McAuliffe says election doubters ‘hurting our country,’ despite questioning Democrats’ loss in 2000
Va. gubernatorial nominee accused Supreme Court of 'tampering' with the results of the 2000 presidential election
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Democratic nominee for Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe said people who still openly question President Biden’s election win are "hurting our country," despite his own history of challenging the results of a presidential election.
"I got to tell you, this is the fundamentals of democracy," the former Virginia governor told donors at a private fundraiser Monday morning. "We are the symbol of democracy for the world and every time Donald Trump and all of his allies come out and say, ‘Oh no, blah blah blah, [Biden] didn’t win it,' it’s hurting our country. It’s hurting those young men and women in uniform. It’s hurting everybody and I just get so tired of it."
MCAULIFFE CRITICIZED YOUNGKIN OVER 2020 ELECTION VIEWS, BUT QUESTIONED DEMOCRATS' LOSS IN 2000
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}McAuliffe on Tuesday called on his GOP opponent Glenn Youngkin to cancel his August appearance at a Republican Party event billed as an "election integrity regional rally," saying Youngkin must "disavow this dangerous, deadly conspiracy theory once and for all." But according to ABC News, the rally appears to be more of a grassroots event focused on voter registration, outreach and canvassing.
In fact, Youngkin has not claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and even declared during a May interview with FOX Business that Biden was "legitimately elected our president."
On the other hand, when McAuliffe was first elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee in 2001, he accused the Supreme Court of "tampering" with the results of the 2000 presidential election and declared Al Gore was the rightful winner against George W. Bush, The Washington Post reported at the time.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Folks, you know it. I know it. They know it. We won that election and let's never forget it," McAuliffe said.
McAuliffe later defended the comments, telling "Meet the Press" in 2001 that "at the end of the day, if all the votes were counted in Florida, Al Gore would be president today and George Bush would be back in Austin."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The Supreme Court stopped the counting of the votes and if they’d let the count go on, Al Gore would have gotten the necessary votes," he said at the time.
The Youngkin campaign said Wednesday that McAuliffe has been hypocritical when it comes to election integrity.
"If Terry McAuliffe is accusing you of something, he’s probably guilty of it himself," campaign spokesperson Christian Martinez said in a statement to Fox News. "McAuliffe has talked out of both sides of his mouth throughout his 40 years in politics and has never let the truth get in the way of anything he says.
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"It’s time to leave behind stale old politicians like McAuliffe and elect a new kind of leader in Virginia, someone like Glenn Youngkin who is honest and actually wants to do the job instead of just use it to run for president like McAuliffe," he added.
McAuliffe's campaign did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.