Republican who delivered Pete Hegseth his job now regrets decisive vote and savages him as 'sophomoric'

By CHASE HOPE, POLITICAL REPORTER FOR THE DAILY MAIL Published: 20:39, 24 June 2026 | Updated: 20:41, 24 June 2026 North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis slammed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for doing his job with a 'sophomoric sort of execution.' In a podcast interview with NOTUS, host Al Weaver asked Tillis, who is choosing not to seek re-election after getting in President Trump's crosshairs, a pointed question.  'Do you regret your vote for him?' Weaver asked. 'I think in retrospect now I do,' Tillis responded with little hesitation. Weaver appeared visibly surprised by such a candid answer.  Tillis had been the crucial fiftieth senator to vote to confirm Hegseth, allowing Vice President JD Vance to break the Senate's tie in favor of President Donald Trump's nominee.  Weaver jumped in with a question on Hegseth after Tillis registered several complaints about the Trump administration's handling of the Iran war, saying people should be fired for failing to inform the President of the 'headwinds' the conflict would produce. Tillis explained that he had voted for Hegseth after deferring to other senators with more expertise on the subject matter.  Tillis speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday Hegseth met with senators on Capitol Hill on Monday  If Tillis could have found corroborating testimony for the allegations against Hegseth that surfaced at the time, he said, 'I'd have never voted to support him.' Among the allegations Tillis referred to were that Hegseth had been an excessive drinker and had sexually assaulted a woman in 2017.  The former Fox News host labeled the accusations against him a 'coordinated smear campaign,' though he admitted he was not a 'perfect person.' Hegseth's tenure at the Pentagon has seen the ouster of more than a dozen generals and admirals, including Joint Chiefs Chairman General CQ Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti. News broke last night that General Chris Donahue, who commanded Army operations in Europe and Africa, was also on his way out. Tillis voiced several other objections to Hegseth's work as Secretary of War. 'He's just had so many mis-starts,' the Senator said. He disparaged Hegseth's actions towards the press corps and his 'bravado' in NATO meetings. Tillis also accused Hegseth of poor timing for seeking additional funding for changing the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War.  The North Carolina Republican announced last year he would not seek reelection  Hegseth's confirmation was contentious and narrowly decided  'He just doesn't have the experience,' Tillis added. 'I kinda gave him slack, I deferred,' the Senator finished. 'And I do regret it at this point.' Tillis announced last June that he would not seek reelection after primary threats from the Trump administration.  He has taken advantage of his lame-duck status to act more independently. When Trump wanted to install Kevin Warsh to replace Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Tillis held up Warsh's nomination in a Senate Committee until a DOJ probe into Powell was dropped. Tillis also criticized the President's $1.8 billion so-called 'slush fund' as a 'payout pot for punks' during a CNN interview and expressed hesitation at confirming Todd Blanche, Trump's nominee for Attorney General unless the fund was nixed. The Pentagon has not responded to the Daily Mail's request for comment.  The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.