By Katherine Tinsley
2:45am PDT, Apr 10, 2025
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After the Senate confirmed Elbridge Colby, Mitch McConnell took a stance against the defense expert.
"Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move," McConnell said in a statement after the vote was confirmed.
"It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit," he added.
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J.D. Vance
took to X on Tuesday, April 8, to react to Mitch McConnell's disapproval of Elbridge Colby.
"Mitch's vote today — like so much of the last few years of his career — is one of the great acts of political pettiness I've ever seen," the vice president wrote.
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Senator
Tom Cotton clarified his thoughts when discussing Elbridge Colby.
"Let's talk about a nuclear Iran," Cotton, who sits on the Armed Services panel, said. "I have some concerns about what you've said in the past."
Colby replied that "a nuclear-armed Iran" presented a danger given Tehran's potential to produce atomic weapons — that he would advise
Pete Hegseth and
Donald Trump to use "credible and realistic" military alternatives to put an end to the theocracy.
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"We know they've worked on [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile]-range capabilities and other capabilities that would pose an existential danger to the United States," Elbridge Colby told Tom Cotton during his hearing.
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Despite Elbridge Colby's ability to be confirmed by the Senate, Mitch McConnell made it clear that he doesn't support his progression.
"Elbridge Colby's long public record suggests a willingness to discount the complexity of the challenges facing America, the critical value of our allies and partners, and the urgent need to invest in hard power to preserve American primacy," McConnell said in a statement.
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Mitch McConnell expressed his fears over Elbridge Colby having a high-level defense position.
"The prioritization that Mr. Colby argues is fresh, new, and urgently needed is, in fact, a return to an Obama-era conception of a la carte geostrategy," the senator said.
"Abandoning Ukraine and Europe and downplaying the Middle East to prioritize the Indo-Pacific is not a clever geopolitical chess move," he continued. "It is geostrategic self-harm that emboldens our adversaries and drives wedges between America and our allies for them to exploit."
