President Trump railed against Roy Cooper at a rally Wednesday over his handling of violent criminals as governor of North Carolina – comparing the Democratic Senate hopeful to failed presidential candidate Michael Dukakis.
“He was going to win easily, but he allowed a man named Willie Horton out of jail,” Trump said of Dukakis’ disastrous 1988 presidential campaign, during a rally in Gastonia, NC.
“He ended up losing the race because of that one incident, because he allowed a dirty, rotten killer to come out and rape and kill .. same as what you have over here,” the president continued.
“But in a way,” Trump added, “this is worse, because Dukakis let Willie Horton out, but Cooper let Decarlos Brown out plus 3,500 other hardened and dangerous criminals.”
Dukakis’ campaign was cripplied by his soft-on-crime approach as Massachusetts governor, including the release of Horton, a convicted murderer, who twice raped a woman while out of prison on a weekend furlough. His Republican opponent, George H.W. Bush, featured Horton in an infamous campaign ad that played a massive role in sinking Dukakis.
Meanwhile, Cooper has come under fire for the release of at least 3,500 convicts, as part of settlement between his administration and civil rights groups in February 2021.
Earlier this year, the Post found more than 600 of those later committed serious felonies like homicides, sex offenses, or other violent crimes.
Decarlos Brown, a crazed homeless man who was charged with murdering a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light rail train in August 2025, had previously served sentences for larceny, breaking and entering and robbery with a dangerous weapon.
Brown, who brutally stabbed Iryna Zarutska in the throat without provocation, was among a list of inmates set for release under the settlement – but he was actually freed from prison months prior.
Trump blasted Cooper as a “murderer and criminal protector.”
“You can either vote for Roy Cooper to set loose criminals who rape and murder your children and your population, or you can vote for Michael Whatley to protect and defend your children and your population,” Trump told the crowd, referring to the former Republican National Committee chairman and Cooper’s GOP opponent.
Cooper and Whatley are running for the North Carolina Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC). The seat is considered one of most likely to flip Democrat in the 2026 midterm elections.
Cooper has a 7.8 percentage point advantage over Whatley in the race, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls.
