Virginia’s Democratic candidate for governor, Terry McAuliffe, may be losing his cool as Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin is breathing down his neck.
About halfway through an interview with WJLA reporter Nick Minock, McAuliffe abruptly stood up and said “All right, we are over.” Minock had been asking about vaccine mandates and contentious school board meetings. McAuliffe apparently wanted the reporter to ask about Donald Trump and Youngkin’s “vaccine denial.”
“C’mon, man. You should have asked better questions early on,” the McAuliffe said to Minock. “You should have asked questions your viewers care about.”
Minock replied, “Well, we did.”
Here’s the awkward video of @TerryMcAuliffe walking out half way through what was supposed to be 20 minute interview with local ABC affiliate pic.twitter.com/EjQ6OL22Fo
— Brent Scher (@BrentScher) October 19, 2021
Watch the spokesman explaining why McAuliffe’s interview is shorter than Youngkin’s.
WATCH: Terry McAuliffe cut off an interview and berated a reporter for asking tough questions. #VAgov pic.twitter.com/wAaleFdF9f
— Team Youngkin (@TeamYoungkin) October 19, 2021
His WJLA sitdown got off to a frosty start when it started with earlier comments he made saying, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what to teach.”
After insisting that “parents should have a voice,” he denied that meant he misspoke in his earlier comments brushing off such rights.
He then grew irate at Youngkin’s promise to “ban critical race theory as soon as he is elected.”
“Let me be clear: Critical race theory is not taught in Virginia. Nor has it ever been taught,” he insisted of the controversial subject that sparked many of the angry school board confrontations.
McAuliffe is absolutely correct. “Critical race theory” — the academic discipline upon which many college courses of study are based — is not being taught in Virginia public schools.
Just the basic tenets of critical race theory are being taught. And if that sounds like McAuliffe and other leftists are deliberately and carefully splitting hairs, they are. They can get away with it because technically, it’s true.
Related: They’re at It Again: The Left Is Using Its California Playbook in Virginia
But the same noxious concepts that stipulate as a matter of fact that all whites are racists and guilty of oppressing “people of color” are being taught. No doubt McAuliffe and other leftists are laughing up their sleeves at the gullible rubes who believe them when they say CRT isn’t being taught in the schools.
The rest of McAuliffe’s interview before he walked out in a snit, was revealing.
He refused to get drawn in when asked about the prospect of parents getting labeled domestic terrorists for violent confrontations over school policies, especially in volatile districts such as Loudoun County.
“I will leave the attorney general of the United States to make their decisions. I have no knowledge of it,” he said. “They are going to make their own decisions. We want to keep our schools safe.”
Asked if he supports “vaccine mandates for state employees,” he replied, “Of course I do! … I’m for everybody getting vaccinated,” including children once they are eligible.
“Schools, nurses, doctors, I want every employer to mandate that their employees be required to be vaccinated,” he said, calling Youngkin an “anti-vaxxer.”
Youngkin has never come out against vaccines at any time, which gives you an idea of how desperate McAuliffe has gotten. Even CNN’s Chris Cillizza can smell the fear in the McAuliffe camp in analyzing his latest ad.
What the ad makes clear is that McAuliffe is on the defensive in these last weeks before Virginia voters head to the polls. They feel as though Youngkin is making inroads with his attacks on education — and parents’ role in what their kids should (and do) learn — and that they need to stop the bleeding sooner rather than later.
The interview walkout is not likely to improve his chances.
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