🤦♀️🤣 John Locke
What the timeline leaves out or doesn't yet know:
•The same report found no evidence that Cooper personally benefited from the fund, and his office called it full of inaccuracies and contradictions.
•Its conclusions were hedged. Investigators said "it would be reasonable to conclude" Cooper acted improperly, which is weaker than a finding of wrongdoing.
•The investigators were partisan-commissioned. A Republican-controlled legislative committee hired them, and the panel lacks power to take direct action on the findings. No charges were ever filed.
•Duke's CEO disputed the "pay to play" framing, saying the pipeline was entitled to the permits and Duke did not and would not pay for permits.
•Arrangements like this weren't unique. Virginia and West Virginia also had mitigation funds, and the final amount was set to match a similar fund the pipeline operators were providing in Virginia.
•In the end, the pipeline was canceled in 2020, and none of the $57.8 million ever arrived in North Carolina.
@donbrownfornc I guess if you value pedos, pardoning criminals and supporting another forever war, then yes, Whatley is your boy!
He’s a trump puppet and he has never done anything for NC, nor would he if he got into the senate!
@WhatleyNC Wow curious if agriculture is so important and the @NCGOP has had majority control since 2021…. Why haven’t the Republicans helped them yet?
🤣🤣🤣🤣 "He sat on the pipeline" and "the pipeline got killed." His administration approved it. In January 2018, the governor's office and DEQ announced the pipeline's water quality permit. Then in 2020, Duke and Dominion themselves canceled it, citing ongoing delays and rising cost uncertainty.
🤣🤣
Cooper owns zero individual stocks. Index funds aren't Duke stock. Whatley's family owns up to $445K of Duke directly, he lobbied for their rate hikes, and he's taking their PAC money. Projection much?
Owns Duke Energy stock": Misleading. Cooper never owned individual stocks while serving as governor, according to his state ethics filings, and his federal Senate disclosures show the same. The claim rests on Duke being among the holdings in index funds he owns, like the Vanguard Total Stock Market fund, which is true of almost anyone with a 401(k). By contrast, Whatley's family directly owns somewhere between $163,000 and $445,000 in Duke stock.
Says the man who has been an insider since BUSH… WTF
Hey folks- he’s polling like 💩 because NC knows exactly who @WhatleyNC is…. He's a longtime party insider. He worked on George W. Bush's 2000 campaign and in his Energy Department, was Elizabeth Dole's Senate chief of staff, and chaired the North Carolina GOP from 2019 to 2024. He then chaired the RNC until August 2025 and served as a Trump administration hurricane recovery czar. NBC has also reported that his Michigan birthplace has largely dropped out of his campaign bio, which is a separate authenticity critique.
He was paid $755,555 over two years as a consultant to another lobbying firm while chairing the NC GOP and RNC.
He spent more than a decade lobbying for oil and gas companies and their allies, including for Atlantic offshore drilling that draws bipartisan opposition in North Carolina. He was a partner at the lobbying firm HBW Resources and executive vice president of the Consumer Energy Alliance from 2008 to 2019. The firm's clients included Noble Energy and BP.
Before calling someone a “dirtbag,” the Senator should have had his facts straight. An apology is in order.
Glad one of us knew the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the Iowa Hawkeyes!
ooper did veto Senate Bill 382 in November 2024. But the bill paired Helene funding with provisions that would strip power away from his successor, Governor-elect Josh Stein, and other Democrats who won their elections. Cooper objected to taking appointments away from the next Governor for the Board of Elections, Utilities Commission, and Commander of the NC Highway Patrol, among other changes. He also argued that the bill basically only shifts money within state budgets and agencies rather than providing new spending.