Late Friday night, all but three Republican senators They voted to confirm President Trump’s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegsethcreating a 50-50 stalemate that required Vice President J.D. Vance to come in to break the tie.
But close Senate followers were likely not surprised to learn who had defected.
The chamber’s two top Republican women, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, are generally viewed as moderates and have long been seen as pivotal swing votes. Both voted against their party’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act in 2017, and sided with Democrats in favor of confirming Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican leader, has in recent years become one of Mr. Trump’s most vocal critics, and in return has been subjected to personal attacks from the president and his supporters.
After initially refusing to condemn Mr. Trump’s false claims of election fraud, Mr. McConnell later condemned his repeated attempts to overturn the 2020 election and called the president “practically and morally responsible” for the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His followers. Although Mr. McConnell endorsed Mr. Trump’s campaign last year, the two men They haven’t spoken to each other in nearly four yearsThe agreement was reached by their assistants.
Notably, none of them directly cited the personal misconduct allegations against Mr Hegseth – which include Sexual assault, Physical and verbal abuse Heavy drinking and financial mismanagement, all of which Mr. Hegseth has denied — were cited as reasons for opposing his confirmation.
Instead, they focused their criticism primarily on Mr. Hegseth’s lack of management experience and, for Ms. Murkowski and Ms. Collins, his disparaging comments about women serving in combat roles. Mrs. Murkowski He also said earlier last week The allegations of misconduct against him “do nothing to allay my concerns,” and said his past infidelities on multiple occasions showed “a lack of judgment, which is unbecoming of someone who leads our armed forces.”
Mr. McConnell, who has been one of the Senate’s loudest advocates for overseas aid to allies, asserted that, in his view, Mr. Hegseth had not demonstrated sufficient understanding of national security challenges to handle the job of defense secretary, which he called “the most important Cabinet official in any administration.” He also focused on the claim that Mr. Hegseth, a veteran, would restore a “warrior culture” in the US military.
“Restoring the ‘warrior culture’ will not come by replacing one group of culture warriors with another,” McConnell said in a lengthy statement after the vote.
Mr. McConnell’s opposition to Mr. Hegseth could herald additional “no” votes against other major national intelligence nominees, including Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, and Kash Patel, his pick to lead the FBI.
