Virginia Governor’s Strategy is ‘Straight Out of the Trump Playbook,’ Says Don Lemon

CNN host Don Lemon is calling the switch of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s stories something straight out of President Trump’s playbook.


Lemon referred to Trump’s apology for his “grab ’em by the p***y” comments, and then his later dismissal of it as “locker room talk,” as a prime example.

Northam, after admitting on Saturday that he was in a racist photo on his medical yearbook page, did an about-face in a press conference on Saturday and denied it.

“I take credit for recognizing that this was a horrific photo that was on my page, with my name, Ralph Northam, above,” he said. “I looked at it. My first impression, actually, this couldn’t be me.”

He also acknowledged that he put shoe polish on his face when competing in a dance contest as Michael Jackson.

In his latest column, Fair360, formerly DiversityInc CEO Luke Visconti wrote that Northam has to go because it’s “impossible to trust him.

“The fact that Governor Northam did not reveal these flaws to the public and apologize for them years ago makes it impossible to trust him now. I’d imagine he must have spent some sleepless nights knowing that it was just a matter of time before this blew up.”

Lemon said both versions of Northam’s story “can’t be true.”

“You have got to wonder about a man who while denying he had anything to do with one racist blackface incident, admits to another one,” he said.

“Why would Governor Northam contradict what he said less than 24 hours before Why would he think that would work It’s very simple, it does work, it worked over and over and over.”

Apparently, the art of alternative facts and distraction has worked quite well for Trump.

Many have argued that Trump’s Twitter battles and rallies that spew heaps of inaccuracies, and attacks on democracy of Americans, particularly on people of color and the poor, are keeping us from addressing important issues at hand.

Lemon questions whether or not Northam will have the same advantage of misdirection:

“Ralph Northam’s strategy is straight out of the Trump playbook, just double down, triple down, wait for the storm to pass, wait for the next big story to push this scandal out of the headlines. It is a strategy that has worked for the president but the question is, will it work this time”

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