Trump Calls in to Rally for Youngkin and GOP Candidates

Try as he might to pretend he's not Donald Trump's acolyte, Glenn Youngkin is finding the task more difficult thanks to Der Trumpenfuhrer's desire to always be in the limelight.  All of which is a good thing because it  undermines Youngkin's disingenuous campaign that seeks to depict him as a moderate - something he's not when he is endorsed by Family Research Council - a certified hate group - and the darling of the Christofascists and white supremacists at The Family Foundation.  Trump helped expose Youngkin by calling in to a rally orchestrated by Steve Bannon - a man facing criminal contempt of Congress chares - and even musing about campaigning with Youngkin in person.  Equally telling about Youngkin's true extremism is his campaigning along side Virginia GOP legislator Amanda Chase, a certifiable nut case in my view, who is so extreme that even Republicans in the General Assembly voted to censure.  You are known by the company you keep and in Trump and Chase, Youngkin's charade of being a moderate is shown to be a total lie.  The Washington Post looks at the rally and Youngkin's ties to Chase:

“Glenn Youngkin is a great gentleman,” Trump said, predicting the Republican will beat Democrat Terry McAuliffe while reiterating his false claim of victory in last year’s presidential election. “We won in 2016. We won in 2020 — the most corrupt election in the history of our country, probably one of the most corrupt anywhere. But we’re gonna win it again.”

Trump created a stir hours earlier with a written statement that some Republicans feared could depress turnout in the Nov. 2 gubernatorial election: “If we don’t solve the Presidential Election Fraud of 2020 (which we have thoroughly and conclusively documented), Republicans will not be voting in ’22 or ’24.”

Youngkin’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s statement and whether it impacts the party’s effort to get Republicans to the polls in November.

Although Youngkin skipped the event, held at a suburban Richmond restaurant, Fredericks said Youngkin had thanked him “profusely” for arranging it and supplied him with campaign signs to hand out; Youngkin’s campaign spokesman declined to comment on the rally or Fredericks’s assertion.

One of Youngkin’s running mates, lieutenant governor candidate Winsome E. Sears, had been billed as a speaker and left before the program for reasons that were [un]clear. Her spokesman did not immediately responded to a request for comment.

The event kicked off with the Pledge of Allegiance — to a flag that was present “at the peaceful rally with Donald J. Trump on Jan. 6,” according to Martha Boneta, the Republican emcee of the event. Bannon whipped up the crowd of several hundred by repeating Trump’s false claims about the 2020 election and predicting Trump’s return — in 2024, if not before.

In a tweet after the rally, McAuliffe denounced the event.

“Glenn Youngkin was endorsed again tonight by Donald Trump at a rally where attendees pledged allegiance to a flag flown at the deadly January 6th insurrection. Beyond disturbing, this is sick. And Glenn is honored to have Trump’s endorsement,” McAuliffe wrote.

Youngkin reached out to swing voters after securing the GOP nomination in May, briefly putting aside inflammatory Trumpian themes in favor of kitchen-table issues such as schools. But he never fully pivoted from Trump, who remains popular with Virginia’s GOP base even after losing the state as a whole last year by 10 points.

Youngkin’s schools agenda, for instance, zeroed in on culture-war fare such as his opposition to critical race theory, and mask and coronavirus vaccine mandates. And this month, Youngkin renewed his call to audit voting machines — something the state already performs — even though he has admitted there was no significant fraud in past Virginia elections and that he doesn’t expect Democrats to cheat this fall.

Now in the homestretch of the Nov. 2 race against McAuliffe, the political newcomer and former private equity executive seems to be making even more overt appeals to Trump fans . . .

Trump mused about campaigning in person with Youngkin. “We’ll have to do one together, where we’re all live together,” he said during the call-in. “I sort of like that idea.”

Youngkin made peace in recent days with former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka, who in late August had called Youngkin a “RINO,” meaning “Republican In Name Only,” for refusing to appear on his podcast. Youngkin came on the show last weekend and echoed Trump’s rhetoric, pledging to “save Virginia” (Trump’s political action committee is the Save America PAC) and pursue a “Virginia first” agenda.

“What they want to hear from you is that you support the “America First” agenda, you support making America great again and that you won’t be just a . . . Mitt Romney for Virginia,” Gorka said . . . Youngkin replied: “The president [Trump] knows I am a Virginia first governor’s candidate . . . I’m so angry with what’s going on in Virginia. And we are going to save Virginia.”

Youngkin also has begun campaigning alongside Virginia’s most prominent 2020 election conspiracy theorist, state Sen. Amanda F. Chase (R-Chesterfield) — a pariah among fellow Senate Republicans, who joined Democrats in censuring her this year after she called the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 “patriots.” . . . last week, he campaigned with Chase at his side in Martinsville and Chesterfield.