Terry McAuliffe's 'Definitive Account' of Charlottesville Is Apparently Filled With Errors

Terry McAuliffe’s new book, “Beyond Charlottesville: Taking a Stand Against White Nationalism,” touts itself as “the definitive account of an infamous chapter in our history.” But according to The Daily Progress, a newspaper covering the Charlottesville area, the book is riddled with errors and lacks context for the attack in August 2017.

The daily newspaper immediately zeroes in on McAuliffe’s erasure of local journalism outfits in his claim that the city council vote to remove the Lee Park statue “did not generate much immediate press attention.” While it might not have made a national splash, as The Daily Progress pointed out, the vote was covered by the newspaper (the only daily in the Charlottesville area), television affiliates NBC29 and CBS19, a weekly newspaper and area radio station. Within days, the story was in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as well as two other larger market televisions stations.

If that seems like a petty omission, the newspaper also found a lack of context in how McAuliffe wrote about the state’s preparation for the Unite the Right rally that ended with the death of counter-protester Heather Heyer. According to The Daily Progress, the book fails to include the post-rally “independent review” by an outside law firm commissioned by the city that was incredibly critical of the state’s preparation for the events of Aug. 12.

McAuliffe told the newspaper that the book was expressly written from his perspective. “It’s a comprehensive look from my perspective of all the challenges I have faced as it relates to issues around racism and the things that I’ve tried to do around the issues of racism,” he told the newspaper.

Here’s what the newspaper reporter who fact-checked “Beyond Charlottesville” ended up with. Lots of Post-Its! Check out the full write-up here.