As we reported earlier, Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe and Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin faced off Tuesday night in their final debate, where McAuliffe made what some consider to be a catastrophic blunder in his campaign to become the state’s governor for the second (non-consecutive) time.

The two were sparring over state education guidelines on transgender students, what’s appropriate to teach children in public school classrooms, and if parents should be notified when lesson plans will include sexually explicit content when a visibly agitated McAuliffe told a persistent Youngkin that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

In case you missed it, watch the clip below:

Terry McAuliffe: “I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach." pic.twitter.com/2AVjGorgnj

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 28, 2021

In response, Youngkin went for the jugular, immediately putting out a blistering ad juxtaposing McAuliffe’s comments alongside concerned Virginia parents speaking out at school board meetings about the sexually explicit content found in some school library books:

You’d think with the storm of negative attention McAuliffe’s remarks have brought to his campaign that he might soften his stance or backtrack in some way considering how education has become such a hot button topic in this country over the last few years. But that’s not what happened.

Instead, during an interview he did with Virginia news outlet CBS-19 today, McAuliffe doubled down, telling the station that “you don’t want parents coming in” and providing input on the educational curriculum for the schools their children attend (and which the parents pay for with their tax dollars):

“Listen, we have a Board of Ed, working with the local school boards to determine the curriculum for our schools. You don’t want parents coming in, in every different school district saying this is what should be taught here and this is what should be taught there,” he said.

Watch (starts at the 1:04 mark of this clip):

I had exclusive interviews today with @GlennYoungkin and @TerryMcAuliffe, both vying for governor in Virginia.

Just 33 days away from the election, we spoke about last night's explosive topics: school curriculums and Trump. @CBS19News pic.twitter.com/le2Xo5FyuL

— Sarah Robinson (@sarahrobinsontv) September 29, 2021

As I noted earlier, this could be one of those “turning point moments” in political campaigns we often see where a candidate either says or does something that changes the tide of the race, sometimes against him.

The Virginia school system has become a hot spot for battles between parents and school boards on the forced implementation of radical leftist ideas like Critical Race Theory and “woke” gender identity ideology. Because of that, McAuliffe blurting out the quiet part about what Democrats really think the role of parents should be in their children’s education could end up coming back to bite him in a big way on Election Day.

We’ll find out for sure when voters take to the polls on November 2nd. As always, stay tuned.

Flashback –>> Terry McAuliffe Just Loses It When Asked by Virginia Sheriff if He Supports Defunding the Police