Hegseth was confirmed after a 50-50 vote in the Senate, when
Vice President JD Vance came to the chamber to break the tie in his role as
president of the Senate, after three Republicans joined every Democrat and
independent in voting no.
Hegseth, a former Fox News personality and decorated
veteran, is promising to bring major changes to the Pentagon. But his
leadership will be under intense scrutiny after a bruising confirmation
review that raised serious questions about his qualifications, temperament
and views about women in combat.
"We have not had a secretary of defense like Hegseth
before," said Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas, Austin, history
professor and presidential scholar.
Hegseth is the most divisive candidate to clinch the US military's
top job, a position that has historically gone to candidates with deep
experience running large organizations and who enjoy broad bipartisan support.
It was only the second time in history a cabinet nominee
needed a tie-break to be confirmed. The first was also a Trump nominee, Betsy
DeVos, who became secretary of education in 2017.
The three Republican senators who voted against Hegseth were
Senators Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, was the party's
leader in the chamber until this month.
McConnell said Hegseth had failed to demonstrate that he had
the ability to effectively manage an organization as large and complex as the
military. "Mere desire to be a ‘change agent’ is not enough to fill these
shoes," McConnell said in a statement.
Hegseth
will lead 1.3 million active-duty service members and the nearly one million
civilians who work for the US military, which has a nearly US$ one trillion
annual budget.
Hegseth told lawmakers that, up until this point, the
largest group he had managed was 100 people and the largest budget was US$16
million.
His nomination was rocked by a series of accusations, including
one this week by his former sister-in-law, who said he abused his second wife
to the extent that she hid in a closet and had a code word to use with friends
if she had to be rescued. Hegseth strongly denied the accusations and his wife
had previously denied any physical abuse.
