{"id":31392,"date":"2025-01-23T21:22:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T21:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/hegseth-clears-senate-hurdle-and-advances-to-a-final-confirmation-vote\/"},"modified":"2025-01-23T21:22:35","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T21:22:35","slug":"hegseth-clears-senate-hurdle-and-advances-to-a-final-confirmation-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/hegseth-clears-senate-hurdle-and-advances-to-a-final-confirmation-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth clears Senate hurdle and advances to a final confirmation vote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Hegseth<\/a> cleared a procedural hurdle Thursday for a final Senate vote to advance his confirmation to lead the Department of Defense, setting up a high-stakes showdown.<\/p>\n

A motion to invoke cloture, or begin up to 30 hours of debate, passed 51-49. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted no on advancing Hegseth’s confirmation, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., voted yes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s nomination was dealt another hurdle this week when reports emerged that his ex-sister-in-law alleged that Hegseth had abused his second wife.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two sources told CNN Hegseth\u2019s ex-wife, Samantha Hegseth, gave a statement to the FBI about Hegseth\u2019s alleged alcohol use. The outlet said one of the sources said Samantha Hegseth told the FBI, “He drinks more often than he doesn\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Fox News obtained an affidavit from Hegseth’s former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, which alleges he has an alcohol abuse problem and at times made his ex-wife, Samantha, fear for her safety. Danielle Hegseth was previously married to Pete Hegseth’s brother and has no relation to Samantha.<\/p>\n

KEY SENATE CHAIRMAN CRITICIZES ‘ANONYMOUS SOURCES WITH ULTERIOR MOTIVES,’ STANDS BY HEGSETH NOMINATION<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

But Danielle Hegseth added that she never witnessed any abuse herself, physical or sexual, by Pete against Samantha.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Samantha Hegseth has also denied any physical abuse in a statement to NBC News.<\/p>\n

Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker said in a statement Wednesday night <\/a>that reports “regarding a confidential briefing on the FBI background investigation of Pete Hegseth that I received last week are starkly and factually inaccurate” and that he stands by Hegseth\u2019s nomination.<\/p>\n

“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, adding that he has been briefed by the FBI three times about a background check into Hegseth.<\/p>\n

The new reporting came after a slew of reports damaging to Hegseth\u2019s character, including a sexual assault allegation that he denies and reports about his alleged penchant for drinking and financial mismanagement. Hegseth has said he would abstain from alcohol if confirmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hegseth is expected to face one of the most vicious confirmation fights of any Trump Cabinet nominee. His confirmation hearing<\/a> was heavy on personal character questions and interrogation over his opposition to female-specific standards for women in combat and light on policy inquiries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

HEGSETH LAWYER SLAMS \u2018FLAWED AND QUESTIONABLE AFFIDAVIT\u2019 FROM EX-SISTER-IN-LAW<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Earlier Thursday, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer<\/a>, D-N.Y., urged Republicans to join him in opposing the former Fox News host and Army national guardsman.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hegseth is so utterly unqualified, he ranks up there [as] \u2026 one of the very worst nominees that could be put forward,” Schumer said.<\/p>\n

“People’s lives depend on it \u2014 civilians and, of course, the men and women in the armed services \u2014 and Pete Hegseth has shown himself not only incapable of running a large organization, he often shows himself incapable of showing up or showing up in a way where he could get anything done. He is so out of the mainstream and so unqualified for DOD that I am hopeful we will get our Republican colleagues to join us. There will be a vote this afternoon.”<\/p>\n

Hegseth, who has been married three times, has admitted he was a “serial cheater” before he became a Christian and married his current wife, Jenny.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Army\u00a0National Guard veteran,<\/u><\/a> who did tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, is relatively young and inexperienced, compared to defense secretaries in the past, retiring as a major. But Republicans say they don\u2019t want someone who made it to the top brass who\u2019s become entrenched in the Pentagon establishment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hegseth has made it clear that he will work to fight “woke” programs in the Pentagon that promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). He originally said he opposed women in combat, before later clarifying that he only opposes standards for women in combat that are different from those for men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m straight up just saying that we should not have women in combat roles,” Hegseth said on the “Shawn Ryan Show” podcast. “It hasn\u2019t made us more effective, hasn\u2019t made us more lethal, has made fighting more complicated.”<\/p>\n

In 2019, he successfully lobbied Trump to pardon three service members convicted or accused of war crimes in Afghanistan<\/a> and Iraq.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trump may have looked ahead to sparing himself the headache this role caused him during his first administration. Only Jim Mattis and Mark Esper lasted more than a year. Three others served in an acting capacity. Hegseth is more likely to align himself with Trump’s goals for the department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fox News’ Stephen Sorace, Julia Johnson and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pete Hegseth cleared a procedural hurdle Thursday for a final Senate vote to advance his confirmation to lead the Department of Defense, setting up a high-stakes showdown. A motion to invoke cloture, or begin up to 30 hours of debate, passed 51-49. Republican Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, voted no on advancing Hegseth’s confirmation, Sen. Mitch … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}