Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 25, 2026. MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis, who joins us from Charlotte this morning. Good morning to you, sir.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you to be a bit of a pundit before we get into some policy. CBS polling shows voters see corruption as a major factor, 83% see it as a concern in determining their vote, and they see it as more of an issue with Republicans. How does your party overcome this perception?
TILLIS: Well, I think a part of what we have to do is be open about what we've done right and where we've kind of skated into the gray area. I'll give you a good example of why I think maybe people feel that way. You can't have an oligarch pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president's son's wedding and not make it look odd, particularly when that oligarch is aligned with Putin and has gone on delegations with Putin to Beijing.
What we need to do is learn the rule of figure out where the line is and take a step back, or American people are already predisposed to assume Democrats and Republicans are corrupt. We're just feeding that narrative when we let things like that happen, whether it's legal or not. Well, it seems Democrats may be carrying out some scrutiny if they do win the majority.
You will not be in the Senate at that time. And you were deeply frustrated by Republicans when they passed this tax and spending bill on a party-line vote that included cuts to Medicaid, and will deeply affect rural hospitals. In your state, more than 25 percent of people rely on Medicaid.
I know North Carolina is trying to patch things up here to plan ahead. Do you still expect devastating health care cuts in the new year? TILLIS: We're going to have significant headwinds.
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