'America's reputation is on the line': Republican senators chide Hegseth over Ukraine [View all]

Source: Politico

The former Senate majority leader and a top Trump ally laid into the Pentagon chief over the administration’s actions toward the embattled country.

By Connor O'Brien and Joe Gould
06/11/2025 12:03 PM EDT
Updated: 06/11/2025 12:28 PM EDT

Republican senators lashed into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday over the Trump administration’s effort to end the Ukraine war by drawing in Russia, thrusting a glaring ideological divide within the party into public view.

Sen. Mitch McConnell — one of three Republicans to oppose Hegseth’s confirmation — led the criticism at a Senate budget hearing. “America’s reputation is on the line,” the Kentucky Republican said. “Will we defend Democratic allies against authoritarian aggressors?”

The former Senate majority leader — who now chairs the panel that controls defense funding — leveled some of his strongest warnings yet at the Pentagon chief during the hearing, which took a more adversarial tone than Tuesday’s House counterpart. Hegseth, who came out largely unscathed the day before, endured interrogations from both parties on President Donald Trump’s strategy to end the conflict.

The exchange between McConnell and Hegseth offered a rare high-profile window into the Republican party’s widening foreign policy gap. McConnell voiced a Reagan-era internationalist view of American leadership, while Hegseth articulated a more restraint-oriented, America First approach favored by many of Trump’s allies.

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Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/06/11/mcconnell-hegseth-ukraine-fight-00399719