to abolish the NYPD. He thinks he should send social workers to answer the 911 calls. So he goes down that road. It was bad under de Blasio. It didn't get much better under the current mayor. But I think he's going to make Bill Blasio look like a right-winger. I mean, it is going to be really scary. I think that's the place. Unfortunately, having worked for the NYPD for a short while, Governor, I can tell you that's the place for the mayor. He is kind of the alpha and omega. Like he can make the determinations about what policing is like in the city. These other things, the economic things probably can't. But Ron DeSantis of Flora, thank you, sir, for all you do. Please keep up the phenomenal work and come back and talk to us again soon about what you're up to. Okay, Roger that. Bye-bye. The pre-born network of clinics has a nationwide team of people looking after the lives of unborn children. It's a staff of people who are truly saving lives every day. This past year, they saved the lives of 67,000 unborn children. When a woman walks into one of pre-born's clinics, she's welcomed with open arms. She's introduced to her baby through an ultrasound, and for the first time, she sees life, not loss, and she's offered hope-filled choices.

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But the fact of the matter is we really have not gotten much. So we've had to go out and contact phone carriers and social media companies. We're starting to get information. We're piecing things together. You know, there are things that are interesting that we need to kind of complete the investigation before we start publishing. But no, there's an awful lot. unknown about Thomas Crooks that, you know, from my standpoint, we should have known quite some time ago. Just so I'm clear on this, Senator, there's an awful lot that the public should know about that you think the FBI has and has not made public, or there's more that the FBI maybe didn't find? It's probably both. Both, okay, yeah. Yeah, you know, again, we... Yeah, I mean, I'm frustrated. But there's no doubt about it. But, again, I don't want to be throwing past tell of Dan Von Gilles under the bus. Just so you know, Senator, we don't do that. You know, we know Cash and Dan here. They're friends of ours. I know from before they took these jobs. They took these jobs because they want to help and they want to reform and they, you know, and we get a lot of heat for standing up for them here because some people have been. Very frustrated with them. Even a lot of Trump voters have been frustrated with the transparency issue. But I try to remind everybody, these are enormous, unwieldy, bureaucratic institutions that were really left rot from the inside under previous administrations. There's a lot of work to be done. There really is. So. We're pursuing this. I'm pretty well undertaking the investigation now from the Senate standpoint just through my firm and subsequent investigation. I kind of walked away from the bipartisan because it just slowed us way down. But again, all I can say is there's more information that will eventually come out and some that we have not yet discovered. So we're still doing investigation. Now, on the transparency issue, obviously you were a yes vote for releasing the Epstein files because the Senate was unanimous in this, right? One member of the House, everyone else voted for it. One member of the House is, look, his concern was that he thinks that there are people that will be tainted who didn't do anything wrong, but their name is just in some. Okay, so that was his, but everybody else voted to release this thing. Can you just tell us what your sense is of where the president has been on this one? I know you talk to President Trump. He is now in favor of it, but people keep asking, they say, well, why is he in favor of it now? Why has there been this delay? And how do you see the release of the Epstein files from the beginning of this administration to present in terms of what's going on here? Like, why has it been so stop-start?

Speaker really did a pretty good job laying out his concerns about, you know, information getting out in the public domain that really would be harmful to victims and is that going to be adequately protected in whatever gets released this time. Similar concerns, I think President Trump, as I would have similar concerns going, is this evidence of these documents untainted? I mean, let's face it, they're in the Biden, the midst of the Biden administration. I mean, that administration doing everything they couldn't destroy Donald Trump during their four years. If there was something damaging to Trump, you would think that would have already been released. So I also take the president's word. I mean, he just, he doesn't, we have serious problems facing this nation. There are a lot of things he's addressing. Do we really need this distraction? Having said all that, I'm as curious as every other American. about what happened, bringing people to justice who are pedophiles that engage in this kind of abuse. So again, I'm as curious as anybody. We didn't take a vote, by the way. We just passed this by unanimous consent. I think before the bill even got over here. So, yeah, the Senate didn't want to take much time on this. That was a fight in the House. people who fought for disclosure won, and now we'll see what we'll get. Yeah, it's a rare, it's a rare moment where things just fly through in bipartisan fashion in the Congress. So now we're, once the president signs this and everyone believes it's going to get signed imminently, 30 days for the release, is that how this goes? That's right here, but again, they still probably need to do review, and there will be some. material withheld and they've in the while they've got I think four or five very specific reasons of things that can be withheld but you know really this reflects the public wanted to see this and so as elected officials when you when you for a year are that's the number one thing that people are calling to your office is you know vote to release the Epstein files you know in the end representative government actually works Yeah. What do you have on the agenda here? I know the Senate goes into recess, what, next week sometime for Thanksgiving? What are you hoping can get done before the end of this year? Is there anything? Are you going to try to get some judges through? How's that going? What are you looking to get the Senate to finally push over the finish line here before we all head out for the holidays? Yeah, the Senate's always doing nominations now that we had to change rules because of the obnoxious obstruction of Democrats will probably clear another 70 to 100 nominations of various types. We are working on health care. By the way, we always have. It's just galling to hear. Republicans have no plans. We have all kinds of plans. It's how do we get it passed? Democrats are in a complete state of denial of the miserable failure that Obamacare has been. The reason people's premiums are increasing is because of the flawed law design of Obamacare. And so we are working very diligently on that. You know, Rick Scott is heavily involved in this, probably as knowledgeable and individual on health care in America, if not the world. So we've got some good people here. I bought health care for 30 years. I'm pretty knowledgeable about as well.

We're going to do this based on, you know, repairing the damage done by Obamacare, properly to find the problem, coming up with, you know, what are the principles? And President Trump tweeted the main principles rather than spend hundreds of percent, hundreds of billions of dollars into these insurance companies. The United Health stock price increased 1,177 percent since ObamaCare. The slowest percent increase in stock prices is 414 percent. So instead of filling the conference of insurance companies, why don't we give that? money to the American people, turn them into consumers of health insurance and health care with things like HSA accounts. So, no, Republicans have solutions is how can we overcome, you know, the impediment that the structure of Obamacare is with the current filibuster, which, by the way, I've been very public reluctantly, but I completely agree with President Trump. It's time to end the filibuster. The Democrats will do it. We will look like schmucks. in 2028 if they have all the levers of power and they do this and then do it to maintain their power as opposed to we're going to do it to secure our elections for the secure our border hopefully repair the damage done by Obamacare transition to a system that works you know have a prosperous economy make things more affordable you know we would we would use ending the filibuster for the benefit of the American people not our own personal power Speaking of Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Senator, I want to actually circle back if I can to the oversight of the FBI for a moment here because I know you're very up to speed on the Arctic Frost situation, right? That was the FBI investigation run under the Biden administration about January 6 in the 2020 election. It looks like there were abuses there. What can you tell us about what we're learning about Arctic Frost and what's going to come next? Well, I think what has been revealed recently is this wasn't just a mere fishing expedition. This was a massive partisan drag net, really meant to cripple the Republican Party. Obviously, Trump was the main target. Yeah, we got, you know, some members of Congress got some of our phone records scooped up. But what's maybe the most outrageous is just ordinary citizens. You know, all these affiliated Republican groups, but, for example, in Wisconsin, 38 Wisconsinites. Just God-fearing, country-loving, law enforcement supporting people who are on the enemy's list. They are literally trying to destroy the person of unbelievable integrity. Judge Truppus, who just represented President Trump for two months after the election. There were serious problems in Wisconsin. They're criminalizing that behavior. They're attempting to. That's what all. Arctic Frost is all about criminalizing what basically JFK did in Hawaii, those alternate electors. It's just shameful. And I met with the Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

this week, and they are completely on board with exposure. And one of the things I point out is get us the communication records between Biden officials and Wisconsin officials on, for example, Judge Strupus. You know, let's see the coordination between the Biden administration, these outside groups, the Mary McCords, the Mark Eliases, you know, all these legal groups that the left has that. are engaged in the lawfare across the board. Again, not just against President Trump, but ordinary Americans, people just have to support the Republican Party and President Trump. They're trying to destroy all these people. Senator Johnson, one more for you before we let you go. What is your favorite part of a traditional, and I don't know how you guys do it up in Wisconsin, but a traditional American Thanksgiving feast, your favorite dish? I mean, it's the turkey, it's the dressing, it's the gravy, it's the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn. That is my Thanksgiving dinner. I've got to have it all in the right portions. I start and portion it out, and I end with the exact portions for that final bite. We just literally had Thanksgiving lunch. John Bolton provided it, so I had a pre- Thanksgiving dinner. It was fabulous. Can't wait until Thursday, and I wish you and all your listeners are a very happy Thanksgiving. same to you senator thanks so much have a great holiday we'll talk to you soon take care The countdown of Christmas, we're just talking Thanksgiving, but the countdown of Christmas is on now, five weeks away. And I'm just trying to get you ahead of the craziness, my friends. How about an awesome gift that you, your family members, are going to love rapid radios. Okay, this is the modern day version of a walkie-talkie. And rapid radios work on an LTE network, meaning they can connect to anyone anywhere in the U.S. who's holding the same device. And they'll tell you this can come in really handy. If you're far away from a family member and one of these experience a severe weather problem or service disruption, the first thing you want is to be able to stay in touch. And that... Could be a kid off at college as well and just have touch-to-talk capability or an aging parent who's living another part of the U.S. Whatever it is, whenever there's a serious issue, you want to stay in contact. Rapid Radio's wants to make sure you can do that. They deliver peace of mind when it matters most. We don't know when the next storm or emergency will come about, but we do know a way to stay connected. This holiday, give a gift that protects the people you love. No monthly fees, no complicated setup, just pre-programmed, reliable communication when it counts. Go to rapid radios.com. Make sure your family is never out of reach. That's rapid radios.com. News and politics, but also a little comic relief. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Find them on the free I-hard Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.

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President Trump took a significant step toward delivering on a core campaign promise to finally close the Department of Education. To shrink the bloated federal bureaucracy, the Department of Education just entered into new interagency agreements with four agencies, the departments of labor, interior, health and human services, and state. These agencies will now ensure the delivery of legally required programs while also refocusing them to better serve students. This common sense action brings the Trump administration. much closer to finally returning education where it belongs at the state and local level, not in Washington, D.C. The Democrats' reckless 43-day government shutdown did manage to do one valuable thing. It proved that America does not need a federal Department of Education. So they are finding a way within the bureaucratic framework that currently exists to... Kind of dismantled the Department of Education. I think that is the plan here. And that's a good thing. That's a good thing. There does not need to be, there should not be a federal Department of Education. There's no reason for this. So several of its main offices as she laid out here are going to be moved into other places, labor, interior. So this won't affect the money that Congress gives state schools and colleges. But why do we need a huge bureaucratic department as a pass-through for money that goes to state education programs? You start to think about this. You go, hold on a second. We have a whole agency in the Department of Education, whole department, that seems to exist to be the pass-through. The middleman for federal funds that go into state, why don't we just, if we're going to get federal money to education, give money to states that are actually educating kids and running colleges and universities? So I think I'm all in favor of this. Education Secretary Linda McMahon has started a public campaign for the end of her department. Yes. Yes, that's what you like to see. The person running it saying this should not even be a job. This should go away. But there's been, you know, the Department of Education has really just been a progressive policy arm under the guise of education. But it's part of a... uh part of a really a lib deep state operation for a long time because department of ed is so left wing it doesn't really matter what administration is in charge republican or democrat the department of ed uh just pushes for policies that are left wing because that's who works there it's a bit like the department of uh or the environmental protection agency EPA is full of left-wing climate change loons. And so it doesn't matter if you have a Republican administration. You have ideologues in an agency who are pushing an agenda and doing so against the wishes of the Republican in the White House. So you got to clean things up. You got to deal with the mess. Yeah, I think this is great.

You ask people, what is the, it's always so fun too. I go, okay, I go into GROC, as you know, I like GROC a lot. What does the Department of Education do? And let's just see what it says. And I'll read this to you. A cabinet-level federal agency created in 1980. Its main job is to oversee and support education, but it does not run public schools. It distributes federal funding. enforces federal education laws and collects research and administer student financial aid. So it's a pass-through for a lot of federal dollars, and it also, in terms of the civil rights of education, that's just pure, you know, DEI-obsessed, left-wing policy stuff. There's no actual need for any, no actual need for any of this. And think about this. How serious could the Department of Education be about civil rights when they have been unwilling to stop the madness of the gender identity disorder stuff going on in all these schools, where they have men pretending to be women? How can you say you're enforcing Title IX? when a guy can say he's a girl and play on women's sports. So the Department of Education, got to go, hope it goes. They're moving in that direction. Democrats are going to fight because Democrats, they get to have policy through agencies and departments, even when they lose elections. And that's one of the incredibly important revelations of the Trump era. is that if you don't actually deal with this, even when we win elections as Republicans, you end up still with a lot of Democrat administration or Democrat policy pushed from these places. Now, she also spoke, Karoline Leavitt, also spoke about Zohran Mamdani meeting with Trump tomorrow. This is cut 28. Let's hear it. It speaks volumes that tomorrow we have a communist coming to the White House because that's who the Democrat Party elected as the mayor of the largest city in the country. I think it's very telling, but I also think it speaks to the fact that President Trump is willing to meet with anyone and talk to anyone and to try to do what's right on behalf of the American people, whether they live in blue states or red states or blue cities in a city that's becoming much more left than I think this president ever anticipated in his. many years of living in New York himself. You know why they are so touchy about the whole communist thing? Because we all know that there's some truth to it. If it were absurd, if it weren't really something that bothered them, then they wouldn't always say, no, it's a democratic socialist. He's a democratic socialist. You know, there was the American, I guess it still exists, but it's kind of a joke now, but the American Communist Party grew, and in the 1940s, I think it was basically about 100,000 people. You know what happened to them? They all became Democrats. You know what happened to the communist movement in America? It got folded into the Democrat Party. That's a whole other thing. That's a whole other thing. And there are some great books on this stuff.

You can read, why do they hate Nixon so much? They really hate Nixon so much because he was a staunch anti-communist, and he worked to expose that there were a lot of Democrats who were willing to play footsie with communists back in the day. But I digress on that one. I digress. Look, I think Trump will be, as I said before, he'll be himself. He'll be charming and funny to Zohran Mamdani. There'll probably be some great lines. And what was the thing? What did Trump say to the – I don't even know who he said it to, so I, but he was on Air Force One and some reporter interrupted him and he said, quiet, piggy. And the thing about this is, it's just the Democrats, they get so upset about it. They're going to get so angry about it. And it just encourages them to do more stuff like that. Like they're not going to make Trump stop being Trump. They can try, they can try to shame his supporters. It's not going to work. But yeah, I'd never see that. Can you guys pull that? I don't know if everyone's heard it. Do we have it? Trump's saying, quiet, piggy. I hope it's not AI. I don't think it was AI. Now I have to worry about any clip that I see. This is the world we're in, my friends. There's stuff that it can look very real. They have programs now that can make. Trump looked like he said things close to what he said, but changed the words a little bit. This is the world that we are in right now. So that's why I'm always like, oh, gosh, I hope that's not AI, but I'm pretty sure he said, I'm pretty sure he said this one, just like I was sure that he's meeting Zohran Mamdani tomorrow. And he is. The Zohran Mamdani disaster in New York, I think, is inevitable. I hope it's not for New York's sake and for my family that are there. But I think the Zohran Mamdani situation is likely to get really, Get really bad. Really bad. We'll see. Oh, and Karoline Leavitt also got into an exchange with a reporter about that military PSA. Is it really even a PSA? It's just kind of an underhanded attack. But here she's just cut 29. Listen to it. president and the vice president, for that matter, have accused the other side of encouraging political violence. Isn't that exactly what the president is doing when he says that members of Congress should be killed? Why aren't you talking about what these members of Congress are doing to encourage it incite violence? They are literally saying to 1.3 million active duty service members not to defy the chain of command, not to follow lawful orders. Every single... They're suggesting, they're suggesting Nancy that the president has given illegal orders, which he has not. Every single order that is given to this United States military by this commander in chief and through this chain of command, through the secretary of war, is lawful. And the courts have proven that. This administration has an unparalleled record at the Supreme Court because we are following the laws. We don't defy court orders. We do things by the books. And to suggest and encourage that action. Active duty service members defy the chain of command is a very dangerous thing for sitting members of Congress to do. And they should be held accountable. And that's what the president wants to see. She's not messing around. And I think just based on the number of you who are veterans yourselves or even active duty, but veterans who have written in very unhappy with this PSA, it's meant to be.

It's meant to undermine the commander in chief. Let's just be honest. It's meant to undermine the commander in chief. That is what they are doing. And it just goes with everything else. They have to tell stories, fables to themselves to justify their trump derangement. And that's yet another example of it. All right, Christmas is five weeks. Is that right? Five weeks from today? My gosh. So for any last minute holiday shoppers in this audience, let me tell you, you don't want to grab a gift card. That's the easy way out. All right. I've got the suggestion your one-stop shop for all Christmas shopping needs. Cozy Earth. This is what I got for all my family members in New York. I got my mom a bubble, a pink bubble cuddle blanket. I got my dad a gray bubble cuddle blanket. Sounds slightly more masculine when it's gray. It's amazing blankets, though. I mean, I have one downstairs here that's white. Karen, I snuggle up with it with ginger and speed all the time. Cozy Earth products are just fantastic. I've got a sweatshirt from them. I've got sheets on my bed or from Cozy Earth. So I recommend you start with the sheets. Just get yourself some new sheets. and from Cozy Earth, you'd be like, these are better than my sheets. Wow, these are so worth it. Get them for anyone else in your family. It's a great Christmas gift. And once you're on the Cozy Earth website, you'll see there's great deals, and there's so many things you can get for people. You can get all of your Christmas shopping done at Cozy Earth, and the people you give Cozy Earth gifts to are going to really like them. That's the thing. It's easy, and the people that you give the gifts to are going to love it. So go right now to cozyearth.com. CozyEarth.com. Use my name Buck as your promo code on top of their site-wide sale for up to 40% off. Again, the website, get all your Christmas shopping done. Clothing, bedding, towels, gifts of all kinds. CozyEarth.com. Use code Buck and share luxury this holiday season. 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 IHartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Life moves fast. At American Military University, they're ready to help you keep up. AMU's flexible, affordable online programs in cybersecurity, IT, space studies, and more are designed for service members, veterans, and their families. AMU provides the support you need to take the next step, wherever life takes you. American Military University, made for what's next. Learn more at amu.apus.edu. Across America, advanced technology is working behind the scenes, strengthening our nation. It protects our war fighters, advances life-saving health care, combat cyber threats, and defends the critical infrastructure that keeps our country moving. At GDIT, we power the systems that help America operate, connect, and stay secure. Every hour, every mission, every day. GDIT, behind America's invisible advantage.

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