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Governor ralph northam to resign. it follows a bizarre press conference today in which northam insisted despite the apology he issued yesterday, he is not one of the two people pictured in this racist yearbook photo from 1984 showing someone in blackface and another in kkk garb. but with today s denial also came an admission that one time he did darken his face with shoe polish, he says, to resemble michael jackson during a dance contest. when i was confronted with the images yesterday, i was appalled that they appeared on my page, but i believe then and now that i am not either of the people in that photo. i stand by my statement of apology to the many virginians who were hurt by seeing this content on a yearbook page that belongs to me. it is disgusting. it is offensive. ....
Significant. i think it s very appropriate. you know, again, i mean the state of virginia has a day in which they celebrate robert e. lee. robert e. lee before martin luther king holiday. you know, the governor came out very strong after charlottesville talking about getting rid of confederate monuments, and then he backtr k backtracked on that. so i think it would be extremely appropriate. i know that the lieutenant governor is very, very popular in the state, and i think it would be a tremendous step toward healing for him to take over. it should be governor fairfax at this point. do you see any path forward in which northam is able to stay in office and govern effectively? i really don t. no, i really don t. how could you possibly trust him? and just imagine, you know, the african-american elected officials in that legislative caucus, our two members, these are people that new him for years and years. can you imagine the sense of betrayal that they feel? how could he possibly ha ....
Congressman. we also heard from virginia s first elected african-american governor, the first elected african-american governor in the united states, doug wilder. i want to read you what he tweeted just within the last hour. he said, i stated earlier that governor northam s continuing in office was his choice to make. it is difficult for anyone to conclude that he has any other choice than to resign after watching that press conference is what he said. and so you have former governor wilder coming out, and then you hear from the two senators, former governors, and also the congressman. we learned a little bit more about the behind the scenes of that statement coming out. cnn being told by a democrat with knowledge of their conversations that the three of them had been privately talking with the governor, encouraging him to step down over the last 24 hours. that s why they had not come out publicly and called for his resignation. they went back to him after this press conference, were t ....
Virginia, then he should allow the state of virginia to heal by stepping down. that is the only dignified thing to do. i know how personal this is to you. when you talk about it in the sense of what this means to the party, african-americans reliably vote democrat. do you think the democratic party deserves that support, that the party has earned african-american support? well, you know, i mean we have basically a two-party system in our country, period. and if you re going to compare the democratic party with the republican party, absolutely the democratic party deserves the support of african-americans. now, having said that, that doesn t mean that african-americans should not hold the democratic party accountable, and i am glad that every aspect of the democratic party leadership is on the same page calling for him to step down. if northam resigns, he ll be replaced by lieutenant governor justin fairfax. fairfax would be the second black governor in virginia s history. how sig ....
Choose the path that would be easier for me in an effort to duck my responsibility to reconcile. that was virginia governor ralph northam explaining why he will not resign over a racist photo that appears on his personal page in his 1984 medical college yearbook. yesterday he apologized for being in the picture. but just a few hours ago, northam said he s not in the picture, and he s not sure how that picture made its way into the yearbook. but he does admit to darkening his face with shoe polish around the same time period when he dressed up like michael jackson. with me now, april ryan, white house correspondent for american urban radio networks, and michael shear, white house correspondent for the new york times. he also spent 15 years covering virginia politics, including the governor s office. april, this idea that northam says he shouldn t resign because he s not actually the person in the photo, but, oh, by the way, he did put shoe polish on his face one to dress up as micha ....