RALPH NORTHAM’S ADMINISTRATION WINDS DOWN IN STYLE: I-95 winter storm traffic disaster: Drivers are fuming and demanding answers from Virginia officials. “‘We had absolutely no idea what we were going into,’ Catalano added. ‘You had all these fancy signs on the highway [saying], ‘Mask up, mask up’, ‘Save lives, mask up.’ Turn the signs on and say, ‘Turn around,’ you know, ‘50-mile backup,’ something.’”

UPDATE: Northam Moonwalks His Foot Into His Mouth After I-95 Fiasco:

Angry drivers tired from having to sit in cold vehicles with little to nothing to eat and nowhere to go to the bathroom as temperatures hovered below freezing are directing the blame squarely at Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and the Virginia Dept. of Transportation, both of which drivers have said were ill-prepared to handle the storm before the first snowflake ever fell.

They have a pretty strong case, considering what NR’s Dominic Pino wrote last night detailing the notification failures, what the VDOT did and did not do in advance of the storm, the years of corruption within the department, as well as their botched handling of other situational things as the crisis unfolded.

But it’s what Northam said in response to the fiasco on I-95 that has left a lot of people scratching their heads. As the Washington Post reported, Northam took no responsibility for what happened and instead blamed the drivers:

State Police and transportation officials took to the air to monitor progress because highway traffic cameras went dark amid power outages, Northam said. While expressing sympathy for stranded motorists, Northam said more should have heeded warnings to stay off the roads.

“We gave warnings, and people need to pay attention to these warnings, and the less people that are on the highways when these storms hit, the better,” he said. “I feel for these people that are stranded but just want to let them know we’re doing everything we can to get to them in a very challenging situation.”

Good grief. Think he could fit his foot any further into his mouth on that one?

While it’s good – and pretty standard advice from state officials – to advise people not to get on the roads if they don’t have to when bad weather events like this one are forecast, it strikes me as extremely poor form not to mention bad leadership to blame the people who got stuck, especially when you don’t know the circumstances for why they were on the road in the first place.

Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’ sense of timing remains as superb as ever:

(Updated and bumped.)