Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise to discuss my concern about the chaos that is roiling the Department of Defense. Sunday will mark the 100th day of Pete Hegseth serving as Secretary of Defense. During his confirmation hearing, Mr. Hegseth said: President Trump wants a Pentagon laser focused on warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. That is it. That is my job. Well, Secretary Hegseth is failing the mission President Trump gave him. His actions over the past 100 days have done nothing but distract the Pentagon and undermine warfighting, lethality, meritocracy, standards, and readiness. In the first 100 days, Secretary Hegseth has terminated or weakened programs and processes that are the bedrock upon which our military recruits personnel and trains servicemembers to go into battle. For example, in February the Secretary announced his plan to slash the civilian workforce by 5 to 8 percent, terminate probationary workers, and institute a hiring freeze. These severe measures have only meant more work for the remaining employees and more costly work for military officers and contractors to cover the gaps, or simply not to carry out the missions.…”