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Former Fox News host Pete Hegseth was confirmed as secretary of defense on Friday night after a close vote in the US Senate, a victory for President Donald Trump despite troubling allegations about Hegseth’s behavior and questions about his fitness for the job.
Hegseth’s confirmation was only secured in a late-night vote when Vice President JD Vance stepped in to break a deadlock after three Republican senators voted against him. Hegseth has been accused of s3xual assault and has a history of alcohol abuse. His candidacy appeared to be in doubt earlier in the week when another person came forward with allegations that Hegseth had abused his ex-wife.
Hegseth co-hosted Fox News’ daytime show “Fox & Friends Weekend” from 2017 until late last year, when he resigned after Trump nominated him to oversee the nation’s military. He previously served in the National Guard and was deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq. But he was criticized from the start by many military experts as unqualified to lead an organization as large as the Pentagon.
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the former Senate Majority Leader, voted against Hegseth’s nomination, as did Republican senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
The vote, which ended around 10 p.m. ET, marked only the second time in U.S. history that a vice president had to use his filibuster power to secure confirmation of a Cabinet nominee. The first time, according to CNN, was when Vice President Mike Pence had to step in to get Betsy DeVos confirmed as head of the Department of Education in 2017.
Earlier on Friday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Hegseth, calling him “one of the most erratic, unqualified, and unfit Cabinet nominees we’ve seen in modern times” and warning that confirming him would jeopardize “the credibility of the Republican majority.”