The battle over Defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel reached a boiling point Thursday, as senior Hill sources said Republicans have told Democrats they intend to block his confirmation until more information is provided about the Benghazi terror attack.?
A day earlier, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid set the stage for a full Senate vote Friday. In a first for a Defense secretary nominee, Hagel is expected to have to clear a 60-vote threshold in order to be confirmed -- due to objections by Republican lawmakers.?
Republicans already are almost uniformly opposed to Hagel. But with this leverage, they are also demanding the White House provide more information about what President Obama was doing on the night of the Benghazi terror attack.?
Democrats hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate and have the numbers to confirm Hagel on a majority vote. But one source told Fox News that Democrats do not have the 60 votes to cut off the filibuster on Friday.?
Separately, Republican lawmakers predicted to Fox News that Hagel would ultimately get confirmed -- but it won't happen Friday.?
They note that lawmakers like Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., are demanding information on Benghazi as well as the text of additional Hagel speeches. They feel like they've been stonewalled on these items, and so Republicans will not help Democrats get to the 60 votes they need to proceed this week.?
The standoff is exceedingly rare. The Senate has never successfully filibustered a Cabinet secretary. Only two previous Cabinet officials required 60 votes before confirmation.?
Reid blasted Republicans for the standoff.?
"Chuck Hagel had nothing to do with the attack on Bengahzi," he said Thursday on the floor. "There are serious consequences to this delay."?
Graham, a Republican, has said he'll vote against ending debate on Hagel's nomination, and Sen. John McCain, another Republican who most sharply questioned Hagel during his Senate hearing, may join him.?
They want to know whether Obama spoke to any Libyan government official during the assault and requested assistance for the American personnel at the mission. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died in the raid at the compound in Benghazi.?
"There seems to not be much interest to hold this president accountable for a national security breakdown that led to the first ambassador being killed in the line of duty in over 30 years," Graham said. "No, the debate on Chuck Hagel is not over. It has not been serious. We don't have the information we need."?
McCain declined to say Wednesday whether he would try to delay Hagel's confirmation if Obama did not provide an answer. "My position right now is I want an answer to the question," he said.?
The nomination of John Brennan as CIA director is also being delayed; the Senate Intelligence Committee is pushing off a vote amid demands that the White House turn over more details about drone strikes against terror suspects and about the Benghazi attacks. Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, said a vote likely will be postponed till late February.?
A president's pick for a Cabinet post usually requires only a majority vote, leading Reid to accuse Senate Republicans of orchestrating a filibuster against a nominee for defense secretary for the first time in the country's history.?
Sen. Carl Levin, the Democrat and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, said he's confident that the White House will supply the information Graham and McCain want and that Hagel will be confirmed.?
A bitterly divided Armed Services Committee on Tuesday voted to approve Hagel by a 14-11 vote, with all the panel's Democrats backing him.?
The committee's Republicans were unified in opposition to their onetime colleague, who will succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta if he's confirmed.?
Hagel has faced intense opposition from Republicans, who have challenged his past statements and votes on Israel, Iran, Iraq and nuclear weapons.?
Fox News' Chad Pergram and Mike Emanuel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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