Exclusive — Rep. Ted Budd: ‘Can’t Get More Radical’ Than Cheri Beasley

Republican Congressman Ted Budd speaks at a Make America Great Again rally in Greensboro I
GRANT BALDWIN/AFP via Getty Images
Katherine Hamilton

Leading Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) has barbs out for his potential Democrat competitor Cheri Beasley ahead of the primaries on Tuesday.

Both Trump-endorsed Budd and former Chief Justice Beasley of the North Carolina Supreme Court are way ahead of their competitors within their respective parties, meaning the candidates may likely soon go head to head in a battle between the “America First” agenda and the Biden agenda in November. Budd warned Breitbart News Saturday that a candidate “cannot be more radical” than Beasley, despite her attempts to pitch herself as the “North Carolina version of  (Sen.) Joe Manchin” ( D-WV).

“I can tell you, there is nothing further than the truth. She is a radical candidate. She loves Joe Biden’s radical policies, and she will stay with him even though she’ll find out ways to skip the vice president when she’s in town, skip the president when he’s in North Carolina — that’s for political expedience, but believe me, she is no moderate,” Budd told Breitbart News’ D.C. Bureau Chief and host Matthew Boyle.

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Boyle and Budd spoke about Beasley’s ruling record, in light of a National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) advertisement launched last week accusing her of having a “dangerous record of letting violent criminals off the hook.” The NRSC took aim at two of Beasley’s rulings, one in which she vacated the death sentence of a man who shot and killed a 17-year-old boy, and another where she threw out the indictment of a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl.

Soft-on-crime Democrat judges and prosecutors as a whole have been facing a lot of heat for letting violent criminals back onto the streets, especially during the pandemic and the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots. Budd pointed not only to Beasley’s judicial record, but also to her alignment with self-described socialist Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO), who has fervently promoted Black Lives Matter and the Defund the Police movement.

“[Police officers are] out there on the front lines. They’re not making a lot of money, but they’re out there putting their lives at risk. They’re just glad to come home to their families at night. And yet you’ve got radicals like Cheri Beasley and Cori Bush out there, and AOC — people I stand up against each and every day in Washington, D.C. — that are out there raising money together, out there trying to defund the police, who need to have our support,” Budd said.

“These people have it hard enough in law enforcement, and we want make sure that we have their back. And I certainly will. I mean, Cheri Beasley has raised money with Cori Bush who has been out there leading protests out in Missouri. You cannot get more radical than this,” he continued.

Indeed, media reports confirm Beasley filed a joint fundraising committee (JFC) with Bush with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) just three days after Bush tweeted in opposition to celebrating the Fourth of July.

Budd, who just finished a 100-county campaign tour across North Carolina, also spoke about how President Joe Biden’s virtually non-existent border policy has led to overdoses and crime in the Tar Heel State.

“What sheriffs are telling me is that every single county is now a border county because of Joe Biden’s policies. Law enforcement has my back because they know that I have theirs, and I have stood consistently with them,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released data showing that deaths from drug overdoses increased 15 percent in Biden’s first year in office. More than 107,000 people in the United States died from drug overdoses in 2021, according to data — over 80,000 of whom died from opioids. Additionally, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has warned federal, state, and local law enforcement of an impending nationwide spike in fentanyl-related “mass overdose events” and reported the amount of the drug infiltrating into the United States in 2021 was enough “to kill every American.”

“What we really need is an administration that has our back. Right now, Joe Biden does not have our back, and that’s what Cheri Beasley wants to stand for. She’s going to run away from him when he is in the state because of his poll numbers — Joe Biden’s poll numbers are so low — but we realize that a hundred percent of her policies are going be the things which have led to runaway inflation, which have led to runaway crime, which have led to a spike in drug deaths,” Budd said. “So those policies — if that’s what you want, she’s your person. I tell you what — I’m for law and order. I am for growing the economy, more jobs in this state. … I support every life in this great state.”

As far as poll numbers go between Budd and Beasley, an Emerson College Polling/the Hill survey released last week shows Budd leading Beasley 48 percent to 41 percent with ten percent undecided, should they both secure nominations from their respective parties. 

Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.

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