No, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam will not be resigning anytime soon, he reiterated again on Monday. As he told his cabinet, he's worried that doing so would label him a "racist for life." CNN's Jake Tapper shared the report.
A source inside this morning's cabinet meeting with Virginia Dem Gov. Ralph Northam says he asked his cabinet for time to clear his name. The Governor said he doesn't want to leave office as a “racist for life."@sarasidnerCNN has more from Richmond. https://t.co/EI6VVkkEKB pic.twitter.com/yShviNwt08
— The Lead CNN (@TheLeadCNN) February 4, 2019
Other cabinet members are "struggling" over what to think about the governor and wondering whether they should resign if he doesn't.
"We don’t think he has a racist bone in his body — but he can’t seem to explain this, and it is making it very difficult for us to stick by him,” the members reportedly said.
Last week, a racist photo from Northam's 1981 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook surfaced. It pictured one person dressed in blackface, and another in a KKK robe. At first the governor apologized for appearing in the photo, but after some hours of contemplation, he told the press he may not even be in it. He has since refused to resign and hoped he could regain citizens' trust. Northam's medical school is holding a press conference Tuesday at 2 p.m. to address the matter and perhaps explain how that photo ended up in the yearbook in the first place.
Other prominent Virginia Democrats want Northam to take responsibility and step aside, perhaps none as loudly as the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.
The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Addresses Northam's Refusal to Resign pic.twitter.com/z8pt15Uq3U
— VLBC (@VaBlackCaucus) February 2, 2019
His potential successor, however, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, is facing a scandal of his own. A woman has accused him of sexual assault. She's even reportedly hired the legal team of Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who accused now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual harassment.