House Democrat Says ‘Pathetic Semantics’ and ‘Dishonesty’ From Pete Hegseth Pushed Him to Join Calls For Resignation
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) said he was not initially onboard with calls for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to resign, but his “pathetic semantics” convinced him.
Smith joined MSNBC anchor José Díaz-Balart on Thursday to discuss the ongoing fallout from The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg being accidentally looped into a group chat where administration officials, including Hegseth, were discussing a then-upcoming attack on Houthis in Yemen. Goldberg published the texts this week and the White House has continued denying any classified information was shared despite timing and details of the attack being discussed.
Smith is among the Democratic lawmakers calling for Hegseth to resign over the incident and he said it was the “dishonesty” in his and other officials’ rhetoric that convinced him to call for a resignation.
When Díaz-Balart asked why this would be more deserving of a resignation than the Afghanistan withdrawal, where 13 service members died, under then-President Joe Biden and then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Smith said there is no “acknowledgement of a problem” this time.
“I did not initially call for Secretary Hegseth to resign when this happened, but the biggest reason is no acknowledgment of the problem,” Smith said.
The lawmaker also blasted Hegseth’s “pathetic semantics” in refuting that what was shared were specifically “war plans.”
“I guess you can semantically say, well, that’s not a war plan. Most people would think that that’s at least part of a war plan. What you’re going to attack, when you’re going to attack, and what you’re going to attack it with,” he said.
Check out the exchange below:
JOSE DIAZ-BALART: Congressman, I’m just wondering as far as consistency across the board, why call for the secretary of defense to resign over this when others did not call for the then-secretary of defense to resign over, for example, what happened in Afghanistan? Where’s the difference there?
ADAM SMITH: Well, a couple different reasons. One of the biggest reasons, and I did not initially call for Secretary Hegseth to resign when this happened, but the biggest reason is no acknowledgment of the problem. As I said on Afghanistan, there was an endless array of investigations done by Congress, done by the White House, done by DoD, done by all kinds of agencies. There was a clear acknowledgment of that problem and the need to analyze it. What really pushed me over the line was when Secretary Hegseth said, ‘nothing to see here, business as usual,’ and also the dishonesty. You know, ‘none of this was classified.’ You know, ‘it wasn’t a war plan.’ I mean, I don’t know if it’s so much dishonesty or hiding behind pathetic semantics. You know, I don’t know, you ask anybody out there if we said, okay, this is what we’re attacking, this is when we are attacking, and this is what we are attacking it with. Now, I guess you can semantically say, well, that’s not a war plan. Most people would think that that’s at least part of a war plan. What you’re going to attack, when you’re going to attack, and what you’re going to attack it with. So it’s ‘just not a war plan, nothing to see here.’ So the unwillingness to even address a very serious issue is what has sort of pushed me to that point.
Watch above via MSNBC.
