If you’ve been following the 2025 Virginia gubernatorial campaign even semi-closely, you’ve almost certainly noticed that just about every time Winsome Earle-Sears says something about Abigail Spanberger, it’s either: 1) a wild distortion of what Spanberger actually said and/or believes; 2) a flat-out lie; 3) a psychological “projection” of some sort, reflecting a lot more about how SHE thinks than anything else; 4) fear mongering/demagoguery; 5) some combination of #1-#4.
For instance, Earle-Sears keeps falsely claiming that Spanberger wants to *force* girls to change their clothes in front of grown MEN in locker rooms; an utterly insane and false assertion, given that literally ZERO Democrats support such a thing (the actual issue has to do with the tiny number of cases of transgender kids – and specifically where they should go to the bathroom or change after gym class). Or Earle-Sears claims that Spanberger wants to have CRIMINAL ILLEGAL ALIENS running around raping and pillaging, which…again, is an absolutely insane assertion (the actual stance of the vast majority of Democrats, including Spanberger, is that immigration authorities should be focused on arresting/deporting actual criminals, particularly violent criminals, not going after hard-working immigrants just trying to make a better life for their families; also that those immigration authorities should be following due process, not hiding their identities, not acting like goons, etc.).
Anyway, so the latest, kinda random faux “outrage” by Earle-Sears et al is that, supposedly, Spanberger said something REALLY BAD (including back on June 27 at NetworkNOVA’s 2025 Women’s Summit), namely that if you’re feeling angry – even enraged – you should follow Spanberger’s mother’s advice, to “let your rage fuel you.” But wait, what does that mean exactly? Is there any ambiguity at all in what Spanberger’s saying here?
Nope – zero ambiguity! In fact, if you actually listen to Spanberger’s remarks, it’s GLARINGLY OBVIOUS that she is NOT in the slightest bit saying what Earle-Sears et al claim she’s saying, which is supposedly encouraging people to be enraged and to act on that rage in some sort of bad ways (e.g., threatening Republican elected officials/candidates with violence – something that basically every Democrat, obviously including all three Democrats on the 2025 Virginia statewide ticket, believes is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE!). As usual, the wild charge by Earle-Sears says a LOT more – none of it good! – about the way she thinks than anything else.
So, obviously, trying to correct right-wing disinformation is pretty much futile. But just for the record, see below for video of Spanberger’s remarks at the Women’s Summit, with a transcript, so you can see that, in fact, what Spanberger was arguing was the DIAMETRIC OPPOSITE of what Earle-Sears et al are claiming. Namely, Spanberger was arguing to take whatever anger/rage you have at the horrible things Trump et al are doing to our country and CHANNEL THAT NON-VIOLENTLY INTO HELPING ELECT DEMOCRATS.
“At one point in time when I was going on about something to my mother…I was sort of running my mouth about something that was bothering me about politics. And my mother just said, ‘Let your rage fuel you.’ And so, Mom, I love you, I thank you for the sage advice. And to the rest of us, every time we hear a new story, we let it fuel us. Every time we turn on the news, we let it fuel us. Every time something bad is happening, we say, ‘Oh, that’s motivation.’ I’ll tell you this; I have an opponent who’s incredibly motivating. And so every time something happens in the world, in this country, coming out of Capitol Hill or coming out of this White House, we just say, ‘Boy, am I motivated today.’ We write more postcards. We knock more doors. We make more phone calls. We tell more friends about the importance of this election. Because this November, we are going to send a message to the rest of the country and the world. We are not just going to flip three statewide seats. We are not just going to win more seats in the House of Delegates. We are going to send a resounding message about who we are, what we want, what we deserve to our fellow Virginians, to the rest of the country, to the rest of the world. We are going to crush it in November. And we are voting to pave a path towards 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, because we ave elections every year in Virginia. Thank you.”
