Mike Whatley, frequent basher of J6ers, now trying to make us all forget what he did.
Lifetime political hack Michael Whatley – the choice of the RNC and the GOPe for NC’s open US Senate seat — owes Susan and Thom Tillis a lot. They both worked hard to get him installed as state Republican Party chairman in 2019. Whatley returned the favor by regularly running interference for Tillis against angry party activists.
In the immediate aftermath of the January 6th episode on Capitol Hill, Thom Tillis threw a huge temper tantrum all over the drive-by media. In short, Thommy believed all these MAGA people needed to go to jail and get what they deserved.
Like a lovestruck puppy, Whatley followed suit. He made a cameo in a Phil Berger interview with a leftist web site. Then-state GOP chairman Whatley bragged on the record that he was “one of the first” state GOP official to condemn the protesters.
In 2021, as party chairman, Whatley was ready to write off all these people who we now know were victims of a weaponized federal judiciary:
The chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party on Tuesday refused to place blame for the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol on former President Trump, stating that only those who participated in the riots bear responsibility.
“Look, I think that the rhetoric and actions that we saw on Jan. 6, the actions that we saw from the protesters that attacked the Capitol, are horrific and unjustified,” Michael Whatley said in an interview on CNN’s “New Day.”
“There is no rationale that could excuse the actions of those people that went into the Capitol that caused the violence, and the deaths and injuries that we’ve seen from that are truly horrific,” he added. “But I think the fault lies with those people who attacked the Capitol.”
Pressed by CNN’s John Berman on whether Trump deserved any blame for the events on Jan. 6, Whatley demurred, reiterating that the rioters themselves were the ones at fault.
“I think the responsibility lies with those people who broke the law, who attacked the Capitol, who attacked those police officers and caused the violence and mayhem, which is completely reprehensible and unjustifiable,” he said. [...]
Whatley sure does sound like a Biden Democrat, doesn’t he?
*Let’s not wait for a real investigation — which, by the way, still hasn’t happened — before jumping to all kinds of conclusions.*
For the record, no cops got killed. Five civilians did. And Donald Trump — supposedly Whatley’s dear friend and backer — pardoned all of the protesters.
Fast forward to today. Whatley is on TV expressing his *outrage* over the behavior of the Biden Justice Department in connection with January 6, 2021. An absolute 180 from what he had been saying.
(We are slowly learning more of the truth about J6. Whatley is now a candidate, and he has to sell himself to the, um, *rubes* in the NCGOP voting base.)
Meanwhile, Whatley’s primary opponent – Don Brown – fought to defend several J6 defendants from the overzealous and weaponized Biden Justice Department and even helped them win pardons from Trump.
Whatley, meanwhile, verbally gave aid and comfort to CNN and other Trump foes. Yet, Whatley has somehow won a White House endorsement.
It’s hard to understand. Trump endorsed Tillis in 2020. Tillis has shown his gratitude by screwing Trump non-stop ever since. We’re staring at Tillis 2.0 here in 2025-26. Will this be deja vu all over again for Trump, North Carolina AND America?
I p;lan to vote for Don Brown in the primary. If the general election in Nov26 is Whatley vs Restroom Roy ??? Thats a quandary.
Even a “political hack” is preferable to Restroom Roy …
I plan to vote for Don Brown in the Republican Primary. Don Brown, is a brilliant constitutional attorney and acclaimed author, stands head and shoulders above Michael Whatley, a political lobbyist. Don Brown would represent NC in the US Senate with dignity, integrity, a grace. Vote and support Don Brown in the NCGOP primary.
Evelyn M. Poole-Kober
Denver, NC
It seems an effective ad for Brown would be to play:
Whatley in 2021
contrasted with
Candidate Whatley in 2025.
President Trump: we love you, but this endorsement was completely wrong. With no disrespect intended, sir, we’ll vote for Don Brown.
Conservatives have a good reason to support Don Brown, as he is much more dependable on voting for conservative policy positions. But there is another key consideration as well. All Republicans should also be looking at who can best hold the seat in November. What we need to consider is the Democrat tactic used successfully around the country in the last election that cost us a number of seats including the NC First District congressional seat. That tactic is to go after elements in a Republican nominee’s record that could cause him or her to be considered a “RINO” and then run a campaign through an “independent” PAC to urge conservative Republican voters to vote for some third party candidate instead. Whatley’s history would make him highly vulnerable to such an attack, no matter how much money he raised, but Brown’s record is free of material that would feed such an attack.. That makes Brown the more electable of the two candidates. NC had some other potential candidates who looked at the race at one time who would also be immune from this Democrat attack gambit, but the only one still in the race is Don Brown. While it is theoretically possible that another candidate could still get in the race, I suspect our choices will be likely limited to those two, and a key factor in making a decision between them will be which of those two is positioned on issues and their record to be able to win in November.
When I look at a race, one of the things I always look at is how the other side (Democrats) are likely to play their hand, and I have some real concerns on this race based on their tactics in a number of 2024 races around the country.. A successful race depends on considering what your opposition is likely to do and how to prevent it from working.
Whatley was crap as state chair and made my job as a county chair a whole lot tougher. If anyone at NCGOP gets credit for winning NC for Trump in 2020, it’s then-Vice Chair Miriam Chu. I’ll scorch the earth to carry my county for Don Brown, because I’ll never vote for that DC carpetbagger, period.
Ummmm – Lest we forget NC’s elections were finalized 10 days after Election Day, NC didn’t and still doesn’t have an actual post-election audit, and NC had to update the snapshot of the voter registration in MAY OF 2021 because the 11/3/2020 and 1/1/2021 Snapshots were missing so many same day registration records (admission by the NCSBE in a formal memo) – Biden didn’t need NC’s electoral college votes in the 2020 election.
Biden was given Georgia’s EC votes instead.
It astounds me that people willingly believe the NCSBE’s unsubstantiated election result claims since the NCSBE can’t prove all ballots are cast by eligible citizens and all results are tallied correctly. Those who have this kind of blind faith must be Trust the Science peeps, idk.
Don Brown is favored here in eastern North Carolina and is opposed to the wanna-be-Tillis lite. Please get to know Don Brown. He is a real American with solid constitutional principles. Cooper does not stand a chance with Don Brown in the general election.