Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, in an ad released through YouTube on Saturday, is demanding answers from Democrat challenger Terry McAuliffe about where his good friend, 2016 Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has been.
Youngkin does not speak in the spot. Instead, in its title line, the ad asks "Why is Terry McAuliffe hiding Hillary Clinton?"
In the spot itself, McAuliffe is shown, in a series of clips, extolling the former secretary of state as a friend.
"I've known Hillary and her husband Bill for more than half of my life," McAuliffe says in one part of the clip.
In other parts, McAuliffe says, "I still remember her playing mermaid in the pool. I talk about the times on vacation with her. I have seen her in action."
Other than the Clintons, McAuliffe's campaign has attracted a laundry list of Democrats, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Barack Obama, and more to come to Virginia to campaign for him.
However, both Clintons were central in McAuliffe's campaign for governor in 2013. But even before that, McAuliffe co-chaired Bill Clinton's 1996 presidential campaign and McAuliffe served as co-chairman of the 1996 Bill Clinton presidential campaign, as well as chaired Hillary Clinton's failed 2008 presidential bid.
Meanwhile, the McAuliffe-Clinton connections seem to continue, as he has made a down payment to hire Marc Elias, the counsel for Hillary's 2016 presidential campaign, reports George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley in an opinion piece for Fox News.
Elias has become a central figure in the ongoing investigation by special counsel John Durham into the origins of the FBI's investigation into alleged connections between Russia and former President Donald Trump's 2016 election. There are of accusations Elias lied to the media over the role Clinton's campaign had in funding Christopher Steele's anti-Trump Russia dossier, Turley noted.
Further, Elias' former law partner, Michael Sussman, was recently indicted in the investigation into the background of the Russia investigation of former President Donald Trump's 2016 election, Turley writes.
In recent years, Elias formed a law firm that specializes in campaign ethics, and McAuliffe, by giving a $53,680 down payment to the Elias Law Group, has come under speculation for potentially planning to challenge a loss to Youngkin.
Last year, Elias led the unsuccessful efforts to overturn the election in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District after Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks won over Democrat Rita Hart by six votes, reports The New York Post.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for McAuliffe's campaign accidentally looped in a Fox News reporter in an email containing internal deliberations about killing Fox News' story about Elias being brought in, also reports The Post.
Reporter Tyler O’Neil reached out to the campaign to ask about the hiring and to respond to Turley's suggestion that Elias was hired to contest a potential win by Youngkin.
McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich accidentally included O'Neil in her request that she had meant to only send to her colleagues to find a way to "kill" the story.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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