Senator Thom Tillis has repeatedly criticized others for not following COVID guidelines, including falsely saying that the Latino community is not following social distancing policies. Yet Tillis has also refused to criticize President Trump and his administration for failing to follow those same guidelines — and last night Tillis took his hypocrisy a step further.

Tillis attended — and proudly posted a photo of himself at — the Trump administration’s event, posing with people not wearing a mask or social distancing at an event that had no required testing and no mask requirements. Tillis himself was also spotted at the event not wearing a mask.

Tillis has said people not following COVID precautions are “on team COVID,” were “creating a bigger challenge for health care workers,” and were “COVID’s best friend.” He told North Caorlinians to “do everything you can to help out, stay away from large gatherings.”

He even blamed people not following COVID restrictions for the number of deaths across the country: “And I suspect with the number of people that have died in this country, 163,000, some of their deaths, we have to claim, we have to own responsibility for. Or I should say, when I say we, those who are refusing to follow social distancing.”

Yet he attended an event with over 1,000 people after restarting in-person campaigning, with more events scheduled next week.

“Senator Tillis criticizing others not following COVID precautions while then attending an event with over 1,000 people is head-spinning hypocrisy, even for the country’s most hypocritical politician,” NCDP spokesperson Robert Howard said. “Yet again, when it comes time to choose between his political career and his principles, Tillis chose what’s best for himself. Senator Tillis criticizing others while not following his own words is a perfect encapsulation of why North Carolinians don’t trust Tillis, and why he’ll be out of office this fall.”