McAuliffe staffers erroneously suggest fake radical protestors are Youngkin supporters

WASHINGTON (TND) — The fiercely anti-Trump Lincoln Project has admitted they organized a faux "Unite the Right" style demonstration at a rally for Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin just days before Virginia's hotly contested gubernatorial election. Staffers for Virginia's Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe asserted on social media that the performance was emblematic of Youngkin supporters.

Allegations are emerging online that at least one employee of the Virginia Democratic Party joined a group of Democratic activists and supporters who were donning button-down shirts, khakis and tiki torches at a get-out-the-vote rally for the state's Republican candidate. The group stopped to pose in front of a Youngkin campaign bus at the rally Friday, and were overheard saying "We're all in for Glenn."

The Democratic Party of Virginia called it "shameful and wrong" to accuse their staff of having a role in the incident in a statement posted to Twitter by the organization's executive director Andrew Whitley.

When images of the fake demonstrators broke Friday, a flurry of backlash and criticisms against Youngkin shot up on social media.

McAuliffe’s spokesperson Christina Freundlich retweeted a post from the local reporter who covered the incident. Freundlich said in her retweet that “The Unite the Right rally was one of the darkest days in the Commonwealth's history. this is who Glenn Youngkin's supporters are.”

“This is disgusting and disqualifying,” said Jenifer Goodman, a communications staffer for McAuliffe, in another retweet of the local Virginia reporter’s initial coverage of the incident. Both tweets have since been deleted.

One of the individuals in the group carrying tiki torches has been identified as potentially being a staffer for the Democratic Party of Virginia. Another allegedly works for Virginia Young Democrats. Both groups are affiliated with each other, according to the Virginia Young Democrats' Twitter bio.

The Lincoln Project admitted its involvement in the demonstration in a statement released Friday afternoon.

"Today’s demonstration was our way of reminding Virginians what happened in Charlottesville four years ago, the Republican Party’s embrace of those values, and Glenn Youngkin’s failure to condemn it," the Lincoln Project said in its statement. "We will continue to hold Glenn Youngkin accountable. If he will denounce Trump’s assertion that the Charlottesville rioters possessed ‘very fine’ qualities, we’ll withdraw the tiki torches. Until then, we’ll be back."