'You Think You Owe Her An Apology?': Vindman Tells Hegseth Mom Of Servicemember Wants Him To Resign

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At the House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA) questioned Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chair. I ask unanimous consent to submit for the record an article.

00:09A distinguished member of this committee without objection, so ordered, confirmed that there was

00:14in fact a pause in offensive cyber operations earlier this year. The SecDef just denied this.

00:21This committee deserves to know whether the Secretary just lied. Mr. Secretary, many believe

00:29you were unqualified, underqualified for this role. You've been Secretary for four and a half months

00:34now. For the sake of the American people and our service members, I hope you've done your homework

00:39since. Let's talk Indo-PACOM. What year has the Navy publicly set as the benchmark for being ready to

00:46fight a war with China? Well, it needs to be right now. We know what China has said. I'm glad to hear

00:52that, but there is a publicly set date. Well, we know it wouldn't be prudent for me in this

00:59environment to reveal when we think we're ready. That's what China has said, and we understand what

01:03they're saying. Mr. Secretary, I ask for a year. We want to be capable and ready for it.

01:06Not a filibuster. 2027 is the year. According to unclassified DOD assessments, how many warships

01:13does China have in its Navy today? Many and growing. 370. It's the largest Navy in the world. How many

01:23does the U.S. Navy have today? Thanks to this budget, it's increasing substantially. I'm looking

01:29for a number. But it's just south of 300. 296. Pretty close. How many ships is China expected to

01:37field by 2030? I believe that's a classified number, but it's going to go up. There's a DOD

01:43CNPR report that was released. There's an unclassified number. It's going up at a rapid rate. Let me help

01:49you out. 435. Let's see if we would do better in UCOM. What corridor in eastern Poland is vulnerable

01:56and a priority for U.S. reinforcements? It connects Belarus to a Russian region. I'm sure you can tell me.

02:06I can tell you. It's the Swalky Gap. Which heavily militized Russian territory connected the Swalky

02:14Gap? It contains nuclear-capable missiles. It threatens all of NATO. It's right there in the

02:20middle of eastern Europe. I see we're playing a quiz game here. Ultimately, thankfully, we're getting

02:28our NATO allies to step up in their spending to make sure that they can hold a lot. Mr. Secretary,

02:32I asked you a specific question. Thank you. It's Kaliningrad Oblast. So what percentage of Ukrainian

02:38frontline casualties, let's talk drones, are now caused by FPV drones? A very large percentage,

02:46and we're studying that conflict closely to understand that fact. I hope so. It's over 70%.

02:51And which U.S. service has written doctrine or standardized procurement for integration of FPV drones?

02:57That's the Army. I wish that were the case, but actually, the answer is none of them.

03:04So we're not prepared yet, and we need to get there fast. Let me turn to a different topic. A few

03:11weeks ago, when my office opened up in Fredericksburg, I spoke to the mother of one F-18 pilot who flew the

03:16March 15th mission over the Red Sea in Yemen that you discussed over Signal. I spoke to her again on

03:22Tuesday and asked her if there was anything she wanted me to bring up. She believes that you need to

03:27resign. She also had several questions, but one thing, she said she would appreciate an apology,

03:32an apology for putting classified information. Her son couldn't even tell her where the Truman was

03:38going, but into the Houthi PC small group signal chat that rest her son's life and the mission.

03:44Mr. Secretary, yes or no, do you think you owe her an apology?

03:49Please make sure to let her know how grateful we are for the skill and heroism.

03:53I am very much grateful. I'm sure everybody in this room is grateful. I'm proud of what her son

03:58has done. The question is, do you owe her an apology for your actions? Are you going to be

04:04accountable? It was an incredibly successful mission. Her son did great work. They did a

04:09magnificent job. Thankfully, the Houthi campaign was successful. Secretary, I agree with you.

04:12Magnificent job. The performance of those pilots and Navy personnel, magnificent. We're talking about

04:18what you did and accountability. Are you going to apologize to the mother or not?

04:24I don't apologize for success.

04:26You don't apologize for putting her son's life in danger and for putting the mission in jeopardy.

04:32Well, that's really disappointing and not befitting the type of leadership that our troops and families

04:37deserve. It's frankly a stunning lack of OPSEC. Privates are trained to do much better than that.

04:45It was reckless. And it sounds like that accountability doesn't extend as far as the Secretary of Defense.

04:52So I think you should resign. The mother says she wants you gone. And with that, I yield back.

04:58Gentlemen.

04:59Gentlemen.

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