GOP Senator Goes Off On Republican Colleague For ‘The Bullsh*t He’s Done on Social Media’

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Outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) went off on his GOP colleague, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), on Tuesday over Lee’s ongoing push to force a “talking filibuster” in order to get President Donald Trump’s voter ID bill, the Save Act, through the Senate.

Tillis slammed Lee for promoting “goofy stuff” in comments to reporters, adding that Lee is either driven by “naivety or a desire to get more likes on a social media post, maybe both.”

“I never speak ill of members when they want to be professional, and they want to engage in a productive way, but when you do some of the bullshit he’s done on social media, that’s why he gets these comments out here,” Tillis added in comments reported on by Semafor’s congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett. Lee has long grabbed headlines for his outlandish and trollish social media behavior on an account named “@BasedMikeLee.”

Trump has pushed the idea of forcing a talking filibuster as well. In March Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Great Job by hard working Scott Pressler [sic] on Fox & Friends talking about using the Filibuster, or Talking Filibuster, in order to pass THE SAVE AMERICA ACT, an 88% issue with ALL VOTERS.”

“It must be done immediately. It supersedes everything else. MUST GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE. I, as President, will not sign other Bills until this is passed, AND NOT THE WATERED DOWN VERSION, GO FOR THE GOLD: MUST SHOW VOTER I.D. & PROOF OF CITIZENSHIP: NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS EXCEPT FOR MILITARY, ILLNESS, DISABILITY, TRAVEL,” added Trump, pitching his bill.

At the time, NBC’s Sahil Kapur reported that Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) responded with a lengthy explanation as to why a “talking filibuster” would not work to pass the bill.

“Having studied it and researched it pretty thoroughly, you have to show me how, in the end, it prevails and succeeds. Because I think what has been promised out there is that it would actually, in the end, get an outcome,” Thune said, adding:

And I find it very hard to see that based on actual past experience. There were a couple different occasions where the Democrats contemplated doing this, both under Majority Leader Harry Reid at the time and Majority Leader Schumer, and they opted against it because they examined it the same way that we’re examining it.

And obviously, what people don’t realize, I think, is it’s all unlimited debate, but it’s also unlimited amendments. So what I’ve said before is you have to have unified support, not only in support of the ultimate goal, which is the SAVE America Act, on the process to be able to defeat amendments that would undo the legislation the first place. And we can’t find a piece of legislation in history that’s been passed that way.

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