Bonus: Daily Review with Clay and Buck - Jul 21 2026
Verdict with Ted Cruz
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 43.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 July 2026
⏱️ 60 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Meet my friends, Clay Travis and Buck Sexton! If you love Verdict, the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show might also be in your audio wheelhouse. Politics, news analysis, and some pop culture and comedy thrown in too.
Here’s a sample episode recapping four takeaways. Give the guys a listen and then follow and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Clay Travis and Buck Sexton talk about how the Democratic Party is experiencing a demographic and ideological divide. They argued that the party’s most vocal socialist activists are disproportionately white, college-educated, and affluent, while many Black and Hispanic voters hold more practical and transactional political priorities centered on issues such as healthcare, affordability, public safety, and economic opportunity. The discussion explored whether the far left is merely influencing the party or has become an increasingly mainstream force within Democratic politics. The hosts tied this debate to broader national issues including immigration policy, open borders, Israel, transgender politics, and the rise of democratic socialism. They also briefly noted Arizona’s primary election and discussed its significance in the national political landscape, particularly regarding the future of Governor Katie Hobbs.
Clay and Buck devoted considerable attention to the potential safety benefits of autonomous driving technology. They discussed the approximately 40,000 annual traffic fatalities in the United States and suggested that self-driving systems could dramatically reduce accidents caused by human error, particularly among young drivers. The hosts compared the coming transportation revolution to the transition from horses to automobiles in the early twentieth century, arguing that autonomous vehicles could become one of the most transformative technological developments of modern times. They also discussed how self-driving technology could eventually reduce teenage driving fatalities, improve traffic flow, lower insurance costs, and improve overall road safety.
The conversation then expanded into a broader discussion about why Democrats lost recent elections and who may lead the party in the future. Clay argued that today’s Democratic Party has moved substantially leftward compared to the Democratic Party of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or even Barack Obama. The hosts suggested that Democratic leaders continue to misdiagnose voter dissatisfaction by blaming messaging failures instead of addressing policy positions that many voters reject. They debated possible future Democratic presidential contenders, including Kamala Harris, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, while emphasizing that they see the Democratic leadership vacuum as one of the most intriguing political stories heading toward the next presidential election cycle.
An extensive interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who discussed a number of major economic and policy initiatives. Bessent highlighted the administration’s “Trump Accounts” program, which provides investment opportunities for young Americans and newborn children. He explained how government-seeded investment accounts, combined with family contributions and private-sector philanthropy, could potentially grow into significant financial assets over time. The discussion focused on wealth building, financial literacy, investment growth, family savings strategies, and long-term economic opportunity for American children.
Bessent also provided an update on the U.S. economy, discussing inflation, energy prices, tax relief measures, and working-family economic policies. He argued that inflation pressures caused during the Biden administration continue to affect household budgets but maintained that underlying economic conditions remain strong. He highlighted tax policies including no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime pay, Social Security tax relief, and deductions tied to American-made vehicles. The secretary emphasized that many of these benefits are targeted toward middle-class and working-class Americans.
Foreign policy and national security were another major theme of the interview. Bessent discussed efforts to track, freeze, and recover assets connected to Iran’s ruling regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He described ongoing investigations into Iranian financial networks, frozen cryptocurrency wallets, luxury properties, and what he characterized as widespread corruption among Iranian leadership. The secretary argued that economic sanctions and financial pressure complement military actions against Iran and are designed to weaken the regime while preserving assets for the Iranian people.
The conversation also touched on government efficiency, fraud prevention, and taxpayer protection. Bessent explained how enhanced coordination between federal payment systems and anti-fraud databases has helped the Treasury Department identify and block payments being sent to individuals who were deceased. He described efforts to modernize federal systems and reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in government spending programs, claiming that hundreds of millions of dollars in improper payments could ultimately be prevented.
South Carolina politics briefly entered the discussion when Clay asked Bessent about the late Senator Lindsey Graham and speculation surrounding Graham’s sister as a potential candidate. Bessent praised Graham’s service, commented on the competitive Republican primary developing in South Carolina, and reiterated that he intends to remain focused on his current role as Treasury Secretary rather than pursuing elected office. The interview concluded with a lighthearted exchange about President Donald Trump’s late-night phone calls and work habits.
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.6 | Welcome in Tuesday edition, Clay and Buck, internal civil war with the Democrat Party as the fear of the rise of socialists and communists inside of the left grows and begins to spread to saner members of that party. |
| 0:25.0 | We will address and discuss Secretary of Treasury, also known as the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, |
| 0:33.8 | going to be on with us at 2.30 Eastern in the third hour of the program. We are often running |
| 0:40.2 | on YouTube as well as nearly 600 AM FM affiliates across the country and Sirius XM. We appreciate |
| 0:50.5 | all of you hanging out with us. And Buck, you and I, and by the way, it's primary day |
| 0:57.3 | in Arizona. Arizona, of course, one of the great battlegrounds out there, a nominee going to be |
| 1:03.7 | picked to run against Katie Hobbs, who is one of the most vulnerable incumbent governors anywhere |
| 1:09.7 | in the country, Democrat or Republican. |
| 1:12.9 | So we will follow that and certainly be talking about it tomorrow. |
| 1:17.5 | But we begin with, I think it's fair to say, Buck, you may know him personally. |
| 1:23.7 | I do not. |
| 1:24.8 | I think it is fair to say that Van Jones is one of the most intellectually consistent |
| 1:32.7 | to the extent it exists and or rational of the Democrat prognosticators on television on a regular |
| 1:40.6 | basis. Is that damning someone with faint praise or having worked at CNN, |
| 1:46.1 | would that in your mind be an accurate way to describe him, |
| 1:49.7 | considering the larger cohort of colleagues that he is competing with? |
| 1:54.3 | I mean, if we were looking at the depth chart of the other team, so to speak, |
| 1:59.2 | Van Jones is one of the more capable, |
| 2:04.3 | and I would tell you, and you can get mad at me, |
| 2:07.3 | but it's all true. |
... |
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