But even after meeting Sunday night with a group of his African-American aides, most of whom told him the only way he could clear his name would be to quit, Northam was giving no indication that he intended to step down.
As Northam dug in, his onetime allies in the state and national Democratic Party intensified their pleas that he quit, angry and embarrassed at the prospect of being saddled with a governor suddenly compromised by his past. While denying he posed in the racist costumes depicted in his 1984 yearbook — after initially acknowledging it — Northam admitted Saturday that in the same year he had used shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson-themed costume at a dance party.
Stunned state legislators arrived Monday for their weekly session uncertain who would be governor by the end of the day. Swarmed by reporters, Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the House of Delegates who has called on the governor to quit, said he did not want to pursue impeachment against Northam and that it was uncertain if the matter met the threshold for impeaching him.
Cox’s remarks heartened Northam’s advisers, who said Monday the governor is intent on remaining in office and attempting to somehow prove that he was not in the photograph.
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And the turmoil enveloping the state only grew when, at 2:55 a.m. Monday, aides to Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would succeed Northam were he to resign, issued an extraordinary statement denying an online report that the lieutenant governor had once committed sexual assault.
Fairfax’s aides said The Washington Post had investigated the claims around the time of the lieutenant governor’s inauguration last year but did not publish an article. The Post published a story Monday explaining its decision.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.