WASHINGTON (AP) — A deeply divided Senate voted to confirm Chuck Hagel as the next U.S. defence secretary, handing President Barack Obama’s choice the job just days before billions of dollars in budget cuts hit the military. Hagel was expected to be sworn in tomorrow.
The vote was 58-41 Tuesday, with four Republicans joining the Democrats after an unprecedented fight that touched on Israel, Iran and nuclear weapons.
Republicans had opposed their onetime Republican Senate colleague, casting him as unqualified, hostile toward Israel and soft on Iran. They described him as a radical and far out of the mainstream.
The vote came just hours after Republicans dropped a delay and allowed the nomination to move forward.
Hagel, 66, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran, succeeds Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. He joins Obama’s new second-term, national security team of Secretary of State John Kerry and CIA Director-designate John Brennan at a time of uncertainty for a military emerging from two wars and fighting worldwide terrorism with smaller, deficit-driven budgets.
Obama welcomed the Senate vote, saying in a statement that “we will have the defence secretary our nation needs and the leader our troops deserve.”
