Best of the Guy Benson Show: Memorial Day Edition!

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From the heart of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., backed by the trusted voices of Team Fox, a clear, fresh voice cutting through the noise to tell the truth. It's Guy Benson with Guy Benson. It is Monday, May 25th, 2026. Happy Memorial Day, everyone, and welcome to a special edition, the best of Guy Benson. Guy Benson.com is our website. The podcast is free every single day. And in this first hour of today's special program, we're going to do some look-ahead analysis. of the midterm elections that are shaping up ahead of November with our friends Josh Krasauer and Tom Bevan, starting with Josh K as we talk about the elections coming our way. Josh, welcome back. Guy, it's great to be back with you. All right, let's talk about the big picture. And just the general historic trends for midterm election cycles. A lot of people are concerned about the Republicans standing heading into November, which may be exacerbated right now by various factors, but would likely be in pretty rough shape regardless if history is any lesson, especially in recent decades. Talk about those dynamics. Yeah, the first midterm of a new presidency or second term in this case for President Trump usually is pretty rough for the party in power, especially given that Republicans in this case control both the House and the Senate and the presidency. So you can see the energy magnified on the Democratic side, but that happens all the time when the opposition parties out of power and looking to make gains from a low point. The X factor, though, is the caliber of candidates that Democrats are putting forward. And there's a lot of energy, a lot of base activism on their side. But we've seen in elections past, I remember the 2010 Tea Party wave for the Republicans, and even as recently as 2022 when Republicans had a really good chance to win back a lot more seats in Congress and ended up. seeing the wave kind of turn into a trickle just in that first midterm for Joe Biden. You do see examples of when the opposition party nominates not ready for primetime players, not strong candidates, that they actually jeopardize the potential for games. So I think the big question for the Democrats going into 2026 in this year's midterms. is, you know, they have the environment. Trump's job approval rating around 40%. That's not great. It's an opportunity for Democrats to gain seats. There's a lot of dissatisfaction with the economy. The Iran war is certainly rising gas prices as an X factor in the campaign. But you also see the emergence of candidates that could be nominees, our nominees that are extreme, that have views that would have been beyond the pale in normal political environments.

And that's the big factor. Can Graham Platner beat Susan Collins in Maine? If Michigan Democrats nominate someone like Abdul-Elfayette, would he cost the Democrats a very, very winnable Senate seat? So, you know, those are the X factors as we follow the individual races going forward through this election cycle. I want to come back to the Senate in a moment. But overall, again, sort of big picture, what are some of the elements that lead to waves in either direction, especially with that historic precedent of the first midterm election of a presidential term where the out-of-power party tends to do well? Is that because... You have the base of that party, particularly angry and energized and scared and worried, and therefore they're sort of crawling across broken glass to turn out, whereas the party in power, their base is a little bit more satisfied, fat and happy. Do you get the swing of independent voters back away from the party in power, especially if there's a trifecta because voters often like some? gridlock and checks and balances or is it some combination thereof because it seems like yes the republicans could be doing better with significantly better public approval and policy outcomes but some of these things are just kind of baked in regardless of the national environment or the national mood There is a natural tendency for checks and balances. So regardless of how popular or unpopular a president is, if one party has full control of Washington, voters may just want to check and balance. We've seen that in almost every midterm election, with maybe 2022 being the most notable exception. But we've been seen wave after wave when one party amasses power overreeds perhaps its mandate. and goes beyond perhaps what voters wanted when they first elected the president. And you see that reversal towards the mean where the voter may not be endorsing the Democratic Party agenda, but they want someone to block Republicans control and President Trump's control of Washington. So I think that's the fundamental element, the historical element of the midterm cycle. You know, but following the actual developments on the ground, the economy is the number one issue for most voters. And because... gas prices as a result of the war in Iran have gone up in recent months. And because they're still lingering volatility when it comes to inflation and it comes to people's satisfaction with their own financial circumstances, that's a big difference from Trump's first term when he did take some losses in that 2018 midterm. But at that point, a lot of voters like the Trump economy. In fact, that was Trump's...

Trump card, if you will, throughout his first term of his presidency. When you look at the polling data right now, at best, there's a lot of queasiness about where the economy is headed. Right. I think there's a lot on the positive side, stock market near 50,000 has brought a lot of gains to investors, and there's been a lot of macroeconomic positives. Jobs reported better than a lot of economists anticipated. So, I mean, those are the headwinds. I think the economy, the war to a secondary effect. And then just the perception of overreach. Trump certainly had the mandate. He won a healthy majority of the vote in the 2024 election, but certainly has pushed the limit. And that's created a blowback from Democrats and, again, an independence that reacted more towards the Democratic side as a result. When we come back with Josh Krasauer, let's talk about some tea leaves and some elections that have already happened, what they might say about what could be coming in November. We'll be right back. This is a Memorial Day best of, Guy Benson. Have you ever stopped and thought about what's actually powering your day, the coffee you made this morning, the drive you took to get here, even the device you're listening on it? I'm Tanner Faust, and that's exactly the kind of thing we're going to talk about on the energy tailgate, a podcast from Chevron. I'll be your host inviting guests to discuss big energy topics and what they mean for everyday life, all from the tailgate of our truck. This is the energy tailgate.

Another interesting thing to keep an eye on, Josh, is special elections. And I know it's sometimes an overread for political junkies and analysts to say, oh, well, look at what's happening in special elections. And therefore, that's definitely what's going to happen in a general election. That's not always true, although sometimes it is. You saw some major special election upsets, for example, leading into major Republican wave years during the Obama administration and at least... So far in 2025 and 26, it looks like the wind is very much at the Democrats back in these special elections across the country, major Democrat overperformance almost across the board, although there have been a couple of interesting exceptions, one of which is the Virginia referendum and setting aside the whole constitutionality issue, just looking at the vote that did happen. In April, it was a significant turn back to the center or toward the right for an electorate that had galloped way out to the left in the 2025 off-year elections, a big year. Abigail Spanberger, of course, winning by 15 points, even a very troubled problematic candidate like Jay Jones for Attorney General won by the same margin Kamala Harris carried that state in 2024. And so the Democrats were riding high. They started to betray campaign promises on affordability, focusing instead on things like this power grab, where I think Democrats, especially with a huge fundraising and spending advantage, expected to waltz to a yes victory, and it ended up being a real nail-biter for them, again, clearing out the constitutional questions around that and what it could mean moving forward in the redistricting wars nationally. I just wonder if you look at the... off-year elections and these special elections and the big advantage Democrats have had seemingly, and then juxtaposing that with maybe a bit of a wake-up call that Virginia Democrats brought on themselves and what those things might say ahead of 2026 this November. So the Virginia redistricting results were it was almost 50-50, 51-49, yes vote. barely passed in a state that's pretty, pretty blue these days, and which Abigail Spanberger, as you noted, won by a healthy margin just a year ago. That's a warning sign to Democrats for 2028, not necessarily for the midterms, but it's certainly a warning sign when you actually have a presidential matchup, and if the Democratic Party goes to the base, it plays to the left, and nominate someone that is... true blue progressive, that's the kind of capital you'll squander if you're a Democrat. And you're Abigail Spanberger, for example, and you're you want to mandated Virginia. And within the span of a few months, you've squandered that capital by pursuing a very partisan. redistricting push. If you look at the latest polling in Virginia, her job approval dip from about 60% down, down to below 50. I mean, that's a lot of capital spent in a short amount of time. And you better believe that especially if Democrats are in charge and the rhetoric matches that kind of progressive activist rhetoric that you hear so often these days, that would be a big red flag for the Democratic Party in the presidential election in 2008.

Now, like I said, the midterms, I think the special elections that you're referencing, local elections, legislative elections, off-year battles, they show Democratic... gains in these red seats. And that's exactly what we're seeing with the desire among independents and Democrats to have a check against the Republican parties. I think that's very relevant for the midterms, where, again, Democrats are anticipated to do quite well. But the midterms are much more a referendum of the party in power. a presidential election is about a choice between two candidates and the direction of the Democratic Party is moving in, they could easily squander the gains that they've built in a short amount of time with policy positions they've been adopting. There is this question of extremism. And you mentioned 2010 when Republicans gained 63 House seats in that big red wave year, but left a lot of points off the board, especially in the U.S. Senate. because of extreme or weird or kind of unusual candidates that they nominated statewide, especially for a Senate races. And you think about how that might apply in 2026 some of those lessons. Maybe voters will do something similar. I wonder if the news media favoring Democrats will paper over their extremism problems because they generally agree with the extreme candidates, whereas they were horrified by people on the right. viewed as extreme or what have you, more radical or even in some cases just kind of a little kooky. There's that, I think, open question. And then there's also, I think, one data point, speaking of special elections, as we just were, in suburban New Jersey, in a district that was like, you know, a residual Republican district that has gone much more blue in recent years, but still, you know, wealthy people who earn a living in the capitalist system in New York City, not exactly a hotbed of socialism. They in a special election, that district in sort of North Central Jersey, voted for a squad-style socialist to become a congresswoman. And it just felt like a straight-up, you know, skins versus shirts, blue versus red type of race where it didn't really matter what this person believed or had said or any of the flaws. As long as they were a Democrat, they were going to win. So how much of that plays in?

to a 2026 cycle where it's just like you're reflexively pulling the lever doesn't matter what the problems are or does candidate quality matter or does that all depend on you know how big the wave actually is That's a $64,000 question. And I would say that in house races, where a lot of people don't pay attention to the candidates quite as closely, they're less nationalized, left media attention. It's easier for a house candidate like Mejia in New Jersey to kind of be the party choice and kind of over, you know, but there's not a whole lot of. local media these days in New Jersey. So, you know, a lot of her controversial and pretty radical comments in history get overlooked and don't get scrutinized. It's a little harder in a Senate race and so even harder, obviously, in a presidential campaign. The big test, and I'm sort of struck reading some of the liberal commentary about Graham Platner, who now looks like the Democratic nominee in the state of Maine for the Senate against Susan Collins, who has the Nazi tattoo and... made comments praising Hamas and their tactics in 2014. And this guy is a walking red flag for the party. And yet I was reading, you know, the New York Times this month. And one of the center-left columnists, Frank Bruny, was saying, you know, I really am uncomfortable with Graham Platner, but I don't want Republicans to control the Senate. So you're seeing even among like... you know, pretty thoughtful moderates on the Democratic side. They're overlooking all of the problems that many of these extreme candidates the Democrats have put forward have. And that's, you know, I think that's, I mean, again, I think it might change if it's a presidential election and you're looking at a much more high-fakes choice. But it does seem anecdotally, at least, that columnists or commentators who are squarely in the moderate wing of the party, and they're confronting the fact that they have a guy with a neo-Nazi tattoo running for a big Senate race in Maine that could determine controls the Senate, and people from Ramaman, politicians like Ramamaniel and columnists like Frank Bruny have jumped on the Graham Platner bandwagon for the main reason that they need a... stop Trump and retake the Senate. I don't think that's, you know, the healthiest way of looking at politics. No, I mean, that's how partisans justify anything all the time. And we hear a lot of these people wagging their finger about country over party, but they don't really believe it, obviously, when it might apply to them. How much of that last question, Josh, is the Democrat Party just becoming? kind of a squad Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Zohran Mamdani party where the so-called moderates feel like they either salute and march on with this crowd or get left behind or worse

Well, I mean, the fear, big picture is that you're 2028 because of changes of media and how people consume information and polarization, you could have a, you know, and it really depends on who's the nominees and what happens in the next couple of years. But you could have a candidate of the progressive base and a candidate of the right wing base. And you may not have good choices for the typical swing voters in the middle. We're seeing in a lot of contests across the board, you know, races across the country. You know, look, I will say just as a macro political bit of analysis that historically in the U.S. but also in other, you know, Western democracies, when you have kind of the far left versus the far right, usually the right wins. Usually like, I mean, if you look at polling, you know, people may not like, you know, certain things about MAGA or the right wing of where the Republican Party may be. But. The prospect of socialism, you know, the radicalism you're seeing in some of these candidates this year, that can really, when you put the microscope on these guys' records and the rhetoric you're hearing increasingly in these party circles, DSA rhetoric, in particular, Democratic Socialism of America, that is a non-starter for so many voters. So, I mean, if it is like far left versus far right, usually... The right would have the advantage historically, at least. One of the testing grounds for all of this will be the elections in November coming up sooner than we realize and we'll be analyzing it here on Guy Benson with help from guests like Josh Krasauer, Fox News Radio, political analyst, editor-in-chief at Jewish Insider. Josh, thanks so much. Thanks, Scott. And coming up next here on The Best of Guy Benson, Memorial Day Edition, we'll talk to Tom Bevan of real clear politics ahead of the midterm elections. Stay tuned. Cheers to America's 250th birthday. Get 20% off your first purchase at Fox Newswineshop.com with code FN Radio 20. 20%. 20% discount excludes wine club offers and cannot be combined with any other promotion. Expires July 31st, 2026. Must be 21 older to order. Please drink responsibly.

You're listening to the Guy Benson Memorial Day Best of Special. We are back on the best of Guy Benson, our Memorial Day special, Guy Benson.com, podcast always free. Now let's listen to some of the electoral insights ahead of November from Tom Bevin of Real Clear Politics. All right, so we are a little under half a year away from the midterm elections, and that's still a long time, but also not really, right? A lot of voter attitudes get... baked in relatively early but there are some x factors out there so i'm just wondering big picture as we were just talking about earlier with josh what are your thoughts what's your overall 50 000 foot analysis of this midterm cycle that's taking shape It's going to be rough for Republicans, as things currently stand, unless the economic picture improves rather dramatically. I mean, if you look at our real clear politics average in the generic congressional ballot, Democrats have a lead today of 5.6%. In 2018, on this right around Memorial Day, They were at 6.1%. So, you know, Democrats are running just a little bit behind where they were in 2018 when they picked up 41 seats ultimately in that election. And they kept that lead pretty much throughout the entire summer. It didn't really change that much. And if you look at our generic congressional ballot, they've had a pretty solid lead this entire year thus far. So it's shaping up to be like a 2018-type year. Now, they didn't do as well in the Senate. And I think that is probably where things currently stand. I think, you know, some of the prediction markets have Democrats favored to win the Senate by a point or two. I still think it's an uphill battle for them. But they've definitely made progress in terms of, you know, making these races competitive and giving themselves a chance to potentially foot the Senate in November as well. Yeah, I'm thinking back to that 2018 midterm. Of course, it was the first midterm election of the first term, President Trump. And you had a blue wave throughout much of the... country, but in the Senate races, as you mentioned, overall, that map was more favorable that cycle to Republicans. They actually gained some ground in the Senate, despite losing 40-plus House seats. And I think if you ask Republicans right now, if you lose the House but hold the Senate, would you take that? I think a lot of Republicans say, done, sold, we'll take it. But there's an interesting different element now that has crept into all of this. Even since the last time you and I spoke on my show, the redistricting battles very much could play a role here in the midterm elections. Now, if it ends up being a big blue wave, right, that grows taller and taller and crests and crashes, then the best laid plans, even by Republicans could all go to the wayside and Democrats could have a huge night. But...

if it's even a modest size blue wave in november and you look at the redrawn maps and you look at virginia's illegal gerrymandering scheme getting thrown out by the high court there and then the supreme court decision that then moved things a little bit in the Republican direction. You see some of the prognosticators looking at the overall map and saying, you know, actually the pool of true toss-up seats that Democrats would need to probably sweep to have a wave, the pool seems to be shrinking, at least in a modest size wave year. Do you agree with that? I do. You know, let's say Republicans net, you know, let's say anywhere from 8 to 10 seats overall redistricting by the time all is said and done. That is, and the other thing is, yeah, there aren't as many competitive seats this time around as there were in 2018. So the idea that even if Dems do have a generic lead that's roughly the same as they had in 2018, it's not going to net them 41 seats, most likely. It's going to be somewhere in the, you know, 20 range, perhaps. Now, that would still be enough to. to obviously take the House, but if these maps are redrawn, they favor Republicans, less seats to pull from, and things improve a little bit, then, you know, I still think, obviously, Democrats are pretty favored. They only need to win, like, a couple seats to take control, but they, you know, Republicans could keep their losses down substantially. And, you know, that would just obviously make it tougher for Democrats. to govern with a slim majority, but they would still take control of the house. I think could that change? Sure. But right now... As I said, I think the landscape would have to improve pretty dramatically because whatever your problem is with the current state of our politics, if it's the economy, it's inflation, it's whatever, there's only one party in control. There's only one party to take it out on. There's only one party to blame. And that's a tough thing to get around for Republicans. I think that's right. I'd seen some polling a couple months ago that specifically targeted swingable voters so independents and light lean partisans who are willing to maybe go one way or the other in some of the key districts and states and based on the polling that i saw the most powerful argument for democrats in the midterms is

There need to be checks and balances on President Trump, and the Republicans aren't going to do that. So we need basically divided government for accountability checks and balances so one side doesn't run away with all of it. That is something that appeals to a lot of those voters. On the other side, the Republicans' most powerful argument was the Democrats are extreme. and getting more extreme. And this is a crazy party and they can't be trusted with power. That is an effective argument against the Democrats. And if, let's say it's a totally neutral political environment, maybe it goes either way. If you've got a dissatisfied electorate on the economy, to your point, Tom, the party that's in power. get stuck with that, even if they feel like, hey, we're trying to dig out of the other party's mess and we've had less than two years. It's not really how politics works, right? The out party, especially with short attention span, short memories, the out party generally structurally does better in midterm elections. And if the economy is not seen as going well by voters, that's another headwind for the in-party power and another real tailwind for the opposition. It's actually even worse than that guy because, I mean, one of the reasons President Trump and Republicans were elected was because they promised they would fix the economy. Right. It was like promise number one. Yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously there was a border and all of that, but, but, and they got into office and and Republican, listen, Donald Trump was bragging about how low gas prices were on February 24th. Four days later, he issued the order to start bombing Iran and gas jumped to over $4 a gallon, which is where it is now, basically. And so, you know, you look at our overall Rookler politics job approval rating for President Trump. It's a 40.5. That's not as all-time low. It's near his low this term. But on inflation, which, again, everyone is saying is the number one issue that they face, the country faces. He's at 29%. So he is failing, and Republicans are stuck. I mean, there's no getting around this. Even though Trump isn't on the ballot, they're stuck with his policies. And right now, he's focused on. everything but the economy. And that is coming through to voters. And I just, I don't know that that's going to change. And certainly, as you mentioned, you know, six months out, even if things improve marginally, that's not going to be good enough. They need to improve dramatically. And this White House has not shown that they're willing to sort of be laser focused on the issue of economy inflation. And this is something that you'll sometimes see presidents, especially in their second terms. They start thinking less about...

their own political standing in the moment because they're not going to run again. And they start thinking about sort of larger legacy questions. And it might be the right thing to do. And I happen to think that it is. It was the right call that the president made. And to inflict the damage that he has on that regime is very much in our national interests. I'm supportive of it. Also, it is not necessarily tethered to the election cycle concerns of Republicans who are on the ballot, right? So it this could be justified and laudable legacy chasing, but it's not at least portraying a focus on what almost always is the top concern of voters. I think that seems to be the dilemma that a lot of Republicans are in because, you know, for better and for worse, Trump is driving the bus on messaging always for the party. What he's talking about is what everyone's talking about. And if he maybe, you know, has. split attention at best on the economy. That sort of is conveyed, I think, to voters, hence some of the numbers you're talking about in your polling aggregates. Yeah, and I would also argue, I mean, look, you may be supportive, and plenty of Republicans are supportive of what Donald Trump has done in Iran. And maybe from a – you take the long-term view, Iran turns out to be a huge success for not only for Donald Trump in terms of historically, but also for the United States. However, in terms of the short-term politics, you know, that's not necessarily why a lot of Republicans voted for him. And it's certainly the case that that's why a lot of Republicans... They voted for him to not do this kind of thing. And so it's really, it has split the coalition at the most inopportune time. And what the result of that is going to be is the Democrats are going to be back in power. Certainly, they'll have the House almost certainly in November and potentially could have the Senate and then potentially could. when control of the White House in 2028. And so one of the sort of practical political results of Trump's policy decisions from 2026 would be putting Democrats back in power, which obviously, I think, you know, Republicans would argue that's not a good thing. So it is, there is this bifurcation between sort of long-term politics and short-term politics. And the short-term politics of Iran just have not been good for Trump or the Republican Party.

Yeah, I think that that's probably true. I think it is short term. Now, of course, we're months away from an election, so that matters. I just take the longer view in terms of national security interests, and I think it was the right thing. But especially given... the economy in that situation that's playing out. And it seems like a lot of what Trump is talking about is foreign policy and other things. That becomes a potent combination for the Democrats as they make a case against the Republican sort of using the president as a proxy, which is hardly unique to this cycle. It's when you've got a president who isn't popular in the midterm election, the out party always hammers away, often to great effect. Are there any other sort of elements here, Tom, that you look ahead to November and you think, okay, this is maybe a dark horse or this is a sleeper issue or this is a little under the radar where the conventional wisdom hasn't necessarily taken it into account at all or enough? Do you have any sense of dynamics that you want to flag here for us? Not necessarily. I mean, I think all the potential, you know, issues that are driving, I mean, again, 30,000 foot, it's the economy, it's inflation. Are there those issues that don't necessarily pull off the charts but do have real salience like crime, like, you know, the LGBTQ, you know, boys and girls' sports issues, those issues are still out there. They're still percolating. part of you mentioned earlier. I mean, the Republican, their strategy for better or worse is to say, you know, look, you may not like us. You may not like, you know, what we've done thus far. But these other guys are crazy and they want to get sort of the normie vote. and this whole common sense idea and this is fed up with woken. And we see that still has, and you look at what Spencer Pratt's doing in Los Angeles, for example, one of the bluest cities in the country. Now, I don't know that it's going to make him mayor, but it certainly is having an effect there. He has shifted, I think, the debate in that race. And so those kinds of issues can still play. And the only other thing, too, guys, you can say in six months, I mean, there's still the opportunity for some event, for better or worse. Usually it's worse, like a terrorist attack or a pandemic. You know, COVID was nobody had ever heard of COVID in March of 2020, and it ended up playing a huge role in the 2020 election, became the number one issue within a matter of weeks. And so those kinds of things still can happen that will scramble. the overall political dynamic, something that may not even be on our radar screen right now. By the way, I would just add one more thing on the, hey, the other party's crazy. You might not love us but vote for us. That message was sort of what the Democrats did in 2022 to pretty significant success, at least compared to expectations and historical trends and that sort of thing. But then I think that got them overconfident.

right having won the presidency in 2020 and then kind of holding serve and doing okay minimizing losses in the midterms in 2022 overconfident into 2024 when they lost everything right so sometimes like it's a be careful what you wish for don't over or under read what the electorate is telling you in certain cases but the republicans are looking to reverse engineer the the other side is too crazy argument in where that would lead us potentially in 2028, very much an open question and one that I'm sure will be debating several years from now. Tom Bevan is co-founder and executive editor of real clear politics as we look ahead to the midterm elections coming in November. Tom always appreciate it. Great to be with you, guys. Thanks. When we come back, a reflection on this day, Memorial Day, next. More of the best of Guy Benson next. As we continue on Guy Benson, Best Up on this Memorial Day, let's actually reflect on the meaning of this day. It is perfectly fine for Americans to very much enjoy themselves, the long weekend, the barbecues, friends, family, all of that. In fact, the men and women who laid down their lives toward this country were defending our collective way of life and our values, and many of them were fighting precisely for our right to be with our loved ones in this country that we cherish. But the cliche that happens to be true is that freedom isn't free, and that ultimate sacrifice has been paid through the years in blood by so many. And Memorial Day is about them and what they have done for us. So if you're out on the lake or at the beach or at a barbecue, having a great time, no need to feel guilty about that at all. However, there should be some real reflection spent by every American, some time, thinking about that sacrifice. Thinking about what it meant, not just to that individual, but to the people who loved them as well. That phone call, that knock on the door, the pain and disruption that inflicted on so many families throughout our entire history, that is woven into our greatness. And we should be extremely thankful. As we remember, we have correctly designated a day for that remembrance. And that day is today. So I will repeat. Enjoy your time. Enjoy the remainder of the long weekend. Have a blast. But remember what this day is truly about why the long weekend exists in the first place. It's not just some sort of social or recreational thing. so perhaps a moment of solemnity talking about it with friends and family maybe a moment of prayer maybe participating in

cemetery visits, planting flags, that sort of thing. There's a way to recognize what happened and to show that gratitude, which is very much appropriate and in order on this day, this holiday, this national holiday that is designed for all of us nationally to pause and to reflect. And to all those men and women who died for our country. rest in peace thank you for that service god bless you and god bless this country and with that the second hour of this best of Guy Benson on memorial day is on the way keep it right here A new generation of conservative talk. Right here, right now. Fair, fun, and backed by the trusted voices and reporting resources of Fox News. Fox News. You're listening to Guy Benson. And now, here's your host, Guy Benson.

It is our second hour here on Guy Benson. It is the best of Guy Benson today on this Memorial Day. I hope that you are enjoying it with your friends and family as we continue to honor the sacrifice, which is why Memorial Day is a holiday, why we're off today to begin with. Our website every day is Guy Benson.com. Podcast is also free on demand each and every day. Well, recently I offered a major monologue. based on a column that I'd written for the Washington Examiner about political violence in America. I think it's a very important piece, and I walked through it piece by piece here. Let's listen back together. I want to basically walk through a huge column or piece that I have written at the Washington Examiner, where I am a senior columnist, and it will be a resource, hopefully, to many of you. as you think about these issues, as you maybe debate these issues with people. And I just felt like after what happened at the White House Correspondence Dinner, I needed to flesh out some of my thoughts with research, with specificity on the question of political violence in America and how I think right now it is chiefly a left-wing phenomenon. both in terms of the attacks that happen and the culture that enables and even supports such attacks. And there's more nuance to it than that. And I'm going to read from my draft column, which again will be up at the Washington Examiner, bookmark it, keep it, read through it. I've done a lot of research and show my work and that sort of thing. But because... This isn't just about one assassination attempt last Saturday. This is about a whole string of them. A whole sort of sad, dark, disturbing, dystopian parade of them over the last decade. And I did somewhat arbitrarily pick. the last 10 years as my window, with a full understanding that, yes, there are quite a few examples of right-wing violence over the years, including before the 10-year window and during it. You can go back decades and look at some of the upheaval and violence in the 1960s in the United States. A lot of that was left-wing in various terrorist groups like Weather Underground. And that's a whole separate detour we could take into the rise of Barack Obama and launching his political career in the living room of known and unrepentant left-wing bombers. You can go look that up yourself. That's not within our scope today. This is more recent. I think it is fairly nuanced, and I try to be intellectually honest, as I always do. So let's begin. And this is roughly what the column is going to spell out when it is published again at Washingtonexaminer.com. And the working headline, working title, the editors will make a final decision, America's left-wing political violence problem.

Over the span of less than one week, America witnessed yet another left-wing assassination attempt, play out at the White House Correspondence Dinner, and also discovered that some of the ugliest recent manifestations of right-wing extremism and bigotry in the United States have allegedly been partially subsidized for years and to the tune of millions of dollars by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center. It's a new and unsettling moment in a string of far too many such moments. It feels inescapably clear that we have a political hatred epidemic in our country, which is too frequently spilling over into violence. We would do well to tamp down the former phenomenon, hatred, and we must stamp out the latter violence. It is true that myopic, consuming, ideological, and political tribalism exists on both sides. Curing or at least mitigating this crisis is a shared project for Americans. It is also an accurate reflection of reality, in my opinion, to state that acts of political violence and tribal support for such acts are currently a more acute, urgent, and metastasizing issue on the political left. This does not hold the right, blameless, of course. It does spotlight an uncomfortable truth that many on the left refuse to seriously grapple with, let alone accept as the truth and strive to repair. But the facts tell the story. Below is a review of documented examples of high-profile politically motivated assassinations and assassination attempts over the last decade. Note, this does not entail crimes or incidents related to the BLM riots, anti-Israel hate rallies, or any number of additional categories that clearly or arguably would fall under the wider umbrella of politically motivated violence. So I'm trying to focus specifically here on politically motivated assassinations and assassination attempts, which I think are kind of the most disturbing version of political violence in the country. And so my first example that I cite is June 14, 2017. A leftist assailant attempted a mass assassination of Republican members of Congress at a baseball practice in Northern Virginia. The shooter nearly murdered then House Majority Whips Steve Scalise, whose security detail is likely the only reason multiple lawmakers weren't killed. The perpetrator was found to be steeped in left-wing ideology went out of his way to confirm the politicians were Republicans before opening fire and had a list of GOP figures, targets on his person at the time of the shooting. After a bizarre and inexplicable delay, the FBI finally and correctly classified this attack as politically motivated domestic terrorism. I remember that story very well. It was a very, very dark day. If not for Whip Steve Scalise having a protective detail because he was in leadership, they all would have been sitting ducks. And there would have been probably mass casualties. That was the goal of this shooter. And by the way, one little side note, Mary Catherine Hamm, our dear friend, lived at the time very close to that baseball field. And she actually did the research and was able to conclude in terms of media coverage.

And here I'm trying to be very fair and sticking to facts that we know because some people, you might call them hacks, will say this was a registered Republican. That's the way they describe this shooter, a registered Republican. And they will just sort of try to ignore entirely his lefty donation that he made when Joe Biden was president. And the screamingly obvious bigger point, which is he tried to shoot Donald Trump. to death, which does not speak to a right-wing motive, particularly given the donation that we know. So just saying, also, registered Republican, I think, is a lie by omission. I'm also not saying that this was definitely someone 100% motivated by left-wing politics because we don't fully know that. I think you can draw some reasonable conclusions based on some basic logic. But again, I'm trying to be scrupulous here. So that's how I described it. September 15th, 2024, weeks later, this is weeks after the butler shooting. Another man tried to take Donald Trump's life. The assassination attempt at a golf course in South Florida was thwarted by a sharp-eyed U.S. Secret Service agent who spotted the assailant's rifle barrel protruding from a fence. The would-be assassin, who spent hours lying in wait for Trump making a makeshift sniper's nest, was an ardent Trump critic with a history of leftist views, democratic donations, and support for Democratic candidates. Prosecutors said the man wrote a note detailing his hatred for Trump, whom he wanted to prevent from winning the election. So that was assassination attempt number two in the span of just a couple months. before Trump was elected in 2024. That one clearly motivated by a left-wing ideology, someone who had voted for and donated to Democrats for years. So that one is clear. And unfortunately, we are just getting started. There are many more examples. I wanted to take time on this show to go through them one by one. assess them and then zoom out and look at this bigger picture because I do think we have a major problem on our hands. And we have to identify what it is if we have any chance of getting out of this and improving things, fixing the problem. So let me take a break. We'll come back. We'll continue with more as I go through this column piece by piece this hour on Guy Benson. Stay tuned. This is a Memorial Day best of Guy Benson. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat, emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan, $15 dollars a month a month. Even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three months, $90 for $1 for $12 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. I'm Guy Benson. We are back. I'm reading from this draft column that I've written. It'll appear at the Washington Examiner, where I'm examining political violence in America over the last decade, specifically on assassination attempts. And I think the data tell the story. So let's just continue here. Plow ahead. April 13, 2025. So we're now on, what, example five here.

April 13, 2025, a man set fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion as Governor Josh Shapiro, a Jewish Democrat and his family, slept inside. Significant damage was done to the home. The perpetrator who committed the arson attack on the first night of Passover said he also intended to attack the governor with a sledgehammer. The mentally unstable arsonist was a globalized the intifada zealot. Officials said he planned to assault. The governor, as a response to, quote, perceived injustices toward the people of Palestine. Prosecutors said he called Josh Shapiro a monster over his, quote, plans for Palestinians, and, quote, expressed concern about the war in Gaza and somehow saw the attack as a response to deaths in the conflict. He pleaded guilty to a slew of charges, including attempted murder. And I included this one for obvious reasons, but I also want to point out, because when we get some of the quote-unquote both sides coverage, this is often cited as, well, look, here's the other side. Except no. Yes, it was a Democrat who was targeted with his family in this horrific attack. But no, it was not a right-wing attack against him. In fact, it was a globalized the intifada fanatic. which has been overwhelmingly a phenomenon, unfortunately, on the left in this country. This was an anti-Semitic attack by the Hamas crowd. So very much counts as an attempted assassination, does not count as a right-wing attempted assassination the way it's sort of been glossed over and perceived sort of like the impression has been left for people to infer. that it must have been right wing because the target was a Democrat, well, not in this case, a very scary case. Then there is the events of June 14, 2025. This one, I think, has been especially manipulated and mischaracterized by a lot of people in the service of both sidesism. I try to describe it as fairly as I can. Listen. An intruder murdered a Minnesota Democratic lawmaker at her home after shooting and seriously wounding another Democratic legislator hours earlier. Melissa Hortman, a former Speaker of the State House, was killed along with her husband Mark. State Senator John Hoffman, Democrat, and his wife survived a separate but related attack at their house. The perpetrator was caught with a lengthy list of potential targets in his possession, including Democratic politicians, advocates and providers of abortion. The shooter who held a number of right-wing views was also an appointee of Democratic governors Mark Dayton and Tim Walz. He confessed to the killings. He told police about his delusion that he was acting under orders from Tim Walz, claiming that the governor had instructed him to kill a number of political figures, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, in order to clear Waltz's path to a U.S. Senate seat. So people will say, look, here's a right-wing guy who had some right-wing views and was anti-abortion and had this list on him. And he killed Democrats or tried to kill both of them.

succeeded horrifically in one case with hortman and her husband failed to take out the other guy and his wife thankfully so like here we go it's a right-wing attack and i think there is some evidence that this person held some right-wing ideological positions obviously he was also a nut Because, and you can say these boards that he was appointed to is like not a high-ranking political appointee. So calling him simply a Democratic appointee, which is technically correct, would not be, I think, a fair description of him. It would be like calling the butler guy a registered Republican. It doesn't tell the whole story. His right-wing views inform this, no doubt, if you're trying to piece this together, but also the fact that his confessed motive. was doing dirty work of this delusion that he thought Tim Walz wanted to kill these various people. So he was going to carry that out to further Tim Walz's career and help him get in the U.S. Senate. That complicates the notion that this is just a right-wing attack. It's a little bit blurry and messy. And I think you can probably chalk this one up to, yes, politics playing a role, but not cleanly attributable to either side. and definitely involving mental illness and delusion. Because obviously Tim Walz did not tell him to do this. That is another example. We are not done. Far from it. We'll continue this exposition and my thoughts on it. When we come back, it's Guy Benson. Keep it here.

You're listening to the Guy Benson Memorial Day Best of Special. We are halfway through Guy Benson. It's the best of Guy Benson on this Monday Memorial Day. Thank you very much for being with us on this special edition of the program. Guy Benson.com is our website. Podcast always free, always on demand. You can follow us on social media at Guy Benson. You can follow me as well at Guy Benson. Well, for the first half of this hour, I was reviewing... A column that I wrote a long one for the Washington Examiner, available at washingtonexaminer.com, but I fleshed it out into a monologue that lasted an entire hour on the subject of political violence in light of recent events. Let's return to that monologue. Here's another example. We're in August now, August 10th, 2025. A leftist stalked the Virginia home of conservative White House budget director Russ Vought as part of an assassination plot. The suspect was identified and eventually arrested in February of this year. the would-be assassin was charged with attempted murder along with charges of criminal solicitation to commit murder carrying a concealed weapon and wearing a mask in public to conceal identity per a local news account a witness quote told police at the time they saw a man wearing a surgical mask and rubber gloves carrying a backpack and a firearm Suspect then asked the person about the victim vote before leaving the scene. Once arrested, the suspect told authorities he planned the killing to help prevent a, quote, fascist's takeover under the Trump administration. September 10th, 2025, exactly one month later. Conservative media star online personality and grassroots organizer Charlie Kirk was assassinated during a speaking engagement on a Utah college campus. The killer shot Kirk in the neck then fled. Evidence quickly emerged that the charged assassin had become a radicalized leftist who decided to kill Kirk as a means of ending what he described as Kirk's quote evil spreading of quote hate. Utah's governor confirmed the suspect appeared to have been captured by, quote, leftist ideology, with officials revealing that he texted his trans roommate and lover to say he'd, quote, had enough of Kirk's hatred. Some hate can't be negotiated out. I add a side note here. In the early chaotic moments after Kirk was shot, a bystander falsely confessed to the shooting. I think a lot of people forget about this, telling authorities that he was, quote, glad he had said he shot Kirk so the real suspect could get away. This individual made a snap decision to become an on-the-fly unplanned assassination accomplice. This person later faced additional charges after police found images of child sexual abuse on his phone.

An extremely awful day. Unfortunately, we covered much of that live here on the show. Unforgettable for terrible reasons. But a very high profile example of this overall phenomenon, especially because this was not an elected official, someone with political power who was shot. We've seen that. Unfortunately. for all of human history, people trying to assassinate people with that kind of power. This was someone more in the media space, kind of doing a lot of the similar things that we do here. So it hit very close to home in the media ecosystem. And we'll talk about this a little bit later on, but the degree to which a lot of people were happy to publicly under their own name, celebrate. that Charlie was shot and killed, leaving behind now a widow and kids without a father, is still one of the most jarring and shocking things that I've experienced covering politics in my entire career. We will come back to that. And then finally, April 25th, 2026, a leftist attempted an assassination at the white house correspondence dinner where multiple dignitaries were present including president trump and vice president JD Vance in a manifesto the suspect stated an intention to kill members of the trump administration referring to the president as a rapist pedophile and traitor The man, a teacher who traveled to Washington, D.C. from California by train, was reportedly involved in various forms of left-wing activism, including the No King's movement. Officials say he barged through a security checkpoint at the Washington Hilton, shooting a security officer in his protective vest as he ran toward the main ballroom. He was apprehended before reaching his intended targets. CNN reported, that the suspect's public postings reveal he is among the many american leftists forty six per cent according to a manhattan institute study that we mentioned yesterday with kim strassel forty six per cent of the democratic coalition in that poll who believe that the July 2024 assassination attempt on Trump, Butler, Pennsylvania, was staged for Trump's political benefit, which is, I think it must be said, apparently, a demented and baseless conspiracy theory. Someone died. Someone was shot dead in that supposedly faked assassination attempt. One of the 46% of people on the left who think it was probably or definitely faked, according to that survey, was the suspect who then... tried to kill Trump the third time last weekend. He evidently traversed many miles to finish a job that he believes others had faked. Now, you might be thinking in your mind, well, what about this one or what about that one guy? Why'd you leave this one or that one out? Well, I did add, and I won't go through each and every one of them in detail, but in the column that I have coming out at the Washington Examiner,

I did include a few other significant examples along these same lines that may not easily fit into the framework of assassinations and assassination attempts, but still were worthy of some attention here. So, for example, the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot, which I think has some nuance to it, actually, but I link to that. That was in 2020. I did include that. I did include January 6th. I did include the Paul Nancy Pelosi attack. I did include the attack at JD Vance's home in Ohio. And I did include a shooting of a suspect with a shotgun who breached the perimeter at Mar-a-Lago in February of this year. A guy who apparently had some left-leaning politics and became obsessed with the Epstein story. So it wasn't 100% clear that these were all assassination attempts necessarily. Some of them were right-leaning flavored. Others were left-leaning flavored. I did include them just to be fair. And then this is part of my conclusion as we then move into another element of all this, which is indulgence of political violence, support for, rationalization for, even celebration of political violence. Back to this examiner column. The preponderance of the above examples are left-wing in nature. January 6 was right-wing, as was the Gretchen Whitmer plot regardless of entrapment allegations. And I explain that in the piece. The other incidents can perhaps best be described or categorized as ideological murky, despite some partisan's efforts to paint them and even some of the obviously left-wing attacks as somehow right-wing. Certain unreliable and biased data sets are also frequently cited to promote the notion that recent political violence remains primarily a phenomenon on the right. These studies have been exposed, deconstructed, and debunked repeatedly, including, most recently, in this column, by Baja Ungar Sargon. and i link to it i quote some of her summary on social media so this is me quoting batya ungar sargon who looked at some of these data sets that are pointed to by people saying look actually the evidence shows it's right wing still An example of how they cook the books to absolve the left of violence in the Wall Street Journal, a graph it published seems to show near parity between the left and right-wing political violence being sourced to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, which by its own admission reclassified pro-Palestinian violence as ethno-nationalists. So a lot of that. Most of it was on the left, but they decided not to count it as left. They gave it a different category. It classifies all anti-Semitism as right-wing, which is a fascinating choice, especially these days, and all pro-Palestinian attacks on Jewish individuals or institutions as ethno-nationalists. So again, not left-wing. This is just nakedly partisan propaganda presented as data and then mainstreamed by the American press.

You may not agree with blocking access to an abortion clinic, but the tally of political violence does count those instances as political violence on the right. Blocking access to an abortion clinic. That's political violence on the right, they say, but Charlie Kirk's assassination does not count. They don't categorize that as, well, really anything. Who's to say, aside from the alleged assassin in his own words, repeatedly? See how they do this? See the manipulation? See how they create bogus data for the purpose of buttressing a talking point rather than actually doing the job in any sort of fair way. So this data set, the same one, counts, for example, defacing an LGBT crosswalk. So if there's a rainbow crosswalk and someone defaces the crosswalk, that's right-wing political violence. But burning down neighborhoods in the BLM riots in 2020 does not count. Same study. per Baja Angar Sargon. She concludes, this is not a data set, it's propaganda. So back to my column here. I write, yes, declining to classify left-wing violence as such, and classifying neutral or even left-wing violence as right-wing will indeed yield so-called evidence and data that have been manufactured to conclude that right-wing violence is more prevalent. It's notable that the study quoted in the Wall Street Journal, headline The Year of the Molotov Cocktail, published this week, illustrating how left-wing violence has overtaken right-wing violence slightly, still vastly understates the true gap for reasons exposed by Angar Sargon. The journal story includes an example of so-called anti-government violence. Justice Department charged two men with attempting to carry out an attack near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence. So this is a story about anti-government violence in the Wall Street Journal. And an example that they give is that jihadist bombing near Gracie Mansion. They call it an attempted attack, which it really wasn't. It was straight up an attack. Thank God the bombs didn't work. But that was an attack by Allahou Akbar screaming jihadist extremists, terrorists. And the way it's worded in the journal was that, oh, is an attack near Zohran Mamdani's residence, which would again lead people to believe, similar to the Josh Shapiro example, like, oh, well, they were going after Zohran Mamdani. That has to be right-wing violence. No, in fact, the attack was not directed at the government, or Zohran Mamdani, as was perhaps inferred. It targeted a peaceful anti-Zohran Mamdani protest, which completely changes the nature of that attack. But the journal story was using this as one of the both sides' examples that actually didn't apply. This sort of casual sloppiness or sleight of hand is not uncommon in media coverage of political violence. Additional challenges to such data. are available here, here, and here. And I give a couple hyperlinks to other debunkings of these studies that are often held up. It is the go-to response on the left. Well, yes, Guy, you might have listed all those examples. However, look at this study. So you have to then impeach the credibility of the study, which many people have done.

And then there's the most powerful evidence, I think, of the cultural problem here right now on the political left in this country. And we will conclude with that on the other side of this break. More of the best of Guy Benson. Next. We're back. It's Guy Benson. Let's land this plane on this column forthcoming at the Washington Examiner. America's left-wing political violence problem. I've given a lot of examples. And then there's this. Perhaps the most powerful evidence that America is in the midst of a disproportionately left-wing violence crisis are a series of public opinion surveys and related research demonstrating that leftists are far more willing. to tolerate, justify, or even celebrate political violence than their right-wing counterparts. A U-Gov survey published in September 2025, post-Kirk assassination, found that fully one quarter, 25% of self-identified very liberal Americans believe citizens can be justified in resorting to violence in order to achieve political goals. 17% of liberals said the same. This view was shared. by just 6% of self-identified conservatives and only 3% of those who say they're very conservative. So pro-political violence conservatives and right-wingers are a fringe. Pro political violence leftists are far more prevalent. In fact, very liberal respondents outpaced very conservative respondents by more than an eight to one margin on that question. Then there was a Politico poll. Also in 2025, finding that 24% of Americans said political violence can be justified. And this skewed younger, younger Americans. Roughly one in three under the age of 45 agreed with that belief, justifying in some cases political violence. Roughly a third of younger Americans, which skews further left, of course. Then there was a study from the Manhattan Institute reported in City Journal, conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University's social perception lab. Quoting from that study, around half of those identifying as left of center believe that the murder of certain political figures is at least somewhat justified. The figures are startling. 38% of respondents and 55% of those left of center, a majority, said assassinating President Trump would it be at least somewhat justified. 48% of those left of center said the same thing about Elon Musk. 58% of those left of center deem it at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest. I conclude that in a fallen world in which evil exists, there will always be cooks and malicious actors who decide to harm others. This applies to people across the political spectrum. Neither side has a monopoly on violence or evil, and many figures on both sides engage in vitriolic rhetoric and demonization.

The most important distinguishing factor right now, perhaps even more so than the tilt of the assassination attempts documented in this column, is the leftward slant of attitudes ranging from indulgence to endorsement of violent political acts. Taken together, this case is compelling. leftists who wished to deny this reality of deeply anti-social and literally dangerous to deadly strains growing increasingly normalized and mainstreamed within their tribal coalition Will cherry pick or misconstrue some of the examples dealt with above? They'll cite the woefully incomplete and fatally flawed data mentioned earlier or simply fail to grapple with the logical conclusion that their fellow partisan tribe members wouldn't express this alarming degree of tolerance for or embrace of political violence if they actually believed the right were heavily responsible for it. These public opinion data points offer further confirmation that the country's political violence problem resides disproportionately on the left in our current moment. Rather than engage in denialism and delusion, anti-violence leftists should work aggressively to marginalize and eradicate this sort of poisonous mindset, not only because it's the right thing to do, but because escalating contagions rarely remain contained within one ideological camp. It should distress leftists of goodwill and everyone that a plurality of their fellow partisans believe a presidential assassination attempt that killed a bystander was faked for political gain. This is the stuff of broken brains and broken cultures. It's a path that leads to madness and destruction. We must all reject it as a matter of basic morality and as a matter of civic hygiene and as a matter of both societal and literal life and death. That column coming soon at the Washington Examiner. Coming up, it's the final hour here on the best of Guy Benson on this Memorial Day. We'll talk to Spencer Pratt out of Los Angeles. Also a great conversation with Frank Siller, all that. Straight ahead, don't go anywhere.

It's 5 o'clock in the most powerful city in the world. It's time for Guy Benson Happy Hour, brought to you by the Finnish Long Drink. Finland's most popular alcoholic beverage has come to America. Visit thelongdrink.com. And now here's your host, Guy Benson. It is the happy hour here on Guy Benson. It's our final hour on this best of edition of Guy Benson because it is Memorial Day. I hope you're having a great one, a meaningful one, a relaxing one. As we always remember, the true meaning of this holiday and how it was paid for in blood by generations of Americans, we should be grateful, we should remember. That is the whole point. It doesn't mean we can't enjoy our day. Many of us are. Hope you are with your family and your friends as well. Guy Benson.com is our website here. The podcast is free every single day on demand. Email us, GBS at Fox.com. You can also follow us on social media at Guy Benson. Personally, I'm at Guy Benson. This radio hour, sponsored by the Finnish Long Drink, our great friends there. It's so good, especially on a long weekend when it's hot outside. Always drink responsibly, please. 21 plus only, the longdrink.com to find out where they're sold near you. order online. That's the longdrink.com. Well, just recently, we talked to one of the hottest names in all of politics. He's a neophyte to the political game. He's running to try to save the city that he loves where he's lived, where his family has suffered so much hardship. Spencer Pratt, former reality TV star, turned mayoral candidate, has so much buzz ahead of his election. There is a primary coming up very, very soon. Here is part of my conversation with Spencer Pratt just recently here on the program. Spencer, great to have you here. Thanks for making time. Thank you for having me. I've got to say it's like a little surreal for me because I'm 41. When I was growing up like in college years, I would watch a show called The Soup with Joel McHale and we get updates on your reality show exploits week after week and to be talking to you now in the context of something so much more serious than that stuff. I know that's part of your life and you're proud of it. You've talked about that. Now you're trying to tackle a mission that has gotten really personal. for you and your family. Talk about the fires from early last year and what that galvanized in you to make this decision to take the plunge in and run from air.

Yeah, absolutely. Once you experience city failure at a total loss for your community, your neighbors burn alive, your house burned down, your parents' house burns down, and then you find out all the negligence, and then they double down on the negligence, and you find out the level of cover-ups and corruption and obstruction and justice. I didn't have a choice because I want my kids to be able to grow up in the L.A. that I grew up in. And no one was stepping up to fight these people. And it was just going to continue to be destroyed, the city of L.A. And I had no choice. And again, I don't want to be the mayor. I have to be the mayor to stop these people. Because if it's not Karen Bass, who's running, the person next up is a DSA operative that will be. As scary as this sounds, worse than Karen Bass. She currently is on the board of the city council right now on the head of their homeless industrial plans that they're running. She's been on for six years. You think this person who's already been working at the destruction of L.A. is going to do anything but just with more power. So thank God I did step up because it would have been either Karen Bass or this Nithya Raman. But again, I do this. For the love of the city, I do this because they destroyed my neighborhood, my way of life. And again, I love Los Angeles past tense. L.A. is gone right now. We need a red alert. We need to come in here and enforce the laws that they're choosing not to enforce. We need accountability. We need transparency. We need all the things that they will not do because this is how they... continue the machine they get their billions through this homeless industrial complex where they increase homeless and these NGOs and they use it for their lobbyists to keep their political positions and you know again i I'm very confident that I'm going to win because everyone's fed up. Every common sense person. This isn't a political race. This is a nonpartisan race. There's no letter next to my name. The mayor is supposed to represent all the constituents. And right now, nobody feels safe walking the streets. It's covered in zombies. These are not homeless people. These are drug-addicted zombies that need mandatory medical treatment. Not a $100 million scam housing fraud. that they're doing where these beds that are empty cost $500,000, $750,000. No, these people need medical treatment. You cannot get off of fentanyl just on your own when they hand you needles and pipes on the sidewalk and say, oh, well, if you need housing, we have it. So to answer your question, I had no choice. Somebody has to step up and fight these people, and nobody was. You mentioned the fire, obviously, devastating for your family, for those communities. One of my really good friends effectively lost her home. But.

You hear the stories time and time again. There are so many of them were more than a year removed from that. And it looks like so much of the money that was donated, for example, has gone to waste. It's unclear what the government is doing in any sort of effective way. You have the victims saying, well, I haven't been approved for anything yet. It's a slow as molasses process. It just feels... broken. I mean, I know you're critical of the government quite rightly, but it seems like this NGO complex out there is a big part of the problem as well where this money comes flowing in and then it's just sucked off into some vortex somewhere and people aren't getting results from either the NGO sector or the government sector. Yeah, to be clear, the pushback people in Los Angeles, they think, oh, he only cares about the palisades. He just fights with the palace. They already destroyed the palisades. It's gone. I'm fighting the people that will destroy your way of life, your community. And yes, I learned firsthand how. diabolical these NGOs are with the fire aid scam where a hundred million was raised and then none of it went to actual fire victims they took that 100 million and they put it through these NGOs these people getting million dollar plus salaries then they take that money and they give it to their political entities you know native american voter rights or whatever all these The list is insane. If you got some time, go search it. Even their legal defense because they had a law firm that they paid all this money to try to cover up for them. Out of 200 plus NGOs, this law firm says, oh, well, no, several of these NGOs gave to fire victims. Several when I Googled it is under 10. So at under 10, they say. I still have never met anybody that got anything from fire, but I guess they were handing out gift cards. That's what they say in their legal letter. Oh, somebody got a gift card. No fire victim, I know got a gift card. But back to that NGO scam, it's the same thing. They don't want to stop the homelessness, drug addiction, zombie. pandemic that's going on because it's a business. They make money off of increasing homeless and having all these million dollar beds that are empty and the managing these buildings. My follow-up question is, you know, they're going to, and they already have, and I know you've addressed this in certain interviews, but sort of the sneering people who have wrecked all of this will look at you and say, well, who is this guy? And he's he's some reality star. He doesn't know anything. He has no experience, right? These are the attacks. He's a Republican. Oh, scary. Oh, my God. God forbid a Republican. I know you're running as an independent unaffiliated, but they're throwing all this stuff at you. And I'm sure you anticipated it. I've seen some of your interviews. You're a smart guy, much smarter than some of these people give you credit for. How do you break through that?

to average voters who are saying, well, he's definitely not a politician. Why would we trust him with this much power? What's your message to that skeptical voter who might be open to you and is pissed off about the status quo, but they're not sure you're the guy for the job? What's your message to that type of person? Yeah, first stop, I'm not running as an independent. It's just a nonpartisan race. Right. So there's no... The mayor's office should have no political party. That's how it was designed because local politics should represent all constituents. What I would tell these people is look at what the experienced people have done to our city, the experience of destroying our way of life in Los Angeles. We need an outsider who has common sense who's going to surround himself with the people that have experienced for success and public safety and budgets and actually getting L.A. back to what? what it was, the LA I grew up with. So it's not, oh, it's Spencer Pratt, the reality star. I haven't been a reality star in technically 20 years. I've been a small business owner and I'm a family man who have two sons that had their house burned down that had to be displaced to this day in new school. I'm not doing this for anything but for Angelinos. And again, the experience these people have is destroying. our city. So I'm going to bring in the top people from around the country because the city does pay very well. We had the LADWP CEO, Janice Quignonas. She was making $750,000 year. And what does she do? She leaves two reservoirs empty. She increases your rates by over 11% this year. Every year it's going to go up 7%. So top people from around the country that they're choosing not to put in these positions that are failing in all these jobs, I'll make sure to eliminate all these people that are failing the taxpayers in Los Angeles. And again, I'm a common sense person. These people don't have common sense. They have lost. the plot. These are lunatics that are currently in power right now. So I think I'm pretty confident that my messaging cuts through all the he's this, he's that. No, no. I'm an angry taxpayer that wants accountability and transparency. And I'm going to bring in the top people from around the country to run the city the way it should be ran. All right, Spencer, a couple things here. I'm looking at just a few of the headlines out of Los Angeles in the last couple of days. L.A. hotels struggle as $30 minimum wage push drives costs up, dampens investment, that's one. L.A. mayor blasted over $58 million bridge open just four years ago that had all its lights stolen, forcing locals to traverse it in total darkness. L.A. Unified School District's trajectory, hard to ignore, shrinking student population, expanding staffing and budgets, consistently weak academic outcomes. LA former LA Fire Chief rips Karen Bass for shifting blame and lying about deadly wildfires. I mean, I could go on and on. You've seen these stories. You've seen the headlines. It is daunting for me. Just thinking about the scope of the problem. I can only imagine what it's like living through this all the time.

How do you plan? I know it seems like cleaning house of the bad people, bringing in better people is sort of the big picture vision here. But it's there. The scope of the challenges facing LA is so vast. What are your plans to come in and actually fix it? Because diagnosing the problem, I think you've done that beautifully and which is why you're gaining traction. And then fixing the problem because so many of these interests are entrenched, right? You said it's a business model. How do you uproot that? How do you actually make change in a place that even if you win will be fighting you? Tooth and nail every step, right? Yeah, first off, I've said it before and I'll say it again. I've already met with the criminal investigation team of the IRS approximately six times. They are ready to come in week one. Give them all the documents. We're going to find all the fraud. Everyone that's stealing from the city. We're going to have the criminal investigation team with the IRS do these audits. A lot of people in the comments section will be like, IRS can't do that. I promise you they are ready to do it. And they will do it. And once we find all this stolen money and all the money that's being robbed from the city, we have plenty of money in L.A. to get the sidewalks fixed, to get the streets fixed, to get everything looking beautiful, to fund the fire department, to make sure the police has got the officers they need. But if you let them just continue to steal and use waste and corruption through the city, of course it's going to be in deficit. Not to mention I'm going to bring in the top outside. budget advocates that have already spent the last four years telling Karen Bass what the budget needs. We need commissions, 30-day notices before you just increase all the union raises by 10% where other people are getting 3% increases. We need to push the budget. It's not right now. It's a one-year budget. It needs to be a two-year budget so we can actually have projections. So we're not doing this little shell game where we're moving. Oh, we're at deficit. So let's put these city employees under LADWP and hide that. cost through the rate payer instead of the tax money. There's plenty of smart people that know exactly what LA needs to do. Get rid of these fire commissions that don't know what they're talking about, just lunatics that they put in place. Get rid of the police commission. Bring in experts with knowledge. The amount of people I meet with that know exactly what to do that the city chooses not to do because then it ends the gravy train. And then it's over. So not to mention, people are like, oh, how are you going to stop the city council? Somebody, and is in the new mayor, Spencer Pratties, that come in and put some heat on these DSA city council members that are destroying Los Angeles. Just this week, four city council members that are DSA, for people who don't know what that is, Democratic Socialist America. They're socials. They hate Democrats. This week, the city council, they, four of them, one of them's running for Mayor Nithya Raman, tried to vote against removing and encampments that are near kids' schools, the park, just literal drug addicts doing drug, fentanyl, smoke. Somebody, the new mayor, myself, will come in.

And we'll literally have press conferences in their district. I will have all the constituents come to their offices. I'll make sure their life is a living hell where they will not get elected. Because right now they all love getting their $240,000 a year salaries, their entourages, but nobody's putting the heat on them. I'm going to come and put the heat. So you may get away with this for my first term, but I promise you my second term, you will not be reelected. So you better stop. with these socialist things that are failing the city of L.A. It's not working. You guys have been doing it for six years and failing us. So there's just nobody that's coming in, calling them out in the city because they're all in on the fix. Well, it is such a task ahead of anyone who wants to fix the problem. And many of them, as you point out, really don't. They are the problem. And so we were just very grateful that you were going to spend some time with us talking about the place that you love that's going down the tubes. You're trying to fix it. Spencer Pratt running for mayor out there in Los Angeles. Spencer, thanks so much. Appreciate it. One last point. The key to fixing all this is enforcing the laws. We have the laws. The great Democrat power. the B have all these laws. They're choosing not to enforce a law. Once you enforce the law, you can't be doing drugs in the street. You can't be a naked zombie running the street. You can't be having encampence. Once you start doing that, the streets are clean. Businesses come back. Restaurants come back. People will actually come to Los Angeles. So it starts with just enforcing a law, which day one, as mayor, I will be doing. Yeah, including the laws against stealing from taxpayers as well. I mean, it's such a mess out there. Spencer Pratt, again, thanks so much. Thank you very much. We'll be right back after this short break. This is a Memorial Day best of, Guy Benson. Back here on Guy Benson, very interesting to have a conversation with Spencer Pratt. As I told him, I would see clips of his reality stuff on the soup. I love the soup with Joel McHale. I think McHale would make fun of Spencer's, quote, creepy, flesh-colored beard was the line he would use. But you can hear in his voice in that interview, the passion. He's so infuriated by what is happening to his community, to his city. Obviously, there was this. this catalyzing event, which was the fire, which destroyed his home, his parents' home. But then he starts sort of opening his eyes and seeing the mismanagement and the corruption and the failure all over the place. And it's like, well... He's some reality star. What does he know? Well, he's run a small business. When we come back on the best of Guy Benson, Memorial Day Edition, my conversation just recently with Frank Siller of Tunnel to Towers. You don't want to miss that coming up.

You're listening to the Guy Benson Memorial Day Best of Special. Back here on Guy Benson, it is the best of Guy Benson. It is Memorial Day. Wherever you are listening, thank you for being here with us. Well, just a few weeks ago, we welcome back to the show, Frank Siller. of tunnel to towers a great organization with a righteous and i would say very timely mission as well i talked to him about that mission and the anniversary upcoming of 9-11 and some other things in the news cycle that i think certainly affect him and his family and that legacy here's the conversation with frank siller frank welcome back well thanks for having me on guy Before we get into the latest push that you guys are up to and this incredible tour across the country, for those who may not be familiar with your work, just give us a very short background on your experience and what this organization does as a mission. Well, thank you always for having me on. And anytime I get an opportunity to talk about my hero brother, firefighter, Stephen Siller, who died on 9-11 when he strapped 60 pounds of gear on his back and ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the... Twin Towers where he went up the South Tower and while saving lives gave up his own and left behind a wife and five children. And when we found out what he did as a family, he was a youngest of seven of us and he was much younger than us. And when we found out what he did, what a hero he was, that we decided to start a foundation. And you know, Guy, we've been doing many things over the years, but to stated very, profoundly is that we are so honored to honor not just Stephen but all the heroes of 9-11 and we've been doing that now for nearly 25 years and how do you honor their memory what do these donations go toward Well, so we first started doing very little, just small scholarships, the kids coming out of eighth grade into high school. But it changed quickly when we built the first smart home for catastrophically injured. Brendan Morocco, we used to first quadruple amputee to survive any war. And then once we did that, we saw the great need to build these houses. for other great heroes that gave their bodies, well, you know, because they went to war because what happened on 9-11, so we started to build these houses all over America. And we pay off mortgages for former first responders who died in the line of duty that leave young families behind. And we made a promise that every cop, every firefighter, every first responder in America, like that poor, a secret service member, if he died yesterday, we would do what we would do for all these other great heroes. If he had a young family, we pay off their mortgages. And if they don't have a home, we'll build them home, or buy him home.

So we do, you know, we, at the end of this year, it's incredible that we've done over 2,000 mortgage-free homes for these great heroes that have given up. Yeah, it's a big number. And, you know, a lot of these houses are smart homes. The land is expensive. And the houses can't be small because they have to get around the house and we have to build wider hallways and bigger kitchens and bigger entrances into their bedrooms, et cetera, et cetera. And the bathrooms are state of the yard. And, you know, we ask people go $11 a month. This is how we get it done. We ask people, as you said earlier, at T2T.org, $11 a month. And we do it on the backs of many great Americans. We're a blue-collar foundation. So, you know, we do all that. We made a promise to eradicate homelessness amongst our veterans. And the end of this year, we'll have taken over 25,000 homeless vets off the street, get their own place. But not just to get them all the comprehensive services they need to assimilate back into society. And last, but certainly not least, we just started recently a scholarship, college scholarship program named after my mom and dad, May and George Sulla, who taught their seven kids about importance of serving and doing for others, no more than who does the ultimate service, active service was my brother Stephen. uh so but now we pay off all these kids that we put a roof over their heads or they could stay in their home because we paid off uh their their uh mortgage now we're going to pay uh for their college education and they're going to come out of college with note that and it's a debt that we need to pay to these families that uh paid the ultimate sacrifice for protecting us so we're proud of the work we're doing uh for sure you know frank i was a high school junior on 9-11 in northern new jersey i've mentioned it publicly before my town lost a dozen people that day it was One of the worst days, probably still the worst day of my life. Even though I did not lose someone directly, I knew multiple people who did. Our neighbor worked in one of the towers. Thank God she got out. I remember seeing the fear and the confusion on her face when she got home, and we didn't know where my own father was for a while. He was working in lower Manhattan as he did every day. He passed through the World Trade Center that morning, as he did every day. It was just awful. And after that, terrible attack that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 of us, this terrorist attack, one of the battle cries, the rallying cries for the country was never forget. And at the time, it was like, how could we ever forget? It was so raw and so recent. But here we are approaching the 25th anniversary of those attacks. A quarter of a century will have passed on September 11th of this year. There are many young Americans with no living memory of this at all, or they were so young. It wasn't something that was really on their radar. Think about it. Anyone even really in their early 30s.

and younger that's a huge percentage of the population so you guys are now embarking on this steel across america tour which starts this coming saturday may second near ground zero in manhattan and my understanding is you guys are going to cross the country more than 10 000 miles dozens of stops in multiple states and then culminating back on ground zero to ground zero on september the 11th the 25th anniversary tell us about steel across america what's the purpose of the tour what exactly you guys doing Well, Guy, you nailed it. Our first commitment as a foundation was to honor the sacrifice and never forget. And, you know, we honor the sacrifice by doing the good work that we do by all those programs that I just mentioned. But we have to make sure that America doesn't forget what happened. And we don't want it to happen again because, you know, the people trying to kill us all the time. And they would be happy killing as many Americans as possible. But nonetheless... We want people to realize there was a great sacrifice made on 9-11, that 2,97 souls were lost. There were so many first responders that responded and ran into those buildings, one of which was my brother, and were saving people. So we took a piece of steel that was given to me by the Port Authority of New York. It's 16,900 pounds. I built this beautiful, beautiful truck built as an exhibit to go all around America. to all very important locations, to say to least, we're going to, yes, we're going to start right out on the ground zero this coming Saturday. From there, we're going to be going. Out to Long Island, the Lieutenant Michael Murphy Museum out in Long Island. Another great hero gave his life up during the global war on terror. And then from there, we're going right to Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Thursday, May 7th. And we know the great sacrifice was made from Flight 93 that took the 40 great heroes that took down that plane to save other people on the ground. So a lot of people don't even know about Shanksville. They don't even know that, you know, that Todd Beamie said, hey, let's roll, you know, to go over and take this plane back. So we're taking this piece of steel. And in that steel, so there were, you know, almost 3,000 lives lost even at ground zero. So many were never recovered. That piece of steel and ground zero is the burial place for so many of those souls, and one of which was my brother, where he was never recovered. So when that steel goes around, I want people to put their hand on that steel, and we're going to give them that opportunity, to put the hand this, I want them to close their eyes. I want them feel the sacrifice that was made that date. I want them to feel the fact that people gave their lives.

to protect others and the sacrifice that's been made ever since, and the families that it affects so many different families and the 7,000 families that we lost because we went to war protecting America. I want America to not forget, and that's why we're going all across America and all these different great location, USS, Alabama, Houston Space Station. I'm out Rushmore. I mean, come on. Could it be a better place to Mount Rushmore? And so many different other places that were going around America that make a significant difference. And we can shine a big light on what happened on 9-11. Are the heroes of 9-11, not just my brother? Even though we started that foundation because of what my brother did, we know that there was so many heroes that day and so many sins. And we want to honor and recognize all of them. And this is a great way to do it. I also want to say. that this year we're delivering 343 mortgage-free homes, almost a house a day. Almost a house a day. Why 343? Well, there was 343 firefighters who died on 9-11, and my brother was one of them. And I want to recognize these guys individually at these home and a home for each one of them that were doing something good, something positive out of something that was so negative. We could beat. evil by doing good. And if we give the house away almost every single day, we go around with this steel. We'll be going to the White House on September 9th, right by the White House. And, you know, and I was at the Oval Office, and the president was so excited to hear that we would be doing that. And he's just... He's remarkable in that he, you know, he's a New Yorker. He lost a lot of friends that you know people and family that you were from New Jersey that you lost. So we have so many people are behind us and have supported us, the great Americans that are whether they do $11 a month or volunteering their time, but we have tens and tens and tens and tens of thousands of volunteers. And that's why we are very successful in making sure that we never forget. Yeah, this is living out the slogan. never forget making it much more than just a slogan and i commend you for that never forget ethos of course it's so personal to you i want to ask you one more question and i want to be careful because i don't want to make this too political however There is an individual. I won't even mention him. I've named him here. The audience knows who I'm talking about. Who is increasingly sort of a celebrity in our politics. He's being asked to campaign with various political candidates. He has a very big following. He's being given glowing profiles and interviews in the New York Times. It's a young guy. And among many other things that he has said, he has said in context, meaning it genuinely, that America deserved 9-11. And I just wonder when you hear anyone, especially a young person, gaining great prominence and wealth and celebrity and attention in our political realm, and part of his worldview is that we deserved what we got on 9-11. I just wonder how that makes you feel.

Obviously, it angers me to know. I can't explain how pissed off I get when I hear something like that. He's not the only jerk out there saying things like that. Without America, oh, my goodness, what would this world be without the goodness of America? You know, it's just these people are so ill-informed. It's incredible. But, you know, I like to put it in simple terms when I hear something like that. And I remember Soros said something like, so people 9-11 should get over it. This was years ago, and I went on CNN of all stations, and they didn't even air it. It was taped. They didn't air it because I said, and I'm going to say it here, too, about that incredible, ignorant person that you're talking about. And there's many of them. How about if it was their family in the top of the building on the World Trade Center, and they were faced with the decision? to jump or to burn because some Islamic terrorists decided they wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. What would they feel? What would they feel if a member of their family was in that situation? And I think that should sum it up for most everybody. America, we're one country. Yes, you can have idiots saying things that are so disgusting or so disturbing that is beyond words to explain how angry, not just me, but many 9-11 families or just Americans in general might get. But I would just like them to put themselves. in another family situation where they lost their loved one. I don't care, whoever he loves the most, that person you're talking about. If they were up on 110th floor, 105th floor, the 78th floor where it flew in on the South Tower and everybody else couldn't get out, and they were faced with that choice, would they feel? what I felt and what so many other families feel. So you have stupidity. You have people that don't understand. You have a lot of Americans. That's why it's important. We're going around with this piece of steel. So we could wake up America that there was a great sacrifice that's made on that day and a sacrifice that's been made ever since. We have so many men and women who put their lives in the line and protect these. People that don't love America. It just drives me crazy, but we do protect them because that's why we are the greatest country in the world. You get to say these things that are disgusting. But yes, it is disgusting, and he is disgusting. And you counter it with speech, with refutation, with powerful education, which is part of what this steel across America tour is going to do over the months ahead of the 25th anniversary of that. terrible dark day in our history. Frank Siller is the foundation chairman and CEO at Tunnel to Towers. And if you want to donate as I have, go to T the number two T2T.org. Frank, God bless you. Thank you always for what you do.

One last thing, guy, we fight it by doing good. We'll always defeat evil by doing good. Thank you and God bless you. Amen. When we come back, a makeshift home stretch here on the best of Guy Benson. We will reflect on some words of real wisdom from former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska. You don't want to miss this. Please stay tuned. We'll be right back. More of the best of Guy Benson. Next. Back on Guy Benson, I tweeted earlier at Guy Benson, a video. It's long. From CBS News 60 Minutes, Scott Pelly interviewed Ben Sass, the former U.S. Senator from Nebraska, who is fighting through terminal cancer and has limited time left, although he's already outlived his initial diagnosis, which is good. That prognosis was several months. He's still with us, thank God, and he's doing a lot of interviews and really interesting podcast conversations and spending tons and tons of time with his family. In the CBS interview, they played parts of it on 60 minutes, but the full thing lasts more than 40 minutes in duration. And I watched all of it start to finish actually on the exercise bike earlier this morning. And it was very thought-provoking, as you might imagine, he's a very smart guy, a lot about our politics and policy and our national character and planning for the future and prioritizing things in life. It was really... striking and i know it's hard to recommend a 40 minute video to anyone these days but i strongly strongly suggest that you spend the time to watch that clip that long sit down which ended with some reflections toward the very end about his family as he prepares to say goodbye and boy this was tugging at my heartstrings cut 32 I'm incredibly blessed. My wife, Melissa, has... We've been married 31 years. I... We're going to be apart for a time. But she's tough and gritty and theologically rooted, and she's going to be fine. My daughters are 24 and 22, and they're... extraordinary i want to walk him down the aisle when they get married um that's not likely to be that's not the the math of my time card and finally this cut 33 my son we have a providential surprise he's a decade younger than big sisters he's 14 and uh He's going to be fine. He'll have other wise men and women to put a hand on his shoulder. But I'm super bummed to not be there at 16 and 18 and 20 years old in his life. I want to give him more advice than he wants. And I want to put my arm on his shoulder. And I want his shoulders to get taller. But it's not a surprise to God. And God, you believe, has a plan.

Absolutely. There are no maverick molecules in the universe. Oh, man. I'm not crying. You're crying. Watch the whole thing. God bless you, sir. You have been listening to the best of Guy Benson on this Memorial Day. Thank you so much for doing so. Back with brand new programming, all the news and politics that you're used to on the show tomorrow. Same time, same place. We will talk to you then. Have a great night. Listen to the show ad free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music with your prime membership, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.