AUSTIN, Texas – Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin faced a hostile liberal crowd as he sparred with a local journalist over his education agenda at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival. 

Youngkin, who famously won his 2021 gubernatorial race on the issue of education, was the closing keynote speaker at the annual political conference and was grilled in an interview Saturday night with Texas Tribune co-founder Evan Smith. 

“So let me put myself in the frame of mind of an educator… Don’t you trust educators to do their jobs?” Smith asked. “If educators believe that books should be on a syllabus or part of a course, haven’t we, for years, trusted our educators to make decisions that were good enough to educate us? Why would they not be good enough to educate our kids?”

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“Because there were books that were put on the curriculum for classes that families – and remember, Virginia is an incredibly diverse state,” Youngkin responded. “We have a large Muslim population, a large Jewish population, a large Hindu population, a large Hispanic population, a large Black population. I mean, we are an incredibly diverse state, and there are materials that were on the curriculum that really were inconsistent with a family’s personal values. And therefore, this bill was put in front of Gov. McAuliffe at the time – passed unanimously out of our Senate. I mean, unanimous… it was transparency and an opt-out for a replacement, and he vetoed it.” 

“And that was at the heart of this question, which is who should be making this decision? And I firmly believe that parents should first have full transparency in what’s being taught in school. And second of all, if there is something that is completely counter with their family values, they should be able to request a replacement piece to the curriculum,” Youngkin continued.

Smith then told Youngkin that he now has a “reputation” of being “the governor who bans books,” citing an Axios report alleging that “nearly 400 book titles were targeted for bans in Virginia libraries last year.”

“First of all, the idea of common sense being attributed to a family so they can make a decision about whether their child is reading a book that’s consistent with their family values is something when we explain this, everybody says yes. It doesn’t fit with the progressive narrative. And so what they call that is ‘book banning’ because it doesn’t fit with the narrative,” Youngkin told Smith. 

“Is that what Axios is referring to? There are 400 books that parents can opt out of or have those books been removed?” Smith pressed the governor. 

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Youngkin pushed back, citing a pre-existing law that libraries and school boards can assess what book titles are appropriate for children. 

“It was not new and on top of that… the fact that parents, Republicans, independents and Democrats believe that they should be at the head of the table in their child’s life, and they should have a say in their child’s life and things shouldn’t happen to their children without parents knowing and being involved, is common sense. It is a strong majority that believes this,” Youngkin said. “And so that what the progressive left wanted to do was change the narrative. And so ‘this is all about book banning.’ It’s not about book banning. This is about empowering parents to have-“

Some in the crowd let out audible groans to Youngkin, prompting Smith to tell them “please” with a pausing gesture.

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“This is about having parents to have full transparency what’s going on in their kids’ lives,” Youngkin finished his thought.

Youngkin faced boos and jeers from the liberal Texas Tribune Festival audience as he defended his education policies. (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)

“And the authors of books that have been removed from library shelves who say Virginia is censoring us. You say what to them?” Smith followed. 

“I say first of all, Virginia is not censoring,” Youngkin responded. “What school boards, local school boards are doing is exercising their legal and responsible right to assess whether books are appropriate in the schools and whether they are age appropriate.”

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“You worry that there’s been some over-correction here?” Smith asked. “I mean, I remember Toni Morrison’s ‘Beloved’ coming up in the context of this discussion. I don’t know that you or anybody on your campaign specifically called that book out, but we know that that book became part of this conversation. I mean, I remember reading ‘Beloved’ in school, in English class. Is that the kind of book that we want to pull off of a library shelf?”

“What grade did you read it in?” Youngkin countered.

“I mean, high school,” Smith answered.

“Is it appropriate for a first-grader or second-grader?” Youngkin then followed. “I’m just asking.”

That exchange sparked some boos from the liberal crowd. 

Smith and Youngkin repeatedly clashed during the closing keynote conversation at the 2024 Texas Tribune Festival.  (Joseph A. Wulfsohn/Fox News Digital)

Moments later, Smith quoted Youngkin’s neighboring colleague, Democratic Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who said during last month’s Democratic convention in Chicago “Loving your country doesn’t mean lying about its history,” prompting him to ask Youngkin whether he agreed.

“I have consistently and clearly said we must teach all of our history, the good and the bad, all of it. All of it,” Youngkin said. “What I’ve also said is we shouldn’t blame people today for what’s happened historically. We just want everybody to understand it. It’s why when we’ve eventually got to the finish line on our history curriculum, we have, I believe, rated the best history curriculum in America today because we tell all of our history. We in fact made sure that we were going to include a broad, broad education associated with slavery, with reconstruction, with civil rights, also with the Holocaust. And we need to make sure that our students understand these pivotal moments in our history so that we don’t ever repeat them.”

Youngkin later added, “I have to say, what the progressive left does really well is push people into this ‘either or’ moment. It’s either this or that. And I don’t live there. I believe we can live in a ‘both and’ world. We can teach all of our history, the good and the bad, and we can make sure that we’re not penalizing or trying to blame people today for what happened a long time ago. We can do both of these things, and if we do this well, then in fact, we have a generation of students who are educated and are in an ability to make the right decisions going forward, because we’re gonna have to hand our state and our country to this next generation of students.”

The liberal attendees did offer Youngkin applause when he touted his administration’s effort to give teachers raises, but later they reacted against him after he noted that Democratic state lawmakers blocked legislative efforts towards passing a school voucher program. 

The mother of the suspected gunman in last week’s shooting at Georgia’s Apalachee High School says she warned the school the morning of the attack, and teachers had already noticed red flags.  

In an interview with ABC News published Tuesday, Marcee Gray said she called the school counselor on the morning of Sept. 4, 2024, the day of the shooting, to warn officials about a concerning message she’d received from her son, Colt Gray. 

“The counselor said, ‘Well, I wanted to let you know that, earlier this morning, one of Colt’s teachers had sent me an email that said Colt had been making references to school shootings,” Gray told the outlet. “Between my gut feelings, the text messages and now this email, you all need to go, like, run to the classroom.” 

Gray said the last message she’d received from her son was, “I’m sorry, Mom.” She said his father had received similar texts, one that said, “I’m sorry” and “You’re not to blame for this.” 

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She also said she’d called Apalachee nearly a week earlier because “I wanted Colt to be admitted to an inpatient treatment. Colt was on board with it.” 

When she heard about the shooting, Gray said, she “fell to the ground and just started screaming.” 

“I knew what had happened. I just knew in my gut,” she said, calling it “unfathomable” what happened to the victims.” 

“If I could take their place, I would,” Gray told ABC News. “I would in a heartbeat.” 

Fox News Digital has contacted Gray and the district for additional comment. 

Suspected shooter Colt Gray, 14  (The Barrow County Sheriff’s Office)

Officials say Colt Gray, 14, shot and killed students Christian Angulo and Mason Schermerhorn, both 14, and teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53. Eight other students and a teacher were injured — seven of them shot — and are expected to recover.

Marcee Gray’s sister, Annie Brown, told The Washington Post her sister had texted her saying she spoke with a school counselor and warned staff of an “extreme emergency” before the killings. Brown said Marcee Gray urged them to “immediately” find her son to check on him.

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Brown provided screenshots of the text exchange to the newspaper, which also reported that a call log from the family’s shared phone plan showed a call was made to the school at 9:50 a.m. Warrants for Gray’s arrest say the shooting started at 10:20 a.m.

In this image from a video monitor, suspected gunman Colt Gray, left, sits in the Barrow County Courthouse during his first appearance for the shooting at Apalachee High School Sept. 6, 2024, in Winder, Ga.  (Brynn Anderson-Pool/Getty Images)

The boy’s grandfather, Charles Polhamus, has told multiple news outlets that Marcee Gray got a text from her son Wednesday saying he was sorry. Polhamus told CNN Marcee Gray drove to Winder, more than 200 miles from Fitzgerald, immediately after the shooting.

Authorities have said Gray’s father, Colin Gray, gave Colt access to the semiautomatic AR-15 style rifle used in the shooting. It’s not clear how Gray brought the gun to campus or what he did with it in the two hours between school starting at 8:15 a.m. and when shots first rang out.

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Colt Gray was charged last week as an adult with four counts of felony murder in the shooting and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole or life with the possibility of parole if convicted.

Colin Gray became the first parent of a school shooting suspect to be charged in Georgia, District Attorney Brad Smith said Friday. Colin Gray was charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children for providing his son with the rifle.

Colin Gray is jailed in Barrow County after declining to seek bail in a brief court hearing Friday in Winder. Colt Gray is being held in a juvenile detention center after declining to seek bail. Neither has been indicted nor entered a plea.

Alleged Apalachee school shooter Colt Gray and his father Colin Gray’s former neighborhood in Jefferson Sept. 6, 2024. Both lived in the home until an eviction in May 2022. (Ben Hendren for Fox News Digital)

It’s unclear if Barrow County School authorities knew before the shooting that Colt and Colin Gray previously had been interviewed by a sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Jackson County in May 2023 after a report of an online threat to shoot up a middle school that Colt Gray, then 13, attended.

Colin Gray told the investigator back then that Colt had access to unloaded guns in the house but knew “how to use them and not use them.” He also said his son had struggled since he and his wife separated and that Colt was picked on in school.

Fox News Digital’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi and Greg Norman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The Federal Aviation Administration says a Delta Airbus A350 and an Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 jet clipped each other Tuesday morning on the tarmac at an Atlanta airport.

The FAA said in a statement to Fox News Digital that “while Delta Air Lines Flight 295 was taxiing for departure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, its wingtip struck the tail of Endeavor Air Flight 5526.”

“The Delta Airbus A350 was headed to Tokyo. The Endeavor Bombardier CRJ900 was headed to Lafayette, Louisiana,” the agency added. “The FAA will investigate the incident, which occurred at the intersection of two taxiways around 10:10 a.m. local time on Tuesday, Sept. 10.”

Images being posted on social media show heavy damage to the tail of one of the planes, whose vertical stabilizer appears to have been severed from the aircraft. 

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“Well that was terrifying. Taxiing out for the flight from Atlanta to Louisiana and another plane appears to have clipped the back of our plane,” WFTS Meteorologist Jason Adams posted on X. “Very jarring, metal scraping sounds then loud bangs. We’re fine. No fire or smoke.” 

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One of the planes in Atlanta suffered severe damage to its tail. (X/@GregVojnovic)

Delta said in its own statement that “the wing of an Airbus A350 taxiing out as DL295 from Atlanta to Tokyo-Haneda made contact with the tail of an Endeavor Air CRJ-900, DL5526 to LaFayette, Louisiana, on an adjacent taxiway, resulting in damage to the tail of the regional jet and the wing of the A350. 

“There have been no reported injuries at this time,” the airline said. “There were 221 customers on DL295 and 56 customers on DL5526. At this time, no additional operational adjustments are expected. “

Delta later issued a second statement saying it has “worked with each customer… to provide accommodation on alternate aircraft scheduled to depart Tuesday afternoon. We apologize to our customers for the experience.”

Delta says “there have been no reported injuries at this time and customers are being transported back to the terminal where they will be reaccommodated on alternate flights.” (WANF )

“Meanwhile Delta is cooperating with the NTSB and other authorities while Delta TechOps teams prepare to safely move both aircraft to maintenance hangars,” it also said.