Herring released a statement saying that he dressed like 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,” Herring said in a statement Wednesday.
Alluding to the image from Northam’s yearbook that has engulfed the governor in turmoil, 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.
Herring resigned Wednesday as the co-chairman of the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
Just hours after Herring’s statement, Fairfax’s accuser, Vanessa Tyson, went public with her claims that Fairfax had assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.
“What began as consensual kissing quickly turned into a sexual assault,” 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.”
Later Wednesday, Fairfax issued another denial, saying in a statement: “Reading Dr. Tyson’s account is painful. I have never done anything like what she suggests.'’
The developments cast Virginia’s government into a state of chaos and cast doubt over who will ultimately be leading the state: “The governor of Virginia — for now,” said state Sen. Adam P. Ebbin, D-Alexandria, referring to Northam.
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 Fairfax, after issuing a statement at nearly 3 a.m. Monday vehemently denying the sexual assault claims, has suggested Northam or Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond 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 Northam to resign, and Virginia Democrats are nervously waiting for more details regarding the accusations against Fairfax, having so far only issued spare statements about how women’s claims should be taken seriously.
Herring is second in line to become governor after Fairfax. If all three men — Northam, Fairfax and 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,” 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.”
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 Fairfax in a Democratic primary in 2013.
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 on Wednesday with downcast looks on their faces and avoided questions about their meeting with Herring.
Delegate Lamont Bagby, chairman of the black caucus, confirmed the session but would not comment about what the attorney general said. “He’ll talk about it,” said Bagby.
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 Delegate Jay Jones, visibly shaken, before he was hustled away by an aide.
Just minutes before Herring issued his statement, Fairfax issued his own statement, at around the same time NBC reported that he had used profane language about his accuser at a Senate Democratic caucus meeting.
Asked if Fairfax had referred to the woman with an expletive, Larry Roberts, chief of staff to 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,” Fairfax said, emphasizing “how important it is for us to listen to women when they come forward with allegations of sexual assault.”
It just was four days ago that the attorney general had demanded Northam resign over the governor’s own admission that he once wore blackface.
“It is no longer possible for Gov. Northam to lead our Commonwealth, and it is time for him to step down,” Herring said Saturday, the day of Northam’s nationally televised news conference. “I have spoken with Lt. Gov. 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.
Approached by a reporter as he walked toward the state Senate chamber, Fairfax would only say: “God is good.”
Just after 11 a.m., Bagby emerged from the chamber and acknowledged the meeting between Herring and the caucus. A half-hour later, Herring acknowledged what had been rumored here since Tuesday: He, too, had put makeup 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,” Sen. 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 Herring’s statement.
“It’s a lovely day today,” Sen. Richard L. Saslaw, the Democratic leader, who was walking with 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 Keam when asked about the mood here.
Bagby suggested Democrats would take their cues from their African-American colleagues.
“The black caucus is not shy,” Bagby said Wednesday afternoon. “We’ll speak.”
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 state police have begun protecting Fairfax.
The head-spinning sequence of events began Friday, when the racist photograph in Northam’s 1984 yearbook from Eastern Virginia Medical School was published online. 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, 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 Northam aimed to survive his own political uproar, Fairfax faced his own peril. The sexual assault accusations against him surfaced Sunday night on a right-wing website — the same website that had revealed the picture in Northam’s yearbook — and The Washington Post reported Monday that it had investigated the allegation last year, shortly before Fairfax was inaugurated.
The newspaper said it did not originally publish the account because it could not be corroborated, but it detailed the charges Monday.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.