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 TelevisionDigital 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 EmploymentSecurity 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 N