Despite his announcement Saturday that he has no intention of doing so, Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D) struggles against mounting pressure for him to resign, and President Trump is wondering why Ed Gillespie’s opposition research team didn’t uncover the Northam med school yearbook photo.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam defiantly refused to resign Saturday and denied that he was in the racist yearbook photo that led to widespread calls for him to step down immediately.The photo, revealed on Friday, shows two men, one in a full Ku Klux Klan robe and hood and another in blackface, on Northam’s medical school yearbook page from 1984. Northam graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School.. . . . “Yesterday I took responsibility for content that appeared on my page that was clearly racist and offensive. I will not excuse the content of the photo. It was offensive, racist and despicable. I was seeing it for the first time. I was unaware of what was on my page. I was appalled that they appeared on my page,” Northam said at a lengthy press conference at Virginia’s Executive Mansion.”I believe now I am not either of the people in that photo. It is disgusting, offensive, racist,” Northam said.The explanation did not stop the growing tide of politicians from calling on him to resign.President Donald Trump took multiple shots at the Democrat on Saturday night, tweeting, “Democrat Governor Ralph Northam of Virginia just stated, ‘I believe that I am not either of the people in that photo.’ This was 24 hours after apologizing for appearing in the picture and after making the most horrible statement on ‘super’ late term abortion. Unforgivable.”The president also managed to slam Ed Gillespie, whom Northam beat in last November’s election, though. Trump endorsed Gillespie multiple times in the lead up to the election, but criticized his opposition research Saturday night.
The left is busily calling this tweet a “slam” against and a “shot at” Gillespie, but is it?
Everyone is wondering why Gillespie’s oppo team failed to uncover this photo . . . or if it was uncovered, why the campaign failed to use it, particularly in light of Northam’s race-based attacks on Gillespie like this one via The National Review:
Citing Gillespie’s opposition to sanctuary-city policies, Northam and his allies explicitly labeled his opponent’s policies “racist” on numerous occasions.VA is an inclusive and diverse community—we won’t put up with Ed Gillespie’s racist rhetoric and fearmongering. https://t.co/WjEnUPBkXS— Ralph Northam (@RalphNortham) October 11, 2017
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