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Yes, we welcome now our radio and our television audiences together as we speak to the Governor of Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, Governor, thank you very much in Deefer stopping by once again.
Did you great to be with you?
And we were together last year in Paris and here we are in Farmborough and there's a lot of planes flying today.
We've hopefully got a quiet patch in the air display that we you and I can have a conversation and we can both.
Hear each other. So that's fantastic.
Look, the big things obviously over the last twenty four hours is Joe Biden's stepping a size A. Is this a surprise B?
What does it mean? Do you think?
Well, so, I'm a Republican governor and so I'm seeing it from the other side. But the amount of pressure that his party was placing on him to step aside was enormous, and there has been chaos in the Democratic Party and we've all watched it. With the performance, of course of Joe Biden's administration and the realization that Donald Trump is now ahead in polls and states that Joe Biden won by ten points like virgin where Joe Biden won by ten and twenty twenty and now Donald Trump.
Is either even or up in the polls.
And on top of that, you really do see Joe Biden faltering on his ability to campaign.
So no, not a huge surprise.
I do think that it's important that the polls really haven't moved much in the last day, and I think that reflects the fact that Virginians and Americans recognized that it was the Biden Harris administration and she owns the performance and it's not going to be any different than the one that Joe Biden had.
Sounds like you think they should select somebody else.
Well, it's their choice to select who they want.
But I will say that they haven't really selected anybody yet. And I do think the chaos that we've seen in the Democratic Party selection process is only matched by the
chaos that they've unleashed on the world. In the country, we've had foreign policy chaos, and I firmly believe that if Donald Trump for president, we wouldn't have war in Ukraine, we wouldn't have the chaos in the Middle East that we have, nor will we see China threatening Taiwan like they are, and if Donald Trump for president, we would certainly have a secure border, and therefore every state like Virginia wouldn't be seeing violence, the drug overdoses and the
illegal and the legal immigrant crisis that we've got. And if Donald Trump were president today, I don't think we would have seen the runaway inflation that Joe Biden unleashed and Kamala Harris on America.
So it is Tamala Harris. Do you think Virginia is still winnable? Does it change the arithmetic in any shape or form.
I think that Virginia is still in play. And what we're seeing, of course, is Virginians are stating that they want strong.
Leadership, not weak leadership. Yep.
They know that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden led this administration together and that that track records her track record, and I think that Americans are reflecting the same sentiment. They're ready for strength in the White House, not weakness.
Why do you think that the Ukraine War wouldn't have happened if President Trump had been around and running things at that point in time.
Because I think he projects strength and we know that there is peace through strength, and Joe Biden starting with his disasters, withdrawal from Afghanistan all the way through to playcating China to empty threats on the international stage only elicits other countries to do bad things.
I mean he completely he completely.
Funded the Iranian assault in the Middle East because when Joe, when Joe Biden became president, he undid all of the sanctions and all the isolation that Donald Trump and placed them in.
To stick with Ukraine.
If you can for a moment, would the Republican pose continue to support Ukraine? Should should the Republican posse? Should President Trump and his vice presidents continue to support Ukraine?
Do you think that eight should be dead?
Well, let me just begin with with the clear statement that the Republican Party as a whole is is is for defeating Putin. I think what we'll see, of course, is all all elements brought together. First thing we'll do is we will secure the border. And that has been the biggest complaint from the Republican Party is we're sending a lot of money overseas and we haven't even secured our own border. And I think on day one, President Trump will secure our border and stop the chaos that
is ensued with with illegal immigration with with uh. Well, listen, we've had We've had terrorists come across the border and we had two tear two illegal immigrants try to crash the front gate at Quantico Marine Corps base in a box struck in Virginia. And of course the free flow of drugs is killing people left, right and center. We have five a day that on average die in Virginia.
Job one, secure the border. And then I do believe that that support around the world in order to bring peace back through strength will be real.
And this is this is the two.
This is the double approach that I think we'll see under a Trump administration.
Because because from a European perspective, it looks like we've got to see a more isolation this government. What Trump to win?
Well, I do think what we're going to see as a government that is one going to be very clear about what we're going to do, and one that is going to require all of our partners to play a full role.
And I believe our partners will. I think what we have to what does it playing a full role mean?
Then that too and a half percent?
Nay?
Too? Is that three and a half percent? Naya?
Well, I think Historically it was asking NATO to pay two percent of their GDP and defense, and we've seen a lot of a lot of the NATO countries come, They're not all of them. But I think this is also a recognition that putin is not going to stop at the U grade and everybody needs to do their fair share.
Yep.
So it's too huf enough, it's three what is the number in your mind?
Well, that that's gonna settle out as we see what the overall spending is going to be to do what we need to do. But I will say this that I think that the United States will constantly be a great partner, but we also require great partners and I think that's really what our that's what peace through Strength is all about.
To debate here.
The fumbers show is, Yeah, if we have to spend more money, we're gonna try and spend it here. A lord of the defense companies are based in your states. You comfortable with that. If Europe's gonna spend more money, should you have to spend that money domesticate them.
But again, there's gonna need to be a capabilities match to the need, and a lot of the capabilities have been developed in the United States the Europe's capable of to I think there are certain elements, yes, and there are certain areas where the US capabilities are going to be paramounts, and I think the combination of that is really important. We've got a lot of European companies that want to come set up in the United States. A lot of them want to come to Virginia. It's one
of the main reasons why I'm here. You may have heard we were ranked top state in America for business, and that's one of the reasons why a lot of them want to come to Virginia. But this idea of European companies coming to the United States and manufacturing and building is really important. And I do think the blending of capabilities on the global stage will provide the best outcome.
We all of the reasons they might be coming to the United States and manufacturers because they're worried about taris.
Should they be worried about tarras well?
I think they should be worried about tariffs if their country is imposing tariffs on the United States goods. And again, free trade has not always meant free trade, and I
think it needs to be fair and reciprocal. And when we look at just the evolution of the trade agreements with China over the last few decades, China had unlimited access to the US market, restricted access to their market, and it wasn't until President Trump struck a really tough China trade deal that we began to really treat them like they are, which is really an adversary, an adversary who's trying to dominate the world, and they're doing it, yes,
through economic coercion and imperialism, but also through military saber rattling, and their surveillance of the world is unparalleled, and so we have to treat them as such. And that means we've got to stand up and use the tools in our toolkit in order to combat it.
Would those tariffs, with the tools that you're talking about being in the toolkit, if they were applied sing that's inflationary for the average American.
The short answer is competition is what combats inflation, and as long as we have strong competitive, strong competitive markets, and the short answer is most likely not. But what we do need to recognize is that what is inflationary for the average American is unlimited runaway spending, which is what we saw in the Biden administration.
It was irresponsible.
They flooded the market with government spending on an unnecessary basis, and that's why we saw inflation like we haven't seen for four decades.
And that's why the.
Average American when they go to the grocery store, they they literally it's a gut punch every time they go in. Gas prices are run away from them. And why sixty six percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck because they can't keep up with the runaway inflation we've seen over the last three and a half years.
Governor, great see, thanks for starting byes boys it.
Blush come to Virginia. I will look forward to it. I've been I love it.
Thank you, very muschen Deep Governor. Governor dun Youngkin of Virginia