McAuliffe Attacks Youngkins on his “Far Right Social Agenda”…Youngkins Needs to Ask McAuliffe About GreenTech Automotive

McAuliffe GTA

FoxNews.com reports that

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe attacked his Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, on Wednesday, accusing him of trying to foist a “far-right social agenda” on the Old Dominion state on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage.

Youngkin previously told Fox News that McAuliffe had twisted his words on these issues.

“Glenn Youngkin’s far-right social agenda is WRONG for Virginia,” McAuliffe posted on Twitter. “From abortion rights to same-sex marriage to book banning. He wants to take us back.”

McAuliffe has previously attacked Youngkin on these issues, but the Republican told Fox News that the Democrat had created a straw-man candidate to run against.

“He honestly is making up a candidate,” Youngkin told Fox News Saturday.

“Everything he says deserves ‘four Pinocchios’ and ‘Pants on Fire,’” the Republican added, mentioning the worst possible fact-check ratings from the Washington Post and PolitiFact.

On abortion, McAuliffe claimed that Youngkin would bring laws like the landmark Texas abortion law to Virginia.

“Women’s lives are going to be put at risk. Doctors are going to be put in jail,” McAuliffe said.

In the first debate with McAuliffe back in September, however, Youngkin said he would not sign a Virginia version of the Texas abortion bill. In September, the Washington Post’s fact-checker gave McAuliffe “Two Pinocchios” for his claims that Youngkin would ban abortions.

McAuliffe has also claimed that Youngkin opposes same-sex marriage. In an interview with the Washington Blade, the Democrat called his Republican opponent “the most homophobic, anti-choice candidate in Virginia history.”

This claim appears to trace back to an interview with the Associated Press. Youngkin told the AP that he feels “called to love everyone,” but he said that statement was not intended to convey support for same-sex marriage. He did say, however, that same-sex marriage is “legally acceptable” in Virginia.

“I, as governor, will support that,” he added.

“As Glenn said, gay marriage is the law in Virginia, and he will support the law as governor,” a Youngkin campaign spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday. “Glenn spoke up when pride flags were destroyed because he believes in respecting everyone and protecting everyone.”

As for the claim about “book banning,” McAuliffe appears to have been referencing a previous claim that Youngkin is “focused on banning award-winning books from our schools & silencing the voices of Black authors.”

Parents claim that the books “Genderqueer” and “Lawn Boy” — incidentally written by white authors — contain graphic images inappropriate for adolescents. Parents have also raised concerns about Black author Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” which contains graphic depictions of sex, violence and bestiality, while describing the horrors of slavery.

Youngkin said that he did not wish to ban books, but to notify parents. He embraced two bills that McAuliffe vetoed when he was governor. H.B. 516 would have required schools to notify parents if a teacher planned to provide “instructional material that includes sexually explicit content,” and if a parent objected, the law would require teachers to provide “nonexplicit instructional material,” instead. H.B. 2191 had similar provisions.

Yet in a September debate, McAuliffe claimed that the bills would have given parents the right to “veto books” and “take them off the shelves.” The Washington Post faulted the Democrat for having “mischaracterized the bills he vetoed.”

“Eighteen Democrats, including 14 Black caucus members, voted for a bill that would have notified parents of sexually explicit material in their children’s classroom and provided them with alternate material, and Glenn would have signed that bill, unlike Terry McAuliffe, who launched his attack on parents the day he vetoed that bill,” a Youngkin spokesperson told Fox News on Wednesday.

Youngkin’s viewpoints are not “Far Right. They are those of a Conservative American.

Please allow me to tell you something you may not know about Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe.

Back in May of 2016, Foxnews.com reported that

Federal officials are investigating whether Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s 2013 campaign accepted illegal campaign contributions, sources familiar with the investigation confirmed Monday to Fox News.

The Democratic governor and Clinton ally is the target of a Justice Department investigation into whether he violated campaign finance laws.

The probe, first reported by CNN, involves a $120,000 donation from Chinese businessman Wang Wenliang through his U.S. businesses. U.S. election law prohibits foreign nationals to donate to political races.

McAuliffe’s attorney, Marc Elias, said in a statement his office was not aware of the investigation, but would cooperate if contacted by federal officials.

“We cannot confirm the CNN report. Neither the Governor nor his former campaign has knowledge of this matter, but as reported, contributions to the campaign from Mr. Wang were completely lawful,” Elias said. “The Governor will certainly cooperate with the government if he is contacted about it.”

A spokesman for Wang told CNN the businessman holds permanent resident status in the U.S.

Wang also has been a donor to the Clinton foundation, pledging $2 million, CNN reported.

McAuliffe now becomes the second consecutive Virginia governor to be investigated by the Justice Department.

McAuliffe’s predecessor in the governor’s mansion, Republican Bob McDonnell, was convicted on federal corruption charges but has appealed his conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before winning his gubernatorial campaign in 2013 over Republican Ken Cuccinelli, McAuliffe made his name in national Democratic politics as a prolific, well-connected fundraiser with close ties to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Although McAuliffe is close to the Clintons, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press that the investigation of McAuliffe is unconnected to a separate FBI investigation looking at the legality of private email servers that Hillary Clinton used while serving as secretary of state.

Last year, McAuliffe’s political action committee, Common Good Va., returned a $25,000 donation from a company with ties to Angola’s state-owned oil company after The Associated Press raised questions about its legality. Federal law prohibits campaigns at any level from receiving money from outside the U.S.

McAuliffe’s international business connections also came under scrutiny prior to his gubernatorial campaign. He served as chairman of GreenTech Automotive, a company that hoped to bring supercompact automobiles to the U.S. market.

The company attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in foreign investment, in part through a federal program that granted visas to investors who met certain job-creation thresholds.

McAuliffe resigned from the company in December 2012. GreenTech, which received millions of dollars in economic incentives from state and local officials to build a plant in Mississippi, faced criticism for falling well below expectations in production and job creation.

Oh, by the way, in a related story about Hil and Bill, the FBI has transported two planeloads of documents from the Clinton Library in Little Rock, Arkansas back to D.C> as a part of an ongoing investigation.

Now about Green Tech Automotive.

Sitting here in “KJ’s Kastle” in Northwest Mississippi, I had a bird’s-eye view of the whole unseemly mess.

Again, in May of 2016, the Memphis CBS Affiliate, WREG, filed the following report…

ROBINSONVILLE, Miss. — They promised jobs — and lots of them — but after accepting millions in taxpayer money, a Tunica County car manufacturer is refusing to say how many jobs were actually created.

GreenTech Automotive got a $3 million loan from the state of Mississippi in 2011 to build the Robinsonville facility with the promise that they would create 350 jobs. Close to $1.9 million was loaned to Tunica County to support the project.

But now the Mississippi Development Authority said GreenTech has fallen short of the promised 350 jobs.

“If we pay our taxes for it, it should be here,” said Tunica County resident Billy Jackson.

WREG called and emailed the spokesman listed on GreenTech’s website and never heard back.

Tuesday afternoon, we dropped by the Robinsonville plant, where we were promptly greeted by a manager.

“Right now, we’re building cars here, and we don’t talk to any kind of press,” said Terey Agner, manager of GreenTech’s plant.

Agnes refused to say how many people the plant employed.

“No, no, I can’t do anything,” said Agner.

We received a similar response from the Tunica County Chamber of Commerce, which hailed GreenTech’s arrival when it opened its plant in 2014.

“My only statement is that GreenTech has people employed and they are working,” said Lyn Arnold, CEO of the Chamber.

“These companies that come in and expect to get tax breaks and make promises about jobs, they need to keep their word,” said Brooks Taylor, publisher of the Tunica Times.

Taylor has tracked GreenTech’s progress since 2009, when they promised their Robinsonville plant would create 1,500 jobs.

They later revised that figure to 350.

“There’s nothing here. $5 million could have did a whole lot more to the town, to the city and it went to one job, one company,” said Jackson.

In addition to the added jobs, GreenTech had said it would also produce 30,000 cars per year at its plant.

We don’t know if GreenTech is currently meeting that goal.

GreenTech’s Plant in Robinsonville, Mississippi closed its doors in January of 2017.

The company itself filed for bankruptcy in February of the same year.

The company known as GreenTech Automotive was a shady entity from its very beginning.

The Washington Free Beacon presented the following five points to remember about GreenTech Automotive, in an article published in August of 2013…

1. GreenTech fell short on job promises multiple times

McAuliffe told Virginians in 2009 that the new car company would create 1,500 jobs for the state.

McAuliffe did not tell Virginians that the company was also in talks with the state of Mississippi, and would soon opt to move its operations there.

However, things have not panned out with GreenTech in Mississippi either.

McAuliffe projected that GreenTech would be churning out 10,000 cars in its first year and employ thousands.

At this point it is unclear whether GreenTech is producing any jobs. Further informationBelow.]

GreenTech is still operating at what was supposed to be a temporary facility in Horn Lake, Miss.

Although McAuliffe claimed that ground was broken at the company’s planed permanent facility, local investigators found that there was nothing but overgrown grass covering the plot on which it is supposed to be located.

2. GreenTech relies on a foreign “visa-for-sale” investment scheme

At the center of GreenTech’s fundraising operation is the controversial EB-5 visa program.

The program allows foreign nationals to get a visa if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in a project or business that provides U.S. jobs.

GreenTech partners with Gulf Coast Funds Management (GCFM), a company that is authorized by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to collect EB-5 investments for GreenTech.

GCFM has collected at least $45.5 million from foreign investors for GreenTech through the program. Anthony Rodham, a close friend of McAuliffe who also happens to be the brother of Hillary Clinton, runs GCFM.

Many have been skeptical about whether the visa program was being used properly.

Virginia officials labeled the company a “visa-for-sale scheme” and feared that doing business with GreenTech could eventually “give the Commonwealth a black eye.”

3. GreenTech is being investigated by the SEC

Both GreenTech and GCFM are targets of a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation.

Although the details of the investigation are still unclear, both companies have confirmed that the SEC subpoenaed them for documents in May of this year.

Documents made available by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) make clear that the investigation centers around the use of the EB-5 visa program.

McAuliffe, who quietly resigned from the company in December, claims that he had no knowledge of any pending investigation at the time of his resignation.

4. GreenTech is at the center of a Homeland Security investigation

GreenTech and McAuliffe have also found themselves involved in a Department of Homeland Security investigation.

USCIS director Alejandro Mayorkas allegedly assisted Rodham and GCFM win approval for an EB-5 visa application, even after the application and the subsequent appeal were rejected.

Documents revealed that Rodham directly contacted Mayorkas and urged him to approve pending visa applications.

Concerns were also raised that Mayorkas expedited the approval of applicants that were held for “fraud/national security.”

5. GreenTech’s parent company is based in the British Virgin Islands

GreenTech is owned by Capital Wealth Holdings, an investment company incorporated in the tax haven, the British Virgin Islands.

GreenTech president and Chinese businessman, Charles Wang, owns the investment company.

Wang is an expert on the EB-5 visa program and has coached other U.S. companies on how to effectively make use of it.

Of course, Terry McAuliffe saw things differently.

According to McAuliffe, in an op ed piece he wrote at the time for 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 his dear friend, Hillary Clinton, Terry McAuliffe has a history of promising the world and delivering squat.

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

The “temporary” GreenTech Automotive Plant, which was supposed to provide a lot of jobs here in Northwest Mississippi, sits 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, Just like the Economic Policies That President JOe Biden and the Democratic Congress are attempting to put in place even now.

“Build Back Better”, my hindquarters.

Until He Comes,

KJ

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