WATCH: Pat McCrory Says HB2 Didn’t Cause Backlash – ‘This Was Started by the Left’

The Governor of North Carolina insists the law that’s cost his state billions isn’t to blame

Governor Pat McCrory says that HB2 is not to blame for the billions of dollars and thousands of jobs lost in North Carolina. His sweeping anti-LGBT law, parts of which were declared illegal by the U.S. Dept. of Justice Wednesday afternoon, has been specifically mentioned by countless corporations and performers as the reason they are refusing to do business in the Tar Heel state. McCrory denied any and all responsibility for HB2 and its effects, despite having called for the law after Charlotte passed a nondiscrimination ordinance, and despite having signed HB2 into law less than 12 hours after it was first introduced into the General Assembly.

“I don’t think it was HB2 that caused it, regardless of what you and the national press might say,” Gov. McCrory said early Wednesday evening at the N.C. Chamber Annual Government Affairs Conference. 

“This was started by the left,” the Republican governor insisted, despite the fact that nine other North Carolina municipalities have had the same or similar ordinances for years, with no push back from previous governors or state lawmakers. “In fact most of the national media thinks the right started this issue, it was the political left,” he repeated. 

McCrory, after having discussed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance, and ignoring Charlotte’s failed nondiscrimination ordinance last year, then claimed “this was never an issue until just recently, and it came out of the woodwork. And it came, this particular issue, came from the political left,” McCrory again repeated. 

Over 200 other cities, towns, and counties across the nation have similar trans-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances that McCrory’s HB2 was designed to nullify.

Calling the Dept. of Justice’s notice that HB2 is illegal, McCrory said “it’s a dramatic change in society norms.” He also claimed that Houston’s HERO and Raleigh and Charlotte’s nondiscrimination ordinances were the result of “some very influential super PACs,” that he claims are supporting Democratic attorney general Roy Cooper’s battle against McCrory for governor.

RELATED: NC Gov. Pat McCrory Denounces Obama Administration and Justice Dept. ‘Claim’ That HB2 Is Illegal

He also claimed those super PACs “are running over a million dollars in campaign ads right now in Charlotte, on this issue.”

“Some of these super PACs are actually coordinating the actual boycotts,” McCrory, who is running for re-election, said, adding that “this is not the way democracy works.”

McCrory blamed “the Obama administration” for the Justice Dept. letters mandating HB2 not be enforced. “It’s coming out of the blue,” he said, falsely, given the number of senior officials in at least three cabinet-level departments who have denouced HB2 – not to mention the President, the First Lady, and the White House press secretary, as well.

The Governor also claimed that these actions have been coordinated in conjunction with “the Human Rights Commission,” and through “political campaigns.” He probably was referring to the Human Rights Campaign – the Governor misstated HRC’s name three times in a recent “Meet the Press” appearance.

He called the those he says are coordinating the backlash against HB2, “a well oiled machine.”

Watch:

Full interview here.

 

EARLIER:

Top North Carolina Republicans Are Going Ballistic Over Justice Dept. Announcement HB2 Is Illegal

UPDATING: US Dept. Of Justice Says HB2 Violates Federal Civil Rights Act, Demands Implementation End

Watch This New Ad That Explains Exactly Why Anti-Trans Laws Like North Carolina’s HB2 Make No Sense

 

Image: Screenshot via WRAL