Fox News host Pete Hegseth's nomination for Defense Secretary is headed to the Senate for a vote after clearing the final obstacle Thursday, Fox News reported. Hegseth's confirmation could come as soon as Friday evening.
President Donald Trump nominated the 44-year-old for the position that was difficult to staff during his last administration. Hegseth is an Army National Guard veteran who did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq during his service.
He passed his final procedural hurdle on Thursday when the motion to invoke cloture passed 51-49. This gives the Senate 30 hours to debate the pros and cons of his confirmation before a final vote.
Hegseth faced opposition from Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, while Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky supported him. This last stand came after yet another attempt to smear Hegseth emerged at the eleventh hour.
Hegseth has been subjected to coordinated opposition efforts to paint him in the worst possible light. The latest came as an attack from his former sister-in-law who alleged that he abused Samantha Hegseth, his second ex-wife, while they were married.
Danielle Hegseth claimed that Samantha Hegseth sometimes feared for her life during the marriage and felt that his drinking was a problem. Danielle Hegseth clarified that she never witnessed any abuse, and Samantha Hegseth denied it ever happened.
The drinking was arguably the only allegation with any legs. "He drinks more often than he doesn’t," Samantha Hegseth reportedly told the FBI. The women are only related by marriage, as Danielle Hegseth is the ex-wife of Pete Hegseth's brother.
This attack in the press came as Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker found that a "confidential briefing on the FBI background investigation of Pete Hegseth that I received last week are starkly and factually inaccurate." Wicker confirmed his support for Hegseth and chastised the whispering campaign.
"It is disturbing that a sensitive, longstanding process used by committee leadership to vet presidential personnel is being litigated in the press by anonymous sources with ulterior motives," Wicker said. The Mississippi Republican noted that he already had three briefings about the FBI's findings from the background checks.
Hegseth endured several other allegations prosecuted in the court of public opinion. Thankfully, none panned out to anything that would preclude him from serving in Trump's Cabinet.
Democrats tried to hang a sexual assault allegation around his neck, though Hegseth was never charged with any such crime. He was also accused of drinking on the job, which is a moot point as Hegseth has pledged to give up alcohol if he's confirmed.
Previous remarks about women in combat also came back to haunt Hegseth during his confirmation hearings. His objection to women in combat was supposed to disqualify him, though Hegseth has softened his stance since then.
Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the Senate to reject Hegseth's nomination, though the Associated Press reported it could happen as soon as Friday evening. "Hegseth is so utterly unqualified, he ranks up there [as] … one of the very worst nominees that could be put forward," the New York Democrat said.
Trump is winning big as Hegseth is on the brink of becoming the next Secretary of Defense. This is good news for the Americans who voted for Trump to bring the most qualified people to Washington, D.C.
