Former President of the United States Donald Trump continues to comment on the Virginia gubernatorial race even after he lost the Commonwealth to Joe Biden by 10 points last year. Trump released a new statement Monday condemning his party’s 2017 gubernatorial nominee while praising their current one, Glenn Youngkin. He also floated election-fraud conspiracy rhetoric about the 2021 election.
“Four years ago, a man named Ed Gillespie ran for Governor of Virginia without ’embracing’ MAGA, or the America First movement. He tried to skirt the issue by wanting my endorsement, yet walking on both sides of the fence,” Trump said in his statement Monday.
Gillespie ran against Ralph Northam in 2017 and lost by nine points. Additionally, Democrats flipped 15 seats in the House of Delegates that year, just 12 months after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. Trump believes the reason Gillespie lost is due to him not embracing the Make America Great Again movement that the former president owned. “The Trump base is very large in Virginia, they understood his game, and they didn’t come out for Gillespie, nor did I do anything to help or hurt. He got creamed,” Trump wrote.
The former president then touted Youngkin, calling him a great candidate. “Now a great candidate, Glenn Youngkin, is running against political hack and unpopular former Governor of Virginia, Terry McAuliffe,” Trump wrote.
The former president also continued to try and bring up unproven voter fraud conspiracy theories, the same rhetoric that led to his second impeachment and removal from all social media platforms. “Glenn has a very good chance of winning—but watch the ‘vote counters’ in Virginia. As the 2020 Presidential Election Scam has proven, they can be far more important than the candidate!”
Youngkin’s Democratic opponent Terry McAuliffe tweeted a response to the statement from Trump. “Donald Trump, a failed and unpopular one-term President, just can’t accept the fact that the people of Virginia rejected him TWICE,” McAuliffe tweeted. “So he’s back to his 2020 election LIES.”
When asked for comment about President Trump’s statement Monday, Youngkin’s campaign referred Virginia Scope to a tweet they posted last month with a video montage of McAuliffe in 2001 saying the 2000 presidential election was stolen from the Democratic candidate Al Gore. McAuliffe was chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time.
Christina Freundlich, a spokesperson for McAuliffe said that Youngkin is helping Trump threaten America’s democracy. “To this day, Glenn Youngkin proudly stands with Donald Trump and the dangerous lies that cost American lives on January 6th,” Freundlich said in a statement Monday. “Youngkin is helping Trump threaten American democracy; he belongs nowhere near the governorship.”
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