Richmondm VA – Virginia Governor Ralph Northam on Saturday resisted mounting pressure from his Democratic party that he resign, denying that he appeared in a racist yearbook photo while admitting he once wore blackface in a dance contest.
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Northam, who took office a year ago, said he would stay in his job. “As long as I feel that I can lead, I will continue to do that,” he said.
Northam had apologized on Friday, saying he was one of the people shown in the photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook, which depicted one person in blackface standing next to another in a Ku Klux Klan costume.
But on Saturday he said he looked at the photo more carefully and is sure it was not him. In a news conference alongside his wife, Northam said he had made other mistakes, including dressing up in blackface to imitate Michael Jackson in a dance contest around the same time.
“I actually won the contest because I had learned to do the moonwalk,” Northam said, referring to a dance move made famous in part by famed American singer Michael Jackson.
Northam apologized for his past actions and vowed to work to earn forgiveness.
“I am simply asking for the opportunity to demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that the person I was is not the man I am today,” Northam said.
Northam’s press conference appears unlikely to quell the growing pressure from within his party for him to resign.
Even as Northam was speaking, Tom Perez, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said it was time for him to step aside.
“Virginians and people across the country deserve better from their leaders, and it is clear that Ralph Northam has lost their trust and his ability to govern,” Perez said in a statement.
Democratic U.S. Representatives Gerry Connolly and Don Beyer of Virginia said in a joint statement that they had not heard anything that changed their view that Northam should resign.
Earlier in the day, others also called on him to step down.
“Governor Northam has lost all moral authority and should resign immediately,” former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat weighing a 2020 presidential run, said on Twitter.
Protesters gathered in front the his office in Richmond, Virginia, waving signs demanding he step down.
The head of Northam’s party in the state also called on him to quit.
Other prominent Democrats – including 2020 presidential candidates Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, and Julian Castro – have been calling on Northam to resign since Friday.
Northam, a 59-year-old pediatric neurologist and Army veteran, graduated from Norfolk medical school in 1984.
The Virginia-Pilot, which published the photo on Friday, said on its website it obtained a copy of the photo from the Eastern Virginia Medical School library.
The fake news CNN said that this governor a register democrat is a republican. Amazing how low this network stoops.
If this guy was a Republican the media would be leading all news with this story.
This is the same low life governor who wants to kill born babies. Sick stuff. Typical dem-o-rats!
Remarkable. The yearbook was from 1984, this was not the Dark Ages. He was twenty years old. He was not a child. Amazing he has not already been forced to resign.
To #3 and 4- Actually, he was about 25 years old at the time, and not 20. He must resign now!
It was a different time and he was young. If people are that hurt by it then fine make him resign but i think it’s silly
Did Kamela Harris apologize for her tweet or is she once again proud of her despicable actions?
To #6 - What planet have you been on? 1984 was not a different time. It was 16 years after Dr. King was assassinated, and 21 years after Megar Evers was murdered. It was also 20 years after two New York Jews, Schwerner and Goodman, were murdered in Mississippi, as they were registering Blacks to vote. This so-called Physician Governor must resign now; otherwise, he will be impeached. He is a disgrace, and a liar. Can everyone imagine the uproar, if a similar photo of Trump were discovered?