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In book and TV tour, Tillis gives a midterm warning and his biggest regret

Faith Wardwell, The News & Observer on

Published in News & Features

Sen. Thom Tillis is continuing to needle White House officials in a string of media appearances this week, as the account of his 11-year career in Washington prepares to hit shelves on Tuesday.

Tillis — whose memoir “How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents” comes out Oct. 6 — embarked on a series of press appearances on “60 Minutes” and “The View,” less than a month before North Carolina voters will take to the polls to elect his successor to the Senate. But his appearances issued stark warnings for the GOP’s outlook in the midterms and took repeated jabs at Trump officials.

Here are the key moments from Tillis’ appearances.

Tillis lays blame on Trump admin — even those he helped appoint

The cover of the outgoing senator’s memoir features frames of the Trump administration’s top officials — like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kristi Noem and Pete Hegseth — all of whom he voted to appoint to Trump’s Cabinet.

But he calls his vote to advance Hegseth’s nomination as defense secretary his “biggest regret.”

“I don’t know if he’ll be impeached,” Tillis said of Hegseth on “The View.” “I hope he gets fired.”

“But the reality is, at the time I sat through the [Supreme Court Justice Brett] Kavanaugh hearings and I see what last-minute sort of accusations create, and I refused to vote no for him unless I could find a smoking gun,” he added.

Tillis’ balancing act between his tepid backing of Trump and his criticism of the president’s top officials prompted critique from “The View” co-host Ana Navarro, who called the stances detailed in his memoir “inconsistent.”

“On the one hand, you go through all of the reasons why Hegseth was unqualified,” she said. “You go through all the reasons why Noem was unqualified ... and yet you voted for them. Then you regretted the Hegseth vote, but you just voted to confirm Todd Blanche.”

But Tillis pointed to playing the game of politics as the basis for his decisions, defending his ultimate decision to advance Todd Blanche’s nomination as U.S. attorney general. Tillis initially withheld his support for Blanche after the creation of a $1.8 billion fund for people who the Justice Department said were targeted by the government — which critics worried would include those who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“In politics, you gotta play the hand that’s dealt you,” he said “And I have no doubt in my mind that Todd Blanche is the most qualified person, as his former defense counsel, to try and give the president honest upward feedback.”

Tillis warns affordability could pose 'electoral bloodbath' in the midterms

 

With weeks until the midterms decide control of the Republican-led Congress, Tillis had a somber forecast for the GOP, telling “60 Minutes” on Sunday that affordability issues could create an “electoral bloodbath" for his party.

“You always have an affordability problem,” he said. “There’s some segment of our society that always does. But denying it by definition means that you don’t recognize the problem, and if you don’t recognize it you’re not solving it.”

But in the event Republicans underperform in the midterms next month, Trump’s reaction to the loss could pose a "risk,” according to Tillis — who has repeatedly decried Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.

“I think there’s a risk,” he said. “I really do. It would be another political unforced error if we do that.”

Tillis stops short of blaming Trump

Alongside his unsparing criticism of White House officials, Tillis maintained his cautious support for Trump, who he called a “great political force.” But he said the president’s advisers and inner circle are to blame for his decisions.

“There are two ways you can come up with a bad idea,” he said. ”One is that the president could offer up something, and one of his sycophants says, ‘Oh, it’s great, but here’s how we can make it worse.’ And then the other one is that they come up with a bad idea, they sell the president on it, and he embraces it as his own. And that’s what’s happened.”

Tillis’ appearance came days after Politico published fiery text messages from earlier this year as the president publicly railed against him for not supporting Blanche. In the messages, Tillis tells Trump that if he had ever threatened Tillis with a primary challenge, he would have told the president to “[expletive] yourself.”

In his appearance on “The View” on Monday, Tillis didn’t appear concerned about his relationship with the president, saying he wasn’t worried about Trump’s reaction to his memoir.

“We’ve texted back and forth several times since then,” he said of the text exchange.

“He’s gonna give your phone number away after that,” Navarro joked, referring to Trump’s posting Sen. Tom Cotton’s phone number online amid a policy dispute.

“Well, with all due respect, I’ve got his number too,” Tillis joked.


©2026 The News & Observer. Visit at newsobserver.com. Distributed at Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

 

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