Pete Hegseth Battles House Dem On Marine Deployment in LA in Heated Hearing Exchange

A House Democrat on Tuesday grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the use of U.S. Marines to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles.

In response to the protests that began last weekend, President Donald Trump announced he would provide the LAPD with backup in the form of the National Guard and the United States Marine Corps. On Saturday, the administration revealed that 500 Marines were “prepared to deploy.”

On Tuesday, Hegseth appeared before the House Appropriations Committee to answer questions about the Defense Department’s budget. Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN) wondered how much the Los Angeles deployments were costing:

Our state and local law enforcement, along with our National Guard who have worked on crowd control, they were more than enough. They were more than capable of handling this situation. History has proven that law enforcement and the National Guard are more than capable of handling situations more volatile than what happened this weekend. We all see the continuous loops on TV, but this looks nothing like the George Floyd protests or the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles in 1992. Mr. Secretary, this is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in. Their service should be honored. It should not be exploited.

The president has issued an Executive Order and talked about deploying troops across the country. Los Angeles County has 17,000 law enforcement personnel; and the state of California has 24,000 National Guard troops. So that’s why the Los Angeles chief of police [said], and I quote, “The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles is absent a clear coordination, presents a significant logistical operational challenge for those of us who are charged with safeguarding the city.”

As I mentioned before, in Minnesota, we trained for those things together, so there’s no need for the Marines to be deployed. So here are my budget questions, though. What is the current cost for what is taking place in California, and how is it going to affect this budget or the budget we’re currently serving under? How much are these deployments going to cost for both the Marines and the National Guard? And what training or duties are not taking place because of these deployments? Where, in your limited budget, sir, are you gonna find — in the remainder of this fiscal year — are you gonna pull the money to cover these deployments? What holes are being created?

In response, Hegseth cited the riots that broke out after the killing of Floyd in Minnesota as justification for the president’s use of Marines and the National Guard. He also argued that ICE should be able to conduct its immigration raids safely. Hegseth then called out California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass for the city’s police force decreasing from 18,000 to 17,000.

“I asked about the budget!” McCollum interjected. “I asked about the budget sir.”

Unmoved, Hegseth continued his attack on the previous presidential administration and current Democratic officials.

“Mr. Chairman, if the secretary’s not gonna [answer] the budgetary questions,” McCollum said, “I will yield back my time if the secretary refuses to answer the budgetary questions I put before him. They’re important. What training missions aren’t happening? Where are you pulling the money from? And how are you planning this moving forward? These are budget questions that affect this committee and the decisions we’re going to be making in a couple of hours. If you’re not gonna answer them, please let the chairman know, and I will take back my time and I will yield it back to the chairman.”

Hegseth then claimed that 13% increase to the Defense budget allows the administration to take such measures without it impacting other operations.

Watch above via MSNBC.