Transcription
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Secretary Higs, Chairman Kaine, thank you both for being here today. Mr. Secretary, your testimony over the last several days before Congress—I've heard you speak about all of your supposed accomplishments from your time at the Pentagon. I have to say, your training at Fox News has let you spend months of dangerous dysfunction and incompetence into catchy phrases like restoring the warrior ethos and increasing lethality. But the truth is, it's really been chaos at the Pentagon under your leadership. You've clearly shown you're unable to manage the Department of Defense. But what I'm most concerned about are three specific areas: your operational incompetence, your managerial incompetence, and your budgetary incompetence.
So, let's start with operational. According to news reports, in your first week on the job, you got confused in a National Security Council meeting and thought President Trump wanted you to stop all aid to Ukraine. In a well-functioning administration, you would have asked for clarification before making that seismic policy shift. But instead, you ordered vital military aid heading to the front lines turned around, costing the US millions of dollars and depriving Ukrainian soldiers of equipment they needed to fight Russia. So, Mr. Secretary, can you explain how exactly you misunderstood such a monumental presidential order? Uh, one of many fake fake news headlines we've dealt with. So, President Trump told you to halt military aid to Ukraine on January 30th. Uh, as is often the case, um, highly ideological and very ill-informed reporters love to speculate about things they know nothing about in order to spear President Trump and myself. So it sounds like actually the reporting is correct because I will say if it wasn't, why—if it wasn't a mistake—why did aid restart only a few days later? Again, uh, we would take complete issue with what would some call reporting and others call a hatchet job. So why did aid start just a couple of days later? I'm saying the reporting is inaccurate, ma'am. I, I don't think that's correct.
So, let's move on to your managerial incompetence. I think we can see why you misunderstood the president because you're obviously misunderstanding my questions. Um, less than a month into the job, you fired the chairman of the joint chiefs, uh, CQ Brown, and the chief of naval operations, Lisa Franketti, without cause. And to this day, you still have not provided an adequate explanation for removing them. As far as I can tell, you fired CQ Brown because he was black and Lisa Franketti because she is a woman. So nearly four months later, we still don't have a new nominee for Chief of Naval Operations. News reports, and you can contest it, but I'd love to hear your answer, say that you haven't nominated someone because qualified admirals keep turning the position down. So tell me, Mr. Secretary, when will Congress receive your nomination for the next chairman of the naval—the next chief of naval operations? Ma'am, with all due respect, I would suggest not believing every headline you read. With all due respect, I'd like your nomination. When will we see it? Um, there has not—a single admiral or any military official has turned down a position that's been—So, when will we see your nominee for the chief of naval operations? In due time, for all the right reasons. Again, I think we've seen the managerial incompetence.
Okay, let's move on to budgetary incompetence. You missed the deadline to submit a draft defense budget to Congress, which makes it impossible for us to complete our work on the NDAA or appropriations and makes it more likely you'll receive delays in funding you need for new acquisitions, programs, and other priorities. Additionally, you're blowing money on poorly conceived operations and vanity projects for President Trump. Retrofitting the Qatari jet to serve as Air Force One will cost about $400 million. The parade in DC this weekend will cost upwards of $40 million. Your bombing campaign in Yemen cost about 1 billion, and a week later they were stri—having missile strikes in Israel. Your operations in LA will cost tens of millions of dollars. And you claim to be cutting costs at the Pentagon. But all I see are wasted dollars better spent addressing our most pressing threats like China. So, Mr. Secretary, what priorities have you cut funding for to pay for these projects? Ma'am, I would just say your list uh left off securing the southern border. So, Mr. Secretary, what priorities have you cut funding for to pay for these projects? We make trade-offs every day, and I would imagine what we want to spend on is quite different than what the previous administration did. Those changes quickly and they're reflected in this budget, and we're very proud of them. I think the American people can see why I'm so concerned about this incompetence. Thank you, and I yield back.