Verdict with Ted Cruz
BONUS: The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show - Daily Review Podcast
Tue, 04 Mar 2025
Meet our friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love The Verdict with Ted Cruz, The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture thrown in too – like the secret White Lotus Trump supporter – the guys like have fun while keeping up with the crazy news cycle. Here’s a sample episode recapping four big Tuesday takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts: ihr.fm/3InlkL8 Some highlights… The Ukraine and Russia War - and where the United States stands now - Did the Trump and Zelensky drama actually pave the way to peace? - What lessons are learned when world leaders fight? - Trump is using his leverage to reach diplomacy. Senate Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota - Why all the Democrats voted to allow men in women’s sports. - Getting Trump’s agenda done, and fast. - How the GOP will use the Democrats’ precedents with reconciliation to codify President Trump’s executive orders into law. Uncle Bill O’Reilly with some inside baseball on the Trump administration - Dealing with Trump on policy versus personally. - Don’t let emotions get the best of you. - Three Americans Tour: Bill O'Reilly, Stephen A. Smith and Chris Cuomo White Lotus: when pop culture collides with politics. - How many Trump voters (MAGA) can relate to this scene in HBO’s White Lotus show? - Justin Trudeau talks tough on Canadian tariffs. - President Trump ultimately just wants reciprocity and fairness. Make sure you never miss a second of the show by subscribing to The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show podcast wherever you get your podcasts! ihr.fm/3InlkL8 For the latest updates from Clay & Buck, visit our website https://www.clayandbuck.com/ Connect with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton: X - https://x.com/clayandbuck FB - https://www.facebook.com/ClayandBuck/ IG - https://www.instagram.com/clayandbuck/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/clayandbuck Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/ClayandBuck TikTok - @clayandbuckYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VerdictwithTedCruzSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Chapter 1: What are the key takeaways from the Trump and Zelensky negotiations?
That is where we are headed. But Buck, the biggest news that is out there in the last hour is Zelensky has decided to bend the knee to Donald Trump and beg for peace. Let me read a little bit of what he said. I would like this is Zelensky's Twitter account. I would like to reiterate Ukraine's commitment to peace. None of us wants an endless war.
Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We value how much America has done. Our meeting in Washington at the White House on Friday did not go that way. It was supposed to be.
Regrettable that it happened this way. It's time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it anytime and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.
All right, Friday the blow-up, Tuesday the apology. Again, that statement a little bit longer. Buck, what do you think people should take from this situation that we are currently in with Ukraine, and where do we go from here?
Well, Trump is doing what he does, which is a non-traditional approach to try to solve problems. And I think that the people who have, at every step of the way, questioned him, undermined him, said he's crazy, said he's a dictator, are doing what they always do, which is more of that.
when you look at what has already occurred, it does seem to be that Trump is using the leverage that he should use on issues that matter to get us to a better resolution. All that really counts – and this is contra the diplomacy, State Department –
foreign policy consensus mindset all that really matters is the results right all that really matters is when something happens in response to a decision an action an agreement that trump has taken how we get there uh i i think is far less important and so yes was it A little bit of a surprise to see that dust up in the Oval Office. Sure.
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Chapter 2: Why did Senate Democrats vote on men's participation in women's sports?
Do I think that Zelensky was the one who instigated it largely? Yes, I do. And now are we back in a place where Zelensky is saying all the things that we wanted to hear from him the first time around? Yes. So that to me indicates that Trump is on the right track.
I also think that this is forced out into public view that the people who just are all about the Ukrainian fight and don't ever go beyond Ukraine is the good guy. Russia is the bad guy are being forced to justify in public. What exactly is your plan? If this war goes on for another five years, in what way is Ukraine in a better position then than they are in now?
Russia has more men, more materiel, more North Korean troops, I might add, pouring in. Russia has allies who are working directly in this fight, and we refuse to do that. That is our red line. So how is Ukraine going to be in a better position other than losing a lot of our money and a lot of their men? They don't have an answer to this. Trump knows that.
So we're trying to get to where we are with the deal now. Clay, if the negotiations were to break down because what Putin wants is just so unthinkable, is so beyond the pale. Well, at least we would know that, right? At least then we could have a conversation. OK, Putin really is being crazier than anticipated on this. So maybe he does need to suffer the consequences a little bit more or whatever.
But right now, there's no reason to believe that the option that the Ukraine hardliners want to take is better.
Look, where we are right now, and my wife has been fired up about this, so she will not stop talking about it. I do think that the United States has created much of this mess. meaning the invasion, the battles over territory, and all that's happening now is Trump is trying to clean up the mess, right? You go back to the agreement when Ukraine gave up their nukes.
There was some form of protection agreement entered into, and Ukraine took it as the United States won't let Russia invade us. Obviously, Obama did not take it that way. Biden did not take it that way. Russia has for a long time not wanted NATO on its border.
We have continued to expand NATO to Russia's border, and I think this war is actually a result of much of the failure of American policy, both as it pertains to Ukraine and to Russia, significantly, Buck, none of which Trump was involved in remotely. So he is now in this mess where he is trying to end up in a situation where he's trying to put this all back right.
And so the United States is not blameless here. We want to be saying, oh, slava Ukraine. Ukraine is the hero and Russia is the villain. America is not coming to this situation with clean hands. We have in many ways created, I believe, a total mess, and now Trump is trying to clean it up. And so I hope that we can get a ceasefire here and that people can stop dying.
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Chapter 3: How is Trump’s administration using reconciliation for legislative goals?
But, Clay, I care about the suffering of the people in South Sudan as well, which is going through yet another mass genocide situation in slow motion. But we're not about to land troops there either.
Here's do you agree with me on a positive side? If we can get a ceasefire, I actually feel like Vladimir Putin will not invade Ukraine further while Trump is in office. Do you agree with that, that he respects Trump enough that he won't do it? Yeah, I do.
I think that he recognizes that, you know, Trump Trump is willing to upset the apple cart. You don't want to tick him off. No one even thought Biden was leading the country. So who cares? Doesn't matter what he says.
So the concern is not necessarily the next three years. It's, again, what you and I have been talking about, and I think it's something that everybody out there needs to realize. You can believe that Trump is amazing and doing phenomenal things, and we do. Guys, four years is not enough to fix a lot of what ails the United States.
We've got to stick and stack several different wins together, one after the other. And that's why I'm already kind of focused on what happens in 26 next year and what happens in 28. Because as enjoyable as every single day is with Trump in office right now, It's a date certain when it comes to a close.
And a lot of our enemies out there are going to be sitting around hoping that they can get President Kamala Harris or President Gavin Newsom or President Andrew Cuomo, whoever the Democrats are going to elevate to run. We got to stack together a lot of different wins because the problems we have are so substantial.
You just heard Clyde say it, and it's true. Trump can't fix all of our problems. He's doing great stuff, but there's a lot that is still going to be very challenging over these next four years and are going to be problems for years to come. The debt is very high, maybe even top of that list. So what can you do in the meantime?
You've got dollars that are evaporating through inflation day in and day out, and there's nothing that you can do about that, but you can do something to protect the value of your dollars. That's where gold comes in. Gold is a hedge against this kind of persistent inflation, and the good news is you can own gold and have it safely stored in your savings account, 401k or both.
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Chapter 4: What can we expect from Trump’s upcoming address to Congress?
We're talking to Senator John Thune. Explain to us, because I'm curious myself, I don't know, why a majority of senators voting for this, which Republicans have and which marshaled itself last night, is not enough to make this a law. The House passed it. Only two, I believe, Democrats voted for it in the House, by the way. Zero senators voted for this on the Democrat side.
But you needed to get to 60. Why? Explain that for our audience.
Yeah, I know it's hard. It's an inside baseball thing here. It's, it's unique to the United States Senate, but under, uh, under our rules in the Senate, and this was kind of the system that the founders handed us, it takes a super majority to do almost anything consequential. And, um, and this is, so it's 60 votes in the Senate is required to move legislation with very few exceptions.
And one of the things we're working on right now, you've probably heard your, your listeners have probably heard too. the president talk about budget reconciliation.
When you have unified control of the government, in other words, the House, the Senate, and the White House, there are things you can do at 51 votes in the Senate that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do through a procedure that is, again, unique to the Senate. But on most issues, and this is an issue where, you know, again, it's a bill that we put in front of the Senate.
And this, honestly, this was just a motion to proceed to the bill. This wasn't even the, this was just to get on it, just to debate it. They voted against even having a debate about it, and that takes 60 as well. So it's a 60-vote threshold, and I know that's, for most Americans, everybody's like, well, isn't 51 a majority in the Senate?
The answer is yes, but the rules of the Senate and the history and heritage of the Senate is such that it requires a supermajority on most legislation.
So what can you hopefully get done through that reconciliation process as some of the top agenda items? We've seen this slew of executive orders coming out from Trump. A lot of them we've been talking about here on the show. We think they're doing great things. Of course, we all also know that executive orders can be overturned by the next administration if, in fact, it's a Democrat.
So legislation matters, and we don't have a supermajority. So, Senator Thune, you're the majority leader. What are some of the top things you're hoping can get through the Senate, the House, and get signed by the president using that reconciliation process?
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Chapter 5: What insights does Bill O'Reilly provide on political commentary?
I don't think they want to see a bunch of lefty ideologues who can't even bring themselves to vote to keep boys out of girls' sports, you know, creating a ruckus and disruptive to the president of the United States, who I think will be there to talk about after four years of, you know, rising costs, laws at the southern border, weakening of America on the world stage, going to be talking about turning the page and get our country back on track.
And I think it's a The president has a great opportunity to present to the American people how things are going to be in his second term and what his priorities are relative to the last four years under Biden. And you can just look already at what they've done at the southern border.
I mean, the top issue in the last election and this administration has been returning order in a short amount of time. Think about the month of February. There were fewer than 9000 crossings at the southern border under Trump. That was a typical day under under Biden. I mean, this is how dramatically things have changed already as a result of President Trump's leadership.
And we want to be good partners for him and do as much as we can to get his agenda across the finish line, which is why we worked really hard to get his cabinet confirmed as quickly as possible. So I expect he got a decisive mandate from the American people in November.
And I think he's going to be talking about not only what he's already done, but what he's going to do in the four years he has available to him to to really change the direction of this country in a way that gets it back on track.
Majority Leader Thune, appreciate you making the time for us on Clay and Buck. We'll talk to you again soon.
Thanks, Clay. Thanks, Buck. Talk to you. Bye now.
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