On Friday, news broke that Gov. Ralph Northam (D-Va.) had a photo of him either in blackface or a Ku Klux Klan hood featured in his medical school yearbook. After a week of outrage over Northam’s comments endorsing infanticide in cases of botched abortion, only this scandal finally led the governor to apologize.

Yet the news is particularly horrific because Northam ran a smear campaign against Ed Gillespie in 2017, and won the Virginia governor race after tarring Gillespie as a white nationalist. Gillespie had immediately condemned the white nationalists in Charlottesville. In a moment of supreme irony, Northam defended himself on Saturday by referencing his own denunciation of Charlottesville.

The Democrat sent out a disgusting mailer (which I received in the mail) tying both President Donald Trump and Ed Gillespie to the white nationalists in Charlottesville, Va.

Later, an ad presented Gillespie as a genocidal white supremacist. Northam reported the ad as an “in-kind” donation to his campaign.

The current governor at the time, Terry McAuliffe, accused Gillespie of having run the “most racist” campaign in Virginia history. Yes, he suggested Gillespie’s campaign was more racist than the secessionist movement supporting slavery, the segregationists, and the opposition to interracial marriage. That’s how ridiculous it got.

I don’t know if Northam should resign over this. It seems he has decided not to. But at the very least, he should apologize to Ed Gillespie.

Thread: This Ralph Northam photo makes my blood boil because one of the reasons Northam beat @EdWGillespie in 2017 was his strategy of tarring Gillespie as a racist connected with Charlottesville. /1https://t.co/1VzFZYpTyV — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

In 2017, Democrats ran a mailer against Gillespie, tying him and Donald Trump to the white nationalists in Charlottesville. This despite Gillespie's clear denunciation of Charlottesville, much stronger than Trump's original "both sides" statement. /2 https://t.co/g3GobSjSEP — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

But it gets worse. A video ad from the Latino Victory Project showed Gillespie trying to run down minority kids, as if he were a genocidal racist. Ralph Northam said his campaign would never run an ad like that, but refused to condemn it. /3 https://t.co/mzZIadMixe — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

Later, Ralph Northam listed the ad tarring Gillespie as a genocidal white supremacist as an "in-kind donation" to his campaign. /4 https://t.co/ASQYlfUUDi — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

As if none of this were bad enough, Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe accused Ed Gillespie of running "the most racist campaign in Virginia history" — worse than the pro-slavery secessionists, the segregationists, & opponents of interracial marriage. /5 https://t.co/mkdlO0lxuq — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

To top it all off, it's Ralph Northam, not Ed Gillespie, who posed for a photo in blackface or a KKK hood. This would be the darkest political comedy ever if it weren't so tragic and insulting. Northam won in 2017 & neither Northam nor McAuliffe has apologized. /6 — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

To conclude, it's high time both @TerryMcAuliffe & @RalphNortham apologize to @EdWGillespie for tarring him as a racist. McAuliffe will be on @CNNSotu this Sunday. Hey @JakeTapper, don't let him leave without addressing this. /7 — Tyler O'Neil (@Tyler2ONeil) February 1, 2019

Update: Saturday, 3:34 p.m.: On Saturday, Northam defended himself by referencing his own denunciation of Charlottesville.

“What I really want to do is talk about the racism and the hatred and the bigotry that I’ve fought so long and hard for,” he said, clearly meaning “fought so long and hard against.”

“When the white supremacists marched into Charlottesville, I was there with then-Governor McAuliffe and our attorney general, denouncing that. And so I have felt very strongly about that.”

Given the fact that Gillespie denounced Charlottesville just as wholeheartedly as Northam did, and that Northam nonetheless sent out a mailer tying Gillespie to Charlottesville, this kind of defense is disgusting.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.