Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: From at North Carolina at the governor Mansion with Governor
Speaker 2: Lloyd Cooper.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining Bloomberg TV. Glad to
Speaker 1: be here. Thanks. Your state is.
Speaker 2: Getting more interesting by the day, and it's really in
Speaker 2: focus now given this explosive report overnight from CNN about
Speaker 2: the sitting Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson. He's also the good
Speaker 2: editorial candidate on the Republican side. Salacious, explicit, very offensive
Speaker 2: words he was using on a porn forum. He's come
Speaker 2: out and said this is trash tabloids. Do you think
Speaker 2: this changes the race?
Speaker 3: Well, these comments were shocking, but they really weren't surprising
Speaker 3: for Mark Robinson. He has a history of these kinds
Speaker 3: of inflammatory comments that completely disrespect women, that incite violence.
Speaker 1: We've known for a while that.
Speaker 3: He was someone who is unfit for office. Not only
Speaker 3: should he not have been elected to the office he's in,
Speaker 3: he certainly doesn't need to be governor of the state.
Speaker 3: I think it makes it even more certain that Josh Stein,
Speaker 3: our attorney general, will be elected as governor. But I
Speaker 3: also think that Donald Trump and North Carolina Republican leaders
Speaker 3: have continued to encourage and support Mark Robinson, and now
Speaker 3: they're having to reap what they are sewing.
Speaker 2: But is it a distraction in the short term or
Speaker 2: is this a liability come November fifth?
Speaker 3: Well, I think for anyone who has been supporting, encouraging
Speaker 3: Mark Robinson, this a liability because voters are going to
Speaker 3: look at the fact that Donald Trump and these Republican
Speaker 3: leaders knew Mark Robinson character, They knew who he was,
Speaker 3: the kinds of things that he was saying. This is
Speaker 3: very on brand for Mark Robinson, and it should hurt
Speaker 3: their candidacies as well as Mark Robinson.
Speaker 1: Do you think it will I believe it will.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: Do you think Kamala Harris could benefit from this? Well?
Speaker 3: I believe even before this that Kamala Harris was on
Speaker 3: track to make history and win North Carolina. The last
Speaker 3: Democratic nominee was Barack Obama, who won North Carolina. This
Speaker 3: was Biden Harris's closest loss in twenty twenty one point
Speaker 3: three percent. There's that sane excitement that I felt in
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight here in North Carolina in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four, I think North Carolina can make history again,
Speaker 3: and I think this makes it more likely because Donald
Speaker 3: Trump has embraced Mark Robinson for quite a while and
Speaker 3: he's still to this day hasn't said anything negative about
Speaker 3: Mark Robinson.
Speaker 2: Well, he'll be here tomorrow, so potentially he'll have to
Speaker 2: comment on it. But just about winning North Carolina for
Speaker 2: the Democrats, you mentioned Barack Obama. He only won it
Speaker 2: though in two thousand and eight, only his first term.
Speaker 1: Why is this a state that.
Speaker 2: Is willing to vote for Democrats at the state level,
Speaker 2: You've benefited from that, but not at the national level.
Speaker 3: Well, Carolynians are very independent and they will split their ticket.
Speaker 3: We've seen this time and time again, so this is
Speaker 3: not unusual. We're very purple state.
Speaker 1: We're always going to be close.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you this, Donald Trump has to win
Speaker 3: North Carolina in order to be president. If Kamala Harris
Speaker 3: can win this race here, and we believe she can,
Speaker 3: she's the next president of the United States.
Speaker 2: The top issue in national local polls has been inflation.
Speaker 2: Do you find that voters are more willing to blame
Speaker 2: the politicians in Washington, d c.
Speaker 1: And not the local ones.
Speaker 3: Well, people are frustrated with paying more at the grocery store.
Speaker 3: They're frustrated that their dollars doesn't go as far. It's
Speaker 3: pretty clear that Kamala Harris has worked very hard to
Speaker 3: help control costs. She's worked to make sure that we've
Speaker 3: got better paying jobs for people. But now she came
Speaker 3: to North Carolina and rolled out her economic plan that's
Speaker 3: going to help small businesses to help fight higher prices
Speaker 3: at the grocery store. I think that is having an
Speaker 3: effect already, that inflation is cooling in our country. I
Speaker 3: think that's going to be positive for her, and I
Speaker 3: think people have listened to her and believe that she
Speaker 3: cares about middle class North Carolinians. Donald Trump only cares
Speaker 3: about the wealthy and corporations and himself.
Speaker 2: So the rate of inflation has come down, but people
Speaker 2: are still struggling with the level.
Speaker 1: Of prices that's not coming down.
Speaker 2: And a lot of things Kamala Harris talks about, you
Speaker 2: need congressional support and it's very slim on details. Do
Speaker 2: you think she needs to dive deeper into the policy
Speaker 2: to discussions.
Speaker 3: So she's rolled out a very specific plan, but she's
Speaker 3: also aware that getting legislation through Congress requires a lot
Speaker 3: of work and consensus building, and she was a key
Speaker 3: part of the Biden Harris administration that got through the
Speaker 3: Inflation Reduction Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the American Rescue Plan,
Speaker 3: Chips and Science, all of this legislation that's going to
Speaker 3: make generational investments. She was a part of doing it,
Speaker 3: cast the deciding vote. Sometimes she understands that she's going
Speaker 3: to have to get down into the details and find
Speaker 3: ideas that work. You know, people talk about trying to
Speaker 3: fight higher prices at the grocery store, and she's talked
Speaker 3: about trying to fight those prices. There are ways to
Speaker 3: do that. I'm excited about the fact that she's ready
Speaker 3: to take this on.
Speaker 2: The other top issue in this race, especially North Carolina
Speaker 2: that when you look at the polls, is a born
Speaker 2: this is something you've been focused on.
Speaker 1: One thing I've gathered from.
Speaker 2: All the polling is that voters in North Carolina seem
Speaker 2: to on a middle ground. They seem to coalescing around say,
Speaker 2: fifteen weeks as.
Speaker 1: A cutoff for abortion.
Speaker 2: Do you think this is something Democrats and Republicans could
Speaker 2: compromise on.
Speaker 3: I think you can't compromise on women's right to choose.
Speaker 3: I don't think that you can compromise on the fact
Speaker 3: that we've got women who are in danger of dying
Speaker 3: because doctors are afraid of the government coming in and
Speaker 3: getting between them and their patient. That's exactly what's happening
Speaker 3: across the country. Donald Trump, History.
Speaker 1: Of North Carolina.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we are because we have a twelve week abortion ban,
Speaker 3: and not only that, but with more requirements, a seventy
Speaker 3: two hour requirement that many women have a difficult time facing.
Speaker 3: They've put in a lot of other restrictions. So there
Speaker 3: is an abortion and banned in North Carolina that passed
Speaker 3: over my veto by one vote. Every Republican voted to
Speaker 3: override my veto, every Democrat voted to sustain it.
Speaker 1: So it came from twenty to twelve.
Speaker 2: But do you think there could be a compromise for
Speaker 2: say something like fifteen or sixteen weeks?
Speaker 3: So you can't talk about women's health in that way
Speaker 3: because many of these cases are very complicated and often
Speaker 3: involve parents who really want to have children but have
Speaker 3: extraordinary complications. This is an issue that should be left
Speaker 3: to women and their doctors. And that's why people like
Speaker 3: Donald Trump, people like Mark Robinson are dangerous because they
Speaker 3: believe that politicians should be in that exam room with
Speaker 3: women and their doctors, and that there should be hard
Speaker 3: and fast rules. And what happens is you endanger women's lives,
Speaker 3: you take away what should be their constitutional rights.
Speaker 2: The Forum president has said he wants to leave it
Speaker 2: up to states. Is something that you're dealing with now
Speaker 2: with your Republican led legislature. I just want to end
Speaker 2: on your future because if you think Kamala Harris is
Speaker 2: going to win North Carolina, you'll be the man to
Speaker 2: help deliver those electoral votes for her. What do you
Speaker 2: have in sight? Is it the Court of Saint James?
Speaker 2: Is it attorney General?
Speaker 3: So what I have in site is the finish line
Speaker 3: of my term as governor. You know, I want to
Speaker 3: run through the take. There's so much happening here, investing
Speaker 3: these generational dollars for our children and grandchildren.
Speaker 1: I love public service.
Speaker 3: I'll see what's next after this.
Speaker 1: So you're not done yet.
Speaker 2: You're not going to politics after a beautiful governor's.
Speaker 1: Mansion, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: I do like public service.
Speaker 1: And we'll see what happens. Do you think that there
Speaker 1: needs to be a different almost more trust.
Speaker 2: In the DOJ right now that we're seeing is that
Speaker 2: something you think you could bring to a Department of Justice.
Speaker 3: So I'm not going to get into what other cabinet
Speaker 3: position that I may or may not be involved in.
Speaker 3: What I do know is that Kamala Harris has got
Speaker 3: to win before she can make those kinds of choices,
Speaker 3: and we're going to work hard every day to make
Speaker 3: sure she does well.
Speaker 1: I think you're on the short list. Governor Roy Cooper,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 3: Thanks a lot.
Speaker 2: That was, of course, Governor Roy Cooper of North Carolina,
Speaker 2: a very swing state in this election.