
The North Carolina Democratic Party has received the public records it requested on on May 10 to find how much the state spent to fly Governor Pat McCrory to two television appearances in Washington D.C. after HB 2 passed, and it doesn’t look good for the Governor.
The answer to the records request shows that McCrory spent $3,402.16 to travel, on his taxpayer-funded plane, to a Meet the Press appearance on April 17, and then another $4,085.82 to travel to a FOX News Sunday appearance on May 8. A Fox News producer offered McCrory’s press secretary, Graham Wilson, the option of doing the interview via satellite, but McCrory instead opted to fly to D.C. and do the interview in-studio.
The NCDP also notes that McCrory campaign strategist Chris LaCivita was at the studio for the Meet the Press interview, which bolsters the argument that this was a trip that McCrory’s campaign should have paid for.
McCrory has used both his office and his campaign to defend HB 2 since the law was passed. In the aftermath of HB 2’s passage, several agencies, including the Department of Commerce and the Department of Environmental Resources, blasted out tweets with a link to a press release that could be found on both the governor’s official state website as well as that of his campaign. (Those tweets appear to have been deleted.)
Miranda and the Democrats are calling on McCrory to refund the money spent on the appearances, and note that they still haven’t received the results of two other requests made over a month ago. Welcome to the club.