Editorial: Phil Berger, Donald Trump and the company they keep

CBC Editorial: Tuesday, March 5, 2024; #8912

The following is the opinion of Capitol Broadcasting Company

Donald Trump, the ex-president, is the most powerful and influential Republican in the nation.

Phil Berger Sr., the leader of North Carolina legislature, is the most powerful Republican in the state.

To their most ardent followers, what they say goes! No questions asked and fewer answers offered.

When it comes to who they’d endorse to be North Carolina’s next governor they had plenty of choices. Berger and Trump chose Mark Robinson – and say voters should do the same today.

Of course the likes of Josh Stein, Michael Morgan, Marcus Williams, Chrelle Booker or Gary Foxx were dismissed out-of-hand.

That narrowed the choices to current state treasurer and former state legislator Dale Folwell, former prosecutor and 2008 gubernatorial candidate Bill Graham and current lieutenant governor and National Rifle Association personality Robinson.

Folwell, as a legislator and state treasurer, has established a steadfast record – through votes in the legislature and actions in his current office -- as a fiscal and social conservative. He has been endorsed by the State Employees Association of North Carolina.

Graham has a record as a private attorney, prosecutor and statewide candidate. He is largely funding his campaign for governor himself.

Prior to becoming lieutenant governor, Robinson had no record of public service. He’s become nationally known for inflammatory comments aimed at women, the Jewish community, environmental advocates, LGBTQ people and even school shooting survivors while embracing false conspiracy theories.

How inflammatory?

“Spoiled, angry know-it-all children” is how he described surviving victims of a school shooting.

He called a movie producer: “An agnostic Jew … satanic Marxist” who made the movie “to pull shekels.”

Former President Barack Obama is a “feckless socialist jack wagon entered the White House with a fake birth certificate.”

Those who identify as transgender should not be allowed to use restrooms they feel appropriate but should go “outside with the dog.”

These are not isolated utterances but proforma. They are the abundant fruit of the poisonous tree of bigotry, bullying and bile.

Learn more here, and here, and here, or here.

Phil Berger and Donald Trump are known by the company they keep – and endorse.

We know where Berger and Trump stand when it comes to decency and integrity.

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