Metro Weekly

Connecticut governor: N.C. governor “telling fibs” about HB 2

Dan Malloy says Pat McCrory is lying about the rationale for HB 2, which has hurt North Carolina's reputation

Dan Malloy - Credit: Official portrait
Dan Malloy – Credit: Official portrait

“Your governor is telling fibs, and you know it and I know it. This is about discrimination. This is something that we’ve got to stand up and push back on.”

–Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D), talking about McCrory’s support of the anti-transgender HB 2 law in a speech to the North Carolina delegation to the Democratic National Convention at its hotel outside of Philadelphia. Malloy, the chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, said he doesn’t believe the rationale that McCrory has given for passing HB 2 — that is, to protect people’s privacy in bathrooms, reports The Charlotte Observer.

Malloy told the North Carolina Democrats that McCrory, who he has known since they both served as the mayors of Stamford, Conn. and Charlotte, respectively, has “become a different guy than the person he pretended to be when he ran for governor.” Malloy said McCrory campaigned as a moderate when he ran for governor in 2012, but “would have pretended to be a choirboy if it would help him get elected.”

“Enough people thought he was somebody else that they were willing to turn over their great state,” Malloy said. “And how did he return the favor? HB 2.”

Malloy used the opportunity to tout the candidacy of Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general and the Democratic nominee for governor. He also argued that the passage of HB 2 had harmed the state’s reputation. Malloy added that he had approved a ban on government-funded travel to North Carolina in the wake of HB 2 because he has a number of LGBT individuals who work for the state of Connecticut and wanted to stand in solidarity with them.

“After only four years of Pat McCrory — a guy who I have known for 21 years — people think of it differently,” said Malloy. “If your state doesn’t embrace people, people don’t necessarily embrace your state.”

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