McAuliffe, other Democrats press Northam to step down

Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and other Democrats on Sunday pressed Gov. Ralph Northam to resign after a picture on his medical school yearbook page surfaced showing two men dressed as a Ku Klux Klansman and in blackface.

Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” McAuliffe implied resigning was “morally the only right thing to do” in light of the photo controversy, citing Virginia’s “sordid past” with race relations.

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“It’s not about Ralph anymore,” McAuliffe added. “It’s about who we are as Virginians and how we move forward, so he’s going to do the right thing. I know in his heart he’s going to do the right thing.”

Northam, who was lieutenant governor under McAuliffe, has so far resisted calls to resign from state and national Democrats, defiantly defending himself in a bizarre Saturday press conference in which he contradicted his earlier acknowledgment that he was one of the two individuals in the photo while admitting he donned blackface once before, in a 1984 talent show in which he dressed as Michael Jackson.

“I had the shoes. I had a glove. And I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put on my cheeks and the reason I used a very little bit because — I don’t know if anyone’s ever tried that — you cannot get shoe polish off,” Northam said. “I had always liked Michael Jackson. I actually won the contest because I had learned to do the moonwalk.”

While again urging Northam to resign Sunday, McAuliffe declined to fully condemn him.

“Ralph is a good, moral, decent man. And he has made some mistakes in his past. We’ve all made some mistakes,” McAuliffe added.

McAuliffe, who is mulling a 2020 presidential run, declined to comment on his prospects of running, saying again he intended to make a decision by the end of March.

Other national Democrats piled on calls for Northam to resign in interviews Sunday.

Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, urged the governor to step down in an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”

“I think [Northam has] been completely dishonest and disingenuous,” Bass said. “He knew this picture was there, and he could have come clean and talked to African Americans that he’s close to decades ago and I think given the overall climate around race in this country especially over the last two years, it’s completely unacceptable.”

“What he should do is resign and then if he has any integrity at all, he should participate in that conversation,” added Bass, in response to Northam’s argument that he should stay in office to encourage a conversation on race.

Also on “Meet the Press,” Rep. Donald McEachin, a fellow Virginia Democrat and CBC member, expressed surprise at Northam’s contradiction during his Saturday press conference.

“I haven’t spoken to him since Friday, I believe. And at that time he was apologetic for having been in the photograph and that sort of thing,” McEachin said of Northam. “So, I was really surprised when the next day he comes out and says it’s not him. That was a, quite a surprise to me.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who is also mulling a 2020 White House run, urged Northam to resign in an NBC interview, while also taking a swipe at President Donald Trump.

“I think he should resign now. He then can contribute to this dialogue, but as I said he should do it as a private citizen,” Brown said, adding later:

“I think this country hasn’t dealt well with the issues of race. I mean, we have a president who is a racist.”