North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis escalated his criticism of the Trump administration on Wednesday, directing sharp remarks at White House adviser Stephen Miller over comments about Greenland.
Miller recently said Greenland rightfully belongs to the United States and that no one would stop the administration from seizing it. Tillis pushed back, saying Miller does not speak for Congress or the federal government as a whole.
“You don’t speak on behalf of this U.S. senator or the Congress,” Tillis said. “You can say it may be the position of the president of the United States that Greenland should be a part of the United States, but it’s not the position of this government because we are a coequal branch.”
Tillis said any move to acquire Greenland would require congressional approval and a vote on the floor, not statements from White House staff.
“If that were to come to pass, there would be a vote on the floor to make it real, not the surreal sort of environment that some deputy chief of staff thinks was cute to say on TV,” Tillis said.
The senator added that advisers giving President Trump what he described as bad advice should be fired.
Tillis, who has increasingly criticized the administration in recent months, is set to step down at the end of his term.