Virginia Lt. Gov. Sears: Lawlessness Comes From Lack of Leadership at the Top

The nation's lawlessness comes "from the presidency on down, where there is no leadership," Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears said Sunday. 

"There's a vacuum," the Republican official said in an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures."

"They seem to be following what's happening on the streets. That's not going to work for anyone because the leader has to lead. That's why they're called leaders. And they have to show the right way, the righteous way."

But one can't look at crime, including smash-and-go robberies, and blame them on social justice, said Sears. 

"It's theft, and it's destroying our economy," and that's because the nation has leaders who "follow the polls and they don't have a righteous bone in their body," she added. 

Sears also discussed Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's January executive order to ban mask mandates in the commonwealth's schools. The order is facing court challenges and last week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers moved with a bill to end the mandates. 

"The governor fulfilled his campaign promise and he told everybody if you want to wear a mask, wear a mask, but allow the parents to make that decision for their own children because, as far as we can tell, the children still belong to their parents," said Sears. "They don’t belong to the state, not just yet, not if we can help it."

But if the bill passes, which Sears expects it will, "we’ll have a law here that parents will make that decision after all."

The lieutenant governor also talked about her history-making election as the first Black woman, as well as being the first woman of any race, to hold her position. 

"Here I am second in command of the former capital of the Confederacy," Sears, who came to the United States as a child, told Fox News. "Furthermore I’m an immigrant. I wasn’t even born in America. And look, America has given me opportunities to succeed."

Sears also commented on President Joe Biden's promise to choose a Black woman to fill retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's seat. 

"It really isn't unheard of for America to pick certain people to be on the Supreme Court," said Sears. "When we wanted. We clamored for a female judge, and we got Sandra Day O'Connor, and that was a good thing. We clamored for a black judge, and we got Thurgood Marshall. That was a good thing. And here every we have Sonia Sotomayor. It might not be the politics that we like, but we have her."

And with Biden's pick, Sears hopes he will "bring us a judge and if she's Black, will bring us a judge who represents the Constitution and will uphold the laws and will not be a partisan and who will judge fairly."

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