Specifically:

"If anybody's ever tried that" at least suggests that either he or people he knew had more experience in blackface than anybody ought to have (which is none). I was simply observing that merely knowing that shoe polish doesn't wash off easily doesn't imply anything, because that's common knowledge (shoe polish doesn't and shouldn't wash off easily because it's intended to stick to shoes). However, "if anybody's ever tried that" implies something much more nefarious.

I don't get any of this. I'm older than Northam and I've never seen a live human in blackface; I always thought it was just a rejected relic of early 20th-century minstrel shows. But I've seen other reports today indicating that it was kind of a thing at Northam's medical school, and WTF???

...polishing shoes, for example.

a convenient dispenser sponge that prevented unwanted skin contact. Kiwi might have been the brand.

We can all admit that when a governor is discussing the nuances of applying blackface he's in serious trouble.

It's cold cream mixed with carbon black or lamp black. It can be washed off with soap and water.

Black theatrical makeup is used for other things, though, like creating the look of a black eye, or indicating a beard on a clown face.

Still, it's probably not a color that gets used much in the make-up kit backstage.

Shoe polish transfer.

I mean here we have a man who is in PHOTOGRAPHED POSING IN BLACKFACE WITH A GUY DRESSED UP KLANSMAN and people are actually insisting that asking him to not be governor of Virginia any more is unfair to him!