Congress
Hegseth’s future as Defense secretary hangs by a thread
How much trouble is Pete Hegseth facing in his bid to lead the Department of Defense?
“A lot,” as one GOP senator put it.
Despite Hegseth, a veteran and Fox News personality, zigzagging across the Capitol to meet with Republican lawmakers over his imperiled nomination, there are still significant doubts he’ll have the necessary support to be confirmed. Backup nominees are already being floated, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, raising speculation that President-elect Donald Trump is ready to move on.
“That’s definitely how my colleagues are taking it,” said the GOP senator, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “That’s sending the signal to everybody here that Hegseth’s not likely to survive.”
Many GOP lawmakers won’t publicly say Hegseth is in trouble, but they’re noting Hegseth has issues to address. Hegseth is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in 2017 but has not faced any charges. NBC News also reported that Hegseth’s cable news colleagues were concerned over his drinking habits.
He has denied sexual assault allegations and newly vowed to senators that he won’t drink if he’s confirmed, according to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), the incoming chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will review Trump’s Pentagon picks.
“I think that’s probably a good idea,” Wicker told reporters. “You know, President Trump doesn’t drink.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said Hegseth has “got to address these accusations,” adding flatly he didn’t know if the votes were there to confirm the nominee. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters she plans to meet with Hegseth next week and has questions about “many of the allegations that you all have been reporting.” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) also said she plans to meet with Hegseth and expects the allegations will be part of their conversation.
Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said it’d help if Hegseth pledged to quit drinking, apparently unaware he was making that promise on Wednesday: “I would love that. It would help me a lot.”
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday: “We’ll see what the sense of our members is after he’s concluded all the meetings.”
Hegseth can only afford to lose three Republican votes in the Senate before his nomination would fall apart, assuming Democrats remain unanimously opposed. One Trump pick — former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was tapped for attorney general — has already withdrawn from consideration after a number of Senate Republicans expressed concerns. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister was also nominated to serve as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, but withdrew from consideration earlier this week.
Some senators seemed to believe it was a matter of when, not if, Hegseth would be forced to withdraw.
“At the end of the day, it’s his call, his decision. He can keep moving forward at one point, or he can pull out,” said Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), a vocal Hegseth supporter. “At some point it’d become a family question on how much more he wants to go through.”
Two pulled potential nominees and a possible third on the way out is rare for an incoming administration, but GOP senators writ large are still trying to be deferential to Trump’s picks. Publicly toiling with the president-elect over his intended nominees before his term even begins doesn’t fit the vision of party unity that GOP lawmakers touted following the November elections.
“This advice and consent process is a beautiful one,” Hegseth told reporters in the Capitol on Wednesday. “I spoke to the president this morning. He supports me fully. We’re not going anywhere.”
There are still other tricky GOP nominees coming down the pipeline. Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, tapped to be the Director of National Intelligence, is expected to face pushback from the Senate’s national security hawks. Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services is also expected to draw attention.
Joe Gould and Eleanor Mueller contributed to this report.
Adam Hamilton raised $10.6 million in the third quarter of 2026 across his Senate campaign and his joint fundraising committees, his campaign tells Blue Light News, a significant haul for the Kansas Democrat.
The fundraising total illustrates Democrats’ newfound bullishness about flipping a Senate seat in the deep-red state for the first time since 1932.
“This grassroots support sends a clear message: with three weeks until Election Day, Adam Hamilton is building the momentum to win,” said Hamilton campaign spokesperson Tyson Brody.
Hamilton’s third-quarter figure is nearly triple his $3.66 million second-quarter total. His campaign did not provide a current cash-on-hand total.
National Democrats began pumping money into Kansas in recent days, a sign of their growing hopes that Hamilton could win. Last week, Senate Majority PAC — Senate Democrats’ top super PAC — reserved $5 million in television ads backing Hamilton. American Bridge PAC and Lower Costs Now, a new group affiliated with former Vice President Kamala Harris’ super PAC, have spent in Kansas in recent weeks.
Republicans have also flocked to Kansas to prop up Marshall: Senate Leadership Fund, the Senate GOP’s top PAC, has spent or reserved nearly $11 million backing Marshall in the past week, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
“It took us five months to raise $15 million. [Marshall] got it in a day,” Hamilton said at a campaign event in Lawrence, Kansas on Monday. “So please help us.”
Marshall’s campaign has yet to release his third-quarter fundraising totals. As of mid-July, Marshall had over $5 million in the bank to $1.73 million for Hamilton.
A bipartisan Senate duo is urging Trump national security officials to “bring its full capacities to bear” to stave off threats posed by artificial intelligence — sooner rather than later.
Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee, and Republican South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, who serves on the Senate Armed Services cybersecurity subcommittee, are calling for a full government response to a growing number of cybersecurity breaches.
“Recent AI security incidents should serve as a warning,” the senators wrote in a Tuesday letter to Director of National Intelligence Jay Clayton and White House Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios. “Advanced AI agents have escaped testing environments, bypassed safeguards, and gained unauthorized access to real-world systems owned by government agencies and private organizations.”
Spokespeople for Clayton and Kratsios did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Their letter comes as lawmakers struggle to hash out what legislation on AI safety, if any, might look like. Members are currently in recess ahead of the November elections and there’s little hope progress can be made by the year’s end.
But those lawmakers who have been engaged on the topic for years now have mapped out administrative actions the Trump administration could move on now, without waiting on Congress.
The Cantwell and Rounds priorities include: strengthening federal AI safety and security standards at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST; expanding independent testing capabilities at the Center for Advancing Innovation and Standards for Super Intelligence, Department of Energy and the national labs; and working with the tech industry to develop and deploy defensive AI tools.
Specifically, the senators wrote, new NIST standards should address the risks posed by advanced AI capabilities, including the “potential misuse by malicious actors” to conduct sophisticated cyberattacks, automate attacks at scale and agents that threaten external systems and critical infrastructure.
They also said the federal government capacity should be complemented by universities and other research organizations, as well as by private sector, third-party evaluators.
Finally, they point to ways the government could use existing programs at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to work with AI labs to help detect threats and reinforce vulnerable systems.
A bipartisan group of senators urged President Donald Trump to rescind his recent diesel deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, amid bubbling anger on Capitol Hill about Trump’s announcement.
In a letter sent to the White House, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators warned that the president’s deal with Russia will not “achieve just ends” or benefit Americans.
“Granting Moscow the ability to sell Russian diesel freely in global markets damages American security interests and is a betrayal of the people of Ukraine, who continue to defend themselves from Putin’s murderous, illegal war,” wrote the lawmakers, led by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “This deal is a gift to our adversary and a betrayal of our Allies; it should be rescinded.”
On Sunday, a smaller group of senators called on the president to “immediately reverse course” on the plan in a statement. Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — who signed on to both — said Sunday there may be “a legitimate case for saying the president’s not following the law.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump announced in a social media post on Friday that Russia would “immediately supply” diesel fuel to global markets — including potentially the U.S. — to help relieve high prices driven, in part, by the ongoing war with Iran. Though Trump has repeatedly defended the U.S.’s actions against Iran, on Saturday he demanded an end to Ukrainian drone strikes that have crippled Russian oil refineries that he argues have caused the record-high oil prices.
The senators on Tuesday argued that the deal with Russia will have a “negligible impact” on fuel prices while providing Putin with “more fuel to finance his war machine” as Russia continues its “brutal attacks on Ukrainian civilians.”
The deal with Russia is a sharp pivot from a sweeping sanctions package signed into law last month. That legislation — championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) — was meant to deplete Moscow’s resources by targeting Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of oil tankers. It drew widespread bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress.
Senators on Tuesday referenced the package as they condemned Putin as a “tyrant.”
“For decades, America has stood as the bastion of freedom against tyranny, and American presidents have embodied our nation’s resistance to tyrants. Putin is a tyrant,” the letter reads. “Withdraw from this agreement, rescind General License No. 135, and execute the authorities provided under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. Maintain our legacy – and the duty America holds – as leader of the free world.”
In addition to Blumenthal and Tillis, Tuesday’s letter was signed by Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Dick Durbin (Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Jack Reed (R.I.), and Chris Coons (Del.) and Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Susan Collins (Maine), Alan Armstrong (Okla.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and John Cornyn (Texas).
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