Cunningham Undercuts His Own Justification For Supporting Dangerous Sanctuary Policies

June 11th, 2020

Latest Example of Cunningham Saying One Thing And Doing Another

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – During the Democratic primary, Cal Cunningham vowed to “enable” dangerous sanctuary policies and criticized Senator Tillis’ bill to combat them because he claimed Tillis’ legislation “punishes sheriffs” by making their resources contingent on their willingness to enact certain policy mandates from the federal government. The Raleigh News & Observer reported today, however, that Cunningham reversed himself and now supports a plan where grants to police departments will depend on whether or not those departments adopt “best practices.”

Cunningham’s flip-flop on using federal aid to incentivize reforms for local law enforcement now leaves him without an explanation for why he supports dangerous sanctuary policies that put nearly 500 undocumented immigrants – including those charged with sex offenses, kidnapping, arson and homicide – back on to the streets of North Carolina in 2019.

“Once again, Cal Cunningham has been caught changing his mind on the people of North Carolina and has proven he cannot be trusted to keep them safe,” said Tillis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo. “It’s now clear that his support of sanctuary policies has nothing to do with adequately funding law enforcement, and everything to do with being a rubber stamp for the extreme liberal agenda.”

Cunningham’s reversal on federal incentives for law enforcement is the latest example of how he constantly says one thing while doing another. Here are some other examples in the laundry list of lies his campaign has racked up:

  1. Cunningham claimed to accept a “no corporate money” pledge, but his empty pledge was rated as “mostly false” from WRAL-Politifact.
  2. Cunningham pretended to support the lowering of college tuition in an op-ed he wrote, but the National Review quickly pointed out that Cunningham has voted to increase college tuition two separate times. Once as student body president at UNC and second as state Senator.
  3. Cunningham said he could work with President Trump on trade and immigration, yet he spent his entire primary calling the president’s trade policies “reckless,” refusing to support USMCA and pushing to “enable” sanctuary cities.
  4. Cunningham lied about Senator Tillis’ position on state and local COVID-19 relief and received a “mostly false” rating from WRAL-Politifact.
  5. Cunningham falsely claimed that the Green New Deal  wasn’t a real proposal, even though the Senate voted on the legislation.
  6. Cunningham falsely accused Senator Tillis of not advocating for more testing equipment in North Carolina, when in reality, as the National Journal pointed out, Tillis pressed the administration for more testing equipment back in early March.

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