We reported earlier on the despicable smear attempt made during an event for Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin during a rally in Charlottesville that took place this morning.
To recap, a number of individuals were seen in a photo standing in front of the Youngkin campaign’s tour bus while carrying tiki torches, with some of the individuals wearing hats that indicated supposed “support” for former President Donald Trump. To many, it was an obvious effort at invoking images of the tiki torches being carried by white nationalists the night before the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, which turned violent when James Alex Fields Jr drove a car into counter-protesters, in the process killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer.
Everything about the photo appeared staged and phony, and RedState cartoonist Jim Thompson’s take on it reflects that. But an oddly incurious local NBC News “reporter” nevertheless tweeted it out unquestioningly. For those who missed it, here’s the photo in question:
These men approached @GlennYoungkin’s bus as it pulled up saying what sounded like, “We’re all in for Glenn.” Here they are standing in front of the bus as his campaign event at Guadalajara started.@NBC29 pic.twitter.com/l681ejyBjc
— Elizabeth Holmes (@holmes_reports) October 29, 2021
In an update, we also reported that several of the participants had allegedly been identified as Democrat operatives directly connected to the Official Democratic Party of Virginia. To stress what was emphasized earlier, the identifications being made are alleged and not fully confirmed as of this writing.
Not surprisingly, Twitter is going absolutely nuts with people still trying to nail down the alleged identities of those seen in the photo and calling on Democrat gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe to condemn this disgusting stunt (his campaign denies involvement). But perhaps the best, most epic beast mode-y dunk of all came from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) who is exactly the guy you want to have with you down in the trenches when the battle comes down to the wire.
In his tweet, Cotton buried McAuliffe by invoking other imagery painful to Virginia Democrats – that of current Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, who admitted 18 months ago to wearing blackface in college but who then bizarrely backtracked the next day:
Terry McAuliffe is so desperate that his staffers are dressing up like Ralph Northam.
It won’t work.
— Tom Cotton (@TomCottonAR) October 29, 2021
It was a clear swipe at the fact that McAuliffe, who at the time called on Northam to resign over the yearbook photo that was revealed, was now wholeheartedly accepting Northam’s endorsement of his floundering campaign.
But just for the record, it should be noted that McAuliffe did a rather dramatic flip flop on the Northam blackface scandal a mere six months after it happened. If you haven’t watched it, click here to see the wild and surreal exchange McAuliffe had with an interviewer who asked him about Northam’s blackface incident. In addition to the blackface scandal, that interview in my opinion should go down as one of the more embarrassing moments in Virginia political history.
Don’t know about y’all, but I’m pretty fired up about next week. Cautiously optimistic and all that, but fired up all the same. A helluva fight, and entirely worth it for my neighbors to the north. Time to get Virginia on the right track again – before there’s no turning back.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member