July 10, 2020/Press

Former GOP Representative: “Where Did Thom Tillis’s Integrity Go?”

In a scathing new op-ed in the Fayetteville Observer, a former Republican congresswoman excoriated Senator Tillis for repeatedly staying silent and “making excuses for Trump,” asking, “where did Thom Tillis’s integrity go?

From being “silent” on reports that Russia placed bounties on American troops to refusing to denounce a Republican lawsuit to gut the ACA and defending “federal negligence in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic,” Senator Tillis has “sold [his] soul.”

That “silence” on Trump’s abuses and racist remarks has “unnerved” voters, as one Fayetteville teacher recently said, showcasing that Tillis’ weak refusal to stand up to anything the President does is costing him with voters across the state.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Fayetteville Observer: Former Republican congresswoman: A betrayal of principles
By Claudine Schneider
July 9, 2020

Key Points:

  • Now, almost every Republican in the United States Senate today has lost his or her sense of integrity.
  • Republican Senators have, in effect, sold their souls.
  • For example, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis showed some independence – and integrity – when he opposed President Trump’s plan to declare a state of emergency for a border “wall” that would cost North Carolina bases $80 million in military construction funds.
  • In fact, Sen. Tillis wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post on February 25, 2019, entitled “I support Trump’s vision on border security. But I would vote against the emergency.”
  • What happened less than three weeks later? Tillis voted for Trump’s emergency declaration, thereby depriving North Carolina military bases of much-needed funding.
  • In an editorial, the Fayetteville Observer called Tillis’s vote “an Olympic gold flip-flop,” adding that with Tillis, “principle crumbled.”
  • Tillis has sacrificed many other principles during his time in the Senate. Here are a few more examples:
  • ‒Tillis strongly supports Trump’s continued efforts to kill the Affordable Care Act, which protects against pre-existing conditions and provides healthcare for over 500,000 residents of North Carolina. A decision on this case is due after the election.
  • ‒Tillis defends federal negligence in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 130,000 Americans and shows little sign of slowing down, as compared with other countries that have managed to bring it largely under control.
  • ‒Tillis was silent when news broke that Russia was paying bounties to Afghan Taliban fighters to hunt and kill American soldiers!
  • Apparently Tillis was waiting for his “talking points” from Donald Trump!
  • As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tillis should be defending America’s national security, American soldiers’ lives and North Carolina’s interests.
  • Instead, Thom Tillis is too busy making excuses for Trump.
  • Where did Thom Tillis’s integrity go?
  • As a member of Republicans for Integrity, I long for a return to the days when Republicans put country over party, defending our nation against threats to our constitutional democracy, whether these threats come from the president or from foreign nations — or both.
  • The Republican Party will need to live in the electoral wilderness until its leaders can regain integrity and return to the principles that attracted so many people to the party in years past.

Read the full op-ed online here.