Key Republican signals support for Pete Hegseth to lead Pentagon as more senators endorse him – live | Trump administration

The outgoing Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, has spoken out against isolationism, arguing that staying out of wars doesn’t work.

“The cost of deterrence is considerably less than the cost of war,” he told Financial Times.

His position on the issue is notably contrary to that of others within his party, particularly president-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect JD Vance, who have spoken against spending more money to support Ukraine against Russia.

John Fetterman of Pennsylvania seems to be making history in a strange way by becoming the first Democratic senator to join Truth Social, Donald Trump’s far-right social media site.

In his first post, Fetterman wrote in support of bipartisanship:

My first truth 👇

The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate.

Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division.

Two years ago, Tulsi Gabbard left the Democratic party and called it an “an elitist cabal of warmongers who are driven by cowardly wokeness”.

Now, Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence can’t get a meeting with members of her old party. Real Clear Politics reports that Gabbard has so far failed to secure a meeting with any Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee, which will hold her confirmation hearing.

Republicans and Democrats alike are skeptical of Gabbard, who in the past has failed to condemn Bashar al-Assad, then president of Syria, and the atrocities carried out against his own people under his regime.

Also expected on Capitol Hill today is Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who Donald Trump nominated for the role of director of national intelligence. The Guardian’s Andrew Roth reports that her connections to Syria’s now-former president Bashar al-Assad and other US adversaries have caused deep concern among the national security community:

In 2018, a Syrian dissident codenamed Caesar was set to testify before the House foreign affairs committee about the torture and summary executions that had become a signature of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal crackdown on opposition during Syria’s civil war.

It was not Caesar’s first time in Washington: the ex-military photographer had smuggled out 55,000 photographs and other evidence of life in Assad’s brutal detention facilities years earlier, and had campaigned anonymously to convince US lawmakers to pass tough sanctions on Assad’s network as punishment for his reign of terror.

But before that hearing, staffers on the committee, activists and Caesar himself suddenly became nervous: was it safe to hold the testimony in front of Tulsi Gabbard, the Hawaii representative on the committee who just a year earlier had traveled to Damascus of her own volition to meet with Assad?

Could she record Caesar’s voice, they asked, or potentially send a photograph of the secret witness back to the same contacts who had brokered her meeting with the Syrian president?

GOP congresswoman who targeted transgender lawmaker attacked on Capitol Hill

Several Republican senators have said they plan to support Pete Hegseth to lead the defense department.

Here’s what John Cornyn of Texas wrote on X:

Great catching up with @PeteHegseth. As Secretary of Defense, he will disrupt the bureaucratic status quo, reestablish deterrence, and help restore American leadership on the world stage.

And fellow Texan Ted Cruz, in an interview with CNN:

I’ve met with Pete twice … If you look at his background, he’s a decorated combat veteran. He has spent virtually his entire adult life as a campion and advocate for the military, for veterans. And I think he has a very clear-eyed focus on moving the Department of Defense back to its core mission of number one, supporting the warfighter, and number two, being prepared and ready to defeat our enemies if necessary.

The Guardian’s Ben Makuch reports that experts in extremism in the US military have warned that confirming Pete Hegseth as defense secretary would make the problem worse:

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled choice for secretary of defense, will struggle to handle the serious problem of extremism in the US military due to his own far-right political views, experts in the subject have warned.

“I think it’s going to be an absolute disaster,” said Kristofer Goldsmith, an Iraq war veteran and the CEO of nonprofit watchdog Task Force Butler. “Pete Hegseth is a domestic extremist.”

One of president Joe Biden’s earliest policy initiatives was tackling extremism among government workers, including soldiers in the military.

Fresh off January 6, when scores of active duty or former US servicemen were caught participating in trying to overthrow the Capitol, current secretary of defense Loyd Austin issued a historic “stand-down order” in February 2021, demanding all servicemen in every branch of the military reflect on the issue of extremism.

Not long after that, the DoD rolled out expanded guidelines, a broad definition of extremism and extremist activities while in uniform, policing of soldiers’ social media accounts and new recruitment requirements. But Republicans, clearly sensing a campaign issue, began attacking the Pentagon’s working group and criticizing its counter-extremism activities as a recruitment killer.

“They gave it a good start, but the lack of backing for many efforts, and the failure to support the extremism working group left the effort rather bereft,” said Heidi Beirich, the co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE). “Just as the insurrection was downplayed by Republicans, so too has extremism in the military.”

Allies of Donald Trump have put pressure on Republican senators who have signaled skepticism of cabinet picks like Pete Hegseth.

Last week, when Republican senator Joni Ernst was sounding uneasy about the allegations of sexual assault and poor behavior circling around Hegseth, Charlie Kirk, the powerful conservative activist, wrote on X:

Here is Joni Ernst praising trans in the military. She says she wants a [transgender] fighting force. Maybe this is why she’s leading the charge against Hegseth? People in Iowa have a well-funded primary challenger ready against her. Her political career is in serious jeopardy.

Iowa attorney general and Trump ally Brenna Bird issued a veiled threat to Ernst in an op-ed published by Breitbart. While she did not say the senator’s name, Bird wrote:

In recent days, it’s become clear that D.C. politicians think they can ignore the voices of their constituents and entertain smears from the same outlets that have pushed out lies for years.

When voters select a president, they are selecting that president’s vision for a cabinet that will enact his agenda. On November 5, America voted for change, and for Washington to work for America – not the other way around.

Key GOP senator signals willingness to support Hegseth to lead Pentagon

Gabbard, Hegseth head to the Capitol as Republican senators weigh controversial nominations