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Eric Sorensen Asks Pete Hegseth If 'Harvey Milk Is A Veteran Who Deserves His Country's Thanks'
Forbes Breaking News
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6/13/2025
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) questioned Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth.
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00:00
From Illinois, Mr. Sorensen. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Secretary,
00:06
to the General for joining us today. Mr. Secretary, I'm hopeful that we can come to an agreement that
00:12
we need both sides of the Chambers working together for the betterment of the military.
00:18
Do you believe that bipartisanship is essential to the mission of our armed forces, yes or no?
00:25
Bipartisanship. I think bipartisanship can be a wonderful thing.
00:29
Great. Because I didn't come to Congress with political baggage. I was called here because
00:35
I believe and my constituents believe that we need impartial, bipartisan people to find
00:41
solutions to complex problems. But today, this nation is being pushed and pulled in so many
00:46
different directions. I had a constituent this weekend that said, Eric, I don't even know what
00:50
to believe anymore. Facts don't matter. Conspiracy theories run rampant like brush fires without
00:57
anyone to quell them. So I'm hoping you can shoot straight from the hip with me. We're almost done.
01:02
Do you have a targeted number of reductions in civilian personnel in our armed forces?
01:09
We have very diligently tried to identify the places where we might need to make changes,
01:14
but for the most part, it's been a DRP process, a volunteer process, of civilians to try to reduce
01:19
the number for cost savings. Is there an analysis that supports how you're coming up with these
01:24
decisions? We looked at about 8 to 10 percent, Congressman, but ultimately, everyone here
01:32
acknowledges that the civilian size of the DOD has exploded over the last 20 years. And so where
01:37
there are room for efficiencies, we are actively trying to find them and right-size those spots,
01:42
because a lot of those places are not making us more nimble or faster at what we do.
01:45
And it's not necessarily about the people, but it's the numbers. Right. What do we say to the
01:49
people that have strived in their entire life? These are former retired members of the military
01:53
working as civilians back home. What do we say to them? Well, almost all of them took a voluntary
01:57
DRP to separate. Do you have a timeline for making these cuts? Like I said, almost all of them
02:04
were volunteers who themselves decided to retire early. Okay. I want to reset for just a moment.
02:09
And I'm going to be honest with you. I learned a lot about military service from both of my
02:14
grandpas who served and fought in World War II. My grandpa Sorensen was a proud Navy photographer.
02:21
You know, I have his photos. They're framed above my desk here on Capitol Hill. You know, I learned
02:25
to be proud of him. And from him, I learned how to become proud of veterans, which is why I want to
02:33
talk about a different veteran, one who served in the Korean War from 1951 to 55. He served courageously
02:39
like my grandpa Sorensen. But unlike my grandpa, this veteran was forced to resign from the Navy.
02:48
I'm talking about Harvey Milk because he was gay. You see, as a kid, all I wanted to be was the
02:55
weatherman on TV. You know, I learned that I could have gone into the Army or the Navy to learn
03:00
meteorology. But someone like me wasn't allowed. They didn't want someone like me, Mr. Secretary.
03:08
There wasn't anything that I could do to change myself or the way that my nation thought of me.
03:15
And so I want to keep this very simple. Do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves
03:20
his country's thanks? Sir, the decision to rename the ship was about time.
03:25
I'm just asking, do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country's thanks?
03:31
Yes or no? If his service was deemed honorable? Yes.
03:35
Yesterday, the Secretary of the Navy was in your seat. He couldn't give me a straight answer.
03:41
I disagree with your leadership and his because I believe that every veteran deserves our thanks.
03:48
We all walk in the footsteps of leaders before us. And you may not find the value in the fact that
03:55
many of those people are women with different skin colors, different backgrounds, different talents,
04:00
immigrants, gay, straight, transgender, disabled. You may want to change it, but you can't.
04:07
Because the America that you and I both serve is a place where everyone has the ability or should
04:14
have the ability to grow up and be the hero their grandpa was. I wanted to do that when I was a kid.
04:23
We're going back to that time. Gay kids like me, they don't want to go into the Army. They don't want
04:29
to go into the Navy because you don't care for them. It's happening all over our country.
04:36
My grandpa taught me never to judge the value of a veteran's service. And I hope, Mr. Secretary,
04:43
you learn to do the same in your capacity and you can find it in your heart to make that part of your
04:50
process. May God continue to watch over our troops, our veterans, and our military families. I yield back.
04:56
Gentleman yields back. Cheers.
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