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October Surprise Hits Richard Burr's Re-Election Campaign

Republican U.S. Senator Richard Burr
Burr's Google Plus Account

It seems October surprises aren’t just for presidential candidates.

Monday night, an audio recording came to light showing North Carolina Senator Richard Burr making comments that can be characterized as controversial at best.

Republican Senator Richard Burr is in a tight race with Democratic challenger Deborah Ross.

On Saturday, Burr stopped in Mooresville to address a private group. About 33 minutes into his remarks he noticed someone in the crowd wearing an NRA hat. That prompted this questionable joke about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. “Nothing made me feel any better than when I walked into a gun shop, I think yesterday in Oxford, and there was copy of Rifleman on the counter.” Burr then added the magazine had “a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it.  I was a little bit shocked that it didn’t have a bullseye on it.”

The Burr campaign has now apologized for the comment about Hillary Clinton saying the remark was inappropriate.

In the recording, Senator Burr reiterated his belief that Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will win the White House this election. But if not Burr said he would make sure the vacancy left by the death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia would remain unfilled. “If Hillary becomes president,” Burr stated plainly, “I’m going to do everything I can do to make sure that four years from now, we’re still going to have an opening on the Supreme Court.”

If reelected Burr could do just that by filibustering any presidential nominee to the court. In the recording Burr also bragged that he was already responsible for creating the longest vacancy on a federal court in American history. That vacancy is in the Eastern District of North Carolina.

Tom Bullock decided to trade the khaki clad masses and traffic of Washington DC for Charlotte in 2014. Before joining WFAE, Tom spent 15 years working for NPR. Over that time he served as everything from an intern to senior producer of NPR’s Election Unit. Tom also spent five years as the senior producer of NPR’s Foreign Desk where he produced and reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon among others. Tom is looking forward to finally convincing his young daughter, Charlotte, that her new hometown was not, in fact, named after her.