[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 200 (Monday, December 1, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Page S8410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           SECRETARY HEGSETH

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, on Hegseth, 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 leader would ever even think of 
doing. The only thing this tweet accomplishes is to remind the 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, 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 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. 
Most importantly, the committees should continue to demand that 
Secretary Hegseth release--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, Hegseth has the opposite 
of each of these qualities.

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