Morning Digest: Virginia Democrats demand lt. governor resign after second sexual assault allegation
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The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ●Morning Digest: Virginia Democrats demand lt. governor resign after second sexual assault allegation
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar. Leading Off ● VA-Gov: On Friday, a second woman publicly accused Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, prompting a broad array of Virginia Democrats to demand he resign, with one Democratic member of the state House threatening to file articles of impeachment on Monday if Fairfax doesn’t step down. Campaign Action The calls for Fairfax’s resignation ramped up after an attorney for a woman named Meredith Watson put out a statement saying that in 2000, when Watson and Fairfax were classmates at Duke University, Fairfax raped her in a «premeditated and aggressive» attack. Watson’s release also said that her legal team has collected statements «from former classmates corroborating that Ms. Watson immediately told friends that Mr. Fairfax had raped her.» One of those classmates, Kaneedreck Adams, already spoke with the Washington Post, saying that Watson came to her crying to say that Fairfax had raped her in the spring of 2000. «She said she couldn't speak, but she was trying to get up and he kept pushing her down,» recounted Adams, who said Watson told her the attack took place at a fraternity house. Watson herself also called for Fairfax to resign. Fairfax responded by denying all the allegations, calling the story part of “a vicious and coordinated smear campaign,” and insisting he will not leave office. Watson’s statement came just days after Vanessa Tyson, a political science professor in California, released her own account detailing her allegations of sexual misconduct against Fairfax. Tyson said that at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Fairfax «forced me to perform oral sex on him» even as she was crying and gagging; Fairfax claims that the encounter was consensual. On Friday, just before Watson released her statement, five people told the New York Times that Tyson had informed them over the last two years that she had been assaulted at the 2004 DNC, and three said that she had identified Fairfax as the perpetrator. Virginia Democrats had generally refrained from calling on Fairfax to resign following Tyson's charges, but attitudes changed quickly after Watson’s statement came out. Read more