Virginia politics are getting uglier. This time it's to do with a fact-checker that called out a deceptive ad from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe. The fact-check was retracted a few hours later.
On Tuesday morning, PolitiFact Virginia addressed an ad released by McAuliffe, who is once more running for the position he held from 2013-2017. The state constitution prevents governors from running for consecutive terms. The ad claimed that McAuliffe's Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, issued comments praising him.
The script of the 39-second ad reads:
Narrator: "Glenn Youngkin is relying on an old political playbook: trash your opponent and try to scare the public into liking you."
Youngkin: "I'm having a Virginia crisis because our commonwealth is in the ditch."
Narrator: "But before he ran for office, he was a big fan of Terry McAuliffe and his record as Governor. Here's one example:"
Youngkin: "Here, we have one out of fifty states that's doing very well, and particularly in the Commonwealth of Virginia."
Narrator: "Here's another:"
Youngkin: "If you want to put a new plant down, that’s the place to put it."
Narrator: "And one more time."
Youngkin: "Governor, I’m going to come back to the role you played in developing Virginia’s economy. How do you do it?"
Narrator: "Come on, Glenn."
The "Discussion" section in an archived version of the fact-check accessed by Townhall states:
The ad edits and alters Youngkin’s sentences and, in instances, presents them out of context. Let’s look:
“Here we have one out of fifty states that’s doing very well, and particularly in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
Youngkin was not offering his personal opinion here; he was summarizing remarks made by his four-member panel (which, again, included McAuliffe). Here’s Youngkin’s full quote:
“What we’ve said, just to summarize a little bit, is while not 100% agreeing that we’re in a full recovery, I think there’s a general sense of the US economy doing okay, and particularly in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Here we have one out of 50 states that's doing very well and has really shown great strides.”
“Governor, I’m going to come back to the role you played in developing Virginia’s economy. How do you do it?”
The quote seems adulating, but critical words were cut. The context was neutral; Youngkin was simply asking McAuliffe to explain how he goes about recruiting foreign businesses to Virginia. Notice Here’s the full quote:
“Governor, I’m going to come back to the role you’ve played in developing Virginia’s economy. I just want to head off and have a little bit of a practice session with you. How do you do it? Here you sit as a governor, and you’ve got a state that has gone through some economic turmoil. How do you plan where to go? How do you pick the companies you’re working with and the sectors?”
“If you want to put a new plant down, (Virginia’s) the place to put it.”
Youngkin said this right after McAuliffe told the audience of business people, “I hope you’re all thinking about coming to Virginia.” Youngkin said he was merely adding a hometown pitch. “By the way, I’m a native Virginian, so I’m doing just a little recruiting,” he told the audience.
In assessing Youngkin’s comments, it’s also important to consider his role as moderator and McAuliffe’s role as a panelist. Moderators are typically neutral and polite to panelists. If Youngkin had problems with McAuliffe’s economic policies in 2017, this seminar may not have an appropriate place to air them.
So, contrary to McAuliffe’s assertion, Youngkin’s 2017 words do not prove he was a “big fan” of the former governor’s economic policies, or that his current criticism of McAuliffe’s stewardship is a flip flop.
The initial fact-check was quickly addressed by the Republican Party of Virginia.
0?? Days since Two-Faced Terry got caught lying:https://t.co/5j6Vh3ewRe
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) June 29, 2021
RPV has consistently highlighted the McAuliffe campaign's tactics of lying and smear campaigns.
By Tuesday afternoon, however, PolitiFact Virginia shared they had "retracted" the piece.
We've retracted a politifact piece on a McAuliffe campaign ad due to a substantial omission in our reporting.
— VPM (@myVPM) June 29, 2021
We apologize for our error and will publish a retraction notice on the VPM site.
Not only was there a lack of an explanation, but according to Tuesday reporting from Uriah Kiser of Potomac Local News, the station which had posted the fact-check was not taking calls but was "asking callers to leave their information on a recording, telling them that someone will call them back on the next business day."
We have the receipts. @myvpm, @warren_fiske, and @politifactva must be transparent about what they are reviewing and how it changes their original ruling: that Terry McAuliffe got caught lying AGAIN. pic.twitter.com/pHMD1Q1lZC
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) June 29, 2021
The Mainstream Media is attempting to cover for Two-Faced Terry and his campaign of lies.
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) June 29, 2021
Must be nice to have the Liberal Media do your bidding for you. https://t.co/1LDbGxCQth
Terry McAuliffe and Virginia Democrats want you to believe they've been exonerated and their lies have been excused.
— Virginia GOP (@VA_GOP) June 30, 2021
Don't let them fool you.
This fact pattern has not changed: https://t.co/8D3jbNgihZ
Matt Wolking, the Communications Director of the Youngkin campaign, tweeted that they were not contacted about the retraction.
Nobody from VPM or PolitiFact has contacted our campaign. They won’t answer our calls or texts. How are you going to write a retraction without talking with us?
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) June 29, 2021
Called and texted him an hour ago. No response yet.
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) June 29, 2021
There was also speculation on Tuesday night as to whether a Business Insider article had anything to do with the retraction.
Yes, like maybe watching the video and/or reading the Business Insider article or...etc.
— lowkell (@lowkell) June 29, 2021
The headline of that Business Insider article, a June 16 piece from Adam Wren and Warren Rojas read that "Virginia's GOP gubernatorial nominee praised the state's economy when his Democratic opponent was in charge."
The content of the article reads strikingly similar to the script of the McAuliffe ad, which was posted to YouTube on June 17.
As Wren and Rojas wrote:
Glenn Youngkin was for Terry McAuliffe's economy before he was against it.
It's an uncomfortable bit of reality for Youngkin, now the GOP nominee for Virginia governor who as CEO of the global investment firm The Carlyle Group routinely praised the state's economic progress while McAuliffe was its chief executive.
Youngkin and McAuliffe are in a head-to-head battle this November to lead the Old Dominion. And while the Republican is now quick to tarnish McAuliffe, an Insider review of Youngkin's public comments dating back to 2017 — during McAuliffe's first term — shows a businessman who praised the state's financial standing.
...
In an interview with McKinsey & Company, the businessman noted that the state — then under the leadership of Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam — had a "high-growth tech industry, a growing healthcare sector, and an established manufacturing presence." Northam served as Virginia lieutenant governor under McAuliffe before winning election himself to lead the state in 2017.
Back in 2019, when Virginia Tech announced it was building an innovation campus in Northern Virginia, Youngkin was equally enthused.
"What's happening in Northern Virginia is truly transformational, and Virginia Tech's Innovation Campus will be right at the heart of it," Youngkin said in a press release at the time. "Think of the possibilities — new technologies, new businesses, new markets, extraordinary new talent — all being created right here in Northern Virginia. And now, the scope of this ambition can be fully matched by this great location, which will be the home of the next global technology hub."
Ultimately, an update as to why appeared approximately 24 hours later.
We've published an updated and corrected version of this story. Again, we apologize for our error.https://t.co/7b3CtZ2XCt https://t.co/YErEtqqtAn
— VPM (@myVPM) June 30, 2021
The piece as of Wednesday afternoon now contains this information, with original emphasis:
Correction, June 30: When PolitiFact Virginia initially published this report on June 29, we failed to include comments Youngkin made outside of an U.S. Export-Import Bank conference that were on similar topics, because in our reporting process, we failed to reach out to the McAuliffe campaign. This goes against our reporting standards, which require us to contact political campaigns that we write about. We’ve corrected that omission in this report and apologize for the error.
There are other differences. For instance, this second emphasized sentence only appears in the updated piece.
The ad edits and alters Youngkin’s sentences and, in instances, presents them without context. On the other hand, there are a few statements Youngkin made in 2020 that are not part of the ad, but acknowledge large parts of the state’s economy have been growing and doing pretty well.
This paragraph has also been added, though the "positive comments" in question do not appear in the updated fact-check:
Leaving aside the EXIM symposium, however, Youngkin has made positive comments about aspects of Virginia’s economy that don’t appear in the ad. McAuliffe’s campaign sent them to us and said they show the gist of the ad is accurate.
It is worth emphasizing that as of Wednesday afternoon, the closing fact-check still states:
The bottom line: Contrary to McAuliffe’s ad assertion, Youngkin’s 2017 words do not prove he was a “big fan” of the former governor’s economic policies. But his 2019 words suggest some good things have happened in Virginia over the last eight years - although he did not credit McAuliffe or Northam.
If "the bottom line" remains the same, it is not clear why the retraction was needed in addition to an update.
"Glenn Youngkin is always positive and polite, and this event 4 years ago was no exception. Terry McAuliffe can deceptively edit and dishonestly represent clips from a panel discussion, but he can’t change the fact that Virginia has lost compared to other states over the last 8 years, with more people choosing to move away from Virginia to other states than move to Virginia from other states. Instead of defending the status quo like Terry McAuliffe, Youngkin is running for governor to make Virginia the best place in America to live, work, and raise a family," Youngkin spokesperson Macaulay Porter said in a statement for Townhall.
Despite this mention of their "reporting standards," it does not appear that a fact-check to do with Youngkin's remarks consulted the Youngkin campaign either.
A fact-check was published on June 17, in regards to comments made by Youngkin from a May 21 interview, where the candidate said, "Over the last few years, more Virginians are moving away from Virginia than are moving to Virginia from the other 49 states."
Ultimately, the fact-check rated Youngkin's statement "mostly true," with this qualifier:
Youngkin said, “Over the last few years, more Virginians are moving away from Virginia than are moving to Virginia from the other 49 states.” IRS data backs him up.
But Youngkin wraps the data in a questionable political context. He blames the last two Democratic governors for the net migration loss when research shows most of the drop has been caused by problems largely beyond any governor's control: federal budget cuts and high prices for buying a home in Northern Virginia.
Youngkin’s statement is accurate but needs clarification. So, we rate it Mostly True.
There is no indication in the fact-check that the Youngkin campaign was ever contacted. Though this fact-check is missing any such update which appears in the more recent fact-check regarding McAuliffe's ad.
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