Terry McAuliffe is an American businessman, fundraiser, politician, and former chairman of the Democratic Party. He served as chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2001 to 2005 and served as co-chairman of President Bill Clinton’s 1996 re-election campaign and as chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2009 Virginia gubernatorial election, who came back to win the 2013 Virginia gubernatorial election.

Judicialwatch.org reported on July 7th that

An electric car company that folded after taking millions of taxpayer dollars was founded by Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair, but the mainstream media is ignoring this pertinent fact. The Mississippi-based company, GreenTech, shut down in January but is back in the spotlight because this week the state’s auditor demanded the firm repay $6.4 million in public funds. Only a small Richmond, Virginia newspaper prominently reported McAuliffe’s ties to the scandal, stating in the headline that “Mississippi auditor demands $6.4M repayment from McAuliffe’s former electric car company.”

Most mainstream news outlets ignored the story altogether and a few kept McAuliffe’s name out the minimal coverage. Washington D.C.’s mainstream newspaper went with a lengthy wire service story that matter-of-factly mentions McAuliffe in the very last sentence. “Among former insiders is Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe,” the end of the article states. “He resigned as the firm’s chairman in December 2012 and said he divested his interest.” How convenient! The article omits that, as GreenTech founder, McAuliffe brokered the deal in which the company got millions in public funds by promising to invest $60 million locally and creating hundreds of new full-time jobs. That never happened and instead taxpayers got fleeced. Now Mississippi State Auditor Stacey Pickering is ordering that the money be repaid with interest and investigative costs. The exact figure is $6,360,019.60.

McAuliffe is a renowned Democratic fundraiser who made a fortune with shady investments in a telecommunications giant that went bankrupt. He started his fundraising career in Jimmy Carter’s 1979 reelection campaign and has raised big bucks for Democrats over the years, but not without controversy. McAuliffe was investigated for campaign-finance abuses during the 1996 presidential election and was deposed by the Senate committee investigating the matter. In 2002 the Virginia governor was investigated for his role in an unprecedented case of political profiteering for turning a $100,000 investment in telecommunications giant Global Crossings into an $18 million profit. The company later made the fourth-largest bankruptcy filing in history and McAuliffe insisted he only did “political work” for the company’s founder who, incidentally, donated $1 million to Bill Clinton’s Presidential Library.

In 2013, McAuliffe appeared on Judicial Watch’s most corrupt politicians list and last year Judicial Watch sued the governor on behalf of Virginia voters for signing an executive order to restore voting rights to about 206,000 convicted felons. In court proceedings, Judicial Watch argued that the blanket restoration of rights to felons violates “provisions of the Virginia Constitution mandating that voting rights may only be restored on an individual basis, following a particular, individualized review and a finding of sufficient grounds for restoring such rights.” Plaintiffs alleged that their votes and the lawful votes of other Virginians will be cancelled out or diminished by felons who are not eligible to vote under Virginia’s laws and constitution.

Though his pals in the mainstream media are keeping his name out of the GreenTech scandal, McAuliffe could still be in serious trouble. The Virginia paper that reported his key role in the bankrupt electric car company points this out: “McAuliffe’s office has said the governor has had no involvement with the company since stepping down as its chairman and divesting his financial stake. But the escalating standoff in Mississippi raises the likelihood that the business deal McAuliffe brokered could be headed toward a bitter end in court. Ending his four-year term as governor with a higher national profile and record as an exuberant pitchman for Virginia, GreenTech’s unraveling could dog McAuliffe amid speculation about a 2020 presidential bid.”

According to McAuliffe, in an op ed piece which was published on August 13, 2016 in the Washington Post…

I’ve not been contacted in any way by those conducting the investigation and have no knowledge of it beyond what has been reported. From what has been reported, the investigation appears to be looking at a document allegedly prepared for potential investors — something I was not responsible for as chairman.

Republicans have also criticized the company for employing only about 100 people. Of course, that’s about 100 jobs that would not have existed if we had not taken a risk on this company. The company has taken longer to develop than many people expected, including me, but taking a risk on an innovative company is a critical part of the American system, and most business leaders I speak with agree that it’s not uncommon for a company to face challenges meeting its goals.

GreenTech was started because those involved invested their own money in high-tech manufacturing. In this case, it was manufacturing a small electric vehicle that had already won an annual award. Like every start-up during the Great Recession, the company faced headwinds. Those included a bureaucratic slowdown in a bipartisan visa program known as EB-5, which brings capital from overseas to create jobs here in the United States for many companies. I joined a variety of business and political leaders from both parties who expressed frustration to officials at the agency overseeing the program.

A further headwind is that manufacturing isn’t easy, and manufacturing a new kind of car is even harder. The company has invested in research and development, testing and safety to perfect the design. While Nissan worked to develop electric vehicles for about 18 years before launching the Leaf, GreenTech made progress in just a few years during a more challenging economic time. If GreenTech succeeds, it will be a step forward for innovative manufacturing.

I have an interest — both personally and financially — in the company succeeding, and I believe that it will. As a minority shareholder, my return will be determined by the success of a long process of testing, manufacturing, marketing and selling vehicles all over the world.

Like every other Liberal Democrat Politician, Terry McAuliffe has a history of promising the world and delivering squat.

Democrats incessantly proclaim that they are the party of the average American.

In reality, under the rule of a democrat congress, and eight years of a Democrat president , America’s economy was sent on a plunge straight down the old porcelain receptacle.

The “temporary” Greentech Automotive Plant, which was supposed to provide a lot of jobs here in Northwest Mississippi, used to sit just a couple of miles down the road from where I am writing this post. The fact is, according to former employees, fewer than 100 workers produced no more than one car every two or three days…a legacy of over-promising and under-delivering, which led to another Democrat-approved “Green Energy” failure.

This legacy would have been multiplied one thousand-fold if Hillary Clinton had been allowed to gain the Presidency of the United States of America.

Greentech Automotive was nothing but a poorly thought out con game from the get-go.

The “energy-efficient” two-seat cars that they built, only delivered a maximum speed of around 35 mph.

They were envisioned as a car to be used by Europeans to drive around the town square, not to be driven on America’s six-lane highways.

McAuliffe was their “American Representative” and with his Democrat Party Pull, they were able to “set up shop” in the Magnolia State, first in the city of Horn Lake and then, in a plant built especially for them down by the casinos in Tunica.

Just like a Hillary Clinton Presidency was known to be a “sure thing” by Liberals Democrats, the adaptation of the European Electric two-seaters manufactured by Greentech Automotive were believed to have been enthusiastically received by average Americans.

In both cases the overestimation of their own intelligence and their disconnect from average Americans, was their undoing.

And, in both cases, average Americans hit the brakes on Liberal Democrats’ ambitious plans.

Until He Comes,

KJ