Posted on 02/04/2019 8:24:45 AM PST by csvset
RICHMOND
The speaker of Virginia’s House of Delegates renewed his call for Gov. Ralph Northam’s resignation Monday, but stopped short of saying the House would start any efforts to force the governor out.
“I think there’s a rightful hesitation about a removal from office,” Speaker Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, said. “Impeachment — that’s a very high standard.”
He said he hasn’t spoken to Northam since the Democratic governor admitted he posed in either blackface or in Ku Klux Klan robes when he was a student at Eastern Virginia Medical School in 1984 — an admission Northam recanted less than 24 hours later.
Minutes before his Republican caucus met to begin the work day, Cox said the political chaos surrounding the racist photo that appeared on the governor’s medical school yearbook page was “painful” and “heartbreaking.”
Today is a tough day,” he told reporters Monday morning as legislators gathered back in Richmond for the first time since the photo scandal began Friday afternoon.
Lawmakers Monday morning seemed to be in agreement that a lot of legislative work needed to get done today. The House has 150 pages’ worth of bills to get through, and Cox said he expected the work day to go until at least 7 p.m.
“It’s our obligation to get things done,” he said. “We just have to do our job, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Adding to the possible distractions legislators face today, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax released a statement Monday morning denying allegations of sexual assault that Big League Politics — the same conservative news outlet that first posted the racist photo — wrote about Sunday night.
Just a distraction away from his signing of baby part trafficking as a result of their abortion law.
Leave him in office, and drape that photo around his neck every time he tries to pursue his agenda.
And use the photo in GOP campaign ads for the next 500 years.
What would the grounds for impeachment be?
Sorry but this guy isn’t getting impeached over this... and he shouldn’t be...
If all they have is some racially insensitive photo from 35 years ago, the only way he leaves is by resigning... Can’t see any serious impeachment happening over that.
But the left eating its own is always entertaining.
Go ahead, retain him. We can hang this albatross around the neck of the Dems for years to come.
THIS is what the Dems support.
Agree...hope he stays right where he is.
Northam could be more useful to ‘Progressives’ in his compromised position. He’s be steppin and fetchin at their slightest whim.
We’ll all recall that we retained control of the chamber by one vote in a tied election in one district. If I were the speaker I wouldn’t touch impeachment with a ten foot pole. This is the rats problem and they need to deal with it. If they don’t a great issue to use against them in the next election. Plus you wouldn’t want to give the boys and girls in the Congress to try to analogies Northam to trump ( there’s no reasonable basis to do so, but that won’t stop them)
I like my popcorn salted with caramel thank you.
Over a picture of him from 1984? It’s not about the picture. That’s a distraction. The dems brought this up right away after the governor let the cat out of the bag over the dem party intentions over abortion - they plan to allow baby killing at will, with no restrictions, and to force us to pay for it.
He’ll do a ‘Clinton’ and say he must get down to doing the peoples’ business..............
Leave him be, let him twist in the wind.
The GOP controls the Virginia legislature by a slim margin. This charade gives them political cover to ignore the @sshole entirely -- no matter how much "steppin' and fetchin'" he does for the progressive wing of the Democrat Party.
He’s a democrat... already ‘the press’ is dropping the story.
Impeachment is only for behavior while in office. As much as I dislike Northam, he did not violate law while in office. His support for infanticide could be considered an ethics violation and he should be investigated for that. But a photo from 30 years past is not an impeachable offence, unless the accused is Republican.
If a reporter asked this question, the reply should be, while the picture is reprehensible, on what legal grounds would we have to impeach him?
That is the $64,000 dollar question. What “crime” did he commit ? As per the Virginia constitution, it states :
Article IV. Legislature
Section 17. Impeachment
The Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, judges, members of the State Corporation Commission, and all officers appointed by the Governor or elected by the General Assembly, offending against the Commonwealth by malfeasance in office, corruption, neglect of duty, or other high crime or misdemeanor may be impeached by the House of Delegates and prosecuted before the Senate, which shall have the sole power to try impeachments.
When sitting for that purpose, the senators shall be on oath or affirmation, and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of the senators present. Judgment in case of impeachment shall not extend further than removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the Commonwealth; but the person convicted shall nevertheless be subject to indictment, trial, judgment, and punishment according to law. The Senate may sit during the recess of the General Assembly for the trial of impeachments.
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