Gil Cisneros Insults Pete Hegseth To His Face, Tells Him He Got His Job By 'Sucking Up To Your Boss'

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At today's House Armed Services Committee hearing, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-CA) tore into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

Transcript

00:00I recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. Cisneros.

00:03Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:04Mr. Secretary.

00:06So many topics to cover.

00:08I represent California's 31st District, located in Southern California,

00:13where you've deployed the National Guard and Marine Combat Battalion

00:16in an effort by this administration to provoke a confrontation.

00:20God only knows for what reason.

00:23As my colleague from Tennessee mentioned,

00:25the military has been activated before by the President,

00:28but let's tell the whole story.

00:30President Johnson federalized the troops after the governor of Alabama

00:33activated them to keep black students out of the University of Alabama.

00:37President Johnson did it so the students could attend the university.

00:41He did it for the right reason.

00:43He corrected a wrong.

00:45California did not ask the president for help,

00:47and the presence of the military is an effort by this administration

00:51to intimidate and incite fear and violence amongst its citizens.

00:55You failed at ensuring basic operational security

00:59by sharing classified data over an unclassified network.

01:03This was blatant, lazy, and put service members' lives at risk.

01:07And knowing that your office is a SCIF,

01:10I hope you are not bringing in your devices,

01:13your personal cell phone, or even your work phone,

01:15because that's not supposed to be in there either, right,

01:16your cell phone, into your office to send these signal chat texts.

01:20Your blatant lack of basic OPSEC would have gotten you resigned,

01:28forced you to resign from any other administration.

01:31You're requiring 8% cuts across all services,

01:35not to save the taxpayers' money,

01:38but to fund President Trump's pet projects.

01:40You talk about quality of life for service members,

01:44but yet you take a billion dollars away from the Army

01:46that was meant to improve their barracks and their lives.

01:51You said that money was waste,

01:53but we don't know that yet because we haven't seen a budget.

01:56If the President has projects he wants funding for,

02:00you need to come before this body and provide reasoning,

02:04not just shift money around.

02:06Right now you are stealing from our service members,

02:08robbing Peter to pay Paul.

02:10Now you have repeatedly said that you will judge every individual on their merit.

02:16Is that true?

02:20Unlike the previous administration, yes.

02:22You will judge people yes or no for our service members,

02:25how good they are at their job, yes.

02:27But yet you are separating thousands of service members

02:30who are performing and doing their job at a high level.

02:34They are being separated not based on merit.

02:36You know, some of them have been recommended for early promotion

02:39and have gotten awards and are doing a great job,

02:42but you are separating for no other reason.

02:44And frankly, I think you just don't like them.

02:46And you are classifying many of them as a national security threat,

02:50which is simply not true.

02:53You asked the Secretary of the Navy to change the name of a ship,

02:57the ship because Harvey Milk didn't meet your definition of warrior ethos.

03:01If a Korean War veteran and a Navy diver who gave his life

03:06for standing up for his beliefs doesn't meet your definition,

03:09I don't know what will.

03:11You keep talking about recruiting.

03:14But let's face the facts here, right?

03:15Recruiting started improving before President Trump even came into office.

03:20And the reason that changed was because of the investment

03:24that was put into recruiting.

03:26Now, I was at the Pentagon at the time,

03:28and I know how much we invested in it,

03:30and I know how much of the service is.

03:31And when you take away that investment,

03:34you're going to get exactly what happened

03:36in President Trump's first administration.

03:38In 2019, we had this same recruiting crisis

03:41back in 2019 when he was president the first time.

03:45You continue to attack diversity.

03:47But I have always said diversity is about creating opportunity,

03:52and I have seen plenty of individuals,

03:54many of them enlisted members,

03:56who, when given the opportunity,

03:58have succeeded not because of their sex,

04:01not because of color,

04:02not because of their sexual identity,

04:05but because of their worth, ethic, and merit.

04:09Mr. Secretary, when using your definition of DEI,

04:13I think there's only one individual at the Pentagon

04:16right now who got his job based on that merit,

04:19and that is you.

04:20And you got it because of sucking up your boss,

04:22and with that, I yield back.

04:24Gentleman yields back.

04:25Cheer to-

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