During a hearing of the Senate committee on Armed Services, Pete Hegseth refused to answer whether he gave orders for troops to shoot protesters
Slotkin grilled the Secretary of Defense over the use of the National Guard and US troops being sent to Los Angeles.
Slotkin slowly led up to the point she truly wanted to know: Was the military authorized to shoot unarmed protestors?
Hegseth refused to giver her an answer, but when he did respond it left the Michigan Senator stunned.
SLOTKIN: Have you given the order for to be able to shoot at unarmed protesters in any way? I’m just asking the question.
(Hegseth laughs off camera)
Don’t laugh. Like the whole country, and by the way, my colleagues across the aisle.
HEGSETH: What is that based on? What evidence would you have that an order like that has ever been given?
SLOTKIN: It is based on Donald Trump giving that order to your predecessor, to a Republican Secretary of Defense, who I give a lot of credit to because he didn’t accept the order.
He had more guts and balls than you because he said, I’m not going to send in the uniformed military to do something that I know in my gut isn’t right.
He was asked to shoot at their legs. He wrote that in his book. That’s not hearsay. So you’re poo-pooing of this, it just shows you don’t understand who we are as a country, who we are.
