Senator Thom Tillis stands by blistering criticism of Trump Cabinet, calls Pete Hegseth his ‘biggest regret’
Internal conflict
During an episode of The Source with Kaitlan Collins on CNN about his controversial book ‘How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents’, Senator Thom Tillis said he stands by all his comments about the people in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet. Notably, Tillis said that voting to confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of War was “the biggest regret” of his career.
Collins asked Tillis about the specific comments, mentioning them one by one. She said, “You admit that you should have stopped RFK Jr. from becoming health secretary. “You say Tulsi Gabbard won’t be challenging anyone for president of her local Mensa chapter. You say Kristi Noem’s a dog murderer and that Howard Lutnick ‘is nuttier than squirrel s***.’” Tillis, who is not seeking re-election in 2026, responded, “I stand by all that,” before adding, “What else you got?”
During the same interview, Tillis also stated that he supports “the majority of people” in Trump’s Cabinet. Collins challenged him on this, highlighting that the names she mentioned were all major players in the Trump administration.
Tillis then clarified, “The point is we hired them. We made a decision to put them in there. I’m giving them their annual review. They didn’t pass. You cycle them out.” Talking about how things should ideally work, Tillis said, “Get somebody else, get somebody that can tell the president the truth, set the priorities right, and get us reelected. That’s all this is about.”
Tillis speaks about problems within the Republican Party that need to be fixed
During the interview, Tillis also said that Republican supporters have lost faith in the party and stressed the need to restore it. “We’ve got problems right now that we need to fix,” Tillis said before giving an example to support his point.
“I was riding on a train today. I had a guy come up to me. He said, ‘You know, Senator,’ he recognized me. He said, ‘I’ve been a Republican for 56 years, but I don’t think I can support y’all this year. I like what you’re saying, but I don’t like what the party’s for right now.’” He continued, “I said, ‘I hope you’ll change your mind because you need to understand the Democrats win with that thought. It’s not another Republican that wins. The Democrats win.’”
Tillis also stressed the need for Republicans to have internal discussions so that things could get back on track. He said, “We’ve got to have a discussion with the Republicans who are a bit frustrated now, knowing there are people like me that are going to go back and get us back focused on the main thing.”
Trump, who has slammed Tillis a couple of times in the last couple of months owing to some of his critical statements, is yet to comment on the matter.
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