May 8th, 2026

Rough transcription of Hour 1

Segment 1
Hello, America. Mark Levin Here, our number, 877-381-3811.  877-381-3811. I should mention this just in case, by the end of the program, skips my memory for Friday evening. Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. The mothers, the daughters, the sisters, the aunts, everybody who’s a mother. God bless each and every one of you. You make a huge difference in the life of your children, I can tell you that. Or your spouse. You definitely do. I think about my mother every single day, and my father as well. And, uh, whatever success I have or whatever I’ve become, hopefully mostly good. It’s due to them. Due to them. The jobs report today was actually quite good. Unemployment’s at 4.3%, 115,000 jobs added. And keep in mind we’re not adding federal government jobs. So that’s a very good report and I’m sure there’s a lot more good to come. The, uh, S&P 500 today at the highest level it’s ever hit, ever. And things will start to break loose. Things will start to break loose. And the dowels almost at 50,000, which is its record high. Why does that matter to you? Well, if you have a pension plan and a mutual fund, an IRA or 401k or what have you, it matters a lot. Not just for the rich and the billionaires, you know. And of course, behind every company are, uh, what we call employees. That’s important, too. Oh, yeah. Supreme Court of Virginia did what we discussed and what we thought they would do. And our friend Ken Cuccinelli came on and explained what he thought they would do as well. It was a 4 to 3 decision. Now, they might say four Republicans, three Democrats. The truth is, one of those Republicans had originally been appointed to a court of appeals by Mark Warner. And that judge, who had been appointed by Mark Warner was then elevated to the Supreme Court, I think by Youngkin or by a Republican governor. So it’s not exactly as it looks. And the bottom line is in their decisions, very long decisions, 46 pages long, 30 of which are, uh, from the majority. And it was a pretty quick turnaround, if you ask me. They said, while the commonwealth is free by its lights to do the right thing for the right reason, the rule of law requires that it be done the right way. Under the Constitution of Virginia, the right way necessitates compliance with the requirements of a deliberately lengthy, precise and balanced procedure. Quote, strict compliance with these mandatory provisions is required in order that all Proposed constitutional amendments shall receive the deliberate consideration and careful scrutiny that they deserve. In this case, the court held the Commonwealth submitted a proposed constitutional amendment to Virginia voters in an unprecedented manner that violated the intervening election requirement in Article 12, Section 1 of the Virginia Constitution. The violation irreparably undermines the integrity of the resulting referendum vote and renders it null and void. For this reason, the congressional district maps issued by the Court in 2021 pursuant to Article 2, Section 6A of the Constitution of Virginia remain the governing maps for the upcoming 2026 congressional election. Now, very, very important that the Court upholds the state constitution. So immediately, the Democrats said they’re going to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. That’s all blunder. That’s all drama. Why? Several reasons. Number one, there’s no federal issue. You don’t just go to the U.S. supreme Court because you don’t like a decision by the state Supreme Court. They may try and manufacture one, but the fact is there is none. There is none. Number two, the Supreme Court of the state has the final say over the interpretation of the state Constitution. Number two. Number three, I cannot even think of a federal constitutional issue or violation of any kind because remember, Scamberger, the governor, was the one who was trying to disenfranchise millions of Republican voters in the state, not the other way around. And just so you know, the state has split six to five Democrat to Republican congressmen. That said, two of those Republican seats are tough seats. I hope they hold them, but it’s not a sure bet. And so even under those circumstances where the 6 to 5 Democrat majority could become an 8 to 3 Democrat majority if the districts were left alone, it wasn’t enough for the Democrats. The NAACP is very angry, but not just with Virginia. The Voting Rights act decision by the court last Friday, a brilliant decision. The correct decision. You can make congressional districts, but you can’t base them primarily on race. That’s unconstitutional. Well, that makes sense, doesn’t it? While some of the Southern states that were under federal court order, the trial courts, the lower courts of the federal court, which have now been overturned by the U.S. supreme Court, they’re going back. That was the case of Louisiana, as a matter of fact. They made two Democrat, Democrat districts that were majority black. They had been litigating that matter for years. And now they’re going to eliminate one of them. Doesn’t mean it won’t be Democrat. It doesn’t mean it won’t be black. The representative that is. It’s just that the. The formation of the district cannot be based on race, one race or any race. Now Alabama is taking a look at its, at its seats. Mississippi is already moved to eliminate its race based district. And when you take what I call defensive gerrymandering by Republican states against these Democrat states, the Democrats open quite a, uh, Pandora’s box. The reason is simple. The Democrats have been gerrymandering like this based on race, based on disenfranchising Republicans for years. And only a few states sought to fight back. Mostly Republicans sat on their hands. But they awakened a sleeping giant. These Republican states had more to gain by gerrymandering than the Democrat states that had already gerrymandered. That’s what took place. And on top of that, as we’ve talked about before, and we Talked about with Governor DeSantis, at one point the census under the Biden regime denied Republican states upwards of seven seats, anywhere from four to seven seats. And they later admitted it, that they made mistakes. So New York had too many seats and some of the other states had too many seats. And come the census, there’s been an even bigger depopulation of blue states and an increased population in red states. Florida could pick up two or three seats just through the census. Texas could pick up one or two seats just through the census. Tennessee may pick up one seat just through this. It just depends. But there aren’t going to be many Democrat seats. Pick, uh, Democrat states, blue states picking up seats. So the gerrymandering, the Voting Rights act and the census are looking good for the Republicans. Now don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean they can’t lose the House of Representatives. The part about the census doesn’t come until after 2030. And we could still have some kind of a wave, God forbid, I don’t know, it depends. If Republicans and conservatives have been dispirited by the woke right neo fascists and their media and their podcasters, we’ll see who’s more enthusiastic. I take nothing for granted. We always fight like we’re behind. Right? I’ll be right back.

Segment 2
Well, ladies and gentlemen, over the years I’ve talked about the voluntary redistribution of wealth. What does that mean? When you buy a product or a service, you’re voluntarily redistributing your wealth in exchange for that product or service. You’re taking some of the wealth that you’ve created, you’re exchanging it for something that somebody else has created. This is called commerce or capitalism, if you rather and commerce as we’ve talked about is a spontaneous form, human interaction. Nobody created it, no ideologue or philosopher. You know, this is my idea on how the world should work. This is how the world works. Socialism is a concoction. Marxism and ideology is a concoction. They’re both very defective, impoverishing and much worse. People have suffered horribly from both. So what you see now in New York as an example in these blue states and blue cities is more redistribution of wealth voluntarily. So you have this piece in the New York Post, and it could be anywhere in the country where you have left wing politicians. New York leaders desperately try to stop billionaire Biggs from fleeing city over Mamdani. So Mamdani has created the kind of redistribution of wealth that comes from a Marxist Islamist mayor who wants to raise taxes and who wants to punish the wealthy. No matter what they’ve created, no matter how many jobs they’ve created, no matter how many families they help feed, homes they help build. Uh, doesn’t matter because Mamdani is a Marxist Islamist. He’s an ideologue. Facts are not relevant, just ideology. That’s all that’s relevant. See, same with the Iranian regime. The ideology is the only thing that’s relevant. That’s why negotiations are really in so many ways fruitless. But I digress. New York leaders desperately try to stop billionaire bigs from fleeing the city over Mamdani. Why? Why? Because as they leave Citadel CEO Ken Griffin is worth $50 billion. Apollo Global Management honcho Mark Rowan. These are huge companies in the city of New York. And then they say you have that coupled with a silent wave. They call it a businesses quietly quitting the city over its hostile environment. Insiders told the. Excuse me. Insiders told the Post the burgeoning business bolt has prompted Andrew Merstein, founder of Medallion Financial Group, to launch a campaign dubbed Operation Boomerang to lose peers back into the New York groove. This isn’t about a campaign. This isn’t about persuasion. This is about reality. If the top official in a city doesn’t want you or they just want to steal from you, you can go somewhere else where you’re wanted, where you’re embraced, where you’re not going to be treated badly personally and you’re not going to be, you know, what you have created is not going to be attacked. You go from one place where the income tax is through the roof to another place where they don’t even have an income tax. That’s a no brainer. Especially if you’re a billionaire and a businessman has created all this wealth, Right? Madame’s outspoken Tax the rich. Well long inspired concerns that fat cats would rather get out of Dodge than live under a socialist mayor. That’s another phrase. I don’t. What. What’s a fat cat? Somebody who is very successful. It’s amazing. We never really tracked down with how these billionaires became billionaires doing Home Depot created like six billionaires because they created Home Depot. And you like Home Depot. And you use Home Depot. Apple created multiple billionaires, multi billionaires, because you like Apple products, you like your iPhone. Many of you can’t live without it. You stare at it all day. Right, Right. And I go down the list. Certain pharmaceuticals that are crucial have to be invented where tens of billions of dollars are invested in capital and research and development. To find out, you know, how to address certain types of illnesses takes time. It’s very difficult. So somebody becomes a billionaire from that, perhaps. So what? That’s okay. I mean, the point of the matter is the wealthiest entity in this country, if measured by the amount of money it accumulates, is government. It’s not even close. The biggest robber barons in government are the politicians because they have the power to vote, to take your money, to spend it, to borrow us, uh, into debt. They’re the ones who have far more power than any billionaire or any collection of billionaires. That’s the truth. I’ll be right back.

Segment 3
All right, let’s see here. Uh, the strangest thing really is. Certain podcasters, certain broadcasters, little old me, Mr. Producer with 14 and a half million radio listeners, over 5 million followers on X, millions of viewers on Fox. Little old me. Why are they so upset with me? Mr. Producer, the Morning Schmo and Mrs. Schmo. I don’t understand. I’ve left the morning Schmo and Mrs. Schmo alone. He’s reached out to me very nicely, by the way. So I’ve left him alone. He wanted to meet for coffee. He wanted to build a relationship. I never did that. Maybe that’s why he’s angry. And yet, Mr. And Mrs. Schmo completely failed at radio. They said they were taking a short break to redo their program and so forth, and they never came back. The morning Schmo wanted to be on Fox. That didn’t work out. So now he’s on MSNBC, aka MSNow, where he’s a big fish in a little pond. Fox and Friends literally slaughter Ms. Now and CNN combined because it’s a good show. Fox and Friends, they got great hosts. I don’t know why he’s mad at me. I never mentioned him. When’s the last time I mentioned the guy, Rich? I don’t think in a long time. Right? Then we have Piers Morgan. I don’t even know Piers Morgan, except to know that he’s a weirdo, that he platforms anti Semites and he platforms people who hate America platforms, people who promote Nazism and stuff of that sort. All of a sudden, he comes out of the shadows. Then there’s Megan Kelly. Wow. She said more positions than. I better not say, but I might. She’s lashing out at everybody. Trump, Ben Shapiro. Me, I can’t even keep track. Could it be she’s getting older? I don’t know what the problem is. I just don’t know. Course there’s Tucker. I get that one. That’s been going on for a year or so, on and off. I mean, just because he hates me and my faith and my ancestry and all the rest. But he hates Christians and he goes on, you know, the whole story there. It’s just very weird. Don’t you think, folks? Very weird. Little old me, a boomer. Here’s the other thing. Most of you don’t spend time on the Internet. You know, you might spend a little time. Maybe you order Amazon. You want to read your favorite news site that can. There’s some people there 24 7, rich. They’re there all day long, are they not? All day long. And they try to determine who the influencers are. They’re very powerful through things called ratios and how many views there are and so forth and so on. Here’s the problem. The whole world isn’t on the Internet. There are other means of communications. Great. Radio. Radio is an example. Television. Network TV is an example. Cable TV is an example. Print media is another example. And of course, yes, the Internet is an example. But some people who have failed at tv, failed at radio, failed at being comics or, uh, whatever it is, you can get a microphone. Pretty much that’s all you need. Not much. And do a podcast. Now, there are great podcasts. We do a simultaneous podcast when we have our Liberty’s Voice podcast. A lot of our affiliates have great podcasts, too. So I’m all for it. Don’t get me wrong, please. That’s. That’s not what I’m saying. But for some people, that’s all they have. And so they try to build that up, which is great. But unfortunately the business plan now is in order to get as many viewers as you can and to sustain that day after day, you’ve got to be as outrageous, racist, bigoted, anti Christian, anti Jew, you name it, as you possibly can. Why? Because you don’t care who’s listening. You don’t care who your audience is. You don’t care if it’s, if it’s tribesmen in some mountain village in Pakistan. In fact, that seems to be the focus audience. Now some of these people have their statements being played by Iranian state run tv, by Qatari state run media, by Putin’s media, Pakistan’s media, and in China. That’s the big one with all the people there. And so that’s now the focus. I get this question all the time from you folks. How did so and so change had it’s money? Remember what Rush used to say, follow the money. Now, uh, some of them become believers in these sort of extremists and radical ideologies. No question about that. Follow the money. Somebody you thought you knew, you don’t know anymore. Now the great thing about radio, the great thing about talk radio specifically and our fantastic affiliates with their platforms and so forth and so on, that’s not the business model to be the biggest nut job possible. That’s not the business model. Why? Because we know from research, you, the people in the radio audience, and especially in the talk audience, and especially, especially in the conservative talk audience, you’re smarter than the average bear, you. And again, that’s why Rush said to me, always treat your audience with respect. There are also some rules when it comes to radio, like tv, about the language that you use. There’s certain words you do not use. And you know what? That’s a good thing. That’s a really good thing. They’re dropping F bombs everywhere on the podcaster world and other words that I can’t stand and on the Internet words I don’t even want to tell you the first initial, uh, or letter. I’m not going to do it, but it would make you blush. So if you’re going to own a radio station or radio stations, if you’re going to manage a radio station or radio stations, if you’re going to be a host on a radio station or radio stations, there are some requirements. You’re simply not free to do truly grotesque things. You are free, and I am thankful for this, to share your opinion, your viewpoint, your faith, your policy objectives, to have a debate, to have a discussion I mean, it’s a wide range of things you can do, really. Free speech and conservative talk radio here, that’s big deal. But these are private enterprises and they have licenses with the government. And neither the private enterprise nor these government regulations allow you to do certain things that are appalling. Not so in the other medium. Not so in the other medium. There’s much more substance in talk radio. Much more substance. There are many more things that are discussed other than gossip, character assassination and things of that sort of. I am proud of terrestrial radio. Proud of it. I am proud of the people who own these stations, I am proud of the people who run these stations, and I am proud of my fellow hosts who are on these stations providing something substantive without being grotesque and vile, something your children can listen to. Nothing makes me prouder when somebody comes up to me and I get it three, four times a week and tells me, when I was a kid and I was in the car and my dad or my mom or both had you on WABC or WLS or WBAP or whatever the station was, And I learned from you. I’m very honored by a gentleman who posted. Somebody sent it to me. I, uh, got to track down his name and thank him. He’s the director of fox’s digital politics, Mr. M producer. And he got on there today because somebody sent me this link and he said, when I was young, I listened to Mark Levin in the car. It motivated me to go to law school. It then motivated me to get into media, and it encouraged me. And now he’s got this position to fight. I don’t even know who he is. I’ll have to find out. I don’t think down the road you’re gonna have many people say, you know, I was really motivated when I was listening to Megyn Kelly dropping F bombs every other second, or Piers Morgan platforming defenders of Hamas or Tucker Carlson trashing Christians. I don’t think. I don’t think you’re going to hear a lot of people say, I was very motivated by that. At least not the people that we would want to be around. Right? I don’t think so. So I am, um, very proud of this format. I’m very proud of the people who are involved in it. I’m very proud of the ownership, the management. I’m on over 400 stations and I can vouch for every single one of them. And I know every single station I’m on. I’ll be right back.

Segment 4
President Trump at the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. Yesterday, an ABC reported. With this war going on, how come you’re focused on this? Because this is a remarkable man that can focus on many things and he’s trying to improve our nation’s capital because he loves the country and he wants to show it off. Cut to go. Mr. President, you are here against the backdrop of the war in Iran. Why focus on all these projects right now?  You know why? Because I want to keep our country beautiful and safe. Beautiful also. This was a disgusting place. It was Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial. And we had a, uh, terrible. I don’t know, you probably don’t see dirt, but I do. And you walk down this pond, if you would have walked down, they’ll tell you better than anybody, they had to take 11 or 12 truckloads of garbage out of that lake, out of that water. And it sat there for years like that. And that’s not what our country is about. Our country is about beauty, cleanliness, safety, great people. Not a filthy capital.  What is the status?  Such a stupid question you ask. We’re fixing up, uh, the reflecting pond to the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, and you say, why are you fixing it up? Because you can understand dirt maybe better than I can, but I don’t allow it. This is one of the worst reporters. Uh, she’s with ABC Fake News, and she’s a horror show. She’s saying, why would you bother fixing this up? Uh, why would I bother taking 11 or 12 truckloads of filthy out of the water in front of the Lincoln Monument? That’s what made our country great, beauty, made our country people, made our country great. A question like that is a disgrace to our country.  It really is a disgrace. Here he is trying to do a million things at once. The guy is full of energy, whether it’s foreign policy, domestic policy, or what it’s. Or, uh, whether it’s the beauty of our nation’s capital and the safety of our nation’s capital. Look at what he’s done and look at what he wants to do. Whether it’s the ballroom, the, um, reflecting pond, the Jefferson Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial. I mean, what’s to complain about? They complain about everything. The media and the left, they’re crazy. And he’s right. He wants things to look nice. He wants things to. So when you’re in Washington, you feel good and you’re safe. Isn’t that a positive thing? Now, here’s the deal. If it were the New Deal and the Depression, and it was Franklin Roosevelt, and he was spending tens of billions of dollars in today’s dollars, hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars for people to paint murals, for people to wash the monuments, for people to build new monuments, for people to expand the White House, to have a ballroom and so forth. Hey, isn’t that great? Because that’s what he did, things like that. That’s great. Put people to work, did all these things. Here you have Donald Trump, who’s trying, in many cases, through the private sector, with private funds, but nonetheless, who’s trying to keep up the Capitol and the Capitol grounds and so forth. And so what’s he supposed to do? Roll up into a, uh, into a ball in the corner because of what’s going on in Iran or what’s going on in some other part of the world? No, we’re going to miss this man when he’s gone. I’m telling you that right now, we’re going to miss this man, which is why I defend him against the woke, Right, The Marxists and the Islamists. Again, we can have disagreements that are legitimate, that are civil, that don’t seek to undermine him and stab him in the back, but he deserves our support.