NC Senate leader should apologize for spreading dangerous election falsehoods

The Bottom Line from NC Newsline

Senate President Phil Berger and NC State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell. (File photos)

North Carolina Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger is a smart lawyer and has long been one of our state’s most powerful elected officials.

And unlike some conservatives who are prone to promoting crazy conspiracy theories, Berger has traditionally been more responsible than that.

Unfortunately, that seems to be changing. Last week, Berger made the false and dangerously reckless claim that election officials were corruptly trying to alter the outcome of the closely contested state Supreme Court contest between incumbent Democrat Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin.

Berger’s bluster led State Board of Elections executive director Karen Brinson Bell to take the extraordinary step of publicly demanding a retraction and pointing out how Berger’s unfounded comments are encouraging threats of violence toward honest and hardworking election officials.

“I ask you,” she said in the statement, “What sort of free society do we have when the people running elections fear for their lives?”

The bottom line: Senator Berger made a dreadful error. He needs to apologize immediately.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.