On Friday's MTP Daily on MSNBC, during a pre-recorded interview with North Carolina Democratic Governor Roy Cooper about his efforts to get the state legislature to repeal the state's bathroom law, host Chuck Todd seemed to approach the interview with a premise sympathetic to getting the law repealed, and at one point even asked if it was possible for the Democratic governor to use an executive order to block it.
And, despite polls that have shown a substantial portion of North Carolina residents have supported the law as a reaction to the infamous Charlotte ordinance that gave men a right to demand entrance into women's restrooms, MSNBC managed to assemble a panel which supposedly did not have any supporters of the law as substitute host Chris Jansing recalled:
Cooper ran against the state's controversial HB-2 law. That's the so-called "bathroom bill" which blocks local governments from passing anti-discrimination measures. It stirred emotional protests -- both for and against. In an MSNBC panel in North Carolina this week, of three Trump supporters and two Clinton supporters, all of them expressed dissatisfaction with that law.
After showing a clip of three out of five panel members making comments complaining generally about the issue of bathrooms being debated politically, Jansing continued:
Now, backlash over the law caused a lot of organizations to pull out of the state, including the NCAA. There is bipartisan agreement in the state that something needs to be done with the law because of its economic impact. Cooper and the Republican-controlled General Assembly have been in discussions about how and if to repeal HB-2. Chuck Todd spoke with Governor Cooper earlier this week. Take a listen.
Early in the interview, after Governor Cooper complained about the "right wing" in the legislature blocking efforts to repeal the law, Todd responded:
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There's a lot of people that are probably watching from outside the state and wondering, "Geez, Presidents have executive authority -- they can do certain executive action. President Trump just had the Justice Department for instance back down on putting out those new guidances for schools when it comes to transgender restroom issues." So I guess: Do you just not have that constitutional authority in this state?
Cooper replied: "No. This is a law that the General Assembly put in place. It's like President Obama dealing with a Republican Congress. They are just laws that are on the books."
The MSNBC host then followed up: "So there's no executive authority -- there's no executive order you can issue to temporarily stop it?"
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Friday, March 3, MTP Daily on MSNBC:
5:39 p.m.
CHRIS JANSING: North Carolina's new Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, was narrowly elected in November, even as Republicans swept the rest of the ticket. Cooper ran against the state's controversial HB-2 law. That's the so-called "bathroom bill" which blocks local governments from passing anti-discrimination measures. It stirred emotional protests -- both for and against. In an MSNBC panel in North Carolina this week, of three Trump supporters and two Clinton supporters, all of them expressed dissatisfaction with that law.UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: I mean, can you imagine if every municipality had their own version of the bathroom bill? You'd go to a town, you'd think, "Where do I go to the bathroom here?"
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: The most basic thing in the world is going to the bathroom. How is it, no matter who you are, how can you make a problem out of going to the bathroom?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: We still figure out a way to argue about that, something as simple as going to the restroom.
JANSING: Now, backlash over the law caused a lot of organizations to pull out of the state, including the NCAA. There is bipartisan agreement in the state that something needs to be done with the law because of its economic impact. Cooper and the Republican-controlled General Assembly have been in discussions about how and if to repeal HB-2. Chuck Todd spoke with Governor Cooper earlier this week. Take a listen.
CHUCK TODD: So I know that you guys got close to an agreement before you were sworn in. And it was almost going to be sort of a mutual decision -- the legislature backs off if the city of Charlotte backs off -- and you got Charlotte to move. Why didn't that make it through the Assembly?
[GOVERNOR ROY COOPER (D-NC)]
TODD: There's a lot of people that are probably watching from outside the state and wondering, "Geez, Presidents have executive authority -- they can do certain executive action. President Trump just had the Justice Department for instance back down on putting out those new guidances for schools when it comes to transgender restroom issues." So I guess: Do you just not have that constitutional authority in this state?
GOVERNOR ROY COOPER (D-NC): No. This is a law that the General Assembly put in place. It's like President Obama dealing with a Republican Congress. They are just laws that are on the books. We can't do a-
TODD: So there's no executive authority -- there's no executive order you can issue to temporarily stop it?
GOVERNOR COOPER: Not that I could do to get rid of House Bill 2, and that's why the legislature has to do it.
TODD: So, look, if April 18 comes and goes -- and I know you're trying to create a deadline and a sense of urgency here -- doesn't seem the legislature has the same sense of urgency you have. If April 18 comes and goes, are you stuck with this and you just move on and try to do other things?
[COOPER]
This means you don't like the idea of one compromise idea which would tell cities they would need to put these ordinances to a local referendum?
[COOPER]
Yeah, but let me be devil's advocate here. There's clearly an exhaustion over debating this issue. If this is what it took to get HB-2 repealed, and the risk was, "Okay, other cities, you may have this pop up as a local referendum." But it may be the public is exhausted from it and at least short term you've gotten rid of HB-2.
[COOPER]
Governor, what would happen if you put HB-2 up for a referendum statewide? Would it win or lose?
[COOPER]
