Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) suggested that he regrets voting for Pete Hegseth, saying that the defense secretary is “out of his depth.”
Tillis cast the deciding vote in January to confirm Hegseth for the position despite having reservations about him. Hegseth was accused of sexual assault, alcohol abuse and mismanaging two veteran organizations.
Hegseth was confirmed on a narrow 51-50 vote after Tillis backed him and Vice-President JD Vance provided the tie-breaking vote.
Tillis, who announced earlier this month that he will not be seeking re-election next year, strongly criticized Hegseth’s performance as defense secretary in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“Now, with the passing of time, I think it’s clear he’s out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization,” Tillis said.
The retiring senator also criticized the Senate Armed Services committee over their handling of Hegseth’s confirmation process. Tillis said the committee was “a bit generous” with their view of Hegseth, but he trusted the panel’s judgement at the time.
“I don’t regret the decision I made back then based on the facts as I knew them then,” Tillis said. “But today, I am beginning to wonder if maybe Armed Services was a little bit generous with respect to their assessment of his capabilities as a manager of the world’s largest, most complex, and arguably consequential organization.”
Asked if he would vote for Hegseth again Tillis said, “I think based on the information I have today, if all I had was the information on the day of the vote, I’d certainly vote for him again.”
“But now, I have the information of him being a manager, and I don’t think that his probationary period has been very positive,” he continued.
Tillis criticized Hegseth for his role in signalgate and pausing weapons shipments to Ukraine, calling the move “amateurish”. He was also critical of the “amateurs” advising Trump.
“I don’t have a problem with President Trump. I got a problem with some of the people I consider to be amateurs, advising him,” Tillis said. “So I want to make it very clear to them guys, you act like the president when he’s out of the room, you don’t impress me. And they’ll hear more of that in the coming months.”
