Thom Tillis fails at ultimate dodge when asked to defend Trump's wild claim

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) attends the committee vote on U.S. President Donald Trump's nomination of Todd Blanche to be U.S. attorney general, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 4, 2026.

On Thursday, Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) found himself squirming to respond to a wildly inaccurate claim about the state he represents made by President Donald Trump the previous evening. During a campaign rally for MAGA Senate candidate Michael Whatley, the president declared that North Carolina is “one of the most violent” states in the country.

According to Trump, the state’s fortunes had soured under the leadership of Whatley’s opponent, former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. “Nobody used to think of North Carolina as a dangerous state, criminally dangerous,” said Trump. “It was apple pie. And now it's one of the most violent and one of the worst in the whole nation.”

The following day, Spectrum News asked Tillis what he thought of the president’s claim. Tillis dodged rather than criticizing Trump’s statement, saying only, “The president should probably take a look at the top 10 states for danger and look at who's governing it."

Spectrum provided that list, according to the FBI’s most recent crime data, noting that North Carolina is nowhere near the top, running near the middle at 21. In fact, the top ten were Alaska, New Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kansas, California, Colorado, Montana, and Missouri. And per Tillis’s advice, a look at the governing parties in this state indeed complicates Trump’s assertions that Democratic leadership drives up crime. The list is topped by Alaska, which has a Republican governor and two Republican senators. A total of six of the top ten are entirely Republican led, while only three are helmed by Democrats. Kansas has a Democratic governor but two Republican senators. What’s more, while violent crime is among Trump’s most frequent talking points, Spectrum notes that “the FBI also says violent crime nationally saw its biggest decline from ‘24-'25 in its history of tracking.”

Tillis was also asked whether he thought it was appropriate for Attorney General Todd Blanche to participate in Trump’s campaign events, as he did in North Carolina. It has long been the practice that Department of Justice officials would remain distanced from politics, but Trump’s relationship with the DOJ has repeatedly broken down such barriers. On this question again, Tillis dodged, saying, "I'm not going to speak on Blanche."

Interestingly enough, while Tillis was unwilling to directly contradict Trump’s claim that the cities of North Carolina are “blood-soaked killing fields,” Blanche himself did so just before the president took the stage. “North Carolina is ground zero for exactly what is working,” Blanche said. “Communities are safer.”

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