Is Gov. Ralph Northam's political career over?

This is a rush transcript from "Special Report," February 1, 2019. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RALPH NORTHAM, D-VA: When we talk about third trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of, obviously, the mother, with the consent of the physicians, more than one physician, by the way. And it's done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that's nonviable.

So, in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue. We want the decision to be made by the mothers and their providers.

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BRET BAIER, HOST: Well, that's how the week started for the Virginia governor, Democrat Ralph Northam, talking about a late-term abortion bill that actually failed in the State House, but he was talking about what critics called infanticide. He denied that today.

But hours later, this surfaced. It's a yearbook photo, his yearbook page in medical school 1984. There you see the image with this person in black face and in a KKK hood and robe. And the governor is admitting he is one of those people. We don't know which one. The Republican Party of Virginia saying "Racism has no place in Virginia. These pictures are wholly inappropriate. If Governor Northam appeared in black face or dressed in a KKK robe he should resign immediately."

The governor released a statement during this show saying "I'm deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now. This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians faith in that commitment. I recognize that it will take time and serious effort to heal the damage this conduct has caused."

As you can imagine, it has also has caused a lot of reaction on Twitter and elsewhere, some of it interesting. Jonah Goldberg, our friend, "Hey, it's Beer O'Clock! Let's pick this up Monday. It can wait." -- Not overheard in the Northam Comms office." Karen Tumulty, "I don't know how much Ed Gillespie was paying his oppo research team, but he should immediately demand a refund," Ed Gillespie the Republican who ran against Northam for Governor. Ed O'Keefe, "Memo to reporters covering statewide campaigns, always find the candidates' yearbooks, all of them." Ben Shapiro "Brett Kavanaugh's yearbook, though." The controversy obviously over the Justice now on the Supreme Court.

Let's bring in our panel, Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the "Washington Free Beacon," Leslie Marshall, syndicated talk radio host, national security analyst Morgan Ortagus. OK. A lot to digest. Thanks for the quick turn on the audible here on the panel. Matthew, your thoughts?

MATTHEW CONTINETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: Well, it's never a good day for a politician when you are confronted with the yearbook photo and the Washington, D.C. community in your state is trying to figure out whether you were the one in black face or the one under the Klan hood. This is a terrible end of the week for Northam, a week that didn't start well either with his comments on not -- it used to be defending partial birth abortion, but Northam seemed to be defending in that radio interview post-birth abortion, otherwise known as infanticide. This is a political career in a death spiral.

BAIER: Leslie, do you think he steps down?

LESLIE MARSHALL, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I'm not sure if he will, and honestly, I come from a state where we are known for our recalls. We put a movie star in the governor's mansion. And I really think the people really need to decide. I don't care if this person is a Democrat or a Republican. This is highly offensive. Like you said, he admits he was either in a KKK hood or in black face.

BAIER: Is there one that's worse than the other for the governor?

MARSHALL: No. I'm simply saying that if we are going to have a zero- tolerance policy in politics in today, in 2019, that has to be zero tolerance across the board. Whether you are a governor in Virginia, whether you are a congressman like Steve King, there has to be zero tolerance, and it can't be just Republicans asking for him to resign. It has to be Democrats. But would Republicans being saying the same thing if he had an "R" next to his name next to a "D." I certainly hope so. But again, the people of Virginia might say, wait a minute, I may be offended by this, but I can forgive him because it was many years ago, he was young and foolish, he feels differently, and he has apologized.

BAIER: All I know is that the coverage of this would be a lot different if it was in a different prism. If it was a Republican governor I think it might be leading a lot of the newscasts that it's not leading currently. And I also think it's really interesting in the context here. Obviously, this is tremendously offensive and horrible. But the earlier comments about what many considered infanticide, about keeping a baby comfortable outside the womb and then making a decision whether to move forward with killing that baby didn't get a lot of coverage comparative to this, which is getting an out-roar.

MORGAN ORTAGUS, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I think we should just be forthright here, and he should resign. It doesn't matter if you are Republican. It doesn't matter if you are a Democrat. There is no excuse for this picture which did not take place in the 1950s or 1960's. This was in 1984. This wasn't in high school. This was in a medical school yearbook. And there's a wonderful young man who is about 40 years old named Justin Fairfax who is the lieutenant governor of Virginia, young African-American man, who I might add, who I think could gracefully take over right away and lead Virginia in a much better place than the governor has.

And I think that many people, no matter where you stand on abortion, are pretty shocked and appalled when you talk about things, about third trimester abortion, when you talk about potentially babies that could be born and could live full human lives ending that life. It wasn't just a terrible week politically, it was a disgraceful week for him, and I think it's time to go.

BAIER: And just to put it in context about this race, if you remember when Northam won against Ed Gillespie, the race closed in the closing statements for the Democrats making the case that electing Ed Gillespie was in essence putting Donald Trump, which some of the ads called racist, some of the things he said, in the governor's mansion in Virginia. That was the closing argument was fighting racism. There's a quarter of the electorate in Virginia African-American. The lieutenant governor is African-American. This is going to be quite a political moment.

CONTINETTI: Probably a lot of people associated with the Gillespie campaign who are kind of hitting their heads against the wall wondering why didn't we look for this yearbook? Why didn't we come across it during the campaign? Or even Tom Perriello, the former Democratic congressman who competed against Northam in the primary?

I do think actually, though, Kavanaugh did set a new standard. And sure, people are saying, of course you always look for the yearbooks. There used to be you were able to skate by what you did in college, certainly by what you did in high school. But after Kavanaugh and the nuclear bomb of his hearings, now anyone in public life has to be sure that their yearbooks are clear of any --

BAIER: I guarantee you that there are 2020 candidates going, have we checked the yearbooks? Did we get the yearbooks? Right now.

ORTAGUS: Yes. And if you are watching and you're deciding to run for president and you're pictured in black face next to a Klan member, don't run for office.

BAIER: Yes, exactly. Does he stay or go?

ORTAGUS: He should absolutely go.

BAIER: Should or does?

ORTAGUS: He better.

MARSHALL: It doesn't sound like he is planning to, so I think he will try to stay.

CONTINETTI: He'll stay.

BAIER: Next up, another Trump challenger in 2020, we referenced that. Plus, this week's Winners and Losers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER, D-N.J.: Together, America, we will rise. I'm Cory Booker, and I'm running for president of the United States of America.

I'm running to restore our sense of common purpose, to focus on the common pain that we have all over this country. We can do better, and I'm going to be in it to try to show folks that when we come together, when we stand together, when we work together, there is nothing we can't do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: New Jersey Democratic Senator Cory Booker throwing his hat in the ring for 2020. Obviously, this is not the Chris Christie show, but he was a former New Jersey governor, and he weighed in today on another show about Booker's chances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE, D-N.J., FORMER GOVERNOR: He's either going to win going away, or he's going to flame out. There won't be an in between, because the approach he is taking is he is going to rise above the fray. He's going to be talking about love and peace and uniting the country again. The question in my mind will be, is the Democratic Party ready to have a happy warrior?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: I think he may have done every single show that there is, period.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: We're back with the panel. All right, Morgan, Cory Booker adding his name to this growing list.

ORTAGUS: So I agree with the governor, there are two things that struck me in the announcement. One was the tendency in everyone who has announced so far and in their tweets and subsequent follow-up is to be incredibly angry at the state of the country and to complain about everything that's going on, and that's the driving force. And Booker of course has chosen to be the happy warrior.

I also thought it's interesting that he has made race very much a central issue to his campaign. It will be interesting to see how a Democrat employs that in a primary. It's not something that Barack Obama really used against Hillary Clinton. So, those are the two things that stuck out. Why he announced going into Super Bowl weekend, State of the Union, that was a little odd.

BAIER: First day of Black History Month. Leslie, he did answer a specific today. He said he is not in favor of abolishing all private health insurance, making a distinction, perhaps, from some of the others.

MARSHALL: Yes, and actually that's why he is talking about race issues. Kamala Harris, African-American, threw her hat into the ring, a female. Even the president said she had a strong out-of-the-gate, if you will. But when she was attorney general in California, and if you look at the African-American community, there is a lot of pushback against her. And I think he is speaking specifically to those voters in announcing today and being completely contrary with her with regard to her saying, hey, let's abolish all private insurance, and I'm bringing up very specifically race issues.

But if I may just say one more thing quickly -- his personality completely in contrast with the president, I don't think that is going to be a winning ticket for the Democrats. Like I have said before, I think you need to no malarkey guy like Joe Biden.

BAIER: We'll see. Quickly?

CONTINETTI: There are three senators who have been directly elected to the presidency. The most recent was Barack Obama. There are now four or five senators who have announced, or their exploratory committees or candidacies. None of them are Barack Obama.

BAIER: Lightning round, Winner and Loser. You're first, Matthew.

CONTINETTI: My winner is Juan Guaido, the National Assembly's president of Venezuela now being recognized by countries throughout the America, the European parliament moving toward recognizing him. He spoke to President Trump. I think democracy is on the march in Venezuela. My loser, a lay- up. Ralph Northam, clearly, not only the worst week of politics but maybe the worse of the year so far.

BAIER: Leslie, Winner and Loser?

MARSHALL: The 29 Republicans who voted with Democrats to give federal employees a pay raise would be my winners. And my losers are the bullies in New Hampshire who bullied a girl for playing football, in New York who bull idea a boy for wearing a Patriots jersey. Go Pats.

BAIER: All right, quickly, Winner and Loser?

ORTAGUS: Loser, once again, Representative Omar. She said something that could be found in a Google search, which she Israel wasn't a real democracy. Arab women serve in the Knesset, in the Supreme Court. You have freedom of religion in Israel. Have you LGBTQ rights in Israel. It's just basic facts that she keeps getting wrong.

The winner of the week is my wonderful sweet father who is watching, my dad, Ronnie Ortagus from Polk County is 65 today. And I love you, dad. He's a hunter, but he also learned how to blow dry my hair when I was a little girl and iron my clothes every day for school. And if I moved home right now, he would still iron them for me. I love you, dad.

BAIER: Wow, happy birthday, dad. My winner is next week's ask the governor radio show on WTOP. I think my ratings will be high.

(LAUGHTER)

BAIER: When we come back, "Notable Quotables."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BAIER: Finally tonight, "Notable Quotables."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is increasingly a challenge to prioritize which threats are of greatest importance.

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I have a great respect for a lot of people, but I don't always agree with everybody.

MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY, SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: ISIS and Al-Qaeda yet to be defeated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to get a little bit worse before it gets better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is certainly no, no, no permanent damage to economy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is about to give a birth. Would that still be a point at which she could request an abortion?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My bill would allow that, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The infant would be resuscitated if that is what the mother and the family desired.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a catastrophe, a man-made catastrophe by the Maduro regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They sent fewer men to go after bin Laden than after me.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER, D-N.Y., SENATE MINORITY LEADER: President Trump touched a hot, hot stove.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The president has perfectly set the table for these negotiations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not support border wall from sea to shining sea.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not going to talking about hand size. We are going to be talking about healthcare.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS, D-CALIF., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We need to have Medicare for all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the Democrats is proposing is something as false as the wall.

BOOKER: I'm Cory Booker, and I'm running for president of the United States of America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome. The water seems warm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We understand the frustration of the fans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do we do about the haters? We love them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BAIER: Well, remember, it's Super Bowl weekend. Let's just focus there. That was a long week.

Thanks for inviting us into your home tonight. That's it for this “Special Report,” fair, balanced, and unafraid. "The Story" by unabashed New England Patriots fan --

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