Gov. Pat McCrory finally tried to answer some questions on the HB2 bill on Sunday with Chuck Todd on NBC. Ironic that a man who has evaded all questions from the press concerning the HB2 bill actually went on a national show called Meet The Press.

 

However, when asked the very questions that many media outlets wanted to ask in his home state he evaded them. It seemed that McCrory took time this week to learn how to respond to Todd’s probing inquiries with prepared “non-answers” and “logical fallacies” that show not only an unwillingness to identify the true motive behind the HB2 bill, but an absolute inability to defend it in front of the very audience that is viewing North Carolina as a backward state.

 

Here are ten responses to Chuck Todd questions that beg more questions.

 

1. “I’m going to, as governor, as I did with mayor, I will always call out government overreach. And this example, the city of Charlotte, where I was mayor for 14 years, did government overreach. And what your pre-clip didn’t mention was it was the left that brought about the bathroom bill, not the right in the city of Charlotte, like the city of Houston tried to do and was rejected by 61 percent of the vote.”

 

When the governor announced that this is the work of the left and not the right he seems to be throwing out some glittering generalities. He simply made it political. That’s fine. It’s expected. But it is odd that he refers to government overreach and the use of a vote.

 

When a state government decides to implement new laws over all cities and municipalities in North Carolina over one city’s ordinance, I would probably call that a government overreach considering that the governor belongs to a party that preaches less government.

 

Also, there was a vote in Houston by Houston citizens on their ordinance. There was never a vote in North Carolina on HB2.

 

2. “Actually, Charlotte’s vote was a very little debate. They just had a lot of public speakers speaking for and against—“

 

Interestingly that governor talks of public debate at all. That’s because with HB2 THERE WAS NONE.

 

3. “You know, I was in Hamlet, North Carolina, a small town that can be at any town in the United States of America. I walked into a buffet restaurant, African American buffet restaurant, and the people just welcomed me with open arms and said, “Thanks for protecting us.” I got back in my car, and I got a call from someone in corporate America going, “Man, you’ve got to change this. We’re getting killed.”

 

First, it would have been more convincing if the governor actually went to a restaurant in Charlotte and was able to claim the same outcome. But Hamlet, NC and Charlotte are not alike. One is “anytown” and the other is the largest city in the state. Because they are different probably explains why each has their own elected officials to conduct each city/town’s business. Charlotte’s ordinance is in no way stepping on Hamlet.

 

That would be overreaching.

 

4. “However, in government, and I’m not going to tell the private sector any manufacturing plan, any bank can have their own policies. NBC can have their own policy in Charlotte, North Carolina, or anywhere in North Carolina. (and businesses can also choose not to do this – name one business that has backed HB2) But I do believe in our high schools, in our middle schools, in our universities, we should continue to have the tradition that we’ve been having in this country for years. And we have a women’s facility and a men’s facility –You know, it’s worked out pretty well. And I don’t think we need any further government interference.”

 

The governor makes it sound like transgender people now have just decided to start using public facilities. I believe they have been using them just as long as others. So why is it a problem now?

 

Also speaking of tradition, was being able to sue employers who dismiss based on discrimination in state court a tradition for decades?

 

5. “And this is that fine line between how much does government tell the private sector in a regulatory way what to do, and in this case, a city which I still proudly call home, I think overstepped. And, you know, I’ve called out my own Republican legislature in the past, with magistrates and I’ve said no the magistrates need to marry after the Supreme Court case, and what the Supreme Court said.”

 

Exactly how many vetoes has the governor issued to this Republican legislature that he supposedly “call out?”

 

6. CHUCK TODD:
   “It’s dealing with that same privacy. I mean, do you want somebody who identifies as a woman, born on their birth certificate as a man, may look like a woman, going into a men’s bathroom?”
   PAT MCCRORY:
   “All I’d say is we have 27 states”—
   CHUCK TODD:
   “Is that fair to them?”
   GOV. PAT MCCRORY:
   “We have 27 states, not just — this is not just a North Carolina This is a national debate that’s just come on in literally the last three months. No one had heard of this debate until the Houston ordinance was defeated by the people of Houston. We have 27 to 29 states that also don’t have this type of mandate on private business, including the state of New York.”

 

I wish that he just answered the question. But here the governor gave a non-answer. And there is that word again – “debate”. Where is the debate in a ten hour special session that creates a bill that has so much overreach in it?

 

7. Not with — but I’ve met with transgender people in the past, and I’ve met with them since, and have had very positive conversations.

 

I would have loved to hear more about these conversations. “Positive” can be very subjective, especially when saying that he had “negative” conversations would have a negative thing to say. Also, who were “they” and whom did they represent? What viewpoints did they offer? Did they talk about HB2?

 

I have problems believing the positive nature of these conversations because even when the governor claimed that there were businesses that were for HB2, he conveniently was not able to identify them.

 

8. “Now the conversation with a very powerful group called the Human Relations, uh, Human Rights Council, my gosh, they’re more powerful than the N.R.A., and they have millions of dollars, which makes me want to overturn United, ’cause I don’t know who their donors are either.”

 

So powerful is the Human Relations UH, that the governor could not remember the name of the group. That’s potent power.

 

This is the most lucicrous hyperbolic statement I think I have ever heard the governor say (this week at least). Besides if the Human Rights Council had one-tenth the power of the N.R.A., then this law would have never even made the floor.

 

9. “This is basically a restroom privacy issue, versus equality. And these things need to be discussed, not threatened by Hollywood or anyone…This is not like an issue of bathroom privacy or restroom privacy in North Carolina. And let’s have this dialogue and I welcome that dialogue.”

 

Then why was it not discussed before the special session of the General Assembly? Besides the words “dialogue” and “special session called by the GOP” do not collide in this political environment.

 

10. “You know, Hollywood, with all due respects to the Hollywood, the new Batman and Robin movie is playing in China, which has anti-gay, terrible, terrible human rights violations.”

 

First, it was a Batman and SUPERMAN movie, which I actually enjoyed. But this reference to China? If China has such terrible human rights records that should prevent us from doing business with them in any way, then why has the governor hosted Chinese business leaders just this year?

 

The Chinese ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai even met the governor and they both had glowing things to say about the visit. Here are a couple of quotes from the ChinaDaily USA.com website (http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/us/2016-01/28/content_23297791.htm) reporting on the event:

“The governor and I talked about multiple issues in the collaborations between China and North Carolina. He mentioned there are a lot of opportunities moving forward,” Cui told China Daily.

“We had a wonderful discussion about the current opportunities and the successes we have already had regarding the relationship between the two countries,” McCrory said.

 

It was probably beneficial that the governor and the Chinese ambassador didn’t see that actual Batman and Robin movie that starred George Clooney that evening.

 

That movie really sucked.