A resurfaced clip of Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate telling supporters to ‘let your rage fuel you’ sparked new backlash from her GOP opponent, amid warnings that such rhetoric is contributing to political violence, from the ICE facility shooting to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears shared the clip shortly after a gunman opened fire on an ICE facility in Dallas – showing Democratic gubernatorial opponent former Rep. Abigail Spanberger offering an adage about ‘let[ing] your rage fuel you’ during a June political event.
‘Rage. That’s what Abigail Spanberger is calling for,’ Earle-Sears wrote on X.
‘We’ve seen it with racist signs, cruel jeers, even cheering a father’s assassination for daring to disagree,’ she added, appearing to refer to Charlie Kirk.
Earlier this month, a protester at an Arlington event who was upset with Earle-Sears’ opposition to transgender bathroom policies in Washington, D.C., suburbs held up a sign that said if people cannot choose their own bathrooms, Earle-Sears, who is Black, cannot share their water fountains.
‘I’m asking for love,’ Earle-Sears said.
‘Love for our neighbors and our Commonwealth. Because ‘Virginia is for lovers’ — not rage,’ she added, name-checking the commonwealth’s iconic tourism slogan of 56 years.
Spanberger, however, suggested her words were taken out of context.
‘Abigail has and will continue to condemn comments that attempt to make light of or justify violence of any kind — full stop,’ a Spanberger spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
‘Abigail has a long record of working across party lines and ideologies to get things done, and she will continue to bring people together as Virginia’s next governor.’
During the June event, Spanberger closed her speech with a story about once complaining about politics in front of her mother, who responded, ‘Let your rage fuel you.’
‘And so, Mom, I love you. I thank you for the sage advice. And to the rest of us, every time we hear a new story, we let it fuel us,’ she said.
‘Every time we turn on the news, we let it fuel us. Every time something bad is happening, we say, ‘Oh that’s motivation’.
‘Every time something happens in the world, in this country, coming out of Capitol Hill or coming out of this White House, we just say, ‘Boy, am I motivated today.’ We write more postcards, we knock more doors, we make more phone calls, we tell more friends about the importance of this election.’
After Kirk’s murder in Utah, Spanberger said she and her husband, Adam, were praying for his family and the Orem community, adding that ‘disagreements over policy, perspectives or even worldviews should never lead to violence.’