in the press conference that if he can still be effective, he wants to continue to lead. but, you know, the entirety of the democratic caucus in the state of virginia has let him know he is not effective. based on, mind you, what governor northam himself said. yesterday no one in virginia and even national folks, i m a senior adviser at priorities usa, the chairman of priorities usa hadn t said anything. i know you had derrick from the naacp just on. no one said anything until governor northam came out with his statement that said there was a photo of me published in 1984 and i am sorry. he said it was him. now, mind you, in that statement he didn t tell us whether he was in the hood or the blackface. come to find out today he doesn t think he s either one of them. this just doesn t cut it. let me read what he did say yesterday. i ll read a portion of it that you reference, because he said, earlier today a website published a photograph of me in 1984.
is enough. what do you say to that? you know, alan, i don t know how many times i can say this, but again, you know, if you could go back sometimes and reword things, maybe that would be a good idea. hindsight is 20/20. i saw this last night. it was horrifying to me. it literally shocked me. and i just felt it important to reach out and let people know that i was sorry that this picture not only was in the yearbook but was on the page with my name on it. reporter: do you think virginians will see a meaningful difference between you in the michael jackson face paint and blackface, is that a meaningful distinction? that s up to them. if everything is in sound bites these days, but i really do believe that both of them are wrong. but there s a contrast between the blackface and someone standing there in a ku klux klan
the yearbook, having blackface in the yearbook particularly on his page, it speaks to the character of the individual. and that inability to understand that racism is a problem not only in virginia, not only in the south, but across this country. what do you make of the fact that this governor now admits he wore blackface at four tianothe in the past, in fact he says it was the same year as that yearbook photo, 1984, and he says that s how he knows this actually isn t him in this particular photo? well, you know, he was 25 years old, in medical school. so he was a learned individual, carrying out a southern traditional way, and that is making a mockery of african-americans. that is a problem whether it s in this photo or the acknowledgement of him trying to portray as michael jackson.
our breaking news this hour, virginia governor ralph northam speaking out, refusing to resign and insisting he is not the guy in a racist photo that surfaced in his 1984 medical school yearbook. northam now says there was a mixup when the yearbook was produced, and he says the image of a person dressed in blackface and another in ku klux klan attire mistakenly ended up on his stage. northam also admitted he did put shoe polish on his face when he dressed as a black entertainer, michael jackson, in a dance contest when he was 25 years old. watch. reporter: will virginians see a difference between you in the michael jackson case, and this case? is that a meaningful distinction?
what really baffled me of this situation, i looked at that photograph. once i started thinking, i said, if i had dressed up like that, had put whatever was on that person s face, and stood beside a costume of the kkk, i would remember that. and i have no recollection at all. and there were some other things, that as i said, if one looks at the picture, it s not my picture. i remember the dance contest in san antonio just like it was yesterday. and so my conclusion from that is, i certainly take responsibility for what happened in san antonio. i have learned from that. but this was not my picture, i was not in that costume either as blackface or as kkk. and it s not me. reporter: if that would have been you in that picture, would you have resigned?