Christmas Shutdown Showdown

This is the buck Sexton Show, where the mission or mission is to decode what really matters with actionable intelligence. Mag no mistake, America, You're a great American Again. The buck Sexton Show begins Analysts, So we are going to be working very hard to get something passed in the Senate. There's a very good chance it won't get past it's up to the Democrats. So it's really the Democrats shutdown

because we've done our thing. When Nancy Pelosi said you'll never get the votes in the House, we got them, and we got them buy a big marchin to seventeen to one eighty five. So now it's up to the Democrats as to whether or not we have a shutdown tonight. I hope we don't, but We're totally prepared for a very long shutdown, and there is our only chance that we'll ever have. It looks like we're heading for a shutdown.

Everybody looks like that's where this is all going. And the President says it's going to be a long one. And I've got to tell you that seems like a pretty safe prediction right now, because this is it. I mean, this is a lot of the Trump movement on the line, a lot of what the President promised in the campaign, a lot of what he has been repeatedly saying he will achieve well after the campaign was over. It all

comes down to what happens now. Know how what last week Nancy Pelosi was saying, you don't have the votes, you don't have the votes. Oh, but it turns out we do have the votes. Nancy. I don't think this is a surprise to anybody, but Nancy Pelosi was just making stuff up. Now that we look back at that meeting, who seems like they were more in command of reality Schumer,

Pelosi or Trump. And now we're going to get into this fight over who is responsible for the shutdown when this is really a construct that we shouldn't fall into the House is the House and the Senator majority of Republican right now, the House Representatives has put forward a bill. The bill says, this is what we'd like, we'd like some funding. We want the funding for this. If Democrats won't go along, if they're insisting that you need sixty

votes to do a minor budgetary measure, then that's on. Then. Now, I know President Trump said, you know, I'm the one who's shutting down the government, but I disagree with his disagree with his framing of the issue, and he disagrees that now because he's saying the Democrats are the ones who would be shutting the government down. But this blame

game doesn't really tell us anything. All that matters here is an understanding of what the two sides stand for and what happens if the GOP caves, and I've been worried along they're going to cave, and I'm worried that they make cave. Even after the government shuts down, you will see all these stories about the hardship of federal government employees now that they're not getting their paychecks on time.

You'll see a lot of media that would usually be pretty quiet over the Christmas holiday that will be coming out and just telling stories about how how horrible it is that this one family couldn't go to a national park or they couldn't do They'll find all these different things and try to increase public pressure. Trump and those who believe in funding a wall are going to have

to go forward and go out in public. And Trump will probably be down to morrow Lago when this is happening and say, look, there's a reason why the government has shut down. It's because Democrats refused to give five billion dollars to the President and his party to increase border security. We'll get later into this. It was actually a really good moment with Stephen Miller on CNN. But

how exactly do Democrats want better border security? Just well, we will return to that issue later in this show. But just think about that for a moment. If you were on the spot, if somebody was saying to y'all, I'll give you one hundred bucks if you can tell me you know what the Democrats have really done on border security that would be considered hawkish. You know, security at the border really matters to them because and they took the following steps. What would come to mind if somebody.

If someone were to make you that wager, it's kind of tough. I don't know if i'd be able to collect. Democrats are up against the wall on this one, pun intended. There's no way for them to escape as long as we keep the pressure on and the discussion focus where it should be. They say that there's no need for

a wall. I say that the head of Border Patrol, the head of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, every border patrol agent i've ever talked to, Video that we've seen in recent weeks of the caravan in the San Diego sector stopped by a barrier. All of that tells me that, yes, it would be a piecemeal process. Yes it would take a lot of time. But walled areas are more or the non walled areas. You know, people say, oh, I'm going to invest in ladders. The ladder will get us

over the wall. Okay, you're gonna need a pretty big ladder. You have to you have to move it a pretty long distance, and how do you get down the other side? Again, I mean, really, if people are gonna play this game, I had someone tell me today, well, you know, human trafficking involves a lot of tunnels under the border, And I say to that, Okay, So does that mean that we just give up because people can tunnel under it?

Because people will tunnel under the border even without a wall there, Does that mean that we say, oh, it's not worth trying, just trying to stop this anymore and they can just tunnel. I mean, why even have border patrol above ground? I guess we should only have border patrol in tunnels. The fundamental difference here is is one side willing to take action to stop this continued slow burn illegal immigration invasion. Is one side willing to do something about that, yes or no? Because we know the

Democrats are not. We know they have no interest in stopping this. They don't care about the seventy three thousand people that died last year from opio overdoses. They don't care about the increasing power and violence of the cartels south of our border. What that does? Think of what that does. In Mexico, thirty four thousand people were murdered. I think it was thirty from ven thirty seven. In

twenty seventeen it was over thirty thousand murders. Massive amounts of lawlessness, criminality, kidnapping, all attributable to the cartels and their primary market, not their only market, but their primary market is right here and by far the number one way that they get access into this market is across the southern border. That is how they do it. So there are a lot of reasons, a lot of INCENTI tips that we should all agree on to take decisive

action where we can on this issue. And if that means we go to a shutdown, then darn it, we go into a shutdown. Eighty five percent of the government continues as is. Eighty five percent of the government isn't going to change one bit because of this. This is about forcing a national debate. You know, Democrats won't give Trump the wall. I thought elections were supposed to have consequences. Now Trump has said that Mitch McConnell should use the

nuclear option. I do not believe that Mitch McConnell will do that. I think Mitch McConnell is too much of an institutionalist. I think that he's quite happy. Unlike Paul Ryan, who is now leaving with a legacy of Wow, great

job you did cutting the debt and the deficit. There, buddy, Mitch McConnell knows that he will be able to point justifiably too numerous federal judges, Supreme Court judges, you know, a whole slew of conservative victories on the judiciary that are the results of Mitch McConnell making the Democrats live by their own rules and live by them long and hard. So you know, Mitch, Mitch is gonna be taking a

victory lap no matter what. At the end of all this, I don't think he's willing to go with the nuclear option. But what is this? What is this uh notion that because the Senate comes up with artificial rules, there's no constitutional constraint that you have to have sixty votes to get a budgetary measure through. You need sixty votes or else, or else the minority can stop this. No fifty one votes for the budget to be enough. Remember how the

Democrats played it on Obamacare. They rammed it through party line, didn't care. Yeah, a lot of things are criticized about Democrats, but their lust for power is impressive, and their willingness to just ram down the opposition's throats whatever big government monstrosity they can concuss. You know that you almost have to respect it now. It's it's a pretty remarkable thing.

That they pull off. So shutdown is where we're heading here, which also means, unfortunately, I was kind of looking forward to, you know, this is my last and I'm a good old little tea. Here's my last live show with you all for twenty eighteen, because I'm taking next week off. I'll be back right after New Year's and not taking off any vacations, not planning any vacations after that, but

this is my last one for twenty eighteen. And I have a feeling that my initial plan of kicking back and not having to look at Twitter and all the different news sites and be managing my four or five or whatever it is, different email accounts and looking at I had this whole vision of me just drinking tea, hanging out with my family in New York, hanging out

with Miss Molly down here in DC. And now I think that we're going to be in the shutdown showdown, shutdown showdown, which is gonna mean that a lot of people are going to be paying attention to this stuff. It's not gonna be quite as jolly. It's not gonna be quite the holly jolly. Isn't that what it is? Holly jolly? Christmas? Right, Yeah, it's not. It's not a molly jolly Christmas, although that's what's on my mind. But yeah,

it's gonna be a different, a different Christmas. And I think a lot of people had anticipated because of this, of this shutdown, but we might as well, you know, we should have had this fighter. You're well last February. I think it was we should have had the fight then, should have gone for it then. But it's not too late after this. It is too late now if you

push it beyond beyond this fight. And you know, I think, you know, Democrats, people that are making such a big deal about twenty twenty, I would note I think that people are gonna forget you. This is a question of can you can the Democrats be forced to bend the knee here? One side is gonna have to blank. I worry that it will be the Republicans. I'm not gonna

lie to you. Or the most likely outcome here is some kind of a financial half measure where they will agree, Democrats and Republicans will agree after a week of shutdown that there can be an additional you know, auxiliary border funds, but it can't be used explicitly for a new fence it could be used for, and they'll kind of come up with some you know, wishywashy middle pathway that lets

everybody go home for the holidays. That's what I think is most likely to happen here, But maybe not, Maybe not. Trump got a wake up call. He got a wake up call from a lot of people this week that have really supported him, that have been there for him through the unfair attacks on him and a lot of fair attacks on him. You know, a lot of stuff

that people say about Trump. I'm like, well, that's kind of true, but you know, I still like the agenda, and I'm still for the the trajectory of the government that he is pushing. Doesn't mean that everything, every tweet, every every joke, every policy decision he makes, I'm for. As you know, I was very unhappy with them earlier this week, and I'm I'm I'm very unhappy with the fact that we didn't repeal in a place Obamacare. But I guess people just don't want to hear that from me.

These are central promises. You know. If we're just going to argue over the size of the social Democrat welfare state in this country, you know, I'll do I'll spend more time doing history shows. You know what I mean. I mean, if we're really not going to get these policies implemented that we've worked so hard as a conservative movement in this country to get to put ourselves in a position at least to get, then what is the

point of it all? You know? Now I'm starting to feel a little bit like Bill Murray and Groundhood Bag when it's like thousands of people gathered together to worship a rat, he's a little he gets a little down. If you remember, it's a great movie. I really enjoy that one. We're gonna cover a lot of ground today on the show. More on the Boarder, we're on Madison, the Syria withdrawal, the possible withdrawal from Afghanistan. Third hour.

I'm just gonna have some thoughts about twenty eighteen, And of course I'm gonna have to tell you at the end of today's show, because it'll be the last one before Christmas and my birthday, how wonderful all of you are, how much I appreciate each and every person listening to this across the country who listens it means a tremendous amount to me. I don't want to get all weepy at the start of the show because I have to get through the whole show. But we'll talk more about

that in the third hour. And a quick apology. Because I thought we were going to be able to do open lines for the whole show. Turns out because the holiday schedule, we are dead. Producer Mike had to go for family reasons, had to travel, so we are down a man, which means we don't have someone in the phone lines tonight. I'm sorry to say I didn't mean I did fake newsbook. I didn't mean to make a promise that I couldn't keep on that one, but it turns out I was. I was wrong yesterday that I'll say,

we have a fantastic show. You can always write to me on Facebook and tell me your thoughts there, Facebook dot com, slashbuck Sexton, and even work in some cheesy Christmas music at the end, so stay with me. The President is making decisions without counsel, without preparation, and even without communication between relevant departments and relevant agencies. All of this turmoil is causing chaos in the markets, chaos abroad, and it's making the United States less prosperous. And less secure.

Less secure. Everything is Trump's fault, you see. Schumer just wants you to know that everything bad that happens you can blame on Trump. Meanwhile, the Senate is, according to Fox here scrambling to take up a spending package with billions in funding for a border wall, I mean ongoing negotiations to fund the government by midnight, as President Trump acknowledged there's a good chance a partial government shut down

will be triggered. After keeping the final vote open for five hours to secure enough support, the Senate finally advanced a House approved spending bill with five point seven billion for a border wall, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking a tie that procedural hurdle paves the way for a final vote in the Senate. If Congress doesn't pass a spending bill by midnight tonight, oh, a partial government shutdown will be triggered. Oh no, what are we gonna do?

It's all gonna be okay, Buck is here to tell you. Now you already know that it's all gonna be fine. People make such a big deal out of this. They also act like Evan's gonna remember. I wonder if you could go for it, if you if you had a time machine, it'd be fun. In twenty twenty, say hey, remember that shutdown? It was terrible, wasn't It was horrible? What happened? Everyone gonna say what what shutdown? What matters

here is do you get a wall or not? You know, Mitch isn't gonna go nuclear option, even though that would be fun, that would be fun. Oh man. The Democrats would lose their minds over that one. Trump has to keep this promise. There's no way for him to keep faith with his base without keeping this promise. Although there's a lot it could be a lot of unhappy people that are going to have to work here in DC,

and a lot of journos. Me, I guess I'm not a journal but among the folks that are going to have to spend more time thinking about this than they had anticipated, than they had planned. And I was really just hoping the next week was going to be melow. I know, I'm gonna stop winding about it. We have a lot to get into. There's actually a big decision

from a Supreme court. It's not a full opinion, but there's a there's a decision that came out from a Supreme Court about whether they would give a stay on a lower court decision because of the imminent harm that the government would suffer if they did not. Turns out it didn't go our way. We'll get into that, and then also in agreement that the Trump administration has claimed to get with Mexico that could really be helpful at

the border. And it's taking a page from the book of Buck because it's exactly what I said they should have done about a month or so ago. It's nice. I got the President listening to me maybe, which is nice. And then we're gonna get us some Christmas thoughts later on the show. John's going to tell you but all the amazing things he's planned. I was going to ask producer Mike about his gifts and what he was planning, because producer Mike has to send gifts for the many

ladies in his life. But he's on the road somewhere now, so we miss him. But he will be back soon.

And I want to get into that decision and then lean into the third hour the show tonight, which is just going to be year and review year going forward, and my thoughts about how amazing, wonderful, brilliant, patriotic and good looking all of you listening to this show are One thing that I think has been missed and didn't get a lot of coverage yesterday was what we have worked out, what this administration has been able to do in conjunction with the Mexican government, and the massive and

monumental moment that took place yesterday where catch and release has ended. And it's a sad day in America when the Mexican government is doing more to protect the America can people than Senate Democrats. I hope that they will not let that be the case by the end of the day, and they will work with us and work with the President and Senate Republicans to get this done and let everybody go home and let us start building

a wall and let us start protecting our border. Well, so she's talking about something very specific that you're not hearing a lot from the media on this one. They're not really talking about it. But you know, Mexico has agreed right now, the administration has worked out with Mexico that asylum seekers are to be sent back to Mexico for the duration of immigration proceedings. As I said to you, a refugee is somebody who applies from outside the country.

An asylum seeker is somebody who wants protection from inside the country and the Mexican the Mexican government now will have with us what they call a third party safe agreement. I believe you have heard about that. You have heard about that on this show because I told you that's what the administration should do. It is what we have with Canada. This is a way to fix the problem. Okay,

you come to the border. There will be a place, a waiting area, waiting zone, whatever you want to call, a waiting camp where you you know, are are going to be placed while they process your immigration claim. They're not going to allow people to come into the country though, and then supposedly show up for a hearing in a few years, and then if they don't get status, supposedly get deported. Because everyone knows that that's where this whole

thing falls apart. That's where there is no honesty about the process from the Democrats. So this is a pretty a pretty big win. This is what CNN reported on earlier today. Homeland Security Secretary Nielsen announced that the United States has told Mexico that entering individuals entering the US illegally or without proper documentation and seeking asylum will be sent to Mexico to wait for the duration of their

US immigration proceedings. According to the Department of Homeland Security, individuals entering illegally or without proper documentation trying to enter the US to claim asylum will no longer be released into our country, where they can often disappear before a court can determine their claims merits. They will instead be processed by DHS and given a notice to appear for

their immigration hearing. Asylum seekers from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador must wait outside the United States until their immigration proceedings are concluded. According to a Department of Homeland Security official, the Migrant Protection Protocols is what they're calling them. It's going to be phased in along our southwest border, and asylum seekers from Northern Triangle countries will return to Mexico and given a notice to appear in court and will

be allowed back in for the hearing. Now, this is a humanitarian measure, DHS is saying it'll free up order personnel. Essentially, all right, you're gonna get your day in court. But the scam ends that's what this is saying the scam is supposed to end um and and I think that that's this is what I've been saying all all along. Um, you know, this is this is what I've been I've been saying should be done. Meanwhile, we got just another

unbelievable Robert's Supreme Court turncoat moment today. This just came in this afternoon where they will not put a stay on um. They will not put a stay on the court ruling that went against the Trump administration that changes who can claim asylum. Here this is from the Scotus blog.

Just now. The Justice turned down the government's request, which means that the government will not be able to enforce its new policy on asylum while the government appeals to the US Court of Appeals to the Ninth Circuit and if it comes to that. The Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts provided the deciding vote as four justices, Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Ledo, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh, indicated that they

would have granted the government's application. So the Trump administration back in early November said it had a new asylum policy because under the previous rules instituted by the Obama administration. An immigrant was allowed to stay in the country because she believed, you know, because that immigrant said that they'd be persecuted no matter how they got here. But under the new policy, if you came in illegally, you would

be ineligible for asylum. Well, it turns out that the Supreme Court, by a five four decision thanks Roberts, the Libs plus rob Bert, said no, you're not allowed to do that. You're not allowed to under executive authority claim that if you have broken the law to come into the country, you can't then claim a salam. So, you know,

how does this now interact with this new policy? You know what this seems to do to me from what I can tell is you want to try to come into America illegally now because you can still claim asylum, still go through the asylum process, but you'll be in

the US interior. Whereas if you show up at a port of entry and say, hey, I'd like to claim asalam, I'll say, oh great, thanks, go back to Mexico and come back when your court date is So all this means is that the government hasn't won right away, but you'll have to see as it makes its way into the courts. It's gonna make its way all the way up. But you know, this is just another example of the judiciary, just like the Department of Justice, just like the me media,

just like college campuses. The judiciary is decidedly skewed against conservatives and against the faithful execution of the law when it comes to immigration. Somehow, all these judges seem to do is come up with lots and lots of new reasons why we can't have an orderly immigration system. We can enforce the laws in the books. We can't prevent lawbreaking.

If there's a loophole, the loophole has to stay. If there are you know, shortfalls and existing immigration law that can favor people who are being unscrupulous, who are committing fraud against the United States, who are lying, it has to stay. So this is also why we can't rely on executive authority. Because the Obama is able to rely on it in a number of cases, knowing that most of the judiciary was going to be with him on

this stuff. The Trump administration has an incredibly hostile judiciary to deal with, and that means any executive order they want to take, whether it's on immigration or it's on building the wall or anything. You know, it's going to get challenged, the Ninth Circuit is going to shut it down,

and they're still gonna call Trump a dictator. It is a pretty remarkable state of affairs when any ninth Circuit judge in the country can effectively tell the President the United States, you can't do that, and Trump goes, Okay, well we'll take this to court. And I saying Trump

is a dictator. Pretty sure. Dictators don't allow any of hundreds of federal federal judges to shut down their authority on any matter whenever they want, which is what we've seen with Trump so far, because he is respecting the system as messed up as the system often is. The destruction of our immigration system. They want to end immigration to the United States, and that is a step that we will never enter into. That's just a step we're

not going to take. Congressman Luis gutierres as always, thank you for being here. Okay, okay, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You know there are limits here, folks. Congressman Goodiers. They want to end immigration, how can a member of Congress they notice the Chris Hayes, thank you very much. Congressman, give me a break. They want to end immigration. They just want to control illegal crossings at the southern border.

How does that mean they want to end immigration? We are you know, they leave all the context out of this discussion. They're so dishonest about all of this. They just say things like like that that they want to end all immigration. You say to yourself, well, hold on a second. America takes in a million people every year and makes them either a permanent resident or a citizen. A million that is a major US cities worth of

immigrants every year through the legal system. We have a half a million visa overstage who are then illegal in this country every year. And that has nothing to do with coming across the border illegally because they all came legally. Then they just stayed until they were illegal. And then you add to that the number of illegal immigrants both in the country and coming into the country all the time. And the truth is, we don't even know how many

of them there are. We don't know. This is like saying, you know, we know how many illegal drugs are coming into the country. They can guess, but they don't know because they're sneaking them in. How can they how can they just say things that are so stupid and have people believe them. How can they say things that are so patently false and not get called out. It's because the media is completely in bed with them. They are

all in favor of this. They are, you know, hoping that America will become a different country through the immigration process, through mass immigration that is bringing about tremendous change. I mean, when you think about how many people have come into this country in the last thirty years, we are demographically shifting rapidly. And people say, oh, Buck, well do you

have a problem with that. Well, when you have assimilation as a process that both takes time and also involves people coming in an orderly process in a way that the overall society can adequately bring them into the society, it is possible to overwhelm that both from a political, legal, and a cultural sense. I've had to say this to people.

You know, Germany brought in a million a million migrants in one year from the Middle East and South Asia and some from North Africa, I think too, but a million the migrants essentially in one year back in twenty sixteen, a million. You say, well, Buck, you know Germany is a country of I can't at the top of head, I don't know, sixty seventy million people something like that. Germany is a big country. They can they can handle that. I say, all right, you know, there's a whole discussion

to be had there. But what about a million people in Belgium? There's that? Is Belgium still Belgium? If they bring in a million Afghan, Iraqi and Syrian refugees, Okay, what about two million? Does it still feel like the same country? Do they have the same respect for rule of law, the same cultural traditions, same language, same shared national heritage. Right? I mean, America is an idea, but it's an idea that we all have to buy into. Right. It's not skin color, it's not ethnicity base, but it

is an idea. And if you have enough people that show up that feel like America is not really an idea that they much care for. It's really just about a place where you can, you know, get access to the welfare state, where there's this whole liberal industrial complex of grievance organizations and telling you, oh, you came here, well, America owes this to you. You know, we have to give you even more than what we've already given you.

We're so terrible to have put you in this position where you don't have everything that you want, but you know, we want to end immigration. This is from a congressman on television saying this. The people who act like this is an intelligent thing to say that this is an acceptable thing for him to say. It's just it's just grotesque and it's unfair. But we are dealing with people

who are dishonorable on this issue above many others. I mean, this is one where you know, we should really just understand. They don't care about the truth. They don't care about what the long term implications are for the country. They have bought into this and there is a degree of hysteria that they have embraced around immigration rhetoric. They have no solutions, no answers, nothing. All they have is more and more and more. If you don't like it, you're racist.

That's what they offer up. But I have to say the all time record for lying in the phase of all the evidence was a tweet you, Madam Secretary, sent out on June the seventeenth, and it says, we do not have a policy of separating families at the border period. That's your Twitter account, that's what you put out. Yet you came here today to tell us exactly is your policy of separating families and children from their families another lie. I don't have forty five seconds. I won't take them all. Oh,

here it goes. Get ready for goody eras to me and astonishing to me that during Christmas. Of course I had to call them the holiday seasons to be inclusive. But during Christmas, because the majority always wants to just call it Christmas. That during Christmas, a time in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. A Jesus Christ who had to flee for his life with Mary and Joseph. Thank god there wasn't a wall that stopped him from

seeking refuge in Egypt. That wall wasn't there, and thank god there was an administration like this, or he would have too have perished under twenty eight, I would say of innocence when Herod ordered the murder of every child under two years of age. Maybe I haven't gone a lot to Bible school, but I know that part. I mean shame on everybody that separates children and allows him to stay at the other side of the border. Fearing death, fring, hunger,

freeing sickness. Shame on us for wearing our badge of Christianity during Christmas and allow the secretary to all right, I can't, I can't, I can't take any again. I'm sorry that you guys had year as much as he did. Notice, yeah, that's right. Everyone runs come across the border illegally as the baby Jesus. This is what we're supposed to take away from all of this. And Republicans are just the big, bad,

mean people. By the way, when Joseph and Mary were returning to Bethlehem, it was to be legally counted for the purposes of taxation. You see, they were obeying the law. They were not They were not coming in from some other place and trying to evade. They were trying to get away from border patrol. They were obeying the law of the time. Nonetheless, you know, people get separated from families every day across the country for breaking the law.

People get separated from their children every day. You know, Mike gets separated from his children a few months, General Flynn, you know, maybe his grandchildren. I don't know if he has grandchildren not. But people families get separated for criminal justice reasons all the time in this country. And I'm not saying that's good we should celebrate, and I'm just saying this is what happens. You know, there is a trade off between order and liberty. There is a trade

off between rule of law and compassion. And all Democrats do is just play this game of you know, we're the kind ones. We're not for open borders, but anything you do that makes the border not open, we're going to call you racist, baby separating, heartless monsters for you know, I think Nielsen's probably done, by the way in twenty nineteen. I don't think she's gonna last that much longer because she probably is sick of just getting all this abuse

from these crazy Democrat loons. And I don't blame her. You know, it's getting it's getting tough. It's getting tough out there for people that try to actually do something about the border. Donald Trump wags the dog as the investigations into him close in. He plays chicken with the lives of federal employees and their families by walking the country toward a government shutdown, and the world is less safe today. After the dramatic resignation of the last human guardrail.

Defense Secretary Jim Madison's resignation a clear rebuke of Donald reckless decisions about troop withdrawals in Syria and Afghanistan. The backlash to Donald Trump's impulsivity being felt this afternoon at home and around the world, and reigniting questions about who Trump is working for and whether he's displaying an unsustainable degree of instability and office. From Secretary Mattie's resignation letter, quote my views on treating it. Okay, this is where

I have to jump in. So that's Nicole Wallace, who is a former Bushy, you know, she worked for the Bush administration, so a former Republican or just somebody who liked her position within the Republican elite, and now that she doesn't feel like she's as connected or as important, has turned on everything she used to believe in. I'm not sure which it is now. I believe that she is supposed to be an anchor and not an opinion journalist.

But although it doesn't even really matter, the point is to just listen to that introduction, The last human in

guardrail against President Trump. General maddis the last human guardrail. Meanwhile, the you know the the number two at the Pentagon is now going to be Well, first of all, Maddis is still there, so you know, there's not even a a an imminent concern of there's nobody in place to do anything that would stop the president from But I just wonder, when does one of these horrible things actually happen, the things that we're always being told are going to

happen because of President Trump, When does one actually occur. Oh, we're gonna have war with North Korea. No, actually, he's going to try to get a peace deal with North Korea. Oh, the Iranians there, it's gonna do all these terrible things if we end the deal with them. Well, it turns out that the deal is you know, which is it? They tell us that these horrible things are going to happen, and that Trump is so reckless and awful, and yet

these things don't happen. And is it really because everyone around Trump is so good it's stopping him from making these bad decisions all the time. I'm not saying that Trump doesn't have some impulses that are best raining. I think every president probably has some ideas and impulses that his advisors around him recognize or are able to make him recognize are not the way to go. But did you hear all of that? I mean, you had you had an anchor on MSNBC there suggesting who does the

president work for? We know what that is. I don't think that's a I don't think you could even say that's a Russia whistle. I think that's a Russia bullhorn. Oh, that's right, he's doing Putin's bidding. He's doing Putin's bidding. You know what I remember during the Obama years, and many of you will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Every time we were suggesting a more aggressive posture against the Islamic State, we were doing Osama bin Laden's bidding, or isis is bidding or al Qaeda's bidding by trying to fight against them. Now we do Putin and Erduan's bidding. I mean, this is just a stupid talking point for people that don't want to actually deal with the reality of what's going on on the ground in either Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan. I mean, there are real conversations

to be had here. I get it. I have a personal affinity for the Kurdish people, and what they have done in Iraq and in Syria, and we owe them, and I get it. We need to find a way to keep faith with the Kurds. That doesn't mean we have to set up a permanent base in Syria always and forever, when we don't even know what the purposes of our presence there beyond they're not being an Islamic state. But people are saying, oh, they're doing you're doing er

Duan's bidding. All you're doing Putin's bidding. Just because Putin or Erduan wants us to do one thing or another, it doesn't mean that's the wrong thing for us to do. This is a simplistic thinking, and especially from people who have never been in the region, who have no in depth knowledge of any of these matters. Are they're among the most vociferous in this. Oh, well, you know, there's

a vacuum will form, A vacuum will form. Okay, well, if that's going to be our posture, then I suppose we should also set up a military, a permanent military presence. You know, a few thousand soldiers in Nigeria, in Somalia, in Libya, you know, go down the list. And by the way, we already have. How many countries do we have a military presence when you add it all up.

This notion that by by trying to draw down more quickly from Syria everything is going to collapse and become terrible doesn't take into account the Iraqi forces that are next door. But that's even getting into a serious discussion about this. I'm persuadable on this issue, meaning that you know, I understand why there are concerns about rapid withdrawal from Syria. I understand why people although in Afghanistan, just let's let's

be clear. The the two options are stay there forever and withdraw knowing that we have not achieved and enduring stable Afghanistan, but that's not something that we're going to try to do anymore. Those are the options. The option of just give it one more year, just give it one more year, that should be off the table. That should be all that. Either we say we're we're creating a permanent base in Afghanistan similar to what we have in you know, South Korea and Germany and Okinawa, where

we're just going to be there forever. And now take into account that it's a it's a country that could rapidly deteriorate and we may have you know, Taliban artillery shelling or air base there. And guess what that means that we're going to have to come back in full force and deal with that. You know. I had an exchange on Twitter today with well with a few people,

with Ben Shapiro with what's his what's his? Brit Hume, who I generally really enjoy his Twitter game actually, and Britt was saying, you know, are you opposed to me? Are you opposed to US military being deployed anywhere that's dangerous? And I said no, I'm opposed to US military continue to take casualties in a place where there's no end

goal in sight. You know, because I got into some troublesome folks that because I tweeted out the following Ending a policy of endless war is never going to be easy. There will always be trade offs, and yes there are risks, but the alternative is endless war. People are saying, Buck, that's not fair. It's not endless war where you know, this is just a strategic projection of power. And to that, I say, well, the the Twin Towers got hit by al Qaeda when I was a sophomore in college. All right,

two thousand and one, it's almost nineteen. It has been eighteen years. We have not one single year we can point to where we have not had US troops involved in active combat operations in a foreign theater, and a foreign theater that you know, was not an imminent threat to the United States. To put it mildly, so, I mean, if that's not endless war, what is endless war? I mean you could always we could be at war for thirty years and they'd say, well, buck, we could end

the war next year, So it's not endless. I'd say, all right, But I think the point still stands. You know, it's it's time to stop doing this to try to build other people's countries for them. We tried very hard in Iraq, at a cost of tremendous blood and treasure. We beat al Qaeda in Iraq, we beat the Taliban in Afghanistan. But we can't make these countries nice places to live. We can't make these societies more functional really then they are, or then their own people want them

to be. You know, one of the reasons why we can have bases long term in Germany and Japan is that the societies that sprung up after horrific warfare were incredibly durable, stable and modern. That is not the case in Afghanistan. That is not the case in Iraq. And you also have to look at the surrounding areas, and you know what the likelihood is of imminent conflict that people would say, buck, what about North Korea? They can

invade at any point in time. North Korea knows that if we if they were to attack South Korea, we would respond with overwhelming military force. Let's just say, let's just play this out a little bit more. If we were to set up a permanent military base in Syria, which is a sovereign country that we are not at war in that the Congress has not authorized a military intervention in and where we want the Asad regime to

continue to be in charge. If the choice is and it is a Sad or the Islamic state, that is the choice. We do not have another choice really that we are aware of or that is realistic. But who what do we do when all of a sudden the base starts coming under assault from mortars all the time? What do we do on our permanent base in Syria has five hundred pound truck bombs, thousand pounds of military grade explosives showing up at the gate, at our security

gates and blowing up whoever happens to be. They're trying to do inspections. You know what. We went through this in Lebanon. No less than Ronald Reagan knew that it was a nasty fight, knew the humanitarian situation was terrible, tried to clean things up, realize this is a mess, and got out people. Forget about that. Did things? Was there more violence? Did things grind on eleban after we left, Yes, of course, but it wasn't our fight and we lost

almost That was the full number. I mean, it was about three hundred in the bombing of the marine barracks. I'm forgetting off top. I think it was two eighties seven, but I could be wrong on that one. This is the this is the truth of the situation. We have to start understanding that there are limitations to what we can I'm sorry, three hundred and seven people. I said about three hundred, but yeah, three hundred and seven people, two hundred and forty one US, fifty eight French peacekeepers,

six civilian and the two attackers. We do not want endless war. I would like the US to be at peace sooner than later. It's time to bring our people home. With a new year comes new hiring decisions, and that means new personnel and the need for new background investigations. Right, whatever size your company. You could have a company with ten people, who could have a company with ten thousand people.

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a good metaphor for the Trump presidency. It is more and more concentrated on the views and beliefs of the base of the party, the House Republicans. I mean, you know, the the the maddest decision today and the apparent decision to shut down the government over over the border wall.

I mean, they are they are part of the same governing philosophy, which is the president doesn't reach out to his adversaries political adversaries, he doesn't compromise, and he goes with the views of what of the people who who he feels are as close as supporters. I mean, he is going to close down the government because Ann Culter got mad at him, and that's you know that, that's um. You know where we are on the budget, on the budget side, and you know, Maddis is a representative of

a broad Washington consensus about military matters. You know, he is not known as a particularly political person, but he's out now and you know the phrase, there's so much over at CNN that that one can stomach, one can handle. Uh, you know what he's saying that this whole nefarious construct of events that he's pulling together is also known as keeping faith with your base, keeping campaign promises. This is

what President Trump said he was going to do. These things that he is pushing for this week are the things he said he was going to do. You will recall just a few days ago, I was very upset with the President, and I was not okay with it. I had a pretty bummed out day here on the show because I thought the President was throwing in the towel. I'm not here because I love Trump so much. I'm not here because I think that, you know, he's such an amazing human being and we should all model our

lives or after him. I support the President because the President has said he will do the following things. Fill in the blanks from the campaign traw right, build a wall, fight back against China on its predatory trade practices, deal with political correctness, take the fight to the media, lower taxes bill the booming economy, bring jobs back. I mean

all these. You know, Look, I understand a lot of politicians say a lot of things that they don't intend to keep or that they won't be able to keep. You know that that they just know is a false promise. But a wall is a very clear it's a binary proposition. It is or it is not we get a wall or we do not have a wall. So that's something we can hold the president accountable for and he should do everything in his power, you know, to make sure

that we get this wall. Um. And you know, on the Maddis issue with the with the consensus, you know, because the Tuban was just waving around with all this different they say he's a legal Analystim he's just a pundit. It's like Paul Krugman without the without the economics degree. Uh. But you know you you hear him talking about how Manis represents a military consensus. Okay, you know what is the military consensus gotten us in the last let's just

say the last ten years. You know that the the the elites on foreign policy, the people that have been calling the shots, what have they gotten us in the Middle East? What has been achieved? A stable and enduring Iraq? Not really? I mean we had to put five thousand troops back, we had to have an air campaign, a multinational coalition. Um. You know what. Now you could also argue the Middle Ease has never really been stable, and I think that's a. I think that's a fair point.

The Middle East is not a region of stability, and there's a lot of a lot of reasons why that is the case, but that Mattis's departure is Look, I have a lot of respect for Maddis. I also don't know the guy. I never worked for him. I don't have any personal anecdotes about about General Mattis um But I would also note that you know that they're I've heard a lot of four stars tell us that what we're doing in Afghanistan is going to work, and they're wrong.

They're wrong, over and over again. They're wrong. Stama Crystal, who is in fredily well respected and was a very I was impressed with them, a very smart but comes across as an introspective and somewhat humble guy given who he is. He was a big proponent of negotiating with the with the Taliban. He thinks that that's a good you know, the way to go forward is to negotiate with the Taliban, get some kind of a deal. All that is just cover for our exit. That's just political cover.

It's not real cover, meaning that the Taliban is not going to keep any promise they make everybody knows that. So, you know, we need to stop holding up people as just because of who they are. They must be right on this issue. It's definitely not something that you could say about the Department of Justice, the CIA, the NSA. You look at these places and they're just people. They have ideas, how they have expertise, they anowledged. But these

are judgment calls. They're judgment calls that affect the American people in the most important ways in matters of life and death. We have a right to be involved. We are citizens. We have a right to be involved in those conversations and to be heard on them. You know, if our military action in Syria is such a good idea, tell us then what the plan is? They say, Oh,

it's Isis hasn't been defeated. Well, if we have to stay until Isis is defeated, and if we have to stay until the Turks no longer want to bomb the Kurds because they hate each other, and if we have to stay until the Assad regime is not just waiting in the wings to take back this territory, because it is still the country of Syria and Assad is the only national government that is even capable of taking control

of this area. We're going to be there forever. So okay, if we want to have a discussion where the president is the slowest role on Syria, we need to get a firm agreement from the Turks. They will not attack, they will not destabilize, they'll not go after our Kurdish allies. We will continue supplying the Kurds, making sure that they can hold the territory that they have taken. We will back a political process, but we won't have you know, a few thousand troops there. Maybe we only have a

few hundred troops there. That's a discussion that I think we can have. That's that's a place where we can go on this strategy. And in Afghanistan, drawing down from fourteen thousand to seven thousand, it signals to the Afghan national government, you know that the gravy train is not going to continue on forever here. We're not going to just keep throwing billions of dollars into the Afghan into

the Afghan economy. That just ends up on the you know, in the corruption market essentially and propping this place up. The Afghans are going to have to deal with the future. That Afghanistan has in store for them. Let's talk about a potential government shutdown at ben night tomorrow night, on the eve of Christmas. This is what the President told Democratic leaders at the White House last week. Stephen, listen to this. I am proud to shut down the government

for border security. I will take the mental I will be the one to shut it down. I'm not gonna blame you for it. The last time you shut it down, it didn't work. I will take the mantle of shutting down and I'm going to shut it down for border But all right, we're apparently in the same position as we were a week ago. The President had, as you know, two years, a Republican controlled House and a Republican controlled Senate to get this done, to build that border wall.

Why did he fail? Well, the House is voting as we speak on border security. The fight's only just beginning, as you know. First of all, we're talking about success on border security. This president has been unprecedented achievements in that area. But right now as we speak, we are rallying Republican lawmakers to try and get a bill out

of the House. And the fundamental issue here is whether or not Democrats will supply votes to pass border security or whether they're going to push for open borders, which equals massive crime. If the president for every week to our southern border. I like this, Fire it up, Stephen Miller, you know. I think Stephen Miller, who is going on CNN and had given their anchors kind of a kind of a tough time. I like it. You know, I think it's I think it's pretty good. It's guys, Stephen Miller.

He's smart on immigration. He's actually got you know, he's got some skills on the immigration front for sure. And you know this, the media really tries hard here to make it sound like what Republicans want is so so unreasonable. Oh, it's just so unreasonable when you think about it. What are they really asking for five five billion dollars to build border barrier? Really, that's what's that's what's so impossible

given all the things that we spend money on. I've even seen Democrats Howard Dean was writing about how we need to keep our military, keep our military commitments where they are in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. Howard Dean, mister anti war against the Iraq war, it out by withdrawing our troops from Afghanistan. You are condemning millions of women

to the Stone Age. Wow, first of all, that's that's I'm amazed that he got away with saying that no education, no choice about who they marry, they will become property when the Taliban takes over. Is that what you really want? Roe Kana? He's running to Rokana, And I'm wound to say, Okay, Howard Dean, So what you're saying is we have to rebuild Afghanistan and impose a new society upon them. That doesn't sound like a short term, limited mission to me.

And how long before we're told that that's imperialistic and it's some some neo colonial white man's burden mission that we are engaging in there, and that we are oppressors and that we are doing bad things. You know, this is this is what will happen there. We will be told that we are invaders and we are colonialists and all of those things if we actually try to remake afghan society, which Howard Dean seems want to do. But but I digress. How much money he's going to be

spent though? How much money is going to be spent on the war in Afghanistan and how much can we spend on our border. Stephen Miller is not letting them just slip away on this with the usual talking points. And this is what you see so often with Democrats is that the talking points are designed to attack the person who wants to ask questions. The talking points are set up on the left to shut down discussion, not to convince the other side or even convince somebody who's

listening in that they're right. It's just offense. It's just perpetual offense. When it comes to immigration. That's why it's you. They'll say, it's racism, it's xenophobia. Why do you want to separate women and children at the border. Why are you so heartless? Why are you afraid of non white people immigrating to the country. All these things that they say are not meant to convince anyone of anything. They're just meant to make people who are asking questions about

border security. And Leila mcgrad should say, I don't want to It's this too much for me. I don't want to get into this anymore. It's not worth it. It's not worth it. That's what they want you to say, John, Do we have that clip of Miller continuing here with Wolf Blitzer. Are you talking to Democrats right now to come up with a compromise. Well, what I've fort midnight tomorrow night. The Democrats all they need to do is support border security and the government will be funded. But

that that that we're talking about border control. The Democrats support border security, they don't support five billion dollars. Could you could you identify Wolf for me some of the kinds of border security you're saying the Democrats. Democrats all say they support border security, like what where they don't. Well, they do respect with you. They voted against Kate's law,

they voted against ending sanctuary cities. They voted against supporting Mster Team gang members, they voted against supporting violent criminals. They voted time and time again against a physical border wal to stop the illegal entry. I mean, where is the evidence that you keep asserting they're for border security. They haven't been. They opposed closing loophole's for asylum that flood our sisters with meritless Clay I want to move out.

You know, this is what somebody needs to do to point out that there's nothing, there's nothing about the Democrats that suggest that they really believe in border security. That they keep saying this because because then people okay, well, then Democrats must be reasonable. There is nothing about their policies that indicates a desire to be um to secure our border. And he just ran down this whole list.

You know, they want they want people to be able to more easily get in the United States to claim asylum, and then they'll never be deported even when they don't get asylum, which is what the law says. Law says, if you don't get it, you gotta go. They don't want, you know, more deportations. They they always try to slow down deporting gang members. They don't want uh, you know, more aggressive border patrolling. They you know, there's no they

like sanctuary cities. They don't want enforcement of the interior. They don't want to verify. I mean, just go down the list, Go down the list. Where is the evidence for Democrats want a secure border? They know the American people by a solid majority, want a secure border, so they say that, But when it comes to their actions, where is the evidence that they do in fact want a secure border based on the laws that they're willing to pass, based on the specifics of how they can

fix different problems. It's just not there Stephen Miller with a drop kit, I mean, Wolf Blitzer also that guy. He's one of the luckiest people on planet Earth as far as I can tell. You know, he just looks like an anchor and sounds like an anchor and doesn't really seem to know very much. Is certainly not particularly adept or capable on his feet, and yet he's like

the most respected anchor at CNN. You know, I don't know, but he also at least doesn't go quite as far as some of the other pundit types that you have

on CNN. You know, some of the others who who are who are anchors but are actually pundits, you know, they they claim to be nonpartisan, and yet all they do, you know, they get Chris Cuomo, bro Cuomo, who's like, hey, so like when you become you know, I just want to ask you this question Trump's supporter, and when you become a racist, it's like, oh, well, that's a that's a fair question to ask some you know, Republican congressman

who thinks that we should have a secure border. You know that that's what that's the game that they play, though, Unfortunately that's what they do. But Miller is completely correct in laying out that on issue after issue, Democrats make it harder to secure the border and then claim without evidence, you could say that they want to secure the border. There we go, score one for Stephen Miller. I gotta tell you he did a good job. Some of you have asked me, what's it like to do a show

in the morning every day with liberals? Buck? What's that like? I'd say, Well, Buck has a tremendous patience and sometimes has to rely on social charm to uh, I guess just charm, not social charm to diffuse situations. Rising has been a very interesting experiment thus far. It is a left right show. So I have a liberal co host whom I must say, on a personal level I get

along with fantastically and she's a lovely person. But it is tough to just have the give and take of well, the two hosts from different perspectives, but more than that,

the guests that we have come in. I was actually joking around this week because you know, everybody was kind of letting it loose, a little, letting loose, letting it loose this week because we had our last week of full shows on the air before next year, and we're talking about how we can always tell when somebody comes in and they've done their homework about the show versus people that just come in and go, oh, it's just

you know, a show. It's The Hill. The Hill's kind of a non partisan, maybe slightly center left, although I know people say it's center right, but you know, it's a pretty both sides website in terms of the news it puts up depending on who you ask, and people say down they go hey Crystal, hey Buck, and you know, they're all happy to be there. And if it's sometimes we're talking about you know, getting dogs trained up for people with you know who a PTSD or you are,

we talking about really nice stuff on the show. So that's that Sometimes is fine, meaning that you know there's no political throwdown expected. But sometimes we get somebody's coming in and you know, we're about to talk about I don't know the kavanall hearing and and they don't know necessarily who I am and who Crystal who Crystal is,

especially if they're a subject matter expert. But other times they'll come in and they'll be like, you know, hi, Crystal, great to see you, and then they look at me and say hello Buck. You know, it's like hello newman, like they know that I'm there not give them a hard time, but just give the other perspective. And so in a sense, they're sitting down looking at me like, oh, I know you're the enemy, and I know I'm terrible person. Yeah exactly. You know that's what they're thinking when they

sit down. John and we had some really some spiriting exchanges when we started this show. The idea was, and this is why I love radio so much, because this is just me and I get to tell you what's really top of mind, how I'm thinking about issues, and how the give and take of you know, email and Facebook. And we will take more calls in the new year, by the way, I know that's been something that we haven't been doing as much of and I miss I missed hearing from more of you on the phone line.

So we just honestly, it's the reason we haven't done calls today is a staffing because we're here in the holidays. I thought, I know, I said, yet I was wrong. I thought we would have the ability to take calls to say. I thought we'd have a person to man the phones because we need one on the board and one on the phones, and producer Mike had to travel today to get to his family, and so it's just DJ John Rock in the booth. So I'm sorry that we don't have calls today, but that's why you should

send me Facebook messages or email. You can send me an email Official Team bucket gmail dot com is the email address that we have set up. I keep saying we're gonna get a new one, but it's been a while, all right. So but you know, with Rising, we do have these moments where things can get a little tense, that things can get a little difficult, and the most well known exchange, I kind of want to do a little stop start of it. The most well known exchange

I think that we had on the show. I'm not including the really big interviews the President, the vice president, other people, but the one that I think at the most attention was a a throwdown with Candice Owens and my co host, my lovely co host, Crystal Ball, and I just want to play something. You know, this is what happens when you try to have a show where you bring everybody in and everyone's going to be nice and everything's going to be fine, but then things can

sometimes get a little bit tense. Play a John. How do you view the responsibility that comes with that. I view the responsibility of just being a person that maintains my ability to have an opinion. I express an opinion, and no means that I say that I have just found the facts and this is related, and I always yeah. I said, I'm going to go out and say that there is a zero percent chance that this was sent

by Conservatives. I find all of these, all the things that are going on, the caravan of illegals, the packages that are being sent right confirmation. I have to I have to jump in here. Candice and Crystal were talking about these pipe bombs, which I never really found out what the full details were about the construction of the bombs, but I don't think any I don't know if it's

out there and I just missed it. But I felt like we we didn't really get those questions answered about how they how the bombs were made, and what was the full degree of lethality of them. But regardless, Candy said there's a zero percent chance that a conservative sent those bombs. It turned out that the guy had was driving around and like the Magamobile, so I you know,

make of that what you will. But then the issue kind of turned a little bit to race relations and m Candice Owens is an African American female, Crystal is a white liberal, and then things kind of just went from there. Keep playing to John, it was to be incredibly suspicious timing so that they are meant to get to the border um at you know, on the day

of the election. Again, this is not root in fact, but you do have to understand I am very much entitled to my opinion on Twitter as much I have one one more just when we're here, because I hey see buck Buck got shut out there. Hey, it was my turn to ask a question. Whoa hey, hey, you know that was where I was supposed to get the jump in KB. That's what I call Crystal. Kb's my turn. But no, she she was her. You wanted to push

on the issue with Candis, and that happens. Sometimes we decide that we're going to you know, get into it more with the guests than the other host will, which that tends to be the way this plays out. Um But here is how that went. Keep playing it and to get to know you before you came on. I'm really interested in your perspective because I think you're a fascinating person. Thank you. There was another tweet that said the Democratic Party is comprised of racist white liberals? That

is correct? Am I racist? White? Well let's go back and let's say I will say this that many people in the party don't are not aware of the on racism. Let's go back to an early part of this conversation where you said to me, are you concerned about the color in the White House? Why? Why would you ask me that question? Because you speak about black issues? Why would you ask me? But let's get to really the nucleus of this. Why did you ask me that question today?

Because why did you feel that I needed to be concerned about that? Because you're bringing a whole group of young African American leaders the way. Okay, So this is something that I talk about often, is that in many ways white liberals don't realize that you put on that the racism and the conversation that we have. You're saying I'm a racist. You haven't let me finish my statement, you keep cutting me off. Go Okay. The emphasis that

you place is always on having a discussion about race. Okay, you guys are insistent on having a conversation about race and telling us that we should see and implying that we should see race everywhere. And I don't agree with that. If you don't look in me according to the color of my skin, you would simply ask me how I thought that Trump was doing as a president. But instead you try to jump up a conversation that's surrounded by race. Sweep the link it was, it was, it got spicy

in there for for a little bit. I was like, oh, I was you know, Charlie Kirk was also on set with me. Were You couldn't see this on the well maybe you see a little bit on the clip if you watch the video, but we were kind of looking at each other like, oh man, that's getting it's getting intense. You know, I don't know it's gonna go here. And I would say this that, you know, Crystal is a is a really good sport about how she likes to debate. I mean, she wants to really mix it up. She

had no problem with that exchange. In fact, she wanted to keep going. And we're thinking in the new year, I'll tell you this about setting up a show that would be kind of an in addition to Rising, which is more just news of the day and really based

on getting newsmaker kind of interviews. We would set up a show that would just be a debate a debate show, and we would moderate it in a way where, you know, we'd give equal time and we'd have cross examination by the hosts, cross examination you know each other, and really structure it so we could have you know, a worthwhile intellectual throat out, I mean, old school firing line, but with you know, new school techniques and technology. That's the

that's the idea. So we're banding that about. We're hoping we can make that happen in twenty nineteen. We're already talking the powers that be about it. So I've got some thoughts on twenty eighteen that'll be coming your way, and obviously end of your thoughts in just a moment. I don't want to spoil a surprise. I know Santa's coming soon, but if you're getting a gift from me this Christmas, you're get the gift a Black Rifle coffee. That's right. It is my favorite coffee company out there.

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That's Black Riflecoffee dot com slash buck for fifteen percent off for decades to come. I fear that the whole country will read the whirlwind the behavior of several of the Democratic members of this committee at my hearing a few weeks ago was an embarrassment, but at least it was just a good old fashioned attempt at borking. Those efforts didn't work. When I did, at least okay enough at the hearings that it looked like I might actually get confirmed. A new tactic was needed. Some of you

were lying in wait and had it ready. This first allegation was held in secret for weeks by a democratic member of this committee and by staff. It would be needed only if you couldn't take me out on the merits. When it was needed, this allegation was unleashed and publicly deployed over doctor Ford's wishes. And then and then, as no doubt was expected, if not planned, came a long series of false, last minute smears designed to scare me and drive me out of the process before any hearing occurred.

Crazy stuff, gangs, illegitimate children, fights on boats in Rhode Island, all nonsense reported breathlessly and often uncritically by the media. This has destroyed my family and my good name. A good name but built up through decades of very hard work and public service at the highest levels of the

American governments. I spoke into a lot of friends in the last few days, a lot of people about what the single most important story of twenty eighteen has been, and almost all of them, including liberals that I know, agree that it was the Kavanaugh hearing. Of course, the left and the rights, Democrat and Republican, conservative and progressive,

we take very different things away from it. But the Kavanaugh hearing was one of the most troubling public spectacles that I have ever witnessed in American in life in America in my time. It's one of the most disgusting, dishonest, and dishonorable mass media democrat character assassination attempts I have ever seen, maybe the worst one I have ever seen.

It was utterly appalling, and it was a reminder, I think for many of us that there is right and wrong in public life, that the media still has the power to destroy. Maybe not quite as easily as they used to, but the left wing dominated Democrat aligne mainstream media is not beyond ruining a man or a woman's life in its pursuit of power and for the perpetuation

of their preferred narrative. I watched that Kavanaugh hearing and I remember getting to talk to you about it right as it was concluding, And it was one of those moments when I actually could I felt a physical manifestation of injustice. It felt evil, it felt wrong, and what those smiling hyenas, those senators on the Democrat side were doing was an evil thing. And there was clarity among conservatives. All of a sudden, we realized that the left on

some issues disagrees. On other issues, they are just wrong. They are immoral. On the issue of life, for an example,

they are wrong, and what they're doing is immoral. But on this the destruction of the presumption of innocence and the abandonment of cross examination, of just reason and the presentation of evidence, all of that they were willing to completely dispense with to ruin a man, to ritually torture him on television for the amusement of progressive jackals across the country, who, unfortunately, in many cases, have been fed this idea that white males are the enemy, that white

males are the enemy of women. In fact, that the patriarchy is really just another way of saying the white maleminance of American society. And even if maybe Kavanaugh didn't do the things he was accused of doing. Perhaps it was a necessary sacrifice, you know, to even things out

to destroy him. That was a that was a mentality that was much more widespread than I think a lot of people outside of the you know, coasts, outside of the corridors would realize, you know, the Assella corridors it's called. I mean, the media was very much in favor of this for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which was they kind of wanted a really prominent prep school, white male, Yale educated scalp on the right.

They really liked that idea. Maybe maybe he was innocent, but they thought it was still worth it to destroy him. I can think a few things more horrible than being accused of being a serial gang rapist. Remember how insane

these accusations were. And it's very important that you also remember who was willing to be a part of this who I would note that you usually could count on perhaps in the media and the press, public intellectuals who all of a sudden became a coward, who was saying, well, she has a right to be believed, because they didn't want their email inbox to be filled with nasty comments from people across the country who say that, you know, women are women never lie. We were told things that

are just themselves lies, that women never lie about this. No, women do lie about this, not all women, not even a majority of women. But it does happen, So why spread the lie that it never happens. They were saying that. They were saying that, you know, a lie can be a very useful thing, unfortunately for unscrupulous people, and we were seeing that on full display in the cabin at hearing.

So it was the biggest for me, The biggest story of twenty eighteen was in fact, that two or three week period of the Brett Kavanaugh hearing, and it serves as a very important reminder for all of us, a very important reminder that the Left is willing to act in ways that are really demonic, that go beyond just a question of different, you know, different means to reach

the same end. It's not just well, you know, you have your way and we have our way, and maybe we can find some way to make it all, you know, go down the middle. No, this was this was the acceptance of immorality to destroy a human being publicly for all time. And they failed. But they just barely failed. As I've told you many times here on the show. I was talking to people in the White House during those weeks as well as others around this town in DC.

And it was a close fought battle. There were times when it looked like maybe the President, just for the reasons of, you know, preserving the Republican Party's reputation or whatever the fear was, they might withdraw the cabinal nomination was it was close. And if Blasi Ford, who you know now of course, is a celebrity, and we all understand that, and you know, they spent a tremendous amount of time working with her on her presentation, and this

was all stage managed. This was all There was collusion, you could say, in this effort. There was not just some woman coming forward on her own without anyone telling her what to say, how to say it, how to present. Every aspect of it was very closely managed for maximum

impact against Cavanaugh. If he had not come out, and we started by playing some of his defense if he had not come out, as any man of honor, Wood accused of the things that he was accused of and responded to it with indignation and outrage and righteous fury. He would not be on the Supreme Court, and he would have been destroyed. Everything that he had built over his life, everything that he ever stood for, would have

been destroyed. He would have had to seek justice in the next life, because in this one there would have been no justice for him. This was forced on us by the same media that tells us all the time that Trump is so immoral, so unethical, so distasteful. I don't trust any of them to be the arbiters of what is fair or right. I don't really want to hear it. I don't really think I need their lectures. But it was a warning for us all as well. This next year, twenty nineteen, is going to be very,

very ugly. The political temperature will go even higher. How is that even possible. It's tough to say, but it will. There are a lot of people who I think have lost touch with what really matters in their lives, a lot of people who are who are scared, who are angry, who have been brainwashed, whether it's on on climate change, or Trump's xenophobia, or the threat of nuclear annihilation that he poses, or Russia collusion, any one of these areas

of hysteria and hysteria, unfortunately, is contagious. That's how you get to a mass hysteria, and that's where we are. This is going to now be funneled through a Democrat majority in the House representatives that, as we saw from the Kavanaugh situation on the Senate side, has no scruples to protect. We'll do anything that's effective. We'll destroy anyone that stands in their way, and so we are going to have to be prepared for things to get nasty, messy,

and very very difficult. You will have people in your day to day life who will think less of you if you don't agree with them that Trump should be impeached. You will have old friends, this has happened to me, who say really really unfair and hurtful and destructive things to you about you because you don't agree with them. Be prepared for that, don't back down. But also, you don't have to fight every fight. You don't have to engage every time. It's some fights are just not worth it.

Most fights, quite honestly, in your day to day life are just not worth it, at least over politics. Rarely is it the case that you hand out your own version of the buck slap. Although sometimes you should. There was this news today about Ruth Bade Ginsburg, around whom a kind of creepy cult has formed, the cult of RBG, you know, the crossfitter and the Supreme Court Justice extraordinaire.

She had surgery to remove cancerous growths from her lungs, and because we are all decent human beings, we wish her a speedy recovery in all the best. She has another human being, she has, you know, she has feelings and family and people love her, and we wish her all the best. I bring it up only because it sent a bit of an alarm through the left wing ranks, because their their plan is that Ruth Bader Ginsberg will stay through the twenty twenty election. But that's a ways off.

Ginsberg is eighty five years old and obviously has just has had a very serious healthcare and this is after she had broken a number of ribs. She's going to try to make it all the way through, but her health may fail. She may have to step down. If

that happens, I can't even begin to picture. I can't even really understand how much rage and hysteria and and over emotional craziness is going to fall on the left wing of this country and people that really think that, you know, RBG is the last hope of you know, women's rights and minorities and abortion, and you know, you go down all these different things that they're so concerned about.

I don't know how that plays out, other than to say that this country will be it will be more divided than it has been, certainly in my lifetime over that issue. Kavanaugh was a a vision of what is to come again in the future. I think, so we will have to be prepared for that in twenty nineteen. Social media is not just a platform, it's also increasingly

a publisher. That means that people can determine what you see and how you see it, and they can also ban you or kick you off the side, or just make sure none of your friends are actually seeing what you're writing. That's going on with Twitter and Facebook, all of these big sites. If you don't want to deal with that anymore, I've got a new startup social media company for you, Snippy dot com. Thousands of my listeners have joined snippy dot com and they're expressing opinions and

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Store and for Android Snippy dot Com. Man, John, I don't want to bum everybody out, you know, I know that we just get pretty intense there for a second. My year, my year in review, I don't I don't have a lot of stock markets kind of in the in the toilet right now. You know, the Democrats won the House, Trump, the Muller probe still goes on, and there's not a whole lot that I think we could we could celebrate all that, all that openly um right now, but there's also a lot we can celebrate in our

day to day lives. Like John, what are you going to be doing over the Christmas break? I'm gonna be working, Buck, Okay, I'll be here working. Yeah, I've got to do some things here and there. I'm gonna take a few days off from radio, though I have to. I'm on call for the Hill, which means that I have to stay in DC for Are you doing anything for your birthday? Miss Molly's gonna make me a big dinner. She I usually ask her to make something that's really usually glutenous,

and she makes a delicious gluten free version. But she makes incredible gluten free pizza, which I would say some of you are like, oh, gluten free pizza. No, no no, no, it's really good. Make it for yourself at home. I'm in Crust gluten free pizza is excellent. Beat crust gluten free pizza. I know it sounds funky, you know, he's a super beat, super beat um, but you you should try beat crust pizza. But John, I'm sure you're gonna take some You're gonna take some time off, right. My

first day off will be January second, all right? All right? Yeah, you're you're a hard working mad brother. I appreciate it. That's the nature of radio. You're usually working holidays and late nights and weekends, and you're going in in a snowstorm. I'm trying to tell people I'm too tired to go on vacation this year, I'm just taking vacation meeting. I just need to regroup. I just need a lot of sleep.

I need to eat, you know, healthy food and not just keep on throwing gluten freemac and cheese in the microwave. So you know, I've I've got I've got those those plans going on. But you know, it'll be fun Christmas. I'll be up in New York for Christmas Day. It's always very pretty up there, and that's that's very nice. And you know, the good news is what really matters is the stuff that you're dealing with every day, folks.

You know what really matters is this holiday over Christmas or the Christmas holiday itself and being with your family and friends, being with loved ones. That's the stuff that really Yeah, whether we win on you know, this Supreme Court case or that, or whether you know, taxes go up or down, we can manage all that stuff. So, you know what, maybe this is the one time it's probably bad from a radio business perspective because usually people are like, oh my gosh, the country is falling apart.

They're abandoning their pencibles on the constitution. Yeah, you know, I get it right. This is what most people do on radio all the time, and you know they're trying to discress. But I'm here to tell you that it's actually all good. It's all gonna be okay. Not every day, not day to day. You know there's gonna be problems, but it's all gonna be all right. And this Christmas takes some time to reset. You know, just just give yourself.

It is important. You actually owe it to yourself, no matter how much of a of a fighter you are, whether in your personal or professional, if you owe it to yourself to spend some time recharging this holiday, reflecting, maybe think about Baby Jesus and God. That's up to you. But there's a lot of stuff that you should be doing that will help you push into twenty nineteen strong. So there we have it, a little bit of uplift before we get into some roll call and some closing

thoughts for twenty eighteen. It's time for roll call. This is our final roll call of the year, which is pretty amazing. Really, all right, let's get to it. Brian. Oh, by the way, I'm I'm going to close out with some final thoughts for the year in the next segment. So roll call will not, in fact be our last segment of the It will not be your last segment in the year. I'll just get to talk to you all for a few minutes to close out a very

successful twenty eighteen. Brian writes, Happy birthday, Buck, have a well deserved relaxing week off. Hope you're getting out of the swamping back to NYC. Get ready for a very interesting twenty nineteen. We're gonna need your insight and decorum more than ever next year. Ps I sent you and Porter an email a while back on blockchain and global currency transitions that will happen when the overdue and expected market correction happens. Really want yours and Porter's feedback on

the company known as Ripple. When the correction happens, I think we'll see a large scale transition to XRP in banks and institutions. Take a look, as I appreciate your research well, Brian, I will certainly take a look, and thank you so much for your kind words. And yeah, twenty nineteen is going to be wild. I'm gonna be talking more about that next but twenty nineteen is going to be a particularly interesting year to be doing radio

and covering politics. MASONA writes, Hey, you read my message on air Awesome on my way home now and catching the show, so bummed about Matdis resigning. He was definitely my favorite cabinet member. Keep up the great work, Buck shields high. Yeah, Mason, A lot of people really like Matdis, and you know, I think that there's a sense that they, you know, they won't be able to find someone who

can fill his shoes. But I think the military has a whole lot of incredibly adept, skilled and wise minds, and we'll be able to get a really fantastic Secretary of Defense in the next year. I think that that's likely to happen to him. I have a feeling Mattis will probably want to waigh in on the transition at some degree, Although I don't know how how strained the relationship really is with President Trump. I've certainly read a

fair amount about that being the case. Scott rights, Hey, there, Buck, Considering that my little town of sixteen thousand souls here in Laconia has lost twelve people the drug overdoses this year, and we all know where they're coming from. Where are the people that will start asking truly hard questions to Democrat lawmakers that have zero interest in securing our border. Who's going to stand up and ask Nancy Pelosi next year and ask her, Madam speaker, sixty thousand people died

last year from drug overdoses. How many American citizens do you think are acceptable to sacrifice to opioid streaming over our borders on the open border? Altar thirty thousand? Is it truly? It is truly time rather to take these people to the woodshed. Keep up the good fight, and I'm keeping my shield high. Brother, Marry Christmas, well, Scott, Marry Christmas to you two. And on the opioid issue,

i'man I agree. I think it's a an incredibly serious issue, and I am troubled by the fact that people just don't seem to want to believe or want to accept the reality that the drugs are coming across our southern border. That's what is happening. That is the truth of where most of the illegal opioids are making their way into

this country. So with that in mind, I just would have to say, we have to keep the pressure on, keep spreading the truth, keep talking about what you know the likeliest ways of dealing with this or that the best, most effective ways of dealing with this problem will be

It was very troubling. I was reading an analysis of the opioid epidemic and there was a case being made just based on the statistics, that we are likely to see a significant decrease in opioid addiction after there has been essentially a massive death toll that has gone on long enough that the people who have already been introduced to opioids, already have some dependency, are no longer with us. I mean, it was a horribly uh macabre view of

where the opioid crisis is going. It. It would almost like be saying that the war will end when when enough people have died. When when you know, when enough people have died, that neither side has the will to fight anymore. So I think we need to head that off. We can't just wait for there to be uh die, you know, people dying. That's that's unacceptable. James Rights, Hey, Buck Shields time. Banning bump stocks is really just banning a firing technique. With a little practice, anyone can use

the recoil of the weapon to fire like that. It really makes no sense. Love the work you do, sincerely, James. Yeah, James, I know that you can. You can create a bump fire effect by looping the by using your belt loop and firing it that way. So that there there are ways to do this um that don't involve a piece of plastic. And remember that is that is what has been banned here. A piece of plastic is now an illegal thing to own. I think that should be troubling

for everyone. I mean, when the government can make something that is an ananimate object that is very easy to make and is in and of itself not dangerous to anyone, When they can make that a felony to possess that, that is that is troubling. James writes, Hey, Buck, I have two possible solutions to the wall handed to the Army Corps of Engineers. Fund it with the military budget, or sell government bonds to fund it. Let people willingly

pay for it. If it's going to save the government money in the long run, they can pay the bonds back. The Army Corps of Engineers certainly could do it, but I think that there are there are issues with how it would actually get how you could transfer over funds to use for that purpose. So I would say that's that's something to keep in mind and think about. I mean, it's not as simple as just well, we're going to spend the money on this. Congress has to appropriate it

for certain purposes. But nobody really knows, and except for the people who work in Congress, how these budget processes and how the appropriations really go. It's a kind of an arcane and down in the weeds process. So that's that's what I've got for you on that for now, my friend. Let's see what else do we have here, Tim writes Buck, I'm listening to Ben Shapiro and he just blamed you for the Syrian pull out. He said this was not driven by nicky Nicky Hailey, Pompeo, Bolton,

and Madis. We're all against it, but the president must be listening to Buck and the dictator of Turkey. Good job, Buck. He referred to you as a big headed fellow. Tucker, Well, my head is large, so there's nothing I can do about that. It is a it is a serious cranium. I think Ben was probably referring to a Twitter exchange that we had earlier where I said, look, we've got to deal with this, this concept of endless war. I'm not reading a tweet exactly, but a concept of endless

war and didn't like that idea. And I just look Afghanistan. There is no let's not delude ourselves. The policy is to be there forever. I've been told that by four star generals. I was told that by four star generals ten years ago when I was in Afghanistan. The policy is to be there forever. So if you want to keep US troops there forever, then that's fine, but that

should be the argument. And in Syria, remember, a pullout from Syria is not the same as the pullout from Iraq, because we have five thousand troops in Iraq next door. And as long as we maintain security guarantees for the Kurds visa VI the Turks, which wouldn't require very much.

I mean, it probably would just require leaving some Special Forces teams there and letting the Turks know we still have some guys, because I remember, I mean, there's a difference between having a few thousand people and having a few dozen people that are working with allies in the front lines. We have special forces that are deployed in places all over the world that nobody ever thinks about because they just don't know about it, or because the

footprint is light enough. But we do have a debt of honor to the Kurds, and I don't think that we should just leave them high and dry and allow the Turks to pound them with aerial bombardment. That would be that would be bad, bad conduct on our part. And I understand the irritation with that. That said, we have no future. And this is and I offered to Band to call into the show by the way, or you know, I would call into his show. I don't care.

We could have this discussion, and he didn't respond. But there is no future for a permanent ford operating base for US forces in Syria. The Assad regime has won the Syrian Civil War. People who keep saying the vacuum is going to be filled by Iran and Russia, the vacuum has already been filled. It was filled in the Obama years. US having a light footprint along with some Kurds does not, in fact prevent Russia and Iran from using the region as a ford operating base for all

kinds of operations, because they're already doing that. And what we really don't want to have is US getting pulled in the middle of a regional conflict, which is increasingly likely the longer we stay. There's a lot of complexity these issues, and I think people of goodwill and of

serious minds can differ on it. And while I appreciate Ben's reference to me being a big headed tucker like Fellow, I would appreciate even more if you wanted to call into the show sometime and discuss this issue in a way where we could probably get to some worthwhile conclusions, and I could tell him about my time in Iraq and Afghanistan and what I draw from that and how that affects my thinking about these issues. Now, let's go to Nathaniel, who writes, Yo, buck Shield time, brother, this

Syria withdrawal is rather curious. I'm speculating one of two things. Either we are certain that the Kurds and Syrian Democrat forces have the capability to keep any Isis resurgence at bay, or this is a tactic to draw Isis out, meaning their ideology is based on landownership, so fake a vacuum. See if they established territory as a way to draw them out and use that opportunity to finish them. Any

thoughts on this being a head fake, Nathaniel. I don't think it's a head fake, but it's I hate being the person just as it's a complicated situation. But I think that the President is trying to shake up the current paradigm, which is just the continuation of a US Force presidents everywhere we go. So that's where I think we are, I you know, meaning once we've deployed troops, it's very very hard to ever just say we're not going to have troops there anymore. I'm going to come

back with some closing thoughts for the year. Team stay with me, Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree. And I feel like we probably shouldn't close out twenty eighteen with muzak of Oh Christmas Tree. But nonetheless, here we are, you know, every year round this time because it's the holidays, and I have my Christmas obviously coming up just like

the rest of you. And also my birthday, which for those who don't know, is December twenty eighth, I will be thirty seven years young, which feels like it feels like quite a ways. But yeah, I'm gonna be with

family and with Miss Molly for the holiday. But this is where I have to take a couple of minutes to just say that, with all of the change that I have had in the last really eight years since I got into media, and with certainly the changes of the last couple of years leaving the Blaze, going to national radio syndication, and then spending some time at CNN, where I was ritually ambushed and abused for the amusement of Democrats, and then leaving and starting at the Hill

with this new Hill TV venture. The one constant that has always kept me getting up every day, staying up late at night, reading as much as I can, doing as much research as I can, and just giving it my all are all of you, the people who listen to this show. I have a tremendous gratitude, respect, and affection for all of you, who might refer to as Team Buck. Although you're just the team, you're the people that listen to the show and that give me a

reason for doing the show. And I've learned a lot from all of you over the years. You have been there to support me during some really incredibly difficult, challenging professional and personal times, and it's just such a privilege, honestly, every day to get to talk to all of you,

and I do cherish it each day. I will say the one thing that I always look forward to is doing this radio show and getting to speak to all of you across the country, those of you who listen on your local station or those who listen on podcast.

It really is an incredible gift to have this platform and to share thoughts and this experience of this ongoing intellectual and honestly spiritual exchange that goes on with this radio show on a day to day basis, And it is something that you know, and as my parents hear me talk about this, I know my mom gets a

little gets a little misty eyed sometimes. But it's pretty astonishing that a kid who had a speech impediment when he was in the first, second third grade had to get special tutoring because he wasn't doing well in school, had to have a special speech therapist to teach him how to sound like other people around him and not per anounced words incorrectly and even pronounce his own name, believe it or not, incorrectly. That you would fast forward two years later when I'd be able to address you

here on this platform. Almost one hundred and thirty radio stations now across the country, I believe carrying this show, but also having been able to sit at the Golden Mic for Rush Limball and do Sean Hannity's massively successful radio show and Glenn Beck's radio phenomenon, to have sat at the Helm on those different of those different ships and had those experiences, it's been. It's been a pretty incredible,

pretty incredible ride. And this this year on my birthday, the thing I will be most happy about when I reflect back, other than my health and my family and and you know, the love that I have in my life, the thing that I am most proud of in my professional career in media, the one area where I always feel like every bit of effort is it and everything that I can do to bring entertainment and information and just connection with like minded people across the country to

this show is worth it. So thank you all so much for that. I'm excited for twenty nineteen. I have all kinds of plans in the works. There so many things I can't even get into them right now. I also don't want to overpromise and get ahead of myself with things that are going to take a little more time than I'd like them to but we have a lot going on. If you get a chance over the holiday to talk to people about shows they listen to, you know, I always always appreciate it if you can

tell them to try downloading the Buck Sexton Show. That's all I want for my birthday from all of you, is to get one person who has not heard this show before to listen to The Buck Sexton Show on podcast. That is my Birthday request and my Christmas request. You all mean a lot to me. I appreciate all the support and I want you to have a fantastic holiday. I'll be back with you in the new year. Shield tie