'America's reputation is on the line': Republican senators chide Hegseth over Ukraine

[OKIsItJustMe]

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.

…

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

---

Watch: McConnell questions Hegseth on Russia-Ukraine war
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch-mcconnell-questions-hegseth-on-russia-ukraine-war/

[50 Shades Of Blue]

1. That's rich.

[Autumn]

2. Republican senators chide Hegseth over Ukraine.

Fuck Hegseth and those Republican assholes. any normal human being chides a child, a traitor you put in prison and hang.

[Walleye]

3. No other country will ever respect commitments from the United States again.

Trump believes in stiffing his contractors and going back on his deals, and apparently the Republicans are just happy with that

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Stiffing contractors is just the beginning

Note: this story is from 2016.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/donald-trump-2016-mob-organized-crime-213910/

Just What Were Donald Trump's Ties to the Mob?
I've spent years investigating, and here's what's known.

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON May 22, 2016

…

[creon]

8. the GOP is nihilist

the GOP will su[p[ort whatever el gringo says or does
They are poltrooms

[Lovie777]

4. They are concerned...............

although the USA reputation left the building once shithole got in. We are no longer respected but the dictators around the world are quite happy.

[maxsolomon]

6. What the fuck ever, Politico

Motherfucker has no "strategy to end the conflict" - it was always lies. He's going to fuck Ukraine over and Putin will continue terrorizing the entire country at will.

[OKIsItJustMe]

7. Well, that is a "strategy to end the conflict."

Ukraine capitulates and (in theory) Russia/Putin rewards us/him.

[Ray Bruns]

9. Who reanimated Mitch McConnell for this hearing?

[republianmushroom]

10. Moscow Mitch worrying about America's reputation, now that;s rich.

That would be similar to trump worrying about Bidens prostate cancer.

[ancianita]

11. McConnell's leaving soon. He's got nothing to lose, so why not adamantly support America's historical reputation.

McConnell doesn't give a damn about being a loyalist to a felon he knows is guilty of lawlessness beyond what court records show.

[Kid Berwyn]

12. Kegsbreath looked like he could use a drink.

Of course, that's how he always looks.

[travelingthrulife]

13. Mitch...you have already killed America's reputation.