In this week's fact check of North Carolina politics, we turn our attention to this year's U.S. Senate race. In a recent TV ad, former Gov. Pat McCrory accuses one of his opponents in the Republican primary, U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, of being sympathetic toward Russia and the invasion of Ukraine.
In the ad, McCrory says Budd voted against sanctions and "excused (Ukrainians') killer." But the ad distorts the statements it includes from Budd. Fact checker Paul Specht of WRAL joined WFAE's Marshall Terry to explain.
Marshall Terry: OK, Paul. So, the ad has a few clips of Budd speaking. Let's start with the first one in which he described Vladimir Putin as a "very intelligent actor." Where's that clip from? And what's the context there?
Paul Specht: This is from the day that candidate filing resumed in North Carolina and WNCN-TV got an interview with Budd. The quote is accurate, but it's sort of taken out of context. Budd did call Putin intelligent, but the ad leaves out parts of the interview where Budd accused Putin of being erratic and where he calls him evil. He says, "You have to look at what Putin is doing."
And he says, "I would say Putin is evil, but that doesn't mean he's not smart. He's a very intelligent actor, although I'd say he's been quite erratic in his approach to Ukraine. It was very predictable what he would do. At the same time, Putin is evil. He's an international thug, but he is intelligent, and we have to treat him as such."
So, you hear him say "he's an intelligent actor," yes, but he also calls him evil twice and says that the invasion of Ukraine has been erratic.
Terry: So next in the ad, McCrory accuses Budd of excusing Putin, and then it shows Budd saying, "There are strategic reasons he'd want to protect his southern and western flank. We understand that." Is that from the same interview as the first clip?
Specht: No, this is from a different one that Budd had — this one on Fox News. And he was asked about Russia and his background visiting the country, which he apparently did as a missionary. And in it, he's attempting to explain Putin's motives for invading Ukraine. And again, he describes Putin as evil.
But the full context is, he says that at the Russian state of the union in 2005, Putin essentially said Ukraine was considered to be part of larger Russia. And so Budd is making this point that, "Hey, we should have potentially seen this coming." So, (Putin is) "trying to build the glory of Russia. There are strategic reasons why he would want to protect his southern, western flank because of the flatlands of Russia. We understand that," the quote continues," But still, (I mean) this is evil. This is a sovereign nation and Ukraine, and we stand with the Ukraine people now." So clearly there's again another instance of Budd calling Putin evil and again, him recognizing Ukraine's sovereignty. There's no endorsement of what Putin is doing.
Terry: Now, finally, in the ad, McCrory accuses Budd of votes that have "been friendly toward Russia" — he voted against sanctions on Russia. Is that true? What is McCrory talking about there?
Specht: Now, first of all, this is not something we considered in the fact check, because that "friendly toward Russia" line comes from a News & Observer story. It's actually what their reporter wrote. It's not someone's claim. It's how the N&O described Budd's votes through the years on sanctions on Russia and things like that. But we felt that it was important to point out.
McCrory's ads mentioned those votes as being "friendly towards Russia." But in that same story, he overlooks the fact that the Budd campaign issued a statement saying, "We need to take stronger action against Vladimir Putin's outrageous invasion of Ukraine, starting with cutting off Russia's access to the global financial system."
So, it's another case where McCrory picked something that made Budd look bad from that story but ignored some other things that would have given people a clearer picture of where Budd stands.
Terry: So, how did you rate this ad?
Specht: We rated it mostly false. And it's not a "full false" because the quotes from Budd in the ad are accurate. They're not doctored, but they are cherry picked. They leave out Budd's full position, which is that Putin is evil, he's been erratic; the United States needs to be careful when dealing with him because, as he does say, he believes Putin is an intelligent actor; but that he stands with Ukraine and condemns Russia's invasion of that sovereign nation. So, the element of truth being that the quote is real but taken way, way out of context.
Terry: But given how McCrory framed Budd's comments, that he left out the fact that Budd called Putin evil and an international thug, why not just label the ad, as you say, "full false?"
Specht: You know, we actually went back and forth on this particular rating. And let me back up and say that the fact checking process goes this way: Someone at WRAL or PolitiFact notices is something that needs to be checked. The reporter — in this case, me — looks into it, and then three editors vote on a rating. And that includes an editor from PolitiFact and an editor from WRAL and then one other person from either place.
In this case, there wasn't a consensus on which rating we should go with. At least one person thought it should be a full false. The quote was real, yes, but it was taken so far out of context that it did not present an accurate picture of Budd's position. And then other people thought, "Well, you know, it's not doctored. Does someone get credit for that?" And that's something that we debated.
Ultimately, we decided to look at other fact checks PolitiFact has done — have there been other statements or other campaign ads or anything like that where an accurate quote was cherry picked and pulled out of context to mislead people? And it turns out that we actually have a history of giving those types of claims "mostly false." I can't tell you when it started or why those original decisions were made. But it is important to note that during our process, precedent, when it comes to ratings, is something that we take seriously and something that we always consider.
Terry: All right, Paul, thank you.
Specht: Thank you.
