Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D-VA) on Tuesday took aim at fellow Democrats who he said gave him “no due process” when he was accused of sexual assault by two women. Fairfax then compared his treatment to that of Emmett Till and George Floyd, who both died before any arrests were made.
NBC News reported that Fairfax, appearing at the state’s Democratic gubernatorial debate Tuesday night, responded to a question about police reform and the rush to judgment.
“The murder of George Floyd was horrific,” Fairfax said, according to NBC. “But it recalls a history in Virginia and in our nation where African Americans, in particular African American men, are presumed to be guilty, are treated inhumanely, are given no due process and have their lives impacted, in some cases taken away in an instant.”
Fairfax added that he was “falsely accused” of sexual assault.
“Everyone here on the stage called for my immediate resignation, including Terry McAuliffe three minutes after a press release came out,” Fairfax said. “He treated me like George Floyd; he treated me like Emmett Till — no due process, immediately assumed my guilt. I have a son and a daughter. I don’t ever want my daughter to be assaulted, I don’t want my son to be falsely accused. And yet this is the real world that we live in.”
As The Daily Wire previously reported, Fairfax was accused of sexual assault by two women in early 2019, after it looked like he might ascend to Virginia governor following the revelation that Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) dressed in blackface while in medical school. From The Daily Wire:
Neither of the allegations against Fairfax have any evidence to support them outside of the allegations, yet national and local Democrats called for Fairfax to resign.
Those calls quickly disappeared after the next in line for governor, Attorney General Mark Herring, also admitted to wearing blackface in college, which would mean the next in line for governor would be a Republican.
The first accuser, Vanessa Tyson, claimed he sexually assaulted her at the Democratic National Convention in 2004. The Washington Post was made aware of these allegations but decided not to report them, a consideration that would never be offered for a Republican.
A second accuser, Meredith Watson, claimed Fairfax raped her while they were both students at Duke University. Both women have demanded a hearing before Virginia’s General Assembly. Fairfax and Virginia Democrats have refused, insisting (correctly) that law enforcement should investigate instead. No police reports have been filed regarding the allegations.
Fairfax is correct to suggest that he was provided “no due process” when he was accused, as has been the norm in the #MeToo era. Still, his comparisons to men who died is a bit over the top. Emmett Till was murdered after he was falsely accused of raping a white in 1955. George Floyd died in 2020 while being arrested after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes. Chauvin is currently facing trial.