Before campaign attack, Whatley urged stronger prison COVID response

CHARLOTTE — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley’s main attack on former Gov. Roy Cooper is the COVID-era settlement that resulted in the early release of inmates from prison.

But in the early stages of the state’s battle against COVID-19, Whatley and NCGOP, which he led at the time, criticized Cooper for not doing enough to protect inmates in prison. Whatley’s team says his position hasn’t changed.

In a July 2020 NCGOP roundtable, Whatley called out Cooper for his COVID-19 response, including in prisons.

“He did not act to protect folks in prison, so we have had a significant spike among the prison population and prison guards,” he said.

A week later, NCGOP issued a press release about a TV ad Cooper was running about the COVID response. The press release criticized Cooper for only “taking COVID in prison seriously when a judge orders him to.” The press release linked to a Charlotte Observer article that was about the judicial case that eventually led to people being released from prison.

A December 2020 post criticized Cooper for “ignoring prisoners during the COVID-19 crisis.”

A spokesperson for Whatley’s Senate campaign says Whatley has not been inconsistent.

“While I understand how the Cooper campaign has a hard time differentiating fact and fiction, there’s nothing inconsistent here,” spokesman DJ Griffin said. “It’s a fact that Gov. Cooper mismanaged every significant challenge he faced, including his failed COVID response, and Cooper should be held accountable for his failure.”

The settlement was finalized in 2021. Channel 9 was the first news outlet to obtain the list of all 3,500 inmates who were placed on the list. Not all inmates were released early. The settlement allowed the state to retroactively add people, including DeCarlos Brown. Brown is the suspect in the murder of Iryna Zarutska.

Statement from Cooper campaign spokesperson:

“Roy Cooper fought to keep criminals behind bars, but Michael Whatley fought to release them. Whatley and his allies have been caught lying time and again, but the truth is Roy Cooper spent his career locking up criminals while Whatley pushed for prisoners to be released during COVID and appointed a convicted child sex predator to leadership positions in the Republican Party.” 

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