WASHINGTON — Sen. Thom Tillis told Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday afternoon he’s struggling to make sense of some National Guard deployments and worries that they’re masking an “abject failure” by state and local leaders.

Tillis said he believes that President Donald Trump is focused on making American cities safer, but Trump is term-limited and he worries that when Trump leaves office, the federal government will have unintentionally given a free pass to the state, county and local leaders who should have been held accountable for the crimes in their cities.

“I was formerly speaker of the House in North Carolina,” Tillis said during a hearing Tuesday. “If I thought that I needed the president to deploy troops to keep North Carolina safe, I would have considered myself a failure as a state leader.”

Tillis, a Republican from Huntersville, also specifically criticized the idea that Charlotte is unsafe.

“I reject any notion that Charlotte is on that list, by the way,” Tillis said. “So whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican, bring it on.”

Bondi was testifying Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Since taking office in January, Trump has deployed the National Guard to cities including Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Chicago and attempted to send troops to Portland, Oregon.

Vice President JD Vance suggested sending troops to Charlotte after the Aug. 22 stabbing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, who died while riding the city’s light rail.

Her death became a political flash point after the release of security footage showed her being stabbed, from behind, by a stranger who police identified as DeCarlos Brown Jr., who had previously been arrested 14 times.

Vance, while visiting Concord, told residents that if state or local leaders wanted federal help keeping Charlotte safe, he would send it.

Last week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police sent a letter to city leaders asking them to make that request.

Tillis told Bondi he agreed with Trump’s deployment of troops in Washington, because “of the hybrid-nature” of the city, with its federal buildings and law enforcement.

But he said, “all those bums need to be thrown out” in cities like Chicago, where there were more than 500 murders last year. Bondi confirmed to Tillis the number of homicides was over 570.

“I just hope we strike the balance so that we’re not fixing a problem temporarily, only to come back maybe even worse than the problem we’re fixing the moment this president, who is committed to local safety, leaves,” Tillis said.

He asked Bondi if the deployment of the National Guard is “part of an emerging best practice I just don’t get yet,” is a necessary evil, or is meant to create a shock to the system.

Bondi told Tillis that Chicago needs the National Guard, and ICE needs the guardsmen to protect federal buildings, something Tillis agreed with.

“What I’m talking about — not the protection of federal buildings and federal law enforcement officers — but almost the sense that they become an arm of local law enforcement officers,” Tillis said. “I don’t consider that as a best practice, and it sounds like you don’t either.”

Bondi said she didn’t believe that was a role that the National Guard wanted either, but they will be where they are needed to keep Americans safe.

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