so can he weather this? can he just stay, stick to his guns and not go anywhere? i think can he. and i think we ve seen over this last week he s just basically powering through. he s on the job. obviously other folks in the administration, other elected officials have had their own issues, including lieutenant-governor who would succeed him if he were to resign. so, yeah, i think that saturday press conference where he basically also thought he was going to moon walk at some point, he also said he was going to stay. he felt like he s the best person to heal virginia. and i think in that interview he said partly he thinks he s the best person to heal virginia because he s a doctor. the issue is, is he the best person to kind of i think racially heal virginia? which is say bit of an abstract idea there. a lot of kind of moments that press conference where he talked about indentured servitude when he really was talking about slavery.
elections as well, you better live up to the standard and that s why ralph northam should resign. leland: how do you see the democrats handling this? are they being aggressive enough on their attack and calls on northam? i feel like they are. they are being aggressive and ncaap in state of virginia, legislative black caucus in richmond have all called leland: ncaap nationally too. they are holding him to the same standards as republicans. i think that s important. people are talking about where was this photo, how come no one saw this before now? ralph northam has run 6 different elections, four of them statewide. his team missed this and chopra ran against him in 2013 missed this as well. this is a big issue. leland: there are two sets of rules, right is right, wrong is
that perhaps didn t age so well, talking about how he was the answer to the racism that may or may not have existed in virginia? i think you ll see, leland, a lot of democrats say, wait a minute, if this was your yearbook, if you knew this was out there, why did you run for governor in the first place? you re putting all of us in a terrible position by doubling down on what i think ultimately is a nonsensical defense, and so, i think that s right. i think it starts with distance, but political pressure can be incredibly severe, and i do think there are people that ultimately governor northam will listen to. he s probably not listening to them today, but that may change 12, 24, 36 hours from now. this brings up an interesting point in terms of the arc of this story. if northam decides to stick around longer, if it s the 36 hours blake is talking about or longer, how do democrats try and change the conversation after one of their own doesn t listen
after offensive photo surfaced from medical yearbook page. not the first instance of of lawmakers actions have been brought up. molly, scandal in virginia right on the heels of another black face incident that caused florida secretary of state his job, just last week michael ortell handled resignation to ron desantis after photos showed him in halloween party in black face posing as hurricane katrina victim. resigned it is a same day as photo surfaced. secretary of state under a month and earlier this month congressman steve king iowa stripped of street after defending questionable comments on race. he said in new york times, white nationalist, white supremacist, western civilization, how did that language become offensive, he backtracked saying he was not advocating for those evil ideologies and said the interview was a hit piece
but i accept responsibility for my past actions and i m ready to do the hard work of regaining your trust. now, that was not enough for the state party though, which is still calling for northam to immediately resign saying he no longer has our confidence nor our support. he must end this chapter immediately and step down and let lt. governor justin fairfax heal virginia s wounds. if he does not resign there s a process where he could be impeached. there are questions whether or not this picture from nearly 34 years ago, whether or not that picture constitutes an impeachable offense. an unfolding story for certain. and we ll look later this afternoon for word from the foreign. thank you, garrett tenney. leland: live coverage on that. to cause the fallout democratic strategist blake rutherford and former head of the democratic party in virginia. appreciate you being here.