Tillis calls for politicians to tone down rhetoric, thorough investigation of Trump rally shooting

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis called on both Republicans and Democrats to tone down their rhetoric after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Tillis made the comments during a virtual press conference with reporters Monday afternoon.

“It’s on us to police our own party,” said Tillis. “I would expect my Democratic colleagues to have the same fortitude that I do to tell my colleagues, ‘Look, if you can only get people’s attention, if you can only get on TV, if you can only get your message out by that kind of rhetoric, you should really rethink whether or not you should be in public service. That’s the way you hold people accountable for that kind of garbage.'”

In the aftermath of the assassination attempt, Tillis said he is canceling a Wednesday appearance in Wilmington for an infrastructure announcement and traveling to Milwaukee tomorrow to attend the Republican National Convention.

Tillis said it’s too early to blame the U.S. Secret Service or any individual, calling instead for a Senate oversight hearing to establish the facts.

“I’m also disgusted with some of the talking heads who seem to think that they actually know where the lapse was,” said Tillis. “To the people who think it was some sort of a conspiracy, give me a break, but also for the people who blame it on the Secret Service, I simply don’t know.”

“Someone in this process needs to be identified and they need to be disciplined and terminated in my opinion,” said Tillis. “They are not someone that I want taking care of any member of Congress and certainly not a candidate, former or current President of the United States.”

Tillis made the comments before the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced Monday that it will hold a committee hearing titled “Oversight of the U.S. Secret Service and the Attempted Assassination of President Donald J. Trump.”

The committee will invite U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to testify at the hearing, according to the announcement.

“The United States Secret Service has a no-fail mission, yet it failed on Saturday when a madman attempted to assassinate President Trump, killed an innocent victim, and harmed others,” said a statement by Comer.

“Americans demand answers from Director Kimberly Cheatle about these security lapses and how we can prevent this from happening again.”

Before Monday’s announcement, some Democrats expressed concerns about whether the House Oversight Committee, which has been criticized for partisanship, could be neutral.

Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC), in a video released earlier Monday, said he hoped politics would not be injected into the investigation.

“The investigation will probably be done by the Oversight Committee, which is kind of bad news because it’s the most partisan committee in Congress so we have to hope this will be treated differently,” said Jackson, who is running to become North Carolina’s next attorney general.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle, including President Joe Biden, have called for unity amidst rising concerns about political violence.

In an address from the Oval Office on Sunday, the president urged Americans to resolve their political disputes at the ballot box.

“The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin,” Biden said. “The path forward, through competing visions of the campaign, should always be resolved peacefully, not through acts of violence.”

When asked by reporters whether he anticipated a shift in the platform or speech topics at the convention, Tillis said he believed there would be changes in some speeches, citing the recent addition of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley as a speaker as an example of that shift.

Haley, who was a bitter rival of Trump during the Republican presidential election, was added to the schedule after she was initially not among the list of speakers at the convention.

“I think … it’s an indication of the tone and tenor of the convention, which I think is a good thing,” Tillis said.