President Trump on Monday seized upon recent scandals that have engulfed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in controversy to hit Democrats on abortion and race.
“In Virginia, the governor, he has gotten a little publicity lately,” Trump told a crowd of supporters during a rally in El Paso. “I like him. He keeps us out of the papers. I like him. I’d like to find a few more guys like this one.”
Northam, a Democrat, is fending off calls for his resignation. He first made comments on a radio show about late-term abortion that some equated to an endorsement of baby killing. Days later, Northam came under intense scrutiny for a photo of the governor from his 1984 medical school yearbook page that surfaced showing one person wearing blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb.
During a press conference Feb. 2, Northam denied he was in the photo, but admitted he wore blackface once to dress up as Michael Jackson for a dance contest. A reporter asked Northam following his admission whether he was still able to moonwalk, and the governor appeared to consider whether he should do so before his wife stepped in and told him it was inappropriate.
Northam’s actions during the press conference prompted mocking from Trump, who said the governor’s wife “saved him.”
“He almost moonwalked,” he told the audience in Texas. “His wife stopped him. ‘Darling, darling, it would be inappropriate.’ I want to see someone try and imitate Michael Jackson in the moonwalk. Just would not have been a good scene.”
Trump also took aim at Northam’s comments on late-term abortion and used the remarks to knock Democrats for their stance on the issue.
“Allowing children to be ripped from their mother’s womb right up until the moment of birth. What’s that all about?” he questioned.
Of Northam, Trump said the governor “stated that he would even allow a newborn baby to come out into the world and wrap the baby and make the baby comfortable, and then talk to the mother, and talk to the father and then execute the baby. Execute the baby. Incredible.”
Northam’s comments came in response to a bill in the Virginia legislature that would allow abortion at the time of birth. After the firestorm surrounding the governor’s remarks erupted, his office said his comments were mischaracterized.
The president during his State of the Union address last week cited Northam’s comments in calling for Congress to pass legislation that would prohibit women from having an abortion after 20 weeks.
“Millions of innocent, beautiful babies are counting on us to protect them, and we will,” Trump said. “That is why last week I called on Congress with your great congressman over there — thank you, fellas — to immediately pass legislation prohibiting extreme late-term abortion. And that certainly is extreme.”
In addition to Northam, Virginia’s two other Democratic leaders, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring, have also found themselves at the center of controversy. Fairfax was accused of sexual assaulting two women, though he denied the allegations. Herring, meanwhile, said he, too, wore blackface while dressing up as a rapper at a party.
Trump called for his political opponents to “address the double-standard on full display in Virginia,” and said the controversy involving the state’s Democrats is a boon to Republicans.
“By the way, that state is going to go Republican pretty soon,” he said. “I’m pretty sure of that, because the Democrat party has never been more outside of the mainstream. They’re becoming the party of socialism, late-term abortion, open borders, and crime.”
