The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Ashton Carter as secretary of defense Thursday.
The vote was 93-5, with five Republicans voting against the nomination: Sen. John Boozman of Arkansas, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, Sen. Mike Crapo and Sen. James Risch of Idaho, and Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois.
Carter, 60, a longtime senior Pentagon official, was nominated to replace Chuck Hagel, a former Republican senator who has led the Pentagon for the past two years but resigned under pressure in November amid reports that he had differed with the White House on Syria policy and felt pressured to quicken the release of detainees from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
His confirmation was never in doubt, especially after he pledged at his Feb. 4 confirmation hearing that he would resist White House micromanagement of the Pentagon, which former secretaries Robert Gates and Leon Panetta had publicly complained about and reportedly also dogged Hagel. The Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously approved his nomination on Tuesday.
Carter won the early support of Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., who made note of GOP concerns about White House-Pentagon relations when he pushed for quick Senate confirmation during debate on the nomination.
“I do so with sincere hope and sadly little confidence that the president who nominated Dr. Carter will empower him to lead and contribute to the fullest extent of his abilities,” McCain said. “Because at a time of global upheaval and multiplying threats to our security, the American people need and deserve nothing less.”
Carter is no stranger to the Pentagon, having served as deputy secretary from October 2011 until December 2013 and as undersecretary for acquisitions, technology and logistics for two years before that. In those jobs, he developed a reputation for candor that didn’t always toe the line with administration policy.
But Carter also played a major role in developing many of the administration’s key policies, including its global military strategy, the blueprint for a shrinking defense budget and the revamped process by which the Pentagon buys weapons.
