Clay Travis Says He Would Have ‘Voted For Trump 10 Times’ — Even After Jan. 6 Riot

Clay Travis, the sports journalist whose turn to political commentary earned him a gig co-hosting Rush Limbaugh’s former timeslot, spoke with Mediaite editor in chief Aidan McLaughlin for an in-depth interview that dropped on Wednesday.

McLaughlin and Travis looked back at his career and discussed everything from Travis’s political views to his founding of Outkick, the sports website he sold to Fox Corporation in 2021.

At one point in the discussion, McLaughlin asked Travis about how he views the intersection of sports journalism and political coverage.

“You definitely seem to lean more with the Deadspin guys than on the side of those who argue politics and sports should be should not mix,” McLaughlin said. “Do you see politics and sports as inherently linked topics?”

“Well, I think they made it so,” Travis said. “So, what are you going to do, ignore Colin Kaepernick’s protest and just pretend that it doesn’t exist?”

Travis spoke at length on the topic and noted that in the 80s and 90s sports were far more apolitical. “So then that changed. I think with the Trump, it felt to me, very much like an association with Trump getting involved in politics. But it was coming before him, right? He’s a symptom of as opposed to the cause of this intertwining, in my opinion,” Travis argued.

He added that the dearth of sports during the Covid pandemic forced coverage of more political topics:

And then it led into Covid. I mean, like, what are going to do? Like, there’s literally no sports for March, April, May and June, basically. And I’m doing a three hour daily sports talk radio show. I mean, what else are you going to talk about other than, are sports going to return?

McLaughlin then asked Travis to explain his own political journey, as someone who went from voting exclusively for Democrats and Independents to being a die-hard supporter of Donald Trump.

“Since we’re talking honestly about politics here, I have a question for you,” McLaughlin said. “My question is, and I want you to be really honest with me here, did you regret voting for Trump after his presidency ended in the January 6th riot?”

“No. I wish I could have voted for Trump ten times in 2020,” Travis replied.

“Really?” McLaughlin reacted.

“I think Joe Biden’s a disaster. And, I think one of the things that’s fascinating, you know, Ronald Reagan said he didn’t leave the Democrat Party. The Democrat Party left him,” Travis said.

Travis went on to explain that the crux of his current political ideology focuses on him being “anti-cancel culture.”

“I don’t like Don Lemon, I think he was an idiot for what he said about women in their prime. But I don’t think that Don Lemon should get fired. You know, I went on CNN and they banned me because I said I believed in the First Amendment and boobs,” Travis said.

When McLaughlin followed up by noting the 2024 field will give voters like Travis options for other Republicans that did not inspire a riot at the U.S. Capitol, Travis doubled down.

“It has no impact on who I’ll support. Because if you go back and look at my tweets on January 6, I had the exact same opinion on January 6 as I did the riots throughout the whole summer of 2020,” Travis said.

Still, Travis said he’s keeping his powder dry on who he’ll support in 2024.

Listen to the full episode here.

Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com