-Every major Democrat in the country
has called on the governor of Virginia to resign
after racist photos surfaced
from his medical-school yearbook.
For more on this, it's time for "A Closer Look."
♪♪
[ Cheers and applause ]
Just to give you some context, you might recall that, in 2017,
the Virginia governor's race was one of the first
major electoral tests of the Trump era.
And it revolved, in large part, on issues of race.
For example, there was a debate
about the state's Confederate monuments
with Republican candidate Ed Gillespie
arguing to keep them in order to educate people.
-Our history is our history.
And I believe that we need to educate about it
and that we need to teach about it.
And so, my view is that the statues should remain,
and we should place them in historical context
so that people can learn.
We don't have to glorify the objects of the statues.
We can educate about them.
-Who uses statues to learn?
Read a book, watch a film, talk to an expert.
I never see kids standing in Columbus Circle
staring at the statue because they have a test the next day.
[ Laughter ]
"I got a quiz in an hour, stone man!
Talk to me!"
[ Laughter ]
The only thing I've ever learned from a statue
is that pigeons all have IBS.
[ Laughter ]
Not only are Confederate statues symbols of slavery
and white supremacy, they're also ugly.
I mean, this is an actual statue
of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest.
I mean, look at his face!
[ Laughter ]
Is that the face he made when he lost the Civil War
or when he walked in on his parents having sex?
[ Laughter ]
Or both!
"Mother, Father, I have terrible news!
Oh, no!"
[ Laughter ]
So, that was the context for the Virginia election,
which was won by the Democratic candidate, Ralph Northam.
But now, just over a year later,
virtually every major Democrat in the country
is calling on Northam to resign
after his own racist past surfaced on Friday.
-Calls are getting louder this evening
for Democratic Virginia governor Ralph Northam to resign
after these racist photos from 1984 surfaced just today.
-A decades-old yearbook page
suddenly in the spotlight tonight
because of this picture of two people,
one in blackface, the other in a KKK hood.
The page belongs to Ralph Northam.
He's now the Democratic governor of Virginia.
That's him in the tie in 1984,
the year he graduated from the Eastern Virginia Medical School.
-Northam has apologized
but has not said which one was him in that picture.
-Wow. That's a real lose-lose.
[ Laughter ]
That's like being asked whether you're Erik or Lyle Menendez.
[ Laughter ]
I don't know. Does it matter?
I'm no professor of political science,
but it's not good when you have to specify
whether you're the one in blackface
or the one in the KKK robe.
There's no good option here.
Even the curtain in the background of that photo
had to hold a press conference to apologize.
[ Laughter ]
Also, this was in a yearbook?
How do you even sign a yearbook like that?
"Too racist to be forgotten"?
[ Laughter ]
'Course, it was a yearbook for medical school,
so it would probably be impossible to read.
[ Laughter ]
Now, you would think this would be pretty straightforward.
If you're caught doing something that horrific
and your entire party tells you to quit,
you resign, end of story.
And yet somehow, the story got worse as the weekend went on.
In less than 24 hours, Northam went from admitting
he was in the photo and apologizing for it
to claiming it wasn't him.
-When it surfaced Friday on the website Big League Politics,
condemnation from fellow Democrats came hard and fast.
Northam acknowledged the photo and apologized twice,
saying it does not represent the person I am today.
-Less than 24 hours later,
he said he was absolutely certain
and he never believed that it was him in that picture.
-When I was confronted with the images yesterday,
I was appalled that they appeared on my page.
But I believe then and now
that I am not either of the people in that photo.
Last night, I finally had a chance
to sit down and look at the photograph in detail.
It is definitely not me.
I can tell by looking at it.
I recognize that many people
will find this difficult to believe.
-Oh, do you? [ Laughter ]
You're telling us that a racist photo surfaced,
and your first instinct was to say, "Yeah, that's me,"
but then you looked closer and realized it wasn't?
[ Laughter ]
Shouldn't even be a question.
Most normal people, if you asked them,
did you ever wear blackface or a KKK robe,
would go "Absolutely not! That's insane!"
But your reaction was, "Well, what was the prom theme?"
[ Laughter ]
And yet Northam's defense got even worse and more convoluted.
He tried to claim that he knows it's not him in the photo
because there was another time when he did wear blackface,
and he remembers that time very clearly.
-My belief that I did not wear that costume
or attend that party stems in part
from my clear memory of other mistakes I made
in this same period of my life.
That same year, I did participate
in a dance contest in San Antonio,
in which I darkened my face
as part of a Michael Jackson costume.
It is because my memory of that episode is so vivid
that I truly do not believe I am in the picture in my yearbook.
-He's actually arguing that it couldn't
have been him in blackface
because there was a different time he wore blackface.
[ Laughter ]
It's not a defense. That's a confession.
Try that next time a cop pulls you over.
"Officer, I'm totally sober.
Usually when I drive drunk, I swerve a lot more."
[ Laughter ]
Even if it's not you in that photo,
admitting that you did wear blackface at a different event
is also disqualifying.
It's not just an embarrassing story,
it's racist and dehumanizing.
And yet the press conference, believe it or not,
got much, much worse because Northam then went into detail
about how he won the dance contest...
[ Laughter ]
...and a reporter later followed up with a question
that provoked one of the more cringe-worthy moments
in recent political history.
-It was a dance contest.
I had always liked Michael Jackson.
I actually won the contest,
because I had learned how to do the moonwalk.
-You said that the competition in San Antonio
was a dance competition? -Yes.
-And it was that you danced the moonwalk?
-That's right.
-Are you still able to moonwalk?
-Oh.
-Inappropriate circumstances.
-My wife says, "Inappropriate circumstances."
-Look at his face!
He actually thought about doing it!
[ Laughter ]
That is the face of a man
looking to see if he has room to moonwalk!
[ Laughter and applause ]
I can't believe --
I can't believe anyone has to say this,
but you can't moonwalk your way out of this one.
[ Laughter ]
His wife was pretty quick on the draw, though.
"Inappropriate circumstances," right away.
Obviously, this isn't the first time
she's had to stop him from moonwalking.
[ Laughter ]
"You know, it's so good to be here this christening.
You know, I think if Michael Jackson was here --"
"No, Ralph!"
[ Laughter ]
Also, I'm gonna guess that reporter
changed his question on the fly.
"Man, I know I should ask about his plans to stay in office,
but I really want to see if I can make him moonwalk!"
[ Laughter ]
So, how old were the guys who finished second and third
to him in a dance contest?
[ Laughter ]
Now, the response from Democrats has been nearly unanimous.
Basically, every major Democrat in the state of Virginia
and Washington and across the country
has called on Northam to resign,
and yet at least one Republican
tried to use the Northam scandal against Democrats.
Donald Trump Jr. reposted a tweet
from Senator Kamala Harris,
congratulating Northam on his victory two years ago that said,
"Congratulations to Ralph Northam and his team
for showing that Virginia won't stand for hatred and bigotry."
Don Jr. added, "Well, this is awkward
and didn't age well at all."
You might not want to comment
on what's awkward and not aging well.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Your dad -- Your dad is the birther
who proposed a Muslim ban and said Nazis are fine people,
so maybe sit this one out, Grease Frightening.
[ Laughter ]
Every major Democrat in the country
has called on Northam to resign. He should listen to them.
Staying on at this point would be --
-Inappropriate circumstances. [ Laughter ]
-This has been "A Closer Look."
[ Cheers and applause ]