Gov. Glenn Youngkin Appoints Ken Cuccinelli, Who Conducted a “Climate Science Denial Witch Hunt” Against UVA (and Former UVA Climate Professor Michael Mann), to the UVA Board of Visitors

Not that Gov. Glenn Youngkin ever was a “moderate” (yes, the media lied to you), but now he’s obviously gone all-in on Trumpism, MAGA, etc. The reasons, most likely, is that Youngkin has been radicalized, and also cynical political calculation on his part, given that he desperately wants his political career in the MAGA/Trumpified GOP to continue after he’s mercifully no longer governor in early January 2026. So that helps explain why Youngkin would even *think* of appointing a far-right extremist, climate science denier, etc. like Ken Cuccinelli to the UVA Board of Visitors.  See below for some background on “the Cooch” – and keep that in mind when, presumably, General Assembly Democrats reject this appointment.

• He compared immigrants to rats, ranted (falsely) that we’re being “invaded,” etc.
• He waged war on climate science for years, including a relentless and disgraceful assault against leading climate scientist Michael Mann (a professor at UVA from 1999 until 2005, before he moved to Penn State, then the University of Pennsylvania; Mann’s research included playing a major role in development of the famous “hockey stick” graph, which shows “a slow long term cooling trend changing into relatively rapid warming in the 20th century,” thanks largely to human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere). The “hockey stick” graph has been a major target of assault by the fossil fuel industry and its political tools, like Ken Cuccinelli, who aim to discredit climate science and justify pouring billions more tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere…
• The Government Accountability Project accurately described Cuccinelli as a “climate science denialist witch-hunter and Tea Party favorite.”
• Cuccinelli’s a raging (and raving) homophobe.
• He’s also a “birther,” a “states rights” extremist, a tinfoil hat wacko who believes the government is tracking his kids via Social Security numbers, etc.
• In August 2020, as the NY Times reported, “The acting secretary of homeland security, Chad F. Wolf, and his deputy, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli, were appointed to their posts in violation of federal law, Congress’s watchdog determined.”
• Cuccinelli claimed he didn’t remember “Trump repeatedly calling the 2020 election ‘rigged’” even though “Trump used the word ‘rigged’ in 3 tweets 24 hours after losing the election” as well as many times leading up to the election. Which means that Cuccinelli – who’s an extremist, bigot, etc. but is NOT stupid – must be lying about this.
• As the WaPo reported back in July 2022, “Text messages for former President Donald Trump’s acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and acting deputy secretary Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, according to four people briefed on the matter and internal emails.” As 1/6/21 select committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson put it, “It is extremely troubling that the issue of deleted text messages related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol is not limited to the Secret Service, but also includes Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, who were running DHS at the time.”

Anyway, yeah, that’s the guy who Glenn Youngkin appointed to the UVA Board of Visitors – and whos appointment should be rejected by the Virginia General Assembly.