The official, verified Twitter account of Glenn Youngkin on Saturday repeatedly cyberbullied a high school student, implying he somehow supported the Virginia Republican governor’s Democratic predecessor’s blackface scandal, which took place before the teenager was even born.
NCRM was among the first to report the attack on 17-year old Ethan Lynne, whose bio clearly stated he was a high school senior.
On Sunday Youngkin campaign spokesperson Matt Wolking told The Washington Post Lynne is a “Democrat Party official,” in an attempt to defend the tweet. Lynne is not, but even if he were, he is still a minor.
Team Youngkin, the name of the Virginia Governor’s campaign account, told the Post via text, “It was brought to [our] attention that this Democrat Party official repeatedly elevated by Senator Louise Lucas as a source of official Democrat Party communications is actually a minor, so the tweet was removed.”
Team Youngkin posted the above tweet, and hours later even retweeted it despite growing outrage on the social media platform, including from local Democratic lawmakers, and other figures.
At some point early Sunday the tweet was removed.
As Lynne later wrote on Twitter, neither the governor (who is his governor,) nor Youngkin’s campaign offered any apology or even contacted him in any way.
Perhaps ironically, Youngkin made a big deal out of making his first cabinet appointment his Secretary of Education. Many believe the right-wing political newcomer won the election after his Democratic challenger said: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”
The Post on Sunday noted that “Youngkin ran for office as a sunny, basketball-dad-next-door figure who promised to transcend political divisions even as he stoked culture wars related to K-12 education. ‘Love your neighbor,’ he recently urged Virginians after a Page County mother, emboldened by the governor’s order to make masks in schools optional, threatened to show up with loaded guns if her local school board continued its mask mandate.”