From Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia; note that, unlike Glenn Youngkin or Winsome Earle-Sears, Democrat Abigail Spanberger WOULD sign this crucial legislation into law if/when she’s governor. Let’s make it so!
PPAV Statement on Veto Session: Back in Your Court, Governor Youngkin PPAV Urges Governor Youngkin to Now Sign Right to Contraception and Contraceptive Equity Act
Richmond, Va – Yesterday, the Virginia General Assembly reconvened in Richmond to act on the Governor’s recommendations to legislation and the budget. Bills with amendments that were rejected by the General Assembly will be returned to the Governor for his final action, a signature or a veto.
Jamie Lockhart, Executive Director, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia:
“The Trump-Vance-Musk administration has created a relentless storm of chaos, and here in Virginia, we do not need more political games that delay action year after year. We need leaders who will fight to protect the right and access to contraception.
Governor Youngkin has the opportunity to act now by signing the Virginia Right to Contraception Act and the Contraceptive Equity Act—bills that ensure Virginians can access essential reproductive health care. His failure to act would only confirm what too many already fear: that we cannot rely on politicians to protect our freedoms. That’s why we need a constitutional amendment for reproductive freedom—to make sure our rights are not left to chance. The time to act is now.”
Bills back before Governor Youngkin:
Virginia Right to Contraception HB1716 (Price), SB1105 (Hashmi)
After the fall of Roe v. Wade, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas openly called for the court to “re-consider” the constitutional right to contraception. With the right-wing Court’s stance, it’s imperative for states to take proactive measures to protect this fundamental right, especially given that President Donald Trump has explicitly said he was “looking at” state-level restrictions on access to contraception.
The legislation officially integrates the right to contraception into Virginia’s state laws, providing a legal foundation for this right. It explicitly prohibits any state actor from infringing upon an individual’s right to access contraception, thereby ensuring state-level protection.
We know that high out of pocket expenses can make certain forms of birth control prohibitively expensive, and this bill would require health plans to cover contraception without cost-sharing, so that people had access to the forms of contraception they need in reality, instead of in name only.
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Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia (PPAV) is a statewide advocacy organization whose mission is to preserve and broaden access to reproductive health care through legislation, public education, electoral activity and litigation in the Commonwealth of Virginia. PPAV works to ensure that individuals and families have the freedom, information, and ability to make their own informed reproductive choices.
The War on Nature in Ukraine (“Fires and smoke foul the air. Toxins seep into the earth and water. Habitats for wildlife disappear. Experts call it ecocide.” Pure EVIL. And Trump likes this guy???)
Trump Goes Crazy on Trade (“I guess it’s just possible that when we get details about the Trump tariffs they will be lower than what he just announced, but based on what he said, he’s gone full-on crazy.”)
Senate Votes to Rescind Some Trump Tariffs, With G.O.P. Support (“A measure to cancel some Canadian tariffs is all but certain to stall in the House. But with a handful of Republicans in favor, the vote sent a signal of opposition to the levies.” Any Republican who voted against this bill de facto vote din FAVOR of the largest tax increase – a regressive and destructive one at that! – in US history.)
The Good News About Trump’s Tariffs (“Authoritarian leaders are most dangerous when they’re popular. Wrecking the economy is unlikely to broaden Trump’s support.”)
The Expert Who Kept Eye Drops From Blinding You Was Fired Yesterday (“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency terminated thousands of experienced public health professionals in an April Fools’ Day massacre. We’re all about to pay the price.” Sick, warped, dangerous…running out of adjectives.)
Senate Pencils in $5 Trillion for Tax Relief, Leaves Blank Spaces for Spending Cuts (Calling this “tax relief” is absolutely NOT journalism, it’s mindless amplification of right-wing propaganda. In fact, these tax cuts would OVERWHELMINGLY benefit the wealthiest and also big corporations, while exploding the deficit and debt. There’s no “relief” in any of that!)
General Assembly sustains Youngkin vetoes, accepts many bill amendments (Very misleading headline: in fact, it was 100% due to General Assembly REBPUBLICANS that none of these vetoes were overridden. That should be made crystal clear in the HEADLINE, and also in the body of the article.)
General Assembly sends fentanyl legislation back to the governor’s desk (“Democrats who run the General Assembly and Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin agree that something needs to be done about the death toll from drug dealers who sell fatal doses of fentanyl. But they have different approaches to handling the problem.”)
See below for a press release and video from Sen. Tim Kaine’s office about his attempt to “Undo Trump’s taxes on Canadian goods.” So, good for Sen. Kaine for trying, but this has ZERO chance of being signed into law by Trump, even it’s miraculously passed by both the US Senate and US House. Also, just 1 1/2 hours ago, Trump had his “liberation day” announcement, and – as Paul Krugman writes – “he’s gone full-on crazy,” including “making false claims about our trading partners — not sure in this case whether they’re lies, because he may be truly ignorant — that will both enrage them and make it very hard to back down.” What a nightmare. And yes, screw the political media – which played a major role in bringing this disaster about by normalizing/sanewashing Trump while constantly bashing Joe Biden, a serious, responsible, sane president who they just HATED for whatever reasons. Totally f’ed up.
VIDEO: KAINE SPEAKS ON SENATE FLOOR AHEAD OF VOTE ON RESOLUTION TO UNDO TRUMP’S TAXES ON CANADIAN GOODS
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) spoke on the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to pass his joint resolution challenging President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods, which amount to a 25 percent tax on goods imported from one of America’s top trading partners and closest allies. The legislation will be voted on today. Estimates have shown that Trump’s tariffs could raise costs for the average American household by thousands of dollars per year. In addition, Trump’s trade wars have hurt American businesses and created needless uncertainty in the U.S. economy.
“Trump’s aides have basically admitted that this is a new sales tax. The tariff revenue will hit everyday people by making the cost of their goods go up,” said Kaine. “What we are likely to see today with the tariff announcement, it will be the largest tax hike in the United States history.”
Kaine continued, “This was an economy that was extremely strong just two months ago on President Trump’s inauguration day. It was a very, very strong economy – not a perfect economy. But since that time, we’ve seen volatility in the stock market. We’ve seen growing inflation. We’ve seen reducing consumer confidence. We’ve seen some suggestions of slowing economic growth, even negative economic growth from some, and that is due in large part to the prospect of this national sales tax – tariffs to the degree of $6 trillion dollars – but also somewhat to the chaos about whether and when and how they will be implemented.”
Kaine then discussed what he’s hearing from Virginia businesses, saying, “I’ve been traveling around the state talking to Virginians, and they’re very, very worried about these Canadian tariffs. And they’re not worried in the abstract. They saw them in 2017, 2018, 2019, so they know what happens with tariffs … From the kitchen table of a family to our nation’s largest shipbuilders, these tariff shenanigans pose a huge economic risk.”
Kaine pushed back on the Trump Administration’s claims that there is a fentanyl emergency at the U.S.-Canadian border. “No one in this chamber … would dispute that fentanyl is a massive problem and indeed an emergency … There is a fentanyl emergency, but it’s not Canada … It’s not an emergency from Canada, and it’s certainly not an emergency that would justify treating Canadian products with exactly the same tariff that we would levy on products from Mexico and from China,” Kaine said.
“I think allies are really important, and I think it’s wrong to call an ally an adversary,” Kaine said. “I don’t want an America pushing aside its longstanding allies … This is no way to treat an ally. This is no way to treat a friend.”
Kaine concluded, “Tariffs are a tax. Tariffs will hurt our families. Canada is not an enemy. Let’s act together to fight fentanyl. We can do that. We have done that – we showed it with the HALT Fentanyl Act we passed two weeks ago. But let’s not label an ally as an enemy. Let’s not impose punishing costs on American families at a time they can’t afford it. Let’s not hurt American small businesses. Let’s not make our national security investments in ships and subs more expensive. I earnestly request that colleagues support S.J. [Res.] 37 when we vote on it later.”
Ahead of the Senate vote, Kaine’s legislation has garnered support from businesses and organized labor alike, including from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO.
Pretty quiet and relatively short press availability by Sen. Mark Warner this week. See below for video, as well as a few things that jumped out at me.
On Signalgate, Sen. Warner said: “We still don’t know if the phones were ever collected and checked for malware… the bad guys don’t have to physically have [the phone]…I was down in Hampton Roads and Virginia Beach and Chesapeake on Saturday for town halls, and Virginians were rightfully pissed off at this careless behavior, because many in the crowds…knew folks who had been deployed on the Truman, the aircraft carrier that’s in the Eastern Mediterranean where the jet had taken off to strike the Houthis. And the fact that if this information had been discovered by the Houthis, they could have very easily or probably taken down American pilots and killed them…It appears that Mike Waltz and his team have sent out lots of detailed conversations over Gmail, which is not even encrypted. So will it take literally an American servicemember dying or being constantly put in harm’s way before we can get the answers of whether the phones have malware on them…[or] there’s going to be any consequences?”
On TikTok, Sen. Warner said: “I don’t have all the details, I know there are at least four major bidders. But if the ending result is…where the algorithm, the secret sauce remains in Beijing, then the whole effort has been a farce, the whole effort has been a scam, the whole effort has been like so many of the Trump ventures that sound good, there’s nothing there. Because if the algorithm remains in Beijing, then those 150 million Americans are still going to be subject to the kind of propaganda manipulation that I can guarantee you the Chinese Communist Party will use in an adversarial way against America. So this disregard of our national security, from how they treat secrets to how we have to stand up to an adversary like China using this technology tool, this Trump Administration is getting remarkably awful failing grades.”
“In terms of so-called liberation day, self-proclaimed by Donald Trump, I think he’s going to announce his tariffs at a point after the markets close today about 4 o’clock. Well the truth of the matter is this liberation day is actually, I think, will be going down as tax day for Americans… so when those prices go up, just remember it was Donald Trump’s liberation policies that are actually increasing taxes on America that’s going to make your costs go higher.”
“I talked to [Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney] the other night and this guy, if anybody can carry Canada through a recession will be him. But he pointed out not dissimilar to what the foreign minister of Canada pointed out to me a month or so ago, if Donald Trump got up today and said hey, you know, no problem, we love Canada, well you can’t put this relationship back on an even level – this will affect our relations for years to come.“
“I have to say with a little bit of trepidation the fact that I’ve not had more Republicans who’ve all said to me privately I’m aghast at what’s happened with these Signal chats, I’m aghast that there’s not better security concerns, but they haven’t found their voice to do that publicly. That does not bode well.“
“[Sen. Tim Kaine’s bill blocking Trump’s tariffs on Canada] actually only needs 51 votes, so assuming all 47 Democrats, that means you got to get four – I think there are more than four Republicans who’ve expressed concern. But we have seen, and I saw this for example on the Tulsi Gabbard hearing where I thought I had four Republican Senators who were going to vote no on her, and I know they would wish they would have those votes back now since she seems to be a compulsive liar, but I have to give it you, through threats so far people have not been willing to actually vote their conscience, they’ve fallen into this complete subjugation to Donald Trump’s whims.”
BREAKING: Following March for Life, Sears Refuses to Answer Questions About Her Tie-Breaking Vote Against the Right to Contraception
VIRGINIA – Today at the Virginia March for Life, Winsome Earle-Sears doubled down on her extreme agenda to ban abortion during her remarks and then refused to answer questions from the media about her tie-breaking vote denying Virginians access to contraception and birth control.
This comes after Sears “couldn’t resist” voting against the legislation earlier this year.
I asked @winwithwinsome if she supported the right to access contraception.
She said, “But of course,” but ignored my question about why earlier this session she cast the tie-breaking vote against a bill that would guarantee a woman’s right to contraceptives pic.twitter.com/6IVlHQRR7Z
See below for a press release from the VA Democrats about Winsome Earle-Sears attending the anti-abortion absolutists “March for Life” in Richmond. Bottom ilne: between her anti-abortion extremism, her pro-gun extremism and her not giving a you-know-what about the assault by Trump/Musk on Virginia’s federal workers, Winsome Earle-Sears should literally get ZERO votes this November, assuming she’s even the VA GOP(Q)’s nominee…
Winsome Earle-Sears’ Extreme Record Trying to Ban Abortion and Contraception Earns Her the Keynote at Today’s March for Life
VIRGINIA – Winsome Earle-Sears’ extreme record on abortion and birth control earned her the keynote speaking slot at the March for Life rally being held today, so here’s a reminder of her dangerous agenda that would rip away fundamental freedoms for Virginia women.
“Winsome Earle-Sears earned her spot as the keynote speaker at the March for Life by supporting a dangerous agenda that would strip Virginia women of their right to make decisions about their own bodies. Her tie-breaking vote against the right to contraception and birth control is yet another example in her extreme record of opposing reproductive rights,” said DPVA Spokesperson Maggie Amjad.
Read more on Sears’ dangerous record:
Sears “couldn’t resist” voting against this legislation to guarantee Virginia women’s access to contraception.
Sears supports an extreme six week abortion ban similar to the law that took effect in Texas that bans abortion before most women know they are pregnant.
Sears has said that she would support an abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest.
January 2021: The Winchester Star reported that Sears said she wanted to make abortion illegal in all cases, unless the life of the mother was at risk.
Sears vowed to “do everything in [her] power” to end abortion in Virginia.
Of course, it’s possible that by this November, things will look a LOT different in this country in a variety of ways (e.g., the economy could be REALLY bad by then) and public opinion (Trump’s approval rating actually could be a lot LOWER – or not), and that the special election results last night in Florida’s 1st/6th districts and in Wisconsin will end up not being predictive of results in Virginia. But on the other hand…WOW. I mean, Dems “overperforming” November 2024 results in Florida by an average of around 19 points, and overperforming in Wisconsin statewide by around 11 points??? [Note: obviously, special elections aren’t the same as general elections, but Wisconsin’s election yesterday was statewide and high-turnout, with national attention, so quite possibly comparable to the environment we’ll see in Virginia come November…]
If you extrapolate that to Virginia – and again, we should be somewhat cautious here, and also with the caveat that we all have to WORK to make this happen, as nothing is inevitable – we’re talking about Abigail Spanberger potentially winning by something like 17 points (!) in November – similar to what Bob McDonnell won by in 2009, in a “red tsunami” year when the “Tea Party” was raging, Republican voters were fired up and Dems were asleep, etc.. And if *that* happened, in turn that would almost certainly mean that whoever Dems nominate for LG and AG would win (honestly, most people these days are going to vote straight ticket anyway, so it probably doesn’t matter much *electorally* whether it’s Shannon Taylor or Jay Jones for AG, or whether it’s Aaron Rouse, Ghazala Hashmi or Levar Stoney for LG – so mostly just vote for the candidate you think would make the best Attorney General or Lt. Governor). Finally, it would also mean large Democratic gains in the House of Delegates, possibly getting Dems up to 60 seats, compared to their 51 seats now (note: Dems were at 55 HoD seats leading into the 2021 elections).
Anyway, again, let’s not take anything for granted, but right now, heading into the November 2025 elections here, I’d *much* rather be Abigail Spanberger than Winsome Earle-Sears, and I’d much rather be Virginia Democrats than Virginia Republicans.
P.S. Interesting that Elon Musk poured 10s of millions of $$$ into Wisconsin, and if anything it HURT his preferred candidate. If he tries that in Virginia, would we see the same backlash by (Democratic) voters here?
P.P.S. See below for a memo by the House Majority PAC, which argues: “Democrats dramatically overperformed in Florida, and achieved victory in Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court race, revealing that the political headwinds are firmly at our backs heading into 2026.” And they specifically name VA01 (Republican Rob Wittman) and VA02 (Republican Jen Kiggans) as seats Democrats would be on track to “flip” in November 2026…
P.P.P.S. One more point – Can a Virginia governor’s race be a blowout? Yes, definitely. For instance, in 2009, Bob McDonnell (R) won by 17+ points. And in 2017, Ralph Northam (D) won by 9 points. So these elections definitely aren’t always close or competitive…
UPDATE 7:35 am – Check out Sam Shirazi’s podcast on the WI Supreme Court election results last night. As Sam says, “both parties were looking at Wisconsin because it was the first big statewide contest, a lot of voters showing up” and “they gave a pretty clear answer in Wisconsin with the Democrats winning the state Supreme Court race.” Also, excellent point about Florida last night – “Democrats did relatively well in the Pensacola area, which is obviously home to a large military installation…I thought it was interesting that Democrats did pretty well in Pensacola military area. And, you know, you have to think, is that also going to happen in Hampton Roads?… if the issue with the federal workers reaches Hampton Roads, I think the Republicans are going to be in even more danger than just the issues they’re already having in Northern Virginia.”
TO: Interested Parties FROM: House Majority PAC DATE: April 1, 2025 RE: Elections in WI And FL Show Path Towards Flipping The House in 2026
Tonight, Democrats dramatically overperformed in Florida, and achieved victory in Wisconsin’s State Supreme Court race, revealing that the political headwinds are firmly at our backs heading into 2026.
The Issues
Since January, Trump and Republicans have broken promise after promise, voting to gut Medicaid and empowering Elon Musk to raise costs for hardworking Americans in order to fund tax cuts for the wealthy:
PRICES: According to recent polls from CBS News and AP-NORC, Americans are souring on Trump’s economic policies and don’t believe he is prioritizing lowering costs.
TRUMP TARIFFS=HIGHER COSTS: Per AP-NORC, 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of trade policy – and while he “couldn’t care less” if prices go up, the vast majority of Americans will.
MEDICAID: Medicaid, which House Republicans recently voted to cut, emerged as a crucial issue in Florida. GOP Medicaid cuts will cost many Republicans re-election in key House districts across the country where large swaths of the electorate rely on the popular program for health care.
ELON MUSK: Pumping millions into the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in an overt attempt to buy the seat did not sit well with voters. As Musk’s approval rating continues to sink, Democrats should continue to highlight his attacks on the benefits Americans have earned.
Democratic Overperformance
Are there House Republican retirements coming soon? Based on tonight’s results, the likely answer is YES.
If you apply tonight’s overperformance in FL-01 and FL-06 across the House battlefield in 2026, Democrats would be on track to flip over 40 seats, including key toss-up districts like:
Only One Thing Explains Trump’s Tariff Madness (“Don’t fall for the Coherence Fallacy. The president believes (mistakenly) that he’s figured out how to get rid of the progressive income tax.”)
Costa Rican former President Oscar Arias says US revoked his visa (” Former Costa Rican President and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias said on Tuesday that the U.S. had revoked his visa to enter the country, weeks after he criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on social media saying he was behaving like ‘a Roman emperor.'”)
Trump Is Asking the Supreme Court To Let Him Have Black Sites (“The Trump administration inadvertently revealed on Monday that it is attempting to trap Venezuelan migrants in a catch-22 that would effectively block them from challenging their deportation and detention in an El Salvador prison.”)
Choosing lawlessness (“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who came to the United States in 2011, when he was around 16 years old. He has never been convicted of any crime. Abrego Garcia is married to Jennifer Vasquez Sura, a United States citizen, and the couple was living in Maryland with their five-year-old son.”)
The Lawlessness Is the Point (” If JD Vance were capable of shame, he’d be embarrassed by what just happened. After the news broke that President Trump’s administration admitted to deporting a Maryland man in “error,” Vance lashed out at podcaster Jon Favreau, who had asked him to comment on what had transpired.”)
See below for video of a fascinating exchange between Sen. Cory Booker, who has been holding the floor of the US Senate for nearly 24 hours now, and his friend Sen. Tim Kaine, who askes Booker about the economy and about the future of democracy.
First, Sen. Booker talks about Sen. Kaine, saying Kaine’s “like a pastor to me, he’s one of the more honorable men I’ve met in my life and struggles like me about faith and public service.” Sen. Booker then heaped praise on Sen. Kaine’s book (“Walk Ride Paddle: A Life Outside“), saying “I didn’t think it was going to be as beautiful as it was – I laughed, I wept, when you were attacked by spiders and things like that, I’m sorry I was laughing at your misfortune sir… It’s a great book, I’ve read a lot of my colleagues’ books, but this one really touched me.”
Sen. Booker then yields to Sen. Kaine, while holding the US Senate floor, saying that Kaine helped make his holding the Senate floor possible.
Sen. Kaine’s first question to Sen. Booker was about the economic situation we’re in. Sen.. Kaine said:
“I’m a big Bible reader…I’ve thought about it during your your talk since last night is this part of the Gospel of Matthew where he’s challenging people that he thinks are hypocrites and he says to them ‘You can discern the faces of the sky but you can’t discern the signs of the times.’..The way I view this vigil that you have been powerfully engaged upon is you are attempting to discern and explain the signs of the times to your colleagues and to our country and that’s very important that we do.
And I’d like to ask you one question about the signs of the times economically…You walked through how strong the economy was on the day this president was inaugurated and two months later the challenges of a volatile stock market, the challenges of rising prices, the challenges of declining consumer confidence, the challenges of predictions that there might be slow growth or even a recession. We will have a vote on the Senate floor tomorrow about Canadian tariffs, based on a resolution that I’ve introduced that we will have a vote on.
You talked at length about those tariffs and the effect that they have on Americans. As…I’ve traveled around my Commonwealth, my farmers and my small businesses, they’ve seen it before, they saw it in Trump term one, they know how dangerous it will be. They don’t want to pay more for groceries! They don’t want to pay more for building supplies! Farmers don’t want to pay more for fertilizer! My shipyards don’t want to pay more for aluminum and steel! They were promised that they would pay less, not pay more. They don’t want to be part of a campaign to demonize a nation that has been a friend of the United States and stood side by side with us in every war since the War of 1812. They don’t want to be part of a juvenile assertion by this president that that sovereign nation is the 51st state. They don’t want to be part of a name calling effort to call the prime minister of a sovereign nation ‘governor’. They’re trying to read the signs of the times.
Why is this administration that came in with such a strong economic hand doing so much so quickly to both hurt us economically but also to tarnish a relationship that has stood the test of time with an ally? The president often says that his goal is America first. We would all agree as members of this body in America first. But we would all passionately disagree with America alone. What is America alone going to get us? What will we turn to, who will we turn to when the allies that we’ve spent decades building relationships with now feel pushed aside? Yesterday, China announced that they were going to be working with Japan and Korea on a free trade zone, possibly to respond to US tariffs. Other nations are having to engage in hedging behaviors because they thought we were our we were friends and now they doubt that reality anymore.
And so as you look at the signs of these economic times – and then I’ll get to a second question about the signs of the times in our democracy – how are we to understand this and more importantly how how are we best to rectify it? How can we stand up for our families and reduce their burdens, not increase them? How can we stand shoulder to shoulder with linked arms with our allies to face off against adversaries? Reflect on the signs of the times and point us in the right direction, please.”
Finally, Sen. Kaine asks Sen. Booker about the future of our demoracy. Very powerful.
“This is a question about the signs of the times in our democracy. We will celebrate 250 years of American democracy in celebration – not a coronation, not a requium, not a wake, but a celebration. A week ago Sunday, 250 years ago, Patrick Henry stood on the floor of Henrico Parish, now known as St John’s Episcopal Church on Churchill in Richmond, at a moment of decision where people were challenged to understand the signs of the times at a moment of tyranny. And he asked the immortal question – and I almost view your vigil as asking the same question – about where we would stand in such a moment. And there were different forks in the road, a phrase that has attained some meaning recently. And Patrick Henry said, ‘as for me, give me liberty or give me death’.
You’re giving a liberty speech, my colleague. You’re giving a liberty speech as the nation begins to think about 250 years of democracy. The opposite of liberty, that which Henry was fighting against, was tyranny, was tyranny. I am one that believes that we should mark anniversaries, we shouldn’t just act steady state like this country was ordained and we’ll just go on forever regardless. We’re coming up on 250 years of American democracy and there is a live question about its continued existence that this generation is grappling with. Henry gave that speech at St John’s Church and a few months later, July 4 1776, the US declared its independence from England and our history in this new chapter began. And at various points along the way, during the 1850s say or during the 1950s, generations just like ours have had to grapple with the question of whether the experiment will continue or not.
Some of our national symbols have some unusual aspects to them that point to this experiment. We have a national anthem that ends with a question. Not an assertion, not a declaration, but whether the flag will still stand over the home of the free and the land of the brave question mark.
The state flag that Virginia adopted on July 5, 1776 is a most unusual flag – it has a woman representing Roman virtue standing astride a deposed tyrant whose crown is knocked off, who is holding a broken chain in his hand that he’s laying on the ground. It’s one of only six state flags with a woman on it. It’s the only state flag that features toplessness, which occasionally creates some raciness in school as students ask about it. But it’s also the flag with the most unique state motto of of any state. All states have mottos. 49 states’ mottos are positive – hope, eureka, excelsior, onward and upward…Michigan’s has the most unusual positive motto in Latin, ‘if you seek a pleasant peninsula look around you’. Well I wasn’t looking for a peninsula, but I’d rather it be pleasant than not. Virginia is the only flag and the only state with the motto that’s not positive, it’s a rebuke: sic semper tyrannis, thus be it always, thus be it ever to tyrants…it’s the only one that’s a rebuke. And it has stayed…since July 5, 1776. Many state flags have been changed in the last 20 years…Again the verb tense…always ever, it’s not in the current tense…it’s in the future tense, thus be it always to tyrants, thus be it ever to tyrants… asks us two questions 250 years later: do we retain the ability to recognize tyranny, do we retain the virtue to defeat it? Can we recognize tyranny? Can we retain the virtue to defeat it?
My friend, you are standing on the floor in the tradition of Patrick Henry. 250 years later you’re raising a question about liberty and our fidelity to it. And so my question to you would be, what gives you hope that the answer we will give to these questions as Americans as those commemorating a quarter millennium of American democracy, what gives you confidence that we will answer these questions in a way that will honor those who came before us?”
P.S. Missed this – Sen. Mark Warner also joined in the Sen. Cory Booker filibuster…
Continued excellent work by Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA11), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee:
Ranking Member Connolly Requests Transcribed Interviews with Members of the “Houthi PC small group” Signal Chat
Washington, D.C. (April 1, 2025)— Today, Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent letters to non-principal agency officials involved in the unsecured Signal group chat in which senior Trump Administration officials discussed highly sensitive, likely classified plans for a military operation in Yemen using unapproved and unlawful communication methods, unknowingly included TheAtlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg in those discussions, and endangered the lives of American servicemembers involved in the operation.
“The Committee has reason to believe that you have firsthand knowledge concerning the discussion of sensitive and/or classified national security information on Signal or other unofficial messaging applications or platforms, the manner in which senior government officials and other government personnel have used Signal or other such applications or platforms to conduct official government communications, and the extent to which federal officials and personnel may have engaged in improper use of their personal devices to participate in communications concerning official government business or matters of national security,” wrote Ranking Member Connolly.
In his letters, Ranking Member Connolly underscores the importance of the requested transcribed interviews as Committee Democrats seek to:
Determine whether legislation is appropriate to ensure the proper handling of sensitive and/or classified information concerning U.S. national security by federal officials and personnel;
Prevent the unauthorized disclosure of highly sensitive national security information, which could endanger American military and intelligence personnel;
Ensure that official government communications take place on authorized platforms and devices; and
Make certain that federal records are handled and preserved in accordance with the Federal Records Act, Presidential Records Act, and all other applicable federal laws and regulations.
“Accordingly, I request your appearance for a transcribed interview … This information is critical to our investigation into the Signal chat breach, including the extent to which classified and/or sensitive national security information was improperly disclosed, the extent to which such disclosure harmed U.S. national security, the use of Signal and/or other private messaging applications and platforms by national security personnel, and the use of private devices for official government business and communications,” concluded Ranking Member Connolly.
Ranking Member Connolly and Oversight Democrats have launched a multifront investigation into the use of Signal by the Trump Administration’s highest-ranking national security officials to discuss highly sensitive, likely classified plans in a manner that endangers the lives of servicemembers and skirts federal records laws and national security protocols.
On March 25, 2025, Ranking Member Connolly and Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost sent a letter to several members of the National Security Council and White House Cabinet members involved in the group chat advising them to preserve records in accordance with the law as Committee Democrats launched an investigation into this catastrophic and confounding security breach.
On March 26, 2025, Committee Democrats sent a letter to the above mentioned Signal chat participants demanding an immediate briefing on how and why America’s national security secrets ended up in a group chat on an unauthorized messaging app that included a journalist.
On March 27, 2025, Ranking Member Connolly sent a letter to inspectors general at the Department of Defense, Department of State, Department of Treasury, and Central Intelligence Agency, and to Counsel to the President David Warrington demanding a multifront investigation into the exposure of likely classified information in the unsecure Signal chat.
That same day, the Members urged Chairman Comer to schedule a hearing on the reckless, unauthorized disclosure of unclassified information.
