Pete Hegseth sworn in as Secretary of Defense
WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - Pete Hegseth was sworn in Saturday to serve as the next Secretary of Defense.
Following a initial Senate vote of 50-50 Friday, Vice President J.D. Vance broke the tie, putting Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor, over the top and ending weeks of uncertainty over the fate of President Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Pentagon.
"All people in our armed services should trust him because he looks out for them, and he's going to fight for them. And he's going to make sure that we have the kind of military that we can all be proud in, that we can all be proud of and then again, when we send it to do a job, we do it well. We do it quickly, then we get to hell out, and that's what Secretary Hegseth is going to bring to the Department of Defense."
Vice President J.D. Vance
It marked only the second time in history a vice president was needed to break a tie for a Cabinet level nominee.
"Mr. Vice President, thank you for breaking the tie. It's not the last time, or not the first time the headline reads: junior enlisted Marine bails out junior Army officer.
We will put America forward first. We will bring peace through strength. And the three principles I talk about are what we will bring to the Pentagon: restore the warrior ethos in everything that we do, rebuild our military and re-establish deterrence. We don't want to fight wars. We want to deter them, as you said, and we want to end them responsibly. But if we need to fight them, we're going to bring overwhelming and decisive force to close with destroy the enemy to bring our boys home."
Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Defense