This morning you may have seen a misleading headline that read:
“Defend Trump? ‘Not my job,’ says GOP’s Gillespie in Virginia race”
What I really said was:
Reporter: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask you about your relationship with the president – you know you didn’t campaign with him or for him during the presidential election you know you have kind of kept your distance from him you know the traditional question is are you going to campaign with him or is he going to campaign here with you, so I would just ask that question, as a symbol for the larger portion of your relationship with him.
Ed: Yeah, I voted for him, I supported the Trump-Pence ticket, I introduced Vice President Pence on the campaign trail twice – once in Harrisonburg the day after his vice presidential debate and once at George Mason. You know I truly hope he is able to get policies in place that will create good-paying jobs across the country and in Virginia and that he will be able to keep us safe as a nation and in Virginia that we are going to build more submarines and ships in Newport News and keep Norfolk the largest Naval base in the world and stop the war on coal in Southwest Virginia, dredge channel in our port and allow us to get more of our transportation dollars to spend in Virginia as we see fit and so there are a number of things that I think from a federal policy perspective that he’s doing are very good for us here and I will work with him –
Reporter: That he is doing? Or that you hope he does?
Ed: Well, you know if he follows through on these things it will be good for us and I will work hard to make sure that he does.
Reporter: What connection’s to Hampton Roads did you mention I didn’t catch you skipped over it pretty quickly you mention something about keeping Hampton Roads –
Ed: Keeping Norfolk the largest naval base in the world –
Reporter: And what’s the –
Ed: The defense budget that he’s put forward is you know would be helpful to Hampton Roads and building more ships and submarines in Newport News. Now I don’t agree and would need work with the Congressional delegation on putting money back into the budget for Chesapeake Bay cleanup fund and the Appalachian regional commission. So point is clear that I have supported him and I look at everything through a focus of Virginia and it’s not my job if I am elected governor of the Commonwealth to be always for the president or always be against the president, it’s to always be for Virginia and I think it is helpful to have a governor who can work with a Republican house and a Republican senate and a Republican administration on the policies that affect the Commonwealth to have them be good for us and that’s what I would do. But my long term goal is to make our economy less reliant on federal spending and federal programs.