“I am not either of the people in that photo,” Northam, a Democrat, told reporters at a news conference in the governor’s mansion. “My first impression actually was, ‘This couldn’t be me.'”
Pressed on why he initially apologized anyway, Northam said he wanted to “take credit for recognizing that this was a horrific photo that was on my page with my name on it.”
The governor called the images, which first surfaced Friday afternoon, “offensive, racist and despicable.” But he said: “I cannot in good conscience choose the path that would be easier for me to duck the responsibility to reconcile.”
But he may have made his effort to remain in office more difficult by revealing that he had darkened his face with shoe polish in the 1980s at a Michael Jackson-inspired dance party in Texas when he was a young Army officer.
“I look back now and regret that I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that,” he said.
Virginia’s legislative black caucus did not wait for the news conference to end before issuing a statement reaffirming their call the governor to quit. Noting that Northam initially said Friday that he was in the photograph, the group of legislators, who are all Democrats, said: “The damage that has been done by these revelations is irreparable.”
The Virginia Democratic Party said it stood by its call earlier Saturday for Northam to resign. And the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, also urged the governor to step aside.
Northam asked Virginians for forgiveness and said he understood not all of the state’s citizens would believe him. He said he consulted with his family and friends, including a classmate who said that there were photo mix-ups on other pages in the yearbook. “It is definitely not me,” he said.
He said that he had not bought the yearbook and had never seen it. But most state leaders said privately that Northam’s initial acknowledgment that he was in the photo made it all but impossible for him to remain in office.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.