Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is back on the Hill this week and he is getting torched by Democrats.
Hegseth is savvy in front of a microphone, however, and for all his faults, he can handle himself against these attacks.
First up was Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), who went after Hegseth on the handling of the riots, but Hegseth was quick to flip the script on her regarding how Democrats have handled riots in the past. McCollum stated, “Governor Walz made the decision to call up the Minnesota National Guard [in 2020]. At no point did we need, of the citizens of Minnesota, to request that the Marines be deployed.
“Our state and local law enforcement, along with our National Guard, who have worked on crowd control, they were more than enough. They were more than capable of handling this situation. History has proven that law enforcement and the National Guard are more than capable of handling situations more volatile than what happened this weekend.”
Hegseth fired back, “Well congresswoman, thank you for the question. You are right, we are both originally from Minnesota and that’s why I recall 2020 quite well when Governor Walz abandoned a police precinct and allowed it to be burned to the ground. And [he] also allowed five days of chaos to occur inside the streets of Minneapolis. The police precinct, ma’am, was abandoned and burned to the ground and because of that, the National Guard, was eventually, far too late, mobilized.
“And President Trump recognizes a situation like that, improperly hindered by a governor, like it was by Governor Walz, if it gets out of control, it is bad a situation for the citizens of any location. So in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) also went after Hegseth, but again, Hegseth handled himself quite well. He asked, “There have been photographs that have shown these troops sleeping on the floor and they have not been provided fuel, food or water by DOD. How long will this deployment last and why were we unprepared to provide them basic necessities such as food and water?”
Hegseth responded, “The commanders and troops on the field are very well prepared, sir. They responded incredibly rapidly to a deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities. We have made sure from the top down, the secretary of Defense, who’s been in a unit holding riot shields outside the White House in the summer of 2020, I know what it’s like to be immediately deployed in a situation like that.
“There are moments where you make do as best you can temporarily. But we are making sure they are housed, fed, water, [have] capabilities in real time from my office because I care that much about the California [National] Guard, and the Marines and the men and women who are supporting our [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] agents on the ground.”
I will say this… the pictures circulating about this online were not good, and if they were going to send the troops there, they should have been better organized, but we have seen this before when things happen quickly. And not to sound harsh, but these are soldiers, and I am sure they have seen far worse conditions for far longer periods of time. Even so, Hegseth had to know the Dems would jump all over this.
For the record, it is not just the Dems attacking the administration, as there are plenty of Republicans who are worried about the optics of this, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), who even challenged Trump’s right to send Marines there.
He stated, “I don’t know the particulars on what authorities exist there but my assumption is that the administration has been looking carefully at what he can and can’t do under the law. Obviously, the 1798 Act is available to them if they choose to exercise it.”
He continued, “In this case at least there were clear just failures on the part of state and local officials, which is why I think it required the president to take a federal response. There was a security situation out there that needed to be addressed and I think ultimately the president’s objective is to keep people safe.”
I admit, I was not happy to see them authorize Marines going there, but at the same time, federal officers were there who were being attacked, so the hand was more or less forced. Having said that, I think we had other options than sending active-duty troops into this hotspot. I just don’t like the optics of this one bit.
