Live from Virginia Tuesday morning on The John Fredericks Show – weekdays on WNTW AM 820/ FM 92.7 – Richmond, WJFN FM 100.5 – Central Virginia, WMPH AM 1010 / FM 100.1 / FM 96.9 (7-9 PM) Hampton Roads, WBRG AM 1050 / FM 105.1 – Lynchburg/Roanoke and Weekdays 6-10 am and 24/7 Stream – host Fredericks welcomed Republican State Senator Bill Stanley to the show.
During the show, Stanley weighed in on the current behavior plagued by Democrats in the special session. He also discussed how he was disturbed by the destruction of downtown Richmond and its effects on fellow Virginians.
Fredericks: Bill Stanley live in Richmond. Senator great to have you.
Stanley: Great to have you too John. If putting my picture on the front page of The Virginia Star turns me into the mealy-mouth that I just heard in that segment with Surovell, leave my picture off of it.
Fredericks: What was up with that? I mean I love Scott to death and he’s a friend of mine. But that was super cautious. I thought you were part of the new woke Biden mobs, not jobs. Burn it down protest types?
Stanley: It seemed like they came hell-bent for leather in this special session. They were all gung ho and ready to go. And I think events surrounding them, public opinion has turned around on them. We’ve seen a rapist get out on bond in Northern Virginia then kill the accuser. We’ve seen now Louise Lupus being arrested for two felonies involving the destruction of a monument in Portsmouth.
I think their excitement is becoming tempered and almost disavowed. Like my friend Scottie did. And what they did doing is minimizing it. Let’s just stifle debate. This duplicitousness has been the hallmark of the last session and I think will be the hallmark of this one as well. I’m disturbed. I thought we were coming here to debate serious issues and to do serious things and allow a free and open debate.
I just heard on a conference call that we had this morning that perhaps my bills which didn’t come back from legislative services until yesterday aren’t going to be heard on the court’s docket. They are not planning a second meeting. Now they are going to kill bills by pocketing them and not give a fair and open discussion to each bill filed regardless of party.
This is not shaping up to be a special session with important issues. This is shaping up to be a week-long defund the police rally orchestrated by the Democrats. And it’s going to play out in Virginia Science Museum and on the basketball court in DCU. I mean this is ridiculous.
Fredericks: So they just basically said your bills don’t matter.
Stanley: Well right now what we understand is the courts committee is going to meet today at four after we organize. And the docket has already come out and bills that are still being filed because we can file up to today aren’t set on that docket. And there’s no guarantee that they’re going to be set.
And what we’re hearing is we’re not going to have a second Court Justice or Judiciary Committee as they now call it to consider all of the bills. And when you hear Scott, Scott wants to wrap that and get out of here because he’s got to go to his office and practice law.
If your business is more important than the obligation you undertook for this office maybe you shouldn’t be here. And it seems like this new cavalier attitude is going to carry over in even not allow some very good bills, and especially if they are mine they are really good bills to be considered.
Fredericks: Well that’s not like Dick Saslaw to do that because he’s always trying to get bi-partisan support. Work with you guys. He’s very liberal but that’s been his signature. Easy to work with. Been there 30-40 years. A long time. Been there for a long time. Knows the ropes. What changed?
Stanley: I think the temperature and the climate and the environment surrounding him. It sounded like a really good idea to let them during the height of the protests and really understanding the murder of George Floyd. But what we’ve seen play out is riots in the streets going on for 60 days and Democrat-controlled cities being ruined and crushed into shambles.
And being run by mobs. CHAZ takeovers. We’ve had again like I said just a little while before we had a man who raped somebody and then killed that person when they were allowed out on COVID related safety concerns. It sounds great on paper and from 30,000 feet to these Democrats but I think when they got to ground level here in Richmond and they see even the destruction as I drove through the city last night as we arrived it was just heartbreaking.
Maybe it’s starting to sink in that reality is a lot different than up in their glass and ivory towers where they get to come in. The people below them and the peons that must do the everyday things as they make determinations for our lives. And they do nothing to make us safer. They do nothing to make us a better commonwealth. And I think like stay short on this session like Scott said, they were going to do then tax on all their houses.
Fredericks: Bill you just nailed something. And I asked Scott this. I said because I go to downtown Richmond every day. I’m sick over what’s happened. When I get down there it’s disgusting. Such a beautiful city. Such a vibrant city and now it’s just turned into trash. And broken windows. And the F-word is written over everything. I can’t stand going down there now, it’s depressing.
And it was the opposite of that. And he says well, I really haven’t been downtown yet. Obviously he’s staying somewhere else in a suburb. He says I really haven’t been downtown yet. But I told you this when I talked on the phone last night, when you guys drive in you are going to be shocked at what you see not having been here in a few months. It sounds like you had that experience.
Stanley: Yes. And it looked like a war zone to me. You have a memory of not too long ago in January when we arrived at this beautiful and vibrant city full of hope and promises for small business owners and citizens to break the cycle of poverty. Working together. Regardless of race. Regardless of gender. Regardless of what you think. This was a really shining city on the hill and an attractive place to come and it was great for the economy.
And some four, five, six months later what we have is almost a war zone. A burned-out war zone. And nobody is going to come down and spend their tourism dollars here. Nobody wants to see that kind of destruction. It’s depressing. And it’s a real shame. A tear falls from a lot of Virginians’ eyes when they see what’s happened here. You also hit on it and the only thing I see productive is they certainly know how to spell the F-word and they do it with regularity. And that’s such a shame.
Fredericks: It’s disgusting. It is every single store. Every board has the F-word on it. And it’s like what have we come to? And it’s not getting cleaned up. Now they are smashing windows at the Omni and the John Marshall Court Center. Nobody will do anything about it. Certainly, the mayor is more interested in getting people stoned and high than being able to control his own city. He’s just a sorry excuse for a mayor.
Stanley: His last name is Stoney. I mean c’mon. (Chuckles)
Fredericks: If he’s Stone than get stoned. I had a big thing on this for two days. The city is burning down. People are losing their businesses. They are losing their jobs. You can’t go to work. You can’t buy anything down there. It’s disgusting. People are scared. They are moving out of Monument Avenue. Kim Gray councilwoman, Democrat running for mayor has three children. By the way just to throw this out there.
She’s the only person running for mayor that actually owns a home there. The others rent apartments so they can just get the hell out when they destroy the city. She actually owns a home. She has little children. They are banging on drums at 10 p.m.
They are shining lasers in. The kids are scared to death. There are no cops to be found. They are all told to stand down. This is what the city of Richmond has turned into. So maybe you are right. Maybe Scott Soruvell saw this and they’re reading the tea leaves and they’re taking a much more cautious view than maybe they were two weeks ago.
Stanley: It seemed to me especially when the ominous bill came out in its first version that they are basically going to ram this down our throats and our opinion didn’t really matter. And now this equivocation that is going on is a kind of more relaxed attitude. A lessening of expectations at least from what Scottie was saying. Again, I love Scottie to death. I love him. I’ve known him since we were young attorneys running the halls in the county courtrooms. Great guy.
Fredericks: Great guy.
Stanley: But I think he’s the bellwether and the canary in the coal mine is how those feelings and that gung ho attitude has changed with the Democrats and the lack of appetite and intestinal fortitude to tackle these big issues, honestly, openly and fairly and take the time. If we are going to call a special session on this then we have to take the time to debate these issues. The people of the Commonwealth deserve it. It seems like they just don’t want to be here.
Well if they don’t want to be here and tackle these issues you shouldn’t call a special session. Now you reap what you sow. I know my Republicans in the Senate are going to be aggressive. We are going to want a sole debate on every single piece of legislation when it comes to the floor. We are going to want our democracy to function before this pandemic and we’ll demand that it returns to that so that the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia get what they pay for when they send us up here to do our jobs.
Listen to the full show here:
