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Victor Hansen
Hi, this is Victor Hansen, and I'm doing solo today as I do sometimes with interviews, and I'm interviewing my old friend, but also my former congressman, Devin Nunes, who's the chief operating officer of the Trump Media and Technology Group, as you probably know, in 10 terms. Devin, was that right? Did I have that right? 20 years, almost as our representative.
Devin Nunes
That's right, Victor.
Victor Hansen
Yeah.
Devin Nunes
It's great, great to be with you. It's, you know, you and I are still working, you know, Thanksgiving weekend, but.
Victor Hansen
We'Re still going out, we're still willing. I just did a couple of hours of podcasting, so I wanted to. The reason I called, Devin, I wanted you, you know, you, your experience, to give me a take on what you thought was the primary reason. Was it the new constituencies, that he appealed to the middle classes rather than just, you know, the old racial, you know, this group. This group. But he was ecumenical or the bad Harris campaign. It was just a mixture. I wrote on a column and said it was a mixture of seven or eight things. Which one do you think was really the decisive factor?
Devin Nunes
Well, you know, I did your show interviewed before. I don't know what was it about maybe three weeks or so, a month or two.
Victor Hansen
We were very confident. We both thought he would win. But you especially were predicting a big.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. And I just think when you look at it, it was Kamala Harris, as you and I know, grew up in a Soviet style system in California. All she had to do was work the party system to move up. It was never on merit. It was never based on what she had done. It wasn't on her education, it wasn't on any of that. She just knew the right people at the right times and was able to move up. I mean it's like the old traditional communist system that has failed time and time again because you get people that move up through the ranks that aren't qualified. And that's the bottom line with her, is that she just didn't have the experience, she didn't have the ability. And she was, I think, on top of all of it, Victor, she was lazy.
Victor Hansen
She took a day off the last eight days and then you would take those, see those pictures. Why did her staff release those pictures of her asleep on the, you know, on the plane all the time? They did. It made no sense. Did you see the latest one, Devin? When she did this post election, sort of. You have the power. She was almost disheveled and slurring her words.
Devin Nunes
I know it's, you know, I didn't see it, but my kids happened to see it and they were telling me about it.
Victor Hansen
What do you. Let me. So she flipped for 107 days on the border, on crime, on fracking, on foreign policy, with does she now as a seasoned politician who looks at these types of people and you've seen them your whole life, does she flip back to where she was before July or does she, how does she finesse that, that for this 107 days she was like a complete opposite of what she's been for 45 years. Is that going to be on record now with this kind of Trumpian MAGA agenda that she emulated for three months?
Devin Nunes
Well, the quick answer is I think she's going to be gone for good. The longer answer is I said she.
Victor Hansen
Was going to be like Mike Dac.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, we're never going to see her again. And you know, we just briefly touched on how she moved up in the system. You know, she moved up in California quickly by knowing all the right people. Well, then she got to know Obama when Obama was president and Obama is what got her over the line to become a dirty Attorney general of California, senator of California. Then he backed her for president when she ran and then she bombed. But then he came back again and put her in as vice president. It was her relationship with Obama that led to that she became vice president. And if you remember all of her staff, you know, many people on her staff had left or departed quickly early. Well, those were all Obama era people who said, and I'm paraphrasing, I don't know for sure, but it went something like this, Victor, you know, they must have went to Obama and you know, team Obama that Obama still has in Washington D.C. in his, you know, beautiful Kalorama home where he's tried to take control and keep control of the Democratic Party. Kalorama, for your audience that doesn't know it's one of the wealthiest roads right on the near Georgetown, the one of the highest in neighborhoods where a lot of the, in Washington, D.C. where the embassies are, where the ambassador's residents are. Just the traditional.
Victor Hansen
Wait a minute, Devin, how would you rate that though with the Martha's Vineyard estate?
Devin Nunes
Well, it's about equal, I think. He seems to have those houses, the.
Victor Hansen
Hawaii beach, the brand new Hawaiian beach front that might be threatened by global warming someday.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So but here's what, here's what happened though with Obama is that after all, after all of the, you know, his kind of people came out of there and said, okay, this lady's unqualified. She's tough to work for. They didn't want her. So they wanted Biden out. That's what they wanted Biden out. They tried to get him out. They didn't even want him to run. But you know, but Biden ran, I think with his wife pushing, pushing him to run. And then it took that kind of the debate, the kind of pre debate debate that where, you know, all Trump had to do was show up and you know, Biden couldn't even open his mouth and without, you know, just, he just looked like an invalid, which I think many people in D.C. you know.
Victor Hansen
Knew that for a long time.
Devin Nunes
And then when Biden got out, if you go back and look, all the Obama people were all signaling we need to have a short convention process.
Victor Hansen
Who do you think they were? Who do you think they wanted? They didn't know or they were just going to say it was Amy Kobachar or Josh Shapiro. It wasn't going to be Josh Shapiro, Gavin.
Devin Nunes
Maybe, you know, I don't even think it would have been Newsom from California. I think what they would have went for is maybe a couple of governors, they wanted to get it out of D.C. then Maryland governor, I agree it wouldn't have been Shapiro because for the, you know, he's seen as, as, you know, too conservative for the Democratic Party. But it could have been. Yeah, it could have been the lady from. I think it could have been, you know, governor from New York, Michigan. There's. There's a lot of different places. I think you could have picked almost anyone, but Kamala and the governor and Walls from. From Minnesota. And I think anybody would have been better than those two. So it was a. And then it was just. You asked how did. How did this all go down and why did I think she was going to lose? Because it probably had to be the, you know, three worst weeks in a row of a campaign after they. Because they ran the basement strategy first. They did, okay, put her in place, give a speech at the convention, have one debate and then go away. Go hide in the basement. And then that just started to. They.
Victor Hansen
Six weeks. It lasted for six weeks. They kept her off. You know what I mean? They. Nothing as far as.
Devin Nunes
But they knew. But Victor, they knew. And you now see this now because they've admitted to it. The Obama people knew that the polls were cooked. Always those polls, they were never right. That showed her up. Oh, she's up five points. She's.
Victor Hansen
And we talked about that on internal polls. Remember, her internal polls show that she was always. They were always lying. She never. So they were kind of shocked that the New York Times and the Washington Post, that take two examples, were lying so much to get her momentum or gen up donations. It's amazing.
Devin Nunes
And then to take the cake, the master prize was this Des Moines Register Iowa poll that came three days before the election. I mean, that's when you knew. When the fake news and all the pundits all started saying, oh, my gosh, this race is close. That's when I really knew, Victor, it was over. You knew once that Iowa poll came out that three days before the election that showed her up by three or four points was one of the more ridiculous things I've seen in my lifetime in politics. And I've seen a lot of ridiculous things. But you knew that that was a lie because there was no one was running. Obama, Clinton, Hillary Clinton, you name it, the governor of the neighboring state in Minnesota. You didn't see them in Minnesota. You did not see them at all in Iowa. And why is that?
Victor Hansen
I know it. And we talked about that. We said, if she has such a. I remember I went back and looked at our conversation. If she has such a big momentum going then. And they were showing her, remember that she was still neck and neck, if not winning the blue wall three states. And I thought. I think I mentioned. You mentioned it. Well, she was. They Were surprised. They were, that even though. That she was not going to win New Hampshire or Virginia or New Mexico, the Trump surge in states that, you know, weren't going to be important because they were going to be one by Harris, but they showed her going, I mean, Trump going up by four or five points. So then you said to yourself, well, that's a nationwide. That's a diverse group of states. So obviously that momentum must go over the border to Arizona, over the border to North Carolina, and it will be reflected in the Northwest, maybe in Michigan. But it wasn't because they were rigging the polls for those swing states that mattered. And then the ones that really mattered were. I think we talked about that 2016, 2020. It was inside, it was Atlas, you know, intel, and it was Trafalgar and it was Rasmussen, and they all had consistently Trump ahead one or two and all of the swing states, and yet they had the best. They had the only record that was reliable in the last, you know, eight years, and nobody was paying any attention to them.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, it was just.
Victor Hansen
Do you think the donor. Have you been reading all these things about the Democratic donors that are appalled that all their 1.5 billion went to private jets and Beyonce and Cardi b and Oprah? I don't think they'll ever give her a dime.
Devin Nunes
At least we, at least we think that it's being that they're so quiet and they're not saying that it didn't happen almost means it probably happened. You know, we don't know for sure. But the Beyonce thing is just. Do you think that these celebrities would want to put that to bed? Like, no, I didn't accept, you know, $2 million to do an event.
Victor Hansen
How could she?
Devin Nunes
Looks like they did.
Victor Hansen
I know. How could she? Adam Schiff, your old friend from the House, he outperformed Harris by one or two points in California. I couldn't believe that. I mean, he was running against that race, had no interest at all. You know what I mean? And yet he got more Californians to vote for him than Harris did for her.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. Although we don't know yet, Victor, because I don't think they've still. Yet. They're still counting votes. It's after Thanksgiving. They're still counting votes in California.
Victor Hansen
Is your former colleague. I know you were very high on him, and I am, too. Mike Garcia. He lost, didn't he?
Devin Nunes
Yeah. Yeah. I think that, you know, it looks like Republicans are going to lose three seats in California and, you know, they'll need to be an After Action Report on that because, you know, for somebody who's been in California and seen how corrupt it's become, something doesn't make sense about us losing three congressional seats here.
Victor Hansen
In California after the election day. It's way after.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, right, exactly. Well, in Garcia, that was like maybe 10 days or so after the election.
Victor Hansen
Michelle Lee, Michelle Lee lost, didn't she?
Devin Nunes
Yeah. Michelle Steele. Steele.
Victor Hansen
I mean, yeah.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. And it looks like even Doherty from just north where we live.
Victor Hansen
I didn't know that.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. And this just doesn't make sense that you can count ballots for three, four weeks and you know, every time this has happened, you know, Republicans lose these races and Victor, as you know, there were state assembly seats and state Senate seats that Republicans won in California where the Republican didn't even spend $1. Nobody had ever even heard of them. So there was a, there was a Trump surge, there was a, you know, Trump bump, whatever you want to call it in California, he did. The Republicans did better across the board. So why in these districts that have been razor tight the last three election cycles, how is it possible that, you know, the Democrats won? It just doesn't seem possible unless there was a scandal or, you know, someone had. But you know, I'm sorry, just in northern LA County, Mike Garcia has done a good job. He's well thought of. You know, granted you're the third or fourth person down on the ballot. I just find it hard to believe that people would, you know, vote for Trump and then, you know, get to the, get down to the third or fourth one and say, oh, okay, I'm going to vote for this, you know, Democrat that I've never heard of over.
Victor Hansen
Especially he had proven that he could win close races. The last two times when they, when the Republicans didn't do nearly as well as they did this year, they didn't exactly make any sense. And then it, and there's two appointees are going to lose those seats for a while at least the get, get seat that, you know, before that seat's gone. The, in the, there's another one. Is it Stefan Stefanik.
Devin Nunes
Stefanik. And Elise Stefanik who was on my committee back on the Intelligence Committee during the fun impeachment and Russia hoax days.
Victor Hansen
Do they only have a two seat majority for a while or three?
Devin Nunes
I don't know that. Yeah, I think it's around 220 right now is what I've seen.
Victor Hansen
So let me ask you another question off the wall. Is there any chance you think any Republican, given that Trump flip, I know he lost by 19 points in California, but he flipped five counties, including our own Fresno. Tulare, I think had gone for Trump prior. But you think there's a, if they had a viable Republican candidate for governor, he could have close race or is it just gone?
Devin Nunes
Look, there's signs of life, I would put it, I'd say there's signs of life. But California has a couple problems. I'll tell you that the problems has going for it and then I'll give you where there is a possibility problems it has is an economy that's just sick and a budget deficit that's just exploding and there doesn't seem to be any fix in sight. Secondly, you've got the state is hemorrhaging Republicans so Republicans are moving out of state. I mean, I just look in my neighborhood as somebody who spends quite a bit of time in Florida myself, I just look at the neighbors. I mean it seems like every month or two I have somebody in my neighborhood in the city of Tulare that is moving out of state and they tend to be Republicans. And so, you know, this race, I mean Trump would have been. If we wouldn't have lost, you know, millions and millions of Republicans the last 20 years to Idaho, Arizona, Texas, Florida, you name it. You know, Trump would have gotten a lot closer. That's.
Victor Hansen
People don't realize that. I keep reminding people that we had 32 years of Reagan, Dick Mason, Pete Wilson, Schwarzenegger, four eight year terms, right. And gosh, it was a normal state. We lost. I think it's been 25 million people over 40, 10 million, excuse me, over 35 years. And then we had, you know, open borders and mass immigration. We had one time, I think I don't believe the statistics but the latest I saw said there was 20% of the California resident population is undocumented. It.
Devin Nunes
Well, Victor, but it's so, it's so bad now that the illegals don't even want to come to California.
Victor Hansen
I know.
Devin Nunes
And, and you know, and you know why? It's because it's, it simply comes down to financial. This is why people are leaving. I mean, you know this. If you don't have solar panels in California and you're like me because I refuse to like give in and play the game. And I think you do have solar panels. I refuse to put them on because I think it's just such a, it's, it's just such a scam. You've, you've got.
Victor Hansen
Yeah, you're paying for my solar panel.
Devin Nunes
Exactly. And I'm up to like in peak hours now, I think I'm close to 50 cents a kilowatt.
Victor Hansen
I bet.
Devin Nunes
Now in Florida, where it's always hot and you know you always have to run your air conditioner, I think the electricity rate There is like 6 to 8 cents a kilowatt. Like, what the hell is going on where I'm paying five times as much.
Victor Hansen
In California, I know the Air Resources Board just, we had the highest tax, gas taxes in the nation. They're going to add 62 cents. None of them are elected, none of them. They just.
Devin Nunes
That's what I was going to say. So if it costs you, you could just double it. If you're in Florida or Texas and it costs you 50 bucks to fill up your car or your truck or what have you, you can figure it's going to be double In California, you can figure your electricity rates are going to be three times as much. You're going to figure insurance and everything else, there's nothing that's going to be cheaper. So as Jerry Brown, I remember he infamously said, bragged at the time when he came back in to be governor, somebody asked him, oh, well, you keep doing this, people are going to move out. And he says, oh, no, no, there'll always be rich people that are willing to pay the weather tax. Well, he's been wildly wrong because you've lost everyone from Elon Musk to Oracle to we can keep going down the list that the golden goose that laid the egg there in Silicon Valley, the golden eggs for so long are they're gone, they're leaving. And I think this is the thing to watch is going to be this. And you'll see it in, you know, when you spend your time at Hoover Institute, you'll start to see it first. It's going to be for the first time in history, we're going to have tough economic time. During tough economic times like there has been that you're going to see where you have blue states that are hemorrhaging huge budget deficits, they have to make cuts, et cetera, et cetera. And the red states are still in the black. They're still running a budget surplus. And that I don't think in my lifetime or your lifetime we have seen before because oftentimes you go into an economic downturn, you see all the states have budget deficits. They all struggle. You're not going to see that this time. The red states are doing very well.
Victor Hansen
They don't have those huge Illinois, New York, California, pension service debt, annually either like we do. And everything about California is so tragic because it's a beautiful state. We inherited this rich and, you know, infrastructure. I was driving yesterday, Devin, to see my daughter up near Auburn.
Devin Nunes
I know where you're going with this.
Victor Hansen
On the 99 and I mean that swath where Elk Grove for 20 miles. It's kind of like where you are from Tulare, Delano, it's a death trap. It's just four lanes and are narrow and people were just. The trucks were lined up in the left lane and people were trying to zigzag and I thought, wow, right near my house we have this Stonehenge, this high speed rail, $15 billion, not one foot of track laid. Then we have Gavin Newsom just announced he moved into a $9.1 million house. How does he afford that on his $250,000 salary? Yeah, these people are totally. They don't care about what gas is, electricity is. That's why Fresno county, which is now majority Hispanic, that's why they voted against him. The average Hispanic voter who has grown up as a Democrat does not want to vote for suicidal power bills, gas bills, taxes, insurance, you name it.
Devin Nunes
Well, that was what I was going to tell you. On the positive side you asked me about, is there hope in California? There's only hope if the people that are still here, that are working for a living, that have to actually do something for a living. And you've seen this trend, you've seen it. It started happening in 18, it happened in 20, it happened in 22 and it for sure happened in 24. We've now had election cycles in a row where people that actually work for reals. And in California it happens to be that there's such a large population of, you know, mostly Mexican Americans that are, that are here, that are, that are citizens. You know, first, second, third generation, you know, those people are now waking up to saying, oh, wait, wait a second.
Victor Hansen
How come they're getting killed?
Devin Nunes
How come? Yeah, how come Bob, my neighbor that I knew for a long time that was a school teacher, a firefighter, or worked in as a truck driver, why did he move to Idaho? Well, Bob tells his younger neighbor, well, this is a bunch of BS around here. I pay in double for gas, double for this. I'm going to Idaho, everything's great. Slowly, no matter how much you control social media, no matter how much you control the fake news media, eventually the chickens come home to roost. And that guy working his ass off in Fresno, California, sees all his neighbors that are retiring moving to Idaho and says, oh, wait a second, this is a problem. And I think so. That's the only glimmer of hope is can you get enough of these people that are working for a living, that are younger, that happen to be Mexican American, will they stand up and say, we're going to take a stand? We remember what it was like in California before, before all these people moved out. And Newsom, we know about your $9 million home there and your other $3 million home and all the corruption and say enough is enough. And will they vote to throw these bums out?
Victor Hansen
I think they hopefully.
Devin Nunes
But in the meantime, it's going to get ugly, it's going to get worse before it gets better.
Victor Hansen
A lot of the Silicon Valley people that I've talked to, they say, well, I know we have $9 trillion in market capitalization, but the first second generations that built Google and the jobs and Bill, they're gone, they have all their money, they're retired. And now it's a dog eat dog world, both within the United States and abroad. And California's regulatory taxation system is so much worse now than the early and late 70s when these things were formed, that you start to see not just Peter Till or Joe Lonsdale, but Andreessen, Ben Horowitz, these people were hardcore leftists and they're saying they voted for Trump, they gave money for Trump and they, David Sacks and these people, they're saying basically to Silicon Valley, you may still want to vote left, but if you continue to do that, we're going to destroy this goose. There's not going to be any more eggs, we're strangling it. We can't compete with people who have, especially as AI comes on, cheaper electricity, they have cheaper taxes, they have cheaper home prices for their employees. And more importantly, we've got to pay 13.2 and I think it's 15 or 20% capital gains. And these people, they don't have all that and I think they're going to start moving. That's the only thing that's keeping us afloat is that huge Silicon Valley income. Because it's like a medieval society. The middle class has been wiped out. I was going to ask.
Devin Nunes
Well, there's those stable industries in California, believe it or not. There's oil still, oil and gas. There's agriculture, there's tourism, there's all these industries that they can't destroy, even though they try to destroy them. And they do their best to destroy them. But you're exactly right. So there's always going to be that stable part of California. But eventually if you just keep spending and spending and spending and people continue to move out of state, eventually there's, you know, you run out of money. There's only so many fake high speed rail, you know, lines of track that you cannot lay before you run out of billions.
Victor Hansen
It's kind of like a race when you look at it. When you see that left wing people we called the mayor and the Soros DA in Oakland, they got rid of London Breed in San Francisco they voted for Prop 70, 36 by 70% that restored penalties for looting, shoplifting, it's like. And then that govern the mayor Lurie just said the other day that if you're homeless and you're defecating, urinating, injecting, fornicating on our streets, we're going to pay your bus ticket to get out of here. And I couldn't believe that. But it's almost like too little too late.
Devin Nunes
It's funny. I have a great story for you. I got a call the day after Thanksgiving from a friend of mine from New Jersey and he happened to try my wine that I think we talked about last time on your show. But he had the wine for Thanksgiving. So he was calling me, talking about the wines and was asking where they, you know, kind of the location. And as you know, my grapes are in the San Luis Obispo county area, Paso Robles, some in San Luis Obispo. And he says, he says, oh, that's, that's near Santa Barbara. And I said, oh yeah. I said it's not, you know, it's about an hour and a half north of Santa Barbara. And he tells me this story and he was shocked by it. And I just had to laugh because he said that, yeah, he was in Santa Barbara over the summer. He came for some conference or something and he had been there before and you know, it was always a little, you know, it's a night Santa Barbara, beautiful place, but has a little bit of a, you know, a little liberal been to it, but for the most part it's been a clean place. And he said that he had never seen this before. He said he saw these homeless people that were outside of the airport in downtown. And he said they were, they were begging him everywhere. He went to the Starbucks and somebody followed him into the Starbucks to get a, to get a coffee. And he was telling me the story as if I should be surprised. And I said, I said, I hate to tell you this, but that's all of California. Santa Barbara might be the better place compared to everywhere else in California.
Victor Hansen
Fresno. Fresno is that way. It's just got a whole encampment and there's encampments everywhere. Everywhere.
Devin Nunes
That's what people don't understand. Sacramento is as bad as it's ever been. San Francisco, all the places people have known about Santa Rosa, they're everywhere. They're just absolutely everywhere. It's like just zombie apocalypse.
Victor Hansen
I know.
Devin Nunes
And anyway, I was just. I was laughing because this guy was so shocked at seeing this in Santa Barbara. It's really sad. He didn't realize it's the whole state.
Victor Hansen
Let me change a topic. So you go to Mar a Lago because you're the chief executive officer of Truth Social, but you also keep, I know you separate business and politics, but you see these people and you know them. Do you get the sense that our listeners do that there's a real urgency? Maybe because Trump is a lame duck, maybe because the first time he came in without prior political experience, he ended up, you know, people recommended a John Bolton or Jim Mattis or Rex Tillerson or Anonymous. He had all these people who either weren't on the MAGA Agenda page or they were actively stealthily trying to thwart it, or they were even insubordinate. But this time, it seems almost as if there's a real sense of urgency, that he's got a more professional, really expert class that are helping him in these appointments. And he's almost like he's appointing people to these blob agencies and cabinets that have been victimized by it. You know, Jay Bacharya, Pete Hexett, they went after him for war. The War on Warriors book, I hope. I don't want to get into the appointments, but your former staffer, whom I really admire and a brilliant guy, Cash Patel, has been floated in FBI, but you get the impression that there's actually a sense of urgency and motivation that they're really going to not just change the deck chairs on the Titanic, but they're going to try to change, if they can, in four years, the system.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. And I've spent quite a bit of time at Mar A Lago since the election just trying to be helpful where I can. I've been. Obviously, we have a Truth Social Trump meeting. Technology Group is a big company, really important to the cause for free speech, for protecting the constitutional rights. We have 700,000 shareholders, and it takes up a lot of my time. But the president, I think, and some of his team are interested in knowing, you know, kind of my thoughts on the intelligence The Department of Justice, some of these areas, you know, that I led these investigations for years. But, you know, what's, what's, what's most telling for me is they don't need much help, Victor, because, you know, on the margins, maybe they need some help. But the easy part about being, about Trump being president again is that, and, you know, having those four years that he was out of office, especially the first three years being out of office, he knows who his friends are not.
Victor Hansen
That's really important.
Devin Nunes
So most people he knows, like, the people that are coming around now, like, it's just, it's almost laughable that they want to get these jobs. So I've said this for a while that, you know, pretty much every position, there's, there's, there's three, four, five deep at every position. And if you're, if you're President Trump, you focused on this, you, you know, you believe that, you know, that your life was spared in order to do big things. And I think he wants to move fast. He knows who the fools in Washington are now. And look, there'll be somebody, because he'll be a lame duck. And at some point, you'll get some of these guys that'll probably pop off their mouth. But you know what? Maybe not. Maybe if the President can do well and President Trump can do well and they can get a lot done, and I think that he'll be able to get a lot done in these first two or three years. And I think he's going to be a lot like, hopefully like Ronald Reagan when, after he was out, you know, he was just seen immediately as one of the best presidents of all time.
Victor Hansen
I think that J.D. vance, I mean, I have nothing against Mike Pence, but it just seems to me that ideologically, politically, Vance is on the same page as Trump. And he's young, and he's trying to. That helps, too, to have somebody in the Vice President that's completely reliable. And Pence was, he was, he was workman like, but he didn't. He never felt he had his heart in advancing the Trump agenda to the same degree that Vance does.
Devin Nunes
Well, there's just the world. The world has changed now. Yeah, it has, because the fake news would run these, fake, these, you know, constantly, whether it was the Russia hoax or impeachment hoax or the Jan.6 nonsense, all the Jack Smith, the Fannie Willis, all the lawfare that was against the president, culminating with the Des Moines Register hoax, which I think is really a telling sign that we talked about earlier that just people aren't believing this stuff anymore. I think that's what's changed. We're just slowly, over the last eight years since Trump was first president, the fake news media has not only outed themselves, but also destroyed themselves. I mean, you saw for the first time that several of the papers didn't even endorse Kamala because they knew the gig was up.
Victor Hansen
They knew they didn't influence any. I mean, compared to Trump going on Joe Rogan and social media and just free publicity from doing that brilliant McDonald's gambit and the garbage truck stuff, there's just so many ways to nullify the monopoly on the legacy media and the advantage that she had in money. He got millions of hundreds of millions of dollars by just ingenuity of free publicity while she was paying Oprah. Nobody listened to Oprah anymore. Nobody cares what Joey Reid says. Nobody cares what the legacy media says anymore.
Devin Nunes
It's tough to break through. It's tough to break through where, you know, where we used to be with three or four main TV stations and some major news outlets, I just doesn't exist anymore. And it's part of the, you know, look, it's part of what we do at Truth Social too, with our streaming that we're developing. Part of the technology that we're developing is that we see that the CNNs, the MSNBCs, the paramounts, the. There's so many of these companies that are big. They have old legacy platforms, they have brick and mortar, they're inefficient and they're all losing money. And I think in a. For not going to be around for a long time.
Victor Hansen
And yeah, I don't think you can afford this. You can't afford to play pay Rachel Maddow $30 million to be there once a week and get your audience down to 600,000 consumers.
Devin Nunes
Right.
Victor Hansen
How does that. Doesn't work.
Devin Nunes
It doesn't. It doesn't work. And you know, Hollywood doesn't work with the WOKE nonsense. So part of the technology that we've built is streaming technology. So would people as more and more people are going to cut the cords for their TVs and they'll be watching on their phones, their tablets, their TVs, they'll be putting what's called OTT. We've developed new technology for that to basically be there to pick up the pieces so that when a Newsmax or One America News or real America's Voice with John Solomon, who I know, you know, well, when they can't get on these legacy platforms, we're going to have that home. We're going to be that home. That's technology that we're going to be rolling out in 2025. And look, we're basically betting the future of our company on that. We're going to have efficient, streamlined technology to pick up all the pieces where these woke fools have wasted these great brands that have been out there for decades, that spent decades to build these brands up, that have essentially wasted all that. You know, we plan to be there to pick up the pieces and to. And to create a home for family friendly entertainment and news and religious channels and documentaries, things that for the last 10 or 15 years have had trouble getting onto the legacy channels or a Netflix or an Amazon Prime. So that's part of what, you know, what I spend time doing every day is, you know, making sure that we protect people's First Amendment rights. And I think there's a wide open field for, you know, for our movement, for our company is really, you know, like a movement, a movement to protect free speech. And that's what I spend my time doing. You know, in between time, you know, making my best recommendations that I can for personnel for the new administration.
Victor Hansen
Yeah, I get depression from people who listen to this, who write or call it. So yesterday, I mean, the idea that Netflix has $50 million to give the Obamas for quote unquote, content creation when they're losing money, you know what I mean? It doesn't the whole. Or Obama going out there right during the last days of the campaign and thinking I'm going to pop up and then in kind of a performance art moment, I'm going to tell African American young people who have to pay these exorbitant prices for food, gas, I'm going to tell them you're racist. You don't know you're racist, but you are. And you're sexist because you don't know what's good for you, as I have determined for you. And that's Kamala Harris and you've got. And I don't think that talking down. I guess what I'm saying is that all of the old establishment rules protocols of the last few decades, that blacks are always going to vote the way that the Democratic Party tells them that Hispanics are always going to do the same, that you have three network channels, that there's three car companies and you're not going to have anybody able to break into that, that NASA is going to be the only provider of space travel. I think it's all over with. It's just It's a very exciting time. It's like it's frontier days, you know what mean that the world is open to people with talent. And I just think people are just excited about it. I really do. I've never seen so much excitement after an election.
Devin Nunes
And I also believe that President Trump has a mandate. And he, us, the movement that he stands for, have been treated poorly by this last regime. And they corrupted nearly every institution and agency all the way down to the Archives, the National Archives. I mean, from DOJ to the National Archives, it's all been corrupted. And people voted for a change. They voted to get in here and fix this stuff. And I think that's what. Because President Trump has not only been treated so badly by our own government, he now has a mandate to fix it. And so can he do it?
Victor Hansen
That's really important because I've been doing a lot of podcasts, doing interviews and stuff on Fox Newsmax and stuff, and a lot of people made this point that I tried to dispel that, well, he didn't win 51% of the vote. It varies because of course, these late ballots have gone down, I think almost to 50 even, or 49.9. And he did win a big electoral. But that's not the point. The point was that he championed a, every, every single issue. Secure borders, sensible crime policy, sensible natural and gas advocacy, deterrent foreign policy. On the social issues, no abortion on demand in the ninth month, the last day of birth. That kind of craziness or men spiking the ball down the throat of women and claiming mean that there's no difference because they're trans. And he championed issues that were, if you look at them, they were 60, 40. In other words, he was the messenger for messages that even out polled him. And more importantly, he was the victim in 2016, 202024 of about $5 billion in negative advertising, in corrupt media, in collusion with the FBI and social media, two assassination attempts trying to get him off the ballot in 16 states, five civil and criminal lawfare suits, Russian, you know that you and cash and all of you guys stop the Russian collusion, horizontal, the laptop disinformation, all of that, and he still gets 50% of the vote. That's why it's a mandate, because no one else would even be alive. They've never in the history of American politics tried to utterly bankrupt, socially ostracized, destroy a candidate. And yet he survived it. And then they think, well, he should have got 55%, no, he should have got 20%. Given what they did to him.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Victor Hansen
And he survived and he got these issues that everybody wanted. So he does have an overwhelming mandate. Absolutely.
Devin Nunes
Yeah. Not only that, Victor, but I would say that when you take out the deep blue cities where he even did better, but you take out kind of these blue states that are continuing to do worse. Trump did better, I read, in almost every county in America, all but just a few. And then he did overwhelmingly well in the red states that are getting redder and happen to be where people are voting with their feet and they're leaving these blue states and going to those red states. So at the same time, he represents 35 states that are. I may have that number slightly off, but 35 states that are growing in population, that are sick and tired of the stuff that's happening in the blue states. And so, you know, he, you know, he has the mandate and he also has a big job to do. These are tough problems that have to be tackled, from the border to DOJ to the military to the trade imbalances. But you're exactly right. I think you say it right, that he won. He won big. And the issues that he stands for are popular issues. And that's despite the 5, if you're being generous with the 5 billion, I think it's probably, you know, 25 billion in the last four years that's been spent against them just nonstop. Because you got to remember, it's not just the fake news media and all the social media companies that are against them. It's every government institution, it's every foreign government.
Victor Hansen
Hollywood, academio.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, but even the foreigners, Victor. It's even the foreign.
Victor Hansen
Why are they all. You've been at Mar a Lago, haven't you? See these people like Trudeau and everybody parade in as if they're his long lost friends.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, they're. Hey there. I was in a. I shouldn't even say this, but I will, because it's your podcast, but I'm not going to give up the country. But I was in a foreign country about a year ago, and typically I had good relationships with the different intelligence agencies that I had worked with over my years in Congress chairing the Intelligence Committee. And I had one of the intelligence services says, oh, we'd like to let we have a new prime minister. We'd like for you to meet with the prime minister. And I said, sure, no problem. I'd love to do that. Well, it came back that. That the prime minister didn't want to meet with me. Because I was part of an extremist movement in the United States. And now I laugh now all these prime ministers are all begging me to get an audience, I bet, with President Trump. But that's what I'm saying. It wasn't just all the stuff you and I know about. It was globally. This had manifested itself globally with these global elites that, you know, that have, that should know better. But don't that just follow the fake American news? And it poisoned the entire globe. And, you know, look, there's just serious problems out there. I mean, there's. You got the mess in Ukraine and Russia, the mess in the Middle east, dealing with Asia. And look, from what I can, what, you know, I believe, obviously I'm a big supporter of John Ratcliffe at CIA, and I do believe that Cash Patel, one of my top deputies, will get somewhere in the administration. We don't know where yet, but it just seems like the adults, President Trump are putting the adults back in charge and the ones that are not going to be out for themselves, I think many of them will do a good job for the next four years.
Victor Hansen
Yeah, I do. And I think he's got a. You mentioned all these problems, and he's only got four years. But the biggest thing will be, it'll be interesting because we've never, we've had people who cut taxes. Reagan did, but Reagan tried, but he really didn't cut spending. So we get these deficits. But we've never had a president who said, I'm going to cut taxes, I'm going to not run up the deficit. And I'm going to do that because I'm going to cut a trillion or $2 on the annual budget. That'll be interesting to see because there's so many dimensions of so many federal employees, there's so many subsidies, and some of them go to conservative groups. It's going to be really, I hope people in Iowa and Nebraska and Kansas, if Elon and Vivek say that we have to cut alcohol, you know what I mean, ethanol subsidies, that they'll be reasonable about it, because you're going to have to cut, cut, cut. And we need to cut taxes to make the economy competitive and dynamic and it'll bring more revenue, but in the short term, you got to cut. And I hope he goes after things that I know about, because I don't mean that I'm an expert, but I've dealt with them and I've been frustrated and that's, you know, they're not big items, but things like the National Endowment for Humanities and the grants and, and gosh, public tv, public radio. I mean, I'm not saying they need to eliminate them completely, but they need to go in there and just say.
Devin Nunes
Wow, the only challenge, I think that lies ahead for this. Well, it doesn't matter. It's this administration or any administration that if you're truly going to get your handle on the debt and the deficit, it runs through healthcare.
Victor Hansen
Yeah.
Devin Nunes
No, because healthcare is roughly 20% of the GDP. I think a little shy of that. And it's the biggest spending that's occurring in the budget between Medicare and Medicaid and then the unfunded liabilities of those. So that's going to be the challenge is there's so much money being spent on healthcare, but yet our healthcare seems to get more and more inefficient. And that's one area that hasn't been a focus of this campaign at least. But it will, it will need to be a focus. I think if, and I said this to Elon when at Mar a Lago, that, you know, if you want to, if you really want to, you know, you can work around the edges on all the fun stuff, you know, that are, that are, that are fun to make fun of, that the government's spending that money on and should be eliminated. But the harder part is, you know, how are you going to fix, how are you going to fix health care?
Victor Hansen
Yeah, you have to have more challenge, up to more competition because it's just, it's not working. Maybe rfk, I don't know. I hope he doesn't take a hard left approach and try to nationalize, but I hope he won't. But that's where he can save a lot of money in hhs. And I know that we talked earlier about Jay Bhattari. I know he's going to try to cut just in a, it's a huge budget, but it's a very small percentage of the budget. 50 billion in NIH. But I hope that would set an example. Let me ask you a couple of final questions, Devin, before we end. If somebody wants to buy your wine, where do they go?
Devin Nunes
Oh yeah, we talked about that.
Victor Hansen
And I had all these people. Yeah. Last time everybody called me, they called me. I had a lot of calls and emails that they loved your wine and they wanted more information about it.
Devin Nunes
Well, it's my fun hobby. And I hope that if, if you, if you're Interested, Devin Nunes Wines.com and Matter of fact, Victor will do free shipping. So if you put in the promo code vda.
Victor Hansen
Oh, wow.
Devin Nunes
Yeah, we'll ship free, but yeah, if you get your order in, we can get it shipped out. A lot of people enjoyed it for Thanksgiving, but you want to use it for Christmas gifts or Christmas dinner, you can join the wine club. You get 20% off, you get a case of wine that ships every November. Obviously it'll ship before Christmas this year, but yeah, I think it's, you know, it's a fun project. It's what I call the confluence of science and art. And it really is. It's taking agriculture that you know so well, but then, you know, taking, you know, looking at wine, which is, you know, when you make fine wines like I'm doing, it's kind of the confluence of time, place and people. Right. So where is the wine growing? What the climate, what year was it growing in? How was the weather? And then who were the people that developed that wine? Because there's also the, it's getting the science right, but then at the end of the day to make high end fine wine, it really comes down to an art. And, you know, it's something that, as you know, I grew up in the industry, enjoyed it, I have a lot of friends in it, so it's something I enjoyed. Time I put it. The only thing I do outside of running True Social and trying to protect the country.
Victor Hansen
You miss, you miss politics, you miss politics, you want to get back in it, or you been there, done that, or you don't.
Devin Nunes
Well, you know, it's like I talked about, Victor. It's, you know, True Social and the Trump Media Group are a company that's never really existed before because we are a publicly traded company that we had to fight to become a public traded company after the Biden administration spent two years trying to keep us from becoming a public company. But we're truly the only public company ever in history that is there for one reason and one reason only, and that is to protect your constitutional rights. We're a movement at the same time, we're a public company and it's just, it's very rare. And I don't think there's another example in history. And you know, so there's a lot of work to be done. But because especially the last two years, it's been so political and it shouldn't have been political, but it has been. You know, hopefully now we can, we can really move forward on, you know, not having to deal with the nasty politics. I think you just build a company and, you know, hopefully that's the case. And then there'll be areas that, you know, I've told the president, whatever he needs help doing, I'll be glad to do it. But in the meantime, you know, I'm here building a company, have my great hobby with wine. And I guess you could say my hobby is now politics, too, because I still give advice to as many people that want it, from the president to Cash Patel to John Ratcliffe to my old buddies in Congress. I'll give them all the advice they want. But, you know, it's free advice. So you know what that is, you know what that's worth.
Victor Hansen
Well, it's a very exciting time. It's a very exciting time. I have zero influence. You know, I've talked to Trump, but I don't ever call or anything. But you would be surprised the number. And this didn't happen, I guess, because I wrote a book about Trump, but I never had anybody call me like this year. Maybe I get seven calls a week. But this is my point, Devin, I'd say six of them. I don't say anything, but they were people that I can, as soon as I hear them, I can locate in my mind their attacks on Trump. You know, they were kind of never Trumpers. But even the never Trumpers now are trying to reinvent themselves and to be and they didn't do that in 2020 or 2016. So it tells me that even his enemies feel that he's sort of like Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote couldn't get him and he's just indestructible and they want to be part of it, even though they're obviously disingenuous. But it's amazing, it really is, that there's a sense I just, you know, he's polling 55%, Biden's 36. And I look back at the polls in when Biden in May, Biden was 46, 44, Trump. So this is the most amazing committee political comeback in my lifetime. It's much, even more impressive than Richard Nixon, who lost the 60 presidential race and the 62 gubernatorial race and then won in 68, or Reagan, who failed at that last minute gambit in 68 against Nixon and then 76 against Ford. And you know, at 69 years old, his third try, he made it. It's even more impressive given the odds that he was up and he, and.
Devin Nunes
It'S the, it's not only the biggest political comeback in history, but it's also the biggest political movement in modern history, for sure. I just don't think there's been anything like it. And it's almost in many ways, it's a global, it's a global movement.
Victor Hansen
It is.
Devin Nunes
And you know, people say it's the, you know, there's all kinds of new terms for it of, you know, anti globalist, populist, populist nationalism. You know, what it, what it really is about. To me, I just sum it down to real simple. People want common sense in government. They don't want any more of the nonsense. So, and that's what I think you see where Trump brought in a lot of people. You know, they don't like RFK or Tulsi or, you know, conservatives don't like them. But you know what Trump said, look, I'm going to build a political movement. We're going to, we're going to have a unity government. I'm going to take a coalition of the willing who will stand up to tyranny. And so this movement is just bigger than it ever has been before. He's obviously the face of it, but there's millions of Americans and millions of people around the globe who are just tired of seeing the corrupt governments, the corrupt bureaucracies and having no common sense in government. And I just think it's a movement about common sense and decency and protecting people's rights as individuals.
Victor Hansen
If we had this conversation four years ago and we said four years from now, Donald Trump will have people who took a knee and they're going to be doing dancing to YMCA on a football field. You know what I mean? Or you're going to have people who assured you, the George Wills, the David Frums, the Bill Kristol, that Donald Trump could never be reelected or even elected because he was a racist. And you would say to them, he's going to get a record number of blacks and Hispanics that we haven't seen ever in the modern republic. They would think he were crazy. And so it's really a radical, revolutionary change. I know it's a return to, I wrote an article the other day called Return to Normalcy, which it is, but it's just so 360 degrees. Culture, economics, politics. You just don't get the feeling anymore that somebody's going to go knock down a statue and everybody's going to allow that to happen. That's great. Or somebody's going to, you're going to go to school one day and the name is going to be changed or there's going to be trans dancing at Pentagon bases. You know what I mean? It's, that's what I Think you mean by that madness.
Devin Nunes
I do, yeah. I call it common sense. You call it normalcy. And I'll tell you something, another interesting story that, you know, just anecdotal about. You know, you mentioned things that we wouldn't have seen four years ago. But I'll tell you, I just went to a friend, a college friend that had had his 50th birthday and things that we were just sitting around talking and. And, you know, had. We thought, you know, if we would have sat around and came up with the wildest things. And, you know, in college, you can come up with lots of crazy ideas and, and during time that you're studying or partying or whatever you may be doing in college. And of all the things that we would never come up with, we would have never come up with when I was graduating college is that in 30 years, there's going to be women or men playing women's sports. And it was going to be normalized, attempted to be normalized by the guy. I said, I would have bet you whatever. I would have bet anything. We would have laughed at that, Victor. We would have laughed at it because it's just so ridiculous.
Victor Hansen
You could go further and say, and anybody who would dare suggest that somebody who was a biological male had an advantage and that person would be ostracized and demonized for even suggesting that, that's even crazier. You know what I mean? That we'd gone so far. I don't know. I don't want to be too Pollyannaish, but I really am excited about what's in store for us. I think it's the first time in my life that I've seen, maybe I felt that way a little bit with Reagan, but it just seems to me that the country said, I'm been there, done that. I want to try something new, go to it, and we're going to give you our support. And I hope that Trump can pull it off. He's got a lot of disadvantages, he's got a lot of enemies, but he's got a lot of people behind him, more people behind him that are against him.
Devin Nunes
Well, and there's. Look, there's a wide open field here to run in for Trump. And it's at the same time we talked just a little bit about it. The fake news media has been destroyed. The legacy Hollywood media companies are being destroyed. There's going to be a lot of pieces to pick up just on the technological front.
Victor Hansen
There is.
Devin Nunes
You have. The way people receive information is rapidly changing, and then I would say secondly, you also have this movement which we didn't talk about this, but this movement towards cryptocurrency. And I've not been one that's been on that bandwagon, but you can begin to see it as you've seen time and time again, the central bankers, not only in the US but also globally, who have played just one too many games and people are just tired of seeing the printing of money and the inflation. And so now the technology was kind of a concept and an idea, the early stages of the technology and the crypto and cryptocurrencies. You're now going to see that. I believe you're going to see that go mainstream now, Victor.
Victor Hansen
I know, I think so.
Devin Nunes
That's another big change that's going to happen, that we don't know exactly how that's going to change not only the United States, but, but the globe. I believe it's going to mean less power for Wall street, less power for the central bankers, less power for the big banks. That Quite frankly, in 2008, against my wishes, because I didn't support those big bailouts, it was an overreach in 08 that now has taken almost 20 years. But it's manifested itself globally. Technology has caught up. And I think you're going to see a change in the way that currencies move around the world.
Victor Hansen
And it's happening in my field, in academia, you can see it. I mean, when your colleague Stefanik dressed down the presidents of Penn, Harvard, mit, and then the two of them resigned and Stanford president resigned and you can see it, that old academic protocol, oh, we're Harvard, we're Yale, we're Stanford. That's, that's worse. No, it's not. You spend higher than the rate of inflation on the tuition hikes. Your endowments are not used for anything other than partisan purposes. Your curriculum has been watered down. You have racist practices in hiring and mission. Everybody knows that. And it's gosh, the alternatives now are homeschooling and Internet courses and Hillsdale. The Hillsdales are booming. The legacy universities are in trouble. And it's just across the board that everybody says, you know, we don't have to keep doing this the way that everybody told us. And Hollywood is a good example, their reference point of prestige, you know, I'm on a Hollywood blockbuster. Who cares? Ask American. When's the last time you went to a first run movie in a movie theater? They don't, you know, Sharon Stone was trashing Trump in the Italian Film Festival. But who cares which Sharon Schultz.
Devin Nunes
Right, right.
Victor Hansen
Nobody does.
Devin Nunes
Well, I don't know how I haven't watched it, but you know the, the Gladiator film, that Gladiator 2, I think they're calling it, the first Gladiator film was an amazing film that one of the, you know, most widely watched films for the last 20 years. How you could screw that film up, which I, I haven't seen it, I'm not going to go see it, especially now that I've seen the reviews. But it sounds like they made a awoke gladiator, if you can believe that.
Victor Hansen
Or even if they didn't, they had to at least give someone indulgences. Ridley Scott did to Wokeism. So it won't be in the same spirit of the original. Yeah, you're right about that. And it's kind of a confusing thing because all of the old standards you don't care about anymore. And you know, on the campus of Stanford, it's been amazing to see that. You know, everybody said when you get back to school it's going to be really bad, man, that four months of Hamas, you know, and those guys stormed the president's office and I said to him, well, you know, Trump's going to win and that's going to change the complexion of the whole country. And if you're from the Middle east and Egypt, say, or Jordan or the west bank and you came over here and everybody in the Biden administration gave you a pass, but you're on a student visa and you commit a felony, the new atmosphere is going to be, well, you don't need to have a green card, we're going to give you your wish to go back home. And if you're a student and you go into the president's office and you destroy it, that's a felony. And so all of a sudden the campus is quiet. The people who trash the president's office are facing felony charges. Even in a left wing place like that, it's altered suddenly and it's like, wow, I was in a coma. The country I'm America and I'm in a coma and somebody slapped me and I woke up and wow, what happened? Who did this? This is crazy. I can't do this anymore. And it's kind of exciting to see Trans inspire. It is anyway.
Devin Nunes
Absolutely.
Victor Hansen
Devin, thanks for giving your precious time while on vacation. You're at the seashore, right?
Devin Nunes
I am. I'm over in the San Luis Obispo county and you know, working a little bit on my, checking out my barrels and looking forward to next year's, looking at this year's crop and looking at what next year's crop is going to be like and then back to Florida on next week.
Victor Hansen
That's an enviable life going from the wine country to Florida. But congratulations on everything you've done. Everybody is very happy about Truth Social. So many people have thanked me for what you did by exposing the whole Russian collusion hoax that kind of unraveled the whole leftist project to destroy Trump, you know, the disinformation and all the stuff that followed. But really. But it was the standing up to the Russian collusion hoax and this Christopher Steele craziness that gave people hope and I've been told that so often. So I want to thank you again for that.
Devin Nunes
I appreciate that.
Victor Hansen
I think everybody realizes that you're kind of a folk hero and we all appreciate it. So I hope we can have you back soon. Devin. In the meantime, thanks a lot, Victor.
Devin Nunes
In any time.
Victor Hansen
Well, thank you. Bye everybody.
Podcast Summary: The Victor Davis Hanson Show – "Devin Nunes on the Election and Truth Social"
Release Date: December 18, 2024
In this insightful episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show, host Victor Davis Hanson engages in a comprehensive conversation with former Congressman Devin Nunes. As the Chief Operating Officer of the Trump Media and Technology Group, Devin provides a deep dive into the intricacies of the recent election, the state of California politics, the evolving media landscape, and the future of the Republican movement. The discussion is enriched with notable quotes and timestamped insights that offer listeners a thorough understanding of the key issues addressed.
[01:21] Victor Hansen:
Victor introduces Devin Nunes, highlighting his extensive experience as a two-term congressman and his current role within the Trump Media and Technology Group. The conversation sets the stage for an in-depth analysis of recent political developments.
Primary Reasons for Election Outcomes:
Victor and Devin delve into the factors that influenced the election results, particularly focusing on Kamala Harris's campaign.
Notable Quote:
[02:28] Devin Nunes:
"Kamala Harris... grew up in a Soviet style system in California. All she had to do was work the party system to move up. It was never on merit."
Critique of Kamala Harris:
Devin criticizes Harris's lack of qualifications, experience, and perceived laziness. He questions the authenticity of her campaign efforts, pointing out inconsistencies such as staff-released photos showing her off-duty.
Notable Quotes:
[03:31] Devin Nunes:
"She just didn't have the experience, she didn't have the ability. And she was, I think, on top of all of it, Victor, she was lazy."
Polling Inaccuracies:
The discussion highlights the discrepancies between internal and public polls, emphasizing how certain polls misrepresented Harris's standing leading up to Election Day.
Notable Quote:
[08:58] Devin Nunes:
"The Des Moines Register Iowa poll that came three days before the election... shows her up by three or four points was one of the more ridiculous things I've seen in my lifetime in politics."
Unexpected Seat Losses:
Devin expresses astonishment over the loss of several Republican seats in California, attributing it to potential polling rigging and voter manipulation.
Notable Quote:
[13:07] Devin Nunes:
"Something doesn't make sense about us losing three congressional seats here."
Impact on Local Politics:
The conversation touches on how these losses could reshape California's political landscape, potentially leading to an After Action Report to understand the underlying causes.
High Taxes and Energy Costs:
Devin and Victor discuss the economic burdens faced by Californians, including exorbitant gas and electricity prices, which are driving residents and Republicans to migrate out of the state.
Notable Quotes:
[18:34] Devin Nunes:
"You're paying for my solar panel."
[19:05] Devin Nunes:
"If it costs you, you could just double it. If you're in Florida or Texas and it costs you 50 bucks to fill up your car... In California, you can figure your electricity rates are going to be three times as much."
Mass Exodus of Republicans:
Devin highlights the ongoing trend of Republicans leaving California due to unfavorable economic conditions and regulatory environments.
Notable Quote:
[24:22] Devin Nunes:
"Everything's gone, they're leaving. That's the only thing that's keeping us afloat is that huge Silicon Valley income."
Challenging Legacy Media:
Devin discusses the shortcomings of traditional media outlets and introduces Truth Social as a solution for free speech and unbiased news dissemination.
Notable Quote:
[36:05] Devin Nunes:
"We plan to be there to pick up the pieces and to create a home for family friendly entertainment and news and religious channels and documentaries."
Technological Innovations:
The conversation covers Truth Social's development of streaming technology to rival outdated legacy media platforms, aiming to capture the evolving consumption habits of modern audiences.
Notable Quote:
[35:52] Devin Nunes:
"We're developing new technology to basically be there to pick up the pieces so that when a Newsmax or One America News or Real America's Voice can't get on these legacy platforms, we're going to have that home."
Mandate for Change:
Devin asserts that Donald Trump possesses a strong mandate to rectify systemic issues within the government, emphasizing Trump's resilience against unprecedented political challenges.
Notable Quote:
[42:38] Devin Nunes:
"President Trump has a mandate. And he, us, the movement that he stands for, have been treated poorly by this last regime."
Historical Comparison:
The discussion draws parallels between Trump's political comeback and those of historical figures like Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, underscoring its significance.
Notable Quote:
[55:11] Devin Nunes:
"This is the most amazing political comeback in history, but it's also the biggest political movement in modern history."
Cryptocurrency Adoption:
Devin highlights the growing mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrencies, predicting a shift in global financial dynamics and reduced dominance of traditional banks.
Notable Quote:
[60:54] Devin Nunes:
"I believe you're going to see that go mainstream now... it means less power for Wall Street, less power for the central bankers, less power for the big banks."
Impact on Global Economy:
The conversation touches on how technological advancements like cryptocurrency will influence global trade and economic policies.
Decline of Legacy Institutions:
Victor and Devin examine the erosion of traditional academic and cultural institutions, citing issues like increased tuition, politicization of curricula, and the rise of alternative education models.
Notable Quotes:
[62:55] Victor Hansen:
"The legacy universities are in trouble. And it's just across the board that everybody says, you know, we don't have to keep doing this the way that everybody told us."
Hollywood's Transformation:
The discussion critiques Hollywood's shift towards "woke" content, suggesting it compromises creative integrity and audience engagement.
Notable Quote:
[62:56] Devin Nunes:
"There's going to be that huge Silicon Valley income. Because it's like a medieval society."
Promotion of Devin’s Wine Project:
Towards the end of the episode, Devin promotes his wine hobby, encouraging listeners to purchase his wines through his website with a special promo code.
Notable Quote:
[50:03] Devin Nunes:
"It's something I call the confluence of science and art... the only thing I do outside of running Truth Social is making wine."
Acknowledgments and Future Outlook:
Victor thanks Devin for his contributions to exposing political corruption and expresses optimism for the future of the Republican movement under Trump's leadership.
Notable Quote:
[66:17] Devin Nunes:
"This is the most amazing comeback in history, but it's also the biggest political movement in modern history."
This episode of The Victor Davis Hanson Show offers a detailed exploration of the current political climate, the challenges facing California, and the transformative potential of alternative media platforms like Truth Social. Devin Nunes provides a compelling narrative on the resilience of the Republican movement, the flaws within traditional polling and media systems, and the promising developments on the horizon for cryptocurrency and free speech initiatives. Listeners gain valuable insights into the strategic maneuvers behind recent elections and the broader socio-economic shifts shaping the United States' future.