North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper Talks Gubernatorial Race Controversy

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From at North Carolina at the governor Mansion with Governor Lloyd Cooper.

Thank you so much for joining Bloomberg TV. Glad to be here. Thanks. Your state is.

Getting more interesting by the day, and it's really in focus now given this explosive report overnight from CNN about the sitting Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. He's also the good editorial candidate on the Republican side. Salacious, explicit, very offensive words he was using on a porn forum. He's come out and said this is trash tabloids. Do you think this changes the race?

Well, these comments were shocking, but they really weren't surprising for Mark Robinson. He has a history of these kinds of inflammatory comments that completely disrespect women, that incite violence.

We've known for a while that.

He was someone who is unfit for office. Not only should he not have been elected to the office he's in, he certainly doesn't need to be governor of the state. I think it makes it even more certain that Josh Stein, our attorney general, will be elected as governor. But I also think that Donald Trump and North Carolina Republican leaders have continued to encourage and support Mark Robinson, and now they're having to reap what they are sewing.

But is it a distraction in the short term or is this a liability come November fifth?

Well, I think for anyone who has been supporting, encouraging Mark Robinson, this a liability because voters are going to look at the fact that Donald Trump and these Republican leaders knew Mark Robinson character, They knew who he was, the kinds of things that he was saying. This is very on brand for Mark Robinson, and it should hurt their candidacies as well as Mark Robinson.

Do you think it will I believe it will.

Yes.

Do you think Kamala Harris could benefit from this? Well?

I believe even before this that Kamala Harris was on track to make history and win North Carolina. The last Democratic nominee was Barack Obama, who won North Carolina. This was Biden Harris's closest loss in twenty twenty one point

Well, he'll be here tomorrow, so potentially he'll have to comment on it. But just about winning North Carolina for the Democrats, you mentioned Barack Obama. He only won it though in two thousand and eight, only his first term.

Why is this a state that.

Is willing to vote for Democrats at the state level, You've benefited from that, but not at the national level.

Well, Carolynians are very independent and they will split their ticket. We've seen this time and time again, so this is not unusual. We're very purple state.

We're always going to be close.

And I'll tell you this, Donald Trump has to win North Carolina in order to be president. If Kamala Harris can win this race here, and we believe she can, she's the next president of the United States.

The top issue in national local polls has been inflation. Do you find that voters are more willing to blame the politicians in Washington, d c.

And not the local ones.

Well, people are frustrated with paying more at the grocery store. They're frustrated that their dollars doesn't go as far. It's pretty clear that Kamala Harris has worked very hard to help control costs. She's worked to make sure that we've got better paying jobs for people. But now she came to North Carolina and rolled out her economic plan that's going to help small businesses to help fight higher prices at the grocery store. I think that is having an

So the rate of inflation has come down, but people are still struggling with the level.

Of prices that's not coming down.

And a lot of things Kamala Harris talks about, you need congressional support and it's very slim on details. Do you think she needs to dive deeper into the policy to discussions.

So she's rolled out a very specific plan, but she's also aware that getting legislation through Congress requires a lot of work and consensus building, and she was a key part of the Biden Harris administration that got through the Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the American Rescue Plan, Chips and Science, all of this legislation that's going to make generational investments. She was a part of doing it,

The other top issue in this race, especially North Carolina that when you look at the polls, is a born this is something you've been focused on.

One thing I've gathered from.

All the polling is that voters in North Carolina seem to on a middle ground. They seem to coalescing around say, fifteen weeks as.

A cutoff for abortion.

Do you think this is something Democrats and Republicans could compromise on.

I think you can't compromise on women's right to choose. I don't think that you can compromise on the fact that we've got women who are in danger of dying because doctors are afraid of the government coming in and getting between them and their patient. That's exactly what's happening across the country. Donald Trump, History.

Of North Carolina.

Yeah, we are because we have a twelve week abortion ban, and not only that, but with more requirements, a seventy two hour requirement that many women have a difficult time facing. They've put in a lot of other restrictions. So there is an abortion and banned in North Carolina that passed over my veto by one vote. Every Republican voted to override my veto, every Democrat voted to sustain it.

So it came from twenty to twelve.

But do you think there could be a compromise for say something like fifteen or sixteen weeks?

So you can't talk about women's health in that way because many of these cases are very complicated and often involve parents who really want to have children but have extraordinary complications. This is an issue that should be left to women and their doctors. And that's why people like Donald Trump, people like Mark Robinson are dangerous because they believe that politicians should be in that exam room with women and their doctors, and that there should be hard

The Forum president has said he wants to leave it up to states. Is something that you're dealing with now with your Republican led legislature. I just want to end on your future because if you think Kamala Harris is going to win North Carolina, you'll be the man to help deliver those electoral votes for her. What do you have in sight? Is it the Court of Saint James? Is it attorney General?

So what I have in site is the finish line of my term as governor. You know, I want to run through the take. There's so much happening here, investing these generational dollars for our children and grandchildren.

I love public service.

I'll see what's next after this.

So you're not done yet.

You're not going to politics after a beautiful governor's.

Mansion, I don't think so.

I do like public service.

And we'll see what happens. Do you think that there needs to be a different almost more trust.

In the DOJ right now that we're seeing is that something you think you could bring to a Department of Justice.

So I'm not going to get into what other cabinet position that I may or may not be involved in. What I do know is that Kamala Harris has got to win before she can make those kinds of choices, and we're going to work hard every day to make sure she does well.

I think you're on the short list. Governor Roy Cooper, thank you so much for your time.

Thanks a lot.

That was, of course, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a very swing state in this election.