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Verdict with Ted Cruz

Bonus: Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jan 6 2026

06 Jan 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 3.595 Clay Travis

This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.

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4.616 - 36.218 Unknown

Welcome in Tuesday edition Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. We've got a fun one headed your way as we continue to discuss the fallout of Majuro being seized in Venezuela. We are expecting for there to be, I believe, another. another out there of the Tim Walls press conferences as his political career is in shambles. We will discuss all of that with you and more. We'll also open up phone lines.

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36.238 - 37.3 Unknown

We didn't take very many calls.

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Chapter 2: What are the implications of the Delta Force raid in Venezuela?

37.701 - 50.06 Unknown

Your talkbacks as well to allow you to ask the questions that you may have surrounding everything having to do with the Venezuela situation, as well as maybe the Tim Walz continued fallout.

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Because if Venezuela hadn't happened, the Minnesota fraud story and the fact that Tim Walz has gone from, what, 240,000 votes away from being vice president, a heartbeat away from the presidency, to basically having his complete political career be over. And I don't know about you, Buck, on this, but let's kind of dive in. Do you agree with me that if Kamala Harris

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73.792 - 96.546 Unknown

hadn't picked Tim Walls, he probably runs for governor again, gets elected. People don't really pay that much attention to the Minnesota fraud situation just because Minnesota is not typically the focal point of any major national news stories. And yes, the fraud would have still existed. It would have been indefensible, but it wouldn't have been out there in the public arena to such an extent.

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96.886 - 102.955 Unknown

And so Tim Walls would have gotten reelected and he would have continued right on with the path that he was already on.

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103.93 - 126.276 Buck Sexton

Yes, in a twist of irony, the guy who Democrats put forward to be the avatar of American masculinity is losing his political future after, one, people questioning whether he was a good avatar of that masculinity, broadly mocking him, and two, he is a household name now.

126.256 - 147.705 Buck Sexton

because of his short and ill-fated run, and therefore the wild corruption that has been unearthed in Minneapolis, is a much bigger story because the governor of Minneapolis, Tim Walz, is a national figure, which he would not have been before. I mean, if I sat here right now and asked everybody, if you don't live in the state of Idaho, who's the governor of Idaho, everybody?

147.745 - 153.613 Buck Sexton

Everybody knows the governor of Minnesota, though. By the way, no shade to the governor of Idaho.

154.606 - 174.792 Unknown

I think he's a Republican, but I'm with you. I don't know who the governor of Idaho is. He might be listening right now. We love Idaho, and we've always been a big fan of your work. Celebrate your entire catalog, in fact. When you look at that, I think it's also emblematic. Did you send out a tweet I think I saw where you're just like, what if...

174.772 - 193.65 Unknown

Democrats are just horribly wrong about everything. And I do think there's a lot of truth to that. But to me, the Tim Walls entire experience is indicative of the fact that Democrats, by and large, look at voters like zoo animals. They have to go out in the wild.

Chapter 3: How did Hilton Hotels respond to ICE agents' reservations being canceled?

254.713 - 283.151 Unknown

The problem is what they missed is authenticity matters more than anything. Look, there are nerds out there who are not the foundation of, I think, typically masculine, you know, bigger, stronger, faster. Men don't aspire necessarily to be like them. They can be really, really popular, right? I mean, I would say, no offense to him, Ron DeSantis is a little bit of a nerd, right?

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283.532 - 286.055 Unknown

And I don't mean that in a negative way.

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286.075 - 295.212 Buck Sexton

Meatball, as they called him. What was with the meatball? Was that some kind of weird underhanded or backhanded Italian-American thing? Why are they hitting them on meatball?

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295.232 - 320.759 Unknown

That never made sense to me. I met one of Ron DeSantis' fraternity buddies over break, and we were talking, and he said, You know, he loves Ron DeSantis with every fiber in his being. He said, the guy is the best at just doing jobs. Say, you need a guy who's just going to build you a shelf in the frat house. Ron DeSantis will build a shelf in the frat house that will be there for generations.

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320.779 - 338.4 Unknown

He's like, if you want a guy that's going to go out and pound a bunch of beers and try to pick up girls, not Ron DeSantis' thing. And so he's like, you know, going on the campaign trail, which is in many ways kind of a seductive thing, right? You've got to seduce voters, convince them that you're right. It's a popularity contest. Yes. It's not necessarily his thing.

338.8 - 346.527 Unknown

But every guy out there listening to us right now, you're saying to yourself, you know what, Ron DeSantis, I wish he could be governor of Florida for the next 20 years.

Chapter 4: What is the impact of corporate behavior on political sentiments?

346.567 - 370.399 Unknown

He's done maybe the greatest job as a governor that Florida has ever seen. And so I guess what I'm getting at is, Democrats don't understand men to such an extent that they don't understand the wide range of masculinity that I think Republicans can end up supporting. And so they toss out this fundamentally inauthentic guy in Tim Walls.

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And he instead of actually convincing men that they should be voting for Kamala and Walls, I think he actually cost her votes. I think it would have actually been better for Kamala Buck if she had gone and just said, hey, you know what, Gretchen Whitmer is my pick. Yeah, you got a double chick ticket, and it might have hurt her, but I think she probably would have won Michigan.

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392.926 - 407.088 Unknown

I don't think she would have called it a double chick ticket, but yeah, I hear what you're saying. I mean, a double dude ticket, double chick ticket. I think she would have been better off. I don't like Gretchen Whitmer, but I think Gretchen Whitmer is more authentic as a governor than Tim Walz was.

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And I think men might respect Gretchen Whitmer even more than they did Tim Walz because he's so fake. And so we start off this day with Tim Walz's political career being over, which I think is kind of a remarkable story.

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419.392 - 441.518 Buck Sexton

Let's be honest here. Good chance that if you're wondering who could hang the picture frame and get it done with the tool belt and all the things, I think Gretchen Wimper might beat out Tim Walls. If you're looking for someone to choreograph your next production of Chicago, I would say Tim Walls is your guy.

442.814 - 449.343 Unknown

Gretchen Whitmer might be better at home repair than either you or I. She definitely is.

449.363 - 462.342 Buck Sexton

I take no. If my in-laws are listening, every time my father-in-law shows up here to visit, it's like a trade. He gets to see his grandchild and his daughter, and I get to present him with a list of things in the house that are broken that I don't know how to fix. It's great.

462.322 - 480.33 Unknown

Laura is the same way. My father-in-law can fix everything. He's an engineer. And, you know, he just shows up. And by the way, he's about to be 80. Happy early 80th birthday to my father-in-law. And he's still infinitely better at fixing anything in the house. So, look, I'm not...

480.31 - 495.45 Buck Sexton

At least you drive way too fast like a maniac and are ready for the F1 circuit. I drive slow. This is why I have to go in my free time and shoot lots of guns and do tactical training on the weekends to make up for my inability to change a light bulb and driving like a little old lady.

Chapter 5: How is New York City's decline tied to its political leadership?

507.666 - 518.805 Unknown

But instead, I get all this. You know, when they were talking about the CIA agents who were in Venezuela. Officers. I always get that wrong, but...

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The CIA officers who are in Venezuela, I was thinking to myself, you know, this could have been a job for Buck, but hopefully they were never chased because if they were, he would have gotten caught and captured just like that because the guy has no evasive driving skills. He would be obeying whatever the speed limits are.

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539.331 - 544.658 Unknown

And as a result, we might not have gotten Maduro just because you don't drive fast enough.

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544.638 - 558.377 Buck Sexton

It's called going low profile, low viz. You obey the local traffic ordinances so you don't arouse suspicion, Clay. That's how highly trained I am. They would think that I'm a retiree on vacation there. They would never suspect.

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559.403 - 565.553 Unknown

How many Americans are there in Venezuela, by the way? Do we know, like, actually in Venezuela right now?

565.573 - 583.183 Buck Sexton

That's a good question. I mean, the number is a lot less now than, I mean, obviously right now particularly, but it's been going down and down for a long time. I mean, the State Department has had a do not travel order up for Venezuela for quite some time, I think. So it hasn't been a probably don't go. It's a don't go.

583.248 - 608.901 Unknown

This is my – my boys are not going to shock you that as soon as we raided Venezuela, my boys are super sports fans. One of my sons said, is Ronald Acuna okay? Ronald Acuna is the star Venezuelan baseball player of the Atlanta Braves. And a lot of – I mean, this is true. A lot of baseball players in the offseason go to Venezuela. Weather's perfect. Baseball is hugely popular there.

608.881 - 615.702 Unknown

And so there are a lot of Major League Baseball players in Venezuela, I think, right now before spring training starts next month.

615.85 - 626.027 Buck Sexton

You know, maybe Venezuela, we decide... Look, you can't make them citizens. They're not Americans. They're Latinos. They're South Americans and Latinos.

Chapter 6: What does the future hold for Miami as a financial hub?

779.003 - 797.8 Buck Sexton

It's a big piece of territory. And also, just because you're a Civil War nerd, self-described. People forget this. Ulysses Grant had a great plan. He wanted to make the Dominican Republic. You were talking about baseball before. He wanted to make the Dominican Republic a U.S. territory and got shot down by the Senate.

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798.691 - 820.08 Unknown

First of all, there are a lot of decisions we made surrounding territories that I think were wrong. And I think in the first year of this show, four or five years ago, I said we should go into Cuba and we should end this absurdity. I'm going to bring that back up. Double down? Double down, triple down, quadruple down, whatever is necessary.

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820.54 - 847.957 Unknown

We should right now, in this year of 2026, end the fact that Cuba is a communist country and return basic freedoms to Cuba. To your point on territories, I would even suggest that we should look at what we've done with Puerto Rico and with the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, as you mentioned. and consider making Cuba a territory of the United States, not a full part of the citizenry.

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847.977 - 857.928 Unknown

You're not voting. You don't have the Senate. You don't have a congressional representation, but just a protectorate of sorts. To me, that is something that should significantly be looked at.

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858.909 - 879.994 Buck Sexton

Think about the deal that we've gotten in other places. Guam is one example. They get U.S., Military protection. We put bases there. They don't ever have to worry about foreign relations, foreign invasion, anything like that. They get infrastructure. They get rule of law. They get access to American markets, etc. It's not a bad deal.

880.094 - 887.804 Unknown

We already have the huge base at Guantanamo. And thanks to Colonel Jessup, we still have it. We needed him on that wall.

887.884 - 905.79 Buck Sexton

He was actually the unsung hero of that movie in so many ways. That's a conversation for another time. All right, this may be the time, this may be the year that you join me in something very important, gold and owning some gold. Every indication is that gold is going to continue to grow this year, and this is because of global instability.

905.87 - 922.506 Buck Sexton

We're just talking about some of that stuff, but also all the money printing that's happening. It's not going to stop. And owning gold is part of your savings plan, your 401k or IRA. It just makes sense. And Birch Gold Group is who I trust. You're going to like working with these people. I've purchased gold from them.

922.587 - 941.09 Buck Sexton

And until January 30th, if you're a first-time gold buyer, Birch Gold is offering a rebate of up to $10,000 on qualifying purchases. Claim eligibility. Start the process. Text my name, Buck. Do 989898. Birch Gold can help you roll an existing IRA or 401K into an IRA in gold. You're still eligible for a rebate of up to $10,000.

Chapter 7: What are Congressman Chip Roy's views on Venezuela's stability?

1297.969 - 1321.882 Buck Sexton

But in this case, Hilton came out with, And right away, like all that they could bring to the public conversation about this to squelch this story and set it straight and say, we absolutely do not do this, would not do this. And we will hold those who do it under our banner accountable. That is, you know, we've started to get a little used to this, guys. It's only been a year.

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1322.302 - 1341.361 Buck Sexton

That is a massive, massive corporate thing. see change in attitude and behavior from a big brand like that when clearly this is because it's Trump's ice, Trump's policies, that's the whole thing. Under the Biden administration, people even still thought they could get away with all kinds of nonsense like this.

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1342.162 - 1359.997 Unknown

I think it's also reflective of an unfortunate reality, which is most business leaders are cowards and they go whatever the direction is that the wind is blowing. And for a long time, the way that they would lose their jobs was by not seeming left wing enough.

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1360.377 - 1384.343 Unknown

So if you remember in 2020 in the summer, remember when every brand that you ever bought anything from suddenly had to email you to let you know what they thought about Black Lives Matter? And you were sitting around and you were just like, hey, I just want to buy some kitty litter. I don't need to know what my pet food company thinks about geopolitics.

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1384.984 - 1410.071 Unknown

And yet everybody felt compelled to send you those messages. A lot of those same CEOs knew it was BS then, but they were concerned about protecting their own jobs. Now, because Trump won, they can go back and try to address what they knew to be ridiculous. For a long time. And I think the math on it is pretty clear, right? I mean, if you're Hilton or Hyatt, I always get those two mixed up.

1410.191 - 1430.826 Unknown

I don't know which. I can't tell the difference. Probably not helping me for us getting a big hotel chain sponsorship here. But... You should want everybody under the sun. Democrats, Republicans, independents, people who don't vote. Everybody should be your target market. And I give them credit. I think you're right. They looked into this. They got back to it fast.

1430.846 - 1435.995 Unknown

And they said, we're not going to allow this to occur. This guy is no longer one of our franchisees.

1436.549 - 1449.105 Buck Sexton

The people who decided to send Bud Light a message, to your point, message received by corporate America. It's just, isn't Bud Light now, who are they? The MMA, and they've gone out, or like some right-wing community.

1449.125 - 1469.577 Unknown

It still hasn't come back, because... Maybe it's going to take years. I just mean the steps that they take to rebuild the brand. They spent God knows how much money on the UFC. They have spent God knows how much money. You can't watch a college football or NFL game without Bud Light commercials everywhere.

Chapter 8: How is the Somali daycare fraud scandal affecting Minnesota politics?

1530.43 - 1543.658 Buck Sexton

You can have the top NBA or NFL athlete in the world sit down, look you in the face and say that. And you're like, oh, so you're just a coward. So you actually don't have balls to borrow from a great book. You don't have balls.

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1543.678 - 1557.292 Unknown

I mean, it is, and I think it's why it had such cultural resonance in 2024, because most people, it's very complicated what the tax code should be. We were talking about off-air. It looks like Trump was right about tariffs.

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1557.472 - 1571.687 Unknown

There now is a huge study I'm reading in the Wall Street Journal this morning as I'm getting ready, saying actually we went back and looked at 100-plus years of data, and there is no evidence of a substantial degree that inflation follows tariffs.

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1571.667 - 1590.553 Unknown

despite the fact that every economist in the country told you, oh, my God, if Trump does these tariffs, then the inflation is going to go through the roofs. And they were wrong. And a lot of economists, they're looking around saying now, like, how did we all get this so wrong? And by the way, a lot of the same economists said, we could print as much money as possible.

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1590.573 - 1611.822 Unknown

Remember, Buck, it wasn't very long ago, 2021, when they suddenly said, hey, modern monetary theory is this new thing, and there's no cost associated with just printing way more money. And you and I remember coming on and saying, I think there's actually pretty good history that when you print too much of your currency that the value collapses.

1611.903 - 1626.683 Unknown

And there was this idea out there that Biden bought into that you could basically print as much money and there were going to be no consequences when it came to inflation. And then, boom, within a year we're at 9% and we're still trying to deal with the fact of that incompetence.

1627.143 - 1666.442 Buck Sexton

This is where common sense is seemingly... Yes. Yes. If that's a problem, why is it a problem? Well, once you establish why that's clearly a problem, you understand why soon-to-be $40 trillion in debt and spending trillions more than we take in every year is also a problem. Right. So it's very straightforward stuff on the tariffs issue. I will apply the same common sense.

1666.743 - 1691.796 Buck Sexton

This is what we kept saying on the show, Clay. OK, somehow every other country in the world, every other Canada, the UK, all the other countries in the world, including ones that are closest to us culturally, legally, et cetera, have tariffs in place. Why is it that they're so dumb that they just want to do something that doesn't benefit them and raises prices for them for no apparent reason?

1692.557 - 1709.775 Buck Sexton

Now, you can say, oh, no, Buck, we recognize that. No, no. The people who are anti-tariffs suggested there was really no upside to it either, that it was just a bad idea. It was just downside. You don't even really protect effectively because the global marketplace, your domestic industry protects.

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