North Carolina's Democratic governor says a Trump presidency 'is not something I want to live again,' calls on states to help Biden win in 2024

• Democratic governors see a big role for themselves in keeping Donald Trump out of the White House.
• Governors can help President Joe Biden by implementing "transformational" legislation, said DGA Chair Roy Cooper.
• After four years as governor with Trump as president, Cooper said, "It's not something I want to live again."

Democratic governors see a significant role for themselves in making sure former President Donald Trump doesn't return to the White House.

A day after Trump's 2024 presidential campaign announcement, Democratic Governors Association Chair Roy Cooper of North Carolina said during a news conference that he already spent four years as a governor with Trump as president, and "it is not something I want to live again."

Cooper blasted Trump for vacillating between "indifference and obstruction" during the pandemic, when governors "had to step up" and do what was needed.

He said he supports President Joe Biden, he believes Biden will run again in 2024, and he thinks Biden can defeat anyone Republicans nominate. Governors can help Biden in 2024 by ensuring that the "transformational" federal legislation that has passed during his presidency is implemented in the right way, he said.

Billions of dollars now will be invested in high-speed internet access, building roads and bridges, moving to a clean energy economy, and bolstering the renewable energy and the semiconductor industries, among other things, as a result of recent federal legislation, he said.

Cooper said his direct advice to Biden a few days ago was to focus on carrying out that legislation over the next two years, given that there won't be much he can do with a divided Congress. Republicans gained the House majority while Democrats retained their majority in the Senate.

It's a "massive job" to carry out these laws in an effective way, Cooper said, and governors will play a critical role in ensuring that can happen and that people see and feel the impact.

"If we work hard and we put into the ground, and into working families, this funding that has been passed by Congress, and we do it in the right way, we can have a very successful next couple of years," he said.

In 36 gubernatorial races this year, Democrats lost Nevada but picked up seats in Arizona, Massachusetts, and Maryland for a new party breakdown of 24 Democrats and 26 Republicans in governors mansions. In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs narrowly defeated Trump-endorsed Kari Lake, a 2020 election denier.

DGA Chair-elect, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, said "thank God" candidates who were "outright election deniers" didn't win gubernatorial or secretary of state elections.

It's less important, he said, to have Democrats in office than it is to have "rational, responsible, honest, call-balls-and-strikes Americans in key positions."

That has "a huge positive impact on the process of electing a president, and God willing, it'll be a Democrat and I hope it's President Joe Biden," Murphy said.