Local Politics

'I am so sorry': Kristin Cooper apologizes after admitting to giving middle finger to child

Kristin Cooper, Gov. Roy Cooper's wife, is apologizing for a comment she posted on Facebook about a conservative group gathered outside the governor's mansion.
Posted 2020-11-05T21:45:05+00:00 - Updated 2020-11-06T12:45:58+00:00
Conservative voter rally organizer: NC first lady admits to giving middle finger to child

Kristin Cooper, Gov. Roy Cooper's wife, is apologizing for a comment she posted on Facebook about a conservative group gathered outside the governor's mansion.

The comment was deleted, but someone took a screenshot and sent it to Michelle Morrow, who organized the conservative voter rally at the State Capitol on Sunday.

"She said it wasn't her proudest moment, but that [she] could not tolerate pathetic clowns and what we were doing on the State Capitol," said Morrow. In the post, Cooper also admitted she had given the middle finger to families with children holding flags.

Kristin Cooper apologized on Thursday, writing, "My personal Facebook comments and actions leading to it were inappropriate, and I am so sorry. I apologize to anyone I may have hurt, and I ask for forgiveness."

Morrow said the group had a permit and it was a peaceful event, but that didn't keep people from harassing them, including a group of passing drivers. 

"There were a lot of people that said 'F Trump' and 'F the police.' There were a lot of people screaming to go home," described Morrow. "We just assumed it was people who are angry or they're fearful and they're just immature and that's how they're going to express themselves, so we just moved along and didn't engage them."

Around 60 people showed up to the rally, including several families. The goal of the rally was to get Christians to vote.

Morrow brought her eight-year-old son Matthew to the rally.

"He was the young boy who was holding the 'Back the Blue' flag on Sunday," she explained. "There was a 'Back the Blue' flag, a Trump flag and then other people had American flags.”

Morrow added that she found Kristin Cooper's alleged behavior "startling for the First Lady of North Carolina because as every North Carolina citizen, we should be concerned about our religious liberties and about the right to peacefully assembly and about our First Amendment right to speak."

Morrow said she was appalled.

"I think what was very upsetting is that when I look at her personal profile, she promotes herself as someone who is an advocate for children, and yet on her Facebook account she said she did this to children holding flags and she acknowledged that it was a bunch of families," she added.

Morrow wrote to Kristin Cooper and said she would love to have a face to face meeting with her, but she has not heard back.

"We should all have a right, especially at our state capitol, to express our beliefs and we were doing so in a peaceful way," added Morrow.

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