Former US Democrat presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton recently joined the chorus of politicians calling Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat himself, to resign over controversy sparked by the emergence of a 1984 photo from his yearbook that features two people, one wearing blackface while the other is clad in a KKK robe.
"This has gone on too long. There is nothing to debate. He must resign," Hillary tweeted in response to a media report about both Virginia’s senators urging Northam to resign.
Her statement, however, evoked a mixed reaction on social media: while some seemed inclined to agree with Hillary, others focused their attention on controversy surrounding the 2016 presidential candidate.
A number of people also recalled certain aspects of Hillary’s past, including her support of Northam’s election campaign and her relationship with Robert Byrd, a former high-ranking member of the Klan.
Hillary Clinton’s calls were also echoed by New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who tweeted that “Northam must resign, and those who try to help him stumble past this deserve scrutiny”.
But while Ocasio-Cortez urged people to try and understand “how painful + eroding this is to American society, let alone the state of Virginia”, there were those who apparently did not see eye to eye with her on this matter.
Meanwhile, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also ended up being thrust into the limelight amid the Northam scandal, after a photo of the former posing in front of a Confederate flag emerged online.
According to Time Magazine, the picture was taken sometime in the early 1990s at a Sons of Confederate Veterans event.
This development prompted social media users to debate whether McConnell should be pressured to resign as well.