Commentary from Bolling on Reid

"If the accusations are valid, then perhaps Reid should withdraw from the campaign."

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Bolling: If the accusations are true, Reid should perhaps withdraw

Bill Bolling, A Republican who served as leiutenant governor for two terms, provided commentary on the John Reid situation. (One note, he says Sears and Youngkin have not commented, but he published this before they did release a statement yesterday.)

The commentary from Bolling is below:

The Republican Party of Virginia was supposed to hold its first "Unity Rally" in Henrico County tomorrow evening, but that was before Governor Glenn Youngkin accused John Reid, the Republican nominee for Lieutenant Governor, of posting sexually explicit photos on a Tumblr site bearing his name and called on him to withdraw from the campaign.

Reid, of course, has denied those accusations, and to date, no one has been able to prove, or disprove, if this was, in fact, Reid's site; although no one has yet explained why anyone would have created this site, which has existed since 2014, to make Reid look bad. Reid was not even a public figure in 2014.

The dispute has prompted Reid to accuse the Republican Governor of trying to persecute him because he is a gay man who the Governor never wanted on the Republican ticket, and it has not only created a dispute between Youngkin and Reid, but it has also driven Reid's running mates, Winsome Earle Sears and Jason Miyares, into hiding.

Neither have yet commented on the controversy, and I can understand why. Do they stand with the Governor, whose support they need to have any chance of winning their elections; or do they stand with their running mate. It is a true Hobson's choice.

Against this backdrop of division, not unity, Reid has announced that he will hold his own rally in Henrico County on Wednesday evening, no doubt to ratchet up his spirted denial of the accusations leveled against him and put pressure on Youngkin to back down.

One thing is for certain. This dispute cannot continue if Republicans, who were facing an uphill election year to begin with, are to have any chance of winning in November. This debacle must be resolved, one way or the other, and I only see two scenrios for that to happen.

One, Youngkin could back down. He could say he was wrong and acted prematurely in calling on Reid to withdraw from the race. He could explain that he called on Reid to withdraw believing that the Tumblr site in question was Reid's site and that Reid had in fact posted the inappropriate photos to the site, but he now knows that was not the case.

Two, if the Youngkin team remains convinced that their criticism of Reid is valid, they need to produce clear and convincing evidence to support their posiiton, which has not been done to date, at least not for the public to consume.

Let me be clear. I have known John Reid for quite some time. I have known that he is gay for quite some time. I like him, I respect him, and I have always found him to be an articulate and consistent conservative. If the allegations against him are without validity, he should remain on the Republican ticket and he is owed an apology.

However, if the accusations are valid, then perhaps Reid should withdraw from the campaign. I just don't know that anyone is ever going to be able to prove that.

We may never know for sure if this was Reid's Tumblr account or not. We may never know for sure if he posted the questionable photos or not. But then again, we still don't know if it was Ralph Northam dressed in black face in his medical school yearbook!

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