Despite Calls to Withdraw, Earle-Sears Doubles Down in Speech at NRA Conference

Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle-Sears blamed a lack of virtue for the U.S.’ “present-day woes” in a Friday speech at the NRA Women’s Leadership Forum. After the May 24 shooting and mass murder at a Texas school, Earle-Sears faced pressure to withdraw from the speaking commitment, but instead doubled down, publishing her speech in a Friday press release and excerpts on Twitter.

“They did not want me to come, thinking you are monsters, that you are culpable in the murder of the children,” Earle-Sears’ written remarks state. “As you all know, the NRA was first established by Union veterans. I look at you, and I see mothers, daughters, sisters, and grandmothers, YOU are the NRA. People. You are not this nebulous entity. How far we have fallen that we have labeled you monsters, our fellow law-abiding Americans?”

In the GOP primary campaign, Earle-Sears, a veteran, posed with a military-style rifle in a high-profile photo featured in campaign material. In October 2021, the NRA donated $10,000 to Earle-Sears’ campaign, according to The Virginia Public Access Project.

In her Friday remarks, she acknowledged the Texas school shooting, saying, “This week, we Americans are once again grieving. It is a time to weep.”

“Indeed, we have left goodness, gentleness, and kindness behind, only to be left loathing, crudeness, greed, and sloth. Every man for himself, we are easily offended. Cruelty abounds. Forgiveness is a dirty word,” Earle Sears said, later adding, “We have proposed laws that say that a baby can be aborted up to the day of birth, yet we conduct surgery in the womb. Our language has degenerated such that F-bombs and even the startling MF bombs are spoken across our airways without so much as a gasp or even a clutch of the pearls, real or fake.”

“Virtue has signaled to us that we are to cease using her to destroy rather than build up,” she said… (Excerpt from The Virginia Star)