Paxton SPANKS Cornyn and Other Texas Runoff Election Reactions | Ep 29

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]Steu and Dave, we didn't come out. There we are. Stew and Dave do America present a police dog performing CPR falls down.

[00:00:12]Comes a little old little puppy.

[00:00:15]Uh-oh. Little worried puppy.

[00:00:18]And he's jumping up and down, pressing the chest.

[00:00:23]And the man is dead. But it is adorable.

[00:00:26]It's the most adorable death you ever will see.

[00:00:32]This is if there's any way you want to go out, it is this way.

[00:00:35]>> I mean, I I I feel bad. I actually asked the question before we came on. I'm like, is this a real program? Like, that can't be a real program. That's just an adorable puppy jumping on the chest and then he leans up by the mouth of the guy like he's giving him CPR. But >> he actually just cuddles with his neck.

[00:00:49]>> Yes. And you know what? That might actually be better than CPR, frankly.

[00:00:52]>> It's true. You might just come back to life from cuteness.

[00:00:55]>> Yes.

[00:00:56]>> But you really wouldn't. You'd be dead.

[00:00:58]But but again, an adorable death.

[00:01:00]>> Yes. If there's any way I want to go out, it's with one of my dogs cuddling with me.

[00:01:04]>> Yes. See, this is we're trying to give you a good open to the show because I will tell you, we're going to do a bunch of stuff on violence in America coming up >> and now we have politics to do, but I think some good news in the in the political world. Let's uh do Texas going MAGA.

[00:01:23]Head over to blazev.com. Use the code stew and Dave. Get 20 bucks off your subscription to the program and actually the entire network gets lots of great benefits. Uh 20 bucks. The code is stew and Dave at blazetv.com.

[00:01:43]And don't forget to go see Dave Lando all around the country. Got lots of great dates coming up. You can get tickets and see all of them at davelandow.com.

[00:01:51]Last night we saw Ken Paxton in the big Senate primary here in Texas with a big victory. Uh I mean the margin is huge actually. Dave 64 to 36 is basically what we saw last night. Paxton with a very easy victory. Uh really no doubt about it. I mean almost in instantly after polls were closing you could see what was going to happen here. Donald Trump chimes in thusly. Congratulations to Ken Paxton on such a tremendous win and to John Cornin for having a having run a strong and powerful race, but more importantly having a truly great career.

[00:02:24]This is tough because, you know, Cornin had a shot at this primary in theory if Trump didn't endorse. And like the second line is, "By the way, you were great, John. You did a great job. Had a great career. By the way, get out."

[00:02:35]>> Oh, yeah. Well, he has to add the he has to add add the little bit of uh salt in the wounds.

[00:02:40]>> Yeah. I guess that's what it is. Uh because I I don't think he hates Cornin like he hated Thomas Massie, right?

[00:02:46]>> Oh, I don't think he does.

[00:02:46]>> It's just one of those situations where >> Well, Thomas Massie kind of denounced him.

[00:02:51]>> Yeah. Yeah. They they've been at each other's throats for a while.

[00:02:53]>> Yeah. He disliked him.

[00:02:54]>> Mhm. Uh his opponent because now cuz Paxton's going to advance against Terico, his opponent, who he calls Alfred E. Newman, maybe the worst Texas candidate I have ever seen. A strong open borders advocate. He is weak on crime. Believes there are six genders. is in this is all real by the way. Is insulting to iss insulting to Jesus Christ. Yeah, I would say that's true. And will never support the military. Was a big mask wearer until recently. True. And is a vegan who dislikes meat. That's he tries to deny that, but there's some evidence of that as well. Not exactly a good way to be wanting to win in an election in Texas.

[00:03:30]That is accurate. And I can I have some familiarity with some of that.

[00:03:34]>> Yeah. Well, having an extrammarital affair with an adult woman is almost as wholesome when your opponent is James Telerico. Yeah. Yeah. You're kind of like, actually, that sounds great.

[00:03:43]That's not that all he did. Yeah.

[00:03:45]>> Uh, Jasmine, I like that. I have to put this out because, as you may know, Dave, I'm a Jasmine Crockett uh, fanboy.

[00:03:52]>> Oh, yes. I love Jasmine. I love her.

[00:03:54]Every bit of her. I wanted her to win so badly cuz she's so entertaining.

[00:03:58]>> He just Trump, she she lost the primary months ago. Trump just ends it this way.

[00:04:02]Jasmine Crockett, a very low IQ individual who is no relation to the legendary frontiersman Davey Crockett.

[00:04:10]Thank you for anyone.

[00:04:11]>> Which would have been weird. I mean, that would have been a weird uh lineage, but hey, who knows?

[00:04:16]>> It would have been. There's always a little bit of There's always a little bit of white in there, but you never know.

[00:04:21]>> You never know. You never know.

[00:04:23]>> Uh she says he says that >> the wrong thing to say, >> but there is usually somebody who was in the lineage.

[00:04:30]>> Yes. I I think we we could have chosen to take that the wrong way, but we chose we chose to just move on.

[00:04:35]>> It's true, though. It's true. There was always a little There's a little Ben Franklin in all of us. That's what I'm trying to say.

[00:04:41]>> Ben Ben got around.

[00:04:42]>> He did. He's the man. Uh anyway, so David Crockett, no relation in case you needed that information. Uh but she would have been a far better choice for the Democrats. I will do some nice big beautiful rallies for Ken Texas. This will be fun. God bless America, President Donald J. Trump. So that's where that went. Um I did want to point out we did a live stream. We do live streams for all of these election results as they kind of pop in and uh we just cleaned up last night. Dave, >> you did a great job.

[00:05:09]>> Oh, thank you, man.

[00:05:10]>> I saw it was great.

[00:05:11]>> Oh, thank you. I appreciate it.

[00:05:12]>> I was doing my live stream with a ring light, but that's a different story al together. No, you did great. I saw that.

[00:05:16]>> Yeah, we uh we had one we had a kind of a a building thesis that Ken Paxton was going to win this election. And we were going pretty big on that. We were recommending that over at predictableshow.com and on the live stream. And we went as it got closer and then the endorsement happened. We went big on uh on Ken Paxton winning by more than 20 points which we could get at at an 8% chance of happening. So we got it was actually over a thousand% gain in like a few hours. This is a good place to w if you want to check this out. If you're interested in these prediction markets, if you just love politics, join us at predictableshow.com. Watch it on the YouTube stream because I mean we've hit all these elections so far. Uh you know a th000% isn't every election.

[00:05:57]You're not going to get that every time, but we've been able to make money on all of these so far and I think we'll continue to do it going forward. So, not a financial advice show by any means, but we've done really well and would love you to join us. We're kind of building this thing together. We're doing this together. Building our bankroll, Dave, for November.

[00:06:10]>> I like it.

[00:06:10]>> Yeah.

[00:06:11]>> I'm just going to give you some money.

[00:06:13]>> Yes.

[00:06:13]>> And you just you put it where you think it should go >> and I will definitely get it back to you.

[00:06:18]>> Please do.

[00:06:19]>> Just so you know.

[00:06:20]>> I trust you.

[00:06:20]>> Just No, you should. Yeah, >> I'm just saying I'm just saying some you know I could lose and then you know if you happen to see me in Vegas after you give me the money that when you go to Vegas, hey, put this on black for me.

[00:06:31]Yeah, if I win I'll get it right back to you.

[00:06:33]>> You did really well.

[00:06:34]>> You did really well. Sorry. 0%.

[00:06:35]>> I lost everything, but here's your money.

[00:06:37]>> Yeah. Yeah, that happens all the time.

[00:06:39]Uh our Keith Mal our own Keith Malanak here at the Blaze does this all the time. Whenever I go to Vegas, he's like, "You got to put uh $48 on the Cincinnati Bengals to win the title." You know, it's like whoever whatever team, you know, this would be the case this coming year, but it's whatever team is like the worst team in the league. Yeah. He does this like worst to first thing where he always wants to do that. And so, you know, you you go there, you get him the ticket. What's funny about it is he one year it was the Cincinnati Bengals and I think they made the Super Bowl the year he did it. He almost he won like I don't know if he won $10,000 or it was like that. I think he may have hedged out of it a little bit, but he did really really well. Keith does these crazy uh crazy bets. Uh, so next time you're going to Vegas, you're playing in Vegas, just know Keith's coming up to you.

[00:07:22]>> Oh, if look, if he even had a ch a chance to make that kind of money off of 48 bucks, I'll listen to him.

[00:07:28]>> Yes, exactly.

[00:07:29]>> I'll be like, trust me, just don't take the Lions. Otherwise, don't don't place the bet.

[00:07:34]>> Gosh, I I I feel for you. I feel >> I know. It's I just >> I do I like the Lions, too. I don't know. Do I mean, of course you do, but >> Yeah. I just don't I don't I don't pretend.

[00:07:42]>> No, no, it's I always bet against my teams because then I then at least I get paid for the pain if they lose.

[00:07:46]>> Well, exactly. feel good either way.

[00:07:48]>> Exactly. Uh so, uh this is an interesting part of this election, Dave.

[00:07:53]>> Uh Ken Paxton, I think, is seen as the certainly the more MAGA candidate. Uh if that's your if that's the flavor that you like. Uh is probably the more certainly the more aggressive. He's he's not an establishment guy. Uh and he is, you know, I I think arguably certainly on certain issues much more conservative than John Cornin. The argument with Cornin was, hey, if we get into this race uh in in a in Taler Rico is good.

[00:08:19]We'll get to that here in a moment. But Cornin is much more reliable. He's a known quantity. He's not going to have any big scandals. Ken Paxton has had some issues. He's had issues. Why some Republicans are worried about Ken Paxton as a Senate nominee is the headline. And you know, for people who don't follow this stuff or you're not in Texas, you just haven't followed politics all that closely on this. Canis had a series of scandals um including you know there's a corruption scandal which honestly to me kind of seemed like complete BS. He went through an impeachment process even though the Republicans were in charge.

[00:08:51]Uh again in Texas it's a little weird with Republicans because everyone knows you can't win as a Democrat. So these sort of moderate liberal types will often run as Republicans, win as Republicans, and then stay in power even though they're not really Republicans.

[00:09:05]So, it's kind of misleading, but he had that uh controversy, wound up eventually getting acquitted from that. And >> Trump was a Democrat.

[00:09:14]>> Trump was a Democrat. That's true. Yeah.

[00:09:16]For for a long time. Uh and then uh Paxton also just recently split up with his wife. His wife uh accused him of infidelity on multiple occasions. And uh the the divor the actual term used was uh she was divorcing him for biblical reasons. Uh okay. So anyway, >> so he's a corrupt politician who's an adulterer.

[00:09:35]>> That's the accusation.

[00:09:37]>> Well, this would be a first.

[00:09:40]>> It's true. It's not exactly unique in our society these days.

[00:09:43]>> You think we could get through it?

[00:09:44]>> I think I think it's possible.

[00:09:46]>> Uh was he a more moderate liberal before?

[00:09:50]>> Paxton.

[00:09:51]>> Yeah.

[00:09:51]>> No, he's pretty conservative.

[00:09:52]>> He's always been conservative, right?

[00:09:54]Okay. That's why I was confused.

[00:09:56]>> Um >> yeah, cuz I figured he had to be conservative if he was if he was still having an affair.

[00:10:01]Yeah. That is like quaint to today's >> Yeah. Usually. Yeah. Because compared to what it would be the other way, >> you go, "Wow, that's that one's dark."

[00:10:11]>> Yeah. Yeah. This was like again an alleged affair with a with a an adult woman, which is I feel like a plus.

[00:10:18]>> Yeah. The fact that she's a grown-up, like I said, is really not a bad thing.

[00:10:22]>> Sad though. It's sad we have to even clarify these things.

[00:10:25]>> Oh, it's it it's very sad, but it's very important. Um, I say we could look past that. I think as long as he feels, you know what? I I'm sorry. I shouldn't say feels. As long as he pretends to feel remorse for it, that's really what's important. I don't know how much pretend he even he didn't put a lot of effort into the remorse part of it. I think there is a there's a situation here with him. Do we have a photo of the wife that you This is what you need. This is what Dave needs.

[00:10:50]>> I'm just saying if we have a if we if we said if we could hear her voice, I it would be easier for me to judge.

[00:10:56]>> Like, is she annoying? Okay. Cuz I I noticed this yesterday when you were uh when we were talking about I think it was Casey Anthony and you're like, "Well, she's pretty hot for a murderer."

[00:11:06]>> Well, it's easier to let her off.

[00:11:07]>> It is a little bit. Um Does that matter?

[00:11:10]Like if his if his new mistress was more attractive than his previous wife points off. I do think that's how society reacts to these things sadly.

[00:11:18]>> Yeah. I think if it's way too young and like way too hot, it's too much.

[00:11:23]>> There's a there's a creepiness as there's a way too creepiness. But if there if it's like you upgraded 5 to 10%, it's perfectly acceptable.

[00:11:31]>> Now, I say this as a married man who does love his wife and wouldn't do that, >> right? Well, she hopes. I mean, I mean, 5 to 10%, Dave, you're not exactly reaching.

[00:11:39]>> Who has the time?

[00:11:40]>> Yeah, that's true.

[00:11:40]>> And I just don't care.

[00:11:42]>> Oh, that's true.

[00:11:42]>> I just It's just >> There was a time, of course, every every adult male you have you're a male, right? You you I mean, that's long past.

[00:11:50]I can't even see the point where I cared about any of that crap anymore. No, it's why I wouldn't get testosterone, >> right?

[00:11:56]>> I'm shooting GLPS into my leg to lose weight. They said, "Your testosterone is fine." I said, "Thank God."

[00:12:02]>> Thank God. Yeah, >> cuz I don't want more of it.

[00:12:04]>> You have a reducer. Is there a testosterone reducer?

[00:12:06]>> I don't want any more of the the devil's nectar going through my going through my veins.

[00:12:11]>> Now, speaking, by the way, of a testosterone reducer, James Terico, >> Oh, yes.

[00:12:16]>> who is a human testosterone reducer.

[00:12:18]Yes. Uh he is the opponent of Ken Paxton in this race and there is this narrative nationwide. I was talking, you know, >> we should swallow well this guy. I'm just going to say it. Let's give this guy a good swallow well treatment.

[00:12:31]>> I love that because I would not at all be surprised that he's touching people inappropriately. I will say I don't think they're a moderately attractive 25-year-old woman.

[00:12:39]>> I think it's a different group. I don't know what group it is.

[00:12:44]>> Allegedly, I don't think they're Well, no, it's not allegedly. I don't think they're adults.

[00:12:48]>> All right. Okay. Well, you're alleging that >> I'm allowed to think they're not.

[00:12:51]>> Yes. That's just that when we say allegations, do we mean Dave thought it?

[00:12:55]Uh because he looked at the pictures of of James Terico and just assumed.

[00:12:59]>> Um because the theory nationally, Dave, from like, you know, all the people in politics are like, "Well, this guy's a big challenger." Now, it I think there is a real point to be made that this is a bad environment for Republicans. And anytime you have that, anybody on the Democratic side can win an election like this, even in Texas, it's possible. If it gets bad enough, it's possible. But James Tal Rico is not a unique talent.

[00:13:21]And I do I do think that we're going to get into this race a little bit after the the wounds of a primary heal. And Republicans and moderates even in Texas are going to be like, "Wait, you want me to vote for this guy?" Let me show you example of this, Dave, and see how if you react the same way I did. Here is a tweet from the Democrats. Really excited about this this big battle in Texas.

[00:13:40]Fired up, ready to go. It's time to take back Texas. and they post it with a big Texan photo of James Telerico. Here is the photo they use. I mean, just looking at it, Dave, what's your reaction?

[00:13:53]>> Um, Pete Buddha Judge. Uh, >> yeah. Yeah, >> is what I'm going to go with.

[00:13:59]>> First of all, he looks short. Now, again, we wouldn't discriminate against short people, of course. uh here on >> there's a difference between short and a man and a guy who looks like he's modeling for a Kohl's back to school catalog >> and that's what I feel that I'm looking at right now.

[00:14:16]>> That is what it looks like uh in Texas.

[00:14:18]Texas. It's funny because the way he's standing, what it reminds me of honestly, there's I had this reaction back in the 2024 campaign and I I I must have said it a thousand times on Glenn's show and my own show, which is like there's a bit of a with Taler Rico, put this photo back up again if we can.

[00:14:36]There's a bit of a thing where it's like a Tim Walian Yeah. thing where like you should be able to look at this and know it doesn't work immediately. I don't know how to explain that exactly, but like this is not gonna connect with people in Texas. Look at this guy.

[00:14:51]>> Well, he looks like an effeminate southern dandy.

[00:14:54]>> Yeah.

[00:14:54]>> Like that's the only way I can put it.

[00:14:55]Like he sounds like he talks like that.

[00:14:57]Like Zack Alphanax in the movie campaign. Exactly.

[00:15:01]>> He's still mad that I wore Crocs to mom's funeral. Come on everybody. We going I'm bringing my broom cuz we're going to clean up Washington.

[00:15:08]>> By the way, >> what we going to do?

[00:15:10]>> Very underrated movie. Funny freaking movie.

[00:15:13]>> It's a really good movie. I would recommend >> Cox as his dad is a perfect casting.

[00:15:17]Yeah, >> I will say like that's a great like if you're going back and you're like flipping through Netflix and you happen to pop by the campaign and you have nothing to watch. It's really funny is awesome in that movie.

[00:15:27]>> Yeah, I love that movie.

[00:15:28]>> Uh but I just don't understand why you look at this guy and you say, "Okay, think of this campaign. Think of how this plays out. You know, Paxton wins.

[00:15:36]The people who were on the corn side are annoyed at that right now." So when you look at polls matching these two parties up, you look at it and you say, "Okay, well the people who are cornin are are annoyed at Paxton and they're thinking, well, I might even vote for Telerico or maybe I'll just stay home." As we get to November though, you start thinking about, do you really want this guy being a senator from the state of Texas? Let me show you a clip. You tell me, Dave, you think the people of Texas are going to embrace this? Watch >> something that you love that's not family or friends.

[00:16:08]Um, I love and just say this because it's on my mind. The trans children who showed up yesterday at the state capital to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn't have to, but it was an inspiration to watch.

[00:16:24]>> He has a pedophile haircut.

[00:16:27]Allegedly. Allegedly. He has a chemical castrated haircut. It does. Yeah. He almost looks like Yeah, that's a great point. The chemical castration thing. He looks like a character in a movie who went through that as a child and has tried to adapt into an adult but couldn't quite make it.

[00:16:42]>> And he's like, I was just at the Capitol watching them trans kids and I'm thinking this is great.

[00:16:48]>> We should have more trans kids that I can watch.

[00:16:51]>> I got to say, I can't get enough of you doing that voice. I love it. I freaking love it.

[00:16:55]>> I would watch a sequel to the campaign with you in Zach Alphanakas role. Let's put that together. That would be I'm down.

[00:17:02]>> Um I just >> That's how he talks though. Oh, I was right about his voice.

[00:17:06]>> You're right about his voice by looking at him. And this is what I mean. Like I think you could look at Betto who who came off to me as like, you know, very douchy, right? Like, but >> you know, I mean, like I think some people think he's a decent looking guy.

[00:17:20]He seems like a guy could be a normal guy. Histick was very inauthentic and it didn't work for Texas. Yeah.

[00:17:27]>> But this guy doesn't even have that. He looks like a character of a Wes Anderson movie.

[00:17:31]>> He does. He does have the He really does. He does have that. Is this the guy being called Alfred Newman?

[00:17:38]Cuz it's spot on.

[00:17:39]>> Yeah. And And you know, Trump also, you mentioned Buddha Judge. Also called uh Buddha Judge Alfred.

[00:17:45]>> Alfred Newman. He does have that vibe.

[00:17:47]>> Very similar. It's a similar It's just a weird vibe that I just don't think is going to connect with the voters in.

[00:17:52]>> Yeah, he's got the no tie as if that's the casual look. Just kicking his little leg out.

[00:17:56]>> But he's also doing Dave the thing that I wish we had this video. I know we're not going to be able to pull it up. It's fine. But the the video during the Kamla day where it was like men for Kamala and there was like guys sitting on the back of the pickup truck trying to say like >> Oh no, we did a parody of it on Normal World.

[00:18:10]>> Yes, I remember this.

[00:18:11]>> Yes. Glenn walked by me when I was dressed like a leather man wearing only a leather vest and no shirt.

[00:18:16]>> That was before you changed for the shoot.

[00:18:17]>> I know.

[00:18:20]>> But it's true like that you did a great parody of that which is available still online.

[00:18:25]>> The actual line that you would have thought we made up for the sketch but we didn't. It was from the commercial was I'm giving my fullthroated endorsement.

[00:18:34]That was that was just from the commercial.

[00:18:37]>> Just just a quote. Just a quote. Okay, before we go because this is going to be a long a long battle going to have a lot of interesting twists and insurance. So, we'll get into that. I did want to mention though Al Green, not the singer, but the Democratic representative was unseated by Christian Meny in this Texas Texas Texas primary. And I bring up Al Green mainly. You might remember him.

[00:18:55]He's I He's a guy who's on media all the time. He loves the cameras. Yeah, >> he did this thing where he would walk out of the Donald Trump State of the Unions. This is him last State of the Union walking out. I'll show you this video uh to remind you.

[00:19:14]All right, >> there we go. I hope you got the nice coffee.

[00:19:24]>> Well, at least now he can resume his career as a Geico caveman.

[00:19:29]The haircut does kind of point to that direction in particular. It's a bit rough, isn't it?

[00:19:33]>> Uh, I will say this at the beard, the trimming. I will say this, he did have one of my favorite moments in that in that particular state of the union because he >> he Well, no, this was the one where he he brought a sign. It was a, if you remember, Trump, just to remind Trump posted a video without probably even watching it, where there was an ape in the video portraying some African-American politician, I can't remember who it was. Okay. And so the big statement of that week, the thing of the week for the Democrats was, you know, black people aren't apes. They're not apes. The Trump thinks they're apes.

[00:20:04]And of course, this is another dumb controversy that was gone went away in 5 minutes. But Al Green decided to capitalize on this, which is what he does. And he brought in a sign that said, "Black people aren't apes." But he's so dumb that he used his right hand to hold the sign and covered the A. And so it said instead black people rent apes, which I thought was the most unique accusation of our political year.

[00:20:29]Is that true, Dave? Do black people rent apes? And if so, what for what purpose?

[00:20:33]It's possible.

[00:20:34]>> I don't know. Birthdays, >> zoos, birthdays. There's at least a possibility.

[00:20:38]>> A lot of things. The one lady would rent an ape. Oh, I guess she owned an ape. It was the uh she was white, though.

[00:20:44]>> It was the lady in Connecticut who had the ape from the Old Navy commercials.

[00:20:49]And then her friend brought over uh she used to give it wine and Xanax.

[00:20:52]>> Really?

[00:20:53]>> Yeah. And her friend brought over a a cake and the fire scared it that was on the candles. So the ape went crazy and ripped uh her friend's face off.

[00:21:02]>> Oh, I do remember that.

[00:21:04]>> She was the woman who got the first face transplant.

[00:21:07]And she looked like the first woman who had a face transplant.

[00:21:10]>> We have to take a break, but you have very strange knowledge just stored in your head. Um okay, we have Noah Rothman coming up. He's got a book called Blood in Progress about the the left-wing violence in this country. It's stuff that you have to hear. We'll do it next.

[00:21:21]She's dead.

[00:21:30]All right. Sometimes you stand up in your yard and you kind of hands on your hips and you stare into the distance and you think, "Ah, this place really just needs like a tree." That happens in Texas a lot. A lot of open fields, nothing going on.

[00:21:39]>> Uh maybe it's because your yard looks a little empty. Maybe it's because you planted something and you know it was it was nice and all of a sudden it died. Or maybe you're just in some sort of suburban arms race with trees. That happens too. All of these things can be solved by fast growing trees.com.

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[00:22:38]Teriffs and conditions may apply.

[00:22:44]So excited to welcome Noah Rothman to the program. He's senior writer for National Review and al also the author of a brand new book. It's called Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-wing Violence in America. It is available now wherever you get your book. So, make sure to go grab a copy. Noah, I really appreciate you taking the time and coming on the show.

[00:23:02]>> Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.

[00:23:04]>> I appreciate it. I I've been looking forward for this book for a really long time. uh you know when you first announced it. It's I think a really important book for right now. Can you can you walk us through why you decided to write it?

[00:23:15]>> Yeah. Well, it's my attempt to answer a question that has been bothering me for a long time. Why is it that in the immediate aftermath of a a confirmed or suspected episode of leftwing violence, and there have been so many. an attempted or successful assassination of a right-wing figure, uh an armed assault on an ICE or CBP facility, the the riots that descend almost nightly on some major American metros like Portland and parts of Los Angeles. Do we hear that it's the American right that is unusually violent, the primary threat to the American civic compact? And when you look at part of the reason I think is when you look at the history of leftwing violence in this country and it comes in waves the 1910s, 1920s, 1970s, 1980s and today you see a history that is replete with prescriptive and predictive evidence of what a left-wing violence spasm of leftwing violence looks like.

[00:24:07]It's not an obscure history in my view.

[00:24:09]It is a suppressed history. And my goal with this book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Leftwing Violence in America, is to explore some of those um through lines through history that allow us to understand what we're looking at, comprehend these violent left-wing movements, predict how they're going to unfold, and then interdict them with the tools that law enforcement already has on the books. It can be done. All we have to do is commit ourselves to that project. Yeah, it was it was really interesting going through because you go through all the history of these these movements going back a century and there's a lot of stuff in there that I think the American people just have forgotten or didn't even know at the time.

[00:24:45]>> I forgot just in the first few chapters how very many there were.

[00:24:49]>> Yeah. You know, David, honestly, it's funny because going through it, you went the first chapter is you going through the recent history and >> the last five years.

[00:24:58]>> Yeah. The last five years, >> which is a full chapter.

[00:25:00]>> It really is. And and when when I started it, I honestly know I thought, you know, I I work in this field. I cover this stuff every day. You know, I you know, maybe I'll just skim a little bit through this first chapter because I was there for this. Like I remember it all. It was it would have been the worst decision in the world. I couldn't reme I couldn't believe how many things I had forgotten about. And and a key part of it too, how many times you were able to just show the leftwing justifying all of this violence. All the reactions in the media from prominent figures. I mean, as so much of it, I don't know if it was co or what. I just tried to erase it from my memory. I'm glad you brought it back to the forefront.

[00:25:34]>> We all human beings have a fantastic capacity to compartmentalize trauma.

[00:25:39]It's an evolutionary trait. It's valuable for us. And part of the reason that we don't remember a lot of this stuff is I think we're inclined to forget it. Which is why, and I'm so gratified to hear you describe that because I was very self-consciously bringing a gratuitous amount of evidence to bear to prove the thesis in the first chapter because there are so many institutions and individuals who are committed to the notion that the American right is violent and the American left is not. It's literally a myth quote unquote in the estimation of organizations who make up you know who are the bad guys in my book like the SPLC. And it's not as though this this phenomena is is has not been studied. A lot of this recent scholarship that I described in the book about future or about rather past waves of leftwing violence, a lot of that work has been done in this century. So it is relatively recent scholarship. But there's also efforts to mislead those who who are inclined to believe that the left is not violent. And that comes in the form of of data sets that are misapplied or misclassified in order to create statistical evidence of the notion that the right is uniquely violent. And when you go through those actual data sets, you find um intragang violence, intraf family violence, prison violence. Episodes in which somebody graffitied the side of a church, right-wing violence. A homeless person who walks into a hotel and starts hurling racial epithets and assaults the person in front of the counter, right-wing violence. That's not what people mean when they think about political violence. Um, much in the same way that you have these data sets that purport to claim that there's hundreds of school shootings per year in this country when what they mean is that somebody discharged a firearm on school property. And that's just not what people mean. So these data sets can be used to mislead as well, which is part of the reason why I just I don't tell the story in in statistics. I tell it in stories and try to get in the mind of somebody who's engaged in diluted thinking such that they will convince themselves that an act of violence will be get positive social change. But there's also this document from that was prepared for the Department of Homeland Security in 2021 that is really a smoking gun. It contends that the the study of violent left-wing extremism in this country is shot through A with people who are involved in the movements that they're attempting to study, which renders the whole enterprise subjective, fatally so, and b that there are intimidation campaigns experienced by people who study this stuff, social isolation from their colleagues, as well as the threat of physical retaliation for engaging in the study of left-wing violence in this country. We're never going to get our hands around the problem of political violence by only looking at one side of the equation. And too many are committed to doing just that.

[00:28:12]>> Yeah. Have you seen it in in the in the past, as much as it is now, when you when you're looking up all this stuff, the way that I like how you put it because you use several examples of Okay. So, for example, AOC said, "Okay, I denounce this, but" and you used a bunch of examples where the term but was used, but was used, but was used. And uh Bernie was actually a good example uh when you said that you know he had denounced Luigi Manion. He said but you know insurance company and healthcare they shouldn't be making these kind of profits. And you're looking at him going yeah but a public servant shouldn't be making these kind of profits. Like you have mansions that are on you know oceanfront property and that's okay.

[00:28:52]Like have you ever seen like such obvious backing of violence while they try to kind of disguise it? I mean, it's not a dog whistle. They're just saying this is bad, but this is the reason why it's perfectly okay and you should continue it.

[00:29:07]>> Yeah. Right. And they don't I don't know if they see it. Um maybe they do and they just manage to subordinate, you know, a a humane reaction, one that is a little bit more protective of the American civic covenant to their desire to harness what they see is an organic enthusiastic response to human sacrifice. That's what happened after the execution, the attempt, the alleged murder, I should say, cuz Lu J man has not been convicted yet, but the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and AOC and uh Chris Murphy all came out with their condemnations of that killing, but then appended that really pregnant butt on the end of it, which renders everything that came before preuncter and dismissible, right? Um, so they're saying but and Bernie Sanders was really interesting cuz what did he say? He said, "But everything's broken.

[00:29:57]The health care system is broken. The education system is broken. The election system is broken. The finance system is broken. This country is broken. And therefore, there should be revolutionary upheavalss um in order to restore restore or even create the social conditions that we want to see." And that wasn't they they weren't imagining the kind of enthusiasm that the murder of Brian Thompson exposed in you know the darkest corners of the progressive ecosystem. It was available for all to see. His name was cheered on Saturday Night Live and at concert venues.

[00:30:32]Merchandise featuring the words he scratched into bullet casings sold very well. His face was etched onto prayer candles blasphemously. I would add all this stuff was indicative of an element on the left that regards and it's again a throughine through history that regards acts of violence like that as potentially galvanizing as a sort of thing that could inspire a broader perhaps even more violent movement but one that is beetted to dedicated to revolutionary social change. You see this throughout history, a marxian infused anarosocialist approach to using violence, direct action, the propaganda of the deed. It goes by many names. But the goal of the activists who engage in violence is to galvanize a broader revolutionary movement movement that will bring about the kind of social upheavalss that they want to see and which you and me and everybody else on the other side of that will get what's coming to us.

[00:31:24]>> Well, yeah. It's like the shaver shirts.

[00:31:26]>> Yeah. Right. It's like once you see that, that kind of gives you an idea of something that could happen for you.

[00:31:30]Like I'm a comedian. I was working with a guy. He was opening for me in San Francisco. And he said to me, he goes, "We need to see more Luigi Manionis."

[00:31:39]And I just didn't want to have the conversation. I said, "Oh, okay." And he said, "Yeah, but our left's you know, left-wingers, we aren't really the violent type." And I he said, "We're not really the killing type." And I said, "You literally are."

[00:31:49]>> So what did he mean by that? More Luigi Manion's butt, not the thing that he did, right? What did that mean?

[00:31:55]>> Yeah. And that's what I ask you is why do you think there's this massive disconnect in the people who think that they have this monopoly on compassion who also are doing this rampid amount of violence and killing. And it's not made up. I mean, your book itself, when you're looking at it, you even it's not glossing over by any means, but it's just you have to add in and a 80-year-old man was ran over putting up a Trump sign. And you know, like you have so many things you have to list, you can't possibly explain in detail everything that would happen. Otherwise, your book would be 30,000 pages long.

[00:32:31]>> Yeah. and and there's actually a forward that could be written about all the things that have happened and the violent events that have happened since I submitted the manuscript back in January. It's it's a long list. Um there are two things two factors that I think render the left broadly construed to include you know perfectly civil civic-minded liberals uh establishmentarian democrats as well as revolutionary radical progressives on the activist end of the spectrum. um they have a a real weakness for people power. Uh they see big movements in the streets. They don't have the conservative aversion to the mob. They see they see masses of people as being an instrument of political utility that can be co-opted and coerced perhaps. And they fall for it every time. They fell for it in Occupy Wall Street. You know, you ask the average Occupy Wall Streeter how much use they had for a Democrat, the average Democrat, they would say none. Cast them into the ocean. But the Democrats fetted this movement even when it was obviously latently violent, even when it was explicitly kinetically violent, refused to back off their support for it. They fell for it again in 2020 with the George Floyd mobs. Um, and there that's one feature of it. The second is this notion that systemic oppression licenses extraleal violence.

[00:33:48]It's maybe not it's prescribed in law of course, but there's sort of an overarching moral element to it that they find excusable to be charitable. And in their quieter moments where I think they're they're being perfectly honest with each other, um they find it to be a an expression of political zeal that has a romance about it that they think is is actually quite admirable. If not the act, then the sentiment behind it, that expression of uncompromising enthusiasm for what they believe to be positive social change. I think Democrats broadly have a weakness for both those two things. And that blinds them to the potential violence that incubates within their own movement.

[00:34:29]>> Yeah, there is a little bit of the these crazy kids maybe went a little too far, but they were on the right path and that's echoes throughout all these movements. No, I want to be respectful to your schedule. Do you have a few more minutes uh to to talk about this if we take a quick break?

[00:34:42]>> Yeah.

[00:34:42]>> Okay, great. All right. We're with Noah Rothman, senior writer for National Review, author of a great uh book you really need to get. It's called Blood and Progress: A Century of Leftwing Violence in America. Back with more with Noah here in just a moment.

[00:35:04]>> If you watched Glenn Beck over the years, you you know some of these stories that are covered in Blood and Progress, a new book by Noah Rothman.

[00:35:12]One of which is this terrible bombing at Wall Street, which I remember going with Glenn and walking through Wall Street and you could still see the pock marks in the walls from the terrorist attack from all those years ago. Really is amazing. Um the book is called Blood in Progress: Essentially Leftwing Violence in America. Noah Rothman is the author.

[00:35:28]He joins us.

[00:35:29]>> Uh no, I I want to I was thinking about this in a way of like there are certain things that are difficult in life. Like I I walk by a pizza that's sitting on the counter. I'm definitely grabbing the slice that I don't need. That's hard for me. It's really easy for me though to be able to say if a right-wing person commits a violent act, it's super easy for me to say screw them, throw them in prison forever. I I that is an easy instinct for me. I never feel that this justification to say well you know I mean they are right on lower taxes.

[00:35:58]That's never mind. And I don't I I entered the book with the idea of I would love to know why this is so hard for them. Why the left can't why can't a a a normal respectable politician just come out and say, "Look, I don't care about any of the insurance stuff.

[00:36:15]Obviously, a father shouldn't be murdered in the street and that's the end of the story." But I would say your your book makes a really good case that it's sort of part of it's part of the whitewashing, right? Like it it's actually in it seemingly intentional by at least a lot of figures to try to rehabilitate. You talk about radical empathy in the book, try to rehabilitate these people so that there is this sort of tinge of of violence or at least extremism that helps put the whole movement forward. Am I am I articulating that right?

[00:36:46]>> Yeah, I think that's fair. Um, something I had written in an earlier book, Unjust, Social Justice and the Unmaking of America, was this com uh this conception of intersectionality that the American left was very infatuated with, which had made the prospect of um sister soldier moments, you know, back in the day, making an example of somebody who was within your coalition, but slightly on the fringes of it in order to a position yourself within the center of the electorate and reorient your tribe, your political tribe towards that direction. And intersectionality has made that whole process impossible to pull off because the philosophy prescribes the notion that we're it's all interconnected. You can't alienate one faction. You can't dismiss one faction or even one member of one faction without dismissing everything because it's all overlapping. It's all intersecting. And one of the one of the things in this book, the final chapter is dedicated to the degree to which I see disturbingly um levels of uh on the right the incorporation of some theories of activist politics that were once exclusive to the left and are very conducive to violence.

[00:37:55]Martyologies making heroes and martyrs out of people who were actual uh perpetrators of violence or crim or crimes. inverting the victim and victimizer. Um, which is again a feature of something that you see in in left-wing activist politics where they see in victims perpetrators and in perpetrators um those who are oppressed by systemic forces and some tactical stuff like uh in being very comfortable with crowds indeed mobs affinity groups which is something that we saw ahead of the violence in Charlottesville which used to be a very leftwing thing and shock forces black block tactics and the like. I mean, this is the sort of thing that was once exclusive to the left and it is no longer. And that's one of the features of my book, too, is that you simply cannot overlook the extent to which those who engage in violence, who think violently, who plan violence are motivated by vendetta. Whether it's real or perceived, the notion being that they are meeting out vengeance, cosmic karmic vengeance against the forces that are arrayed against them. Be that the people on the right, be that activists on the right, be that the state, um, which usually features prominently in both left and right-wing activist um, philosophies. They believe that the state is a raid against them. Um, all these things are becoming flattening out in a way that I find really disturbing.

[00:39:13]And hopefully um my readers will as well and they'll recognize as you just said, the whole point of this book is to convince you that anybody who acts out violently, even if they hate all the same people you hate. And even if all the same people you hate hate them, they're not on your side. They're not in your tribe, they're a detriment to your political success and deserve to be marginalized or at least confronted.

[00:39:34]>> Yeah. Well said. uh the uh you mentioned there the the flipping of of the of the perpetrator and the victim and that is gosh you highlighted a couple uh you know another recent one you you mentioned was Daniel Daniel Perry right the guy on the uh on the subway >> and like I it just seemed to me that everyone in America should very easily look at that incident and say wait a minute this guy seemingly was doing the right thing you have all over the place seemingly no amount of evidence though no was enough to convince even mainstream media, even the respectable media, the New York Times and and CNN and all these uh big institutions that this was an obvious case, right? I mean, even people who people of color on the train complaining about the actions of of uh of the person who wound up dying in the situation, that wasn't enough.

[00:40:26]Seemingly there was no level of evidence that could change it. And and that is I feel like a really dangerous place for a civilization to go because you mentioned with the right I think there's some of that going on with the right right now as well where it doesn't matter what the evidence is. There is there's this sort of team sort of standpoint and if if it's on your team you just figure out a way to argue your way through the day.

[00:40:50]Gosh, that seems like a really a lot of externalities coming out of that that we're not going to like.

[00:40:54]>> I mean I think you put your finger on it. Try to argue your way through the day. get through the next 5 minutes of, you know, this argument with somebody who you don't want to concede a single point to. Um, they called it, the progressive left called the Daniel Penny verdict in a courtroom vigilantism. They refused to accept the testimony on his behalf from his Marine Corps instructor, from the fellows, his fellow writers on that subway platform. All of it was disregarded, including a jury's verdict, which found that it was self-defense.

[00:41:20]And I make the point in that particular chapter that disregarding the jury's verdict is what's really most important about that whole phenomenon, not the delusion that they work themselves up into, although that is also very important. Um because they have internalized the notion that the courts are not mechanisms for legitimate conflict resolution in this country.

[00:41:40]They are the instruments of state power and the state itself is a corrupt enterprise that deserves to be dismantled, toppled, overthrown, and replaced with a new social contract. one that's much more marxian or socialistic.

[00:41:52]Um, and that gives you the progressive prosecutor project which we lived through over the course of the last 5 10 years even in which victim and victimizer those roles were inverted and we just simply stopped prosecuting certain crimes many of which were quality of life crimes but by no means all. Many of them were violent offenses that we simply stopped prosecuting. And the fundamental philosophical idea there was that those prosecutions were invalid and illegitimate because the victim in this case the perpetrator but the victim of all these conspiring forces many of which are cannot be resolved by the political process because they're so nebulous and illdefined and certainly not within the constitutional parameters of the Congress or the executive branch to adjudicate. um that they see all of that as conspiring to create um perpetrators who are just really rebelling against their circumstances and those circumstances are pretty historically unfair and we should have some sympathy towards their plight. This is what they talk themselves into. This is what they work themselves into and that's why we experienced quite a bit of crime according to the people who are tasked with adjudicating crime. Jess Tish who's the commit police commissioner in New York City said we just stopped prosecuting crime. That's why you see so much crime. Um, it's the sort of thing that you need to hear articulated because it's very common sense, but common sense is in short supply these days.

[00:43:11]>> Uh, well, I mean, I will say if you're if you're the type of person who finds yourself in an argument with someone maybe on the left who uh who says something like, "Oh gosh, well, the right is so violent." And you, you know, you may have watched a Republican president almost get assassinated weekly over the past few months, and you think to yourself, gosh, I I wish I could had at my fingertips more examples of of being able to show that. It's true. the left wing is very very uh has a much bigger violence problem to in my mark especially right now. Uh you're going to love this book because it's going to be able to you're going to be more wellversed than anyone you're talking to about this actual issue and the real facts behind it. Noah Rothman, senior writer for National Review and author of this brand new book. It's great. Blood in Progress: A Century of Leftwing Violence in America. Be sure to grab your copy today wherever you get your books. Uh Noah, I really appreciate you putting all this together. I know it was a lot of hard work. It's a >> really good book. Honestly, really good book.

[00:44:02]>> Thank you guys. I'm very heartened by your reaction to it. You This is why you do it and you just you put it out there and hope hope that it strikes a chord.

[00:44:09]So, I'm gratified to hear that it did.

[00:44:10]>> Absolutely. Get a copy of it today.

[00:44:12]Noah, we appreciate you joining us and we'll talk to you soon.

[00:44:17]>> All right.

[00:44:26]>> Well, join us. blazev.com/stewandave.

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