Virginia Republican tries to hide extreme views after securing nomination for governor

After securing the GOP’s nomination in the Virginia gubernatorial race on Monday night, Glenn Youngkin hid several videos from his official YouTube account that show his connection with extreme right-wing viewpoints.

Youngkin was declared the winner on Monday after several rounds of ranked-choice voting following the GOP’s convention in Virginia on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Youngkin’s YouTube page showed only three videos available to view. One is an interview given to Fox News after winning the nomination, while the other two are campaign ads uploaded in February.

But a snapshot taken on May 10 by the Internet Archive, which stores copies of webpages, shows many more videos were once available.

The previously listed videos have had their status changed to “unlisted,” which means that only people with a direct link to the videos can find them.

In addition to being hidden from Youngkin’s official page, the videos will not show up in a search of YouTube.

Among the newly hidden videos is an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has repeatedly come under fire for his racist comments.

In his interview with Carlson, Youngkin accused Virginia Democrats of wanting to add “critical race theory” to school curricula and said that they “want to take accelerated math out of” schools, which is not true.

Two other videos showing Youngkin attacking critical race theory, a favored bogeyman of both Republican politicians and Fox News, were also hidden by the campaign.

Youngkin also hid a video showing him shooting a gun and espousing support for “Second Amendment rights.”

Another video, which shows Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) endorsing Youngkin and calling him “a friend of mine” has been unlisted, along with a seven-minute video where Youngkin described himself as a “Christian conservative outsider.”

The Democratic Party has not yet chosen its nominee for the seat, which is currently held by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who is prohibited from running for a second consecutive term.

The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections have rated the race as a “likely” hold for the Democrats, who have held the office since 2013.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.