There has been an exodus from North Carolina by a number of sports associations in recent weeks. The NBA, the NCAA, and the Atlantic Coast Conference have all moved major events out of the state, citing North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ HB2 “bathroom bill” as the reason.

This has had a pronounced economic impact on the state.

The state of NC has lost millions upon millions in economic impact between NCAA, ACC, NBA decisions. ACCCG Eco impact about 32 mill alone. — Andrea Adelson (@aadelsonESPN) September 14, 2016

Faced with the prospect of fielding questions about the hits to the state’s coffers, Gov. Pat McCrory (R-NC) sidestepped the probing queries by instead answering questions planted by his own staff.

The Charlotte Observer reports a moderator read three questions aloud at a lunch event Friday saying they were from the Observer, but they instead turned out to be from the Governor’s own staff. Then, when an actual Observer question was posed, McCrory declined, citing that too many questions were coming from the paper.

Taylor Batten, the Observer’s editorial director, described the surreal sequence:

McCrory’s staff planted questions at a lunch event in SouthPark on Thursday with the crowd under the impression that they were coming from the media or the audience. The moderator, a volunteer from the lunch audience, introduced three questions by saying they were from the Charlotte Observer…When I tried to ask McCrory a question, the filter went up. “We’ve got three Observer questions answered already. I think you guys dominate the news enough.” Of course, those weren’t Observer questions. They were softballs from his staff about what he wanted to do with his next term; how he wanted to reduce the state’s rape kit backlog; and how the state crime lab performed under McCrory’s opponent, Roy Cooper.

Batten reports that McCrory called him to apologize later, “saying it was his understanding all the questions on one of his sheets were from the Observer.” Batten also added that McCrory seemed “tortured” over the fallout from HB2.

[h/t Deadspin]

[image via screengrab]

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