What are California values? Are they sprawling homeless encampments, public intoxication and drug use, and naked people walking through the streets? Are they rising crime rates, small businesses closing, families being driven out of their communities, and parents who cannot safely take their children to a park? Those were the questions the Daily Signal’s senior national security and legal analyst Mehek Cooke raised during ABC News’ coverage of California’s primary elections Tuesday night. The answers are already visible on the streets, she noted. The Daily Signal recently sent reporters into Skid Row, a Los Angeles neighborhood known for having one of the highest homeless populations in the United States. Residents described a city in crisis and demanded accountability from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. One military veteran who spent 26 years in Skid Row told the Daily Signal, “The whole city of LA is now Skid Row.” Another resident called the city’s homelessness spending scandal the “biggest rip-off in history.” While Los Angeles allocated $1.3 billion to address homelessness in fiscal year 2023-24, it spent only an estimated $599 million by the end of that fiscal year. City leaders are trying to celebrate a recent 2.2% decline in homelessness, but they cannot spin the truth, Cooke noted. Homelessness in Los Angeles remains nearly 40% higher than it was in 2018. Residents are left asking where the money went and why the crisis remains visible on their streets. Cooke argued on ABC News that Republicans can compete in California after years of one-party rule by refusing to overcomplicate their message and by focusing relentlessly on the issues that directly affect families. “If Republicans continue to tell the truth and continue to deliver on affordability, moving forward, and the American dream for every single American, regardless of their ZIP code, they will not only win California,” Cooke said. “They are going to lock down the midterms.” That message is landing with voters. Republican Steve Hilton emerged as the leading candidate in California’s open gubernatorial primary on Wednesday. In Los Angeles, Republican Spencer Pratt appeared poised to secure second place behind Bass, positioning himself for a potential November runoff. Cooke said Pratt’s unexpected rise is not just about one candidate or one city race. “This is exactly why you are seeing Spencer Pratt surge,” Cooke said. “He took a page out of President Trump’s playbook.” For years, Democrats have missed the mark by dismissing Republicans and reducing their message to a single label: MAGA. But Cooke argued that this strategy misunderstands the voters President Trump and Republicans are reaching. “Democrats continue to say ‘MAGA,’ meaning every Republican, and that is their number one failure,” Cooke said. “Make America Great Again is about everybody. It is about independents, blue-collar Hispanics, young men, the middle class, the working class, and the people that Democrats failed to show up for.” Cooke described California as the clearest example of what happens when one party controls government for years without meaningful accountability. She also rejected the idea that public safety, accountability, and clean streets are partisan issues. “That is not Republican or MAGA,” Cooke said. “That is basic human decency that Democrats have abandoned.” California has not elected a Republican governor since Arnold Schwarzenegger won reelection in 2006. Tuesday’s results do not guarantee a Republican victory in November, but they are a warning shot to the Democratic Party: Voters are tired of paying the price for decline.

When a detransitioner testified to members of Congress about the harm she suffered from experimental transgender medical interventions and advocated for laws against such procedures on minors, Democrats attempted to frame their opposition to such laws in terms of parental rights and medical privacy. “The entire premise of transgenderism is that I will take my own life if I don’t transition, and yet here I am today,” Chloe Cole, a young woman who underwent hormone procedures and a double mastectomy in pursuit of a transgender identity before returning to identify with her biological sex, told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. “I hadn’t even had my first kiss,” she explained. “How could they take away part of my womanhood before I was old enough to call myself one?” “I have no breasts, because they were replaced with scars,” Cole added. Before the surgery, “the surgeon confirmed with me that my breasts were perfectly healthy.” 1. Transgender Ideology Cole argued that transgender ideology inverted medicine. “This is not medicine,” she said. “Medicine heals what is sick. But me being female was not a disease, the lie was the disease.” “Once doctors denied that boundary between male and female, they also denied the boundary between child and adult,” Cole argued. “That’s how my confusion became evidence, my parents’ instincts became ‘bigotry,’ and a surgeon’s knife became ‘care.'” She described the harassment she faced from transgender activists when she publicly detransitioned, saying activists tried to intimidate her into silence. EVIDENCE OF HARMHere's @ChloeCole's full testimony to @GOPHELP, explaining how "gender-affirming care" harmed her irreversibly. Thank you, Chloe, for your courage and clarity. Your testimony here is heroic. pic.twitter.com/dHQssfWwwv— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 3, 2026 2. Transgender Activism in Medicine Dr. Kurt Miceli, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer at the medical watchdog Do No Harm, explained to members of the committee how transgender ideology co-opted medicine. “My profession, medicine, sometimes gets things wrong,” he noted, citing historical examples of frontal lobe lobotomies and the overprescription of opiates. “Do No Harm has identified nearly 14,000 minors who received gender transition procedures from 2019 to 2023, including over 5,700 surgeries, yet nearly two dozen systematic reviews find no credible evidence supporting these interventions, not for overall mental health improvement, and not for preventing suicide,” he noted. “Meanwhile, the known or expected harms include infertility, sexual dysfunction, bone density problems, cardiovascular disease, and markedly elevated mortality.” Miceli also noted that many medical institutions, both in the U.S. and abroad, have moved away from transgender medical interventions for minors. He traced much of the medical profession’s transgender drift to the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which established itself as the authority on pediatric gender medicine. Yet in recent years, “the foundation upholding WPATH’s recommendations has effectively collapsed,” he said. WATCHDr. Kurt Miceli of @donoharm explains how transgender ideology coopted medicine, and lays out why medical associations are finally rejecting this harmful junk science."If we want to restore the American public’s trust in the medical profession, we must start by… pic.twitter.com/GKqd2WhW5d— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 3, 2026 3. ‘No Child Can Consent’ Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., asked Cole whether she thinks that “a minor can make an informed decision about transition.” “I do not think that children have the developmental capacity or worldly experience to make decisions like this that are very adult in nature,” the detransitioner replied. “Puberty is the only process through which a child can fully develop into adulthood, physically, psychologically, socially, and, of course, reproductively.” She noted that she did not understand what was at stake when she underwent hormones and surgery. “I still very much was a child myself,” Cole said. “No child can consent to being sterilized,” she emphasized. 'NO CHILD CAN CONSENT TO BEING STERILIZED'Watch @ChloeCole's powerful response to @SenTuberville's important question as to whether minors can consent to "gender-affirming care." pic.twitter.com/msWiLlvRWV— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 3, 2026 4. Parental Rights and Medical Decisionmaking Shannon Minter, a woman who identifies as a man and serves as legal director at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, countered Chloe Cole’s claim that young people cannot consent to lifelong gender alterations. “It is not the young person who consents to this care. Just as with every other type of medical care affecting youth, it is the parents who have the legal responsibility and authority to consent to the care,” Minter said. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked Minter if she would prefer the decision be “left to parents and doctors and young people themselves,” and Minter replied, “Yes, sir, I do.” Yet parents have warned that schools, libraries, clinics, and social media often advocate transgender ideology, often aiming to exclude parents from the discussion. The Supreme Court struck down California’s policy hiding the transgender identity of minors from their parents. 5. ‘Child Abuse’ The detransitioner countered Minter’s claim, stating that this isn’t a parental rights or medical freedom issue—it’s a matter of protecting the vulnerable. When Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., asked if she thinks Congress should ban these interventions, Cole said, “We absolutely need federal legislation on this.” “This is medical abuse,” she said. “This isn’t just about ‘disrupting conversations between a parent and their child’s clinicians, because it doesn’t matter who consents to this. This is child abuse.” 'CHILD ABUSE'Here's @GOPHELP chair @SenBillCassidy asking @ChloeCole if Congress needs to pass legislation against "gender-affirming care." "Absolutely," she says. "This is child abuse." pic.twitter.com/6VpwA2hgWq— Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) June 3, 2026

House Speaker Mike Johnson led a private tour of the U.S. Capitol recently, emphasizing the role of faith in America’s founding 250 years ago.  Frank Turek, founder and president of the Christian ministry CrossExamined.org, recorded portions of Johnson’s May 20 tour and shared clips on his show, “I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.”  As busy as he is as House speaker, Johnson doesn’t give many personal U.S. Capitol tours. Addressing the group at the outset, Johnson framed the tour around the country’s religious heritage, saying the “common thread” uniting Americans was a “commitment to our faith and to our Creator,” which he tied to the upcoming 250th anniversary. The Speaker’s Prayer  Johnson acknowledged the unwarranted controversy of his May 17 prayer at the Rededicate 250 celebration. He noted that “All I did was pray. … OK, 10 minutes.”   During his prayer, Johnson expressed that our rights come from God.   MS NOW host Katy Tur criticized Johnson afterward, sparking a media firestorm over her comments.   “What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government, they come from you, our Creator and heavenly father,” Tur said. “Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?”   Johnson told the tour group, “In the prayer I literally quoted the Declaration, second paragraph, right?” alluding to the portion that states we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.   Join me behind the scenes for an exclusive tour of the U.S. Capitol guided by Speaker Mike Johnson. From hidden rooms to convos about faith & gov't, you'll get an insider's look at one of the most iconic buildings in the world! pic.twitter.com/DZT2buJjNu— Frank Turek (@DrFrankTurek) May 27, 2026 Touring the Capitol  Throughout the tour, Johnson repeatedly pointed to what he described as religious symbolism embedded across the Capitol, particularly on the House floor. He said his goal was to show visitors the historical and symbolic connections between faith and the nation’s political institutions.   “What I wanted to do tonight … is take you right in the middle of it, on the House floor, and spend some time looking at all the symbols that remind everybody what our foundation is,” Johnson said.   As the group went into the Capitol crypt, the speaker pointed to statues, including one of his favorites, the late Rev. Billy Graham.   Before the dedication ceremony of North Carolina’s Billy Graham statue, the famous preacher’s son, Franklin Graham, brought Johnson his father’s study Bible. Johnson used the Bible during the dedication ceremony and cited scripture from the pages where Graham had written notes. Speaker Mike Johnson unveils a statue of the late Rev. Billy Graham in the U.S. Capitol on May 16, 2024. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images) Recognition of Faith During the tour of the Rotunda, Johnson discussed the historical paintings and the symbolism of the Capitol dome, which he described as a globally recognized representation of freedom.   “We’re the most free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation that has ever been,” Johnson said, pointing to the country’s history as evidence of its foundational ideals.   When explaining the paintings in the Rotunda, Johnson said, “In every one of these portraits there’s some recognition of the faith—the deeply embedded religious and moral tradition of our country.”   The tour continued through Statuary Hall, where Johnson discussed how America’s sixth president, John Quincy Adams, had a lasting impact on the country’s 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, in their quest to end slavery. He used the example to highlight what he described as the importance of individual responsibility and faith in public life.   “We’re supposed to be faithful in the little things God puts before us today, and we trust him with the rest,” Johnson said.   As Johnson went through each room in the Capitol, he returned to a consistent theme: how the nation’s founding principles are closely tied to religious belief and moral tradition. 

On Wednesday, May 20, Jeremy Bernier was laid off from his software engineering job at Meta. He immediately took to social media to accuse the Big Tech giant of discrimination against non-Chinese.  Starting that day, he posted on social media about Meta and the discrimination he allegedly experienced and watched.  “At Meta, 90% of my coworkers were Chinese, and non-Chinese were routinely excluded, disadvantaged, and targeted for layoffs.” he said in his X post, adding, “6 out of the 7 layoffs I observed targeted non-Chinese despite non-Chinese being the vast minority. Certain orgs like ads and MRS are notorious for being Chinese dominated.”  At Meta, 90% of my coworkers were Chinese, and non-Chinese were routinely excluded, disadvantaged, and targeted for layoffs. 6 out of the 7 layoffs I observed targeted non-Chinese despite non-Chinese being the vast minority. Certain orgs like ads and MRS are notorious for being…— Jeremy Bernier (@jeremybernier) May 23, 2026 The 2012 Virginia Tech graduate described alleged discrimination in the workplace environment as well.   “The most blatant and obvious way that non-Chinese are excluded is that Chinese primarily speak Mandarin at work. I’m not talking about one-off conversations, I’m talking about every single conversation.” Bernier said that while his coworkers did speak English in formal meetings, afterwards and in informal team gatherings they would speak only Mandarin. “Lunch was another place where non-Chinese were blatantly excluded,” Bernier added. “The Chinese would always get lunch together and never invite us (except for one of them who occasionally would, though at some point stopped).”   “I think Americans would be outraged if they knew that their own citizens were getting marginalized and laid off at their own companies, while Chinese promote themselves up, conquer entire orgs, and reap millions [in pay and bonuses],” said Bernier  This wasn’t the first time Meta faced these types of accusations. A 2020 Project Veritas story exposed an alleged confidential Facebook memorandum that suggested a bias toward Chinese employees. According to the memorandum, “Priority may be given to H-1B applicants from China and Korea to foster larger communities of diverse workers at Facebook.”   The allegation itself was founded in the idea that Facebook, or parent-company Meta, discriminates based on national origin in employment prioritization in a way that is illegal.   If this accusation is true, it would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which states in this case that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an individual based on their national origin. Facebook denied that the memorandum was authentic, according to Project Veritas.  Has Globalization ‘Gone Too Far’?   Bret Swanson, the Director at The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Technology and the Human Person, commented on Bernier’s allegations. Swanson told the Daily Signal, “Immigrants have made major contributions to Silicon Valley for decades. But as with globalization and outsourcing, U.S. firms might have to consider whether they’ve gone too far.”   He described that the question at hand isn’t the contributions of immigrants to Meta itself, but the employment discrimination that has allegedly been experienced firsthand by Jeremy Bernier.   Bernier has received pushback from some of the 2.7 million people that saw his X post. Comments included: “You are a coward spreading Chinese hate on x. You had any issue you could have spoken to your manager first and escalated until reaching Zuck. Didn’t your company say feedback is a gift?”   You are a coward spreading Chinese hate on x. You had any issue you could have spoken to your manager first and escalated until reaching Zuck. Didn’t your company say feedback is a gift?— Stop World War III (@trumpxiputin) May 23, 2026 He addressed backlash in his X post by saying, “I do genuinely believe that most (Chinese people) are good people and not deliberately trying to exclude others. But regardless of intent, the result is that non-Chinese get excluded.”  Meta has since declined to comment on Bernier’s claims.  

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. Jack Fowler: This Antifa punk who was caught on video yelling at an ICE officer said, “I’ll kill your whole effing family, your children, your wife. All dead. I have your face.”  This is why ICE agents wear masks, because when they don’t, they’re exposed.  This guy is Nicholas Matthew Scelfo. He’s 27. He’s from Brooklyn, and he’s been arrested by the FBI for threatening to kill a federal agent. Scelfo was a participant in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests and, more recently, in No Kings protests.  He is an oddball, I think, Victor, but a violent one. Your thoughts on what our ICE officers endure?  Victor Davis Hanson: Well, that’s what Voltaire said of Admiral [John] Byng. The British have a strange habit. Every once in a while, they hang an admiral, pour encourager les autres, so they can encourage the others.  They need to make an example of people who do that.  It’s very ironic because I’m sitting here in California, where Gavin Newsom will sign into law a new statute that makes it illegal for people like [Nick] Shirley to photograph, you know, just because that’s supposedly intimidating to immigrants or something.  Jack Fowler: “Learing” center employees.  Victor Davis Hanson: Yeah, “Learing.”  And here, for months now, these ICE demonstrators have gotten into their faces. They’ve threatened them, and nothing. No repercussions. None.  Basically, we are in a situation in America where a federal officer is trying to rectify the lax enforcement of the past and return people to their home country who came here illegally, the majority of whom—60% to 70% of whom they’re after—are still criminals.  We have an active resistance that’s threatening them all the time, sometimes with violence.  And the reaction of blue-state America is, “We’re going to make it illegal to do something they used to celebrate on ‘60 Minutes.’”  Remember the ambush interview where all of a sudden Dan Rather would pop out of a doorway when he’d see a corporate CEO walk by, then stick a camera in his face and a microphone and say, “Did you or did you not know about that carcinogen in your assembly?”  That’s what they did all the time, and the Left thought this was the greatest thing in the world.  But the Left is adolescent, so anything they feel adds to their power and influence—any means necessary—is okay. Then when it’s used against them, they get paranoid.  They’re all mad at E. Jean Carroll now because everybody knew she’d lied under oath when she said Reid Hoffman didn’t fund her lawsuit. That was a complete lie. He funded almost all of it.  Now they’ve decided to do something nobody does: enforce the perjury law.  And they say, “Oh, this is lawfare. This is vindictive.”  Her whole case was a bill of attainder that allowed her to have a suspension of the sexual harassment statute for one year, written specifically for her so she could get Donald Trump.  So it’s really demoralizing to see what these young punks do.  I said to Sami the other day that 45% of them, Jack, are Mexican American middle-class people.  And nobody in the Mexican American community is doxing them or exposing them.  We’re talking about—  Jack Fowler: The ICE officers.  Victor Davis Hanson: The ICE officers. Yeah.  They are celebrated because when 12 million illegal aliens come across the southern border, they do not go to Martha’s Vineyard. They do not go to Atherton. They do not go to Palm Beach.  We know they don’t go to Martha’s Vineyard. We know they don’t go to Nantucket.  They go to Hispanic communities like mine.  The result is that when you go to the emergency room, you can’t get served. Or when you take your mom for dialysis, she can’t get served.  Or you go to the store, and somebody is not speaking Spanish, they’re speaking an indigenous dialect, and no one knows what to do.  Or you have truck drivers who can’t read English and are killing people with fake licenses. There was no requirement they had to meet to get them.  So that’s the problem.  This is a class issue.  These are wealthy, upscale young punks and middle-aged retirees, mostly from the white and Asian elite of this country. They go out as a sort of sporting event, then disparage, slur, smear, and try to attack largely middle-class Mexican American officers.  No one talks about that, but that’s the real subtext of the entire thing.  Jack Fowler: This is interesting on the elitist side.  I’m looking right now at a post on X from someone called “I Meme Therefore I Am,” who writes, “One of the left extremists who was arrested for kicking and biting ICE agents in New Jersey was previously charged with sexual abuse of children related to the dissemination and possession of child pornography.”  This character’s name is Brendan Geyer, and he graduated from Madison High School in New Jersey.  I’m going to tell you something, Victor. If you wanted to buy a house in Madison, New Jersey, you’d better have a couple million dollars.  These are hugely elite upbringings, and this was a very violent and ideological young man.  Victor Davis Hanson: That’s what no one talks about in this country.  There is something deeply troubling and disturbing about this postmodern culture that’s grown up in the bicoastal elite communities, where pampered white kids go to schools like Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, and the rest.  They get indoctrinated for four years, and they don’t know anything.  They don’t learn classical languages. They don’t know modern languages. They don’t know philosophy. They don’t know science or math.  They take therapeutic sociology and psychology, then become fodder for all these causes.  They’re so sanctimonious and self-righteous because they’re wealthy and entitled. Nobody in their entire lives has dared to bother them.  They have security patrols in their neighborhoods. They’re like little sheltered hothouse plants, and we’re supposed to take them seriously.  That is really the basis of the Democratic Party now. It is a DEI, socialist, Islamist, elitist coalition.  I think we need to talk more in those terms. These are class snobs.  They keep talking about oppression.  [Zohran] Mamdani is a good example. He talks about whiter neighborhoods and all these oppressors.  He came from the 1% of Uganda. One percent in Uganda are of Indian ethnic background.  According to his own definition and the people around him, he is a settler colonialist.  I don’t believe that’s true, but they would say it’s true.  He grew up in affluence, came over here, and his parents gained even greater affluence.  He’s never really held a serious job outside of government, a board position, or serving as an assemblyman for a term.  He’s got all these pie-in-the-sky social ideas, and he’s got these racialist ideas.  He does not like Jews. That’s very clear.  He does not like white people, or he wouldn’t say, “I’m going to go after the nicer, whiter neighborhoods.”  When you talk like that, it’s a stark revelation of your soul.  That’s a very disturbing demographic—these very affluent left-wing people who are so self-righteous.  And you know what’s weird about it?  They transfer their wealth and privilege into their ideology. So they think you have to listen to them.  Black Americans don’t know what’s good for them unless they listen to Barack Obama, who can instruct them about why they can’t vote for anybody but Kamala Harris and why these people are all misled.  That arrogance comes from the idea that they’ve always had affluence, they’ve always been privileged, and they’ve always expected people to listen to them.  We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.