The affirmation listening to on Tuesday for Lt. Gen. Dan Caine, President Trump’s decide to steer the Joint Chiefs of Employees, was strikingly uncontentious.
Whereas the hearings for a lot of different Trump nominees have been heated, Normal Caine’s was comparatively easy.
Democrats lodged their displeasure that Mr. Trump fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown, his final Joint Chiefs chairman, however appeared to point they seen Normal Caine as maybe the very best possibility, beneath the circumstances. Republicans praised him.
Listed here are key takeaways from the listening to.
Normal Caine will in all probability be confirmed.
Normal Caine seems to have sufficient help to be permitted by the Armed Companies Committee and confirmed by the Senate.
He’ll virtually definitely outperform Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth in votes for affirmation. Mr. Hegseth wanted the intervention of Vice President JD Vance to solid the deciding vote, making him protection secretary by a one-vote margin.
All through Normal Caine’s listening to, Democrats seemed to be caught between a rock and a tough place. They needed him to say plainly that he would push again in opposition to a few of Mr. Hegseth’s initiatives concentrating on ethnic minorities, ladies and different teams. However they didn’t wish to push so onerous that they irreparably harmed his relationships with Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Trump earlier than he even takes workplace.
“I anticipate you to pledge to all the time present your greatest army recommendation to the president and the secretary of protection,” mentioned Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the rating Democrat on the committee. “Even when that recommendation just isn’t what they might wish to hear.”
Pete Hegseth’s Sign debacle was mentioned.
Mr. Hegseth has insisted that he did nothing improper by disclosing on a industrial messaging app when U.S. fighter jets would assault Houthi militia targets in Yemen.
The senators requested Normal Caine about that.
Whereas he prevented criticizing the protection secretary instantly, Normal Caine made clear, repeatedly, that assault plans don’t belong on in group chats.
Requested if he would have objected to such a dialogue had he been a part of it, Normal Caine mentioned, “We should always all the time protect the factor of shock.”
However ultimately Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, requested him what he would have carried out if delicate data was being shared in a chat that he was a part of, as prime administration officers did final month on Sign.
“I’d weigh in and cease it,” he replied.
Not like Hegseth, Normal Caine met with Democrats.
Earlier than his listening to, Mr. Hegseth met with only one Democratic senator on the committee, Mr. Reed. A lot of Democratic senators on the committee on Tuesday, against this, thanked Normal Caine for assembly with them.
“I appreciated the time we spent in my workplace speaking about this position and the challenges that you may be dealing with,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Democrat of New Hampshire, informed him.
The final views Russia as an adversary.
Normal Caine made clear that he views Russia as one in every of America’s foremost adversaries, not like Mr. Trump, who has sought to place the USA extra according to the Kremlin.
Throughout his opening assertion, Normal Caine gave a summation of the highest 4 U.S. foes.
“It’s 9:48 p.m. in Beijing, 6:48 p.m. in Tehran, 4:48 p.m. in Moscow, and 10:48 p.m. in Pyongyang,” he mentioned. “As we sit right here now, our nation faces an unprecedented rising world danger. Our adversaries are advancing.”
Democrats warned that historical past may repeat itself.
Normal Caine promised he would give the president and Mr. Hegseth his greatest army recommendation and pledged to “communicate fact to energy.”
A number of Democrats reminded him what occurred to his predecessors who did the identical.
Senator Mazie Hirono, Democrat of Hawaii, introduced up Gen. Mark A. Milley, who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Employees throughout Mr. Trump’s first time period and who has turn into the president’s public enemy No. 1.
“Right here’s what occurred to him,” Ms. Hirono mentioned. “President Trump took away his safety element, his safety clearance. He even took down his portrait within the Pentagon. That’s not all. Normal Milley is now beneath investigation by the division’s inspector basic to see if he’ll be capable of retire as a four-star basic.”
“It’s all the time a problem to face as much as this president,” she mentioned.
