Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax made a questionable comparison at the first Democratic gubernatorial primary debate.
Fairfax was hit with sexual assault allegations back in 2019 and says he was assumed guilty for the crime by peers similarly to George Floyd and Emmett Till. The lieutenant governor made the remark on Tuesday during the debate, per CNN.
“We can’t just talk theoretically about what generally happens, but we have a real-world example where I was falsely accused in 2019,” said Fairfax. “Everyone here on the stage called for my immediate resignation, including Terry McAuliffe. … He treated me like George Floyd. He treated me like Emmett Till — no due process, immediately assumed my guilt.”
The statement was in response to a question about policing and the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin who is accused of murdering Floyd. Last May, a viral video surfaced of the former officer placing his knee on Floyd’s neck until he died causing worldwide protests.
Till was a 14-year old boy, who in 1955 was accused of whistling at a white woman. He was later murdered.
Fairfax has served as Lieutenant Governor of Virginia since 2018 and is the second African American to hold the title. A graduate of Duke University and Columbia University, early in his career he served as a briefing coordinator for former Vice President Al Gore’s wife Mary Elizabeth Tipper Gore, during the 2000 presidential campaign. He was also worked as a staffer for former Democratic Senator John Edwards.
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Fairfax also said the “murder of George Floyd was horrific,” and “recalls a history in Virginia and in our nation where African Americans, particularly African American men, are presumed to be guilty, are treated inhumanely, are given no due process.”
In 2019, two women accused Fairfax of sexual assault. One woman claims she was raped by him while they were students in 2000 at Duke University. Another accused him of sexual assault in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He denied the allegations and released a statement at the time.
“When all of the facts and evidence are examined by unbiased law enforcement professionals, I am confident that they will reach the same conclusion that was reached by one of the leading polygraph experts in the country – that I am telling the truth. I did not assault Vanessa Tyson. I did not assault Meredith Watson,” per CNN.
All of the candidates on stage pressed for Fairfax to resign when the allegations first arose. The former Virginia state Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy, state Sen. Jennifer McClellan and Del. Lee Carter were all on onstage with the lieutenant governor at the time but McClellan was the first to respond to the comparison Fairfax made.
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“The murders of Emmett Till and George Floyd were traumatic and triggering for generations of Black people. The Lt. Gov’s comparison was shocking, unseemly, and insensitive.”
Fairfax’s critics are not overlooking the sexual allegations against him. Back in the fall when he announced his plans to run for governor, Debra Katz, the attorney to one of the victim’s Vanessa Tyson spoke out.
“Apparently Lt. Governor Fairfax believes that the citizens of the Commonwealth have forgotten about the serious and credible allegations of sexual assault made against him by Dr. Vanessa Tyson and Meredith Watson and about his deplorable treatment of them after they came forward,” said Katz in a statement.
But Fairfax maintains his innocence.
“The voters are incredibly smart. They see through this kind of destructive, politically motivated kind of politics,” said the lieutenant governor to the Associated Press back in September. “And they are ready to move to higher ground.”
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