Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attempted to deflect questions about whether he’d obey an order to illegally send American troops to polling stations during the November midterm elections with a familiar response on Thursday, but one Democratic senator wasn’’t having it.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin, of Michigan, used her time at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing meant to examine next year’s Pentagon budget to press Hegseth on how he’d respond if President Donald Trump orders him to deploy troops to seize ballots of voting machines — something Trump has said he regrets not doing after losing the 2020 election. She also pointed out that Hegseth had falsely accused the prior Biden administration of putting troops at the polls during testimony before the House a day earlier.
The matter is an ongoing concern for Democrats, many of whom have expressed alarm at Trump’s repeated claims that any win by their party in any election is the result of cheating and his demands for the GOP to “take over” balloting in states across the country ahead of this year’s elections.
So when Hegseth, who appeared before the Senate panel alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine and the Pentagon comptroller, tried to accuse Slotkin of throwing out “another gotcha hypothetical” at him, the Wolverine State senator appeared to lose her patience.
“It’s not a hypothetical. I refuse to accept — you give that answer all the time,” she said. “You and I have done this dance before, get over it!”
Slotkin then pointed out that Trump had recently told journalists at the White House that he regretted not involving the military in his efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden and recounted how Hegseth’s predecessor at the time, Mark Esper, had thanked God that Trump did not give such an order.
“Your boss, the guy you’re performing for right now, told the journalists this year that he wished he signed that executive order … what are you going to do?”
Slotkin continued: “You’re the guy here in the seat. It’s not hypothetical. Tell the American people, will you deploy the uniform military to our polls to collect voter rolls or machines?”
At that point, the former Fox News weekend host asked Slotkin if she was “accusing” him of “performing for cable news” because, he claimed, she was doing the same. Then he attempted to accuse the Biden administration of sending troops to the polls — the very thing she was asking him about.
Slotkin responded by pointing out that the troops in question had been National Guard soldiers operating under the authority of state governments — not the Pentagon.
“It’s never been done in our history. Please stand up for the Constitution. Do not send uniform military to our polls,” she said.
Asked if he had a response to the Michigan senator’s final question, Hegseth said he’d “never been ordered to do anything illegal” and he would not do anything illegal if ordered.
“That goes without saying,” he said.
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