Tillis on reelection decision: I slept like a baby last night

Name: Tillis on reelection decision: I slept like a baby last night
Uploaded: 2025-06-30T15:00:33.000Z
Duration: 3 min 3 s
Description: Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina spoke Sunday night on Capitol Hill about his decision to not run for reelection.

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina spoke Sunday night on Capitol Hill about his decision to not run for reelection.

Posted 6/30/2025, 3:00:33 PM Updated 6/30/2025, 3:02:08 PM

Surprised by the extent of some of his political threats

to you last night just one after the other

Uh frankly I never read them so I'm not really

sure how many there were you know I mean I

really I I don't I'm not on truth

What is it It's the truth

So I'm not on that

Yeah I mean he sort of you know he pledged

to meet with anyone that threatened to primary you

Oh that's OK you know I told him actually uh

uh be attack that he probably needed to start looking

for a replacement anyway before he posted that so I

appreciate him getting to work

I mean he's now said great news

In response to your announcement yeah yeah well I've told

him I'm looking I want to help him

I hope that we get a good candidate that I

can help him

We can have a successful 2026

I just put that out today

Is there any room for disagreement with Donald Trump in

the Republican Party today if you have the courage to

and

There isn't

It's all what you want to do as an individual

member

Senator you talked about about how you're looking forward to

kind of being you know have more of a freer

voice

How much does leadership have to worry about you Well

look here here's the thing

I was a leader

I'm never gonna do anything to undermine my conference and

I'm never gonna surprise my conference

I told um I let Senator Thune last night know

that I intended to do this today

Um I'm not that kind of guy

I mean if you've got a surprise or jam your

conference to get something done you're a pretty legislator and

that's just not my style so I'm gonna stand behind

John and the leadership and do everything I can to

make them successful and quite honestly that's what I just

said on the floor because if we're responsible for moving

this bill I believe that it's gonna be a massive

mistake and sooner or later you gotta help the president

Understand that he's gotten a lot of advice from people

who have never governed and all they've done is written

white papers and it's very different to talk about the

perfect versus implement the practical and my job I've done

that for my entire career and I'm I I've told

the president many times I've never disagreed with him

I've disagreed with bad advice he's been given and I

think if every once in a while he would tap

on people who genuinely want him to be the most

successful president in the history of this country

Then he could benefit from it and he doesn't he

does it at his own peril and he can have

people from an ivory tower drive them into a box

canyon

Got to go

I'm sorry

Why do you think others haven't followed your lead I

speak for others

What do you hope to accomplish in the rest of

your time Well 18 months you can get a lot

done

We'll see

Anything in particular that you're already hoping to do No

we'll have to see what the art of the possible

I want to work with the president

I want to make them successful

He's got to want to do that too

Do you feel like a weight has been lifted off

of your shoulders No no but I never have a

weight on my shoulders

I slept like a baby last night

You mentioned you texted the

to find start looking for other candidates

When did you do that before he posted his interviews

like in the last week or so

Oh no no that was last night

And when did you notify the leader leader soon I'm

not going to get into details guys

He got it last night

Thank you