Tillis knocks Senate GOP colleague for ‘bulls-t’ on social media

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Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) didn’t mince any words Tuesday in calling out what he characterized as the “bulls—” arguments of fellow Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah) on social media, revealing the tensions within the Senate Republican Conference over how to push forward on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.

Tillis said Lee’s push for Republicans to force Democrats to actively hold the floor in continuous debate to block the bill — in other words, to force Democrats to employ a talking filibuster — is “goofy.”

“I think it’s silly. All of it’s just goofy stuff,” he said. “It’s like a remake of a bad movie that just keeps on getting released.”

“At what point do you stop digging a hole?” the senator added.

Asked why Lee keeps pushing the talking filibuster as a strategy to pass the legislation, Tillis replied: “Naivete or a desire to get more likes on a social media post. Maybe both. I don’t know.”

“I never speak ill of members when they want to be professional and they want to engage in a productive way, but when you do some of the bulls— he’s done on social media, that’s why he gets these comments out here,” he told reporters, speaking in a hallway off the Senate floor.

Tillis vented his frustration with Lee for relentlessly making the case on social media and to President Trump that Senate Republicans can pass the SAVE America Act, which would require people to show documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote, even though they’re nowhere close to mustering 60 votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster.

Lee this week has called on his GOP colleagues to cancel parts of the July 4th and August recesses to spend more time debating the bill on the Senate floor.

The Senate has already voted five times on the measure and failed to advance it. When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) offered Trump’s preferred version of the SAVE America Act as an amendment to the budget reconciliation package earlier this month, four Republicans voted against it: Tillis and Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

The version favored by Trump would greatly restrict absentee voting by mail and bar transgender athletes from women’s sports.

Tillis fumed that Lee is embroiling the Senate Republican Conference in an unproductive debate over the legislation, which would also require voters to show a photo ID in order to vote, when he believes GOP colleagues would be better off focusing on bills that actually have a chance of passing.

“I don’t think it’s helpful. Every time we’re having this unproductive discussion, it’s at the expense of a productive conversation that we could be having about addressing things that are going to be helpful for the president, his legacy and for the election,” he said.

The North Carolina Republican added that the SAVE America Act is “going nowhere” because Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) doesn’t have the votes to abolish the Senate filibuster and Democrats staunchly oppose the election reform bill, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has called “Jim Crow 2.0.”

“It’s a math issue, I’ve been saying it for months. You don’t have the votes to nuke the filibuster,” Tillis said.

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Chuck Schumer

Donald Trump

election reform

John Thune

Lindsey Graham

Lisa Murkowski

Mike Lee

Mitch McConnell

SAVE America ACt

Senate filibuster

Senate GOP

Susan Collins

talking filibuster

Thom Tillis

Trump administration

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