The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: The Left’s Disturbing Defense of Violent Criminals

Episode Date: August 27, 2025

“Crime apologist” is not a strong enough term to describe the hysteria and vitriol that’s infected the modern-day Left.   For the sake of ideology, left-wing leaders and activists are willing to sacrifice public safety and justice—from sanctuary cities releasing violent offenders to outrage over federal intervention that actually reduced crime in Washington, D.C. Victor Davis Hanson warns of the dire consequences of this mindset if left unchecked on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ Do you remember the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson? He was a person from the middle class, was born without status or advantages or money, and he worked himself up to the leadership position of one of the largest health care concerns in the United States. And Luigi Mangione—a 25- or 26-year-old wealthy, well-educated kid, high status, privileged—decided that he was an enemy of the people because health care was not universal and UnitedHealthcare may have refused coverage to certain people in need. So, he decided he was going to kill him. And he did kill him. He murdered him. It's on tape. And what was the reaction of the Left? Some on the left canonized him.  👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest 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    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At Desjardin, we speak business. We speak equipment modernization. We're fluent in data digitization and expansion into foreign markets. And we can talk all day about streamlining manufacturing processes. Because at Desjardin business, we speak the same language you do. Business. So join the more than 400,000 Canadian entrepreneurs who already count on us. And contact Desjardin today.

We'd love to talk. Business. Recently, there's been an almost an epidemic of left-wing hysteria about violence. It's more than just hysteria. There's been an effort to defend people who commit violent crimes, or almost glorify them, or just neglect the severity of their crimes on innocent people. It's sort of Stalinistic. It basically says, for the greater good of the revolution,

there are enemies of the people. We don't really care if they're moms, they're nice people, they're bad people. all we know in our Marxist binary, they're on the wrong side. They're the victimizers, and the poor people who were murderers or thugs and assaulted them. They're the victimized. It takes various manifestations, but it does reveal and illustrate this element of leftism that it's heartless, it's cruel, it's cold. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for the Daily Signal. Recently, there's been almost an epidemic of left-wing hysteria about violence, murder, and people who commit violent crimes.

And it's more than just hysteria. There's been an effort to defend people that commit heinous crimes or almost glorify them or just neglect the severity of their crimes on innocent people. It takes various manifestation, but it does reveal and illustrate. this element of leftism that it's heartless, it's cool, it's cold, it's almost as if to make an omelet you have to break, as Joseph Solon said, a few eggs. I'll give you a few examples. We have over 600 sanctuary jurisdictions, and that means that in these areas of states, cities, and counties, when an illegal alien commits a crime and he's apprehended, and he's And he is not legally in the United States.

These jurisdictions will not, will not turn him over to ICE, Department of Homeland Security Agency. They will not do it. In other words, they're saying to all of us, we would rather let these people out and they do get out and maybe commit crimes. And that's how price will pay in opposition to border security. We see another manifestation with Trump's 30-day takeover. It's not a takeover. It's an augmentation of the Washington, D.C. police forces by bringing in federal forces. And for the first time in decades, there has been an eight-day period where there hasn't been a single murder in Washington, D.C.

The residents seem very happy, although careful not to express that joy because it's contrary to the mainstream leftist. governance of the city. But what's weird is Trump is getting lambasted by mostly wealthy, white, protected liberals that he's a autocrat, a dictator for coming into Washington and trying to help people live normal lives in the inner city. Again, the theme is they don't care about the number of people this week have been saved from either being killed or maimed or wounded. But there are two or three other examples that are even more egregious. We all remember the Doge 19-year-old, Edward Corristine. I hope I can mention his nickname without seeming foul, but he was called, quote, big balls. And he worked for Elon Mosque. He was attached to the Social Security Department,

of Treasury, and HHS, etc., looking at that. the budgets of these various cabinet divisions. He was walking late in Washington, D.C. after a gathering, a young woman left ahead of him. He was worried that she shouldn't have been walking a short distance alone to her car. When he followed her, he heard her scream. There were 10 young thugs. They were trying to carjack her car and hurt her. She was confronting them. He ran over, pushed her in the car, tried to get her secure. She'd, she'd, she was confronting them. He ran over, pushed her in the car, tried to get her secure, she locked the car, then he faced off with these 10 people, and he was beaten to a pulp, as you would expect. Two of them, the prime suspects were arrested,

detained, and of course a federal judge in Washington, D.C., a liberal appointed judge, let them out. They're out now, stalking people, again, no doubt. But the point is a lot of people on social media in the left said, why should we worry about a wealthy, basically, white kid who gets roughed up a bit? Is that why Donald Trump went into Washington? And if so, we don't really care. It was very heartless. It reminded me very recently, do you remember the United Care CEO, Brian Thompson? He was a person from the middle class was born without status or advantages or money and he worked himself up to the leadership position of one of the largest healthcare concerns in the United States. And Luigi Mangione, a 25 or 26 year old, wealthy, well-educated

kid, high status, privilege, decided that he was an enemy of the people because health care was not universal and United Health Care may have refused coverage to certain people in need. So he decided he was going to kill him. And he did kill him. He murdered him. It's on tape. And what was the reaction of the left? Some on the left canonized him.

They even made a play of about him here in the West Coast. He is a folk hero. A former Washington Post reporter did an interview and talked about how magnetic he was, good-looking he was. There was one other example. There was a blackstone, that's a real estate investment firm in New York. A very successful young woman in her 40s, Wesley LaPatner, Wesley LaPatner, and a deranged or angry, I don't know what we would call him young man, walked in broad daylight with a semi-automatic weapon. He was angry because he felt he should have been given a chance to go to the National Football League,

and he had a vague idea where the National Football League headquarters was in Manhattan. He burst in through security. He didn't even get up to the NFL. Instead, he saw various other offices that had nothing to do with his grievance. And he shot and killed three people. One of them was Wesley La Pater. She was a 42 or 43-year-old mom, very successful, all well-liked. It was a horrendous accident.

And yet, when you looked at the social media response, it was very simple. to Ed Koresstein's action that earned him sarcasm or criticism, very similar to Luigi Mangione that was, as I said, made a hero for murdering someone. In this case, the shooter was contextualized. People said, you know what? She makes thousands of dollars per minute. I'm not going to worry that she was offed by some who was from the underclass. What is the common denominator of all of this new leftism? It's sort of Stalinistic. It basically says, for the greater good of the revolution, there are enemies of the people. We don't want to know what their independent circumstances are. We don't really care if they're moms, they're nice people, they're bad people. All we know in our Marxist

binary, they're on the wrong side of the ledger. They're the victimizers and the poor people who were murderers or thugs and assaulted them, they're the victimized. They had a perfect right, we're going to weigh in. In other words, it's one of the most heartless and disturbing aspects of contemporary popular culture, and it's pretty much the domain of the left. We can use violence, any means are necessary to hunt down and kill enemies of the people or hit, hit assault, rough-up people that we feel are not sufficiently sympathetic to the underclass. It should stop because it leads to a French revolutionary Jacobin chaos if we're not already there. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis Hansen 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 Victor Hansen.com. and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.