WASHINGTON — Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has called on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign.
While taking questions from reporters Wednesday evening in Annapolis, Hogan said, “The governor of Virginia should resign. It is completely unacceptable.” CBS Baltimore captured Hogan’s statement from the event.
Hogan joins a growing list of public officials who have called for Northam’s resignation following the revelation of a racist photo on his page in a 1984 medical school yearbook. The photo features a person in blackface next to a person in a Ku Klux Klan hood.
“I’m sure he’s lost the confidence of the people of Virginia,” said Hogan.
Several of Virginia’s top-ranking officials share Hogan’s sentiment.
In recent days, Northam has lost the support of both Democratic U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine; Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, who is now engulfed in his own scandal; Rep. Bobby Scott, the dean of Virginia’s House delegation; and the Democratic Party of Virginia — whose chairwoman said the governor “no longer has our confidence or support.”
So far, Northam has resisted calls for him to step down.
At news conference on Saturday, Northam called the yearbook photo “offensive and racist,” but said he had concluded, after contacting family and classmates from Eastern Virginia Medical School, that he was not depicted in the photo — a reversal of Friday’s statement acknowledging his presence in it.
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would become the acting governor if Northam steps down, stopped short of calling for Northam’s resignation after the governor’s news conference.
“While his career has been marked by service to children, soldiers, and constituents, I cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia’s darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation.”
Fairfax said Northam had reached out to him to personally apologize. Should Northam resign, Fairfax would be Virginia’s second African-American governor.
Hogan later stated he has never worn blackface nor impersonated an African American, The Washington Post reported.
WTOP’s John Domen and Jack Pointer contributed to this report.
