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| Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Blackface | Virginia Attorney General Says He Also Dressed in Blackface |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| RICHMOND, Va. — Attorney General Mark R. Herring of Virginia acknowledged Wednesday that he put on blackface and wore a wig while an undergraduate of the University of Virginia in 1980, becoming the second statewide official here in the last week to admit to imitating an African-American person and sending an already-stunned Capitol reeling. | |
| Mr. Herring released a statement saying that he dressed like the rapper Kurtis Blow, an acknowledgment that instantly deepened a crisis in the state’s Democratic Party. The governor, Ralph Northam, under siege over a racist photo in his medical school yearbook, admitted last week that he once blackened his face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. Just two days later, Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, the other one of Virginia’s three statewide officials, faced an allegation of sexual assault, which he denied. | |
| “Because of our ignorance and glib attitudes — and because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others — we dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup,” Mr. Herring said in a statement on Wednesday. | |
| Alluding to the image from Mr. Northam’s yearbook that has engulfed the governor in turmoil, Mr. Herring added: “That I have contributed to the pain Virginians have felt this week is the greatest shame I have ever felt.” He said he was “deeply, deeply sorry” but did not indicate if he would remain in office. | |
| Just two hours later, Mr. Fairfax’s accuser, Vanessa Tyson, went public with her claims that Mr. Fairfax had assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.” | |
| What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault,” Ms. Tyson said in a statement released by a law firm, adding: “Mr. Fairfax forced me to perform oral sex on him. I cannot believe, given my obvious distress, that Mr. Fairfax thought this forced sexual act was consensual. To be very clear, I did not want to engage in oral sex with Mr. Fairfax and I never gave any form of consent.” | |
| The developments cast Virginia’s government into a state of chaos, and cast doubt over who will ultimately be leading the state. | |
| Mr. Northam has not been seen in public since Sunday, a day after he revealed he had once worn shoe polish to dress as Michael Jackson at a dance party. At the same time, he retracted his earlier admission that he had participated in the yearbook photograph, which showed one person in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe. | |
| And Mr. Fairfax, after issuing a statement at nearly 3 a.m. Monday vehemently denying the sexual assault claims, has suggested Mr. Northam or Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney were behind the initial leak of the woman’s claims — creating an extraordinary state of tumult surrounding the state’s leadership. | |
| Nearly every major state and national Democrat has called on Mr. Northam to resign, and Virginia Democrats are nervously waiting for more details regarding the accusations against Mr. Fairfax, having so far only issued spare statements about how women’s claims should be taken seriously. | |
| Mr. Herring is second in line to become governor after Mr. Fairfax. If all three men — Mr. Northam, Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Herring — were to resign without immediate replacements, Kirk Cox, the Republican House speaker, would become governor. | |
| “In the days ahead, honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether I can or should continue to serve as attorney general,’’ Mr. Herring said, “but no matter where we go from here, I will say that from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain that I cause with this revelation.” | “In the days ahead, honest conversations and discussions will make it clear whether I can or should continue to serve as attorney general,’’ Mr. Herring said, “but no matter where we go from here, I will say that from the bottom of my heart, I am deeply, deeply sorry for the pain that I cause with this revelation.” |
| Mr. Herring, a former state legislator who was elected attorney general in 2013, is from Northern Virginia, where he was a local official before entering state-level politics. He narrowly defeated Mr. Fairfax in a Democratic primary in 2013. | |
| Mr. Herring first disclosed his behavior in a private meeting Wednesday morning with this state’s legislative black caucus. Afterward, black legislators walked into the Capitol Wednesday with downcast looks on their faces and avoided questions about their meeting with Mr. Herring. | |
| Delegate Lamont Bagby, the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, confirmed the session but would not comment about what the attorney general said. “He’ll talk about it,” said Mr. Bagby. | |
| Mr. Bagby declined to answer further questions and another delegate, Eileen Filler-Corn, the Democratic House leader, pulled him away from a reporter and into a private room. | Mr. Bagby declined to answer further questions and another delegate, Eileen Filler-Corn, the Democratic House leader, pulled him away from a reporter and into a private room. |
| “I’m not going to talk about what happened at the meeting this morning,” said a clearly shaken Jay Jones, a delegate who was hustled away from a reporter by an aide. | “I’m not going to talk about what happened at the meeting this morning,” said a clearly shaken Jay Jones, a delegate who was hustled away from a reporter by an aide. |
| Just minutes before Mr. Herring issued his statement, Mr. Fairfax, who has been accused by a California professor of sexually assaulting her at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, issued his own statement, at around the same time NBC reported that he used profane language about the woman at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting. | Just minutes before Mr. Herring issued his statement, Mr. Fairfax, who has been accused by a California professor of sexually assaulting her at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston, issued his own statement, at around the same time NBC reported that he used profane language about the woman at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting. |
| Asked if Mr. Fairfax had referred to his accuser with an expletive, Larry Roberts, the chief of staff to Mr. Fairfax who attended the meeting, said the lieutenant governor had used a profanity to describe the situation and his level of anger, but had not referred to the woman with the expletive reported by NBC. | |
| “This has been an emotional couple of days for me and my family,” Mr. Fairfax said, emphasizing “how important it is for us to listen to woman when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault.” | “This has been an emotional couple of days for me and my family,” Mr. Fairfax said, emphasizing “how important it is for us to listen to woman when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault.” |
| It just was four days ago that the attorney general had demanded Mr. Northam resign over the governor’s own admission that he once wore blackface. | |
| “It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our Commonwealth and it is time for him to step down,” Mr. Herring said on Saturday, the day of Mr. Northam’s nationally-televised news conference. “I have spoken with Lieutenant Governor Fairfax and assured him that, should he ascend to the governorship, he will have my complete support and commitment to ensuring his success and the success of our Commonwealth.” | |
| The scene in the Capitol was surreal Wednesday morning as dozens of Catholic priests here to lobby against abortion and women in support of the Equal Rights Amendment walked hallways that were buzzing with rumor about the latest extraordinary news since Mr. Northam’s yearbook picture surfaced on Friday. | The scene in the Capitol was surreal Wednesday morning as dozens of Catholic priests here to lobby against abortion and women in support of the Equal Rights Amendment walked hallways that were buzzing with rumor about the latest extraordinary news since Mr. Northam’s yearbook picture surfaced on Friday. |
| Approached by a reporter as he walked toward the state Senate chamber, Mr. Fairfax would only say: “God is good.” | |
| . | |
| Just after 11:00, Mr. Bagby emerged from the chamber and acknowledged the meeting between Mr. Herring and the caucus. A half-hour later, Mr. Herring admitted what had been rumored here since Tuesday: he, too, had put make-up on his face for a party in the 1980s. | |
| The State Senate’s top two leaders, who are both white, avoided questions. | |
| “Nice to see you,” Senator Thomas K. Norment Jr., a Republican who is the Senate majority leader, told a reporter as he headed toward a meeting room less than an hour after Mr. Herring’s statement. | |
| “It’s a lovely day today,” Senator Richard L. Saslaw, the Democratic leader of the state Senate, who was walking with Mr. Norment. | |
| Then both men ducked into a room. | |
| Delegate Mark L. Keam, a Democrat from Northern Virginia, said lawmakers were stunned and did not know who would lead the state. | |
| “Uncertain,” said Mr. Keam when asked about the mood here. | |
| Mr. Bagby suggested Democrats would their cues from their African-American colleagues. | |
| “The Black Caucus is not shy,” Mr. Bagby said on Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll speak. | |
| Mr. Herring’s admission came on the sixth day of a spiraling political crisis in Virginia, where the past personal conduct of the governor, the lieutenant governor and, now, the attorney general, have all come under withering scrutiny. National television crews have been set up in front of the executive mansion since Saturday and the state police have begun protecting Mr. Faifax. | |
| The head-spinning sequence of events began Friday, when the racist photograph in Mr. Northam’s yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School surfaced online. Mr. Northam swiftly apologized for “the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo,” but he did not say whether he had been the person dressed in blackface or the one dressed in a Ku Klux Klan robe. | |
| The next afternoon, at a 42-minute news conference in the executive mansion, Mr. Northam publicly reversed course and asserted that he had not, in fact, been in the photograph and that he would resist demands for his resignation. But he also compounded political difficulties by admitting to participating in the Michael Jackson-themed party and momentarily considering showing off his “moonwalk.” | |
| While Mr. Northam aimed to survive his own political uproar, Mr. Fairfax faced his own peril. The sexual assault accusations against him surfaced on Sunday night on a right-wing website — the same website that had revealed the picture in Mr. Northam’s yearbook — and the Washington Post reported on Monday that it had investigated the allegation last year, shortly before Mr. Fairfax was inaugurated. | |
| The newspaper said it did not originally publish the account because it could not be corroborated, but it detailed the charges on Monday. |