Sen. Tillis calls his vote to confirm Hegseth ‘biggest regret of my career’ in new book

Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says in a new book that his deciding vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in January 2025 is the “biggest regret of my career,” and that he also “should’ve stopped” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary in the early days of President Donald Trump’s second term. The Associated Press account was carried by The Seattle Times, PBS NewsHour and ABC News. [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]

In “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents,” due to be published Tuesday, the North Carolina senator defends his decision at the time not to be “the lone voice in the wilderness” preventing Trump’s nominees from confirmation. He writes that he was always skeptical of allegations about Hegseth’s turbulent management style, treatment of women and excessive drinking, all of which Hegseth denied, according to the reports. [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 6 ]

Tillis writes that he is not alone: “I know for a fact that there are others like me,” he says, describing Republicans “who agreed to go along with the early demands of the Trump team no matter how ridiculous they were, believing that failing to do so would mean the end of their political career, and who now see that things have gone way too far.” He writes that he can count at least 30 of his GOP colleagues who have “expressed reservations (to put it mildly) about many of the president’s actions in private. Then, when the reporters showed up with their cameras and microphones, they’d have nothing but nice things to say.” [ 2 , 3 , 4 , 6 ]

Tillis announced last year that he would not run for reelection, describing a “breaking point” with the president over his sweeping tax and spending cuts package, and is publishing the book in his final months in office. The reports place him among Republicans who have increased their public denunciations of Trump once they had less to lose politically. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

He mostly deflects full blame from Trump, saying, “my beef is not with him, but the idiots he’s got working for him,” and calling the president “an amazing political talent.” At the same time, the reports say, he warns of a slippery slope toward authoritarianism and urges his colleagues to “wake up”; the excerpts of that passage in the documents are truncated. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ]

Newsweek, citing a CBS “60 Minutes” interview tied to the book, reported that Tillis now considers the Hegseth vote his biggest regret and believes the Pentagon chief should step down. Newsweek noted that Tillis praised Hegseth’s military service before the January 2025 confirmation vote, and that in a July 2025 CNN interview with Jake Tapper he called Hegseth “amateurish” over a pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine but said he did not regret the vote given the information he had at the time. Newsweek said it reached out to Tillis’s office, the White House and the Pentagon for comment on Monday. [ 5 ]

The Hill reported that Tillis pushed the confirmation vote late into the evening on Jan. 24, 2025, speaking with the White House, people who worked with Hegseth and the nominee himself, and ultimately failed to corroborate the worst of the allegations against the former Fox News host. It also reported that Tillis said last month he backed an impeachment resolution against Hegseth. [ 6 ]