The Laurie Story: *Lyin’ Laurie* ??? (So says The Sheriff.)

The North Carolina Federation of Republican Women hosted a forum Friday night for the GOP candidates in the First Congressional District race.  Due to the anticipated bad weather, the event was  changed from on-location in Beaufort to a Zoom on-line conference call.  All five GOP candidates — Laurie Buckhout, Bobby Hanig, Asa Buck, Eric Rouse and Ashley Nicole Russell — showed up and the moderator was NCFRW president Erica Vedeikis.

The district has been – thanks to redistricting — made more competitive for Republicans.  It’s currently held by Democrat Don Davis, but many observers are expecting it to be taken by a GOP candidate in November.

The five-person forum, right from the start, evolved into a clash between Laurie Buckhout and Carteret County sheriff Asa Buck.

Here’s sheriff Buck in his opening remarks:

[…] Good evening. I’m Carteret County Sheriff Asa Buck and candidate for Congress during tonight’s forum. As you heard earlier, we anticipate that the answers to each question will be remarkably similar. We all will say that we support President Trump, secure borders, lower taxes and so forth. I’ll answer these questions, but I want you to be aware that I will also use my time to point out my biggest concern in this primary.

There are four other candidates running for this seat, but only one gives me concern for the future of Eastern North Carolina. As I’ve traveled this district, I consistently hear people’s concerns with members of Congress who care more about insider Washington politics than the citizens here at home. I, and at least one other candidate in this race have experienced that with Laurie Buckhout.

In early December, she reached out to me on three different occasions.

In all three phone calls, the consistent theme was she had health issues, she did not want to run, she wanted to support me, and that somehow she had influence with the White House and could get me their support.

However, her concern was my grassroots style of campaigning is not what the DC folks like, and multiple times she told me the White House would not support me if I didn’t use their team. I didn’t believe then and I don’t believe now that the White House said such a thing. After turning down her backroom deals, she filed to run on the final day.

That night was President Trump’s rally at Rocky Mount, after which she made two Facebook posts claiming President Trump praised her during his speech. No such thing occurred, and everybody knows it. Laurie Buckhout lied about the White House to me weeks before she ran, lied about the president less than 12 hours after she filed a run, and somehow she expects voters to believe that she is the choice of President Trump.

Donald Trump has never endorsed Laurie Buckhout in a Republican primary, and he isn’t endorsing her now. I invite her to explain these lies about the president or call me a liar. […]

O-kay.  The moderator – obviously caught off guard with the apparent direction this was heading — gave Buckhout an opportunity to respond:

No, I’ll take some time now, as a matter of fact, you know, First off, I think it’s funny how this candidate is more focused on me than on the people of Eastern North Carolina.

He had two minutes to talk about himself and talk about his vision, and what did he do? He talked about me. You know why? Because he’s afraid of me. Because I’ve come closer than anybody else has in this district.

I’m the one who’s been up and selected and selected by President Trump to serve in the White House and serve in the administration.And I’m the one that’s being backed by congressional members right now.

I’ve got SEAL PAC behind me, Guardian PAC behind me. I’ve got winning for women behind me, view back behind me. They’re not going to support me because I’m a liar. Frankly, as a commissioned officer, I don’t lie, steal or cheat or tolerate those who do. I don’t like your version of events. I don’t like your lies about it. I take extreme umbrage with it. And frankly, as a sheriff, you need to do a little better.

So I tell you what, here’s a tip for you, Asa. Go ahead and care about the people of the district a little less about me because it makes you look petty, it makes you look small, and it makes you look like you have nothing to do but watch me instead of taking care of the people of this district.

That should be your focus. That’s my focus. You’ll notice I spent no time on the Internet chasing after you because I don’t care about you, I care about this district. Keep your lies to yourself and why don’t you focus on working instead of coming after me? Thanks very much. […]

Oh, we were just getting the ball rolling at this point.  Here are Buck and Buckhout talking about their views of governing in DC:

[Asa Buck:]

[…] Well, I think this is very common sense and everything revolves around it.We need a balanced budget amendment. States had to balance their budgets. Cities and counties have to balance their budgets. Families have to balance their budgets. And it’s high time the United States of America did the same thing. The last time we had a balanced budget, if I recall correctly, was back during the Clinton administration. And that’s been some time. And if you look at the deficits in the budget and the and the interest that we have to pay on the national debt, if we don’t do something and do something soon, we’re going to continue to spend this country into oblivion. So every issue that we discuss after that is secondary.

We need a balanced budget amendment. It’s time for the Congress to act. There’s probably been a lot of people talk about it, just like they’ve talked about term limits and other things and transparency and other things. It’s all lip service. That’s all it’s been for years on both sides. It’s time to step up to the plate and put the work in and get the job done for the American people. We need to balance our budget and we need to get this deficit and our debt under control. […]

 

[Laurie Buckhout:]

Hey this is a great question. So for starters, I’d love to go to the mat because I don’t need this job.

You know, I think I’m blessed. Like President Trump, I was able to create a business. I’m a very savvy businesswoman and I hired a whole lot of folks. I was able to sell that business. So what I’m doing now is just service.

I’m not a career politician. Ashley, I appreciate that you signed onto term limits. I had to last time. I certainly will this time.

I don’t want to do this forever, but because I don’t have to use this for a job, I can go to the mat for anything my constituents need. So on term limits, I’m not a career politician, but my acid tests are #1 is it constitutional. I’m a constitution conservative. Is it moral, is it ethical, is it legal? And does it serve the constituents of Eastern North Carolina? Those are the critical acid tests. I’ll go to the mat for a lot of things, but let’s talk about something else that’s really important.

You can go to the mat, you can be the lone vote and you can lose, or you can be a savvy, mature, adult, trusted team player who’s going to be able to bring folks to you and win.

A lot of folks go into combat, throw an egg, throw a grenade, blow themselves up, blow everybody else up. But you know what? They still lose and they walk out saying, hey, I threw a grenade.

That’s not the way to do it. The way to do it is to be is to be a team player, is to be smart, is to put the constituents first and be willing to fight with them and bring people to you as an island so that you can win the issue instead of being that lone vote going to the map and losing it. That’s what I am. I‘m the grown up in the room. I’m experienced, but I’m not an insider. I fought in the swamp without being the swamp. That’s why President Trump had me up there. He trusted me. I’m a bulldog, I’m a warrior. I like to fight, but I like to win on the campaign. […]

And here is sheriff Buck in his closing comments from Friday night:

“Everything [Buck] Said Is False.”   That is the reaction Buckhout had when we reached out to her on Saturday.  She offered no clarification on that statement, but did offer to pass my name and number on to her campaign manager.

We reached out to sheriff Buck on Saturday to get his reaction to Buckhout’s statement. He told us:

“I can back up everything I’ve said to the letter.  During all my years in law enforcement, I’ve become quite proficient at documenting things.”

Buck said his comments were based mainly on three phone conversations he had with Buckhout.  One on December 1, another on December 4, and another on December 5.  The sheriff stressed that he didn’t reach out to Buckhout.  He said she initiated contact with him via a Facebook direct message. 

We wrote earlier about communications Buckhout reportedly had with her primary competitors Asa Buck and Bobby Hanig. (She reportedly contacted Hanig on December 6 – one day after her third conversation with sheriff Buck.) 

 Media reports indicate that Buckhout denied Hanig’s claims.  This is the first time we’re aware of Buckhout addressing Asa Buck’s claims.