NC political parties debate HB2 related WikiLeaks emails

Sunday, July 31, 2016

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- More than 19,000 hacked emails from the Democratic National Party were released by the WikiLeaks website founded by Julian Assange just over a week ago. There are more than 100 mentions of "McCrory," in a search through the hacked emails, more than 600 mentions of "North Carolina," and more than 100 mentions of "HB2."

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and the state GOP have called some of the hacked emails on HB2 into question, while the North Carolina Democratic Party said their interpretation is incorrect.

HB2 was designed to block a Charlotte non-discrimination ordinance, part of which allowed transgender people to use bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender they identify with. The state law requires people to use the restroom according to their biological sex listed on their birth certificate in government buildings, schools, and universities. The law also excludes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people from anti-discrimination protections and blocks municipalities from adopting their own anti-discrimination and living wage rules.

ABC11 asked for the links to the emails in question and those links are included throughout this article.

NCGOP

The NCGOP argues the emails show Democrat officials celebrated businesses pulling out of North Carolina after HB2 was passed and intentionally meant to do harm.

Here's what the NCGOP said in a statement:

"The Democratic campaign operatives connected to Roy Cooper, Deborah Ross and Hillary Clinton celebrating economic hardship inflicted on innocent North Carolina citizens through the loss of hotel revenue, concerts, and growth. These small business owners and elected officials stood in reaction to the DNC email WikiLeaks which show the DNC, Hillary Clinton, and Roy Cooper sought to do harm on the state of North Carolina and our thriving economy."

Check out the links to the leaked emails the NCGOP is referencing at the bottom of their press release here.

The North Carolina Democratic Party called the GOP claims "ridiculous," and said the GOP is responsible for any economic loss cause by HB2 by passing the law in the first place.

"This is a desperate attempt by Republicans to distract from the damage their discrimination law has done to our state. HB2 was passed by a Republican General Assembly and signed by Republican Governor Pat McCrory. The GOP is directly responsible for the thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars HB2 has cost North Carolina, just as they're directly responsible for the cancellation of the NBA All-Star Game and what would have been a $100 million economic boost for Charlotte and North Carolina." -- NCDP spokesman Dave Miranda

MCCRORY

Governor McCrory also called hacked DNC emails on HB2 into question during press questions after an agriculture bill signing earlier this week.

"They created the issue, they've raised money on the issue, and then they cheered, literally cheered, when businesses would boycott our great state or entertainers would boycott our state," McCrory said in response to the first question about HB2 during the Q&A after the agriculture bill signing.

When asked which emails the governor was referring to, his campaign office pointed out the three emails below.

Where democratic officials replied "This is great - can we forward to our LGBT and National lists" and "Awesome" to the same email from the NCDP which talks about Pearl Jam cancelling a Raleigh concert in response to HB2.

They also pointed to another email which reads "Good here."

According to the NCDP, the original email that mentions the effects of the Pearl Jam cancellation was a press release sent out to the communications department for approval, and said the response the GOP is pointing to as "cheers" are phrases approving for the copy on the release.

McCrory was asked two questions about HB2 after the agriculture bill signing.

Watch McCrory's whole response to the first question here.