Roy Cooper’s conversations with Dr. Anthony Fauci in June 2020, first revealed just over a month later in August by multiple media outlets in North Carolina, has gained a different set of legs since diary entries from the physician started going public July 25 and 26.
North Carolinians knew six years ago. Today, however, the campaign of the Democrat hoping to land in the U.S. Senate is defending his actions, while the campaign of the Republican hopeful says voters are just finding out about Cooper’s fandom of Fauci and how schoolchildren were harmed by the governor’s decisions.
Cooper’s record-setting 328 executive orders during eight years as governor, many tied to COVID-19 restrictions in lockstep with Fauci’s recommendations, arguably had already put his cards on the table. Fauci’s diary, in context, just added another chapter – and campaign talking point.
One of the strongest outlets, WRAL-TV in Raleigh, had confirmation on Aug. 17, 2020, of the June 29 conversation from Cooper’s senior adviser while governor, Julia White. Cooper, White and then-Health Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen were in the conversation.
In an Aug. 17, 2020, interview with Charlotte TV station WBTV airing the following day, Cohen also confirmed the consultation with Fauci on when to reopen schools.
It has been 40 years since a 1986 election in which Cooper turned back an 11-term incumbent for a seat in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Republican Michael Whatley and Libertarian Shannon Bray are with him on ballots that begin going out in the mail on Friday to those requesting.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis decided last summer not to try for a third term.
This U.S. Senate seat is viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races.
Republicans are 5-for-5 in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate races since losing to the late Kay Hagan in 2008. Democrats chase back to 1998 for the last time winning a Senate seat at the midterms. Yet Cooper counters with statewide wins in four attorney general races and two gubernatorial races – all from 2000 to 2020.
This is Whatley’s first foray into individually winning political office. He’s helped many candidates first as chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, then as the picked chairman by Trump of the Republican National Committee.
For his part, Whatley and his campaign team are scrambling as the finish line nears to make up ground. They’ve trailed in Federal Election Commission filings since Day 1, as well as in polls. An Aug. 21 release by the High Point University Poll had Cooper ahead of Whatley 50%-45% among likely voters, his closest sampling in months and coming off previous polls with double-digit deficits.
To reset the scene from 2020, COVID-19 essentially began to shutter America and the world on Thursday, March 12. In North Carolina, schools were closing and Cooper over the weekend said they would remain closed for two weeks. Public service announcements in a public health campaign said “15 days to slow the spread.”
In addition to Cooper being governor and Cohen his chosen secretary leading the state Department of Health and Human Services, the president at the time was first-term Republican Donald Trump. Fauci was the federal government’s main spokesman on infectious diseases and COVID-19, a task force member in the January creation of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and director since 1984 of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
On Dec. 3, President-elect Joe Biden named him chief medical advisor to the president. On June 16, 2023, Biden said he would appoint Cohen to be director of the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She was sworn in July 10.
The Cooper administration’s conversation with Fauci happened just as the governor was planning a July 1 news conference to give instructions for public schools. Specifically, charters could open in two weeks.
Instead, his 45-minute conversation and the doctor’s advice were to wait.
Fauci’s diary entry reads, “Gov Ray Cooper (D-NC) called me and spoke for 45 minutes on his dilemma about whether to open the Charter Schools that are scheduled to open in 2 weeks, right after 4th July. He was agonizing since he wanted to do the right thing. Since this is the first decision among Governors regarding opening for the Fall term, he feels that he will be the example. He is seeing an uptick of cases and he is near FL and so is worried that if he opens, he may have to lose again if he gets surge like FL and TX, I recommended that he delay decision for 2 weeks. His health officer is Mandy Cohen.”
Schools reopened Aug. 18, and the night before, Cohen interviewed with WBTV.
She told the television station, “Every parent and every teacher will tell you about, not just the learning aspects of in-person learning at schools, but the socialization and emotional growth, but also kids get their nutrition at school. There’s a lot of reasons why in-person school. We were always leaning to say, ‘How do we get kids back in school?’ And some of that was we had to just look at our own numbers. Back at the end of June, beginning of July, we were still going up. We were still seeing our cases increase at that time.
“So we did have a conversation with Dr. Fauci, and he said, ‘You know what? You do not need to make this decision today. Why don’t you wait and watch your trends another couple of weeks. I think there’s going to be even more study and understanding.’ He was right.”
Public schools had never returned to close 2019-20. In the 2020-21 school year, public schools in the state had limited or no in-person instruction. Not surprisingly, student testing in the years since has shown significant learning loss.
Cooper was heavily criticized during the pandemic for having his team pick which media outlets were allowed to ask him questions. Those friendly to him would be an understatement on the selections.
He was also criticized for telling everyone to stay home, closing houses of faith but keeping alcohol flowing, and for famously removing his mask while marching with George Floyd protesters that burned inner city Raleigh.
As for Fauci, he got a federal pardon despite no charges against him from Biden as he exited the White House. When called by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to appear July 29 of this year before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in the U.S. Senate, Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment right to not answer 111 times.
Now comes the playing and defending by respective campaigns of the diary revelation with news six years old.
Cooper’s group said in part, “The pandemic was a challenging time and Governor Cooper worked with many federal and state public health experts to use the information available at the time to make the best decisions possible to keep people alive and safe.”
Whatley’s campaign said in part, “It will take at least a generation for North Carolina to recover from the learning loss suffered because of Governor Cooper’s stupid decision to shut down North Carolina schools. And now we find out the reason he kept refusing to reopen the schools is because Cooper is a Fauci Fanboy. Cooper’s COVID response was one bad decision after another and voters should hold him accountable in November.”
