Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. The Democrats have a new narrative, the Left in general does, that they are saving democracy from President Donald Trump. And that justifies “almost any means” necessary to achieve the end of destroying or preventing Donald Trump from governing effectively. The problem with all of this is they are destroying democracy to destroy Donald Trump. What do I mean? One of the issues that they are agitating is the redistricting of congressional districts in Texas and California now. And the general problem the Left has is, if you look at gerrymandering to make these jigsaw puzzle piece-like districts, the Left is way ahead of the Right. In other words, states that have proportions of 30% to 40% to 50% for Donald Trump do not have that level of representation in the Congress. And there’s been sophisticated studies of gerrymandering. And it boils down to the Republicans are short some six to 10 seats in the House, based on the proportion of the national vote they have received. The Democrats know that, but they’re angry about the Texas reapportionment and gerrymandering. And their attitude is: “We’ve already gerrymandered our states to the maximum. Don’t dare try to emulate us.” James Carville said that they have to get tougher. That’s the new mantra: Gotta get tougher. Gotta get meaner. Sen. Cory Booker screams and yells and throws a fit about every three weeks in the Senate. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries picks up his baseball bat. There’s usually a video with “the squad” or representatives using the word “s—” or the F-word, kind of pornographic. Rep. Jasmine Crockett periodically calls Donald Trump names that can’t be repeated on air. But you can see the anger. And now the new idea is that they haven’t been tough enough. They have been too tough. There’s been three great scandals in the 21st century. The first was the Russian collusion hoax that was prompted by Hillary Clinton and facilitated by the Obama administration on its way out. That almost destroyed the Trump campaign, sabotaged his transition, and ate up 22 months of his first two years. The second was the Biden FBI and CIA—but especially the CIA and the intelligence agencies—got 51 people, former intelligence authorities, to lie to the American people on the eve of the second debate to affect the 2020 election, and claim, falsely, that Donald Trump was lying about the laptop of Hunter Biden, that it was “fake,” that it was a “Russian production,” and Donald Trump then was colluding, again, with the Russians. That was a complete lie. It was Hunter’s laptop. We know because the FBI had it in its possession and authenticated it. And finally, the great scandal that the Democratic Party and the obsequious media knew that President Joe Biden was non compos mentis, he was not cognitively able to fulfill the office of the presidency. And they kept that from the American people, until they could no longer keep it, when he finally challenged Donald Trump to a debate and melted before our very eyes. Sort of like the Wicked Witch in “The Wizard of Oz.” He melted into a non-entity. So, my point is, if you look at the Democrats, they have staged three great scandals to try to destroy the Trump administration and by extension, democracy. They impeached Donald Trump twice. No one’s ever done that. They tried him as a private citizen. Nobody’s ever done that. They raided his home in Mar-a-Lago. That is a terrible precedent for an ex-president. No one’s ever done that. They tried to get him off the ballot in 25 states. No one had ever done that. There were two assassination attempts during the campaign. That had never happened before. They tried to debank him and make it impossible for Donald Trump to write a check, whether from Morgan Stanley or Bank of America, or any bank. So, my point is this, when James Carville says, “We’re gonna get tough. We’re gonna get really tough. And we’re gonna let in Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., to get four senators. Or we might have to pack the court to 13 justices,” I’m thinking, “Well, you always were going to do that.” You were gonna pack to 15. In fact, if you had not lost the House and Senate during the Biden administration, had you had a normal president that was in control of his mental and physical abilities, then you would have not only packed the court and not only, as you promised, let in two states, but in addition, you would’ve gotten rid of the Electoral College by the hook and crook of the national voter compact. And more importantly, you would’ve abolished the Senate. So the problem, James Carville and Democrats, is that you have sabotaged democracy. And you’ve done things that no one has ever done before to an oppositional candidate, presidential transition, and president. And now you’re furious because you’re on the 40% side of every issue that’s dear to you—from the trans issue to the border issue, to the crime issue, to the Green New Deal issue, to foreign policy. And you have no political power. You don’t have the White House, you don’t have the Congress, you don’t have the Supreme Court. And your institutional power—the media, academia, the foundation—they are under assault. And so, you’re frustrated and you’ve created this completely false narrative that you have to get tough, and you’ve been very Marquess of Queensberry rules-like. In fact, the opposite is true, everybody. You have been the most vicious and the most abject subverts of democracy, all for the short-term gain of destroying Donald Trump. And now that’s boomeranging upon you. And you don’t like to see it happen to you—what you tried to do to Donald Trump. And there’s a whole vocabulary, cross-culturally, for what is happening to you now. It’s called payback is a “blank,” karma, boomerang, do unto others as you should do unto you, only eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. But this is called retribution. And it’s fully earned for what you’ve done to democracy, as long as it’s legal and it’s necessary. But you’re angry because you’re impotent, and you’ve created false narratives that Donald Trump is doing what you have actually done. And what is that? Destroying democracy. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Democrats Betray Democracy to Stop Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Democrat New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani has sharpened his campaign’s rhetoric with a video containing brutal accusations against his chief opponent, Andrew Cuomo—even implying that the former New York governor is connected to the now-deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “Four years ago, Andrew Cuomo resigned in disgrace. And you probably know why,” says Mamdani, a state assemblyman, before headlines alleging Cuomo committed acts of sexual harassment and that he had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic flash across the screen. Mamdani handily defeated Cuomo in the Democrat mayoral primary by a nearly 13-point margin in June, and Cuomo is now running as an independent. In the minute-and-a-half long video, Mamdani also implies Cuomo committed financial improprieties during his time as a legal consultant. #ReleaseTheCuomoList pic.twitter.com/KoK27VD1AM— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) August 12, 2025 But the video’s most shocking implication is that Cuomo is connected to Epstein. “In June, the New York Times uncovered that Cuomo had worked with his longtime friend Andrew Farkas on a luxury marina project in Puerto Rico. Farkas’ previous partner on luxury marinas in the Caribbean? Jeffrey Epstein,” Mamdani says. “That’s the thing about Andrew Cuomo. Once you think you’ve found out about all of his scandals, you find out about another,” he adds. Mamdani makes another tongue-and-cheek reference to Epstein in the video, saying, “Habibi, release your client list.” “Habibi” is a term of endearment akin to “honey” or “sweetheart” in Arabic. Rich Azzopardi, the head of a public relations firm representing Cuomo, strongly rejected the video’s claims in a statement provide to The Daily Signal that appeared in The New York Post as well, calling it “nothing more than a temper tantrum from an insecure child of privilege who knows his tenuous lead is slipping away.” He fired back with a number of accusations, saying, “Try as he might, Zohran can’t distract from the rank hypocrisy of growing up wealthy, owning hundreds of thousands of dollars of land in a country that has the death penalty for LGBTQIA people and making more than $140k a year for a job he doesn’t show up to while taking a rent-stabilized apartment meant for a working New Yorker, not to mention his flip-flopping on the defund the police and supporting pro-Hamas criminals like the Holy Land Five.” That’s a reference to the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, a Texas-based organization whose members were convicted of aiding the terrorist group Hamas. Mamdani is “a [total] fraud and with every passing day, New Yorkers see it,” he said. Azzopardi also responded to Mamdani’s accusations of financial improprieties, writing, “Since he left office, Gov. Cuomo has been engaged in private practice, providing legal services, representing individuals and corporations in a variety of matters, and does not comment on those private client matters. He has not represented clients before a New York city or state agency.” Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, now a candidate for mayor of New York City (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images) In response to Mamdani’s accusations in the video of undisclosed financial dealings, Azzopardi wrote, “The stock options were publicly disclosed … for years. There was a question about if and how they were required to be disclosed on city filings, which, after consulting with the conflict of interest board, we corrected the same day the matter was brought to our attention.” On the question of Cuomo’s alleged indirect connection to Epstein through his business relationship with Farkas, Azzopardi wrote, “as was reported in The New York Times, that project never got off the ground and the governor wasn’t compensated for it.” He added, “He didn’t know Epstein, but you can smell the desperation from conspiracy-peddling Zohran seep through your screen.” A source familiar with Farkas told The Daily Signal, “There was never any project with Mr. Cuomo in Puerto Rico, and he was never paid for any work involving such a project.” The source added of Mamdani’s mention of Epstein’s dealings with Farkas: “Epstein was a passive investor in a marina in St. Thomas. This was many years before the accusations and the charges were filed against Epstein.” Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for clarification on his remarks about Cuomo and Farkas. The post Cuomo Denies Mamdani Accusation of Having Had Connection to Epstein appeared first on The Daily Signal.

After weeks of speculation, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is reportedly entering the race to run next year against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed earlier this year to replace now Vice President JD Vance. Crystal Ball’s Larry Sabato already changed the state of the race from “Likely Republican” to “Lean Republican.” Brown was denied a fourth term when he was defeated by Sen. Bernie Moreno by 3.6 points last November. That flip helped Republicans regain control of the Senate. The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com “spoke with three Ohio labor leaders whom Brown has told directly of his decision to run for Senate, as well as other Ohio Democrats who have heard of Brown’s plans via members of his inner circle.” The Daily Signal reached out to Husted’s office for comment on the state of the race given the change from Crystal Ball. Husted’s political X account has reposted comments in support of his reelection from Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., who serves as the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, as well as Sen. Eric Schmitt R-Mo. Both highlighted Brown’s loss from last year. Sherrod Brown’s far Left agenda was out of touch with Ohio voters last election, and it is even more out of touch today.Senator @JonHusted is delivering for Ohio, and he’s just getting started! https://t.co/qZVNSHk6gL— Tim Scott (@votetimscott) August 12, 2025 Whoever wins next year’s U.S. Senate race in Ohio will be up for reelection in 2028, which is when Vance’s freshman term in the Senate would have ended. Moreno is up for reelection in 2030. Ohio voters rejected Sherrod Brown last year because his unwavering support for open borders and radical liberal policies. Nothing has changed.Senator @JonHusted is doing a great job and will be reelected. https://t.co/KyFOjFnaDZ— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) August 12, 2025 The National Republican Senatorial Committee also provided The Daily Signal with a statement: “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are so desperate they’ve recycled a liberal loser,” said Nick Puglia, the committee’s regional press secretary. “Ohioans just rejected Sherrod Brown and they’ll do it again in 2026.” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y, reportedly met with Brown to encourage him to run to defeat Husted, with the former senator being seen as Democrats’ best hope. Senate Leadership Fund Chairman Cory Gardner also released a statement on Thursday. “Sherrod Brown has spent his entire career collecting a government paycheck, and now just eight months into retirement and after a date night with Chuck Schumer, he’s begging taxpayers for more,” said Gardner. “Ohioans firmly rejected Sherrod after he oversaw Biden’s disastrous inflation crisis as Banking Chairman, and they’ll gladly do it again. [The Senate Leadership Fund] stands strongly with Senator Husted and we look forward to seeing him re-elected.” A press release with Gardner’s statement also referenced examples of “Sherrod Brown’s Radical Record,” citing his positions on illegal immigration, transgender politics, race, and taxes. Americans for Prosperity-Ohio likewise shared a statement about Brown’s reported run that focused on his record. AFP Ohio State Director Donovan O’Neil’s tied Brown to “the Biden/Harris Bidenomics playbook.” President Donald Trump beat former President Joe Biden in Ohio in 2020 and former Vice President Kamala Harris there in 2024, most recently winning the Buckeye State by 11.2 points. AFP-OH Puts Sherrod Brown’s Washington-First Record Back in the Spotlighthttps://t.co/jL8ddbvZAJ pic.twitter.com/fWrDb4ThGB— AFPOhio (@AfpOhio) August 12, 2025 Republican operative Jai Chabria explained why Crystal Ball changed the race to “Lean Republican,” telling The Daily Signal how Brown is “very capable” and an “institution in Ohio,” though he added that “people have lost faith” in the institution. Chabria also spoke to how “there were tens of millions of dollars spent to define [Brown] as too liberal,” which he says “will continue to stick” and is “a brand [Brown’s] got to spend just to overcome in a state that’s moved red.” It’s not merely what Brown has going against him, but what Husted has going for him. Chabria praised the current senator’s campaign as “very capable” and being a “tested campaign,” which he notes “makes it very challenging for Sherrod Brown.” Chabria, a political advisor for Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, also pointed to strength from the “top of the ticket” for 2026 as a plus for Husted. Lots of residual negative branding to Brown from the last campaign. @JonHusted has a great campaign team and is battle-tested. The top of the ticket is strong for Republicans in Ohio!— Jai Chabria (@jchabria) August 12, 2025 Brown was first elected as senator in 2006, when he defeated now Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, the incumbent at the time. Brown was comfortably reelected in 2012 and 2018 before Moreno beat him in the “Toss-Up” race. The Daily Signal also reached out to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for comment. The post Brown’s Reported Senate Run Leads to Shift in Ohio Race appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Trump is Right About DC Crime (and the Media Doesn't Want to Report It)

Talking heads on CNN and MSNBC are convinced President Trump has some shadowy ulterior motive for assuming federal control of policing in Washington, D.C. In addition to citing cooked crime statistics to slam President Trump’s federalization of policing in D.C., panelists on the liberal cable networks have begun offering up wild theories for what Trump’s “real” goal was:   One popular theory pushed by MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell, MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude, among others, was that the President hoped to “distract” Americans and the media from Jeffrey Epstein. As CNN media critic Brian Stelter explained on Tuesday: There were lots of people yesterday saying, “Hey, is this a distraction? Is Trump trying to distract from the Epstein scandal?” Well, here’s the more interesting — here’s the better question: is it working or not? And I’m here to tell you, yes, it is working. If this was working, yes, it is succeeding. Another theory was that Trump had been motivated primarily by racism. Shortly after the President’s announcement on August 11, CNN national politics correspondent Eva McKend remarked: “He has always felt that American cities, especially this with large black populations, like Washington, D.C., are crime-ridden.” And still others, such as MSNBC host Symone Sanders and MSNBC contributor Barbara McQuade, surmised on Morning Joe that Trump’s declaration was a part of a larger “power grab.” It seems that no matter what President Trump’s administration does, liberal journalists will interpret it as cynically as possible. That’s clearly the what happened in this instance, as evidenced by the loony speculation that ensued.

Aimee Betro — a 45-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin — in September 2018 met a 31-year-old British man who used the name "Dr. Ice" on a dating app, according to the Daily Mail.Betro traveled to London on Christmas Day 2018, where she met that man — Mohammed Nazir — and reportedly spent a night with him. While Betro left the U.K. and returned to the United States, the pair continued to communicate.'Where are you hiding? Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed.'Betro returned to Great Britain in August 2019, according to reports.During a trial that ended Tuesday, a defense lawyer asked Betro what she thought of Nazir, and she responded, "He was very charming, and I did like him. He was sweet, and I did have feelings for him."Nazir reportedly was able to convince the American woman to do his "bidding."BBC News reported that Nazir and his 59-year-old father, Mohammed Aslam, had a dispute with Birmingham businessman Aslat Mahumad.The British outlet reported that the father and son were injured during a physical confrontation with Mahumad at his clothing store in July 2018.Nazir and Aslam reportedly hatched a scheme against Mahumad and planned to use Betro in their plot.RELATED: Arrested wife of 'Ghost Adventures' TV star accused of hiring hit man to kill him: 'Was it done?' The Daily Mail reported that Betro called Mahumad on Sept. 7, 2019, and said she wanted to purchase a car he was selling online.Prosecutor Tom Walkling told the court, "Mr. Mahumad recalls being called by a woman with an American accent. ... He was confused, as he hadn't listed his number online. The woman said she wanted to buy the car today, but Mr. Mahumad said she could see it tomorrow."Betro's alleged plot to lure Mahumad to her failed, so she reportedly purchased a Mercedes E240 from another seller.Walkling said the man who sold the car to Betro indicated that he "sold it to someone he described, perhaps unkindly, as a short, fat woman who spoke with an American accent, wore a summer dress, and had a bag over her shoulder."Police say Betro drove to Mahumad's family home on the night of Sept. 7, 2019, in her newly purchased Mercedes.While Betro reportedly was lying in wait with a gun, Mahumad's 33-year-old son Sikander Ali returned home around 9:10 p.m.Jurors at the Birmingham Crown Court were shown surveillance video of a figure with a covered face approaching Ali and attempting to fire at him at point-blank range. However, police said the gun jammed, and Ali escaped by speeding away in his SUV.'I think she was fatally flawed.'While Ali was fleeing, his vehicle allegedly clipped the Mercedes and damaged the car's door so severely that it wouldn't close.Investigators said Betro ditched the Mercedes, but left a black glove — which had her DNA on it — in the vehicle.Jurors were shown screenshots of text messages Betro purportedly sent to Mahumad after the attempted killing, and she allegedly told her intended target, "Where are you hiding? Stop playing hide and seek, you are lucky it jammed."Betro took a taxi to return to the Mahumad's home just hours after the first alleged assassination attempt, police stated. CCTV showed a figure firing three shots through the windows of the home in the early hours of Sept. 8, 2019. However, there was no one home at the time.Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Orencas claimed Betro used a niqab in an attempt to hide her face, but it "didn't work very well.""It was a fairly poor attempt [at disguise], and again, whether or not the attitude was that the British police wouldn't be up to it, I think she was fatally flawed, if that was ever the consideration in her mind," Orencas explained.Orencas claimed Betro's motivation for the attempted murder was because she was "in love or infatuated with Nazir."The Daily Mail reported that Betro flew to the U.S. the day after the shooting, and Nazir did the same three days later.While on the lam for nearly six years, Betro reportedly fled the U.S. and traveled to Armenia — but was soon tracked down by an unlikely source.The Daily Mail said it found Betro in Armenia and informed the West Midlands Police about her location on June 15, 2024. The Daily Mail agreed to withhold publishing the news until she was arrested."I would like to put it on formal record and thank the Daily Mail for the information that they kindly shared with us," Orencas stated before adding that "there were parallel inquiries going on, but without a doubt, the Daily Mail were of great assistance."Armenian authorities detained Betro and extradited her to the U.K. to face trial.On Tuesday, jurors convicted Betro of conspiracy to murder, possessing a self-loading pistol with intent to cause fear of violence, and illegally importing ammunition.RELATED: Multimillionaire hired numerous hitmen in murder-for-hire plots against wife — then killed himself as cops closed in: FBI Betro is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday.According to GB News, Specialist Prosecutor Hannah Sidaway stated, "This prosecution is a culmination of years of hard work doggedly pursuing Aimee Betro across countries and borders while she remained relentless in her bid to escape justice. Betro tried to kill a man in a Birmingham street at point-blank range. It is sheer luck that he managed to get away unscathed."Meanwhile, Nazir and Aslam were arrested last year and convicted of conspiracy to murder.Nazir was sentenced to 32 years in prison, and Aslam was sentenced to 10 years behind bars.Walkling insisted that "revenge was the motive" for the assassination attempt, BBC News said in a separate story.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

On July 24, former Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis formally petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalizes same-sex marriage, marking the first significant challenge to the ruling since its inception. Davis, who was jailed in 2015 for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples due to her religious beliefs, is appealing a $360,000 judgment against her for emotional damages and attorney fees, arguing that her First Amendment rights protect her from liability and that Obergefell was wrongly decided.“Just like abortion, the left tries to tell us that [same-sex marriage] is untouchable, that this cannot be overturned. I'm not so sure that they're correct about that,” says Liz Wheeler, BlazeTV host of “The Liz Wheeler Show.” She reads a line from Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurrent opinion published following the overturning of Roe v. Wade: “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is ‘demonstrably erroneous,’ we have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents.”“‘Substantive due process,’” says Liz, “is this legal philosophy held by leftist jurists that reads rights into the Constitution where they are not enumerated.”“It's just a way of judicial activists – ideologues who are on the bench – to invent meaning to the Constitution where the Constitution had no such meaning.”Like abortion, which is “guaranteed nowhere to anyone in the Constitution,” same-sex marriage is yet another example of substantive due process.“Even if you're pro-gay marriage, even if you are libertarian and you don't think we should be telling other people what to do, if you read the Constitution of the United States, start to finish ... is gay marriage ever referred to?” asks Liz. “No, it's never referred to.”“You cannot contest the reality that the Constitution of the United States contains no such reference to gay marriage directly or indirectly.”“Even if you think that the legislature of the United States should make gay marriage legal, which you're obviously wrong on that for multiple different reasons, that's different than the Supreme Court pretending there is a Constitutional right to gay marriage in the Constitution when there's not,” Liz explains.If SCOTUS agrees to take Davis’ case, there’s a chance — albeit a “low” one, says Liz — that the Court might re-evaluate Obergefell and reverse its original decision.“It's probably not going to be heard by the Supreme Court,” she says, but “it should be because Kim Davis had her religious freedom ... violated by the government, and she's one of the only Americans right now that has standing to challenge Obergefell because she was hurt by it.”However, even if Obergefell is overturned, it’s unlikely to change much in terms of who can legally get married, Liz explains. “The United States Congress has passed a piece of legislation codifying gay marriage to a certain extent. It requires any state that doesn't allow same-sex marriage to recognize ... any valid marriage from any other state. So it kind of effectively nationally forces gay marriage in all the states,” she says.And yet, she hopes Obergefell is reversed anyway because what it will really be reversing is the idea that the government has the right to redefine a word.“Marriage means the union between one man and one woman, and they said, ‘No, no, we're going to redefine that. It now means the union between any two consenting adults regardless of their sex.’ When government has the power to redefine a word, they can redefine any word,” says Liz. “And if they can redefine words, if they are the arbiters of truth, then they're tyrants.”To hear more of her commentary, watch the episode above. Want more from Liz Wheeler?To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

Part 3 delivers remasters of a dozen numbers initially issued between 1977 and 1984, plus a previously unheard 16-song concert. The post The Kinks Complete ‘The Journey’ With 3rd Volume: Review appeared first on Best Classic Bands.

The Justice Department could appeal the ruling, but doing so would be foolish.

WUT? MSNBC's Anand Giridharadas Isn't Afraid of D.C. Crime but He IS Afraid of THIS (WATCH)