Sen. John Curtis (R-UT) refused to answer whether he would vote to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of war when asked Sunday.
CNN anchor Dana Bash posed the question to the freshman Utah senator on State of the Union. Bash’s question comes on the heels of a Senate briefing regarding a follow-up strike that targeted the survivors of an initial strike on a Venezuelan vessel accused of trafficking drugs.
“If you were to take the confirmation vote again today, would you vote to make Pete Hegseth defense secretary?” Bash said.
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“That’s a question I can‘t answer without as much thoughtful research as I did the first time I did that vote,” Curtis said.
“Now you have evidence, not research,” Bash said.
Curtis is not a member of either the Senate Armed Services Committee or the Intelligence Committee, which were briefed behind closed doors by Adm. Mitch Bradley last week. Intelligence Committee Chairman Tom Cotton (R-AR) defended the action as “righteous strikes.” According to Curtis, the media spin on the Department of War is not always accurate to “the reality.”
“Yeah, but you know what the reality of it is. If you go on what’s in the newspapers, it’s near impossible to know exactly what’s going on,” Curtis said. “But I will tell you, I am pleased with Congress’s role of oversight. I think we‘re doing a really good job of demanding answers and getting answers.”
“And if you go back to his confirmation, that’s what I tried really, really hard to do is separate out what we’re hearing. Let’s get to the real facts and let‘s make a good decision,” Curtis added.
BASH: "If you were to take the confirmation vote again today, would you vote to make Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary?"
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) December 7, 2025
CURTIS: "That's a question I can't answer without as much thoughtful research as I did the first time I did that vote." pic.twitter.com/zIr7RuSmC0
Hegseth’s confirmation vote came down to a 50/50 tie when Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), and Susan Collins (R-ME) voted against Hegseth. Vice President JD Vance became the tiebreaker to appoint Hegseth to Trump’s Cabinet.
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Curtis spokesman Adam Cloch told the Washington Examiner, “Consistent with what the Senator said on the show this morning there is nothing to suggest he would vote different on Hegseth’s confirmation.”
The Utah senator is among a Republican coalition currently opposing Trump’s nominee for Kuwait ambassador, Amer Ghalib. The Utah senator is joined by Sens. Dave McCormick (R-PA), John Cornyn (R-TX), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
