Virginia Guv Hopeful Glenn Youngkin Plays Footsie With the Far Right

[Celerity]

Youngkin recorded an address for a Virginia Tea Party summit sponsored by the far-right John Birch Society and headlined by a conspiracy theorist obsessed with communists.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/virginia-guv-hopeful-glenn-youngkin-plays-footsie-with-the-far-right



An event listing for the Virginia Tea Party’s “Backlash to Socialism” summit makes no mention of Glenn Youngkin. The aspiring governor is absent from a photo gallery of the event, and there’s not a peep about it on his Facebook page, where he posted pictures from a different event that same day.

But Youngkin recorded an address that played at the event, which was sponsored by the far-right John Birch Society and featured a keynote speaker who went on a conspiratorial diatribe about supposed communist infiltration, according to videos reviewed by The Daily Beast.

Youngkin, Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial nominee, is running a tight race against Democrat Terry McAuliffe. In a bid to flip the democratically held office, Youngkin has pitched himself to the state’s moderates and independents, and maintained a careful distance from the GOP’s more extreme voices. But Youngkin’s path to victory also requires support from Donald Trump’s base—and video from the June 26 Tea Party event suggests that Youngkin is privately comfortable courting more fringe votes.

Reached for comment, Youngkin spokesperson Matt Wolking told The Daily Beast, “Glenn Youngkin did not attend this event and was not aware of other speakers or sponsors.”

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