Republican Senator Who Voted to Confirm Hegseth Now Backs His Impeachment: ‘He Needs to Go’

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), who voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary last year, is now backing an effort to impeach him just weeks after calling on President Donald Trump to fire the Pentagon chief.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced eight articles of impeachment against Hegseth on the House floor on Tuesday, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” over his handling of U.S. military operations in Iran, Venezuela, and Yemen, among other actions.

On Wednesday, rather than put the articles up for a vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent the legislative body into early recess.

A snippet of Tillis’ long-winded call to action on the matter, posted Sept. 2 on X, read:

I have never witnessed more inept management of the brave men and women who serve our country. [Hegseth] is intimidated by competence and retreats to ginning up culture wars instead of soberly attending to the vital work of our national defense and the health and well-being of our fighting force.

I urge the President to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.

The North Carolina senator was asked Thursday to comment on Massie’s impeachment push.

“When the House comes back, they’re gonna have to take up that matter,” a reporter noted. “Would you encourage Republicans to think about voting in favor of those articles of impeachment?”

“I’ll let the House do what the House is gonna do,” Tillis responded. “I think I’m pretty well staked out on my assessment of Mr. Hegseth. This is not personal. I mean, people need to realize I worked as a management consultant. I went into companies and identified areas where they needed to improve. We’ve got a management problem here. He needs to go, whether it’s impeachment or the most expedient route — just the president to replace him — would be great.”

Notably, on Wednesday, Massie accused House GOP leaders of calling an early recess because they found “other Republicans” who would join his impeachment push.

Watch above on LiveNOW from FOX.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!