
Thom Tillis unleashed
With a year and a half left in office, he could become the GOP version of Joe Manchin.
Man, am I enjoying Thom Tillis unleashed. The man who once knew what was right and did what was wrong seems to have changed his ways. Of course, it took announcing his retirement to get there, but it’s still good to see. He’s calling out Trump and his Republican colleagues when they need to be.
I’m not going to agree with Tillis on much when it comes to policy. He’s going to cast votes that piss me off and he’s going to make deals with his colleagues that I think stink. That’s the way politics works. But at least he’s starting to say out loud what he’s really thinking instead of cowering to avoid Trump or MAGA criticism.
While Trump is trying desperately to bury the Epstein scandal, Thom Tillis is calling him out. Trump spent years demanding the release of the Epstein client list and now he’s calling it a “Democratic hoax.” Trump’s response is both laughable and sad. It’s funny because he has created his own mess. It’s sad because so many American have fallen for an obvious conman. While most Republicans in Congress are watching uncomfortably, just hoping it will all go away, Tillis lashed out saying “Release the damn files.” It’s hard to imagine him saying that just few weeks ago.
Tillis condemned Trump for threatening to fire Jerome Powell as Fed Chairman. “If anybody thinks it would be a good idea for the Fed to become another agency in the government subject to the president, they’re making a huge mistake,” Tillis said on the floor of the Senate. Trump, meanwhile, said Powell was a terrible Fed Chair and wondered how he could have been nominated. Tump, of course, appointed Powell in his first term. Back then, competence was more important than fealty to Trump.
Tillis has always thought of himself as an independent voice, willing cut deals to get results. While he’s sometimes struck a bipartisan chord, he often said one thing and did another, particularly if he drew the ire of Trump. His flattery of the president was so cringeworthy because it was so obviously insincere. I hope that version is Tillis finally gone.
Tillis has a year and a half left as a US Senator. I hope he transforms himself into a voice of reason and accountability. Republicans desperately need people who will stand up to Trump and call him out when he’s lying. They need leaders who will hold accountable the incompetence of executive branch appointees like Pam Bondi, RFK, Jr., Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, and Tulsi Gabbard. They need truth tellers who will call bullshit on the conspiracy theories that drive much of the MAGA base. They need institutionalists who will defend the legislative branch against an overreaching executive branch.
I understand that Tillis must be diplomatic enough to remain effective as a lame duck, but with such a closely divided Senate, he has a lot of influence. He can speak truth to power because he has so much of it himself. Tillis can be the Republican version of Joe Manchin. I hope he recovers his dignity and becomes the voice of reason in an increasingly unreasonable party.
His vote to let Bove out of the Judicary Committee seemed like same old, same old.
Me thinks thou does project too much
He just voted against NPR and PBS
He can always be counted on doing the wrong thing unless it profits him
I’m disappointed in your logic on Tillis
NC deserves better