ABC affiliate WJLA-TV published in-depth interviews with McAuliffe and Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin on Tuesday, but noted that McAuliffe cut the 20 minute interview short just halfway through after being grilled on topics including vaccine mandates and the teaching of critical race theory.
In the interview, a McAuliffe staffer is heard interjecting 10 minutes in to the scheduled 20-minute interview, prompting the candidate to cut short the questioning of reporter Nick Minock.
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'Alright, we are over. That's it. That's it. Hey I gave you extra time. C'mon man,' McAuliffe tells the reporter. 'You should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.'
The station published the full video and transcript of the two interviews on its website, but was forced to explain to viewers why the Youngkin interview was twice as long.
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'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,' an anchor explained on-air.
'Nick offered both candidates 20 minutes exactly to be fair, for the interviews. McAuliffe abruptly ended 7 News' interview after just 10 minutes and told Nick that he should have asked better questions,' the anchor noted.
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In the interviews, seasoned reporter Minock questioned both candidates on similar subjects, addressing debates over critical race theory in public schools, vaccine mandates, and crime in his opening questions.
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Controversially, McAuliffe bashed a question on critical race theory in schools, claiming it wasn't being taught in the state, despite notorious school board meetings across the state being besieged by parents angry at divisive racial concepts being forced upon their kids.
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He branded the claims about CRT 'offensive' and a 'racist dog whistle' being used by Youngkin. McAuliffe was also asked about comments he made last week saying that parents should not be telling schools what to teach, and claimed he actually believed that parents should have a voice in their children's education.
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With Youngkin, Minock also went on to pose a series of tough questions to the candidate, asking whether the Republican is an anti-vaxxer, and whether he wants to ban all abortions.
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But Youngkin remained for the entirety of the tough grilling, and his campaign seized on the incident, tweeting that McAuliffe had 'berated a reporter for asking tough questions'.
Representatives for McAuliffe's campaign and the ABC affiliate station did not immediately respond to requests for comment late on Tuesday.
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Polls show that the gubernatorial contest in Virginia is now extremely tight, despite the state's increasing tendency to elect Democrats to statewide and federal offices.
With the election set for November 2, the RCP average of recent polls shows McAuliffe leading by just 2.2 percentage points.
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