Cooper spoke to a full room in Wayne County as he campaigned for North Carolina's open U.S. Senate seat.
"We are hearing from Dallas, from my opponent, Michael Whatley, from the president, about how the economy is great and that inflation's going down. What where where are they?" Cooper said.
Whatley is seeking to keep the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Thom Tillis in Republican hands.
During his appearance at the Republican convention Wednesday night, Whatley praised Republican tax cuts while accusing Cooper and Democrats of raising costs and being soft on crime.
"This is the radical Democrats' playbook to raise costs on our families, to impose a reckless tax-and-spend agenda, to release violent criminals from prisoners like Roy Cooper did in North Carolina," Whatley said.
Whatley also accused Cooper of releasing thousands of people from prison.
"Cooper set up a revolving door that put criminals back on the streets again and again and again. And he released 4200 hardened criminals from our prisons," Whatley said.
Cooper's campaign said independent fact-checkers have found those claims to be false.
On Thursday, Cooper responded by turning the public safety argument back on Whatley.
"Michael Whatley needs to look in the mirror. He appointed a child molester who served six years in prison for it was on the sex offender registry and, above the objections of many members of the Republican Party, appointed him to an important position in the party that gave him access to teenagers and children. And it shows you that he puts politics over public safety," Cooper said.
Cooper also criticized Whatley over health care.
"The problem here is he supported, a bill that took away federal subsidies from people who were getting health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, and many people lost their insurance," Cooper said.
Election Day is 54 days away.
We have reached out to Whatley's team for comment and have not yet heard back.