Hour 2 - The Mask is Slipping Off
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 11.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 January 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Hour 2 of The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show delivers a deep dive into two major storylines: the political future of Minnesota and the escalating controversy surrounding the ICE-involved shooting in Minneapolis. The hour begins with an analysis from Ryan Girdusky, host of It’s a Numbers Game, who breaks down whether Minnesota—a state Democrats have dominated for decades—could flip red in 2026. Ryan explains the historical dynamics: strong organized labor roots, rural counties not fully maxed out for Republicans, and suburban voters trending left. He notes that while GOP gains in rural areas have grown, Democrats have offset this by importing new voters and consolidating progressive power in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The discussion highlights key figures like Amy Klobuchar, who remains a formidable potential gubernatorial candidate, and Keith Ellison, whose progressive record and past controversies could make him vulnerable if he runs. Clay and Buck stress that Minnesota is not a lost cause, citing Trump’s near-win in 2016 and the state’s independent streak.
The conversation then pivots to the ICE shooting fallout, which has triggered massive protests in Minneapolis and wall-to-wall media coverage. Clay and Buck blast headlines from outlets like The Washington Post and CNN for framing the incident as an unjustified killing, while ignoring video evidence showing the ICE officer acted in self-defense after being targeted by a vehicle. They call out Governor Tim Walz for his inflammatory rhetoric, including a bizarre comparison of the situation to the Battle of Gettysburg, and argue Democrats are weaponizing the tragedy to stoke unrest and distract from scandals like the Somali daycare fraud.
The hour crescendos with a live White House briefing featuring Vice President JD Vance and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who deliver a fiery defense of ICE and condemn the media for spreading “lies” about the incident. Vance asserts that the woman killed was part of a broader left-wing network aimed at obstructing immigration enforcement through doxxing, harassment, and even domestic terrorism tactics. He vows tougher federal action, including a new Assistant Attorney General role to prosecute those inciting violence against law enforcement. The briefing underscores the administration’s stance: enforcing immigration law is non-negotiable, and Democrats must stop rallying mobs against federal officers.
Hour 2 frames these developments as a collision of law enforcement, media bias, and political opportunism, while spotlighting Minnesota as a critical battleground in the fight over immigration, sovereignty, and the rule of law.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:04.3 | All right, welcome in to the second hour of Clay and Buck. |
| 0:07.4 | We were talking about whether it's conceivable, realistic, that Minnesota could go red, perhaps even in the next presidential election. |
| 0:15.9 | Our numbers guy, Ryan Grodesky, he is the podcast host of It's a Numbers game on the Clay and Buck Network. He's going to join us for a couple minutes. |
| 0:23.0 | Ryan, educate us, break this down, because when you look at the macro numbers, the last election was pretty close. |
| 0:31.1 | 2016 was very close on the presidential ballot. And it seems like this should be considered a purple state but |
| 0:40.1 | as clay pointed out we just basically lose every election in minnesota stretching back for decades what's |
| 0:45.0 | going on yeah you know they have a long history of organized labor that's what kind of that's one |
| 0:49.7 | of the things i kept reagan from winning the state although he didn't campaign there because he |
| 0:52.7 | didn't want to uh insult mondell that he would lose every state. |
| 0:56.1 | The thing about Minnesota, unlike other places like Wisconsin even or especially in the south, like Texas, is that the rural counties are not maxed out. |
| 1:05.3 | So Trump doesn't win like 90 percent or even 80 percent of most of the rural counties, especially in the south and in the |
| 1:11.3 | iron range. The iron range is where we have a lot of minerals. There's a huge labor proportion |
| 1:15.7 | there. Democrats still win parts of the rural counties in the northern iron range and perform |
| 1:21.1 | very well in the southern counties. And as we have won more support from rural areas, |
| 1:26.5 | we've been losing support from the suburbs. |
| 1:28.3 | So when Tim Polentie won there in 2002 by a point for governor, what he was able to do was even though he lost a lot of the rural union vote, he was able to maximize and win the suburbs. |
| 1:39.3 | We've lost the suburbs even though we've gained some support from the rural vote. |
| 1:42.3 | So we're closer than we've ever really been. We're certainly closer than we were in the in the 90s or in the 2000s in Minnesota. But unfortunately, we've always managed to come up short. Minnesota also has a huge independent streak in it where they have, you know, they elected Jesse Ventura governor very famously, |
| 2:01.2 | and they've always had independents win 5, 6%. |
| 2:04.5 | It's really why Hillary almost lost the state was because so many people flock to the Green |
... |
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