Republican senators have signaled a willingness to hold hearings over defense secretary Pete Hegseth pausing weapons shipments to Ukraine without the approval of president Donald Trump.
Republicans expressed concerns to The Hill both on and off the record, saying the defense secretary's decision raised serious questions about the coordination between the White House and Pentagon and represented, in the words of one senior GOP Senate aide, “a clear goof-up on a lot of levels.”
“I would elevate this to being beyond concerned, to being alarmed," said a Republican senator on the condition of anonymity. "It’s not like we’re talking to a small arms sale to some African nation – this is Ukraine. This is like the biggest political debate. … This is not something where you have your secretary of defense or your assistant or your deputy not be in sync with your president."
“I find it alarming that you would not have greater understanding as to what is our plan here,” that senator added. “That’s kind of scary.”
Hegseth reportedly paused the shipments to Ukraine at least three times without notifying Congress or the president, and Republican sources familiar with his decision say he acted on a misunderstanding of the president's wishes, and the senior GOP aide said Trump would not have wanted to risk negative headlines about freezing the aid until after a NATO summit in the Netherlands.
“We need to do our oversight here, ask our questions of this administration just as we have previous administrations,” said Sen. Todd Young (R-IN). “We need to hold hearings and ask questions and learn what’s going on.”
Several GOP senators characterized Hegseth's move as a "rookie mistake" but shifted some of the blame to senior members of his team, especially his undersecretary for policy Elbridge Colby.
“I hope we don’t see a Department of Defense where you have certain individuals who don’t have the authority think they can assume the authority [to pause the shipments],” said one Republican senator.
Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), chairman of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, praised the president for resuming the shipment of weapons to Ukraine over the objections of defense officials he called “isolationists and restrainers.”
“The president will need to reject calls from the isolationists and restrainers within his administration to limit these deliveries to defensive weapons. And he should disregard those at DoD who invoke munitions shortages to block aid while refusing to invest seriously in expanding munitions productions,” McConnell said in a statement.