It’s been a banner week for Virginia’s Democratic Governor Ralph Northam, who made headlines on Wednesday with his remarks on a radio show supporting a full-term abortion bill in the state legislature.
Few could have seen coming what happened next, however. It might be best dramatized in mock interview form.
Question: Governor Northam, how do you recover from saying something like this about a bill that would allow aborting babies as they’re being born at full term? Let me quote you here: “… the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
Northam: Hold my beer.
On Friday, February 1, social media mavens dug up Northam’s page from the 1984 yearbook of the Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), where Northam, a physician, received his medical training.
The EVMS is located in Norfolk, Virginia. Although a number of Northam’s critics were initially reluctant to pick up the social media posts and treat them seriously, the Virginian-Pilot newspaper – the area’s paper of record, headquartered in Norfolk – verified that the information is legitimate. The paper obtained a copy of the yearbook from the EVMS library and published a story on Friday afternoon.
BREAKING: Gov. Ralph Northam yearbook page shows blackface and Klan photohttps://t.co/6A89ejp5Ho
— The Virginian-Pilot (@virginianpilot) February 1, 2019
What was the astonishing content in Northam’s yearbook entry? There’s a photo on his page of two people, apparently men, one in black face with an exaggerated 1970s style thing going on, the other swathed in a white Ku Klux Klan outfit.
The two individuals do look like they’re enjoying themselves, at least. Northam admits, in his official statement, that he was wearing a costume in the yearbook photo. According to the latest update, he hasn’t confirmed which one he was.
NEW – STATEMENT#Northam does NOT address which person he is in the offensive photo
– He will NOT resign, according to this statement
– Northam also acknowledges how terrible the photo was, and apologizes to Virginians… #BREAKING pic.twitter.com/0pR5MSSE6S— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) February 1, 2019
The governor’s beer has to be held again, it turns out: his VMI yearbook from 1981 indicates that one of his nicknames there was “Coonman.”
The Virginia Military Institute's yearbooks are digitally archived online, for anyone who wants to see this for themselves. This is from 1981 and it is on page 90.https://t.co/vOvHQ9q6Oe https://t.co/RB5MXfBmmq
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) February 1, 2019
(H/t: Twitchy)
Northam and his fellow cadets may have meant nothing racial by that. Who knows? Northam might have grown up warbling to the theme song of the old Daniel Boone TV show, starring Fess Parker. “From the coonskin cap on the top of old Dan, to the heel of his rawhide shoe…”
But that’s enough benefit of the doubt. Northam belongs to the party of P.C. guilt-mongering, and it looks like true cosmic justice here, putting this emerging information up against his most infamous act during the 2017 gubernatorial campaign. LU’s Ben Bowles called it an “exercise in emotional rape“: a campaign ad run against Republican opponent Ed Gillespie, in which Gillespie supporters were shown as racist neo-Confederates, attacking and harassing minority children.
Campaign finance documents showed that the ad was coordinated between Northam’s campaign and the Latino Victory Fund PAC. Worth noting: Planned Parenthood put nearly $2 million into getting him elected in 2017.
Politicians in Virginia are already calling for Northam to resign.
#RalphNortham needs to resign immediately. During the campaign #Northam intentionally left #JustinFairfax off of literature. How ironic that he may now be replaced by Fairfax in the wake of this scandal. #NorthamMustResign https://t.co/VZSQFuHotG
— Senator Dick Black (@SenRichardBlack) February 2, 2019
Northam has said nothing about resigning. According to his statement, he wants to work to regain the trust of Virginians.
Liberty Unyielding has no editorial position on the bolt-of-lightning speed with which Northam’s old yearbook page caught up with him, after he came out in support of what is basically infanticide on Wednesday.
But he did manage to get through the whole 2017 gubernatorial campaign without this glaring specimen coming to light. The timing now is … extraordinary.
