Heavy Hitting Journalism From Roll Call: How Thom Tillis Likes his Grits

WASHINGTON, D.C. – He has organized canine costume contests on Capitol Hill, made sure to be seen bringing pop corn to a tense White House a meeting with lawmakers, and generally looks for the spotlight to tout his ‘bipartisan’ ways. Now Sen. Thom Tillis (RINO-NC) is standing center stage for another hard hitting expose’ in Roll Call to tell the people how he…likes his grits.

““It was always eggs sunny side up, side of grits,” he said. “Had a lot of oatmeal. My dad used to make oatmeal. We had six kids, so it was like a cafeteria. My dad, because he got up so early, would always cook breakfast. [With oatmeal] we’d have cocktail sauce, pineapple. He was ahead of his time in terms of mixing fruit with oatmeal back in the ’60s.”

Tillis has tried to maintain a healthy lifestyle since then.

“Burning calories on one side, eating pure on the other, it’s worked forever — long before all these diet fads,” he said.

The senator’s D.C. home is near Capitol Hill, and we caught him at breakfast recently at Market Lunch, a counter service restaurant in Eastern Market.

He ordered three eggs sunny side up, two sausage patties and a large coffee.

Market Lunch also has grits from eastern North Carolina.

“I love grits. I actually love them covered in hot sauce, mixed up in sunny side eggs,” Tillis, 57, said.

That’s not necessarily a North Carolina way to eat them, he said: “In the South, grits are grits.””

A puff piece, to say the least, but just the kind of thing Tillis excels at – grabbing media attention for the issues that (don’t) matter.

Now, Roll Call prides itself as a media organization uniquely positioned to give readers key insights about the goings on in the Swamp. We’re not sure Tillis’ jogging routine and breakfast preferences would qualify as information that warrants media coverage.

Roll Call, considering its name, could have talked with Tillis about just how much, or how little, support his latest ‘bipartisan’ Mueller protection legislation has in the U.S. Senate. Such a relevant and timely topic just didn’t rise to the bar, apparently, so instead we get incredible insights about Tillis’ weight fluctuations since diving in the Swamp.

“Tillis said he was up to about 220 pounds in June 2016 and has since shed 40 of them.

“The freshman 15 is a real thing even in the Senate. Everybody’s gaining weight. You can tell where their belt loop used to be and where it is now. I decided to take mine in the other direction,” he said.”

Someone give this writer a Peabody Award.

Poor Thom has been on a waistline roller coaster since deceiving Republicans voters in 2014. Here’s a great suggestion: Let’s all make sure that Tillis can more easily stick to his diet of home-cooked meals and avoiding the D.C. party food by taking him out of contention in the 2020 primary.

That way he can stay home and cook his grits just how he likes, and the people of North Carolina can send a more palatable candidate to actually fight for their interests in D.C.

Read more of the puff piece here, if you wish.