Thom Tillis calls “abolishing or demolishing” the Kennedy Center “absurd” and worrying about its name “kind of silly”
United States Senator for North Carolina, answering reporters’ questions on Capitol Hill
“I think it’s absurd. Abolishing or demolishing a memorial [...] a worldwide known venue for arts.”
Source and context
Original video
About this source
Forbes Breaking News’s upload (3:31) of the hallway exchange, with an on-screen stamp “SEPTEMBER 17, 2026” and the lower third “SEN. THOM TILIS (R-NC) SPEAKS TO REPORTERS ON CAPITOL HILL” (the lower third misspells his surname). Audio downloaded and transcribed with mlx-whisper large-v3-turbo and cross-checked with whisper large-v3 and Parakeet TDT, which also records fillers. The video starts at the reporter’s question, so anything earlier in the scrum is not shown. Between “memorial” and “a worldwide known venue” the recording has hesitation fillers and one indistinct word (Parakeet “want”; CNN’s rush transcript “want --”); that stretch is omitted and marked [...].
Reporting
About this source
CNN rush transcript (“may not be in its final form”) of the clip CNN aired at 7 p.m. ET on September 17. It carries the same opening sentences as the Forbes recording, renders the hesitation as “want --” and adds “like that” after “arts”, and skips the middle of the answer. Used to confirm that the sentence about demolition was part of the answer CNN aired.
Reporting
About this source
CNN rush transcript of an edited clip. The excerpt omits the reporter’s question and the sentence naming demolition, so on its own it reads as if “absurd” were aimed at the naming dispute; the Forbes recording and CNN’s 7 p.m. transcript show it follows a question about demolishing the center.
Reporting
About this source
AP report as syndicated by WCCB Charlotte (page metadata: published 2026-09-17 21:15 UTC). The apnews.com original returned HTTP 403 to automated access, so this copy was read. AP attributes the “false crisis” and “kind of silly” language to Tillis and does not quote his sentence about demolition.
Before the quotation
The previous evening, President Trump told reporters in Charlotte that the Trump administration “should certainly have recognition” and, in the same answer, used the phrase “ripped down” about the center; AFP photographs from that night showed him looking at a poster that appears to read “Kennedy Center DEMOLISHED.” On September 17 a reporter on Capitol Hill asked Tillis whether he would support the president’s apparent speculation about the center’s future.
After the quotation
Asked in a follow-up whether the Kennedy Center needs an independent board, Tillis said “I think there’s something to be said for that.” CNN aired portions of the exchange that evening, and the Associated Press reported him calling the dispute a “false crisis.”
How this statement is classified
Case context: Donald Trump's statements linking the Kennedy Center's renovation to recognition for his administration
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case’s fixed reference point is President Trump’s stated position that the Kennedy Center’s closure and renovation depend on recognition for his administration, as expressed in his Truth Social post of 2026-09-15 and reaffirmed in his remarks to reporters in Charlotte on 2026-09-16. Asked by a reporter whether he would support the president’s apparent speculation about the center’s future, Tillis answers “I think it’s absurd” about “abolishing or demolishing a memorial” and adds that worrying about the name is “kind of silly,” which rejects the outcome he names and treats the naming dispute as beside the point. The closest competing label is minimizes, because he also calls the naming dispute a distraction. That loses because his operative words answer the reporter’s question with an express rejection, which criticizes the position rather than downplaying its seriousness.
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- Donald Trump
Donald Trump's statements linking the Kennedy Center's renovation to recognition for his administration
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“I keep wondering how insecure, how narcissistic, how egomaniacal you have to be to say you'll demolish a building if they don't put your name on it.”Read statement
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