Senate to hold test vote on Pete Hegseth as a key Republican announces opposition
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Pete Hegseth, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, faces a key procedural hurdle in the Senate on Thursday on advancing his nomination.
The vote will occur after lawmakers consider the nomination of John Ratcliffe for CIA director. Ratcliffe is poised to be Trump’s second confirmed Cabinet official.
Hegseth’s test vote could come down to the wire, as he can only afford to lose three Senate Republicans assuming all Democrats oppose him.
If he loses three Republicans, Vice President JD Vance, in his role as president of the Senate, could be called on to cast a tie-breaking vote.
Moments before the showdown, a key Senate Republican had announced her opposition to Hegseth.
“After thorough evaluation, I must conclude that I cannot in good conscience support his nomination for Secretary of Defense,” Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a post on X. “I did not make this decision lightly; I take my constitutional responsibility to provide advice and consent with the utmost seriousness.”
Murkowski said she was not confident Hegseth was sufficiently prepared to lead the Pentagon, which is the largest government agency, and took issue with his past statements concerning women in the military.
The Alaska Republican also referenced allegations of sexual misconduct and excessive drinking. Hegseth has largely denied the accusations against him, and told lawmakers he’s a “changed man.”
“The past behaviors Mr. Hegseth has admitted to, including infidelity on multiple occasions, demonstrate a lack of judgment that is unbecoming of someone who would lead our armed forces,” she said. “These behaviors starkly contrast the values and discipline expected of servicemembers.”
All eyes will be on GOP Sens. Susan Collins and Mitch McConnell, who have also expressed varying levels of skepticism about Hegseth’s nomination.
In a floor speech on Thursday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker gave an endorsement of Hegseth, calling him the “right man for the job.”
The committee earlier this week narrowly advanced Hegseth’s nomination in a 14-13 vote along party lines.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, the federal judge who blocked the Trump administration from deporting noncitizens — Venezuelan immigrants that it alleges are members of the gang Tren de Aragua — without due process accused the Justice Department of evading “its obligations” to comply with his order for more information on the deportation flights, per a new filing on Thursday.
Boasberg said in an order Thursday that after a noon deadline, Justice Department attorneys filed a written declaration from an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field officer, which repeated general information about the deportation flights and that Cabinet secretaries were still weighing whether to invoke the states secret privilege, a move that allows the head of an executive department to refuse to produce evidence in a court case on the grounds that the evidence is secret information that would harm national security or foreign relation interests if disclosed, according to the Center for Constitutional Rights.
“This is woefully insufficient,” Boasberg said in response.
Boasberg ordered more information about the deportation flights, which the administration carried out under the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used wartime authority. Boasberg ordered that they turn around two flights the administration said were deporting the alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador. Officials failed to turn those flights around.
The Trump administration has not yet released the names of the alleged gang members who were deported.
The Department of Justice initially refused to provide more information about the flights, citing national security concerns.
Boasberg said Thursday that he is requiring the government to show cause by March 25 on why its responses thus far and the failure to return the undocumented migrants to the U.S. did not violate his temporary restraining orders.
Additionally, he asked the government to file a sworn declaration by 10 a.m. Friday by an individual involved in Trump’s Cabinet discussions over the state secrets privilege — and to say by March 25 whether they plan to invoke the privilege.
On Thursday, ABC News’ Karen Travers asked White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt why the administration wasn’t turning over the information regarding the deportation flights if they are confident that they complied with the judge’s order.
“We are confident that we’ve complied, and as I’ve said from the podium, all of the flights that were subject to the written order of the judge took off before the written order was pushed in the courtroom,” Leavitt said. “And the president is all within his article, his Article II power and his authority under the Alien Enemies Act to make these decisions.”
Earlier this week, Trump and some House Republicans called to impeach Boasberg, with Trump calling the judge “radical left.”
Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts issued a rare statement on the impeachment threat, signaling a stark difference in opinion between the judicial and executive branches.
“For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,” Roberts said in the statement. “The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
(MADISON, WI) — Democratic-backed Dane County Judge Susan Crawford will win the hot-button Supreme Court race in Wisconsin, The Associated Press projected Tuesday. The race was seen as a barometer on how Americans are feeling at this point in President Donald Trump’s second term
While the race is technically nonpartisan, it became the center of a political firestorm, as well as the target of millions spent by groups linked to tech billionaire and key Trump adviser Elon Musk, who supported Republican-backed Brad Schimel.
ABC affiliate WISN reported Tuesday evening that election officials in Milwaukee said there are ballot shortages at some polling sites in the city because of “historic turnout,” but that voters should stay in line and that staff are working on getting resources to the impacted polling places.
In a victory speech to supporters, Crawford acknowledged the immense attention and money that the race for control of the court attracted, particularly from Musk.
“I’ve got to tell you, as a little girl growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I’d be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin, and we won,” she said. “So today, Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections, and our Supreme Court. And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price. Our courts are not for sale.”
Schimel supporters shouted “No!” when he told them he had called Crawford to concede, but he said, “No, no, no, no, you’ve got to accept the results … I’m not up here making any joke. The numbers aren’t gonna turn around. They’re too bad and we’re not going to pull this off.”
Asked earlier Tuesday what it would mean if Musk’s efforts worked, Crawford said, “Well, I think it’ll be a sad day for democracy… but I’m pretty confident that voters are going to see through those tactics, and that we will have a successful day.”
Crawford and Schimel were vying to replace retiring Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, and her apparent victory will cement the court’s liberal leaning.
“This is playing out like a presidential-style election. You turn on your TV, any local broadcast station here across the state of Wisconsin, you are inundated with political-type ads for what is technically a nonpartisan judicial race, but this is a full-on political race … this is becoming a true litmus test for the first 100 days of the Trump administration,” Matt Smith, political director at Milwaukee’s ABC affiliate WISN-TV, told ABC News Live anchor Diane Macedo last week.
Independent voter Eric Sams voted for Trump in November but said he voted for Crawford on Tuesday.
“I believe that women’s rights are issues. Even Trump says it’s a state issue. If you’re going to make it a state issue, then our state needs to have access for women to be able to have access to reproductive rights,” Sams said.
Dwayne Heulse also voted for Trump, but said Tuesday the president’s endorsement of Schimel didn’t matter.
“I don’t care who Trump supports,” he said. “I will go after the guy who I think is the best, and that’s what I look at first. He can support the man on the moon, but I’m not going to vote for him unless I feel that this is a person who is going to meet the qualities I want, especially as a judge.”
Asked Tuesday about the national attention on the race, Schimel said, “If you told me six months ago that this was what was going to be happening, I I would not have believed it. But here we are, and you know, you just have to keep your head down. I’ve been running for Wisconsin voters, it’s been a — I’ve run a 72-county race.”
Crawford will join the bench as the court potentially grapples with key voter issues such as abortion access and redistricting. For example, there is a Wisconsin Supreme Court case regarding if the Wisconsin Constitution protects the right to an abortion, which the court might consider after the new justice is seated.
The race was also seen as a preview of how voters in the battleground state feel a few months into Trump’s second term — especially as Musk and his work with the federal government through the Department of Government Efficiency becomes a key issue given his groups’ investments in the race.
Musk continued to push the idea that the Wisconsin election matters because of how potential redistricting cases could impact the balance of power in the House of Representatives. He claimed to Fox News without offering proof that if the conservative candidate loses, Republicans could lose their majority in the House because Wisconsin’s congressional districts would be redrawn.
“Well, the reason tonight’s elections are so important is that the judge race will decide whether the Wisconsin district, districts get redrawn. They’re kind of trying to gerrymander Wisconsin to remove two Republican seats. And as you know, the — the House is currently Republican by a razor thin margin, which means that losing this judge race has good chance of causing Republicans to lose control of the House,” Musk said.
The justice elected won’t take office and order districts to be redrawn, however. The court could revisit congressional districts if the issue comes before the court in a case.
“That is why it is so significant, and whichever party controls the House, to a significant degree, controls the country which then steers the course of Western civilization,” Musk said at a high-profile town hall on Sunday in Green Bay.
On Sunday, the tech billionaire also controversially gave away two $1 million checks to attendees at a rally in his latest effort to support Schimel.
Schimel is a former state attorney general and a circuit court judge in Waukesha County. He received almost $20 million in support (such as spending for TV ads) as of Monday from groups linked to Musk, per a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice.
Schimel has also received endorsements from Trump, Musk, Donald Trump Jr., and other key conservative figures.
Schimel has welcomed the conservative support, yet said at a rally last week that he would treat any case fairly, including if it was a case brought by Trump.
However, Crawford and her allies have alleged he would not treat cases involving Trump or Musk fairly, and she made Musk a main target of her campaign.
Schimel, asked on Thursday by ABC affiliate WISN to share his closing argument ahead of the final days in the race, said, “My closing argument is that people need to take this race seriously. So much is at stake. We have to restore objectivity to this court right now … We have to put the court back in its proper role where it’s not making the law. It’s not going through a political agenda. It is applying the law the way the legislature writes it, to the facts of the case.”
Crawford is a Dane County circuit court judge and a former private attorney. At points, she represented Democratic-aligned groups such as Planned Parenthood, an organization supporting abortion access.
Major liberal donors such as Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Democratic donor George Soros have given money to the Wisconsin Democratic Party, and the state party has donated $2 million to Crawford. The national Democratic Party has also invested in the race. She also has the endorsements of former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Crawford told WISN that her closing argument was about an impartial court: “It’s about making sure that we have a Supreme Court that is fair and impartial in interpreting our laws to protect the rights of Wisconsinites. The other choice is an extreme partisan, someone who is selling out to special interests, has a long history of doing that, and has now tied himself to Elon Musk.”
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as of Monday, more than $90 million has been spent in the race — making it the most expensive judicial election in the nation’s history. That amount includes more than $49 million spent by Schimel or groups supporting him, and more than $40 million spent by Crawford or groups supporting her.
The nonprofit says that the previous record for spending in a state supreme court race was in Wisconsin’s 2023 state supreme court election, when $56 million was spent.
Voters took notice. One Wisconsinite who voted early told WISN, “There’s a lot of outside money coming in, in our state. And I wanted to make sure that my voice is being represented and not other people.”
As of Monday, around 644,000 people in Wisconsin had voted early in person or by mail, according to the Wisconsin Elections Commission.
The Associated Press also projected that the ballot initiative enshrining a requirement to have a photo ID to vote into Wisconsin’s state constitution will pass.
A photo ID is already required by state law to vote in Wisconsin; enshrining it into the state constitution will not establish new requirements, but will likely make it harder to undo the law.
Democratic groups and voting rights organizations criticized the ballot initiative as potentially disenfranchising voters. Supporters of the initiative argue it will strengthen election security in Wisconsin and cement a requirement that has already been in place.
A Marquette University Law School poll taken in late February also found that a majority of registered voters in Wisconsin support photo ID for voting, and separately, a majority of registered voters in Wisconsin said they would support the ballot initiative.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Ben Siegel, Will Steakin, Averi Harper, Hannah Demissie, Katherine Faulders and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — If she is confirmed as director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard would be the youngest-ever in that role, the first millennial, the first Asian American, and only the second woman to hold the position.
But she is expected to face questions in her confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee about statements she has made that appear to support U.S. enemies and dictators as well as having no significant experience in intelligence. Gabbard can only afford to lose the votes of three Republicans and sources tell ABC News the vote on her nomination is expected to be a close one.
In excerpts from her opening statement, Gabbard confronts her critics.
“The truth is: what really upsets my political opponents is my consistent record of independence, regardless of political affiliation, and my refusal to be anyone’s puppet. You know who else is committed to defending our country and reforming Washington with a fierce and unparalleled independence, President Donald J. Trump who ran and won with a mandate for change this November,” she says in the excerpt.
For most of her career, Gabbard has broken barriers. She was the youngest woman ever elected to a state house of representatives and the first to graduate from the Accelerated Officer Candidate School at the Alabama Military Academy as a distinguished honor graduate. In Congress, she was the first Samoan American, the youngest woman elected at the time, and the first combat veteran to serve — a distinction she shares with Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
Gabbard has prepared extensively over the past two months for her hearings, meeting with former DNI leaders, including John Negroponte, the first DNI, and Michael Allen, who led Negroponte’s confirmation hearing preparations. She also has consulted with former CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden, along with Trump allies Morgan Ortagus, deputy special presidential envoy for Middle East peace, and FBI director nominee Kash Patel.
She has sought input from a broad range of intelligence experts, former government officials and lawmakers across the aisle. She has participated in policy roundtables with lawyers, ex-intelligence officials, and national security negotiators, including figures involved in the Abraham Accords.
She also held a full-scale mock confirmation hearing ahead of Thursday’s Senate Intelligence Committee proceedings. Former Republican Sen. Richard Burr, who chaired the committee from 2015 to 2020, will introduce her.
Sources on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill tell ABC News Gabbard will likely face scrutiny over her past stances on Russia, Ukraine, Syria, and Iran, as well as her defense of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who reached a plea deal with the Justice Department over disseminating classified documents he had obtained illegally. Gabbard said last year on “Real Time With Bill Maher” that “the charges against him are one of the biggest attacks on freedom of the press that we’ve seen and freedom of speech.”
As a member of Congress, Gabbard introduced a bill in 2020 calling for the federal government to drop all charges against Edward Snowden, the former NSA contractor who leaked information in 2013 about how the U.S. government surveils the American public.
She’s also expected to face question on her reversal on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a key surveillance tool she voted against reauthorizing in 2020, her last year in Congress.
Gabbard argued that Americans shouldn’t be forced to choose between security and liberty, saying that the Patriot Act and FISA have “been allowing for the abuses of our civil liberties and overreach by our own intelligence and law enforcement agencies through doing things like warrantless sweeping collection of our data, violating our Fourth Amendment constitutional rights.”
Gabbard is also expected to face questions past statements about former President Donald Trump including her decision to vote present on Donald Trump’s.
Over the last two months, Gabbard has met with more than 50 senators, primarily Republicans. The meetings have largely served as an introduction — an opportunity to explain her past positions and assuage concerns about her political evolution. A source close to her told ABC News, “They know they can’t put her in a box. She’s not a Democrat. She’s a new Republican. She has very similar, if not 100% aligned, views with President Trump on ‘America First’ foreign policy. That makes people uneasy because they can’t quite figure her out.”
Gabbard, like Trump, is a former Democrat whose policy views have shifted significantly. Her evolution has been shaped by her 22 years in the Army, including deployments to Iraq, Kuwait, and Djibouti. If confirmed, she will be the first female DNI to have served in the military. She plans to continue serving in the Army Reserve, which is permitted under ODNI regulations.
Behind the scenes, Gabbard has earned bipartisan support within the intelligence community for her willingness to engage with a range of stakeholders. Earlier this month, the families of two former ISIS and al-Qaeda hostages publicly endorsed her nomination in a letter shared with ABC News. The parents of Kayla Mueller, who was killed by ISIS, and Theo Padnos, a former al-Qaeda hostage, argued that the radicalization of individuals — such as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who drove his truck into a crowd of New Orleans New Year’s revelers — underscores the need for Gabbard’s swift confirmation.
The letter of support came under scrutiny by some lawmakers after rebels toppled Syria’s Bashar al-Assad. Gabbard met with Assad in Syria in 2017, which remains a point of controversy. She has previously defended the trip as a “fact-finding mission” and has maintained that U.S. intervention in Syria empowered extremist groups.
Gabbard warned in the same year that she was concerned that toppling Assad’s regime could lead to groups like ISIS and al-Qaeda to step in to fill the void and “completely massacre all religious minorities there in Syria.”
“I had no intention of meeting with Assad, but when given the opportunity, I felt it was important to take it,” Gabbard said in a 2017 statement. “We should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war.”
Padnos, who was kidnapped by the al-Nusra Front in 2012 and held for nearly two years, said Gabbard’s willingness to engage with hostage families compelled him to speak out.
“This is a woman with deep compassion for the victims of terrorism and the courage to get things done,” he told ABC News. “Nobody else has offered their help — except Tulsi.”
Gabbard told ABC News that she was “honored and humbled by that statement of support.”
She has also received backing from law enforcement. The National Sheriffs’ Association endorsed her nomination, citing her commitment to bridging intelligence gaps between federal agencies and local authorities. In a statement, the group praised Gabbard’s pledge to give sheriffs “a seat at the table” in national security discussions.
Sheriff Kieran Donahue, president of the National Sheriffs’ Association, wrote “Gabbard has demonstrated a commitment to addressing the critical disconnect between our intelligence agencies and local law enforcement in preparing for sophisticated and pervasive threats.”
A source close to Gabbard told ABC News that her focus as director of national intelligence will be on restoring trust in the intelligence community and reforming what is and isn’t classified. Specifically, she aims to ensure that the intelligence provided to the Senate and White House is not information already available to lawmakers through media outlets. On Capitol Hill, lawmakers have expressed concern about the overclassification of information.
The source added that Gabbard intends to provide more accurate, raw intelligence to help lawmakers make informed decisions, rather than relying on overclassified data. She also plans to streamline the process for security clearances and return ODNI to its original mission — leading the intelligence community by fostering integration, collaboration and innovation.
Her allies argue that her outsider perspective will help modernize the intelligence community — though critics remain skeptical of her lack of traditional experience.
Thursday’s hearing will test whether Gabbard can win over skeptics — or if her controversial past will derail her bid to become the nation’s top intelligence officer.
