Virginia's highest-ranking Republican said on Thursday that he had never worn blackface, as the state's Democratic governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general grappled with career-threatening race or sexual assault scandals.
State House Speaker Kirk Cox, who is third in line to be governor, was asked by reporters whether anything in his past might disqualify him from taking over the governor's office in the extraordinary circumstances of all three Democrats resigning.
"I have never appeared in blackface," Cox, 61, said. "As you know, I was a schoolteacher, and that's abhorrent."
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