Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said on CNN’s “Arena” on Wednesday that the Republican Party should abandon President Donald Trump’s populism and “return” to its conservative core.
“I say in the book that some of these people want to scare Trump, but that’s like putting on a Spider-Man costume without getting bitten by a radioactive spider. It looks bad. No one is going to repeat Trump and his personality,” Tillis said.
He continued, “As I say in the book, when President Trump held fundraisers for Democrats, I was a Republican. I liked a lot of what the president did for this party, but now we’re exposed, we’re seeing it in the polls. But I believe in conservatism now. I don’t believe the Republican Party thinks corporate equity is OK, tariffs are OK, whether you have a trade surplus or not, Russia is probably a good guy.
Host Kathy Hunter said: “What evidence do you have that that’s the case, that the Republican Party has not been permanently changed by Donald Trump?”
“Well, I mean, it’s difficult in a populist era, but I think there’s nothing that brings people back more than a loss in an election,” Tillis said.
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