Panelists on CNN and MSNBC broke down Tuesday night as election results poured in handing Republicans upset victories in Virginia.
Moderate Republican businessman Glenn Youngkin captured the state President Joe Biden won by 10 points just one year ago.
“His campaign promise,” MSNBC host Nicole Wallace said of Youngkin’s platform, “is, ‘on day one! I’m going to ban critical race theory.’ That is like us banning the ghosts. There are no ghosts!”
Nicolle Wallace: @GlennYoungkin has "laundered Trump's really sort of disgusting, flagrant out racism" by "put[ting] it in a disguise" and "wrapp[ing]" his campaign "in two Big Lies" and opposing #CRT when "there isn't any [CRT} being "taught…in Virginia." #VAgov pic.twitter.com/59ocLMzVww
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 2, 2021
Former Democrat Gov. Terry McAuliffe, however, running again for a second term, oversaw a state education department that explicitly instructed teachers to “embrace critical race theory,” a form of state-sponsored racism indoctrinating children in schools to see the world through a racial lens.
In 2015, then-Governor McAuliffe's Department of Education instructed Virginia public schools to "embrace critical race theory" in order to "re-engineer attitudes and belief systems." They explicitly endorse CRT—he can't wiggle out of this one with word games. pic.twitter.com/aLV4LGYFZJ
— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) October 30, 2021
Yet Nicolle Wallace, the rest of MSNBC’s evening lineup, and across corporate media Tuesday, Democrats lied that critical race theory is a cooked-up conspiracy peddled by conservatives.
The most hysterical coverage of results came from hosts on MSNBC. They charged Youngkin, who pivoted from running a conventional beltway Republican campaign to one of cultural crusader late in the race, as deploying a racist dog whistle.
“Critical race theory, which isn’t real, turned the suburbs 15 points to the Trump insurrection-endorsed Republican,” Wallace complained.
MSNBC in full meltdown mode. pic.twitter.com/MtBKJjYxC0
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) November 3, 2021
MSNBC’s Joy Reid called Republicans “dangerous to our national security.”
“These Republicans are dangerous,” she said. “This isn’t a party that’s just another political party that disagrees with us on tax policy. That at this point, they’re dangerous.”
Reid charged Republicans with “stoking” a form of “white nationalism” that leads to domestic terrorism.
MSNBC's Joy Reid, with dangerous rhetoric that'll get Republicans hurt: "Republicans are dangerous…[T]his isn't a party that's just another political party that disagrees with us on tax policy. That at this point, they're dangerous. They're dangerous to our national security." pic.twitter.com/5NiWIbn1Qk
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) November 2, 2021
Rachel Maddow said Republicans “invented a bogeyman about a form of racial hierarchy” that conservatives “fantasized into existence that isn’t actually taught in schools.”
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow claims Republicans ran on inventing a "bogeyman about a form of racial hierarchy" that conservatives "fantasized into existence that isn't actually taught in schools." pic.twitter.com/t102wC2r6x
— Tristan Justice (@JusticeTristan) November 3, 2021
Network anchors also appeared outraged at Youngkin’s pledge to ban something they claim doesn’t exist. Reid declared Republicans’ use of education as a wedge issue after McAuliffe pledged in the September debate to keep parents out of K-12 decisions, “code for white parents don’t like the idea of teaching about race.”
MSNBC's Joy Reid says "Education" is "code for white parents don't like the idea of teaching about race." pic.twitter.com/Y6QMAnklRy
— Tristan Justice (@JusticeTristan) November 3, 2021
On CNN, the same deceptive denials of critical race theory’s presence in schools saturated network coverage throughout its election night programming. Political commentator Van Jones called Youngkin the “delta variant of Trumpism.”
“Same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places,” Jones said.
Van Jones on CNN calls Glenn Youngkin the "delta variant of Trumpism."
"Same disease, but spreads a lot faster and can get a lot more places." pic.twitter.com/8dA9WfTCFC
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 2, 2021
The network’s Nia-Malika Henderson chalked up Republicans’ victories to “white identity politics.”
Garbage hot take by racist Nia-Malika Henderson on CNN: "We see the enduring power of the culture wars and the Republicans are better at playing this game because it's essentially white identity politics."
This thinking is why Virginia is going so well for Republicans. pic.twitter.com/9YRnpbxlSM
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) November 3, 2021
Youngkin captured the Virginia gubernatorial race and a slate of Republican candidates swept statewide offices for the first time since 2009. Winsome Sears, a black Jamaican immigrant and former U.S. marine, was elected the state’s new lieutenant governor. Republican Jason Miyares, who is Cuban-American, was elected as state attorney general.
Condolences to VA on becoming radically racist again according to the media…by electing by electing a black female lieutenant governor and a Cuban-American attorney general, rejecting racial essentialism in schools, and replacing a Dem governor who wore an actual KKK outfit.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 3, 2021
Daily Beast columnist Wajahat Ali characterized the Republican triumph as evidence of “whiteness” that “remains undefeated.”
Guess which one you support. https://t.co/hSA6Xka6aT pic.twitter.com/aIc5Cw40oO
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 3, 2021