Why Is an Election Denier Fundraising Off of False Accusations His Opponent Is One?

As Reagan covered in her VIP column, Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe denied that President George W. Bush won 2000 presidential election, and even claimed that U.S. Supreme Court had been "tampering" with the votes. He had just started serving as the chair of the DNC when he made such comments in footage from an unaired appearance on "Meet the Press." Fox News' Houston Keene has even more examples. McAuliffe continued to make such claims even in 2004, when President George W. Bush was running for re-election. As of last month has not clarified his stance, as Keene also reported.

These election denying claims are even more suspect when McAuliffe is fundraising off of the "January 6 Commission" and claiming his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin is the one "doubling down on Trump's lies."

One Democrat who is raising money off the Select Committee (or "January 6 Commission" as it were): @TerryMcAuliffe pic.twitter.com/h5l3lQxFT9
— Mike DeBonis (@mikedebonis) July 27, 2021

A "What Virginias Saw This Week" post from McAuliffe's campaign website on May 21. claimed that Yougngkin had engaged in "months of parroting Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election."

Youngkin is on record in an interview with Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo from May 13 saying that Biden was "legitimately elected our president," continuing with how "he took the oath and was sworn in."

In a separate interview, he also told Guy on his radio show that "[Biden] won the election." Youngkin went on to say that "he's our president" and that "the reality is, the media's fascination with this is part of Terry McAuliffe's tired rhetoric."

McAuliffe also has help from another election denier, Stacey Abrams. At least five of his fundraising emails since June 10 have come from Abrams, with subject lines such as "To win, Terry needs to build the largest grassroots army in the history of Virginia politics" and "All eyes on Virginia this fall."

When testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and asked by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) if she still maintained the 2018 Georgia election was stolen, Abrams initially refused to give a direct answer, but ultimately repeated her previous claims that "it was stolen from the voters of Georgia." These comments came just a few months ago, in April.

"I have to tell you, this is the fundamentals of democracy – and this whole thing that people do to say that, ‘oh, Trump really won the election’ – well, you know, what, 33 lawsuits with Republican judges, they all said it’s nonsense. What I hate about that argument is that it’s making our democracy look bad around the globe. We are the symbol of democracy for the world and every time Donald Trump and all of his allies come out and say, ‘oh no, blah blah blah, [Biden] didn’t win it, he’s hurting our country. It’s hurting those young men and women in uniform. It’s hurting everybody and I just get so tired of it," he said, according to audio feed from the event.

That same day the campaign sent out a fundraising email from Abrams with the subject line "We're in the final stretch."

The Youngkin campaign provided a statement from spokesperson Christian Martinez. "If Terry McAuliffe is accusing you of something, he’s probably guilty of it himself. McAuliffe has talked out of both sides of his mouth throughout his 40 years in politics and has never let the truth get in the way of anything he says. It’s time to leave behind stale old politicians like McAuliffe and elect a new kind of leader in Virginia, someone like Glenn Youngkin who is honest and actually wants to do the job instead of just use it to run for president like McAuliffe," Martinez said.

McAuliffe has been fact-checked many times by multiple sites, though he has a habit of repeating such claims even after they've been found to be less than true.