OAN Staff Abril Elfi
2:32 PM – Tuesday, April 8, 2025
Former Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has joined Democrats in voting against Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s pick to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.
Advertisement
On Tuesday, Senators voted 54 to 45 to confirm Colby with McConnell (R-Ky.) being the only Republican to vote against her confirmation.
McConnell, in a statement explaining his vote, warned of “geostrategic self-harm” if the U.S. followed through on Colby’s priorities.
“The prioritization that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy. Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move,” McConnell warned.
“It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit,” he said.
McConnell warned that Colby’s confirmation “leaves open the door for the less-polished standard-bearers of restraint and retrenchment at the Pentagon to do irreparable damage to the system of alliances and partnerships that serve as force multipliers to U.S. leadership.”
“It encourages isolationist perversions of peace through strength to continue apace at the highest levels of administration policy making,” he said.
McConnell said that he remains committed to supporting national security nominees “whose records and views make them assets, not liabilities, in the restoration of U.S. hard power.”
“Make no mistake: America will not be made great again by those who are content to manage our decline,” he warned.
Three Democrats, Senators Jack Reed (D-R.I.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) voted for Colby’s confirmation.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
Advertisements below
