Biden blasted as 'election denier' for claiming Terry McAuliffe is 'real governor of Virginia'
President Joe Biden is facing allegations of acting like an “election denier” after suggesting that the losing candidate in the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election is the “real governor” of the state during a campaign speech.
During a speech about abortion in Manassas, Virginia, on Tuesday, Biden greeted the crowd by saying, “Hello, Virginia,” and giving a shout-out to “the real governor, Terry McAuliffe.” Although the audience erupted into laughter and applause at this declaration, Democrat Terry McAuliffe is not "the real governor of Virginia."
McAuliffe served as governor of the Commonwealth from 2014-2018 and unsuccessfully sought a comeback in the 2021 gubernatorial election. He lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin, the state’s current governor, capturing 48.6% of the vote to Youngkin’s 50.6%.
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Youngkin noticed Biden’s description of his former opponent as Virginia’s “real governor,” replying to a post on X of the remark accompanied by his quip, “Mr. President, I’m right here.”
The transcript of the president’s remarks in Manassas, uploaded by the White House, indicates that the president identified himself as “Jill Biden’s husband and Kamala’s running mate” immediately after calling McAuliffe the “real governor of Virginia.” He then used the phrase “kidding aside” as he transitioned into the main subject of his address: “reproductive freedom.” Even if Biden wasn't serious in his comment about McAuliffe, his statement has invited allegations of hypocrisy from his political opponents.
The video clip shared by Youngkin was captured by RNC Research, which describes itself as a rapid-response account run by the Republican National Committee dedicated to “exposing the lies, hypocrisy, and failed far-left policies of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.” The RNC Research post refers to Biden as an “election denier,” reflecting one of the most common refrains from the president as he seeks re-election in the 2024 presidential election.
The term “election denier” is used to chastise anyone who has raised questions about the result of the 2020 presidential election when Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. In addition to “election denier,” the term “the Big Lie” looms large in American politics as a phrase used to describe the belief that Trump actually won the 2020 election.
Rhetoric surrounding the 2020 election has emerged as an important aspect of Biden’s re-election bid. In a Jan. 12 post on X, Biden declared: “Those pushing the Big Lie don’t have respect for the 81 million people who voted for my presidency. That’s not democracy. That’s not America.”
Although Biden won more than 81 million votes in the national popular vote, the vote margins in the states that ultimately determined the outcome of the election were much closer. In four of the six states at the center of the effort to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election, Biden won by a smaller margin than Youngkin: Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Biden won the states by margins of 0.4%, 0.3%, 1.2% and 0.6%, respectively.
The four states had a combined 47 electoral votes in the Electoral College. Since Biden won 306 electoral votes in the Electoral College, which ultimately determines the presidency as opposed to the national popular vote, the reversal of the results in those states would have prevented Biden from achieving the 270 electoral vote threshold required to secure the presidency.
While Republicans raised concerns about voter fraud in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Democrats routinely dismissed them as unfounded. All efforts by the Trump campaign as well as other Republican elected officials and Republican-affiliated groups to contest the results of the election using the legal system failed and Biden took office as the 46th President on Jan. 20, 2021.
Unlike the 2020 presidential election, allegations of voter fraud or an illegitimate election did not materialize during the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. McAuliffe released a statement the morning after the election acknowledging that he “came up short” in the contest and congratulated Youngkin on his victory.
RNC Research put together a much longer video featuring nearly 24 minutes’ worth of footage showing Democrats calling into question the results of several state and national elections. Specifically, the video shows prominent figures in the Democrat Party suggesting that the results of the 2000 presidential election, 2004 presidential election, 2016 presidential election, 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and 2018 Florida gubernatorial election, all won by Republicans, were illegitimate.
McAuliffe, who has been a fixture in Democrat Party politics for decades, was featured multiple times in the video, as was Biden. Biden had called into question the results of both the 2000 and 2016 elections, while McAuliffe raised doubts about the outcomes of the 2000 presidential election and the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election. Some of the clips in the video showed McAuliffe questioning the results of the 2000 presidential election many years later.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
