the issue
The Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby, President Donald Trump’s pick for undersecretary of defense for policy, in a bipartisan vote last week — after early buzz that Republican reservations could tank his nomination.
Colby, an ally of Vice President JD Vance who served at the Pentagon during the first Trump administration, has argued for the US to focus on deterring China and a possible invasion of Taiwan rather than spending resources elsewhere — like in Europe, to bolster Ukraine in its war against Russia.
During his confirmation process, he faced skepticism from more traditional Republican defense hawks, who privately questioned his noninterventionist stance on the Middle East.
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the bond
Ultimately, three Senate Democrats crossed the aisle to confirm Colby: Sens. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., the party’s top member on the Armed Services Committee.
While it’s not typically notable for senators in the opposing party to support a president’s nominees — several other Trump picks have won bipartisan confirmations, despite high political tensions — Colby’s vote count was remarkable because he also lost one Republican: former GOP leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
When asked about his “yes” vote, Kelly told Semafor that he appreciated Colby’s focus on the threat posed by China, which he said was apparent during their one-on-one meeting.
“We did spend a lot of time on the Western Pacific region and the challenges we face with China, and I felt he had a good sense for what these challenges are,” Kelly said.
Reed described Colby, who had a prominent role in the Pentagon’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, as “very thoughtful” and open-minded.
He is “somebody that will listen carefully for opposite positions and take them into consideration. And I think he’s got the experience and also the temperament to provide good advice to the secretary,” Reed told Semafor.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he was encouraged by the bipartisan support for the nominee. Asked about the controversy that the nomination attracted early on, Wicker credited Colby with successfully addressing concerns from Republicans.
“Several members had conversations with him and what concerns they had were taken care of,” he told Semafor.
The View From mitch mcconnell
In opposing Colby, McConnell sharply rebuked his foreign policy view as “a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy.”
Colby’s “long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy,” McConnell said in a statement.
The comments earned him a jab from Vance, who called McConnell’s vote “one of the great acts of political pettiness I’ve ever seen.”
A more traditionally hawkish conservative, McConnell has made known his displeasure with the Trump wing of the party’s drift toward nonintervention and isolationism. That includes blasting the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine and negotiations with Russia.
Colby didn’t return a request for comment.
Notable
- Slotkin has also shown herself to be focused on China: She introduced her first bill since taking office last week, proposing legislation that looks to bar Chinese-connected cars from the US, The Detroit News reported.
- Colby’s rise is one example of how Trump toppled his party’s national security orthodoxy, Semafor’s Burgess Everett and Shelby Talcott reported.