AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
On a recent Wednesday, the atrium of a Senate office building on Capitol Hill was packed with onlookers, not for a protest or a press conference, but a parade - a bipartisan dog parade. It was the last one hosted by Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, the retiring Republican who has been a vocal critic of actions by President Trump. NPR congressional reporter Sam Gringlas has the story.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
THOM TILLIS: Good girl.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Izzy.
TILLIS: Everybody, this is Izzy, a mini goldendoodle.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Poodles and pit bulls waited patiently in their costumes as Senator Tillis, with Mardi Gras beads around his neck and a megaphone in his hand, introduced the pups one by one.
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TILLIS: Hey, y'all, we've got a rescue here. His name is Bo.
GRINGLAS: There's a dachshund in a green and purple feather boa, a beagle mix in a tutu and sequin bow tie.
ARIEL COHEN: Well, Rudy, as you can tell, loves fashion, and he loves to have a good time and...
GRINGLAS: Rudy's mom is reporter Ariel Cohen.
COHEN: Something I think a lot of people don't understand about the Hill is it kind of functions like a adult college campus. Yes, it's partisan, but we're all in this schlep (ph) together.
GRINGLAS: Tillis started hosting a bipartisan Halloween dog parade years ago. But last fall, it got canceled because of the shutdown and refashioned for Mardi Gras. Congress has a lot of serious stuff on its plate lately - health insurance, immigration, a string of government shutdowns. But Tillis says...
TILLIS: I mean, you can be good at this job and not be serious 24/7. As a matter of fact, if you're serious 24/7, you're probably not good at this job.
GRINGLAS: The parade happened before the U.S. attacked Iran, but Tillis was already getting slack online.
TILLIS: Some hater on social media said, the world is in crisis. It's like, dude, it's an hour. There's never a bad time to get people to come together and have a little laugh over something that we share. You know...
GRINGLAS: Something people of all political breeds share? - dogs. The North Carolina senator has two of his own, Theo for Theodore Roosevelt and Mitch, whose namesake is former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
TILLIS: I've had Little Mitch meet Big Mitch. They're good friends.
GRINGLAS: West Virginia Republican Senator Jim Justice brought along his bulldog, Babydog, who travels around the Capitol in a wagon. Justice says Babydog has helped open up connections.
JIM JUSTICE: Here, we too often line up Republicans against Democrats, in my opinion. She just amps the temperature down with everybody. You know, there's so many moments here where people are just grinding all the time.
GRINGLAS: That grind is why 1 in 8 members of Congress are not seeking reelection. Tillis has been making headlines on his way out as one of the few Republicans openly pushing back on Trump, who has called Tillis a loser. Still, Tillis often frames his comments as constructive criticism to protect Trump's legacy. Just recently, he slammed then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem for bungling disaster aid after Hurricane Helene and acting recklessly after immigration officers killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. At a hearing just before Noem was fired, Tillis abraded her for an incident described in her memoir where she shot one of her dogs.
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TILLIS: Those are bad decisions made in the heat of the moment, not unlike what happened up in Minneapolis. One of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership, and you've demonstrated anything but that.
GRINGLAS: Tillis also voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, citing cuts to Medicaid. He's threatening to hold up Trump's nomination to the Federal Reserve, and he's eviscerated the idea of trying to take Greenland.
TILLIS: I'm not counting the days until I leave. I'm mindful of the amount of time I have left to make a difference.
GRINGLAS: One item on Tillis' to-do list is finding an organizer to keep the dog parade going. So far, he hasn't gotten any takers. It's also unclear who will step in to fill this other role as a Republican senator willing to break with the president.
Sam Gringlas, NPR News, Washington.
(SOUNDBITE OF I.AM.TRU.STARR'S "(ETC.)") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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