Northam resists the call to resign in a baffling press conference

After admitting on Friday that he was one (both?) of the men in a photo of a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan robe from his 1984 medical school yearbook, Virginia governor Ralph Northam could have done this whole resigning with a morsel of dignity thing the right way. Could have called the press conference, suitcase in-hand, sent out another apology for good measure and walked into the horizon towards whatever hidden tax break exists for disgraced politicians.

But no, Northam figured he'd duke it out in the court of public opinion over what is no doubt in the running for most racist image ever dug up on an elected official. Yesterday, instead of using that press-op to answer the call of literally everyone in his party and just fucking go, NPR's reporting Northam walked back his admission, claiming "that was not my photo," and that he was not aware that it was on his yearbook page straddling a bunch of other photos of him and the personal quote "There are more old drunks than old doctors in this world so I think I'll have another beer," just beneath the image he apparently had no knowledge of. Northam, however, did recall that around the same time the photo was taken he "put some polish on my face" to compete in a dance competition dressed as Michael Jackson. Get the entire fuck outta here.

If the governor is genuinely interested in “doing the hard work of regaining your trust,” (as promised in his initial apology) a safe first step (unless, of course, he was outright lying from the get) is just keeping the story straight and making a half-graceful departure. To simultaneously deny involvement in a press conference and have the video of the formal apology for your admitted involvement — again, over a photo of a man in blackface cracking beer and a smile with another dressed in a hooded KKK robe (no doubt, the holy grail of most blatantly racist shit ever seen by human eyes) — as your last fucking tweet (below) is about as cartoonishly devoid of reality as political theater can get. Boo this sad, sad man.