Sen. Thom Tillis critical of impeachment: 'It’s very different' from Clinton, Nixon

John Boyle | The Citizen-Times

ASHEVILLE - Stopping at Asheville Regional Airport to celebrate a $10 million federal funding grant, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis took time to address a less cheerful current event: the ongoing impeachment process that has embroiled President Donald Trump.

"My biggest concern to this point has been the manner in which the inquiry has gone forth,” Tillis said, standing in the terminal building. "It’s very different from President Clinton’s and President Nixon’s (impeachment processes), where you had full open hearings, a lot of discussions, you had the defense counsel there."

Tillis, R-NC, noted the Senate has to wait on the U.S. House of Representatives to finish assessing witness testimony and decide if articles of impeachment will be brought to the Senate. Under the Constitution, the House has the power to impeach a sitting president, and if it does, the Senate then holds a trial to determine guilt or innocence and whether the commander in chief should be removed from office.

The House, which has a Democratic majority, must evaluate testimony it heard at televised hearings, as well as other evidence.

"I’m sure part of what they’re doing is figuring out how they take it on kind of an expedited or limited inquiry and then use that as a basis for moving forward with any articles of impeachment, if they do," Tillis said.

Tillis up for re-election in 2020

The former speaker of the N.C. House of Representatives, Tillis was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014, and is up for re-election in 2020. He faces a Republican primary challenger, which could make Tillis veer right to keep the conservative base happy.

Politico published an article about Tillis on Nov. 18, "Trump's new best friend in North Carolina." It stated, "Sen. Thom Tillis is hugging Trump tightly as he faces the stiffest GOP primary campaign of the 2020 cycle."

On the central issue of impeachment — whether Trump acted illegally in asking the president of Ukraine for "a favor" by investigating Democratic challenger Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and if Trump was withholding military aid in exchange — Politico noted, "Tillis sides firmly with Trump: 'Would I have done it? I don’t know because I’m not the president, and I haven’t been pursued relentlessly for three years.'"

As far as the Democrats' evidence of wrongdoing, Politico said Tillis tells supporters, "Nothing there."

Tillis hedges on impeachment

At the Nov. 22 event celebrating a $10 million federal grant for Asheville's new terminal project, a heckler briefly harangued Tillis after U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao had finished speaking.

"Thom Tillis, you're complicit," the man shouted, adding that nothing could save Tillis.

"You have a good day," the senator responded.

Asked Nov. 22 if he's seen or heard anything in the impeachment hearings or otherwise that he would view as an impeachable offense or cause for removal from office, Tillis hedged.

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"You know, it’s really hard to answer that question because we’ve only seen really what’s been released in the press,” he said. “We haven’t seen full depositions, we have not seen some of the information that was shared in private settings. I assume a part of what the House will deliberate on is how they’re going to build that case that will be used as a basis for voting on impeachment.”

Is this impeachment inquiry different?

Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University, said Tillis' assertion that this impeachment process is different from Nixon and Clinton's is probably a fair assessment, in part because those happened in the 1970s and 1990s, respectively.

"I'm sure there are ways it is different, but it does seem to be pretty in the open to me," Cooper said, referring to this televised House hearings this week and last. "Is it different? Certainly. But is it significant? That's in the eye of the beholder. It's not the same thing, but I don’t know how any process this many years apart would be the same."