Republican Thom Tillis has defiantly vowed to use his final days in the Senate to thwart one of President Donald Trump’s personal crusades.
“People say the same thing, that I’m speaking a lot more openly, and I say the same thing—no s–-t, Sherlock,” the North Carolina senator told NBC News, adding that his decision to retire at the end of the year means that now, “I just don’t have to deal with that filter.”
Tillis has repeatedly blocked Trump’s efforts to confirm Kevin Warsh—whom the president has nominated to replace Jerome Powell as chair of the Federal Reserve—in protest against a criminal probe the Trump administration has brought against Powell.
The senator has blasted that investigation, claiming federal prosecutors have “essentially zero evidence” to back up the allegations that Powell, a frequent target of Trump’s ire, misled Congress about the costs of renovating Federal Reserve headquarters in D.C.
“I will vote for Kevin Warsh simultaneously with the conclusion of that statement [about an end to the probe] coming out of the DOJ, and not a day before, and not for the remaining 264 days in my tenure in the U.S. Senate,” Tillis said Wednesday.
Tillis’ vote, with Senate Democrats united against Warsh’s nomination, means the Trump administration has no hope of confirming the president’s pick for as long as Tillis holds out.
His comments about his remaining time in the Senate also appear to be a pointed reference to an error-riddled interview Trump gave to Fox News earlier in the day.
The president mistakenly claimed in that sit-down that Tillis, who despite his plans to retire will remain at his post until January, is somehow no longer an active member of the Senate.
“He might not, but that’s why Thom Tillis is no longer a senator,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo after she asked whether the senator would eventually yield his vote and confirm Warsh as Fed chair.
Bartiromo attempted to move the conversation on, only for Trump to then double down on his false claim. “You know, Thom Tillis is no longer a senator, right?” the president said. “He quit.”
The host then corrected Trump that Tillis is, in fact, “on his way out,” to which Trump replied, “Oh no, he quit, but he quit.”
Tillis, who is Catholic, nevertheless reserved his most stinging criticism of Trump during his Wednesday interview with NBC News for the president’s shocking weekend attack on Pope Leo XIV.
Trump launched into a vicious Truth Social tirade Sunday lambasting the pontiff for, as he put it, thinking “it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon and being “weak on crime,” as well as claiming Leo would not have become pope “if I wasn’t in the White House.”
He then chased that 334-word rage post with an AI-generated image of himself as Jesus Christ.
“To say soft on crime or soft on the border, that’s what you say to an opponent in the next election,” Tillis told NBC. “Or, you know, maybe a presidential or prime minister candidate in some other country, but not to the pope of the Catholic Church.”
The senator added that he thinks “apology is underused in art and politics,” and that “when you’re wrong, you’re wrong.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
