Tillis says Trump impeachment over Jan 6 was ‘weighty,’ a ‘vote of no confidence’

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Monday said President Trump’s impeachment in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill attack was “weighty” and his impeachment trial was a “vote of no confidence.”

MS NOW’s Ari Melber spoke with Tillis on “ The Beat ,” where the two talked about Tillis’s upcoming book “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” which comes out Tuesday. Melber played footage of Trump’s remarks to people charged and convicted of the attack, including Trump’s warning that “those who broke the law, you will pay.”

Melber then asked the senator if the Senate should hold the president accountable after he pardoned everyone charged and convicted.

“What trial was there?” Tillis asked. “I mean, there was no counsel. There were no witnesses. It was a vote of no confidence. If they had gone and spent the time that, historically, you spend with something as weighty as impeaching the President of the United States, maybe they could have convinced me. But it was a snap impeachment.”

Tillis said the premise of his memoir “is until both parties recognize that they are responsible for this escalation, beginning with Obama up to Trump 2, then you’re only going to find elections –– taking one party out of power, putting another one in and they will justify their abhorrent behavior based upon the behavior of the prior administration and so on and so forth.”

Melber returned to his question, to which Tillis replied that as long as the precedent is in place for a fast impeachment trial, it will only be diminished further when used against a future president facing impeachable offenses.

Tillis voted to acquit Trump, and he defended his choice in a recent interview with Ross Douthat for CBS News’s “60 Minutes.”

“What you’re doing is a means-justifies-the-end rationalization,” the North Carolina Republican said about Trump’s quick second impeachment. “So cheapening the impeachment process to prevent someone from running in the future, I just don’t buy it.”

During the part of the conversation about the Jan. 6 attack, Tillis warned that Trump could lash out at Republicans if they lose Congress after the November midterm elections.

Tillis said it would be a mistake for Trump to attack GOP lawmakers if the party loses badly in November, pointing to his low approval rating and voters’ concerns over affordability.

“It would be another political unforced error if we do that,” Tillis told Douthat.

Tillis, who parted with the president over the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, announced last year that he would not seek reelection this November. Trump lashed out, calling him a “talker and complainer, NOT A DOER.”