When GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell voted against Pete Hegseth for defense secretary last year, he bypassed the big-ticket controversies over Hegseth’s personal life and instead focused on his lack of experience.
The former Republican Senate leader cast the job leading the Pentagon as a “daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests.” He said Hegseth had “failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test.”
Those words loom increasingly large over Hegseth’s rocky tenure. A growing series of controversies have tested Republicans’ willingness to stand by him and may leave them wondering what’s next.
And it increasingly seems that Hegseth could be a political problem for the Trump administration, too.
The big news recently was another shakeup in the Pentagon — this time the resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, which focused attention on Hegseth’s leadership and culture war fixation. That even led a couple of prominent retiring Republicans to call for Hegseth’s job.
