Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe’s campaign is pushing back against a news station after claiming that he walked off an interview.
During an interview with WJLA 7News reporter Nick Minock, McAuliffe’s aide told him, “We’re already over.”
McAuliffe stood up and added, “All right, we are over. That’s it. That’s it. Hey, I gave you extra time. C’mon man.”
He continued, “You should have asked better questions early on. You should have asked questions your viewers care about.”
The outlet’s Jonathan Elias later offered an explanation as to why McAuliffe’s interview was longer than his Republican opponent’s.
“So if you watch those entire interviews on our website, 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,” Elias said.
He added, “Nick offered both candidates 20 minutes exactly to be fair for the interviews. McAuliffe abruptly ended 7News’ interview after just 10 minutes and told Nick that he should have asked better questions and that Nick should have asked questions 7News viewers care about. That’s what he said.”
McAuliffe’s press secretary Renzo Olivari responded in a tweet showing text messages with Mincok.
“It’s really unfortunate to see [7NewsDC] mislead viewers by saying Terry ‘abruptly’ left an interview that was ALWAYS scheduled to be 10 mins long, which [Nick Minock] agreed to beforehand,” Olivari tweeted.
He continued, “And in the video you can see how lighthearted and joking Terry was after the interview.”
It’s really unfortunate to see @7NewsDC mislead viewers by saying Terry “abruptly” left an interview that was ALWAYS scheduled to be 10 mins long, which @NickMinock agreed to beforehand.
— Renzo Olivari (@Renzo_Olivari) October 20, 2021
And in the video you can see how lighthearted and joking Terry was after the interview. https://t.co/HUVmdbX4ro pic.twitter.com/nFv3aBI5GH
McAuliffe’s opponent, Glenn Youngkin, spoke out about the incident during an interview with Fox News.
“These aren’t that hard questions,” Youngkin said. “’How are you going to fix our schools and what are you going to do to make our community safe?’”
He added, “And here’s Terry McAuliffe, who won’t even answer questions from a local reporter. He yells at sheriffs. He barks at people all the time. I think he’s losing it because he knows this race is slipping away from him.”