Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin explained why she voted against confirming Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday, saying she had not been confident Hegseth would be more loyal to the Constitution than he would be to President Donald Trump..
Hegseth, a former Fox News host, was sworn into the role on Saturday following a razor-thin vote in the Senate.
Slotkin, who joined the Senate in January and previously worked for multiple national security agencies, including the Department of Defense, told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that it was important in confirmation hearings that nominees knew they were “raising your right hand and pledging an oath to the Constitution — not Donald Trump — and that if Donald Trump asks you to do something that contravenes the Constitution, you would push back.”
“He couldn’t unambiguously say that he will push back if the president asked him to do something that wasn’t constitutional, and that, to me, is why I couldn’t confirm him,” Slotkin said. “There’s a lot of other things in his background I don’t like, but I look at what is the strategic and irreversible threats to our democracy, and that’s using the uniform military in ways that violate the Constitution.”
The vote to confirm Hegseth was initially 50-50 until Vice President JD Vance, in his role as president of the Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote. Every Democrat voted against Hegseth’s confirmation, as did Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski.
His nomination process was marred by accusations of sexual misconduct, excessive drinking and financial mismanagement of two different veterans organizations. He has denied all the allegations.
During Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, Slotkin questioned him on whether he supports active-duty military members supporting immigrant detention centers if ordered to do so by Trump. With 1,500 soldiers and Marines now at or deploying to the border, Slotkin stressed on “This Week” that the military should not take on a law enforcement role in this new mission.
“According to our Constitution, you can go in supporting roles — logistics, driving, setting up facilities, setting up, you know, border locations, whatever — it’s very different when you cross the line into law enforcement,” she said. “Our military are not trained as law enforcement officers — they’ll be the first one to tell you that. That’s not why they got into service, and it’s also in violation of our Constitution, so I think it’s very important that we keep that line.”
Slotkin said it was important to know “you’re not going to use the uniform military in ways that violates the Constitution and makes American citizens scared of their own military.”
“We were scared of the British when they occupied us,” she said. “We don’t want to repeat that, so I’m watching that very, very closely.”
Slotkin also spoke about Tulsi Gabbard’s upcoming confirmation hearing for the role of director of national intelligence. Slotkin was one of the first employees in the director’s office, working there between 2005 and 2006 in between stints at the CIA as an analyst.
“I served with Tulsi Gabbard. We were on the Armed Services Committee together. She didn’t spend a lot of time showing up to hearings, so I didn’t get to see her in action all that much,” Slotkin said. “But from what I understand from people who have been meeting directly with her — and she hasn’t asked to meet with me — is that she doesn’t show the competence, the understanding, the depth. She wasn’t prepared for her meetings, not to mention the deeply questionable decisions she’s made of cozying up to [Russian President] Vladimir Putin, flying and cozying up with Assad in Syria.”
Slotkin said she does “not believe [Gabbard] is qualified for this role.”
“You know, having someone in charge of our intelligence organization that shows a preference for our adversaries, to me, is just right off the bat, a deep question,” Slotkin said. “And so again, I hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who now have control of the Senate, control of the House, that they think about, again, their commitment to the country, not to any one party.”
Gabbard’s confirmation hearing is scheduled for Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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