'Priggish bully': Columnist in awe watching GOP governor 'blow up' his own party

Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) is tearing apart the Republican Party of Virginia — after having been the one to breathe new life into it just four years previously, wrote reporter and political commentator Jeff Schapiro in a scathing analysis for The Roanoke Times published on Thursday.

Youngkin, he noted, brought the GOP out of the wilderness by being elected in 2021, proving Republicans can still at least occasionally compete in the long blue-trending state: "Youngkin’s victory was a testament to, among other things, a generous self-investment. The former Wall Streeter steered to his campaign $20 million from his vast personal fortune, at the time estimated to be $400 million."

"Youngkin has pulled off the improbable again: He is blowing up the Republican Party that he rebuilt, demanding that John Reid, an openly gay conservative former broadcaster with considerable grassroots support, surrender the nomination for lieutenant governor," Schapiro wrote. "This is because saucy photographs — of which Reid says he knows nothing — appeared on a social media site that may or may not be linked to Reid, ergo, disqualifying him for office."

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Reid, for his part, has refused to back down, claiming he is the victim of "malicious lies" and issuing legal threats against an aide to Youngkin who until recently had been backing his candidacy.

"Reid says he’s staying in the race — and he’s sticking it to Youngkin, accusing the governor’s principal political apparatchik, Matt Moran, of extortion," he wrote. "Reid alleges that Moran told him that Youngkin’s political action committee, which, state records show, has paid Moran’s firm nearly $900,000 since 2021, would bury — by purchasing it — purportedly embarrassing opposition research on Reid if he dropped out."

Youngkin has made himself look like a "priggish bully," Schapiro wrote, and none of this looks good for the GOP: for instance, despite his outrage over Reid, Youngkin looks the other way on Trump's long record of misconduct, including "Trump’s caught-on-video remark about grabbing women by their genitals, his sexual abuse of a New York writer in a posh department store dressing room, and his payment of hush money to a porn star with whom he romped" — all because Youngkin wants a future in the GOP.

Meanwhile, he noted, local GOP chapters are pushing back on Youngkin, with the Loudoun County Republican Party supporting Reid in a new resolution — all of which adds to the dysfunction.

"In trashing Reid, [Youngkin], in effect, heaps more garbage on the entire ticket," concluded Schapiro. "[Gubernatorial candidate and sitting lieutenant governor Winsome] Earle-Sears, Reid and Jason Miyares, seeking a second term as attorney general, have enough to answer for with Trump’s attack on federal cash and jobs that keep Virginia’s economy strong. Should the Republican trio get wiped out, Youngkin can’t lay the blame with Trump — without accepting blame, himself. Youngkin will own this."