Glenn Youngkin, Virginia’s GOP gubernatorial nominee, doesn’t seem too proud to be the only person in his race ex-President Donald Trump likes.
A eyebrow-raising new ad by Youngkin’s campaign attempts to loop his Democratic opponent, Terry McAuliffe, into Trump’s orbit. It accuses McAuliffe of being “dishonest” with his criticism of Trump, who donated $25,000 to Democrat’s gubernatorial campaign in 2009.
“He spends all his time attacking Donald Trump, but here’s the truth,” the ad’s voiceover says before cutting to clips of McAuliffe toasting Trump at an old fundraiser and the latter calling the Democrat “a friend of mine.”
The former president endorsed Youngkin on Friday, saying that “Glenn has been an incredible success and will truly Make Virginia Great Again.”
Trump also stated in his endorsement that McAuliffe “accepted large campaign contributions from me” and “said only great things and would do whatever I wanted, until I ran for office.”
However, Trump’s blessing isn’t exactly a badge of honor in Virginia, where he lost by 10 points in the 2020 election — double his margin of loss to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Youngkin’s apparent attempt to downplay his ties to Trump comes after the publication of a video of the GOP candidate admitting he was keeping quiet on his anti-abortion stance to avoid alienating independent voters.
