GOP hits Biden after he jokes about McAuliffe being ‘real governor’ of Virginia

Republicans took to social media Tuesday to jab President Biden over joking that former Democratic gubernational candidate Terry McAuliffe was the “real governor” of Virginia.

“Hello, Virginia … and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe!” Biden said Tuesday during a speech in the state.

McAuliffe lost his bid for Virginia’s governor in 2021 to now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who responded on X to a video of Biden’s comments with, “Mr. President, I’m right here.” Other Republicans joined Youngkin, with many labeling Biden as someone who denied the results of the election.

“So Joe Biden is an election denier?” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote on X.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said on X that he thought saying “something like this was ‘a threat to democracy,’” adding that Biden “doesn’t have a speck of integrity.”

Some compared Biden to former President Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Jason Miller, a longtime adviser to Trump, said in a post that “Biden is actually brain dead” in response to the video.

Republicans and conservatives have also criticized Trump for his denial of the 2020 election results.

“Election denialism is only bad if your name is Trump,” conservative pundit Megyn Kelly also posted on X.

Former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said the joke was “bizarre” in a post on X.

“When you’re running on ‘defending democracy’ jokes about elections being stolen are *not* funny at all,” she added.

The Dispatch’s editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg said the remark was “monstrously stupid, even if intended as a silly joke.”

“If you’re going to make the other side’s election denial central to your campaign, the last thing you want to do is this nonsense,” he said on X.

Biden and his team have made Trump’s election denialism a central part of their 2024 campaign. Biden has referred to the former president as the “election denier-in-chief” who refuses to accept his defeat in the 2020 election, and his campaign has repeatedly warned that Trump poses a threat to democracy.

“It is sadly not surprising that the RNC would make a false comparison this ridiculous,” Biden campaign spokesperson Seth Schuster said in a statement to The Hill. 

Schuster then went on to criticize The Hill for accurately quoting Biden and the Republicans who commented on Biden’s remarks, saying The Hill was legitimizing a “baseless attack.” 

“It is deeply disappointing that The Hill would legitimize their baseless attack with a story — particularly when Donald Trump has promised to rule as a dictator one day one and encouraged his supporters to violently stop the peaceful transfer of power in our democracy,” the spokesperson said. 

When asked why the campaign labeled it a “baseless attack” and whether Biden regretted making those comments, Schuster declined to comment further.

Updated at 9:30 p.m.