(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) ABC News faced harsh criticism for boasting on Friday that a political ad by former President Barack Obama in support of Virginia Democrats’ gerrymandering campaign was a news “exclusive.”
The post on X has since been deleted, although the leftist news outlet still has its coverage of the video posted online as a news story.
Among those to call out ABC was RealClearInvestigations journalist Mark Hemingway, who wrote, “Why the hell does a major news network consider an extremely partisan campaign ad an ‘exclusive’?”
Why the hell does a major news network consider an extremely partisan campaign ad an “exclusive”? https://t.co/k3hM1Ru7hW
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) April 17, 2026
The post triggered many other responses accusing the coverage of being an “in-kind contribution” to the Democrats’ agenda.
Pundit Stephen L. Miller wrote, “That’s a pretty big tell about your news organization.”
Obama recorded a video on gerrymandering and gave it to ABC News and you ran it?
That's a pretty big tell about your news organization. https://t.co/OL95xe7l0M
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) April 17, 2026
ABC News previously was forced to pay a $15 million defamation settlement to President Donald Trump after chief anchor George Stephanopoulos knowingly mischaracterized a lawfare judgment in the controversial E. Jean Carroll sexual-assault case as “rape.”
Virginia Democrats, emboldened by the election of far-left Gov. Abigail Spanberger last year, are seeking to approve a “temporary” referendum that would allow them to gerrymander the state’s 6-5 partisan breakdown of Democrat to Republican congressional seats into a 10-1 political map which would help deliver the U.S. House back into Democrat control.
Party leaders already have pledged to wage a third impeachment attempt against Trump if able to reclaim the majority.
The special election on Tuesday has been slammed for the deeply deceptive language on the ballot, in which Democrats spuriously claim to be restoring “fairness” through the brazen political ploy.
Virginia's elections dept under Gov. Spanberger told local registrars NOT to display maps on the ballot so voters know what they are voting for in the redistricting ballot question
The ballot will just ask voters whether they want to "restore fairness in the upcoming elections"! pic.twitter.com/auTJTYNVFd
— Luke Rosiak (@lukerosiak) March 24, 2026
Despite a track record of voting the party line as a Biden Democrat while serving in Congress, Spanberger — a former CIA operative — ran as a moderate, vowing to bring “affordability” to residents of the commonwealth.
But upon taking office, she proceeded to do the exact opposite, passing through massive tax hikes across the board, even as the Democrat-controlled state legislature voted to give itself a large raise.
Gov. Spanberger has,
1: Ended agreements with ICE
2: Pushed assault weapons bans and other attacks on the 2nd Amendment
3: Prioritized climate alarmism over lowering energy costs by rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Nothing about this has been “moderate”. pic.twitter.com/XHQ4bPl4An
— Mark Meadows (@MarkMeadows) April 15, 2026
Spanberger also faced criticism reneging on claims that she would not support any legislative efforts to gerrymander Virginia, which in 2020 established, by voter referendum, a bipartisan state commission that sought to depoliticize the redistricting process.
Spanberger has since seen her public approval plummet, with many opponents of the current ballot measure hoping that voters will see through the gerrymandering ruse.
Another poll shows Spanberger’s bait & switch hammering her approval rating, with Dems’ gerrymandering scheme slightly ahead. Less than a week out, I still have not seen ONE ad on tv opposing the power grab, vs months pro-gerrymandering propaganda dating back to the Olympics. https://t.co/fpo9uqSk7h
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 15, 2026
Obama and his wingman-turned-attorney-general Eric Holder have a long history of selectively supporting gerrymandering in blue states while fighting it with “sue till blue” legal efforts in red ones via the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.
Some ridiculed Obama for his current flip-flop while pointing to his own past statements in strong opposition to gerrymandering.
Barack Obama today called for Virginia to make a plan to vote FOR redistricting.
In 2020 he was AGAINST redistricting. Obama said, “For too long, gerrymandering has contributed to stalled progress and warped our representative government. Redistricting begins next year—let’s all… pic.twitter.com/sWNvRsv0aI
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) April 17, 2026
Spanberger’s own political ascension was attributable to past NDRC-led efforts to redraw what had been a solid-red political district held by tea-party conservative Dave Brat.
The seat has since gone to Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, the twin brother of Aleksandr Vindman, who colluded with deep-state operatives including so-called whistleblower Eric Ciaramella to wage the first impeachment attempt against Trump in 2019.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
