Brett Baier Calls Out Double Standard in VA Governor Coverage: 'Would Be a Lot Different' If He Were Republican
Fox News’ Brett Baier weighed in on the controversy surrounding a racist photo on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page, and said he believes the coverage would be very different were Northam a Republican.
Baier hosted a panel Friday night to talk about not only the image showing a person in blackface next to someone in Ku Klux Klan garb (Northam admitted he was in the photo but denied it a day later), but also the governor’s controversial comments this week advocating infanticide.
“It’s never a good day for a politician when you are confronted with the yearbook photo and the Washington, D.C., community in your state is trying to figure out whether you were the one in blackface or the one under the Klan hood,” Matthew Continetti, one of the panel members, said. “This is a terrible end of the week for Northam, a week that didn’t start well, either.”
Baier asked Democratic strategist Leslie Marshall whether Northam will step down.
“I’m not sure if he will. … I don’t care if this person is a Democrat or Republican — this is highly offensive. Like you said, he admits he was either in a KKK hood or in blackface,” Marshall said.
“Is there one that’s worse than the other for the governor?” Baier asked.
“No. I’m simply saying that if we are going to have a zero tolerance policy in politics, in today, in 2019, that has to be zero tolerance across the board,” she said.
Marshall also said she hoped it would not just be Republicans calling on the Democratic governor to resign.
“All I know is that the coverage of this would be a lot different if it was in a different prism,” Baier said. “If it was a Republican governor, I think it might be leading a lot of the newscasts that it’s not leading currently.”
“And I also think it’s really interesting in the context here,” he continued. “Obviously, this is tremendously offensive and horrible. But the earlier comments about what many considered infanticide, about keeping a baby comfortable outside the womb and then making a decision whether to move forward with killing that baby, didn’t get a lot of coverage comparative to this.”
After the news broke of the racist yearbook photo, Northam apologized Friday evening.
My fellow Virginians, earlier today I released a statement apologizing for behavior in my past that falls far short of the standard you set for me when you elected me to be your governor. I believe you deserve to hear directly from me. pic.twitter.com/1rSw1oxfrX
— Governor Ralph Northam (@VAGovernor73) February 2, 2019
On Saturday afternoon, however, the governor retracted parts of his statement and claimed he was not actually in the photo.
“When I was confronted with the images yesterday, I was appalled that they appeared on my page, but I believed then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo,” Northam said.
“While I did not appear in this photo, I am not surprised by its appearance in the (Eastern Virginia Medical School) yearbook,” he said. “In the place and time where I grew up, many actions that we rightfully recognize as abhorrent today were commonplace.
“My belief that I did not wear that costume or attend that party stems in part from my clear memory of other mistakes I made in the same period of my life.”
Northam has yet to resign from his position as governor despite calls from many prominent Democrats to do so.
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