Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Chuck Hagel Wins 57-41 Vote in Senate, Ending Debate Over Israel and Iran

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed Chuck Hagel as President Barack Obama’s new secretary of defense, ending an unusually acrimonious confirmation fight.

The Senate voted 58-41 to confirm the former Republican senator as the civilian leader of the Pentagon in a largely party line vote. Just four Republicans joined the Democrats and independents in support of Hagel’s nomination.

The Senate had voted earlier on Tuesday to end debate and move forward, almost two weeks after Republicans launched a filibuster to block Hagel’s nomination. It was the first time such a procedural tactic had been used to delay consideration of a nominee for secretary of defense.

The battle over Hagel’s confirmation, a hard-fought victory for the Obama administration, is one of many bitter partisan struggles between Democrats and Republicans at a time when Congress is widely criticized for its inability to agree on even the most basic measures to run the country.

Many Republicans fiercely opposed Hagel, a decorated Vietnam War veteran who angered party leaders as a Nebraska senator when he criticized former President George W. Bush’s handling of the Iraq war.

Some charged that Hagel is outside mainstream security thinking and raised questions about whether he is sufficiently supportive of Israel or tough enough on Iran. Opponents also worried that Hagel would be too complicit in efforts by Obama to cut Pentagon spending as a way to deal with yawning U.S. budget deficits.

“The confirmation process probably leaves a few light scars on Hagel because Republican critics have raised doubts about his judgment,” said Sarah Binder, a congressional expert at the Brookings Institution.

“But I think Hagel would have faced tough scrutiny and criticism from Republicans once in office, even had he originally sailed to confirmation,” she said.

Hagel’s confirmation comes as the Pentagon faces the prospect of cutting $46 billion in spending over the next seven months of the fiscal year. The cut, scheduled to go into effect on Friday, comes as the department is already implementing $487 billion in spending reductions over the next decade.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Hagel would be sworn in to succeed him on Wednesday morning.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.