As this space reported on Monday, a television campaign advertisement for Virginia Democratic Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam released also on Monday attempted to portray supporters of Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie as “Confederacy-supporting, truck-driving racist murderers who attack minority children.”

However, it wasn't long before responses to the make-believe ad indicated that it mirrored an actual murder involving a 17-year-old Muslim girl wearing a hijab who was chased down in Sterling, Virginia, by a suspect in a vehicle. According to police reports, the suspect then abducted and murdered the young girl with a baseball bat, and he is actually an illegal immigrant.

As indicated yesterday: “The minute-long ad -- entitled 'American Nightmare' -- depicts a large pick-up truck with a Gillespie campaign sticker, flying a large Confederate flag and displaying a 'Don’t Tread on Me' front license plate while chasing down a group of minority children, including a Muslim girl wearing a hijab, an African-American boy and two young Latinos.”

In addition, the voiceover at the conclusion of the horrific scene states: “Is this what Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie mean by ‘the American Dream?' as they implore voters to 'Reject Hate' on Election Day next week?”

Along these lines, NewsBusters posted an article in mid-June that stated:

The liberal Washington Post underlined its reputation as a "liberal rag” on Tuesday, June 18, “by burying the immigration status of a man who killed a Muslim teenager in suburban northern Virginia. They wear "Democracy Dies in Darkness" T-shirts and then put anything in the "darkness" that's inconvenient to their liberal agenda.

The front-page headline was “Police in Va. probe road rage in girl's killing.” There was a picture of the victim in her hijab. The alleged assailant appeared in the third paragraph of a story written by Justin Jouvenal and Julie Zauzmer.

“The driver,” the reporters stated, “Darwin Martinez Torres, a 22-year-old construction worker from Sterling, got into an argument with a teen on a bike” as she headed back to her Virginia mosque after breaking her Ramadan fast at a nearby McDonald’s fast-food restaurant and then “drove his car over a curb, scattering the group of as many as 15 teens, police said.”

“He caught up with them a short time later in a parking lot and chased them with a baseball bat, striking 17-year-old Nabra Hassanen and then abducting her in his car,” police told Jouvenal and Zauzmer.

As if that wasn't bad enough, “Torres assaulted Nabra a second time, in Loudoun County, before dumping her body in a pond next to his apartment complex, where it was discovered about 3 p.m. on Sunday,” the police told the reporters. “The medical examiner ruled Monday that the girl died of blunt-force trauma to the head and neck.”

According to a column by Mediaite editor and WMAL host Larry O'Connor, “the murder gained national attention when it first occurred because the assumption was that the Muslim girl was murdered because of the outward sign of her religion.

However, “once it was discovered that the murder was not a hate crime and the perpetrator was in the country illegally, the national media seemed to lose interest,” O'Connor stated.

Coverage of the harsh Virginia advertisement continued into Tuesday morning, when Gillespie appeared on Fox & Friends, and co-host Steve Doocy asked: “Ed, when you saw that commercial that came out yesterday from the Latino Victory Fund, what did you think?” Gillespie responded:

I thought it was a sad day for Virginia, and this attack is not just an attack on my supporters -- who are good, decent, hard-working Virginians who love their neighbors -- it's an attack on all Virginians. And the fact is that whether you disagree with people or not in Virginia, we believe in civil discourse, and this is a new low in politics here.

“I was glad when a couple of the Democratic members of our House of Delegates yesterday condemned the ad,” he continued.

“But outrageously, my opponent has embraced it, and it reveals the disdain not just for my supporters, but for all Virginians, frankly, who want to have a discussion about issues and policies in this election that I've been focused on,” Gillespie stated.

“And you know, all they want to do is smear people, and it's the wrong thing to do, and I have faith in my fellow Virginians that they see that very clearly.”

Doocy then inquired: “What does it say to you about the opposition that they would drop that ad a week before the election?”

“It's clear they understand that this race is slipping away from them,” Gillespie replied.

Will this hostile advertisement continue to blow up in the Democrats' faces across the Old Dominion? Only time … and NewsBusters ... will tell.