First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
President Trump unloaded on former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Sunday night, accusing the Democratic Senate nominee of letting 83 convicted murderers out of prison — 51 of them serving life sentences — and saying the men went on to commit 25 more murders after their release.
"I have just learned that Roy Cooper, the Radical Left Former Governor of North Carolina, let out 83 murderers from prisons and penitentiaries around the State, with 51 of these prisoners serving life sentences," Trump wrote. "They ended up committing 25 murders immediately after being released, and Roy Cooper's reputation will never be the same. He is a TOTAL FRAUD!"
The reason for the releases, Trump said, was COVID: Cooper "didn't want them to catch COVID while in prison."
"Worse Than Dukakis"
Trump reached for the most famous prison-release disaster in American politics, comparing Cooper to former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, whose presidential campaign collapsed in 1988 after furloughed murderer Willie Horton kidnapped and raped a woman while out of prison.
"What Roy Cooper has done is worse than Former Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts releasing the infamous Willie Horton. Roy Cooper has DISGRACED North Carolina, and disqualified himself from Public Office!" — President Donald Trump
Trump also tied the releases to DeCarlos Brown Jr., the repeat offender charged with murdering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train last year — an attack captured on security video that horrified the country.
The Settlement Behind the Releases
The releases trace back to February 2021, when Cooper's administration settled a COVID-era lawsuit brought by the NAACP and the ACLU over prison conditions. The settlement committed the state to releasing thousands of inmates — a plan described at the time as covering people who had not committed crimes against others, pregnant inmates, prisoners already scheduled for release in 2021, and those on track for parole. More than 4,200 people were ultimately released under it.
An independent tally by journalist Stephen Horn's CooperReleasedHim project found the releases included 70 people convicted of murder, 99 convicted of rape, and 203 convicted of felony child sex crimes. The New York Post reported this summer that 18 of those released went on to be charged with murder. Cooper's campaign says the court ordered the settlement and that prison officials — not Cooper — selected the individual prisoners; on Brown, the campaign says he was not on the settlement list and had been released earlier, a point Republicans dispute.
Trump Stands by Whatley
The broadside lands in one of the most consequential Senate races in the country. The seat is open, Republicans hold 53 seats in the chamber, and in-person early voting in North Carolina begins Thursday ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Trump closed his post with an all-caps endorsement of the Republican nominee, former RNC chairman Michael Whatley: "NORTH CAROLINA, VOTE FOR MICHAEL WHATLEY. HE HAS MY COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT FOR THE UNITED STATES SENATE, AND WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!"
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