Speaker 1: If not, on this vote, the yeas are 50 and the nays are 50. The Senate being equally divided, the vice president votes in the affirmative, and the nomination is confirmed.

Speaker 2: All right, so there you have it, J.D. Vance coming in, making the tie-breaking vote. It wasn't the robust clapping that you could hear a lot of times from one side or the other, but this was split right down the middle, and they're looking up toward the gallery, it looks like, you know, clapping for Hegseth, who, rather unusually, chose to be there with his family, but now gets to celebrate as that. Let's listen in to Senator Thune.

Speaker 3: And laid upon the table, and the president be immediately notified of the Senate's action. Further, that the mandatory quorum call with respect to the Nome nomination be waived.

Speaker 1: Is there objection? Without objection. The clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture.

Speaker 4: Cloture motion. We the undersigned Senators, in accordance with the provisions of Rule 22 of the Standing Rules of the Senate, do hereby move to bring to a close debate on the nomination of Christine Nome of South Dakota to be Secretary of Homeland Security. Signed by 17 Senators.

Speaker 1: By unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. The question is, is it the sense of the Senate that debate on the nomination of Christine Nome of South Dakota to be Secretary of Homeland Security shall be brought to a close? The yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. The clerk will call the roll.

Speaker 4: Miss Alsobrooks. All right.

Speaker 2: So, Jay, I want to bring you back in. We got more than just the passing of Pete Hegseth's confirmation there. They talked, as you said, about Christine Nome. I think you said that vote's going to happen at like four or five o'clock in the morning on Sunday. But there's going to be no debate on whether or not they're going to have the vote, right?

Speaker 5: You set them up. Knock them down, Phil. We're just trying to get these done fast in the Senate. So now they're teeing up a procedural vote on Christine Nome, which if slash when it passes, because it will pass, will then begin what's called the procedural clock in the Senate. I won't bore you with it, but essentially it puts us on track for Christine Nome's official vote to be sometime early Sunday morning, again, four or five a.m. So once this vote passes, it starts that clock, and then the Senate has to come back Sunday morning and officially vote to confirm Nome. And they're doing all of this because they're trying to move very quickly to install Donald Trump's cabinet, particularly because they're under pressure from Republicans in their own ranks, particularly further right Republicans, to do this fast. Some have issued statements saying that they don't believe this process is happening fast enough. But ultimately, they're under pressure from the White House to fill. And one more thing. We just got a statement from Mitch McConnell, who walks us through why he cast that 11th hour no vote against Pete Hegseth. I just want to give you a snapshot of a little bit of what McConnell said, because it is at times a scathing statement. He says, effective management of nearly three million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly a trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests. He's talking about what the secretary of defense has to do. Quote, Mr. Hegseth has failed as yet to demonstrate that he will pass this test. That was Mitch McConnell there demonstrating why he's a no vote on Pete Hegseth. So far in this statement, and I've gone through it, he doesn't talk as much about controversial elements of Hegseth's past or Hegseth's comments about women in combat, but instead he seems to indicate in this lengthy statement that he doesn't feel that Hegseth has the requisite experience to lead the Department of Defense. But nonetheless, Phil, we saw J.D. Vance cast that tie-breaking vote. Hegseth will lead the Department of Defense.