All but 7 GOP Sen­a­tors, Includ­ing Poten­tial Hegseth Detrac­tors, Vot­ed to Con­firm Biden’s Pick for Defense Sec­re­tary

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<div>All but 7 GOP Senators, Including Potential Hegseth Detractors, Voted to Confirm Biden's Pick for Defense Secretary</div>

Near­ly every Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor vot­ed to con­firm Pres­i­dent Joe Biden’s Defense Sec­re­tary, Lloyd Austin, in 2021, includ­ing sev­er­al who are seen as poten­tial detrac­tors to the prospects of Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nom­i­nee for the same post.

Repub­li­can Strate­gist Andy Sura­bi­an point­ed out that only sev­en Repub­li­cans refrained from vot­ing to con­firm Austin:

All but 7 Repub­li­cans in the Sen­ate VOTED TO CONFIRM Biden’s incom­pe­tent Defense Sec­re­tary Lloyd Austin — Prob­a­bly the worst DOD head in Amer­i­can his­to­ry — Who was respon­si­ble for the Afghanistan embar­rass­ment — Think about that when you see Sen­ate RINOs crit­i­ciz­ing

Don­ald Trump Jr. retweet­ed Sura­bi­an and called out Repub­li­cans who backed Austin but are now crit­i­cal of Hegseth.

“What a dis­grace. If you’re a GOP Sen­a­tor who vot­ed for Lloyd Austin, but crit­i­cize [Hegseth], then maybe you’re in the wrong polit­i­cal par­ty!” Trump Jr wrote in his post. 

Tes­la CEO Elon Musk con­curred with Trump Jr, mark­ing a mas­sive throw­down from MAGA Repub­li­cans to the estab­lish­ment wing of the par­ty.

Sens. Josh Haw­ley (R‑MO) and Mike Lee (R‑UT) were the only two to vote against Austin, while five oth­er GOP sen­a­tors did not vote at all.

Three of the Repub­li­cans who sup­port­ed Biden’s nom­i­nee, Sens. Joni Ernst (R‑IA), Lisa Murkows­ki (R‑AK), and Susan Collins (R‑ME), are now some of the biggest ques­tion marks around Hegseth’s prospects.

Hegseth like­ly can only afford to lose two Repub­li­can votes, assum­ing all Democ­rats will oppose his con­fir­ma­tion. Repub­li­cans will notably oper­ate with a 52–47 seat major­i­ty until Gov. Mike DeWine (R‑OH) appoints a suc­ces­sor to Pres­i­dent-elect JD Vance.

Hegseth met with Ernst on Wednes­day, and CNN notes he is set to meet with Collins and Murkows­ki next week.

Ernst, who is rumored to be a poten­tial back­up nom­i­nee should Hegseth’s bid go awry, indi­cat­ed to Fox News on Thurs­day morn­ing that she is not ready to sup­port Hegseth after say­ing Wednes­day their dis­cus­sion was “frank and thor­ough.”

Hegseth said Thurs­day that their talk “was con­struc­tive” and “can­did.”

Turn­ing Point USA Founder Char­lie Kirk called out Ernst by name on Thurs­day over reports that she and Sen. Lind­sey Gra­ham (R‑SC) have plot­ted to tar­nish Hegseth’s rep­u­ta­tion.

“Joni Ernst and Lind­say Gra­ham both vot­ed to con­firm Lloyd Austin, a his­tor­i­cal­ly awful Sec­re­tary of Defense, and yet there are mul­ti­ple reports that both are involved in a char­ac­ter assas­si­na­tion scheme to under­mine the nom­i­na­tion of Pete Hegseth,” he wrote in a post on X.

“Sure hope that’s not true,” he added.