This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
Social media rumors accusing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam of recently visiting the Outer Banks, despite stay-at-home orders in his home state and North Carolina, are absolutely false, according to his spokesperson.
Press secretary Alena Yarmosky told InsideNoVa and OBX Today that Northam hasn’t traveled to his beach house since before Outer Banks leaders restricted access to the chain of barrier islands on March 20. No members of his family have visited since that order either, Yarmosky said.
Virginia State Sen. Amanda Chase, a Republican who has announced a run for governor next year, posted a Facebook video on Tuesday saying she was investigating reports of Northam traveling to the Outer Banks, claiming she had law-enforcement sources with credible information. Chase backpedaled on Wednesday in another Facebook video, saying the claims appeared to be false. Northam is a Democrat.
Social media posts have accused the governor of flying in to First Flight Airport at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. But Mike Barber, a spokesman for the National Park Service on the Outer Banks, said the park service is “unaware of any flights carrying the governor or family members to the First Flight Airport.”
Law-enforcement officials on the Outer Banks. too, say they have no information that the Northam’s have been in town since before March 20.
Internet posts have shown photos of Northam’s Outer Banks house in the Pirate’s Cove community with cars in the driveway. A neighbor told InsideNoVa that one of the cars belongs to a next-door neighbor. The other is always at the home and is presumably left there for the Northams to use when they do visit.
The neighbor, who didn’t want his name used, said he has only seen the governor a few times over the years, usually with his black labrador retriever. He said he’s never seen Northam’s other family members there.
