The special election in the 38th Senate district just had its first “gotcha” moment, courtesy of Democratic candidate Mike Hymes. Naturally, the RPV has pounced on it with a press release:
Democrat Mike Hymes has made a lot of noise about firearms in the past few days. When Republicans questioned his views on guns, he issued an indignant press release [1], in which his campaign wrote:
“Mike Hymes is on the record with both the National Rifle Association and the Virginia Citizens Defense League in opposing any form of gun registration or any type of gun ban.”
So how, then, does Mr, Hymes square that statement with this one?
Yes, the audio is murky. The transcript runs like this:
“I don’t think you ought to be able to sell somebody an AR-15, either. Because, law enforcement should have those kinds. We’ve had to give our law enforcement in Tazewell County AR-15s because, you know, they go up a holler, some guy’s got one. He’s bought one. Virginia’s gun laws are pretty doggone liberal.”
“I do believe you ought to register handguns, we ought to have something. If they had not let that assault rifle ban drop, then that probably wouldn’t be a problem. So that’s kinda where I am.”
Mr. Hymes is at odds with himself. His written words say he is against, and on record as being against, “any form of gun registration or any type of gun ban.”
His spoken word says the exact opposite.
He will doubtlessly walk this statement back and in doing so, give us a third point of view, thus completing the “Three Faces of Eve [2]” trifecta.