CLAY: We’re talking a lot on the show — and have been for a while — about Donald Trump’s decision regarding running in 2024. And I believe and Buck believes he’s going to run in 2024, and he would make that announcement sometime early in 2023. What we have not talked as much about is Joe Biden’s gonna have to make a choice about whether he is going to run or not early in 2023 as well.

So we got the midterm coming up in about six months, shellacking expected of the Democrats. Republicans take back control of the House, may well take back control of the Senate as well. Obviously in a 50-50 Senate, more difficult to project. But if that shellacking occurs, then Joe Biden shortly after the first of the year, Buck, is going to have to make a decision which no American president, I don’t believe, has made.

Correct me if I’m wrong on this. I think Lyndon Johnson is the last American president who was eligible to run that announced he would not seek reelection. I believe I’m correct in that, that every president who has had the opportunity to seek reelection has sought reelection except for LBJ, who chose not to run for reelection. Now, the reason I bring this up is that I don’t think Joe Biden’s gonna run.

And I believe the way these stories are coming out about Hunter Biden, they are effectively letting him know, “Your free ride is over, Bud. You aren’t that useful to us anymore. You’re going to lose the House and probably the Senate. You’re not gonna be able to get anything passed. You’re old, you’re decrepit, you’re unable to lead.” The Democrats have gotten everything they can out of Joe Biden. They’re gonna toss his political career to the side.

BUCK: This is what we’ve been thinking may happen all along, but now that it seems closer than ever. You look at all the polls as we’re heading to this midterm, I know everyone will say, “Oh, but it’s months and months away; it’s an eternity in politics.” Things could change a bit. There could be a swing in the Democrats’ favor with the economy a little bit.

You know, there could be some things. Very unlikely that the sentiment right now is going to change dramatically, and we haven’t even talked about the border today and other things. Just gonna get worse. It’s been the worse year ever at the U.S.-Mexico border, most likely this year, 2022, after the worst year last year ever in terms of illegal apprehensions at the border.

So there’s a lot of things that I think are working against them. But now that we’re actually looking at this, think about what it would mean. I mean, the Democrat apparatus would essentially be admitting that what the critics of Biden had said all along — that he wasn’t up for this, shouldn’t be president — was right, and then that even the vice-presidential…

If they don’t go with Kamala they’ll be essentially admitting that that criticism was also right, and so then you get to the point they’re gonna try to run Hillary. And you try to run Hillary, and then, I mean, you know, Trump? There’s no one Trump would rather run against than Hillary. I think, really, Trump would rather run against Hillary than Biden even in the current situation just ’cause he knows, you know, he knows that whole Clinton routine. He knows he beat her before, he feels like he’ll beat her again. Do you think, though…? I mean, do you even…? Did I force the Nashville Nostradamus into an answer here?

CLAY: I think he’s… I think so. If I’m correct —

BUCK: Will he pardon? Will he pardon his son Hunter if he faces criminal charges and deal with all of that reality?

CLAY: Yes, I think he will. Only, though, if he’s not running because he can’t pardon his son and get reelected. Right? He could get reelected and pardon his son after he was reelected.

BUCK: And so the reason I’m asking this is ’cause I know this is a few levels down the road and also I obviously still think he’s not gonna get, although I’m sweating it a little bit more today, but he’s not gonna get criminally indicted. But it does feel like if they were trying to create a circumstance within the Democrat apparatus that Biden would have to do exactly what you’ve said.

Allowing his son to finally be in criminal jeopardy and forcing him to make the pardon that the second he makes, he’s no longer politically viable ’cause that’s just too much for, the independents and the American people that they’re gonna need to vote for them in a reelect, it’s almost like this is the mechanism they’ve been holding back the whole time. And therefore, they force Biden’s hand to step down by allowing his son to be prosecuted.

CLAY: And I think Biden, if he decides not to run, will actually cite some form of health.

BUCK: Of course.

CLAY: I think he will say, “Look, I just can’t do it,” and I think that honestly will be accurate. But I don’t think he’s gonna be able to point to anything else.

BUCK: What do we say, Clay, if in two years or 18 months’ time, let’s say, whatever it is, there’s a report from the White House that Joe Biden, it’s very sad, but he has come out to say that he’s in the early onset of dementia because of his age? We would all say, well, yeah.

CLAY: Yeah, it’s been self-evident for a long time, and I think that ties in as we go into the third hour, Buck, I keep what’s also going on with the Washington Post and the New York Times and CNN is they’re slowly acknowledging the Hunter Biden scandal that’s been hidden in plain sight to the left wing for the past 18 months. There’s an element of being angry that you have to acknowledge that all the people on the right wing who you hate were a hundred percent right about this.

BUCK: Oh, yes.