
Violent rhetoric from celebrities and Democrats helped create the climate reflected in President Donald Trump’s third would-be assassin’s manifesto, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.”
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Victor Davis Hanson
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Bradley Devlin
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Victor Davis Hanson
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Victor Davis Hanson
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Jack
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Victor Davis Hanson
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Victor Davis Hanson
Does Disney have a prerogative? Yes. They can put him on there if they want. If they want to be that stupid, it's their choice. And do people have a choice to lobby to get him off? Yes. So he's a bore, he's talentless, he's a mean spirit, but he has a right to sound off. And people have a right to say we want to go to Disneyland. We don't want to buy anything to do with Disney. We were done with you because you're putting this guy on to get ratings. The more he's on there, the more he's foul mouth, the more he hates trump.
Jack
So beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.
Victor Davis Hanson
You all know that if Anybody, anybody said 25% of what he had said about Barack Obama, he would be yanked with a cane in two seconds off the stage. But was Comey, did he go to the same college as you?
Jack
No, he. No, he does. What is this like you think Fordham? Because I went to Fordham for one year and Brennan went to Fordham. That poisons everyone.
Victor Davis Hanson
Are you accusing me of saying that all Catholic Irish boys look alike?
Jack
You paint with a broad brush sometimes, my friend. Well, hello ladies and hello gentlemen and welcome to Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. We are recording on Tuesday, April 28th, 2026. This episode will be up on the World Wide web on Thursday, April 30. We are part of the Daily Signal Network. You can see Victor, company Man wearing his Daily Signal hat. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He's a senior contributor at the Daily Signal. He's the of the forthcoming. I'm going to say it's a forthcoming bestseller, Victor, the Counter.
Victor Davis Hanson
You're welcome, my friend.
Jack
The Counter Revolution. The Fall and Rise of Donald Trump and the MAGA Movement. And you can order that now at Amazon. It will be out Tuesday, September 8th. You know, when we go ahead, you're about to say something, I don't want
Victor Davis Hanson
to cut you off. Well, you know how people sometimes at the end of your email on your say sincerely Victor or something, we'll have a little tie. I never do that. But I put this time VICTOR Hansen, author of forthcoming because you know, I get a lot of emails, I reply and somebody wrote, victor, this doesn't seem like you to be I thought, well, you mean I thought to myself, you mean I don't want to sell my book.
Jack
Yeah, I mean, as you know, the authors are the people that are supposed to be selling their books because there are very few means to do that in the world anymore. You know, when we were recording last time we spoke, you and I, Victor was my time was Saturday afternoon on the east coast and well, you know what happened that evening. Lunatic. I don't think he's a lunatic. We're going to talk about whether he was a lunatic.
Victor Davis Hanson
Teacher of the Year, Jack.
Jack
Sorry, Teacher of the year.
Victor Davis Hanson
Carl Allen no, he actually worked for a testing company part time and that turned into teacher of the year.
Jack
Well, as we know, folks, he stormed the White House Correspondents Dinner. So we're going to get Victor's take on that and certain aspects of it. Obama's response, Jim, Jimmy Kimmel's idiocy. And then we have Anthony Fauci's top lieutenant has been indicted also right before we spoke earlier today, James Comey has been indicted again for his 8647 sand art. And we've got these things to get Victor's take on and a couple of other topics if we have the time. And we will get to all of that when we come back from these important messages.
Bradley Devlin
Hey, I'm Bradley Devlin and just like you, I'm a huge fan of Victor Davis Hansen, whether it's his long form podcast Victor Davis Hansen in his own words or his short form content for the Daily Signal. Victor Davis Hansen, in a few words. I always leave an episode learning something new.
Victor Davis Hanson
I think they forgot the 1982 Falklands War.
Bradley Devlin
And in the age of clickbait and rage bait. That's a really good feeling, right?
Jack
The media. Thank you. You can leave now.
Bradley Devlin
Well, if you agree, you might like my show, the Daily Signals long form interview podcast called the Signal. Sit down. Every week we take behind the scenes of the biggest battles in Washington, D.C. as they happen with some of the biggest names in politics. We explore big ideas and we analyze the policy making process from an unabashedly and unapologetically conservative perspective. And that's important now more than ever with the Trump administration back in office, because in 2024, you sent Washington a message it couldn't ignore. It's your government and together we're taking it back. So check us out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you enjoy. Victor Davis Hansen, we're there too. And drop me a follow on X radleydevlin to stay updated with what's happening on the Signal. Sit down.
Jack
We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. By the way, on the Daily Signal. There's also Victor Davis Hansen in a few words. Those are seven eight minute clips that Victor does four times a week for the Daily Signal. Victor, you can say whatever you want, of course, about what happened Saturday night, the third assassination attempt on Donald Trump. But one question I'd like to back into, get your thoughts on, is Cole Allen. He's being called the depraved gunman. And I wonder about that. Is he depraved? Cause I don't think he's depraved in the sense like he's a lunatic. I think he's very calculating. And in a country where half of the liberal Democrats in America think murder's okay, I wonder, when does depravity stop as a concept? But what's your take on all of this?
Victor Davis Hanson
He's a little bit more depraved, if that's the right term, than whom? Robert De Niro, who said he every time he talks, he says he wants to pound Donald Trump in the face. Gavin Newsom, who said he wanted to pound Donald Trump in the face? Nancy Pelosi, Pound him in the face. Snoop Dogg, I want to shoot him. Kathy Griffin, I want to behead him. Madonna and Moby, I want to blow him up. Shakespeare in the park, we're gonna stab him as if he's Caesar when we play Shakespeare's Caesar, that Anthony Burdeen or whatever his name, the celebrity chef, I'll poison him. Johnny Depp. Ooh, when's the last time an actor killed the president? Ha ha ha. So they all do it. And you can tell they all do it because when you read that manifesto, the first thing that jumps out at you is Donald Trump is a traitor. No, excuse me, I'll get it in the right order. He is a pedophile. Now where did that come from? That came from all the lies about the Epstein file and he's a rapist. Now where did that come from? That came from the E. Jean Carroll trial, which if anybody reads that here, I will make a plug Jack that I have a 20 page account of that travesty in the book to come out. But if anybody reads the whole story, that is the most egregious thing you can imagine. She didn't even know what year she was supposedly attacked. She said she consensually went into a dressing room with Donald Trump. She said she knew the year because she had a particular designer blue dress, which we now know wasn't even made yet in that year, didn't even come out. And the whole story about being in the Burgundor department store and being attacked by a celebrity is a segment episode of Law and Order. Same thing. So he, that's where he got that. Even Judge Kaplan said when the jury said he's not guilty of rape, but because he may have come on too strong, they found him guilty. This was a civil trial about a, you know, sexual assault. And so Kaplan said, well, it. I couldn't believe the judge said that. Well, it is sexual assault, but, you know, it's not that much different than rapists. It is different. Or they rejected the rape charge. And then George Stephanopoulos, of course, called him a rapist 11 times and was sued and ABC settled, I think for 15, 11 to 15 million dollars. So he had that. Then he said he was a pedophile. That came from all of the Epstein file stuff from the left and be fair, Marjorie Taylor Greene and all that, Stu. And then he was a traitor. That came from James Clapper, who said he was Putin's puppet. John Brennan, who said he was compromised, the Steele dossier, which was bogus. So I guess to answer your question, he's as depraved or not depraved as all these other people. The only difference is he took it one step further. But you're right, the Rutgers poll showed that when they asked people who identified as Democrats, would you approve of killing don? I think 25% said strongly so. And 25% said that they could live with it. And the way they talk. Hikem Jeffries just came out and said, right before this, he said, we're in a maximum war. And then, remember during the big beautiful Bill, he did his little bragadocio where he said, we're gonna stop this. And he got a baseball bat like he was gonna club somebody. And then he came out after the attempted assassination. We got to lower the rhetoric. And then people said, yeah, you should lower the rhetoric. And then he went berserk, said, I'm not going to back down. There's something wrong with that guy. You know, when you look at him, his eyes spin when he's thinking for a thought, like he's a deer in the headlights. It's really funny. I don't want to suggest it's autism, but there's something. He's not connected. He's like Swalwell. Both of them don't seem connected to the surroundings, you know, the people.
Jack
I got a sense he tries to mimic Obama's cadence.
Victor Davis Hanson
He does, he does. Yeah. And I'm glad he's a minority leader because he's pretty inept. And so they got all of that Jack from the left, and the left will not stop. There were people. I think Kim Mia Farrell said the whole thing was rig. It was a fake assassination attempt. Somehow she really does believe that Donald Trump got, what, 58 FBI, Secret Service to get all in on it? Is that what she believes? And then she hired this caltech guy from California. That's what they believe.
Jack
The Secret Service agent said, yes, you can shoot me.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. These people are not very bright, you know that. They're not very. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that the butler may have been staged, too. And it doesn't, you know, So I
Jack
don't know what she did say that I didn't know.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, she said, there's something. And even Joe Rogan said the same thing, only his was. His was on the other direction. He said there had been, as I gather. I don't listen, but I read the account that. That there was enough about crooks that was killed so quickly and we didn't know how. He just pranced in there. And I think his implication was there were people in the Secret Service detail who didn't take. They got the message that you don't really have to take as seriously as another candidate. You would. When it's Donald Trump. And the laxity was Deliberate, but I don't know exactly where he wanted to go with that.
Jack
What do you make of Obama's immediate or response that we don't have? Even though this manifesto is out, we don't have any details about the motives, etc. He tweeted or X'd commented.
Victor Davis Hanson
He does. He doesn't tell the truth, but he's oblivious. First of all, he's oblivious to how far he's fallen in the public mind. I know that the hard left still worships him. I don't know what contributed to it. The four mansions, the flying in from one of them to an event and then lecturing everybody with his inner city patois, telling people they're suffering from false consciousness or preaching about climate change and rising seas. And he has two coastal mansions. Everything about him is hypocritical. I go back to what he said. You know, he said he always projects. And he said two things right before he went for the presidency. He said, well, I wouldn't do this just to make money and to be famous. If I'm going to be president, I want to be consequential. Which meant he wanted to make money. And then he said afterwards, he, he said he, he gave an interview. I want to be very careful because that it, it's not a stereotypical, it may be a stereotypical slur unfairly of African American, but he said it. They asked him, what's your greatest weakness, remember? And he said, I'm lazy. I'm lazy. And then he said third. He would like a third term. Kind of odd because he was accusing Donald Trump of being a dictator, basically. But he would only do if he could phone it in from his basement. He could just not wear a tie. And that's exactly what he did with Joe Biden. The Obama people ran that administration.
Jack
Well, she's a, she was a force. She. The former first lady.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. I think it really hurt him to take that beautiful park in Chicago and bulldoze it and then make that, I think I called it a German flak tower, that horrible obelisk. And they're going to charge what, $25 admission and Valerie Jarrett, I guess he makes 600,000 or something running it. It's just the typical Obama Chicago Tony Resco deal on a great scale. Something about him. I just think that he's lost his sheen, he's lost his appeal. People even on the left don't pay any attention to him. Now,
Jack
Victor, before, I want to get your thoughts. Also related to the White House correspondence dinner on Jimmy Kimmel but did you ever attend a White House correspondent?
Victor Davis Hanson
I did once.
Jack
Was it with NR or was it with Fox?
Victor Davis Hanson
No, it was Carl Cannon, who's a wonderful person.
Jack
Oh, yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
And I was teaching at the Naval Academy. I didn't know him well, but he came to see me and he just said, have you ever been to the White House correspondence dinner? I said, no. And he said, would you like to go? And I said, one time I would. And so he said, I invited you. He was the president of that year. I think it was 2003. And that was kind of when Bush was at his apex. Right, right. It was, as I recall, it was right during the toppling of the statue and everything was going good in Iraq. And I went and I sat next to the guy that was in the Sopranos. Garofano or Garfield. The guy that died.
Jack
Yeah. James Galafini.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. And he was very. I just. He was eating. I could not believe what he ate. And then he asked me if he ate. He kept asking. And then behind me was Robert Duvall. And people just kept going to his table and bothering him. And finally he turned around and kind of looked at me, and a guy was waiting, and he said, is he this guy with you? I said, no, I'm just eating here. And he said, good. He said, do I ever go to your table? The guy said, what do you mean? Mr. Duvall, I'm a big fan. Do I ever go to your table and interrupt you eating? Now, you've seen that 10 people have interrupted me, and I was very gracious, but I'm not going to be gracious to you. You keep interrupting me and you won't leave. Please go, because you're not going to like it if you don't. And that was pretty good, I thought. And then I looked at the whole thing. It was at the Hilton and it was on tv. My daughter was in high school and she watched it on C span. And I thought, carl Cannon is a wonderful person. I was so happy that I got to at least say I could see it. But I said, I'm never going to go to this again.
Jack
Yeah, zoology.
Victor Davis Hanson
It was all these wannabe movie stars and everybody was. The nice thing about that was when I watched. Not there was nothing nice about this year's, but there was one revealing thing I should say is when they were all leaving, you saw all these we journalists and movie stars trying to steal the unopened wine and champagne off the table.
Jack
Well, it's a sin to throw food away.
Victor Davis Hanson
I thought, are you listening to your hero, Hasan Piker, he said, you know, theft is perfectly. Are you stealing these things because you want to hurt the what, the Hilton Corporation? I thought that was just, you know, I thought, well, they're so shell shocked, but this was a crime scene that they have post traumatic stress syndrome and they've got to steal the wine and the champag
Jack
and the dinner rolls.
Victor Davis Hanson
The stage.
Jack
We have to pay for our dinner rolls. Hey, folks, watchers, viewers, listeners, if you've studied enough history, you start to see a pattern. Nations don't lose their way overnight. They drift through debt and division until one day you realize the foundations you thought were permanent were never permanent at all. Today, America is spending at levels once reserved for wartime. We've normalized deficits that would have stunned earlier generations. And policymakers now debate whether the only path forward is more intervention, more printing and more distortion. But here's the historical truth. Every society that pushed its currency beyond discipline eventually paid a price. The wise, though they never waited for collapse, they prepared for the correction. And that's why so many thoughtful Americans, especially those nearing retirement or in retirement, are reallocating part of their wealth into something that has outlasted every paper experiment in human history. Physical gold, not as speculation but as insulation. Our reputation matters here at Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Which is why we're partnering with Allegiance Gold, a company distinguished by integrity, reliability and an A rating from the Better Business Bureau. For years, they've guided Americans through transparent education and longstanding relationships built on trust. And right now, they're extending a special liberty offered to our listeners and viewers to help you get started with real gold, whether your funds are in a retirement account or sitting in the bank. And if you believe as we do, that the best time to reinforce your position is before the storm becomes obvious. Call 8447-9091-9184-4790, 9191 or visit protectwithviktor.com that's 844-7909-191844-79091 or visit protectwithvict. History rewards those who take the long view. And we thank the good people from Allegiance Gold for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor, I want to ask get to Jimmy Kimmel, but I do want to say the National Review. Several years at the White House Correspondence Center. We took tables there. Did you, did you have a little
Victor Davis Hanson
booth afterwards, like the little party hallway?
Jack
We had parties beforehand. Some were up here. Oh, I have a. Well, I'm not going to grab it actually, I will grab it. I have a picture of me with Scalia. That's a Young Jack Valley, I don't know, 1990 something. But that's.
Victor Davis Hanson
Did you ever do it after 2003? If you did? I was not invited. Well, Victor, you lived in California, so I was expendable.
Jack
Yeah, but we would invite our advertisers and they loved, you know, the elbow shoulder rubbing. But what you said about Robert Duvall. Tom Selleck was our guest one year, and there was a line.
Victor Davis Hanson
I like Tom Selleck.
Jack
What? He's a great guy.
Victor Davis Hanson
He just.
Jack
He's been. He was terrific. To National Review.
Victor Davis Hanson
There was a line with the down under that was a great movie.
Jack
Yeah. I never saw. I saw.
Victor Davis Hanson
I like the soundtrack by the Greek composer. I think he was Greek. It was a beautiful soundtrack, I have to admit.
Jack
I never. I never saw it, but I did. Like, he did a. A TV movie about where he was Eisenhower preparing for D Day. And he was really, really good in that. Anyway, there was a line of like 15 people, all women, sorry, waiting to meet at. Just like with Duvall. One of them was the governor of Jersey. I forget her name. Christy. Christy Whitman. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.
Victor Davis Hanson
Oh, Tom.
Jack
Anyway, Victor, speaking of celebrities, Jimmy Kimmel, who's got a role in this kerfuffle. It's not a kerfuffle. It's his assassination attempt egged on by morons. You have thoughts about Jimmy Kimmel's response?
Victor Davis Hanson
Well, I mean, the worst part about it was not just what he said, that I think everybody remembers that he set up a little skit and Photoshopped himself at the dais of the White House correspondents as if he was Trump or somebody. And then they. They spliced shots of people that he doesn't like in the audience in unflattering ways. And you got the impression that they were actually there and listening to Jimmy Kimmel, which was kind of a dissimulation. And then he said that. Look at beautiful Melania. She has. And she was smiling the look of a soon to be bereaved widow. Something to that say, in other words, Donald Trump will either die or be shot. And she'll be probably kind of, ha, ha, berated. She'll be happy about it. And then when he. He got caught on it, then he lied and said, well, I was just thinking, maybe because she's so much younger than Donald Trump and he might die or. It was just pathetic. So there's two issues, and that is under the First Amendment. Does he have A right to say that as long as he doesn't threaten the life of the President? Absolutely. Does Disney have a prerogative? Yes. They can put him on there if they want. If they want to be that stupid, it's their choice. And do people have a choice to lobby to get him off? Yes. There's nothing he did unless he threatened the President. Maybe he was implying that, but. But no more than. Not as much as Madonna, I suppose. So he's a boar, he's talentless, he's a mean spirited person, but he has a right to sound off. And people have a right to say we don't want to buy, we want to go to Disneyland. We don't want to buy anything to do with Disney. We're done with you because you're putting this guy on to get ratings. And the more he's on there, the more he's foul mouthed, the more he hates Trump. And you all know that if Anybody, anybody said 25% of what he had said about Barack Obama, he would be yanked with a cane in two seconds off the stage. Remember the clown in the Missouri State Fair, Jack? They not only, all he did was he put an Obama mask on. It wasn't a racist black face or anything, it was just Obama's face. And they immediately banned him for life, as I remember from the fair, for life. And that was their prerogative. They wanted to do that, but we'll see. I think he does it because he thinks that he can't do anything. Everything else he's tried, his ratings have gone down. At least they've gone down enough that they don't justify his obscene salary and the cost of benefit analysis. He's like Colbert. They lose 40 or 50 million and they pay that guy 20 million or more, 30 million and he can't make any money for them. So it's kind of like, well, we're left wing and we want a left wing, you know, expensive, we can write it off or something but. So it's the same thing with all these people. They have the right to say whatever they want as long as they don't threaten the life of the President of the United States. But so boring.
Jack
I have not watched late night television, not that anyway, for years. And I did watch Johnny Carson and it was, you know, it was just humor and there was no sense of, with him, of self importance or self satisfaction.
Victor Davis Hanson
Just the opposite. Yeah, he banned people. Anybody who came in and act like he was a prima dama, he banned. And the other thing is they asked him Once, why don't you? In that period. It got very political during the Nixon years and they asked him, they said, why don't you go out? And he said, why would I want to offend half my audience? That's what Michael Jordan said. The same thing with Jordan. Why don't you be political? And even Steve, is it Steve Kerr, the coach of the warriors who could not keep his mouth shut about politics and principles and ethics. And then people reminded him, oh yeah, you go over to China and you play there and you're part of the NBA investment franchising Chinese teams and they've got a million people in a slave labor camp. That doesn't bother you, Mr. Morlus? And I only mention that because the other day he came out and he had an interview with a left wing interviewer and she was throwing these soft T ball swings for him, you know, and he kind of said, I was really shocked. He said, you know, I'm kind of wrong, what I did, I shouldn't get into politics. And, and the critics were right about the China thing. So I was surprised. So he got smart is what I'm trying to say.
Jack
Yeah, yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
And late night comedy is a joke now. They all, it's just, they're not very talented. This is small audience. You got 500 channels to watch. Other than that, you've got streaming people. We got Gutfeld is out, out. He's got a much better ratings than these guys do. And it's.
Jack
Well, okay. I don't know if it was a great American institution, but once upon a time it was fun and it was unthreatening.
Victor Davis Hanson
I never understood it though, because my parents would, my dad would watch it or he taught at the night school and he'd get home at 10:30 when I was in high school. Then they'd turn it on my mom and him, that generation, those guys would stay up till 11 and then they'd watch Carson. It started 11 after. They would watch the late night news. There was no 10 o' clock news then it was 11 and then it would be over at 11:30. Then they watch him for. They go to, you know, midnight and then my dad would say, up and out. He'd always imitate Dwight Eisenhower telling everybody not to, I mean, to vote for Dick. Nick Vector Alford now get up, get out and vote for Dick Nixon. I'm Ike, get up. And it would be six o' clock in the morning and I thought I just saw you when I went to bed at 10 and you stayed up till 11 all those guys did in that generation.
Jack
Hey, we sleep when we die is a motto for some of us. Hey, we've got. What else are we going to get your take on Victor? Well, let's. Anthony Fauci's lieutenant charge and Comey. Let's get to indictmenty things and we'll do that when we come back from these important messages.
Victor Davis Hanson
Since the founding of America 250 years ago, many things have changed.
Bradley Devlin
But some things never do.
Victor Davis Hanson
The commitment of husband and wife. The importance of passing along our values to our children.
Jack
The faithfulness of God.
Victor Davis Hanson
Some wonder how we can ensure America will continue to thrive as long as we keep first things first. We've only just begun.
Jack
America the Beautiful. Hello, folks. We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. I forgot to mention at the beginning of this episode that Victor has a website, the blade of Perseus. VictorHansen.com is the address. You should subscribe. When you do, you'll be able to read the exclusive articles two a week that Victor writes.
Victor Davis Hanson
I have a good one this week, Jack on Rod Serling. When I was in high school, he came to our house and what? Yeah, read it. Twilight Zone. And everybody got. My dad ran a lecture series and the little junior college and there was no motels in this little town where the college was. So we had a little farmhouse. And it was really embarrassing because we. I don't know why, but we could have afforded better, I thought. But I liked it. And the speakers would stay with us. And my dad didn't take any, he didn't charge tickets. But he used all of his money that he got from the college to pay these huge honorarium. And then he made us and friends set up chairs and do everything so he had no overhead. So Rod Serling was there. And then you're Dorvey doll. Once I wrote about it, I have it in the website. And then he went and everybody was so excited because it was Night Gallery had started, right? And he just went on a harangue about lbj. And then he got into the Vietnam War and then Richard Nixon. I don't even think Nixon was president yet. But the point I'm making is that everybody got angry in this little community. He got 3,000 people to come and they were asking questions. Like on that one episode when the guy sees the monster out in the wing. Wasn't that Star Trek guy? It was William Shatner, right, Shatner. And he goes, I'm not going to talk about this. And he smoked the whole time. And so my dad was Just kind of cringing because he was the forum director. And so we got. The next day the guy came home and he didn't. They usually had drinks after at our house and he would bite some college guys and he just went to bed and the whole house smelled like. I mean, my dad smoked in the house, but this guy smoked four or five packs a day and he smoked during the lecture. And so the next day I got up at six in the morning as being told to get out and vote for Dick Nixon. And they took him to the airport at 6, Fresno Airport. And then he came back and I had to go to school. And I said, I feel bad for you, dad. Well, he gave a lecture, he honored his contract. He showed up on time. And then I didn't know what was going on. So I said, well, what's going on, Victor? I talked to him. When I drove him over in his little putt putt my dad a putt putt 122s Volvo could barely 200,000 miles on it. That man fought at Leyte Golf the campaign. He invaded the Philippines. He was there when your first cousin Belden got sick on the island. He is a war hero and we were trading war stores. And I admire that guy. He never brings it up. And he said, yeah, he smokes. Everybody smoke. But that guy had to go through and he was the nicest guy in the world. And he fulfilled his contract. And I said, yeah, but he didn't talk about what 3,000 people said, well, you know, you lose some, you win some. But he was a great man. I thought that was pretty magnanimous in my dad.
Jack
A big day. And that was Reedley. Yes, Reedley.
Victor Davis Hanson
Gore Vidal. We had a lot of good speakers. Gore Vidal, Louis Leakey, Pearl Buck. I met them all.
Jack
Pearl Buck stayed at your house?
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes. Wow. Awfully cool.
Jack
So, Victor, let's get your take now on a couple of. I'll call them criminal matters, because they are criminal. The first is today the Justice Department announced that James Comey has been indicted for that Instagram post he made last year, 8647. I don't know what that meant. The Justice Department is saying he damn well knew what he meant. I, I have not seen anything specific about the charges, Victor. It just came out, but I don't
Victor Davis Hanson
think that's going to stick. Yeah, because, well, just to remind everybody, James Comey had. He had. He thought he was Frederick Nietzsche for a while or Kilgard or some philosopher. So on his little X account or Twitter, then he would Put little philosophical. And so he would walk. You had pictures where he would walk on the beach in contemplation. Socrates Jr. Whatever he was. And he claimed that he saw some arranged rocks. Now, all of us in our lives have been to beaches, and I would challenge any of you to say that you saw some political message with painted rocks. So the implication was that he had done that and then he wanted to take a picture and then get some buzz and, you know, 86, 47. So he would say in his defense three things. You don't know what I meant by 86. 86 came to mean kill somebody in some communities. However, it originally was a bar term to 86 somebody out of a bar where you were drunk or rowdy or just to beat them up or to eject them. So I took that meaning, number one, let's eject Donald Trump and make sure he doesn't win. That's what he'll say. Or number two, he will say, I told you, I was just walking on the beach and I was shocked that somebody would say that. So I wanted to bring it to everybody's attention, so I just took a picture. I'm not guilty of anything. Or number three, he would say, blank, you people, this is America. And I can say what I want. The first two will get him off. But I think what Donald Trump is trying to do, I don't mean Donald Trump, but the doj, they're trying to reestablish deterrence in the sense that you put Donald Trump through four years of civil and criminal jeopardy and you find him at one time over $500 million, and you tried to destroy him, and they were all cooked up. These have more legitimacies than yours do. But we want to send you a message. You like this. That's all I can think. Because this seems to be much weaker than the 2025 indictment in which he went to Congress under oath and said he could not remember 245 times. And I think a good prosecutor could demonstrate that he knew the answers to those questions. He had to as director of the FBI. And yet he claimed it was like Robert Mueller when they asked him what the Steele dossier was. I don't know. It had nothing to do with that. That was the whole thing that funded his investigation. So I don't think it's going to work with the First Amendment, but it has a deterrent effect. Whether it's a good one or not, I don't know. But I'll give you one example. During the first Trump administration, there were CIA Director Hayden and former General Hayden, former General Mattis, former General McRaven, former Admiral McRaven, former Admiral. We had. What's his name? The guy that got Saddam mc. You know, McRae, you know, there were five Scottish names and McChrystal. Yeah, absolutely. There was McChrystal and then there was McGaffrey. And they, I'm not going to attribute each one, but collectively they said that he should be removed sooner than later, even though we had scheduled elections. One of them called him Nazi. Like another person said he was a liar. Another said he was a dictator. Another said that he was analogous to Auschwitz. They put a little picture and that was all in violation of Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It said that it is a court martial offense, including retired officers, to disparage the President of the United States. And nothing happened. Nothing happened. And so I thought, I guess they can disparage him. And then when he came back and they started to go after some of these people, guess what I've noticed. Have you noticed that? Maybe our listeners have noticed it as well. We have not seen one of these four star generals or admirals say that Donald Trump is a fascist, he's Hitler. Like he's analogous to the people at Auschwitz, that he's a liar, that he's like Mussolini. I think McCaffrey said he was a Mussolini type because he canceled the subscription at the Pentagon of the Washington Post, something like that. So that's what.
Jack
Maybe they're busy reading Kenji's books.
Victor Davis Hanson
Victor. Yeah, And I mean, and they. I have. And I tell you another example, when Trump was enduring this law fair, Mark Milley really lambasted him. In fact, right during the 2024 campaign when one of the last interviews Milley gave, he said that Donald Trump was one of the worst people and he was a fascist. A fascist. He called the President of the United States the ex president. But here's my point. As soon as he was reelected, has anybody heard Mark Milley say one word no. And he mouthed off. When Donald Trump was president, remember, he said, according to a book that he called his Chinese counterpart, interrupted the chain of command, which was illegal. He had no such jurisdiction as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, which is an advisory role, and said, you know, Donald Trump, when he calls me, he might want to go nuclear or something, and I'll call you first and warn you. It's basically what he said. Anybody who had done that would have been fired and court martialed. But my point is they're all quiet now, because they know Pete Hexseth will. And this is my point. I'm sorry to be so laborious, but when Mark Kelly and those guys cut that film and they basically told individual soldiers, quite disingenuously, you have in your prerogative the right to disobey an order that you feel is legal in theory may be legally correct, but that is such a rare occasion. And there are so many criteria before you be insubordinate like that that almost nobody does it. But when they were advocating that, the Pentagon really tried to go after them, and they sent a message. And I haven't heard Mark Kelly say anything else, because they said to him, you are a retired Navy captain and you are subject to Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. And if you basically message was, if you call him more names and he's a dictator and he's a serving president, we're going to court martial and lose your pension. And I haven't heard him say anything since they went after him. Well,
Jack
thank you for all that, Victor. Back on Comey. One last thought.
Victor Davis Hanson
Can I ask you a question before we proceed?
Jack
Is this going to be about anyone I know personally?
Victor Davis Hanson
Does it have anything to do with Patrick Fitzgerald? Gerald?
Jack
No. No, it does not.
Victor Davis Hanson
Were they your Catholic chums in college?
Jack
Patrick was my classmate in high school, yes. And Andy McCarthy's brother Chris was also. Yeah. Pat was.
Victor Davis Hanson
You know, he was the one that tormented our friend Conrad Black.
Jack
Conrad Black, yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
And my. My other great friend. You're really a wonderful person, Scooter Libby.
Jack
Yeah, that. I.
Victor Davis Hanson
That was deeply troubling. But was Comey. Did he go to the same college as you did?
Jack
No, he. What is this, you think Fordham? Because I went to Fordham for one year and Brennan went to Fordham. That poisons everyone.
Victor Davis Hanson
Are you accusing me of saying that all Catholic Irish boys look alike?
Jack
You paint with a broad brush sometimes, my friend. So.
Victor Davis Hanson
A joke.
Jack
I know it is. I know it is. Let's just stick to Comey for one last second.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah.
Jack
I think he sees himself as an actor in a drama.
Victor Davis Hanson
He does. Yeah, absolutely.
Jack
That was it.
Victor Davis Hanson
He's a catalyst. He thinks he's transitioned from protecting us at the FBI, now as a private citizen. Comey, he's got his buckler, and he's going to convert. He's going to confront the forces of darkness under Donald Trump. Absolutely. Yeah. He wears a cape. Yeah.
Jack
Okay. Victor, I have to give our listeners and viewers a message. Everything we carry today is broadcasting a signal. Your phone, your laptop, even your car key. Fob. Most people don't realize it, but these devices are constantly sharing location data identifiers and wireless handshakes. With networks all around you, that signal can be tracked, collected or intercepted, making you and your data vulnerable. That's just the reality of the world we live in now. And that's why you should start using Silent. You don't want big tech, the government, or anyone else knowing your every move. You want control over when you're connected and what you share. And when you place your phone, laptop or key fob in a silent Faraday bag, the signal instantly stops. No cellular, no WiFi, no Bluetooth, no GPS. Your device is disconnected from the grid grid. And here's the part that really got our attention. Silent has been awarded nine military contracts. This is the same type of signal blocking gear used to help protect our soldiers from GPS detection and electronic threats. And now that same technology is available for everyday people just like you. Just like Victor. If you want to check it out, go to silent.comvdh Now I'm going to have to spell silent. That's silent. S. Here's how it's spelled. S slashnt.comvdh to save 15% plus free shipping on qualifying orders. Again, that's silent. S l n t.comvdh and we thank the good people from Silent for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own making fun of Irish New Yorkers words.
Victor Davis Hanson
I'm half Irish.
Jack
I know you are, Victor. And Wells, my brother. My. My brother of the. The Green Island. So, Victor, let's talk about Anthony Fauci, who also went to Regis High School and Holy Cross. Okay.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, I thought there was. You were trying to give them some type of attention based on that.
Jack
Yeah, yeah, that's why I'm doing it. It's the only reason we're going to talk about Anthony Fauci is because I went to his high school. Here's the headline from the Daily Mail. Top Anthony Fauci adviser indicted for criminal conspiracy against. And folks, I'll shut up in a second. Just let me read the beginning of this. Anthony Fauci's top former. Top former aide has been indicted for conspiracy against the US after he allegedly concealed and falsified information to suppress alternative theories of COVID 19's origins. This is Dr. David Morens, who is 78, of Chester, Maryland, was charged by the Department of Justice on Tuesday morning, the day we're talking.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, this is a very different. This is a very different case than Cohen. Me, because when I listened to him, I think some of Our listeners may have saw clips of it or listened to him. When he was before Congress under oath, people asked him about the Freedom of Information act, and he said under oath that he had ways that he had learned to erase emails and incriminating documents so that he could legitimately say that when there was a request from an investigative journalist or just the general public and they wanted to know about the origins of COVID or any of these things that Fauci was involved in, he hid them or destroyed the evidence, and he didn't honor those FOIA requests. So if that's true, that's an open shut case. There's either he either did it or didn't, and there will be evidence, forensic evidence with the documents. There'll be records that, yes, we got your request. Yes, we found the documents. Yes, we sent in it, yes, we got your request. We never honored it. There are no documents there. And I have testified in Congress, I had a way to disguise them or hide them or get rid of them. So that's a factual matter. It's not a matter of opinion. Fauci, when you have those first set of emails between him and Francis Collins and a few others in the first week or two after it was revealed about the cold Covid genesis and Wuhan, remember those incriminating emails where they basically said, oh my gosh, do you think it's going to, you know, basically, if I want to pair Peter Dasak too, we gave money and along with the money, no doubt instrumentation and green light for people to corroborate with the Chinese and I will this, will this come out? And they were talking openly. At the same time they were telling us that the Wuhan lab had nothing to do with it, that it was a pangolin or bat from, I don't know, bat from 100 miles away and a pangolin in a wet market or something. Nobody really believed that. Not when There was a Security 4 lab right there in Wuhan run by the PLA very quickly and some of the people had disappeared that were in the initial cohort who let it get out or something. So I think he's in a lot of jeopardy. I think Fauci would be in a lot of jeopardy. I would want to make a plug that to replace Fauci at the Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. They have tentatively, I think, are considering Stephen Quay, who was a Stanford, Michigan trained, but he was at Stanford University. That's where I met him. And he's written a book for Encounter Press about the origins of COVID Very courageous book and showed from its molecular DNA imprint that it was almost impossible to have occurred with that genetic sequence in the wild. It was just too convenient that all of the DNA choices matched up to make it more infectious, et cetera, more dangerous. And he's up for Fauci's old job. And I hope that Trump can either they can confirm him, why they have the Senate and I hope they maintain the Senate in the midterms. But he would be a wonderful replacement.
Jack
You had him on at least three episodes.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes, I've had him on our podcast. I have. And he's. He's very good. He's terrific. The reason I sound hesitant that I feel like I have the unmightest touch, because when I said that our other friend who's been on Max Nikias, he would have been the ideal. I mean, where do you get an immigrant that came with nothing from Cyprus? And then he became a very well known stellar engineer. And then he worked his way up from faculty to dean to all the way up in the command and he ran USC brilliantly. And he would been an ideal. He's a very strong conservative. He's very favorable to Trump. He would have been a wonderful ambassador to Cyprus. But I just maybe, I hope next
Jack
time Donald Trump calls you, I think he.
Victor Davis Hanson
But I think we've already appointed one to Cyprus.
Jack
We have, yes. Yeah. I think it's a career.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, Career.
Jack
No, no, it was, you know, Brent Bozell, who's our friend and he's now the ambassador to South Africa, was talking about this. It is a significant financial commitment on behalf of the ambassador who has to pay for many things that go on.
Victor Davis Hanson
I didn't know that.
Jack
Yeah, it is.
Victor Davis Hanson
That makes it a little bit because you always get the impression they appoint big campaign donors. But maybe part of that reasoning is, is that these people are expected to pay for the entertainment and stuff like that.
Jack
Yeah. Every cracker, every little cube of cheese. I think it's coming from the ambassador's pocket.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah. But anyway, Stephen Quay would be a wonderful replacement for Quay for Fauci.
Jack
One last thing about the erase Victor erasing these emails. Good for the goose, good for the gander. It was okay for Hillary to erase email and Joe Biden, the biographer.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes.
Jack
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yep. You know, and it's not. Oh, and remember the Mueller, the Mueller investigation, the FBI who subpoenaed phones and we found out that they couldn't find the phone. The records were erased. Peter, Peter Stroke, Lisa Page, all those people. People. So that's okay. If you're on the left and you're in that nexus of Washington, New York. There's certain exemptions that you deserve and one of them is you can destroy evidence with impunity.
Jack
Well, Victor, another topic to get your take on and it's maybe, I think there'll be, obviously there will be more to talk about later on. When the Virginia Supreme Court held hearings Yesterday, Monday the 27th, on oral arguments on the redistricting referendum that passed last week. And by all news accounts, the justices seem to have it out for not have it out. It was not a good day for the Democrats arguing for this, what they did. There seem to be many improper things that happened in the process leading up to the actual referendum. Special sessions of the legislature that were extended but really weren't extended. I think there were two or three criteria and the justices seem to be not having it. So maybe this gerrymandering will be the referendum results will be tossed.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, that map was really egregious. They had to stretch districts across the state and everything. I, I think the left attitude, I mean Donald Trump said Texas should redistrict, but when you looked at states that were blue like Massachusetts or Illinois or California, before we were going to redistrict, they did not represent anywhere near the Republican votes in national elections like our Senate or governor. By that I mean California usually gets about 40 to 43% Republican or conservative vote. And we were getting seven and nine seats. 11, seven, nine out of our congressional, 53 seats. You know, it wasn't even close. And now we're going to go from 17%, I think with a new district being probably down to nine and the same thing. I think Massachusetts has one Republican congressperson or two. None, none. Illinois, what do they have? One. So Trump and all his team looked at that and said in all these blue states, they're not even making an effort to create fair districts. That would be natural geographical entities. That would might also because a lot of them bragged that they had a non partisan redistricting body which was all stocked by left wing people and left wing Republicans basically. But so they said we're going to the only avenue we have to even is in red states. We're going to do what they did and that's what they tried to do in Texas. But even Texas will not be as egregious as California or Massachusetts or Illinois or Virginia. So we'll see what happens. And now of course, Florida is going to do it. Hikem Jeffries, getting back to Hikem Jeffries, here he does this kind of threatening thing. You're going to regret this. And then he got in a tiff with Ron DeSantis. Ron DeSantis, as far as his capabilities as a politician and an executive, I mean, it's no comparison with Hike Jeffries. He doesn't know what's going on. But it's a mess. And, and this is all a prelude to the 2030 census because given this massive flight of 3 to 4 million people a year from the failed blue state model to the successful red state, they're going to lose 10 seats anyway demographically. And people should remember that because that is an unspoken subtext to the open borders. Because they were letting in 10 to 12 million people people, whatever the exact figure under Biden were. And they were at the same time in many states arguing that residents, not citizens, would count for the census. And we'll see. And with the mail in balloting. So that was one of the ways they were trying to counteract the fact that they did not have a persuasive agenda that people wanted trans the wall. They were against all the things that were polling well and, and they were going to lose big time because they were losing millions of people that were going to be in the census. So the idea was, well, let in all these people in the southern border and maybe we can kind of finesse them as people to be counted in the census. And remember the Republicans said you can only count citizens. Oh, no, they're residents. I think that's under litigation. And then they thought, you know, with a balloting without IDs and mail in and early voting, we'll get some of these guys. A lot of them defend vote. But again, it's an indication that they do not have an agenda, that they're confident in. One of the common denominators of all this hatred of Donald Trump and Robert De Niro mouthing off and George Clooney and Kimmel is not one of them in entertainment or Ratskin or this crazy. Your crazy Senator Murphy.
Jack
Yes, my crazy Senator. Yes.
Victor Davis Hanson
They never said. They never say. And I disagree with Donald Trump and here's my plan for the border. I disagree with the way he's reducing crime. I have a better way. I disagree with our foreign policy abroad. Here's how I would get out of Ukraine. They never do that because whatever they would suggest would be so ridiculous that nobody would want it. And so then they say, okay, we've got to do what James Carville did. He's right. We got to be quiet, we got to act like we're normal. And then when we get in there, we got to pack the court, we got to get in two new seats and four senators, we got to get rid of the filibuster, we got to get the national voting compact and get rid of the electoral college because we can't win under the existing system because we're bleeding too many people to blue states and we can't change. We know that it's not working, but the medicine to change it is worse than the disease. And that's where they are now. It's very ironic because we were always told when I was growing up and you were growing up, that the post Confederacy south and some of the weird states like Arizona or Nevada, they were just not American. They were just not like the old industrial North Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, the beautiful New England founder states, all that stuff. And yet it's very ironic that the people came out of Jim Crow in the civil rights movement and the new south ended up to be a much less prejudicial place. When I say 4 or 5 million people are leaving, I'm talking about African Americans too. They are leaving the inner city to go back to small towns where their grandparents lived in the south because they think it's safer for their children and they'll get better jobs at higher pay. The blue state, it's just a suicide point.
Jack
When I first got married, Sharon and I lived in Spotsylvania, Virginia, which I know people in Georgia don't think that's the south, but when you're from the Bronx, it's the Deep South. And my perspective on race was that New York City, where I grew up, the Bronx was much more racial, racial, much more obsessed with race than when I lived in Virginia for six or seven years.
Victor Davis Hanson
Same thing as here. Our town is predominantly, probably the census doesn't reflect it. I bet with our illegal community, it's 85% Mexican national and Mexican American. But racial relations or ethnic relations, whatever term we use, are much better here than when I go to Stanford University. Everybody wears their tribal identification on their sleeve. Everybody's looking to be offended. Everybody's looking at microaggressions, insidious, implicit racism. Not here. It's just, it's a natural diversity. Nobody cares. That was our legacy of Barack Obama until 2008. We were making enormous progress and making race incidental. When you look back at Larry Bird and Magic Johnson rivalry or Michael Jordan, all that era in the NBA, there was none of the fists, you know, don't salute the flag, all the Politicalization. It just didn't. It didn't happen. It all came under with Obama. He was the one that accentuated race ad nauseam.
Jack
Well, we have two more topics. We don't have a lot of time left, and one's a very quick little slice I just want to throw at you. And then I do want to get your take on. The King of England is here this week. And Donald Trump has had some remarkable things to say about the relations of the US and the UK but first, since we're talking about my high school, my college, where my, my senator, I want to talk about my congresswoman, Rosa DeLauro.
Victor Davis Hanson
Is that your congresswoman? Oh, yes, the purple hair.
Jack
Purple hair, yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
How old is she? In her 80s.
Jack
She is in her 80s. Yeah, she is. She was the waitress at the Last Supper, but she's the head ranking Democrat on the HHS Appropriations Committee. I don't know if you saw the clip I did with Lee Zeldin. Lee Zeldin is so good. He really.
Victor Davis Hanson
He carved her up and baked her and had her for dinner.
Jack
Yeah, folks, you should check it out. Go search it. And it was about Lise Eldon schooling this congresswoman. She's been there for 40 years on climate policy and the law and. Have you ever read the law, Congresswoman?
Victor Davis Hanson
So he's, he cited it chapter and verse. And then he said something. It was about Roundup and a couple Supreme Court cases. Yeah. About drinking it. And she said, why don't you basically. She's basically said, why don't you kill yourself? Right.
Jack
Kill yourself.
Victor Davis Hanson
And this was kind of doubly obnoxious since Lee Zeldin is a cancer survivor. He's been, he's, he's survived cancer, as
Jack
I remember, and an assassination, an assassination attempt.
Victor Davis Hanson
So that was kind of in bad taste if she knew what she was saying. But she embarrassed herself. But it's very funny how all these. I mean, if you came from a different planet and you looked at the Democratic people, how they interrogate witnesses, I mean, even when Kennedy does it in Louisiana, he's got humor about it. You know what I mean? It is. And even Rand Paul does in his weird way way. But these people start foaming at the mouth and they get hysterical. Cory Booker, Jasmine Crock, they just go nuts. And she did, too. And they can't. The worst is Elizabeth Warren. She's so shrill and she has no sense of humor or complexity to her character. It's just she's mad at the world. They're all mad at the world.
Jack
It Kind of reminds you of Orwell with the two minute hate.
Victor Davis Hanson
Right?
Jack
But that two minute hate is Emmanuel Goldstein every two minutes.
Victor Davis Hanson
I hate Goldstein. Yeah, yeah. That's who they are. And they're very angry people. And I.
Jack
Well, let's, let's get your. Take, Victor, as we close out on the US UK special relationship, which I think talking a week ago, actually we were. And a few of the recent episodes of. About how special is this, given what has happened in Iran? And Trump has said some things implying like, hey, if the Falkland Islands comes up again, you're on your own, suckers. He didn't say it like that. But anyway, the impression's out there. But the King and the Queen visit and I'm going to read two things. This is from Breitbart. Today, President Trump hailed, quote, the two most exceptional nations the world has ever known, end quote, as he First Lady Melania welcomed the royal couple, et cetera, et cetera. Now, here's what Trump. Just one nugget from his speech that he gave. For nearly two centuries before the revolution, this land was settled and forged by men and women who bore in their souls the blood and noble spirit of the British. Here on a wild and untamed continent, they set loose the ancient English love of liberty and Great Britain's distinctive sense of glory, destiny and pride. The American patriots who pledged their lives to independence in 1776 with the heirs to this majestic inheritance, their veins ran with Anglo Saxon curse.
Victor Davis Hanson
Oh, my gosh. They use the as word.
Jack
Yeah, yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
I thought you couldn't use that word anymore. Anglo Saxon.
Jack
Yeah, well, Don Donald Trump did. So
Victor Davis Hanson
I think it's been 40 year, 50 years since Crocker citizens changed their thing from Crocker Anglo Bank. Remember, remember that here in California, the Crocker, it was always Crocker Anglo Bank. But you weren't supposed to say Anglo because that was kind of a really deft description. And I read the whole thing, too, and it was sort of like, well, we rejected the British system because we wanted a bill of Rights and we wanted all. We were much freer than you guys, but we're also you guys. So that's the way to handle it, too. We owe a lot to you because you created us. It's just that we differed when you wanted to control us, but now that you don't control us, we're the same people, basically the same system. It was a good speech. And the King, he's trying to echo the Reagan, Thatcher years, the Churchill, Roosevelt years, all of that in the past. Past, and he's got a problem, and that is twofold. 40% of London is Islamic and somewhere from 8 to 12% of the population is Islamic, but more so in the cities, almost as much as anywhere in Europe. And they have a green cult that has destroyed their economy with wind and soul. Anybody been to Britain and it's not a good place to have solar panels. And they have a lot of natural gas and oil still in the north. And they're not developing it, they're not using nuclear to the full capacity. And they got into open borders and they got into the Low Fertility. I think they're 1.3 or 1.4. They have no defense. The portal HMS Dragon, he was kind of like the Little child book, remember they. The train that thought he could chug, chug over the top of the hill. Well, they sent the Dragon to Cyprus, right? The portal of ship wasn't ready, and then they needed to go into dry dock. But it was. The union said, we don't work on weekends. And then the government said, we can't afford to pay overtime. So Little Dragon didn't leave until Monday. And 20 days later it showed up kind of late. I think the Turks or somebody said, well, we'll do it.
Jack
And.
Victor Davis Hanson
And anyway, that's what Britain is. And they've got this lunatic prime minister who said, this is not our war and you're not going to go to Diego Garcia. We're going to sell it or give it. I don't think they're going to get any money very much for it. And we're going to not let you use this and that. And so that's the new relationship right now. And the question is, he's very unpopular, Stormer, but does he and his party and his ideology represent the majority of people in England? I hope not. But if he does, he's going to go the way of U.S. relations with Canada because that Anglo model, and even Australia. Australia was more American than it was English, I thought, at least in spirit, not in traditions and institutions. But that model of, of no nuclear family, declining fertility, open borders, unaudited mass immigration, green power, tyranny, critical race, critical legal theory, euthanasia, all that stuff. Socialists, high taxes, high. You know, it's California, it's New York. It's a prescription for disaster. And their whole country countries, and there's nowhere to go in those countries. I guess every time an Englishman says, I can't take Manchester or London, I'm going to go to my little cottage out in the Midland somewhere. They say well, we're going to locate,
Jack
you know, they do that, 250 immigrants, non immigrants, in the local hotel.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yeah, my poor daughter, you know, she had a little tiny 1100 square foot house in Santa Cruz and then they put a halfway house two houses down from prison convicts because they want to put them in residential areas with families. And then she moved and she couldn't take it. And I'm helping her up in the mountains above the foothills above Sacramento. And what are they going to do? This beautiful countryside, there's four neighbors, they're all refugees basically from the Bay Area. They have kids, they have chickens and sheep on their little one acre. It's just an ide. Idyllic kind of English pastoral. And they want to relocate a halfway house out there. And it's deliberate in California. Obama started that. The idea is that none of you people who think you can get away from the homeless and the inner city crime and all of the problems and go out, we're going to follow you and make life miserable for you. And that's what they do.
Jack
It's a liberal way. And it happened a long time ago in Yonkers, famous federal housing. We're going to put it in your neighborhood and New York City right now, we're going to put prisons, we're going to close down Rikers island, which is on an island, by the way, that's why they call it Rikers Island. And we're going to put prisons in every borough. And they do.
Victor Davis Hanson
There was a very, I won't mention the name, but there's a very famous state of the art surgical center in Fresno. And I knew one of the guys that owned it or founded it. And I said, well, every time I come here for a procedure, it's packed, packed. Everybody wanted to go there because it was so state of the art. It was like a. And it took everybody, Medicare, Medi Cal, anything. But I said, why don't you guys expand? He said, well, we'd love to expand, but we're only allowed to expand in certain areas. And I said, what do you mean? He said, for us to put another 50 rooms here, we have to put 50 rooms there. And where it was was one of the most high crime rates rate, you know what I mean? Really difficult neighborhood. And that was. The Obama administration started that. And it's like, we're not going to let a bunch of people have a nice beautiful surgical center which is open to anybody. We're going to put it here. And of course the people who said we're going to put it here. Would never go there themselves. Yeah, sure.
Jack
Or want their daughter to be a
Victor Davis Hanson
nurse that wants to go there, get
Jack
out of her car and get into her car late at night.
Victor Davis Hanson
Nope, nope, nope, nope. All right, Victor.
Jack
Well, I have. We're here crossing the home stretch down the home stretch or whatever the home stretch I have for so many people. Hundreds, hundreds, thousands Write comments on YouTube and your site Rumble and other places. So I have a few I'd like to read as we do as our tradition here. Liam 77m5u writes, I pray for Victor. We all walk through this life by the grace and love of God, trusting him to fulfill his purposes in us. God bless you, Victor. So many people write comments.
Victor Davis Hanson
That was very nice. I took my blood biopsy test Friday and that will tell if I have if it got out of my lung. So it's circulating DNA tests. It's state of the art. It's available in all over the United States now. Signa Terra. But I'm really kind of nervous because this mutation is untreatable by chemo or immunotherapy. So I'm in this kind of anxious. Do I dare go to the portal and see if the results are in yet?
Jack
Yeah.
Victor Davis Hanson
So I'll know next time we're on whether it's still negative or it's positive.
Jack
Many praying for you throughout. Darlene Pambin 7777 writes, Victor is very handsome and super smart. He's the only one I can listen to in an entire video.
Victor Davis Hanson
Video.
Jack
I hope Mrs. Hansen doesn't get jealous from that winners Creed 6767 writes, who's talked about shoplifting on a recent episode Shoplifting isn't only Cool Shoplifting Shoplifting is only cool when you're between the ages of 9 and 12. After that, it's out of a desperate need or an overblown sense of self importance that the laws don't apply to you. And this final comment from Bird Brain J. I don't know, it's kind of funny. He writes, well, I think it's him. I'm sure they'll blame Trump because sometimes he curses. I'm surprised that's all he does, the way he's been treated. Sometimes I feel I won't make it to heaven because of all the hate I have and what a grouch I am. I'm actually a very nice person, but if you push the right buttons, I become pretty crazy. But not to the point of the Democrats and their demented sick actions. So Bird Brain Shay. That's kind of cool. Yeah, that's funny.
Victor Davis Hanson
The thing about shoplifting, we were from a generation where it wasn't something anybody did. And if you did. I remember when I was in junior high school. No, it wasn't even junior. Yeah, it was junior high school, sixth to eighth grade. There was something called the dairy right next to it. You know, kind of a open air 7 11. You would drive through and they would. It was kind of weird. And everybody would swarm as soon as school was over. And they were all good kids, they were honest. But there was a couple that always would steal stuff, right? And so I would get. I said to my mom once, you know, I was there and I spent my whole 50 cents on a Nestle's Crunch bar and an IC. She should have said, and that's why you're not going to have any teeth at 72 or you've got all those implants. But nevertheless. And then. What's his name? I gave the name. I saw him take a Nestle's Crunch bar. I'm sure he did. And he never pays for it, and he gets twice as well. And she said, you saw him take that? I said, yes, I think I did. And she said, and you didn't go tell the owner that he was stealing? I said, well, wouldn't I be a rat? And she said, no, you would be an upstanding citizen. So you're not allowed to go back to that dairy unless you tell him or her who's running it, that there are people in your crowd who are shoplifting. You don't have to name the name. So I go back over there next time. I said, Mrs. Smith, I feel really bad, but I think I've seen some people after school that's so crowded you're not able to monitor them all. And I think they take things. She said, oh, thank you so much. I know that. I see them do it. I don't know. Do you have any names? I said, well, I don't know. I don't have to tell you the names because I don't have. It's only. I was like 12 years. It's circumstantial evidence. My mom said it would be circumstantial evidence. But the point I'm making is that most people thought that no matter what your income or your status, that was one of the worst things you could do was go in and steal something from somebody. You know what I mean? Every time I go to the supermarket and I get cans and I do things and the other about three years ago, I had dog food, like 30 cans and they didn't fit in the cart and I put like two cans underneath on top. And I got out and they didn't let off the alarm, I guess. And so I was driving home and I thought, oh my God, there's two cans of dog food. They're not in the box. So I turned around, parked the car, walked all the way in to the supermarket and I said, I don't know why it happened, but these are two cans. And she said, keep it. I said, keep it. And she said, well, I can't tell whether I can't run through my system. I don't know whether you did or didn't. Don't worry about this. And I said, why? And she said, well, I remember you and you've left a bunch of stuff here in sacks. When we have the little. You've left a lot of your stuff and we never went out and told you. I said, okay, there you go. I think just to finish Jack, I think as civilization seems to be imploding, all of us, all of our listeners feel that they have to be hyper legalistic. When they go to the shopping parking lot, they want to put that cart right back where it belongs. They don't want to throw any need Kleenex on the ground. They want to make sure they don't do rolling stops. I just feel like there's a whole movement now that feels that we're living in a lawless, chaotic world and each according to their station, from the trivial to the existential. They're going to try to be upstanding citizens and follow the law and hope that that resonates with the lawless. It sounds crazy, but I don't know what's gotten into me. But I go to the supermarket, I take my card all the way back. I always did, but now I try to take one or two at the same time. I just feel like the whole civilization is collapsing and we all have got to. And that is in relation to shoplifting. When I heard the Hassan piker, I almost vomited listening to him.
Jack
Just quickly, first of all, go to civilthoughts.com and sign up, please. It's a free weekly email newsletter I write for the center for Civil Society and it comes out every Friday and has 14 or 15 recommended readings. You're going to like it. We're not selling your name. So civilthoughts.com I get emails all week from folks who love it, so you will too. I just want to say on the pushing the shopping carts back. Victor, there's a guy on, I don't know if it's Instagram or wherever, but he's got these magnets and if he sees someone that hasn't put the card back in the rack, he goes over to the, confronts the person in a comical kind of Karen way and puts this magnet on the car that says something like, I'm a loser. Can't push like something like that. And of course the people get in a confrontation with them. But it's kind of. Why do you, why are you, are you too good to put the cart back in? Right? Are you too. Is that tissue too heavy to carry to the garbage?
Victor Davis Hanson
Absolutely. It's a broken, you know, we're going back to the broken windows theory of policing. You're in New York. You, you know that the more you fixate on the fringes of civility, don't commit a felony, but it's very important not to commit, not just not commit a misdemeanor, but not make things difficult for other people. Amen. And if everybody does that, then you get a sense that it's.
Jack
Yeah, society's. The wheel's coming off the bus.
Victor Davis Hanson
Yes.
Jack
Anyway, you've been terrific, Victor. You always are. Thanks for all the wisdom you shared, folks. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hansen in his Own Words.
Victor Davis Hanson
Bye bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like share and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website@victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.
Podcast: Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Episode: Trump Assassination Attempt, Kimmel’s WHCD Joke, Comey & Fauci Indictments, and the UK Visit
Host: Victor Davis Hanson
Date: April 30, 2026
Network: The Daily Signal
In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson delves into recent political and cultural developments, focusing on the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, the media and celebrity reactions to political violence, the indictments of James Comey and Anthony Fauci’s aide, and recent U.S.–UK relations. Hanson contextualizes current events within larger historical, cultural, and political trends, bringing his characteristic combination of scholarship, directness, and wry humor.
[06:11–13:22]
[23:01–26:46]
[34:18–44:08]
[45:53–52:12]
[62:46–70:15]
On political violence:
"He's as depraved or not depraved as all these other people. The only difference is he took it one step further." — Hanson (09:03)
On free speech and double standards:
"You all know that if anybody, anybody said 25% of what he had said about Barack Obama, he would be yanked with a cane in two seconds off the stage." — Hanson (01:48, 24:45)
On Jimmy Kimmel:
"He's a boar, he's talentless, he's a mean-spirited person, but he has a right to sound off. And people have a right to say we don't want to buy... we're done with you because you're putting this guy on to get ratings." — Hanson (24:20)
On Britain:
"They have a green cult that has destroyed their economy with wind and solar... they have no defense." — Hanson (67:12)
On civility:
"All of us, all of our listeners feel that they have to be hyper legalistic... I just feel like the whole civilization is collapsing and we all have got to ... try to be upstanding citizens." — Hanson (78:53)
| Segment | Timestamp | |------------------------------------------------|---------------------| | Trump assassination attempt & climate | 06:11–13:22 | | White House Correspondents Dinner, Kimmel | 23:01–26:46 | | Comey indictment analysis | 34:18–44:08 | | Fauci adviser indictment | 45:53–52:12 | | Redistricting & Gerrymandering | 54:12–58:24 | | US–UK Relationship & Trump’s Speech | 62:46–70:15 | | Closing—Civil decline & personal stories | 75:12–80:40 |
Hanson is incisive, scholarly, and unsparing in his critique, blending historical analysis, personal anecdotes, and a touch of dry humor. The discussion is firmly conservative, skeptical of elite media, Democratic policy, and cultural trends toward lawlessness.
This episode is a wide-ranging, historically grounded critique of political violence, partisan hypocrisy, and the perils of contemporary Western governance—with Hanson’s typical blend of gravitas and candid personal storytelling.