Former President Donald Trump lost Virginia in 2016 and 2020, as has every Republican presidential candidate since 2008. And he's certainly not running for governor of the commonwealth. Yet one would think that he is with how much Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe has discussed him on the campaign trail. Even CNN is calling McAuliffe out for how obsessed he is with the former president.
Message discipline ?@TerryMcAuliffe? ?? pic.twitter.com/a1MEsoprFL
— Jeff Roe (@jeffroe) October 30, 2021
Dan Merica on Saturday wrote that "McAuliffe says Virginia election 'is not about Trump' after making former President central figure in campaign."
As he also wrote:
Virginia Beach, Virginia (CNN)Terry McAuliffe claimed on Saturday that the Virginia gubernatorial election is "not about Trump" -- even though the Democratic gubernatorial candidate has invoked the former Republican President perhaps more than any other political figure.
The comment, which belies the fact that tying Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin to Trump has been a central political strategy for McAuliffe since the start of the campaign, represents a significant shift for the Democrat just days before Tuesday's election and on the final day of early voting in Virginia....
McAuliffe has long been worried about what Democratic turnout would look like in a post-Trump era and whether the party's base would come out in the same historic numbers it did during the four years the Republican president was in office. In an effort to boost turnout, McAuliffe began his general election campaign against Youngkin by looking to turn the businessman-turned-politician into Trump, trying to tie the two together at every event, in countless television ads and in nearly every interview.
The reversal raises questions about whether McAuliffe and Virginia Democrats have successfully made that connection -- and, possibly more notably, voters care as much as Democrats had hoped.
And yet, believe it or not, McAuliffe doesn't think he's made the race too much about Trump:
When pressed on his comment Saturday, McAuliffe said he did not think he had made Trump too much of a focus in this race.
"Trump is not liked here in the commonwealth of Virginia. People remember Charlottesville, when he failed us that day, horrible day, when he said there were fine people on both sides," McAuliffe said. "People want to be lifted up; Trump is hate and division. He wants to run again in 2024. I think he wants to use this ... as a launch pad for that. That is why he has endorsed Youngkin seven or eight times, seven or eight times."
McAuliffe may have a point, considering that Trump lost by over 10 points in 2020, which is also why Virginia voters likely do not want to hear about a former president who is no longer in office and is not on the ballot.
Salena Zito argued in an October 17 column for the Washington Examiner that "Terry McAuliffe is misreading what matters to Virginia voters."
As she wrote, with added emphasis:
Last week, McAuliffe tweeted : “Glenn Youngkin wants to bring the Donald Trump-Betsy DeVos education agenda to Virginia: MASSIVE cuts to public schools and redirecting taxpayer dollars to private schools. We have got to stop them.” McAuliffe's push along these lines has gotten even the left-leaning PolitiFact to dispute his veracity. McAuliffe is so desperate to tie Youngkin to Trump that he has even resorted to planting "Youngkin = Trump" signs at his campaign events.
To win, McAuliffe has to change the dynamic. He's got two ways to do it. One requires introducing something that is truly disqualifying for Youngkin. That hasn't worked, and so the other is to associate Youngkin with Trump, which also isn't working. Most voters' concerns in this election have literally nothing to do with Trump, and they’d like you to stop asking about him, thank you very much.
Democrats may be in a far worse position than they understand — not only in Virginia, but everywhere. Biden has become the new Trump, and attitudes toward him are the new measurement of dissatisfaction with Washington.
President Joe Biden also turned to relitigating the 2020 election when he campaigned for McAuliffe in Northern Virginia last Tuesday. As Merica mentioned, former President Barack Obama and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) also mentioned Trump.
The network has pointed out before that McAuliffe is far too focused on Trump. The Youngkin took advantage of such commentary from CNN and other networks to tweet out a clip highlighting the number of times the Democrat will mention the former president in one interview.
Only 16 times in today's interview? C'mon @TerryMcAuliffe, your record is 18. Can you beat it? pic.twitter.com/549UUxOR4t
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 12, 2021
As Matt reported, McAuliffe last month got snappish when confronted by Erin Burnett with the network for mentioning Trump so much.
It's also a habit of McAuliffe to mention Trump's name unprompted during his interviews. And CNN calls him out for it.
I had to confirm that this was this morning and not a recycled clip since it’s happening so frequently I feel like. https://t.co/pyOAD4MLzR
— Rebecca Downs (@RebeccaRoseGold) October 19, 2021
During the first debate at the Appalachian School of Law on September 16, moderator Susan Page told McAuliffe "to watch your campaign ads, Virginia voters might well think Donald Trump is on the ballot."
Readers will find that a "Related Article" for Merica's piece, by Chris Cillizza, warns about "One number that should worry every Democrat in Virginia." Not only is President Biden underwater in the commonwealth with his approval ratings--46 percent approve while 53 percent disapprove in multiple polls--the amount of voters who strongly disapprove is high as well.
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