Thom Tillis is just a gem of a peach of a man. In his first term in office, the North Carolina state House speaker and Republican Senate nominee actually
voted against a resolution apologizing for a white supremacist riot against black residents of Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. Why did Tillis oppose the apology?
"It is time to move on," he wrote in a message to constituents. "In supporting the apology for slavery, most members felt it was an opportunity to recognize a past wrong and move on to pressing matters facing our State. HB 751 and others in the pipeline are redundant and they are consuming time and attention that should be dedicated to addressing education, transportation, and immigration problems plaguing this State."
But at the time, Tillis—who showed up in Wilmington on Tuesday with New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in tow—offered another explanation for opposing the measure: Not all whites had participated in the riots. So Tillis pushed for an amendment introduced by a fellow state representative that would have added language to the bill commemorating the heroic white Republican lawmakers who had opposed the violence. "The proposed amendment would have acknowledged the historical fact that the white Republican government joined with black citizens to oppose the rioters," he argued. The amendment failed, and Tillis ended up voting no on the final version.
Hey, we already apologized for slavery, so it would be redundant to apologize for the killing of 25 black citizens more than 30 years after the Civil War! Also, too, #notallwhitepeople.
Seriously, this guy. He just can't stop making clear that the only people who matter to him are people just like him. White Republicans did something good more than 100 years ago? It absolutely must be mentioned or we shouldn't apologize for mass murder. The electoral challenge today's Republicans face? Not enough "traditional," i.e. white, population. People objected to his mansplaining? That's "just silly." A woman criticized him? That was "born out of emotions." Tillis seems to realize that other people exist, people who are not white male Republicans. It's just that he doesn't seem to realize they matter except insofar as he needs at least a few of them to vote for him—and he resents that.