Pence: Tillis criticism of Hegseth ‘not fair’

Former Vice President Mike Pence defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday, amid mounting criticism of the Pentagon leader’s management style, leaked Signal chats and his reported decision to pause military aid to Ukraine without President Trump’s approval.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” Pence told CNN’s Kate Bolduan in an interview Thursday after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) rebuked Hegseth a day earlier. “I’ve known Pete Hegseth a long time — he’s someone who’s worn the uniform.”

“I’m told that we’re exceeding goals in every branch of our armed forces, and so all of that is welcome news and positive,” Trump’s first-term vice president added.

Tillis, who abruptly announced he wouldn’t seek a third Senate term next year after quarrelling with Trump over the GOP’s massive tax and spending package, suggested Wednesday that he was disappointed in Hegseth and, while he didn’t regret his January vote to confirm the Pentagon chief, he would vote differently today.

“I am beginning to wonder if maybe [the Senate] Armed Services [Committee] was a little bit generous with respect to their assessment of his capabilities as a manager of the world’s largest, most complex and arguably, consequential organization,” Tillis told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “If all I had was the information on the day of the vote, I’d certainly vote for him again, but now, I have the information of him being a manager and I don’t think that his probationary period’s been very positive.”

Pence, who has critiqued Trump since the two had a falling out over Pence’s role in the certification of the 2020 presidential election, countered Thursday that he is “very encouraged overall with the president’s leadership and his team at the Pentagon.”

In addition to recruitment efforts, Pence on Thursday cited the U.S.’s surprise military strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last month.

“Our airmen did an incredible job after the president made that courageous decision to launch U.S. forces,” he said.