The One Question The Media Will Not Ask Terry McAuliffe

Is Terry McAuliffe running for governor in 2021 -- or running for president in 2024?

Aug 12, 2021

Terry McAuliffe has a lot of issues — just ask him.

By a pedestrian count, his policy plans runs about 140 pages long — all talking about the things he never did as governor the first time but promises he will get right the second time.

More interesting is that McAuliffe’s Second Verse; Same As The First Agenda (TM) isn’t even designed for Virginia voters. You know where it plays? New Hampshire. Nevada. Iowa.

That’s right folks. McAuliffe isn’t running for Virginia governor at all.

Terry is running to push aside Kamala Harris be the Clintonista pick for President of the United States in 2024 — and there isn’t a soul that doesn’t know it.

You know who else knows it? Former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder.

Doug Wilder: The Antidote To Stupid

Insiders are watching former Governor Doug Wilder blast the McAuliffe campaign for treating Black voters like red-headed stepchildren — with McAuliffe eviscerating his progressive challengers during the primary only to perform a volte face and pretend to be this progressive champion on the left.

No one is buying it.

The litany of consecutive blasts directed not so much against McAuliffe but towards his wholesale ambivalence (bordering on contempt) towards Virginia’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) isn’t just palpable — Wilder is outright laying the gauntlet on the table:

09 June 2021: “This year’s Democratic primary field consisted of several African American candidates; for Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General. Not ONE of them was selected by the voters. It would be easy to allege racism, but that would be wrong; this result was foreseen. I have consistently pointed to the lack of leadership. In commenting on this foreseen result, Larry Sabato, noted political analyst and author, said “…they have condemned themselves to death.” What I find so compelling about this comment is the unvarnished truth of the identity of the executioner(s); I have to, sadly, concur. We know who “they” are.”
14 June 2021: “The infusion of $4.3 billion in federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act into the Commonwealth gives us an unprecedented opportunity to act now and reverse the effects of racism in education. The time is long past to “put your money where your mouth is.”
15 June 2021: “It is refreshing to see the Republican nominee for Governor acknowledge and commit to provide improvement in Virginia’s support of it’s HBCUS and to make it a priority. I should hope that we would not have to wait for the next election for this neglect to be addressed.”
06 July 2021: “Two years ago, Terry McAuliffe called for all three persons occupying the offices of Governor, Lt. Governor, and Atty. General to resign. Governor Northam had been shown pictured in his school’s yearbook in “blackface” and subsequent revelations by A.G. Mark Herring acknowledged appearing in “blackface” in 1985 . . . Today, McAuliffe is asking people to vote for that A.G. who served as his attorney general, and seeks the continuing support of Northam. No reasons have been given to the voters as to Terry’s change of mind.”
13 July 2021: “I am a voter in VA; I have found, like many, that it is incredibly difficult to get answers [from McAuliffe], virtually impossible. I would like to know why I should cast my vote; not for what “leaders” say, but what candidates do.”
20 July 2021: “People, particularly minorities, have been told “that voting for the lesser of two evils is better than not voting at all.” I thought we were past assuming the people are like sheep. Can we focus on issues that continue to affect our safety, health and welfare?”
26 July 2021: “The election in Virginia, one of only two in the nation, after the Trump presidency, may be foretelling. Has this Democrat administration, shown responsive, reliable, and transparent leadership? Was it necessary to call upon a return of the previous leadership (minus one) to provide best government services for Virginians?”
02 August 2021: “The voters are looking for answers to many questions involving their lives, families, and especially the children . . . The candidates who show by record, knowledge and commitment that they, and their party, can relieve or eliminate these problems is what the people tell me they would like to know. They are entitled to know what is being done, and by whom, and if not, why not? They need to hear from the candidates, directly.”
04 August 2021: “VA and its local governments have had access to $1 billion to assist with rent and mortgage payments. Yet, the people will still suffer the pangs of eviction and homelessness in the midst of a global pandemic. You ask, how can this be happening? The answers you get are puzzling and convoluted. WHY, and what reasons have been given for this failure of government to fulfill its obligations to the people?”

Wilder knows what most minority and progressive politicians implicitly understand — and what McAuliffe is already telling major donors.

Remember What The Democrats Did To Justin Fairfax?

Of course, this is entirely disrespectful to Kamala Harris’ camp — who understandably believes that she should have the 2024 Democratic nomination by rights. After all, if Harris were white, Anglo-Saxon, male and affluent? Would anyone even question whether she would be the immediate standard bearer for the Dems in 2024?

McAuliffe disagrees.

But this has a deeper pedigree than just Harris 2024.

Consider in the darker days of the Northam/Herring blackface scandal in 2019 that the natural alternative was one Lieutenant Governor Jason Fairfax — a progressive that no one in the Democratic establishment wanted on the ticket. With Northam teetering on the edge of resignation and Northam embroiled in his own blackface scandal, Fairfax was very nearly the next Black governor of Virginia.

What did the Democrats do to Fairfax instead? Accused him of sexual assault.

Three years later, Fairfax has yet to clear his name.

Splash, Trash and Cash

There is a name for this sort of tactic in politics called lawfare. You don’t even need the accusations to be true in order to remove an opponent anymore — there mere question of malfeasance is enough. Everyone knew Cuomo was a dirtbag. Why did he survive so long? Everyone knew Clinton was a dirtbag. Why did he survive so long? Everyone knows Northam and Herring are racists — why are they still in power?

Is Fairfax a dirtbag? Was Kavanaugh? I don’t know — that’s why we have courts. But we do know one thing — Fairfax was in the path of power and someone wanted them out of the way.

Of course, we all know there are some types who can survive this sort of lawfare — typically the folks who are guilty of the act and revel in the dirt worse than any Willie Stark.

We know that McAuliffe is just this kind of dirtbag. Yet in the rush to feed the narrative, we seem at pains to even raise the question as to McAuliffe’s ambitions.

If you need any reminders about Terry’s ambitions and connections, recall Michael Scherer’s article from 2016:

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe invited the Chinese businessman whose donations to him have been named as a focus of Justice Department investigators to a 2013 fundraiser at Hillary Clinton’s personal Washington, D.C., residence.
Wang Wenliang, a Chinese national with U.S. permanent residency, briefly shook Clinton’s hand at the Sept. 30 event, a representative for Wang told TIME. An American company controlled by Wang made a $60,000 contribution to McAuliffe’s campaign three weeks before the fundraiser. Less than a month later, a separate Wang company pledged $500,000 to the Clinton Foundation, the first of several donations that eventually totaled $2 million.

Fast Terry indeed.

Who wants to bring that back into the Governor’s Mansion? And why aren’t we asking McAuliffe the tough question as to whether or not Virginia is merely the springboard for New Hampshire and Iowa?

One would prefer to think that the Old Dominion — Mother of Presidents, Mother of States en dat Virginia quintum — should serve as more than a footstool to a lesser office.

McAuliffe ought to be asked his true intentions. Certainly Doug Wilder is among many waiting for an answer.

Shaun Kenney is the editor of The Republican Standard, former chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Fluvanna County, and a former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia.