Over the past weeks, in a ploy to appeal to moderate voters, both Senator Richard Burr and Governor Pat McCrory repeatedly said they would not attend the Republican National Convention. In a striking reversal, both officials traveled to Cleveland this week to support the coronation of Donald Trump.
Though Burr and McCrory have gone to great lengths to mask their presence at the convention, with neither making any mention on their website or social media accounts, Governor McCrory was outed on Twitter, and many were surprised to see Burr in attendance yesterday morning. Senator Burr announced that despite running for reelection this year, he will not run for Senate in 2022.
Despite their efforts to dodge their ties to Donald Trump, their records prove they are fully aligned with Trump’s divisive and hateful ideology.
McCrory has become infamous for his attacks on immigrants. Last October, he signed an anti-immigrant bill that targeted the undocumented community, and then in November he declared that Syrian refugees are not welcome in North Carolina.
For his part, Senator Burr voted to deport DREAMers and the parents of U.S. citizens. He voted against immigration reform that would have provided relief to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants in North Carolina, and he has defended Trump’s Muslim ban.
Thus is it no surprise that at the North Carolina delegation meeting in Cleveland yesterday, Burr called unequivocally for fellow Republicans to “get 100 percent behind Donald Trump.”
Given their records, North Carolinians can imagine Burr and McCrory to be quite at home in the crowd in Cleveland as speaker after speaker demonizes and scapegoats the immigrant community.
“Senator Burr and Governor McCrory are no moderates. They are lock-step with Trump and his hateful, anti-immigrant agenda, said Tim Eakins, Director of North Carolina’s Voice. “While they try to hide their true intentions, their records speak for themselves. Come November, North Carolinians will reject their extreme agenda that seeks to divide this great state.”
