Vance Breaks Tie to Confirm Hegseth as Secretary of Defense

We all knew Pete Hegseth would be difficult to push through as Secretary of Defense.

As it turns out, Vice President JD Vance needed to use his tiebreaking vote for the first time in order to get him confirmed. 

The Issues

Hegseth was a controversial pick for several reasons, from personal conduct to experience.

First, there were sexual assault allegations made against Hegseth. I dismissed those due to the fact they were investigated with no charges ever being filed against Hegseth. However, there were also charges of misogynistic and sexist behavior at his charitable foundations.

There was another report that cited unnamed sources at Fox News as well as the charities Hegseth worked at that he would regularly drink too much and often show up for work hungover.

Finally, there is the allegation of financial mismanagement at his charity, which very much concerned me due to the fact Hegseth will now be overseeing a budget of more than $800 billion annually, with no Republicans daring to ask him how he will manage it.

Vance Casts the Tie-breaking Vote

I think Republicans missed a real opportunity to convince people like me who are concerned about Hegseth’s experience by gushing over him during the confirmation hearing or just outright defending him against Democrat attacks.

Keep in mind, Hegseth left the Army as a Major, so he would have never commanded more than 200 troops, but now he will be responsible for millions of them. Nobody asked him about stepping up and not a single Republican asked him to present his plan to eliminate the wasteful spending and corruption we all know exists at the Pentagon.

Hegseth barely made it out of committee, with two Republicans joining Democrats against his nomination. When it came to the official vote, Senator McConnell (R-KY) joined Senators Collins (R-ME) and Murkowski (R-AK) in rejecting Hegseth, forcing Vance to issue the tiebreaking vote in Hegseth’s favor.

McConnell explained his “no” vote, stating, “Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these shoes. And ‘dust on boots’ fails even to distinguish this nominee from multiple predecessors of the last decade.”

Hegseth Outlines Agenda

After he was confirmed, Hegseth outlined his top priorities for leading our armed forces, stating, “It is the privilege of a lifetime to lead the warriors of the Department of Defense, under the leadership of our Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump. We will put America First, and we will never back down.”

He continued, “All of this [ Restore the warrior ethos, rebuild the military and reestablish deterrence] will be done with a focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness. I have committed my life to warfighters and their families. Just as my fellow soldiers had my back on the battlefield, know that I will always have your back.

“We serve together at a dangerous time. Our enemies will neither rest nor relent. And neither will we. We will stand shoulder to shoulder to meet the urgency of this moment.”

I truly due wish Hegseth all the luck in the world in his new position, but I remain unconvinced that he is the man for the job. Since our Senators did not do their job, we now have to hope he can make the jump from a major to the responsibilities of a full general, as well as somehow overcome his financial management shortcomings. If he cannot, it will not only be devastating for Donald Trump, but it will devastating for the American people, who are already paying the price for a mismanaged military.