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Employee fired after comment to NC governor, agrees with decision

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A worker at Reid's Foods was fired for how he treated Gov. Pat McCrory when he came in to the shop this weekend.
 
Drew Swope will be the first to tell you "I just have a big mouth," and he's not a Pat McCrory fan.
 
So when the two met this weekend, it was bound to happen.
 
"I said, 'Oh, Pat McCrory.' He said, "Yes.' And I said, 'Thanks for nothing,' and I turned around and walked away," Slope said. "He started yelling and his eyes bulged out. It's the governor and I had something to say."
 
Swope is still saying it online and changed his Facebook profile picture to McCrory, calling him all kinds of bad words -- saying the governor got him fired by telling managers what he did.
 
Reid's owner Tom Coker said Swope's firing had nothing to do with the governor, but how he treated a customer.
                               
Swope said he agrees he should have been fired.
 
"I don't blame him a bit. People should give impeccable customer service," he said.
 
Coker said the flap over all of this is a "manufactured story," and said the governor had no influence on his decision.
 
It has set off a firestorm of attention from media around the world with articles painting McCrory as a thin- skinned meany who put Swope on the streets. 
                               
Swope has been contacted by media in faraway places like the United Kingdom and Estonia.
                               
Knowing the frenetic pace of the media, Swope thinks the firestorm will burn itself out by week's end and says he doesn't hate McCrory, just his politics.
 
"As a person, he can come over for dinner any time," Swope said.
 
A request for comment from the governor's office was not immediately returned.

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