Virginia Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate Falsely Claims Republican Rival Doesn’t Accept 2020 Election, Ignores Own Actual Denial Of 2000 Election

Terry McAuliffe, the former Democrat governor of Virginia who is running for the office again, falsely claims on his campaign website that his opponent, Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin, didn’t accept the results of the 2020 election. The allegation is ironic, given McAuliffe’s own documented history of denying the election results of 2000.

McAuliffe on his campaign website accuses Youngkin of “parroting Trump’s conspiracy theories about the 2020 election.”

As Fox News reported, “Youngkin has not claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Trump. He announced an ‘election integrity task force’ ahead of the gubernatorial battle, saying the issue was not a partisan one, but one related to ‘democracy.’”

Youngkin has also said on Fox Business that President Joe Biden was “legitimately elected our president.”

“He took the oath and was sworn in. He’s sleeping in the White House,” Youngkin added. “He’s, unfortunately, signing executive order after executive order.”

Compare that to comments McAuliffe made in the years after the 2000 election regarding its legitimacy. In 2001, while serving as the Democratic National Committee chairman, McAuliffe claimed Democrats had the 2000 election “taken from them.”

“Our base voters are madder than heck and think they were robbed. They worked their hearts and souls out in the presidential election only to have it taken from them,” McAuliffe said.

Also that year, during an interview with Black Entertainment Television, McAuliffe claimed Democrats “won the campaign” against President George W. Bush but “didn’t get the prize.” He insisted that another recount would have given Florida to former Vice President Al Gore.

McAuliffe also said at the Democratic Business Council’s 20^th anniversary dinner that year that “We won that election.”

“Folks, you know it, I know it, they know it,” McAuliffe said. “We won that election.”

More than a year after the 2000 election and McAuliffe was still complaining about the 2000 election loss. From Fox News:

In an article from 2002 about the Voting Rights Institute McAuliffe founded as DNC chair, the former governor claimed voters in Florida were “disenfranchised” during the 2000 election. 

“If I ever allow what happened in Florida to occur again, I’ll be thrown out as chairman of this party,” McAuliffe said. “I mean, there’s no question that people were disenfranchised.”

A spokesperson for Youngkin’s campaign told Fox News that McAuliffe “is the only person in this race who has suggested an election was stolen,” adding that “After more than one presidential election he disputed the outcome and cited irregularities.”

“Now McAuliffe is singing a different tune just as you would expect from a hypocritical career politician who talks out of both sides of his mouth,” the spokesperson added.

McAuliffe has also tried to attack Youngkin for his connection to former President Donald Trump, even though McAuliffe accepted $25,000 from Trump in 2009 for his gubernatorial bid (he lost that election) and praised Trump at the 2017 National Governor’s Association dinner, saying he looked forward to working with the new president.

“I just want to toast you, Mr. President, and say we want to work with you on those ideals that have instilled and brought all of us governors together. That we can respectively grow our states and grow our nation to be truly the great destiny that we are,” McAuliffe said at the dinner, before toasting Trump.

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