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Senator Thom Tillis Calls Vote for Pete Hegseth His Biggest Regret

Republican Senator Thom Tillis wrote in a new book that providing the deciding vote to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the biggest regret of his career.

FTMQ Politics, written by our newsroom0 views

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Picture: ABC News Politics

Republican Senator Thom Tillis stated in a new book that his vote in January 2025 to confirm Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was the biggest regret of his career. ABC News reported that Tillis cast the deciding vote to confirm Hegseth during the early days of President Donald Trump's second term. [1]

ABC News reported that in his book, titled How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents, Tillis also wrote that he should have stopped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary. In addition, MS NOW reported that Tillis criticized Hegseth directly, calling him an actor rather than a manager. [1][6]

CBS News and Times Now reported that Tillis warned about political limits during recent comments. Tillis stated that without checks on power, the country will have a sort of dictator king if people are not careful. [3][4]

Tillis is a member of the Republican Party who has served as the senior United States senator from North Carolina since 2015. He previously served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 2007 to 2015 and served as speaker from 2011 to 2015. Hegseth is a former television personality who became the 29th United States secretary of defense in 2025. [10][11]

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In short

  • Senator Thom Tillis called his confirmation vote for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the biggest regret of his career.
  • Tillis revealed his regret in his new book, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents.
  • Tillis also wrote that he should have stopped Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from becoming Health and Human Services secretary.
  • Tillis warned that the nation risks having a dictator king without effective checks on power.

Sources

Every paragraph above points to the numbered items it rests on. Read the originals here.

  1. [1]Republican Sen. Tillis calls his vote for Hegseth the 'biggest regret of my career' in a new bookABC News Politics, 2h ago (the report this story comes from)
  2. [2]Republican Sen. Tillis calls his vote for Hegseth the ‘biggest regret of my career’ in a new bookWTOP News, 4h ago
  3. [3]Sen. Thom Tillis says that, without checks on power, "we will have a sort of dictator king if we're not careful"CBS News, 23h ago
  4. [4]‘Dictator King If We’re Not Careful’: US Sen Thom Tillis Warns Of Threat To DemocracyTimes Now, 17h ago
  5. [5]Sen. Tillis says his vote for Hegseth was 'biggest regret of my career' in new bookPBS, 3h ago
  6. [6]Outgoing Sen. Tillis regrets pivotal vote for Hegseth: ‘He’s an actor. He’s not a manager’MS NOW, 6h ago
  7. [7]Republican Sen. Tillis calls his vote for Hegseth the 'biggest regret of my career' in a new bookGoshen News, 2h ago
  8. [8]Republican Sen. Tillis calls his vote for Hegseth the ‘biggest regret of my career’ in a new bookCanon City Daily Record, 4h ago
  9. [9]Republican Sen. Tillis calls his vote for Hegseth the ‘biggest regret of my career’ in a new bookThe Mendocino Beacon, 4h ago

Background

  1. [10]Thom Tillis on Wikipedia
  2. [11]Pete Hegseth on Wikipedia

Our newsroom writes these reports with the help of software, from the 11 sources listed and nothing else, and checks them against those sources. Facts can still be wrong or move on; the originals are the record. Spotted a mistake? Write to daniel@monsterkong.com.

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