McAuliffe praises disgraced former appointee who resigned for homophobic, sexist tweets

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Virginia's Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe recently praised a former appointee who was forced to resign over sexist and homophobic tweets, saying the educational institute he now leads "could not have a better leader, a better mentor."

Dr. Wes Bellamy, who was appointed by McAuliffe during his first term as governor to the Virginia Board of Education and later forced to resign, thanked McAuliffe this past weekend on Twitter for recording a video hyping Virginia State University's John Mercer Langston Institute for African American Political Leadership.

In the video, McAuliffe said the institute is the "next generation of leaders here in the Commonwealth of Virginia," adding that Bellamy, the chairman of the university's political science department, has "been a great friend for so many years" and is a great "leader" and "mentor."

Bellamy, the former vice mayor of Charlottesville, Virginia, currently serves as the national co-chair of "Our Black Party," a group that supports defunding the police and ending collaboration between police and ICE. In a tweet last year, Bellamy said it is time to defund the police and "DISMANTLE AND DEVELOP NEW CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM." In a 2012 tweet, he called police "pigs."

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In late 2016, Bellamy resigned from his position on the Virginia Board of Education and said he was going to "redirect" his "attention and focus" to his family and the children and young people he serves after several of his tweets were unearthed. 

A McAuliffe spokesman at the time said the then-governor was "horrified" upon learning about the vulgar tweets, prompting Bellamy to later apologize for them. Many of Bellamy's offensive tweets are still up on his Twitter page. 

When Bellamy was in his 20s, post-college between 2009 and 2012, he tweeted many disparaging things about White women and used homophobic slurs in tweets. 

BeIlamy also tweeted several times about how Black men shouldn't trust White women, claiming they will file false rape allegations against them. In one tweet about rape, Bellamy said, "Word" in response to another tweet that said, "Eat it while she sleep if she moan it aint rape."

In 2011, Bellamy claimed male students would be negatively affected by a female principal on top of already having many female teachers, saying, "I’m all for equal opportunity..but a Female Principal with a school full of female teachers is fkn a sure fire way to fk up our lil boys smh."

Bellamy used an anti-gay slur in the singular and plural form dozens of times on his Twitter account, including a 2012 tweet saying, "At my mentees bball game and I swear their coach is a f----- man Smh."

A spokesman for the campaign of Glenn Youngkin, McAuliffe's Republican opponent, slammed McAuliffe as a "career politician" who has a "40-year history of embracing racist, anti-gay and allegedly abusive individuals."

"Glenn Youngkin believes all Virginians should be treated with dignity and respect no matter who they are," Christian Martinez said in a statement to Fox News. "He’s running to make Virginia the best place in America for everyone to live, work and raise a family, including members of the LGBT community."

Bellamy has also praised notorious anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader, calling him the "GOAT," or "greatest of all time." In a 2015 tweet, Bellamy said Farrakhan "spoke to my soul today" and said it made him feel like "moving mountains." In 2012, Bellamy tweeted that it was an "honor" to be in the presence of Farrakhan, calling him a "wise man." 

He tweeted, "HELL YEA" in response to another tweet asking whether someone would go see Farrakhan speak if they had the opportunity to do so. 

This is not the first time McAuliffe mentioned Bellamy since his resignation from the Virginia Board  of Education in 2016. In October 2019, McAuliffe thanked Bellamy for inviting him to speak at Virginia State University. 

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Bellamy tweeted out a picture of him and his family with McAuliffe, saying, "Much love to my guy & 72nd Governor of Virginia @TerryMcAuliffe for coming and speaking life to our scholars at @VSUTrojans today…"

The McAuliffe campaign declined to comment. Bellamy did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.