It’s being reported now that the White House has just sent over to the Senate their nomination for the Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, Secretary of the Army:
The White House announces the nomination of Mark Esper to be Secretary of Defense.
— Pat Ward (@WardDPatrick) July 15, 2019
JUST IN: WH formally nominates Mark Esper to be SecDef less than 24 hours before his Senate confirmation hearing. pic.twitter.com/NHJmnwCpAE
— Connor O’Brien (@connorobrienNH) July 15, 2019
WH formally sends nomination of Mark Esper to be DefSec to Senate. His confirmation hearing is tomorrow
— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) July 15, 2019
If you remember, Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was supposed to be Trump’s pick, but that didn’t work out after Trump lost confidence in Shanahan’s nomination after the D-Day events (controversy over Navy shipped named after John McCain’s father) as well as some investigation into allegations of domestic abuse after a terrible divorce.
I expect, just like Trump’s other nominations, that this will be a partisan vote with maybe a few red-state Democrats sprinkled on top.