Victor Davis Hanson: Why Is Trump Being Blamed for This Cornell Scandal?
October 9, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readVictor Davis Hanson: Why Is Trump Being Blamed for This Cornell Scandal?
The Cornell seven scandal—where seven male students were accused of sexually assaulting a 20-year-old female student during a pre-fraternity party—has taken a strange turn. A New York Times columnist, Michelle Cottle, blamed Donald Trump, arguing that American culture now "glorifies being thuggish and swaggering and mistreating women." Victor Davis Hanson found this accusation absurd and politically convenient, pointing out that the same media never applied that standard to Bill Clinton, John F. Kennedy, or Joe Biden. But this was just one thread in a dense week of news covering Russia's biological lab accident, Europe's unraveling alliance with the United States, the Green Party of Britain's anti-Semitic conference votes, and the spectacle of Democratic celebrities rallying against Trump while Jack Smith showed up wearing a "No Kings" t-shirt.
The Cornell Seven: Morality Versus Legality
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Episode Open & Sponsors** - Episode begins with an Adian ad, then a clip from the Cornell 7 case setting up the moral/ethical conflict.
- 2 (03:54) **Russian Lab Plague & Putin's Desperation** - A worker dies after a vial breaks at Russia's "Anti-Plague Research Institute," raising fears of a lab leak and biological warfare.
- 3 (10:42) **Trump-Xi Summit & U.S. Economic Strength** - The Trump-Xi summit is analyzed as a display of strength, with the U.S. economy booming while China faces setbacks.
- 4 (16:03) **Carney's Canada & Weak Leadership** - Canadian PM Carney is criticized for his anti-Trump stance, which Hanson sees as self-destructive and naive.
- 5 (21:23) **European Allies Unreliable: Fairford Base & German Spy** - The U.S. removes bombers from RAF Fairford after terrorists are released on bail, and a German intelligence chief is revealed as a spy.
- 6 (26:45) **European Elections & USAID's Influence** - Hanson notes a conservative shift in European and Latin American elections, crediting Elon Musk's DOGE for exposing USAID's propaganda role.
- 7 (30:56) **Green Party's Anti-Semitism at Brighton** - The British Green Party votes that Zionism is racism and rejects protections for Jewish members, reflecting a broader European crisis.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
A deadly plague linked to a Russian laboratory raises new concerns about biological weapons, government secrecy, and the possibility of another global health crisis.
Victor Davis Hanson and Sami Winc draw parallels to COVID-19 while examining Trump's meeting with Xi Jinping, Canada's growing ties to China, and Britain's struggles with immigration, terrorism, and military readiness.
They also address sexual assault allegations involving Cornell University students, Hollywood's anti-Trump activism, the politicization of the justice system, and the resurgence of woke ideology on the Left.
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