On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” Democratic North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate and former North Carolina State Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley responded to a question on whether she will be “basically a Biden Democratic vote” if elected by stating that her opponent, Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) “is trying to scare folks about my record” and that people should look at Budd’s record.

Host Ari Melber asked, “In the debate, we also saw him say that it’s not really a vote for you — I don’t know whether this makes it better or worse — but he’s making a political argument, you’re basically Joe Biden. I guess my question for you is, is that an insult among swing voters in North Carolina? Do you parry that and say you’re independent? Or are you basically a Biden Democratic vote? Because I imagine that’s where you’d be voting in the coalition a lot if you’re in Congress. How do you respond to that in a state that we know is sort of red, purple, whatever?”

Beasley responded, “I think Ted Budd is trying to scare folks about my record because he cannot defend his own. I mean, he’s the one who’s been there for six years. He’s had every opportunity to vote in favor of us. He and his national Republican allies are spending millions of dollars against me to distort my judicial record, and they don’t do that unless they know that we really have a great opportunity to win this race. I would ask folks to look at Congressman Budd’s record. There’s not much there. And this is a man who is promoting what’s called murder insurance, which defends those who are domestic abusers of crimes up to murder. This is not a person who is engaged or cares anything about safety. This is someone who has voted against funding for law enforcement on four separate occasions, to include…voting against fighting…against our opioid crisis here in North Carolina. We have real issues and challenges here. We need a fighter in the Senate.”

Beasley concluded by urging people to go to her website for additional information about her campaign.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett