The leak of emails from Democratic National Committee (DNC) by WikiLeaks has spawned a great deal of anger at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, but it has led to some strong words a lot closer to home.
The emails show that the DNC members, including those in North Carolina, were excited when boycotts of the state were announced after the passage of House Bill 2, aka the bathroom bill.
Gov. Pat McCrory said that the emails proved something they have suspected for a long time – that the Democratic Party was stirring up a lot of the controversy about the bill.
McCrory said, “What’s most disturbing is that these emails have clearly shown something we suspected all along, that is that the State of North Carolina, the City of Charlotte and especially small businesses were used as a pawn by Roy Cooper, the mayor of Charlotte and by the Democratic Party on an issue that was made up purely for political purposes and to raise money, big money at that … and that is inexcusable, absolutely inexcusable.”
McCrory added, “They’ve raised money on the issue, they created the issue, they raised money and then they cheered, literally cheered, when businesses would boycott our great state, or entertainers would boycott.”
McCrory continued, “They put their political aspirations ahead of our state of North Carolina and that’s extremely discouraging.”
The Democrats did create the issue when the Democrats on the Charlotte City Council passed an ordinance requiring all restrooms and shower facilities open to the public, including those of private businesses, be gender neutral. The state legislature then met in a special session to pass HB2, which requires people to use the public bathrooms and shower facilities in public buildings consistent with the sex on their birth certificate. The state law makes no requirement regarding bathroom usage for private companies, which are free to have gender-neutral bathrooms if they so desire.
Donations to the Democratic candidate for governor, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, do show some interesting connections to the whole HB2 controversy.
The CEO of Lambda Legal, which is one of the parties suing North Carolina over HB2, a lawsuit in which Cooper has been ambivalent about representing the state, has donated to the Cooper campaign.
Also donating is former National Basketball Association Commissioner David Stern. The NBA recently announced that it would not be playing the All-Star Game in Charlotte as previously announced because of HB2.
Stern didn’t make that decision, but you would think he would have some influence with the NBA.
McCrory contends that the Democrats, including Cooper, are using this issue to raise money nationally despite the fact that the boycotts are hurting the state in general and Charlotte in particular.
The North Carolina Democratic Party did send out emails about how much the boycotts were costing the state and received responses like, “Awesome,” “good work” and “This is great” in response.
But McCrory didn’t escape criticism in the emails either. One email referred to McCrory as a “moronic little bigot of a tarheel (sic) governor.”
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump gets routinely criticized in the press for being over the top with his statements about other people, but it seems he’s not the only one making those statements this year.
