And those three flavors are, of course: 1) neo-Confederate/white nationalist crazy, Corey Stewart; 2) Ron Paul-style “libertarian” crazy, Nick Freitas; 3) theocratic/bigoted crazy, EW Jackson. Enjoy? LOL See live blog below the video.
UPDATE 7:54 pm: Closing statements. Theocratic authoritarian Ewww waxes rhapsodic about “liberty.” Gotta love that. Also claims the next US Senator has to be a “cultural leader” pushing back against “indoctrination by the left.” Uhhhh. Freitas tries to sound like he knows what he’s talking about, talking about the purpose of government. Fails. Freitas adds that he’s seeing the “light go out.” Says “cowardice is contagious but so is courage.” Alrighty. And Corey concludes the freak show by pointing at Freitas and Ewww and declaring, “others talk, I deliver!” He then runs down his greatest hits (bashing immigrants, etc.). Howls and screams from the audience, appropriately enough. /fin
UPDATE 7:48: Oh god, the immigration question. Shudderrrrr. Freitas starts whining about how “the left” bashes the right as horrible, evil, mean, racist people. Pledges to work with Trump to get “the wall.” Ewwww says we have to “have an absolute ban” on ever making someone who comes here illegally a citizen. Ewwww also says he’ll demand that states cooperate with ICE. Corey says some people “like my friend Nick here” will tell people anything you want to hear. Basically bashes Freitas as weak and a phony/flip flopper on immigration. Corey says we have a problem not just with the left, but also “Republicans as well.” Freitas says his daughter asked him “what is wrong with our last name” because Corey’s staffers attacked it. Corey says he pledged to run a “vicious, ruthless campaign” against Tim Kaine, and “if all it takes” to get under your skin is for a few supporters to make fun of your last name, Kaine’s going to “eat you up, spit you out.” Ewww says “if we’re already arguing about ethnicity…how in the world are we going to reach black and Hispanic voters?” (hint: you’re not going to)
UPDATE 7:45 pm: Term limits? Corey says he supports them, but says it “takes time” to be able to do all the great things he’s done in PW County. Like…don’t ask. LOL As for Freitas, he’s also a believer in term limits, says he worries about “the bureaucracy,” and claims the “citizen legislature” model of Virginia is a really good one (hint: it’s not!). Ewww says he “absolutely” supports them, says “money is the mother’s milk of politics” and that he’s the “only non-incumbent on the dais.”
UPDATE 7:37 pm: Question on Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. Ewww says the answer is “always” more “free market,” not evil/liberal “regulations.” Oh, and the biggest problem with Facebook is “discriminating against conservative voices.” Corey claims that Facebook has been shutting down conservative speech, and that it’s time to “break up Facebook.” Freitas bashes the government, says we shouldn’t hand over power to it but instead that “competition is the way” and that this is a fundamental difference he has with Corey Stewart. In response, Corey says Facebook controls an “entire medium of speech – your speech,” and that “your first amendment rights always trump theirs.” Freitas says the 1st amendment protects you against the government coming in and regulating your speech. He says if you give the government more power, it “tends to abuse it.” EW chimes in about “56 genders.” Don’t ask. Oh, and he also bashes the “fairness doctrine” as some sort of liberal plot. Yes, these people are all completely, batshit crazy.
UPDATE 7:32 pm: Question on Russian meddling in our elections and protecting the vote. Freitas pooh-poohs what happened in 2016 and also the threat going forward, says this is nothing new, happens all the time, blah blah. EW says the very idea that voter ID is racist is…racist! Yeah, seriously. Beyond parody. Also, time for some Hillary Clinton bashing by Ewww, including a debunked conspiracy theory. And Corey tries to out-crazy all of them by claiming so-called “voter fraud” is rampant. Corey says he’d ask Trump to investigate supposed “voting irregularities” in Virginia. The big question is whether these people are more playing to the crazies or whether they actually believe the lunacy they’re spewing.
UPDATE 7:28 pm: Oh god, the Robert Mueller question…this is going to be a nightmare. Corey of course bashes Mueller (“on a fishing expedition to undermine the president…because they couldn’t defeat him at the polls in 2016”) and adds that Mueller’s investigation is “undermining our country.” Corey also claims, insanely, that Democrats – McCabe, McAuliffe, Kaine – “created the dossier.” EW says Democrats are “trying to OVERTHROW the president” and that if Democrats take Congress, they will “drive the president of the United States out of office!” My god. As for Freitas, he mispronounces Mueller and of course bashes him, somehow weaving in poor victim Bob McDonnell and – of course! – evilevilevil Hillary Clinton. Bunch of lunatics.
UPDATE 7:24 pm: And now the missile strikes on Syria, dealing with Assad, etc. And yet again, Freitas does his favorite thing, bashing Barack Obama and talking tough (“drawing red lines in the sand…you project weakness” blah blah blah). He’s truly insufferable. Corey makes a “ha ha” about how if Lindsey Graham is against something, then he’s for it. Hilarious! Corey adds – of course! – that Trump was right. In these people’s world, Trump is always right. As for EW, he said Trump was…yep, you guessed it, “absolutely right to do what he did.” LOL
UPDATE 7:18 pm: And now we’re on to the Iran nuclear deal. Ewww of course praises Donald Trump and bashes Barack Obama, because that’s what he does. Freitas also praises the great Trump and bashes Obama for supposedly “projecting weakness” and generally ups the testosterone level, while showing his complete ignorance of what the Iran deal’s all about. And last but not least, there’s crazy Corey “the only thing they understand is strength” Stewart. Gack.
UPDATE 7:15 pm: I haven’t heard an ounce of sense from any of these guys yet. Right now, they’re all proving that Republicans don’t really care about deficit and debt, magically waving off Congressional Budget Office analyses and projections of trillions in red ink, and instead going for the good ol’ “dynamic scoring” fairy dust. #FAIL
Sign up for the Blue Virginia weekly newsletter
