The MeidasTouch Podcast - Abigail Spanberger on Fighting for Virginians and Americans

Episode Date: February 26, 2025

MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on Republican Governors becoming toxic as their voters are fed up with them and Trump and Meiselas talks with the Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia Abigail Spanberger. Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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that the federal government downsizing is wrong. And in fact, we need to press forward and drive efficiencies in our federal government. And as a result of driving those efficiencies, I do expect that some Virginians will lose their job. I don't know. Is it the whole role of like the governor supposed to be to fight for like your state? I don't know. It's like in a sports team. Could you imagine like the coach rooting against the team? You know, I'm the Lakers coach, but I'm really hoping that the New York Knicks win this game.

I think that I'd like to see that. It'll be more efficient for us. What is going on? Oh, and then Young can set up this website, which adds insult to injury. Virginia has jobs. And when you go through this, by the way, I'm not even sure if that's an AI image or people in Europe or what this image even is. But then you look at it and it sends you to LinkedIn and Indeed and basically says,

good luck. All right, I got to bring in a Congresswoman, Abigail Spanberger, Democrat, who's running for governor in Virginia. I look at that as like the craziest, like disappointing, crazy. I don't know what you're running for governor in Virginia. What do you make of it? I think the governor of Virginia has a primary job and that is to stand up for Virginians and to stand up for Virginia. And what is just unbelievable at this moment is that our governor and our lieutenant governor, who's my opponent in our November 2025 race, are doing neither. Excusing the fact that Virginians who work hard, Virginians who serve our country,

that they are losing their jobs, have already lost them, and are fearful that tomorrow might be the day they get that that fateful email. It's just outrageous. Now, you visited the entire state. You visited Democratic areas, Republican areas, purple areas. What are you hearing? Let's start with in the one. Is it is it similar all around? What are you hearing in the in the red areas when you're traveling there? What's going on in the state? Well, every every part, every corner of our Commonwealth is impacted by these potential layoffs and by the ones that have already occurred. We have federal employees across Virginia, certainly very, very centralized in Northern Virginia and in the Hampton Roads region. But across the Commonwealth, everywhere I go, I am hearing either horror stories of people who just got an email one day and the job that they have worked in for years is gone or they are living in fear that they might get that email. And in the story, it is the same everywhere I go.

It's, I had a spouse of an active duty service member approach me at an event in Norfolk, Virginia last weekend, talking about how everyone in his office received this fork in the road email. And while he's active duty and a uniformed officer, the worry is that they might cut the entirety of the road email. And while he's active duty and a uniform officer, the worry is that they might cut the entirety of the civilian force. And frankly, was her worry what's to prevent them from axing her husband as well. And the impact of certainly it is on the individuals, it is on

people who have devoted their lives to serving our country through all of these various federal roles. It's also an impact on Virginia. The University of Virginia just came out with a study and they said a 10% reduction to the federal workforce equates to about 39,000 jobs lost across Virginia and a potential cut of six billion with a B, six billion dollars in revenue or six billion dollars in economic output within our state. Right. This is enormous. It's consequential for the individuals, but it's consequential to our economy. Right. If you've just lost your job or you're fearful you might lose your job, you're not taking your family out to the movies. You're not, you know, taking your spouse out for

Valentine's Day dinner. You're not replacing the microwave that might be on the fritz. You're not stopping and buying the snacks at the 7-Eleven on your way home. The impact is significant and it is felt across the entirety of Virginia. Congresswoman, I'm confused because the White House posted this image, victory. They are declaring a massive victory because they've asked Google, which Google did to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America, which I'm just going to bet that when you go to all the areas in Virginia right now, when they hear about Medicaid being cut, when they hear that their social security may be raided, when they hear about these important agencies and services that they rely on going away, I'm going to bet is the main issue that they're focused on the Gulf of America.

Are they, is this a big celebratory time in the Commonwealth? I got to tell you, you guessed this one correctly. Anywhere I travel across Virginia, I have yet to have a single person bring up the Gulf of America to me. In addition to the attacks on Virginia and Virginians, I have people bringing to me the fact that the cost at the grocery store is still too high.

The cost of cereal, I've got three kids at home, elementary schooler, middle schooler, and high schooler, right? The cost of cereal is expensive if you've got kids at home who love cereal or adults like me, right? Grocery store prices, high. Prices at the pharmacy counter, still a huge portion of people's monthly take-home. The housing crisis, whether it's an issue of affordability or just overall lack of supply. Education, the desire to have our kids be safe in school, right? The issue of recruiting and retaining quality teachers, ensuring that our kids continue to do well in school as we kind of come out of this post pandemic time frame. The challenges of behavioral health, all of these things. These are the issues that people bring to me. I have yet yet to hear anything about the Gulf of America.

Before becoming a congresswoman and then running for governor, you were an intelligence officer and you focused on very serious issues at the CIA. All issues are serious at the CIA, but you also focused on nuclear proliferation. You focused on terrorism. So in the past 48 hours or so, the Trump administration sided with the access of evil Russia, North Korea, Belarus and a few other nations against our allies in refusing to actually just opposing the United Nations resolution condemning Russia's unlawful invasion of Ukraine. Donald Trump's continued to praise Putin over and over again, cut out Europe from negotiations and cut out Ukraine from negotiations with Putin in Saudi Arabia. But this is what they're saying. Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's former press secretary, who's now a host on Fox.

It's kind of a common theme here. And they become defense secretaries, apparently. Here's what she had to say. She said, this is the art of the deal. We're missing the point here. Play this clip. There might be some strategy to that. I do think there's a, quote, method to the madness of buttering up a dictator who very much enjoys that to then find some sort of deal that is friendlier on your terms than maybe it would have been. Yes, I think. What's your response to that?

There's no such thing as method to the madness in the national security realm. The reality is that that vote was a shameful vote. We are the United States of America. We have been that shining city on a hill. We are the beacon of freedom. We are the oldest democracy in the world. The fact that we, through our vote at the United Nations, would side with Russia and North Korea against our ally Ukraine as they fight and they just hit the third anniversary of their fight for their freedom. It is just shameful. And it is astounding because for anyone who has come up, not just in the national security space,

but anybody who lived through the 80s, right? The Russians, the Soviets before them, they are not the side we want to be taking. And for all of our democratic allies across Europe and across Asia to join together in rebuking Russia and standing up for Ukraine, and we back away from that? We are denying our own strength. The strength of the United States has always been in our ability to lead. And whatever she was talking about in that interview, it wasn't,

there's no method. It's just madness. And it is hurting our own national security. It is hurting our long-term partnerships with our friends and allies. And it is, it's just unthinkable, frankly, but it is the reality of where we are in this moment. And my hope is that every American who remembers what it means that we are the country that defeated the Nazis, right? We are the people who helped lead to the end of the fall of the Soviet Union. And we watched the demise of communism, like that is us. And yet here we have in the United Nations, we've aligned ourselves with those authoritarian dictatorships. It's terrible. member of Congress and you had to give up that seat as part of running for governor. So, you know, you can campaign, you can tell people what your platform is, what you're going to do. And I'm sure

people are asking you on the campaign trail, what can we do? And I think people are looking for just like, what can we do as people right now? So when they ask you, what can we do? What's your message to the people of the Commonwealth and to just Americans in general who feel a little bit powerless right now, but want to take action? Yeah. Well, for Virginians, my message is we have the ability right here on the ground to focus on the issues that matter to community members across the Commonwealth, strengthening our public schools, endeavoring to actually lower costs for Virginians, ensuring that our housing supply is sufficient to meet the demand of all of the people who want to move to our

beautiful, wonderful state, keeping our communities safe and protecting our rights. Virginia is the only state in the South that hasn't further restricted reproductive rights since the Dobbs decision. And we get to go to the polls in November of 2025. And all of those things, it matters to Virginians, certainly because we're the ones who live here, are impacted by the work that I will do as governor. But to everybody across the country, I would say our race matters to you as well, because Virginia and New Jersey are the only two states that in 2025, this November, we have statewide races. In Virginia, we have the opportunity to flip our governorship. We currently have a Republican governor. We can flip our governorship.

We can flip our lieutenant governorship. We can flip our governorship. We currently have a Republican governor. We can flip our governorship. We can flip our lieutenant governorship. We can flip our attorney general, and we can expand upon the majority of 51 out of 100 Democrats that we have right now and make that number larger. And when we do that, we will send a message to the rest of the country. We will send a message to the rest of the country. We will send a message to candidates running across the country in our 2026 midterms that we did it in Virginia and you can do it anywhere across the country. We are the bellwether state. And when we win here, it is the first domino to fall in ensuring that we win across the country in 2026 in those midterms. And so for anybody who wants to be engaged, for anyone who is feeling depleted or just so many feelings at this moment, like turn your attention to Virginia. Support our candidates, whether it's me as the governor candidate or our House of Delegates

candidates, sign up to volunteer from afar. You can come to Virginia, knock doors for us in the fall. But we need all the help that we can get because we know that all eyes will be on Virginia because we know we're the bellwether. And on the ground, I can tell you, Virginians across the Commonwealth are committed to making sure that as the bellwether. And on the ground, I can tell you, Virginians across the Commonwealth are committed to making sure that as the bellwether, we do our job and we signal what is to come. And that is success. That is electing strong Democrats

and making a real change, not just here in the Commonwealth, but being the precursor to all of that in 26 and 27 and ultimately 28. So you can go to my website which is abigailspanberger.com. You can sign up to volunteer, you can donate to the campaign, you can get engaged, and we are just so happy and grateful for any and all support that we can have from anywhere across the country. It matters to us in Virginia. Certainly it matters to the future of our Commonwealth, but we recognize the role that we play on the greater

stage. So please, please come join us. We're going to win, but we're going to need every bit of help that we can to flip these seats. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, thank you so much for joining. We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers by the end of this month. Can't get enough Midas? Check out the Midas Plus sub stack for ad-free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski, and more. Sign up for free now at MidasPlus.com.