U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) issued a scathing rebuke of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth during a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
Hegseth appeared for questioning before the Senate Armed Services Committee, where senators grilled him about Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, the ongoing Israel-Iran conflict and the SignalGate controversy. At one point, Duckworth criticized Hegseth for defending sending U.S. troops to Los Angeles to aid Trump’s deportation efforts.
She said that U.S. military service members should not be focusing on helping the Department of Homeland Security and instead be training for military missions.
“Instead of patrolling American neighborhoods and standing in front of federal buildings, they should be rehearsing call for fire missions. We have local police who can stand in front of those federal buildings. And the list of distractions goes on,” she said.
“You are encouraging the DoD workforce to go work for DHS in increasing numbers. You’re pulling the military away from facing foreign enemies who literally say things like ‘Death to America,’ and you’re putting troops with weapons aimed at Americans,” Duckworth continued.
“Mr. Secretary, let the military get back to its real job. Stop forcing them to do DHS’s. And if you want to be the DHS Secretary, maybe you can apply for that job when you’re fired from this one due to your incompetence,” she added.
Duckworth, an Iraq War veteran and Purple Heart recipient, has been highly critical of Hegseth’s role at the Department of Defense. She was one of the first Army women to fly combat missions in Iraq, losing her legs and partial use of her right arm after her helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in 2004.
Earlier in the hearing, Duckworth criticized Hegseth for his “failures,” including sharing sensitive military information with his wife in a Signal group chat, losing numerous military aircraft and focusing on renaming military bases.
“Your failures, Mr. Secretary, since you’ve taken office, has been staggering. You sent classified operational information over Signal to chest bump in front of your wife, who, by the way, has no security clearance, risking service member lives in the process,” Duckworth said.
“You blew the $1 billion fight against the Houthis, whom, again, as my colleague says, has no Navy, and yet you lost all of those aircraft. You’ve created such a hostile command environment that no one wants to serve as your chief of staff or work with you and other senior DoD leadership roles.”
“But what we should all be talking about more than all of this is that you have an unjustified, unAmerican misuse of the military in American cities, pulling resources and attention away from core missions to the detriment of the country, the war fighters and, yes, the war fighting that you claim to love,” she said.
She said Hegseth was “too inexperienced and incompetent” for the role.
“I don’t know if this is because you are too inexperienced and incompetent to understand the real threats facing our country, or if it’s because you are just an unqualified yes man who can’t tell the president how to keep Americans safe, you are focusing on renaming bases for Confederate generals,” she said.
Hegseth, who is appearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, has spent vast amounts of time during his first months in office promoting the social changes he’s making at the Pentagon. He’s been far less visible in the administration’s more critical international security crises and negotiations involving Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and Iran.
For example, Hegseth directed the renaming of a Navy ship that had honored Harvey Milk, a slain gay rights activist who served as a sailor during the Korean War. He also has touted other moves to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and said a ban on transgender troops in the military was a way to regain the “warrior ethos.”
Wednesday’s hearing was the first time Hegseth has gone before some senators since he squeaked through his Senate confirmation with a tie-breaking vote. It was the closest vote of any Trump Cabinet member.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Stories by Lauren Sforza
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