Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley’s denial of organizing a North Carolina campaign event fell apart this week after leaked audio and campaign documents showed he not only helped arrange it, but personally acknowledged setting it up.
According to The Daily Beast, Whatley, the former North Carolina GOP chairman running for the state’s open Senate seat, told the Associated Press through spokesman DJ Griffin that his campaign had no role in planning a recent stop with Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Trump-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The event opened with a prayer from Pastor Daimon L. King, a registered sex offender convicted of rape and incest.
But a virtual flyer obtained by The Beast directly contradicts that denial, showing the event was paid for by both Whatley’s Senate campaign and Laurie Buckhout’s congressional campaign. Leaked audio from the New Bern event goes further, capturing Whatley himself describing how the gathering came together after Oz called him looking for a place to visit.
“Now I got a good friend who was in North Carolina for just a day, wanted to stop by and say hello. He called up, and he said, ‘Hey, where’s a good place to be?’” Whatley said. “Well, let me call the chair of the Craven County GOP.”
Whatley had also posted about the event himself on X at the time, sharing a photo with Oz and describing how he’d hosted the visit as part of a broader push against government fraud. His campaign did not respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment following the discrepancy.
The episode marks the second time Whatley’s campaign has drawn scrutiny for ties to a convicted sex offender. During his tenure as state GOP chair, Whatley elevated Harvey L. West Jr. into party leadership roles despite West’s past conviction for statutory rape involving three teenage girls in 1999, when he was a 28-year-old police officer. West told the Beast he never hid his past from party leadership.
“I openly discussed what happened. I openly discussed my time in prison. I openly discussed the charges. And I would tell people, ‘If you want me around, I will work and be glad to do so. If you don’t want me, I’ll go on down the road,’” West said.
Trump himself brushed off the association at the time, calling Whatley “fantastic” and “one of the best.”
The revelations complicate Whatley’s campaign messaging, which has leaned heavily on a tough-on-crime image in his race against former Gov. Roy Cooper, who led him by 11 points in a recent poll. Whatley left his post as RNC chair last year to launch the Senate bid with Trump’s blessing, after Trump had floated backing a primary challenger against retiring Sen. Thom Tillis over a policy dispute. Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, had also been weighing a run for the seat but ultimately dropped out and threw her support behind Whatley instead.
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