Congressman Budd voted to overturn the 2020 elections, sided with former President Trump when it came to peddling election lies and questioning the legitimacy of our elections, and even said of the Capitol insurrection: “It was nothing. It was just patriots standing up.” 

Now, the News & Observer Editorial Board is taking Congressman Budd to task for his efforts to distract voters from that track record as the January 6th Congressional Hearings continue to reveal Republicans’ coordinated efforts to incite a violent insurrection and subvert the will of American voters in 2020.

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News & Observer: Trump ally Ted Budd is avoiding Jan. 6 and the election lies he once helped spread

• It should be impossible to avoid the Jan. 6 committee hearings — especially if you’re a politician asking people to vote for you in November. But it seems U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, wants to do just that. 
• But he’s said nary a word about the conspiracy-fueled insurrection incited by the former president, nor the hearings that are seeking to remind us of it. 
• Neither Budd’s campaign nor his congressional office responded to questions from the Editorial Board regarding his thoughts on the Jan. 6 hearings and whether he’d changed his mind about voter fraud in the 2020 election. 
• With democracy itself on the ballot in November, Budd should be frank with voters and tell them where he stands. Does he regret peddling lies and attempting to reject the outcome of a completely legitimate election? Or does he still think that what happened on Jan. 6 was “nothing”? 
• Silence isn’t a sign of leadership — it’s a sign of cowardice. If Budd has had a change of heart, he should say so, and explain why he still supports the former president anyway. If not, it’s time to own it.

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