Democratic leaders bash Trump and Hegseth over ‘unhinged’ speech to generals
House Democratic leaders let loose on Pete Hegseth on Wednesday, hammering the Defense secretary over new directives to the nation’s generals urging an end to “woke” policies at the Pentagon and a return to “male standards” on the battlefield.
Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) characterized Hegseth’s speech, delivered Tuesday at the Quantico Marine base in Northern Virginia, as “shameful, chaotic [and] unhinged.”
“We can go down the litany of terrible ideas and policy positions that the secretary mentioned,” Aguilar, the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. “By the way, [he’s] the most unqualified secretary of Defense that this country has ever seen. So it’s hard to take him [seriously].”
The Democratic leaders also went after President Trump, who also addressed the generals at Quantico on Tuesday, particularly over his suggestion that the military should be deployed to fight crime in Democratic-led cities.
“We do not deploy American forces against Americans in our cities,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), a former Air Force attorney who is now the vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus.
“Our military is not to be used for domestic law enforcement. It is not trained to do that,” he continued. “It’s also illegal for Donald Trump to order U.S. troops against Americans in American cities. A federal judge has said so. We expect the appellate courts, and even the Supreme Court, to uphold that ruling.”
Lieu was referring to provisions under the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which sharply restricts the use of the military for domestic law enforcement purposes. Aguilar said he offered an amendment on the Appropriations Committee over the summer stipulating that no funds can be used in violation of that law. It passed with broad Republican support.
“They feel this is a nonissue, or they did two months ago,” Aguilar said. “I’m curious if they feel things have changed now.”
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday endorsed the idea of expanding the deployment of National Guard troops in cities around the country, as Trump has already done in Washington, D.C.
“They brought crime down dramatically in D.C.,” Johnson told CNN. “And all of us are safe, our staffs are safe, they‘re not walking in fear right now. I think we should do that in every major city run by Democrats who aren‘t serious.”
Trump is floating the idea of taking that a step further, by deploying active-duty troops, not just National Guard personnel.
“San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles. … It’s a war from within,” Trump said in Quantico. “I told Pete [Hegseth], we should use some of these cities as training grounds for our military — National Guard, but military. We’re going into Chicago very soon.”
Lieu, in criticizing that proposal as illegal, noted that the generals in attendance on Tuesday stayed largely silent when Trump and Hegseth had concluded their remarks.
“Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth were expecting rousing applause and standing ovations from our nation’s generals, and they were met with silence,” Lieu said. “It was the silence of the generals. And the generals knew that what Trump was saying was wrong.”