Defiant Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax compared himself to the victim of a lynching Sunday as he faces mounting pressure to resign over sexual assault allegations.

Fairfax railed against his critics in Virginia’s state Senate as the year’s legislative session was coming to a close.

“I’ve heard much about anti-lynching on the floor of this very Senate, where people were not given any due process whatsoever, and we rue that,” the 40-year-old Democrat said during a five-minute impromptu speech before the legislative body.

He was referring to legislation that the state’s General Assembly passed earlier this month expressing “profound regret” for lynchings in Virginia between 1877 and 1950.

“And we talk about hundreds, at least 100, terror lynchings that have happened in the Commonwealth of Virginia under those very same auspices,” Fairfax said. “And yet we stand here in a rush to judgment with nothing but accusations and no facts, and we decide that we are willing to do the same thing.”

Senators sat in stunned silence after Fairfax, who is black, finished talking.

Later, the Republican majority leader of Virginia’s House of Delegates, Todd Gilbert, called Fairfax’s statements “the worst, most disgusting type of rhetoric he could have invoked.’’

But some black lawmakers did not condemn the lieutenant governor for his remarks.

“He said what he needed to say,” said Democratic state Sen. Mamie Locke.

Fairfax has staunchly denied accusations that he sexually assaulted two women.

Vanessa Tyson, a political science professor, came forward earlier this month to say he forced her to perform oral sex on him in his hotel room during the Democratic National Convention in Boston in 2004.

Tyson’s lawyer said last week that she plans to meet with prosecutors in Massachusetts to detail her allegations.

Additionally, Meredith Watson has said Fairfax raped her in 2000 in a “premeditated and aggressive” attack while they were both students at Duke University.

On Friday, House Republicans said they would hold a public hearing where Fairfax, Tyson and Watson can testify — but the move has been panned by the embattled lieutenant governor and members of his party as a political ploy.

Fairfax, who is married with two children, has said he won’t participate in the hearing, and it’s not clear whether Republicans will compel him to testify.

He has refused to resign, while calling on the FBI to investigate the women’s claims.

The accusations against him surfaced shortly after the state’s Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, acknowledged wearing blackface when younger.

With AP