Friday, October 29, 2021

VP Harris appears at McAuliffe event Friday in Norfolk along with other Virginia Dems

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — Vice President Kamala Harris made an appearance in Hampton Roads Friday evening for a campaign event for Terry McAuliffe and other Virginia Democrats.

The event at Norfolk's Half Moon cruise center near Waterside was scheduled for 3-7 p.m. Harris started speaking around 6:20 p.m.

Harris joined a large billing on Friday, including Pharrell Williams, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and more. Election Day is next Tuesday, Nov. 2, and McAuliffe and Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin are neck-and-neck in polling.

The campaign expected about 700 people in attendance by the time Harris spoke.

During her speech, Harris said without Virginia voters in 2020, she would not be standing at the podium as vice president.

She emphasized how who is governor matters when looking at issues such as women's reproductive rights, supporting the military and veterans, climate change and more.

Harris stressed the importance of getting out the vote this year, saying Virginia's election will have national implications.

"Each of you has a power to impact the lives of people you may never meet, people who may never know your name, but because of what you do tomorrow and the next day and the next day and Tuesday, their lives will forever be impacted by what you do in this election," she said.

WAVY's Jon Dowding spoke to two sisters from Norfolk in the crowd Friday, Cassandra Daniels and Ramona Handy.

Daniels said that, as a business owner, she's focused on taxes and raises for front-line workers. She said she feels healthcare workers should've received higher pay before the pandemic, and the pandemic only emphasized the need for better wages and support.

"Maybe instead of marching on Washington, we'll march on whoever wins this race," she said.

Handy says she wishes they'd make it easier to get the elderly to the polls. She said she's been registering the elderly and others to vote since 2020 because many people she knew were confused about the process.

As the event got underway Friday night, several politicians spoke about McAuliffe's campaign and issues at hand.

U.S. Rep Bobby Scott (D-Newport News) spoke about books in schools.

See Also: DeSantis reveals how Florida is trying to recruit cops from other states whose jobs are threatened by vaccine mandates

"When's the last time you heard anyone banning books?" Scott said, referring to an issue that's been popping up in cities across VA. He says he's dog-whistling people.

See Also: Here's the Story with Kyrsten Sinema

Attorney General Mark Herring, who is running for re-election against Del. Jason Miyares, spoke from the podium Friday as well. He said the Republican ticket is out of sync with Virginians. He said his opponent is anti-choice and anti-LGBT.

One of the loudest reactions in the crowd came for Del. Hala Ayala, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. She said this election is about continuing the progress made in the Commonwealth. She mentioned criminal justice reforms, voting rights laws and other steps in the last few years.

Following Ayala, current Gov. Ralph Northam discussed abortion rights on the ballot on Tuesday, among other things. When talking about legalizing recreational marijuana, Northam said "It's Friday night isn't it?"

When McAuliffe took the podium, he sung Pharrell Williams' praises, saying he's done more for small businesses and the community here in Hampton Roads than anyone else.

McAuliffe reiterated calls he's been making the whole time on the campaign trail, saying former President Donald Trump is on the ballot in the form of his opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin. He also touted his accomplishments during his first term as governor, and talked about how he reacted to the protests in Charlottesville in 2017.

McAuliffe spox mistakenly includes reporter on ‘kill this’ story email

A top spokesperson for Democrat Terry McAuliffe's Virginia gubernatorial campaign accidentally looped in a Fox News Digital reporter Thursday on internal deliberations over how to "kill" a story about the campaign hiring a top Democratic lawyer known for spearheading election challenges.

Earlier Thursday, Fox News reported that the McAuliffe campaign had spent more than $53,000 on the services of a law firm founded by Marc Elias, the former general counsel for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Reporter Tyler O'Neil reached out to the McAuliffe campaign to ask why it had hired Elias' firm and give it a chance to respond to the suggestion by George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley that the Democrats had done so to contest a potential victory by Republican Glenn Youngkin.

Nine minutes after sending his email, O'Neil received a response from McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich — but rather than a professional statement, he received a request apparently meant for her colleagues.

Terry McAuliffe's campaign spent more than $53,000 on the services of a law firm founded by Marc Elias.AP

"Can we try to kill this," Freundlich wrote before clarifying in a second message: "To dispute the challenges of the election."

After O'Neil published his story about the misdirected email, Freundlich — who caused a wave of internet outrage in 2015 by posing for a selfie at the site of a deadly gas explosion in Manhattan's East Village — attempted to shrug off her error, tweeting: "I think it's clear based on this story that we did in fact…kill the story."

Before launching the Elias Law Group, he was a partner at high-powered firm Perkins Coie — where he retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS to target Donald Trump. In June 2016, their research included Christopher Steele's dossier, the debunked file that served as the premise for the three-year investigation of "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

Earlier this year, Elias was sanctioned by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for filing a "redundant and misleading" motion in a case challenging a Texas law forbidding "straight-ticket" voting. The court said Elias and his legal team from Perkins Coie filed a motion in February that was nearly identical to an earlier motion that had been denied.

After O'Neil sent his email, Christina Freundlich sent him an email apparently meant for her colleagues.

"This inexplicable failure to disclose the earlier denial of their motion violated their duty of candor to the court," the court said in ordering Elias and his team to pay attorney fees incurred in connection with the second motion as well as "double costs."

Elias also led an unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 election result in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, in which Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes.

See Also: Here's the Story with Kyrsten Sinema

Despite McAuliffe's attempts to tie his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin to former President Donald Trump and his false claims about the 2020 election, McAuliffe himself is no stranger to embracing conspiracy theories alleging stolen votes.

In Terry McAuliffe's attempts to tie his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin, he is no stranger in coming across conspiracy theories alleging stolen votes.

In Terry McAuliffe's attempts to tie his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin to Donald Trump, he is no stranger to conspiracy theories alleging stolen votes.AP

On Sunday, McAuliffe introduced 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams by claiming that "she would be the governor of Georgia today had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million Georgia voters before the election."

See Also: DeSantis reveals how Florida is trying to recruit cops from other states whose jobs are threatened by vaccine mandates

"That's what happened to Stacey Abrams," McAuliffe went on. "They took the votes away."

Terry McAuliffe claimed Stacey Abrams would be the governor of Georgia had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million state voters before the election.AP

At another event earlier this month, McAuliffe nodded in tacit agreement as Abrams said: "I'm here to tell you that just because you win doesn't mean [you've] won … I come from a state where I was not entitled to become the governor, but as an American citizen and as a citizen of Georgia, I'm going to fight for every person who has the right to vote to be able to cast that vote."

Abrams has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp used his former position as Georgia's secretary of state to unlawfully prevent millions of voters who would have backed Abrams in 2018 from going to the polls.

McAuliffe's remarks in support of Abrams earned him a scolding from the liberal Washington Post editorial board, who warned the Democrat to avoid "unprovable allegations that will contribute to the corrosion of trust."

Brian Kemp used his position as Georgia's secretary of state to prevent voters who would have backed Abrams in 2018.

Abrams has claimed Brian Kemp used his position as Georgia's secretary of state to block voters who would have backed Abrams in 2018.AP

McAuliffe has also refused to disavow his claim, dating back to his tenure as head of the Democratic National Committee, that the 2000 election was "stolen" by Republicans for George W. Bush.

"We actually won the last presidential election, folks," McAuliffe told delegates at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. "They stole the last presidential election."

When confronted with that claim during an interview with a Virginia TV station this month, McAuliffe refused to say whether Bush had been "legitimately elected" in 2000, saying only: "He got sworn in. Once you're sworn in, we've gotta move on."

Thursday's report emerged as a new Fox News poll showed Youngkin leading McAuliffe among likely Virginia voters by eight percentage points with five days remaining until Election Day.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe's Virginia campaign accidentally emails Fox News to 'kill' story on hiring an election lawyer

An email snafu from Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign gifted Fox News an easy story.
"Can we kill this?" a campaign aide wrote in an email accidentally including a Fox reporter.
The reporter was requesting comment on the campaign hiring an election lawyer.
KAMALAWKWARD: Once again a video of Harris that will give your CRINGE reflex nightmares

The hotly contested Virginia governor's race has gotten close to wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News over the past month, but an error over email gave the network a different story than what the news team was tracking down in the first place.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor, is running against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin as Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam - best known for his 2019 blackface scandal - is set to leave office, since Virginia does not allow its governors to serve consecutive terms.

Tyler O'Neil, an editor at Fox News, sent the McAuliffe campaign a standard request for comment over email on Thursday.

The McAuliffe campaign had recently hired Marc Elias, a go-to Democratic attorney with experience in election law and contested ballot counts. O'Neil reached out to ask if Elias was hired for a potential court challenge in the election, given that Youngkin has partially embraced some of former President Donald Trump's disproven election fraud lies and may challenge the results.

In response, a McAuliffe campaign staffer mistakenly included the Fox editor on a reply email asking "Can we kill this?"

It did not take long for O'Neil to write up a standalone story on the email snafu for the Fox News website.

McAuliffe's campaign did not give any other response on the record, according to Fox.

See Also: Here's the Story with Kyrsten Sinema

The McAuliffe staffer who sent the email did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

See Also: DeSantis reveals how Florida is trying to recruit cops from other states whose jobs are threatened by vaccine mandates

During the 2020 presidential race, the Biden campaign hired election lawyers in preparation for the Trump team challenging the results of the election in several states. Elias represented Democrats in Texas that year.

Despite the Trump campaign's repeated allegations of fraud and "irregularities," and after more than 40 court challenges, the former president's lawyers have been unable to win a single case.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Poll: Youngkin, McAuliffe deadlocked in Virginia governor's race

Virginia gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin remain deadlocked as they enter the final weekend before Election Day, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released Friday.

McAuliffe, the Democratic former governor who is seeking a return to the commonwealth's top job, leads the Republican Youngkin 49 percent to 48 percent among likely voters polled, well within the survey's margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.

The results were similar among a broader swath of registered voters surveyed, with McAuliffe ahead 47-44, also within the margin of error. The poll surveyed 1,107 registered voters between Oct. 20-26, 918 of whom were deemed to be likely voters.

McAuliffe led Youngkin by three percentage points in the previous Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted mid-September.

Friday's survey is the latest polling to indicate an extremely competitive contest between the two candidates in Virginia's closely watched off-year election.

McAuliffe held a polling advantage over his GOP competitor throughout much of the campaign, though the gap has narrowed as Youngkin has capitalized on hot button issues including education that has energized the Republican base and swing voters.

Youngkin holds an 18-point advantage over McAuliffe among self-identified independents in the likely voter model, up from eight in the September poll. That coincides with an uptick in the portion of respondents who said that education is their top item in making their pick for governor

Other polling has even pointed to Youngkin overtaking the former governor ahead of next week's election. A poll released Thursday by Fox News showed Youngkin leading by eight percentage points, 53 percent to McAuliffe's 45 percent, among likely voters in Vriginia. Youngkin also led McAuliffe by one point among registered voters, according to the same poll.

See Also: Here's the Story with Kyrsten Sinema

President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points over Donald Trump in last year's general election. But the president's approval rating is now below 50 percent in the commonwealth, an apparent headwind for McAuliffe's comeback effort. Though Virginia has long been viewed as a purple state, Democrats have had a strong run in recent years, and Republicans have not won statewide since 2009.

'How the country is going to move': Harris bids to nationalize governor's race at McAuliffe rally

Vice President Kamala Harris rallied for Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe at a campaign event Friday evening, seeking to nationalize the competitive governor's race ahead of Tuesday's election.

"Each one of you in your possession has the ability to determine, yes, who will be the next governor, but also by extension, given the importance of this Virginia election, how the country is going to move," Harris said.

"There is so much power in the hands of the people, including not only determining the outcome of this very, very important election but making a statement about who we are as a nation," Harris said from a podium at a get-out-the-vote event for McAuliffe in Norfolk, Va.

McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia, is up against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin. Recent polling shows the two candidates deadlocked among registered voters.

Harris underscored Virginia's role in setting the tone for what could unfold politically across the rest of the country over the next few years. Biden and Democrats have recently embraced the notion that what happens in Virginia could offer a glimpse into major 2022 congressional races.

She repeatedly touted the importance of strengthening and maintaining the country's democracy, specifically by showing up to vote and reminding people that "elections matter."

"The American people will always stand for the pillars of our democracy," Harris said. "And we know as imperfect as we are, as flawed as we may be, one of the strengths of who we are as a nation is we always fight for our ideals."

Unlike President Joe Biden in his speech while campaigning for McAuliffe on Tuesday, Harris steered clear of jabs at Youngkin.

At one point in her speech, Harris repeatedly stressed the importance of a governor's role and the sway they can have over people's lives including on health care coverage, access to child care and LGBTQ rights — while repeating the phrase "who is governor matters."

"Electing Terry McAuliffe will matter," she said.

https://apnews.com/article/campaigns-michael-pence-virginia-election-2020-terry-mcauliffe-e5f5e08ce998ddd9456716e373bf5151 Click to copy RELATED TOPICS Campaign 2016 Virginia Election 2020 Terry McAuliffe Campaigns Michael Pence In Virginia, McAuliffe brings big names, Youngkin goes solo

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has brought in the biggest names in Democratic politics to come to his aid in Virginia's hotly contested gubernatorial race: Obama, Harris, Abrams, Biden (both Joe and Jill).

Republican Glenn Youngkin, meanwhile, is campaigning with ... Glenn Youngkin.

The GOP candidate, a newcomer who has surprised his party with his strong bid in blue Virginia, has eschewed virtually all public campaign visits from well-known party allies, who typically flock to hot races to lend a hand. It's not that Youngkin won't take the help — the candidate has welcomed numerous high-profile Republicans to the state for closed-door fundraisers. But the Youngkin campaign's unofficial policy is that they can't campaign alongside him.

That decision to go solo is a deliberate strategy by his team to keep voters' focus on state, rather than national, issues. But it's also an acknowledgment that a parade of GOP visitors would only undermine Youngkin's attempt to keep his party — and its leader, former President Donald Trump — at arm's length.

See Also: DeSantis reveals how Florida is trying to recruit cops from other states whose jobs are threatened by vaccine mandates

Indeed, last time Trump waded into the race — calling into a rally organized by conservative allies — McAuliffe's campaign seized on the appearance, quickly cutting ads featuring Trump's praise of the Republican, even though Youngkin hadn't even attended the event. The Democrats has repeatedly highlighted Youngkin's ties to Trump in a bid to turn off more moderate voters, particularly those in the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., and Richmond, who revolted against Trump in his final years in office and helped deliver Biden's victory.

See Also: Here's the Story with Kyrsten Sinema

Throughout the campaign, Youngkin has done a delicate dance, trying to win over Trump's loyal base, which he needs to turn out to win the election, while striking a far softer, less confrontational tone.

The "no surrogates at political events" policy has had the added benefit of providing an excuse to keep Trump out without antagonizing the grudge-bearing former president, who takes slights deeply personally.

The strategy is one Youngkin advisers say they settled on months ago and doubled down on when they announced a bus tour for the final days of the campaign with a press release that knocked McAuliffe for his reliance on big names.

The tour would "highlight the contrast between the grassroots enthusiasm for Glenn Youngkin's candidacy" and Terry McAuliffe's dependence on Democrats like Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama to draw a crowd.

McAuliffe's campaign responded by saying Youngkin had little choice.

"They are in a position where in Virginia they really can't welcome very many members of the Republican Party because it's a party led by Donald Trump," said McAuliffe campaign spokeswoman Christina Freundlich. "Their party has become too divisive."

With little interest from outside figures in the early days of the race, campaign officials said they realized that Youngkin could draw his own crowds without having to feature surrogates who might rub people the wrong way. And without other politicians, they could highlight his status as a businessman and political newcomer, and focus on issues like education and local taxes they believed would resonate with state voters.

But the campaign has not rebuffed the outreach entirely. Instead, it has funneled that support to closed-door fundraisers that have featured a slew of potential 2024 candidates from across the ideological spectrum including Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Maryland Gov, Larry Hogan and Sens. Cruz and Tom Cotton, along with former attorney general Bill Barr and ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan.

And it appears to be paying off.

Sandy Corbitt, 61, who works in education and attended Pence's Thursday speech in Loudoun County — an area that has become a hotbed for parental activist groups — said that promoting parental freedom can be a winner for Youngkin without help from national Republicans. Corbitt said she'd not heard "a ton" about Youngkin but likes "what I'm hearing."

"I think he hasn't been asking for others to help, where it looks like the other guy's had to call in everybody under the sun," she said, mentioning Obama and other top Democrats campaigning with McAuliffe. "So, he can't make it on his own."

Still, if Youngkin pulls off a win, Trump is expected by allies to head to the state to try to claim credit.

"I think he's going to be excited to come to Virginia. It's a state that he loves and he's always believed that we can do better here than we have in the past. So I'm sure he'll be here celebrating," said conservative talk show host John Fredericks, Trump's former campaign chair in the state.