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Glenn Youngkin Plays Footsie With the Big Lie, Again

Fresh off what was easily the best week in his campaign for governor, Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin decided it was an excellent time to renew playing footsie with the Big Lie again. Axios [1] has the details (emphasis added).

Youngkin believes Biden beat Trump in the 2020 election legitimately. But while speaking with Axios, he wouldn’t say whether he would have voted to certify the election on Jan. 6 if he were a member of Congress.

Youngkin has a history of talking out of both [2] sides [3] of his [4] mouth [5] on the 2020 election, trying desperately to appease Donald Trump and his authoritarian minions without getting too much attention from the rest of us. The above quote was the classic doublespeak – he acknowledged Biden is president but refused to admit that the election was fair and free of fraud.

Why is this such an important matter? In Virginia, the election administration apparatus is entirely dependent upon the Governor. The Governor selects the Secretary of State. The Governor’s party holds a majority on the state election board. The Governor’s party holds a majority on every single election board in Virginia.

In other words, a Youngkin Administration would mean the electoral board of Chesterfield County would be controlled by friends of Amanda Chase. Fairfax County’s Board would be under the auspices of insurrectionist defenders [6]

… and Virginia Beach’s electoral board would be under the control of folks like this [7]:

So … how many election officials does Glenn Youngkin want to send to prison? Or, if the GOP wins control of the House of Delegates and brings back the death penalty, to the gallows?

I humbly submit we don’t give him the chance to show us.

I know that voters in Virginia would rather not talk about election administration. Youngkin himself would certainly prefer we discuss things like his endorsement of vaccine denial [8]. But things like the Arizona fraudit [9] don’t give us a choice. The unanimous decision by the Virginia Republican Congressional caucus to overturn last year’s election [10] and to condone Trump’s insurrection don’t give us a choice.

The Republican Party cannot be trusted with political power anywhere, period. This goes double for their gubernatorial nominee who continues to feed the pro-coup beast.