In a hard-to-believe optic, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam refused his Republican opponent’s handshake…ON CAMERA!
Northam is white, Republican opponent, E.W. Jackson, is black.
Watch the exchange:
Breitbart’s Ken Klukowski writes:
At first, a viewer might give Northam the benefit of the doubt that somehow he doesn’t see the extended hand. But Jackson dispels that doubt by taking his outstretched hand to tap Northam on the arm and then re-extends his hand almost into Northam’s lap. Northam still refuses to take it.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, Dr. Alveda King commented on the snub:
I was saddened to learn today that Lt. Gov. candidate Ralph Northam refused to shake the hands of his opponent Dr. Alveda King at the end of a television debate. I am deeply burdened by the loss of civility in politics today.
As one who has been elected to office as a Democratic Georgia State Representative, served as a Republican presidential appointee and who has often voted as an Independent, I have often said that we would all be better off without the political squabbles that tend to divide us.
Refusing to shake hands with your opponent in front of a television audience takes the loss of civility to a new low. I would hope that his refusal to shake hands had nothing to do with the color of his opponent’s skin.
In a troubled economy, people are looking for leaders who can bring everyone together to solve the problems that confront us all. It is my hope that in these last hours of the race, Ralph Northam will recognize his inappropriate behavior and offer an apology to E.W. Jackson and to all those he hopes to represent.
Of note, E.W. Jackson is a former Marine (although he would most likely say “Once a Marine, always a marine!”), Harvard educated lawyer AND Christian minister.
It seems Northam asserts frequently that any who do not whole-heartedly endorse gay marriage have no place in Virginia.
Jackson welcomes all folks to Virgina, but as a matter of belief, affirms the biblical definition of marriage as one man and one woman. The minister is troubled by the escalating bias against and intolerance of Evangelical Christianity.
This refusal to shake E.W.’s hand paints a vivid picture of the bitter antagonism Northam, and others on the Left, have toward people of faith in America.
Once again, those champions of “tolerance” on the Left show complete ignorance of the real definition of the word.