Trump called NC ‘blood-soaked’: What Charlotte talked about Sep. 14-20
From a presidential rally in Gastonia to an asylum-seeking family torn apart by federal agents, Charlotte Observer readers had plenty to weigh in on last week. Here are the five stories that got the most conversation going between Sept. 14 and Sept. 20.
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Freelance columnist Andrew Dunn argued that President Donald Trump’s rally at Gastonia Municipal Airport for U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley may have widened — not closed — the gap with former Gov. Roy Cooper. Trump’s description of North Carolina as “one of the most violent” states in the country drew particular scrutiny from readers.
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UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol wrote that North Carolina Republicans’ decisions to eliminate Sunday voting in 23 counties — long a “Souls to the Polls” tradition among Black churchgoers — amount to voter suppression. State Auditor David Boliek’s reshaped State Board of Elections sided with GOP-backed plans in nearly every disputed case, Nichols said.
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Both Cooper and Whatley have started addressing growing pushback against large data centers and Flock Safety license plate readers. A July Elon University poll found 53% of North Carolinians would oppose a large data center in their community. Elon political scientist Jason Husser said the issues are emotional but unlikely to decide the Senate race on their own.
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Viktor Vdovin, who fled Russia with his family in 2022 and settled in Indian Trail, was detained at a routine ICE check-in on Aug. 18 and sent to the Stewart Detention Center in Georgia. His family’s asylum case is still pending. “They were doing everything the right way,” Charlotte immigration attorney Mary Lynn Tedesco said of clients caught in similar situations.
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At the Gastonia rally, Trump called North Carolina cities “blood-soaked killing fields” and one of the worst states in the country for crime. U.S. News & World Report ranks North Carolina 31st out of 50 for violent crime. Attorney General Todd Blanche, speaking on the same stage earlier that evening, said “communities are safer, families are stronger” under the Trump administration.
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This report was produced with the assistance of a proprietary tool powered by artificial intelligence and using our own originally reported, written and published content. It was reviewed and edited by our journalists.
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