Speaker 1: Just minutes ago, Pete Hegseth today cleared a key test vote in the Senate. He is Donald Trump's choice to become the next defense secretary. And he cleared this vote, this procedural vote tally, was 51 to 49. Two Republicans broke ranks with President Trump to vote against Hegseth. Those Republicans are Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. President Trump spoke on the phone just a little while ago while signing the series of new executive orders.

Speaker 2: Mr. President, Senators Collins and Murkowski have now said they will vote against Pete Hegseth. Are you worried about his confirmation and your reaction?

Speaker 1: And no surprises there. It's too bad. It's just the way, the way it is, too bad. All right, so Hegseth can only afford to lose three Republican votes. That's the margin in the Senate, plus Vice President J.D. Vance, to get confirmed. So J. O'Brien, he does the math, he knows the story. He's on the Hill with more. Jay, Murkowski and Collins, they don't like Hegseth. What do they say about it? And are those the only two votes out there?

Speaker 3: Well, Murkowski and Collins both issued these lengthy statements, Terry, where they ticked through their problems with Pete Hegseth. They say he doesn't have the requisite experience to lead the Department of Defense. Their statements are relatively similar. They talked about previous comments Pete Hegseth has made where he said that he didn't support women serving in combat. He's since walked those back and said he's not going to reverse the Pentagon's policy on women in roles in the military. Murkowski and Collins said a version of this as well, said that she was given pause by allegations of sexual assault against Hegseth, which Hegseth denies, allegations that Hegseth mismanaged two veterans' charities. We're also now confirming reporting that was first broken by the Associated Press, our Capitol Hill team has, that Hegseth acknowledged to a senator in a questionnaire, Senator Elizabeth Warren, that he paid $50,000 to the woman who accused him of sexual assault in California. He said that's not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, just an acknowledgment of trying to make that story in a sense go away. Again, Hegseth has denied any wrongdoing. He's pointing to the fact that no criminal charges were brought. But this was a key test vote today to see if enough Republicans opposed Hegseth's domination and could have tanked it. But we only got those two. A third even, if they had joined their ranks, and Hegseth would still have been on track to be confirmed. It's four Republican senators that would have doomed Hegseth. We've still got our eyes on a few more, like Mitch McConnell, who has said he would vote for this test vote, but unclear if he's going to actually vote come that final vote on Hegseth tomorrow. Tom Tillis is another who said he's doing his due diligence on Pete Hegseth. I asked Josh Hawley, a Republican senator who's firmly in Hegseth's column, what does he say to those of his colleagues who are waffling on Pete Hegseth or just outright knows at this hour? Here's what he said. What would you say to some of your colleagues who have deep concerns about Pete Hegseth?

Speaker 4: Vote however you want to vote, but listen, I think he's a very capable individual. I sat down with him. He went through the whole confirmation process. I mean, I was a big advocate, as some of you know, reported on. I was a huge advocate of having the full confirmation process go through the whole thing. By the way, I advised him on this early. I talked to him early on, soon after he was nominated, and I said, listen, you should go out there and say, I will answer every question. I will meet with every senator who wants to meet with me. I will answer every question under oath, which he did.

Speaker 3: And we've heard from some Republican senators, Terry, who say that they also believe that worked in Hegseth's favor because, again, if there are no more no votes at this hour and it's just Murkowski and Collins, that puts Hegseth on track to win that confirmation vote tomorrow and become the next Secretary of Defense.

Speaker 1: Stay tuned, I guess.

Speaker 3: J. O'Brien, thanks very much.

Speaker 1: I know you'll be there.