Hegseth refuses to commit to following possible court order on Marine deployment
- Share via
- Seven members of the committee questioning Hegseth on Thursday are Democrats from California.
- At a hearing Wednesday, Hegseth insisted the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles was lawful but couldn’t name the law under which it is allowed.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to say Thursday whether he would abide by a possible legal ruling about the federal government’s authority to deploy the Marines to Los Angeles.
“We should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country,” he said in response to repeated questions by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) during a House Armed Services hearing.
A federal judge in San Francisco was holding a hearing Thursday on California’s challenge to President Trump’s deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guardsmen in Los Angeles.
Hegseth decried what he billed as the expansion of judicial power, but after repeatedly being pressed on how he would respond if the Supreme Court weighed in, he said, “We’re not here to defy a Supreme Court ruling.”
During a testy back-and-forth with Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), Hegseth did say that the Marines in Los Angeles are not authorized to fire warning shots.
The congressman said he feared the federal government had escalated the situation on the ground in Los Angeles and described it as political theater, and asked if the Marines were allowed to protect federal property “by any means necessary.”
Hegseth responded, “ICE officers and police officers being attacked is not political theater.”
After additional sparring, Carbajal called Hegseth incompetent and “an embarrassment to this country.”
“There’s been bipartisan members of Congress that have called for your resignation,” Carbajal said. “You should just get the hell out and let somebody competently lead this department.”
Carbajal was one of several California Democrats questioned Hegseth on Thursday about the immigration raids that have roiled Los Angeles, the federal commandeering of the state’s National Guard and the deployment of Marines in the region.
The congressional hearing lasted more than five hours and covered a multitude of national security issues, including the unprecedented delay in the Department of Defense submitting a budget, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, border security and apparent contingency plans to invade Greenland.
Federal immigration sweeps have spread fear and uncertainty across the region and forced some into hiding.
Republicans on the committee defended the administration’s actions, which began Friday.
Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-Tenn.) pushed back at Democrats’ description of the Trump administration’s actions as unprecedented.
“We’ve seen similar actions throughout history, from Eisenhower sending the 101st to Little Rock to Johnson and Kennedy federalizing the guard over the objections of southern governors during the Civil Rights era to George H.W. Bush deploying federal troops during the 1992 L.A. riots,” DesJarlais said. “Isn’t it fair to say that there’s a well-established precedent for presidents acting when state leaders are either unwilling or unable to enforce federal law or protect federal facilities?”
The National Guard was sent to Los Angeles in 1992 at the bipartisan request of state and local officials. But Hegseth agreed with DesJarlais’ contention.
“Sir, nothing that we’re doing on the ground is unprecedented,” he said. “I would argue what is unprecedented is a governor and a mayor unwilling to protect law enforcement.”
Rep. Derek Tran (D-Orange) questioned Hegseth about why he did not consult the mayor, local law enforcement leaders or the governor before unleashing federal forces.
“It would be great if the governor attempted to actually coordinate instead of grandstand,” Hegseth said.
Several committee members said earlier that they received no advance notice about the federal immigration sweeps at workplaces and other locations that started Friday and that prompted large and at times fiery protests in downtown Los Angeles.
“We need to de-escalate the situation,” Tran said in an interview. President Trump and his administration’s moves, most recently deploying hundreds of Marines in Southern California, “escalates the situation, sending in troops that shouldn’t be there, that are trained to shoot and kill.”
Though largely peaceful, protests about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s actions have been punctuated by incidents of violence and lawlessness.
After dissenters blocked the 101 Freeway, vandalized buildings in downtown Los Angeles and stole from businesses, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday imposed a curfew in the city’s civic core from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Continued federal immigration enforcement actions have disrupted lives across greater Los Angeles, including a middle school graduation where teachers and families were left hunkering down in fear.
Thursday’s testimony before the House Armed Services Committee was Hegseth’s third appearance on Capitol Hill this week. He was questioned Tuesday by the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense and the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, Hegseth insisted the deployment of Marines in Los Angeles was lawful but couldn’t name the law under which it is allowed. On Tuesday, he was buffeted with questions about the “chaos” in his tenure, his discussion of national secrets on a Signal group chat and the lack of information provided to elected leaders about Defense Department operations and budgets, including the cost of the federal deployment in Los Angeles.
“I want your plan!” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) demanded. “What is your plan for the future? Can we get that in writing and on paper so that we know where you’re going? Because we don’t have anything today. We have zip! Nada!”
Hegseth responded that the agency has the details and would provide them to members of Congress. The Pentagon posted a video clip of the back-and-forth on X that tagged the congresswoman and was titled “WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING!”
Thursday’s hearing was especially notable because the committee oversees the Pentagon budget. None of the Republican members of the committee are from California. More than a dozen who were asked to weigh in on the hearing didn’t respond.
Republicans reflected the sentiments expressed by Trump, most recently on Wednesday when he took questions from reporters on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center shortly before attending a performance of “Les Miserables” with First Lady Melania Trump.
In a late-night ruling, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals paused a court order that would have required President Trump to return control of thousands of California National Guard troops in Los Angeles to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“We are going to have law and order in our country,” he said. “If I didn’t act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now.”
“These are radical left lunatics that you’re dealing with, and they’re tough, they’re smart, they’re probably paid, many of them, as you know, they’re professionals,” he added. “When you see them chopping up concrete because the bricks got captured, they’re chopping up concrete and they’re using that as a weapon. That’s pretty bad.”
Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.
Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter
Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond. In your inbox twice per week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
