It’s been a helluva week for Democrats. In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam is embroiled in a blackface scandal, where he admitted to darkening his face as part of a dance competition; he dressed as Michael Jackson. This admission comes after he retracted a previous apology for a racist photo that appeared on his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page. Two people are donning racist costumes, one is in blackface and the other is in full Klan regalia. Northam had apologized, admitting to being in the photo before his retraction last Saturday. So far, he’s withstanding calls to resign from his own party. It’s a dumpster fire, and it didn’t end with him. Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, also a Democrat, has been hit with a sexual assault allegation from 15 years ago. Fairfax, who is in line to succeed Northam if he steps down, has heavily insinuated that the governor’s office leaked the story to prevent him from taking over.
This is disrespecting black women, the most important and reliable part of our base. He can speak another night. This is Stacey Abrams’ night. She was the one the party chose. Nope. This is not his night!
— Amy Siskind ????? (@Amy_Siskind) February 5, 2019
.@BernieSanders Senator, this is a bad idea, and it's a bad look. I say this with respect: don't do this. Give @StaceyAbrams the stage tomorrow night. All of it. https://t.co/bamcWGwEtR
— Charlotte Clymer????? (@cmclymer) February 4, 2019
Across the Potomac, in Washington D.C., national Democrats are angry with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who caucuses with Senate Democrats, over his State of the Union rebuttal. President Trump is giving his address tonight. The government shutdown prevented the president from delivering the speech at the end of January. Failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has been picked to deliver the official Democratic rebuttal, but Sanders wanted to give his own again. And it ran right after Abrams’ remarks. This really isn’t a big deal, but in liberal political correctness land where problematic behavior is omnipresent, some lefties are pretty irate. Leave it to the democratic socialist to start shooting inside the ship (via Reason):
For each of the last three years, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has delivered his own response to President Trump's State of the Union speech. Tonight he will do the same.
But this year, some Democrats have a problem with it. That's because the party chose Stacey Abrams, who recently lost her bid for governor of Georgia, to deliver the official Democratic response.
"Stacey Abrams is a great choice to deliver the Democratic response," said Sanders in a statement. "I'm very much looking forward to her speech. For the third year in a row, following the Democratic rebuttal I'll be on Facebook Live, Twitter and YouTube to respond to Trump."
Sanders giving his own response, after Abrams gives hers, should be completely inoffensive. And yet some in the liberal coalition think Sanders has got some nerve: He's a white man, choosing to speak, even though party leadership has chosen a black woman to speak. (Doesn't he know it's Black History Month? For shame.)
Cue eye rolls (via USA Today):
On Twitter and other social media, as well as some publications, Sanders came under fire for a move seen as competing with Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who was chosen by the Democrats to respond to the president's speech.
The Root, an Afrocentric progressive online magazine, ran a headline reading, "Hey, Bernie Sanders Can You STFU After the SOTU and Let Stacey Abrams Shine?"
Here's the rebuttal:
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