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Virginia Lt. Governor Compares Sexual Assault Claims to Racial Lynchings

Fairfax made his claim as the State senate closed their 2019 legislative session in Richmond, according to the Associated Press.

By Brian Niemietz

Virginia's Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax compared sexual assault accusations against him to racial lynchings -- a peculiar choice, considering his boss, the governor, is being pressured to resign following the revelation that he's worn blackface on at least one occasion.

The state's attorney general also admitted earlier this month that he attended a party wearing blackface. All three men are Democrats and Fairfax is African-American.

Fairfax made his claim as the State senate closed their 2019 legislative session in Richmond, according to the Associated Press.

"I've heard much about anti-lynching on the floor of this very Senate, where people were not given any due process whatsoever, and we rue that," he said to a roomful of what the AP described as "stunned senators" who awkwardly sat in silence.

The state of Virginia recently expressed "profound regret" for a history of racist hangings that took nearly 100 lives between 1880 and 1926. Equal Justice initiative, which puts that number somewhere north of 90, said there were more than 4,000 "racial terror lynchings" in the south between 1877 and 1950.

"Yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing," Fairfax declared during his five-minute monologue.

Two women have accused Fairfax of sexual assault. A woman who came forward earlier this month claimed the politician forced her to perform oral sex in a Boston hotel room nearly 15 years ago. A second woman accused Fairfax of raping her when they were both students at Duke University in 2000. Fairfax has denied any wrongdoing.

Republican House Majority leader Todd Gilbert told the AP Fairfax's analogy was out of line.

"That is the worst, most disgusting type of rhetoric he could have invoked," Gilbert said. "It's entirely appropriate for him to talk about due process and we would intend to offer him every ounce of it."

Virginia Republicans have proposed that Fairfax and his accusers should be given a public hearing in front of the state's House of Representatives.

According to the report, Virginia Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Lamont Bagby said some of his constituents feel race has played into a rush to judgement against Fairfax.

Racial tensions have been running especially high in Virginia since a 1984 college yearbook was unearthed earlier this month that appeared to show Gov. Ralph Northam in a photo of a man with shoe polish on his face standing next to a man in a Ku Klux Klan robe. Northam at first apologized for the photo, but later said he didn't believe he was in that picture. He admitted to once darkening his face for a Michael Jackson costume.

On Saturday, nearly 100 protesters gathered at the state capitol urging the governor to step down, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. That would leave the embattled Fairfax in charge.

Shortly after news of Northam's indiscretion made headlines, the state's attorney general, Mark Herring, admitted he, too, had worn black face as part of a costume in his younger days.

(c)2019 New York Daily News

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