By now, you all know how Donald Trump swindled the media–and by extension, the American people–on Friday when he turned his announcement that he was no longer a birther into an exercise in self-promotion. Well, it turns out that my state of North Carolina–specifically, my hometown of Charlotte–played host to a similar stunt 24 hours earlier. My governor, Pat McCrory, made us think that he was taking questions from an audience in Charlotte. It turned out some of those questions had been crafted by his own campaign.
On Thursday, McCrory came back to his hometown to speak at the Hood Hargett Breakfast Club, which has long been one of the go-to events for Charlotte-area professionals to network. It is very common for guest speakers to hold question-and-answer sessions with the audience. McCrory agreed to this, provided that all questions be submitted in advance.
Some of those questions came from Taylor Batten, the editorial page editor of The Charlotte Observer. They were about the now-infamous House Bill 2, the blatantly unconstitutional bathroom bill that has already cost the state millions in lost revenue and events. But when he tried to ask some of them, McCrory cut him off, saying that three Observer questions had already come in, and the governor felt that “you guys dominate the news enough.” McCrory ducked out through a side door rather than take questions from reporters. Batten tried to collar him and ask about HB2, but a staffer blocked his path.
As it turned out, those “Observer questions” didn’t really come from The Observer at all. They were softball questions drafted by McCrory campaign staffers. Campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz admitted that the session was pure astroturfing. However, he fobbed off blame for this debacle on Hood Hargett, saying that they were asked to “keep the conversation going.”
Hogwash, says Hood Hargett executive director Jean Snyder. She says that the McCrory campaign insisted that all questions be submitted in advance–a departure from normal practice, in which guests take live questions from the audience. All of the questions were portrayed as coming from audience members and The Observer, and no one knew that some of them actually came from the McCrory campaign.
There’s only one plausible explanation for this. McCrory probably knew that he would face some pretty tough questions in his hometown, particularly about HB2, if he agreed to live questions. So, in a move that was as craven as his decision to sign this outrageous bill, he opted for a Trumpian attempt to manipulate Hood Hargett and the media.
Perhaps he’s not used to breaking a sweat in an election. McCrory skated to victory in his first run for mayor of Charlotte in 1995, and the Democrats never even laid a glove on him in his six subsequent reelection bids. He narrowly lost to Bev Perdue when he ran for governor in 2008. However, by 2012, the Democrats were in such a state that any passable Republican would have won the governorship. In contrast, McCrory is currently facing the race of his life against Democratic state attorney general Roy Cooper.
If McCrory has to resort to astroturfing in order to fend off tough questions, what does that say about his ability to lead? Nothing good, from where this North Carolinian is sitting.
