Terry McAuliffe criticizes Youngkin for Trump ties, but he has his own

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Glenn Youngkin: I don't recognize the state of Virginia

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Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe criticized Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin for his ties to former President Trump, but he has his own.

McAuliffe – a former governor of the Old Dominion – released an attack ad against Youngkin on Tuesday targeting the Republican nominee for his ties to the former president, calling Trump a "stain on our democracy."

On the same day, the former governor also blasted Youngkin, the former CEO of the Carlyle Group, a financial firm, over his endorsement from Trump, who gave his "Complete and Total Endorsement" to Youngkin that day.

"Glenn Youngkin spent his campaign fawning all over Donald Trump, and now Trump has returned the favor by wholeheartedly endorsing him," McAuliffe said.

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"Virginians have rejected Donald Trump's hate, conspiracy theories, and dangerous lies at every turn, and we're going to do it again to his hand-picked, extreme right-wing candidate Glenn Youngkin this November," he continued.

What the Virginia Democrat didn’t mention is that he took $25,000 from Trump in 2009 for his failed gubernatorial bid.

McAuliffe also left out that he toasted Trump at the 2017 National Governor’s Association dinner after the former president referred to him as a "friend" that he has known for a "long, long time."

"I just want to toast you, Mr. President, and say we want to work with you on those ideals that have instilled and brought all of us governors together. That we can respectively grow our states and grow our nation to be truly the great destiny that we are," said McAuliffe.

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"So I’d like to offer a toast to the president of the United States of America," McAuliffe added.

McAuliffe also played golf with Trump and former President Bill Clinton at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 2002.

Additionally, in 2009, the New York Times Magazine noted that the former Virginia governor "moves in the rarefied atmosphere of big money and celebrity" that included Trump, Clinton and director Stephen Spielberg.

A spokesperson for Youngkin told Fox News on Thursday that the ad was exactly what people expected from McAuliffe.

"This tired, old narrative and division is exactly what you’d expect from a political hack like Terry McAuliffe, because he’s on the wrong side of all the issues," the spokesperson said in a statement.

"He wants to put violent criminals back on the street, allow our police officers to be personally sued and bankrupted just for doing their job, get rid of Right to Work and force employees to give part of their paychecks to his union boss friends, and raise taxes and the cost of living on Virginia families," they continued.

When asked for comment by Fox News, McAuliffe campaign spokesperson Renzo Olivari said on Thursday that Youngkin has made "the Big Lie" around the 2020 presidential election a major point of his campaign.

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"Donald Trump is nothing but a conspiratorial, disgraced, twice-impeached former president who attacked our democracy on Jan. 6 by peddling the Big Lie that Glenn Youngkin has made the centerpiece of his campaign," Olivari told Fox. "Terry McAuliffe is proud to have campaigned tirelessly to make Trump a loser in Virginia in 2016 and 2020, and he is ready to defeat the Trump agenda and his hand-picked nominee for governor."

"Terry has been a brick wall against extremism, and will make sure that those who ran on Trump's playbook get nowhere near the Virginia governor's office," he added.

McAuliffe is the front-runner to be the Democratic nominee for Virginia’s governorship, but he has not clinched the official nomination.