GOP Senator Changes His Tune

June 25, 2026

Wooden podium with the United States Senate seal in an empty Senate chamber

When a powerful senator says he “regrets” a vote on national defense in one interview and insists he really does not in another, it exposes how Washington protects itself first and admits failure only halfway.

Story Snapshot

Senator Thom Tillis now blasts Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as unqualified, yet also claims he does not truly regret confirming him.
Hegseth was narrowly confirmed after serious misconduct and experience concerns, showing how party loyalty beat basic scrutiny.
Tillis’s word games echo a larger pattern where both parties defend bad decisions instead of giving voters a straight answer.
The fight reflects why many Americans think the “deep state” of elites protects its own while the country’s security and credibility suffer.

What Tillis Is Saying Now About His Hegseth Vote

Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina who is retiring, has begun telling reporters and podcasters that he regrets his deciding vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary.^[1] In a conversation highlighted by NOTUS and other outlets, he said Hegseth “just doesn’t have the experience” and slammed his “sophomoric” execution at the Pentagon.^[1]^[5] Tillis pointed to repeated missteps, including how Hegseth handled the press and international meetings, as signs he backed the wrong man for the job.^[1]^[5]

Yet in a separate interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper, Tillis insisted he did not regret the vote “based on the facts available” at the time.^[2]^[5] He said he instead deferred heavily to the Senate Armed Services Committee, which moved Hegseth’s nomination forward, and only later began to doubt their judgment about Hegseth’s ability to run such a huge and complex organization.^[4]^[5] When pressed if he would vote yes again today, Tillis claimed that with only the old information, he “would certainly support him again.”^[5]

How Hegseth Squeaked Through a Controversial Confirmation

Pete Hegseth’s nomination was controversial from the start. The Senate confirmed him by a razor thin 51–50 vote, only after Vice President J.D. Vance broke a tie.^[11]^[13]^[15]^[16] Three Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing him. They cited worries about his lack of management experience and his record of inflammatory comments, including about women in combat roles and culture-war issues inside the military.^[11]^[12]^[17]

Hegseth also faced serious allegations of misconduct. Reports described past accusations of alcohol abuse and mismanagement at veterans groups, plus a confidential settlement of $50,000 to a woman who had accused him of sexual assault.^[5]^[12]^[16] Hegseth denied the claims, and Tillis later said he focused on the lack of “eyewitness-corroborated” testimony when deciding to support him.^[5]^[6] To many Americans, that sounds less like careful judgment and more like Washington’s standard move: look for the thinnest excuse to push through a politically useful nominee.

The Split Between Tillis’s Words and Actions

Tillis’s own record shows the tension. In his official January 2025 statement backing Hegseth, he promised to support President Trump’s nominees whenever committees sent them forward, absent “new material information.”^[6] He praised Hegseth’s background as a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and said he was “unquestionably passionate” about modernizing the military.^[6] That statement gave Trump cover and helped calm conservatives who wanted a loyal “America First” figure running the Pentagon.

Now, with retirement coming and no voters left to face, Tillis sounds very different. He calls Hegseth “out of his depth,” blasts his decision to halt arms shipments to Ukraine as “amateurish,” and faults him for not even telling the White House about it.^[5] He also criticizes Hegseth’s behavior in private chat groups and his showy trips to NATO meetings.^[1]^[5] Yet even while listing those failures, he still stops short of saying the key thing clearly: “Yes, my vote was a mistake, and here is why.”

Why This Episode Feeds Deep-State Frustration

Many Americans on both the right and the left will see this story as one more proof that the political class protects itself. Conservative voters who wanted a strong, competent Pentagon now find out that their own senator doubted Hegseth’s skills but voted for him anyway to stay in good standing with party leaders and the Trump White House.^[1]^[5]^[6] Liberal voters who warned that Hegseth’s record and alleged conduct made him a risky choice now watch a Republican admit those very problems, but only after the damage is done.^[12]^[16]^[17]

Thom Tillis Regrets His Vote to Confirm Pete Hegseth https://t.co/tsAgYSIPQx

— Carla Babb (@CarlaBNatSec) June 25, 2026

This kind of half-regret fits a wider pattern in cabinet confirmations. Historians note that the Senate almost never defeats a president’s picks, even when warning signs pile up.^[20]^[22]^[23] That is how you end up with leaders who lack experience, face serious ethical questions, or treat national security like a cable-news stage. The incentives in Washington reward loyalty to the team, not loyalty to the truth. Tillis’s careful dance over the word “regret” is a small but telling example of a system that rarely admits, in plain language, when it has failed the people it serves.