Eric Sorensen Asks Pete Hegseth If 'Harvey Milk Is A Veteran Who Deserves His Country's Thanks'

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At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Eric Sorensen (D-IL) questioned Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth.

Transcript

00:00From Illinois, Mr. Sorensen. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Secretary,

00:06to the General for joining us today. Mr. Secretary, I'm hopeful that we can come to an agreement that

00:12we need both sides of the Chambers working together for the betterment of the military.

00:18Do you believe that bipartisanship is essential to the mission of our armed forces, yes or no?

00:25Bipartisanship. I think bipartisanship can be a wonderful thing.

00:29Great. Because I didn't come to Congress with political baggage. I was called here because

00:35I believe and my constituents believe that we need impartial, bipartisan people to find

00:41solutions to complex problems. But today, this nation is being pushed and pulled in so many

00:46different directions. I had a constituent this weekend that said, Eric, I don't even know what

00:50to believe anymore. Facts don't matter. Conspiracy theories run rampant like brush fires without

00:57anyone to quell them. So I'm hoping you can shoot straight from the hip with me. We're almost done.

01:02Do you have a targeted number of reductions in civilian personnel in our armed forces?

01:09We have very diligently tried to identify the places where we might need to make changes,

01:14but for the most part, it's been a DRP process, a volunteer process, of civilians to try to reduce

01:19the number for cost savings. Is there an analysis that supports how you're coming up with these

01:24decisions? We looked at about 8 to 10 percent, Congressman, but ultimately, everyone here

01:32acknowledges that the civilian size of the DOD has exploded over the last 20 years. And so where

01:37there are room for efficiencies, we are actively trying to find them and right-size those spots,

01:42because a lot of those places are not making us more nimble or faster at what we do.

01:45And it's not necessarily about the people, but it's the numbers. Right. What do we say to the

01:49people that have strived in their entire life? These are former retired members of the military

01:53working as civilians back home. What do we say to them? Well, almost all of them took a voluntary

01:57DRP to separate. Do you have a timeline for making these cuts? Like I said, almost all of them

02:04were volunteers who themselves decided to retire early. Okay. I want to reset for just a moment.

02:09And I'm going to be honest with you. I learned a lot about military service from both of my

02:14grandpas who served and fought in World War II. My grandpa Sorensen was a proud Navy photographer.

02:21You know, I have his photos. They're framed above my desk here on Capitol Hill. You know, I learned

02:25to be proud of him. And from him, I learned how to become proud of veterans, which is why I want to

02:33talk about a different veteran, one who served in the Korean War from 1951 to 55. He served courageously

02:39like my grandpa Sorensen. But unlike my grandpa, this veteran was forced to resign from the Navy.

02:48I'm talking about Harvey Milk because he was gay. You see, as a kid, all I wanted to be was the

02:55weatherman on TV. You know, I learned that I could have gone into the Army or the Navy to learn

03:00meteorology. But someone like me wasn't allowed. They didn't want someone like me, Mr. Secretary.

03:08There wasn't anything that I could do to change myself or the way that my nation thought of me.

03:15And so I want to keep this very simple. Do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves

03:20his country's thanks? Sir, the decision to rename the ship was about time.

03:25I'm just asking, do you believe that Harvey Milk is a veteran who deserves his country's thanks?

03:31Yes or no? If his service was deemed honorable? Yes.

03:35Yesterday, the Secretary of the Navy was in your seat. He couldn't give me a straight answer.

03:41I disagree with your leadership and his because I believe that every veteran deserves our thanks.

03:48We all walk in the footsteps of leaders before us. And you may not find the value in the fact that

03:55many of those people are women with different skin colors, different backgrounds, different talents,

04:00immigrants, gay, straight, transgender, disabled. You may want to change it, but you can't.

04:07Because the America that you and I both serve is a place where everyone has the ability or should

04:14have the ability to grow up and be the hero their grandpa was. I wanted to do that when I was a kid.

04:23We're going back to that time. Gay kids like me, they don't want to go into the Army. They don't want

04:29to go into the Navy because you don't care for them. It's happening all over our country.

04:36My grandpa taught me never to judge the value of a veteran's service. And I hope, Mr. Secretary,

04:43you learn to do the same in your capacity and you can find it in your heart to make that part of your

04:50process. May God continue to watch over our troops, our veterans, and our military families. I yield back.

04:56Gentleman yields back. Cheers.

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