IL Governor’s Chief of Staff Says Karen Tumulty’s WaPo Op-Ed Arguing Youngkin’s a “Sane” Republican Is “one of many reasons democracy is in such peril”

Exactly right by IL Gov. JB Pritzker’s chief of staff, Anne Caprara, on the abysmally bad op-ed by Washington Post Deputy Editorial Page Editor Karen Tumulty (“Why Glenn Youngkin — or someone like him — must run in 2024″; I’m not going to link to this trash). As Caprara explains:

• “This take – and others like it – is one of many reasons democracy is in such peril. The idea that Glenn Youngkin – 15-week abortion ban, teacher tip line, CRT hysteria pushing Youngkin – is somehow a ‘sane Republican’ is ludicrous.”
• “There is no difference between a Glenn Youngkin and, for example, a Darren Bailey in Illinois. Both will do the same things as Governor. One just says the quiet parts out loud and one pretends to be “moderate” and is covered that way in the press.”
• “And when Democrats run against the Youngkins of the world – and are like ‘hey this guy is going to do a whole bunch of bonkers things’ during a campaign, we get press hot takes like ‘your campaign strategy is bad bc voters don’t believe Youngkin will be a far right Governor.'”
• “Voters didn’t believe Youngkin would be a far right Governor because the press told them he wouldn’t be a far right governor! And guess what – he’s a far right governor! Guy just vowed to sign any abortion ban that comes to his desk!”
• “And that is how we end up with a Supreme Court overturning Roe & a GOP that has calculated they won’t pay a price for instigating a coup. I’m fully willing to own Dems need a more aggressive strategy against the GOP – but the media needs to also assess how they cover Republicans.”

Recall, by the way, that the WaPo’s atrocious coverage of the Virginia governor’s race last year helped the Youngkin team to perpetrate its deceptive media strategy, which on the one hand appealed to the hard-right based via social media, right-wing media, etc.; and on the other hand, pretended to be a “moderate” in a sweater vest on TV.

For a classic example of what I’m referring to, see Three Front-Page WaPo Stories on the VA Governor’s Race…and They All SUCK (Hell, They Even Describe Youngkin as a “6 foot 5 Mystery Date” – WTF???), just a few weeks before the 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election. This was appalling bad “reporting” (in air quotes) by the WaPo, which dishonestly and sloppily/lazily ignored the reams of evidence we had at that time indicating that Youngkin was hard right on pretty much every issue. And yet the WaPo just blissfully glossed over all that then…and is still doing so today, at least when it comes to their Deputy Editorial Page Editor Karen Tumulty. Ugh…