President Donald Trump’s Senate pick denied his connection to a registered sex offender who was sentenced to prison for two convictions involving children—and was caught.
Republican Michael Whatley, who is running for an open Senate seat in North Carolina, denied through his campaign spokesperson that he played any role in organizing a recent campaign stop with Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services—which opened with a prayer from registered sex offender Pastor Daimon L. King, who was convicted of rape and incest.
The event “was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests,” Whatley spokesman DJ Griffin told the Associated Press.
However, materials obtained by the Daily Beast contradict that account. A virtual flyer for the event, obtained by the Daily Beast, reads: “Paid for by Whatley for Senate and Laurie Buckhout for Congress.”
What’s more, leaked audio from the event in the small city of New Bern, North Carolina, reveals Whatley himself acknowledging the event’s beginnings.
“Now I got a good friend who was in North Carolina for just a day, wanted to stop by and say hello. He called up, and he said, ‘Hey, where’s a good place to be?’” Whatley said, referring to Oz. He continued: “Well, let me call the chair of the Craven County GOP.”
In an X post, he later shared a photo of himself alongside the Trump appointee, captioned: “It was great to host @DrOz on Friday night in Craven County to talk about how we are going Make America Healthy Again and eliminate the staggering fraud in the federal government.”
A spokesperson for Whatley did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
The chair of the Republican National Committee made his alleged tough-on-crime stance a foundation of his campaign against former North Carolina governor Roy Cooper, who, in one recent poll, led Whatley by 11 points. Whatley’s connection with a convicted criminal puts that campaign stance into question. Additionally, his ties to King mark the second time the MAGA candidate has publicly associated with sex offenders.
During his tenure as chairman, Whatley appointed Harvey L. West Jr., who secured leadership positions after serving a stint in prison.
West previously told the Daily Beast that he was open with the party’s leadership about his past “from day one.” That past includes charges of statutory rape involving three girls, two aged 14 and one aged 16, in 1999, when West was 28 years old and working as a police officer.
“I openly discussed what happened. I openly discussed my time in prison. I openly discussed the charges. And I would tell people, ‘If you want me around, I will work and be glad to do so. If you don’t want me, I’ll go on down the road,’” he said.
Trump, for his part, shrugged off his candidate’s ties to West at the time, declaring Whatley would be “fantastic” and “one of the best.”
Whatley stepped down from his RNC post last year to run for Senate with Trump’s backing, after Trump threatened to primary Thom Tillis for voting against his megabill. Trump endorsed Whatley for the seat over his own daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, who dropped her own bid and backed Whatley.
