A member of the campaign of Virginia’s GOP gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin is drawing the wrong kind of attention, after he reportedly called into a far-right talk radio show and defended Youngkin while poising as an ordinary listener named “Josh.”
The clown show began on August 30, when Sebastian Gorka—the former Trump administration official turned MAGA radio host—complained to his listeners about Youngkin’s refusal to appear on his show.
“And then his team reached out and on at least five occasions promised Mr. G., our producer, that [Youngkin would] come on the show. And each time he blew us off. Eventually, with one of the minions calling me to say, ‘well he’s very busy.’ Yeah, really busy. Well, Donald Trump’s not too busy to come on this show. I guess Glenn Younkin’s busier than that. Until they let it slip. ‘Didn’t you Tweet something mean about him two months ago?’ Ahhh. So he wants to govern Virginia but mean Tweets are the problem? Here’s the question for you, Glenn Youngkin. Are you truly a conservative, or are you just another Rino?”
A little while later, a man who identified himself as Josh called into the show and took up for Youngkin. From there, things got interesting.
Here’s the exchange, via Blue Virginia:
Gorka: “Let’s go to Josh in the commonwealth of Virginia. Line three, welcome Josh.
Josh: “Dr. Gorka, how we doing?
Gorka: “Good!”
Josh: “…you know, I’m a little frustrated, you brought up Glenn Youngkin. I don’t know if you saw today, but he rolled out a new policy plan, called a Day one game plan. He wants to do all sorts of things. He wants to defend and not defund police. He wants to invest in our schools, restore excellence in education. Cut costs of living. But what frustrates me is that he’s running into headwinds from conservatives like you who want to try to take him down. We need to try to win in Virginia, yet you’re trying to take this guy on and cut his legs out from underneath him.”
Gorka: “No. How am I doing that, Josh, by giving him access to 3 million listeners, Josh? How is running away from talking to the base cutting the legs…I’m actually trying to help him, Josh, you understand what I’m doing? I’m giving access to a microphone in front of 3 million people, all of whom voted for Donald Trump, Josh. So what are you talking about?
Josh: “I mean if this is how you treat people….your friends…”
Gorka: “And who cares, who cares what plans he has written? Do you work for the campaign, Josh?
Josh: “This is how you treat your friends, it’s pretty remarkable…”
Gorka: “Do you work for the campaign…Don’t avoid my question, do you work for Glenn Youngkin?”
Josh: “I don’t.”
Gora: “Yes, I bet you don’t. Goodbye, you fake.”
Later…
Gorka: “Alright, I promised you we’d reveal to you the identity of the individual who called in as an ‘innocent listener to defend Glenn Youngkin and why was I lambasting him in front of millions of listeners and what kind of a conservative am I?’ And I had a hunch. And I asked him live on air, do you work for Glenn Youngkin? And he wouldn’t answer the question. So I asked him once more, and he said he doesn’t. Huh. Well who is he? Well my producer identified him Who is the man who called into our show to defend Glenn Youngkin and say I’m not a conservative?”
Producer: “That would be Devin O’Malley.”
Gorka: “Oh, I like that. Nice Irish name. Devin O’Malley, is he just, what, a truck driver from Indiana?”
Gorka producer: “Well if you go to his Twitter, it’s funny, Youngkin for Governor is in the bio.”
Gorka: “What, what? Youngkin for governor?”
Gorka producer: “Yeah, and then I just did a little bit more searching, he’s done a couple of radio interviews as a campaign spokesperson for Youngkin.”
Gorka: “So he does work for the campaign?”
Gorka producer: “I think he does.”
Gorka: “So when he said he doesn’t work for Glenn Youngkin, on live radio, that means he’s a liar.”
According to The Washington Post, the Youngkin campaign has thus far not disputed Gorka’s assertion that the caller, “Josh,” is actually a member of the campaign. Washingtonian emailed a campaign spokesman for comment, but we have not heard back.
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
