The College of William & Mary on Monday said that the university and embattled Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam had agreed he would not attend the school’s annual celebration of its founding and the inauguration of its president.
The announcement comes after pro-Trump site Big League Politics published a photo of Northam’s medical school yearbook featuring a man wearing blackface standing with another man in a Ku Klux Klan robe.
“That behavior has no place in civil society – not 35 years ago, not today,” W&M president Katherine Rowe told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “It stands in stark opposition to William & Mary’s core values of equity and inclusion.”
On Friday, Northam said he was “deeply sorry” about the photo and claimed he was neither of the two men in the 1984 photo, but he did admit he wore blackface once that year as part of a Michael Jackson costume.
The governor has been rejecting calls to resign.
At this point Northam should wait to resign until tomorrow evening. Just before the SOTU.
Northam has to go, but he can at least mess up Trumps inevitable attempt to dunk on Dems.
Trump would find out last minute and know Northam’s out but not be able to think on his feet when the Jab at Northam comes up on the teleprompter.
The Dem response can weave in Trump is out of touch, note that Northam resigned, and that Trump called Mexicans Rapists.
The way Northam has handled this situation clearly indicates he is too stupid to be governor. Get over yourself and do the right thing and resign.
And this is one of the problems he’s encountering head on in this debacle that HE created: even if he rejects calls to resign, his role as Governor has been effectively neutered. Regardless of whether he or anyone else thinks he’s getting a raw deal, he can no longer govern in any sort of positive manner and earn any respect from the people of VA.
Yeah, that’s a problem. When no one really wants you at any State functions and your governing powers are hitting a wall, you don’t really have a strong position in your job anymore and you drag the Party as a whole down. He simply refuses to understand that “deeply sorry” isn’t cutting it. Pulling a Steve King in the Democratic Party isn’t going to work.
Too bad the ceremony he’s avoiding wasn’t the one at Washington&Lee.
Regardless of the optics, Northam’s situation is not good at all going forward.
It’s easier to bank a plane to change course the right way rather than overshoot the mark and do a 180 degree turn.