Blue state gov smacks down Republican's attacks using his own text messages to her

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger had a pointed response to a Republican state lawmaker attacking her in a New York Times report published Monday.

Spanberger, who flipped control of the Virginia governorship from Republican to Democrat in November, argued that attacks on her "are a sign of her success."

"The right wing is on fire," The Times reported. "Suddenly, to partisan critics eager to take down a Democrat whose political future is already discussed in terms of national office, she is a witch, a 'Bond villain' and dangerous."

And in Richmond, Republicans have started to take notice of changes she has made during her first few weeks in office, including her termination of cooperation agreements between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Virginia's state law enforcement agencies.

And that's not all.

"She signed a bill for an April vote on whether to redraw Virginia’s political map ahead of the fall midterms, potentially giving Democrats an edge in 10 of the state’s 11 congressional districts compared with their 6-to-5 margin now," The Times reported.

One Republican tried to compare her to Zohran Mamdani, New York City's new mayor and Democratic Socialist.

“'She’s the same thing as Mamdani in New York, except that Mamdani at least admits that he’s a socialist," Republican state senator Bryce E. Reeves told The Times. He also said he would grade Spanberger with “an F for working across the aisle right now” and claimed that “none of my colleagues have seen her.”

But Spanberger didn't hesitate to point out Reeve's own words to her — and how different that was.

"Told of Mr. Reeves’s remarks, Ms. Spanberger reached across her desk for her cellphone and began scrolling through past messages from him. 'That tone and tenor seems to differ very significantly,' she said calmly, 'from his direct outreach to me at the beginning of January, and the lengthy conversation we then had.'"