Tillis warns of ‘risk’ Trump will lash out if Republicans have bad night in midterms

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) says there’s a “risk” that President Trump will lash out if Republicans lose control of the House and possibly the Senate as well in next month’s election.

Asked by Ross Douthat during an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” whether he had concerns about Trump’s reaction if Republicans have a “bad night” on Nov. 3, Election Day, Tillis replied: “I think there’s a risk, I really do.”

And Tillis warned it would be a mistake for Trump to attack members of his own party or to dispute the results of the election if they lose badly when polls show that the president’s low approval rating and voters’ concern over affordability are two of the biggest factors influencing the polls.

“It would be another political unforced error if we do that,” he said.

Tillis’s comments came as part of a discussion about Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which led up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The North Carolina senator said he’s still disgusted thinking back to that day of chaos on Capitol Hill, when a mob of pro-Trump supporters stormed the Senate and House chambers.

“Look, this was the first time in the history of this country that we had not had a completely peaceful transfer of power on that day. And that was despicable,” he said. “The people that led the charge, the people that assaulted police officers, I wish they were still in prison and serving a very long sentence.”

Yet, Tillis defended his vote to acquit Trump on the charge of inciting insurrection, arguing that Democrats rushed the impeachment proceedings and pushed the charge to prevent the president from running for office again in 2024.

“What you’re doing is a means-justifies-the-end rationalization. So cheapening the impeachment process to prevent someone from running in the future, I just don’t buy it,” he said.

Trump has warned for months of what he insists is a possibility of widespread fraud in this year’s election even though there are few substantiated instances of voter fraud in recent federal elections.

Trump pushed Republicans for much of this year to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require voters to present photo identification to vote and require people to provide documented proof of citizenship when registering to vote.

The president also issued an executive order in March tasking the U.S. Postal Service with screening out mail-in ballots that did not match voter lists compiled by the Department of Homeland Security. Courts have blocked this plan.

And Trump, in an interview with Time magazine published last week, declined to rule out invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring a national emergency around the midterm elections.

“I’m not committing to anything,” he said. “We’re going to see how it plays out in court.”