Governor Cooper’s Secret Reopening Process Is Hurting North Carolina Small Businesses and Families | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Raleigh, NC     Today, Governor Roy Cooper will announce whether he will move North Carolina into Phase 3 or Phase 2.5 or maybe even go back to Phase 1. Due to the lack of transparency and consistency on the science and data, no one knows what to expect from Cooper.

    The last time North Carolina was in this situation, Cooper ambushed bars and gyms across the state by unilaterally changing his stance on bars and gyms. The vast majority of states have opened bars and gyms across America safely following CDC guidelines with no discernable impact on COVID outbreaks.

    Cooper remains deliberately evasive on why he makes these arbitrary decisions based on meetings he has with "industry leaders" in his mansion. Over 41 Governors, Republicans, and Democrats have opened Economic Reopening Task Forces, where they bring numerous business leaders and healthcare leaders together to come up with a clear, consistent, transparent reopening plan. North Carolina deserves an open reopening process, but Cooper decided to keep everything secret and under his control.

    "The fact that we are all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to see if Governor Cooper will catch up with the rest of the nation is the problem," said NCGOP Press Secretary Tim Wigginton. "Cooper should stop his secret reopening process, and instead work with all North Carolinians, including all elected officials, transparently. Businesses and families need consistency and transparency in order to get back to work. The status quo is untenable."

    However, Cooper seems to be deliberately hiding all the COVID facts, which is why a media coalition, including the AP and the New York Times, sued Cooper trying to force him to comply with the public records law. His resistance should is disappointing but not surprising since the White House Coronavirus Task Force has indicated that North Carolina made a systematic flaw in responding to COVID.

• Contact: Tim Wigginton
•     communications@ncgop.org