GOP Candidate Cites Cities ‘Burning’ During 2020 ‘Summer of Love’ on CNN to Defend Attending Stop the Steal Rally

CNN’s Manu Raju pressed the Donald Trump-backed challenger to Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-VA) on his unproven election fraud claims and his attendance at the Stop the Steal rally that preceded the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Virginia state Sen. John McGuire (R) joined Raju on CNN This Morning on Tuesday ahead of his primary with Good, and he expressed no regrets about attending the Stop the Steal rally when Raju brought it up.

“Given what happened that day, all the violence and everything that happened that day, was it a mistake to have that rally and for you to appear there?” Raju asked.

“No. I think trust has been destroyed all over the place,” McGuire said.

The GOP candidate went on to claim the “rules” were “changed in the middle of the game” in the 2020 presidential election under the “guise of the pandemic,” citing drop boxes and mail-in voting.

“But you acknowledge the election was not stolen, right?” Raju said, cutting back in.

McGuire pointed to the “summer of love,” presumably referring to 2020 summer protests across the country over police brutality.

“I would say changing the rules in the middle of the game is cheating and I think Trump was robbed and I think the American people under their Constitutional right can assemble and peacefully protest,” McGuire said. “If you broke the law then certainly you should be prosecuted by the law. I think it’s a very fair comparison to look at how they had the summer of love where they burned our cities across America for 80 days. In fact, there was one police precinct where they blocked the exits so the police officers couldn’t get out and nobody seems to want to make that comparison.”

“Just to be clear, they’ve investigated whether there was substantial election fraud and and the like and that has simply not been borne out,” Raju said before moving on from the topic.

Watch above via CNN.

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