Latest / INSIGHT TODAY / Tillis SUPPORTS Democrats investigating possible Trump corruption if they win in November

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Tillis SUPPORTS Democrats investigating possible Trump corruption if they win in November · INSIGHT TODAY

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  Speaker 1: Last 10 years, been kind of in the eye of
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  Speaker 1: the storm, but you've been sort of the hurricane tracker
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  Speaker 1: that's like deeper in the storm. You've seen more of
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  Speaker 1: it up close. I'm curious, how is history going to
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  Speaker 1: judge Donald Trump?
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  Speaker 2: I think it's going to be mixed, but I think
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  Speaker 2: the president has time to.
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  Speaker 3: Actually leave a good mark on his legacy.
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  Speaker 2: The key here, and what I continue to say in
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  Speaker 2: the book, is the president and I very seldom disagree
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  Speaker 2: on the what, but the how and who he has
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  Speaker 2: involved in implementation has to change. This is about the
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  Speaker 2: president's legacy. And why am I concerned with the president's legacy?
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  Speaker 2: Because it's the legacy of the Republican Party. And I'm
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  Speaker 2: concerned that we've become unmoored. We've gone away from some
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  Speaker 2: of our principles. We've got to get back to that.
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  Speaker 2: But we also have to highlight a lot of the
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  Speaker 2: things the president does that is consistent with our principles.
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  Speaker 2: The tax reform bills, those sorts of things that are
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  Speaker 2: positive marks on this president's administration are being we're being
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  Speaker 2: distracted to these to things that are just not on strategy,
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  Speaker 2: not for Republicans and certainly not at this time in
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  Speaker 2: the election.
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  Speaker 1: Well, can you explain the immigration, the extreme immigration policy?
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  Speaker 1: Of course, I've said on the show during the Biden administration,
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  Speaker 1: we have laws for a reason. We need to secure
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  Speaker 1: southern borders. So I think you and I probably agree
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  Speaker 1: on that. But but the beating of people in the
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  Speaker 1: streets that have constitutional rights, if you believe what Scalia said.
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  Speaker 1: The gunning down of Americans in the streets, these policies
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  Speaker 1: that have been pushed by Stephen Miller, they've been so
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  Speaker 1: not only destructive, but they've gone against everything that Ronald
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  Speaker 1: Reagan said in his farewell address to America. How do
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  Speaker 1: Republicans square that up and how do Republicans get control
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  Speaker 1: of the immigration policy again in a way that that
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  Speaker 1: is not so hateful, not so mean and not so deadly?
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  Speaker 3: Joe, you're absolutely right.
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  Speaker 2: Look, the president in the last election, there's significant evidence
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  Speaker 2: to suggest that people were concerned with the open border
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  Speaker 2: policies of President Biden.
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  Speaker 3: Four million people coming across the border illegally.
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  Speaker 2: The president was able to successfully shut down the border
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  Speaker 2: without building a wall, by the way. I got criticized
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  Speaker 2: for saying it's not just about a wall.
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  Speaker 3: It's about policy. It's about people, technology, infrastructure.
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  Speaker 2: The president should have taken the win there and then
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  Speaker 2: maybe marry that effective border policy with immigration policy that
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  Speaker 2: makes sense. Instead, he puts an incompetent secretary of Homeland
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  Speaker 2: Security in place. And she destroyed the narrative around our
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  Speaker 2: success Republicans had with sealing the border. We need to
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  Speaker 2: get to reasonable, sustainable immigration policy. And hopefully the president
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  Speaker 2: and the next Congress will try to take that up.
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  Speaker 1: You talk about your regret for Pete Hegseth. Glad to
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  Speaker 1: see you regret that. I'm wondering, though, the president asked
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  Speaker 1: this weekend if he had any regrets. Of course, he
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  Speaker 1: said he had none. I'm curious, what regrets do you
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  Speaker 1: have and what regrets.
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  Speaker 3: Do you talk about in this book?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, the president referred to Pete Hegseth as
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  Speaker 2: right out of central casting, and I agree with that.
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  Speaker 3: He's an actor. He's not a manager.
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  Speaker 2: He is simply not demonstrating any knowledge of the Department
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  Speaker 2: of Defense.
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  Speaker 3: I was the either ranking member or chair.
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  Speaker 2: The personnel subcommittee, personnel and readiness for Senate Armed Services.
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  Speaker 2: So I had a front row seat to managing the
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  Speaker 2: personnel of the DOD. And I can't imagine a worse
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  Speaker 2: score than what Pete Hegseth is getting. He doesn't even
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  Speaker 2: understand the tooth to tell ratio. He wants everybody to
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  Speaker 2: look like him, everybody to train like him, everybody to
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  Speaker 2: be in the uniform like him. But what about the
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  Speaker 2: four people backing up that one soldier on the battlefield?
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  Speaker 2: These are people with all kinds of different skills and
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  Speaker 2: physical fitness is only one of them.
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  Speaker 3: So he's missing the whole point about his organization.
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  Speaker 2: He's focusing on about maybe 15, 20 percent of the
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  Speaker 2: entire organization at the expense of demonstrating any real knowledge
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  Speaker 2: of the fact that he is in control of the
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  Speaker 2: most lethal, complicated organization arguably on the planet.
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  Speaker 4: So, Senator, just now and in your public comments for
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  Speaker 4: months now, you've been pretty unsparing about the quality of
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  Speaker 4: some of the president's aides, believing that he has been
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  Speaker 4: let down by a number of his advisers.
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  Speaker 3: You mentioned Hegseth.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, the book, the cover of the book has
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  Speaker 4: a few Stephen Miller, Kristi Noem, Robert F.
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  Speaker 3: Kennedy Jr.
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  Speaker 5: And the like.
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  Speaker 4: But at the end of the day, the president himself, A,
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  Speaker 4: made the decision to hire these people and then B,
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  Speaker 4: empowered them to enact the policies that you don't like.
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  Speaker 4: So how much responsibility does Trump bear for the for
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  Speaker 4: the bad choices of his staff?
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  Speaker 2: At the end of the day, the buck does stop
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  Speaker 2: at the president's desk. But what should have occurred a
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  Speaker 2: long time before Hegseth got to that point was a
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  Speaker 2: vetting of, is this guy really ready.
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  Speaker 3: For prime time for a large, complex organization?
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  Speaker 2: But like the reason I don't criticize the president directly
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  Speaker 2: is like any CEO.
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  Speaker 3: You've got to rely on experts to bring you.
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  Speaker 2: And, you know, we think about Pete Hegseth and the
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  Speaker 2: president spending hours on it. The president in any given
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  Speaker 2: day is dealing with a million different topics.
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  Speaker 3: He's got to.
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  Speaker 2: Have his best recommendations or act on them. And I
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  Speaker 2: think his instincts or the recommendations were simply just.
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  Speaker 3: Wrong on Hegseth, on Kennedy, and on Noem.
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  Speaker 2: The reason I went ahead and deferred and voted for
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  Speaker 2: them is because the committees of jurisdiction voted them out unanimously.
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  Speaker 2: In one case, in the book, I refer to Matt Gaetz.
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  Speaker 2: That happened to be a committee of jurisdiction that I
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  Speaker 2: was on. When it was coming to my committee, the
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  Speaker 2: immediate thing I did was try and prevent him from
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  Speaker 2: coming through the committee.
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  Speaker 3: That occurred. I think I highlighted a couple of times
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  Speaker 3: in the book.
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  Speaker 2: That didn't happen in some of these other committees of jurisdiction.
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  Speaker 2: I wish they had, but I wasn't going to be
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  Speaker 2: a lone voter against them on the floor if the
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  Speaker 2: committee of jurisdiction unanimously supported them.
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  Speaker 4: So you say you don't blame the president personally. The
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  Speaker 4: American people seems to, at least in the polls right now.
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  Speaker 4: He's doing very poorly. Republicans doing poorly. And there's real
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  Speaker 4: fears that the House could go and now maybe even
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  Speaker 4: the Senate and North Carolina, your home state. Republicans seem
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  Speaker 4: to be cutting bait there, suggesting this seat is going
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  Speaker 4: to be lost. The Democrats are going to capture it.
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  Speaker 4: What do you see happening in North Carolina?
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  Speaker 2: The issue we have in North Carolina, we're a microcosm
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  Speaker 2: of the country.
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  Speaker 3: We've got 40 percent unaffiliated voters.
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  Speaker 2: You can't win in North Carolina without getting a significant
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  Speaker 2: number of unaffiliated.
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  Speaker 3: If every Republican votes, it's not enough to win.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that we've not focused on some of
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  Speaker 2: the concerns that they have, whether it's tone or substance.
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  Speaker 3: And It's very difficult to get our folks out to vote.
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  Speaker 2: And it doesn't help that up until recently, we were
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  Speaker 2: against early voting. So we're even seeing a bit of
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  Speaker 2: a suppressed turnout in early voting.
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  Speaker 3: We're one of the first states to begin early voting.
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  Speaker 2: And so I think these are all just unforced errors
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  Speaker 2: that really make it difficult for us to prevail in
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  Speaker 2: North Carolina. But we have to prevail in Maine. Susan Collins,
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  Speaker 2: a rock star of a senator. We have to prevail
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  Speaker 2: in Alaska. We've got to make sure that we get
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  Speaker 2: Husted back in in Ohio. We have got to keep
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  Speaker 2: a majority because, as I say in the book, folks,
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  Speaker 2: this is not just about this Trump administration. This slippery
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  Speaker 2: slope of politics that we've gotten in today started when
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  Speaker 2: I was in the last two years of the Obama administration.
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  Speaker 2: And every single administration is up the ante. And now
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  Speaker 2: we're to we're to a level to where we've got
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  Speaker 2: to step back and realize Democrats and Republicans are responsible
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  Speaker 2: for the state of the affairs.
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  Speaker 3: And we cannot sustain this trajectory.
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  Speaker 5: Senator, despite whatever dissension. behind the scenes, Americans have seen
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  Speaker 5: very little in the way of Senate Republicans holding this
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  Speaker 5: president accountable for almost anything, nothing but a rubber stamp.
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  Speaker 5: So given that, why should American voters of any party
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  Speaker 5: trust Republicans this November.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I was smiling because you said rubber stamp.
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  Speaker 2: I use that in every interview and every debate to
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  Speaker 2: describe my opponent in 2014 for President Obama. The rubber
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  Speaker 2: stamping of the president when your guy or gal is
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  Speaker 2: in power has got to stop. But but for anyone
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  Speaker 2: to try and claim the moral high ground, I can
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  Speaker 2: give you and I do give you a lot of
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  Speaker 2: examples in the books where Democrats are equally responsible for
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  Speaker 2: the state of affairs. They're all afraid and the In
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  Speaker 2: the modern age of social media, of being targeted in
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  Speaker 2: a primary, so they just go with the flow. And
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  Speaker 2: most of the time, it's at the expense of that
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  Speaker 2: president's legacy. I got elected because Obama did not listen
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  Speaker 2: to people who were concerned with the implementation of Obamacare.
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  Speaker 5: I do respect that's over a decade ago. And Americans
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  Speaker 5: are suffering now. They can't put food on the table.
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  Speaker 5: They can't pay their rent. They can't put gas in
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  Speaker 5: the car. the Republicans have been in control of the Senate.
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  Speaker 5: So why should they get another chance to do more
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  Speaker 5: damage to the American people?
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  Speaker 3: I think you're with due respect. That's exactly why Obama
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  Speaker 3: lost majorities.
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  Speaker 2: And I came in as the first or second Republican
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  Speaker 2: speaker since the Civil War. The point that I'm trying
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  Speaker 2: to make is that people need to focus on the
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  Speaker 2: people who elected them, not the one who may threaten
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  Speaker 2: them in a primary.
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  Speaker 3: Obama did it. Biden did it. Trump did it.
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  Speaker 2: It's degrading the prominence of the Article I branch. And
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  Speaker 2: I am a steward of the Article I branch. I
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  Speaker 2: want it to become equal, a co-equal branch to the administration.
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  Speaker 2: And both parties have done a poor job over the
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  Speaker 2: last 20 years.
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  Speaker 3: Do you think you lived up to that? Well, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've tried to do my best.
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  Speaker 2: And the beauty, I was telling some of the other day,
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  Speaker 2: what people don't know is the number of times that
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  Speaker 2: I've actually stood up to the president that never got reported.
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  Speaker 3: That's the way we should work. And in the old days,
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  Speaker 3: you could. But now everything becomes public when you disagree.
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  Speaker 3: And that's why we've got the state of affairs that
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  Speaker 3: we do today.
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  Speaker 6: Well, the state of affairs, you know, I want to
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  Speaker 6: point out again, you are very unsparing about key members
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  Speaker 6: of the president's cabinet. The question I have, though, as
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  Speaker 6: it relates to where does the buck stop is the
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  Speaker 6: question of all these bucks. Is there a corruption problem
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  Speaker 6: with this administration?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think next year we'll probably have a Congress
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  Speaker 2: that's going to look into that. I think every administration
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  Speaker 2: has some corruption problem.
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  Speaker 3: I think it's fair game.
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  Speaker 2: It's no different than the oversight hearings that we've had
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  Speaker 2: in judiciary when Democrats or Republicans held the gavel. The
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  Speaker 2: American people deserve an answer to that, and I have
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  Speaker 2: no problem with a well-thought-out, fair process. One of the
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  Speaker 2: reasons why I oppose some of the impeachment processes, we're
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  Speaker 2: treating it like a kind of a vote of no confidence.
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  Speaker 2: And so let's be methodical. Let's not be quick. Let's
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  Speaker 2: take the time. And if the Democrats win the congressional race,
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  Speaker 2: they take over the gavels in the House.
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  Speaker 3: I have no problem with them performing their oversight role.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let me just ask you, is there any moral
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  Speaker 1: equivalency between this administration on the issue of corruption where
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  Speaker 1: The president's family has taken at least two to three
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  Speaker 1: trillion dollars, where sons of the president are getting, what,
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  Speaker 1: six hundred, seven hundred million dollar loans on new companies
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  Speaker 1: that they're starting up from the Pentagon. Is there is
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  Speaker 1: there any moral equivalency? Because you said, well, every administration
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  Speaker 1: has problems. You would agree this administration's problems are far
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  Speaker 1: more extreme on the issue of corruption than ever. any
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  Speaker 1: that we've seen in our lifetime, right?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's a bad look and there's corruption.
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  Speaker 2: There's a lot of bad looks, but you've got to
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  Speaker 2: prove corruption. And I have no problem with going through
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  Speaker 2: the due diligence and to provide counsel and to let
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  Speaker 2: people go through.
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  Speaker 3: A process of discovery.
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  Speaker 1: Do you not think these meme coins where the Trumps
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  Speaker 1: made billions of dollars and 98% of their supporters lost
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  Speaker 1: their money, is that not corrupt?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's worth looking at. Again, there's a difference
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  Speaker 3: between breaking a law and a bad look. I'll give
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  Speaker 3: you a.
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  Speaker 2: Good example, and it's this nonsense of an oligarch helping
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  Speaker 2: pay for a wedding for Don Jr.
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  Speaker 3: 's wedding.
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  Speaker 2: My God, who that's working with Trump or Don Jr.
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  Speaker 2: would have thought that was a good idea? Should that
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  Speaker 2: be elected too? Sure, I think so. I agree with
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  Speaker 2: my colleague, Senator Curtis, on that. Any other thing? Let's
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  Speaker 2: let people defend their actions in the clear light of day.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, it's Rachel.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks.