Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) isn't just predicting Republicans will lose the midterms — he's counting down the days with a clock on his phone, and he made sure a Politico reporter saw it.
In an interview with Politico's Jonathan Martin at a restaurant in North Carolina, Tillis, who opted not to run for reelection after clashing with President Trump over the One Big Beautiful Bill, described the upcoming election in blunt terms.
"This thing that's going to happen 20 days from now that I have on my countdown clock as whoop ass."
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The senator, who will leave office in January, reportedly told Martin he did not want to be seen as "casting away a party" he worked hard in, that he was supportive of Republicans, and that he was a "team player." In the same conversation, he criticized Trump and some of Trump's Cabinet secretaries, and attacked some Trump advisors as "MAGATS."
The remarks drew immediate backlash on social media. Conservative commentator Steve Cortes posted on X: "Outgoing RINO Senator @ThomTillis gleefully shows a Politico reporter the countdown clock on his phone for what he says is guaranteed Republican defeat in the upcoming midterms."
Another X user, Tim J. Graham, posted: "Why is Tillis going Full CNN Paid Contributor?"
Tillis's behavior is a marked departure from the traditional posture of a retiring senator. Rather than quietly exiting, he is using his final months to amplify a prediction of defeat against his own party — and doing so in the pages of a national outlet while promoting a book whose title casts the President as the antagonist.
RedState's Nick Arama noted that Tillis should be concerned about beating back the extremists, and suggested the interview gives Republicans one more reason to vote — to send a message that Tillis and those like him are not the party.
The political math favors Tillis's prediction if Republicans stay home. With President Trump's America First agenda on the ballot and Republicans defending both chambers of Congress, turnout from the base will decide whether the GOP holds the line. A senator telling voters their side is about to get crushed 20 days out is, at minimum, an unusual get-out-the-vote strategy.
Tillis's office has not publicly elaborated on the countdown clock or the interview beyond what was reported by RedState and Politico. It is not yet known whether Tillis will campaign for any Republican candidates ahead of Election Day.
Our Take
Here's what's really happening. Thom Tillis is leaving the Senate because North Carolina Republicans were done with him after he fought President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill — and instead of going quietly, he's spending his farewell tour showing reporters a phone app that predicts his own party gets crushed. That's not analysis. That's a parting shot, and he knows it.
Notice the language. "Whoop ass." He's not warning Republicans. He's enjoying it. A sitting Republican senator sitting in a restaurant, showing off a countdown clock to a reporter from a Washington outlet, smiling about the prospect of a Republican wipeout — that tells you everything about the crowd that ran the party before Trump came along. They'd rather lose with their dignity than win with the MAGA movement. And what exactly is a voter supposed to do with that? Stay home so Tillis can be proven right? Stay home and hand the Senate to the radicals he claims to be worried about?
Here's a message to North Carolina: the guy who couldn't wait to get out of town is now auditioning to be the next MSNBC contributor. The best thing you can do with a countdown clock like that is make it wrong — and send him the message on the way out that his party left him, not the other way around. Patriots, does Tillis's countdown clock change how you're voting in November, or just how you're remembering his name?
