Transcripts For CSPAN2 Campaign 2020 North Carolina Governors Debate 20240712

North carolina Gubernatorial Debate produced in association with the North Carolina association of broadcasters Educational Foundation and umc tv. We introduce the candidates tonight, the governor of North Carolina democrat roy cooper. And the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina republican dan we should note that this debate tonight is happening of course during a critical time for our state, the covid pandemic. Many North Carolina people have died of the virus. Many are ill. Our prayers go out to the families involved. In fact, you will probably notice several physical precautions tonight inside the studio to help ensure safety against covid19 spread, including the fact theres no Live Audience in the studio tonight. Only the two candidates, the moderator, and some studio technicians. And in fact, in just the last 12 hours, everybody in the building and in the studio tonight has tested negative for covid19. We quickly want to review the rules of the debate tonight. It will last one hour. It wiwill begin one minute openg statements by the candidate. I will submit the questions to the candidates tonight. In that segment, the questions were determined by the moderator, and the Radio Television Digital News Association of the carolinas. The questions have not been read or seen by the candidates nor their staff. Each candidate will have one minute to respond to each question and a 30 second rebuttal opportunity, and i will reserve the right to ask followup questions as needed. The debate will end tonight with 90 second closing statements by each candidate. A device will notify them of their remaining times and when time has expired. Well try to ask as many questions as possible, and we ask the candidates to adhere to 2 t time limits to the time limits so we can do that. An earlier coin toss determined the starting order for the Opening Statement and the first question response tonight. Mr. Cooper, you won the coin toss. Please begin tonight with your one minute Opening Statement. Thanks for joining everybody. Today our world is different. This debate is different. A Global Pandemic has turned our lives upside down and killed over 215,000 americans. And tonights different because of the plexiglas thats separating dan forest and me. It is there because of the last eight months including last night dan forest has been having in person events with no masks or social distancing. Thats reckless and endangers North Carolina people including the staff in this room. Leaving our neighbors in harms way and risking lives, thats not the North Carolina way. Overcoming challenges and taking care of one another, thats the North Carolina that i know. Were going to beat this pandemic, working together. And tonight, you will hear how dan forest and i differ. You will see the choice more clearly than ever before, that either in this pandemic or any other issue, im going to keep putting you and North Carolina first. Tlung thank you, mr. Cooper. Thank you, mr. Cooper. Mr. Forest, your one minute Opening Statement. Thanks, wes, and the Broadcasters Association and Governor Cooper as well for having this debate tonight. Its been an honor to serve you for the last eight years as your Lieutenant Governor. Im really proud of the accomplishments that weve been able to achieve during that time. But my natural habitat is not in politics. My natural habitat is actually architecture, and i serve there for 22 years of my life, was an Office President and a senior partner with the states largest architectural firm, and i enjoyed every minute of it. I still love architecture. I love the design process my wife and i have been married for 29 years. We have four kids. Were all in this together. We love serving the people of North Carolina. Im thankful for this opportunity here tonight. I do this for you and your families and my family as well, and we look forward to serving as your governor for the next four years. Thank you very much, mr. Forest. Now we begin our questionandanswer segment. We begin tonight with mr. Cooper. One of your opponents most recent ads alleges that your administrations Pandemic Response and protocols have not protected the people of North Carolina and left some of the most vulnerable behind, it says, and hurt the economy. What would you say about that . How has it affected the state . This pandemic has taken thousands of North Carolina people from us too soon. Its left people hurting and jobless and separated from their loved ones but at every single point, ive used science and data to make the tough decisions. There is no question that our strong actions early and the persistence of most North Carolina people have saved lives. When i mandated masks, our cases levelled off, but then dan forest lied to the public and said masks dont work. He even sued me to stop our Safety Measures. Thank goodness he lost. You know, politicians like this who hold these in person events and discourage masks, they are part of the problem. They make it harder for us to ease our Safety Measures, hardest for us to get our children back in school where they need to be and harder for us to slow the spread of this virus. Thank you, mr. Cooper. Mr. Forest, same question, what about the governors protocols in about the governors protocols . It should be no surprise to anybody why Governor Cooper has spent tens of millions of dollars of negative ads against me during this campaign talking about masks. Masks is a great cover for what he really doesnt want to talk about, the over million and a half people that hes left unemployed, the thousands of businesses that have been shut down, the thousands of businesses that will never reopen again, the suicide and addiction, drug addiction, alcohol addiction and anxiety, depression, you name it, thats wreaking havoc on our state all over from one end of North Carolina to the next. So theres a lot of things in Governor Coopers record that he just doesnt want to tell you. He spends a lot of time talking about masks. Mr. Forest, 30 second rebuttal, mr. Cooper. Well, now youre not just ignoring science. Youre ignoring common sense. You cannot wish the pandemic away. It doesnt work like that. It requires all of us doing our part. It is going to take us dealing with this pandemic and slowing the spread to get our economy fully going again, and when youre out there pretending that there is no pandemic, thats going to hurt the number of jobs that we have. Look, i took an oath to be faithful to the state of North Carolina, and ive been doing that every single day by making sure were putting health and safety first during this pandemic. 30 seconds, mr. Forest . Theres no doubt, theres a pandemic, and theres no doubt that it is real. In fact, half of the deaths in North Carolina have come from Nursing Homes, which are under the direct control of Governor Cooper. If he spent half the amount of time, energy, and money, just focusing on the most vulnerable in North Carolina, wed have half the amount of deaths in North Carolina as well. We need to make sure is that we can do two things at once in america. We can protect the most vulnerable and allow the healthy folks to get back to their livelihoods. Next question for you, mr. Forest. The virus, the subsequent issues politically and economically have certainly hurt the states economy, a graduated return could make things worse or could result in worse things what would you do now if you take the Governors Mansion in january to get the economy jumpstarted again . We would do what i just said, protecting the most vulnerable, the elderly, with multiple comorbidities thats where we should spend our time and attention. We should allow Healthy People to get back to life and school. Our kids have missed almost an entire year of school for no reason whatsoever. This virus is like 17 times to more likely be impacted from the flu than the coronavirus. Our kids need to be in school right now. We need to get peoples livelihoods back. Ive been traveling across the state. It is devastating across the state. Businesses have been closed. People have lost everything. What were doing is trading Public Health for Public Health. Theres a Public Health crisis on the side of coronavirus with the virus itself and theres a Public Health crisis on the other side with all the complications of the virus. Mr. Cooper, one minute what do we do to recover economically now . Slowing the spread of this virus helps us recover our economy. Weve been recruiting tens of thousands of jobs to our state, even during this pandemic. Forbes magazine has ranked North Carolina number one in business for only three years, and those are the three years that i have been governor. We even had to overcome the house bill 2 bathroom bill that dan forest pushed on our state, but weve been able to do that. Now, our Small Businesses have been hit hard, and we need to help them, and in fact, i put forward funding to help them. We need to Push Congress to do more to help them. We need to provide more for our unemployed. We have one of the worst unemployment systems, the stingiest unemployment system in the country. I pushed this legislature to do more for them, but those in the legislate continue to say no. We can improve this economy. We have to slow the spread of this virus. Thats what were doing right now is slowing the spread. We cant have people being irresponsible and telling people they dont need to were i are about this pandemic. They dont need to worry about this pandemic. 30 seconds, rebuttal, mr. Forest . I agree we should never tell people that they dont need to worry about the pandemic, but never also tell people that their jobs are not important and they cant earn a living for themselves or theyre nonessential. Theres no such thing as a nonessential job in america. The governors laid off over a million and a half people in North Carolina. You cant claim all the jobs you have created when you have laid off a million and a half. We need to get people back to work and protect the most vulnerable. We can do two things at once, one of the most innovative countries in the world and one of the most innovative states in america. Thank you, mr. Forest. We are now going to go to the rebuttal for mr. Cooper. 30 seconds. You talk about protecting the most vulnerable. Were doing that in our Nursing Homes, but the problem is, dan, you treat Nursing Homes like an island in that everybody else can do whatever they want and you can still protect Nursing Homes. That is not the way it works. When you have people out there discouraging masks, when you have people out there trying to prove theres not a pandemic, then you end up having more people who are infected. It could be a nursing home staff member, a visitor to the nursing home, those people go in and bring covid19 into the nursing home. Thats a problem. It all works together, and we need strong measures to make sure we slow down the spread of this virus. Mr. Cooper, who would have thought the mask issue would get this big . Weve heard so much about it. We do see despite your order a lot of people out not wearing masks. You have accused mr. Forest of it. We have seen neighbors, people in our churches, compliance is still largely voluntary and without any real enforcement of it, how effective has it been, and when might you lift that mandate . Well, theres no question that its been effective because once we required masks, our cases levelled off. Most North Carolina people want to do the right thing. We have worked closely with retailers. I have told them look, it is good for your bottom line to insist that people wear masks when they come on to your Retail Establishment because the employees want that and the customers there want that. We need to make sure we continue to push this. We have talked to Law Enforcement. Law enforcement is a little hesitant to enforce the mandate, but many of them go up and talk to people and tell people they should be wearing masks, and a number of Law Enforcement have agreed to come to Retail Establishments and to say to them, okay, well remove someone for trespassing if they are not wearing a mask like they ought to. The thing is if we had real leaders across the board who would tell people that masks are important. You heard the cdc chair say this mask is the most important weapon that we can have, rather have a mask than a vaccine. We need all of our leaders talking about this so we can slow the spread. Mr. Forest, same question, how effective is the order been . And are you personally against it, people deciding . Im not personally against people deciding at all. I have never said that. In fact, i have always said it should be a personal responsibility choice. It doesnt need to be a governors mandate. We dont need a governor that treats us like 5yearolds. We need a governor that does protect us, but not treat us like were little kids. Masks arent the solution to everything. In fact, dr. Fauci said masks dont work. The Surgeon General of the United States said masks dont work. The cdc said masks dont work. There are scientists and doctors all over the world right now that have come together under the great declaration, 35,000 of them today, from leading universities and hospitals all over the world, nobel Prize Winners who are coming out and saying the lockdown mandates and the masks are actually causing more harm than good. We need to protect the vulnerable. We need to do that right now. We need to let all the Healthy People get back to a normal way of life. All right. Thank you, mr. Forest. Rebuttal, mr. Cooper . Really dan . Really . Masks dont work . Scientists say they dont . That is just absolutely not true. Youre finding that on the dark corners of the internet. Across the board, scientists, dr. Fauci, dr. Redfield, are saying that masks are our best weapon to slow the spread of the virus. There is no cost to this. People can wear it. Theres no kinds of restrictions. You can just wear the mask. Were talking about looking after your neighbor. You wear the mask to protect other people, particularly if you do not know that you have the virus. Thats amazing. 30 seconds mr. Forrest cdc released their study about masks wearing in positive covid cases, 85 of the positive cases in america are from people who say they wore the mask every day all the time or at least almost all the time, 85 of the positive cases. Governor cooper says the cases went down when he made his mask mandate. They didnt. They levelled off for a short period and then they actually went up again. You are not seeing the impact that we should be seeing with everybody wearing masks. Thats not just the case. The next question, mr. Forest, the States Employment Security Division has come under some great scrutiny here during the pandemic of poor customer service, of slow processing of claims and complaints, and if youre elected, what do you do to change that and the Employment Security division . This is a place where leadership really does matter. The governors completely failed the people of North Carolina. Its pretty unbelievable that very early side of this, when he was getting ready to lay off a half a Million People for restaurants, i said are you prepared for 500,000 people to be laid off . There was silence on the phone, but no, apparently he was not prepared for 500,000 people to be laid off in one day because in fact, the employment securities folks didnt respond to people for months. My office who is not even responsible for employment securities helped over 25,000 people get their unemployment. Why . Because when they called the governors office, there was a busy signal. When they called unemployment securities office, they didnt get any help. They heard through the internet that they could come to the Lieutenant Governors office and we would help them out. We will transform employment securities. We will make sure that when we have an issue in North Carolina, that we need to provide that service, that that service is going to be available for the people of North Carolina. There is a logjam now, mr. Cooper . No, people are getting their unemployment payments now, and in fact, when this pandemic hit, North Carolina had the worst, the stingiest, the shortest unemployment system in the country because of dan forest and the legislative leadership. A system that was built to take thousands of claims a month, all of a sudden had hundreds of thousands of claims, but despite that, this department has pulled together and gotten out 8. 2 billion dollars to almost a Million People. A lot of people when they lost jobs, they also lost their Health Insurance. So one of the things that we could do to help these people is to expand medicaid, to help these hundreds of thousands of people, but dan forest and the legislative leadership say no to expanding medicaid, even in the middle of a pandemic. That is hard to believe, but weve got a lot of work to do, and im going to continue working as governor to make sure we help everyone find a job and to make sure that people have the help they need. 30 second, rebuttal . Well, governor, what we can do to help these people is give them their job back. You can open up the economy and get people back to work again, protect the most vulnerable. We know how to do that. We knew how to do that months ago. We can do that now. Put your time and your energy and your effort and your money into protecting the Vulnerable People to keep them from getting the virus. Let everybody else go back to work. Then you dont have to worry about their Health Insurance at the same level. They will have a job again. They will have insurance. Thats the most important thing you can do right now. We work to get people back to work, and in fact, we provided funding for Small Businesses to help them, and i issued executive orders to try to protect people and to not have to look for another job while they are on unemployment so they can go back to the business that they left. I even proposed significantly more to help these Small Businesses during the pandemic. Even if you removed all of the safeguards, people arent going to be able to come back to places where people are crowding together. But you and the legislative leadership rebuffed it and scaled back significantly the amount of money that i asked for for Small Businesses that they desperately need right now. Next question, gentlemen. Schools and learning and mr. Cooper, our schools are still not fully open. Maybe not even close. Do you see a time when the entire state can be open again . How soon . What has to happen first . Number one priority for me is to make sure that we get our children back in school again. We want our schools back normal. But we have to make sure that its safe for teachers and students. And while im using science and data to help make those decisions, dan forest is holding a press conference, saying were going to fill all the classes back up immediately. Were not going to have any masks, no social distancing, and no Safety Measures. That is dangerous. And it is stunning to me that he would use children as political pawns during the middle of a pandemic. But what dan forest really wants to do with our Public Schools, he wants to starve them for funding and then use those tax dollars to help rich people send their children to private schools using vouchers. That is not what our schools need trying to come out of this pandemic. We need to do more for Public Education, not less. And we need to put safety over politics. Well get to vouchers in just a few minutes. Mr. Forest, same question, when will school return . As soon as im governor, school will return. Schools are open all over the world. Schools are open all over the United States. In fact, private schools have been open for 12 weeks in North Carolina, all over North Carolina, with no outbreak, no trouble from anybody. Our Public Schools can be open the same way. The governor wont take any advice from anybody. Ive talked to multiple nurses, covid nurses that are front line nurses, said they have tried to contact the governors office. They have contacted mandy cohen. They have contacted their superintendent saying we will help you get open. Were dealing with covid front line every single day. We know how to do this. We can keep kids safe. We can keep teachers safe. Lets get our schools open because this is far more dangerous for our kids not being in school than it is for them dealing with this on the other side. So our kids are having massive struggles right now, anxiety, depression, screen addiction, abuse, 50 reduction in child abuse right now because kids arent in school. If they were in school, their teachers would be able to discover it and get these kids help but they are locked in their homes with their abusers. This is a horrible situation for our kids 30 seconds, mr. Cooper. There are a lot of cases in our schools, but i want to make sure we get our children back in school too, but safely. The Lieutenant Governor is on the state board of education, where the School Opening plans are discussed and voted on. While im working with them and Public Health officials, hes missed almost half the board of education meetings during the pandemic. You cant play hookie, skip the tough decisions, skip the tough votes and still be a leader in Public Education in the state. I have been to almost every one of those meetings, especially every voting meeting, my staff sits in my education advisors and staffers sit on those meetings. We have always been present at all of them. We dont miss them. The governors plan a, b, and c never worked. I didnt vote for it. It came before the board, i asked him what is the goal . What are we trying to achieve with plan a b and c . There were 15 seconds of silence on the phone. Nobody knew what the goal was and how we were going to be ready to get back to class. Thats not a plan or leadership. Thats why i voted against it. Couple more covid issues here, gentlemen. Mr. Forest, there will still be concern when kids go back even if youre governor, as you said in january, what do the teachers think about this . Their workload is so heavy right now. Are they going to be held responsible for making sure everythings clean, that the personal hygiene of every child is met well . Well, i mean, the teachers have all kinds of responsibility on their hands every day. It is kind of unbelievable. Teachers are doing double and triple duty of their work now as they are trying to teach online part time, teach in class part time and deal with all the other struggles that they have to deal with. What we have said in the press conference is not at all what the governor said. We said let the local communities decide how to safely open their schools and deal with teachers. If there are teachers that have comorbidities and issues, let them deal with their principal. They can teach online, teach virtually. If there are parents who dont want their kids to go back to school, let them make that decision. For parents who want their kids in the classroom, they should have the option and the right to be able to get their kids back in the classroom where they can learn again. Our kids are missing a year of school. We can figure this out. This is not that difficult. We can figure out how to keep a school clean. Our kids are not even at serious risk from coronavirus. 17 times more likely to die from the seasonal flu than they are from coronavirus. Kids are not impacted. So lets get our kids back. If somebody wants to keep their kid home, they can, if a Teacher Needs to stay out, they can. But we need to open our schools. Mr. Cooper, what about that . Teachers cleaning up, being responsible . Still denying the science. You said you went to every meeting. That is not true. You missed almost half of them during the pandemic. Let me tell you this about teachers in our schools. We cannot keep leaving our teachers behind and expecting them to lead our children into the future. This legislature, dan forest and the legislative leadership has shortchanged education over and over and over. We need to invest. Were asking them to do more than ever in the middle of this pandemic. We are asking them to learn how to do remote learning, to go into schools to help teach our children in person and many of them are doing it right now. We have to support them. My mom was a public schoolteacher. Im a product of Public Schools. It is important to me, and we need to make sure that we get through this pandemic, get our children back safely in the classroom in the right way and then fund Public Education like we ought to. 30 second rebuttal, mr. Forets . Well, if the governor paid attention to the numbers, hed know that North Carolina is now number one in the southeast for increased funding in Public Education, but he probably doesnt know that because hes vetoed every single budget since hes been governor, including every single teacher pay raise. He claims hes all for teacher pay until its time to pass the budget for teacher pay. Weve increased teacher pay over 20 since republicans have been in control, but the governors vetoed every single budget. Every single one. So we have been doing those things. He just hasnt been paying attention because hes been vetoing them all. Mr. Cooper, big concern right here amongst students is the large number of disadvantaged students, which i want to get to, but your rebuttal then on the teachers in the classroom when they go back. We need to make sure were funding education properly. Theres no question that the General Assembly has done more with teacher pay, has reestablished Teaching Fellow scholarships, has expanded prek, and it is because i made education front and center. The reason i vetoed those bad budgets is because they put corporations over classrooms. This General Assembly wants to continue with the sweeping Corporate Tax cuts that hurt our schools, along with the private School Vouchers that hurt our schools, and we need to do a lot better than that. And about those disadvantaged students, sir, theres a large number. They are falling behind because of the Digital Divide what do you do to level the Playing Field for this percentage of kids to get them back up to speed and caught up . Every household needs access to high Speed Internet access, and in North Carolina, we have provided millions of dollars to try and do that. I have my hometown strong effort thats getting Digital Learning to these students, but now we know that closing that Digital Divide is more important than ever, not only because remote learning, which we need, but also telemedicine and for our Small Businesses. I have proposed a 250 Million Dollars bond that would go along with the School Construction bond because thats part of our infrastructure. But once again, dan forest and the legislature have turned that away. We have to invest more for high Speed Internet access. We need to make sure that we arent just having to do hot spots everywhere, which is what were trying to do now for shortterm, but weve got to do better. We need them to pass that bond. Mr. Forest, one minute. The question i think, wes, was about special needs kids yes. And those kinds of folks. Special needs kids especially are getting hit really hard here during this. Talked to special needs parents about every day, at least multiple times a week said their kids are learning absolutely nothing. They will log on to class, they lay on the sofa. Special needs kids needs teachers in a classroom. All kids needs teachers in a classroom. Thats the way it is supposed to be. We need to get back to that. Thats first and foremost. The governor likes to run around claiming his success with Teaching Fellows program. He actually vetoed that as well. That was a veto by the governor. He had nothing to do with that. The legislature funded that too. Hometown strong, nice slogan, but hes done nothing for small town North Carolina. You want to talk about access to broad band, i led the effort for broad band connectivity in the classroom. Were the first state in nation to have every single classroom connected to high speed broad band. When im governor, we will be the first state in the nation to actually have all of the last mile connected to high speed broad band. And mr. Cooper, were talking about special Needs Children, but also disadvantaged, economically disadvantaged. Your reply . Theres no question that special Needs Children need help, and they do not respond well for remote learning. And its one of the reasons that we went ahead and implemented plan a, where k through 5 can go back fully into school with appropriate Safety Measures as long as the local board of education approves it. We know that special Needs Children need special attention. Its one to have reasons why i put forward 35 Million Dollars out of the governors discretionary money out of the cares act specifically for special Needs Children. Reply there, mr. Forest . Talking about were getting our k 5 open, great. Im all in favor. I actually voted to get k 5 open, but i actually proposed an amendment in that state board to allow the counties that want to open all the way up k through 12 to be able to do that. Theres no reason if a county is ready and prepared and they can safely open and their parents want it, they should be able to do that. I tried that the state board of education thats controlled by democrats by his appointment said no. The governor has all the authority here. He said k 5, not willing to open up the rest. i believe the government now because Governor Cooper shut down and all the businesses that are going bankrupt and people having to take out loans for the first time and people that have never had to spend a dime on their business through loans that have to do that now. The government has a moral imperative. The government of the United States, these leaders like our governor of the one to shut the place down. These businesses did not do that on their own. Remember the beginning it was just closed after two weeks, just two weeks and everything will be okay. Two weeks turned into a month and the most turned into too much than two months turned into formats and four months turned at eight months. The government will have an imperative. This could be one of most difficult things with ever done in State Government that will take years to build this out long after Governor Cooper is gone. Mr. Cooper, do you see a tax increase necessary or at least a rollback of cats . We do not need increase taxes in order to handle this budget. What we need to do is stop the tax giveaways to the wealthy and stop the sweeping Corporate Tax cuts that dan forest and legislative leaders continue to put on people. What we need to do is we need to help those businesses that what we need is leaders who are going to get out there and help to slow the spread of the virus. There are a lot of businesses that are hurting that have no economic restrictions on them. Thats because a lot of people are not going to engage in the economy until they feel safe and if we have leaders out there who are trying to say everything is fine, you dont need to wear a a mask of you dont need to worry about it, open everything up, everything is fine, denying science, then thats just wrong. Thats going to end up hurting us more economically. You complain about the economy but you wont do the simple things you need to do to fix it and that slow the spread of this fiber. About this budget, rebuttal . On out there with all these people who are dying right now, died not just from covid that died because their businesses are going out of business and they dont know what to do. They are at their wits end because what the government is doing. This covert sites is an interesting thing because you cross the border into South Carolina as alkaline is open. People are going to restaurants and doing things across it a tendency into this is open, cross into george and george is open and they are learning now to live with the virus and protect the vulnerable and get people back to work. Theyre learning how to do that. Stay with the state budget, mr. Cooper . Its interesting dan mentions georgia. We heard a lot about what he wants to do and he wants to be like georgia. Georgia is about the same size as North Carolina yet they have almost 100,000 more cases, they have almost half, almost twice as many deaths and they have almost 600 more nursing home deaths than North Carolina. Thats the kindest date you get with dan forest as governor. More cases, more deaths, more deaths in Nursing Homes. I dont think people in North Carolina want that. Mr. Cooper, the legislature in past years has targeted across the board pay increases for certain segments of state employees, perhaps teachers at one time there was then Correctional Officers and different percentages. Do you think thats necessarily equitable and what would be your next classification to get paid more . The first thing we have got to do is pay our teachers. Weve got to get our teacher pay to at least the national average. I do know State Government needs to recruit good employees across the board and sometimes you need to pay more in order to get the engineers and get the technicians and people that you need in State Government. Its important for us, i go back to this Corporate Tax cuts, this legislative leadership that dan forest has been a part of has got hundreds of millions of dollars out of our tax base that could have gone for pay raises for teachers and other state employees but its been given away to corporations and the wealthiest among us. Thats where we have our biggest difference. Theyre so question we have to pay our teachers more. We have to pay our Law Enforcement more to attract and retain the best lawenforcement officers. Were doing that with corrections officers. One thing i do know is we have got to stop this Corporate Tax cuts in order to be able to have the money to be able to do it. Who deserves the next raise . Let me first just hit on the Corporate Tax cuts. The Governor Reynolds against Corporate Taxcut all day long but he loves going and getting queen citys to corporations when they are coming to town. He went back to the legislature asked for more money so they could give more money away to big corporate interests come into our state. You can have it both ways. You cant say we dont want tax cuts but were going to get people tax money when it come to the state. Thats not the way it works. Yes, we continue to increase teacher pay. We have done a year over year. The only state in the country that has that is done in seven years and wrote under republican control. He vetoed it. We are passing it as republicans continue to do that. When it start focusing a state employees. We have hardworking state employees that deserve a raise and make sure we can attract and retain the best workers. We need to work on their work environment, tried the route of. The morale is some of the lowest morale thats been in years. The Highway Patrol has a lowest morale ive seen in eight years under Governor Cooper is leadership. We need to get that back and get there. And other state employees as well. Thirty seconds, mr. Cooper. You dont know how incentives work. You only Pay Incentives to corporations when they have a job that has been created and they get a tax credit for that. Its very specific. What you been doing which is a big difference is sweeping tax cuts across the board, a lot of outofstate corporations and if it from it who dont create one single job in North Carolina. Youve got to learn how this works if youre going to the governor, dan. Thanks very much, mr. Cooper. 30 seconds, mr. Forest. I know how this works. Ive been in the Business World for most of my life. Worked to bring projects to northville and before i was in politics. I know exactly how incentives work and another tax system works but it were North Carolina we cut taxes. We cut personal income tax, cut Corporate Income tax. He said the state will go broke. We will not have any money. Weve had surpluses, 300 million, 900 million surplus of before this which has allowed us to put my weight in the Rainy Day Fund since with multiple Rainy Day Funds and the government has appreciated that. Next question, mr. Forest, you do support homeschooling, School Vouchers, school choice. Put all of your philosophy for education in together including Public Education. I think parents should be able to choose. We should continue to improve all forms of education. We should have excellent education for everybody. That doesnt matter the flavor. A parent chooses homeschooling gray, a Public Charter School great. 85 of parents still to traditional public school. Thats great. We should allow those choices to happen because thats what the parents are choosing. The government onesizefitsall approach to education doesnt work. We need to turn education and make sure with actual education for everybody. As far as opportunity scholarships go, we put money aside for the poorest kids and our state to have an opportunity to get out of a Failing School so they can have excellent education. The governor said he would get rid of opportunity scholarships. He wouldnt allow these poor kids to get out of the Failing School to go to Good Private School if thats what the pirates one. He is seeing his daughter to an elite private school. Its okay. But not for poor kids. I think thats egregious. Your response . He talks about the surplus weve had every year. Why dont we pay teachers more max asked what ive been saying time and again that they wont do it. These private School Vouchers come have you read your own plan, dan . Your own plan says that everybody gets it. That means that rich parents would be able to use these vouchers in order to send their children to private school. Two of my children spend their entire career in Public Schools and one most of her career in public school. I will say this, we have got to stop these Corporate Tax cuts, invest in education, increase our poor people expenditure. Yes, i for charter schools. They can work well and we need to do things to make education better, treat teachers like professionals can make sure we recruit the very best and the brightest and we need people to stand up for our Public Schools to tell about the good things that are going on like i do. Thirtysecond rebuttal. Instead of vetoing every budget again that we have done with education increases that it got us know when its out stop these for increased funding and education, number one in the southeast. Instead of the psp to the mall. He steadfastly nothing for education come see her. Weve been working on Financial Literacy and economics, got that in every high school in North Carolina now. That is a top priority for kids to learn, Computer Science can or cant competencybased learning, working on diminishing testing so our teachers can teach in the classroom. Thats what we should be working on. Mr. Cooper. He is satisfied with teacher pay draggy with which each of the extent step it you ask most teachers in something they are proud of and they will tell you know. We have the ability to do more and we should do more. We have to increase our investment in Public Education. It is the foundation for our future. I recruit companies in order to let all the time. I talked to ceos. They dont ask me about Corporate Taxes. But the ask me about his workforce and the ask can you provide education so we can have a workforce that can do the jobs that we create . Thats why we need to invest. Next question about race. The matter of racism is very hot in the United States right now. Governor cooper g believe that systemic racism exists in North Carolina . If so, what do you do about it to address a . I think the death of george floyd opened painful wounds, and we need to listen to people who looked up their voices for a quality and justice. We cannot tolerate violence and destruction, and anybody who does that should make sure that they are held responsible. But our communities are working very hard to keep themselves safe, to start their economies going. Dan forest right now is doing what no leader should do. He got caught running an ad using fake riot footage from washington and new york pretending it was actual hurting their economy. That is unacceptable. Dan forest is using this issue for fear and division, and he thinks thats going to win this race for him, and i think hes wrong. Systemic racism very clearly he didnt answer that question. I dont think the systemic raisin. Ms. Racism. We should reject it at every single term. Thats what we should do in america but the governor says we should also reject violence and destruction and looting when he stood by he was locked in his mansion surrounded by a wall come surrounded by fans, i please cars and Police Officers in riot gear and just two blocks away downtown raleigh was being destroyed. Downtown charlotte was been destroyed. Downtown asheville was been destroyed. The government to do anything about that. He had the ability to call up the national guard. I will never allow an angry mob to destroy one of our cities. On the actual footage, actual footage the news stations that its use. Thats why they couldnt use it but by deceptive anybody knows it. People in these cities now they been dealing with its the distraction. I was eating and downtown quality of the day. It still boarded up. When im governor you would have to worry about that. Thirty seconds, mr. Cooper. Dan likes to ignore my record as a top Law Enforcement officer of state and attorney general for 16 years. As governor i signed a bill to double the penalties for anybody who would attack a Law Enforcement officer with a gun. We have to make sure we have strong Law Enforcement. But lets dont forget that it was dan Forest Supporters who are out in the middle of the street in raleigh burning masks and calling Police Officers pigs. Yet dan forest said and did nothing about that. Thats the most bizarre comment ive ever heard. My supporters in the streets calling Police Officers pigs next those are not my supporters. Those are your supporters, the ones you want to write before they ride it downtown raleigh. Thats what were dealing with right now. That is why the vast majority, almost every single Law Enforcement organization in North Carolina has endorsed dan forest because they know the governor does not support Law Enforcement and he didnt did 6 years as attorney general either. Thank you. Next question has to do with medicaid and teacher pay as weve seen in the last few years, the republican legislature, the democratic governor have a longrunning battle over this but what it is resulted in his teachers that getting pay raises and on the other side the medicaid not be expanded to people who would otherwise qualify for in the state. Is there a way we can do that . What do we have to do to serve both groups . All we need is a new governor. I will work with the General Assembly. I wont work against him. We have given teacher pay raises every therapy until Governor Cooper became governor and started vetoing every single pay raise. We were able to pass some intense negative badges but he keeps claiming i want more teacher pay and that he says zero is better than something. No, it is not. Zero is not better than something. We have given teachers 20 pay increases. Every single year with increase teacher pay and keep doing it. We will keep working on that but as long as the covenant keeps vetoing budgets we will not. I will not be to the budget, work with the jealous of the, come with a plan not just for education and teachers that keeps funding those things but for those of the things we did it as well. Weve been doing that. The governor has been an obstructionist ever since he been in office. Hes never tried to work with the General Assembly. What im governor i will. Mr. Cooper. Im just not going to rubberstamp everything they do like you are doing but healthcare is one of the most important issues we face right now and closing healthcare coverage gap particularly in the middle of the pandemic i believe is a moral imperative. We have a way to get healthcare the construction workers comp to Early Childhood educators, by expanding medicaid. 39 other states have done it including indiana when mike pence was governor. I was talking to Early Childhood teacher who was mourning the death of a coworker who had died of a stroke. She was treating herself at home with Home Remedies for high Blood Pressure because she didnt have Health Insurance. If North Carolina had expanded medicaid she might be alive today. This is wrong to withhold coverage from over half a million working north carolinians. All we have to do is to say yes, and enforce dan forest and to continue republican continue to stop it. 1. 5 million working north carolinians, they were working until you laid them off and now theres 1. 8 million without jobs. Give the job spec so they can get healthcare back. Everybody needs healthcare. We know that. You cannot survive in this world today without healthcare coverage. We need to continue to drive down costs and try the quality medicaid is not the way to do that. A onesizefitsall Government Program is not the way to do that. The governor wants more money to expand the largest ages in the state would you cant manage the dot or hurricanes are managed this in Nursing Homes. You want to give it might increase the Largest Agency in the state . Not good business. Look, we can expand medicaid in North Carolina and it will cost the state any additional money. Its time to do it now. The people of this state deserve to get healthcare coverage. And talks were getting a job as a magical thing that would you healthcare. There are hundreds of thousands of people in this state who have jobs but dont have employersponsored Health Insurance and cant afford it. They want to keep working to support their family. We could expand medicaid to get those working people Health Insurance you have no plan, dan, no plan at all. Gentlemen, we have time for one more question and rebuttals tonight and i do want to talk about hurricanes. They have decimated come flooding has decimated large portions of the state in just the last four years we have had three major hurricanes and flooding. What specifically needs to be done to prevent future flooding, and how can we be sure this wont be constructed just to simply set up the same thing to get flooded again . First, we inherited a broken longterm recovery system in North Carolina when i became governor and we fixed it. We set up the North Carolina office of recovery and resilience. We understand that we have to rebuild smarter and stronger and we got out 3. 5 billion for people to rebuild their homes, rebuild their business, rebuild infrastructure. I talked woman in johnston county. She couldnt get any federal help. She didnt have Flood Insurance but we were able to provide state grants to her in order for her to be able to build a new house. Thats the kind of thing we need to do. North carolinians are strong and resilient. We also have to fight Climate Change. Dan forest denies Climate Change. What we have to do is make sure we are setting forth Renewable Energy and making sure we get to carbon zero not only to fight Climate Change but also to create Good Clean Energy Jobs in North Carolina. We are going to continue to do that with my Clean Energy Plant in North Carolina. Mr. Forest, one minute. Its a real issue as you know. There are still thousands of people across the state that are waiting to be helped from hurricane matthew, Hurricane Florence and hurricanes. When Governor Cooper got elected he was out there with the scammers at his microphone in front of everybody taking pictures that there are still people that are not gotten help from those hurricanes. South carolina built 1000 homes before North Carolina built even one. I will do better than that. When it comes to flooding the governors plan was to put 300 processes on the road. My plan will be to drag the creeks and rivers that are causing the flooding in eastern North Carolina so it doesnt happen again. Thats a real plan. Theres plenty we can do and plenty we can talk about what we need to start with the basics. Mr. Cooper, rebuttal . We are rebuilding stronger and smarter, doing biotin areas will be no they are going to flood. Cleaning out creeks and rivers may sound good but its not something thats going to work in order to reduce flooding. We have to be smarter, build our infrastructure to be more recited. We also have to fight Climate Change. You even said the other day something crazy like the world is cooling as you are denying Climate Change. We have got to step up and do the right thing to protect our planet for our children and our childrens children. The think about this, this will help our economy. Clean energy jobs will come to this state and we will make sure more money are in peoples pockets. Of a bottle . Well, i was green before the Green New Deal as an architect i was one of the first leed accredited professionals in North Carolina. I built Green Buildings all over the world and i know plenty about that, governor, and will continue to work for sustainability across North Carolina. But when it comes to flooding and hurricanes, this is a human issue. This is not any bigger than that. There are thousands across North Carolina that are still hurting that have been help after four years of your leadership in raleigh. When im government will make sure these people are getting up. With covered a lot of ground tonight and the question and answer not over. Its time for a closing statements and by virtue of the coin toss mr. Cooper mr. Forest rather you get the First Closing statement of 90second. Thank you, wes. First thanks to all the people in North Carolina for taking time to watch tonight. I hope this helps if you get your decision of the you want vote for for governor. I believe we live in the greatest country in the world, the most innovative country in the world. I believe we can do two things at once, five, ten things at once. We can protect the vulnerable and allow people to get back to place a get in North Carolina. I believe its time to stop the fear and Panic Campaign and move on to hope and opportunity for people. I believe we need a governor that can cast a vision for the state of North Carolina. Governor cooper has been here for 34 years, never had a vision for the state. I will cast a vision. I my book debasement unity, opportunity, possibility, creating unity for our entire state to bring us together, opportunity for education and the economy. But we really need a governor that can ensure the people North Carolina that we will come through the stronger than ever before. I met a young man named blake, a wooded warrior. When he was in hospital recovering from his wounds, he was told he was never going to walk again, and the command officer came in the hospital and had them a purple heart challenge coin and said, like, youre going to want to get and you will come back stronger than ever before. When blake told me this story he said ive been carrying a purple heart coin with me for ages. He took it out of his pocket and handed to me and he said im giving you this coin because i know that you give hope and courage to the people of North Carolina and you will allow us to come back stronger than ever before. Thank you so much. Thank you. Esther cooper, your 90 seconds. At the beginning of the year i had a lot of hope for North Carolina. And 2020 has tested the depths of that hope im sure for a lot of you out there. But all the Natural Disaster and the pandemic, its been a tough time. But to all north carolinians had been resilient. I seem so we instances of people looking out for each other, singing at the window of a single to a grandmother, people by groceries for seniors and leaving it on the doorstep. Thats the kind of North Carolina that i know. But you do have a real choice tonight. You have a governor who believes in science and a candidate who doesnt. You have a governor who believes in our Public Schools, and a candidate who wants to short change of them. You have a governor who believes that everybody ought to have healthcare, and you have a candidate who wants to deny over half a Million People the healthcare that they need. You have a candidate that values diversity and thinks diversity is our strength versus a candidate who wants to use diversity to divide us. The choice is clear. We need real leaders who are going to find real solutions. Im grateful to my wife kristin. Im thankful to god, grateful for my three daughters, hillary, natalie and clear, my brother. I am grateful for all north carolinians out there who are working so hard. I promise you we will create a North Carolina that works for everyone. Thank you. That concludes tonight debate, and many thanks to both men for a civil and engage in debate on behalf of all north carolinians citizens. Our thanks also to the North Carolina Broadcasters Association, Educational Foundation for providing the opportunity for the citizens of the tar heel state. Thank you for watching, and please remember to vote. Good night. Will who will control congress in january . Stay informed on all the competitive congressional races leading up to election day with cspans campaign 2020 coverage. Watch the candidates debate and Election Results on cspan. Watch online debt cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Democratic Vice President ial nominee senator harris has canceled her campaign trips to key battleground states through sunday after two people associate with the campaign tested positive for covid19. Yesterday a flight crew member and the director tested positive for the coronavirus according to Joe Biden Campaign manager. Our campaign 2020 coverage continues with candidates campaigning and debating. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. The Senate Judiciary committee has concluded the confirmation hearing for Amy Coney Barrett. Today the senators met to consider her nomination and hear from outside witnesses who support or oppose her confirmation. You can watch our coverage tonight starting at eight eastern on cspan or watch online the cspan. Org or listen with our free cspan radio app. Cspans washington journal every day we take your calls live on the air on the news of the day and discuss policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, a discussion of campaign 2020 20t the nomination of judge Amy Coney Barrett to the u. S. Supreme court with mike davis. And we will talk about the Affordable Care act in campaign 2020 with leslie of the proAffordable Care act group protect our care. Watch cspans washington journal live at 7 p. M. Eastern friday morning and be sure to join the discussion with your phone calls, facebook, tax and tweets. Republicans need to pick up 21 seats in the november elections to win a majority in the u. S. House and according to the Cook Political Report 901 of those races are considered competitive including utahs fourth congressional district. The status of a democrat congressman ben mcadams who is running against burgess went to they took part in in the debate hosted by the utah debate