McCrory campaign blasts Nick Jonas; Democrats call it a ‘Kanye West-style rant’

When singers Nick Jonas and Demi Lovato canceled their concerts in Raleigh and Charlotte over House Bill 2, Gov. Pat McCrory’s campaign was quick to fire back on Twitter.

Jonas and Lovato, the “Team McCrory” account tweeted, were “getting involved in things they clearly don’t know anything about” and “protesting political differences by denying their service, punishing their own fans & hardworking people of NC.”

A statement about the cancelation said the pair were concerned that HB2 “takes away some of the LGBT’s communities most basic rights and protections.”

The Twitter criticism from the McCrory camp prompted the N.C. Democratic Party to issue a news release calling the tweets a “Kanye West-style Twitter rant” that takes “the discourse in the North Carolina governor’s race down to the level of a junior high school name-calling match.” The Democrats suggested that McCrory was personally behind the comments.

McCrory campaign spokesman Ricky Diaz said Tuesday that the governor did not write the tweets.

“Looks like the State Democrat Party is upset that the governor’s campaign is fighting back against their efforts to smear North Carolina,” Diaz said in an email. “They should send out press releases defending North Carolina against the campaign their own allies are waging against the state and stand up for the hardworking people of North Carolina, including the parking lot attendants and concession stand operators who will lose because these artists chose to hypocritically target our state over political differences.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 2:28 PM with the headline "McCrory campaign blasts Nick Jonas; Democrats call it a ‘Kanye West-style rant’."