Earle-Sears refuses to say if Trump’s federal job cuts are bad for Virginia

The Republican nominee for Virginia governor dodged repeated questions about her position on the Trump administration’s federal workforce cuts in an interview on CNN.

Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears on Friday refused to say whether she supported President Donald Trump’s federal workforce cuts, or if they had been bad for Virginia in a testy exchange with CNN anchor Manu Raju. 

Pressed by Raju to answer “yes or no” on whether she supported President Donald Trump’s “purge of the federal workforce,” Sears, the Republican nominee for Virginia governor, appeared frustrated with the question.

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“If this is the way you want to go, then go ahead,” Earle-Sears said. “But I’m just not going to participate.”

When Raju first asked Earle-Sears about her position on the thousands of federal employees that the Trump administration fired, Earle-Sears seemed to downplay its importance. 

“I’m glad you asked this question because your side — I’m assuming your side of the aisle — they keep talking about this,” Earle-Sears said. 

Earle-Sears went on to blame Democrats for not being pro-business enough to attract jobs, including in Fairfax County.

Earlier this week, the Youngkin administration blamed Democratic Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay for the county losing a bid for a power company’s headquarters. Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Commerce Secretary, Juan Pablo Segura, claimed the county’s failure to offer competitive, taxpayer-funded economic incentives to the company were to blame. In response, McKay called on the Youngkin administration to “take action to address the unprecedented, direct attacks on Virginia’s economy occurring daily in Washington, D.C.”

Earle-Sears brought up the Fairfax spat to deflect from answering Raju’s question about how she feels about the federal workforce cuts. 

“There was a company that was going to create 800 high-paying jobs, averaging $150,000, that would’ve offset federal jobs that you are talking about being lost,” Earle-Sears said. 

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday that 84,000 federal government employees had lost their jobs since January, when Trump entered office. That figure does not include fired employees who are on paid leave or still receiving severance. The University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service has estimated that about 11,100 federal civilian jobs have been cut in Virginia and another 10,500 are at risk. 

Later in the day, Earle-Sears appeared at a rally in Hopewell, where she said that she had been “ambushed” during the CNN interview.  

The issue of federal workforce cuts has been a thorn in the side of Earle-Sears’ campaign. A clip of her downplaying the importance of the federal jobs cuts went viral in March. More recently, a leaked audio recording published by Dogwood last month revealed her acknowledging Trump’s federal cuts actually had hurt her campaign.

Democrats on Friday seized on Earle-Sears’ comments on CNN shortly after they began making the rounds on social media. 

The Democratic nominee for governor and former congresswoman Abigail Spanberger re-posted the clip of Earle-Sears’ interview with a caption calling out Earle-Sears for refusing to answer “when asked if she supports DOGE taking away jobs from thousands of Virginians.” 

“Let me be clear: protecting Virginia’s workforce is more than a ‘real issue’ — to me, it’s the job of the Governor of Virginia,” Spanberger said.