After weeks of dodging questions on HB2, Gov. Pat McCrory finally sat down for an interview and declared that he wanted a "dialogue" about the horrifically anti-LGBT measure that he signed into law after a paltry three hours of consideration.
"What we need is dialogue, instead of threats. [...] I see at the national level with presidential politics, I see even with this issue with the threats and the letters and the boycotts—I don't see conversation. I don't even see people reading things before they threaten to boycott. Why don't we have a conversation?"
This is a joke, right? Let's revisit just how much dialogue McCrory was interested in on the day they passed the law, shall we?
In a one-day specially convened session Wednesday, North Carolina’s legislature passed a sweeping law ... The vote in the N.C. House was 84-25 after three hours of debate ... In the Senate, the vote was 32-0 after the Democrats walked out in protest, saying they had not been allowed to participate in the process.
And yes, McCrory, people should really read things, don’t ya think?
Lawmakers had five minutes to read the bill...
Republicans jammed that bill down everyone's throats in mere hours and now McCrory wants dialogue and deliberation and a thoughtful exchange of ideas? Honestly, I don't swear that often in print, but is he fucking joking?
McCrory had several other highlights in the interview brought to us by Colin Campbell of Raleigh’s News & Observer:
On why he’s calling for changes to the law: “When I signed the bill, I knew there would have to be corrections in this bill.” But he signed it anyway because “we were up against the April 1 deadline of the new Charlotte ordinance. [...] I was not going to block the state legislature’s efforts to deal with that [immediate] issue.”
Yeah, I knew it was flawed legislation but, why wait? Apparently nixing Charlotte's citywide ordinance was far, far more important than getting the statewide law right. This is exactly what people are looking for in the chief executive of a state—a guy who kind of, ya know, flies by the seat of his pants regardless of whether it might cost the state, oh, let's say half a billion dollars just for giggles.
On why he thinks that nondiscrimination mandate shouldn’t apply to private sector employers: “It’s not government’s role to write a generic employment policy for the thousands of businesses that we have in the state of North Carolina.”
Oh, but it IS your role to tell every single individual in the state exactly where to pee when on government property? "Birth certificates, please." He just doesn't want to tell businesses what to do. McCrory went on to call himself a "libertarian." Um... can someone please send him a dictionary?
Seriously, this televised interview is going to sound reasonable to some people. McCrory kind of effects this whole sweetness and light attitude (meanwhile his state is taking a financial beating). But the interview is so infused with hypocrisy it's surprising my screen just didn't go dark and explode. Certainly, my head nearly did.