McCrory Wants Bank Audits of Republican Political Consultants

 

A few days ago, I remarked on the NandO investigative piece that uncovered all the PPP (COVID-protection) loans that professional political consultants of both parties applied for, received, and for which they were blessed with loan forgiveness. I focused entirely on Democratic political consultant Morgan Jackson.  

Ex-Gov. Pat McCrory read the same article, and on his WBT radio show yesterday morning he ranted about the Republican consultants outed by Danielle Battaglia's reporting. “Some are questioning whether it was illegal that they asked for those loans,” McCrory said on air. “Me included.” Then he started naming names, and the violators on his mind were mainly Republican (he did mention the Democrats too, being "bipartisan" to a fault, so McCrory's "toe-stepping" celebrity is still intact):

“These are the former state directors of the Republican Party, who are now political consultants, who asked for money. Former state senators who asked for money. Former aides to [Senate President Pro Tem] Phil Berger, former campaign or current campaign people for [Gov.] Roy Cooper and [Attorney General] Josh Stein and [Rep.] Dan Bishop. It’s Republican and Democrat. It’s bipartisan.”

After the show Danielle Battaglia, asked McCrory if he zeroed in on those particular Republicans "for personal reasons" -- since he was known to have clashed with them in the past -- McCrory answered that those people had “done Machiavellian things against me,” so, yes, I believe Battaglia got an answer to her question.

McCrory demanded that US attorneys get involved -- yes! -- and he called for "an audit to be done on their income to see if they actually met the loan’s criteria. He later told The N&O he believes the SBA would be in charge of auditing the businesses."