Victor Davis Hanson RETURNS: Bay Area Democrats Play Populist at the Expense of the Middle Class

Summary

Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words
Episode: Victor Davis Hanson RETURNS: Bay Area Democrats Play Populist at the Expense of the Middle Class
Date: February 7, 2026
Host: Victor Davis Hanson
Summary by PodcastSummarizer

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Overview

This episode marks Victor Davis Hanson’s return to longform commentary following a major surgery. He discusses the political outlook for the 2028 U.S. presidential election, the populist pretensions and elite character of Bay Area Democrats (notably Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris), and contemporary issues such as the Minnesota “insurrection” and ongoing left-wing street activism. Hanson's analysis draws on historical, cultural, and demographic themes to highlight what he sees as the fracturing of the Democratic party and the emergence of new coalitions on both sides of the aisle.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Victor’s Health and Return

• Victor discusses his recovery from two major heart procedures and the impact on his energy and mental clarity. Despite being at "about 50%," he returns to podcasting as part of his recovery process.
  • “If I fall asleep here or sound like I’m drunk, it’s not. It’s just the medicine beta blocker, which I despise.” (01:38, Hanson)
  • Goal: ease back into regular episodes as health improves.

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2. Reflections on a Recent High-Profile Kidnapping

• Hanson briefly comments on the mysterious kidnapping of NBC journalist Savannah Guthrie’s mother, questioning why a relatively low-profile figure was targeted, suggesting possible inside knowledge.
  • “It suggests to me that someone had knowledge of the family or where the mother or something, something doesn’t fit.” (04:15, Hanson)
• Both hosts express sympathy for the Guthrie family.

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3. 2028 Election Landscape

Democratic Candidates: Harris & Newsom

• Both are characterized as embodying the “Bay Area tradition” of wealthy, elite liberals who “play populist at the expense of the middle class.”
  • “They’re both Bay Area people…very, very wealthy, elite, exclusive people who play populist at the expense of the middle class.” (06:08, Hanson)
• Hanson argues neither Kamala Harris nor Gavin Newsom has a compelling or successful record to run on nationally:
  • Newsom’s touted “California Model” is lambasted—highest taxes, housing costs, poverty, and structural exodus of productive citizens.
  • Harris is tied to “the greatest failure in my lifetime”—the Biden presidency—citing foreign policy disasters, crime, and border crises.
  • “If people actually listen to them rather than just photo ops, they don’t like them.” (07:05, Hanson)

Republican Candidates: Rubio & J.D. Vance

• 2028 field likely led by Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Senator J.D. Vance; Trump’s absence shifts dynamics.
• Hanson praises both Rubio and Vance as effective communicators.
  • Rubio is seen as skilled at foreign policy (e.g., Panama, Venezuela, anticipated Cuba crises).
  • Vance tapped into white working- and middle-class disaffection, but must distance himself from antisemitic elements associated with the “Groypers” and Nick Fuentes.
  • “He’s going to have to find a way to excise the anti-Semitic portion of the leadership that appeals to that group while keeping that group in the fold.” (16:10, Hanson)

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4. The California Problem and National Appeal

• Democrats from California face national skepticism due to the state’s high cost of living, regulatory burden, and polarized society.
  • “It is a pyramidal society of poor people on the bottom and wealthy people on the top…and what are they doing? 50% of the income tax is paid by 1%.” (09:45, Hanson)
• The hosts point out that California politicians struggle on the national stage—Reagan was the last to win the presidency; Newsom is unlikely to succeed.
• Hanson recounts the Newsom-DeSantis debate, concluding Newsom was “systematically” demolished by facts over style.
  • “He was out of the canned responses…DeSantis just quoted data, you got. We have half your population. They went through the budget, expenditures, debt, taxes. It was all in his favor. And when it was done, Newsom looked like a fool.” (12:09, Hanson)

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5. Antisemitism, Demographics, and Division in the GOP

• The podcast delves into how new right-wing subgroups include both legitimate grievances (economic dislocation, anti-DEI sentiment) and toxic elements (nick Fuentes, antisemitism).
• Vance’s challenge: keep the disaffected base but “reassure Jewish voters and people who are angry about the new anti-Semitism on the right that he abhors that.” (24:52, Hanson)
• Rubio, less entangled in this, stands as a steady establishment figure.

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6. The Minnesota “Insurrection” and Don Lemon

• Discussion around charges brought against protestors (and former CNN host Don Lemon) who invaded a Minnesota church.
• Hanson argues Lemon, now a “self-proclaimed journalist,” cannot use the First Amendment or his profession to excuse disruptive, unlawful acts.
  • “You have to prosecute him to say to all people, you can’t go into someone’s private religious observance and then disrupt it and say that is an expression of First Amendment rights.” (29:30, Hanson)
• Double standards highlighted between right-wing (January 6th) and left-wing protest responses.

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7. Demographics & Shifting Party Coalitions

• Hanson claims Democratic voter registration edge is eroding; party now dominated by a coalition of the very wealthy, poor, and professional upper-middle class, especially single, college-educated white women and certain Black constituencies.
  • “The Republican Party is a middle class. So the Republican, the Democratic Party is very wealthy. … Look at California…all of them are starting to see that the message of the socialist Democratic Party is they’re targeted.” (37:15, Hanson)
• He attributes Democratic decline to low birth rates among blue-state populations, outmigration from high-cost, high-regulation states, and a turn against working and middle classes.
• Red states, with higher fertility and growing share of independents, are presented as politically ascendant.

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8. 2028 GOP Strategy

• Victor recommends focusing on economic growth and stability rather than cultural “psychodramas.”
• Trump and allies should tout strong economic performance, avoid inflammatory rhetoric on social media, let Democrats self-sabotage.
• “Don’t get into sending memes or pictures or something that offends people…He’s going to have to win the independents.” (45:52, Hanson)
• Independents are seen as crucial, discomfited by progressive social policies.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "They’re both Bay Area people…very, very wealthy, elite, exclusive people who play populist at the expense of the middle class." (06:08, Hanson)
• "If people actually listen to them rather than just photo ops, they don’t like them." (07:05, Hanson)
• "Is he really going to run on: I want to make America like California? … It is a pyramidal society of poor people on the bottom and wealthy people on top." (09:45, Hanson)
• "J.D. Vance is going to have to find a way to excise the anti-Semitic portion of the leadership that appeals to that group while keeping that group in the fold." (16:10, Hanson)
• "You have to prosecute him to say to all people, you can’t go into someone’s private religious observance and then disrupt it and say that is an expression of First Amendment rights.” (29:30, Hanson)
• "The Democratic Party is a very wealthy…they have been the party of the very wealthy and the very poor and the upper middle professional classes." (37:15, Hanson)
• "Don’t get into sending memes or pictures or something that offends people…He’s going to have to win the independents." (45:52, Hanson)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------| | 01:33 | Victor discusses health and return | | 04:15 | Guthrie kidnapping comments | | 06:06 | Democratic 2028 field: Harris and Newsom | | 09:45 | Newsom’s “California model” critiqued | | 12:00 | Newsom vs. DeSantis debate recap | | 16:10 | GOP base, Vance’s challenges with antisemitism | | 24:52 | Vance and reassuring Jewish voters | | 28:34 | Don Lemon and Minnesota “insurrection” | | 33:09 | Don Lemon’s controversial comments revisited | | 37:15 | Demographic and party shifts | | 45:52 | GOP strategy—focus on economy, win independents |

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Tone & Conclusion

• The episode maintains Hanson's signature critical, sometimes sardonic, and deeply historical tone.
• He is openly skeptical of Democratic prospects (“They don’t have a candidate. They don’t have the issues.”) and advocates pragmatic, policy-driven Republican approaches.
• Emphasis is on the exhaustion of the Bay Area political model, demographic realignments, and the need for clarity and restraint within the GOP moving toward 2028.

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For more exclusive content, visit victorhanson.com.

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Foreign.

[C]

Hello and welcome to the Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. We are back for a short episode. Victor's back. This will be the first time we're doing a long podcast and his doctors think that it's a good idea maybe to do a little bit of what he used to do. But we will be doing. We'll see how it goes and see how Victor takes it. So all the way up. He should be recovering for three months. So he's still got another two months to go before that three month mark is met just short of that. So we'll see how Victor does and he's going to try to talk to his audience. We're glad to have everybody out there. Thank you for joining us. Victor, I know you're not feeling even, you're probably about 50%, but sitting down and talking, maybe you'll be able to do that.

[B]

Dr. I mean, for me, I never had AFIB before and the second procedure, because I had an aneurysm, made a lot of blood loss and trauma to the heart apparently. And so now they're trying to get the right dose to, to mitigate afib, but not to because I have a naturally low heart rate. I rode a bike a lot and jog and at 51 beats, I feel like I'm a lizard or a reptile sort. So if I fall asleep here or I sound like I'm drunk, it's not. It's just the, the medicine beta blocker, which I despise the medicine. But I'm getting better. I hope it's just going to take longer than I expected because I had two operations instead of one.

[C]

Yeah. And again, it sounded like your doctor felt that three months was a good period to go before you even expected to be 80%. But he also said you might want to try a few things. And so that's why we're here with everybody to do the show and some.

[B]

Of the current events.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

This is the great experiment. All right, let's go to a break and then we'll come back and talk a little bit about the 2028 elections. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

[A]

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[C]

Welcome back to Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. Victor is the Martin and Neely Anderson Senior Fellow in Military History and Classics at the Hoover Institution and the Wayne and Marsha Busky Distinguished Fellow in History at Hillsdale College. You can join him at his website, victorhansen.com and come join us there as a subscriber and get the VDH Ultra material, which are exclusive articles, two a week and then still the Ultra video. So Victor has kept up with that through his operation and I'm sure a lot of you are happy with that. Victor, I wanted to ask you first, I know we have Minnesota going on, but we also this week we had Samantha Guthrie's mother, Nancy. I wasn't sure if you had anything to say on that. I know that's a terrible thing. I don't believe they have her back yet as of Friday today. And we're recording at about 11 o'. Clock. So I don't know if you had any thoughts on her. And then we'll turn to the 2028 election.

[B]

Well, it's very mysterious because although she's a well known journalist, she's not, you know, a big high prior profile celebrity. And so there must be thousands of people of equal exposure to the public in journalism, TV journalism, podcast on everything, you know. So it's odd that they targeted the mother of someone. It suggests to me that someone had knowledge of the family or where the mother or something, something doesn't fit. You know, it's just like you pick, you could take a name out of a hat and just say, I'm going to go after that person's mother or father. But it's not something that we think about.

[C]

So, yeah, we wish the family well.

[B]

Yeah, we do. It's tragic. It's crazy.

[C]

Yeah, it sure is. Well, let's turn then to these 2028. I know it's very early, but it seems to me that the race is coming down to Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom and Rubio and Vance. And so I wanted to ask a little bit, it seems on the Democrat side, I know that here on the show, we often kind of mock the whole idea of Gavin Newsom, that is, who would vote for him or Kamala Harris, who would vote for her. But I would like to remind everybody, Kamala Harris lost only by 2.2 million and Gavin Newsom seems to be more popular than she is. Plus, in this 2028, we have, TRUMP won't be in it. So it's either Rubio or Vance. And neither of them is quite as strong as Trump with his base. So it seems to me it's not something to laugh about with Newsom out there as a potential candidate of 2028. But I was wondering your thoughts on it.

[B]

I think I'm going to laugh about him. Yeah. You know, it's a general rule when you look at polls of Harris Newsom, they're both Bay Area people and they're in the Bay Area tradition of Nancy Pelosi, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Jerry Brown. And we all know what that is. It's very, very wealthy, elite, exclusive people who play populist at the expense of the middle class. So when you have attention on one, the other always goes up because any attention is negative. Not that it's intended to be negative, but the more you listen, for example, Kamala Harris had been running in polls way behind Newsom. And then Newsom decided to go out and do his herky jerky stuff. And he went to Davos and he said something about knee pads. It was a kind of a off color vulgar joke. And then he did a interview where he's crossing his leg as if he was some sort of contortionist. And so people saw a lot of him. And then he thought he could fake his biography and talk about how he ate Wonder Bread. The more they saw that, he started to go down. So then she thought that was an opening. So then she went on and talked about Camilla's headquarters and Generation Z. I don't know what she. But she did the cackle and the craziness and the incoherence. And I'm sure that when you look at the polls next week, the more you see her, she'll start to go down. Both of them have that commonality. If people actually listen to them rather than just photo ops, they don't like them. They both have another problem. They have records. She is part of the greatest failure in my lifetime of the Biden four years. So if you look at foreign policy, is she really going to say, I am going to run on the Ukraine war and The Middle east war. Is she going to run on? We corralled China. We shot down the Chinese balloon that came over us. Our diplomats were not humiliated in Anchorage. We stopped the Iranian nuclear program. We were staunch allies a bit. No, there's nothing there. If she's going to run on crime, no, it's spiked under them. Is she going to run on immigration? Just because people are angry at ICE and the photo ops and how it's the performance art resistance, do you really believe they want to go back to 10,000 people crossing the border when she was border czar? I could go on, but she has no record. So then you look at him and is he really going to run on? I want to make America like California. Under my watch, I can guarantee all of you that you will have, as California does, the highest taxes in the nation were in California. I'm talking about income tax, gas tax, and I think it's fourth highest sales tax. We're way up there. It's got the highest price of gasoline. It's got the highest price of food in the continental United States. It's got one of the most dismal employment rates. It has about a quarter million people leaving. It has the highest poverty rate. About 21% of the population. One out of every three people in the United States that are on welfare live in California. It has the highest housing cost. So it is a pyramidal society of poor people on the bottom and wealthy people on the top. And what are they doing? 50% of the income tax is paid by 1%. So is it very wise to go after billionaires? And if you're worth, you know, a billion dollars, to say to somebody, well, you have these vast stock holdings and vast property, but I don't really care if you have $50 million or not in cash. I want it. I want it because I need to spend what? I need to spend more money on what? Illegal aliens, illegal immigration? 27% of the population was not born in California. In the United States that lives in California, is there a civic education, assimilation, integration? No, it's separatism. Let's explore reparations. Let's explore giving land back to indigenous people. Let's explore Chicano this. You know what I mean? It's just all tribalism at which it cannot afford.

[C]

But those are winning issues in California. I mean, they have these people in power in California.

[B]

That's why they're not. That's why you do not see people from California winning national elections. Ronald Reagan was the last person to do it. Jerry Brown Couldn't do it. Gavin Newsom will not be able to do it because they've been running a state into the ground. And so you saw that debate with Ron DeSantis that Sean Hannity hosted, and Gavin did his little stick where he does this and this and he looks this and he poses and he has canned answers that never really fit the question. You know, here we in California, we're diverse people and we're tolerant and we're trendsetting and we have our. And then after about 20 minutes, he was out of the canned responses. And then systematically, it was like a boxing match where a guy throws haymakers and he's really showy, and then the other boxer just weighs him down with punches to the face. And DeSantis just quoted data you got. We have half your population. They went through the budget, expenditures, debt, taxes. It was all in his favor. And when it was done, Newsom looked like a fool. And I, I just, I just don't think he's going to be a national candidate. I don't know who they're going to get, because the problem they have is they have a lunatic base that now is the majority of the party, the squad, shrill Elizabeth, warning, lunatic. Bernie Sanders, all of those people, they are 70 on issues. They are 30%. They're not with 70% of the American people. So they only have one thing, and that's Donald Trump. And their strategy is simply threefold. I'm going to create so much chaos. I'm going to shut down the government. I'm going to firebomb a Tesla dealership. I'm going to barricade ICE officers. I'm going to storm a church and disrupt the services. I'm going to tell ICE to get the F out of all of that potty words, the video. And then people will say, oh, I don't know who did this, but it was so nice and calm years ago under Obama or Clinton or maybe one of the Bushes and just make it all go away. I'm like Elliot in True Romance. Remember that? He said, I just can't take it any. That's their strategy. Or it's just any little thing that Trump says or any big thing that he says they latch. He wanted to, he wanted to kill NATO people in Greenland. He. He wants to take over Canada. No, all of the art of the deal, or he's offended the people of Denmark or he's Putin's puppet or he's an Epstein groupie. It's that stuff. Or barring that, it's just Anything Donald Trump wants to do, they're going to oppose legislatively and a lot of the stuff most of the people want. And so now what are they going to do in the spring, it's almost spring. Record foreign investment, record deregulation, big tax cuts are now in the process. Record energy development, record investment in AI, bitcoin, biological, all these new technologies. The economy grew at 5% in the last quarter and inflation's down. It's less than the average 3% under Biden. So I just don't see that that party has anybody yet that can say, maybe Josh Shapiro, he's very, he's a hard leftist. But everybody, because he's not crazy like the rest of them, they think he's a centrist, which he isn't. But if he's going to do like Bill Clinton, you know, and say, I'm going to crack down on crime, I'm going to do and sound normal maybe on the other side in 2028, if you looked at the polls, Marco Rubio was like 8%, 10%. And J.D. vance was overwhelmingly. And they both speak well. And you saw what Vance did in the debate with Tim Walsh. You saw what he did 30 or 40 times on weekend news shows. He just demolished all of these left wing newscasters. And Rubio did the same thing when he went before the Senate or the House. They're both good. But Rubio is getting a little bit more traction now. And that, I think is because there is a perception that J.D. vance has ties to the, not the MAGA base, the ultra MAGA base, and that he feels that. I think he's going to have to articulate this. There's a large number of white males taking, and we've talked about that, a demographic that they were on the wrong end of affirmative action. They were the wrong, they tried to go to universities or college. They were always blamed as toxic masculinity. People are racist or sexist or homophobic. And globalization robbed people in the middle class, especially whites, that were not and weren't eligible. These were the demographics that died at twice their numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan. And yet were, were, you know, pillar demonizing them. And you can see, you can see why they're angry. And a lot of Candace takes advantage of that. Nick Fuentes does, Tucker does. And the problem with it is it has a strong component. Anytime you have an angry group, then you have people who say, the Jews did it, it, the Jews did it, the Jews did it, Israel did it, Israel. And that's not compatible with most of The Republican Party. And so at some key point, and Vance has already come out and attacked Nick Fuentes and said don't talk, you can eat. S very vulgar, I don't think. By the way, I don't understand this. Both on both parties. I don't understand why you say S H I word or fu if you're the mayor. I don't like it, the mainstreaming of vulgarity. I know we live in a vulgar age, but it's, it's. But when Vance said that Fuentes could eat shi, he was attacking him because he attacked his wife. So it was. But he's going to have to do more of that. He didn't attack the groipers because that's a. Nobody knows how large that constituency is. Nobody knows if they really like Fuentes. They do like people who say you're on the short end of the stick. You don't get affirmative action, there's no programs for you from the federal government. You're the guys that always, they ask to go and God awful places like Helmand province or Fallujah, you're the guys that do the dirty work. You know, clean stuff. You bill and you never get any credit. Your crime rates below other groups. So that is a disaffected demographic. And he's going to have to find a way to excise the anti Semitic portion of the leadership that appeals to that group while keeping that group in the fold. Rubio, on the other hand, just very quickly is, he's done fantastic. I mean, China's pulling out of Panama. He went down there after Trump did the art of the deal fireworks. He went down there and actually hammered out the details to get them out of the entry and exit points. At least they're, they're starting to get out. In Panama, he was very crucial in the Venezuela thing. I think he'll be very crucial if Cuba. Something's going to happen in Cuba. They don't have any fuel, they don't have any money. And he's very calm when he goes before the Senate in the House. As I said earlier, it's a tutorial on how to deal with these pathetic egos on the Democratic side. So I don't know what's going to happen, but you get this sense that Rubio and then there's the electoral consequences. I don't think we. Well, I'll have to look at my history, but I don't know of a case offhand where a sitting vice president under one president has come back to have another term under another president. So When Trump says vice president, yeah, we've got two great people, Vance and Rubio, he never says it, but the subtext is that Vance would be the top of the ticket and Rubio would be the bottom. But if you, this anti Semitic Israel, hard right stuff is not solved, then I think the Republicans have, they have to find a way of solving it without alienating people who have been misled and blaming them. But you have to be. When I say misled, I mean, if anybody buys into the idea that the Jews are responsible for maladies, they're crazy. And you know, I think maybe part of it is they say, well, Jewish people are 75% Democrat. That's changing. And what you want to do is, is ensure that nobody on the right is anti Semitic because we know the left is. That's the whole essence of the pro Palestinian radical Israel, the colonial settlers, all that stuff that we see on campuses.

[C]

So then the question is, and I know we'll go to a break. Well, let's go to a break first and then come back because I have a question about the Rubio issue. Stay with us and we'll be right back.

[D]

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[C]

Welcome back. This is Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. And Victor, we were just Talking about the 2028 elections or potential candidates, I should say, and I was wondering you and everybody seems to be assuming that Vance would be the presidential candidate and Rubio the vice presidential, but it might make more sense to have Rubio as the presidential candidate. And so you've been suggesting that if Vance can overcome this antisemitism that is implicit in some of his relationships, I guess you would have to say, then that would be fine. Maybe Vance could hold it, but Rubio could hold it a lot better. He has a little bit more charisma, I think, than Vance does. And so it's going to be a.

[B]

Quite a. I don't know about that, but there was something that's just an ironclad reality. J.D. vance is not going to be vice president for four years under Donald Trump and then turn around and say, I have four more years under Marco Rubio. It's just not going to happen. I'm sorry. He's going to run for president, and if he doesn't get the nomination, he's not going to be picked by Rubio. Rubio can be picked by bands and he can say, you can serve for eight years like George H.W. bush and then you can come in. Rubio is still young enough, I think, in his late 50s that he could do that in his 60s. They're both very good. They're both very good with the media. They're both very good on the issues. As I said, the only problem that Vance has, I'll give you one example. So it was Holocaust Remembrance Day, and, and Vance talked, I thought, quite movingly about the tragedy of the Holocaust, but he didn't mention the Jewish people. And, you know, there's 6 million Jews, there was about a million and a half other people. But there's a tendency now in popular culture for people to latch on to the Holocaust. And they'll say, well, there was 27 million Russians killed, there was 20 million Chinese. Yes. But these were mostly in combat situations or collateral damage through bombing, etc. What was unique about the Holocaust was there was a systematic ideological effort to take citizens that were not combatants and pull them out of every different country, regardless if they were an ally or an enemy of the Third Reich, and then find an industrial way of killing them, not shooting them initially, not gassing them with the carbon monoxide. I'm talking about making death camps and using German engineering and expertise to make special types of crematoria and Zycon B and et cetera. That was unique. And when you talk about the Holocaust, you have to mention that, that it was a yes, there were people who were slaughtered, who were civilians, maybe 8 million, but the majority of them were Jewish people who were selected of their ethnic background and religion and traditional role in European society as being very successful, competent, good citizens. And they were, and that has to be the lesson of the Holocaust. Whereas now, you know, when the Palestinians said there's a genocide, so we had our Holocaust, et cetera. And I think he erred by not saying that about the Jews. And so I like both of them. I have no, you know, I'm not preferring one or the other at this point. I'm just saying that the conventional wisdom was that Marco Rubio was not interested and JD Vance was the heir apparent. But the rise of the groiper, Nick Fuentes, the Tucker Carlson interview, has shaken a lot of the, I would call them the more moderate people. I don't know how the coalition that makes up the Trump constituency. And what I mean by that is they're going to have to deal with it. And J.D. vance is going to have to find a way to reassure Jewish voters and people who are angry about the new anti Semitism on the right that he abhors that, and then still find a way to appeal to this lost generation of white males that have been given the short end of the stick because of globalization and wokeness and DEI and the whole radical feminism. These people are rapists, toxic masculine, et cetera.

[C]

All right, Victor, let's turn then to the Minnesota insurrectionists and some particular events. One of them is Harmeet Dhillon is the assistant AG that is going to bring charges against those who went into the church and stopped the church proceedings along with Don Lemon. And she says they are going to bring charges against Don Lemon. They've arrested nine people on this invasion of the church and that their charges are going to be in violation of civil rights. Do you think that there's going to be any traction in what Harmeet Dhillon's up to?

[B]

I do, because what's the alternative? So Don Lemon's argument, First of all, Don Lemon is self incriminating. He's on tape talking about with the leaders of this demonstration. I think even before that day that it actually occurred, the violence and the Way he talks and refers to himself, he sees himself as integral to that demonstration. And so if you don't arrest, prosecute, indict, prosecute Don Lemon, you're basically saying that people. Because he said so. He said he had a First Amendment right, free speech. So what he didn't say was, I, Don Lemon, and now proclaim myself a journalist so I can go into a church and participate and aid and abet people who are invading private property. They're disrupting a religious observance. They're shouting and silence them. They're terrorizing children, and in some cases, they're blocking entrance and exits. And that's my right to do that because I now declare that I'm a journalist. It doesn't work that way. So you have to prosecute him to say to all people, you can't go into someone's private religious observance and then disrupt it and say that that is a, an expression of the First Amendment rights of free speech. And second, that you proclaim yourself a journalist. I mean, I, I'm as much. He doesn't work for cnn. He doesn't have Prescott. I'm doing a podcast right now, just like he is. So I'm a journalist. So can I say H I, There's a, a local mosque. I'm going to go into this mosque and just break in and say, you people support Sharia law. You don't give women full rights. You are, you're responsible, and I'm going to. How long would I last? Nobody would take that seriously. And I'd said I'm a journalist, especially if I had a bunch of crazy right wing MAGA people. I'm not saying MAGA people would be more likely, but that's what the left would say. And if we went in, they would all be in jail. We saw that in January 6th. They know that. They know if those people had gone into a mosque or a Buddhist service, they would have all been arrested. They know that it was only because the powers that are be in Minnesota think it's okay to go into a traditional Christian observance with mostly white people in attendance. Not all, but mostly. And then under the guise that maybe the preacher who was not there, the minister, had ICE ties, then that justified it. If you don't prosecute them, then you've sent a message. I mean, this is. We learned under the Merrick Garland and Eric Holder Department of Justice that if you're out on the street and you're yelling, somebody wants to go into a Planned Parenthood, you know, to get an abortion, you yell, oh, you're going to hell. You're going to save your soul and you're arrested. You're obstructing the entrance. Well, if that's true, and this is important because the left pushed that law through and the Republicans said, if you're going to push that law through, we're going to add a writer to it that also protects the same type of people not observing or not trying to facilitate the taking of life with abortions, but the worship in a religious context. So they're going to lose if there's. The only problem is, will be jury nullification. Minnesota, which people won't listen to the evidence. And you know, I think, I think Don Lemon said, well, they just went after me because I'm so well known and famous and I'm black and I'm gay. I don't think they went after you at all. I think you went after yourself and you're not famous anymore. You're infamous. When you say to anybody, Don Lemon, they think of all the stupid things he said, how he was fired, remember why he was fired. He said, basically, women that were what, in their 30s or 40s or 50s were all through, that they were too old, that they aged different. Remember that. You should look at Martha McCalla or Laura Ingram and they look a lot younger than Don Lemon. And they're, they're not age wise, but they look like they're 30 years old.

[C]

And they're very talented or Megyn Kelly's another person.

[B]

I mean, you look at. And for some ignoramus to get on there and start lecturing people and then double down on it about women are all through or they age differently than men and they're, and they're, they so sad. It's just crazy.

[C]

All right.

[B]

I don't know if I should disclose this, but I was in New York doing the publicity for one of the basic books I had written a few years ago, and Martha McCallum had me do a 10 minute interview. I think it was for either a podcast or maybe it was for her noon show at that time. And this young handsome man walked up and he looked about 30 and he hugged her. And I thought, wow. I didn't know any of her family information. I thought, you know, he looks a little young. I didn't know. I thought she was about 35 or something. And she kind of smiled. And I think, I don't know if she thought what I was thinking or not. But then she said, meet my son. I thought, oh, my gosh, that's your son. Then I thought to myself, what do I say next? You've got to be 50 then, you know, or something. But she was older than that. But she looks about 30. And when you think what Don Lemon said, it's just so stupid.

[C]

If I could just not to defend Don Lemon because I don't really like him, but I think he was talking about your child bearing years. And a man has much longer time.

[B]

No, that's what he was talking about, that women, because they go through menopause, so biologically they're spent. But I could say the same thing about men. I could say scientifically, when men get to be about a certain age, there is something called male menopause. And their testosterone levels drop, they start to have a different physiology, and they lose their hair. And if they do sire children in their 60s, 70s, and 80s, there's a much higher chance that of birth defects or genetic problems because of the semen. I don't want. That's not the right word, but. So men go through the same process. They lose muscle mass at about 2% a year.

[C]

Well, I guess Don Lemon just thinks men look a lot better as they get older. Perhaps that's his bias.

[B]

He's got so many, I don't know what, psychodramas in his past. He's not a likable person.

[C]

No, he sure isn't. Well, let's move on then. Let's take a break and then come back and we'll talk a little bit about another aspect of this Minnesota insurrection that is going on. Stay with us and we'll be right back. Welcome back. This is Victor Davis Hansen in his own words. And Victor is back after a major surgery on his lungs, so we're happy to hear from him. So we'll stick just to this Minnesota topic, and then I think we're going to call it a day. But we saw recently a video from an antifa adherent, Kyle Wagner, and he said that people should go out and murder ICE agents. Now, my question about this is, it seems to me if you watch these mad men, as I saw him called by somebody say these things and influence a lot of people to go out and protest at least that the Democratic Party should be losing their constituents. But I don't see that happening. They still seem to have that loyal base. And you were talking about the statistics earlier that these are 30% issues. But what is the 20% that are. You know, the Democratic Party makes up 50% of our entire population. So what is the 20% doing?

[B]

Statistics show that Democrats that used to have almost a two to one edge have lost that edge. So as far as registered voters, they are approaching levels of Republicans now, maybe even lower in many states. And independents are the largest group and that's new. And when you look at their popularity, it's only even with all the bad optics and anger and first term incumbency problems that they always have with the midterm that they're not that much popular, if there are popular than the Republicans. But who is their constituency? Well, if you look at the people on the, on the barricades, I would say it is an upper. I mean there it used, I knew who they used to be because my family were Democrats and my grandfather was a Democrat and it was farmers, it was union people, it was the middle class. And when you grew up, they caricatured unfairly Republicans as every little small town. They'd always, we say, well the car dealers are Republican, the city managers are Republican, the funeral directors are Republican, all the wealthy people, but all of us teachers and farmer, you know, that's who they are. That's not true anymore. The Republican Party is a middle class. So the Republican, the Democratic Party is a very wealthy. And that's changing because look at California. The 350, 250 to 350,000 are all that are leaving our upper middle class class people like a Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, as we saw with Elon Musk, all of them, Sergey Brin, all of them are starting to see that the message of the socialist Democratic Party is they're targeted. They want to take their money and they want to tell them what to do. They want to bring them all in a room and say you're going to do AI, you're not going to do it. Marc Andreessen said that. So they're in danger. They have been the party of the very wealthy and the very poor and the upper middle professional classes. I put in there with the wealthy. So when you look at those people, it's very strange. I look at those, they really, I'd say the core besides is women and that's female. They have a particular strong hard left black female constituency. And you can see that manifested in politics. The Maxine Waters, the Karen Bass, mayor of Washington D.C. those people in the squad. And then they have white women professional or teachers or something, nurses. And you can see that in these protests it's mostly white women. And they are very, very angry. And when you get down to it, there's some deeper, there's some deeper fissures there. The fertility rate in blue states is about 1.3 to 1.5. The fertility rate in red states is about 1.7 to 2. And that's dramatic. So what I'm getting at is there is a profile where the young woman grows up to be unattached, goes to get her bachelor's degree, feels she's very well educated even though a BA means nothing now given the erosion in standards. Then she gets a teaching credential, a nursing credential, an mba and she defines her own lifestyle on her terms. And then she doesn't get married. She has a series of live in boyfriends or something. They're not having a nuclear family and children. And that gets, that's what got J.D. vance in trouble when he said catwomen, you know, that they have pets but, but one other manifestation is political. They vent that anger because I mean we're all biological people. And when you're told from an early age that you have to be emancipated, you have to take the world on your terms and you have to be self, you don't need a partner and you're going to make a lot of money, you're going to be famous and educated, you got a better degree than she does or and you get that drained into the ide that you're going to get married happily. At times you'll be home, at times you'll be at work, you'll raise two or three children. That doesn't seem attractive, but it is attractive because that renews the species and you get to see younger people and people find that they're happier if they either combined a career or just homeschool or something. And that's been very appealing to red states and they don't want to confront that, that. But as a party they're shrinking because they're not reproducing themselves and people are leaving their confines and they don't want to live there. And I can tell you in my own family and we all grew up on this farm or nearby it. I would say about half have left California. Even though they're, they're not always conservative or traditional, they're pretty liberal, but they're basically saying I don't want to live in this state. And I don't know, I have never asked them why but I assume because of the prices, the affordability issue and the crime and stuff like that. And so I don't see the Democrats long term having much right now. They have the ability to create chaos and they hope that Everybody has a short memory and they remember that Donald Trump, if they say Donald Trump wanted to invade Greenland and fight Denmark or he offended the Canadians, my best friends, or he said a really stupid thing on truth. So they think that'll be more resonant than 10,000 people crossing the border with Majorcas every day saying, the border's closed. So I just, I'm not, I'll just finish by saying Donald Trump doesn't have to do anything new. All of the, the wheels, the gears are in place for a big booming economy. All they have to do do is what Scott Bessant did. And all they have to do is just say, we're going to get 5% growth, we're going to get lower inflation than Joe Biden, but we're going to get it down lower. We're going to produce so much energy, we're going to get a calmer world. And they will, but they don't need to go out and say these, you know, we're going to, next thing we're going to go is going to Portland or Seattle. Just don't talk about it and keep arresting criminals all across the country. And at some point just say, you know what, we'll get to Chicago, we'll get to Denver, we'll get to, I don't know, we'll get to Philadelphia, but we're not going to get there yet. And then just before the midterms keep arresting people, the crime will go down. The people of ice will be welcomed and helped in Tennessee, in Wyoming, in Utah. Just do that. And then people can. Trump can say, well, here's Today we arrested 3,000 criminals, but they're not in the blue states. They don't seem to want to help us. We'll get to them, but don't go in there now. And I think they can still win if they talk about the economy. They don't get into the psychodramas. I understand the art of the deal. You say you might do something in Greenland and the result of it is we're probably going to get a better deal with Greenland with a base, and that's very critical for anti ballistic missile defense and the Arctic icebreakers and all that stuff. And I understand that now Canada is going to pay their 2% and they may show some traction getting rid of that $60 billion deficit and they may patrol. But to get them to do that, you had to. Trump thought he had to say, you're going to be a 51st state or you're a loser, so you don't need to do all that right before just calm down and talk about what he's really good at. And that is he likes people, he wants to help people. And don't pick fights, let them do that.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

And I think he'll win the midterms because his economic record and foreign policy are so good. And then I would have people go out, I would send Rubio out to talk ban, send them all the people, they're all good spokespeople and explain the economic platform and but don't, you know, don't get into sending mems or pictures or something that offends people, you know, like the Carl, the Rob Reiner, you know, that kind of stuff. It doesn't. He's going to have to win the independence.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely. And it sounds to me, given our conversation and this is to the audience, that Victor feels that not only could Vance Rubio ticket be very successful in 2028 just in and of its own merits, but also because the Democratic Party is breaking up a bit and those independents may they choose to go that.

[B]

Way rather than they get fixated on things that are. As I said, the average independent doesn't want his daughter competing with somebody who's six two who says he's a woman slamming a volleyball down her throat. They don't want her 14 year old girl with somebody with male genitalia dressing next to them. They just don't want that. They don't want somebody who is in Congress shouting and yelling every day about white this and white supremacy and white like Jasmine Crockett. They don't want to hear it. They got fatigue. The average person does not want to turn on the television and see 10,000 people and say, well, I had to get a Covid vaccination. This guy has no money and I'm in line already to get a mammogram and I've waited six months. This person's just going to come in and they don't want that. So let the Democrats be the Democrats. Don't try to take attention away from them. All you have to do is listen to Wall Waltz, who is a buffoon. And when he talks about Fort Sumter, you know he's going to be, I guess, does he think he's going to fire on. He's the states rights guy. He's the insurrectionist. So when he brings up Fort Sumter, you think, you idiot, your simile or your historical illusion means that you're basically an insurrectionist that wants to destroy federal property. And that's what you've been doing. You're helping people destroy federal property in Minnesota. You're an insurrection direction. So they are. And let. Let Camila Harris talk. She talked the other day. I couldn't understand a word she said about HQ was headquarters. No kidding. And Gavin Newsom, he's got. He should be a contortionist or a gymnast. He. He has a way of. His hands and legs. They all. I don't know what he's doing.

[C]

They kind of intermingle.

[B]

But he can't. He never. He's always taught, you know, he always says foul things. His team has all these F words and this profanity and he's always. And then you just look at him, you say, Gavin, we spent $30 billion on high speed rail. We don't have one foot of track laid. It's a disaster. Gavin, these poor people In Pacific Palisades, 90% of them can't build. You've out regulated everybody. They don't have any chance to get a billing permit. They have no insurance. Solutions. Why don't you try to help them? And Gavin, we're facing another deficit. Why do you give all this to illegal aliens? And you don't care about the people who are citizens? Gavin, have you seen what the 99 freeway is? We just had 59 cars where it goes from three lanes to two in the fog. It was a disaster. People are getting killed every day on this. Can't you at least say to California, we will have three lanes in every direction on all major north, south. He can't do any of that. Inept. And so I just think that they don't have a candidate. They don't have the issues. Have you noticed one thing? They never say Amy Klobuchar or when you see Bernie Sanders or you see Chuck Schumer or the Squad and they say they're going to shut down the government. They never say, this is our contract for America. Here's our ideas on immigration. We want to let in X amount of immigrants. Here's what we want to do with the wall. Here's what we want to do with cr. Here's what we want to do with voting integrity. Here's what we want to do abroad. Because they know if they were explicit nobody would want it because they're ideologues and they really don't. A lot of them don't like the United States. They feel it was toxic at its birth and it got worse and it's aging.

[C]

A lot of the people you mentioned though also just have kind of air whistling through their head anyway. So the squad, most of them are not the smart, smartest people on the corner. Anyways, Victor, we're gonna call it a day here. Thank you so much. For you. You made it. Yes. And we would like to thank Jack Fowler for all the interviews he did through January. I was just listening to the one with John Yu. Absolutely awesome interview about lots of court questions. And John's an excellent.

[B]

I was looking at my watch too much because I was trying to make sure my heart rate was 50 because I've had the corre for afib has been too. You know, I've been slowed down to something I've never been slowed to. I hope I wasn't too lethargic. Lizard like.

[C]

Yes. No, you were not. So thank you very much, Victor Davis Hansen, and thanks to the audience for joining us.

[B]

Thank you, everybody for listening. We'll see you next time.

[C]

This is Sammy Wink and Victor Davis Hansen, and we're signing off.

[B]

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.