Victor Davis Hanson: No, Jen Psaki. Joe Biden Was the Real Manchurian Candidate

Summary

Podcast Summary:

Victor Davis Hanson: No, Jen Psaki. Joe Biden Was the Real Manchurian Candidate
Podcast: Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Host: Victor Davis Hanson | The Daily Signal
Release Date: October 30, 2025

---

Episode Overview

In this episode, Victor Davis Hanson provides robust, historically-grounded commentary on current political and cultural developments in America. The conversation encompasses topics ranging from Obamacare’s failings and the Democrat Party's handling of race and class, to critiques of prominent left-leaning scholars, and the controversial relationship between Islam and the American left. Hanson and his co-host dissect recent media narratives (notably Jen Psaki’s “Manchurian Candidate” accusation), expose contradictions in progressive identity politics, and scrutinize the candidate field ahead of upcoming elections.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

---

1. Obamacare and the Healthcare Quagmire

Timestamps: 00:00–10:52

• Summary of Failures: Hanson recounts the original premise of Obamacare—creating a quasi single-payer system by drawing healthy, young people into subsidizing a broader pool. However, he notes the law’s promises of cost reduction and insurance company cooperation all proved “wrong.”
  • Quote (07:10): "But they found out that all of those pre supplements suppositions were wrong...So the thing needed a subsidy and the subsidies started climbing and climbing and climbing..."
• COVID Subsidies: Republicans allowed the COVID-era subsidy increases to expire, returning to already-high baseline subsidies, which Democrats are now contesting and blaming for rising costs, despite agreeing to the sunset provision.
• Public Disengagement & Frustration: Hanson shares his personal experiences with health care bureaucracy:
  • Quote (09:45): "You make an appointment and then you wait for three months...I think everybody's exhausted by the medical system. Obamacare did untold damage. It really did."
• Consequences: Many are “voting with their feet,” forgoing medical care because the system is too convoluted and expensive.

---

2. Election Integrity, Demographics, and the Black Vote

Timestamps: 10:52–15:35

• 2020 Election Figures: Skepticism is voiced over Joe Biden’s anomalously high turnout—especially surpassing Obama’s 2012 record. Trump’s social media questioning highlights perceived voting irregularities.
  • Quote (11:55): “How do you go…from 65 million to 81 million…Biden was a comatose candidate and Obama was the greatest thing since sliced bread…”
• Changing Black Voter Dynamics: The hosts discuss Biden's purported outperformance with Black voters over Obama.
  • Hanson uses sarcasm to skewer Biden’s clumsy comments regarding race, referencing Biden’s infamous quotes about Obama’s “clean” image and the “Corn Pop” story.
• Cynicism over Media Narratives: They suggest that both political parties use race and voting data for cynical electoral ends rather than genuine improvement.

---

3. Academic Hostilities, Identity, and Projection

Timestamps: 17:25–28:35, 28:11–38:31

• Attack from Academia: Hanson recounts criticism by a Catholic University professor who disparaged his credentials. He responds by presenting his own more substantial publication record and teaching load.
• Debate on the State of Classics: Hanson reviews and critiques Dan-el Padilla Peralta’s “Classicism and Other Phobias,” framing it as more a manifesto against “whiteness” than a scholarly contribution.
  • Quote (28:11): “It’s not about classical phobias…It’s about hatred, obsessions with white people.”
• Projection in Academia: Hanson asserts many academic critics project their own shortcomings onto others, particularly those dismissing traditional scholarship as “racist” despite their own elite privileges.
• Marxist Influence: He observes that radical academic critiques often come from those most benefitting from the systems they seek to undermine.

---

4. Lawfare, Double Standards, and Political Prosecution

Timestamps: 25:10–27:28, 41:32–49:41

• Lawfare Against Trump: Hanson details what he sees as projection by the left—accusing Trump of conduct (lawfare, politicization) that elite Democrats themselves have normalized, such as using state institutions for political ends (IRS, DOJ).
• Letitia James’ “Trump Tower” Crusade:
  • Quote (25:50): “Letitia James basically doesn’t believe that there’s a divine force called nemesis, karma or divine retribution. So she goes after Donald Trump and…promises to break this man so he can’t run for reelection...”

---

5. Democrat Senate Candidate in Maine and Nazi Symbolism

Timestamps: 40:13–49:41

• Media Hypocrisy: Hanson addresses the media’s selective outrage, quick to pursue right-wing “Nazi” signals while downplaying actual Nazi iconography by leftist candidate Graham Platner.
• Platner’s Background: Platner, a supposed “working class white” Democrat Senate candidate from Maine, is exposed as privileged and in possession of an SS Totenkopf tattoo—a symbol closely tied to Nazi atrocities.
  • Hanson emphasizes that the desire to reclaim working-class white voters is resulting in reckless candidate endorsements by Democratic powerbrokers.

---

6. Identity Politics, Political Radicalism, and Party Realignment

Timestamps: 49:41–54:12

• Inauthenticity and Radicalism: Hanson points to Democrat candidates who try to pass as “authentically working class” or radical but are often privileged insiders.
• The Perils of Pandering: He argues Democrats are struggling to moderate or discipline increasingly radical primary winners, undercutting their general election prospects.

---

7. Media, Jen Psaki, and “Manchurian Candidates”

Timestamps: 57:54–63:27

• Response to Jen Psaki: Hanson sharply rebuts Psaki’s “Manchurian Candidate” label for J.D. Vance and her insinuations about Vance’s wife.
  • Quote (58:52): "That's Hunter Biden. That is Joe Biden. They work for China. They got money from China. We know that these were anti China so that little metaphor doesn't work."
• Critique of Progressive Racial Logic: He lampoons the idea that J.D. Vance’s marriage and family need external approval or “saving,” noting the competence and accomplishment of Vance’s wife.
  • Quote (60:52): “You, Jen Psaki, given your infinite wisdom are going to blink and code to a woman who graduated from Yale Law School…you think that she needs your help?”
• Broader Observation on Victim Hierarchies: Hanson relays a story from a Sikh neighbor questioning the logic of affirmative action, illustrating the arbitrary and shifting nature of progressive “victimization” hierarchies.

---

8. Islam, the Left, and Growing Political Alliances

Timestamps: 67:00–74:32

• Strange Bedfellows: The hosts puzzle over the alliance between radical Islam and the Western left, noting “what would happen if Islam took over”—a contradiction given Sharia’s incompatibility with much of the progressive agenda (LGBTQ+, feminism).
• Antisemitism as a Uniting Force: Hanson asserts that the intersection of leftist and Muslim identity politics is primarily driven by rising antisemitism and the need for the left to solidify a growing Muslim voter base, especially in swing states like Michigan.
  • Quote (67:13): "They are anti-Semitic, both the hard left and a lot of these Muslim leaders."
• Demographic Shift & Political Calculation: Democratic strategists, he suggests, are now more beholden to Muslim constituents in cities and battleground states because of rapid demographic growth.
• Fear & Double Standards: Hanson contends there is a double standard in criticizing Jewish vs. Muslim constituents; politicians and media are wary of offending Muslim groups out of fear (often drawing lessons from terror incidents in the US and Europe).

---

9. Concluding Reflections: Listeners, Small Business, and Community Ties

Timestamps: 75:35–82:39

• Gratitude to Listeners & Community Stories: Hanson expresses thanks for audience loyalty through the podcast’s move to a new home, sharing listener commentary praising his wisdom and down-to-earth approach.
• Admiration for Everyday Americans: He recounts a story of a local shop owner’s ingenuity and courage as a business operator, illustrating respect for “genius” among small business people.
  • Quote (77:07): “That guy is a genius. He’s out here making a living dealing with the roughest customers...I could no more do that…”
• Humility & Accessibility: Despite his academic stature, Hanson reinforces his identification with everyday Americans and his gratitude for the podcast's reach as a way to communicate directly with the public.

---

Notable Quotes — Speaker Attribution & Timestamps

• “Obamacare did untold damage. It really did.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 10:16

• “I don't think that's ever before or never again will be reached…So there was something...”
  — Victor Davis Hanson (on Biden’s 81 million votes), 11:55

• “Projection. Every time they say something, they make a criticism. It is projection.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 25:10

• “It’s not about classical phobias…It’s about hatred, obsessions with white people.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 28:11

• “Letitia James basically doesn’t believe that there’s a divine force called nemesis, karma or divine retribution...”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 25:50

• “They can’t help it. They hate the white working class…So they can't win unless they get the working class white again.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 41:32

• “That's Hunter Biden. That is Joe Biden. They work for China. They got money from China. We know that these were anti China so that little metaphor doesn't work.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson (on Psaki’s “Manchurian Candidate”), 58:52

• “They are anti-Semitic, both the hard left and a lot of these Muslim leaders.”
  — Victor Davis Hanson, 67:13

---

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:00–10:52 – Obamacare and the healthcare system unraveling
• 10:52–15:35 – Election skepticism, black vote, Biden/Obama comparisons
• 17:25–28:35, 28:11–38:31 – Academic criticisms, the state of Classics, Padilla Peralta critique
• 25:10–27:28, 41:32–49:41 – Lawfare, Letitia James, Democrat candidate controversies
• 57:54–63:27 – Jen Psaki, “Manchurian Candidate” rhetoric, race, and identity
• 67:00–74:32 – Islam and the American left: alliances, demographics, and political strategy
• 75:35–82:39 – Listener feedback, small business admiration, concluding remarks

---

Memorable Moments

• Hanson's biting sarcasm as he recites Biden's infamous racial gaffes (15:11–15:35)
• The detailed deconstruction of Dan-el Padilla Peralta's academic career and logic (28:11–38:31)
• The analysis of Democrat failures in vetting candidates and the inability to moderate the radical base (41:32–49:41)
• The rigorous and unapologetic critique of the left's shifting alliances and intellectual dishonesty, especially regarding anti-Semitism and identity politics (67:00–74:32)
• Heartfelt stories showing Hanson's humility and appreciation of everyday Americans (77:07–78:51)

---

Tone and Style

The episode is pointed, sardonic, historically informed, and consistently skeptical of progressive narratives. Hanson maintains a scholarly but accessible tone, blending academic allusions with colloquial asides and biting humor.

---

Final Takeaway

Victor Davis Hanson's commentary weaves together critiques of healthcare policy, electoral transparency, academic decadence, and the contradictions of modern leftist politics. He persistently calls for historical awareness, appreciation of everyday Americans, and resistance to both bureaucratic overreach and ideological excess—offering both intellectual firepower and a personal, grounded perspective to his audience.

---

Transcript

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Obamacare was supposed to be a quasi single payer system. That didn't quite happen. The Supreme Court kind of trimmed its wings, but we were told it was going to make things cheaper by bringing so many people into the system, that is younger people that were healthy, that they wouldn't use it very much and they would subsidize all of the people victimized by the insurance. And then the insurance companies would cut a deal with in order to get market share. They would manage their cost. But they found out that all of those presuppositions were wrong. He's a little Manchurian Candidate working for the first president. Modern history that has taken on China. But I'm going to call him a Manchurian Candidate. Somebody stealthily working for China, like the movie. No, no, no, no, no. That's Hunter Biden. That is Joe Biden. They work for China. Islamic Muslim candidates think that they have a new growing constituency that shares a dislike of Jews. If you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself why Kamala Harris thought that she could not put Josh Shapiro, a very successful swing state governor, on the ticket.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Hello, ladies. Hello, gentlemen, and welcome to Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor is the Martin and Ely Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, the Wayne and Marcia Buskey Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. He's a man with, with a big gig now at the Daily Signal. Four videos a week, four podcasts a week. We're happy to be here. See, I get my little Daily Signal.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, we're very happy in our new home.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And remember everybody, the Victor Davis Hansen show is now a rival of ours. What I mean by that is the three or four hundred past episodes may still be circulating, but it's not an up to date show and it's not on our new platform, which I think will give. I know a lot of you couldn't find it initially, but I think you'll find it much more easily now at our website at The Daily Signal victorhansen.com and then at VDH at VD Hansen on X, etc. Etc.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You'll find links galore if you prefer getting Victor through audio as opposed to video.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I was really shocked that in this difficult transition I went to Apple and we were number seven this week between Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

For, for political.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

For political. Yes, for political podcasts.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

For, for. For a podcast. Essentially finding a new home. That's pretty remarkable.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, we were finding a new home. We were orphans, so to speak.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. But it's not remarkable because it's it's it is you, Victor, dispensing the wisdom. Victor's got a website as I mentioned, the Blade of Perseus. Victor Hansen.com is the address. Check it out. Subscribe. 650amonth. Six sixty five dollars a year. And Victor writes many exclusive pieces and does exclusive videos for there too. Okay, we are recording on Sunday the 26th. This episode will be up on Thursday, October 30th, a couple of days. Oh, the day before Halloween, two days before all Saints Day. We will not get into that, Victor, because I don't want to get too catholically on you. Okay, okay, you're absolved. Let's start the show. Since the shutdown may still be going on while we're talking, let's talk about the health care angle to that and that's Obamacare and people wondering, worrying what what is the end of Obamacare or the decree, whatever the hell it is. It is what what's happening there? This main Democrat and his Nazi tattoos. Donald Trump still posting on social media about the 2020 elections. And I tell you what he's posting is troubling. And we've got some other things to get. Well, Islam and the left. I want to get to your thoughts on that too. We'll do all that when we come back from these initial important messages.

[Advertisement Voice]

Right is still right, even if you stand by yourself.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Mr. Chief justice, may it please the court. This is Hans von Spakowski, host of the Case in Point podcast which looks at the hottest cases affecting politics, culture and everyone's daily lives. But we talk about them without confusing legal jargon. And we have interesting guests like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. And we end with reviews of classic Hollywood movies relevant to the topic. Case in Point, the podcast available everywhere you won't want to miss. We are back with the Victor Davis no, I gotta get this right now.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Be careful.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I know Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. So Victor, let me torment our listeners with my voice with Here's a New York Post editorial that says headline is ignore Dem lies on Obamacare and their excuse for the government shutdown collapses. So here's how this editorial begins and I do think it's important here strip away the lies about Obamacare subsidies set to expire this year and Democrats main excuse for shutting the government goes up in smoke. Above all else, Dems claim they're looking to protect health care, that expiring Obamacare subsidies will send premiums soaring and cost many their coverage. The the truth premiums are expected to rise by $1,665 or 20% on average, a Paragon Health Institute study found. Yet the expiring subsidies account for only 4 of those percentage points, or just $333. The fact is most Obamacare subsidies are not expiring. What's set to vanish is is merely the added cash Democrats in Congress agreed to pay insurers using taxpayer money during COVID That's it. The COVID add ons increased the taxpayer share of premiums to a whopping 93% on average. For nearly half the enrollees, it was 100%. With the sweeteners gone, taxpayers will foot only 80% of the bill, still far higher than the 68% they covered in 2014 when Obamacare first got going. Okay, Victor, that's a lot of numbers, but a lot of chicanery by Democrats. Your thoughts?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, remember that Obamacare was supposed to be a quasi single payer system that didn't quite happen. The Supreme Court kind of trimmed its wings. But we were told it was going to make things cheaper by bringing so many people into the system, that is younger people that were healthy, that they wouldn't use it very much and they would subsidize all of the people victimized by the insurance and then the insurance companies would cut a deal with in order to get market share. They would manage their cost. But they found out that all of those pre supplements suppositions were wrong and there were people who flooded the system, many of them on unlike what the President. On what? Unlike what President Biden at the time and Vice President Harris and now their surrogate said later that there were no illegal aliens, but there were people that were undocumented and various. So the thing needed a subsidy and the subsidies started climbing and climbing and climbing and then right at Covid they passed through a large subsidy and I think didn't get up, as you pointed out, to a very high percentage of the cost of subsidies. So the Republicans just said let's just go back to the already too high and let the COVID period expire because it was your idea to up them and to put a sunset on it that it would expire and it's expired and you've known it's expired and you agreed to it's expired. So now you're dragging dredging up this old issue that had already been adjudicated and we're not going to do it. So that's where we are. And the percentage of people who are using, you know that was a big issue in the early Trump thing. Let's repeal Obamacare. I don't think. Do you see how the number of people in it is. What's it, 24 million now? It's very. Yeah, it's shrinking. And basically people are saying the thing doesn't work. And maybe the insurance companies are coming back into the marketplace and maybe we can reduce costs this way. But.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, maybe people are voting with their feet. But healthcare, as you've talked about your experience, when you try to get an appointment, even a basic appointment, never mind a medical test, you just think, you know, screw it, I'll. I'll let Mother Nature handle.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I have done that, basically. Well, I don't know. I didn't really go to. I don't think I'd seen a specialist in a long time, especially during COVID I don't think I'd had a. Not. I don't want to get too intimate, but a lot of men are told to get PSA tests. I don't think I had one for five years. So I think a lot of us were that way. You make an appointment and then you wait for three months, and then the guy calls up and says, would you like to see the nurse practitioner? I'm too busy. You know? You know what I mean? Yeah, that's happened to me.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And finally, yeah, they cancel and then it's a next visit is half a year away.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. Or there's a drug that says, you need this drug and if you're willing to pay 300 bucks, you can get it. Otherwise it will have to be adjudicated by your insurance company. So I think a lot of people just say, I'll try to live very cleanly. No smoking, no drinking, take supplements, try to exercise and take my chances. In my case, it may not work, but that's. I think everybody's exhausted by the medical system. Obamacare did untold damage. It really did.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, speaking of Obama and maybe even exhaustion, Victor mentioned Donald Trump and Donald Trump on It May have Been on X and Truth Social. He put out a Truth is it? The other day, and it's still about the 2020 election. But it's a troubling number. He writes, ask former President Barack Hussein Obama whether or not he really believes that in 2020, Joe Biden got 15 million more votes than he did in 2012. 65.9 versus 81 million. Additionally, ask him why it is that Joe Biden beat Obama in every single swing state with the. With the Black vote in 2020. That's the thing that really gets me even Though black voters hate him, but in no other state. And Trump said more 2020 election was a legal scam, hoax, hoax, et cetera. But yeah, that number about that, that Biden beats Obama in 2020 with the black vote.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I what I think everybody when that is it 81 million he got to 72 million that Trump got or 80, 74 million that Trump got in 2020, I don't think that's ever before or never again will be reached. So there was something, you know, how do you go in 2016 from 65 million to 62 million when Hillary won and then you go up 20, almost 20 million votes. It's not for demography. You go up to 81 million. Hillary won with 65 million and Biden then wins with 81 million. Of course, then Trump wins what four years later did he get 77 to 75. So how do you the election, I think that's only happened two or three times with a subsequent election has smaller vote numbers than the prior election given, you know, population increases. And in case of Obama, he was, you know, 65, 65 million becomes 81 million in just four years. And he Biden was a comatose candidate and Obama was the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as the left goes. And I think you could argue that Donald Trump, I don't know, I don't think that, that Mitt Romney was a dynamic candidate. So what is explains it? I think they're going to say new registration and all of that turn up. But why didn't that show up? Why didn't it show up in 2024? Why did it go down by, you know, seven or eight million votes on the Democratic side? And I, I don't know. I have no idea whether it was the mail vote mail in the first time we did mail in and the first time we really did early, early voting to such a degree that nationwide we got about 30% of the electorate voted on election day. And that left it to confusion. What I won't even get into it. Something was someday people are going to explain it.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

There's I, I raise it in part A. Again, I'm kind of taken aback by just that slice of the, of the black vote, you know, Black Obama versus Versus.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

What? Well, Joe, Joe explained that once he explained why he got the black vote, he said that he, that Delaware was a slave state. Remember that? Said that. And then he said that I got the black vote because I said that Barack Obama was the first clean, articulate black to run for president. And then he said I got the black vote because on two occasions I called black assistant and a black official boy. And then I referred to Chancellor Page as a Negro. And I warned black professionals who were very successful that somebody might put you back in chains.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And then I endeared myself to the black community when I did the Corn Pox Pop saga. Remember, we said he. I told Corn Pop I was going to measure off some chain. And I went out and faced him, faced him down. That was.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

He attended Baptist church regularly.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Corn Pop and you know, so he had a record of appealing to the black community in this language.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, there's nothing our enemies, ideologues will not do. And no surprise, they'll fix elections or, or put their finger on the scale. Well, Victor, I just want to inform our, our listeners that if you listen to VDH in his own words or if you watch it on YouTube and rumble, you care about where America has been, where we are now, and where we're headed. And that's exactly what Freedom Frequency is all about. It's a new online publication from the Hoover Institution, where Victor is a senior fellow, designed to cut through the noise and bring clarity to the issues that shape our country's future. Each week, Freedom Frequency delivers serious, accessible analysis grounded in research and guided by the American values of liberty, democracy, free enterprise and the rule of law. You'll hear from some of Hoover's most respected thinkers, people like Columbia, Condoleezza Rice, General Jim Mattis, General H.R. mcMaster, economist John Cochran, and of course, Victor Davis Hansen. Providing clear thinking and principled solutions for a complex world. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation, there's no better time to dig deeper into the ideas that built America and will determine its future. Subscribe now to Freedom Frequency on substack. That's the. The freedom frequency.org and join the conversation that's lighting the way forward. And we thank the good people from the Hoover Institution for sponsoring Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. So Freedom Frequency will be akin to a sister publication of Strategica, which is another online.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It will, and I noticed it. Was it Steve Bannon or Tucker? Somebody said, think tank people get us in trouble. Or it was a disparaging.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Oh, did they?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I don't know. Apologies to one or the other who didn't mention it. But, you know, when I got there, I asked the director, the beloved John Racing, what do you do? I mean, what do you expect us. Victor, we expect four things out of you as we do every senior fellow. And then he Said, we expect you to have a program that appeals to people beyond academics. So that was what the military history working group was to talk about current strategic projects in terms of historical past examples and then make the results known with an online magazine. And then he said, we would like you to speak now. You're not going to be compensated. That's part of your salary. But we. So for the last, oh, I don't know, 22 years, I've spoken eight or nine times a year for the Hoover Institution at regional places. And then he said, and we expect you to preserve your academic reputation by writing scholarly articles and books. So I, from time to time kept up with university press books, or I've actually as a Hoover fellow written peer reviewed articles on classical warfare and classics. Classics. But then he said, and most importantly, you're supposed to be a public, you're supposed to be out there. So that's what podcasts, writing columns, writing books, you know. Right. So that's.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You checked all those boxes.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

That's what we're all supposed to do. We're all supposed to do that. It's not just you're supposed to sit in some Carol and write stuff. It's. You're trying to persuade people that free market, our mission statement says all of us are supposed to believe that free markets are superior to state controlled economies and that individual liberty is better than autocracy, totalitarianism, constitutional government, and we're supposed to spread that gospel.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I have to ask, you mentioned the academic press and you'll forgive me because if you wrote it, I haven't checked it out, but there was someone who.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Attacked you recently coming out. Wait, it's coming out in the Angry Leaders, Angry Reader. He was a professor at the Catholic University. Yes, Catholic job. Sorry about that. Yeah, and his name will be on my website. Okay. And he said that I was a, I don't know, fifth rate scholar, third rate, and then I hadn't ever. I have never been affiliated with anything other than a third rate academic institution.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Oh my gosh.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And then he said, I'm glad you're at the end of the. I'm glad you're at the end of your road. So I wrote his name. I mean he wrote, he signed his name. I, I never, when I have the Angry Reader column, I never identify the person unless he identified himself. You know, I don't go to their email and say the guy writes jocko. And then I don't get his email. But if he signs his name, I did, but all I did was because he Was very snooty. So I listed my PhD where I got it versus his. I had my affiliation versus his. I had the number of books I wrote versus his. Then he said, no, Quality Press, you've never published at a university press. While I published at Princeton University Press, University of California Press. He, he has listed Rutledge. So I put my Rutledge book there. And then I must say in a very snobbish fashion there I looked and he had no, no book of the quality of Random House, Doubleday, Alkanop, Simon Schuster, Free Press, Basic Books, Bloomsbury. I publish with all those. So I didn't comment. I just said, here it is. You can judge for yourself.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Also, Victor, everyone sees you today as you are today, and that's public commenter and writer, etc, but your career as a professor, in the classroom professor was. You've talked about it once or twice.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I don't think people at the Catholic University taught. When we started the Classics department, I had been hired as a part time teacher. Then I was full time. But to get that thing going, I had to teach five classes a semester. So I usually taught introductory Greek, introductory Latin, advanced Latin course. And then I needed some big enrollment like Introduction to humanities with 50, 60 people. Or I taught in the History department, you know, 50 or 60. One time I had 90. And this is no scantrons, nothing. All essay papers, three or four. So I was getting four or 500 papers. And that's what I, my life was, you know, from the age of 20 years. Right, 20 years. And then I, in the summer I had, you know, I drove tractor, I worked on the farm, but then I wrote. In that 20 year period I also wrote 10 books, but I had no life, so to speak, when he. So when he said you were a third rate commentator or you're this or that, or you're fifth rate, you've never been so it. And I get that a lot from academics especially, but I hate that about you're this rate, rate, rate. But when I looked at his qualifications, I mean, and I just reviewed Daniel Peralta Padilla's, he's a classicist. And he says that Classics is racist. It's dying. Maybe it is dying, but it's racist. We need to get rid of Greek. And he's this brilliant guy and then I look at what he's done. He's written one book on himself and then he's written one, you know, his thesis, his thesis was published by the institution which he's employed, Princeton. And then he wrote this New book that I reviewed about Caribbean classics, so to speak, classical phobia. But I, I didn't, you know, the, the guy has been in the academic world for 20 years one way or the other, and he's only written one academic book and he's a full professor and he's talking about whiteness as being this oppressive thing that hurts people. And I'm thinking to myself, I don't see evidence in your career of all the fellowships, awards, and yet when you actually. All the degrees, all the prestigious universities, all the fellowships, everything. And then I see what came out of it and it's really only one book of the field that you were supposed to write upon. The rest were sort of. This is about me. And there were only two of them. So it's so funny about these academic people that are so critical of either their field or other scholars. And then they, they never, you know, Horace says has that really famous quid radius, you know, why are you laughing? If the fable was flipped around, it's about you and meaning everything you say could be applied to you in spades. So that's what my angry reader left sway, right?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

This is, it is projection.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

It is projection. Every time they say something, they make a criticism. It is projection. And Donald Trump is trampling on the. Donald Trump is using Lawfare to go after John Bolton or James. No, no, no, no. He didn't have 90, he's not having 91 indictments. He didn't indict his political opponents, he didn't indict an ex president. He, you know, he didn't politicize the IRS, etc. Etc.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Did you see Letitia James?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Cloaking herself in Martin Luther King rhetoric.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Letitia James basically doesn't believe that there's a divine force called nemesis, karma or divine retribution. So she goes after Donald Trump and she promises, I'd like to, I have my eyes on Trump Tower. She says, going to break this man so he can't run for reelection. I have an idea. He took a loan out. No one ever wanted to examine it or died it. But I think that the Deutsche bank gave him a loan because he overvalued assets like Mar a Lago. And then she went on and then all of a sudden the Deutsche bank and the testimony said no, he didn't really. We know better how to assess real estate than you do. And we kind of like the loan for him and we made a big profit. Profit on interest. And he paid the loan off early and we want to issue him another loan. Guilty. See I proved it. I have a New York jury. And then she never thought, hmm, was I projecting? So when I took a loan out on a second home, did I lie for tax and mortgage purposes? Did I say that it was a rental? Did I earlier on another piece of property get the right number of rooms so the tax rate would be commensurate with the size of the rental program? Did I lie and say my principal residence was in New York, as was necessary for me to run for statewide office when it wasn't according to. So they never think it comes back to them. Comey never thinks it comes back to him. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Hey, do you mind if we talk about that?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I didn't. We. We.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

I didn't raise it before. Before, when we were talking about what we were going to discuss on the show. But you mentioned the. The review, which is in. Yeah, I haven't read it, but someone read it and emailed me. So, like, Victor cut this guy to pieces. And this guy is Dan L. Which I'm curious about. His name? Padilla Peralta. His book is Classicism and Other Phobias and Euphophobia. And the title of the essay or the book review you have is Leucophobia. Or if I said that wrong, leukophobia and Other Obsessions. What's leukophobia? And could you tell us about this book? Well, tell us about it.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Roger Kimball was the editor. He picked the title. Lucas. You know, when you have leukopenia means you have few white blood cells, but it means white, Lucas. So it's not about classical phobias or hatred or fears. It's about hatred, obsessions with white people. Because the book is about 175 pages, and in it, if you total up the time he says blackness, whiteness, white or Black, it's over 200 times. It's on every page. And it's not about. I'm going to write it. When I wrote a book about classics with John Heath, who Killed Homer? It was like, this is the problem with the field. This is what we could do. We have too much esoteric academies. We need to get more of the great scholars teaching Latin 1 and Latin 2. And we have to think of great issues rather than, you know, the use of the optative and the second book of Xenophon or something, and. And theory, you know, we have to. Is, you know, the phallocentric cult of Diana in Asia minor in the 4th century or the art of Poetics of Transgendered masculinity. That Kind of stuff, trendy stuff. But this thing is not, I thought that's what it was going to be. It was going to be a left wing support of theory. And it's not. It's basically, I was given everything possible. I'm brilliant. I came as an illegal alien. And a guy who, a white guy found me and thought I was bright. So he got me into one of the most prestigious prep schools in New York. And then a bunch of other people helped me get into Stanford for Princeton for my undergraduate, which was all paid for. And then another bunch of people, then I got into Stanford and it was all paid for for the PhD. Then they sent me to Columbia, it was all paid for, for. And then they sent me in the process to Oxford even though I was an illegal alien. And then a bunch of people that is white mostly helped me get fast track for citizenship. And I was better at Greek and Latin than almost anybody. And I wrote a brilliant thesis. And then I discovered something, Jack. I was being used. I was made to think I had to be grateful, that I was supposed to show gratitude. I was actually a little pet. And the white superstructure was condescending to me. And then I want to see evidence. There's no evidence in the book that it was. And this field is all dominated by Europeans and it's the advancement of European racism and settler colonialism. And I don't even live in New Jersey. And he says he lives in La la La something, an indigenous land that the Indians had. So just when you think he's very angry at the field of classics and it's done all this harm, he's going to offer an anecdote, a Caribbean reflecting his roots. So remember that that official portrait of Obama was at Kendi, the Caribbean. And he was the one that would take the work of the Grand Masters and substitute white faces for him. He had the beheading or a white woman's beheaded. Well, there's a chapter on him, there's a chapter on a Caribbean poem. But there's no, there's no argument that this is going to substitute for classics. And there's no promise I'm going to disconnect from Princeton and form my own Caribbean classics. None of that. And then he sort of tries to preempt critiques like I offered. And that is just when you think that I'm an ingrate. That's only because you're part of this white male power, heterosexual, normative culture that oppresses and is afraid of people like me. Or then he says, and as far as class goes, we're not going to play that game that you think that I am entitled because I have never really been in an American public school in my entire life from the moment I got in of age. I was in prep school, I was at Stanford, I was at Princeton, I was at Columbia, I was at Oxford. It was all paid for by either private or public resources. And if you think I'm an elite, that's just because you're afraid to say that you're racist. It's my race that bothers you, not that I'm an elite and I want to destroy this field of classics that gave so much to me because I just discovered that I was playing a little game that even though I was far smarter than everybody else and I could out translate everybody else and when you gave I was just in a little kind of a rat race and now I see that I have transcended that and so I don't have to be grateful for any of this stuff I got. It was all because of white people trying to find a token and I want to blow up classics and destroy it as it's. As it is. And it's a settler called, he used the word settler colonialist project. It's very anti Israel, left wing.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

So where's he teaching by the way?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Oh, he teaches at Princeton.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

At Princeton. Because I thought I said something about Columbia, but.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, he had a two year after he left graduate school, he had a two year freebie fellowship postdoc at Columbia, he had a PhD at Stanford, he got a BA at Princeton. And then he said something like can you imagine what would happen if I didn't have all of these stellar, stellar associations and achievements and they're all bestowed to him, you know and can you imagine how I would be marginalized? And I thought, I think I wrote in there. Well, if you were teaching at Cal State, I don't know Turlock or something, you would not get this book paid published. Not because you're. They would show rate, they would want to publish it because you're a black scholar. But it's so bad that even they wouldn't if you were a professor you're. They're publishing this book because you're a Princeton professor at Princeton University Press. And it wasn't peer reviewed to if it was it and then the language it's income. I just said it was written in some language or other than English. It's just, it's just the constitution of the others elementary obfuscation. And as Foucault Told us. And it just name drops all of these appeals. So it's like a graduate student. When you go to graduate school, there's always two or three guys in the front row and they nod like this when the professor says something and that's what the whole book, it's head nodding to left wing authorities. But I don't want to. I think you'll like reading it. But I was kind of shocked because I've had some reaction to it. Yeah, but, well yeah, among chat but, but more like I'm a part time teacher and I have. They're not. The field is blowing up, there's no jobs. I spent 6 years years in graduate school, I never got anything. I'm teaching part time at a junior college. Thank you. Because this guy got everything and yet he got everything. And then he's trashing the system that gave it to him. I wish I could have that. You know it, he makes a point. If you're a Caribbean, you know, 10 year old and somebody comes from Wall street and says you're really smart, I'm going to put you in the most sophisticated prep school in New York and pay your whole way. Well, there's two ways to react to that. There's well, these white and Asian kids think they're better than I am. Or it's man, they think they're better than I am. But that's what they should think because they've never seen anybody like me before. And here I getting everything free. And I'm really grateful for this family that did that. And the weird thing is he seemed to have been that way when he was a young kid getting free education. We went to Princeton, then he went to Stanford and he kind of bought into that classics department's idea that the chairman of the Classic department said he wanted to destroy the idea of classics. So he got wound up in that maybe. And in any case it's kind of a Marxist false consciousness saying, you know, to Manoa, don't get caught up with affirmative action or special preferences. It's not really because the white dominant culture wants to help you or feels that you're talented. It's only because of their guilt or they, they want to co op you.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

The white savior.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes, yes. So the more dynamic, authentic, moral, brave, courageous thing to do is take all this stuff from them, make them think they need to give it to you and then when you've got it all and you're in a position of power, then tell to say them, I'm not your pet anymore. And that's pretty much the book. And the other type of is I got four or five letters from people to the extent that they said he is a bully and he runs Classics because he uses his race, his immigrant, the fact that he was an illegal immigrant and he's destroyed a lot of careers and he will go after you. But I wish I could have said this, but if I wrote something and then there's an anecdote that they heard him or saw him and he was really cruel to people. But no, he's going to have his side of the story. I hope he writes a big essay about.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, okay. Well, that's in the New Criterion for.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Folks who are It's a very long essay. It's about six or seven thousand words.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Wow. Sounds like it may be longer than the book. Maybe it was. Maybe it was necessary. Hey Victor, we're going to talk about Democrat Senate candidates in Maine who have Nazi tattoos. And maybe we should talk about the great Jen Psaki and her slamming of ushavants. And we'll get to some other things. We'll do that when we come back from these important messages.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Hi, I'm Jim. I'm not an actor, just a guy living with prostate cancer. My wife and I face each day head on. We asked my doctor about XTANDI Enzalutamide.

[Advertisement Voice]

XTANDI, 40mg Tablets Treats Men with prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the the body and responds to a medical or surgical treatment to lower testosterone. Xtandi may cause serious side seizure, a brain condition called press allergic reactions, heart disease that can lead to death, falls and bone fractures, swallowing problems or choking that can lead to death. Stop Xtandi and get medical help at once. If your face, tongue, lip or throat start swelling, tell your doctor at once. If you faint, have a seizure quickly worsening headache, decreased alertness, confusion, vision problems, chest pain or discomfort, shortness of breath. Xtandi can cause harm to an unborn baby or miscarriage. Use birth control during and three months after Xtandi. Common side effects include muscle and joint pain, feeling unusually tired, hot flashes, constipation, less appetite, diarrhea, high blood pressure, bleeding, falls, fractures and headache. Visit xtandi.com to watch my story.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

We are back with Victor Davis Hansen in his own words at The Daily Signal, Victor's website. I'll mention it again. The Blade of Perseus victorhansen.com do go check that out, please. We are talking on Sunday, October 26th and this episode is up on Thursday, October 30th God only knows what will have transpired in these four days. Director. I'm sure there'll be plenty of content that you and the great Sammy Wink can talk about when you record at the end of the week. Main Democrat Graham Platner and his Nazi tattoos. I'm not a secret Nazi. Graham Platner's I'm not a witch moment he I think we talked about briefly. But Victor, the leftist media was attacking Elon Musk for waving his arm or giving, you know, what seemed like a Nazi a salute and somebody. There's a headline National Review today, an article by Beckett Adams. It says the media's Nazi symbol hunters have taken a holiday when it comes to this weirdo. But he's, he's a serious candidate for US Senate and Maine. Your thoughts?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, there was a whole Internet industry of showing all the people at that time. Remember that gave this signal. I think it was Hikam J. Every left wing person went like this and so that that died very quickly. That Elon Musk is salute was any different than what left wing people do. But this is in a larger frame. He represents the elite effort to find an authentic working white man. So this was Tim Waltz. Remember how we were told that Tim Waltz is a different type of masculinity coach. He was a war veteran and he's just a Midwest guy. And then all of a sudden you met the guy and he's about as on testosterone as they come. He couldn't. He was out shooting. To show you that he was an experienced hunter. It looked like he had problems loading his gun. His war stories broke down. In fact, there was, there were allegations that it was just the opposite, that he took great pains not to be deployed when they were called back. Fixing the carburetor or picture of him as a mechanic. So what it represents is the high, the wealthy white. I'm not supposed to use that word. K People, they feel that they have lost and they have and they can't win unless they get the working class white again. And rather than say we're not going to use the word deplorable clingers, irredeemable chumps, dregs, garbage, or make jokes like Rachel Maddow the other day about walls, she goes, well, I think someone said to her Virginia, there was a question that immigration is really important. And she said yeah, like building a wall with West Virginia. Meaning like we sophisticated federal Northern Virginia people don't want those Appalachian people. So they can't help it. They hate the white working class. We saw that With East Palestine. When that horrific accident happened, Pete Buttigieg didn't show up for months. Nobody cared. Everybody knew why they didn't care because it was very low income, small community of white people. And they felt these are either lost to us as our constituency or they're going to be clingers or irredeemables. Just like the FEMA stories that they identified in these Carolina, Georgia, you know, FEMA flooding that they. Once they found out that people were Trump supporters, they were less than eager to be hasty and on time to help them. So that's what this is about. They want to get a guy. So then they get this guy and they don't do any background checks. And they say, wow, he's kind of a beefy guy. And he says what he feels and he's kind of like a Swalwell combat, you know, pit bull. That's what we need. We were told we have to fight back. And he's part of the squad type takeover of the party. He said he was a communist. This is good. But then they actually didn't do any background check on him. And so he's. They like the idea that he said he didn't like white people. He said that white rural people were racist. But then we find out, well, he actually went to prep school and he's actually pretty wealthy. His parents were pretty wealthy. He's privileged and a lot of this tough white guy. He was in the Marines and give him his due, he was in combat theaters. But most of his stories then don't add up. He said he just went into a tattoo parlor and next thing he knew, he had just an old standard skull and crossbones, like. And I thought, when he heard that, I thought, well, he obviously. Why is everybody upset? He probably put a pirate flag on, right? No, no, no, no, no. It's not a skull and crossbones. It's not a skull and bones. It's the exact official logo of the 3rd SS Panzer Division in World War II, the Totenkop Division. And they had that as a patch on their uniforms or an insignia. And sometimes people put on their helmet and they were a division that was formed in 1939-40 from people who were slaughtering Jews individual Eisen Groupen. And they put them all in a division and they had a horrific record. When they went into Poland, when they got out of Poland, they had killed people. When they went into Russia, they butchered people. When they. During the Dunkirk evacuation, they killed 98 British prisoners. So he has that logo on his chest. And it wasn't like he didn't know because he said, according to his friends, this is my Totenkopf, meaning he knew that it was German affiliated. If you doubt me, just go online and see 3rd SS Panzer Division and look at their logo. It's called the Totenkopf Division. That's how people know and see if that is not the exact facsimile that is on his chest. Until he, I guess he recently changed it. So he's going to get the nomination over the governor, which is going to be good for Republicans because he has misled people so many times. When he said, well, I can't be a Nazi because I'm a Communist, I said I was a Communist. He didn't understand that he should read about the Ribbentrop Molotov Pact to see if Commies and Nazis don't get along. So. Right, right.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And you should see the history of Ribbentrop and some of the Nazi hierarchy. What they were doing in their 20s and 30s when they were Commies and Marxist was very easy for somebody who believes in left wing totalitarianism to flip into right wing totalitarianism. But anyway, he's got, he's really belligerent. He doesn't come across as reassuring. He has no political experience. He's passed himself off as this working oyster man. I'm sure he works. I'm sure I give him his due as a veteran. But almost everything he said he's had to correct. And because they invested in him and he was supposed to show he was the iconic primary challenger to a sitting governor who was going to run for Senate, you know.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And that, that's what they were going to advertise. And the problem they're having with all of these people is once you say, well, we're afraid of our base, so we've got to let them take over and we've got to be co opted by them if we're, you know, Nancy Pelosi or Chuck Schumer. Well, why do you think they're. They're your base? Because they're absolutely crazy and they represent about 20% of the population, which is absolutely unhinged. So Jay Jones is your candidate for Attorney General in Virginia and he is insane. He was told not to use when he texted somebody and said they want, he wanted them dead. And then he doubled down on it. He said he wanted their kids dead, he wanted the mother holding, and he'd seen the kids before. He is crazy. So then if you think you're going to get what's her name, Shelley, in your neck of the words in New Jersey. Oh yeah, I'll remember.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

It's not Spanberger, it's the other.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Anyway, she, she has a. You know, I taught at the Naval Academy. It's kind of hard to be told you're not going to walk through the Naval Academy graduation. You've got to do something pretty big for that to be stripped from you. And we don't really know the whole story, so I suspend judgment. But more importantly, she's a little Nancy Pendlosi. She's an inside trader. Well, maybe she's not inside in the sense that she was day trading and made millions of dollars.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Mikey, Cherelle.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, Mikey, Cherelle. Cheryl. So not Sherry, but Sherelle. So they're getting these candidates and it's going to be very hard to do what classical politics, gymnastics dictates. You get the primary candidate and they firm up your base and in the general you moderate them. So Obama is a left wing firebrand that leads groups to the houses of bankers and he screams and yells at them. But he didn't run for. I mean he got beat for Congress so you never really saw him appealing to his base. So they recreated. They dropped Tony Resco, they dropped Reverend Wright. They were all dropped. And then he ran as. There is no, no red states, no blue states. It's just America. Remember that 2004 address at the convention? And they passed him off as a liberal, a liberal moderate, not the radical left wing guy he was. Yeah, but they can't do that with these people because they've gone well beyond Obama trauma and what they say. And it's going to be, you know, Jasmine Crockett is not going to make it as senator if she ever runs. She said that the other day. Well, you know, they're gonna, they're gonna take away my district. They're gonna take away my district. Did you. So maybe a portion of my district. I'm gonna get back. I represent 770000 people in my district. If they reapportionate, guess what's going to happen. I'm going to represent 20 million as senator. Peter. Texas. No, you're not. She was completely unhinged.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Some. Some rant in a committee hearing the other day that, I mean, it came across like a tik tok video of some lunatic at a McDonald's. She's just. And as you've discussed before, she's. She went to prep school, right, or something.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

She, she has a fake accent. She Changes it just like Obama and Hillary. I'm so tired. I didn't come this far. Remember Hillary and Obama, every time he would, you know, he would get some big donor corporate people, he, you know, he'd say, well I'm to Barack Obama and we're going to do well, we need some. And then he'd get the, remember the guy, he would get the rappers into the White House and the ankle bracement went off. That Jack Jones or whatever his name was, that rapper, he was I think had been arrested for assault, battery and his I think and Obama in the way. Well, I just want your rival. My favorite is, you know, Kendrick Lamar, Pimpa Butterfly. And I thought do you really want to say that in the White House? Now you're worried about Donald Trump trying to build a ballroom pimp. A butterfly has a line in it where it says kill Popo, kill the police. And you've got a rapper inside the White House. Who is your favorite rapper who has a song that says Kill Popo, kill the police. You got another rapper whose ankle brace went on. And you're following a prior Democratic president that in the bathroom at the Oval Office committed sexual acts with his female intern. And then you've got a subsequent Democratic president who had a coke ridden son. Not that I'm going to make the association, but in a Carol in the what West Wing, they found cocaine and you're worried that they are desecrating the White House and the tenor and reputation of it by building a much needed ballroom that will sit 700 people.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You know, I was this past weekend I was with our friend David deroza. I was at a funeral for.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

A great conservative.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Karen Wright was in Ohio. But David was showing me something. I was driving so I really couldn't look at it. But he said the White House put out some, something about the ballroom. That was a history of the ballroom changes. And then towards the end it got into what was happening in the. Not the ballroom, the East Wing.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And it.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And Trump was trolling someone in the White House is trolling there by putting something to the, you know, about the blue dress happening or.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. I mean, and then you know, Gavin Newsom, this is outrageous. And then there's these pictures of our historic. We have a beautiful state capitol in Sacramento.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Gosh.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And they just, yeah, the Democratic majority in the House, in the assembly and Senate and Gavin Newsom, they just blew off the backside of it. It's not, it's just looks like it was Dresden. That's okay. That's what you do with buildings but they're, they're doing right a billion point six now it's, it's a typical high speed rail California fire for Palisades fire, blank, blank up. And they're going to make big new offices and cafeteria and gyms for these legislators. But it's going, it's not going to be like the ballroom. It's first of all it's going to take years and it's going to be taxpayers money. And you think that Gavin Newsom would say I'm going to go attack Trump on social media for this much needed and much discussed ballroom. But hey, make sure that when I do there's nothing that I have authorized in California that is similar. It was only with instead of private with state money and is a bigger project. And he didn't even do that. So I went once when I was at the Naval Academy. They had a White House event and I think I was invited because I was writing for National Review. But it was the weirdest thing in the world was in the evening and it was intense at the White House, you know and I had to, I had a kidney stone at the time and I had to go to the, to the bathroom. And you know what they were, they were porta potties. Porta potties at a White House event. So Trump comes along and says that's gonna be, we're gonna have massive bathrooms. We're gonna have. And you look at the design. It's, it's going to, it's going to be big. But the east wing was kind of added to balance the West Wing and they're not early in the project. And it's going to be built with the same type of architectural themes and design. So it's you what's going to happen. The next Democratic president is going to curse it and then change the drapes or spray paint the gold trimmed into silver or something and then use it like Matt.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. And have trans guys breasts show their breast. That can happen there. Yeah. Well Victor, we're going to now let's before we take a break and we'll go into a final thing, the final thing I do want to get your thoughts on where Islam and the left have allied. But before we do that, get your quick thoughts on Jen Psaki trashing ushavants. And here's I think this is. I took this from Fox News. Psaki appeared on Tuesday on the podcast I've had it which is hosted by Jennifer Welch. Angie Sullivan Welch drew backlash for suggesting that Vice President J.D. vance should be more outspoken against racism because his wife is quote a woman of Indian descent and quote and he has mixed race children as a guest. Psaki commented on the Vances families personal lives. I think the little Manchurian Candidate, JD Vance wants to be president more than anything else. I always wonder what's going on in the mind of his wife. Like are you okay? Please blink four times, we'll come over here, we'll save you. Anyway, I mean.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Everything she said was a lie. First of all, Manchurian Candidate if you watch that movie with Frank Sinatra, Angela Lansbury.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Angela Angelo and Lauren. Was it Lawrence Harvey?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Lawrence Harvey.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah. That's a terrific. The whole theme of that until Hollywood tried to remake it, ruin it. The whole theme was that the communist in North Korea, I. E. The communists in China and Russia were using a candidate, Angela Lonsberry's husband. So he's a little Manchurian Candidate working for the first president in modern history that has taken on China. But I'm going to call him a Manchurian Candidate. Somebody stealthily working for China like the movie. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's Hunter Biden. That is Joe Biden. They work for China.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They got money from China. We know that these were anti China so that little metaphor doesn't work. And then he's very ambitious. Most vice presidents want to run for president if they're young and charismatic and successful. Do you think that Barack Obama when he was a senator didn't want to run for president? You think Bill Clinton didn't want to run for president? You think Joe Biden who ran three times didn't want to run for president? So he's not unique in ambition. That's a healthy thing for a vice president. And then you, Jen Psaki, given your infinite wisdom are going to blink and code to a woman who graduated from Yale Law School, was a very successful lawyer, clerk for Supreme Court justices and is the first second lady of the United States and very. And a mother of three. And you think you're going. You think that she needs your help. You were famous or infamous Jen Psaki because we have a word in the vocabulary now called sock. Sock. I'll get back to you. Remember I'll circle around. Circle around. It's called I'll socky around because what you did was every time they ask you a question you were either too ill prepared or too disingenuous to answer it. So you said I'll circle back, I'll circle back. So I'll socky back. And that's what you did. You were a terrible press secretary. You had a dismal record when you were for Obama. And I don't know what to tell her say about it. I mean, why would she think that a very successful Yale trained lawyer who had worked spectacularly in private practice, married to this other Yale lawyer, have three beautiful kids and what's he, he's racist or something?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah. Or she's, she's insufficiently brown.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Maybe that's, that's insufficiently brown. I had a Sikh neighbor I live in the statewide Sikh temple is two miles from my home. So I would say on any given day I see 10 or 20 Sikhs and some of my best friends, to use that old colloquialism, are Sikh. And one Sikh farmer neighbor said once he hadn't been here very long, but I don't understand affirmative action. And I said, why? Why? And he goes, look at me, I'm jet black. And I, in those days, it was before Obama, before diversity, where he changed the rules and said, if you're not white, doesn't matter what you look like. But he said, why don't I get affirmative action if it's based on skin color? I'm darker than black people. And I said, he said, is it because of slavery? I said, no, it's because of ongoing racism. And he said, you think I'm a victim of racism? And I said, I don't know, tell me. And he said, some people call me raghead, but they're not all white who call me raghead because he wears a turban. And so his. He was astonished as a recent arrival about the hierarchy of current victimization that allowed you to get special treatment because he thought it was based on skin color. And he felt that he was darker than all of the other groups, Hispanics, Native Americans, blacks, gays. And he wanted to know what. And now I think the Indian community does get because a part of diversity. You no longer talk about affirmative action or Jim Crow or slavery or actual documented segregation of stuff anymore. It's right now if you're not white, you're a victim. That's what Obama introduced. And that demographic went from 12% black to 30% non white. So yeah, anyway, I just don't, I don't mind if people have debates about stuff, but it's so silly. And she's such a silly person. And then J.D. vance's wife has such a success, successful record on her own. J.D. vance is all he said that I was very lucky to know my wife. I dated her and she helped me get through Law school. You remember that? Yeah, she was much more sophisticated than I was. She was a better student than I was. So he's.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, well, it's. They seem to be a very happy and loving couple. So maybe she will be first lady of the the United States someday. So, Victor, let's go to a break. When we come back, final topic, and that's the left and Islam. And we'll be right back after these.

[Advertisement Voice]

Important this episode is brought to you by LifeLock. It's Cybersecurity Awareness month and Lifelock has tips to protect your identity. Use strong passwords, set up multi factor authentication, report phishing and update the software on your devices. And for comprehensive identity protection, let Lifelock alert you to suspicious uses of your personal information. Lifelock also fixes identity theft, guaranteed or your money back. Stay smart, safe and protected with a 30 day free [e-mail] Podcast terms apply messages.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

We're back with the Victor Davis hand. No, I got to get that right, Victor. Sorry, I got to get it right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know, it was created by the date when we left our. As you know, our former platform. Yes. Retained the right of our show and all of the prior shows. Right. That's important because somebody said to me, wow, you're doing really well on audible Amazon. You're like 16. But I looked it up. It was, it was the Victor Davis Hansen show reruns.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Which I guess as I was kidding last time we talked about, we're in competition with now.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, you know, but we have to.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Have a new name and the Daily Signal, I thought did a good job. And.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Oh yeah. So Victor Davis Hansen, in his own words. But when this pod, when we started a podcast, it was at National Review and it was known as the is. It was the Victor Davis Hansen Podcast.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And we had a year. But a year after or even longer than that, the people listening to stuff we had recorded originally way, way back.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Was getting higher traffic than I know it. And the same thing, I had a podcast that I was asked to do for the Hoover Institution called the Classicist.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Oh. With Troy Senec. Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And I had. That went on for years after I ceased doing it. But I wish, I mean, I don't understand jurisprudence and podcasts if I wish the former platform had just said, you know what? We had a good relationship. Take your, here's all of your old shows and here's your old name and just keep going somewhere else. In part, you know, but that didn't happen.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, this will. This will prosper and flourish. Regard despite that Victor, I don't have a new specific news link, but I maybe, maybe in the back of my head or at the front of my head, it's the upcoming elections in New York City where you have Mandami, who's Muslim and making all kinds of leftist rhetoric, including things that, if you were in Saudi Arabia would get you killed. Right. Just he's, he's embraced significantly the trans issue. And it gets me of the, the embrace that Islam or politicize Islam has with the left, wherever it is in America, or the left in, of course, in England.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Right.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Where, where the Labor Party's in, in charge. And it just seems so out of sync with what would happen if Islam took over Sharia, took over the causes of many of the left.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

They would end up, well, you know that if you wanted off the top of buildings, you know what's happening in Iran and in Gaza. If you say, remember there were people, I think, with Greta Thunberg who identified as gay and they were made to, they were told explicitly they're not going to be in good. Right. They're not going to be safe with Hamas if they did that. I think there's two or three reasons why the left has allied with radical Muslims and radical Islam. Number one, most obviously, they're anti Semitic. Radical Islam, you know, river, the sea. And that appeals to this young generation who we mentioned in earlier broadcasts, 18 to 39 excuse me, 18 to 29, who say that they think Jewish people overuse the Holocaust, or you try to be that group. And when you look at the Democratic Party, do you support Israel, to take one example of that, in that age group, it's really negative. So Islamic Muslim candidates think that they have a new growing constituency that shares a dislike of Jews. If you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself why Kamala Harris thought that she could not put Josh Shapiro, a very successful swing state governor, on the ticket. Some of you may say, well, Victor, she was insecure. The guy can talk well. And she couldn't. Yes, but there were other reasons in her party that would have prevented her had she made that argument. So they're anti Semitic, both the hard left and a lot of these Muslim leaders. And then number two, if we had this conversation 10 years ago, it wouldn't be a question. But there has been a radical demographic. You know, there's 3 or 4 million Jews or more than that, maybe in the United states. Is it 3% of the population? But I think the Muslim population has gone from zero up to two and a half. So in cities like Dearborn and others in Michigan, there is a very strong quarter third of a million constituency that can determine a Michigan swing state election.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And so there may be more Muslims in New York City now than there are Jews.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yes. And that's because both Jews have left and Muslims have come in. And I saw a statistic where 63% of the people in New York that were not born in the United States are voting for Mom. Donnie. That were naturalized. I hope they were naturalized instead of just voting. But the point I'm making is there's a sense on the left that the Muslim community is doing in the United States what it has done in Europe. So 16%, 17. In Germany, it's getting up to 8 or 9. And Britain, France is 8 or 9. And in these cities it's much higher. So there's a feeling that this is an ascendant. So whatever they say about gays or feminism, it doesn't matter. The Muslim vote is going to be very important and the left wants to nail that down. And of course, it dislikes Israel and Jews the same as Muslims do. And then there's the other question. That is they're a little afraid. So you can say whatever you want about a Jewish person and it's not going to have ramifications. But they learn from Europe. You have to be very careful. Remember the. Was it Colonel or Major Hassan at Fort. Was that Fort Hood where he killed 13 soldiers? Right. And was it General Casey who immediately came out and said this was workplace violence? The Pentagon said workplace violence and don't dare dare say anything. So the Pentagon was afraid of that? Well, the Pentagon was afraid to say that. Pentagon being defined as officers who were careerist and worried what the Obama administration would say if they said he was an Islamicist that was shooting people for the cause of radical Islam. So anyway, there's a fear there that you can ally with the Islamic community in a way. You don't have to worry about doing the same with the Jewish community. If you alienate the Jewish community, they're not going to go. And you know, if you're a, if you're, you're a couple and you're visiting a museum, an Islamic museum, and you make fun of, of Islam, you might be shot or as happened to two Jewish people at the Jewish museum. So if you offend Islam by supporting Israel or criticizing Hamas or in general, you are Jewish at a time when people are doing that, it's dangerous. But it's not so much for Islam. And that's what brings Us me back to Mandami's statement that he chooses to mention 911 when 3,000 people were murdered and there was a great fear of promised further attacks. And then he says that his aunt, he starts crying. Was didn't feel safe on the subway. Well, she didn't feel safe on the subway. It's because hundreds of people have been assaulted and killed. But what a thing to say. 3,000 people are killed by radical Islamicists. And you as a future mayor, the only thing you can say is that you were worried that in Fort Hood fashion people would stereotype Muslims because Radical Muslims killed 3,000 people. Couldn't be a place.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

What happened. What was anti Muslim after 9 11, right. Was, was a single.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I mean there was a case where in California where two Indian Americans were attacked because they had turbines on and there was some isolated things, but there were a lot of. There were some. You know, look what happened in San Bernardino with that mass shooting by that crazy person who says he was an Islamist. There were, there were more Islamicist terrorist incidents, I think than there were anti Islamist terrorist incidents in the aftermath. So he, he can't open his mouth without revealing how dangerous he is. You know, posing with a co conspirator conspiracy of the first World Trade bombing. Why would he do that? Why would he say right after. Right. Why would he say that the only thing that he can reference 911 when 3,000 New Yorkers were butchered was because he felt New Yorkers used that to be mean to his aunt on the subway. Yeah. That is so self. That is so arrogant. So self.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

It's not unimportant what happens to New York and it is going to happen to New York.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

So if they vote for. I see that the early voting turnout is enormous.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Compared to an off season election like that.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, the last election. Yeah. I think only 17% of registered voters voted in the last mayoral election. Or maybe that was the. Oh, I can't remember his name. That terrible lefty. Who? Adams? Yeah, yeah. De Blasio, Bill with a fake name.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

All right, well anyway, that is a fake name.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, he was.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Well, it sounds better than his German name. Right? I don't know if it's a Zimmerman or something.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, it was really contrived. Okay, Victor, you've been terrific. We've come to the Excuse me. Conclusion here and thanks for all. Thanks for your 3point. I'll call it exegesis on. On Islam and the left. I have a. We have a ton of com having the comments. Just a fire hose of people who write in about the show on YouTube.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And you're.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

On the the Blade of Perseus. I'm going to read three comments. One is from Anita Demetro 5181 who writes, Just listening to you makes me want to go back to studies at 67 years old. Your wisdom is priceless. Then you said something the other day in a podcast when you were with the great Sammy Wink and Keith Pyle. Excuse me, Keith Plymale, 2374, writes in response, I'm just a farmer from Selma masquerading as a professor. That's what you said. The best VDH I have heard or read in quite some time. We need more farmers masquerading as whatever in this country, since most of the men who wrote the Constitution, Bill of Rights and debated it all in the Federalist Papers were farmers. And then the last comment is from just a person D6W I feel like a single celled organism after listening to Victor's lecture during the classicist portion of the episode. I'm not sure that I've ever felt so completely humble and ignorant in my five and a half decades on earth. Victor Davis Hansen is the most impressive person and he has become a hero of mine. I'm not trying to be overly complimentary, but it seemed appropriate for me to say so. Thank you Just a Person. Thanks Keith Plymale, and thanks Anita Demetro for for these very cool comments.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

You know, I do have to go ahead. I I have that feeling of being a one cell organism. There was a country market near me that had been robbed very many times, isolated. So I went in there once and there was a short little guy that ran it and it was like two o'. Clock. I was farming. I just said I don't know how you do it. How do you. How do you do it? And so he gave me an exegesis on inventory, what he orders, what people buy, which brand of beer. He showed me how he he had primitive cameras in that time 1 I think he told me how he knows which types of people might use violence and which wouldn't by himself. And then he showed me where he had three guns. One was, one was like in a cereal box that you couldn't move. It was kind of tied down with he was in, you know, checking prices.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Right.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

And of course. But anyway, I came away with, wow, that guy is a genius. He's out here making a living dealing with the roughest customers in Southern San Joaquin Valley. He's been robbed three or four times and yet he's still here. Yeah. I think we forget these small business people. I don't know how they do it. They have so many. Inventory, security, profit margin.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Shoplifting, moody customers, market trends, location, location, location. Gosh.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I could no more do that. I would not. I don't mean that I wouldn't do it. If I tried, I would be a complete failure. Failure.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah. Well, it's. The small business owners that way really are on a. On a front line. I want to thank you, Victor, for all the wisdom you shared. I have to thank Ken, the pilot, who I met on the plane the other day, and he's a big fan of yours. And then at the funeral I was at in Mount Vernon, Ohio, for sweet, sweet care and.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Right.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Her cousin came to me. So she was there. She says, I didn't know I gave a eulogy and. And she didn't know who I was until I said my first word. She says, I know that voice. Real guy on the podcast with. With Victor. She loves you. And then Laurel, my. My neighbor also wants to. So. Look, so many people are so happy with.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

I'm very happy, but I'm very thankful that people stood with us when we changed. I was really worried about that. And we were down for about 10 days. And I really appreciate you watching and viewing and. You know, it's funny, people didn't used to talk to me that much in public, but if they did, they'd say, well, you were on Fox or you wrote a book. But I would say 99.9% of people who come up to me say I listen to the podcast. So this podcast is really changed things. It's. It's a primary. Maybe the only way we can communicate with people more so than, you know, three minutes on Fox or you're sharing.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

A screen with screen with somebody.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I write two columns a week, but I don't think they have the audience that this does. So it's really good to. To be able to. And I. I have a lot of people who write me. I wish I could. I feel guilty because I'm getting now maybe seven or eight some days. Ten books a week.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Manuscripts.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Can you blurb them? Can you read them?

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, I can't. I can't read them all and blurb them and. Or I'll have people send me books where you sign this and it just by. I wish I could. And I have an assistant that writes for the things that come to Stanford, but I get stuff, you know, so I feel bad about that. Same with email could you please answer this question for me?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You just. You just need to become one of those Catholic saints that can bilocate so you can get twice. Twice the amount of work done. By the way, there are such saints, but we'll talk about them after all.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Saints day by location. Oh, sure.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

What is Padre Pio? Padre Pio bilocate and levitated.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Also levitate.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Oh, yeah. Actually flyers. I'm gonna find this clip and send it to you. American pilots in World War II over his monastery in Bari. In. Near Bari. In. In Italy. He was in the Padre Pio. They did not bomb there. And all these guys are saying, I'm. We saw this Franciscan priest in the sky. What the hell? Yeah. Very many documented cases.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

What is it? What is the Catholic word? What is the definition of bilocation in Catholic ease?

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Well, it could mean that Victor Davis is in Selma and in Milford, Connecticut at the same time.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Yeah, some days I don't even think I'm in physics. My problem is I think I'm zero located. I don't think I'm even at my one place.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Victor, you are very, very located.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

My bad.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

All right, anyway, enough of this. Thanks very much folks for listening for watching. We'll be back soon with another episode of Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Bye bye.

[Victor Davis Hanson]

Thank you. 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 [e-mail] and subscribe for exclusive features. In addition.

[Advertisement Voice]

Today we're going to talk about deep breathing, something we all need to do more of. Especially when you're getting ready to call your health plan and deal with one of those automated phone trees. You know how it feels to get into an endless phone loop when. When you just have a simple question that could take two minutes or less and then pretty soon you've lost your Zen. Shouldn't your health plan help you reduce stress? That's why you'll talk to a real person when you choose Pacific Source Health Plans. Tranquil Tranquility.