Can Gov. Ralph Northam keep his job as pressure mounts and allies flee?

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Can Gov. Ralph Northam keep his job as pressure mounts and allies flee?

Key Democrats call on Virginia governor to resign; reaction and analysis from the 'Special Report' All-Star panel.

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report with Bret Baier," February 4, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, D-VA.: I believe then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo.

REP. KAREN BASS, D-CALIF.: He's been completely dishonest and disingenuous. He knew this picture was there and he could have come clean and talked to African-Americans that he is close to decades ago.

LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR JUSTIN FAIRFAX, D-VA.: I believe that I'm in a unique position obviously as lieutenant governor and someone who would have to assume that office in event that he were to resign, and so I have to be very circumspect.

DONALD MCEACHIN, (D-VA) CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: He's lost the authority to lead. He's lost the authority to governor. He has to resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRET BAIER, ANCHOR: The controversy continues. Ralph Northam, Democratic governor in Virginia, continuing to hold his position after this yearbook photo surfaced on Friday from his medical year book, his medical school, in 1984.  The list of prominent Democrats calling on Northam to resign is pretty substantial and is growing. A lot of potential 2020 candidates in there as well.

The lieutenant governor would take over if that did happen, but Lieutenant Governor Fairfax is now embroiled in his over controversy, "The Washington Post" detailing an allegation of sexual assault, and getting pretty detailed. But at the end of it, "Fairfax and the woman told different versions of what happened in the hotel room with no one else present. "The Washington Post" could not find anyone who could corroborate either version. "The Post" did not find significant red flags and inconsistencies with the allegations as the Fairfax statement incorrectly said." Fairfax was trying to say that "The Washington Post" didn't go with the story because of that. They said that's not the reason. But here he is just recently on these allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FAIRFAX: There is a lot of attention on us. And of course, the possibility of my being elevated from lieutenant governorship to governor, there are people who will come out and smear you and attempt to attack your character. But I am totally comfortable in my own skin. I am very comfortable with the fact that we know what the truth is. And that's why the "Washington Post" when they were presented with the story during my inauguration week a year ago decided not to run it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: "The Post" is not exactly saying that. And you saw earlier in the show the lieutenant governor suggested that maybe the governor's folks leaked it. It's quite something in Virginia.

Let's bring in our panel, Chris Stirewalt, politics editor here at FOX News, Susan Page, Washington bureau chief at "USA Today," and Charles Hurt, opinion editor for "The Washington Times." OK, Chris, it's wild to watch.

CHRIS STIREWALT, FOX NEWS POLITICAL EDITOR: This is why West Virginia left. That's all I am saying. We are glad we are two states this week.

(LAUGHTER)

STIREWALT: I think Ralph Northam has no choice now. He has got to dig in and he's got to stay because he is saying if I resign, I'm admitting I did this thing which everybody agrees is disqualifying. And as soon as he leaves office, he's admitting it. So this is a guy who is digging in, and he's going to stay there. And quite frankly, I don't blame him. At this point, he screwed up Friday to a fare-thee-well. From pen to post he did that wrong in every way possible.

BAIER: In other words, he apologized first for being in that picture.

STIREWALT: I did it. Actually, no, I didn't do it, but I did wear blackface that year. It was not on that occasion, though.

BAIER: I want to play this soundbite. This was really surreal. When you watch this news conference, he said he did wear blackface and a Michael Jackson outfit, and then came these questions. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, (D) VIRGINIA: I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. I look back now and regret I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that. It is because my memory of that episode is so vivid that I truly do not believe I am in the picture in my yearbook.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you still able to moonwalk?

PAM NORTHAM, WIFE OF RALPH NORTHAM: In appropriate circumstances.

RALPH NORTHAM: My wife says in appropriate circumstances

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: I mean, he was looking for space, Chris? He was ready to move.

STIREWALT: I heard her saying in appropriate circumstances, so I'm hoping that there will be a Ralph Northam moon walking incident later. Fingers crossed.

BAIER: All right, Susan?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": There are no appropriate circumstances.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: I just want to be clear, he was looking for the space in the room.

PAGE: I agree with Chris that there's no question about what he needs to do, but I disagree about what that is. I think he has no option but to resign. Legally he can continue to be governor, but he can no longer govern. Politicians can survive scandals. Bill Clinton did, Donald Trump did, but they did that by maintaining the support of their base, and he lost the support of just about every Democrat in America.

BAIER: This democrat who is potentially running for president and is a former governor of Virginia was asked about the previous comments of last week that critics called close to infanticide. This is Terry McAuliffe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRY MCAULIFFE, (D) FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: Absolutely not. And I think Ralph misspoke on that. No Democrat I know is for infanticide. None, none. I just don't know of anyone who was for it. He was speaking as a doctor, and what he was trying to say, I'll be honest with you, is inartful, and that is not who he is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: So that was another element to the story.

CHARLES HURT, OPINION EDITOR, "WASHINGTON TIMES": Yes, it was. And of course, that is different from what Dr. Northam was saying, which is that his words were ripped out of context. Terry McAuliffe was clearly saying right there that, no, actually, it really did sound like you were talking about infanticide, and I think any reasonable person listening to that would have agreed to that.

But I do think that after a week that we had last week, where we had literally the governor talking about what to do in the situation of performing an abortion on the day of delivering a child, it's shocking the silence that we got from national Democrats and a large portion of the media ignoring that. But then literally just two days later, these old racist, offensive pictures emerged and then suddenly the media turns on it and the Democrats across the country turn on. And I think that in a lot of ways, and I think that it's very important to remember at this moment that it was just a year and a half ago that Ralph Northam took part in weaponizing racial politics that is the downfall of this country, that Ralph Northam actually accused Ed Gillespie of being a racist and tying him to that horrible situation in Charlottesville, all for political points. And so I think it's kind of interesting to keep that in mind. And to me, that is an unforgivable thing in politics.

BAIER: Brit Hume was earlier in the show, Chris, saying that in part Democrats don't want to take this issue off the table, so they need him to get off the stage as far as attacking Trump.

STIREWALT: Al Franken is watching, and watching because he remembers what this was like in Me Too when Al Franken seemed to have a more marginal offense than some others. And when Kirsten Gillibrand and other female Democrats said, no, we have a zero tolerance policy and you have got to go, the civic religion of the Democrat party is anti-racism and feminism. These are the most important moral issues for Democrats, and they can't cede any ground on this stuff.

But I would just say, this is why rule by mob doesn't work. There was a collective decision reached on social media on Friday about Ralph Northam and what happen and what this is, and he must go. And everybody gets there statement out to get on the pile. I bet now Democrats wish, especially with these allegations against Fairfax, I bet the Democrats wished they had left a little more wiggle room on this one to see how it played out.

BAIER: Where is ninth month abortion in that civic religion with Democrats?

STIREWALT: That's not their team. That's your team.

BAIER: Does he leave in coming days?

PAGE: Yes, I think so. I am stunned he has survived this long, so perhaps I'll be wrong, but it seems to me he is in a politically untenable situation where everybody from the two Democratic senators from his home state, neither of them are grandstanders, have called for him to resign, the speaker of the House, the former vice-president. Where are his friends?

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