(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) RINO Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., laid down a red line that will make it considerably more difficult for President Donald Trump to get another attorney general confirmed by the Senate, The Hill reported.
“The threshold for somebody following Pam Bondi ends the moment I hear they said one thing that excused the events of Jan. 6,” he told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
“I’ve been very clear on that,” he added. “So, I hope whoever they have in mind to follow Gen. Bondi is very clear-eyed on my position on Jan. 6.”
Tillis won his only reelection bid in 2020 by 2 percentage points with help from a Trump endorsement. He then proceeded to throw the Republican president under the bus after outraged supporters protested in and around the Capitol during the Joint Session of Congress to confirm Electoral College votes on behalf of Democrat Joe Biden.
His opposition last year to Trump’s signature economic reform package, the One Big Beautiful Bill, led the newly reelected Trump to threaten to primary him, with much speculation that Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law, might throw her hat in the ring.
Faced with the prospect of a grueling primary battle and likely defeat, Tillis proceeded to stand on principle by ignoring the will of constituents who elected him to advance the GOP agenda.
“The choice is between spending another six years navigating the political theater and partisan gridlock in Washington or spending that time with the love my life, Susan, our two children, three beautiful grandchildren, and the rest of our extended family back home,” he claimed last June in announcing he would not seek a third Senate term.
He closes out his political career as one of the top GOP obstructionists — along with retiring ex-majority leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, with the latter two being the only senators remaining of the seven who voted to impeach Trump over Jan. 6.
Even as a lame duck, Tillis and the NeverTrump coalition have inflicted considerable damage on Trump’s agenda. For example, they have successfully thwarted the SAVE Act, intended to close loopholes that undermined election integrity.
Moreover, they have derailed many of Trump’s administrative and judicial appointments, emboldening Democrats to sow chaos with two record-breaking government shutdowns.
Tillis has become a mainstream media darling of late due to his willingness to undermine Trump and fellow Republicans with unfiltered criticism.
“I can just say what I have to say,” Tillis told the News & Observer. “People can disagree with it, then I’ll have a discussion with them. But I know I don’t have to get on the phone with my political team and figure out how many town halls, how many mailings and how many ads I’m going to have to do to get to the factual basis of whatever I said.”
He called for the resignation of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem last month after Democrats organized violent anti-ICE riots in Minneapolis and elsewhere. Trump ultimately fired Noem, although the underlying reasons remain unclear.
Tillis also attacked top Trump adviser Stephen Miller as “amateurish,” and “absurd.”
The unreliability of the Senate is likely to be a factor in the selection of Bondi’s permanent replacement, who will face not only greater pressure to deliver results for Trump, but also to placate his political enemies on both sides of the aisle.
Interim Attorney Gen. Todd Blanche, who represented Trump as lead attorney in several of his high-profile legal victories, has come under suspicion recently, with some accusing him of having been a registered Democrat and blaming him for the delays in prosecuting corrupt Biden administration officials.
🚨 DEC 2024 FLASHBACK: During Todd Blanche’s nomination process for Deputy AG, he was caught having lunch wiht CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in Palm Beach.
Blanche was a registered New York Democrat for DECADES until he switched to Republican in 2024, as he started defending Trump and… pic.twitter.com/CO1NVXSx8S
— Publius (@OcrazioCornPop) April 2, 2026
Other names floated for the role of AG include Lee Zeldin, the current administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, who has experience navigating both Congress and D.C.’s permanent bureaucracy.
Prior speculation also centered on the possibility that Trump might appoint Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as part of a deal brokered with the Senate to assure RINO Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, secures his upcoming reelection bid with no intra-party challengers.
Paxton previously offered to drop out of the hotly contested race if Cornyn succeeded in passing the SAVE Act. But Senate leadership thus far has opposed efforts to force a “talking filibuster” that would overcome Democrat opposition.
Among the other prospects is former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, who lost his re-election bid last year but may be the GOP frontrunner for the state’s 2029 gubernatorial race.
A dark-horse candidate for the job may be lawyer Sidney Powell, who assumed a high-profile role in Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election.
🚨🚨 BREAKING: Sidney Powell is reportedly “in talks” to replace Pam Bondi as Attorney General and General Michael Flynn is publicly and privately calling on President Trump to FIRE BONDI and appoint Powell as the next Attorney General of The United States. Unlike Bondi, Powell… pic.twitter.com/Y5mv8i9AXy
— Joshua Hall (@JoshHall2024) November 25, 2025
Although many of Powell’s claims about election fraud have been validated, some, such as her call to “Release the Kraken” remain unverified. Consequently, deep-state efforts to discredit election skeptics led to reputational damage that would likely make her Senate confirmation an uphill battle.
Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.
