Virginia Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe raised eyebrows during a CNN interview on Sunday when he refused to acknowledge Republicans won the 2000 presidential election. McAuliffe’s odd remarks that Republicans stole the election come as Democrats have attacked some Republicans for not accepting the results of the 2020 election.
According to The Daily Wire:
CNN host Dana Bash played clips from remarks that McAuliffe made in the past where the former Virginia governor, who is running for a second, nonconsecutive term, claimed without evidence that Democrats “actually won the last presidential election” and that the Supreme Court “stole the last presidential election.”
When asked to respond to his comments, he said “the 2000 election went to the United States Supreme Court.”
“Going back to 2000, do you think Republicans stole that election?” Bash asked.
“I wish the United States Supreme Court had let them finish counting the votes,” McAuliffe answered.
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This isn’t the first time the Democrat candidate was caught peddling fake news. The Washington Post fact-checker slammed McAuliffe’s recent attempt to disparage Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin’s business career. McAuliffe ran ads attacking Youngkin for taking over “predatory dental clinics” the main issue is that Youngin has nothing to do with such business deals and WaPo fact-checker Glenn Kessler called out the disturbing “flimflammery.”
Townhall reports:
Fact-checker Glenn Kessler highlights the voice-over claim from the ad’s narrator that “Small Smiles, a string of dental clinics preying on unsuspecting poor families. As a Wall Street executive, Glenn Youngkin took over this chain of dental clinics, increasing corporate profits through serious abuse and the performing of unnecessary procedures on children.”
Kessler didn’t hold back in attacking McAuliffe for deliberately trying to attack his challenger with ads riddle with falsehoods and outright lies.
On just about every level, this campaign ad is flat-out false. It claims that Youngkin “took over” the dental clinics. Not only was he not part of the original transaction, but Carlyle did not own or manage the clinics; it merely helped fund the deal with loans.
After the problems were exposed and the company failed to make good on its loans, in 2010 (before Youngkin became chief operating officer), the loans were renegotiated to give Carlyle a relatively small equity stake. Only at that point did Carlyle even have the right to name a board director. But the company still was mostly owned by Arcapita, the Bahrain investment firm. One might fault the terms of the Arcapita purchase for increasing pressure on company executives to maximize profits — but again, Youngkin had no role in the original deal.
Given that the ad displays an image of the Senate report — which says that Arcapita owned the holding company of Small Smiles — there is no excuse for such flimflammery.
