McAuliffe's Campaign Team Mistakenly Asks Fox to 'Kill Story' as Democrat Trails in Polls - Report

Recent events indicate that McAuliffe's campaign is apparently in trouble. Despite bringing in the Democratic Party's major names to mobilize support, including President Biden, ex-President Barack Obama, and Vice President Kamala Harris, McAuliffe has drawn small numbers to recent campaign rallies.

The campaign team for Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe unintentionally made public their conversation on how to "kill" a Fox News story to the reporter who had requested comment, the outlet reported.

According to the report, McAuliffe's campaign was contacted by a Fox News editor for comment on how they had allegedly spent about $54,000 on high-profile attorneys from Elias Law Group, which is known for its involvement in election-related legal issues.

The email appeared to have caused alarm within the campaign, with Christina Freundlich, a spokesperson for McAuliffe, asking, "'Can we try to kill this?"

However, Fox News notes, citing obtained emails, that sadly for Freundlich and her employer, she failed to send the email to the designated recipients. Instead, she sent her request back to the reporter by mistake.

"To dispute the challenges of the election," she then responded to some letter which Fox News alleges has not gone through them.

According to the report, Elias was previously a partner at the law firm Perkins Coie, which was engaged by the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2016 to undertake opposition research on Donald Trump, including the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. Republicans have accused the lawyer of lying in order to conceal the Clinton campaign's involvement in the dossier's funding.

Elias has advocated for Democrats in political campaigns, disputing elections. When he represented Iowa Democratic candidate Rita Hart in her attempt to reverse the results of her razor-thin loss to Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, House Republicans accused Elias of having a "serious conflict of interest."

McAuliffe's appointment of Elias, according to law professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, could be a move "to challenge any win by Republican Glenn Youngkin."

In recent polls, Youngkin leads McAuliffe by 8 points among likely voters, with 53% of the vote compared to McAuliffe's 45%.

On Friday, McAuliffe held what seems to be a final rally before the election scheduled on November 2, again enlisting the help of big Democratic players, such as VP Harris, as well as the famous singer Pharrell Williams and incumbent Democrat Governor Ralph Northam.

According to the vice president's speech, McAuliffe is a champion for abortion rights, health care, LGBT rights, voting rights, and veterans, while Harris added that he will take climate change seriously. She framed the election as a binary option between moving forward or "turning back the clock" for the US.