Was NC Gov. Perdue Really Joking About Suspending Elections? Listen to the Audio

On Wednesday, reports started surfacing that Democratic North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue had made some curious statements about elections. Mainly, she said that she thought the country should suspend Congressional elections for two years in order to "help this country recover." The remarks quick started making their way around the internet, and many people were appalled.

Perdue's team quickly did damage control and suggested the remarks were a joke. But now, audio has surfaced the remarks calling that explanation into question.

First, here is a transcript of the remarks:

"I think we ought to suspend, perhaps, elections for Congress for two years and just tell them we won't hold it against them, whatever decisions they make, to just let them help this country recover. I really hope that someone can agree with me on that," Perdue said. "You want people who don't worry about the next election."

This, however, is how the remarks were actually delivered:

And here's the reaction from NC GOP Party spokesman Rob Lockwood:

“Listen to the Governor’s words, she wasn’t joking at all. The Congressional Democrats are wildly unpopular in North Carolina, so she may have been trying to invent a solution to save their jobs from public accountability.”

"If it was a joke, what was the set-up? What was the punch-line? Where was the pause for laughter? It took them hours to say it was a ‘joke,’ but when that flopped, it became ‘hyperbole.’ We’ll just call it an unconstitutionally bad-idea.”

From the sound of the remarks, it doesn't really seem like a joke. In fact, the News-Observer reported at the time that, "It's unclear whether Perdue, a Democrat, is serious -- but her tone was level and she asked others to support her on the idea."

However, it's worth pointing out that we can't see Perdue's face, and we don't know if she was smiling or gesturing during the remarks. Yet. And the governor's office told the Daily Caller it is still standing behind its claim that the remarks were a joke.

With that in mind, what do you think?