Republican North Carolina Governor Pat
McCrory suggested Thursday that Bill and Hillary Clinton were behind
the NBA's decision to move next year's All-Star game from Charlotte
over the state's law that targets the LGBT community.
After the NBA announced that it would
not hold its All-Star event in the state, McCrory wasted no time in
politicizing the decision.
(Related: NBA
to move All-Star game from Charlotte over transgender bathroom law.)
“It is no surprise that the NBA has
chosen to politically target North Carolina during an election year
since Doug Sosnick, Bill Clinton's former White House Political
Director, serves as the NBA's chief political advisor,” the McCrory
campaign said in a press release.
“While it would be front-page news if
Karl Rove were advising an organization on how to inflict economic
damage on a state to benefit the Republican's election prospects,
this is standard operating procedure for the Clintons, who get away
with it thanks to their friends in the media.”
The state's House Bill 2 prohibits
transgender people from using the public bathroom of their choice,
among other things.
McCrory's office issued a tamer
statement in which McCrory blamed his political rival, Attorney
General Roy Cooper, the sports and entertainment elite and the media
for misrepresenting the law and “maligning the people of North
Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be
able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the
opposite sex present.”