Victor Davis Hanson
So far Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski have both voted not to confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense Secretary and thereby joined every single Democratic senator to reject his nomination.
That rejectionism seems striking when they both voted to confirm in 2021 two of the worst and most leftwing cabinet secretaries in recent memory—Biden’s selection of Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security Secretary and Deb Haaland as Interior Secretary.
The former simply destroyed the border and by intent allowed 12 million illegal immigrants to enter the U.S., and thereby subverted immigration law in the process that he had sworn to uphold. The latter tried to ban all fracking and pipelines on federal lands. She did her best to curtail oil and gas leases—even as the poor in 2021–22 were struggling with sky-high gas prices and her boss began draining the strategic petroleum reserve (is oil evil when it is first pumped out of the ground, but A-OK when it is re-pumped?).
Do two Republican senators really think that Hegseth will perform at the Pentagon in a fashion worse than what Mayorkas and Haaland did in their respective tenures—or for that matter sometimes AWOL Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (try disappearing without notice from your job if you are an Army private), who gave us DEI in the ranks, helped tank recruitment, and oversaw the disaster in Kabul.
Note in general, Republicans think it is noble to have a few key votes join the Democrats as proof of their minority’s “principles”; in contrast, Democrats tolerate no defection in any congressional vote and deter any would-be Democrat version of Collins or Murkowski.
Pardonomania
Joe Biden (8,064 pardons and clemencies) and Barack Obama (1,927) together pardoned nearly 10,000 convicted criminals (9,991).
Donald Trump (1,740, including the recent ca. 1,500 January 6ers) and George Bush (ca. 200) pardoned or gave clemencies to 1,940—about one-fifth that number. So, Biden pardoned or granted clemency to far more than during the combined last four presidents.
The Left is trying to damn the January 6 pardons on the grounds that some of the thousands there attacked police. To the extent, a number did—and they did and should have been punished and were—most were arrested, convicted, and served some 1-4 years of harsh incarceration—or were simply put in jail “waiting” “indefinitely” for a trial.
In contrast, very few of the 14,000 arrested over the 2020 BLM-Antifa riot’s four months of killing, arson, looting, and torching (e.g., federal courthouse, police precinct, partial torching of the iconic St. John’s Episcopal Church) were indicted, convicted, and incarcerated.
“Fact-checkers” go to great lengths to deny that the 2020 rioters got off easy by citing the vast numbers of arrests—14,000-17,000. But when you look at the actual number of those convicted, jailed, or sent to prison, the percentage is minuscule and almost impossible to find, even though the damage—1,500 officers injured, $2 billion in property damage, 35-40 killed—was far greater. These shocking statistics, after all, were not due to earthquakes or flooding, but to human agency.
The January 6 pardons were not preemptive and backdated; if some crime turns up related to January 6th committed years earlier (e.g., “planning” to riot a year or two earlier), they are liable. In contrast, if we discover in the next few years new evidence that Dr. Fauci or Gen. Milley had committed a crime during the last decade before the pardon, they are still pardoned.
While Biden and Trump pardoned demonstrators and rioters, Biden’s were far worse in many ways. He pardoned or gave clemency to murderers, FBI killers, rapists, and child molesters. He swore during the campaign six times or more he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden and then did just that in the waning days of his presidency.
Most cowardly still, in the last minutes of his presidency, he pardoned, as we predicted, his entire family involved with the Biden shake-down operation.
Discussion (4)
Join the conversation. Logged in subscribers avoid the Captcha verification and get priority commenting approvals. No vulgarity, links, or code allowed.
Great work! Ray Epps?
Great comments, Jim
Dear Dr. Hanson: Isn't it amazing how urgently the "fake news" media now wants to ask leading and set up questions of the Trump administration after setting on their hands and regurgitating the given narrative for years now? I laughed out loud when one of the questions at today's presser was "whether Mr. Trump would maintain the same pace of activity." Add obvious laziness to lying and all the rest to hopefully the obituary of the "legacy / fake news" media. Same for Congress. Watching the Heckseth confirmation, one main point of discussion was what would happen to the Nome confirmation since none of the Senators wanted to work on the weekend. This was after making the point that the Senators from both sides viewed working Friday evening as giving both sides some credibility for standing for their values after hours. Kudos to Senator Thune for making them work overtime. I noticed that 2 or 3 nominations moved when it cut into off time. I have never been a big Thune fan; however, I am somewhat hopeful that he will maintain the pressure to pass the agenda. The democrats and frankly all of official Washington obviously like to move slowly and only talk about work. They know that delay is part of the death process. Guess what, Mr. Trump learned that as well. As Mr. Trump said to Mr. Vance, "enjoy the ride!"
The key to understanding January 6 lies in uncovering how many FBI assets were present that day, what instructions they were given, who issued those orders, how many entered the Capitol, and whether they were involved in actions like removing barriers or breaking windows and doors. Were any of these individuals held accountable or sent to prison? These questions demand answers, as this information must come to light to expose the full extent of the government’s harmful manipulation on that fateful day. The ultimate “tell” was the coordinated response of legacy media outlets the very next day, all parroting the same narrative: “Insurrection!” Surely, I wasn’t the only one who saw through this charade from the start. The protesters, largely peaceful, went to jail because they lacked the resources of someone like Donald Trump. The Left’s strategy was clear—if they could imprison 1,500 MAGA supporters through a setup, then taking down Trump himself should have been easy. Yet, the plan backfired spectacularly. This was an all-or-nothing gamble by the corrupt media and unprincipled Democrats, and the outcome was far worse than “nothing” for them. They didn’t just fail; they damaged their own cause, destroyed their credibility, and set their agenda back decades. That’s how Democrats operate—transactional, emotion-driven, and devoid of principle or logic. They didn’t get “all.” They didn’t even get “nothing.” They got a massive, self-inflicted loss.