Terry McAuliffe, the former head of the Democratic National Committee (2001-05), co-chair of Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign, chair of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, and current Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, stated that criticism of critical race theory amounted to a “right-wing conspiracy” that was “totally made up” by former President Trump and current GOP Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.
Audio obtained by Fox News revealed a woman asking McAuliffe, “I was just wondering – with all of the Republicans talking about critical race theory, and they’re making this huge deal about it, and it’s all of the conversation with the news in Virginia. What are you going to say to all of those people making education about that?”
McAuliffe responded, “That’s another right-wing conspiracy. This is totally made up by Donald Trump and Glenn Youngkin. This is who they are. It’s a conspiracy theory.”
Asra Nomani, who leads the anti-CRT group Coalition for TJ and stated that she’s a registered Democrat, told Fox News, “Mr. McAuliffe insults parents by dismissing their sincere concerns as ‘another right-wing conspiracy.’ It’s arrogant and out-of-touch with reality. Across Virginia, Mr. McAuliffe needs to understand students are being divided as ‘oppressors’ and ‘oppressed,’ shamed for having ‘white privilege’ and belittled for achieving merit. Asian students are being told they aren’t the right kind of minority. … Democrats in Virginia risk losing the votes of many parents if they continue to try to gaslight us. We are educated about the divisive ideology of critical race theory, and we don’t want it in our schools. Teachers need to educate, not indoctrinate.”
In May, Youngkin told Fox News, “It just seems that Terry McAuliffe and the left, liberal Democrats here want to take our education policy from having everybody in the fast lane to putting everybody in the broken down lane.”
Youngkin’s spokesperson Macaulay Porter added, “Critical race theory is not a political game or talking point to Virginians. Terry should tell that to the parents, teachers, and students in Loudoun County, Fairfax, and across the Commonwealth who are up in arms about the Lefts’ political agenda being forced into classrooms.”
Critical race theory critic Christopher Rufo targeted McAuliffe’s claims about Trump and Youngkin, tweeting, “First it was ‘conservatives don’t understand critical race theory.’ Then it was ‘that’s not real critical race theory.’ Now it’s ‘critical race theory doesn’t even exist.’ And it’s only Monday.”
First it was "conservatives don't understand critical race theory."
Then it was "that's not real critical race theory."
Now it's "critical race theory doesn't even exist."
And it's only Monday.https://t.co/dLI4NVgV53
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) June 14, 2021
The Hill reported on Monday that a Washington Post fact-check gave McAuliffe “four Pinocchios” for pushing a false claim at least three times that Republicans in Virginia were responsible for the budget deficit he inherited in his first term as Virginia’s governor. The Hill wrote:
“I inherited the largest budget deficit in the history of the state from the Republicans,” McAuliffe tweeted on June 10. “Biggest debt became the biggest surplus,” he said again during an interview on a local radio station, before repeating the claim during an appearance on MSNBC: “I inherited the largest deficit from the Republicans.”
The Post noted:
There’s a big problem with this claim: It has been fact-checked as false not once but three times by our colleagues at PolitiFact. In 2015 and 2019, PolitiFact dinged McAuliffe for saying he inherited a budget deficit from the Republicans. In 2015, PolitiFact also faulted him for saying it was the biggest budget deficit ever — a statement that his spokesman at the time explained as an inadvertent flub.