Thom Tillis voted to confirm Pete Hegseth. He now says he didn’t think Hegseth was up to the task when he voted.
- 24 JAN 2025VOTED
- OCT 2026≠ SAID
- 11 OCT 2026EXPLAINED
≠ He says he doubted Hegseth when he voted to confirm him
1 · VOTED · 24 JAN 2025
| Nomination | Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense |
|---|---|
| Question | On the Nomination (confirmation) |
| Result | Confirmed 50–50, the Vice President voting yea |
| Tillis | YEA |
| Republican nays | Collins, Murkowski, McConnell |
| Cloture, 23 Jan | Agreed 51–49. Tillis: YEA (roll call 14) |
2 · ≠ SAID · OCT 2026
“And after I saw what happened to Brett Kavanaugh, there was no way I was going to do that to Hegseth, even though I really didn’t think he was going to be up to the task, and I think the last year and a half has proven that my instincts were right.”
On PBS’s Firing Line, aired 9 October 2026.
3 · EXPLAINED · 11 OCT 2026
“But I don’t work on instinct here. Not when I got a majority of a committee that I served on for eight years saying, Tom, we want him. Then I’m gonna defer to the Republicans [who] unanimously voted him out of committee.”
On NBC’s Meet the Press, asked whether he regrets the vote.
HOW WE CHECKED THIS
Quotes were transcribed from the original videos (checked with two speech models) and cut at sentence boundaries. Roll calls 14 and 15 were read on senate.gov on 21 Oct 2026. The confirmation was 50–50 with three Republicans voting no; we don’t call his the deciding vote. Spot an error? Tell us, and we’ll correct it in public.