President Trump on Thursday ripped into members of Virginia’s Democratic Party as the state’s top leaders have become embroiled in scandal, tweeting that members of the party were “killing” the state.
{mosads}Trump also predicted that voters in the state would “come back HOME Republican in 2020!” due to the widening controversies surrounding Gov. Ralph Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Attorney General Mark Herring.
“Democrats at the top are killing the Great State of Virginia. If the three failing pols were Republicans, far stronger action would be taken. Virginia will come back HOME Republican) in 2020!” Trump tweeted.
The president’s comments come as both Northam and Herring are battling the fallout over instances of wearing blackface in their pasts, to which both men admitted in recent days after a right-wing blog’s discovery of a photo on Northam’s page in a yearbook depicting a man in blackface and another man in Ku Klux Klan robes.
Northam initially apologized for the photo but later denied he was one of the people in the picture. He also said he darkened his skin during the 1980s to impersonate pop star Michael Jackson.
Fairfax is facing accusations of sexual misconduct that emerged publicly shortly after Northam refused to resign his position amid calls to do so from Virginia’s congressional delegation, senators and other Democrats.
Fairfax has denied the accusations against him while calling publicly for his accuser to be treated with respect as the claim is investigated.
Vanessa Tyson came forward Wednesday as the woman accusing Fairfax. The professor alleges Fairfax assaulted her during a romantic encounter at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Fairfax had earlier issued a statement maintaining that his interaction with Tyson was consensual.
“At no time did she express to me any discomfort or concern about our interactions, neither during that encounter nor during the months following it, when she stayed in touch with me, nor the past fifteen years,” Fairfax said in a statement Wednesday. “She in no way indicated that anything that had happened between us made her uncomfortable.”
The scandals surrounding the three men have thrown Virginia’s government into disarray.