Montage: Watch Gayle King Try Redeeming Gov. Northam from Blackface Scandal
CBS's Gayle King made one thing clear in her extended sit-down with embattled Gov. Ralph Northam: She's willing to forgive and forget.
Northam, who's facing calls to resign after getting caught up in a series of racist incidents — he apologized over a photo of a man in blackface and a man in KKK garb appearing on his medical school yearbook page, and he’s acknowledged his former nickname was “Coonman” — told King that he’s unwilling to leave office.
King kicked off her interview with the softest of softball tosses, asking Northam: “I know this has been a very difficult week for you in the state of Virginia. So where would you like to begin?”
After the interview, the first of which aired Sunday, King praised Northam … for showing up on time: “Well, the interview was at seven o’clock, and he was there ready to — we were in his house, of course, he was there ready to go. And he was on time. ”
She then said he deserves to be trusted: He clearly is very anguished by this whole situation. … I — I know that is clearly an attempt at damage control, but I didn’t feel that he was spinning a story.”
After the second half of the interview aired Monday, King continued her calls for Northam to be given another chance.
“It’s a very interesting time for the governor because what — what I walked away feeling is that he so wants to make this right,” sje said. “And I talked to many black people and white people in Virginia who say— he has a lot of support in the state of Virginia — who say look at his history, what he’s done. No one — the people that I talked to do not believe he’s racist. They think it was a stupid thing but don’t think he’s racist.”
King even excused Northam after he referred to early black slaves in Virginia as “indentured servants”: “In a statement, he told us this morning that ‘During a recent event at Fort Monroe, I speak about the arrival of the first Africans in Virginia and referred to them in my remarks as enslaved. A historian advised me that the use of indentured was more historically accurate — the fact is, I’m still learning and getting it right.’”
After the full interview aired, the “CBS This Morning” panel spent more than a minute making excuses for Northam. King ultimately asked, Who among us hasn’t done something stupid during our 20s … or even 30s?
Check out the montage above for more.
