Senator Tillis, the 2020 poster child for Republican subservience to the president, continues to draw negative coverage in-state for choosing political expediency over a fair trial and voting against hearing from key witnesses.

The CBC editorial board today wrote that Tillis and Burr “violated their oaths” by voting for a cover-up, stating, “This is a trial without evidence.” This weekend, the Fayetteville Observer noted that “we have seen our own senator, Thom Tillis, transform from occasional heretic on Trump into lead conductor of the Trump Train” purely for political expediency. “We believe history will look unkindly on how the U.S. Senate, nicknamed ‘the world’s greatest deliberative body,’ handled the impeachment of Donald J. Trump.”

North Carolina papers have relentlessly held Senator Tillis accountable for being a self-serving politician who puts his own political survival ahead of what’s best for North Carolina. The Charlotte Observer last week called Tillis “pathetic” because “allowing no daylight between his positions and Trump’s is Tillis’ only calculation, his only concern and his only ambition.”

Capitol Broadcasting Company: Editorial: Burr and Tillis disappoint
By the Editorial Board
February 4, 2020

Key Points:

• Take note of what North Carolina’s senators said last week as they rejected hearing from witnesses in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.

• Tillis seems to forget that Trump stopped witnesses and documents in the House proceedings. How can anyone conclude that there is a “lack of evidence” when you vote to not hear it?

• Burr and Tillis, jurors who are sworn to “do impartial justice,” voted NOT to hear any witnesses.

• REAL trials in the United States include the basics: Calling witnesses who testify and are cross-examined under oath along with the introduction of evidence that seek to prove or exonerate the accused.

• Burr and Tillis have violated their oaths. This is a trial without evidence.

Fayetteville Observer: Editorial: Upcoming Trump ‘acquittal’ will be viewed skeptically
By the Editorial Board
February 1, 2020

Key Points:

• The only remaining major piece of business is what is sure to be a partisan vote to acquit Trump.

• Americans by wide margins said in polls they wanted witnesses in the trial, which was convened to consider two articles of impeachment against Trump — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. We should also remember that during the U.S. House phase of the impeachment, Trump blocked administration officials from participating in any way, even to the point of ignoring congressional subpoenas and refusing to turn over relevant documents.

• We believe most Americans will not see this as a real acquittal because it was hardly a real trial. They will view what happened not as exoneration but as a president getting his way because his party runs the chamber and ran interference for him.

• Republicans wanting to hold onto their seats in both House and Senate races see little upside in opposing a president so popular within his party. It is one reason we have seen our own senator, Thom Tillis, transform from occasional heretic on Trump into lead conductor of the Trump Train. He has groused repeatedly that the impeachment trial is a waste of time and that the Senate needs to get back to its work. (Though he did manage to find time to tweet birthday wishes to Eric Trump, the president’s son, and encouraged others to add their name to Eric’s birthday card.)

• We believe history will look unkindly on how the U.S. Senate, nicknamed “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” handled the impeachment of Donald J. Trump.

• But the immediate question is: Will voters judge the senators harshly as well? November will tell the story.