In a high-octane exchange, the Secretary of Defense demolished Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) in the wake of the violent anti-ICE riots that plagued Los Angeles earlier this year. Aguilar disingenuously couched his concerns by repeating baseless rumors of National Guardsmen working in unsafe conditions; however, Pete Hegseth expertly disarmed this argument.
For context, Hegseth defended his decisions to deploy the guard for 60 days, pointing to the need for a rapid response and Governor Gavin Newsom’s inability to keep his state safe. Specifically, he cited U.S. Code 12-406 to justify the brave intervention.
In any case, Aguilar began his dishonorable rhetoric by trying to paint his opposition to the deployment as concern for our troops. He whined, “Mr. Secretary, I want to express my severe concern with the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles without consultation of the state of California,” adding, “There have been photographs that have shown these troops sleeping on the floor and have not been provided fuel, food, or water by DOD.”
Finally getting to the point of his long-winded statement, he asked Hegseth a direct question: “How long will this deployment last, and why were we unprepared to provide them basic necessities, such as food and water?”
Expertly dismantling this clumsy argument, the Secretary of Defense responded, “The commanders and troops on the field are very well prepared, sir.” Explaining why it was necessary to deploy troops to LA, Hegseth stated, “They responded incredibly rapidly to a deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities we have made sure from the top down.”
Establishing his authority to speak on matters of riot control, the former Fox News host added, “As the Secretary of Defense, who’s been in a unit holding riot shields outside the White House during the chaos of the summer of 2020, I know what it’s like to be immediately deployed into a situation like that.”
Then Hegseth ripped into the Democrat, describing his remarks as “a disingenuous attack that misrepresents how much we care about our troops and what they’re doing to defend ICE agents,” following up, he added, “Nobody cares more about the troops at the top than this secretary.”
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Still reeling from this epic tirade, Aguilar asked, “Mr. Secretary, how long will the deployment last?” Firing back without hesitation, Hgseth said, “We stated very publicly that it’s 60 days because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters, and thugs on the other side, assaulting our police officers, know that we’re not going anywhere.”
Connecting the rampant lawlessness to the failure of state governance, he declared, “We’re here to maintain the peace on behalf of law enforcement officers in Los Angeles, which Gavin Newsom won’t do…If you’ve got millions of illegals, you don’t know where they’re coming from.”
Watch the clip here:
Continuing his demolition of Newsom, he noted, “They’re…waving flags from foreign countries, and assaulting police officers and law enforcement officers. The governor of California is unable to execute the laws of the United States…the governor of California has failed to protect his people, along with the mayor of Los Angeles.”
Featured image from embedded video