Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican nominee in the Commonwealth’s gubernatorial race this year, declined multiple times Monday to comment on running mate E.W. Jackson, who’s drawn heavy criticism for comments on race and abortion.
Asked by MSNBC’s Chuck Todd if Jackson was his first choice to be the GOP’s nominee for lieutenant governor, Cuccinelli was cagey.
“You know, we had seven different people running for lieutenant governor and I keep my votes to myself,” Cuccinelli said.
A follow-up question from Todd yielded the same response from Cuccinelli.
“I keep my votes to myself,” the Republican told the host.
When Todd pressed him over his refusal to denounce some of Jackson’s incendiary remarks, Cuccinelli said that addressing those matters would be a distraction.
“If I start getting into what any running mate — remember, I got a hundred house of delegate seats at the same time too — if I start diving into every single other race, we’ll lose focus off job creation and on comparing my positive record and my ten years in state government with my lousy record of my opponent,” Cuccinelli said.
Cuccinelli told Todd that he’s not as concerned about Jackson’s comments as he is with stopping his opponent, former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe.
Jackson, an African-American, argued last week that social programs have hurt the “black family” more than slavery.
