Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) is blocking Kari Lake's nomination as ambassador to Jamaica, saying Senate confirmation would open the door to other powerful government roles.
Tillis made the remarks in an interview with Semafor published Wednesday, while discussing Trump's latest round of ambassador nominations.
Tillis is not seeking re-election and has used similar holds before to push back against Trump nominees, Semafor reported.
The Senate often confirms groups of nominees at once in what is called an en bloc vote. Any senator can block a name from being included in one of those packages, Semafor reported, forcing a separate floor vote that is far harder to schedule as the legislative calendar runs out.
"Right now, with the limited number of session days that we have left, if they don't get into an en bloc package, they're going to die," Tillis told Semafor.
Tillis cited Lake's pending nomination as an example of how he is applying that pressure, Semafor reported.
"That's how I'm holding Kari Lake," he told Semafor. "I mean, there's some people saying, 'Please let her go to Jamaica,' but the reality is once she gets Senate confirmed, she could go other places in acting roles. And that's what I'm not going to allow."
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled in March that Lake had unlawfully led the U.S. Agency for Global Media — the federal agency that oversees Voice of America — because she held no Senate-confirmed office at the time, NBC News reported.
Tillis first came out against Lake's nomination in May, saying she "doesn't have a prayer" of earning his vote and citing her "history," according to reporting by a Washington Examiner journalist.
Lake has refused to accept her 2022 loss in Arizona's governor's race, filing legal challenges that state courts rejected, NBC News reported.
Lake's nomination was placed on the Senate Executive Calendar in July, according to Congress.gov, making her eligible for a floor vote if the procedural hold is cleared.
