WATCH: Reporter Hounds McAuliffe Aide After Getting Shut Out at Presser, Aide Awkwardly Tries to Flee for a Full Minute
A reporter, frustrated he’d been shut out at a press availability with Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) on Saturday, chased down and hounded the press aide who cut off questioning.
The reporter, Scott Taylor of ABC7 DC, followed the aide, Renzo Olivari — a communications staffer for gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) — for more than a full minute after the session with the governor.
“Why are you not allowing us to ask a question?” Taylor asked Olivari, who had his back turned.
Watch @Renzo_Olivari cut me off from asking a question to @GovernorVA about controversy in #Loudoun County. Olivari is a spokesperson for @TerryMcAuliffe Why is a @TerryMcAuliffe staffer trying to control the media for @RalphNortham @7NewsDC @AndyMarkMiller pic.twitter.com/m47CAIekcZ
— Scott Taylor 7 News I-Team (@ScottTaylorTV) October 30, 2021
Taylor followed Olivari inside a building, and hectored the aide for having ended the event before he was allowed to ask a question. Olivari awkwardly tried to flee by walking over to several attendees and thanking them for their attendance. But he just could not shake the reporter.
The reporter, at the time of the incident, did not know Olivari’s identity. He tried to obtain it in a comical coda to the clip.
“Do you work for the governor?” Taylor asked, as Olivari exited the building. “Who are you? Can you even say who you are?”
The incident comes just days before Virginians head to the polls in what is an extremely tight race to be the commonwealth’s next governor. FiveThirtyEight, which has aggregated all major polls of the race, shows McAuliffe trailing Republican Glenn Youngkin by less than one point.
Watch above, via Scott Taylor.
