NC GOP: Hagan Guilty of a 'Taxpayer-Funded Cover-Up'

After the Hagan campaign admitted that Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) missed a classified hearing on “worldwide threats” to U.S. national security for a New York City fundraiser, North Carolina Republicans are calling the incumbent “guilty of a taxpayer-funded cover-up.”

Hagan is locked in a tight race for reelection against Republican state House Speaker Thom Tillis, who has attacked her in recent days for missing more than 50 percent of Senate Armed Services Committee hearings in the wake of the rising threat of ISIS. 

Hagan’s campaign has defended her attendance record by saying she skipped hearings due to hearings or meeting with constituents, by refusing to answer questions, and by attacking Tillis’ own attendance in the state legislature.

Wednesday, however, the Hagan campaign revealed to the Associated Press that she missed a Feb. 27 Armed Services Committee classified hearing on “current and future worldwide threats” to national security in order to attend a New York City cocktail fundraiser reception. 

The fact that Hagan failed to directly admit that she attended a fundraiser instead of a classified hearing, and her whereabouts during the other 26 Armed Services Committee hearings she failed to attend, amounts to a cover-up paid for by the taxpayers, according to the North Carolina Republican Party. 

“Senator Hagan stonewalled the media for weeks about skipping a crucial classified hearing to drink cocktails at a posh Park Avenue fundraiser for her reelection campaign. Her salary is paid by the taxpayers, and so is her staff’s,” William Allison, the North Carolina GOP spokesman, said Thursday. “The people of North Carolina deserved the truth all along. Instead, they got deceptions and innuendos that add up to a taxpayer-funded cover-up.” 

The Tillis campaign piled on as well for campaign dishonesty. 

“Kay Hagan’s web of falsehoods has been exposed, and it has revealed a continued pattern of deceiving North Carolinians, whether it was falsely telling families they could keep their health care plans if they liked them, or misleading voters about her indefensible record of failing to prioritize our national security,” Tillis spokeswoman Meghan Burris said. 

The Republican National Committee took Hagan to task for an apparent lack of remorse, as well.

“From her own explanation, it sounds like if she could — she would absolutely choose the fundraiser again,” RNC spokesman Rob Lockwood said.