Ad Attacking N.C. Republican Senate Candidate Uses His Own (Dated) Words Against Him

Filed 1h ago · Via FactCheck.org · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Merry Go Slower

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Century Film / Universal Pictures · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A Cooper campaign ad against Michael Whatley uses his own July 2025 and January statements claiming falling grocery, gas and housing prices and 'no inflation.' Government data on prices, gasoline and the Consumer Price Index show conditions have since worsened, and some claims were shaky even at the time they were made.

Gasoline prices, roughly flat when Whatley first spoke, later spiked sharply after the Iran conflict. Grocery prices were never actually down, despite Whatley's claim, though their rate of increase had briefly slowed. Home price data is mixed and inflation, down slightly when he spoke, has since climbed above the rate Trump inherited.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A candidate who says prices are down when they are merely rising a little slower is stretching things, and stretching them again months later when the numbers turn against him is just asking to get quoted. Cooper's ad is accurate about what Whatley said, even if it lets the calendar do some of the persuading. Politics has always run on words outliving their shelf date, this is just a particularly well-documented case of milk left on the counter.

Source: Read the original at FactCheck.org → Scored: Merry Go Slower · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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