Going Rogue?: GOP’s Tillis Threatens Not to Confirm Some Trump Nominees

North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, in an interview released Wednesday, threatened to vote down any of President Donald Trump’s nominees if they excuse the actions of Jan. 6, 2021, demonstrators at the Capitol.

“The president should know if there’s anyone coming up for a nomination through any committee of my jurisdiction that excused Jan. 6, that they’re not going to get confirmed in my remaining tenure in the U.S. Senate,” he told CNN’s Jake Tapper.

Tillis, who has been willing to work occasionally with Democrats and criticize fellow Republicans, announced June 29 he would not seek reelection in 2026 after he voted against a motion to proceed with the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, which passed anyway.

His main concerns were over the bill’s restructuring of Medicaid, which he thinks could lead to excessive coverage losses. Shortly after Tillis’ no vote, Trump threatened to recruit and support a GOP primary challenger against him.

Now, Tillis says he has nothing to lose if he stakes his own path separate from the party line.

“I thought taking [reelection] off the table for the next year-and-a-half may put me in a better position to help govern and help encourage other members to stand up for our branch and for good policy and absolutely support President Trump.”

Tillis has already helped thwart a Trump administration nominee, as he vocally opposed moving the nomination of Ed Martin as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

“What I cared about was having him be the key prosecutor in the District, where he excused what happened to these police officers on Jan. 6,” Tillis told Tapper. 

“It was just disqualifying. I mean, he literally was excusing some of the behavior of people who entered the building. I still call those people who got pardoned by the president ‘thugs.’ There are about two or three hundred people who should be behind bars now for what they did on January 6.”

Still, Tillis scoffs at being criticized as a ‘RINO’—a ‘Republican in Name Only.’

“I agree I’m a RINO; I’ve just got a different take on it. I’m a Republican in need of outcomes. And the thing that most of these so-called true conservatives have in common … they’ve never legislated,” he told Tapper.

“They haven’t scratched the surface of what I’ve been responsible for—real, meaningful Second Amendment bills, for property rights, for pro-life movements.”

Tillis will be an key senator to watch in the coming months, as he’s already expressing some regrets over past support for some of Trump’s nominees.

Of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who he decided to vote to confirm at the last minute, he said, “with the passing of time, I think it’s clear he’s out of his depth as a manager of a large, complex organization.”

Tillis also didn’t feel the need to praise Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., even though he voted to approve RFK Jr.‘s nomination.

“I defer a lot to [Sen.] Bill Cassidy on that,” he said, referring to the Louisiana Republican chairman of the Senate health committee, who advised him to let the Kennedy nomination pass.

The post Going Rogue?: GOP’s Tillis Threatens Not to Confirm Some Trump Nominees appeared first on The Daily Signal.