Northam Resignation Watch UPDATE: No Resignation, Admits to Blackface Different Time
Reports indicate that a defiant Northam wants to hang on, but can the Democrats let him?
Newly-minted Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D, sorry, CNN, not R) is expected to make a statement this afternoon about the latest revelation in his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week.
Following the revelation that Northam is a proponent of infanticide, a yearbook photo from his med school days (i.e. as a man in his mid-twenties, not a teen in high school) surfaced that suggested that he was either wearing blackface or a KKK costume.
Northam issued an apology to his constituents:
It is now being reported that Northam has told “at least one fellow Democrat” that he is not one of the persons in the photo. He further reportedly stated that he has no intention to resign.
Embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam told at least one fellow Democrat Saturday that he was not in a racist 1984 yearbook photo of two men dressed in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan outfit — despite admitting he was in the picture a day earlier — and that he does not intend to resign, a dramatic twist in the face of mounting calls from members of his own party for him to step down
Virginia State Senator Louise Lucas’ office told Fox News that Northam reached out to her to say that he is not in the photograph and that he would not be resigning. That came after the Virginia Democratic Party tweeted that it had received word that Northam would not be resigning over the photo as they believed he should.
Northam is facing calls for his resignation not just from the right but from some very powerful Democrats: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senators and 2020 Democrat presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Cory Booker, among many others.
Yet Northam appears to be attempting to hang on. It’s not clear why he thinks this is a viable option for him given the weight of the Democrat Party moving against him, but the latest reports (as of this writing) are that his remarks will be centered on moving forward as governor of Virginia.
I don’t see how this happens. As the prof pointed out, the Democrats set the playbook whereby transgressions from 35 years ago can destroy political careers and lives, so they really have no choice (as they had none with former Senator Al Franken in their #MeToo frenzy) but to follow through here.
After all, what leg will they have to stand on the next time an embarrassing decades-old photo, quote, or allegation against a Republican is made if they do not abide by their own rules? And of course, we must, it is our duty to, ensure that they live up to their own rules . . . Alinsky-style.
We’ll update as soon as Northam makes his statement.
UPDATES:
Northam admits to wearing blackface before and refuses to resign.
NORTHAM confirms he will NOT resign. Claims it would be the easy way out. Instead he promises to earn back the trust and forgiveness of the people of Virginia.
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) February 2, 2019
While he admits to wearing blackface, he insists that he never wore a KKK outfit.
Northam said he has never worn a KKK outfit. He can say for sure that he is not the person in that outfit in that picture.
— Ryan Nobles (@ryanobles) February 2, 2019
This is better how?
Is it worse for Northam if he’s the guy in blackface or the guy in the Klan hood?
— Dan Amira (@DanAmira) February 1, 2019
The tally for today: blackface donning, check; KKK-outfit donning, zero; resignation, zero.
This is not the end of this story, and we’ll keep you posted.
THE KAINE MUTINY
Massive moment in the Northam story: Sen. Tim Kaine, Sen. Mark Warner and Rep. Bobby Scott call on the governor to resign after watching today’s press conference. pic.twitter.com/cW4ptc07fF
— Dan Merica (@merica) February 2, 2019
Checked back in with Northam people: they said no changes. He’s sticking despite Kaine/Warner/Scott plea.
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) February 3, 2019
THE DONALD weighs in
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1091858686371344384
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1091864144071020544
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Comments
Go ahead and down thumb me but this is ridiculous. I hope he stands up against PC mob rule. Somebody has to.
Kavanagh did. As a Democrat, this guy has to go to.
If Democrats deem that he is unworthy, or Politically in-Congruent, then he may very well be Planned to relieve their “burden”.
Standing up to PC police is one thing. But there’s also making them live by their own rules, the ones they made for us, and rubbing their noses in their myriad hypocrisies.
This. Right here.
Alinsky Rule 4 is in effect. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
I’ve seen University Students EXPELLED for wearing blackface to a Halloween party. OFF-Campus. From the Democrat Party perspective, the Democrat Party Members CAN’T NOT demand he resign if they want to continue to claim that they are representative of “ALL” of the public, as they so often claim to be.
This sack of shit ran an ad against his opponent where he literally portrayed one of his supporters running over minority kids with his truck.
This isn’t PC mob rule. This is his filthy tactics coming home to roost.
He was just self-projecting with that ad no doubt. Now I’m hoping he stays on months and months. He is the “heart” and “soul” of today’s DEMOCRAT PARTY.
Northam is the wrong guy to be standing up to PC tyranny. Besides, why did it take him several days to declare that it wasn’t him in the picture? He had to research it first because it might have been him but he wasn’t sure?
Maybe now he understands the tyranny his strange and evil bedfellows practice. Too late! Hoisted on his own petard!
His groveling and explaining has made it worse. He should have just said “I’ve got more important things to do than to talk about a 35 year old picture from a costume party. I will have not have any further comment on this trivial matter.” That should have been the end of it.
It’s still possible that he is the one in the KKK uniform, yes?
The blackface guy is much taller then the KKK “guy”? More likely he is in blackface and the other is his date?
If you think that Northam being able to out-last the the PC mob will somehow diminish their influence, think again. Northam is doing what all Democrats do when they are caught doing something they destroy others for: carving out an excemption for themselves.
Northam is a genocidal Commie thug who has dreams of infanticide dancing in his head. Losing his political career is nothing compared to the lives of the innocent he planned to kill.
Before I can stand on that did Northampton make any public statements on the Kavanaugh matter? If he was part of the mob in that case he shouldn’t get protection from the same mob in this one.
I checked out some of the sites catering to blacks, and what I found was that they are calling for Northam’s scalp because they want a black in his position, namely Justin Fairfax who is next in line for Virginia governor.
Kind of ironic that claims of racism are being used to promote black racism.
I suppose that this story is intended as a cover-up of coal dust-face, mistaken for “blackface”, that was recently exploited for profit by the non-profit diversity racket.
That said, throw a fetus, baby on the barbie, he’s not worthy. Send him to PP, Planned Politician, and behind four walls, under an ethical veil, and away from moral constraints, relieve the Democrat “burden.”
That said, no diversity, no color judgment.
Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. Order matters.
Not me. Nothing to look at. Move on.
There was never any chance he would resign. Resignation would imply some sense of moral obligation. His abortion stance shows he has no moral compass.
This nut has taken an untenable position on abortion – one which no Democrat can publicly disavow since their party has gone so far into deep Left field. It serves them well to turn the spotlight on his Med School yearbook photo.
It may actually be a good thing that he refused to resign.
See it as an opportunity to “pounce” on it.
The Lt gov is black. A Gillum / Abrams clone. Ralphy is done.
I suspect that his abortion comments (defending infanticide which will disproportionately affect the black population) and his being so gob smackingly insensitive in 1984 about KKK/blackface) are related. Northam is a good old-fashioned anti-black racist.
For his own good, he has to go away and hope people forget him as soon as possible. He is about as ruined for a politician as it gets. His only hope for redemption lies elsewhere.
I don’t have a problem with the blackface thing. Not even a tiny one. The Klan regalia, now, that’s another matter.
The two transgressions are not equivalent.
But in any case, hounding anyone from office over a stupid old photo of some stupid old costumes is just stupid. Not even regular stupid, it’s Liberal-stupid. Not being particularly stupid, and not being at all Liberal, I’m not going to get on board that one.
As for that infanticide thing, that’s free speech. Voting against him is justifiable; forcing a resignation, not so much.
I couldn’t agree more, and I have long denounced dredging up decades-old crap to destroy people. I don’t think it’s a good thing; I don’t think it’s at all fair to judge someone’s actions from decades ago by today’s standards. Never have, never will.
What I do think is fair is flipping the script on these holier-than-thou socialists and “progressives” who seek to destroy people–not public officials, just random people like Paula Deen who had a cook show and sold pots and pans. How do you stop the insanity? Simple. You make them live by their own rules. If Paula Deen’s 40-year-old comment was enough for progressive “activists” to kill her career, then shouldn’t an elected public official be held to the same standard?
Here’s when this madness stops: They finally figure out that they are unfair, unhinged, and unreasonable in their attacks on everyone they dislike. They won’t “get” that until we bring it home by making them live up to their own standard. If we keep shrugging and supporting them, they take us down, one by one by one in every venue from politics to cooking shows, and we just sit back and shrug? Naw, not me. This guy has to go . . . not because I give a good damn what he did in 1984 (I don’t) but because THEY claim to care about that kind of stuff (remember the Kavanaugh hearings?). If they care, make them care to their very core, make them see that what they are doing is destructive and horrible.
If, as I suspect, they are incapable of caring, then make them suffer politically for their ideological insanity. Pull governors, senators, whomever. Make it hurt, and they will finally get that this is crazy way to do business.
/just my two cents
I would agree with you on the blackface thing but he was a college-age MAN in med school in 1964, not 1954. Right or wrong, blackface was already a defiant act and he would have known better.
Before the turn of the century(1967) I was a accepted to be part of the last freshman class at Keith Academy in Lowell MA. A long tradition at that school was their annual minstrel show which included blackface musical numbers. It was as innocent as can be and great fun. But even then, there was a growing understanding that the black community found such shows insulting and had Keith Academy not closed that year, that tradition almost certainly would have ended soon as well.
So I have no problem with Northam being outed as insensitive on this issue. I don’t know too many people who would have done that in 1967 and certainly none by 1984.
Correction:
” would agree with you on the blackface thing but he was a college-age MAN in med school in 1984, not 1954.”
I completely understand your viewpoint, Phil, in seeing this as an egregious racist moment. But I do think it’s worth noting that the South in 1984 was not in any way understood or represented in Massachusetts. I lived in the South then, and I can assure you that minstrel shows and the Klan were just sort of part of the culture, if you will. Not an accepted part, but that sort of the edge part that we see today with kids dabbling with stories of werewolves and vampires, so for kids (not so sure about 20-somethings) to dress up as these figures was kind of “edgy.”
By the ’80’s, the Klan had already been relegated to the margins of society, and everyone knew that they were evil, but come Halloween … I dressed as a bunny or sexy vampire, but yeah, I know people (who are prominent today) who donned blackface or a Klan-style hood on Halloween. It wasn’t a celebration of the KKK any more than my “vampire” fish-net stockings celebrated evil. It was a night out, back when almost nothing was political and almost everything was fun. We forget those days, but they happened, and we lived them. And we lived them without a thought about racism and sexism and all the other isms and phobias and crap we pile on our kids today. It’s sad, really, when you think about how much being “woke” kills joy, fun, enjoying life and the people around us. Everyone is suspicious now, a potential oppressor and predator; everyone is the “other,” to be feared and hated. What a life we pass on to our own.
I don’t think the North will ever understand the South. It’s much more complicated than simply white vs black. I read Jimmy Carter’s bio many years ago (I read them all) and what struck me about his childhood in Georgia was the intimacy of race relations. He was essentially brought up by a black “mammy” who had responsibility over white and black children who would play together as friends. This lasted until they were 13 years old whence, as Carter describes it, they would go through a rite of passage. Children would be walked through a gate where whites would turn one direction and blacks the opposite direction symbolizing that they were now heading into separate worlds to form new friendships. Old friendships were to be left behind.
Changed my entire perspective of race relations in the South. As with slavery, I just can’t put my mind around the intimacy of those relationships and the rituals created by God-fearing Christians to instill a race-based sense of superiority in white children. The fifties and sixties must have been very difficult and confusing.
Up North, it was about forced integration. Down South, despite the Jim Crow laws, many whites and blacks apparently had complicated personal relationships. At least as children. I didn’t even meet a black person until I played college sports and there weren’t many there either. I learned to not be so quick to judge. It’s so much more complicated all around.
It’s funny that you say this because I have seen more “mixed race” lifelong friendships and healthy marriages in the South than I did in my nearly two decades up North. People down here don’t see race the same way, and we don’t experience it the same way.
Jim Crow was a Democrat invention that infuriated local white people whose friends and neighbors and lovers were impacted. We don’t talk about how real people interact, we just talk about stereotypes and ideological lunacy that insists that a white population of approximately 74% somehow interacts in equal number with a black population that makes up about 14% of the population
In the South, these numbers mean nothing. Our neighbors and valued members of our communities matter, not how many of “them” interact with “us.” That’s crazy leftist crap that has no place in the real world. Come down here, and I guarantee you, you will see white people and black people getting along just fine . . . until Democrats take over and insist that we are the white devil and our friends and neighbors are our victims. This catches on with some people, but not with enough to erase the majority’s lived experience with their white friends and neighbors.
Oddly, and perhaps because of our past, the contemporary South is, I would argue, among the least racist regions in these United States.
+1 and Republicans should be lining up in droves supporting Northram; blackface is less than nothing to get worked up over and one of the Dems most beloved senators was in the KKK and not a word.
It’s my opinion this is being pushed because, no matter how much they may think it, some Dems know it’s not good politics to mention being ok with infanticide and they need something to draw attention away from that.
.
Your point about Dems not wanting to deal with infanticide is a good one and may be an issue here, but ultimately, Northam has made their trump card against Republicans untenable if they allow him to stay. Because of that, I hope he stays, but because of that, I expect him to go. 😛
Fuzzy how do we push that til it ExPloDes fully in Public View?
That’s a reasonable sentiment in a rational world. But the left and Democrats have upset the apple cart and instituted unreason, and I don’t see that there’s a chance of righting it again until these folks share in the pain that they’ve unleashed on others and are willing to return to sanity.
That is, getting a taste of your own medicine is sometimes the only effective way of changing behavior. It’s a lesson children have to learn, and since unfortunately too many in our political class have reverted to childhood, this may be the only way to get them to grow up.
Not that the foolishness of youth should necessarily be a career-ender, but if it was a Republican, he’d already be out of office.
Time for a recall petition. Let’s see if all those Dems want to put their money where their mouth is or look the other way for this particular racist. Will be very telling.
Not possible. A recall petition has to allege “neglect of duty, misuse of office, or incompetence in the performance of duties [which…] has a material adverse effect upon the conduct of the office”, or else conviction on marijuana, hate crime, or various sexual crimes. And all the petition does is send it to court for trial, so if the allegation is BS the court will throw it out.
Northam now claims he put on blackface to play Michael Jackson in a dance contest. Michael Jackson????? Just a suntan would’ve accomplished that.
Whoever was his opponent in the election is probably super-pissed at the guy assigned to do opposition research who did not find this photo a month before election day.
That would have been a real test for the Dems….
It was Ed Gillespie.
With yuge apolgies to F. Scott —
Let me tell you about the libtards. They are different from you and me.
*apologies*
I agree that this is stupid, and if it were a Republican I would be rooting for him to stand up to the PC mob.
BUT…
In this tribal jungle of US politics, if we react with objectivity and intellectual consistency to side with him, that restraint will never be reciprocated. Ever. Go full Alinksy and apply their rules to him.
My question before taking this stance was: did Northam take a public stance on the Kavanaugh debacle, and what was it? If he was part of that mob he doesn’t deserve defense against this one.
Northam seemed to have thought he could cash in a bunch of liberal chips to stay in office.
Sorry Ralphie, you get a smaller pile of libchips if you can’t claim membership in an SJW grievance group.
Not mine, but well put.
Black Lives Matter*
*Not valid up to one hour after birth
It’s good he won’t resign, but only if the right decides this is the new rule. Conservatives need to stop knuckling under to all the cries of racism from the left. Invoke the northam rule.
Someone on th elect sat on this picture and put it out only after he screwed the pooch on infanticide. (Sorry it’s not abortion when the baby is delivered then terminated, its murder)
I’m sure many politicians are looking at all of their yearbooks. And trying to recall what they wrote in them.
In Jr high in 82, i wrote “have a purple summer”. It meant have a rad or cool summer. With the gender fluid crazy LGBTQWERTY stuff going on, I’m so dead if I run for office. LOL.
Sorry. Someone on the left. Darn typing.
He’s lying about not being in the picture. What reason would he have for putting such a photo in HIS school page if he wasn’t either one or the other in the picture?
And if for some incredible reason he isn’t in the picture, what would be his reason for including the photo in the first place? To prove he’s an “inclusive” sorta guy?
Repeat a lie long and often enough and people will accept it as truth. That’s what he’s counting on.
He says he didn’t submit the picture. Someone else must have submitted it and the editors put it in his section by mistake. He says they made a lot of such mistakes and mix-ups, and he had no idea had even happened until the story broke on Friday. Is this the truth? Who knows? But it’s plausible. This was a very amateur production, after all.