On Thursday, Nov. 10, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper appeared in a primetime slot on CNN, and Cooper used the opportunity to weigh in on the recent election.

Cooper went after former President Donald Trump and Republican gubernatorial candidates in other parts of the country, and also lauded President Joe Biden’s accomplishments and argued that Biden should be the Democratic nominee in 2024.

Cooper appeared in the A-block of election coverage on CNN at 10 p.m. on Thursday. He was there in his capacity as the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association. During the discussion with CNN newscasters, Cooper – via Skype out of Raleigh – provided his thoughts.

Cooper said that, given this year’s US Supreme Court decision on Roe vs. Wade, and other past and present moves by Trump and other Republican leaders, it was up to Democratic governors across the country to hold the line on women’s rights and many other rights.

He said the disturbing consequences of Republican leadership would get worse if Republicans are able to win enough seats to gain control of the federal government.

“Your abortion rights should not be determined by your zip code,” Cooper said.

He said that’s why it’s so important for Democratic gubernatorial candidates and senate candidates to come out on top once all the votes are counted.

He noted he had been pleased with many of the results.

“Democratic governors had a very good night,” Cooper said of the Tuesday, Nov. 8 election night that pleasantly surprised many Democrats who were expecting an utter disaster for their party.

He added that the Democratic Governors Association had invested three times the money in races across the country this year than it did in 2018, and it focused those funds on about a dozen critical races.

Cooper also said that it would be a big loss if Kari Lake, the conservative Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, wins that close election.

“We are on the edge of our seats,” he said, adding that Lake was using the “Trump playbook” of questioning election results and creating division wherever she could.

Cooper said Democratic governors could to a large extent help preserve rights in those states where rights were in jeopardy. However, if someone like Lake is elected governor of Arizona, he said, the state’s residents would be in a great deal of trouble.

Cooper acknowledged that Governor Ron DeSantis’ landslide victory in the Florida governor’s race was a big disappointment, but he added that Democrats might be able to take that office in the future.

“We have not given up on  Florida,” he said of the Democratic Governors Association.

He also said that those who were suggesting Biden shouldn’t be the Democratic nominee for president in the 2024 election were underestimating Biden.

“I’ve known him for a long time and you can never ever count him out,” Cooper said of the president who will turn 80 later this month.

He noted that many programs Biden has gotten passed – on things like infrastructure improvements and drug price reduction – are just now beginning to be implemented.

“People are going to feel the results of the success in Washington and a lot of that came from Joe Biden,” Cooper said.