Duckworth Calls on Hegseth to Resign After Unprecedented, Wasteful and Insulting Speech to Top Military Leadership

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] - Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) issued the following statement lambasting President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's unprecedented, wasteful and insulting speeches to many of our nation's military leaders at great cost to American taxpayers and our national security:

"As Trump pushes our nation to the brink of another Republican shutdown, Cadet Bone Spurs and the least qualified Defense Secretary in history decided to waste millions of taxpayer dollars-and our top military leaders' time and attention-to force them to fly thousands of miles to listen to a partisan diatribe unbecoming of our nation's leaders, all while Americans face real threats from adversaries that wish to do us harm.

"The nation's top defense leader encouraging hazing troops who answered the call to fight and die for us is utterly appalling, especially from someone who should know that American troops have died from hazing. He also claimed that weakening rules of engagement strengthens our warfighters, when in reality it will simply create more enemies of America and make it more likely those enemies would torture captured American troops. And his claim that diversity is 'debris' erases the valor shown by women, people of color and many others who've served in uniform since this country's founding and makes a mockery of our Veterans. Meanwhile, Trump's distressing desire to use American cities as 'training grounds for our military' isn't just intrinsically un-American, it's unconstitutional and is the sort of misuse of the military that tin-pot dictators-not Presidents-are known for.

"None of the ideas presented this morning make our military stronger or our nation safer. They are dangerous actions that threaten our national security and undermine the Constitutional rights of all Americans that our troops-as well as Trump and Hegseth-have sworn an oath to support and defend. If this PR stunt proved anything, it's that the best thing Pete Hegseth can do to strengthen our military is resign in disgrace immediately."

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