 Alright, do you accept the Governor of Virginia's apology? Really? No. I am not impressed. At first it sounded like, okay, he screwed up and then you learn more, he was older and then the information started to get all contradictory. And then honestly it got a little busy in the past week or so, so I wasn't sure if there's actually any new developments. Yeah, I sort of do. I kind of figure he did that or didn't do that. So it's just sort of, with all that's going on, I think he can do more good than bad to stay in his position. No. No, I don't think that's an adequate response. I think he should resign. Yeah, so do you think he should resign for his actions? Yeah, essentially, pretty much. Since he has so little left to do, I think he should at least till the end of his term and then, in the meantime, try to get redemption for what he did. Alright. The best way is to stay there. Thank you. I, to be honest, I think it's for the people of Virginia to decide I'm not quite as informed as the situation is. I'd like to really have like my opinion. Yeah, for sure. Thank you. Okay, but if he was the governor of California, see you later, alligator. Awesome. Welcome to Teens on Topic. I'm your host, Emma Ardson, and today I'm joined by Issa Shake. Sam Sheridan. Howdy, Shaw. Earlier this month, we dealt with a current event with a certain Virginia governor. So do you want to talk about that, Issa? Yeah, sure. February 1st, so literally earlier this month, governor Ralph North Thumb of Virginia was embroiled in a scandal following the release of a page of his yearbook in which there was a photo of a man dressed up in full Klansman garb next to a man in blackface. Later that day, governor Northumb released a statement saying that no, that wasn't me. No, sorry, he said it was me and I apologize for appearing the way I did. And then the next day, there was a press conference in which he said that no, that was not me. And I distinctly remember that that was not me wearing blackface for my yearbook because I wore blackface on another instance. I dressed as Michael Jackson for a dance competition in Houston and I won because of my moonwalk. This is all from Ralph Northumb, I'm paraphrasing. He almost did the moonwalk at his press conference until his wife stopped him. And across the nation, Democratic presidential candidates, Virginia leaders, called for his resignation. But soon after this person who would replace him, Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, the promising politician African-American, was embroiled in his own scandal when accusers of his laid out sexual assault allegations against him. After this, some of the calls for him to resign hushed a bit until a second accuser came out against Lieutenant Governor Fairfax, at which point Attorney General Mark Herring, who would be the third person in line to become governor, publicly stated and apologized for the fact that he had worn blackface in college. So it has been crazy in Virginia. Yeah, I can't believe that this is something happening in 2019, especially since it was like, it was the 1980s, it was wild, but blackface was not okay in the 1980s. Even in the South, it was not okay. Yeah, I can't believe that, that kind of still blows my mind that so many of those politicians are involved in scandal, especially involved in blackface, that I'm very surprised. Yeah, especially like, because a lot of the times you hear like, oh, they were just a kid or they were in high school, but like, you're going through medical school, you know, like it's your medical school yearbook. At that point, like, you should be concerned about your public image and care more than to put something like that in there, even if it wasn't you. And maybe it was, you can make an argument that it was a different time, but I think that just from, from like an age and maturity perspective or standpoint, like, by the time you're like that age, you should, you should know better. You just should. Yeah, I'd agree. I think, I mean, I know he apologized for it, but personally, I think he should still resign. And obviously, hopefully not the next person lying if he's indeed guilty of sexual assault, not the next person lying if they're all so guilty of blackface. But eventually, I think there should be someone who takes this place because I don't think he should remain in office because of his fast actions. Yeah, and I think at the same time, like, it was his, like, criticisms of, of Republicans and then suddenly like to come out with something like this and then to be like it wasn't me or like I'm some like, like figure of authority and moral righteousness over the right and then to have this sort of scandal is, is what's really, really bad for him, you know, because he, he claimed to be kind of this like Democratic senator who was like morally correct and on the left and then to have some of this come out. I just, I mean, I'm kind of just disappointed that it's only this would happen. I was, I was shocked to find out that he was a Democrat. Well, yeah, because there was the whole thing like didn't CNN put on their report that he was a Republican when they did on the TV. I don't know about that. Let's make a fact check before we say that. That's just what I heard. It makes you wonder like, so there's three people just all of a sudden like have done all these horrible things like is my dentist also invited? Like that's a pretty good chance, right? Like I'm not, yeah, and there's so many people probably have stuff they're hiding. Yeah, like how many politicians have, have secrets that if these three could be easily uncovered how many policies and secrets that can be more like. I think that's a great point, but I don't think that it's really that common, which is why it's so shocking that two of the top three politicians in all of Virginia have such terrible skeletons in their closet. And the fact of the matter is if you did do a blackface in medical school, it could be forgiven. You could come out and say, yeah, it was me. But this whole weird thing of I'm sorry. And then the next day saying no, it wasn't me. Heaven forbid he actually disclosed this when he ran for state center when he ran for governor and said, you know, I'm a changed person. I did stuff like this in college, but now I'm fighting for black voters in the state of Virginia. I mean, honor is not something we can ask for from politicians anymore, but it was initially when this came out, there was a way for him to stand in place of governor and not completely ruin his name. But at this point, it's it's terrible. That being said, the first week, this was the national story. All the Sunday shows ran with this for two weeks, I think it was a huge deal. 21 days after that photo has been released, nobody's talking about this. People have just accepted the fact that he's going to stay on as governor. And quite frankly, that Lieutenant Governor Herfax is going to stay on. And so is Attorney General Mark Herring, because when you look at those three folks, they're all Democrats. Virginia is a purple state trending blue. If all three of them resigned, the fourth person in line would be somebody narrowly elected to leader of one of their legislative bodies, who is a Republican. So there's a political reality that nobody wants to accept here, which is that if they resigned, then a Republican comes in, which is why you see people saying, oh, there has to be another way. Members of the House, National House from Virginia have said, oh, there has to be another way because they don't want a Republican taking control of that state at this point. Yeah, so are our Democrats willing to overlook these things in order to prevent maybe a Republican who hasn't had these scandals from getting an office? Like, is that the bipartisan state that we're living in? I think so, you know, like, Yeah, I think that's definitely an interesting thing to focus on, because that I think that's a growing issue is that there's such a divide between Democrats and Republicans like, and I think it's a growing divide that there's just like, they would not even like, think about the idea of letting a Republican become governor. And also the idea that there was so much outrage in the beginning, but now the outrageous kind died out that the people tend to get really outraged about a specific thing that is like a fast-burning fire. And then they're just like, well, this is how it is without fixing the issue. Go ahead. Okay. So I think the shocking thing is that, well, first of all, let me just before I say this, blackface is a horrible thing. It was used in minstrel shows to depict African-Americans as less than human basically. It was, it's a terrible thing. Nobody should dress up in blackface. That being said, I think it's horrible what proceeded Ralph North, what preceded the yearbook photos coming out and how little, how raised that got basically in the House of Delegates, Delegate Kathy Tran in Virginia introduced a bill that would allow abortion to the point of birth. Not cool. But then Ralph Northam went on a radio show for his weekly commentary in the state and he said the interviewer gave him a situation of where a baby was born, but the mother was planning to abort or something. He gave, he said in his words that the baby would be resuscitated if that's what the mother wanted and the discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother, which is horrible. But in 2019, wearing blackface in 1980 is worse than endorsing infanticide, which I think is extremely strange. That being given that blackface is horrible, infanticide I'm sure is worse. And I agree and that was the thing that I think was so shocking about when this whole thing was released because I didn't know quite the exact details like you had, but I knew that he had gone along the lines of saying something like that and I totally agree to say that like, to say something like that and then it was just yeah, I feel like that now people kind of think that's okay to say something along the lines of his abortion comments and while you can make a pro life, pro choice argument, but at that point like it's really hard to make the argument that like it's just cells or it's not life or like it's not really a baby yet and that was something that I was, I think I saw on Twitter and I was just kind of shocked and then that whole thing came out and so I don't think that he's the best man for the job. I think that that's very clear to I feel like all of you guys agree. Yeah, so more or less there needs to be some sort of someone needs to step up, someone needs to step in. Unfortunately, obviously there's the people who would fill those positions are also in kind of a bad place as well with the scandals that they've also been embroiled in, but I'm glad you brought that up because that was something I was thinking about too. Man, I was that guy just resigned like like obviously Republicans are mad about the abortion thing. I'm sure Democrats are as well and blackface is Democrats super mad about that as well as Republicans like who likes him at this point? Exactly. So it's I feel like it's clear that he's not the best man for the job, but because Democrats want that representative, they're willing to kind of sweep it under the rug a little bit. But in defense of Ralph Northam, Virginia has a one-term governorship. So basically they don't run for reelection. At this point, if he resigns, when you read the Wikipedia page for Ralph Northam five years from now, you would see governor who resigned because of controversy wearing blackface. He wore blackface according to him one time, maybe two times, but we know for sure he wore it once because of the Michael Jackson thing. That was one thing in the 80s. Does he want that to define his career? If he sticks on, as we've seen in 21 days, people will slowly, slowly forget this. He'll build another a larger legacy. That'll be more of a footnote on his Wikipedia page. For him, the political reality makes no sense for him to resign. At this point, he's med with some black farmers leaders. I'm sure not a large majority of black leaders would not meet with him, but aside from that, I mean, he's building a larger legacy as governor. He's staying on, people are slowly, slowly forgetting, and he's building a larger legacy as governor, which is the only thing that kind of makes sense for him as governor. That being said, there are issues. I believe he changed his profile picture on Twitter to him in a group of African-American teenagers. It was after he even made any comments about it. I think his narrative as a Democrat has kind of been cut short. I think people aren't going to trust him in Virginia. And I think if the Democrats wanted to succeed there, this is really going to be, especially because you said it's kind of a purple state at the moment. When everyone's up for re-election, again, I feel like we might see it swim the other way. Yeah, that'll be interesting to see how it plays out. Yeah, if people still remember it once, it's time for re-elections. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for watching. And tune in next week. We'll have another very interesting topic.