The video you're watching is from a campaign promo for Derek Anderson, the Republican congressional candidate for Virginia's seventh district. Seems like your typical man with his wife and kids footage, except in this case, those are actually not his family members. [00:00:15] He borrowed them from a friend. He literally. He borrowed. He borrowed them from a friend. The story is amazing. It's so amazing. Okay, so look, the story came to light last week when the New York Times published a headline or published a piece with the headline, [00:00:33] GOP candidates looking to Soften Their Image, Turn to Their Wives. Ads featuring candidates. Families have long been a campaign staple, but they have taken on new urgency, especially for vulnerable Republicans in a year when reproductive rights [00:00:51] are a pivotal issue. So essentially, they're kind of utilizing their wives and their family members to kind of soften their image. Given the fact that the, you know, the regression on reproductive rights [00:01:07] in this country has actually hurt Republicans electorally. And so the piece is all about how male reproductive Republican candidates are using these females in their lives to just basically reshift the focus [00:01:22] on, like, their softer image. Come see the softer side of these candidates. Ironically, he did it in what now in hindsight, looks like a hostage video. Okay. I am in these people's home even though I am not their husband or their dad. This seems dangerous. [00:01:38] Why am I here and why am I holding these people hostage in this video? How do you not know that people are going to find out? - People are going to find out. - Well, to be fair to the brother. Okay, first of all, two things to be fair to him. Okay. Number one, they didn't find out about George Santos until after the election. [00:01:55] True. - That's a good. - Point. And he won. And there was almost no coverage of him at all, right? No wife and kids for Santos? Yeah, well, I mean, he probably pretended at some point I pretended a lot of things anyways. And number two, he thinks. What difference does it make? The leader of our party is a pathological liar. [00:02:12] Almost every major politician we have is a major liar. This is what Republican voters expect if they find out. It's not my family. It's someone else's family. They're not going to care at all. They're still going to vote for me, and I'll just trick some independents into voting for me. So the times writes about this, you know, use of family members [00:02:33] in order to soften the image. This is what they write about it. Their ads often feature women in softly lit living rooms and pristine kitchens vouching for their husband's characters. Sometimes the women are driving SUVs with young children in the back seat as they stop for gas and groceries, [00:02:50] talking about how their husbands are champions for their families, and can be champions for yours, too. Now, Derek Anderson is one of those men. He is a former Army Green Beret, running in a competitive race for an [00:03:05] open seat in Virginia's seventh district, and his history makes it abundantly clear that he is against reproductive rights for women and was celebrating the death of Roe v Wade. He wrote, Scotus finally got it right and overturned a 50 year decision [00:03:22] of federalizing abortions. As Justice Alito stated, the lack of a constitutional reference to abortion requires Roe and Casey to be overturned. Now, what's interesting is he's less celebratory about it these days because it is a political liability. [00:03:39] Asked repeatedly whether he supports a woman's right to choose during a candidate forum this month, Anderson said that each state is going to have to make a determination that best fits their states. So basically, he dodged the question. [00:03:54] Very similar to how Donald Trump now dodges the question whenever it's brought up. Now, the New York Times included this Christmas card looking photo of him surrounded by a woman and three young girls. Let's take a look at that. Rent a family that is not his family. That family actually belongs to a good friend of his. [00:04:12] Now it is. At least he didn't kidnap them off the street. He looked so awkward to, like, stand like standing back there. - If you think. - He looks awkward. These poor kids and this woman, what are they doing? Like, did the kids know what was going on? No, of course they. The kids didn't know. [00:04:28] Look, I get it. They're family friends. So they agreed to it. And so they did. They didn't do anything wrong at all. No they didn't. Yeah, of course not. So. But this guy, I mean. But look, this is a classic Republican, right? He's like, oh, I'm going to take away women's rights and I'm going to take away their freedom to do what they want with their body. [00:04:45] I'm going to have big government, who believes in the things that I believe in from thousands of years ago, and I'm going to enforce that upon them. They'll have no freedom at all, no choice. But in order to get away with it. I will surround myself with women I will a wife I don't have [00:05:02] and three daughters I don't have. So it feels like it seems like I have empathy towards you women creatures, when in reality I don't give a damn about you and I just took away your rights. But hey, I'm a greasy politician, so vote for me because I'm surrounded [00:05:17] by the optics of caring about you. By the way, I should note that photo that we just showed you is not featured in any campaign ads, but the National Republican Campaign Committee uses it on their website to promote Anderson, and he has it on his YouTube channel as well. [00:05:34] Do you want to know why? I'm just going to say real quick. Do people really care that much, by the way? Does it really soften the image of these politicians I don't like? Look, I'm for the politicians who actually do have family members or wife, kids, all that lovely. That's great. I just don't really care about that. [00:05:53] No, I know, but some people do. A lot of people care about the optics. Right. So the reason he has all these images and videos that are like just lying around, even though they're not even an ad, is because they do that for the super PACs. The super PACs then come and use those images in an ad [00:06:09] and they go, well, we didn't coordinate. I just happened to kidnap a family and take pictures and video with them. Oh look, they showed up in a super PAC ad. But don't worry, I am not doing the bidding of those donors. It is super independent. They just happen to agree with me on taking away women's rights [00:06:25] and probably giving subsidies to oil companies and banks. I was going to go in a super inappropriate direction, but I'm going to. I'm following an online drama that I should not be following [00:06:41] and swinging is involved. So now I'm just like, wait, is there swinging happening here? No. Now I see that I feel bad for the poor people involved, right? Erase it. I didn't say it. - Okay, but. - You never know. No no no no no, that's not happening. Okay, can we? [00:06:57] We're not a right wing media where we go. We have no proof of this, but we like. I'm sorry for saying that. I get it out of your mind. I'm a bad person, and I'm thinking about something entirely different. - I'm obsessed with this online drama. - Okay, so that isn't happening. [00:07:13] But what is happening is trying to trick his voters into thinking he's a decent, moral person towards women when he obviously isn't. And if there's swinging going on, it's okay. All right. Like like there's no judgment. I'm just curious about it. There's no swinging in this story. Okay. [00:07:30] Thanks for watching The Young Turks. Really appreciate it. Another way to show support is through YouTube memberships. You'll get to interact with us more. There's live chat emojis, badges. You've got emojis of me Anna John Jr. So those are super fun. But you also get playback of our exclusive member only shows [00:07:50] and specials right after they air. So all of that, all you got to do is click that join button right underneath the video. Thank you.