Republican candidate for governor Glenn Youngkin appeared on Sebastian Gorka’s “America First” radio show in a clip posted to Gorka’s website Monday night.
Gorka, a former Trump White House official turned Salem Broadcasting radio host, has a long history of Islamophobic comments, once saying that taking Muslim refugees into America would be a “national suicide.” A Nazi-linked Hungarian group—whose pin Gorka wore to Trump’s Inaugural Ball in 2017—says that he is one of their sworn members.
Gorka has been trying to get Youngkin to come on to his show in recent weeks, suggesting that Youngkin was a RINO—Republican in name only—and needed to convince his viewers otherwise.
Thanking Gorka for having him on his show, Youngkin launched into his pitch, vowing to “get critical race theory out of our schools” and to “invest in law enforcement instead of getting them defunded.” He began criticizing Democratic nominee Terry McAuliffe before Gorka cut him off.
“He’s one of the most reprehensible politicians in America,” Gorka said. “You are speaking to millions of Trump supporters across the nation; there’s no concern amongst them that Terry is bad news and will be bad news for Virginia. What they want to hear from you is that you support the America First agenda, that you support making America great again, and that you won’t be just, as somebody labeled you, potentially another Mitt Romney for Virginia. What can you do to reassure Trump supporters that is not who you are?”
“The president knows that I am a Virginia first governor’s candidate, I’m going to stand up for Virginians,” Youngkin said, touting his endorsement from the former president. He went on to claim that President Joe Biden is dispatching the Department of Justice to silence Virginian parents as he tried to bring the focus of the conversation back to the right-wing movement’s attacks on school boards for teaching about racism in U.S. history and LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum. “We’re going to make Virginia the best state in America. We’re going to save it.”
“He came on the show, give him credit for that. Look him up, go to Glenn Youngkin, go to his campaign site,” Gorka said. “We need to save America, and that includes the commonwealth. Thank you, Glenn Youngkin.”
Youngkin has tried to portray himself as a moderate, but the Republican nominee’s appearance on Gorka’s show is just his latest effort to court extreme figures and organizations. Last week, Youngkin spoke at the religious-right “Pray Vote Stand” conference held by Family Research Council—an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed a hate group. The week prior, he attended an event for the Family Foundation, a virulently anti-LGBTQ, anti-choice group.
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