Last night, Virginia Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger – who will be sworn in this Saturday as Virginia’s first female governor, replacing the horrendous MAGA Glenn Youngkin – was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. See below for video, as well as Gov.-elect Spanberger’s comments about ICE’s tactics degrading the public’s trust in law enforcement.
- Gov.-elect Spanberger: “I’m the incoming governor of Virginia, but I began my career as a federal agent. I used to work narcotics and money laundering. I carried a gun every day. Worked on task forces with local, state, and federal police. And what I learned every single day in law enforcement is your ability to do your job is built on trust. What we are seeing day in and day out when people are going in, wearing masks, terrifying communities, they are breaking down that trust. It’s impeding the ability to keep our communities safe, enforce the law. As governor I *will* ensure that we are a place where yes, we uphold the law, but people know that if they are a victim of a crime or if they are a witness of a crime or if they are a community member, that they are in a place where there is trust that is being built and not degraded day in and day out by the tactics we are seeing.”
- Stephen Colbert: “Just take these two scenarios. National Guard troops sent in from another state, say Texas to Virginia. Or ICE was sent in at this level of force just to harass or instill fear. What responses can you have is a governor within Virginia law that is not superseded by federal law to protect the residents of your state?”
- Gov.-elect Spanberger: “Well, at the end of the day if there’s an emergency in Virginia that requires the support of the Guard, first and foremost we have an incredible Guard in Virginia, and it is up to the governor to bring forth the Virginia Guard to help our citizenry. We do not need outside support unless the governor is the one who makes that request. And so as the incoming governor of Virginia, I will make known to the Trump administration that we do not want — we do not want them trying to sow fear, sow division within our communities. If there is a warrant, absolutely. If there is a warrant for someone’s arrest, there is room for coordination between law enforcement agencies. But what we have seen in places like Minnesota, it is, it is not meeting in the end goal of making us safer. And as someone who used to focus on counterterrorism cases when I was a CIA officer after my time in law enforcement, what really worries me is the fact that so many of our law enforcement capabilities are being pivoted away from investigating crimes and investigating potential threats that exist within our communities, as they are leveraging people to pivot over towards sowing fear in communities.”
Good stuff; can’t wait until Spanberger’s governor starting Saturday and Youngkin’s the hell outta here!
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