Transcript: Sen. Thom Tillis on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Oct. 25, 2026

The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 25, 2026.MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to North Carolina Republican Senator Tom Tillis, who joins us from Charlotte this morning. Good morning to you, sir.SENATOR THOM TILLIS: Good morning.MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to ask you to be a bit of a pundit before we get into some policy. CBS polling shows voters see corruption as a major factor, 83% see it as a concern in determining their vote, and they see it as more of an issue with Republicans. How does your party overcome this perception?SEN. TILLIS: Well, I think a part of what we have to do is be open about what we've done right and where we've kind of skated into the gray area. I'll give you a good example of why I think maybe people feel that way. You can't have an oligarch pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for the president's son's wedding and not make it look odd, particularly when that oligarch is aligned with Putin and has gone on delegations with Putin to Beijing. That's just one example. What we need to do is learn the rule of figure out where the line ...