The interview this morning with Virginia GOP Chair Mark Peake, on John Fredericks’ pro-Trump show was really worth listening to. Entertaining? Check. Revealing? Check! Great points by the host, and no serious answer by the Virginia GOP Chair? Check! See below for a few video clips and highlights – of which there were many (starting with Fredericks 100% accurately calling the Winsome Earle-Sears campaign a “clown car” and Peake responding indignantly that no, it is NOT a “clown car” LOL)!
Fredericks: “Okay. Well, your gubernatorial campaign is a clown car. How you going to fix it?”
Peake: “Oh, it’s not a clown car and I think we are fixing it as we speak. I think she…had a strategy at the beginning of the campaign. I think they’ve executed it well. They were going to small groups, a lot of Black churches as you’ve discussed on your show, which has shown in the polls…she’s pulling 30% among the Black vote, which as you’ve talked about would would doom Spanberger – and Spanberger’s polling very poorly among Black voters. [EDITOR’S NOTE: In fact, according to the VCU poll released Wednesday, Spanberger leads Earle-Sears 72%-9% among African Americans. So…Peake delusion to think Earle-Sears is doing great among African-American voters, or what? LOL] And so the first part of the campaign, I think, has been devoted to that…it was non-traditional, it was behind the scenes it was quiet. And I think what you are about to see based on what has happened this week is a a change of strategy in the campaign which is now going to be more obvious, more out in the open, more public, more events and much more responsive to to media. And I think what we had seen over the past couple weeks, the team was not responding to…interview requests, and I think you’re going to see a change that now she’s going to take it to the public aspect of the campaign.”
This is amusing as well – first, John Fredericks nails it again.
“Well, you got to see a change or she’s going to get blown out, because the campaign has been non-existent to the people following it. She’s gone through a number of campaign managers. And I’ve said this from the onset, she has no capability to run as statewide campaign. Glenn Youngkin, who I was with last night in Iowa, had a phenomenal performance, he’s going to win the Iowa caucuses if he gets in. But my position is he’s got to put his entire political machine in his PAC behind Winsome Sears. He picked her. He endorsed her. It’s his candidate and he’s got this PAC and he’s got a machine that is very formidable that he’s got to put behind her. And he has to take this campaign over. I think if he does that, Mark, everything you say can come true. No one doubts the power of Winsome Sears on a one-on-one basis or in a kind of an event like like [Republican State Senator Luther] Ciphers had. Nobody doubts that. What they’re doubting is her ability to run a statewide campaign, raise money, be competitive. That’s where the…seat of the doubt lies. And I think Glenn Youngkin is the answer to that.”
Peake’s response to that is just ridiculous, namely that Sears is “doing an excellent job of raising money” (actually, Abigail Spanberger currently has over three times as much cash-on-hand as Sears), then to whine that supposedly Republicans are “always
behind in money” (FALSE!) because supposedly “the Democrats have their billionaires…Bills in Charlottesville…Soros,” blah blah blah. Uh, Sen. Peake? Ever hear of the Koch brothers? Elon Musk (who gave Trump 100s of millions of $$$ in 2024)? Many, many other billionaires who support Republicans? Anyway, one decent point by Peake: “But it is time. It is time. There are now two months to early voting and it’s got to be all hands on deck.”
Finally, this last clip really gets to the heart of why the Sears campaign is a “clown car” – because her campaign is terrified to put her out there to do serious interviews, even with pro-Republican interviewers like John Fredericks. Which, of course, shows ZERO confidence in their own candidate not to say crazy, harmful (to her own campaign) things, as she’s done many, many times. In short, as Jim Webb liked to say about the George Allen campaign, “the fish rots from the *head* down.” With that, here’s what John Fredericks had to say about the Sears campaign…
“Here’s the other thing that…concerns me…I’ve reached out to her. I’ve reached out to Peyton Vogel, who’s her communications director, in the last six weeks, probably 20 times to get her on the show. And I know Peyton, and she’s Jill Vogel’s daughter, who is a dear friend of mine. So, these are friends. I can’t get a returned text. I can’t get a return email. I don’t get a return call. I mean, you you you have to do earned media. You have to get out there. Every single media personality in Virginia that asks her, and I have a national audience, everyone that asks her on the show, she ought to be on it. I can’t even get a phone call returned. I mean, Payton hasn’t returned my call in a month.”
Peake’s response to that: “And I will say as Republican party chair and a candidate for Senate, that’s just not acceptable…you’ve got to take every opportunity to be on the media, especially when you’re being outraised, for free, every day.
Sure, but the problem is, the more people hear Winsome Earle-Sears speak, the more they’re going to realize how bizarre, extreme, etc. she is – and it’s definitely not going to help her. But sure, as a Democratic partisan, I say please, get her out there more, MUCH more, and we’ll see how it goes! LOL
