Washington DC - Outgoing North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis slammed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, claiming he makes former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem look like a "five-star recruit."

Tillis offered a stunning rebuke of Hegseth during his appearance on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, insisting that the defense secretary should take responsibility for the US' failures in Iran.

"At the end of the day, regardless of who collected the information, Hegseth owns it by being the secretary of defense," Tillis told Jake Tapper when asked whether Hegseth has appropriately advised President Donald Trump about the war.

"When you tell the president that you have obliterated Iran and you're in a position to pretty much dictate terms, and now you see what we have," there's a serious problem, Tillis said.

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"When you see Hegseth pull back on operations in Poland when Ukraine – when Russia is raping, killing, murdering, torturing countless people in Ukraine," he continued.

"I think, with all these mistakes in total, it's beginning to make Kristi Noem look like a five-star recruit."

Tillis last year announced he will not to run for reelection to the US Senate. The decision came as he continued to resist the Trump administration across a range of key issues.

This is not the first time Tillis has taken aim at Hegseth, either, having last year expressing regret over his vote to confirm the secretary.

"We were told about 11 weeks ago by Hegseth and Department of Defense that they had obliterated Iran's defenses and it was just a matter of time before we had the nuclear material," Tillis said on Sunday.

"Now we are talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran? How does that make sense at all?"