Hegseth Ekes Into Office
Vice President J.D. Vance cast the deciding vote to confirm Pete Hegseth’s appointment as the next Secretary of Defense. The vote came late Friday night after Hegseth had split the Senate 50 to 50, with the tie vote leaving it up to the vice president to put Hegseth over the top.
Three holdout Republicans joined the leftists to vote against Hegseth – Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, Maine’s Susan Collins and Kentucky’s Mitch McConnell. It was only the second time in history that an American Vice President broke a tie vote to install a cabinet secretary. The other instance also involved a Trump nominee — his choice for Secretary of Education in 2016.
Trump himself was in North Carolina on Friday, joined by Melania Trump to tour the Hurricane Helene-ravaged region surrounding Asheville. Afterwards, he ventured west to California to visit areas charred by the wildfires that have scorched more than 55,000 acres to date.
Meanwhile, a federal judge in Washington, DC has imposed new restrictions on a handful of the Oath Keepers whose sentences were commuted earlier this week by Trump. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta ruled Friday that Stewart Rhodes and his colleagues cannot return to Washington DC, nor enter the U.S. Capitol Building, without advance permission from the court.
“The notion that Stewart Rhodes could be absolved is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country,” the judge said. Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin called upon Mehta to rescind the order. Here’s more from Robert Gouveia on Watching The Watchers.
