Fact checking McCrory, Walker claims from the WRAL U.S. Senate debate
Former Gov. Pat McCrory claimed that the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce supported the controversial HB2 "bathroom bill." Former Congressman Mark Walker said mischaracterized an abortion debate. PolitiFact checks four standout claims from their U.S. Senate debate.
Posted — UpdatedYour browser doesn't support HTML5 video.
Republican U.S. Senate candidates Pat McCrory and Mark Walker used a televised debate to tout their records as former elected officials.
But their versions of history didn’t always track with the facts.
McCrory, a former North Carolina governor, and Walker, a former congressman from the Greensboro area, squared-off Thursday in an WRAL News debate for top Republicans seeking to replace Sen. Richard Burr, who’s retiring at the end of his term this year.
Missing from the stage was U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who is endorsed by former president Trump and is leading in key polls. Budd’s campaign said he skipped the debate to instead speak with voters face-to-face.
McCrory and Walker made several claims about themselves and Budd, including the four below that stood out to PolitiFact North Carolina.
McCrory: NC chamber supported ‘bathroom bill’
WRAL News debate host Lena Tillett asked McCrory if he would sign the controversial House Bill 2 law again, if given another opportunity.
The law, known as the “bathroom bill” or “HB2,” required transgender people to use bathrooms that aligned with the sex designated on their birth certificates in government buildings. The law received backlash from opponents who called it discriminatory against transgender people. Numerous organizations canceled plans to launch or expand businesses in North Carolina. Some political experts believe McCrory lost his reelection campaign in 2016 in part because he signed the bill.
Responding to Tillett, McCrory said he didn’t regret signing the bill. “It was passed in a bipartisan way. Democrats and Republicans voted for it. In fact, the state chamber of commerce supported it.”
In an email to WRAL on Friday, the chamber disputed McCrory's claim.
“The N.C. Chamber did not support and had no part in suggesting, drafting or reviewing House Bill 2, and anyone who suggests otherwise is misrepresenting the facts,” said Kate Catlin Payne, the chamber’s vice president of communications.
We emailed McCrory’s campaign spokesman about the chamber’s email, but didn’t receive a response.
Walker: Democrats vote against life for babies
In recent years, Republicans in Congress and in legislatures around the country have introduced multiple bills that they claim will close a legal loophole allowing clinicians to essentially neglect a baby until it dies.
Walker was likely referencing one of these bills in Thursday’s debate when he recalled a specific vote: “We were battling back and forth on this piece of legislation we had offered: Should a baby be allowed to live if it miraculously survives a botched abortion? At the end of the night, only three Democrats voted that that baby should be allowed to live.”
PolitiFact NC asked Walker’s campaign spokesman for more details about the vote the former congressman referenced, but didn’t receive a response. Democrats have generally opposed the so-called “born alive” bills because many legal experts dispute the idea that there’s a loophole in the law—or that the legislation is needed.
McCrory: “We had the largest drop in unemployment in North Carolina history.”
McCrory cast himself as the candidate with the best record for generating a healthy economy and has previously mentioned how the unemployment rate dropped during his term as governor.
During Thursday’s debate, he said: “We had the largest drop in unemployment in North Carolina history.”
If we take governors out of it and look at unemployment rates over four-year spans, McCrory’s drop wasn’t the largest. The unemployment rate fell from 10% in January 1983 to 5.1% in January 1987—a drop of 4.9%.
Walker ties drug deaths to southern border
Some business owners struggled to find workers as the economy rebounded from the coronavirus pandemic. During Thursday’s debate, candidates were asked if the government should change immigration policy in a way that would provide more laborers for American businesses.
Walker scoffed at the notion of loosening any rules that might lead to more people at the southern U.S. border, adding: “Between 18 and 50, the number one cause of death among males is some of the illicit drugs, the fentanyl that’s coming in.”
Related Topics
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.