Pete Hegseth, an Military Nationwide Guard fight veteran and a former Fox Information host, is now the secretary of protection after narrowly passing his Senate affirmation on Friday evening. Vice President JD Vance forged the tie-break vote after three Republican senators—Susan Collins of Maine, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska—went in opposition to Donald Trump’s embattled choose to guide the world’s most funded army.
Hegseth’s affirmation was the slimmest in historical past, with the prior 4 nominees for protection secretary all receiving 90 or extra votes—a stark distinction from Hegseth’s contentious street to the function. Each different man who has served as protection secretary got here from senior positions in politics, business, or the army. As a number of members of the Senate Armed Companies Committee identified in his affirmation hearings earlier this month, Hegseth, 44, lacked the anticipated job {qualifications} for the function and, at multiple factors, did not answer particular questions instantly pertaining to the job obligations. Throughout Hegseth’s affirmation listening to, and within the weeks main as much as it, he was tasked with responding to allegations of sexual assault, bodily and verbal abuse, regressive views towards girls within the army, and financial mismanagement on the two veteran-centered organizations he ran. (Hegseth has repeatedly denied these allegations and held that he’s the sufferer of a media assault in opposition to him.)
“The chief of the Division of Protection should reveal and mannequin the requirements of habits and character we count on of all servicemembers, and Mr. Hegseth’s nomination to the function poses vital issues that I can not overlook,” Murkowski said Thursday in a prolonged assertion. “Given the worldwide safety surroundings we’re working in, it’s important that we verify a Secretary of Protection, nevertheless, I remorse that I’m unable to assist Mr. Hegseth.”
“Whereas I respect his brave army service and his ongoing dedication to our servicemembers and their households,” Collins mentioned, “I’m involved that he doesn’t have the expertise and perspective crucial to achieve the job.”
“By all accounts, courageous younger women and men be a part of the army with the understanding that it’s a meritocracy. This valuable belief endures solely so long as lawful civilian management upholds what should be a firewall between servicemembers and politics,” McConnell said after voting no. “The Biden Administration failed at this basic job. However the restoration of ‘warrior tradition’ is not going to come from buying and selling one set of tradition warriors for an additional,” he added, referencing Hegseth’s promise to carry again a “warrior tradition” to the Pentagon.
Like his new boss, Hegseth has been married 3 times. His first marriage to his highschool sweetheart resulted in divorce as a consequence of his infidelity. Whereas that divorce was unfolding, Hegseth was courting Samantha Deering—who he married in 2010 and fathered three youngsters with. That marriage resulted in 2017 after his then-wife filed for divorce after Hegseth had a toddler together with his Fox Information producer, Jennifer Rauchet. In 2019, Hegseth and Rauchet mentioned ‘I Do’ at Trump’s New Jersey golf course.
Hegseth, like Trump and several other different males near the president, has been accused of sexual assault. As Vainness Truthful’s Gabriel Sherman wrote, “Trump transition officers had been blindsided by an allegation of sexual misconduct by Hegseth in opposition to a girl at a Republican girls’s convention in Monterey, California, in October 2017, on the identical time Hegseth was nonetheless married to Deering and shortly after Rauchet gave delivery to his son.” He ultimately admitted to paying that girl $50,000 as a part of a authorized settlement, according to Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts who requested Hegseth concerning the incident throughout his affirmation hearings.
