December 1, 2025 • 19 mins
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis joins Bo and Beth in studio to discuss Iryna's Law taking effect in NC, ICE operations in Charlotte and President Trump's attempt to reverse Former President Biden's pardons done by autopen.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Good Morning Beat with both Thomson and Beth
trout Man.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You just talk eleven ten, nine to nine three WBT
coming to you from the historic Ty Boyd Studio. December
is upon us and as promised, here final stretch of
the morning, we have US Senator Tom Tillis, who has
dropped by one Julian Price Place. It's always good to
have you, whatever way we have you, but it's always
best to have you right here in the same room.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Have you had a nice Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I had a fantastic one, as we always do in
Middle Tennessee. With about thirty five thirty six tillous is
running around. It's a lot of tilloss.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, that sounds like a fun event. I think they
want to spend next Thanksgiving with you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a lot of fun. It's uh, we've we just
love getting together. There's no drama. It's why Thanksgiving is
my favorite holiday. Do you say till I? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
What is the plural of tillis?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, we'll go with till I.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So you, speaking of home stretches, know, first of the
year into twenty twenty six, and you're starting to think
of home stretches a little. I mean, how do you
view things at this point? You obviously are in your
final term and we're running the corner into a new year.
What's on the agenda for you?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, I want to get a lot done. I tell
everybody it's three hundred and ninety eight days incidentally before
my last day in the Senate, and people think I'm
counting the days. I'm just mindful of the amount of
time I have left to get stuff done. And there's
a lot of things that we do and committees that
I work on. I'm working on tax policy, intellectual property policy, banking,
(01:35):
finance policy, veterans policy, and judiciary. We're working on judges
and again intellectual property. So I got a lot of
work to do. I'm want to focus on legislating and
trying to position Republicans to win next year.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So there are two big stories I want to start with,
somewhat related in that they're huge crimes that people have
talked about, but they're in different places. Today, being December first,
we're coming back on the air here, first time being
able to talk since the terrible story heading into the
(02:08):
Thanksgiving holiday, and that is where two National Guard members
were shot in a targeted ambush just blocks away from
the White House. One of those people passed away and
one is in still very bad condition. Now I bring
that story up also today, December first, is the first
(02:29):
day that Arena's law goes into effect in North Carolina,
of course, on the heels of what happened on the
Charlotte light rail, a terrible tragic crime back in August.
So I want to get your thoughts on those two
stories as we begin here.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, first off, at the root of both of those
incidents were behavioral health, mental health challenges. We know about
the stabbing here of the Ukrainian arena taught to her
family members. It's a horrible thing, and the same things
true up in d C. But again, this person who
came over on an SIV visa obviously had behavioral health problems.
(03:07):
I don't know if that occurred after he got here,
that just wasn't caught in screening horrible tragic events. One
thing I am concerned with, particularly with the event up
in well, actually both of them for different reasons. You
may not know that there are Ukrainians here that are
not getting work authorizations. They haven't been reauthorized for work
(03:28):
in this administration who were on special visas, but the
special immigrant visas that were used for interpreters. I helped
get interpreters out of Afghanistan. We've just got to make
sure that we don't have a knee jerk reaction and
cast everyone in the same lot. Otherwise we could be
putting people who deserve to be in this country and
deserved to protected status at risk. But it was a
(03:49):
horrible loss. The twenty year old young lady who died,
the gentleman who's in critical condition. We pray for him
and hope that he improves, and pray for the families
of the of the lost soldier.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Secretary Nome was on the Sunday talk shows over the
weekend saying that she believed that this shooter was radicalized
once he arrived here in the United States. Have you
heard that discussion?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
No, I haven't. I mean, if she has data to
back it up, I could accept that. But I think
it's also seems to be that the information coming in
now is they had a behavioral health problem, So it
could have been a combination of the two.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
One of the big questions that some people have, and
it's certainly the opponents of having the National Guard in
cities to begin with, and Washington, d C. Is of
course a different case than Chicago or even here in Charlotte.
But the opponents of having the National Guard in the
cities are suggesting that they are put in a position
where they can't really enforce anything, that they are, that
(04:53):
they're kind of put in a position where their hands
are tied behind their backs, and that maybe a better
resource would be we're funding and more police officers than
actually putting the National Guard.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I agree. I was at a judiciary committee hearing. We
had a state senator from Tennessee coming in when they
were talking about sending the National Guard from another state
in the Memphis and I said, I was Speaker of
the House in North Carolina, and I would have considered
myself having been guilty of a personal failure if I
had to bring in the National Guard from other states
(05:23):
to protect my citizens in North Carolina. So I think
the fact of the matter is police are trained differently
the National guardsmen. National guardsmen are recruited to go to
the Middle East, not Middle America. And if there is
a dire situation where a governor needs help, I think
that's the way to do it. I just do not believe.
(05:43):
I think it's foundational to states' rights. If we've got
a dangerous situation North Carolina, vote the bums out that
made it dangerous. And the fact of the matter is
we did have a sanctuary but de facto policy here
in Mecklenburg County that I've had a problem with for years.
But hold them accountable, get a new sheriff, get a
new mayor. Do what you have to do to protect
(06:05):
your your your state, and your city. But don't necessarily
import people who were trained and best prepared to take
the fight overseas. Police officers are very deod They're they're
they're about community policing, They're about building relationships, they're about
de escalation. It's a very different discipline that we shouldn't
expect the National Guardsmen to necessarily have in their in
(06:27):
their skill set.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You mentioned the sheriff, I want to come back around
to him for a moment. I mentioned the Arena Zarutzka
Arena's law that goes in effect today. The law restricts
judges and magistrates to a larger degree from releasing violent
and repeat offenders before trial. Meckleberg County Sheriff Gary McFadden
said he anticipates that the jail, which is at functional capacity.
(06:49):
He says, we'll see a large surge of inmates and
strain the jail's staff. What about this this law going
into effect and what it what it may now?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, I do think that there should be increased attention
options if the jails not big enough, build a bigger jail,
or identify other resources. There are other jurisdictions that he
could potentially work with. We know this, he's a member
of the Sheriff's Association. There's a way to actually, I
think keep the community safer. One of the things we
have to do, though, is make sure that if people
are in a behavioral health crisis, that we send them
(07:23):
to the right facility. Otherwise we're not doing our community
any favors by either releasing them or putting them in
a facility where we're warehousing.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Is there legislation that needs to change in order to
get people the mental health that they need. Are there
legislation changes that should happen on a state level.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, I tell you one thing that I wish and
that I'll be working on in my remaining time in
the Senate. But after that, it's the full implementation of
the Safer Communities Act. It's a bill that I led
with John Corny and Carson Cinema and Chris Murphy that
was the single largest investment in behavioral health that the
states have to request and they have to implement. But
(08:04):
it's it's more brick and mortar behavioral health facilities. It's
it's more resources that the state can use to address
the chronic problem of behavior. There's just not enough resources,
there's not enough capacity, and it's one of the reasons
why we have some of these horrible outcome. I'm not
excusing what the man did murder Arena. What I'm saying
(08:24):
is maybe there was some intervention earlier that could have
avoided that if we were smarter on trading behavioral health challenges.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Tom Tillis US Senator Tom Tillis is in studio with
us here on this Monday morning, December. First, we talked
about the National Guard. Another huge story that has been
focused on Charlotte over the last several weeks has been
this Operation Charlotte's Web with the Border Patrol being here
and and again it depends on who you talk to
(08:53):
as to whether or not this is wrapped up, or
whether or not it's just at a at a lull
and is going to crank back up again. But what
are your thoughts on what you saw with the border
patrol of apprehending people here in Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I want to I want to make sure that we
execute it properly and it was worth the investment. I'm
asking for detailed event reports for every encounter. What was
the encounter? Was the person was the person who they
thought they were? Were they legally present? Did you detain them?
Did you you know, we've seen a couple of reports
(09:27):
where they busted out a window or they obviously got
the wrong person. They should not be that person, should
not have to have a household to get their window
replaced or whatever. They were legally present. So I'm more
about efficacy. Did you go in and do what you
said you were going to do. Did the majority of
the people that you arrest and detain have criminal records?
Which was the primary reason to be here. And that's
(09:49):
for two reasons. I just like good execution number one.
Number two, I don't like negative light being cast on
any North Carolina city unless there's a good reason for
their to be that. So you know, we're talking about
bringing the National Guard down here. It would not have
met with it would not have I would not have
met them with open arms. We don't have that kind
of a problem in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
You know, there's a lot of discussion around this issue
of immigration, the fact that the people who were here
illegally or breaking the law breaking immigration law, but there's
never really any real discussion about the citizens who are
breaking the law by hiring, which is also an immigration
law that is being broken but somehow excused.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
But even if we just separate that whole discussion from
the criminal element, I want to go after drug traffickers,
human traffickers, people with a criminal record. There are a
lot of illegally present people here that we need to
apprehend and detain and deport or convict of whatever other
(10:51):
outstanding crimes they may have. I think that we're not
allocating our resources properly by going after people if the
only law they broke was crossing into the country, at
some point we need to deal with them. But there
are millions of them. Why don't we go after the
hundreds of thousands of hardened criminals and be very exquisite
in our intelligence and execution and leave the rest of
(11:11):
the community alone until we get to that. That should be,
that should be the primary goal of homeland security. Secure
our homeland, Go after the bad people, not necessarily people
who left their country because they were desperate. I get it.
I'm not excusing the fact that they're here illegally. But
we've got a bigger and broader problem we have to
(11:31):
deal with on border patrol or border security and immigration reform,
separate from what's going on right now. This is Good
Morning BT.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Final stretch here on Good Morning BT Bo Thompson, Beth Troutman,
and in studio. US Senator Tom Tillis has stopped by
on his way back to DC.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Good to have you in here, as always great to
be back.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So I have a boy, I just no way I
can get to all of these, but I'm just gonna
start to.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Reduce about a yes no question lightening around Trump, yes
or no. Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Trump is part of many of these Trump. Let me
start with the one that's seems seemingly most recent and
in President Trump, as you know, is prone to when
he has any downtime, we'll start firing off truth social messages.
Never know which direction they are going to go. The
latest one or one of the latest involves voiding orders
not directly signed by Joe Biden, the auto pen that
(12:30):
he likes to talk about so much. There was a
tweet or a truth social message over the weekend that
he's going to basically declare anything that is found to
be auto penned or not signed by Biden as null
and void.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, I think you need to look through that. You
can't have a pick and choose policy. So if you
decide to do that on a blanket basis, you better
look for the unintended consequences. But the reality is we
have an autopen in our office. They call it a
frank to where I have to have letters and the
thing signed the normal course of business, allow my staff
to do that. I just think you need to be
(13:05):
very surgical and that also expect the same thing to
happen in the next administration against Donald Trump's orders. One
of the other it's called political physics.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
One of the other truth social posts over the weekend
that raised eyebrows. He put out into the world that
he thought all airspace over Venezuela should be completely closed,
including commercial traffic, and that is raising eyebrows both in
the European Union, but also in South America about what
our intentions are with Venezuela given all of the attacks
(13:35):
that have happened on the alleged drug boats.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, I think we need to be careful with that.
We need to be very careful with the consideration of
an incursion on land in Venezuela. But I tell you
the other thing we have to do is just be consistent.
We've got it a hon Durham president who is just
went to prison last year after being convicted in the
United States, after being convicted of trafficking four hundred a
(14:02):
million tons. It's a big number, I know that. But
the thing that we're going after Madua for we're considering
pardoning the Honduran president, is like, first, let's be intellectually
consistent number one. Number two, let's be methodical if we're
about to wage war on Venezuela, and let's leave the
messaging to the pros on the ground that know how
(14:24):
best the message that thing and hopefully avert a war.
But this Honduran president, that will not make me happy
if they follow through with that. That is an absurd
thing for the United States of America to do. To
let somebody who's pumped millions of tons of cocaine into
the blood of American citizens let them go unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The Sealed Team six strike of that alleged vote that
we've heard the story of, we've seen the footage of it,
and now in the last several days there's this report
from the Washington Post that the Secretary of Defense or
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth or Sealed Team six to
strike it again and kill everybody aboard. We've talked before,
(15:07):
and you were somebody who was right down to the
wire in the confirmation process about Pete hagg Seth to
begin with, So to this story specifically and then sort
of pulling back about where we are with that particular
member of the President's cabinet several months in what are
your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I was reading this weekend that Oxford Dictionary word of
the year is rage bait. I'm trying to determine whether
or not this is rage bait. If it's if it's
proven to be true, then mister haig Seth is at
least he's violated a moral or ethical code, if not
a law. If it proves to be true. So I'm
(15:45):
still in the is it rage bait or not? But
if it proves to be true, it's very clear. Look
like Norman, I have an obligation to help a distress
vote vote right and war. If you think that you
have neutralized the enemy, you have an obligation to try
and recover and return them. They did return too, if
you recall the semi submersible, so they did actually apprehend
(16:08):
return to They may not have had assets to save them,
but blowing them out of the water if they were defenseless,
is actually an ethical or legal violation. And if someone
did that knowingly, they need to be held accountable.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
How will this send an investigation into Pete Hegseeth.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Go, Well, I think we'll have to figure out. That
will probably be at a classified briefing or a classified
setting because there are a lot of methods that they're
using there that need to be classified. But it'll be
be a very detailed analysis, and I'm glad to see
on a bipartisan baby we want to get to the
facts because we owe it to Secretary Hegseth if it's
in fact not true, to clear his name.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, and also heg Seth, as it relates to your colleague,
Mark Kelly from Arizona calling for at least threatening a
court martial after this. You know, that was part of
the response and along with the President, to this video
that was posted by those six lawmakers basically saying that
(17:06):
you know, you don't have to follow illegal orders.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
But I tell you, I was in Halifax at a
security conference last weekend and I was sitting with two
I consider friends, Peter Welch and Angus King, on a panel,
and that may be rage baiting too. Look, it should
be intuitively obvious to anyone serving in the military if
they know that something is patently illegal that they're being
(17:30):
asked to do, don't do it. They didn't need to
do that video, so I'm kind of wondering what the
motivation was. I think that they were trying to bate
Republicans into into that sort of exchange. But that's a
no brainer. Anybody who qualifies to be in the military
smart enough to know if they see something that's illegal,
they don't do it. They refuse to do it, and
the court martial system will uphold their decision. So it
(17:54):
could be rage baiting, and I think in that case
that they now the flip side. Let me back up
because I want to cover the Kelly thing. I think
keg seth this waiting in the dangerous waters by saying
calling him back in court martialing, he may get the
same thing someday because he is former military. Next administration
may have the same consideration. I think, let's move on, guys.
(18:16):
I mean, my gosh, we need a little bit of
adults in the room being a little bit more mature.
Stop all this back and forth. This sort of amateurish
or childish behavior at either end of the spectrum is
not a vote tainer. Are you.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Very nice? Hear that? Pete calendar?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Are you impressed?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about twenty twenty six?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I think right now we've you know, you're you're always
going to have a challenge in the in the year
the congressional elections after a new president's in place. But
we've got to get serious about health care. We've got
to get We've got to just calm down. I want
to be the adults in the room. Let the Democrats
continue to be the you know, fanatics that some of
(19:04):
them can be. But I'm watching the display up here earlier.
I now know how to pronounce Afton Bay and spell
her name, because I was in Middle Tennessee all weekend
and there's ads running non stop. Republicans need to understand
when you've got a district that's in play or we
may only win by single digits that Trump carried by
twenty points. Pay attention, folks. You can learn from that.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
US centator time tell us the time goes fast. We
always appreciate you joining us, Thank you loved it. Happy Thanksgiving,
and we'll be back tomorrow. Right here on good Morning,
I'm go tainer in
This is Good Morning Beat with both Thomson and Beth
trout Man.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
You just talk eleven ten, nine to nine three WBT
coming to you from the historic Ty Boyd Studio. December
is upon us and as promised, here final stretch of
the morning, we have US Senator Tom Tillis, who has
dropped by one Julian Price Place. It's always good to
have you, whatever way we have you, but it's always
best to have you right here in the same room.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Good to be here.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Have you had a nice Thanksgiving?
Speaker 1 (00:32):
I had a fantastic one, as we always do in
Middle Tennessee. With about thirty five thirty six tillous is
running around. It's a lot of tilloss.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Yeah, that sounds like a fun event. I think they
want to spend next Thanksgiving with you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
It's a lot of fun. It's uh, we've we just
love getting together. There's no drama. It's why Thanksgiving is
my favorite holiday. Do you say till I? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:53):
What is the plural of tillis?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, we'll go with till I.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I like that.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So you, speaking of home stretches, know, first of the
year into twenty twenty six, and you're starting to think
of home stretches a little. I mean, how do you
view things at this point? You obviously are in your
final term and we're running the corner into a new year.
What's on the agenda for you?
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Well, I want to get a lot done. I tell
everybody it's three hundred and ninety eight days incidentally before
my last day in the Senate, and people think I'm
counting the days. I'm just mindful of the amount of
time I have left to get stuff done. And there's
a lot of things that we do and committees that
I work on. I'm working on tax policy, intellectual property policy, banking,
(01:35):
finance policy, veterans policy, and judiciary. We're working on judges
and again intellectual property. So I got a lot of
work to do. I'm want to focus on legislating and
trying to position Republicans to win next year.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
So there are two big stories I want to start with,
somewhat related in that they're huge crimes that people have
talked about, but they're in different places. Today, being December first,
we're coming back on the air here, first time being
able to talk since the terrible story heading into the
(02:08):
Thanksgiving holiday, and that is where two National Guard members
were shot in a targeted ambush just blocks away from
the White House. One of those people passed away and
one is in still very bad condition. Now I bring
that story up also today, December first, is the first
(02:29):
day that Arena's law goes into effect in North Carolina,
of course, on the heels of what happened on the
Charlotte light rail, a terrible tragic crime back in August.
So I want to get your thoughts on those two
stories as we begin here.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Well, first off, at the root of both of those
incidents were behavioral health, mental health challenges. We know about
the stabbing here of the Ukrainian arena taught to her
family members. It's a horrible thing, and the same things
true up in d C. But again, this person who
came over on an SIV visa obviously had behavioral health problems.
(03:07):
I don't know if that occurred after he got here,
that just wasn't caught in screening horrible tragic events. One
thing I am concerned with, particularly with the event up
in well, actually both of them for different reasons. You
may not know that there are Ukrainians here that are
not getting work authorizations. They haven't been reauthorized for work
(03:28):
in this administration who were on special visas, but the
special immigrant visas that were used for interpreters. I helped
get interpreters out of Afghanistan. We've just got to make
sure that we don't have a knee jerk reaction and
cast everyone in the same lot. Otherwise we could be
putting people who deserve to be in this country and
deserved to protected status at risk. But it was a
(03:49):
horrible loss. The twenty year old young lady who died,
the gentleman who's in critical condition. We pray for him
and hope that he improves, and pray for the families
of the of the lost soldier.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Now.
Speaker 3 (04:01):
Secretary Nome was on the Sunday talk shows over the
weekend saying that she believed that this shooter was radicalized
once he arrived here in the United States. Have you
heard that discussion?
Speaker 1 (04:15):
No, I haven't. I mean, if she has data to
back it up, I could accept that. But I think
it's also seems to be that the information coming in
now is they had a behavioral health problem, So it
could have been a combination of the two.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
One of the big questions that some people have, and
it's certainly the opponents of having the National Guard in
cities to begin with, and Washington, d C. Is of
course a different case than Chicago or even here in Charlotte.
But the opponents of having the National Guard in the
cities are suggesting that they are put in a position
where they can't really enforce anything, that they are, that
(04:53):
they're kind of put in a position where their hands
are tied behind their backs, and that maybe a better
resource would be we're funding and more police officers than
actually putting the National Guard.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I agree. I was at a judiciary committee hearing. We
had a state senator from Tennessee coming in when they
were talking about sending the National Guard from another state
in the Memphis and I said, I was Speaker of
the House in North Carolina, and I would have considered
myself having been guilty of a personal failure if I
had to bring in the National Guard from other states
(05:23):
to protect my citizens in North Carolina. So I think
the fact of the matter is police are trained differently
the National guardsmen. National guardsmen are recruited to go to
the Middle East, not Middle America. And if there is
a dire situation where a governor needs help, I think
that's the way to do it. I just do not believe.
(05:43):
I think it's foundational to states' rights. If we've got
a dangerous situation North Carolina, vote the bums out that
made it dangerous. And the fact of the matter is
we did have a sanctuary but de facto policy here
in Mecklenburg County that I've had a problem with for years.
But hold them accountable, get a new sheriff, get a
new mayor. Do what you have to do to protect
(06:05):
your your your state, and your city. But don't necessarily
import people who were trained and best prepared to take
the fight overseas. Police officers are very deod They're they're
they're about community policing, They're about building relationships, they're about
de escalation. It's a very different discipline that we shouldn't
expect the National Guardsmen to necessarily have in their in
(06:27):
their skill set.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
You mentioned the sheriff, I want to come back around
to him for a moment. I mentioned the Arena Zarutzka
Arena's law that goes in effect today. The law restricts
judges and magistrates to a larger degree from releasing violent
and repeat offenders before trial. Meckleberg County Sheriff Gary McFadden
said he anticipates that the jail, which is at functional capacity.
(06:49):
He says, we'll see a large surge of inmates and
strain the jail's staff. What about this this law going
into effect and what it what it may now?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Well, I do think that there should be increased attention
options if the jails not big enough, build a bigger jail,
or identify other resources. There are other jurisdictions that he
could potentially work with. We know this, he's a member
of the Sheriff's Association. There's a way to actually, I
think keep the community safer. One of the things we
have to do, though, is make sure that if people
are in a behavioral health crisis, that we send them
(07:23):
to the right facility. Otherwise we're not doing our community
any favors by either releasing them or putting them in
a facility where we're warehousing.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Is there legislation that needs to change in order to
get people the mental health that they need. Are there
legislation changes that should happen on a state level.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Well, I tell you one thing that I wish and
that I'll be working on in my remaining time in
the Senate. But after that, it's the full implementation of
the Safer Communities Act. It's a bill that I led
with John Corny and Carson Cinema and Chris Murphy that
was the single largest investment in behavioral health that the
states have to request and they have to implement. But
(08:04):
it's it's more brick and mortar behavioral health facilities. It's
it's more resources that the state can use to address
the chronic problem of behavior. There's just not enough resources,
there's not enough capacity, and it's one of the reasons
why we have some of these horrible outcome. I'm not
excusing what the man did murder Arena. What I'm saying
(08:24):
is maybe there was some intervention earlier that could have
avoided that if we were smarter on trading behavioral health challenges.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Tom Tillis US Senator Tom Tillis is in studio with
us here on this Monday morning, December. First, we talked
about the National Guard. Another huge story that has been
focused on Charlotte over the last several weeks has been
this Operation Charlotte's Web with the Border Patrol being here
and and again it depends on who you talk to
(08:53):
as to whether or not this is wrapped up, or
whether or not it's just at a at a lull
and is going to crank back up again. But what
are your thoughts on what you saw with the border
patrol of apprehending people here in Charlotte.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
I want to I want to make sure that we
execute it properly and it was worth the investment. I'm
asking for detailed event reports for every encounter. What was
the encounter? Was the person was the person who they
thought they were? Were they legally present? Did you detain them?
Did you you know, we've seen a couple of reports
(09:27):
where they busted out a window or they obviously got
the wrong person. They should not be that person, should
not have to have a household to get their window
replaced or whatever. They were legally present. So I'm more
about efficacy. Did you go in and do what you
said you were going to do. Did the majority of
the people that you arrest and detain have criminal records?
Which was the primary reason to be here. And that's
(09:49):
for two reasons. I just like good execution number one.
Number two, I don't like negative light being cast on
any North Carolina city unless there's a good reason for
their to be that. So you know, we're talking about
bringing the National Guard down here. It would not have
met with it would not have I would not have
met them with open arms. We don't have that kind
of a problem in Charlotte.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
You know, there's a lot of discussion around this issue
of immigration, the fact that the people who were here
illegally or breaking the law breaking immigration law, but there's
never really any real discussion about the citizens who are
breaking the law by hiring, which is also an immigration
law that is being broken but somehow excused.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
But even if we just separate that whole discussion from
the criminal element, I want to go after drug traffickers,
human traffickers, people with a criminal record. There are a
lot of illegally present people here that we need to
apprehend and detain and deport or convict of whatever other
(10:51):
outstanding crimes they may have. I think that we're not
allocating our resources properly by going after people if the
only law they broke was crossing into the country, at
some point we need to deal with them. But there
are millions of them. Why don't we go after the
hundreds of thousands of hardened criminals and be very exquisite
in our intelligence and execution and leave the rest of
(11:11):
the community alone until we get to that. That should be,
that should be the primary goal of homeland security. Secure
our homeland, Go after the bad people, not necessarily people
who left their country because they were desperate. I get it.
I'm not excusing the fact that they're here illegally. But
we've got a bigger and broader problem we have to
(11:31):
deal with on border patrol or border security and immigration reform,
separate from what's going on right now. This is Good
Morning BT.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
Final stretch here on Good Morning BT Bo Thompson, Beth Troutman,
and in studio. US Senator Tom Tillis has stopped by
on his way back to DC.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Good to have you in here, as always great to
be back.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
So I have a boy, I just no way I
can get to all of these, but I'm just gonna
start to.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Reduce about a yes no question lightening around Trump, yes
or no. Yes.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Trump is part of many of these Trump. Let me
start with the one that's seems seemingly most recent and
in President Trump, as you know, is prone to when
he has any downtime, we'll start firing off truth social messages.
Never know which direction they are going to go. The
latest one or one of the latest involves voiding orders
not directly signed by Joe Biden, the auto pen that
(12:30):
he likes to talk about so much. There was a
tweet or a truth social message over the weekend that
he's going to basically declare anything that is found to
be auto penned or not signed by Biden as null
and void.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Well, I think you need to look through that. You
can't have a pick and choose policy. So if you
decide to do that on a blanket basis, you better
look for the unintended consequences. But the reality is we
have an autopen in our office. They call it a
frank to where I have to have letters and the
thing signed the normal course of business, allow my staff
to do that. I just think you need to be
(13:05):
very surgical and that also expect the same thing to
happen in the next administration against Donald Trump's orders. One
of the other it's called political physics.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
One of the other truth social posts over the weekend
that raised eyebrows. He put out into the world that
he thought all airspace over Venezuela should be completely closed,
including commercial traffic, and that is raising eyebrows both in
the European Union, but also in South America about what
our intentions are with Venezuela given all of the attacks
(13:35):
that have happened on the alleged drug boats.
Speaker 1 (13:39):
Yeah, I think we need to be careful with that.
We need to be very careful with the consideration of
an incursion on land in Venezuela. But I tell you
the other thing we have to do is just be consistent.
We've got it a hon Durham president who is just
went to prison last year after being convicted in the
United States, after being convicted of trafficking four hundred a
(14:02):
million tons. It's a big number, I know that. But
the thing that we're going after Madua for we're considering
pardoning the Honduran president, is like, first, let's be intellectually
consistent number one. Number two, let's be methodical if we're
about to wage war on Venezuela, and let's leave the
messaging to the pros on the ground that know how
(14:24):
best the message that thing and hopefully avert a war.
But this Honduran president, that will not make me happy
if they follow through with that. That is an absurd
thing for the United States of America to do. To
let somebody who's pumped millions of tons of cocaine into
the blood of American citizens let them go unacceptable.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The Sealed Team six strike of that alleged vote that
we've heard the story of, we've seen the footage of it,
and now in the last several days there's this report
from the Washington Post that the Secretary of Defense or
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth or Sealed Team six to
strike it again and kill everybody aboard. We've talked before,
(15:07):
and you were somebody who was right down to the
wire in the confirmation process about Pete hagg Seth to
begin with, So to this story specifically and then sort
of pulling back about where we are with that particular
member of the President's cabinet several months in what are
your thoughts?
Speaker 1 (15:23):
I was reading this weekend that Oxford Dictionary word of
the year is rage bait. I'm trying to determine whether
or not this is rage bait. If it's if it's
proven to be true, then mister haig Seth is at
least he's violated a moral or ethical code, if not
a law. If it proves to be true. So I'm
(15:45):
still in the is it rage bait or not? But
if it proves to be true, it's very clear. Look
like Norman, I have an obligation to help a distress
vote vote right and war. If you think that you
have neutralized the enemy, you have an obligation to try
and recover and return them. They did return too, if
you recall the semi submersible, so they did actually apprehend
(16:08):
return to They may not have had assets to save them,
but blowing them out of the water if they were defenseless,
is actually an ethical or legal violation. And if someone
did that knowingly, they need to be held accountable.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
How will this send an investigation into Pete Hegseeth.
Speaker 1 (16:23):
Go, Well, I think we'll have to figure out. That
will probably be at a classified briefing or a classified
setting because there are a lot of methods that they're
using there that need to be classified. But it'll be
be a very detailed analysis, and I'm glad to see
on a bipartisan baby we want to get to the
facts because we owe it to Secretary Hegseth if it's
in fact not true, to clear his name.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Well, and also heg Seth, as it relates to your colleague,
Mark Kelly from Arizona calling for at least threatening a
court martial after this. You know, that was part of
the response and along with the President, to this video
that was posted by those six lawmakers basically saying that
(17:06):
you know, you don't have to follow illegal orders.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
But I tell you, I was in Halifax at a
security conference last weekend and I was sitting with two
I consider friends, Peter Welch and Angus King, on a panel,
and that may be rage baiting too. Look, it should
be intuitively obvious to anyone serving in the military if
they know that something is patently illegal that they're being
(17:30):
asked to do, don't do it. They didn't need to
do that video, so I'm kind of wondering what the
motivation was. I think that they were trying to bate
Republicans into into that sort of exchange. But that's a
no brainer. Anybody who qualifies to be in the military
smart enough to know if they see something that's illegal,
they don't do it. They refuse to do it, and
the court martial system will uphold their decision. So it
(17:54):
could be rage baiting, and I think in that case
that they now the flip side. Let me back up
because I want to cover the Kelly thing. I think
keg seth this waiting in the dangerous waters by saying
calling him back in court martialing, he may get the
same thing someday because he is former military. Next administration
may have the same consideration. I think, let's move on, guys.
(18:16):
I mean, my gosh, we need a little bit of
adults in the room being a little bit more mature.
Stop all this back and forth. This sort of amateurish
or childish behavior at either end of the spectrum is
not a vote tainer. Are you.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Very nice? Hear that? Pete calendar?
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Are you impressed?
Speaker 2 (18:36):
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about twenty twenty six?
Speaker 1 (18:39):
I think right now we've you know, you're you're always
going to have a challenge in the in the year
the congressional elections after a new president's in place. But
we've got to get serious about health care. We've got
to get We've got to just calm down. I want
to be the adults in the room. Let the Democrats
continue to be the you know, fanatics that some of
(19:04):
them can be. But I'm watching the display up here earlier.
I now know how to pronounce Afton Bay and spell
her name, because I was in Middle Tennessee all weekend
and there's ads running non stop. Republicans need to understand
when you've got a district that's in play or we
may only win by single digits that Trump carried by
twenty points. Pay attention, folks. You can learn from that.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
US centator time tell us the time goes fast. We
always appreciate you joining us, Thank you loved it. Happy Thanksgiving,
and we'll be back tomorrow. Right here on good Morning,
I'm go tainer in
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