It's an election in an off year, but Virginia will be deciding who will be replacing Gov. Ralph Northam. The man survived a blackface scandal. Who was the dude in the Ku Klux Klan garb in his yearbook photo? We’ll never know, so Northam is gone. It’s now between Glenn Youngkin and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The latter trying to get his old job back; Virginia bars governors serving consecutive terms. Terry has tried to paint Youngkin as a Trump minion. Has it worked? We’ll see. All we know is that the race appears tighter than past gubernatorial races. Democrats are not as enthused as they were back in 2017—and Biden is underwater in the state. McAuliffe probably thinks he needs all the help he can get, so why not venture onto CNN to discuss the campaign. Not sure why since no one really watches CNN except unhinged liberals and reluctant conservatives who are paid to track and write about their insanity—but here we are.
But CNN did something crazy. They pushed back on Terry’s talking points about his Republican opponent which did not sit well. Host Erin Burnett had McAuliffe on her show last Wednesday and asked him if his attacks on his opponent were wrong regarding the Trump ties. Terry was not expecting this (via Newsbusters):
Burnett did something unusual for CNN. She actually asked the Democrat if he was “wrong:”
All right. All this being said, I went back to look at some of the things that Youngkin has said. And last week, he specifically said he had not talked to Donald Trump at all about holding a possible rally in Virginia. He said, clearly, that he would have voted to certify the election. Clearly, not a Trump thing. And he specifically said he believes in the integrity of the voting process.
Obviously, Trump, himself, has suggested Youngkin hasn't embraced him or the MAGA movement enough which those statements, of course, would be consistent with. So, when you hear that, I mean, are you wrong to be calling him wannabe Trump? I mean, he is going against Trump on -- on election and certification.
Democrats weren't used to getting push back from the media. Offended, McAuliffe raged, “Come on, Erin!"
“Come on, Erin. He's not going against Trump. I mean, through the whole campaign, he's talked about election integrity. Come on. For eight, nine months, that's been his number one thing he's talked about!” he fumed.
Right then, McAuliffe’s Zoom call lost connection and he remained frozen on the screen without audio. After trying to reconnect, Burnett awkwardly ended the interview and moved on.
Democrats always expect softball questions in these interviews. No doubt Burnett tossed a couple, but they don’t like being pressed on friendly territory. Last summer, Nancy Pelosi had a Chernobyl-style meltdown with PBS’ Judy Woodruff after she exposed the shoddy talking points Democrats had for not passing another COVID stimulus. Terry is no exception.