Pat McCrory released a video message in his final hours as governor of North Carolina (Roy Cooper was sworn in shortly after midnight on NYE) blaming everyone else for HB2, the anti-LGBT bill passed by Republicans in a rushed special session in March.
He said HB2 likely played a major role in his election defeat, and he blamed the Charlotte City Council – which passed a nondiscrimination ordinance that prompted HB2 – as well as the LGBT advocacy groups that backed economic boycotts of the state. He called it a “manufactured crisis.”
“I wish I would have been successful in convincing Charlotte not to start this masquerade of an issue, that no doubt had an impact on my future election and on North Carolina in a very unfair way,” he says in the video, adding that he was “unsuccessful in convincing the legislature maybe not to overreact.”
Watch the portion of his message devoted to HB2:
