The influence of the victory of Senator Dave McCormick in last year’s Senate race was issued on Thursday, when a first -year student of a republican year gave a key voice to develop one of the most controversial types of the office of President Donald Trump.
The Senate voted 51 to 49 to break the Filibuster and develop the nomination of the former Fox News host Pete HegeSeth, the election of Trump as the Secretary of Defense. McCormick’s voting helped his party overcome the feelings of a moderate GOP sensation. Lisa Murkowski from Alaska and Susan Collins from Maine.
It is a republican vote, if McCormick did not defeat the long -term democratic senator Bob Casey in the race for the key seat of the Senate in Pennsylvania.
“President Trump needs his disruptions on the first day to make the promise of changing the inhabitants of Pennsylvania and America,” said McCormick in a statement on Thursday evening, noticing that he met with HegeSethe and checked his testimony for the Senate services of armed commission.
“A combat veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pete put his life to defend America,” said McCormick, a veteran of the army. “I trust that he will put men and women who are Warfighters in the first place. He and President Trump can build a team to transform one of the most complex and key organizations in the world and restore peace through strength. “
The final vote will probably take place on Friday, when HegeSeth is to keep the support he received on Thursday and protected confirmation. In the event of a draw, JD Vance Vice President will vote in a draw.
In the unconventional pool nominees for the HegSeth office he was the most controversial. During the hearing last week he was grilled by senators with excessive drinking, extramarital cases and allegations of sexual assault in 2017, which he denied.
Each democrat voted against the promotion of the HegeSeth nomination – including Senator John Fetterman (D., Pa.), Who met with the former Fox News host and signaled openness to his support.
The leader of the Senate minority Senator Chuck Schumer (D., NY) said on Thursday, when the voting was approaching that HegeSeth was a “unpredictable” person who was not suitable for leading the “largest army in the world.”
“The behavior of the Secretary of Defense is one of the most important voices that senators will last all year,” said Schumer. “… Is this man with a known story of excessive drinking, a guy you want at the other end of the phone at 2 am in a crisis controlled by nuclear codes?”
It was the first voice of confirmation of the second Trump administration with such a clear partisan division.
It was believed that Senator Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), The former party leader in the Senate, was on the fence, but eventually he voted in his party to suspend the debate and go HegeSeth. Collins AND MurkowskiTwo moderate Republicans who voted not issued long statements of their fears.
McCormick, a veteran of the army, did not publicly say how he votes But he said the Harrisburg television station that he admired his service in the National Guard and agreed with the idea that the army was “too awake”.
McCormick told ABC27 that he thinks that women should serve on the first line of the war “if they meet the standard necessary for combat roles, like a man.”
HegeSeth repeated many times that he thought that the army had reduced its standards when he began to open all combat positions for women in 2015, the claim that he failed to withdraw evidence and rejected it that supporters of women in the armed forces.
Politically, it was probably the first of many narrow voices for GOP in the Senate, where the party has a majority of six -level.
McCormick defeated Casey in Pennsylvania a battle of less than 1%, while democratic they sat on the battlefield of Michigan and Arizona. Wisconsin, the current Senator Ron Johnson has gained re -election with a similarly diminutive margin.
These narrow victories can probably mean narrow legislative progress for Republicans. McCormick conducted a more moderate campaign than in his basic Senate in 2022, but strictly ran a campaign with Trump and visited him in Mar-a-Lago and in the play of the army.
Why Pete HegeSeth is controversial
While HegeSeth Refused to charge in 2017A character that appeared on Thursday. He was in the process of divorce after a child with the Fox News producer, who became his current wife, in accordance with the court files.
This week, more charges have arisen when the senators verify HegeSeth He received a statement from the former sister -in -law, claiming that the once host of Fox News was offensive to his second wifeTo the extent that she was afraid of her safety.
The statement describes the treatment of the Hegeth of his second wife, Samanth, and claims that the repetitive drunkenness and the home situation in which Samantha HegeSeth had a protected word to indicate whether he is threatened at home.
HegeSeth denied the allegations. Samantha HegeSeth and Pete HegeSeth signed a court document in Minnesota in 2021 during their divorce, saying that she did not claim that she was not a victim of domestic violence.
Fetterman was the only democrat who voted for the promotion of HegeSeth in an earlier procedural vote, but voted on Thursday with the rest of his party.
The Democrat in Pennsylvania was the most thunderous supporter of his parties of some Trump’s nominated. Fetterman, who visited Trump in Mar-a-Lago at the beginning of this month, was unable to meet the nominees to the Republican President.
“I am not sure why anyone would be controversial if he is a person who could potentially be another secretary of defense,” Fetterman said about his decision to meet with HegeSeth in December.
Associated Press contributed to this article.
