Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam hasn’t left the commonwealth since a coronavirus-related state-at-home order went into effect, contrary to viral internet rumors claiming he had, Northam’s office told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
A viral Facebook post from user Jake Hiles stated that Northam had violated stay-at-home orders by traveling to a vacation home in Dare County, North Carolina.
“I have spoke with numerous people in Dare County who have seen or heard that Northam is going to and from his vacation home on a regular basis,” Hiles’s post stated.
Northam was traveling into North Carolina by private jet and having personal drivers ferry him to and from his alleged vacation house, he said.
“When questions are being asked of those who could answer questions- the local sheriff in Dare County, the security guards at the Pirates Cove gated community, First Flight Airport, etc – EVERYONE becomes suspiciously quiet and off the record says they are sure Northam is there but on the record do not want their name tied to it, and refuse to provide proof- like security guards log from the gated community or like flight logs from the airport,” the post stated.
Hiles’s post went viral, garnering thousands of shares on social media, but Northam press secretary Alena Yarmosky said there is no truth to the accusations.
“Gov. Northam has been working on behalf of Virginians seven days a week and has not left the Commonwealth since the stay-home order went into place,” Yarmosky told the DCNF in an email.
“Anything else is a lie. People spread lies all the time for political gain, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”
A Dare County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman also told the DCNF that their office had no information to support the accusations.
“He also said it wasnt him in blackface in the yearbook. Of course he is going to deny it,” Hiles told the DCNF in a Facebook message.
Northam shot to national attention in January 2019 after he appeared to float infanticide as a response to babies who were born during an attempted abortion.
Shortly afterwards, a racist photo from Northam’s page in his college yearbook surfaced, showing one person in a Ku Klux Klan robe and another wearing blackface.
Though Northam initially admitted to being one of the two people in the photo, he later walked back his admission and said he had worn blackface in the past, while insisting he wasn’t in that photo.