The Tillis campaign’s “complete response timeline” of Senator Tillis’ action around coronavirus admits that he didn’t take public action for a month after receiving a briefing on January 24, three days after the first U.S. COVID-19 case was confirmed. So what was Thom Tillis doing during that month?

After introducing a meaningless Senate resolution, Tillis was appearing at events with President Trump. 

On February 7, two weeks after receiving a briefing on the coronavirus, Senator Tillis appeared in Charlotte with President Trump to tout the administration’s failed “opportunity zones” and economic policies.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles called the policy “a tax shelter for high-wealth individuals and trust funds,” as in-depth reports described it as “windfall for the rich” and a “once-in-a-generation bonanza for elite investors” and local Charlotte residents said it “furthered segregation” and created “pockets of poverty.”

While Senator Tillis appeared at Trump events, other Republican Senators raised the alarm. A week before in an Armed Services Committee hearing which Senator Tillis attended, Senator Tom Cotton called the coronavirus a “catastrophe on the scale of Chernobyl” and asserted it could result in a global pandemic. Tillis, meanwhile, waited nearly a month to raise an alarm about coronavirus and has consistently shown that he won’t stand up to this administration.

Despite being briefed on the issue, and while his colleagues raised alarms, Senator Tillis waited a month to act, wasting critical time and leaving North Carolina unprepared for the coming pandemic.