Paul and DeSantis vs. Behar: Who’s Smart?

CLAY: Yesterday, in the third hour of the program, Buck Sexton and I had a conversation with Rand Paul that, frankly, is probably gonna end up getting banned by Facebook; it’s probably gonna end up getting banned by Big Tech because it was too nuanced, it was too honest, and it didn’t fit Big Tech and Democratic Party talking points. And I want to play a cut from that. Would you agree with that characterization, Buck, of that conversation that we had with Rand Paul yesterday in the third hour of the program?

BUCK: It was an excellent chat because I think it allowed everyone to see the different levels of nuance that if you wanted to have a real conversation about what we should do and what the risks are in this country, that’s what it would require. But instead, it’s always, “Take the shot. Mask up. Shut up, peasant! Don’t ask any questions.”

And people have, understandably, those who still believe in freedom and the dignity that comes from being able to make your own decisions about your own life day to day, they’re really tired of this stuff, especially from the Fauci-ite loons that have been wrong at so many points at so many times. But remember the Democrat Party media never admits they’re wrong about anything. How many times did they…? Not to divert; I know we’re gonna get to Rand Paul. How many times did you see anyone, Clay, who was involved in the Russia collusion sham say, “You know what? We really got that one wrong.”

CLAY: We blew it.

BUCK: “We blew it. We got that wrong.” No, in fact, the New York Times got a Pulitzer for their reporting on that. It’s all about the agenda. And they’re increasingly more honest about that because it’s so obvious that they can’t even get away with telling the same lies. Well, with covid it’s the same thing. They pretend they have this caricature of the right, this caricature of all conservatives that they just refuse. We’re all just sitting around drinking moonshine and playing banjos and refusing the shot.

CLAY: Which is, by the way, to be fair, a lot of that’s true where I live in Tennessee. But let’s… We got Rand Paul, who is just up the road from me in Bowling Green, Kentucky, I believe. Great town, by the way, Bowling Green, Kentucky, where Western Kentucky University is. I believe that’s where Rand Paul lives.

He came on the show with us yesterday, and we got into several different details with him. I would encourage you to make sure that you go listen to the full conversation. But I just wanted to play this for you, this nuanced analysis from Rand Paul — who, by the way, is a doctor — as he discussed covid.

And I want you to listen to this answer from our interview yesterday as we were talking about the difference between natural immunity — a/k/a if you’ve gotten the virus like Buck, like I, and like Rand Paul all have — whether it makes sense to also get the vaccine, and also herd immunity and advice based on age as it pertains to the vaccine. Listen to this, and then I want to play a Democratic stooge reaction to Rand Paul.

But I just want you to listen to this clip from our interview yesterday.

SEN. PAUL: The first thing is in a free society everybody makes up their own mind based on their doctor’s advice — and sometimes multiple doctors’ advice — and there can be conflicts of opinion. I’ll give you a general statement, but it could still be different based on your own medical history. First of all, the vaccine is way safer than the disease if you’re over 65, without question.

That’s my advice. If you don’t want to take it, that’s your business. But that’s just my advice. If you want to take it, over 65, I think the statistics are very good. If you’re over 40 and overweight, I think you’re at significant risk for this too and I would be… Below age 40 when you get down into the twenties, I think that the standard has to be very, very high, almost to perfection for the vaccine because the disease is so extraordinarily non-lethal in the younger ages, particularly below age 25.

Whether or not you take it or not? If it were my children and they were pushing me on it, I would probably test ’em for antibodies first and see if they’ve had the disease. If my kids had had the disease, there’s no way I would give them the vaccine. For people my age — I’m 58 and have had it — at this point, I don’t think there’s any evidence that there are large numbers of people who have had it getting it and going to the hospital and dying.

If I see a study next week that says, 5% of the people who had it a year ago are now in the hospital and dying, (chuckles) I’ll change my mind and I’ll go vaccinated. But given the evidence now and given that there are no studies showing large numbers of people in the hospital or dying that previously had the disease, I’ve chosen not to get the vaccination.

But members of my family I have advised to get it that are over 65, overweight. A few of my brothers and sisters are physicians. They chose to get it because they see patients with covid. I’m not against the vaccine, but I am for freedom and letting each individual make their own decision.

BUCK: There’s nothing unreasonable, nothing outrageous. In fact, it’s eminently… It’s clearly a nuanced and in-depth view of it. But you don’t always get that sense when you listen to people in the media, Clay. There are some people who want to make it seem like Rand Paul is telling everybody, “Oh, don’t worry about covid. Just rub some dirt on it.”

CLAY: And this is where I think the fundamental dishonesty of many people in our media need to be called out. And you just heard that Rand Paul answer. Imagine if he had been at a town hall addressing America about covid, how much better would you feel than you felt hearing Joe Biden address the media and the public yesterday on CNN in his town hall okay?

So Joy Behar… You just heard Rand Paul. He was on the show yesterday. You guys heard him talk directly to you. I want you to listen to what Joy Behar said about Rand Paul on The View. Listen to this clip and tell me whether this is in any way fair at all of a take.

BEHAR: Okay. Rand Paul is a third-rate party hack who, by the way, got covid, is lucky to be alive, and then refused to take the vaccine afterwards. Uhhh… (sputters) If anyone is responsible for all the deaths that have occurred, uhhh, since covid began, it is more of these lying party hacks like Rand Paul who have demonized masks and then demonized vaccines. And they know who they are. Uh, he should be thanking Fauci instead of accusing him of — of — of murder. My God.

BUCK: Behar is actually impressive, Clay. She may very well be the dumbest person on television speaking about current events, which is a crowded field!

CLAY: Very crowded.

BUCK: There’s a lot of names we could throw in there. She may be the dumbest person on television who discusses news, at least. I wouldn’t buy like a salad chopper from her.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: But in news she’s clearly in a league of her own. But she’s actually doing her job. Her role on that show — and the role, I would argue, of CNN anchors and people who work at the New York Times — is to push a narrative about this stuff. So that there is political momentum and political use for those who are lockdowners, Fauci-ites, and that they can transfer that into midterm victories, more rules, more regulations.

There is this whole change, this shift in control that we’ve accepted as a society, unfortunately, over the last 18 months, and this want to perpetuate that. And they’ve already started to try to talk about how we can move to the next level. We’ll get on to climate change. We’ll get on to gun violence. We’ll get on to racial inequity, whatever it is. But the equivalent of mobilizing for war like we did for covid is what they want to do for everything else on the leftist-Marxist wish list. That’s the plan.

CLAY: It is so, to me… You heard Rand Paul and then you heard Joy Behar. How transparently dishonest is her take on what Rand Paul is saying. You heard him talk to you, all of you out there listening yesterday, and you just heard that clip. And if you didn’t hear Rand Paul talk himself and you just heard Joy Behar — as, Buck, millions of people do — you might trust her. You might believe her. We talk, for those of you out there who have the “red pill moment,” The Matrix reference — great movie, by the way, that I’m watching with my kids all over again.

BUCK: Top 10 action so time.

CLAY: So good.

BUCK: I might even put it Top 5 all time.

CLAY: So good, Buck. But if you don’t actually seek out evidence yourself, you don’t realize how often you’re being lied to. And this is what I would say Buck, for you and I and everybody out there. There’s a difference between disagreeing with an opinion. You can disagree with opinions, and you can do it honestly and transparently, and that’s one of the great things about the First Amendment and about our country in general. But a direct lie, like what Joy Behar said to her audience about Rand Paul? That’s the next level of dishonesty that is happening on a daily basis everywhere.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: Clay, they’re trying to tell us — meaning the left, the Democrats, however you want to refer to them. They’re trying to tell us that our side is always opposed to vaccines. All vaccine hesitancy is our fault. Remember, Kamala and Joe were saying you couldn’t trust the “Trump FDA.” They said it very clearly, very explicitly.

“I don’t know about that Trump Food and Drug Administration. I don’t think you could trust them with a vaccine,” when they were running against Trump of course. And now everything is our fault. Meanwhile, who is the biggest Republican hero in government of the pandemic?

CLAY: Ron DeSantis.

BUCK: Ron DeSantis. Exactly.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: And what does Ron DeSantis say about vaccines?

DESANTIS: So here’s I think the most important thing with the data. If you are vaccinated, fully vaccinated, the chance of you getting seriously ill or dying from covid is effectively zero. If you look at the people that are being admitted to hospitals, over 95% of them are either not fully vaccinated or not vaccinated at all. And so these vaccines are saving lives. They are reducing mortality.

CLAY: I wish he were answering questions instead of Biden, right, Buck? That’s a nuanced, smart analysis, and what I love about DeSantis — and this ties in with what you and I try to do, Buck. Look at the data and let it guide you in the arguments that you made as opposed to responding emotionally or unintelligently and insisting on everything being black or white, the greatest thing or the worst thing that’s ever existed.

BUCK: Yeah. There has been pretty straightforward ’cause the data has been clear on this from the early months, really the first, I’d say, 60 to 90 days of the pandemic, even. If you’re over 65 and have a comorbidity, hypertension, weight issue. Even if let’s assume that the worst stuff that’s out there about the vaccine, from reputable sources, people that are serious.

Even if there are some challenges that come with it for people, it’s still a better option to take that risk and to. It’s what DeSantis is saying; it’s what Dr. Rand Paul, Senator Paul said to us, better to take that and accept the risk of the vaccine for that, whatever those risks may be, than to be a person with comorbidities over 65 who gets covid.

By the way, as you and I know — two people who got covid — it’s everywhere and it’s really easy to get and it’s still bouncing all over the country. The reason you don’t have a whole lot more cases right now is because there’s so much immunity within the population. It’s not because this stuff isn’t still really easy to get.

CLAY: There’s no doubt. You and I have been consistent. We’ve told your parents are over 65.

BUCK: I said, “Get it as soon as you can.”

CLAY: Same thing I told my family. Just look at the data and make that choice. Now, that’s a different choice than I’m making for my 13-year-old, right? And I think that’s part of being a parent is looking at all that data and making a rational decision going forward.