GOP hits Biden after he jokes about McAuliffe being ‘real governor’ of Virginia

Republicans took to social media on Tuesday to jab President Biden over joking that former Democratic gubernational candidate Terry McAuliffe was the “real governor” of Virginia.

“Hello, Virginia… and the real governor, Terry McAuliffe!” Biden said Tuesday during a speech in the state.

McAuliffe lost his bid for Virginia’s governor in 2021 to now-Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), who responded on X to a video of Biden’s comments with, “Mr. President, I’m right here.” Other Republicans joined McAuliffe, with many labeling Biden as someone who denied the results of the election.

“So Joe Biden is an election denier?” Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote on X.

Sen Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said on X that he thought saying “something like this was ‘a threat to democracy,’” adding that Biden “doesn’t have a speck of integrity.”

Some compared Biden to former President Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.  Jason Miller, a longtime adviser to Trump, said in a post that “Biden is actually brain dead” in response to the video.

“Election denialism is only bad if your name is Trump,” conservative pundit Megyn Kelly also posted on X.

Former Trump aide Alyssa Farah Griffin said the joke was “bizarre” in a post on X.

“When you’re running on ‘defending democracy’ jokes about elections being stolen are *not* funny at all,” she added.

The Dispatch’s editor-in-chief Jonah Goldberg said the remark was “monstrously stupid, even if intended as a silly joke.”

“If you’re going to make the other side’s election denial central to your campaign, the last thing you want to do is this nonsense,” he said on X.

The Hill has reached out to the Biden campaign for comment.