'When I Hear Warrior Ethos, & I Hear It A Lot From You, Mr. Secretary...': Marcy Kaptur Confronts Pete Hegseth

Forbes Breaking News

At today's House Appropriations Committee hearing, Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) questioned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Transcript

00:00We welcome our guests.

00:02I come from a family of combat veterans going back a long time.

00:06And my comment is the use of certain words and what they imply.

00:12When I hear warrior ethos, and I hear it a lot from you, Mr. Secretary,

00:18I'm concerned all the soldiers in our family,

00:22all of whom fought and received medals for their combat service,

00:26call themselves soldiers.

00:28Marines are trained to kill.

00:32In terms of domestic policing, our police and our National Guard

00:37at the state level, carefully used, but also our state police,

00:42are used in civil enforcement.

00:45And they are good.

00:46I don't need any reply.

00:48I just am concerned about what those words you often utter actually do

00:55in people's minds and change the language we have used since the founding of this republic.

01:01So I just, that is a concern of mine.

01:04I wanted to go to the general and chairman, if I could.

01:08We've heard a lot this morning about defense industrial base.

01:12And this is something I ran for office on a long time ago.

01:17We have not made significant progress as a country in this regard.

01:23And the places that made things, whether they were machine tools, whether it was composite materials,

01:29were left behind.

01:30It's one of the reasons for the division in our society.

01:33So I am very interested in knowing what specifically, and in which accounts,

01:40and I hope you can get this back to us within a week and a half,

01:44you are going to focus on, in order to inject additional resources in the defense industrial base of this country,

01:55what will that look like?

01:56We are just successful now in helping steel to revive in some of our composite metals.

02:01Forty years ago, I wrote a title to the defense bill dealing with strategic metals.

02:06Nobody at Department of Defense cared, okay?

02:09So I'm interested in which accounts, if you could kindly get back to me on that,

02:14and what, when you say defense industrial base, budget-wise, in which accounts, what does that mean?

02:21All right, I don't expect you to answer it now.

02:23Can you tell me when you might get that information back to us?

02:27Well, ma'am, you said a week and a half, so I know the awesome humans behind me are scribbling madly to come back to that.

02:34Can I just make a quick comment?

02:36You know, I happen to be a lucky guy that served in the private sector for a while,

02:40and I ran a machine shop in Texas, along with a metal finishing business.

02:46So when we talk about defense industrial base, I broaden that out to really the national industrial base.

02:52There are certain components that are made in the defense side, but as you articulate, ma'am,

02:56many others are made in the small machine shops out around this entire nation.

03:01When I talk about mobilizing our nation, I think of that national, not just defense industrial base.

03:09What do we have to do to create greater capacity all the way down the chain to include jobs at the local level

03:15for those people that build quality parts and deliver on time with shorter lead time and lower cost?

03:21And so I have great empathy for what you're talking about, and we'll get back to you just as soon as we can.

03:26Yes, and General and Secretary, going back to the drone attack in Ukraine,

03:33a country that was invaded by the Russian dictatorship, starting in 2014.

03:40They've been at war for a decade, more than a decade.

03:44What they've done with drones is astounding.

03:47It's going to change warfare.

03:50One of my questions is, what are you doing to establish relations with Ukraine

03:54and not turn your back on them as an administration and help them win, help liberty win?

04:00This has implications way beyond the boundaries of Ukraine.

04:04Russia's got 11 time zones.

04:06I mean, this is the most important test of liberty for our NATO alliance in my lifetime,

04:14and we better help win.

04:16And that involves moving forward faster on drone technology.

04:20I'm very worried about our air bases, where we have secure assets.

04:25Mr. Secretary, can we defend them today if they were to have a similar attack?

04:33We're certainly very focused on that, ma'am, and we're learning every day from Ukraine.

04:39I think we would need to clarify what win means.

04:42This president is committed to peace.

04:44He's committed to stopping the killing, and he was not in office when it started in 2014.

04:48There were no additional incursions in his first term,

04:51and then under the previous administration, Vladimir Putin sought to take Ukraine.

04:55We're committed.

04:56This administration is committed to peace, to stopping the killing,

04:58and we think that serves American interests.

04:59Did you just leave Ukraine, Mr. Secretary?

05:02Did you just leave Ukraine?

05:05General Ladies, time has expired, but if you can get back to us on that.

05:08Have you visited Ukraine?

05:10No, ma'am.

05:11My first trip there, sir, was 1973.

05:15Gentlemen, ladies, time has expired.

05:18Mr. Carter, you're recognized for five minutes.

05:25We're very proud of you.

05:28I'm fully supportive of the Army's outgoing modernization efforts

05:34and the recent Army transformation initiative

05:37that combined the Army's future command with TRADOC

05:42to become the transformational and training command.

05:47How are you-

05:49How are you-

Category

Transcript

Recommended