Trip Gabriel, Alan Blinder and Jonathan Martin

“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 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/02/us/politics/ralph-northam-virginia-governor.html" id="a0d538b2-588b-3ed8-a5bb-8e0abbe62ee2">The New York Times</a>.

RICHMOND — Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, facing pressure from his own party to resign, said Saturday he would not quit and denied that he appeared in Ku Klux Klan robes or in blackface in images from his medical school yearbook that have upended his governorship.

Virginia Governor Defies Call to Resign

Northam, who apologized Friday night, was increasingly isolated, but in phone calls Saturday morning he said he had no recollection of the yearbook image of two men, one in blackface and the other in Ku Klux Klan robes. Late Saturday morning, his office announced that he would provide a statement to the news media at 2:30 p.m.

In addition to calling state Democratic officials, Northam has been calling former classmates at Eastern Virginia Medical School in an effort to determine more information about the picture — and to survive a crisis that is threatening his year-old governorship.

With the governor and his top advisers gathered in the executive residence next to the state Capitol in Richmond, the Democrat familiar with Northam’s calls said the governor was determined to prove it was not him in the photograph and was even considering using facial recognition software. The governor, this Democrat said, wanted to take responsibility Friday night, which was why he apologized for appearing in the picture without acknowledging which person he was in the image.

Rep. Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the senior member of the state’s congressional delegation and a long serving African-American Democrat, said in a telephone interview Saturday morning that he wanted to hear Northam’s statement.

“The facts were fairly straightforward last night,” said Scott, who stopped just short on Friday of calling on the governor to resign. “So let’s see if there are any new facts.”

Scott was in touch Saturday with Virginia’s two senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, who are also Democrats. And they also spoke to Northam on Saturday.

The governor told one senior Virginia Democrat on Saturday morning that he had not selected the photos for the yearbook and that, in conversations with medical school classmates, he had been told some of the pictures were mixed up across the pages.

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 because he had lost support from nearly all his allies in the state Capitol. On Friday, the state Legislative Black Caucus and both the House and Senate Democratic caucuses called on him to step down.

At first, the black caucus, a strong ally of Northam, who was elected in 2017, held off. But after an emotional meeting with the governor Friday evening, the caucus said in a statement, “It is clear he can no longer effectively serve as governor.”

The statement prompted others to call for his resignation. Among them were former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, both longtime allies of the governor, who spoke with him by phone before issuing their statements.

The picture, the uproar it created and the governor’s refusal to resign have thrown a state known for its collegial politics into turmoil less than two years after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville.

A low-key pediatric neurologist who entered politics only when he was elected to the state Senate in 2007, Northam had enjoyed high approval ratings thanks in part to the state’s booming economy and a handful of initial achievements.

After Democratic gains in the Virginia House, he was able to push through Medicaid expansion last year with bipartisan support. And late last year, he announced one of the most significant economic development achievements in recent Virginia history when Amazon announced it was adding a new headquarters in Arlington.

If he steps down, Northam would be the first Virginia governor to resign since at least the Civil War. Under the Virginia Constitution, Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, a Democrat and the second black person to be elected to statewide office in Virginia, would assume the governorship.

Northam’s overnight political implosion began with the surfacing of a photograph from 1984 in his Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook, showing Northam and another man, one in blackface and the other in white Ku Klux Klan robes. The governor, in issuing his apology, did not say which costume he had worn, but offered his “absolute commitment to living up to the expectations Virginians set for me when they elected me to be their governor.”

With African-American voters a crucial constituency for national Democrats, many of the announced and likely 2020 presidential candidates called for Northam’s exit. On Friday, they included Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

By Saturday, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and former Vice President Joe Biden added their voices.

“There is no place for racism in America,” Biden tweeted. “Governor Northam has lost all moral authority and should resign immediately, Justin Fairfax is the leader Virginia needs now.”

And Speaker Nancy Pelosi, calling the photo “racist and contrary to fundamental American values,” urged Northam on Saturday to “do the right thing” so Virginians could “heal and move forward.”

Other official or potential Democratic candidates who called for Northam’s resignation included Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio; Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; and Julián Castro, the former housing secretary and former mayor of San Antonio.

The controversy was the latest agony over race to befall Virginia, a state that in modern times often seemed to have moved beyond its history of slavery and a 20th-century embrace of segregation, only to be painfully reminded that the past isn’t always past.

Fairfax stepped off the rostrum of the state Senate last month to protest lawmakers honoring Robert E. Lee. While running for governor, Northam learned his ancestors had been slave owners. “My family’s complicated story is similar to Virginia’s complex history,” he told The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

And in 2017, white supremacists carrying torches marched in Charlottesville, prompting President Donald Trump to say there were “fine people” on both sides.

Some Democrats initially expressed optimism that Northam could remain governor. By nightfall, though, there was mounting certainty that the costume picture, as well as the surfacing of an earlier yearbook that revealed that Northam was nicknamed “Coonman,” a racial slur, as an undergraduate, would leave Northam crippled.

“Virginia has a particularly sordid history with racism from the first enslaved Africans on our shores, to the capital of the Confederacy to massive resistance to the struggles African-American Virginians face today,” Rep. A. Donald McEachin, D-Va., said in a statement Friday.

“In light of that stain on our Commonwealth and the work that still needs to be done, I ask the governor to step aside,” McEachin, who represents Richmond, added. “While I acknowledge his efforts on behalf of all Virginians and the good he has done as a senator, as our lieutenant governor and now as governor, Virginians have too much to overcome and too much healing yet in front of us.”

Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia, facing intense pressure to resign from fellow Democrats after admitting that he posed for a photo in a racist costume as a medical student more than 30 years ago, was calling state Democrats on Saturday to say he did not think it was him in the picture and that he would not resign.

Virginia's Governor Refuses to Quit as Outcry Grows Over Photo

With the governor and his top advisers gathered in Richmond, a Democrat familiar with Northam’s calls said the governor was determined to prove it was not him in the photograph. The governor, this Democrat said, wanted to take responsibility Friday night, which was why he apologized for appearing in the picture without acknowledging which person he was in the image.

Rep. Robert C. Scott of Virginia, the senior member of the state’s congressional delegation and a long-serving African-American Democrat, said Saturday morning that he wanted to hear Northam’s statement.

But most Virginia Democratic leaders said privately that he would still have little choice but to quit because he had lost support from nearly all his allies in the state Capitol. On Friday, the state Legislative Black Caucus and both the House and Senate Democratic caucuses called on him to step down.

Ralph Northam Resists Calls to Resign as Virginia Governor Over Racist Yearbook Photo

The controversy was the latest agony over race to befall Virginia, a state that in modern times often seemed to have moved beyond its 400 years of slavery and a 20th-century embrace of segregation, only to be painfully reminded that the past isn’t always past.

Ralph Northam Under Pressure to Resign as Virginia Governor Over Racist Yearbook Photo

The statement prompted others to call for resignation. Among them were former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Mayor Levar Stoney of Richmond, both longtime allies of the governor, who spoke with him by phone before issuing their statements.

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Trip Gabriel, Alan Blinder and Jonathan Martin

Articles written by the author

Virginia Governor Defies Call to Resign

Virginia's Governor Refuses to Quit as Outcry Grows Over Photo

Ralph Northam Resists Calls to Resign as Virginia Governor Over Racist Yearbook Photo

Ralph Northam Under Pressure to Resign as Virginia Governor Over Racist Yearbook Photo

Ralph Northam Under Pressure to Resign as Virginia Governor Over Racist Yearbook Photo