VIOLA PARK, Italy--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 16, 2026--
With great pain and sadness, the Commisso family, together with his wife Catherine, children Giuseppe and Marisa, and sisters Italia and Raffaelina, announce the passing of President Rocco B. Commisso.
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After a prolonged period of medical treatment, our beloved President has left us, and today we all mourn his passing. For his family, he was an example and a guiding light, a loyal and faithful man who, alongside his wife Catherine, reached the milestone of 50 years of marriage, and who was a strict yet loving father to his children, just as his character was: gentle and determined.
His love for Fiorentina was the greatest gift he gave himself, spending unforgettable days with the boys and girls of the youth teams, always offering a caring gesture and a smile to everyone. Tireless, he worked until his final days, dedicating himself to his companies, Mediacom and Fiorentina, and to their future.
Football was his passion, and Fiorentina became so seven years ago, when Rocco took charge of the Viola club and began to love its supporters, its colors, and the city of Florence. “Call me Rocco,” he had simply said to everyone, with his extraordinary empathy. He was always close to Florence and the Florentines, in everyday life and also during the most difficult period of the Covid emergency, when the “Forza e Cuore” campaign provided substantial donations to the city’s hospitals.
The Rocco B. Commisso Viola Park, the home of Fiorentina, will live forever bearing his name—an indelible symbol of his affection and his desire to look toward the future of young people. The boys and girls who grew up under his guidance in the youth academy, have won trophies and continue their journey with Fiorentina’s men’s and women’s first teams. Under his leadership, Fiorentina reached two UEFA Conference League finals and one Coppa Italia final.
The Commisso family wishes to thank all those who stood by him during these delicate moments and is certain that the memory of Rocco will remain forever in the hearts of the many people who loved him and who shared both difficult and beautiful moments with him.
A heartfelt thought in this moment of great sadness goes to everyone at Fiorentina—staff, players, and employees—to all those who knew Rocco, to the entire Viola community, and above all to all the boys and girls who will continue to carry the Viola colors and the memory of our Rocco throughout Italy and the world.
We miss you and we will miss you always.
Rocco B. Commisso
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Thom Tillis isn't holding back during his final year in Washington.
“I'm sick of stupid,” the two-term Republican from North Carolina said from the Senate floor recently as he derided President Donald Trump 's advisers for stoking a potential U.S. military takeover in Greenland.
It was just one of several moments during the opening weeks of 2026 when Tillis, who isn't seeking reelection, seemed unconstrained by the anxieties that weigh down many of his GOP colleagues who are loath to cross the White House for fear of triggering a political backlash.
He's one of just two Republicans, along with Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who participated in a congressional delegation to Denmark this week while Trump threatens to seize Greenland. He was quick to criticize the Justice Department's investigation of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. As Trump and his allies try to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, Tillis backed the eventual display of a plaque honoring police who defended the Capitol that day.
He has shown particular frustration with Trump's top aides, notably deputy White House chief of staff Stephen Miller.
“I don't want some staffer telling me what my position is on something,” he said after Miller gave a forceful interview on CNN saying Greenland “should be part of the United States.”
“He made comments out of his depth,” Tillis added.
The moves reflect the sense of freedom lawmakers often feel when they know they won't have to face voters again. They've helped attract swarms of reporters who follow Tillis through the halls of Congress as he offers candid thoughts on news of the day. And they've won support from the handful of other Republicans who sometimes cross Trump, including Murkowski, who called out “good speech!” as she passed him in the Capitol following his floor remarks on Greenland.
For the 65-year-old Tillis, who has won elections in one of the most politically competitive states, the approach is notable for the way in which he's pushing back against the White House. He's hardly staking out a position as a never-Trumper and repeatedly — often effusively — expresses support for the president.
Rather, he's targeting much of his criticism at senior White House aides, sometimes raising questions about whether Trump is receiving the best advice at a consequential moment in his presidency as the GOP enters a challenging election year.
“I really want this president to be very, very successful,” Tillis said this week. “And a part of his legacy is going to be based on picking and choosing the right advice from people in his administration.”
Heading into the midterms, Tillis said, “I want to create a better environment for Republicans to win.”
Tillis, who had a challenging childhood involving multiple moves, worked at an accounting and consulting firm before entering politics. He was the speaker of North Carolina's House of Representatives from 2011 to 2015. He said this week that he approaches his concerns from a business perspective.
“Sometimes there's just things that people need to say, ‘not a good idea, not in our best interest, hard to implement,” he said. “I probably should have started by saying that’s what I did in the private sector for about 25 years.”
Beyond Miller, Tillis has raised questions about Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's immediate response to the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis. Hours after the shooting, while an FBI investigation was still unfolding, Noem defended the officer and said Good “attempted to run a law enforcement officer over.”
Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill the next day, Tillis said he was “surprised by the level of certainty in her comments” and suggested such rhetoric influenced Trump, who was also quick to defend law enforcement.
“She's advising the president so the president's comments had to have come I assume through the advice of the secretary,” he said.
Tillis' balancing act was on particularly vivid display earlier this month on the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, when he helped broker the deal to publicly show the plaque honoring officers that was held up by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Speaking from the Senate floor, he called the attack “one of the worst days in my 11 years in the U.S. Senate.”
He lauded the staff and U.S. Capitol police who defended lawmakers and helped ensure that Congress ultimately certified Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. But he also struck fiercely partisan tones, blaming Democrats for embracing a movement to defund the police and criticizing media coverage of protests that turned violent during the summer of 2020.
Tillis framed Jan. 6 as a “wonderful stress test for democracy” before arguing that the Biden administration went “overboard” by prosecuting “people who were dumb enough to walk into the building but they weren't the leaders.” He then pivoted to criticism of Trump's sweeping pardons of Jan. 6 defendants, including those who attacked police.
But even then, he didn't directly blame Trump, again focusing on his advisers.
“The president, on the advice of somebody in the White House — and I hope I find out the name of that person — also pardoned criminals who injured police officers and destroyed this building,” Tillis said. “If you had that happen to your office or your business, would you think well they were just a little hotheaded and let them go and not prosecute them? Or would you hold them accountable for destroying the citadel of democracy?”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on Tillis' assessment of Trump's aides. The senator rejects any suggestion that he's stepped up his criticism because of his impeding retirement, calling the notion “hysterical.”
His relationship with Trump hit a low point last summer when he opposed the president's sweeping tax and spending cuts package. Trump accused Tillis of seeking publicity and said on social media that the senator was a “talker and complainer, NOT A DOER.” Tillis announced his retirement soon after voting against the measure, one of only two Senate Republicans to do so.
Trump has been more sanguine in response to Tillis' more recent comments. Asked this week about the senator's criticism of the Fed probe, Trump said, “That's why Thom's not going to be a senator any longer, I guess.”
“Look, I like Thom Tillis,” Trump said. “But he's not going to be a senator any longer because of views like that.”
Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Washington contributed to this report.
FILE -Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., speaks during a confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Oct. 13, 2020, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP, File)
FILE - Wearing a beaded bolo around a pin that says "United States Senate," Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., listens to thanks from members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, after the passage of a bill granting the tribe with federal recognition, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
