A top spokesperson for Democrat Terry McAuliffe's Virginia gubernatorial campaign accidentally looped in a Fox News Digital reporter Thursday on internal deliberations over how to "kill" a story about the campaign hiring a top Democratic lawyer known for spearheading election challenges.

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Earlier Thursday, Fox News reported that the McAuliffe campaign had spent more than $53,000 on the services of a law firm founded by Marc Elias, the former general counsel for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

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Reporter Tyler O'Neil reached out to the McAuliffe campaign to ask why it had hired Elias' firm and give it a chance to respond to the suggestion by George Washington University law professor and Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley that the Democrats had done so to contest a potential victory by Republican Glenn Youngkin.

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Nine minutes after sending his email, O'Neil received a response from McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Christina Freundlich — but rather than a professional statement, he received a request apparently meant for her colleagues.

Terry McAuliffe's campaign spent more than $53,000 on the services of a law firm founded by Marc Elias.AP

"Can we try to kill this," Freundlich wrote before clarifying in a second message: "To dispute the challenges of the election."

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After O'Neil published his story about the misdirected email, Freundlich — who caused a wave of internet outrage in 2015 by posing for a selfie at the site of a deadly gas explosion in Manhattan's East Village — attempted to shrug off her error, tweeting: "I think it's clear based on this story that we did in fact…kill the story."

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Before launching the Elias Law Group, he was a partner at high-powered firm Perkins Coie — where he retained opposition research firm Fusion GPS to target Donald Trump. In June 2016, their research included Christopher Steele's dossier, the debunked file that served as the premise for the three-year investigation of "collusion" between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. 

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Earlier this year, Elias was sanctioned by the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for filing a "redundant and misleading" motion in a case challenging a Texas law forbidding "straight-ticket" voting. The court said Elias and his legal team from Perkins Coie filed a motion in February that was nearly identical to an earlier motion that had been denied.

After O'Neil sent his email, Christina Freundlich sent him an email apparently meant for her colleagues.

"This inexplicable failure to disclose the earlier denial of their motion violated their duty of candor to the court," the court said in ordering Elias and his team to pay attorney fees incurred in connection with the second motion as well as "double costs."

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Elias also led an unsuccessful effort to overturn the 2020 election result in Iowa's 2nd Congressional District, in which Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated Democrat Rita Hart by just six votes.

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Despite McAuliffe's attempts to tie his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin to former President Donald Trump and his false claims about the 2020 election, McAuliffe himself is no stranger to embracing conspiracy theories alleging stolen votes.

In Terry McAuliffe's attempts to tie his Republican opponent Glenn Youngkin to Donald Trump, he is no stranger to conspiracy theories alleging stolen votes.AP

On Sunday, McAuliffe introduced 2018 Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams by claiming that "she would be the governor of Georgia today had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million Georgia voters before the election."

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"That's what happened to Stacey Abrams," McAuliffe went on. "They took the votes away."

Terry McAuliffe claimed Stacey Abrams would be the governor of Georgia had the governor of Georgia not disenfranchised 1.4 million state voters before the election.AP

At another event earlier this month, McAuliffe nodded in tacit agreement as Abrams said: "I'm here to tell you that just because you win doesn't mean [you've] won … I come from a state where I was not entitled to become the governor, but as an American citizen and as a citizen of Georgia, I'm going to fight for every person who has the right to vote to be able to cast that vote."

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Abrams has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that current Republican Gov. Brian Kemp used his former position as Georgia's secretary of state to unlawfully prevent millions of voters who would have backed Abrams in 2018 from going to the polls.

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McAuliffe's remarks in support of Abrams earned him a scolding from the liberal Washington Post editorial board, who warned the Democrat to avoid "unprovable allegations that will contribute to the corrosion of trust."

Abrams has claimed Brian Kemp used his position as Georgia's secretary of state to block voters who would have backed Abrams in 2018.AP

McAuliffe has also refused to disavow his claim, dating back to his tenure as head of the Democratic National Committee, that the 2000 election was "stolen" by Republicans for George W. Bush.

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"We actually won the last presidential election, folks," McAuliffe told delegates at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. "They stole the last presidential election."

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When confronted with that claim during an interview with a Virginia TV station this month, McAuliffe refused to say whether Bush had been "legitimately elected" in 2000, saying only: "He got sworn in. Once you're sworn in, we've gotta move on."

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Thursday's report emerged as a new Fox News poll showed Youngkin leading McAuliffe among likely Virginia voters by eight percentage points with five days remaining until Election Day.

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"His campaign is absolutely failing," Youngkin said of McAuliffe in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity Thursday. "I mean, the sun is setting on his 43-year political career. And by the way, they're not gonna need lawyers because this isn't gonna be close."

• An email snafu from Terry McAuliffe's gubernatorial campaign gifted Fox News an easy story.

• "Can we kill this?" a campaign aide wrote in an email accidentally including a Fox reporter.

• The reporter was requesting comment on the campaign hiring an election lawyer.

• KAMALAWKWARD: Once again a video of Harris that will give your CRINGE reflex nightmares

The hotly contested Virginia governor's race has gotten close to wall-to-wall coverage on Fox News over the past month, but an error over email gave the network a different story than what the news team was tracking down in the first place.

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Democrat Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor, is running against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin as Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam - best known for his 2019 blackface scandal - is set to leave office, since Virginia does not allow its governors to serve consecutive terms.

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Tyler O'Neil, an editor at Fox News, sent the McAuliffe campaign a standard request for comment over email on Thursday.

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The McAuliffe campaign had recently hired Marc Elias, a go-to Democratic attorney with experience in election law and contested ballot counts. O'Neil reached out to ask if Elias was hired for a potential court challenge in the election, given that Youngkin has partially embraced some of former President Donald Trump's disproven election fraud lies and may challenge the results.

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In response, a McAuliffe campaign staffer mistakenly included the Fox editor on a reply email asking "Can we kill this?"

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It did not take long for O'Neil to write up a standalone story on the email snafu for the Fox News website.

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McAuliffe's campaign did not give any other response on the record, according to Fox.

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The McAuliffe staffer who sent the email did not respond to Insider's request for comment.

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During the 2020 presidential race, the Biden campaign hired election lawyers in preparation for the Trump team challenging the results of the election in several states. Elias represented Democrats in Texas that year.

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Despite the Trump campaign's repeated allegations of fraud and "irregularities," and after more than 40 court challenges, the former president's lawyers have been unable to win a single case.

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Read the original article on Business Insider

Virginia gubernatorial candidates Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin remain deadlocked as they enter the final weekend before Election Day, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released Friday.

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McAuliffe, the Democratic former governor who is seeking a return to the commonwealth's top job, leads the Republican Youngkin 49 percent to 48 percent among likely voters polled, well within the survey's margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.

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The results were similar among a broader swath of registered voters surveyed, with McAuliffe ahead 47-44, also within the margin of error. The poll surveyed 1,107 registered voters between Oct. 20-26, 918 of whom were deemed to be likely voters.

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McAuliffe led Youngkin by three percentage points in the previous Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted mid-September.

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Friday's survey is the latest polling to indicate an extremely competitive contest between the two candidates in Virginia's closely watched off-year election.

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McAuliffe held a polling advantage over his GOP competitor throughout much of the campaign, though the gap has narrowed as Youngkin has capitalized on hot button issues including education that has energized the Republican base and swing voters.

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Youngkin holds an 18-point advantage over McAuliffe among self-identified independents in the likely voter model, up from eight in the September poll. That coincides with an uptick in the portion of respondents who said that education is their top item in making their pick for governor

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Other polling has even pointed to Youngkin overtaking the former governor ahead of next week's election. A poll released Thursday by Fox News showed Youngkin leading by eight percentage points, 53 percent to McAuliffe's 45 percent, among likely voters in Vriginia. Youngkin also led McAuliffe by one point among registered voters, according to the same poll.

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President Joe Biden won Virginia by 10 percentage points over Donald Trump in last year's general election. But the president's approval rating is now below 50 percent in the commonwealth, an apparent headwind for McAuliffe's comeback effort. Though Virginia has long been viewed as a purple state, Democrats have had a strong run in recent years, and Republicans have not won statewide since 2009.

Vice President Kamala Harris rallied for Virginia Democrat Terry McAuliffe at a campaign event Friday evening, seeking to nationalize the competitive governor's race ahead of Tuesday's election.

"Each one of you in your possession has the ability to determine, yes, who will be the next governor, but also by extension, given the importance of this Virginia election, how the country is going to move," Harris said.

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"There is so much power in the hands of the people, including not only determining the outcome of this very, very important election but making a statement about who we are as a nation," Harris said from a podium at a get-out-the-vote event for McAuliffe in Norfolk, Va.

McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia, is up against Republican challenger Glenn Youngkin. Recent polling shows the two candidates deadlocked among registered voters.

Harris underscored Virginia's role in setting the tone for what could unfold politically across the rest of the country over the next few years. Biden and Democrats have recently embraced the notion that what happens in Virginia could offer a glimpse into major 2022 congressional races.

She repeatedly touted the importance of strengthening and maintaining the country's democracy, specifically by showing up to vote and reminding people that "elections matter."

"The American people will always stand for the pillars of our democracy," Harris said. "And we know as imperfect as we are, as flawed as we may be, one of the strengths of who we are as a nation is we always fight for our ideals."

Unlike President Joe Biden in his speech while campaigning for McAuliffe on Tuesday, Harris steered clear of jabs at Youngkin.

At one point in her speech, Harris repeatedly stressed the importance of a governor's role and the sway they can have over people's lives including on health care coverage, access to child care and LGBTQ rights — while repeating the phrase "who is governor matters."

"Electing Terry McAuliffe will matter," she said.

Democrat Terry McAuliffe has brought in the biggest names in Democratic politics to come to his aid in Virginia's hotly contested gubernatorial race: Obama, Harris, Abrams, Biden (both Joe and Jill).

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Republican Glenn Youngkin, meanwhile, is campaigning with ... Glenn Youngkin.

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The GOP candidate, a newcomer who has surprised his party with his strong bid in blue Virginia, has eschewed virtually all public campaign visits from well-known party allies, who typically flock to hot races to lend a hand. It's not that Youngkin won't take the help — the candidate has welcomed numerous high-profile Republicans to the state for closed-door fundraisers. But the Youngkin campaign's unofficial policy is that they can't campaign alongside him.

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That decision to go solo is a deliberate strategy by his team to keep voters' focus on state, rather than national, issues. But it's also an acknowledgment that a parade of GOP visitors would only undermine Youngkin's attempt to keep his party — and its leader, former President Donald Trump — at arm's length.

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"Glenn is an outsider, he's a businessman. And so when we're doing events, we want events to convey that message," said Youngkin spokesman Devin O'Malley of the approach.

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Trump, who lost Virginia by 10 percentage points in 2020, hasn't been easy to keep away. On Wednesday, he issued a cryptically worded statement suggesting he might make a last-minute, first appearance in the state.

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On Thursday, a person familiar with his plans said he will instead be holding a last-minute tele-rally Monday, the day before the election.

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Trump's announcement came the day his former vice president, Mike Pence, a far less polarizing figure than Trump, visited a small Christian college in the northern Virginia suburbs for a speech on education. But Youngkin did not join him and Pence never mentioned the candidate's name, even as he echoed the same message on parental rights in schools that Youngkin has made in the closing days of the campaign

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"The Youngkin strategy, I think, is a smart one in that he is focused intensely on state and local issues and taking it directly to voters in the suburbs and exurbs where the election will be decided," said Mark J. Rozell, founding Dean of the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University in Fairfax.

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"Now, in fairness, Youngkin doesn't have a major national figure in the Republican party who can help him," he added. "Youngkin doesn't want Trump to come here. He can't say that openly because he doesn't want to alienate the loyal Trump voters who right now are all in with Youngkin."

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Indeed, last time Trump waded into the race — calling into a rally organized by conservative allies — McAuliffe's campaign seized on the appearance, quickly cutting ads featuring Trump's praise of the Republican, even though Youngkin hadn't even attended the event. The Democrats has repeatedly highlighted Youngkin's ties to Trump in a bid to turn off more moderate voters, particularly those in the suburbs surrounding Washington, D.C., and Richmond, who revolted against Trump in his final years in office and helped deliver Biden's victory.

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Throughout the campaign, Youngkin has done a delicate dance, trying to win over Trump's loyal base, which he needs to turn out to win the election, while striking a far softer, less confrontational tone.

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The "no surrogates at political events" policy has had the added benefit of providing an excuse to keep Trump out without antagonizing the grudge-bearing former president, who takes slights deeply personally.

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The strategy is one Youngkin advisers say they settled on months ago and doubled down on when they announced a bus tour for the final days of the campaign with a press release that knocked McAuliffe for his reliance on big names.

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The tour would "highlight the contrast between the grassroots enthusiasm for Glenn Youngkin's candidacy" and Terry McAuliffe's dependence on Democrats like Stacey Abrams, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama to draw a crowd.

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McAuliffe's campaign responded by saying Youngkin had little choice.

"They are in a position where in Virginia they really can't welcome very many members of the Republican Party because it's a party led by Donald Trump," said McAuliffe campaign spokeswoman Christina Freundlich. "Their party has become too divisive."

With little interest from outside figures in the early days of the race, campaign officials said they realized that Youngkin could draw his own crowds without having to feature surrogates who might rub people the wrong way. And without other politicians, they could highlight his status as a businessman and political newcomer, and focus on issues like education and local taxes they believed would resonate with state voters.

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But the campaign has not rebuffed the outreach entirely. Instead, it has funneled that support to closed-door fundraisers that have featured a slew of potential 2024 candidates from across the ideological spectrum including Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Maryland Gov, Larry Hogan and Sens. Cruz and Tom Cotton, along with former attorney general Bill Barr and ex-House Speaker Paul Ryan.

And it appears to be paying off.

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Sandy Corbitt, 61, who works in education and attended Pence's Thursday speech in Loudoun County — an area that has become a hotbed for parental activist groups — said that promoting parental freedom can be a winner for Youngkin without help from national Republicans. Corbitt said she'd not heard "a ton" about Youngkin but likes "what I'm hearing."

"I think he hasn't been asking for others to help, where it looks like the other guy's had to call in everybody under the sun," she said, mentioning Obama and other top Democrats campaigning with McAuliffe. "So, he can't make it on his own."

Still, if Youngkin pulls off a win, Trump is expected by allies to head to the state to try to claim credit.

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"I think he's going to be excited to come to Virginia. It's a state that he loves and he's always believed that we can do better here than we have in the past. So I'm sure he'll be here celebrating," said conservative talk show host John Fredericks, Trump's former campaign chair in the state.