# Winsome Earle-Sears and the machine gun > **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou. > > Cite as: "Winsome Earle-Sears and the machine gun," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/winsome-earle-sears-and-the-machine-gun/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia. *John Kiriakou's verdict on the lieutenant governor of Virginia who ran for the top job in 2025 — that she is a nut, that her earlier campaign photographs showed her smiling and holding a machine gun, and that at the gubernatorial debate she had to be repeatedly slapped down for talking over her opponent.* - **Office held:** Lieutenant Governor of Virginia - **The photographs:** Campaign pictures from four years earlier, smiling and holding a machine gun - **Kiriakou's verdict:** "She's just a nut" - **At the debate:** Talked over Spanberger; repeatedly slapped down by the moderators - **Her answer on same-sex marriage:** "That's not discrimination, that's God's will" - **Polling margin against her:** Six percentage points behind **Winsome Earle-Sears and the machine gun** is [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s account of the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia in 2025, delivered on 22 October after he had cast his early vote against her. ## The verdict He did not qualify it. *"And then the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears, is a nut. She's just a nut."*[1] ## The photographs The evidence he reached for first was four years old and visual. *"Her campaign pictures when she was running for lieutenant governor four years ago — she's just smiling, standing, and holding a machine gun like this. A machine gun."*[1] The host's comparison — to another Republican's early advertisements shooting up photographs of Democrats — drew agreement.[1] ## The debate Kiriakou's second piece of evidence was more recent. *"So there was a debate a couple of nights ago between the two, and Winsome Earle-Sears never shut her flapping gums through the entire debate. She had to be repeatedly slapped down, because [Spanberger](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abigail-spanberger) couldn't get a word out."*[2] The substantive exchange he recounts concerns discrimination. Spanberger's charge was that her opponent supported it, and cited as an example that *"Earle-Sears doesn't want to allow gay people to get married."*[2][3] The reply is the line Kiriakou found disqualifying. *"And Earle-Sears jumps in and she goes: 'That's not discrimination, that's God's will.' And she just kept repeating this."*[3] ## What he would have said The host's response was to imagine the cross-examination he would have relished — asking whether she talks to God, and whether she is on psychotropic medication — a line Kiriakou heard out without adding to.[3] Kiriakou's own politics on the underlying question are not stated here, but they need not be: his objection is to an answer that removes the question from argument altogether. A policy defended as divine instruction cannot be debated, only obeyed or refused, which is precisely why he treats the repetition as evidence rather than as rhetoric. By the polling he cited on the same programme, Earle-Sears was six points behind, a margin matched by the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor.[4] ## See also - [Abigail Spanberger](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/abigail-spanberger) - [Jason Miyares](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jason-miyares) - [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) ## Sources 1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 33:23. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2003s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 33:56. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2036s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 34:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2066s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ 4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-10-22), at 35:57. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNhvUJehZGo&t=2157s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-10-22-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/ --- From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/winsome-earle-sears-and-the-machine-gun/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt