Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who once voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as defense secretary, now says Hegseth "needs to go," throwing his weight behind a fellow Republican's impeachment push.
Tillis, who is not seeking reelection in November, told reporters Thursday that he supports removing Hegseth from the Pentagon by whatever means necessary. The outgoing senator said he would welcome either impeachment or a simpler presidential replacement, making him one of the most prominent Republican voices calling for the defense secretary's ouster.
His remarks came just days after Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth in the House, a rare move by a member of the president's own party against a sitting Cabinet official. Massie's articles cite Hegseth's handling of the war in Iran and accuse him of violating his oath to support and defend the Constitution, The Hill reported.
Tillis has been building toward this moment for months. Earlier this year, he told Politico that getting Trump to fire Hegseth was on "a Christmas wish list." He said he believed Hegseth had misled the president on the dynamics of the Iran conflict.
Then, earlier this month, Tillis escalated publicly. He posted a blunt assessment on the social platform X:
"I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country."
He followed that with a direct appeal to the White House:
"I urge the President to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it."
Tillis has accused Hegseth of pushing out experienced military officials, a pattern that already cost the Pentagon one of its top civilian leaders. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll resigned at the end of August after clashing with Hegseth over firings of the Army's senior leadership and other changes inside the department.
Driscoll's departure gave Tillis's complaints a concrete example. A Senate-confirmed Army secretary walked away from the job over disagreements with the defense secretary's management decisions. That is not a policy dispute. It is an institutional breakdown.
Hegseth's confirmation was already historically narrow. The Senate split 50-50, and Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote, only the second time in history a vice president has broken a tie on a Cabinet confirmation, AP News reported. Three Republicans voted against him: Sens. Mitch McConnell, Lisa Murkowski, and Susan Collins.
When asked whether Senate Republicans should support Massie's impeachment effort, Tillis kept his distance from the procedural question while making his position unmistakable:
"I'll let the House do what the House is gonna do. I think I'm pretty well staked out on my assessment of Mr. Hegseth."
That answer signals something worth noting. Tillis did not discourage House Republicans from pursuing impeachment. He simply said the Senate would deal with whatever the House sends over, and he has already made clear where he stands.
Massie's decision to file the articles blindsided GOP leadership, according to previous reporting on the filing. Eight articles is a substantial document. The charges center on Hegseth's conduct during the Iran conflict and his alleged constitutional violations, though the full text of each article has not been made public.
The impeachment push is no longer a one-man operation. Before Massie acted, House Democrats had already been laying groundwork for their own impeachment effort against Hegseth, hoping to use it as a campaign issue heading into the midterms. Now a Republican has beaten them to the filing.
The Army secretary's exit is the most visible sign of internal friction under Hegseth's watch. Driscoll clashed with the defense secretary over the firing of the Army's senior leadership and broader departmental changes. He resigned at the end of August, quietly, without the kind of public denunciation Tillis has offered, but the timing and circumstances speak for themselves.
When a Senate-confirmed service secretary resigns over disagreements with the defense secretary's personnel decisions, it raises a straightforward question: who is left to push back inside the building? Tillis's complaint, that Hegseth is pushing out experienced military officials, gains weight when the people responsible for running the services start leaving.
Hegseth's management style has drawn scrutiny on multiple fronts. His Pentagon recently issued new weight and grooming standards for troops attending one of his addresses, a directive that struck some observers as focused on optics over readiness.
Meanwhile, critics from outside Congress have joined the chorus. At least one Army veteran running for Congress has publicly called Hegseth a national security risk and backed the impeachment push.
Tillis voted to confirm Hegseth. He does not deny it, and he does not hide behind it. His position now is that the evidence since confirmation has proven Hegseth unfit for the job. That is an uncomfortable admission for any senator, but Tillis is not running again. He has no election to worry about, which frees him to say what other Republicans may only think.
The question is whether anyone with something to lose will say it, too. Tillis is an outgoing senator. Massie represents a safe Kentucky district and has a long record of bucking party leadership. Neither man faces serious political risk for crossing the defense secretary.
But their criticisms land on specifics, not personality. Tillis points to the departure of experienced military leaders. Massie points to the conduct of a war and alleged constitutional violations. Both are asking the same question: is the Pentagon being run in a way that serves the troops and the country, or in a way that serves one man's preferences?
President Trump has not publicly responded to Tillis's renewed calls for Hegseth's removal. The current status of Massie's impeachment articles in the House remains unclear. Whether GOP leadership allows the articles to advance or buries them in committee will say more about the party's tolerance for internal dissent than any floor speech could.
Conservatives who care about military readiness and institutional accountability should want the Pentagon run by someone who keeps experienced leaders in place, not someone who drives them out. If Tillis is right about the facts, the answer is not complicated. It is just inconvenient.
