Virginia attorney general Cuccinelli calls right-wing radio host his 'favorite media mogul'

Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's gubernatorial campaign rally on Tuesday featured both a radio host who once accused President Barack Obama of promoting a "mindset of death" and an anti-Semitic joke from a local GOP official, the Washington Post reported.

The rally in Sterling, Virginia, opened with remarks from local Republican committee chair John Whitbeck, including a long joke involving the "leader of the Jewish faith" presenting Pope Francis with "the bill from the Last Supper." Video of the joke was soon posted online on Tuesday, and Cuccinelli campaign spokesperson Chris La Civita distanced the candidate from Whitbeck's remarks.

"I don't even know who the guy is," La Civita told the Post. "It's wholly inappropriate and not connected to the campaign. And it's not reflective of Ken Cuccinelli."

Cuccinelli was joined onstage by radio host Mark Levin, who said on his show in August 2013 that Obama wants to promote "an abortion in every household" through the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Earlier this year, Levin also called for the party to "be fumigated."

The candidate, who earlier this year pursued the reinstatement of the state law against sodomy and stood by remarks calling the LGBT community inherently "self-destructive," called Levin his "favorite media mogul" and also attacked the new law, saying it has hindered economic growth by forcing businesses to only hire part-time employees.

"Get government out of the way, and you will watch the American economy explode," the Post quoted Cuccinelli as saying. "Those principles that they built this nation on are eternal and universal. They apply everywhere and all the time. They apply as much in 2013 as they did in 1776."

Watch video of Whitbeck's joke, posted online by YouTube user Kathleen Zurita on Tuesday, below.

[Attorney General of Virginia Ken Cuccinelli speaking at the 2012 Liberty Political Action Conference in Chantilly, Virginia.. Image by Gage Skidmore on Flickr, via Creative Commons license.]