What Thom Tillis's Surrender to Trump Says About the Trump G.O.P.

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

76% : They praise Trump with their every word, including the conjunctions.
70% : Trump then asked if any of them wanted his endorsement for a primary challenge to Tillis.
65% : Now Trump is back in the White House, and Republicans control both chambers of Congress; he'll extend them the same courtesy.
63% : Trump won North Carolina in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
61% : Instead, Tillis did as Trump wanted.
56% : But a Republican lawmaker can be only so loud and so clear when Trump might be listening.
45% : Keylin said that Tillis isn't frightened of a primary challenge, has "a good relationship" with Trump and, despite that censure, "has not backed away from a single piece of bipartisan legislation that he has worked to pass."
44% : During the Biden administration, Tillis bucked his party and crossed the aisle to join forces with Democrats on gun-safety legislation, on infrastructure spending, on same-sex marriage.
40% : " Five days later, Trump took the oath of office and granted clemency to more than 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants.
39% : The MAGA faithful want him to fawn over Trump, but that could be deadly in a general election, given that more than one-third of North Carolina voters aren't registered as either Republicans or Democrats.
37% : Trump angers quickly, has a thirst for vengeance and has made clear that he can punish Republicans who cross him by backing opponents in their primaries.
35% : He has moments of defiance, such as his sponsorship in 2018 of a bill to protect the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation from interference from Trump.
33% : The Times reported that in the hours before the vote, Trump welcomed a group of North Carolina lawmakers aboard Air Force One and "noted Mr. Tillis's impending defection."
25% : He wondered if Trump got bad advice.
21% : During the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Pam Bondi as attorney general, he digressed from questioning her to decry the insult of Democrats' suggestion that she or Trump might support blanket pardons for the Jan. 6 rioters.
14% : "I'm reluctant to condemn the way he operates," David Price, a North Carolina Democrat who retired from the House in 2023, told me, saying that Tillis doesn't deserve more derision than a Republican who blithely submits to Trump.

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