Story thread · 5 reports / 5 sources

Thom Tillis fails at ultimate dodge when asked to defend Trump's wild claim

alternet.org · 18h · first reportShare

On Thursday, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) found himself squirming to respond to a wildly inaccurate claim about the state he represents made by President Donald Trump the previous evening. During a campaign rally for MAGA Senate candidate Michael Whatley, the president declared that North Carolina is “one of the most violent” states in the country. According to Trump, the state’s fortunes had soured under the leadership of Whatley’s opponent, former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. “Nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous,” said Trump . “It was apple pie. And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation.” The following day, Spectrum News asked Tillis what he thought of the president’s claim. Tillis dodged rather than criticizing Trump’s statement, saying only, “The president should probably take a look at the top 10 states for danger and look at who's governing it." Spectrum provided that list, according to the FBI’s m