They’re mad because McConnell had the audacity to speak the absolute truth — that Pete Hegseth, who allegedly drinks too much, paid a woman $50,000 to settle a sexual assault allegation, and drove two nonprofit groups into the ground, wasn’t qualified to be U.S. defense secretary. And he voted against confirming Hegseth.

Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell voted against confirming Donald Trump’s pick for defense secretary. To Capitol insiders, their decisions weren’t surprising.

The portraits of former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were removed from the Pentagon after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revoked Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance.

After a few GOP senators, including McConnell, voted against Hegseth for defense secretary, the Senate narrowly voted to confirm him.

Vance had not been on the senate floor during the vote. It wasn't until three GOP senators voted against Hegseth's nomination that he made his way to the Capitol to cast the tie-breaking vote

A person arrested outside of the Capitol with a knife and two potential incendiary devices told officers they wanted to kill Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and also leveled threats against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and House Speaker Mike Johnson,

Pete Hegseth has vowed to bring his “warrior” ethos to the Pentagon. Democrats had assailed him as unfit for the job, and his confirmation came down to Vice President JD Vance serving as tiebreaker.

The Senate’s 50-50 vote for Pete Hegseth marked the second time in history that a vice president was called upon to break the tie to confirm a Cabinet official.

A Princeton and Harvard-educated former combat veteran, Hegseth went on to make a career at Fox News, where he hosted a weekend show. Trump tapped him as the defense secretary to lead an organization with nearly 2.1 million service members, about 780,000 civilians and a budget of $850 billion.

The Senate on Friday night confirmed President Donald Trump’s nomination of Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality, to become the country’s next defense secretary.

By LISA MASCARO, MARY CLARE JALONICK and FARNOUSH AMIRI WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary Friday in a dramatic late-night vote,