Terry McAuliffe Denies Tiki-Torch Nazis That Posed in Front of Youngkin Bus Are Affiliated With His Campaign

The campaign Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe has denied that people who posed as tiki-torch carrying Nazis in front of a campaign bus belonging to GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin are affiliated with the McAuliffe campaign.

Just days away until Tuesday’s election, a reporter with the NBC affiliate in Charlottesville tweeted on Friday an image of what appears to be a group of tiki-torch carrying white nationalists posing in front of a Youngkin bus.

These men approached @GlennYoungkin’s bus as it pulled up saying what sounded like, “We’re all in for Glenn.” Here they are standing in front of the bus as his campaign event at Guadalajara started.@NBC29 pic.twitter.com/l681ejyBjc

— Elizabeth Holmes (@holmes_reports) October 29, 2021

The Youngkin campaign told Mediaite that this is a “publicity stunt.”

Conversely, McAuliffe spokesperson Renzo Olivari told Mediaite, “This was not us or anyone affiliated with our campaign. There is one candidate in this race who has embraced white nationalists — and his name is Glenn Youngkin.”

Charlottesville, back in 2017, was famously the site of massive demonstrations by neo-Nazis and white supremacists against the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. One protester, James Alex Fields, plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing Heather Heyer and injuring 35 others. Fields was later convicted of first-degree murder.

Update: Anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project has taken ownership over the stunt.