Alex Wong/Getty Images Politics Booker calls for Northam to 'step down and start his road to redemption'

Sen. Cory Booker continued Monday to implore Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign after the emergence over the weekend of a racist photo and nickname that appeared in a pair of Northam’s college yearbooks, saying that Northam will have failed his state if he doesn’t step aside.

Northam faced an onslaught of criticism over the weekend, though he’s vehemently denied that he is the person in the medical school yearbook photo depicting one man in blackface and another dressed in a Ku Klux Klan outfit.


Despite initially apologizing "for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo," Northam later said that he was certain neither man in the photo was him, citing a previous instance of using shoe polish to darken his face for a Michael Jackson costume and the shame he had from that experience.

He also deflected blame for having a racial epithet listed as one of his nicknames in his undergraduate college yearbook, telling reporters he wasn’t sure how it appeared.

Northam’s muddled defense and denials have caused support from within his own party to deteriorate over the weekend as he resisted calls from prominent Democrats and Republicans alike for his resignation.

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Booker, who declared on Friday that he will run for president, is not the only 2020 presidential candidate to denounce the photo and demand Northam resign. But as one of two African-American senators in the race, his reaction, along with that of California Sen. Kamala Harris, has been particularly noteworthy.

Booker on Monday again urged Northam to "step down and start his road to redemption" after the incident, which he said dredged up the dark racial history of the state.

"Being governor of a state is not an entitlement. I believe in the ideas of redemption and we should not be judged by the lowest points in our past," he said in an interview on "CBS This Morning." "But the reality is, this is hurtful, painful, it’s a betrayal of the public trust."

Despite campaigning with Northam in his 2017 race for governor, Booker said he hadn’t spoken personally with him about the photo. But he said that Northam needs to realize the damage he has done and put his state before himself.

If Northam refuses to resign, "I think that he will fail in what he swore an oath do, which is to serve the people of his state," Booker said. "I don't think he has the capacity to serve Virginia right now. He should recognize that. This is not about him. This is about what's in the best interest of the commonwealth."

Another one of Booker’s potential competitors in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, also joined the chorus of those across the ideological spectrum urging Northam to step down, calling it "the only right decision."

"I and most of the folks that I'm aware of think that that's the right thing to do. And it's not an easy thing to ask because he's done some really great work for Virginia," he said Monday on CNN’s "New Day." "But this has been so offensive and hateful and the racism that it hearkens back to — it's the only choice available to him right now."

