BREAKING: Senate votes on Defense Sec. nominee Pete Hegseth

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The U.S. Senate held the confirmation vote Friday night on President Trump’s Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth will be the next Defense Secretary, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tie-breaking vote, resulting in a 51-50 vote.

All Democrats voted against Hegseth’s confirmation. They were joined by three Republican senators who all voted “no”: Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. All three had supported Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary nominee Lloyd Austin.

Republicans control the Senate 53-47, so Hegseth could only lose three votes and still be confirmed with Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.

Collins and Murkowski had both previously announced they would be voting “no”, but McConnell had not revealed how he would vote.

Voicing his outrage, podcaster Benny Johnson wrote, “BREAKING: Mitch McConnell has voted no on Pete Hegseth. BACKSTAB.”

Hegseth, 44, a former Army National Guard officer, served at Guantánamo Bay and in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is the recipient of multiple awards for his military service, including two Bronze Star Medals and two Army Commendation Medals. He is also a graduate of both Princeton and Harvard universities, and worked at Fox News for the past 10 years.

Vance, a former senator, jokingly posted on X, “I thought I was done voting in the senate 😂.”

Below is the moment when Vice President Vance cast the tie-breaking vote.

President Trump wrote in a Truth social post, “Congratulations to Pete Hegseth. He will make a great Secretary of Defense!”

Donald Trump Jr. also celebrated the confirmation for Hegseth.

“Pete Hegseth will be our next secretary of defense. This is a great day for America and our military. Congrats @PeteHegseth 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸,” he wrote.

“.@SenMcConnell is the worst,” declared Eric Trump.

Ahead of the vote, speculation was swirling about whether Republican Sen. Tom Tillis (NC) would support Hegseth. However, he did vote “yes,” and then released the following statement immediately after his vote:

From the beginning, I have been clear about my position: if President Trump’s nominees were reported favorably out of the relevant committees, I would support their confirmation on the Senate floor absent new material information about their qualifications. Once Pete Hegseth’s nomination was sent to the floor by my colleagues on the Senate Armed Services Committee, I conducted my own due diligence, including asking tough questions of Pete and I appreciated his candor and openness in answering them.

Pete has a unique perspective as a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and is unquestionably passionate about modernizing our military and supporting the brave patriots like himself who serve our nation. I will support his confirmation and look forward to working with him to rebuild our military and advance President Trump’s peace through strength agenda.

Just prior to the vote total being announced, Hegseth released the following letter on social media, which he had sent to Tillis on Friday.

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