Erick Erickson HR 3 05-06-26

When Abigail Spanberger, the new governor of Virginia, suggested a less radical redistricting plan for Congress, Louise Lucas attacked her and said, we were going to go 10 to 1 because F the Republicans, and she said it publicly at a press conference. She didn't care. She's going to be in their face, rubbing their nose in the fact that she was in charge of the Virginia Senate now. She's been cruel and contemptuous of others, including Democrats. And many of those Democrats, except for the Democratic Speaker of the House, who this morning rushed out to defend her, he himself is a former indicted, I think, convicted person. Her home, her office, her marijuana dispensary that she owns, yes, the majority leader of the Virginia legislature owns a marijuana dispensary. It was all raided. And she tried to rally the politicians of Virginia this morning to come out forcefully and denounce it saying it was just intimidation from Donald Trump. And she would not be bullied by Donald Trump. Ironically, Fox News had a reporter present at the scene. And Democrats this morning said, how is it that Fox News was able to have a reporter on the scene of the FBI raid? And the response from the Republicans was, how was it that CNN had a camera crew outside Roger Stone's house at 5 o'clock in the morning when he was frog marched out of his house by the police? Please answer that question. And then we will answer this question. And the Democrats attempted to move on. Ironically. Most Democrats in Virginia did not come out and defend Louise Lucas today. One of the big reasons is because there have been rumors going back three years in Virginia that Louise Lucas used her political clout. She's been in the legislature for 30 years. She used her political clout to get a marijuana sales license she did not qualify for and then used her clout to shut out competitors among others. And now we have the New York Times weighing in. FBI agents on Wednesday searched the office of a powerful Democratic state senator in Virginia who has played a key role in a high-stakes congressional redistricting fight. The legislator, Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, Virginia, is a senior leader in the state Senate, where she has served for more than 30 years. Now wait, this is the key sentence, the one you've all been waiting for, the one that Democrats knew they needed to keep quiet about. And I quote, from the not exactly Trump-friendly New York Times, two people familiar with the case said the search was related to an investigation opened. during the biden administration that had continued examining possible corruption and bribery related to the marijuana dispensary business

FBI agents executed a search warrant at Ms. Lucas's office and a neighboring marijuana dispensary, according to people familiar with the matter, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe an open investigation. Other locations were also searched the people said. In a written statement, the Bureau's Norfolk Field Office said the agents had been executing a court-authorized federal search warrant. in Portsmouth, Virginia, and otherwise declined to answer questions. After the Virginia legislature passed its 10 to one redistricting effort and the voters approved it, Louise Lucas responded to Ted Cruz. Y'all started it and we effing finished it. The redistricting, by the way, is in the Virginia Supreme Court, which has not yet ruled on whether it's constitutional or not. Even Abigail Spanberger, the governor of Virginia, suggested that they needed to slow it down and do it in 2028 because, according to the governor at the time, they were breaking state law. and defying the Constitution. And then once it was passed, she changed her tune and said, no, no, we could do this. That law is just a technicality. The law in Virginia says if you want to amend the Virginia Constitution, you have to have two votes of the Virginia legislature with an election between before you can go to the people. They didn't actually have that intervening election. They just tried to rush it through.

The Virginia Supreme Court might throw it out. And by the way, at the Virginia Supreme Court throws it out, which is looking possible, I still don't think they'll do it. Just full disclosure, I don't think the Virginia Supreme Court is going to pick that fight. I don't think they'll do it. But if they did. The Republicans could net up to nine to ten seats nationwide with a redistricting push now going on, plus another one in two years with Georgia, which is already said, the governor there has already stated they're going to come back and redistrict for 2028. They'll legally be allowed to do that. Louise Lucas flew too close to the sun. She strapped on Icarus's wings and decided that she would rise above everyone else. And again, the rumors in Virginia go back multiple years that Louise Lucas had been involved in serious levels of corruption. There were multiple stories put out in the last number of years that Louise Lucas was using her clout in the Virginia legislature. to secure marijuana dispensary licenses for herself and to shut out potential competitors, among others. These rumors were documented in the Virginia press. The Biden administration itself is the one that prompted the investigation. And isn't it notable what happens right now? Whenever the FBI raids any Democrat right now, the Democrats say, well, this is political playback. This is Donald Trump. This is the GOP. They're playing dirty. How dare they abuse the FBI processes? Now, when the Democrats were using the FBI when they went to Roger Stone's house, when they pulled Jeff Clark out of his house, when they rounded up the anti-abortion, the pro-life activist, the Democrats, oh, that's not partisan. That's the law. They violated the law. It's just really notable how few prominent Democrats are aggressively rushing out to defend Louise Lucas today because they've known for a while she was accused to doing this stuff. The rumor's been out there for a while. And what's notable is they left her in power. She was a bully and they didn't want to deal with her. And they left her in a leadership position in the state senate. And that is something that both parties continually have in common with each other is they leave bad people in charge of things. Look at Matt Bill Gates. When he was in Congress, Donald Trump tried to elevate him to be Attorney General. Matt Bill Gates was notorious behind the scenes. They didn't like him. They left him in positions within the House of Representatives where they never should have. You've got a Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives from North Carolina who's being investigated for sexual harassment of young women. And it turns out, I forget it was if Chuck somebody, the Republicans have allegedly now that the allegations have come out about the investigations, oh, we don't for years. He was a dirtbag.

Look at the Democrats with Eric Swalwell. Eric Swalwell rises too high, gets too close to the sun, and they got to take him out to be able to consolidate the field in California. He was running number one. All that opposition research on Eric Swalwell was Democratic opposition research. It was not Republican opposition research. And all the Democrats against us, we knew all along he was a dirt bag. Did y'all know, and I didn't know this until yesterday, Eric Swalwell would have meetings at Hooters? You would think those dirtbag politicians would have been able to keep that place in business. The amount of money Eric Swalwell was throwing at Hooters. That kind of said, isn't that kind of creepy, though? We're going to go to Hooters for a campaign meeting. Ladies, come to Hooters for the campaign meeting. Just bizarre. But they knew. And it's the same thing with this Louise Lucas situation. They knew. They knew all along. What's the deal here in Missouri? What was Eric? What was Eric Gritens was the governor? There were all sorts of stories about him and his abuse of particularly a hairdresser, among others, just sorted stuff. And they pushed him out here in Missouri. The Republicans in Missouri did the right thing. And then he tried to run for what, the Senate and people had to persuade the president not to support him. It was kind of a wild run. Republicans in Missouri did the right thing. In Louisiana, you had Edwin Edwards for years and the Republicans in Louisiana and the Democrats in Louisiana. They all kind of liked the guy. He was a rascal. And Republicans occasionally could beat him and he would just run for reelection again. Sometimes you know about your corrupt politicians. Now, you guys in Texas have an opportunity to do the right thing. You know, Ken Paxton is corrupt as all get out. He's had multiple affairs on his wife. He's been open about it. His own staff turned him in to the FBI. That's how corrupt the guy is. His own staff turned him in to the government. Are you people in Texas really going to try to nominate Ken Paxton? Super corrupt Ken Paxton? You know he's corrupt. You know he's corrupt. You know it. Stop making excuses for him. You just hate John Cornyn. And I get the concerns with John Cornyn. But do you want to save the senator or not? You get Ken Paxton, the nomination for the GOP. You're going to spend so many resources protecting Ken Paxton that you're going to lose Georgia, North Carolina. You're going to lose Michigan. You could lose Maine because of all the money is going to have to go to save Ken Paxton in Texas. Get him elected. Talk about a ferric victory. You win the battle and lose the war. That's Ken Paxton. It's a Paxon political victory would be a Phaeric victory. A political victory, a political version of the ferric victory would be a Paxon victory. In Virginia, the Democrats in Virginia have circled the wagons around Louise Lucas for so much and for so long. And today the FBI has come raiding her office and her marijuana dispensary. And even in Virginia, the Democrats in Virginia are like, you know what? We're going to keep our mouths shut on this because we're pretty sure she did what they're accusing her of. But they kept protecting her until they couldn't. We'll be right back. When the truth seems hazy, Eric will clear the way. It's the Eric Erickson Show.

You may not agree with him, but he tells you the truth. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Hello there. Welcome. It is Eric Erickson here. 877-973-7-425. Should you wish to be on the program, I would be very happy to have you on the program. Text, engage, if you live in Georgia. Actually, you know, by the way, so I had Bucks Exit on yesterday. His book, I really do recommend it. Manufacturing Delusions, if you text Engage to 33777. I'm going to send you the link to his book on Amazon. And those of you in Georgia, if you text Engage to 33777. The second link is all the people that I voted for. on the Georgia ballot. So you have some recommendations because there are so many people and nobody knows who's to vote for. So you can get that. Engage is the word. Text it to 3377. Should you wish to? A lot of memories of Ted Turner floating out there. I forgot Ted Turner. You know what his claims to Thamor? Number one. He is the last owner in baseball to actively manage his own team because of him. Major League Baseball changed the rules that the owners were not allowed to be in the dugout managing the team if they had a manager. And then number two, I'm sure he wanted this as part of his legacy. Ted Turner was the last baseball owner to organize a wet t-shirt contests at a Major League Baseball game. Major League Baseball also put the kibosh on that. But now, fast forward all these years later, and the Atlanta Hawks trying to organize the night to honor a local strip club in Atlanta until there was national outrage that a NBA team would have a night dedicated to a popular strip club in the metro Atlanta area. It's apparently also a fantastic restaurant. I've never been, but I hear the food is fantastic. I'm going to take other people's word for that because it would be a scandal if I showed up at that place just to try the wings. Yep, we're going to pass. Sorry, Magic City. Now, I need to tell you about incogny. incogny.com slash Eric, I-N-C-O-G-N-I, incogny.com slash Eric. What does incogny do? Incogny goes online and goes to all the data workers. I challenge you, do this for yourself. Go into Google, put your name in, and just you can put in your city and state, you can put in your phone number, whatever you want, your name. And then there's just like John Smith, Springfield, Missouri, or John Smith, 815-55-55-3141, whatever you want. You put it in and watch all of the information that comes up about you and your family online. Those are the data brokers. They sell that information. They'll sell it to criminals. They'll sell it to insurance companies. They'll sell it to telemarketers. They'll sell it to credit cardage. They'll sell it to anybody.

And Incogni sends them takedown notices and tells them that is your private information, take it offline. And they follow up repeatedly to shut it down. And it reduces your spam phone calls. It reduces the telemarketers. It reduces the credit card solicitations. It does all of that. Incogni.com slash Eric save up to 60%. Incogni.com slash ERICK. Sign up with Incogni today. Protect your privacy online. Hello, welcome. It's Eric Erickson here. So I haven't mentioned yet the Tanner Horner situation, and I haven't mentioned it in large part because it's just awful. And I hate to talk about these stories, but there's a Matt Walsh has provoked a debate on Twitter as he is prone to do on the death penalty. And I got to tell you, I'm a proponent of the death penalty. And there's certainly, in some case, there have to be restrictions. I think you should have clear evidence, DNA of the murderer, because there have been people on death row who were innocent. So make it real DNA evidence. Tie them to the crime in some way. And in this case, if y'all aren't familiar with this guy, Tanner Horner was a FedEx driver who kidnapped the little girl. claimed that he found her body and actually FedEx got the security camera footage from inside his FedEx truck and showed that the little girl was in the back of the truck wondering where they were going why she was in the truck and he killed her brutally killed her he's been sentenced to death in Texas and of course there's a debate raging and a lot of people particularly Catholics are opposed to the death penalty And do you know why I support the death penalty? Erickson, you call yourself a Christian pro-life or why? Well, because I'm Christian and pro-life. I support the death penalty. So I don't want to go down theological rabbit holes with you, but I'm reformed in my faith, and I believe that God gives us covenants, and they build on each other in the Bible. And they don't really override each other unless there are clear reasons to. And prior to giving the law to Moses, When we were coming off the ark of the cover, Noah's ark. God says to Noah and his family that they must kill anyone who kills anyone. Whoever sheds innocent blood must themselves be killed because they have shown lack of value for life. God is very clear. This is pre- Ten Commandments. This is pre-law. This is right at the renewal of mankind after the destruction of everything, and they get off the boat, and God tells them one of the firmest things he does, he didn't do this in the Garden of Eden, but now outside the garden in a fallen world, he reiterates to be fruitful and multiply and to steward the world, and he adds something that wasn't there in the garden. That is... If someone murders, kill the murderer. Now, I had a woman, when I first started radio, I was doing 9 p.m. to midnight. And I didn't really believe the whole story about the Obama phones at the time. Remember that was a big thing. In 2011, 2012, it was the Obama phones. Poor people were given phones. Well, anyone in talk radio knew it was a true story when after 10 o'clock at night, when the minutes were free, you would get the most unhinged phone calls.

You would get the most unhinged phone calls. And I was talking about a death penalty case at the time, and I supported it. And this lady calls me, and she was clearly intoxicated. And she says, I'm going to challenge you. I'm going to challenge you on your support for the death penalty. And I'm going to challenge you from the Bible. I said, yes, ma'am. She says, you turn to Exodus. You get to the Ten Commandments. My Bible says, thou shalt not kill. I said, ma'am, I have the different version of the Bible, and it says, don't murder. No, no, it says, everybody says, everybody knows, thou shalt not kill. I said, ma'am, if that's the case, can you turn one page over in the Bible? Can you just turn one chapter? Go to one more chapter, please. She says, the 10 commandments, 10 commandments say, thou shalt not kill. So ma'am, just one more chapter. This is still the Bible, one more chapter, and start reading. And it was basically, if your kid defies you, kill him. If this person does something to you, kill him, do this, kill him, kill him, kill him. How can you read the two? The one says, thou shalt not kill the next one. She hung up on me. I'm a supporter of the death penalty. Do I think it has been of use? Yes, but I don't think that's a reason to get rid of it. And I think this guy should be executed. And I actually am in the camp. I do not believe it's a coincidence that as society has begun to devalue life, we have become anti-death penalty. In those places on planet Earth that allow the state to help someone commit suicide, In those countries like Canada that are pressuring people to commit medically assisted suicide, those countries don't have a death penalty. In Canada, a Catholic priest has told his story. He needed a hip replacement. And the Canadian hospital tried multiple times to get him to sign up for medical assisted suicide. And he said he's a Catholic priest. He's opposed to it. And they tried, persisted on multiple occasions to get him to sign the form. And he's saying this is wrong. He is elderly. He needed a hip replacement. And it is very clearly cost savings. And it is not a coincidence, friends, that in countries that ban the death penalty, you have a wanton disregard for life in those countries. They are pro-abortion. Many of them embrace medical-assisted suicide. It is not a coincidence because when you are unwilling to kill those who took the innocent lives of others, you are willing to say life does not matter. God Almighty himself commanded us with the renewal of all things after the flood to kill those who take innocent lives. If an animal or a man kills a human being, the blood of the innocent is precious. And those who showed wanton disregard for life, animals and men should be executed. And I fundamentally truly believe that it is not a coincidence that as societies begin to devalue life,

They begin to get rid of the death penalty. And perversely, they do so in the name of valuing life. There's a person online, a progressive activist, no less, who is outraged at this guy in Texas, Tanner Horner, getting the death penalty. And this person says he deserves to die, but killing people is wrong. It's that simple. The point of being against the death penalty is for when the person deserves it. It's easy to be against it when someone doesn't deserve it. This same person wished Luigi Mangione a happy New Year's. for killing Brian Thompson, the United Healthcare CEO, cheered on Luigi Mangione for vigilante justice executing a human being. The same people who are opposed to the death penalty of a murderer are cheering on Luigi Mangione and denouncing his prosecution after he executed a health care CEO. Because they devalue life.

There is principled opposition to the death penalty by the Catholic Church. They oppose cradle to grave wanton death. They oppose abortion. They oppose the death penalty. And I think the Catholic Church is wrong on that doctrine. I think they're wrong. It is right to oppose abortion because you're killing an innocent life. But it is very much wrong to oppose the death penalty because God Almighty himself instituted the death penalty in Genesis. And God made it very clear that that was binding on mankind. This is not something that changed with the law, if anything. The law, when Moses gets the law, amplifies that you've got to impose the death penalty on those who disregard life wantonly, that you've got to execute people who disregard life. All the law did was put in writing what God told Noah after coming out of the ark, kill bad guys who murder people, kill animals who kill people. Because blood is precious. People are precious. Life is precious. And you will begin to devalue life if you allow the gene pool to be polluted with those who devalue life, recklessly, wantonly, maliciously. And again, I don't think it's a coincidence that every society on planet Earth that bans the death penalty moves towards being pro-abortion and pro-assisted suicide. because they stop valuing life. They turned the world on its head. What is it? Gertrude Himmelfar, been a great line. No, it was Archbishop Shephew who was quoting Gertrude Himmelfar, that evil preaches tolerance until it's dominant and then it seeks to silence good. Deviancy becomes normal and normal becomes deviant. The bourgeois family values of old become deviant. The risque values of the avant-garde become normal. It's what we see in this culturally. This guy should be executed. I'm a firm believer in the death penalty. I have lost friendships with people who are adamantly opposed to the death penalty. And they decided I must be some sort of monster to support the death penalty. Never mind my reasons. Never mind quoting scripture at them. These are people who are also pro-choice, pro-abortion. And because I believe that bad men who murder should be executed, they're like, we just can't be friends with you. Had a law school professor. Part ways with me had a great relationship with this law school professor. And I was vehemently supported the death penalty. And he showed up to protest an execution in Georgia. And it came up in class the next day. And nobody wanted to, nobody wanted to bring it up. Nobody wanted to talk. And I was willing to raise my hand and say, I actually, I support the death penalty. I think people who murder should be executed because they devalue life. And he couldn't understand it. Well, aren't you devaluing life by executing? It was like, nope. One, the Bible says it. And, of course, that was what enraged him. Oh, how dare you quote the Bible. product of white supremacy in the patriarchy, you know, says this left-wing professor, who I had had a great relationship. Again, great relationship with him. But he accused me of devaluing life. And it's like, no, I think that those who devalue life must be executed or we all as a society begin to devalue life. He was not having it.

And I think that was the last conversation we had, last, last civil conversation that we had. I should put it that way. It's just, listen, feel free to disagree. That's okay. Many of my Catholic friends disagree with me. And they point to there's always a risk you're killing an innocent person. And that's why I say we should have DNA evidence or we should have in this case. I mean, the camera of the guy with the little girl in his, in his, in his FedEx truck. I think I might have said you visit FedEx, FedEx driver. Kudos, by the way, to FedEx. FedEx did not, to my knowledge, even need a subpoena for the camera in the vehicle. When people were suspicious, FedEx pulled the feed and immediately handed it over to the authorities. That guy was confronted with the film at his trial. He was confronted with it at the trial. He couldn't watch it at the trial. Couldn't watch it. He did it. He did the act, but he couldn't watch it. He's going to die now. God bless the people of Texas for preserving justice. I just, we have such a screwed up sense of justice these days. And you know, here's the other thing is you know what I also believe very strongly about. You know what the role of prison is? Punishment, not rehabilitation. The role of prison is to punish bad people and through their time and punishment, maybe to rethink their life so when they get out, they can be rehabilitated. I'm not opposed to giving people education in prison and improving them in prison, but prisons for punishment. Prison is not really for rehabilitation. And we as a society, we've kind of lost our way on that as well, that no, no, these people had a hard life. We just have to rebuild these. We need to teach them life skills. And if they learn their life skills, they're going to get in a jailer. They're going to do better. You know what? 2% of people commit most of the crimes. 2% of people commit most of the crimes in this country. If you just locked up those 2%, the rest of us would be safe. They learned that in El Salvador. Vuceli has turned El Salvador into one of the safest countries on planet Earth. It had been the most violent country of the Western Hemisphere, and it's now one of the safest. And what did he do? He locked up the 2% of people who commit all the crimes. In Washington, D.C., Donald Trump and Gene Piro have basically done the same thing, and that city is now safe. I'm going to be there in a couple of weeks for the first time in years. I'm going to be in Washington, D.C. And all my friends who live there say, it's great. You can walk down the street at night now. You're not going to get mugged or carjacked or randomly shot at or pickpocketed. I'm interested in seeing it. Law and order. If you believe in a functioning society, you've got to believe in law and order. You just, you got to. I'm a big believer in the death penalty. And I think society, every society that rejects the death penalty for murderers is a society that is collapsing. And around the world, I am proven right on this over and over and over again, from European societies to Canada to certain states in this country. They all go off the deep end and they stop valuing life.

And it perverts how they see the whole world when they stop valuing life. And one of those signs of their ending the value of life is to end the death penalty. However odd it sounds, it plays out consistently everywhere in the world. We'll be back. You're at the intersection of politics, news, culture, and current events. It's the Eric Erickson Show. Someone put up a screenshot of the marijuana dispensary next to Louise Lucas's office in Virginia from this morning on Google Maps. It was listed as busier than usual. With the FBI there. Before we get out here, I want to play this clip from Kevin Hassett, the White House Economic Director. Let's play that one. But when I spoke with Treasury Secretary of Scott Bessent on Sunday, he also talked about what consumers are doing, and he gets that from the most recent tax day data. Watch this.

Maria, 45% of filers during this tax season availed themselves of at least one of those programs. So we had record refunds. And because of the modernization at the IRS... If you filed electronically, we were able to get your refund out in 21 days. So the consumer is very strong. Another aspect of the tax bill is the permanence of full expensing. So companies are coming. Whether it's equipment, factory structures, they are able to write that off in a year. So we're seeing a CAPEX boom. Way a CAPX boom works is you have a construction boom that then morphs into factory jobs. So that's very strong. And again, the consumer is very strong. We're in constant touch with the banks and the credit card companies. And they're saying that all quintiles of the distribution group is very strong. So, so Kevin, what kind of a jobs, Kevin, what kind of a jobs picture are you expecting for the rest of the year then? Oh, it's going to be very, very strong. And, you know, I agree with what the Secretary said, but why not add a little color to it, that about 25 million people benefited from no tax on tips. The average benefit was $7,000. About 25 million people benefited from no tax on Social Security. That also was about a $7,000 benefit. They get to deduct $7,000. And so the consumer is really, really firing on all cylinders just like the corporate sector. Okay, we can stop this here. Listen, nothing he said is really wrong. The problem is that's what the Democrats said when they were in charge, and it made consumers mad because the consumers weren't feeling it. Gas prices are up 50%. The Treasury, or the Transportation Department just noted that in March alone... or April rather alone, the aviation industry spent $5 billion extra dollars on jet fuel raising ticket prices as a result. I mean, prices are up. Beef prices are up. Grocer prices are up. You got to stop telling people that their lives are good when they don't feel it. You've got to try to find a way to make them feel good other than just telling them. So do better, Kevin. Now, I've got to tell you about the Eden Pure Thunderstorm. You get three of them and save $200 at Edenpureuredeals.com. Eden, like the card of Eden Pures Driven Snow, Eden Pyrdeals.com. You can get three of them, save $200, and you get a money-back guarantee if they do not eliminate odors. They are an air purifier, so they get rid of particulate in the air. They can kill 99.9% of bacteria and viruses because they generate plasma as the air flows through the device. It hits the plasma. They also eliminate...

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