Watch: Virginia’s Dem Candidate for Governor Walks Off Interview, Criticizes Reporter Over Questions

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe walked off an interview, saying the reporter should have asked “better questions.” WJLA 7News reporter Nick Minock sat down with McAuliffe as well as his…

Savannah RychcikOct 20, 20213 min read

Watch the interview below:

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Minock asked McAuliffe if he would issue mandates for schools, “Telling them what to teach and how to teach it.”

“You rely on the state board working with the school boards to determine what is the best curriculum to give your children a world class education” McAuliffe explained.

Taking another swipe at Youngkin, McAuliffe said his vow to ban critical race theory is “so offensive.”

He continued, “It is a racist dog whistle.”

Turning to his record on crime, McAuliff claimed when he was governor he “had the lowest crime rate of any major state” in the country.

The reporter moved on to ask McAuliff about whether he supports vaccine mandates for state employees and children who are attending school.

“I’m for everybody getting vaccinated,” McAuliff said.

Later, an aide for McAuliff interrupted, telling Minock, “We’re already over.”

Standing up from his seat, McAuliff added, “All right, we are over. That’s it. That’s it. Hey, I gave you extra time. C’mon man.”

He continued, “You should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.”

WJLA anchor Jonathan Elias later offered an explanation as to why McAuliff’s interview was shorter than Youngkin’s.

“So 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,” Elias said.

He went on, “Nick offered both candidates 20 minutes exactly to be fair for the interviews. McAuliffe abruptly ended 7News’ 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. That’s what he said.”

UPDATE :
McAuliffe’s press secretary Renzo Olivari tweeted on Wednesday morning that “7NewsDC mislead viewers” and added a screenshot of text messages. The texts seem to show Minock agreeing to a 10-minute interview. The interview appears to have been 11 minutes long.