Exclusive – Glenn Youngkin: ‘Murder Rate in Virginia Went up 43 Percent’ Under Terry McAuliffe

The murder rate in Virginia rose 43 percent during former Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s (D) tenure as the state’s chief executive, Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin said on Wednesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow, author of Breaking the News: Exposing the Establishment Media’s Hidden Deals and Secret Corruption.

Youngkin described McAuliffe, the Democrat nominee for governor of Virginia, as a “recycled politician.”

“Virginians have already had Terry McAuliffe,” he remarked. “He was our governor. He failed Virginians, and it’s absolutely comprehensive failure. Economic opportunity for Virginians today is nowhere near what it was before he was governor. When he was governor, the murder rate in Virginia went up 43 percent.”

“What we see today is the aftermath of so many of the policies that he put in place that have disadvantaged Virginia businesses and Virginians,” he continued, “as our cost of living has escalated and is now higher than our peer state. So Virginians don’t want Terry back, and that’s what’s going to absolutely propel us just like in 2009 to a Republican sweep in Virginia.”

Youngkin said members of the Virginia Parole Board nominated by McAuliffe had released violent criminals.

“Safe communities have absolutely become the top issue, right now, as our crime rate in Virginia has escalated in an unprecedented manner,” he said. “Terry McAuliffe is on the record saying that he will get rid of qualified immunity, which will result in massive retirements across law enforcement and simply just repeat his record as team one of the worst governors when it comes to combating crime.”

He added, “[McAuliffe’s] parole board, that he nominated, has gone absolutely wild in letting violent criminals out of prison, and Virginians know that’s the last thing they want.”

Youngkin noted that McAuliffe has not denounced critical race theory or school closures across Virginia, ostensibly decreed as public health measures in response to the coronavirus. Implementation of critical race theory, he observed, undermines the development of academic excellence.

“Education is the top issue for families around Virginia,” he determined. “Terry McAuliffe’s lack of comment on opening our schools [and] addressing critical race theory has just been deafening, and Virginia families noticed this. They understand that excellence and education is a hallmark of Virginia’s competitiveness.”

He added, “Terry McAuliffe and the left-liberal wing of the Democrat Party have no interest in pursuing policies that stand for excellence in education. They want to push critical race theory and let teachers’ unions dominate our families and students.”

“[McAuliffe’s] silence was deafening,” Youngkin said again of McAuliffe’s lack of criticism of school lockdowns or critical race theory curriculum.

“Never did [McAuliffe] suggest that he had children’s interests [in mind] when these schools stayed closed much longer than they ever needed to be,” he held. “We watched schools in Florida open up last August, be open five days a week, and we watched Virginia’s kids still suffer all the way through the end of the year with in many places partial and full closure to in-classroom education.”

He went on, “On top of that, the curriculum in Virginia schools has gone haywire as critical race theory has been infused into our school system, and we’re watching teachers and faculty and parents and even students stand up and say, ‘No, we do not want that,’ and the only reaction that school boards have had is try to cancel people.”

“Terry McAuliffe is on the wrong side of all of the educational issues in Virginia,” Youngkin concluded.