'So nervous': Senator points out 'noticeable' reason defense sec is 'so afraid of Trump'



On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to answer questions about ongoing crises both in the U.S. and overseas. And he was particularly cagey with Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) when she asked him about whether he would obey an illegal order from President Donald Trump.

In her questioning, Slotkin brought up Trump's deployment of military personnel to quell the ongoing protests of the Trump administration's aggressive approach to immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, California. And when she asked Hegseth whether he would issue an order to harm unarmed protesters — or convey such an order from Trump to military leadership — after citing a passage from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper's book in which Trump suggested shooting protesters in the legs, the Pentagon chief demurred.

"Senator … be careful what you read in books, and believing it. Except for the Bible," Hegseth said.

READ MORE: 'What is going on?' Trump appears to confuse the Revolutionary War with the Civil War

During a recent segment on MSNBC's "Deadline: White House," host Nicolle Wallace pointed out that Hegseth seemed "so afraid of Trump" in his refusal to give a direct answer to Slotkin's questions. The Michigan senator agreed, adding that she has seen a similar pattern among other Trump appointees.

"A lot of these political appointees have been very concerned about doing anything that would anger [Trump] because they know they'd lose their job, right? They know they'd have their nomination pulled," she said. "And there's varying degrees of it. And for Secretary Hegseth, he has always been the most nervous, most concerned, most hedging, most agitated."

"When you ask him a straight-up question about the Constitution, it's noticeable," she continued. "And then he's had a rough first few months, right? He's in the spotlight. We're talking more about his conduct and his behavior and use of Signal for war plans than we are about the leadership. And I think that makes him even more concerned."

Slotkin insisted that whether a defense secretary would issue or follow an illegal order "shouldn't be a hard question" to answer, and that adherence to the Constitution was "all we're asking for from the man who controls the entire U.S. military."

READ MORE: 'Ammo for Democrats': Swing state GOP rep forced to put Trump ahead of constituents

Watch the segment below, or by clicking this link.

- YouTube www.youtube.com



from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/3OQ497Z
via sinceretalk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PA GOP Senate candidate who says he 'started with nothing' actually grew up in a mansion

Image
David McCormick, who is Pennsylvania's presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, has often suggested he grew up poor in a rural community. But a new report finds that his upbringing was far more affluent than he's suggested. The New York Times reported Friday that McCormick — a former hedge fund executive who lived in Connecticut as recently as 2022 — has been cagey with voters about his childhood. McCormick has tweeted that he was "raised in Bloomsburg working on his family's farm," said on a 2022 podcast that he " started with nothing " and told CBS News that same year that he " didn't have anything " growing up as the son of two schoolteachers. But according to the Times , McCormick's father, Dr. James H. McCormick , was appointed president of what is now Bloomsburg University by Gov. Milton Schapp (D) in 1973. He moved his family into Buckalew Place — the official mansion for presidents of the school that currently spans 5...
Read more

'Republicans used to care!' Nicolle Wallace shreds GOP as 'hostages of the MAGA movement'

Image
The potential confirmation of President Donald Trump's personal criminal defense attorney to the federal bench is a bridge too far for MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, who unleashed on both Trump and Republicans on Tuesday. During a recent impromptu monologue on her show "Deadline: White House," Wallace expressed alarm that former Trump lawyer Emil Bove could soon be confirmed as a U.S. Circuit Court judge for the rest of his life. Wallace launched into the monologue after former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade commented on the hyper-partisan context of Bove's appointment as Trump has forced his far-right politics on the federal judiciary. "[Trump] has said he's very angry at Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society, even calling him a 'sleazebag' for giving him bad advice. He has privately indicated that he is very disappointed in Amy Coney Barrett and some other judges that he has appointed," McQuade said. "He has this very transactional view ...
Read more

'It all falls apart': Trump aide admits Republicans 'don't have the votes' to pass bill

Image
In a rare admission of uncertainty, Republican senators are privately conceding that President Donald Trump’s "Big, Beautiful Bill" may “fall apart” before the self-imposed July 4 deadline, Semafor reported Thursday. Trump is reportedly banking on his signature hardball tactics in trying to secure passage of the legislation by Independence Day. However, GOP lawmakers say that strategy is faltering in the Senate amid mounting procedural hurdles and internal dissent, per the report. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told Semafor: “I like the president, I respect him, I certainly respect how difficult his job is. I don’t want to make it more difficult. But we can’t keep mortgaging our kids’ future. And he understands that about me." READ MORE: (Opinion) Trump's reckless boast has just been thoroughly debunked Sen. Johnson is currently against the bill and is said to have banded with two fellow conservative senators as a bloc: “We all have to be a yes before any of us ar...
Read more