Justin Fairfax (D), Judge General Virginia, accuses fellow government candidate Terry McAuliffe (D) of treating him “like George Floyd and Emmett Till” when the former governor called on Fairfax to resign after sexual assault against him appeared in 2019.
Fairfax led the charge during a gubernatorial debate Tuesday night while standing with McAuliffe and several other Democratic candidates.
“Everyone on stage asked for my immediate resignation, including Terry McAuliffe three minutes after a press release came out,” Fairfax said during the debate, hosted by CBS 6. “He treated me like George Floyd. He treated me like Emmett. To. No proper process. Immediately accept my debt. ‘
McAuliffe and his campaign did not respond to comments.
Fairfax’s comment comes in response to a question about policing and Floyd, who died in police custody last year after Derek Chauvin, then Minneapolis police officer, knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin is currently facing charges of murder and manslaughter.
Till was a black 14-year-old who was lined up in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.
Critics have quickly pointed out on social media that Fairfax, unlike Floyd and Till, is alive.
Fairfax was accused of rape and assault in 2019. Meredith Watson, a former classmate of Duke University, said Fairfax raped her in 2000. Vanessa Tyson, a professor at Scripps College, said Fairfax assaulted her in a hotel room at the 2004 Democratic National Conference.
The lieutenant governor vehemently denied both allegations and compared them to false rape charges by white women that led to the lynching of black men, even though both of his accused were black.
Tuesday’s debate was the first televised debate in the Democratic primary of the Commonwealth. All five candidates, including McAuliffe, Fairfax, former Virginia Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy (D), Senator Jennifer McClellan (D) and Del Lee Carter (D) attended the event at Virginia State University.
McAuliffe, who served as governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018 – including a period as chairman of the National Governors Association – is considered the frontrunner in the race. He attacked on Tuesday in the second half of the Fairfax debate, as well as McClellan and Foy.
The government’s primary election will take place on June 8. Early voting begins on April 23.