CLAY: Obviously, all of the focus right now on the state of Virginia. Glenn Youngkin going up against Terry McAuliffe, and Terry McAuliffe has done everything in his power to try to make Glenn Youngkin Donald Trump because, frankly, Terry McAuliffe doesn’t, it appears, have a lot of great political instincts. What he’s trying to do is what saved Gavin Newsom and worked in California was down the stretch run of the recall election.

They just tried to make Larry Elder… Remember the unbelievable L.A. Times article which called Larry Elder “the black face of white supremacy,” which is next-level crazy? But listen, this is the closing argument of Terry McAuliffe, who, by the way, giving an idea of how tone-deaf he is, he had Randi Weingarten of the teachers association as one of his speakers, Buck. I mean, you’re trying to combat education issues? I’m not sure there’s anybody who makes parents more furious right now than teachers union heads who didn’t allow their schools to be open for years.

BUCK: It’s appalling, but this is also where Democrats get a lot of their political power from, and I think Terry McAuliffe has actually had some of the missteps that he has because it has just been a Democrat politician mantra for as long as any of us have been alive, really. You back the teachers unions, you back the education system as it is.

You don’t want charter schools, you don’t want choice, and you sure as heck don’t want parents showing up at school board meetings upset and wanting their voices heard about the shortcomings of the actual educational institution their tax dollars are paying for. So I think that he may have miscalculated but also been a little bit pushed into those miscalculations about what he said here because it’s just been dogma.

You back whatever the teachers unions want. Whatever the apparatus and the bureaucrats want is what a Democrat politician is supposed to do in the public school system while, of course, the politicians all send their kids to private schools. That’s why it’s the most fun part of this.

CLAY: And, by the way, the media doesn’t even follow up and ask… If you’re gonna be espousing the virtues of public school, isn’t it fair to ask you a politician who is trying to tell you what should and shouldn’t happen in public school whether or not their kids go to public school?

BUCK: Why aren’t Virginia public schools good enough for Terry McAuliffe’s kids? I just want to know. Why does he send his kids to a $40,000-plus-a-year school? I mean, I know people who went to that school. When I lived in D.C., they were all over government, right? But they do this, by the way, Clay and they send their kids to schools that are concentration of both wealthy and whiteness, by the way.

These are overwhelming white and rich schools and then Terry McAuliffe turns around and is acting like he’s a civil rights hero because he wants the people listening to this show who don’t have their kids in $40,000-a-year private schools in Virginia to have their kids learning about the white oppressor in school. Oh. Maybe not.

CLAY: It’s definitely amazing when I, as a K-through-12 public school student, get lectured by spoiled rich kids who spent their entire life in private school about my opinion on masks. And, by the way, Terry McAuliffe calls his opponent — what do you think? — Glenn Trumpkin. This is last night or Sunday night, I should say, in Manassas, Virginia — Northern Virginia area. Listen to this. Play cut 2.

MCAULIFFE: Because day one, all masks come out off and all vaccine requirements of teachers goes away. Do you really hadn’t parents here sending their child to first grade where their teacher is not vaccinated or not wearing masks?

TEACHERS: Yeah!

MCAULIFFE: Well, that’s what you get with Glenn Trumpkin!

CLAY: Yeah, that’s what I want.

BUCK: That is amazing.

CLAY: It sounds amazing. No masks and no vaccine mandate?

BUCK: They might have people start moving to Virginia for the Youngkin revolution.

CLAY: No kidding.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: So, here’s what we’re gonna see in Virginia today. First of all, the possible downfall of the Democrat narrative right now that they can actually do a good job at governance, because Terry McAuliffe is running on a classic DNC platform — the usual talking points, the usual stuff. It doesn’t seem to be going that well. He’s made some really big missteps in the end just to give some folks a reminder. I mean, here he is yesterday.

Now, keep in mind the prosecution on CRT — on critical race theory — teaching, has gone from earlier this year they were saying, “There is no CRT in schools.” Then they said to parents and everybody bringing this up, Clay, “You don’t know what CRT is” or “it’s not CRT that you’re seeing;” then that didn’t work. And then they said, “Okay, fine. You’ve proven there is CRT, but you’re only angry about it because you’re racist.”

(laughing) Right? This is the way it’s gone. Parents have not reacted well to that, but Terry McAuliffe doubled down with it yesterday where he’s saying anybody who doesn’t want their kids being taught that they’re either an oppressor or a victim? Eh, they’re hearing that racist dog whistle.

MCAULIFFE: What bothers me to my core is what this man is doing. He’s dividing parents against parents, parents against school boards. He’s using your children as political pawns in his campaign! It is a racist dog whistle. (screaming) Folks, we are better than that! We will not have that hatred here in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

BUCK: Terry McAuliffe isn’t better than anything. This guy is gross, Clay.

CLAY: I love that “racist dog whistle” is basically just an excuse to help cover up Terry McAuliffe’s outright racism. Because there’s no dog whistle involved when you say, “Hey, we’ve got too many white teachers.” That’s racism. There’s no dog whistle involved when you claim that Glenn Youngkin is trying to ban books by black authors, which is what he claimed without my merit.

“Virginia was just a uniquely bad candidate, and he didn’t run a good campaign!” ‘Cause they don’t want the message to be sent, “Oh, this is the first of the red wave.” They’re gonna try to distinguish. If he loses, they’re gonna throw him to the wolves and claim, “Well, he did a bad job in the debate. He didn’t handle parental involvement in schools correctly.” They will claim that he’s an aberration, not the front edge of a tide.

BUCK: Of course.

CLAY: Right?

BUCK: We could all see it. Clay, it will be fun. We could write the DNC talking points beforehand and then put them in a vault and read them on air because we would know exactly how they’re gonna try to spin this thing. But I think it’s very challenging for them because, remember, Youngkin is a guy who was supposed to lose and lose by a lot, right? He was a guy that wasn’t supposed to have a real chance, and what is it?

Why do we all know his name?

Why do we know?

It’s because of the issue of parents and education and the school system, which immediately has national ramifications and more so now than in a long time because, yeah, we talk about Loudoun County and the mom rebellion against all this. It’s not just moms, by the way. Dads too and grandparents who have custody of kids, who are taking care of the kids, guardians, all that — or aunts, uncles, you name it. But beyond that, the education issue feels particularly national and also people are sensitive to it now because schools were shut down.

CLAY: Yes.

McAuliffe’s closing message: Va has too many white teachers

“50% of the students at Va. schools K-12, 50% are students of color & yet 80 percent of teachers are white. We all know what we have to do in a school to make everybody feel comfortable in school. So, let’s diversify” pic.twitter.com/TJC2beResW

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) November 1, 2021

BUCK: So we all know, “Hold on a second. That’s a betrayal of kids in the public school system across the country.” The schools never should have been shut down for covid, certainly not last fall when they were still doing it, which was crazy. And then beyond that people know now more about — and I’ve heard anecdotally about this where a mom or a dad…

It’s usually the dads that would hear this and get really angry, from what I understand. They’d hear some of the stuff that kids were being taught because they were in the Zoom classes at home and maybe the dad and the mom were listening. Remember, it’s not just the kids at home; it’s that both parents were home because of remote working. And they hear something and go, “What kind of crazy crap are you teaching my kids?” That has been a nationwide phenomenon, and that’s why the Virginia situation feels like it is the battleground for this national-level issue.

CLAY: Well, and I think what the storyline’s gonna be — and we’ll close out the show talking about this and the importance for everybody out there who may be in Virginia and why you need to go vote and the message you need to send. This has been a persuadable issue for people who are open to supporting either side. We talk about on the show, Buck, you have 40% of people believe Dr. Fauci is a saint and everything he says is correct. And the woke universe all connects and overlaps there.

Forty percent are convinced, and I believe you’re correct, that he is an imbecile and he has led the country into an awful place with lockdowns and shuts down. You got 20% that are the persuadable middle part of the country, and I think the persuadables are all right now breaking in the direction of Glenn Youngkin. I got my fingers crossed. I’m gonna have a beverage of my choice — maybe an Old-Fashioned — if Glenn Youngkin knocks this one out. I try not to drink that much during the week.

That much.