Youngkin Responds To Re-Emerging Presidential Rumors
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Guy Benson: I’m happy to welcome back to our airwaves Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, a Republican. You can follow him on Twitter at Governor VA And, Governor, thanks for being here. Great to talk to you.
Gov. Youngkin : Guy. Really great to be with you again. And I appreciate all that you do over the airwaves to keep everybody informed.
Guy Benson: Thank you, sir.
Gov. Youngkin: We we’ve had a big week in Virginia, so I’m looking forward to talking to you.
Guy Benson: Yeah. And I saw on your social media recently that you were overseas. What really caught my attention was part of the day that you spent at Normandy. I did that as a college student in 2006. I was not prepared for the emotion that welled up in me over the course of that tour. Walking those beaches, ending up at the American cemetery as the flag came down and Taps was played. It is a powerful, powerful place to visit. And I wonder what your experience was like.
Gov. Youngkin: Yeah, very similar. If if not even enhanced by the fact that that just that just 11 days before I had been there, I had been at that National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Virginia, on D-Day. And I had the great privilege of addressing a really large crowd who had come out to honor and remember the amazing men who had sacrificed their lives to liberate Europe. And in Bedford, Virginia, as you well know, Guy, we had the largest per capita loss on D-Day, which is why the National D-Day Memorial is in Bedford. And so and so fast forward. I mean, I have the great privilege of being in Normandy and, of course, see Omaha Beach and point the hawk and and then go to that go to the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. And again, I am introduced to the Bedford Boys, who are the of the 30, 32 men from Bedford, 19, died on June six. And to just live through that story with the sacrifice that was that was made by so many, particularly young men who answered the call to protect and defend freedom. It is truly overwhelming. You know, I think that the experience you had and the one that I have had is an experience that everyone who goes there, I believe, would echo. But there’s so many people who don’t have the opportunity to go and feel what it means to honor these Americans and an ally heroes that liberated Europe. And so I would invite everyone to come to come to Bedford, Virginia. It’s right outside Lynchburg, and it gives you a chance to really emotionally see face to face that the reality that freedom isn’t free and that men died. Men and women today have died in order to not just enable freedom and liberty in America, but to protect it. And that is the that is the truth of this great country, is that men and women who have died in order to create our liberties and our freedoms and we need to honor and remember it every day.
Guy Benson: Well said, I agree, Governor, let’s talk about something more frivolous but still important politics. It was a significant week in Virginia. You alluded to this, some big primary contests ahead of the off year elections. Virginia sort of famously has elections, you know, every two years, but not quite when the rest of the country tends to have them. So some important contests coming up in the fall. Let’s start on the Republican side. Your side of the aisle, a lot of people are sort of raising eyebrows like, all right, the governor waded into a certain number of contested primaries with endorsements and helping folks out and campaigning for certain people. And I know you’re a basketball guy, but to use a baseball term, if I’m not mistaken, you batted a thousand on Tuesday.
Gov. Youngkin: Well, we did, and I think it was reflective of the fact that everybody understands, first of all, that our mid-terms, which as you rightly describe, are this November, are really a moment for Virginians, not just Republicans, but Virginians, to stand up and express their views on how we’re doing. And remember, Guy, when we were elected in November of 2021. I mean, that was a giant shift. Virginia had been a state that had really gone deep blue. I mean, just about every elected statewide office was held. In fact, all elected statewide offices were held by Democrats. Yep. And and and seven out of our 11 congressional or House of Representatives seats were held by Democrats, of course, and our 2 to 2 senators. And so they had control of the House and the Senate. And so our election in 2021 was a huge sea change in sentiments and I think an opportunity for us to lead a license to lead. I am so excited about what we’ve gotten done in in the short 18 months that we’ve been in office. And here we are going into our midterms with a chance to have Virginians again. Give us give it give us a license and extend our license to accelerate the pace at which Virginia is changing to, I think, still a much better place to live and work and raise a family. And so these these primaries were hugely important for us to to nominate a slate of candidates that are going to press forward with our agenda to lower taxes, to streamline regulations, to back the blue, to empower parents in education, to reestablish excellence standards in our education, just to streamline efficiencies out of government. I mean, we saved over $1,000,000,000 in our first six months of money that didn’t need to be spent and could be returned to to Virginians in the form of of tag of tax cuts and rebates. And this is our agenda. It’s working. I need a team to help us accelerated even faster. We, of course, have a house that is currently controlled by Republicans. We have to keep it and we have a Senate that’s currently controlled by the Democrats. I want to flip it. I think the other the other big development on Tuesday was the Democrats continued their their dramatic, dramatic shift to the hard left. And there were four. And it looks like it could be as many as five very senior Democrats who were voted out by extreme left wing Democrats. And they were they were sent home. And I believe that this is really a very important moment for us as Virginians and as the nation to see that Republicans are delivering results. And it’s the and it’s the it’s the left liberal extremists who are fighting back by by electing, by nominating folks who candidly are so out of touch with what Virginians want to get accomplished. And I just think this is a big, big moment for us to finalize our effort to bring common sense and good conservative policies back to the Commonwealth.
Guy Benson: And I would say you asserted that your policies are working and they’re being successful. I would just note that Virginians agree it’s not just you saying it because it’s you. You won by two or three points in a state that Joe Biden had carried by ten. We’ve talked about that. And now at least the last poll that I saw pretty recently, you were at plus 20 job approval in a state that has not been, as you laid out, terribly hospitable to Republicans in recent years. That’s an achievement. And it’s not just, you know, the sheer force of your charm and personality. It’s it’s actually achieving things for people. So getting involved in ten races the way that you did Republican races to try to have an electable conservative, common sense type of slate of candidates. And you went, Yeah, as I said, ten for ten in those races. Those are in the most for most of those cases, swing districts where it’s important to win those races, especially if the Senate is going to flip. But it’s a very close, close divide in the Senate. And then because you brought up the Democrats just a follow up there, some of the more moderate Democrats, even slightly conservative Democrats, folks who are willing to play ball and do things on a bipartisan basis, they were punished by the left wing of their base. They were thrown out of office in favor of these sort of left wing Bernie Sanders Elizabeth Warren type mentality, folks. There were some really dangerously soft on crime prosecutors who were able to beat off challenges from more moderate and more commonsense Democrats. It felt like in Virginia, a really strong night for the Republican Party in general and then for the very left fringe of the Democratic Party. Do you believe what Democratic voters have done with their choices on Tuesday Will that make Republicans job easier in winning some of these races because of the extremism of the people that the Democrats have decided to pick? To the extent that they. Threw out a bunch of slightly moderate incumbents to replace them with people farther off to the left.
Gov. Youngkin: Without a doubt. And I and I think that this is not going to go unnoticed by those independent middle voters who came with us in 2021. That’s how we got elected, but are constantly reevaluating. And when they see the success, the results that we’ve delivered But listen to the job numbers in Virginia have swung so materially. When I came in in 2021, Virginia was 47th in the nation in job recovery coming out of the pandemic. And 17 months later, we’re fifth in the nation. We’ve had 175,000 more people go to work. We just hit a ten year high in labor participation. Let me tell you, that’s the key metric. Are people coming off the sidelines and getting back to work?
Guy Benson: Oh, yeah. And Governor, I don’t want to step on your toes here, but we’re almost out of time. And that litany of achievement is real. It’s impressive for voters in Virginia. Might it be impressive beyond Virginia? I know you’ve seen the pieces at the Hill in The Wall Street Journal. Oh, you know, maybe he said he wasn’t going to run in 2024 for president. Maybe he’s reconsidering it. Do you want to address some of those rumors while we’re here?
Gov. Youngkin: What I have been constantly humbled and flattered by the I think the recognition that good things are happening in Virginia and a state that was blue and then then was purple, and now we’re moving to red because commonsense conservative policies work. I’m focused on Virginia. We’re going to we’re going to we’re going to hold our house. We’re working to flip our Senate. We’re working to reestablish common sense in the Commonwealth. And and I am so appreciative of the fact that people like what we’re doing, not just in Virginia, but outside Virginia. And I do believe that there’s an opportunity for our nation to to recognize that common sense can win and we can bring people together around results. And I do believe that’s what Americans are looking for.
Guy Benson: It sounds like a first things first answer. Interesting stuff. Glenn Youngkin, the governor of Virginia, my governor, it’s great to talk to you, sir.
Gov. Youngkin: I thank you.
