Last week, our nation bore witness to the horrific murder of eight Asian-Americans as the result of a targeted hate crime in Atlanta, Georgia. In the wake of the horrendous attack, leaders and politicians across the nation offered their condolences and support to the communities impacted. And many people took to social media to expressed their outrage that these hate crimes continue to happen with little effort made by the nation’s leadership to address them.

Former Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe was among those who offered thoughts and prayers.

In a video that has been shared across Twitter and other social media platforms, McAuliffe classlessly transitions back and forth between an empty expression of solidarity with the AAPI community and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with a mug of beer.

The tweet below contains the clip:

McAuliffe’s apathetic tone and demeanor during the clip underscored a complete lack of empathy and respect for the AAPI community, and it needs to be addressed. If he fails to offer his sincere condolences to a community in a time of crisis, how can he be expected to represent that community as governor?

This may seem, to some, like a misstep or a mistake on McAuliffe’s part, but the fact of the matter is that he has a long history of racist rhetoric, and his record as Governor of Virginia is just as problematic.

In 2001, a Black delegate of the Democratic National Committee called on McAuliffe to withdraw his candidacy for DNC chair after McAuliffe used the term “colored people” to refer to Black people. 

Some have dismissed this issue because it happened twenty years ago, but the term was still wrong then. This might be an excusable mistake if it were made in 1961, but it was 2001. By that time, “colored” was an outdated term that did nothing but reverberated the hateful and bigoted rhetoric of the Jim Crow Era. “Colored” is a racist slur that was used to dehumanize Black people during the Jim Crow Era. To a lot of people, “colored” holds the same connotation as “Negro” and other outdated racial slurs. McAuliffe knew that, and if he didn’t, then he has no place attempting to run for office in a state as diverse as Virginia or anywhere else in the United States for that matter.

Rather than working to prevent the “Unite the Right” rally which brought hundreds of white supremacists to Charlottesville in August 2017 and resulted in the murder of an innocent woman, McAuliffe did not call in the National Guard to prepare for the rally and then later he wrote a book to profit off the event. The event attracted dozens of hate groups including the Ku Klux Klan, right-wing militias, and groups of self-proclaimed neo-Nazis. 

What happened in Charlottesville was preventable. The fact that McAuliffe didn’t take action displays a complete failure of leadership. Instead of taking preventive measures, McAuliffe allowed the murderous crowd to descend before deciding to play damage control. 

The only thing McAuliffe did when it came to Charlottesville was use his book deal to profit from the horrors that faced the city.

McAuliffe’s use of a racial slur, his indifference toward the AAPI community, and his failure to lead when it came to the “Unite the Right” rally make it clear that he is unfit to serve as governor again. He represents the past, an era that should have ended long ago and shouldn’t be part of today’s conversation. It’s time to move forward and leave McAuliffe and candidates like him behind.

Virginia is currently faced with a choice of letting McAuliffe drag the Commonwealth into the past or choosing someone who will carry the Commonwealth forward and into the future. McAuliffe is running to retake control of the commonwealth’s executive seat, and he has multiple opponents in the Democratic Primary, including Former Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy and State Senator Jennifer McClellan. If elected, either Carroll Foy or McClellan would serve as the first Black woman in the nation to be elected governor of any state.

The choice is an easy one. 

When you go to the polls on June 8th, don’t vote for McAuliffe. Vote for a candidate who will move the Commonwealth forward.