North Carolina governor on upcoming presidential debate and guns

(CBS, KYMA/KECY) – North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper (D) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation on Sunday about the upcoming presidential debate.

When asked if he expected “the average North Carolina citizen to be convinced or even pay attention to what happens on the debate stage this week,” Cooper replied:

“There’s no doubt about it. It’s close here in North Carolina. It always is. This was Biden Harris’ closest loss of 2020, just 1.3%. The fact that Kamala Harris has been to North Carolina 17 times as Vice President of the United States shows that she cares about our state. She knows we’re in play. And she knows that if she wins North Carolina, she’ll be the next President of the United States because Trump has no other choice.”

Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC)

During the interview, Brennan and Cooper discussed a recent CBS News poll that showed “a neck-and-neck race for Donald Trump,” “largely because of those voters who believe they are not doing better financially right now” and “their incomes are not keeping pace with inflation.”

When asked how Democrats could “change that perception,” Cooper said:

“I think that same poll … found that people have more confidence in Kamala Harris to help the middle class. And while she’s spending time touting her economic plan to shift the tax burden here, we need to make sure that billionaires and corporations pay their fair share and that regular people and small businesses get the tax benefits. While she’s talking about her child care plan and giving tax credits for child care, you have Donald Trump who clearly doesn’t understand the issue. You have JD Vance saying, ‘Well, you should get your grandparents or your aunts or uncles to watch the kids.’ Completely clueless. If we continue to get that information out to the American public and to the people here in North Carolina that Kamala Harris has an economic plan that is going to help lower costs for regular people, that is going to help families thrive, that is going to protect women’s reproductive freedom. I think at the end of the day, that’s going to be what works here.

Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC)

Brennan and Cooper spoke about gun control in light of the school massacre in Georgia last week.

“I think we need to do everything we can to reduce gun violence, especially gun violence in our schools. And I think that’s appropriate, but we also know that these military-grade assault weapons are used by a lot of people. They can kill multiple people. We don’t need them on the streets. You can’t be tough on crime if you’re weak on gun laws. Vice President Harris and I here in North Carolina, as gun owners and Second Amendment supporters, support stricter background checks, red flag laws, and banning these military-grade assault weapons. We shouldn’t even be making them available to people to use in these mass murders. I’m tired of seeing text messages from kids in a school telling their parents that they’re scared and that they love them. We can’t normalize this.”

Governor Roy Cooper (D-NC)

Click here to watch more of Brennan’s interview with Cooper.