Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson accused the political left of being hypocritical over its lack of a “coherent principle” on Minneapolis, Minnesota, during a Thursday episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In a Few Words.”
There has been a national spotlight on Minneapolis since the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol agents in January. On his Daily Signal show, Hanson ran through instances of the left’s politicization in the aftermath that he said showed their “utter hypocrisy.”
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“[W]hat I’m really disturbed about is the utter hypocrisy that we’re seeing with this street insurrectionary movement. Now, what do I mean by that? There is no coherent principle,” Hanson said. “None! Let me just give you some examples of what I mean. They have canonized Renee Good and Alex Pretti for resisting ICE officers, and they were tragically shot and they have become martyrs.”
“Do you remember on January 6, diminutive Ashli Babbitt? She was a 14-year military veteran … She didn’t try to attack anybody,” he continued. “She committed a misdemeanor by going through a broken window, and there facing her were armed officers. They didn’t react. They didn’t shoot her. Officer [Lt. Michael] Byrd did, at a perpendicular, shot her lethally.”
Hanson asserted the left’s response to the shooting was to attack Babbitt and argue it was justified.
“They went through her entire past and they said that anybody who goes to resist a federal officer should have known what’s happening to them,” he said.
Moreover, Hanson noted that Byrd’s identity was hidden for months after the Jan. 6, 2021, shooting. It was not officially revealed until Aug. 26, 202,1 when he gave an interview to NBC News anchor Lester Holt.
“The media, the government, popular culture — they all conspired to hide his identity,” Hanson said. “We don’t do that in America with anybody who lethally shoots an unarmed suspect.”
He said the concealment of Byrd’s identity stood in stark contrast to the quick identifications of the officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd and the agents who fatally shot Good and Pretti.
Hanson also said people on the left were hypocritical when it came to masks, noting they supported them for reasons related to health and for protesters, but not for ICE agents, who he said wear them solely to protect themselves and their families from doxing.
Furthermore, Hanson said the left was outraged by individuals being armed during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, but they defended Pretti for carrying a gun during the protest where he was shot.
He asserted that the left treated officers attacked on Jan. 6 as though they were sacred, but that they celebrated attacks on ICE agents in Minneapolis.
Hanson concluded by arguing the left previously appeared to dislike states’ rights, but suddenly were promoting them in Minneapolis.
“All of our most prominent liberals are saying the state of Minnesota has a right to do what? Occupy federal property?” he asked. “Attack federal officers? Prevent the enforcement of federal law? And if federal officers are in danger, not to send out local, state, or county support to help them?”
“These are states’ rights people. Kind of. When the federal government is trying to enforce free abortion everywhere, or they’re trying to insist on gun registration and all the states have to meet federal standards, or they’re trying to make sure that everybody has a DEI special restroom — then everybody’s for the federal government,” he said. “But not here in Minneapolis, not in Minnesota, not in the blue states. All of a sudden, these Democrats are reverting to their original form.”
The episode was Hanson’s first since his Dec. 30 surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.
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