Via Townhall:
The polls are all over the place, but Virginia’s gubernatorial race could be close—and Republican candidate Ed Gillespie could win. That’s why national Democrats are getting jittery. Case in point, this rather insane attack linking Ed Gillespie to white supremacy and neo-Nazis by the Ralph Northam campaign. As some have noted, this is not something that you push out if you’re ahead in this race. I think it’s not off the mark to suggest that something spooked the Democrats in the internal polling. The mailer issued by Northam, the Democrat, tries to tie Gillespie to the horrific Charlottesville protest in August, where neo-Nazis and other white supremacists were demonstrating to voice their opposition to the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. One woman was killed and scores of other were injured when a car driven by a white nationalist plowed through a group of counter-protesters. Yes, the violent left wing Antifa thugs were there as well, though they didn’t kill anybody that day. At the same time, just because they fight neo-Nazis doesn’t make them the good guys; the Department of Homeland Security classified their actions as acts of domestic terrorism last year.
Concerning the reaction from the local press, Virginia’s top newspapers have commented that what Northam has pushed out with this mailer is pretty much libelous, while others noted that Gillespie’s statement and actions after the tragic Charlottesville protests not only showed that the Republican candidate has done all the right things, but that he and Northam are on the same side of this issue.
On Friday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial board torched the Northam campaign for the mailer that suggested Gillespie is somehow a supporter of white supremacy:
They [the Democrats] have distributed a mailer of their own, seeking to tie Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie to the white nationalists who rampaged through Charlottesville in August.
That isn’t merely a reach. It’s practically libel.
Gillespie has repeatedly and passionately condemned white supremacists and other creatures that have crawled out from under the alt-right rock. Linking him to them requires the following absurd logic: (1) Donald Trump said some stupid things about Charlottesville. (2) Trump is a Republican. (3) Gillespie is a Republican. (4) Therefore, Gillespie supports racial hate.
That makes no more sense than this: (1) Some Democrats have defended the violent street thugs of antifa. (2) Ralph Northam is a Democrat. (3) Therefore, Ralph Northam supports violent street thuggery.