A new low for NC’s Republican majority

Since they didn’t have the votes to override Gov. Cooper’s budget veto honestly, House Republicans decided to lie and cheat their way to victory in the NC House

RALEIGH — The list of times Republicans in the General Assembly have said one thing and done another could stretch from Murphy to Manteo, but the GOP majority reached a new low on Wednesday by blatantly lying to House Democrats so they could override Gov. Cooper’s budget veto.

Since House Republicans did not have the votes to override the veto honestly, they told Democrats and reporters on Wednesday there would be no votes. Then minutes later, with half of the chamber absent (including lawmakers such as Rep. Garland Pierce who were attending 9/11 remembrance ceremonies), Republicans used their ill-gotten opportunity to override the budget veto 55-9 out of 120 total members.

“Exploiting 9/11 remembrance ceremonies in order to ram through a veto override they didn’t have the votes to do legitimately is truly a new low for a dishonest and cowardly GOP majority that seems deathly allergic to the idea of operating in good faith,” said Gerrick Brenner, executive director of Progress NC Action. “Time and time again, NC Republicans have shown they will lie and cheat however they can to hold onto their illegitimate and dwindling power.” 

“First, they racially gerrymandered legislative maps and passed a voter suppression law that targeted voters of color with surgical precision,” added Brenner. “When those laws were struck down, they told federal judges they wouldn’t have time to redraw fair maps in time for the 2018 election and they wouldn’t use partisan data — though both claims were later proven to be blatant lies. At this point, pretending the Republican majority has any shred of legitimacy would be like trusting a rattlesnake not to bite you.”