Senate Confirms Trump’s Pick For Defense Secretary

The Senate Tuesday voted overwhelmingly 90 to 8 to confirm President Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, Mark Esper, giving the Pentagon its first permanent chief since James Mattis stepped down in January.

While he received broad bipartisan backing, several Democratic presidential hopefuls including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren voted against Esper who had been Army Secretary and had briefly served as the acting secretary of defense after Trump’s initial pick to replace Mattis, Patrick Shanahan’s nomination dramatically imploded last month.

Shanahan’s withdrawal was announced shortly after the Washington Post published a report detailing a violent incident in 2011 in which his son attacked his own mother with a baseball bat.

Following his confirmation vote, Trump is expected to formally appoint Esper later on Tuesday and a Pentagon spokesman told reporters a swearing in ceremony is expected Tuesday evening.

Esper, a former army officer and West Point classmate of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also worked as a senior staffer on Capitol Hill.