Fact check: What Budd, Beasley got right and wrong in US Senate debate
In the first and only scheduled debate between Democrat Cheri Beasley and Republican Ted Budd, North Carolina’s U.S. Senate nominees fielded questions on some of the most hot-button issues.
They included abortion, crime, the economy and the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Beasley, the former state Supreme Court Chief Justice, and Budd, a congressman from Davie County, are nearly tied in the polls. The debate marks a highlight of the campaign season with just a month to go before Election Day, Nov. 8. In-person early voting starts Oct. 20.
The Charlotte Observer fact checked a handful of the candidates’ claims during the debate, which aired Friday night on Spectrum News.
Abortion
Beasley claimed Budd supported a national abortion ban with no exceptions in cases of rape, incest or when the mother’s life is in danger. Beasley’s statement is partially true.
The facts:
▪ Budd co-sponsored a bill that would implement a national 15-week ban on abortion. The bill was introduced in the Senate by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. The bill provides some exceptions in the cases of rape, incest involving a minor and when the woman’s life is in danger.
▪ But Budd declined to say in a CBS interview in April whether he supported the exceptions. “I don’t condemn anybody that’s ever been through that,” he said, “but I want to say, let’s not add more tragedy to a very tough situation.”
▪ During the debate, Budd said he supports saving the life of the mother, but did not explicitly say whether he supports any other exceptions.
Budd claimed during the debate Beasley supports legalizing abortions up until birth.
The facts:
▪ Beasley denied this, saying she supported the framework set by Roe v. Wade, which includes restrictions later in pregnancy. If the woman’s life is in danger, Beasley said the framework would allow the termination of pregnancy.
▪ Budd during the debate referenced the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022, calling it “the most extreme bill in legislative history.” The bill passed the U.S. House, with only Democrats in favor, and failed in the Senate. It would, among other things, create a statutory protection for abortion services, codify a provider’s right to perform abortions and a patient’s right to have abortions prior to fetal viability. It would also codify the right to abortions after viability if continuing the pregnancy poses a health risk. The act defines viability as when “there is a reasonable likelihood of sustained fetal survival outside the uterus with or without artificial support.”
▪ The act would have also prohibited state governments from passing rules that single out abortion services or impede access to abortion services, unless the government can show the rules would improve safety, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Crime
Asked to respond to advertisements attacking her judicial record, Beasley said they were not true. One ad by the Senate Leadership Fund claimed one of Beasley’s Supreme Court rulings allowed a convicted sex offender to be released into society without GPS monitoring.
The facts:
▪ The August 2019 N.C. Supreme Court case didn’t get rid of GPS monitoring for convicted sex offenders outright. The decision ruled it’s unconstitutional to require lifetime GPS monitoring solely because of a convicted criminal’s recidivism.
▪ The case was brought by a North Carolina man named Torrey Grady, who was convicted of multiple sexual crimes. Beasley joined the majority of the court in saying Grady shouldn’t be subject to lifetime monitoring for the sole reason that he was convicted of multiple crimes.
87,000 new IRS agents
Budd claimed Beasley supported legislation that would hire 87,000 new IRS agents. Budd said this while answering a question about border security, saying it would be a better investment to hire 87,000 new law enforcement agents to protect the border.
Budd is referring to the Inflation Reduction Act, which President Joe Biden signed Aug. 16. Budd and other Republican lawmakers claim the law would hire 87,000 new IRS agents. In an ad by his campaign, Budd said the agents would harass small businesses and working people.
Budd’s claim is mostly false.
The facts:
▪ Beasley has criticized Budd for opposing the Inflation Reduction Act.
▪ IRS Commissioner Charles P. Rettig said in a letter to lawmakers the money is “absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.” He added audit rates for families earning under $400,000 annually would not rise relative to recent years. Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen assured the same in a letter of her own.
▪ A fact check by Reuters found the 87,000 number lacks context. Many of those hires would replace retiring agents. Others would be IT specialists and people in other support roles. A Treasury official told Reuters 50,000 IRS employees are on the verge of retirement and “the majority of net new hires would serve in customer service roles like upgrading IT systems or answering calls,” Reuters reported.
Jan. 6, 2021
The debate marked the first time Budd said unequivocally he would accept the election results. In an earlier comment to WRAL, Budd responded to questions by saying, “Why wouldn’t I?” and saying he would unless “the Democrats do something to generate cause for concern.”
“Yeah. I mean, I would. Of course,” he said during Friday’s debate.
The issue lingers after the riot at the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of former President Donald Trump attempted to violently disrupt the certification of Biden’s election.
During the debate, Beasley quoted Budd as saying the rioters were “just patriots standing up.” Those are Budd’s words, but Beasley’s statements lack context.
The facts:
▪ Budd voted against the certification of Biden’s election. He was one of 147 Republicans who voted against certification. So did six other House Republicans from North Carolina. Both Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. Richard Burr voted to certify the election results.
▪ The quote Beasley referenced comes from an interview Budd did on The Todd Starnes Show. In the full quote, Budd said Jan. 6 and the riots amounted to “a bad day for America. Let’s agree to that. It was a bad day for America no matter where you are politically.”
▪ Budd’s full quote about the violence and the election, from The Todd Starnes Show: “I think it should not be a partisan issue to deal with the election of 2020, that people were protesting on Jan. 6. I think it should not be a Democrat or a far-right or a centrist or a left-wing issue. I think it should be all Americans needing to rebuild trust in our institutions, that take a real look at what happened on Jan. 6 — and it was nothing, it was just patriots standing up. And it was a bad day for America, let’s agree to that. It was a bad day for America no matter where you are politically, but at the same time, at the same time, we need to make sure we trust our institutions, particularly when it comes to elections.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2022 at 9:08 AM with the headline "Fact check: What Budd, Beasley got right and wrong in US Senate debate."
.jpg)