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On Monday, Gov. Ralph Northam announced he would not be delivering the commencement speech at his alma mater, Virginia Military Institute, nor will he attend any other graduation ceremonies this season.

Last week, the governor appeared ready to emerge from his self-imposed hiatus that began in February following the release of a racist photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook. Northam initially issued an apology for the photo on Feb. 1, the day it surfaced, but the next day, he recanted and claimed it wasn’t him in the picture. At a press conference, he denied it was him in the photo but admitted to wearing blackface during a Michael Jackson skit in 1984, which only seemed to make matters worse. Democratic leaders on both the state and national levels demanded he resign. But Northam insisted he was going to remain in office.

For more than two months, the governor made almost no public appearances (although he was able to work well enough with the General Assembly to pass some significant legislation).