A North Carolina television station made an unusual decision on Friday to withdraw an ad for an attack on Democratic senator candidate Cheri Beasley. She was Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court.
An ad produced by the Republican Senate’s campaign department highlighted the “child pornography criminal” case and accused Mr. Beasley of “voting to release him.” A female narrator talked ominously about a young girl and an image of a prison bar sliding open.
On Friday, five television stations, Laurie and Charlotte, “paused” the ad while withdrawing it or waiting for its allegations to be investigated, according to an email addressed to Courtney Wiseman, a lawyer for the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. Said that he did. , Review by The New York Times.
On Thursday, two Charlotte stations aired an ad. Station representatives WXAN and WSCO said in an email to Mr. Wiseman that the ad allegations about Mr. Beesley were “wrong because the defendant did not appear to have been released” by a state Supreme Court ruling. Did.
Chris Hartline, a spokesman for the National Republican Senate who advertised, defended Mr. Beasley’s allegations, saying the Charlotte Bureau, which acted Thursday, did not require a document to be viewed before making a decision. rice field.
“Every word in the ad is true,” Hartline said in a statement. “This strange statement from a television station that has not yet received or even requested this claim will be noticed when media buyers make future decisions about ad purchases.”
“I found a Washington Republican lying,” said Dolly McMillan, a spokeswoman for Beasley.
“Voters know that Cheri worked with law enforcement to hold violent criminals accountable. She continues to keep our community safe as the next US Senator in North Carolina. “I will,” McMillan said in a statement. Mr. Beasley is competing with Republican candidate Ted Budd in a race for vacant seats, which is important in deciding control of the Senate.
The ad in question titled “Failed Our Children” links Mr. Beasley to three cases involving child sex offenders. The attack on Mr. Beasley, a black man, is reminiscent of an attack by a Republican senator targeting Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing. Senator Josh Hawley of Kansas has accused her of being tolerant of child pornography decisions.Review by Politifact He concluded that Judge Jackson’s decision was consistent with the decisions of other judges.
The incident that led to the removal of North Carolina ads involved a man named James Howard Terrell Jr., who was convicted of possessing a lewd image of a minor on a computer thumb drive in 2016. ..
The Court of Appeals ruled that the detective had conducted an illegal investigation of Samdrive in violation of Mr. Terrell’s rights in Article 4 of the Amendment and sent the case back to court.
In 2019, the Supreme Court will be dominated by Mr. Beasley. Supported the ruling.. As of May 2020, Mr. Terrell was still in prison. According to court recordsAnd based on that, Democracy lawyer Wiseman demanded that the ad be removed. “It is a mistake to claim that her vote somehow made the defendant” set … free “,” she wrote.
A lawyer in the Republican Campaign Division said in a letter to the television station about the advertisement that Mr. Terrell’s North Carolina court records had his conviction “invalid” after the Supreme Court heard the case. Claimed to be. Lawyer Ryan G. Dollar accused Democratic lawyers of trying to turn the TV station manager into a “gaslight.” Court record Indicates that Mr. Terrell is no longer imprisoned.
