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“Resignation is an active consideration” for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam as he handles the fallout from a medical school yearbook photo showing people in blackface and a Ku Klux Klan robe, sources tell the Washington Post. Northam met with senior staff on Sunday night and planned another meeting for Monday morning to discuss his options. But voices throughout the Democratic Party are making clear that resignation is Northam’s only option, especially after he first apologized for the photo and then insisted it wasn’t his, but acknowledged having donned blackface to dress as Michael Jackson for a dance competition in 1984, the year the yearbook came out.
Former Gov. Terry McAuliffe said on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday that “It doesn’t matter whether he was in the photo or not in the photo at this point.” Northam was McAuliffe’s lieutenant governor and ally, and McAuliffe described himself as “heartbroken,” but that Northam should choose “the right moral course for Virginia” by resigning.
On Meet the Press, Rep. Donald McEachin, a Virginia Democrat and member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said that “He’s lost the authority to govern. He has to resign. It’s in the best interest of the commonwealth. It’s in the best interest of the party.” The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus also continued to call for Northam to resign.
Northam would be replaced by Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, currently Virginia’s only black statewide elected official.