In context: Anti-McCrory ad distorts his radio clips

An ad by a conservative political action committee cobbles together audio from Pat McCrory’s radio show to paint the U.S. Senate candidate as a “Trump-hater.”

Club for Growth Action recently released a 30-second video ad suggesting that McCrory holds a more favorable view of U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney than he does of Donald Trump, that McCrory dismissed Trump’s claims of election fraud while welcoming Biden as president, and that he defended Black Lives Matter while scolding Republicans who have protested.

McCrory, a Republican and former North Carolina governor, is one of several candidates hoping to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr when his term expires in 2022.

Trump has endorsed U.S. Rep. Ted Budd in the race. Club for Growth Action, a Washington-based anti-tax PAC, also supports Budd and has raised more than $4 million to oppose McCrory in the GOP primary. In the ad, a narrator walks the viewer through audio clips of McCrory.

Here’s a transcript, with quotations showing where the ad uses audio of McCrory.

Pat McCrory called Romney “a man of incredible courage.”

But on Trump?

“Donald Trump is destroying democracy.”

“If there was any fraud, I haven’t seen the evidence.”

“Donald Trump, get off the stage, let Joe Biden take over the number-one position.”

No wonder Biden loves McCrory.

“People rightfully protested for Black Lives Matter.”

But Trump supporters?

“Riots by Republicans. Who in the hell do they think they are?’

Several of the clips have been pulled out of context and presented in a way that might make McCrory look worse to voters who support Trump. Reporters for CNN and the Washington Post have already checked some of the claims.

McCrory’s campaign didn’t respond to how each radio clip was used in the Club for Growth ad. In an email to PolitiFact NC, McCrory campaign spokesman Jordan Shaw called the ad “desperately deceptive.” McCrory’s campaign also sent out a fundraising email, telling supporters that his opponents were “running a series of deceptive ads filled with dishonestly edited clips to try and trick voters into supporting my opponent.”

Let’s go through the ad, one claim at a time.

Romney a ‘man of incredible courage’

The ad begins with audio of McCrory referring to someone as “a man of incredible courage,” and the ad says he was referring to Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who is now Utah’s junior senator. McCrory’s campaign doesn’t dispute the quote. However, the way Club for Growth Action presents it is misleading.

The super PAC plays this positive quote about Romney next to a negative quote about Trump, as if McCrory favors one more than the other. However, text at the corner of the screen shows the quote is from Aug. 12, 2012 – long before Romney was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump on a charge of inciting insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

In 2012, Romney was running for president and McCrory was running for governor. Both appeared at the NASCAR Technical Institute in Mooresville, according to media reports. PolitiFact asked Club for Growth for an extended version of the 2012 audio, but didn’t receive a response.

‘Donald Trump is destroying democracy’

The second audio clip features McCrory saying, “Donald Trump is destroying democracy.” This quote has been edited for the ad and also lacks context.

It comes from McCrory’s Nov. 23, 2020, radio show, about 56 minutes in. Throughout the episode, McCrory says Trump has a right to look into the results of the election. McCrory also suggests Trump’s legal team isn’t equipped to prove the election was stolen, as Trump claimed.

McCrory’s show then takes calls from listeners. A caller teases McCrory that he doesn’t bring up his own re-election loss every day, he just brings up his loss “every other day.” McCrory then compares himself to Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacy Abrams, saying he conceded his loss in 2016 and Abrams didn’t in 2018. Here’s a transcript of McCrory’s reaction to the caller:

“I tell you I lost the election about every day. Stacey Abrams has said she won the election. She was robbed of the election. I never say that. Stacey Abrams is getting a free ride by the national media. Because she's doing the exact same thing Donald Trump is doing, destroying democracy.”

The ad clipped the beginning of McCrory’s sentence and took out the word “doing.”

‘If there was any fraud, I haven’t seen the evidence.’

This clip was taken from McCrory’s Nov. 30, 2020 radio show.

McCrory’s co-host, Bo Thompson, had read news about Trump conducting his first post-election interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. McCrory’s show aired audio of Trump saying there was “tremendous cheating.”

McCrory was responding to the audio about 33 minutes into the episode when he said:

“If there was any fraud, I think it came from ballot harvesting, not the machines and not boxes being snuck-in because I haven't seen the evidence. I'd like to see the evidence, but I haven't seen the evidence.”

The ad edited out McCrory’s statements about ballot harvesting. Though the change doesn’t drastically change the thrust of McCrory’s comments, it leaves a misleading impression about his tone and its significance in context.

‘Donald Trump, get off the stage, let Joe Biden take over the number-one position.’

In the ad, this quote plays just after McCrory is heard saying he hasn’t seen evidence of election fraud. But at the time McCrory said this, he wasn’t talking about the presidency at all.

This clip came from McCrory’s July 24, 2020 radio show. In it, McCrory and his co-host had ranked the top five politicians who, in their view, needed to leave the spotlight. In this particular episode, McCrory ranked Trump and Biden as the number one and number two politicians who should leave the spotlight. McCrory recalled listening to Biden make a boring speech, and suggested he would benefit from keeping a low profile during his campaign for president.

McCrory then says Trump is tied with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as the top politician who needs to get off the stage.

“Number one, to be bipartisan, the number one guy that can't get off the stage because he likes it a little bit too much: I hate to say it but he's my president and I want to be reelected but he's got to get off the stage occasionally let Joe Biden take over the number one position. If he wants to be president for a second term, Donald Trump.

Donald Trump, do not go out and throw out the first baseball next week, as I heard you say on Hannity. Don't do it. You have nothing to gain. George Bush did it right. You can't top it. Don't do it.”

It’s clear from the context that McCrory wants Biden to take over the number one position not in American government – but on his list of politicians who need to leave the spotlight.

‘People rightfully protested for Black Lives Matter’

The McCrory quotes at the end of the ad are presented in a way that could give the impression he views Black Lives Matter protesters more favorably than “Trump supporters.” But audio from McCrory’s show on Jan. 7, the day after the attempted insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, shows that’s not the case.

McCrory was not expressing support for Black Lives Matter. He was talking about the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol and how a “mob mentality” can lead protesters to show disregard for police.

“I think a lot of those protesters didn't plan to get violent. … (But) when you follow the mob, you become part of the mob. I saw this during protests in Charlotte, where people rightfully protested for Black Lives Matter. But then they didn't stop other people from breaking the windows. They didn't defend the police.”

‘Riots by Republicans. Who in the hell do they think they are?’

The final quote in the ad appears to be stitched together from a pair of sentence fragments from different parts of McCrory’s Jan. 7 episode and it distorts what McCrory actually said. About three minutes into the episode, McCrory said this:

“I did a top five—a McCrory top five—about five weeks ago after the election ended and said some things that haven't happened since the election where Donald Trump was defeated. One thing I was proud of: no riots by Republicans. Well, that ended yesterday.”

Later, around the seven-minute mark of the recording, McCrory scolded rioters for assaulting police officers. He didn’t specifically condemn Republicans, as the ad suggests.

“To see protesters during this past year and now yesterday at the U.S. Capitol, go into the chambers of the House of Representatives … that to me is an assault on our government.

“And then to see police officers defending themselves and having to spray individuals who were attacking them, it’s inexcusable. Who in the hell do they think they are carrying an American flag and then assaulting a police officer?”

The last part of the ad takes two McCrory quotes out of context and marries them to paint a false impression of what he said about Black Lives Matter and rioters at the U.S. Capitol. We rated that suggestion Mostly False.