Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffeâs campaign is pushing back against a news station after claiming that he walked off an interview.
During an interview with WJLA 7News reporter Nick Minock, McAuliffeâs aide told him, âWeâre already over.â
McAuliffe stood up and added, âAll right, we are over. Thatâs it. Thatâs it. Hey, I gave you extra time. Câmon man.â
He continued, âYou should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.â
The outletâs Jonathan Elias later offered an explanation as to why McAuliffeâs interview was longer than his Republican opponentâs.
âSo if you watch those entire interviews on our website, we do want to point out that the Terry McAuliffe interview is shorter than our interview with Glenn Youngkin. That was not by our doing,â Elias said.
He added, âNick offered both candidates 20 minutes exactly to be fair for the interviews. McAuliffe abruptly ended 7Newsâ interview after just 10 minutes and told Nick that he should have asked better questions and that Nick should have asked questions 7News viewers care about. Thatâs what he said.â
McAuliffeâs press secretary Renzo Olivari responded in a tweet showing text messages with Mincok.
âItâs really unfortunate to see mislead viewers by saying Terry âabruptlyâ left an interview that was ALWAYS scheduled to be 10 mins long, which agreed to beforehand,â Olivari tweeted.
He continued, âAnd in the video you can see how lighthearted and joking Terry was after the interview.â
McAuliffeâs opponent, Glenn Youngkin, spoke out about the incident during an interview with Fox News.
âThese arenât that hard questions,â Youngkin said. ââHow are you going to fix our schools and what are you going to do to make our community safe?ââ
He added, âAnd hereâs Terry McAuliffe, who wonât even answer questions from a local reporter. He yells at sheriffs. He barks at people all the time. I think heâs losing it because he knows this race is slipping away from him.â
