Recovering from COVID-19, Tillis calls for ‘full explanation’ from Cunningham on sexts
In his first public appearances since testing positive for the coronavirus, U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis said he will participate in next week’s confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, and called for challenger Cal Cunningham to offer a “full explanation” of sexual text messages sent to a woman who is not his wife.
Tillis appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” and then hosted a telephone town hall and took questions from North Carolina residents on Tuesday morning.
Tillis announced Friday night that he had tested positive for the coronavirus. He said he got tested after one of his colleagues — Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — tested positive.
Tillis said he had difficulty breathing and a dry cough on Saturday, but said those symptoms subsided later in the day. He said he lost his sense of taste for several days, but it returned Monday.
“All of my vital signs are good,” Tillis said during a telephone town hall event Tuesday morning.
He said he has not seen a doctor since the test or used any therapeutics. Campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said every campaign staff member in close proximity to Tillis tested negative for COVID-19 as of Monday. The campaign will keep its Charlotte headquarters closed for the rest of the week.
Tillis is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which holds confirmation hearings for judicial nominees, including the Supreme Court. Confirmation hearings for Barrett are scheduled to begin Monday with Republicans aiming for a Senate vote before the Nov. 3 election.
“I expect to be cleared to be able to travel back to Washington somewhere around the middle of next week,” Tillis said.
He said he planned to participate in the first days of hearings via web conferencing, as members of Congress have been doing since early on in the pandemic. Members of the Senate must vote in-person in committee and on the floor.
It is not clear where Tillis contracted the virus, but Tillis attended a White House event for Barrett’s nomination on Sept. 26. Several of the attendees at the event have tested positive for the virus, including President Donald Trump and Lee, a Republican and member of the judiciary committee.
Cunningham text messages
The Tillis campaign had not addressed the Cunningham sexting issue directly until Tillis’ comments Tuesday morning, though outside Republican groups have begun running ads about it.
“Cal is trying to finesse it as an errant text, but we now have a second report, and I think Cal owes the people of North Carolina a full explanation,” Tillis said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends,” referencing an unconfirmed Facebook post by an attorney that alleges an affair with a second woman. “On the debate stage last week, Cal said it’s about integrity — and I agree.”
The Facebook post was made by Erin Brinkman, a UNC Law School graduate and attorney whose LinkedIn page says that she worked for Cunningham’s unsuccessful 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. The post on which the comment was made is no longer visible but some right-leaning outlets have published stories based on that comment.
A News & Observer reporter texted and left phone messages for Brinkman on Sunday and Monday, but has not heard back from her, and has not been able to confirm the allegations.
Tillis, in a nationally televised interview, raised it twice.
“His family should be kept private. He’s got teenage children, but Cal owes North Carolinians, all the voters, a full and thorough explanation for what we now know are two separate events. And he’s an officer in the military. He’s also subject to disciplinary action just on the basis of what he has admitted to.“
Cunningham and his wife Elizabeth met in 1997 and were married in 2000. They have two teenage children.
Cunningham’s campaign confirmed Friday night the authenticity of text messages between Cunningham and a California public relations strategist named Arlene Guzman Todd.
“I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry. The first step in repairing those relationships is taking complete responsibility, which I do,” Cunningham said in a statement released Friday.
Cunningham has not tweeted since before that Friday statement and canceled a scheduled appearance at a virtual town hall Monday afternoon.
His campaign issued a statement Tuesday after Tillis’ comments, but again declined to answer questions about the matter or the other allegation raised by Brinkman. Cunningham has not publicly discussed the issue since his statement Friday night.
“Senator Tillis and his allies are trying to exploit a personal matter and ignoring a family’s request for privacy to make desperate attacks in hopes they can distract from Senator Tillis’ record of blocking Medicaid expansion, voting to take away protections for pre-existing conditions and failing to pass needed COVID-19 relief for our communities,” Cunningham communications director Rachel Petri wrote in a statement to The News & Observer.
Cunningham has led Tillis in polling throughout the summer and into the fall in a race that could determine which party has control of the Senate in January. More than 386,000 North Carolina voters have already cast their ballots in the November election, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
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This story was originally published October 6, 2020 at 12:43 PM.
