All posts tagged "Michael Whatley"

North Carolina was supposed to be the Republicans’ backstop. What happened?

Among seven swing states in the 2020 presidential election, North Carolina was the one that remained in President Donald Trump’s column, while Democrat Joe Biden narrowly carried Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada.

The chairman of the North Carolina GOP that year was Michael Whatley, and he earned Trump’s eternal gratitude....

MS NOW's Jen Psaki flagged President Donald Trump's increasingly noncommital and unconfident tone with Republican Senate candidates — including in states where Republicans definitely shouldn't be losing.

For starters, she said, he's been repeatedly making such claims about Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's Senate bid, saying that Paxton "can be a bit of a pain" and "I don't care" if he's here at one of his latest rallies.

"Nothing says 'everyone get out and vote for my candidate who will be an irreplaceable member of the Senate, partner to me,' like telling people you don't care if he's even there," said Psaki. Trump will be campaigning for him again soon in San Antonio, she noted, but "I'm not sure Ken Paxton sees it" as help these days....

President Donald Trump told North Carolinians that he'll withhold FEMA funding needed for hurricane relief unless the candidate he endorsed wins the midterms.

On Wednesday, Trump showed up in Gastonia, North Carolina, to stump for GOP Senate nominee Michael Whatley, and he told the voters at the rally that Whatley had to win if the state were to receive any additional FEMA funding as the state continues to recover from Hurricane Helene.

"We spent more than $2 billion in FEMA funding, and you know you're waiting for some additional money," Trump reminded his rally attendees. "I'm going to get that to you, Michael. Now, if Michael loses, I'm not sending it."...

A protester interrupted President Donald Trump during his campaign speech for GOP candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina on Wednesday.

Cameras didn't show the protester, but Trump stopped his speech to ask the crowd, "What do you have, a bad guy or a good guy over there? Where is he? Show him to me. Let me see his face."

Trump was stunned when the protester was brought out of the crowd. ...

Republican North Carolina Senate candidate Michael Whatley landed himself in the doghouse on Friday by commemorating the September 11 attacks with a very unfortunate, mishandled graphic.

Whatley, the former chair of the Republican National Committee, took to X to post "September 11th showed us the very worst of evil and the very best of America. 25 years later, we remember the lives taken, the first responders who rushed into danger, and a nation that came together in the face of tragedy. God bless America." However, the graphic accompanying this post said, "WE WILL NEVER FORGET SEPTEMBER 1, 2001."

After a short period, Whatley took down the post and issued a corrected one — but not before commentators on social media got their hands on the original....

CONCORD, N.C. — Vice President JD Vance’s visit to a sweltering hangar at an airport outside Charlotte on Wednesday provided a campaign-style platform for familiar attacks on Democrats as being “soft on crime,” even as news broke of a deadly shooting at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Dallas.

With a militarized backdrop including SWAT and emergency response vehicles flanked by local law enforcement officers, Vance sought to highlight both the killing of Iryna Zarutska on the Charlotte light-rail last month and the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah two weeks ago.

But such efforts were somewhat overshadowed by news of the ICE shooting in Dallas, which left one immigrant detainee dead and two critically injured. ...