Crocodile tears

In Washington, words don't matter, actions do.

Thom Tillis stood on the floor of the Senate yesterday and called Vladimir Putin “the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime.” It’s vintage Tillis. While he railed against the Russian dictator, calling him a murderer and gave graphic details about his trip to Ukraine, his only mention of Trump was to praise him. At this point, words from Tillis have little meaning because they are never backed up by actions.

Tillis is a U.S. Senator. If he really wanted to impede Putin’s aggression, he would put a check on Donald Trump because the President is enabling and encouraging Putin. Instead, Tillis voted to approve Trump’s pro-Russian nominees, including casting the deciding vote for FBI director Kash Patel, who was paid by Russian propagandists, just hours before his speech. Tillis could offer legislation to restrict what Trump is doing, but he’s not.

Tillis got what he wanted, a headline and praise from liberals across social media. His speech on the Senate floor will be forgotten in less than a news cycle, but his headline and quotes on social media will live on. We’ll see them endlessly in 2026 as proof that he’s an independent-minded Senator willing to disagree with Trump.

After years of saying one thing and doing another, Tillis should have little credibility. The fact that he does is a failing of the media. They covered his speech as if it’s significant, but nobody asked what he’s going to do besides talk.

Tillis is not alone with his crocodile tears. Conservative national security pundits who spent the campaign making false equivalencies about the Biden administration and Trump are suddenly outraged by Trump’s actions. National Review columnist Noah Rothman supposedly believes in a muscular foreign policy and routinely criticized Biden for not doing enough for Ukraine. Now, he’s shocked and angered by Trump’s capitulation to Putin. Rothman and others got what they asked for.

There’s no surprise here. Donald Trump is doing what he said he would do. He’s been enamored with Putin and his dictatorial power for years. Trump believes democracies are weak and authoritarians strong. He would prefer to be in the good graces of a leader who will likely never lose power than allied with ones beholden to their people.

Russians and Russian money have been swirling around Trump world since his first campaign. Russiagate was not a hoax. The Mueller Report said Russian operatives did try to influence the US election on behalf of Donald Trump, even if the investigation found no evidence of direct collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russian operation. Numerous Trump campaign operatives were convicted of crimes related to their ties to the Kremlin. Democrats botched their response with wild speculation before the report was released, giving Republicans an opening to claim total exoneration.

The 2024 election was a binary choice between a flawed Democratic Party that believes in freedom and democracy and a would-be autocrat with little respect for the rule of law or democratic norms. Thom Tillis and those conservatives outlets chose Trump. Spare me their outrage.

As for me, the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime is the current Republican Party. The GOP supported Trump after he attempted to stay in power despite losing an election. They’ve supported Trump’s blanket pardon of bad actors who attempted to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. In North Carolina, they’ve rigged elections to give Republicans uncontested power in the legislature and virtually eliminated competitive Congressional races. Now, they are trying to steal a Supreme Court seat by disenfranchising voters after the fact. Putin might be trying to stifle democracy in the former Soviet states, but the GOP is trying to stifle it here.