Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who announced he wouldn’t seek reelection following his decision to vote down President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill earlier this month, on Wednesday slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as “out of his depth” in his role at the Pentagon.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Tillis, who voted to confirm Hegseth in the job, suggested his performance hasn’t been up to the task so far, citing his involvement in a Signal group chat scandal and a recent decision by the Pentagon to pause critical arm shipments to Ukraine that he described as “amateurish.”
“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.
Still, the GOP senator said that he stands by his decision to support Hegseth’s confirmation at the time.
“If all I had was the information on the day of the vote, I’d certainly vote for him again,” Tillis said. “But now I have the information of him being a manager, and I don’t think that his probationary period has been very positive.”
