Washington Free Beacon editor in chief Matthew Continetti said Friday that Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D.) had "a terrible end of the week" after a racist yearbook photo of him surfaced.
The photo from Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page shows one person in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood. Northam admitted that he is one of the people in the picture and apologized for the "racist and offensive" costume.
The photograph emerged days after Northam received criticism earlier in the week for comments suggesting he supports post-birth abortion.
"It's never a good day for a politician when you are confronted with a yearbook photo and the Washington, D.C. community in your state is trying to figure out whether you were the one in black face or the one under the Klan hood," Continetti said on Fox News. "This is a terrible end of the week for Northam, a week that didn't start well either with his comments on—it used to be defending partial-birth abortion, but Northam seemed to be defending in that radio interview post-birth abortion, otherwise known as infanticide. This is a political career in a death spiral."
Continetti also said that the confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh set a new standard whereby politicians' college and high school yearbooks are now subject to scrutiny.
"I do think, actually though, Kavanaugh did set a new standard, and sure people are saying of course you always look for the yearbooks. There used to be you were able to skate by what you did in college, certainly by what you did in high school," Continetti said. "But after Kavanaugh and the nuclear bomb of his hearings, now anyone in public life has to be sure that their yearbooks are clear of any inappropriate material."
Northam released a statement apologizing for the racist photo.
STATEMENT FROM NORTHAM APOLOGIZING FOR YEARBOOK pic.twitter.com/NB646Gkh4m
— Mike Valerio (@MikevWUSA) February 1, 2019
Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) and former Obama administration official Julian Castro, both 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, have called on Northam to resign.