BUCK: For decades America was becoming — especially when it came to violent crime — a safer place. That turned around about, what, 18 months ago now — more than that, almost two years ago — and very much coincided with the rise of the BLM movement and the Democrat progressive prosecutor project, Soros-backed prosecutors in major cities across the country who think, “Why punish criminals? It’s society’s fault. It’s not the criminal’s fault!”

This was a fallacy that, unfortunately, became fashionable among leftists in power in the sixties and seventies and the country suffered as a result. We’re back to that fallacy again, and we have to fight back against it, and I’m happy to see that in Virginia — again, Virginia — they’re racking up some wins early on here with its new government. New lieutenant governor; new governor, obviously; and now also new state attorney general, Jason Miyares.

He came right in — and this is a lesson that Republicans need to learn in general. You cannot leave ideologically motivated and very dedicated leftists in positions of power in the bureaucracy. You can’t let them burrow deep in and become a deep state or else they will hobble your agenda. They will actually undermine you. This happened to Trump when he was president. They should have had personnel, they just didn’t.

They didn’t have personnel ready to go to take over a lot of agencies that they should have. I know they weren’t… It was a new team, and they weren’t politically seasoned in this regard, but they suffered consequences at some level of having people who were saying they wouldn’t actually go forward with the agenda of the administration. They would thwart the will of Trump and the people who elected him. Well, Jason Miyares in Virginia is doing the right thing. Remember he’s replacing Mark Herring who was, I believe, at one point calling for Ralph Northam to step down for his blackface controversy the former governor of Virginia and then Mark Herring said, “I might actually have a blackface controversy. I can’t really remember.”

CLAY: So funny. So ridiculous — and they had the lieutenant governor who was accused of rape by multiple women!

BUCK: Twice. Two women, yeah.

CLAY: So they had the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the attorney general, who would have been next. It’s really why Northam I think kept his job because they were gonna have to replace basically the entire lot of them, and then it would have gone I believe to a Republican, right, in the fourth position?

BUCK: That’s right.

CLAY: So they just decided to hold the wall for Northam who, by the way, we should mention, Buck, did you see that he gave a pardon to a state senator who had had an affair with an underage woman that he ended up marrying?

BUCK: On, no. I didn’t see that.

CLAY: One of his final acts in office, Northam gave a pardon to a Democratic senator who had an affair — I don’t know it was an affair or I don’t know if he was single or whatever, but anyway — with an underage girl working in his office. He later married her and they now have children, but theoretically, when you are a grown man, you’re not supposed to be sleeping with underage employees, and so he pardoned that.

BUCK: So here we have Miyares coming in coming in and cleaning house, so to speak, right away” 30 personnel changes. Now, most notably, the civil rights division, which is always… Whether you’re in the DOJ at the federal level or if you go to a lot of these states, the civil rights division is where you’re going to find basically community organizers with law degrees who are gonna do everything they can to try to advance a leftist agenda and use the power of the state to do it cleared the whole thing out.

The whole civil rights division, gone. He says, “See you later.” It included the solicitor general and deputies that served under Herring beforehand. This is the way it has to be. This is a lesson, and it’s broader than what Miyares is doing. And there’s one more thing I want to say about his initial statements going into this role as state attorney general ’cause, folks, this is about the template, right? This is about if you are in a red state is your red state doing enough?

Are you happy with the Republican governor that you have? And if you’re in a purple state that has been trending or could go red the next time around, here’s the playbook. We’ve said this about Youngkin all along: Find issues that matter to real people, implement them, and govern well. Let the Democrat Party be the party crying with climate change all the time.

Let the Republicans be the ones about better schools, safer streets, and a more functional society that’s not running around in terror of Fauciism all the time. But I mentioned the crime issue too, Clay, not only is he changing the personnel which has to happen, you need people around you you can trust in these roles whether you’re an attorney general, a governor, a president.

He also has said that he will bring charges — and this was key. This is why I was thinking a criminal justice issue. He, Miyares, will bring charges, as he’s allowed under state law, in any districts within Virginia where a likely Soros-backed prosecutor is like, “Ah. We’re gonna let that violent crime go.” He’s like, “No, you’re not. Not on my watch.” That’s what we need to hear.

CLAY: Look, the lineup here in Virginia is I think a critical and emblematically representative sample of what Republicans need to run on in 2022, because we know that already you’re gonna have, by the summer, there will be a major focus on trying to tear down Republican ideas, and there will be an attempt… This is what the Democrats are gonna try to do.

They’re gonna focus, I believe, on January 6th, and they’re gonna focus on voting rights and they’re gonna focus on — try to focus on — abortion. And much of that will be backwards looking. I think you win elections by focusing on what’s in front of you, and that’s what Glenn Youngkin did, and he has provided an incredible template for everybody out there to follow and his staff.

Winsome Sears, first woman — and I believe and certainly the first minority woman — to ever be lieutenant governor in the history of Virginia, even though that hasn’t gotten very much attention in the mainstream press. Of course, it would be a massive story if this were a Democratic regime, and we talked about the mess that was with Northam and with Fairfax and with Herring, the trio there.

The trio that we have seen so far in positions of prominence in Virginia has to make Democrats really, really nervous because not only did they run on exactly what they were going to do already, Buck. In the first day and a half, two days of their administration, they come out and make an incredible, massive statement about what exactly they believe in. Really significant.

BUCK: We’re seeing right away that there can be decisions made that affect people’s live. I think in a lot of ways, Clay — just at a broader philosophical level — people have started to think more and more about… You know, it’s really just the federal government that makes a difference in your life, ’cause there’s so much that’s become part of the federal leviathan.

But really now covid has brought home to people that your state government does make a huge difference, often for the negative. Ask anybody who’s lives in New York, New Jersey, California, Massachusetts, Illinois last two years, among other places. But it matters to establish at that state level government that is effective, that is sane, that is responsive to the needs of people, that’s responsive to data.

And then that becomes a part of the narrative overall at the national level of Republicans are trying to govern well, trying to make the streets safer. If someone’s out there clubbing old ladies over the head with lead pipes, Republicans are the ones that are gonna say, “You gotta go to prison. You’re a danger to society, and you have to pay the price.” Let Democrats be the ones who have pseudointellectual debates about whether or not this is society’s fault.

And that’s why Miyares is coming in right away saying none of this Soros prosecutor nonsense where we’re not gonna do what Bragg did in New York City. Notice the difference. Bragg starts in New York City as the new DA and he’s saying, “Armed robbery? Not gonna go for a criminal sentence on that one!” Miyares comes in and not only does he say, “We’re gonna send you away for armed robbery,” he’s like, “If any of the district attorneys in this state try to get around that, I’m gonna take over their case.”

CLAY: We need to mention, by the way, too, that awful story that happened in the New York City subway that I think is emblematic of the degree of lawlessness that’s going on. A 40-year-old Asian woman just gets shoved right in front of the subway by a man with severe mental issues that, frankly… It’s just a disgrace.

BUCK: The Democrats in this city — and I will tell you this, in New York City — have largely normalized that you have to walk around people who are clearly insane. Screaming profanity at strangers on the street, running out into traffic and yelling insane things. No person would interact with them, and it’s all over the place. It’s all over the place. Every time you’re in the subway, every time you’re walking down the street — and I’ve dealt with it.

I have family members who have dealt with it, and if you bring it up too much it’s, “You’re not social justice aware enough or something,” or, “You know, you are not solving the problem, ’cause you want law enforcement to get involved. Someone who’s severely mentally ill who poses a threat to themselves and others should actually be interacting with the state and getting help before something terrible like this can happen.”

CLAY: Not just New York. San Francisco, L.A., people listening to us on the coast know exactly what you’re talking about too. Many big cities have allowed this to grow into a larger and larger issue.