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Pete Hegseth, who failed to name any Asean states, narrowly wins confirmation to be US defence secretary

The unexpected tie-break was forced by Republican bigwig Mitch McConnell.

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January 25, 2025, 08:05 PM

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Pete Hegseth, the controversial Republican nominee for United States Secretary of Defence, has been nominated by the U.S. Senate by the thinnest of margins on Jan. 24.

Hegseth was only confirmed when newly inaugurated Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote for him after three Republican senators voted against his nomination.

Tie-breaker

Hegseth's nomination was expected to be controversial, but not problematic, as the Republican Party controls the presidency, the House of Representatives, and the Senate.

Despite this three Republican senators chose to oppose his nomination, resulting in a tied vote.

This required Vice-President JD Vance to cast the tie-breaking vote in favour of Hegseth.

Some might have expected senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, notably more independent-minded senators, to have gone against their own party.

But few expected former Republican majority leader Mitch McConnell, who has almost always voted with Republican presidents, to have provided the third opposing vote, and would have surprised many, according to Politico.

This was despite McConnell having voted to advance Hegseth's nomination a day earlier.

Culture warrior

In a press release released after nomination, McConnell criticised Hegseth's qualifications, calling him a culture warrior, and accusing him of failing to articulate a detailed strategic vision for dealing with China, which McConnell said was the greatest long-term threat that the U.S. was dealing with.

During the nomination hearings before the Armed Services Committee, Hegseth had notably failed to name a single Asean state.

This is despite the fact that there are two treaty allies of the U.S. within the bloc, Thailand and the Philippines, as well as the fact that there are numerous defence ties between Asean and the U.S. military.

McConnell noted that Hegseth had been unable to provide substantial observations on how to defend Taiwan or the Philippines against an attack by China, or even whether Hegseth believed the United States should do so.

Thin margins, and less thin margins

McConnell did not criticise Trump for his nomination, saying that the president had rightly called on NATO allies to contribute more to defence spending.

He also criticised the Biden administration for having failed the “fundamental task of keeping a firewall between service members and politics.

This is the thinnest margin that a U.S. Secretary of Defence has been nominated by.

The defence secretary is typically not a controversial position, with two of Hegseth's immediate predecessors having been confirmed by over 90 per cent of the Senate.

Earlier in the week, Trump’s nominee for Secretary of State Marco Rubio was confirmed by the Senate in a nearly unanimous vote, 99-0.

Related story

Top image via Pete Hegseth/Facebook

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