EXCLUSIVE — The outgoing leaders of the Senate’s NATO Observer Group are recommending that Sens. Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Angus King (I-ME) take their place next year, a proposed hand-off that comes at a fraught time in the trans-Atlantic alliance.
Sens. Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), who rebooted the Senate caucus in 2018 and serve as co-chairs, are both retiring at the end of the year, leaving open the question of who will champion NATO in Congress at a time when President Donald Trump has renewed his threats to withdraw from the defensive pact.
The decision of who will ultimately replace Tillis and Shaheen as co-chairs falls to Senate leadership, a fact both senators stressed in interviews with the Washington Examiner.
They gravitated to Rounds and King because of their existing support for NATO. Both are members of the NATO Observer Group and regularly attend its congressional trips.
“Both of them have been great traveling with us, and we wanted somebody that’s really invested in it already — that’s been a member … and gone through it,” Tillis said.
Tillis hoped to reveal his recommendation of Rounds at the NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month, but he was not able to attend due to a family emergency. Rounds was among the senators who traveled with Shaheen.
“I would hope that they would appoint both Mike Rounds and Angus King,” Shaheen said, referring to Senate leadership.
A spokesperson for King did not respond to a request for comment, but Shaheen said he “would be a great replacement.” Rounds’s office confirmed that he is interested in the role. Any decision on appointments would not be made until later in the year or at the start of the new Congress.
The objective of the NATO Observer Group is to demonstrate a strong bipartisan commitment to the alliance in Congress, with Tillis representing the Republican side of the aisle and Shaheen representing Democrats.
Should leadership honor their request, Rounds and King would follow in that tradition as co-chairs. Rounds is a Republican, while King, an independent, caucuses with the Democrats. The two have worked together for years in the Senate and served as governors of their respective states.
Tillis said the NATO Observer Group is as important as ever, given Trump’s wavering support for both the alliance and Ukraine, which is not a member of NATO.
“I mean, you’d be amazed when you travel across the world how people think that we don’t have three branches of government and any kind of checks and balances, and you have to go out there and explain why you believe the American people fundamentally support Ukraine,” Tillis said.
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The president called the recent NATO summit in Turkey a “love fest” but also used the venue to resume his gripes over member nations’ defense spending and hesitance to engage in the war in Iran.
“The administration looks like they’re stepping up on it, but from time to time, they’ve equivocated,” Tillis added. “So, I think having that congressional, that Senate delegation, showing up is a very important part of maintaining the alliance.”