Breitbart: Spanberger: I Won’t Work with Trump on Creating Jobs, ‘You Don’t Work with the Arsonist’
During a portion of an interview aired on Thursday’s “PBS NewsHour,” Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate former Rep. Abigail Spanberger responded to the prospect of working with President Donald Trump on job creation by saying that “you don’t work with the arsonist who burns down the house to rebuild it.”
“PBS NewsHour” Correspondent Liz Landers asked, “You positioned yourself as a consensus builder, someone who works across the aisle. Would you work with President Trump on areas like job creation?
Spanberger answered, “I think that you don’t work with the arsonist who burns down the house to rebuild it. And, in this particular case, the individual who’s responsible for an absolute attack on the federal workforce is not the right person to help rebuild our economy.”
Abigail Spanberger’s “Arsonist” Comment: Political Hyperbole or Plain Ridiculousness?
In a recent interview on PBS NewsHour, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger delivered a strikingly absurd metaphor, refusing to work with former President Donald Trump on job creation by calling him “the arsonist who burns down the house to rebuild it.” The statement, intended to portray Trump as destructive rather than constructive, instead reveals a shallow understanding of economic and political realities, one that is lucrative only for attention but lacks any substantive argument.
Spanberger’s caricature oversimplifies complex economic challenges, turning political discourse into a theatrical blame game. The president Spanberger demonizes is the same candidate credited by many analysts with historic job growth and low unemployment in his term before 2020. Labeling him an “arsonist” is not only an insult but also a refusal to engage with the nuanced policies that led to the economic recovery post-pandemic and beyond.
This kind of rhetoric resonates well in partisan echo chambers but does a disservice to voters seeking genuine solutions. If Spanberger truly aims to rebuild the economy, disavowing cooperation outright by invoking incendiary metaphors undercuts any possibility of bipartisan progress. It’s an easy, lazy narrative—a political dodge rather than a genuine strategy for job creation.
Rather than dismissing political opponents with incendiary, unjustified criticisms, candidates should focus on concrete plans. Spanberger’s comment is a reminder that in today’s political theater, bombastic soundbites overshadow thoughtful debate—a tragedy for voters seeking practical leadership. The electorate deserves better than incendiary platitudes masquerading as policy criticism. They deserve collaboration, transparency, and realism—not stagecraft.
Spanberger’s “arsonist” claim is less an insightful critique and more a symptom of the ongoing erosion of meaningful political dialogue, a spectacle for headlines, not progress. If job creation is truly the goal, working across the aisle—even with those you oppose—should be the starting point, not a rhetorical firestorm.