December 20, 2024 • 36 mins
Clay ranks best and worst presidents in his lifetime and why the 80s and 90s got most of it right. Callers weigh in with their rankings.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. Last show of the
year where either Buck or I will be hanging out
with you live.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Bucks already out by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'll be back January second, the day after New Year's
and January third.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Buck, we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The two of us will be back together on January sixth,
I think from Miami. I think I'll be down in
South Florida on that day as well, But that is
the next time we will be back together. But as
I said when I started off the show, I want
to thank all of you for making twenty twenty four
such a profoundly successful and fun year in general for
(00:41):
the country, but also specifically for this program. You guys
are the best of angel evangelists for the program out
there all over the country. You have been helping the
voice get out about this program. Word of mouth is
by far the most valuable of all advertising, and we
(01:03):
certainly did shows all over the country and we met
so many of you everywhere we went. We're going to
be in January up for the inauguration of Donald Trump.
I cannot wait the next four years. I believe are
going to be fantastic for this country. And I think
that's true to a large extent because of you guys,
(01:24):
because so many of you in the battleground states got
out and voted. But this morning I was looking at
the data that continues to get analyzed. Wasn't just the
battleground states. Trump and the Republican Party gained votes in
all fifty states. The entire country moved red in Unison,
And I think that's to a large extent because of
(01:44):
you guys and the work that you did, and so
we are profoundly grateful for all of you. I had
some fun this morning, got up early, still a little
bit on different time.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Sleep because of the Israel trip.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I'm when I talk about the Israel trip and why
I think it's so significant in the third hour of
this program. But I was born in April nineteen seventy nine,
so right at the tail end of the Carter administration
and right as we got ready for the nineteen eighty election.
I don't obviously remember anything from Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Carter at all.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
The earliest presidential memories I have are of Ronald Reagan.
In fact, I remember getting to see Ronald Reagan myself
at Disney World in nineteen eighty four. They were I
believe at Epcot might have been the Magic Kingdom. My
parents would remember this better than me. I remember seeing
(02:46):
Ronald Reagan ride by, waving in a presidential limousine. I
remember that it was about one hundred and eighty degrees
that day in Orlando, and that they had an entire
parade procession waiting for the president to come through. And
I remember that there were a bunch of members of
(03:07):
that parade in the band. I remember there were a
lot of people fainting because it was so hot that day,
and they just had them all standing in basically formation,
waiting for Ronald Reagan to come by. And I remember
that he spoke that day and going and looking and
just how amazing and majestic of a day that was.
(03:28):
I was five years old. He is the first president
that I remember. I understand that a lot of you
are in disbelief because you can't believe that that's the
earliest president that I remember, because there's a lot of
you who are older than me listening to.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
This program right now.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
But given that Biden is finishing his term, thankfully, mercifully
very soon, by January twentieth, I was thinking, how would
I rank the presidents of my life? Basically starting with
Reagan in nineteen eighty and going up through Biden in
(04:06):
the present day, says forty four years, a little bit
over two generations of American presidents. How would I rank them? Now,
A lot of you out there in your heads, you're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Your own ranking.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You're thinking through, Okay, who do I think was the
best president in that era?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Who was the worst?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And I put it up on social media and I'm
retweeting it right now, and you guys can all go
and interact. We'll also have the Clay and Buck Show
retweet it and you can give your versions of this
as well. But given that much of what historians do
(04:45):
is rank presidential administrations, I think now that the Biden
administration is ending, it's not crazy to try to assess
where Biden.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And his administration would rank. Now, you no, I'm a
history nerd.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I love American history in particular, and so I can
readily acknowledge that many of these presidential administrations will be
assessed and reassessed for the next one hundred and fifty
one hundred, two hundred years, and that the implications of
many president's decisions become clearer in the hindsight of history.
(05:26):
And for instance, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
If George W.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Bush, it turns out that Iraq ends up a fount
of democracy in the Middle East, and three hundred years
from now, every Middle Eastern country is a democratic republic
and it is an incredibly safe, welcoming place, embracing of
(05:51):
human rights and religious freedom for men and women in
massive numbers. Then the war in Iraq might look different
in one hundred years than it does right now as
we sit and look at it twenty some odd years later.
That is the implication sometimes of the long march of
(06:12):
history don't always reveal themselves to us in the short term.
And this is why I always said the whole argument
that you're going to be on the wrong side of history.
You know how they used to wag their fingers and
lecture us if we voted for Donald Trump or we
were supportive of his policies, they would say, you're going
to be on the wrong side of history. And for
those of us that actually have studied history, we understand
(06:35):
that the concept of right and wrong of history in
our lifetimes is often the case that we don't even know.
It's actually the height oftentimes of variance to believe that
you know how people two hundred years are from now
are going to think about you. Now, sometimes we do
(06:56):
know in real time. Hey, right and wrong side of history.
I would argue with you in general that the right
side of history is very rarely trying to censor somebody else.
General lesson of life. If you study history, the group
that is trying to restrict what people say is very
(07:18):
rarely on the right side of history in the long term.
So censorship in general of political rivals, imprisonment of political
rivals generally not favorably received in the long march of history.
With that in mind, I am going to unveil for
you in reverse order, my rankings, now that the Biden
(07:43):
administration merciful term of office is coming to a close,
how I would assess every president from nineteen eighty to
the present day and why I would rank them thus.
And you can react and let me know if you agree.
And I assume that all of you are going to say,
you know what, Clay, you nailed it, you got everything perfect.
(08:05):
Of course that's not what's going to happen, because anytime
you rank anything, there is a massive disagreement and there
are arguments Gore, and you can already see that on
social media with my rankings. But I think a lot
of you are going to agree with this. I think
Joe Biden is the single worst president in my life.
We can now basically assess the full sum total of
(08:28):
his presidency, and I would assess it as the worst
for these reasons. One, the border is an unmitigated disaster.
You may have heard us talking about the fact that
never before has there been more immigration occurring in the
United States, and never before has there been more illegal
(08:52):
immigration occurring in the United States. We have right now
more immigration then occurred during the Ellis Island era of America,
the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island. All of the people
from Europe who flooded into this country, from Ireland, from Italy,
(09:15):
from basically most of Europe, all of those people actually
less even on a per capita basis, than what's going
on right now. So unmitigated disaster on the border. He
failed on inflation, which I would argue is probably economically,
if you distill it, the single most important thing that
(09:37):
a president could do. He hit a forty year high
on inflation. When he entered into office, inflation was under
two percent. It went to over nine percent. I would
submit to you that the single most impactful thing, from
a negative perspective, that Biden did for most of you
and for most of us, was the cost of goods
(09:57):
went out of control. He tried to mandate a COVID
shot that didn't actually work to stop the spread of
COVID or prevent the spread of COVID. He tried to
fire anyone that would not get it in one of
the most expansive overreaches in the United States history. The
(10:18):
Supreme Court shot it down, but he would have fired
and allowed many of you to get fired for not
getting the shot at your place of work. He completely
and totally failed to protect much of the nation. As
violent crime skyrocketed during his tenure. Less violent crime like
(10:40):
shoplifting continued to grow. All of those things, the disaster
of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, the inability to bring us
together as a country, the consistent attempt to say that
Donald Trump was an existential threat to the country such
(11:00):
that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The idea that if.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The voting rights bills weren't past, we were all modern day.
Jefferson Davis's I think a lot of you are nodding along.
Biden is the worst president of my life. Everything he
touched got worse during his tenure. I cannot legitimately think
of anything he did that made American life better for white, Black, Asian,
(11:29):
Hispanic people across the nation.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
He failed all of us.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Joe Biden is in my life, and I bet in
your lives too, the single worst president that any of
us have ever seen. Who is the next worst president
in any of our lives? I will tell you in
a moment and preview. Some of you may be upset
about what I Am going to say, but guess what
(11:56):
I'm right eight.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Hundred and two two eight A two.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
If you want to weigh in and react any of
this as the Biden administration comes to a close, putting
in perspective, how does it rank right now in the
immediate moment of history?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How would we assess?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And I want to tell you know, they do a
really good job at Hillsdale College of Analyzing History. I
sat next to their president, doctor Larry arn He's got
a phenomenal historical background as do many of the professors
at Hillsdale, and right now for the Christmas season, they
are doing a really good analysis of literature's most famous miser,
(12:33):
Ebenezer Scrooge, famous for the catchphrase ba Humbug from A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They have an online video
course all about that ultimate Christmas story.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Scrooge, of course.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Withdrawn from family friends, walled off from the joys of Christmas,
He's become as Dickens' rights, self contained and solitary as
an oyster until the ghost come to visit him. Register
today for the free online course and enter the world
of Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol. You'll see old things
(13:06):
anew and rediscover the joys we often overlook in daily life.
You can sign up for Hillsdale's free online course on
a Christmas Carol by visiting Clayanbuck four Hillsdale dot com.
That's clayanbuckfour Hillsdale dot com and on behalf of our
friends at Hillsdale. In the words of Tiny Tim, a
Merry Christmas to us all, God bless us everyone.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Hope you
and your family safe as many of you are going
to begin traveling if you haven't already, friends and family
rolling in to stay with all of you. We thank you,
We want you to be safe and have incredible Christmas,
fabulous holiday season. I'm about to have a third kid
(14:05):
out of school. He should be arriving home at any moment,
ecstatic that he finished his exams, and it's gonna be
a lot of fun here.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I can't wait to.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Have a festive holiday here at the Travis household.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And we appreciate all of you.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I'm running through my ranking of president since nineteen eighty
that is my life, basically seventh place, absolutely dead last
for the President's Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think a lot of you out.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There nodding saying, yeah, you know, you got that right, Clay,
he is the worst president. Maybe some of you out
there have an opinion on somebody else being worse than him.
Jimmy Carter obviously not included in this list because he
was president from seventy six to eighty.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And some of you are nerd. Nerds.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That is even for me, who is somewhat of a
history nerd. Some of you are even nerdy. You or
and you're saying, actually, actually, the presidential terms, it isn't
actually twenty twenty to twenty twenty four for Joe Biden Clay,
it's actually twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five because
(15:13):
the president is inaugurated in January. Okay, nerds, I'm using
the election years, Okay, much like you wouldn't say the
Super Bowl champ even though he is going to be
crowned in twenty twenty five. Same thing with the college
football champion. It's the twenty twenty four champion, right, even
(15:34):
though the crowning occurs in twenty twenty five. So that's
the way I'm rolling through it, all right. The next
worst president, we're climbing towards the top. It's Casey Kaseum
style here George W. Bush, And some of you are
going to be upset about this. George W. Bush was
an awful president. This is why when they tried to
(15:56):
trot out Liz Cheney to appeal to voters with Kamala Harris.
A lot of you were like, ah, you know, Dick
Cheney was awful too. That actually blew up in Kamala
Harris's face. I think because Republicans don't like the Cheney family.
By and large, Dick Cheney was the worst vice president
(16:18):
maybe in our nation's history. I think he led George W.
Bush astray to a large extent.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
George W.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Bush entered into office with a huge budget surplus. We
were actually on track to pay off the entire national
debt now to be fair. Nine to eleven happens, and
then Bush just goes off the rails. We go to
war in Iraq for no reason. We said they had
weapons of mass destruction.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
They did not.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We wasted trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and we
got nothing for it. Meanwhile, the entire economy teeters and
collapses to a large extent because of the money that
we were wasting overseas. George W. Bush is, in my life,
the worst two term president, in my always humble opinion,
(17:09):
that we have had.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I said earlier, maybe all of the Middle East ends
up being a fount of democracy in the future, but
it was actually an insanely liberal idea from the neocons
that we should go spend trillions of dollars and overthrow
Saddam Hussein end up maybe with worst leaders in Iraq.
(17:34):
I think the two worst presidents of my life are
George W.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Bush and clearly Joe Biden. I'm gonna keep.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Breaking this down. You can react eight hundred and two
eight two two eight eight two as we continue to
go forward. But I want to tell you I just
mentioned the awfulness that was nine to eleven, and the
impact that that had on this country was staggering, but
we are still seeing some good come out of the response.
(18:03):
Thanks to Tunnel to Towers. They are in the middle
of their season of hope. It is their mission to
help as many families as possible. Like Sergeant Stephen Splan,
he suffered a heart attack while on fire duty. Thanks
to your help, the family has had its mortgage paid
off through Tunnel to Towers. Heroes and their families who
sacrificed so much for us are having the burden of
(18:25):
a mortgage lifted off.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Their shoulders, a place to call home.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Your gift to the Foundation during the season of hope
maybe the most meaningful gift you can give during the
holiday season. You can join Buck, you can join me,
and you can make a donation at T two t
dot org. That's the Tunnel to Towers website. T the
number two T dot org. Make a difference this holiday
season at T two t dot org. Oh, welcome back
(18:50):
in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Biden finally done with
his term, almost trying to rank the president in my
life now that we have another completed term, essentially thirty years,
the Biden term is down. This is forty four years
(19:10):
worth of rankings from nineteen eighty to the present day.
Two generations of presidents worst Joe Biden, next worst George W.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Bush.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Moving towards the positive. Then I've got Obama at five.
So I've got Obama five, George W. Bush six, and
Biden seven. You say, okay, how do you rank?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
To me?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
On some level, you look at what they did that
was the most signature of their achievements or maybe what's
the opposite of achievement of a disaster? What is the
thing that they did that is the most compelling? Obama
was just bloh to me. As you look at his
(19:57):
time now, particularly if you remember in eight Obama ran
on America's awesome, imagine that I could win as I'm
speaking on the Obama campaign as the single parent raised
son of mixed race to the highest office in the land.
(20:20):
By twenty twelve, it was you should vote for me
because I'm black, and that led to what I think
is the ultimate disaster of identity politics, which is the
toxic cancer that is destroying the country from the inside.
Obama made that possible. Instead, in my opinion of the
(20:42):
legacy of Obama being anybody can be president, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, male, female.
If Obama can rise to the presidency, anybody can do it.
It's what we tell all our kids. Instead, it turned
into I'm black and you better vote for me, and
then they took the lesson Democrats did from that of
(21:04):
all that matters now is identity politics. So I've got
Obama at five. The reason I have him above George W.
Bush is I think Iraq is the single worst decision
that any politician has made in my life when it
comes to money, loss of life, and the actual impact
(21:27):
that we gained from it. So I've got Obama at
five in the four spot. As we're moving up I've
got George H. W. Bush sliding in at the George
Bush Senior. A lot of people forget that the Berlin
(21:49):
Wall actually came down with George Bush Senior in office.
That is iconically connected to Reagan because of the mister
Gorbachev tear down this wall. What I think is maybe
the greatest speech that any president has given in my
lifetime in terms of its moral authority, its ability to
(22:11):
stare into the face of evil and demand an action.
But it didn't actually occur when Reagan was in office.
It happened, I believe I'm correct, in this November of
eighty nine, after George Bush the VP, had ascended to office.
So I've got George And by the way, I think
(22:34):
Bush the first actually got really unlucky at the rise
of Ross Perrot because Clinton never won a majority. He
won both times to a large extent because of Ross
Perot's involvement in the race, and that hurt George Bush
Senior quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
So I've got George Bush Senior at four.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He's the highest person that other than Trump, who I
have at third.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Now some of you are gonna say Trump's the greatest
who's ever lived. He's the greatest president who's ever lived.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
That's what Trump himself would say, but he only got
one term so far. I'm optimistic for a second term,
and I've actually got a provocative idea for you. It's
actually better that Trump didn't win in twenty twenty now
that he's won in twenty twenty four. And some of
you out there are like, what in the world do
you mean? Think about what would have happened in twenty twenty.
(23:32):
Trump would have been in a difficult spot with a
Democrat Congress that was hell bent on keeping him from
doing anything. He's actually far more powerful right now with
this term in office than he would have been if
he had won reelection in twenty Now, the disaster that
was Biden would not have happened. I don't think we
(23:53):
would have had inflation. I think we would have left
Afghanistan stand with honor. I don't think that Ukraine would
have invaded Russia. I don't think that Hamas would have
invaded and attacked Israel on October seventh. There are many
awful things that happened on Biden's watch, but I actually
think that Trump is going to be capable of doing
more in twenty twenty four coming into office with this
(24:16):
election than he would if he would have won the reelection.
So I've got Trump at third, and then my top two,
I've got Bill Clinton at two overall, and I've got
Ronald Reagan at one overall. I think those are the
two best presidents of my life, one Republican, one Democrat.
(24:39):
And if you look, Reagan to me is clearly number one,
and I would imagine most of you out there listening
would agree. But the eighties and the nineties we mostly
got things right. The big lesson in legacy of Reagan
is that we defeated the Soviet Union, and many of
(24:59):
you out there with not great historical recollection, the entire
Communism and their system collapsed all throughout Eastern Europe. People
were free. Reagan saw that he could effectively bankrupt the
Communist Party because capitalism is a better system of government
(25:24):
and a democratic republic is a better system of government
than communism. And Reagan stared down the threat of the
Soviet Union, bankrupted them, won the Cold War. They collapsed.
So I think he's clearly the best president of my life.
But Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich after a disastrous first
(25:45):
couple of years where he tried to remake healthcare and
working with the Republican Congress. I think probably the single
best domestic accomplishment in my life is we had a
balanced budge and we're on track to pay off the
entirety of the national debt. Now that we're thirty six
(26:08):
trillion dollars in debt, think about how crazy that was
that as we entered the twenty first century, we were
actually poised to have no debt as a country at all.
Democrats and Republicans came together, put together a budget, policy
and perspective, and we actually had peace by and large,
(26:30):
and we were paying off all our debt. So that
is my ranking. I'll take some of your calls to
react to it. Eight hundred two two eight A two
of those seven presidents that we have seen since nineteen
eighty and I understand some of you are gonay, oh,
we had an affair with an intern. Look, if you
can be a really good president, I don't really care
(26:53):
that much about your personal peccadillos. I understand people get
all fired up about it. I would rather the president
screw an in turn like Bill Clinton did, then screw
the entire country like Joe Biden did.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Some of you may disagree, but I.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Would just rather a guy have a really good job
as president and not worry about his personal life if
he's not out there.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
As a mass murderer.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Some of you are gonna say, oh, so I've got
Reagan one, Clinton two, Trump one three, one, Term Bush
Senior four, Obama five, George W. Bush six, and Joe
Biden seven. I think that's a reasonable objection, objective, relatively
(27:47):
fair historical analysis of Democrat and Republican presidents in the
last forty four years. You guys can react and tell
me if you think I'm crazy, And in the meantime,
I want to tell you one of the ways that
people are dealing, unfortunately with the awfulness of inflation that
was created by Joe Biden and his economic policies is
(28:08):
by buying gold, because gold has long been an ultimate
hedge against inflation. As the Fed is trying to get
interest rates in place, the value of gold has skyrocketed
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(28:28):
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Speaker 2 (29:18):
Gather around the tree, the fireplace, or on the road.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
It's a special edition of Clay and Buck This Christmas Eve,
Clay with a fantastic guest live from Jerusalem and Buck
throwing down some holiday.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
History you won't want to miss.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Find them on the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. Welcome back in Play Travis Buck Sexton Show
appreciate all of you hanging out with us eight hundred
and two two two eight A two. I'm actually surprised
going in and looking at all the emails that I'm getting
and also looking at the messages, most of you agree
(29:54):
that George W. Bush and Joe Biden are the two
worst presidents of the last forty four years, and I
do think that's one of the strengths of Trump. Do
you remember I remember it quite well, the summer of
(30:14):
twenty sixteen Fox News debate that was hosted by Megan
Kelly if I remember correctly, the one that Trump really
kind of took over. Sorry, it might have been the
summer of twenty fifteen. I guess it was right because
it was leading into all the primary season. It was
after Trump had announced summer of twenty fifteen. I think
(30:37):
that was when Trump really kind of began to take
a big step. A lot of people remember it as
the debate, if I'm remembering correctly, where Trump had the
great line about Rosie O'Donnell, where Meghan Kelly really kind
of just came after everybody and she said, you've said
awful things about women on paraphrasing, and Trump said, actually,
I just said that about Rosie O'Donnell and brought down
(30:59):
the House. But it was actually his willingness to criticize
George W. Bush because people, forget everybody out there. Trump
was just a transactional guy. He wasn't a committed Democrat,
he wasn't a committed Republican. He was donating to both sides.
He was trying to get things done as business people do,
(31:22):
and frankly was often dismissive and probably unhappy with having
to deal with politicians because he knew that they're transactional
in nature and often not very honest, and he would
donate to Republicans and Democrats. I actually think it's what
makes him a good president now is that he understands
negotiation and transaction. But it's when he criticized George W.
(31:46):
Bush and the decision to go to war in Iraq,
and you could not do that at that time. Now,
there was an undercurrent of a lot of people out
there saying, yeah, that was a bad decision, We never
should have done it. There were a lot of you,
many of you listening right now, who were veterans of
those wars and you went over there and you saw
it for yourself, and you said, what in the world
(32:06):
are we doing?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Why were we here?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Because remember initially the goal was, Hey, we're going to
go get Osama bin Laden and tying in with Joe
Biden being basically wrong on everything in his entire career.
Remember that Biden opposed the Obama raid that killed Osama
bin Laden. Obama went around and got everybody's opinion, and
Biden said, no.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
It's too risky.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I mean, Biden has been wrong when it comes to
judgment on virtually every major decision he's ever made in
his entire life, and that certainly came to fruition when
he was president. But Trump's willingness to look at the
history and break with the idea of the neocons and
ending up in war all the time. And this is
(32:50):
why one of the I'm gonna talk about this in
the next hour, one of the real profound lessons of
the ridiculousness of saying that Trump was Hitler is Trump
is the most peaceful president that most of us have
had in our lives. He did everything he could to
try to avoid foreign entanglements and get us into wars,
(33:14):
and he had enough fear that he created among the
bad actors out there, whether it's Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un,
the Iyatolin Iran, all of these different individuals who want
to do evil Chairman z Over in China. They feared him,
(33:34):
and you have to stand up to a bully. But
Trump was willing to do things that nobody else was
willing to do, and criticizing George W. Bush for going
into Iraq, for listening to Dick Cheney, and for being
wrong about one of the most consequential decisions of the
twenty first century. I don't think George W. Bush is
(33:55):
a bad guy.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
By the way.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I've never met him, I don't have any relationship with him.
I've heard he's a good dude. I think he made
really bad choices partly because of Dick Cheney, which is
why it's so funny that the Democrat Party went from
Dick Cheney's a war criminal and the worst human being
on the planet to suddenly trying to convince people that
they should vote for Kamala Harris because his daughter, Dick
(34:17):
Cheney's daughter Liz, was actually trying to trying to endorse
Kamala Harris and saying Trump's a unique threat to the nation.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And to the world.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
The unique threat to the nation and the world was
Dick Cheney and all the neocons who led us to
war in Iraq. We pivoted from hey, we've got to
go take out the Taliban because they allowed al Qaeda
to rise to power and become powerful enough that they
could attack us on nine to eleven, We've got to
go remove that fertile breeding ground that they took advantage
(34:52):
of in Afghanistan, to hey, you know, by the way,
we got to take out Saddam Hussein. He has weapons
of mass destruction. I mean, a lot of people leave,
including a lot of Democrats, that there was some sort
of connection between Osama bin Laden in Iraq, and they
led and followed that war. In fact, Barack Obama not
(35:14):
being in favor of that war was one of the
things that helped him be the nominee and beat Hillary Clinton,
because Hillary Clinton ended up wrong on that situation. We'll
take some of your calls about all of this eight
hundred two two two eight a two When we come
back to the top of the next hour, I'm going
to talk about my trip to Israel, what I saw
in the Holy Land. As we get closer to Christmas
(35:35):
and why I think it is so incredibly consequential to
contemplate the connection between Israel and the United States and
what it means going forward, and I will break all
that down for you. We'll take some of your calls
as we roll into the third hour, the last hour
live before Christmas. Now, we got a lot of great
hosts next week. I know many of you are going
(35:56):
to be out there working, many are going to be
out there traveling, and we will allow all of.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
You to weigh in.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
We'll continue to have great content for you. I'll be back,
like I said on January second and third, and then Buck,
we'll be back on the sixth with me, and we'll
be back up and rolling. But in the meantime eight
hundred and two two eight eight two, if you want
to weigh in, but why does what's going on in
Israel matter so much to the United States? What did
(36:25):
I see that I believe is significant? And how does
it all tie in as we come closer and closer
to Christmas Uh and the celebration of Jesus' birth that
so many people around the world and certainly in the
United States, are going to be engaging in. We'll break
all that down for you. Appreciate all of you hanging
out with us. It's Clay and Buck Friday Edition. As
(36:46):
we roll into the holidays, last hour now
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Appreciate all
of you hanging out with us. Last show of the
year where either Buck or I will be hanging out
with you live.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Bucks already out by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'll be back January second, the day after New Year's
and January third.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Buck, we'll be back.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
The two of us will be back together on January sixth,
I think from Miami. I think I'll be down in
South Florida on that day as well, But that is
the next time we will be back together. But as
I said when I started off the show, I want
to thank all of you for making twenty twenty four
such a profoundly successful and fun year in general for
(00:41):
the country, but also specifically for this program. You guys
are the best of angel evangelists for the program out
there all over the country. You have been helping the
voice get out about this program. Word of mouth is
by far the most valuable of all advertising, and we
(01:03):
certainly did shows all over the country and we met
so many of you everywhere we went. We're going to
be in January up for the inauguration of Donald Trump.
I cannot wait the next four years. I believe are
going to be fantastic for this country. And I think
that's true to a large extent because of you guys,
(01:24):
because so many of you in the battleground states got
out and voted. But this morning I was looking at
the data that continues to get analyzed. Wasn't just the
battleground states. Trump and the Republican Party gained votes in
all fifty states. The entire country moved red in Unison,
And I think that's to a large extent because of
(01:44):
you guys and the work that you did, and so
we are profoundly grateful for all of you. I had
some fun this morning, got up early, still a little
bit on different time.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Sleep because of the Israel trip.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
I'm when I talk about the Israel trip and why
I think it's so significant in the third hour of
this program. But I was born in April nineteen seventy nine,
so right at the tail end of the Carter administration
and right as we got ready for the nineteen eighty election.
I don't obviously remember anything from Jimmy.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Carter at all.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
The earliest presidential memories I have are of Ronald Reagan.
In fact, I remember getting to see Ronald Reagan myself
at Disney World in nineteen eighty four. They were I
believe at Epcot might have been the Magic Kingdom. My
parents would remember this better than me. I remember seeing
(02:46):
Ronald Reagan ride by, waving in a presidential limousine. I
remember that it was about one hundred and eighty degrees
that day in Orlando, and that they had an entire
parade procession waiting for the president to come through. And
I remember that there were a bunch of members of
(03:07):
that parade in the band. I remember there were a
lot of people fainting because it was so hot that day,
and they just had them all standing in basically formation,
waiting for Ronald Reagan to come by. And I remember
that he spoke that day and going and looking and
just how amazing and majestic of a day that was.
(03:28):
I was five years old. He is the first president
that I remember. I understand that a lot of you
are in disbelief because you can't believe that that's the
earliest president that I remember, because there's a lot of
you who are older than me listening to.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
This program right now.
Speaker 1 (03:46):
But given that Biden is finishing his term, thankfully, mercifully
very soon, by January twentieth, I was thinking, how would
I rank the presidents of my life? Basically starting with
Reagan in nineteen eighty and going up through Biden in
(04:06):
the present day, says forty four years, a little bit
over two generations of American presidents. How would I rank them? Now,
A lot of you out there in your heads, you're doing.
Speaker 2 (04:18):
Your own ranking.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You're thinking through, Okay, who do I think was the
best president in that era?
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Who was the worst?
Speaker 1 (04:24):
And I put it up on social media and I'm
retweeting it right now, and you guys can all go
and interact. We'll also have the Clay and Buck Show
retweet it and you can give your versions of this
as well. But given that much of what historians do
(04:45):
is rank presidential administrations, I think now that the Biden
administration is ending, it's not crazy to try to assess
where Biden.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And his administration would rank. Now, you no, I'm a
history nerd.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
I love American history in particular, and so I can
readily acknowledge that many of these presidential administrations will be
assessed and reassessed for the next one hundred and fifty
one hundred, two hundred years, and that the implications of
many president's decisions become clearer in the hindsight of history.
(05:26):
And for instance, I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
If George W.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Bush, it turns out that Iraq ends up a fount
of democracy in the Middle East, and three hundred years
from now, every Middle Eastern country is a democratic republic
and it is an incredibly safe, welcoming place, embracing of
(05:51):
human rights and religious freedom for men and women in
massive numbers. Then the war in Iraq might look different
in one hundred years than it does right now as
we sit and look at it twenty some odd years later.
That is the implication sometimes of the long march of
(06:12):
history don't always reveal themselves to us in the short term.
And this is why I always said the whole argument
that you're going to be on the wrong side of history.
You know how they used to wag their fingers and
lecture us if we voted for Donald Trump or we
were supportive of his policies, they would say, you're going
to be on the wrong side of history. And for
those of us that actually have studied history, we understand
(06:35):
that the concept of right and wrong of history in
our lifetimes is often the case that we don't even know.
It's actually the height oftentimes of variance to believe that
you know how people two hundred years are from now
are going to think about you. Now, sometimes we do
(06:56):
know in real time. Hey, right and wrong side of history.
I would argue with you in general that the right
side of history is very rarely trying to censor somebody else.
General lesson of life. If you study history, the group
that is trying to restrict what people say is very
(07:18):
rarely on the right side of history in the long term.
So censorship in general of political rivals, imprisonment of political
rivals generally not favorably received in the long march of history.
With that in mind, I am going to unveil for
you in reverse order, my rankings, now that the Biden
(07:43):
administration merciful term of office is coming to a close,
how I would assess every president from nineteen eighty to
the present day and why I would rank them thus.
And you can react and let me know if you agree.
And I assume that all of you are going to say,
you know what, Clay, you nailed it, you got everything perfect.
(08:05):
Of course that's not what's going to happen, because anytime
you rank anything, there is a massive disagreement and there
are arguments Gore, and you can already see that on
social media with my rankings. But I think a lot
of you are going to agree with this. I think
Joe Biden is the single worst president in my life.
We can now basically assess the full sum total of
(08:28):
his presidency, and I would assess it as the worst
for these reasons. One, the border is an unmitigated disaster.
You may have heard us talking about the fact that
never before has there been more immigration occurring in the
United States, and never before has there been more illegal
(08:52):
immigration occurring in the United States. We have right now
more immigration then occurred during the Ellis Island era of America,
the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island. All of the people
from Europe who flooded into this country, from Ireland, from Italy,
(09:15):
from basically most of Europe, all of those people actually
less even on a per capita basis, than what's going
on right now. So unmitigated disaster on the border. He
failed on inflation, which I would argue is probably economically,
if you distill it, the single most important thing that
(09:37):
a president could do. He hit a forty year high
on inflation. When he entered into office, inflation was under
two percent. It went to over nine percent. I would
submit to you that the single most impactful thing, from
a negative perspective, that Biden did for most of you
and for most of us, was the cost of goods
(09:57):
went out of control. He tried to mandate a COVID
shot that didn't actually work to stop the spread of
COVID or prevent the spread of COVID. He tried to
fire anyone that would not get it in one of
the most expansive overreaches in the United States history. The
(10:18):
Supreme Court shot it down, but he would have fired
and allowed many of you to get fired for not
getting the shot at your place of work. He completely
and totally failed to protect much of the nation. As
violent crime skyrocketed during his tenure. Less violent crime like
(10:40):
shoplifting continued to grow. All of those things, the disaster
of a withdrawal from Afghanistan, the inability to bring us
together as a country, the consistent attempt to say that
Donald Trump was an existential threat to the country such
(11:00):
that he should be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
The idea that if.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
The voting rights bills weren't past, we were all modern day.
Jefferson Davis's I think a lot of you are nodding along.
Biden is the worst president of my life. Everything he
touched got worse during his tenure. I cannot legitimately think
of anything he did that made American life better for white, Black, Asian,
(11:29):
Hispanic people across the nation.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
He failed all of us.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Joe Biden is in my life, and I bet in
your lives too, the single worst president that any of
us have ever seen. Who is the next worst president
in any of our lives? I will tell you in
a moment and preview. Some of you may be upset
about what I Am going to say, but guess what
(11:56):
I'm right eight.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Hundred and two two eight A two.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
If you want to weigh in and react any of
this as the Biden administration comes to a close, putting
in perspective, how does it rank right now in the
immediate moment of history?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
How would we assess?
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And I want to tell you know, they do a
really good job at Hillsdale College of Analyzing History. I
sat next to their president, doctor Larry arn He's got
a phenomenal historical background as do many of the professors
at Hillsdale, and right now for the Christmas season, they
are doing a really good analysis of literature's most famous miser,
(12:33):
Ebenezer Scrooge, famous for the catchphrase ba Humbug from A
Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. They have an online video
course all about that ultimate Christmas story.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
Scrooge, of course.
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Withdrawn from family friends, walled off from the joys of Christmas,
He's become as Dickens' rights, self contained and solitary as
an oyster until the ghost come to visit him. Register
today for the free online course and enter the world
of Charles Dickens a Christmas Carol. You'll see old things
(13:06):
anew and rediscover the joys we often overlook in daily life.
You can sign up for Hillsdale's free online course on
a Christmas Carol by visiting Clayanbuck four Hillsdale dot com.
That's clayanbuckfour Hillsdale dot com and on behalf of our
friends at Hillsdale. In the words of Tiny Tim, a
Merry Christmas to us all, God bless us everyone.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Stories are freedom stories of America, inspirational stories that you
unite us all each day spend time with Clay and
find them on the free iHeartRadio app or wherever you
get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
Welcome back in Clay Travis buck Sexton Show. Hope you
and your family safe as many of you are going
to begin traveling if you haven't already, friends and family
rolling in to stay with all of you. We thank you,
We want you to be safe and have incredible Christmas,
fabulous holiday season. I'm about to have a third kid
(14:05):
out of school. He should be arriving home at any moment,
ecstatic that he finished his exams, and it's gonna be
a lot of fun here.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
So I can't wait to.
Speaker 1 (14:13):
Have a festive holiday here at the Travis household.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
And we appreciate all of you.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
I'm running through my ranking of president since nineteen eighty
that is my life, basically seventh place, absolutely dead last
for the President's Joe Biden.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
I think a lot of you out.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
There nodding saying, yeah, you know, you got that right, Clay,
he is the worst president. Maybe some of you out
there have an opinion on somebody else being worse than him.
Jimmy Carter obviously not included in this list because he
was president from seventy six to eighty.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And some of you are nerd. Nerds.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
That is even for me, who is somewhat of a
history nerd. Some of you are even nerdy. You or
and you're saying, actually, actually, the presidential terms, it isn't
actually twenty twenty to twenty twenty four for Joe Biden Clay,
it's actually twenty twenty one to twenty twenty five because
(15:13):
the president is inaugurated in January. Okay, nerds, I'm using
the election years, Okay, much like you wouldn't say the
Super Bowl champ even though he is going to be
crowned in twenty twenty five. Same thing with the college
football champion. It's the twenty twenty four champion, right, even
(15:34):
though the crowning occurs in twenty twenty five. So that's
the way I'm rolling through it, all right. The next
worst president, we're climbing towards the top. It's Casey Kaseum
style here George W. Bush, And some of you are
going to be upset about this. George W. Bush was
an awful president. This is why when they tried to
(15:56):
trot out Liz Cheney to appeal to voters with Kamala Harris.
A lot of you were like, ah, you know, Dick
Cheney was awful too. That actually blew up in Kamala
Harris's face. I think because Republicans don't like the Cheney family.
By and large, Dick Cheney was the worst vice president
(16:18):
maybe in our nation's history. I think he led George W.
Bush astray to a large extent.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
George W.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Bush entered into office with a huge budget surplus. We
were actually on track to pay off the entire national
debt now to be fair. Nine to eleven happens, and
then Bush just goes off the rails. We go to
war in Iraq for no reason. We said they had
weapons of mass destruction.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
They did not.
Speaker 1 (16:45):
We wasted trillions of dollars, thousands of lives, and we
got nothing for it. Meanwhile, the entire economy teeters and
collapses to a large extent because of the money that
we were wasting overseas. George W. Bush is, in my life,
the worst two term president, in my always humble opinion,
(17:09):
that we have had.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Now.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
I said earlier, maybe all of the Middle East ends
up being a fount of democracy in the future, but
it was actually an insanely liberal idea from the neocons
that we should go spend trillions of dollars and overthrow
Saddam Hussein end up maybe with worst leaders in Iraq.
(17:34):
I think the two worst presidents of my life are
George W.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Bush and clearly Joe Biden. I'm gonna keep.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Breaking this down. You can react eight hundred and two
eight two two eight eight two as we continue to
go forward. But I want to tell you I just
mentioned the awfulness that was nine to eleven, and the
impact that that had on this country was staggering, but
we are still seeing some good come out of the response.
(18:03):
Thanks to Tunnel to Towers. They are in the middle
of their season of hope. It is their mission to
help as many families as possible. Like Sergeant Stephen Splan,
he suffered a heart attack while on fire duty. Thanks
to your help, the family has had its mortgage paid
off through Tunnel to Towers. Heroes and their families who
sacrificed so much for us are having the burden of
(18:25):
a mortgage lifted off.
Speaker 2 (18:26):
Their shoulders, a place to call home.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Your gift to the Foundation during the season of hope
maybe the most meaningful gift you can give during the
holiday season. You can join Buck, you can join me,
and you can make a donation at T two t
dot org. That's the Tunnel to Towers website. T the
number two T dot org. Make a difference this holiday
season at T two t dot org. Oh, welcome back
(18:50):
in Clay Travis Buck Sexton show. Biden finally done with
his term, almost trying to rank the president in my
life now that we have another completed term, essentially thirty years,
the Biden term is down. This is forty four years
(19:10):
worth of rankings from nineteen eighty to the present day.
Two generations of presidents worst Joe Biden, next worst George W.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
Bush.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Moving towards the positive. Then I've got Obama at five.
So I've got Obama five, George W. Bush six, and
Biden seven. You say, okay, how do you rank?
Speaker 2 (19:33):
To me?
Speaker 1 (19:33):
On some level, you look at what they did that
was the most signature of their achievements or maybe what's
the opposite of achievement of a disaster? What is the
thing that they did that is the most compelling? Obama
was just bloh to me. As you look at his
(19:57):
time now, particularly if you remember in eight Obama ran
on America's awesome, imagine that I could win as I'm
speaking on the Obama campaign as the single parent raised
son of mixed race to the highest office in the land.
(20:20):
By twenty twelve, it was you should vote for me
because I'm black, and that led to what I think
is the ultimate disaster of identity politics, which is the
toxic cancer that is destroying the country from the inside.
Obama made that possible. Instead, in my opinion of the
(20:42):
legacy of Obama being anybody can be president, white, Black, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, male, female.
If Obama can rise to the presidency, anybody can do it.
It's what we tell all our kids. Instead, it turned
into I'm black and you better vote for me, and
then they took the lesson Democrats did from that of
(21:04):
all that matters now is identity politics. So I've got
Obama at five. The reason I have him above George W.
Bush is I think Iraq is the single worst decision
that any politician has made in my life when it
comes to money, loss of life, and the actual impact
(21:27):
that we gained from it. So I've got Obama at
five in the four spot. As we're moving up I've
got George H. W. Bush sliding in at the George
Bush Senior. A lot of people forget that the Berlin
(21:49):
Wall actually came down with George Bush Senior in office.
That is iconically connected to Reagan because of the mister
Gorbachev tear down this wall. What I think is maybe
the greatest speech that any president has given in my
lifetime in terms of its moral authority, its ability to
(22:11):
stare into the face of evil and demand an action.
But it didn't actually occur when Reagan was in office.
It happened, I believe I'm correct, in this November of
eighty nine, after George Bush the VP, had ascended to office.
So I've got George And by the way, I think
(22:34):
Bush the first actually got really unlucky at the rise
of Ross Perrot because Clinton never won a majority. He
won both times to a large extent because of Ross
Perot's involvement in the race, and that hurt George Bush
Senior quite a lot.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
So I've got George Bush Senior at four.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
He's the highest person that other than Trump, who I
have at third.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Now some of you are gonna say Trump's the greatest
who's ever lived. He's the greatest president who's ever lived.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
That's what Trump himself would say, but he only got
one term so far. I'm optimistic for a second term,
and I've actually got a provocative idea for you. It's
actually better that Trump didn't win in twenty twenty now
that he's won in twenty twenty four. And some of
you out there are like, what in the world do
you mean? Think about what would have happened in twenty twenty.
(23:32):
Trump would have been in a difficult spot with a
Democrat Congress that was hell bent on keeping him from
doing anything. He's actually far more powerful right now with
this term in office than he would have been if
he had won reelection in twenty Now, the disaster that
was Biden would not have happened. I don't think we
(23:53):
would have had inflation. I think we would have left
Afghanistan stand with honor. I don't think that Ukraine would
have invaded Russia. I don't think that Hamas would have
invaded and attacked Israel on October seventh. There are many
awful things that happened on Biden's watch, but I actually
think that Trump is going to be capable of doing
more in twenty twenty four coming into office with this
(24:16):
election than he would if he would have won the reelection.
So I've got Trump at third, and then my top two,
I've got Bill Clinton at two overall, and I've got
Ronald Reagan at one overall. I think those are the
two best presidents of my life, one Republican, one Democrat.
(24:39):
And if you look, Reagan to me is clearly number one,
and I would imagine most of you out there listening
would agree. But the eighties and the nineties we mostly
got things right. The big lesson in legacy of Reagan
is that we defeated the Soviet Union, and many of
(24:59):
you out there with not great historical recollection, the entire
Communism and their system collapsed all throughout Eastern Europe. People
were free. Reagan saw that he could effectively bankrupt the
Communist Party because capitalism is a better system of government
(25:24):
and a democratic republic is a better system of government
than communism. And Reagan stared down the threat of the
Soviet Union, bankrupted them, won the Cold War. They collapsed.
So I think he's clearly the best president of my life.
But Clinton worked with Newt Gingrich after a disastrous first
(25:45):
couple of years where he tried to remake healthcare and
working with the Republican Congress. I think probably the single
best domestic accomplishment in my life is we had a
balanced budge and we're on track to pay off the
entirety of the national debt. Now that we're thirty six
(26:08):
trillion dollars in debt, think about how crazy that was
that as we entered the twenty first century, we were
actually poised to have no debt as a country at all.
Democrats and Republicans came together, put together a budget, policy
and perspective, and we actually had peace by and large,
(26:30):
and we were paying off all our debt. So that
is my ranking. I'll take some of your calls to
react to it. Eight hundred two two eight A two
of those seven presidents that we have seen since nineteen
eighty and I understand some of you are gonay, oh,
we had an affair with an intern. Look, if you
can be a really good president, I don't really care
(26:53):
that much about your personal peccadillos. I understand people get
all fired up about it. I would rather the president
screw an in turn like Bill Clinton did, then screw
the entire country like Joe Biden did.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Some of you may disagree, but I.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Would just rather a guy have a really good job
as president and not worry about his personal life if
he's not out there.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
As a mass murderer.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
Some of you are gonna say, oh, so I've got
Reagan one, Clinton two, Trump one three, one, Term Bush
Senior four, Obama five, George W. Bush six, and Joe
Biden seven. I think that's a reasonable objection, objective, relatively
(27:47):
fair historical analysis of Democrat and Republican presidents in the
last forty four years. You guys can react and tell
me if you think I'm crazy, And in the meantime,
I want to tell you one of the ways that
people are dealing, unfortunately with the awfulness of inflation that
was created by Joe Biden and his economic policies is
(28:08):
by buying gold, because gold has long been an ultimate
hedge against inflation. As the Fed is trying to get
interest rates in place, the value of gold has skyrocketed
because it has always been a place where people take
refuge to try to have solidity of asset. And you know,
you can put your four oh one k in gold
(28:28):
right now. That's what Birch Gold can do. They can
help you convert an existing IRA or a four oh
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(28:49):
savings with Birch Gold website Birchgold dot com slash Clay.
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(29:12):
eight ninety eight and get the info today and get
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Speaker 2 (29:18):
Gather around the tree, the fireplace, or on the road.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
It's a special edition of Clay and Buck This Christmas Eve,
Clay with a fantastic guest live from Jerusalem and Buck
throwing down some holiday.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
History you won't want to miss.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Find them on the iHeart app or wherever you get
your podcasts. Welcome back in Play Travis Buck Sexton Show
appreciate all of you hanging out with us eight hundred
and two two two eight A two. I'm actually surprised
going in and looking at all the emails that I'm getting
and also looking at the messages, most of you agree
(29:54):
that George W. Bush and Joe Biden are the two
worst presidents of the last forty four years, and I
do think that's one of the strengths of Trump. Do
you remember I remember it quite well, the summer of
(30:14):
twenty sixteen Fox News debate that was hosted by Megan
Kelly if I remember correctly, the one that Trump really
kind of took over. Sorry, it might have been the
summer of twenty fifteen. I guess it was right because
it was leading into all the primary season. It was
after Trump had announced summer of twenty fifteen. I think
(30:37):
that was when Trump really kind of began to take
a big step. A lot of people remember it as
the debate, if I'm remembering correctly, where Trump had the
great line about Rosie O'Donnell, where Meghan Kelly really kind
of just came after everybody and she said, you've said
awful things about women on paraphrasing, and Trump said, actually,
I just said that about Rosie O'Donnell and brought down
(30:59):
the House. But it was actually his willingness to criticize
George W. Bush because people, forget everybody out there. Trump
was just a transactional guy. He wasn't a committed Democrat,
he wasn't a committed Republican. He was donating to both sides.
He was trying to get things done as business people do,
(31:22):
and frankly was often dismissive and probably unhappy with having
to deal with politicians because he knew that they're transactional
in nature and often not very honest, and he would
donate to Republicans and Democrats. I actually think it's what
makes him a good president now is that he understands
negotiation and transaction. But it's when he criticized George W.
(31:46):
Bush and the decision to go to war in Iraq,
and you could not do that at that time. Now,
there was an undercurrent of a lot of people out
there saying, yeah, that was a bad decision, We never
should have done it. There were a lot of you,
many of you listening right now, who were veterans of
those wars and you went over there and you saw
it for yourself, and you said, what in the world
(32:06):
are we doing?
Speaker 2 (32:07):
Why were we here?
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Because remember initially the goal was, Hey, we're going to
go get Osama bin Laden and tying in with Joe
Biden being basically wrong on everything in his entire career.
Remember that Biden opposed the Obama raid that killed Osama
bin Laden. Obama went around and got everybody's opinion, and
Biden said, no.
Speaker 2 (32:27):
It's too risky.
Speaker 1 (32:29):
I mean, Biden has been wrong when it comes to
judgment on virtually every major decision he's ever made in
his entire life, and that certainly came to fruition when
he was president. But Trump's willingness to look at the
history and break with the idea of the neocons and
ending up in war all the time. And this is
(32:50):
why one of the I'm gonna talk about this in
the next hour, one of the real profound lessons of
the ridiculousness of saying that Trump was Hitler is Trump
is the most peaceful president that most of us have
had in our lives. He did everything he could to
try to avoid foreign entanglements and get us into wars,
(33:14):
and he had enough fear that he created among the
bad actors out there, whether it's Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un,
the Iyatolin Iran, all of these different individuals who want
to do evil Chairman z Over in China. They feared him,
(33:34):
and you have to stand up to a bully. But
Trump was willing to do things that nobody else was
willing to do, and criticizing George W. Bush for going
into Iraq, for listening to Dick Cheney, and for being
wrong about one of the most consequential decisions of the
twenty first century. I don't think George W. Bush is
(33:55):
a bad guy.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
By the way.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
I've never met him, I don't have any relationship with him.
I've heard he's a good dude. I think he made
really bad choices partly because of Dick Cheney, which is
why it's so funny that the Democrat Party went from
Dick Cheney's a war criminal and the worst human being
on the planet to suddenly trying to convince people that
they should vote for Kamala Harris because his daughter, Dick
(34:17):
Cheney's daughter Liz, was actually trying to trying to endorse
Kamala Harris and saying Trump's a unique threat to the nation.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
And to the world.
Speaker 1 (34:29):
The unique threat to the nation and the world was
Dick Cheney and all the neocons who led us to
war in Iraq. We pivoted from hey, we've got to
go take out the Taliban because they allowed al Qaeda
to rise to power and become powerful enough that they
could attack us on nine to eleven, We've got to
go remove that fertile breeding ground that they took advantage
(34:52):
of in Afghanistan, to hey, you know, by the way,
we got to take out Saddam Hussein. He has weapons
of mass destruction. I mean, a lot of people leave,
including a lot of Democrats, that there was some sort
of connection between Osama bin Laden in Iraq, and they
led and followed that war. In fact, Barack Obama not
(35:14):
being in favor of that war was one of the
things that helped him be the nominee and beat Hillary Clinton,
because Hillary Clinton ended up wrong on that situation. We'll
take some of your calls about all of this eight
hundred two two two eight a two When we come
back to the top of the next hour, I'm going
to talk about my trip to Israel, what I saw
in the Holy Land. As we get closer to Christmas
(35:35):
and why I think it is so incredibly consequential to
contemplate the connection between Israel and the United States and
what it means going forward, and I will break all
that down for you. We'll take some of your calls
as we roll into the third hour, the last hour
live before Christmas. Now, we got a lot of great
hosts next week. I know many of you are going
(35:56):
to be out there working, many are going to be
out there traveling, and we will allow all of.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
You to weigh in.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
We'll continue to have great content for you. I'll be back,
like I said on January second and third, and then Buck,
we'll be back on the sixth with me, and we'll
be back up and rolling. But in the meantime eight
hundred and two two eight eight two, if you want
to weigh in, but why does what's going on in
Israel matter so much to the United States? What did
(36:25):
I see that I believe is significant? And how does
it all tie in as we come closer and closer
to Christmas Uh and the celebration of Jesus' birth that
so many people around the world and certainly in the
United States, are going to be engaging in. We'll break
all that down for you. Appreciate all of you hanging
out with us. It's Clay and Buck Friday Edition. As
(36:46):
we roll into the holidays, last hour now
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show News
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Buck Sexton
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