Trump says Democratic Senate candidate Roy Cooper allowed ‘blood-soaked killing fields’ to spring up across North Carolina in heated remarks while campaigning for Republican Michael Whatley
President Donald Trump made violent crime a central theme of a campaign rally for Republican Senate candidate Michael Whatley in North Carolina, blaming Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper for what he described as worsening public safety in the state’s largest cities.
Speaking at Gastonia Municipal Airport, Trump called Cooper, the Democratic Senate nominee, an “extreme liberal” and said North Carolina’s cities had become “blood-soaked killing fields.” Trump used similar language a week earlier at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas, saying Cooper would “make North Carolina a killing field” if elected to the Senate.
Before the rally, Trump told reporters that Cooper “was a disaster on crime and a disaster on all sorts of hazards.” During his speech, Trump urged voters to “defeat the murderer and criminal protector” and accused Cooper of making North Carolina “the talk of our country” because of violent crime.
The Senate race behind the rhetoric
Whatley, a former chair of the North Carolina Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, is running against Cooper for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who is not seeking reelection. Green Party candidate Michael Dublin and Libertarian candidate Shannon Bray are also on the ballot.
The rally was Trump’s third visit to North Carolina since December to campaign for Whatley. Attorney General Todd Blanche was among the speakers before Trump.
The race could affect the balance of power in the Senate as Republicans defend their majority during Trump’s second term. Recent polling has shown Cooper with an advantage, although the size of that lead has varied by survey. An Elon University poll put Cooper 11 percentage points ahead among likely voters, while an East Carolina University poll showed an eight-point advantage.
The campaigns have reported a substantial difference in cash on hand. Cooper reported nearly $21 million as of June 30, compared with about $3.5 million for Whatley.
Asked about the race in Gastonia, Whatley pointed to Trump’s support in the state.
“President Trump has carried this state three different times because he’s fighting for a strong nation,” Whatley told WRAL. He also said Trump is “fighting for a strong economy” and “safe kids.”
Donald Trump’s crime claims and what the data shows
Trump’s central argument in Gastonia is that North Carolina’s crime problem worsened under Cooper. Federal data for 2024 put North Carolina’s violent crime rate at about 376 incidents per 100,000 residents. The figure alone does not establish that the state has one of the country’s highest violent-crime rates, particularly because crime comparisons can vary depending on the data and methodology used.
Trump also invoked the 1988 presidential campaign of Michael Dukakis, whose Democratic campaign was attacked over Massachusetts’ furlough program after convicted murderer Willie Horton failed to return from a prison leave and later committed violent crimes. Trump argued that the episode offered a parallel to Cooper’s record on inmate releases.
Trump then framed the Senate race as a question of personal safety and property.
“You worked your entire life for everything you have,” Trump told the crowd. “You saved your money, followed the law and now Roy Cooper and his band of communists want to take everything you have and give it to people who would rob your house, invade your border, just shoot you dead.”
The 3,500-inmate claim and COVID-era settlement
Trump told the crowd that when Cooper was governor, he “let out 3,500 people, many of them murderers.”
The claim leaves out the circumstances surrounding the releases. In April 2020, civil rights groups including the ACLU of North Carolina sued over conditions in state prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, arguing that officials had failed to adequately protect incarcerated people from the virus. The subsequent litigation and settlement resulted in the release of thousands of people under a range of circumstances.
Whatley has made a similar argument during his campaign. In an August interview with Breitbart, he said, “We’re talking the worst of the worst. We’re talking rapists. We’re talking [child abusers]. We’re talking murderers out of North Carolina jails because he didn’t want them to get COVID.” He went on to accuse Cooper of having “blood on his hands.”
The available figures do not establish that all or even most of the roughly 3,500 people released under the pandemic-related measures had murder convictions. Cooper’s campaign has rejected the broader characterization of his public-safety record, calling the claims false and accusing Whatley of using violent crime to mislead voters.