Former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), who stepped down from the leadership at the end of last year, cast a surprise vote Friday night against Pete Hegseth, President Trump’s controversial nominee to head the Department of Defense.

McConnell’s vote came as a surprise after he voted Thursday night to advance Hegseth’s nomination to a final vote.

The veteran Kentucky lawmaker played his cards close to the vest and didn’t say anything as he walked into the chamber.

The Senate confirmed Pete Hegseth as the nation’s defense secretary Friday in a dramatic late-night vote, swatting back questions about his qualifications to lead the Pentagon amid allegations of heavy drinking and aggressive behavior toward women.

The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed Marco Rubio as America's new secretary of state on Monday evening, fast-tracking the now-former Florida senator through a confirmation process in which he gained broad backing from lawmakers in both parties. Senators voted to confirm Rubio, who was first elected to represent the Sunshine State in the upper chamber in 2011, in a 99 to 0 vote. During his confirmation hearing last week, Rubio earned praise from both Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he once served as a senior member. Rubio...

The Senate quickly confirmed Marco Rubio as secretary of state Monday, voting unanimously to give President Donald Trump the first member of his new Cabinet on Inauguration Day.

The Senate on Monday unanimously confirmed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) as America’s 72nd secretary of State, putting in place the first member of President Trump’s Cabinet on the day of his inauguration.

Rubio’s confirmation vote passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, 99-0. Rubio also was able to cast a vote for himself. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said that it is "fashionable" to be :"beating up on China" while quizzing former Rep. Lee Zeldin on how he would work with the geopolitical foe to tackle climate change.

The Donald Trump confirmation train kept rolling Thursday as senators questioned the president-elect’s picks to run the Treasury, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development departments, as well as the EPA – and heard from witnesses in Pam Bondi’s bid to become the next U.S. Attorney General. 

Sen. Marco Rubio used his confirmation hearing Wednesday to warn a Senate panel that China might move against Taiwan before the decade is over and that a potential ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine must provide the Ukrainians with sufficient leverage to deter a repeat invasion in the future.

CIA Director-designate John Ratcliffe vowed in his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday that he would excise “political or personal biases” and make the spy agency “the ultimate meritocracy” — while refocusing its energy on China as the “top national security threat” to the US.

Ratcliffe, who served as director of national intelligence in the first Donald Trump administration, announced before the Senate Intelligence Committee he would return the Company to its “core mission” of collecting foreign intelligence on America’s adversaries in a strictly “apolitical” manner.