More than an hour after he was scheduled to appear for a Saturday morning press conference, Virginia’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam still did not appear. Instead, he remained on the phone, calling supporters and state officials to claim that he does not appear in a racist photo. Based on his new position that he is not in the photo, Northam is stating that he does not intend to resign.
The photo, from the 1984 yearbook at the medical school Northam attended, hits every possible racist note, including both one young man wearing blackface and another wearing a KKK hood. Northam previously admitted that he was in the photo. He made a video confession and apology on Friday, after issuing a statement in which he commented on “the photo of me.”
I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.
Publication of the photo, and his admission that he was part of the image, led to widespread calls for Northam’s resignation. Those calls came from the state Democratic Party, from national Democratic organizations, from Democratic officials, and they came from Daily Kos.
Today, Daily Kos Founder and Publisher Markos Moulitsas called on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign following his admission to wearing a racist costume in a photo in his Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook.
In his Friday statement, Northam had claimed that he could not recall which of the two racist roles he had played in the photo. But that’s a far cry from claiming that he was not in the photo. That Northam is now raising such a claim brings with it the idea that perhaps he took part in the events that were the subject of the photo, but does not believe he’s actually in the image. Otherwise, why would Northam ever confess to being in such an image?
Any possible redemption for Northam is being absolutely smothered by his refusal to step in front of the cameras and provide a thorough explanation. His office had originally given information that the governor would be making a statement to the press at 10 AM. That time came and went without comment. Then came word of a tentative press conference at 1 PM. But that time was no sooner scheduled than it was scrapped. A statement is now due to be released at 2:30 ET.
If anything, Northam’s refusal to take responsibility for the photo makes the necessity of his resignation even stronger. If he knew that he had not taken part in such an event, then why would he ever make a confession that he might have been one or the other of the two people in the picture?
Any claim that Northam was set up in this event is undermined by the governor’s own statements. Had Northam immediately claimed that he was not in the image and had no recollection of that event, the conversation from both Democratic organizations and Virginians in general would be very different on Saturday. But Northam’s “photo of me” moment destroyed any hope he had of salvaging Democratic support or his governorship.
Republicans already hated Northam. They are celebrating this moment. In part that comes because Northam has taken some genuinely admirable stands in the past to support minority communities in Virginia. That’s part of what makes this whole affair so painful.
Democrats aren’t celebrating. But they are angry, and they’re painfully aware that Northam has thrown away any momentum and good will his administration may have held and created conditions that make effective governance of the state impossible.
If Northam believes he can hold onto office, he is in denial. If he believes he can remain an effective governor, he’s delusional. The only way to provide the State of Virginia with an dependable government, one that is focused on the needs of its citizens rather than the mangled misstatements of a governor who has squandered his support and believability, is for Northam to resign and allow Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax to take control. This will not go away quickly, Democrats will not return to supporting Northam after his on-second-thought denial, and he will not be able to “ride this out.” The sooner this is made clear to him, the better.
If Northam is genuinely not in the image, that’s good to know. If the whole thing is generated by nothing more than mistaken identity and a faulty memory of events three decades in the past, that’s a shame. But Northam’s political career is toast, and that’s a certainty.
The only question is how long Northam’s denial, and the damage it creates, will continue.