Thom Tillis killed Ed Martin's nomination in 2025 with a single vote.
Now Trump needs a new attorney general – and Tillis sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee with the same single vote.
The North Carolina senator just sent a message to whoever is next in line, and if you think he's bluffing, you haven't been paying attention.
Tillis Sets the Terms Before Trump Names a Name
Trump fired Pam Bondi on April 2 after growing frustrated with the Justice Department's failure to successfully prosecute his political opponents and her mishandling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche – Trump's former personal defense lawyer – stepped in as acting attorney general.
Trump is reportedly considering EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin as the permanent replacement, along with other names including Todd Blanche, Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Whoever it is, Tillis made his position known on CNN Thursday night.
"The threshold for somebody following Pam Bondi ends the moment I hear they said one thing that excused the events of January 6," Tillis said. "I've been very clear on that. So I hope whoever they have in mind to follow General Bondi is very clear-eyed on my position on January 6."
He went further.
"That's why I didn't support two other nominees who were coming through Judiciary Committee, and I won't support any nominee who thought that any element of January 6 was excusable."
Why This Threat Is Real
He has already done exactly what he's describing.
In 2025, Trump nominated Ed Martin to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Tillis opposed the nomination because of Martin's defense of individuals charged in the Capitol riot. The Senate Judiciary Committee has 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats – one Republican defection produces a tie. Martin's nomination died in committee.
Now Tillis is applying that same math to the attorney general's seat.
Republicans hold a 53-47 Senate majority. If Democrats vote as a bloc against any Trump nominee, the party can only afford three GOP defections on the floor. Tillis has already announced he will be one of them if the nominee has ever excused January 6.
He's also blocking all Federal Reserve nominees over a DOJ investigation into Fed Chairman Jerome Powell – a probe Tillis considers a political hit job. This is a senator who has mastered procedural leverage, and he keeps reaching for it.
Trump called Tillis a "loser" in a January 2025 Truth Social post after Tillis demanded the resignations of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and senior adviser Stephen Miller over a deadly immigration operation in Minnesota. Noem was fired. Tillis is still in the Senate, still blocking nominees, and now demanding a January 6 loyalty test before Trump can seat his own attorney general.
Who Clears the Bar and Who Doesn't
Zeldin, the current frontrunner, voted against certifying the 2020 election results – but that's a different question than whether he excused January 6 violence specifically, and Tillis knows the difference. Every word Zeldin has ever said about that day will be under a microscope before any confirmation hearing begins.
Ken Paxton spoke at the pro-Trump rally on January 6 before the Capitol was stormed. He condemned the violence that day – but Tillis will be listening for anything that sounds like an excuse rather than a condemnation.
Tillis also pushed back on Bondi's firing directly. He called the DOJ's perjury investigation of Fed Chairman Powell a "bogus case," and said if Trump's frustration with Bondi was rooted in that probe, he'd "have to respectfully disagree with the president."
Three active fights against this administration, from a senator with nothing left to lose politically. The White House faces the same wall it hit with Ed Martin: find a nominee loyal enough to satisfy Trump while convincing a lame-duck senator – one who already told the president he was wrong to his face – that they're sufficiently tough on a riot from five years ago.
Your next attorney general – the person responsible for prosecuting the deep state actors who spent years targeting Trump – is in a holding pattern while Thom Tillis plays Liz Cheney with a Senate vote. That's not oversight. That's sabotage. And conservatives deserve an AG who gets confirmed without negotiating terms with the people trying to destroy Trump's second term.
Sources:
- Pam Key, "Tillis: I Won't Support Any AG Nominee Who Thinks January 6 Was Excusable," Breitbart, April 3, 2026.
- Alex Miller, "Battle Lines Form in Senate Over Trump's Next Attorney General Pick After Bondi Firing," Fox News, April 3, 2026.
- Benjamin S. Weiss, "Trump's New Attorney General Pick Could Have a Tillis Problem," Courthouse News Service, April 3, 2026.
- "Thom Tillis Draws Jan. 6 Red Line for Next Attorney General Nominee," Washington Examiner, April 3, 2026.
- "Thom Tillis Sets Jan. 6 Red Line on Attorney General Nominee," The Hill, April 3, 2026.
- "Trump Fires Pam Bondi as Attorney General," Fox News, April 2, 2026.
