We in North Carolina have known for some time that Governor Pat McCrory’s moderate image is a sham. After all, he made noises about opposing a monstrous, discriminatory, and potentially unconstitutional “bathroom bill”–only to sign it into law a mere 12 hours after it was introduced in the legislature. Well, we got more evidence of this on Monday. Apparently he thinks those trying to make him a one-term governor should donate to the Hurricane Matthew relief effort rather than go after him.
McCrory made the short drive from Raleigh to Hillsborough, near Chapel Hill, to check on the effort to repair the Orange County GOP headquarters after it was firebombed early Sunday morning. While there, he had a chat with Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. Watch here.
Roughly five minutes into the interview, Cavuto asked McCrory about a full-page ad that ran in Monday’s edition of The (Raleigh) News & Observer. A group called “Writers for a Progressive North Carolina” decided to leave this greeting for McCrory on his 60th birthday.
The ad was an obvious play on House Bill 2, the now-infamous bathroom bill. It told McCrory that North Carolina would have a chance to celebrate when he is bounced from office by Democratic state attorney general Roy Cooper.
McCrory’s response was simply breathtaking.
“I wish they would have saved their money and not spent it on a ridiculous political propaganda and maybe would’ve donated that money to a lot of the homeless people that we have right now that are flooded out of their homes over about a 600 square mile area of North Carolina.”
McCrory was referring to the massive flooding that has impacted a large swath of east-central North Carolina; as of Tuesday, 25 people have died and almost 2,200 people are still in emergency shelters. He claimed that rather than take part in “foolish politics,” the people behind this ad should donate to what will likely be a massive relief effort.
Apparently McCrory isn’t taking his own advice. His campaign was bombarding the state with ads even as he was telling his opponents they should pull their ads. Indeed, on Wednesday, he posted a video of himself visiting the North Carolina State Fair to his YouTube channel.
And apparently McCrory didn’t see fit to mention that much of the money that will help fix the Orange County GOP headquarters came from a Democratic-organized GoFundMe campaign.
McCrory must be under the illusion that Matthew will put him in an unassailable position, like the Hurricane Sandy relief effort all but handed a second term to Chris Christie. Hmmm, that didn’t work so well, didn’t it? Then again, I don’t recall Christie telling Barbara Buono and her allies to get off the air while people were cleaning up.
At least Christie was putting up the appearance that he had some scruples. McCrory obviously isn’t trying to keep up the appearance that he has any scruples anymore. If McCrory expects the Democrats to shut up and donate to hurricane relief while he stays on the air, he’s in for a rude surprise.
(featured image courtesy North Carolina Department of Transportation, available under a Creative Commons-BY license)
