[Editor's note: This story has been updated to note that President Biden's claim that "no governor in Virginia has ever won when he is of the...same party as the sitting president" is incorrect. When McAuliffe was elected governor of Virginia in 2013, Democrat Barack Obama was the sitting president.]
(CNSNews.com) - When President Joe Biden was asked at a press conference on Wednesday “how much responsibility” he took for the bad results the Democratic Party saw in Tuesday’s election, Biden responded that he had called Virginia’s defeated Democratic gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe “to congratulate him.”
“I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today,” Biden said.
The president then explained that the reason he congratulated McAuliffe was that even though McAuliffe had lost the election, he had won more votes than any Democrat for that office had gotten before (even though McAuliffe himself had previously been elected governor of Virginia).
A reporter at the briefing asked Biden: “As leader of the Democratic Party, how much responsibility do you take for the dismal results in Virginia and beyond last night?”
“Well, look, yesterday reminded me of—that one of the sacred rights we have is to be able to go out and cast our votes,” Biden responded. “And remember that we all have an obligation to accept the legitimacy of these elections.
“I was talking to Terry to congratulate him today,” said Biden. “He got 600,000 more votes than any Democrat ever has gotten. We brought out every Democrat about there was. More votes than ever has been cast for a Democratic incumbent—umm, not incumbent—a Democrat running for governor.
“And no governor in Virginia has ever won when he is of the same—or he or she—is the same party as the sitting president,” said Biden.
This claim that no governor has been elected in Virginia who was the "same party as the sitting president" is incorrect. In 2013, Terry McAuliffe himself was elected governor and, at that time, Democrat Barack Obama was the sitting president.