Joe Biden Campaigning for Terry McAuliffe After He Called President ‘Unpopular’ in Virginia

biden and McAuliffe
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

President Joe Biden will campaign for Terry McAuliffe on Tuesday, despite the former governor calling him “unpopular” in Virginia.

The president will appear at a rally Tuesday night with McAuliffe at Virginia Highlands Park in Arlington, Virginia, just one week before Election Day.

McAuliffe continues struggling in the race as Biden’s approval ratings have cratered in recent weeks.

“We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington,” McAuliffe said during a video conference with Democrats earlier this month. “As you know, the president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we’ve got to plow through.”

Biden’s appearance ties the president to McAuliffe’s political future even as Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin hangs on to a promising last minute surge in the polls.

The McAuliffe team is pulling all the stops to help Democrats limp across the finish line in Virginia, calling in former President Barack Obama, failed Democrat candidate for Georgia governor Stacy Abrams, and Vice President Kamala Harris to join him on the campaign trail.

Youngkin is closing out his campaign promising to fix public schools, giving parents more of a say on issues like critical race theory and holding school administrators accountable for issues of sexual assault.

“The time for closed-door conversation and silencing parents is over. We must fix this now,” Youngkin said at a rally last week in Fairfax, Virginia.

McAuliffe has tried to dismiss Youngkin’s campaign promises on education as “silencing the voices of Black authors” and relying on “Trumpian dog whistles” to get more support.

Former President Barack Obama also tried to dismiss parental concerns about sexual assault and critical race theory as “fake outrage,” and “trumped-up culture wars” during a weekend rally for McAullife.

Obama complained that Youngkin was focusing on outrage politics instead of focusing on “serious problems that actually affect serious people.”

“That’s a shame,” he said. “That’s not what this election is about. That’s not what you need Virginia.”

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