Impeach Justin Fairfax

Impeachment cuts to the heart of the matter. Though Watson’s attorney, Nancy Erika Smith, tells Rolling Stone that criminal charges “might be something we have to consider,” she has encouraged a fair hearing of the allegations before the Virginia Legislature and Senate. “He wants due process? An impeachment hearing is due process!” Smith says.

Fairfax may be relying, consciously or not, upon the fact that men are more readily believed than women when they are accused of sexual violence. I have found Fairfax difficult to believe thus far. Unlike his accusers, the lieutenant governor has yet to present one person to support his version of either event. While on the one hand he has stated, “Even when faced with those allegations, I am still standing up for everyone’s right to be heard,” NBC News reported him saying privately, “fuck that bitch” about Tyson. In his initial statement, Fairfax wrote that the Washington Post rejected her story in 2017 after discovering “significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegations.” The Post quickly refuted that, saying that isn’t why the paper didn’t publish her account. His attempt to erode Tyson’s integrity backfired; he is the only one who has shown evidence of a credibility gap so far. (Neither a call nor an email to Fairfax’s attorney requesting comment were returned. Fairfax’s office reached out to Rolling Stone prior to the publication of this column, but did not respond to questions concerning the allegations.)