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Paroles for Virginia Felons Soar Under New Dem Governor · 3 Martini Lunch – Political Humor & Commentary

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Three Martini Lunch. Grab a stool next
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Greg Karambas of Radio America and Jim Garrity of
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: National Review. Three Martini's coming up.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So glad you're with us for the Tuesday edition of
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: the Three Martini Lunch. And Jim, of course, even though
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: we're less than two months away from midterm election day 2028,
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: that campaign's pretty much going to start as soon as
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: the ballots are counted. Maybe even before the ballots are
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: officially counted in California. But speaking of California, Governor Gavin
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Newsom has pretty much been planning on running for president
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: in 2028 for a very long time. He went fly
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: fishing with Jake Tapper. Jonathan Martin of Politico eats stuff
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: with politicians. Jake Tapper apparently goes fly fishing. But there
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: was a revelation from Gavin Newsom yesterday, or at least
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that's what they want you to think.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot of Democrats.
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: 31 flavors.
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: You're not even the only Californian.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: No, right.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: You've got Ro Khanna, Kamala... Yeah, I don't know if
• 1:00
  Speaker 4: she runs, but we'll see.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I know she's called around. Yeah, but I wouldn't run
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: if she ran. If she runs, you will not?
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Of course not.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Why would I? I wouldn't do that to her. I
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: wouldn't do it to me. Why would I? I wouldn't
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: do that to you. I wouldn't waste everyone's time. Who
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: needs that? What do you mean?
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: That doesn't even make sense to me.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I just, I wouldn't. No, I wouldn't. But first of all, electorally,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: it's a gift from God for everybody else.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: They'd enjoy the hell out of it.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Mutual assured destruction.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: It services no greater good.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: I mean, you do whatever you want.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I don't care.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: But like counterargument would be like, you know, she had
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: a shot.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: And you've never run and she's run twice. Yeah.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: I mean, that would be the approach to the campaign, certainly.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: That would be the case you'd make. Pretty good one, actually.
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: You know, that's objectively true.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I just, but I know what that means.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: I know her base of supporters.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I know her friends. The Zen diagram on that is
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: just pure crossover.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: The Zen diagram, Jim, not the Venn diagram. Kamala, you
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: got to give a little tutorial there. So Jim, I
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: don't know why we can't just have a conversation in studio.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Now we have to have waiters out there and stream
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: fly fishing and so forth. But what do you make
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: of Gavin Newsom after all this preparation saying, you know,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: if Kamala gets in this thing, I'll defer.
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: Now, Greg, I have interviewed many presidential candidates. I have
• 2:22
  Speaker 5: Never done so fly fishing. I'm not a fly fisher. Occasionally,
• 2:27
  Speaker 5: back when the kids were little, we would do the
• 2:29
  Speaker 5: bamboo stick over that and try to put a worm
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: on a hook and never really caught very much.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Do you usually wear a lapel mic while you're out
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: fly fishing? Just kind of curious.
• 2:40
  Speaker 4: While I'm submerged in water, no.
• 2:41
  Speaker 5: On the one hand, I totally understand if it didn't work.
• 2:44
  Speaker 5: We don't want to do the same old sitting behind
• 2:46
  Speaker 5: a desk thing.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: But this is such a... Look, I'm just Gavin. I'm
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: just a regular guy. I'm homespun. This is my mouth.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I'm picking at stuff.
• 2:58
  Speaker 5: I'm just casting. I'm just a regular guy. I am
• 3:02
  Speaker 5: not Gordon Gekko. I am not a villain from Robocop.
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: I am not the kind of guy who would bang
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: your wife at the first opportunity. Okay, he still is
• 3:09
  Speaker 5: the kind of guy who would bang your wife at
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: the first opportunity. But it is genuinely surprising. And a
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: bit of credit to Jake Tapper for expressing that surprise.
• 3:19
  Speaker 5: because it doesn't... One is that Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom,
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: both San Francisco politics, have kind of had this sibling
• 3:27
  Speaker 5: rivalry between them and their political ambitions for a very
• 3:30
  Speaker 5: long time. The question of who is going to go
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: after which office and which path.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: You could see a, boy, it'd.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Be tough to run against Kamala-type company, but he seems
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: like he's ruling it out.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So one of two things... There are a couple scenarios here.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: One is that.
• 3:48
  Speaker 5: Gavin Newsom knows she's not actually going to run, which
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: would be a little bit surprising, because the buzz had
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: been that she'd done her book tour, and based on
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: the big crowds and this book tour, she was convinced
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: that she could still be very viable. As I've mentioned before,
• 4:02
  Speaker 5: South Carolina is still pretty early in the process, and
• 4:05
  Speaker 5: it's still a heavily African-American one.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Now, she didn't do particularly well.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: There was no sign she was going to do well
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: in South Carolina the last time she ran in the
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: 2019 campaign. No, I'm not misspeaking because she did not
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: make it to the year 2020 in her presidential campaign
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: of that cycle. But she could look at that and say,
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: you know, here's one primary state that I'm likely to
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: take the Biden path and do very well on. You
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: don't see Gavin Newsom doing well amongst that demographic. You
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: don't see Ro Khanna or AOC doing well. And that
• 4:33
  Speaker 5: she could clean up amongst African-American Democrats. And that's her
• 4:35
  Speaker 5: path to the nomination. Again, as Jake Tapper lays out,
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: You sure you want to do this again, Democrats? This
• 4:42
  Speaker 5: is the one guy you know who could not beat
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Donald Trump. You've got to wonder, oh, will she do
• 4:47
  Speaker 5: better against J.D. Vance or Marco Rubio or whoever the
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: GOP nominee is? So it's curious. I guess it's possible
• 4:54
  Speaker 5: she runs. He decides, oh, I didn't really mean it,
• 4:56
  Speaker 5: and I'm going to run again. But then this video
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: is going to get played a lot if she's in
• 5:02
  Speaker 5: and he runs back.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: In light of that.
• 5:05
  Speaker 5: So I suppose it's theoretically on a molecular level possible
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: that he's telling the truth and he genuinely does think
• 5:11
  Speaker 5: that a race between himself and Kamala Harris would turn
• 5:14
  Speaker 5: into this.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Giant expenditure of resources.
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: And it also may be the idea that he thinks
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: with California that the race isn't big enough for two
• 5:22
  Speaker 5: candidates from California. They'd be competing for the same lane,
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: so to speak, in the primary and.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: That he shouldn't do it.
• 5:29
  Speaker 5: Considering how open he's been about his presidential ambitions... This
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: is a genuinely curious statement for him to make, and
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: I do think it's a sign that he has some
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: sense that she's actually not going to run. Otherwise, you
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: would not want to go out and say something like this.
• 5:43
  Speaker 5: You could just as easily demur and say, like, ah,
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: you know, I Purely to say, or, you know, she's
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: a friend and I hope we don't end up running
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: against each other, but we'll see what happens, blah, blah, blah.
• 5:52
  Speaker 5: And he did not do that, which I think is
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: a hint that he knows something's up there.
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: And somebody said, you know, if you think you're the
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: best person for the job, you're in the race. You're
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: not going to be like, oh, well, that person's in.
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to do it. So I think your
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: analysis is probably Occam's razor here that she's probably not
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: going to do it. The other possibility is that his
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: star has kind of peaked and it's on its way
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: back down and he's not.
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: The current flavor of the Democratic Party. But I don't
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: think Gavin.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Newsom is humble enough to actually accept that if that's
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: the case.
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: I think he would probably plow ahead because he just.
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: Doesn't- That would require levels of self-awareness that there's no
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: indication he's ever had at all. The other thing is that, look,
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: for years I've been arguing that he is the most
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: overhyped guy and that his record as a governor- is
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: really not that good. Also, by the way, his record
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: as a mayor, all of his promises, we're going to
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: end homelessness in this city, blah, blah, blah. Cutting state
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: fire aid right before the wildfires in Los Angeles, things
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: like that. I suppose it's theoretically possible he's looked at
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: his own record and said, I'm going to get painted
• 6:56
  Speaker 5: as an out-of-touch San Francisco liberal. My record is not
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: good enough and they're just going to go to town
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: on me. But again, that requires a level of self-awareness
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: that I've just never, there's no indication that he's capable
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: of that And very few politicians are, you know, most
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: politicians are running well past when it's abundantly clear they've
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: already lost a bunch of caucuses and primaries. The idea
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: of people sensing before they start that there's no path
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: to victory seems kind of, you know, that's, again, just
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: doesn't sound like the Gavin Newsom we know.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: No, not at all.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: But being self-aware is important whether you're running for office
• 7:28
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• 7:31
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• 7:34
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• 7:37
  Speaker 2: like Gavin Newsom may or may not be doing. And
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• 8:27
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim, let's head up to Maine. It's been
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: a while since we talked about the Maine Senate race.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: Now that Graham Plattner, as you pointed out on social
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: media yesterday, has basically gone into the witness relocation program.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: But Troy Jackson is the new Democratic Senate nominee, not
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: chosen by the people, but chosen by a few hundred
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: delegates hastily back in July. But he's got some of
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: those same Graham Plattner moments. You might say Zoran Mamdani
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: tendencies about what to do about rising rent.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: What should you do?
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: Just seize property. That's the answer.
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: I mean, me and Christy Matheson was talking just a
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: while ago about people paying $ 850 just for their lot rental.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I don't know what it's gone up to here, but
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know how anyone does that.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And it's not fair. It's not right to be. And
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: then the other thing.
• 9:14
  Speaker 6: That I do hear a lot about, too, is how
• 9:16
  Speaker 6: they won't do anything for services. And that is completely
• 9:21
  Speaker 6: unfair and not right.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: And we have to we have to make that change.
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: I feel strongly that, you know, if needed, the state
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: should be able to come in, take these places over.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Some people will say that that's insane.
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: But until the people get a chance to set up
• 9:39
  Speaker 6: co-op or whatever, there should be a way to hold
• 9:42
  Speaker 6: these so that you don't see the private equity coming
• 9:46
  Speaker 6: in and making the killing on these parts. Good grief.
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: If you suffer from insomnia, just play a Troy Jackson speech.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: But basically, you hear what he said there. Have the
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: state come in and take over if things don't improve. Jim,
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: you could cut taxes. You could reduce regulations and make
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: life easier for landlords and other property owners. But no,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the state's just going to swoop in and take it
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: from you.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Greg, you know who else liked taking things that didn't
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: belong to him? Isn't it great? We get to do
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: the Hitler jokes. We thought Graham Platner.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: Was leaving the race, was going to be an end
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: to that. But no, it turns out that Troy Jackson.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: So here's the thing.
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: He rambles in his remarks. What is he talking about
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: taking over? Is it rental properties? I spend a lot
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: of time transcribing remarks by presidents.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure if someone ever showed.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Me the transcript of the YouTube of my comments on
• 10:39
  Speaker 5: this podcast, I would probably be aghast at my own incoherence.
• 10:44
  Speaker 5: But it's kind of interesting how much you're talking about they. Well,
• 10:47
  Speaker 5: when you're saying, who's they, right? And this, what's this?
• 10:51
  Speaker 5: It is amazing how much people off the cuff do
• 10:53
  Speaker 5: not speak in specifics. And therefore, just from that, you
• 10:57
  Speaker 5: play like 60 seconds, 90 seconds of those remarks. I'm
• 11:01
  Speaker 5: not entirely sure what we're talking about, but he just
• 11:05
  Speaker 5: knows that the government should have the authority to come
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: in and seize it.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Now, again, we have a constitution.
• 11:11
  Speaker 5: Some people would argue property rights are at the heart
• 11:14
  Speaker 5: of really just human civilization. Because if somebody else can
• 11:17
  Speaker 5: come along and take your stuff, you have very little
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: incentive to create stuff. Because now all you've done is
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: you've done the labor for somebody else to come along
• 11:25
  Speaker 5: and take it. And you see it everywhere from, say,
• 11:27
  Speaker 5: oil companies in Venezuela. And they're concerned about whether their
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: property rights will be respected down the road when there's
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: a different U.S.
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: Administration.
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: To right here in this whole sense of like, ah, well,
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: we're the government. fights over eminent domain, the little pink
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: houses up in Connecticut that the Supreme Court made this
• 11:43
  Speaker 5: terrible decision in, in Calo versus New London, which, oh,
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: by the way, they never actually built the development that
• 11:47
  Speaker 5: they were supposed to, you know, they won that case over.
• 11:50
  Speaker 5: The government's, you know, seizure of property should be an
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: absolute last resort. And one of the whole things under
• 11:54
  Speaker 5: eminent domain is if the government does that because we
• 11:56
  Speaker 5: need to build power transmission lines or a railroad or
• 12:00
  Speaker 5: something like that, well, then we have to compensate you
• 12:02
  Speaker 5: fair market value for the property that we are taking.
• 12:06
  Speaker 5: He didn't say anything about that. He's like, well, we
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: don't like the way you're running what I assume are
• 12:09
  Speaker 5: rental properties. And again, why is this? Again, he wants
• 12:14
  Speaker 5: to run for U.S.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: Senate.
• 12:16
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure this would be like, why is a U.S.
• 12:19
  Speaker 5: Senate candidate talking about the government seizing rental properties? Not
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: all levels of government take care of all problems. The
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: right answer is to say, well, as a senator, there's
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: really not much I'm going to be able to do
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: about that. This seems like an issue for your town council.
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: If you're having problems with the person running the mental owner,
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: there are health and safety inspections that residences are required.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: We have systems to take care of this. Have the
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: federal government come in and seize the property is not
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: a rational response, and it's kind of unnerving that he's
• 12:51
  Speaker 5: going there. Thank goodness Susan Collins, who sits upon a
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: throne of skulls of her enemies, is running again. Now,
• 12:57
  Speaker 5: she's been trailing in the polls, Greg, but we all
• 12:59
  Speaker 5: know that doesn't mean anything.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: It doesn't.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Just need her to get to 50% on that first
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: ballot because they've got that ranked choice nonsense going up
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: there in Maine.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: But, wow.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, even if you agree with Graham Platner, just
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: listen to that. Think about listening to that for six years.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: You just said Graham Platner. Troy Jackson.
• 13:17
  Speaker 5: Which is a good Freudian slip to indicate these guys
• 13:20
  Speaker 5: are interchangeable. It's just that my assumption is Troy Jackson
• 13:24
  Speaker 5: has better taste in tattoos. But you know, I've never
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: seen the guy with that many clothes on.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: So let's see.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: We don't know. Let's keep it that way. Yeah, absolutely insane.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: So hopefully the voters in Maine have some common sense
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: as they start heading.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: To the polls.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: But for the property that you own, hopefully the government
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: won't take it away. But you also need to make
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: sure that you are well covered if major repairs are
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: needed for things like water lines, sewer lines, water heaters, plumbing, HVAC,
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: all the big ticket items that you never want to
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: have to deal with, but eventually they're going to come.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: But instead of shelling out thousands of dollars to get
• 13:57
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• 14:02
  Speaker 2: whenever it does happen, they'll pay for everything. All you
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: got to do is give them a call.
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: Greg, we're leaving summer, and that means we're ending the
• 14:08
  Speaker 5: time of year when your air conditioning is likely to break.
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: Now we're entering the cooler months, which is probably when
• 14:13
  Speaker 5: your heating is going to go. And, you know, homeless
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: insurance will handle things like trees falling into your house,
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: to pick an entirely hypothetical example. But, you know, the
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: day-to-day wear and tear, plumbing, electrical, it's not going to
• 14:25
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• 14:28
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• 14:30
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• 14:32
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• 14:36
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• 14:37
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• 14:40
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• 14:42
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• 14:45
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  Speaker 2: That's HomeServe.com slash martini for 50% less savings compared to
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: renewal price void in Florida. Well, as we inch closer
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: to Election Day 2026, it's worth reminding everyone again that
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: elections have consequences. And we are learning that the hard
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: way here in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Last year, of course,
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: Abigail Spanberger easily elected governor. A lot of different factors
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: for that. But unfortunately, she pretty much went in the
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: opposite direction of the successful policies of former Governor Glenn Youngkin,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: and one of those is when it comes to parole.
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: We head over to ABC7, local DC affiliate here. There's
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: a big shakeup on the Virginia Parole Board, which is
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: impacting victims and families. This year, Governor Spanberger appointed all
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: new members to the Virginia Parole Board, which decides if
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Virginia's most dangerous criminals get parole or serve the rest
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: of their sentence behind bars. Inmates being granted parole was
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: virtually non-existent under former Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin. Around 1%
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of inmates were granted parole. during Youngkin's parole board's tenure.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: So far, Spanberger's parole board has approved around 10% of
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: parole requests, which means that's 10 times more than the
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: previous parole board. And they highlight a family here where
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: a woman was killed back in 1998, second degree murder.
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: Her family begged the state or the Commonwealth, whatever you
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: want to say, to keep this killer locked up. No, no,
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: he's totally rehabilitated. Makes you think of Shawshank Redemption where
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: Morgan Freeman's like.
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: No threat to society here. Yeah, yeah, totally rehabilitated. I
• 16:30
  Speaker 4: can tell you I'm a changed man.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Now in the movie, he didn't.
• 16:33
  Speaker 4: Get paroled when he said that, but apparently it works
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: in Virginia.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: So Greg, as of April, Governor Abigail Spanberger had a
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: 47% approval rating with 46% of voters disapproving. We're basically
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: about evenly split. And traditionally, Virginians have, you know, they're
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: pretty generous in their assessment of their governors this was
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: the lowest of any you know uh the low of
• 16:57
  Speaker 5: any you know new governor um and everyone had kind
• 17:00
  Speaker 5: of observed wow this is like how that's this is
• 17:03
  Speaker 5: talk about you know uh botching your honeymoon or your
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: first couple months in office this was during the big
• 17:08
  Speaker 5: are we going to redistricting referendum that eventually got struck
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: down by the state supreme court spanberger has said she
• 17:13
  Speaker 5: didn't support redistricting then turned around and became an enthusiastic
• 17:16
  Speaker 5: cheerleader for it So there was also another poll that
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: said it had rebounded up to 50, like 57%, or
• 17:27
  Speaker 5: significantly better. But now there's a new one from Virginia
• 17:30
  Speaker 5: Commonwealth University that has her, again, 44% approving, 47% disapproving,
• 17:36
  Speaker 5: indicating that she is underwater. Not exactly a mystery of
• 17:41
  Speaker 5: why she would be underwater or have a significantly lower
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: approval rating. One is that she ran, as this moderate,
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: she ran on focusing on cost of living. Now, we
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: should point out, governors have a limited ability to influence
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: the cost of living in their state. They could lower taxes.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: There's no indication she wants to do that. In fact,
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: she has rejoined a regional electricity compact with other states
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: that puts more pressure on using non-greenhouse gas-emitting renewable energy,
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: which makes electricity rates go higher.
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: Hey, Greg, was it a hot summer? Yes, it was.
• 18:16
  Speaker 5: People use air conditioning, we discussed with our last sponsor.
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: So she's done nothing on that point. And then, of course,
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: there's the, as I mentioned, the redistricting referendum. But now this,
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: I'm thinking back to that, you know, look, and we
• 18:29
  Speaker 5: kind of knew Spanberger was likely to win the entire time.
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: We had a very flawed Republican candidate there. I don't
• 18:36
  Speaker 5: remember her running ads on how she's going to increase
• 18:39
  Speaker 5: the number of violent offenders back on the streets. In fact,
• 18:41
  Speaker 5: a lot of her ads, she was a tough, she'd
• 18:43
  Speaker 5: worked in the CIA, she'd worked as a postal inspector,
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: she'd been a federal agent. It was all about her
• 18:47
  Speaker 5: being tough on crime. And now all of a sudden
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: we're putting more violent criminals.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Oh, wait, what?
• 18:52
  Speaker 5: Like, again, who were the Virginians who were saying, There
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: are too many violent criminals who are behind bars for
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: too long. Too many violent criminals are not walking our
• 19:02
  Speaker 5: streets freely the way they should be. Again, you and
• 19:06
  Speaker 5: I are very skeptical of any claim of the status
• 19:10
  Speaker 5: of a moderate Democrat. As I have emphasized many times,
• 19:15
  Speaker 5: a Democrat is described as moderate. They mean the tone
• 19:20
  Speaker 5: of voice. They mean the speaking tone. It doesn't pound
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: the table a lot. It has nothing to do with
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: their ideological position. Spanberger is another left liberal progressive Democrat,
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: and the policies coming out of her administration are completely
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: consistent with that. Depressing, frustrating, but very predictable.
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, way too many in the Democratic Party are essentially... pro-criminal.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: They're not going to say it that way, but they're
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: going to say, so many criminals, oh, they just had
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: a rough start in life or their society or the
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: system is stacked against them. And so we're going to
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: give them another chance. We're not going to prosecute them.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: We're going to have no cash bail. We're going to
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: go easy on parole here, at least a lot easier
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: than we used to. And like you said, that is
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: not what people voted for.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: So again, remember this.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: When you go to the polls, wherever you live, that
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: just because Democrats are focusing their message on affordability, that's
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: not the only thing that's going to get dealt with.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: They probably won't even deal with that. They just like
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: the buzzword. They don't really have any plans. But they're
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: definitely going to be pushing a liberal agenda if they
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: have the power that the Democrats currently have in Virginia.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: So just very, very frustrating.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 20:25
  Speaker 4: Well, when we come back, the rumor mill was wrong.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: The rumor mill was wrong.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: All right, Jim and our chaser, Cocaine Mitch is back.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: People said he was dead. People said he was brain dead.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: But yesterday he made his return to the Senate in
• 20:45
  Speaker 2: a wheelchair. He had some comments that I read, but
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: I never saw the video of. So I'm not sure
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: if that video exists. They said that he talked a
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: little bit slower. There's video of him on the Senate
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: floor taking a vote, shaking hands with a lot of people.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: He definitely looks pretty rough.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: He's definitely, you know, kind of moving in slow motion,
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: and that's even from the wheelchair, so who knows what
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: his condition really is, but he is back to work,
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: so the most dire predictions were certainly wrong, and You know,
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: he basically needs to go a few more months to
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: finish out this term. We hope he lives longer than that.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: But nonetheless, Scott Jennings probably breathing a sigh of relief today.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: I was going to say, glad to see him back
• 21:23
  Speaker 5: in the Senate. Glad to see and also somewhat relieved
• 21:26
  Speaker 5: that his term will end January 3rd, 2027. Again, capable
• 21:31
  Speaker 5: of voting, capable of showing up. It probably makes John
• 21:34
  Speaker 5: Thu's life a little bit easier for the next couple
• 21:36
  Speaker 5: of months. But obviously, yeah, McConnell's been around for a
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: long time. We're very glad to have him back, but
• 21:44
  Speaker 5: also very glad to see him riding off into the
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: sunset and enjoying a well-earned, well-resting retirement.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: And the staff should still be more forthcoming about what's
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: going on here. Mitch McConnell first elected to the Senate
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: when Ghostbusters came out. So 1984. So he's wrapping up
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: his sixth term, seventh term? Yeah, 42 years in the U.S.
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: Senate. So anyway. We will see what comes next tomorrow. Jim,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: have a great day.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: See you tomorrow, Greg.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: Jim Garrity, National Review. I'm Greg Karumbas of Radio America.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being with us today. Please be
• 22:13
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• 22:15
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• 22:18
  Speaker 4: Please keep those coming.
• 22:19
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• 22:20
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• 22:23
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• 22:26
  Speaker 4: at Greg Karumbas.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: Have a great Tuesday and join us again Wednesday for
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the next Three Martini Lunch.