Vice President Vance defended new Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, calling him a “disrupter,” but that it is “incredibly necessary.”
Vance joined CBS News’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday for a sit-down interview just days after joining President Trump in the White House. He was asked by host Margaret Brennan about Hegseth’s recent confirmation, where he broke the Senate tie to deliver Hegseth the job.
“Well, look, I think Pete is a disrupter, and a lot of people don’t like that disruption, but Margaret, that disruption is incredibly necessary,” Vance said.
Brennan noted that Hegseth’s confirmation was the smallest margin in the history of the defense secretary position and that both of Trump’s two previous Defense Department leaders were overwhelmingly confirmed in a bipartisan manner.
Vance argued that there are plenty of “bipartisan, massive votes” that haven’t made a lot of difference.
“The main thing that we want Pete Hegseth to do is to fix the problems at the Department of Defense and unfortunately, there are many,” the vice president said.
He noted that there were wars the U.S. did not need to be a part of and various defense priorities including drone warfare.
“This is a major period of disruption, and we think Pete Hegseth is the guy to lead the job,” Vance concluded.
GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Susan Collins (Maine) and Mitch McConnell (Ky.) all voted no on Hegseth, forcing Vance to step in and break the tie. The Republican holdouts had concerns about the allegations against Hegseth.
