Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, October 31, 2021
There are political missteps and then there are acts of pure political stupidity.
A group of political operatives from the Left posed as tiki torch-carrying white supremacists at a Friday campaign event in Virginia for Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin. During protests in Charlottesville in 2017, “Unite the Right” participants infamously carried tiki torches.
It was obvious from the get-go that Friday’s display was a Democrat-engineered scheme.
Some Democrat dim bulbs such as Rep. Eric Swalwell took the bait. Meanwhile, major media hacks who devour anything with a racial connotation and eagerly run with it, amplified the hoax.
Then, the lowlifes at the Lincoln Project took credit for what has trended large on Twitter as #TikiGate.
The ridiculous display “has been widely criticized for what appeared to be an effort to make Youngkin appear racist,” Fox News noted.
The Lincoln Project, a group of pedophile-defending anti-Trumpers, defended the stunt, saying: “Today’s demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it.”
Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw tweeted: “How much more proof do we need that the Lincoln Project is nothing but a bunch of deranged hacks?”
Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, noted: “According to state campaign records, Terry McAuliffe’s campaign has received $264,000 in campaign assistance from the Lincoln Project, which coordinated with the state Democrat Party and McAuliffe’s campaign to perpetrate a race hoax in Virginia today.”
Many are saying that those Lincoln Project hacks are merely taking the fall for a scheme that went horribly wrong for Democrats. Or like Davis, some contend it was a Lincoln Project/Democrat Party/McAuliffe campaign operation.
Youngkin and others had suspected that operatives from the Democrat Party or McAuliffe’s campaign were behind #TikiGate.
Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald noted: “That the Lincoln Project ‘admitted’ to perpetrating this racist fraud means that it was engineered by Democrats and operatives for the Democratic Party, but everything they say is suspect. It’s possible they’re taking the blame for someone else, but either way, it’s a huge fraud.”
Greenwald added: “I can’t think of any clearer expression of the rot of U.S. liberalism and Dem Party politics than the white scumbags of the Lincoln Project — MSNBC stars — engineering a fake racist rally while Dem operatives & MSNBC analysts used it to accuse Youngkin of racism. Utterly sick.”
National Review Online editor Philip Klein tweeted: “When they were trying to claim the tiki torch brigade were Youngkin backers, McAuliffe campaign claimed his supporters disqualified him. By the same standard, McAuliffe should be disqualified bc his supporters pulled off this hoax.”
Matt Wolking, communications director for the Youngkin campaign, tweeted: “Wait so Terry McAuliffe’s campaign coordinated to promote a hoax perpetrated by a group of grifters who are famous for protecting a pedophile? And I thought their day couldn’t get any worse.”
Asked about the incident, Youngkin told NBC29: “I think they work for Terry McAuliffe, and I’m sure he sent them… he’ll do anything to win, and he’s doing anything to win, and so he’s paying people to show up and act silly at our rallies.”
With Youngkin riding a wave of major momentum in the gubernatorial contest, the Democrat Party’s Big Media allies ignored the obvious in an attempt to paint the GOP candidate as a racist.
MSNBC personality Frank Figliuzzi, who used to be with the FBI (which tells you a lot about how far the FBI has fallen), tweeted: “Tiki torches as a symbol of hate, now politics: Group with Tiki torches stand by Youngkin campaign bus during Charlottesville event.”
Democratic activist and former HuffPost reporter Nick Knudson tweeted: “Hey @GlennYoungkin would you care to comment about the Nazis at your campaign stop?”
Swalwell weighed in as well, sharing a now deleted tweet about the incident.
Birds of a feather. https://t.co/FpwO2G6n4m
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) October 29, 2021
Whatever combination of political/media operatives were involved, one thing is certain: After #TikiGate, McAuliffe, the Democrats, the Lincoln Project, and Big Media will be entered into the hall of fame for political buffoonery.
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