Somehow, our nation is being roiled by the second blackface scandal in one week. Just days after Florida’s Republican Secretary of State was forced to resign in disgrace after photographs of him emerged wearing racist makeup, conservatives furious at Virginia Governor Ralph Northam for his steadfast defense of women’s abortion rights unearthed his medical school yearbook and revealed that his personal page featured a photograph of a man in blackface and another man in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.
Democrats — unlike the hypocritical Republicans who still allowed Iowa Congressman Steve King to remain in office after making comments questioning when “white nationalist” became an offensive term — immediately called for Northam to resign his governorship.
Among those senior Democratic leaders who called on the Virginia governor to quit was presidential contender Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA), who said on Friday evening:
“Leaders are called to a higher standard, and the stain of racism should have no place in the halls of government,” the Senator exclaimed. “The Governor of Virginia should step aside so the public can heal and move forward together.”
Donald Trump Jr., one of social media’s most despised trolls and a leading guess for the question of who will receive the next indictment handed down by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, unearthed an old tweet from Senator Harris congratulating Governor Northam on his victory in November’s election and tried to weaponize it against the potential rival to his father on the 2020 presidential election.
Well this is awkward & didn’t age well at all. pic.twitter.com/H9v7qK5ZWm
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 2, 2019
Lily Adams, the communications director for Senator Harris, saw the tweet from Trump Jr. and shot back with a devastating reminder of his own father’s despicable remarks that she felt should disqualify the glass house-dwelling eldest son of the president from throwing stones at Harris, the governor, or anyone else for that matter.
Your dad said nazis were very fine people. Maybe sit this one out. https://t.co/mWCZnjIsgN
— Lily Adams (@adamslily) February 2, 2019
Meanwhile, Governor Northam is now denying that he is one of the men in the racist photo and refusing to resign despite his loss of support from his fellow party members and his own admission that he had dressed in blackface to compete in a dance contest while imitating Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk.
Expect the controversy over Governor Northam to continue until he realizes that his attempt at reversing the negative publicity at his press conference today has failed miserably and he caves in to the demands of a Democratic party with a zero tolerance policy for racism.
Original reporting by Ramsey Touchberry at Newsweek.
