Fact Check: VA Dem Gov Candidate Falsely Claims GOP Opponent Didn't Accept 2020 Election
Former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is desperate to win his old position back, even if it means resorting to false smears of his opponent.
In a campaign ad released on May 19, 2021, the McAuliffe team suggested that Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin perpetuated the claim that the 2020 election was rigged against former President Donald Trump.
“The Republicans in Washington have pledged their loyalty to Donald Trump over our democracy,” the ad stated.
It then played a clip of Republican Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who endorsed Youngkin, saying, “There are serious disputes about the vote totals.”
“They kicked out Liz Cheney for saying the simple truth that we all know. And here in Virginia, they chose a nominee for governor who promotes the same conspiracy theories,” the video added.
While the Republican nominee has recognized election integrity as an issue on the campaign trail, he never said the presidential election was fraudulent, according to Fox News.
“Joe Biden was legitimately elected our president. I mean, he took the oath and was sworn in. He’s sleeping in the White House. He’s, unfortunately, signing executive order after executive order,” he told Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business last month.
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“But the reality here is I’m not going to get lectured by the same people — Terry McAuliffe and all of his liberal friends — who actually said nothing when Hillary Clinton said that Donald Trump was an illegitimate president,” he continued.
What makes the attacks on Youngkin laughable is the fact that McAuliffe publicly doubted the 2000 presidential election results.
“Our base voters are madder than heck and think they were robbed. They worked their hearts and souls out in the presidential election only to have it taken from them,” then-Democratic National Committee chairman McAuliffe said in 2001, according to The Daily Wire.
In addition, Trump donated $25,000 to McAuliffe for his failed 2009 gubernatorial bid, and McAulife even praised the former president in 2017 at a National Governor’s Association dinner, Daily Wire reported.
Let me introduce you to Glenn Youngkin: Glenn’s a Ted Cruz and Corey Stewart-endorsed, self-funding, Big Lie believing Trump loyalist who’ll stop at nothing to advance the GOP’s extreme agenda.
What he’s definitely not? The next Governor of Virginia. I’ll make sure of that.
— Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) May 11, 2021
The race for the governor’s office is clearly going to be more competitive than originally anticipated, otherwise, McAuliffe would not be resorting to calling Youngkin a Trump-aligned “extremist” at every turn.
Mudslinging is simply embarrassing when the accusations have little basis in fact, especially when a politician is guilty of those same actions themselves.
Democrats will continue to blanket all Republicans with Trump’s voter fraud claims as a political tool, regardless of if their attacks are factual or not.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
