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As Capitol Hill buzzed with news of President-elect Donald Trump’s first cabinet nominations last week, a gaggle of reporters stopped Sen. Thom Tillis to ask about one controversial pick: Matt Gaetz, the firebrand congressman from Florida, as U.S. attorney general.
“Mr. Gaetz and I have sparred on social media. I don’t care about that,” Tillis said. “What I care about is a defensible resume and a really clean vetting. Produce that, and he’s got a chance. Don’t, and he doesn’t.”
Meanwhile, Tillis’ advisers were meeting at the National Republican Senatorial Committee offices to continue planning his 2026 re-election campaign. Getting elected to a third term back home in North Carolina could hinge not only on how Tillis votes on confirmations, but on how much he supports Trump and his policies over the next two years.
Though Gaetz suddenly dropped his bid Thursday, Tillis still has some tough decisions ahead of him, Jim Morrrill reports.
Thom Tillis Has a Donald Trump Predicament
The two-term GOP senator has already been censured by the state party for not being MAGA enough. Now he’s running for re-election as Trump pushes nominees and policies that could pose problems with swing voters.
Audit Impact
The U.S. Performance Center, a company that aims to bring U.S. Olympic organizations to Charlotte, misspent nearly $1 out of every $4 that was appropriated to it by the state legislature, according to a memo from the Office of State Budget and Management.
The company, which was awarded $25 million from the state legislature in 2021 in a no-bid grant, billed state taxpayers at least $6.2 million in unallowable charges, the memo said.
The Assembly reported on the center and its sister nonprofit, the North Carolina Sports Legacy Foundation, in August. The two received a combined $55 million “for capital needs” to lure national Olympic governing bodies to the Charlotte region, but none have relocated to date.
Read more on the audit’s findings from reporter Ren Larson.
Have a news tip for our team? You can reach us at scoops@theassemblync.com.
On the Hunt
A few hours after The Assembly published its investigation of the Hunt Institute on Wednesday, Democratic Lt. Gov.-elect Rachel Hunt announced that she had resigned from its board two days earlier.
Hunt, a daughter of institute namesake and former Gov. Jim Hunt, also appeared to call for the board to replace President and CEO Javaid Siddiqi.
“The Hunt Institute has a proud history of innovation and advocacy for improving education and creating a fairer, more just world,” she said in a statement “I am deeply concerned that this mission is being threatened by controversy and instability within the organization and have resigned from the board. It’s time for a fresh start and renewed commitment to the core mission and values that have defined the Hunt Institute’s decades of success.”
Former employees told The Assembly that Siddiqi has created a toxic work environment plagued by distrust and micromanagement. The institute has seen extraordinarily high turnover: from July 2023 to September 2024, at least 44 employees left, representing a 100 percent turnover rate.
Hunt did not respond to repeated requests for an interview. She was aware of most of the article’s central allegations for months, as former employees wrote to the board in March to air their complaints. The board continued to back Siddiqi after an internal investigation.
The timing raises a question: Did Hunt resign in advance of the article, or because she was acting on new information? Her transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Several other former Hunt Institute staff have since emailed The Assembly to share similar experiences. With their permission, we are publishing excerpts from some comments, but withholding names or identifying characteristics.
“Thank you so much for this article,” wrote one. “There is so much more not captured in this article but I hope this is enough for the Board to finally act.”
“The work environment was so hostile that you were always afraid of being spied on, overheard, anything could get you fired,” another wrote. “I left there with PTSD, and I don’t ever put that place on my resume.”
“I worked at The Hunt Institute and can attest to what you’ve highlighted—it’s truly just the tip of the iceberg,” a third wrote. “What’s even more frustrating is that the board was, and still is, well aware of what’s been happening. I even wrote a detailed letter to them, but the investigation that followed was clearly superficial.
“I’m grateful for the article because it’s validating to see this being discussed publicly. I’m still working through the trauma and rebuilding after my time there, but this feels like a step toward healing for so many of us who experienced that toxic culture firsthand.”
—Jeffrey Billman
What We’re Reading
Deficit Attention: ReBuild NC’s embattled director is out, Inside Climate News reports. The move came just days afters she told a legislative oversight committee about the program’s $221 million deficit.
Cover Story: A Duke cultural anthropologist spent two years working undercover at an Amazon warehouse as part of ethnographic research on what its “really like” to work there. The Chronicle has the details.
Strings Attached: A new group, ReString Appalachia, has launched to help collect donated instruments for musicians who lost theirs to Hurricane Helene, WFDD reports.
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