Joe Biden said "people are upset and uncertain about a lot of things" after Democrats suffered the loss of a gubernatorial seat in Virginia. Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Democrat Terry McAuliffe one year after the party took control of the White House and Congress. Biden won Virginia by 10 points in 2020 before the victory of political newcomer Youngkin.
Continue reading...Category Archives: Virginia
How did Republicans turn critical race theory into a winning electoral issue?
Glenn Youngkin won the race to be Virginia’s governor having exploited concerns over teaching about race in schools
What is critical race theory?
Developed by the former Harvard Law professor Derrick Bell and other scholars in the 1970s and 80s, critical race theory, or CRT, examines the ways in which racism was embedded into American law and other modern institutions, maintaining the dominance of white people.
Continue reading...Democrats’ stinging Virginia defeat raises stark questions for Biden’s tenure
Analysis: Glenn Youngkin’s victory comes as the president’s agenda has stalled and danger looms for the party in Congress
Joe Biden exuded confidence. “We’re going to win,” the US president told reporters before departing Cop26 in Glasgow. “I think we’re going to win in Virginia.”
But as Biden returns to Washington, he faces questions about why his prediction was so wrong – and whether Democrats’ loss in the most important election of the year will send his presidency into a downward spiral.
Continue reading...Republican Glenn Youngkin wins Virginia governor’s race in blow to Biden
Youngkin stoked culture wars on education while walking political tightrope over Donald Trump
Joe Biden suffered a bitter political blow early on Wednesday when Democrats went down in a shock defeat in the election for governor of Virginia.
The Democratic candidate, Terry McAuliffe, had campaigned with Biden and Barack Obama but it was not enough to prevent the Republican Glenn Youngkin pulling off an upset.
Continue reading...‘Don’t sit this one out’: Obama stumps for Virginia governor candidate Terry McAuliffe
Former president warns against complacency in ‘blue’ state amid race seen as indicator of Democrats’ congressional hopes
Barack Obama vehemently warned Virginia voters on Saturday against any complacency that what was now a “blue” state would stay that way, as he spoke at a rally to support Terry McAuliffe in the tightening race for governor.
The former president urged supporters to turn out, despite this being an off-year election, in order to keep Democrats in control of not just the state but ultimately the nation.
Continue reading...It’s shameful that it took so long to bring down the statute of Robert E Lee
Let’s hope Richmond makes its removal more than an empty gesture
When they lifted the enormous statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee from his pedestal and set him on the ground in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday, it was symbolically huge to me. On high, he was undeservedly venerated.
And for years of walking under him on Monument Avenue, going about my day, I always felt the city was in an embarrassing time warp, unable to completely shake its status as the former capital of the Confederacy.
Continue reading...‘It’s a beautiful day for democracy’: Virginia removes Robert E Lee statue from capital
Elated crowd cheered the removal of the bronze monument to Confederate general, erected more than 130 years ago in Richmond
For 131 years it loomed over Richmond, Virginia, once the capital of America’s slave-owning south, sending a chilling message about the resilience of white supremacy to generations that passed beneath.
But at 8.55am on Wednesday, daylight reappeared between a giant statue of the Confederate general Robert E Lee and its granite pedestal, now covered with Black Lives Matter graffiti. In warm sunshine the towering sculpture was hoisted by work crews and lowered to the ground amid cheers, songs and whoops from a watching crowd.
Continue reading...Removal of Confederate statue greeted with cheering in Virginia – video
A bronze statue of General Robert E Lee was removed from its pedestal in Richmond, Virginia, the former capital of the Confederacy.
In summer 2020, after Black Lives Matter protests connected to the death of George Floyd, it was ordered that the statue, one of the largest Confederate statues in the US, should be taken down. It was removed after a year of litigation.
Crews took down the statue in front of a crowd of about 200 chanting people
Continue reading...After slavery, oystering offered a lifeline. Now sewage spills threaten to end it all
Black people are disproportionately suffering under the weight of a sewage crisis in Virginia, a symptom of decades of neglect by local governments
On a cold winter morning early this year, Mary Hill was helping her 101-year-old mother get ready for the day when she received a distressing email alert. Tens of millions of gallons of raw sewage were heading for her prized family oyster beds.
Yet Hill was not surprised that the wastewater pipe built in the 1940s had succumbed to corrosion. “Here we go again,” she thought grimly.
Continue reading...Virginia governor pardons seven Black men executed in 1951 for rape of a white woman
Governor Ralph Northam said the men, tried by all-white juries, were not given due process at a time when only Black men received death sentences for rape in Virginia
The governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, has granted posthumous pardons to seven Black men who were executed in 1951 for the rape of a white woman.
The case attracted pleas for mercy from around the world and in recent years has been denounced as an example of racial disparity in the use of the death penalty.
Continue reading...Charlottesville removes Confederate statues at center of deadly 2017 protest – video
Statues of Confederate generals Robert E Lee and Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson were taken down in the city of Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday, nearly four years after white supremacist protests over plans to remove them led to clashes in which a woman was run down by a car and killed. A small crowd of onlookers cheered as the statue of Lee was hoisted away first, lifted by crane from its stone pedestal and taken away on a flat-bed truck.
Continue reading...Black army officer pepper-sprayed by police during traffic stop in December 2020 – video
One of two police officers accused of pepper-spraying and pointing their guns at a Black US army officer during a traffic stop has been fired, a Virginia town announced late on Sunday, hours after the governor called for an independent investigation.
In the December 2020 encounter, two officers are accused of drawing their guns, pointing them at army second lieutenant Caron Nazario and using a slang term to suggest he was facing execution.
Nazario, who is Black and Latino, was also pepper-sprayed and knocked to the ground by the officers, Joe Gutierrez and Daniel Crocker, according to the lawsuit he filed earlier this month against them. The two sides in the case dispute what happened but Crocker wrote in a report that he believed Nazario was “eluding police” and he considered it a “high-risk traffic stop”. Attorney Jonathan Arthur said Nazario was trying to stop in a well-lit area
Continue reading...Virginia becomes the first southern state to end the death penalty
Ban comes after a yearslong battle by Democrats in the state, which previously had US’s second-highest number of executions
Virginia has become the 23rd US state and the first in the south to abolish the death penalty, a dramatic shift for the commonwealth which previously had the nation’s second-highest number of executions.
Continue reading...Far-right plotters ‘discussed kidnapping Virginia governor Ralph Northam’
- FBI agent makes claim in Michigan court hearing testimony
- Six men were charged with plot to kidnap Michigan governor
Members of anti-government paramilitary groups discussed kidnapping Virginia governor Ralph Northam during a June meeting in Ohio, an FBI agent testified on Tuesday during a court hearing for a group of men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor.
Related: How the domestic terror plot to kidnap Michigan's governor unravelled
Continue reading...British-born pair charged in US over murder of Isis hostages
El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, held in detention for two years, transferred to America and charged with terrorism offences
Two British-born citizens alleged to have members of an Isis execution squad infamous for beheading hostages have been flown to the US to face trial after two years in detention.
Related: The jihadist 'Beatles': Britons who became the face of Isis cruelty
Continue reading...Crowd cheers as Charlottesville takes down statue of Confederate soldier
- Bronze known as ‘At Ready’ has stood for 111 years
- University town rocked by white supremacist march in 2017
Engineers in Charlottesville, Virginia worked to remove a 900lb Confederate statue on Saturday, a moment of symbolic reckoning in the university town that was rocked by a white supremacist march in August 2017.
Related: Black Virginia state senator charged with 'injury' to Confederate monument
Continue reading...Virginia Republican who officiated gay wedding loses nomination for Congress
- Denver Riggleman beaten in convention in state’s fifth district
- Hardliner Bob Good could face strong Democratic challenge
A Virginia Republican congressman who angered social conservatives in his district when he officiated a gay wedding has lost his party’s nomination.
Related: The Skywalker window: what Democrats must do to destroy Trump's Death Star
Continue reading...‘They seem very responsible to me’: Trump defends anti-lockdown protesters – video
The US president urged supporters to 'liberate' three states led by Democratic governors on Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home restrictions. 'These are people expressing their views,' Trump said during his daily White House coronavirus briefing.
Continue reading...Richmond, Virginia gun rally – in pictures
Advocates and militia members gather in Virginia’s state capitol to protest potential gun control measures
Continue reading...‘It was crazy’: sixty-nine vehicles collide in highway pile-up in Virginia – video
At least 51 people have been injured in a pile-up on a major interstate in Virginia. Authorities do not yet know the cause of the crash, but fog and icy conditions were contributing factors, said Sgt Michelle Anaya of Virginia state police. No deaths were reported but it took emergency crews several hours to clear the road and reopen all lanes of traffic
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