Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On Secretary Hegseth’s Reckless Actions And Dangerous Directive In The Caribbean Boat Strike, Demanding Congressional Oversight

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) today spoke on the Senate floor on Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s reckless order to kill all the occupants of the first alleged drug boat struck in the Caribbean, calling on Hegseth to release the tapes and for Congressional Republicans to follow through with their intent to conduct “vigorous oversight.” Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

I want to say a word about Secretary Hegseth. I don’t think we have ever seen someone so unserious, so childish, so obviously insecure serving as Secretary of Defense as Pete Hegseth—and that should alarm every single one of us.

Secretary Hegseth loves to look tough. He loves to boast about the lethality of our forces.

He wants to be taken seriously, but yesterday, he posted a ridiculous tweet of a cartoon turtle firing on alleged drug traffickers, a sick parody of a well-known children’s book. This man is a national embarrassment. Tweeting memes in the middle of a potential armed conflict is something no serious military leader would ever even think of doing. The only thing this tweet accomplishes is to remind the whole world that Pete Hegseth is not up to the job.

But, of course, this is much more serious than memes on Twitter. A few days ago, the Washington Post reported that Secretary Hegseth gave a spoken directive to kill all the occupants of the first alleged drug boat struck by U.S. forces. If the reports in the Washington Post are accurate, this may expose those involved to legal consequences.

What we need right now more than anything else is the truth and the facts, which is precisely what Secretary Hegseth has refused to give. There are tapes in the possession of the Department of Defense that would show exactly what happened during these military strikes.

Secretary Hegseth has an obligation to be truthful, so he should release those tapes. He says the Washington Post’s account is not correct, so why not release the tapes and prove it?

If he refuses to release these tapes, it calls into question the truthfulness of his account. The tapes will show one way or the other what happened and whether Hegseth is telling the truth. If Secretary Hegseth has nothing to hide, he should not fear being truthful.

In the meantime, Republicans in the House and Senate—including the Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee—have promised “vigorous oversight” on these strikes. This is very encouraging, and I thank them for working in a bipartisan way on this matter, but now Republicans in both chambers must follow through. We need Congressional hearings. We need full and transparent briefings from the Pentagon. And most importantly, the Committees should continue to demand Secretary Hegseth release the tapes.

This is such a serious matter that Secretary Hegseth himself should come before the Congress to testify under oath about the nature of his order, the evidence supporting the strikes, and an explanation for what the goals are in Venezuela.

With our troops standing on a knife’s edge in the Caribbean, we need a Secretary of Defense who can prove himself to be serious, sober-minded, and someone of high character. Sadly, Secretary Hegseth has the opposite of each of these qualities.

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