Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, who has pulled dead even with his Democratic opponent, is targeting President Biden, saying he has a “failed presidency,”
“You can’t help but look at President Biden and recognize what a failed presidency looks like,” Youngkin said on Fox News. “I mean, you look at Afghanistan, you look at the border, you look at our economy, you look at the fact that everything he’s doing seems to be making America worse, and I’m going to go to work and make Virginia better.”
As for his opponent, Terry McAuliffe — a longtime fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton who has already served as the state’s governor — Youngkin says the “sun is setting” on his political career.
Biden plans to return to the state on Tuesday in the final week of campaigning before Election Day, but Youngkin says, “I’m not afraid, I’ll be honest.”
“You know, down the stretch here, Virginians are so focused on what their governor is going to do for them when I’m governor and we’re going to get our taxes down and we’re going to get our job machine cranked back up, make our neighborhoods safe. And we are in fact going to make sure that our schools are teaching our children how to think and not what to think,” the Republican said.
For his part, McAuliffe has admitted that Biden might drag him down, what with rising inflation, soaring gas prices, and supply chain issues crushing the economy as he supports spending trillions more on infrastructure through his “Build Back Better” plan.
“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington,” McAuliffe, a former head of the Democratic National Committee, said earlier this month. “As you know, the president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we’ve got to plow through.”
Meanwhile, a new poll shows Youngkin taking the lead for the first time in the race against McAuliffe. Youngkin edged out McAuliffe 43% to 41% with 11% of respondents still undecided, according to the survey for the conservative Presidential Coalition.
McAuliffe has called out the big guns to help him. Vice President Kamala Harris has campaigned for him and Biden is making his second trip to the state in hopes of installing McAuliffe into the governor’s mansion again.
Former President Barack Obama dropped by over the weekend, seeking to tie Youngkin to former President Donald Trump, saying he encourages “lies and conspiracy theories” about the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
“Either he actually believes in the same conspiracy theories that resulted in a mob, or he doesn’t believe it but he is willing to go along with it, to say or do anything to get elected. And maybe that’s worse … because that says something about character,” Obama said.
In a surprise move, ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl asked McAuliffe: “Why all the — why do you need all the help?”
“Well,” McAuliffe said, “we did this last time. I mean, we did the same thing in ’13. I mean, we always bring them in. This is what — this is the biggest race in America. Who doesn’t want to be here?”