Cooper Begins Attempting To Rewrite History On Helene Response

While Helene threatened North Carolina, Cooper was in New York City giving a Climate Change Speech.

Yesterday, Senate Candidate Former Governor Roy Cooper visited Chimney Rock to observe the progress made in recovering from Hurricane Helene. Cooper noted that he visited the community after the storm and then attacked Washington, falsely claiming that Washington has forgotten these communities.

Here is the key context Cooper failed to mention. While Hurricane Helene was threatening North Carolina, then-Governor Cooper was in New York City, focused on delivering a speech on climate change. Rather than focus on his job, Cooper was elevating his brand with liberal donors at a conference.

Key timeline:

• For several days, the National Weather Service predicted that Tropical Storm Helene would bring devastating amounts of rain to Western North Carolina. Just before the storm made landfall, Cooper announced a state of emergency on September 25th, giving response crews a short period of time to prepare.

• While North Carolina braced for the impact, Cooper was in New York City, bragging about his climate change agenda in a conference in New York City.

• What followed was one of the deadliest natural disasters in American history. One hundred and eight North Carolinians died as a direct result of Helene, and what followed was a botched response from the Biden Cooper administration. Residents described the response as “frustration on frustration.” One example of the incompetence was a lack of a central database to track all the fatalities.

Tim’s Take: Over the coming months, Cooper is going to try to rewrite history on his terrible response to Helene. However, conservative outlets like the Blue Ridge Times and other national outlets will work hard to counter Cooper’s false narrative with the facts about what happened.