Who knew Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman would be at the center of an election controversy?
Talk about misleading ads -- B.J. Lawson, the Republican candidate facing North Carolina Democratic Rep. David Price, not only put up a TV ad featuring voiceover that was a dead ringer for Morgan Freeman but then in a press release claimed that it really WAS Morgan Freeman doing work for him.
Freeman, who has business interests in Memphis and grew up just south in the Mississippi Delta, released an emphatic statement to the media: "These people are lying. I have never recorded any campaign ads for B.J. Lawson and I do not support his candidacy. And, no one who represents me ever has ever authorized the use of my name, voice or any other likeness in support of Mr. Lawson or his candidacy."
The Lawson campaign has now issued an apology, according to CNN. "We're apologizing to Congressman Price, to the voters, and most of all to Morgan Freeman because this is not the campaign we wanted to run, and not the campaign we have run," Lawson campaign spokesman Martin Avila told CNN.
The Price campaign's statement: "This is an unfortunate and desperate attempt to fool voters in the last hours of a campaign. By using Mr. Freeman's good name, BJ Lawson has ruined his own, and he should be ashamed. Now the voters will decide whom they trust."
Here is the ad:
Talk about misleading ads -- B.J. Lawson, the Republican candidate facing North Carolina Democratic Rep. David Price, not only put up a TV ad featuring voiceover that was a dead ringer for Morgan Freeman but then in a press release claimed that it really WAS Morgan Freeman doing work for him.
Freeman, who has business interests in Memphis and grew up just south in the Mississippi Delta, released an emphatic statement to the media: "These people are lying. I have never recorded any campaign ads for B.J. Lawson and I do not support his candidacy. And, no one who represents me ever has ever authorized the use of my name, voice or any other likeness in support of Mr. Lawson or his candidacy."
The Lawson campaign has now issued an apology, according to CNN. "We're apologizing to Congressman Price, to the voters, and most of all to Morgan Freeman because this is not the campaign we wanted to run, and not the campaign we have run," Lawson campaign spokesman Martin Avila told CNN.
The Price campaign's statement: "This is an unfortunate and desperate attempt to fool voters in the last hours of a campaign. By using Mr. Freeman's good name, BJ Lawson has ruined his own, and he should be ashamed. Now the voters will decide whom they trust."
Here is the ad:
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