Richard Blumenthal Asks Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth: Do You Have Plans For The Use Of The US Military In America?

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During Wednesday’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) questioned Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth about the U.S. military force posture domestically.

Transcript

00:00Senator Blumenthal. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Hegseth, you've been asked about

00:07options for the use of force abroad. I want to ask about the use of our military at home. I have

00:14been deeply disturbed and alarmed by the use of active duty troops, Marines in Los Angeles,

00:22and President Trump has made clear his intention to continue to use the military to suppress

00:28dissent and likely inflame tensions there and elsewhere, all under the guise of enforcing

00:38the law. What he's doing may well be illegal. I want to ask you about contingency plans for

00:47the use of active duty military in other cities. Do you have such contingency plans?

00:54Senator, I would just say we share the President's view that, as you characterize it, we are deeply

01:03disturbed and alarmed that ICE officers are being attacked while doing their job in any city in

01:08America. And so allowing National Guard- And we can be alarmed by the attacks on ICE officers, yes,

01:16but we ought to be equally alarmed by the illegal use of active duty Marines or other military. I take

01:24it from your answer that you do have contingency plans for the use of military in other cities.

01:30We have never and will not illegally deploy troops. All have been under existing and well-established

01:36authorities to use troops to support federal law enforcement officers.

01:40So far, there's been no legal justification. It's been challenged successfully. I think that it will

01:46prevail. Those challenges will prevail in the courts. And I want to ask you right now to submit to this

01:55panel those contingency plans for the use of active duty military in other cities. I want to move on to

02:01another area of questioning. The Chairman has said that you've submitted precious little detail,

02:08to quote him, precious little detail about the budget. I think there is no detail. This budget is

02:19literally a rough outline with short-sighted shortfalls. For example, the shortfall on the Columbia

02:30class, two billion dollars. Only about one billion dollars for Virginia class. There is virtually no outline

02:41or specificity as to how you are going to provide drones to defend and also engage in offensive outline

02:52and maneuvers. The nature of warfare is changing right before our eyes in real time. Unmanned aerial and undersea

03:03warfare is happening in Ukraine and elsewhere. And I think that you owe this committee and the American public

03:13more specificity in that budget because we will be at risk. We are at risk right now

03:20in the Middle East. And I want to know whether we have contingency plans to protect our U.S. personnel

03:28in the region from the kind of swarm of drones that have proved devastating already to three of our

03:34service people in the Middle East on a base in Jordan. Do you have such plans to protect against drones there?

03:41Senator, we work hand in glove with the joint staff and CENTCOM and every COCOM, especially right now, to ensure

03:51everything at our disposal is available to ensure maximum force protection against any contingency,

03:57including the one you described, sir. Well, I have no assurance that we have the capacity to safeguard

04:05against the swarm of small, lightweight, slow-moving drones that are, in my view, our major vulnerability.

04:13And right now, if we engage in the Iran conflict, would put us and U.S. personnel at risk there.

04:22Let me ask you about Ukraine. I've just returned from my seventh trip to Ukraine. I am the advocate, chief sponsor,

04:31here with Senator Graham in the Russia sanctions bill. You said that the United States and the ranking member

04:46cited it, that we must start by recognizing that returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective

04:55and will only prolong the war. My question to you is, when will you release the PDA $4 billion in equipment

05:04that Ukraine desperately needs? It's sitting there. Ukraine deserves it. When will it be released?

05:13We're aware of PDA-75, and that is a decision we can make in the future.

05:20My time is expired, but I don't consider that answer adequate.

05:24Thank you, sir.

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