Congressional Democrats started the fight. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ended it.
Hegseth was called before the House Appropriations Committee to discuss his proposed budget, but Democrats wanted to use the opportunity to pummel Hegseth over his work running the military and the deployment of Marines to ensure Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are protected in Los Angeles.
“This is a deeply unfair position to put our Marines in,” Democratic Rep. Betty McCollum of Minnesota said in a jab at Hegseth, according to the SC Times.
That unleashed a flurry of counterpunches as Hegseth told McCollum and all lawmakers, he was not allowing protests to devolve into chaos, as was done by Democrats five years ago.
“I recall 2020 quite well, when Gov. Walz abandoned a police precinct and allowed it to be burned to the ground — and also allowed five days of chaos to occur inside the streets of Minneapolis,” Hegseth said, according to the Daily Wire.
“The police precinct, ma’am, was abandoned and burned to the ground. And because of that, the National Guard was eventually — far too late — mobilized,” he explained.
“And President Trump recognizes a situation like that improperly handled by a governor — like it was by Gov. Walz — if it gets out of control, is a bad situation for the citizens of any location.”
Hegseth then turned to the anarchy of Los Angeles.
“So in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed into our country in the previous administration. ICE ought to be able to do its job whether it’s Minneapolis or Los Angeles,” he continued.
Has Hegseth’s response to L.A. been appropriate?
“You asked about the situation in Los Angeles, and we believe ICE agents should be allowed to be safe in doing their operations.
“And we have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties, because we ought [to] be able to enforce immigration law in this country, unlike Gov. Walz did in 2020.”
According to an estimate from WITI, 17 people died in the first two weeks of riots that followed Floyd’s May 2020 death.
Democratic Rep. Pete Aguilar of California decided to throw a slam at Hegseth, claiming National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles “have not been provided food or water” by the Defense Department, according to SC Times.
“We are assured they’re housed, fed, water capabilities in real time from my office,” he said, calling the comment a “disingenuous attack.”
National Guard troops, he said, will remain deployed for 60 days to “ensure that those rioters, looters and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere.”
In response to Aguilar’s question about the authority to send troops, Hegseth said the issue was the vast population of illegal immigrants battling police.
“If you’ve got millions of illegals, you don’t know where they’re coming from. They’re waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers and law enforcement officers — that’s the problem,” he said.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom “has failed to protect his people,” Hegseth stated.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
