The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Assassin’s Creed: Breaking Down the Left’s Climate of Violence

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Assassins and would-be assassins—Thomas Matthew Crooks, Ryan Routh, Luigi Mangione, and Tyler Robinson—have emerged from the shadows over the past year with their sights set on Donald Trump, Charlie Kirk, and even former UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The common thread is that they’re all products of the radical Left. Victor Davis Hanson breaks down the cultural climate that lowered the bar for political violence and the alarming public reactions that followed on this episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “When you combine those two facts, insidious though they are, that A) there are people out there who are unstable, who feel that they will be rewarded, no matter how deranged or demented that idea is, rewarded psychologically by taking the life of a controversial conservative figure, and 2) there may be people within the apparat who are responsible for the security who also feel that the person that they're supposed to protect may be not deserving of the excellent level of protection that is usually accorded to other people, then you have a recipe for disaster, and we've seen it happen.” (0:00) The Disturbing Commonality (0:38) Thomas Matthew Crooks (0:58) Ryan Routh (1:32) Luigi Mangione (2:01) Tyler Robinson (2:13) Common Traits of the Assassins (3:33) Public Reaction (8:30) Conclusion: A Recipe for Disaster 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest short videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1⁠  👉Want more VDH? Watch Victor’s weekly, hour-long podcast, “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” now! Subscribe to his YouTube channel, and enabling notification:  ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273?sub_confirmation=1⁠  👉More exclusive content are available on Victor’s website: ⁠https://victorhanson.com⁠   👉The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: ⁠https://secured.dailysignal.com/⁠  X follow link: https://x.com/intent/user?screen_name=DailySignal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thomas Matthew Crooks, Ryan Ruth, Luigi Mangione, Tyler Robinson. There's something in common that's very disturbing about these people. All of these assassins and would-be assassins were operating. They came out of the creepy shadows. They were operating in a climate in which they felt the bar of the acceptable had been lowered. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. I'd like to talk about the Assassin's Creed, specifically Thomas Matthew Crooks. He tried to kill last summer Donald Trump and came within an inch of doing so by hitting his ear,

wounded severely two others, killed someone tragically, young assassin. We had another attempt in Florida by Ryan Ruth, and he was also a disturbing, a little older, middle-aged man that almost shot Donald Trump. Had he not been spotted, the next link on that Florida golf course would have put him easily within range, and he would have been killed. But luckily, somebody spotted Ruth aiming at Donald Trump for a longer shot and exchanged gunfire. and the would-be assassin fled, and he was apprehended. We also had this assassin Luigi Mangione. He was the sion of a wealthy family. He was well-educated, and he was angry about unfairness,

perceived unfairness in the health care industry, and he assassinated a United Health Care CEO, shot him, ambushed him, so to speak. And then finally there was Tyler Robinson. He was the young assassin who killed, assassinated Charlie Kirk. There's something in common that's very disturbing about these people. They were all... Get no frills, delivered.

Shop the same in-store prices online and enjoy unlimited delivery with PC Express Pass. Get your first year for $2.50 a month. Learn more at p.c.express.ca. On the left, Mr. Crooks may have been in the right originally, but from his social media context, he was involved in some trans illusions. He was a furrier, supposedly, these people who dress up as animals and find some kind of sexual satisfaction and emulating animals, very bizarre people.

He was also very critical of Donald Trump. The same was true of Mr. Ruth. He had expressed on a number of occasions, sometimes in association with the Ukraine war, that he did not like Donald Trump. Luigi Mangione was a hero because he said he was against corporate capitalism and predatory capitalist CEOs. And Tyler Robinson, I don't know exactly why he wanted to kill Charlie Kirk. But there's a lot of information that he had a trans boyfriend, girlfriend, and he had a group of associates on social media that despise Charlie Kirk, and he would thought he might be a hero. They all then had something in common. They were people on the left.

They were probably mentally disturbed. But there's two other aspects that I think are pretty disturbing. The reaction to all of these, if you think people in the United States on the extreme, left thought that Mr. Mangione was a hero. We had a reporter interview him and kind of giggle about how attractive and charismatic this murderer was. We had others in the Bay Area of California who were going to entitle an opera after him. He became almost a folk icon. The other thing, Tyler Robinson, there were people who openly readdial. We about his killing of Charlie Kirk. We had people on the left, and some of them were involved

in education that had T-shirts depicting Charlie Kirk being shot in the neck. We had some people on campuses who actually, as Mimes, acted that out, grabbing their throat in a very macarb way, as if that was something to delight over the horrific shooting on camera in the neck of Charlie Kirk. So there was jubilation. on the left. In fact, we've known almost it's kind of like a narrative in our society now that someone someday will stop every day, but someone somewhere will pop up and say that he was happy that Charlie Kirk was killed. Same thing happened with the two assassination attempts of Donald Trump. There was rejoicing on social media. In fact, some people said, I wish he had have hit him.

Oh, it was too bad he missed, that type of jubilation. So what am I getting at? All of these assassins and would-be assassins were operating. They came out of the creepy shadows. They were operating in a climate in which they felt the bar of the acceptable had been lowered. If you call Charlie Kirk or you call CEOs or you call Donald Trump, fascist, Nazis, terrible people, the worst creature or the worst person in the world, a former speaker of the house who said that wasn't the worst I could do. That was just a euphemism.

When you lower that bar of demonization, then there are going to be people out there with lethal propensities who feel that if they should reify your extremist language, then they will be canonized. they will be considered legendary. That's one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is if you have people in law enforcement or security and they feel the general atmosphere is the people that they're responsible for keeping safe

and secure from these types of threats are somehow despicable, controversial, not quite iconic enough to really risk your life for it, then there's going to be lack security. And why was Mr. Crooks allowed anywhere near that rally and get to so close to the President of the United States? And the answer is that the Secret Service, for some reason, not the rank and file, but at the top, did not take adequate preparations. We don't know why, but the same thing happened in Florida. How could you have the President of the United States on a golf course and have an amateurish, buffoonish, Ryan Ruth, actually get right up next to a fence

and get in close proximity for a shot at the President of the United States? How could you, at a university, when you knew that Charlie Kirk was always under threat, How could somebody just openly walk up to a building climb up on the roof and then get a direct shot at Charlie Kirk? I don't know about Luigi Mangione, but he apparently felt that it would be very easy to just lay in wait for the CEO of United Health. But what I'm getting at is that there was a lack of vigilance. there was a laxity that I don't think would have happened, and I'm glad that it didn't happen for iconic people on the left, like a Michelle Obama or the Obamas or Hillary Clinton. I think that there are people in the government and in the administration, state, local, federal,

who feel that certain controversial people who are constantly demonized, you can be a little bit more lax, that you really don't have to be on your guard because these people may have incurred legitimate animus from the public. And when you combine those two facts, insidious though they are, that A, there are people out there who are unstable who feel that they will be rewarded, no matter how deranged or demanded that idea is, rewarded psychologically by taking the life of a controversial conservative figure. And two, there may be people within the apparatus who are responsible for the security who also feel that the person that they're supposed to protect may be not deserving of the excellent level of protection that is usually accorded to other people, then you have a recipe for disaster. And we've seen it happen. Thank you very much.

This is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to the Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.