Cooper says "blessed are the peacemakers" as Republicans question protest response

With governor's race in the backdrop, Forest says Cooper should have called up the National Guard sooner. Cooper says he responded to local requests.

Posted 8:24 p.m. Jun 2, 2020 — Updated 1:57 a.m. Jun 3, 2020

Travis Fain

, WRAL statehouse reporter

Top Republicans continued to press Gov. Roy Cooper Tuesday on his administration's response to COVID-19 and this weekend's riots.

Lt. Gov. Dan Forest, who is running against the governor this November, asked why Cooper waited until Sunday to mobilize the National Guard. After protests turned to looting in other parts of the country, Forest said, North Carolina should have expected the same thing ahead of Saturday night's protests, which did indeed turn to riots.

Cooper said he responded to requests from local leaders, and that the state answered calls from 20 cities around North Carolina. The state sent officers and resources from the State Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol Law Enforcement and the State Highway Patrol, then activated the guard Sunday in response to requests from Raleigh and Charlotte, Cooper said.

"Those requests were honored when they were made by the mayors of these cities," Cooper said. "And I spent the weekend talking to these mayors."

Cooper spokeswoman Dory MacMillan said later Tuesday that Charlotte requested the guard about 2 pm Saturday, but units didn't arrive until Sunday.

"The Guard, which is activated for COVID-19 response, can mobilize swiftly, but it does require more advance warning than was given on Saturday," MacMillan said in an email.

The back and forth with Forest came during a morning meeting of the Council of State, North Carolina's collection of statewide elected officials.

A Forest spokesman said after the meeting that the governor's answer didn't satisfy. Other Republican officials have criticized the governor as well, urging him to take a harder line.

Forest's campaign spokesman, and his state office spokesman, largely declined an opportunity to discuss President Donald Trump's comments on these issues from Monday. The president told governors on a conference call Monday that many of them are "weak," then said in an evening speech that he's willing to send in the U.S. Military without authorization from state governors.

The lieutenant governor tweeted support for Trump's remarks Monday evening, but his spokespeople wouldn't answer follow up questions about how Forest would feel if a future president sent troops to North Carolina.

"Under Gov. Forest, there would be no need for the president to intervene in our state," campaign spokesman Andrew Dunn said in an email.

Forest's team wouldn't engage on what happened outside the White House following the president's speech. Authorities used tear gas to clear peaceful protesters from near a church that rioters burned over the weekend, according to multiple media reports from the scene. Then the president walked over, holding a Bible, for a photo opportunity.

Cooper, during an afternoon press conference, referenced the president's photo session in answering a question about Trump's call with governors.

"I will say that, in that Bible that he was holding in front of the church, is Jesus' Sermon on the mount," Cooper said. "In that sermon he said blessed are the peacemakers. I think it takes leaders of strength to be peacemakers. And right now we need leaders of strength who can hear everybody, and who can be peacemakers in this state and in this country."

During Tuesday's Council of State meeting, Forest also asked the governor whether he was in the state this weekend. Cooper said he was. The governor's office had previously told WRAL News he was in Raleigh Saturday night.

Also during the meeting, the lieutenant governor said that some people came to this weekend's protests intent on destroying property, but that shouldn't obscure the fact that "there are still a lot of difficult conversations to be had that are probably way past due in this country."

"The word that I've heard ... again and again (from civil rights leaders) is that we're exhausted," Forest said.

Cooper addressed similar issues Sunday, during a televised speech and press conference, and he re-iterated many of those sentiments during his Tuesday afternoon press conference.

"Black lives do matter," the governor said Sunday.

Also Tuesday, State Treasurer Dale Folwell continued to push the governor to communicate better with other Council of State members. Folwell asked for an administration briefing on the state's COVID-19 response, which Cooper said he'd schedule without laying out a time table.

It was Folwell who pressed for a similar briefing last month, which was scheduled some two months after the state fully geared up its response.

Folwell said after Tuesday's meeting that the governor needs to have public discussions with other state officials on COVID-19 "weekly without being asked."

The governor, a Democrat, has found some common ground with the General Assembly's Republican majority during the COVID-19 crisis, but the relationship is typically acrimonious.

Among other things, GOP leaders surprised the state just before Cooper took office by coming into a special session to strip the governor's office of various powers, a move that sparked multiple lawsuits and a back-and-forth over the separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.

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