The Virginia Democratic Party Dumpster Fire, in GIFs
A brief history of the Northam-Fairfax-Herring scandals. In tiny moving pictures.
It's been a pretty bad couple of weeks for Democrats in Virginia. It all started when someone discovered Governor Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook which featured a . . . questionable picture.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F385f0154-d6e8-4ff9-a1d1-931af0ddb7a4_480x320.gif)
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F6b5fbb23-c421-4b51-a7e9-d4f54a38ac0c_447x251.gif)
Governor Northam was all . . .
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F29f9450d-2807-4eb9-a070-159160f894c0_480x270.gif)
At which point Virginia Democrats began planning for the future.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fe70c9973-cf55-43fd-8fd3-678b0053a5e1_500x282.gif)
Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax looked like the party's salvation. Except for one small problem.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fbc9229ae-64af-4d82-bb34-6227f34e62d5_220x164.gif)
That's when Gov. Northam decided to hold a press conference and announce that, actually, he wasn't in the year book picture. But he had worn blackface once. But only in tribute to his idol.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F41aa3a44-656f-40cb-9195-87672ae7b961_300x233.gif)
State attorney general Mark Herring was outraged by all of this. And then he was like, "Actually . . ."
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb55dbb72-207e-4b0a-8d7c-46fce2541e92_352x180.gif)
Finally, on Friday Gov. Northam announced that he was going to prove it wasn't him in the picture.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F80d92057-20f0-4890-a9e7-a5fce4893cab_720x387.gif)
At which point national Democrats were basically . . .
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc5c49cc2-72da-44c4-9a55-48e9a5a11e12_636x288.gif)
While Republicans were all . . .
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8c1b4eec-c99f-4447-b56a-ce38ddeb59c7_500x236.gif)
And American political life continued to be everything we've come to expect.
![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F404adad0-373c-455c-af6b-8a0005e5a853_353x269.gif)