Donald Trump is considering dropping his current pick, Pete Hegseth, and instead picking Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as his Defense Secretary.
If Trump’s offer is rejected by DeSantis, who was also floated as a VP nominee, Senator Joni Ernst may be offered the position. DeSantis’s military experience includes GITMO, and is term-limited as Florida governor.
A growing number of senators have privately signaled that they are not inclined to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as President-elect Donald Trump's next defense secretary, leading Trump's advisers to begin discussing who may be a viable replacement, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Sources tell ABC News that at least six senators have privately indicated that they don't intend to vote for Hegseth amid the growing allegations about his mistreatment of women.
abcnews.go.com/...
At the first Republican presidential primary debate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis touted his military experience, saying he “was assigned with U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq” and “deployed to Iraq alongside U.S. Navy SEALs.” That’s accurate: He was a Navy lawyer who advised a SEAL commander.
Viewers who weren’t listening closely might have gotten the mistaken impression that DeSantis himself was a Navy SEAL, and in an interview with the Daily Beast, one former SEAL criticized DeSantis over the comments.
We’ll simply lay out the facts to clear up any confusion.
During the Aug. 23 debate, DeSantis said: “I learned in the military, I was assigned with U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq, that you focus on the mission above all else, you can’t get distracted. So Republicans, we’ve got to look forward and we’ve got to make sure that we’re bringing the message that can win in November of 2024.”
Later, when asked whether there should be some required military service for everyone in the U.S., DeSantis responded: “I think it should be voluntary. I’m somebody that volunteered to serve, inspired by Sept. 11 and I deployed to Iraq alongside U.S. Navy SEALs in places like Fallujah, Ramadi, and it’s something that I think has taught me. You know, when you go in that type of environment, anything you have, your personal agenda, you check it at the door. You go there and it’s about focusing on the mission above all else and guys come together and they get it done.”
DeSantis earned his law degree from Harvard and then served in the Navy as a lawyer, or a JAG (Judge Advocate General). His military personnel records, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request and posted online by journalist James LaPorta, show that he served on active duty from September 2005 to February 2010, and he was stationed in Iraq with Seal Team 1 from 2007 to 2008.
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