Former North Carolina governor Pat McCrory has been out of office since the first of the year. But he's not entirely out of the spotlight on some hot-button issues in the state, and the nation.
The Republican ex- governor who lost to Democrat Roy Cooper in November found himself sharing his opinions among a panel of commentators on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. McCrory defended the early weeks of the Donald Trump presidency, adding that a new administration typically makes what he called "a lot of rookie mistakes."
McCrory and other panelists also discussed the ongoing protests around the country against the Trump Administration's policies and actions on immigration and other issues. McCrory said protests are being coordinated and funded by supporters of what he called the "Bernie Sanders wing" of the Democratic party. "The left wants to eviscerate Donald Trump," McCrory said.
The televised discussion also turned to North Carolina's House Bill 2, which McCrory signed into law last March. McCrory said he doesn't regret doing so, despite boycotts such as the NBA's decision to move next Sunday's All-Star game from Charlotte to New Orleans. The former governor expressed concern about what he referred to as an "Orwellian purging of cities and states."
McCrory criticized what he called "selective hypocrisy" in issue-oriented boycotts across the country. He pointed out that the NFL went ahead with this year's Super Bowl in Houston, where voters in 2015 refused to support a proposal that would have prohibited discrimination against gay, transgender and several others groups of residents.
