Last night, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) delivered a Senate floor speech calling on his colleagues on both sides of the aisle to cast aside the political fringes and work together in order to produce results for the American people.
WATCH SENATOR TILLIS’ FULL SPEECH ON BIPARTISANSHIP HERE.
Tillis on receiving criticism from talking heads on the right:
“I don’t really care about the criticism from the talking heads on the far-left or the far-right because I consider them to be one of the great threats we have to actually turning this Congress around and getting things done. And I’m going to do everything I can to reach across the aisle and produce solutions to some of the most vexing problems we have. And they are solutions within our reach.”
Tillis on bipartisan immigration reform:
“If you think about immigration reform, a 40-year-old failure on the part of Republicans and Democrats to address the immigration problem, everyone wants their position on one end of the spectrum or the other, versus what the American people want, which is a solution to the problem. A solution that makes sure the American worker is respected and taken care of, that our borders are secure, and that we end this failure on the part of Washington to solve the problem.”
Tillis defines what real political courage is:
“Political courage, in terms of someone who would walk onto this floor, is someone who could look at a fellow Republican and conservative and say, ‘we’re not going to go where you want to go because we’re here to get something done.’ Not just to make speeches, not to just talk about an unachievable goal, but to make progress on sound, conservative policies. But maybe we have to make some compromises, maybe we have to go a little further than we want to, because we want to get something done. We want to pass things that are good. If we wait to only pass things that are perfect, then we will be guilty of doing exactly what many others have done in this body: promise a lot and deliver very little.”
Tillis on holding members of his own party accountable:
“It's time to get past the election results, get over it and get to work. It's time to recognize that real people sent a mandate, but the mandate wasn't Republican, wasn’t far-right, wasn’t far-left. All they said was produce results. I'm going to produce results. I'm going to expect my members to produce results. I'm going to go into my conference when it looks like we're going down the path that doesn't produce a result and I'm going to call them out, and I’ll hold my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to the same standard. I'm going to hope to find folks that want to solve the immigration problem in a respectful, methodical way. I want to work with people on the other side of the aisle who want to solve the criminal justice problem.”
WATCH SENATOR TILLIS’ FULL SPEECH ON BIPARTISANSHIP HERE.
Tillis on receiving criticism from talking heads on the right:
“I don’t really care about the criticism from the talking heads on the far-left or the far-right because I consider them to be one of the great threats we have to actually turning this Congress around and getting things done. And I’m going to do everything I can to reach across the aisle and produce solutions to some of the most vexing problems we have. And they are solutions within our reach.”
Tillis on bipartisan immigration reform:
“If you think about immigration reform, a 40-year-old failure on the part of Republicans and Democrats to address the immigration problem, everyone wants their position on one end of the spectrum or the other, versus what the American people want, which is a solution to the problem. A solution that makes sure the American worker is respected and taken care of, that our borders are secure, and that we end this failure on the part of Washington to solve the problem.”
Tillis defines what real political courage is:
“Political courage, in terms of someone who would walk onto this floor, is someone who could look at a fellow Republican and conservative and say, ‘we’re not going to go where you want to go because we’re here to get something done.’ Not just to make speeches, not to just talk about an unachievable goal, but to make progress on sound, conservative policies. But maybe we have to make some compromises, maybe we have to go a little further than we want to, because we want to get something done. We want to pass things that are good. If we wait to only pass things that are perfect, then we will be guilty of doing exactly what many others have done in this body: promise a lot and deliver very little.”
Tillis on holding members of his own party accountable:
“It's time to get past the election results, get over it and get to work. It's time to recognize that real people sent a mandate, but the mandate wasn't Republican, wasn’t far-right, wasn’t far-left. All they said was produce results. I'm going to produce results. I'm going to expect my members to produce results. I'm going to go into my conference when it looks like we're going down the path that doesn't produce a result and I'm going to call them out, and I’ll hold my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to the same standard. I'm going to hope to find folks that want to solve the immigration problem in a respectful, methodical way. I want to work with people on the other side of the aisle who want to solve the criminal justice problem.”
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