Chris Coons Slams Pete Hegseth For Being Distracted By His "War On Woke"

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]vision.

[00:00:01]We should not be standing aside from the war in Ukraine and saying eventually we want to be a part of some peace between Russia and Ukraine. We should be learning the lessons of Ukraine. Our allies in the Persian Gulf are they're buying their interceptor systems at scale. Some of our current and former leaders in our military were working very hard to learn the lessons of Ukraine.

[00:00:25]I must say in a recent briefing for this subcommittee, I was very encouraged by two very senior members of the United States Army who are in Ukraine and have been helping our armed forces learn.

[00:00:38]But my heart fell when I left and was told that those two senior officers were being forced out.

[00:00:44]I am concerned that we have a distracted administration and a distracted department. From your written testimony, Mr. Secretary, it seems at times you're more passionate about fighting culture wars than winning the real war that we're in.

[00:00:59]At banning books, at cleaning alleged DEI off of websites, at taking on an anti-vaccine position rather than continuing the long-standing public health policies, at interfering with promotions.

[00:01:12]I'm stunned that you fired the 44-year chief of staff of the Army in the middle of a hot war and dismissed the Secretary of the Navy in the middle of a naval blockade. As dozens of senior flag rank officers have been dismissed, I am worried about what that does to focus and morale.

[00:01:31]We have a president who seems more focused on a billion-dollar ballroom and a victory arch rather than achieving actual victory.

[00:01:39]Any piece, a small piece of the 1.5 trillion-dollar request in front of us is for a new Trump class of battleships, a so-called golden fleet, which I think goes in the wrong direction.

[00:01:51]Let me come back to the basic point I was trying to make.

[00:01:54]The world of warfare is changing.

[00:01:56]Every major service can and should embrace smaller, lighter, faster, more distributed, lethal capabilities that will mostly be autonomous.

[00:02:06]This move towards a golden fleet, towards a new battleship, strikes me as moving in exactly the wrong direction, giving our adversaries a bigger target rather than a more capable platform.

[00:02:17]How do I explain to my constituents the cost the cost of this war and the cost that we are looking together to invest in our national defense? I share the chairman's concerns about reconciliation.

[00:02:29]Last year $150 billion was provided to the department. But the mismatch between base year and one year, between long-term and short-term caused tens of billions of dollars in errors.

[00:02:43]Errors in how shipbuilding was handled, errors in how new munitions are being acquired, and working together on a bipartisan basis, we fixed many of those problems.

[00:02:53]This year's budget proposal triples that request to $350 billion. I I agree with you about the urgency of our national defense. In your written testimony, you lay out four key goals: defend the homeland, deter China, increase burden sharing with our allies and partners, and supercharge the defense industrial base.

[00:03:14]As you've seen in the last Congress, I've worked with you and with Deputy Secretary Feinberg on multi-year munitions.

[00:03:22]I cheer the goal of finally passing an audit in 2028. I think we have critical investments to make in our defense industrial base.

[00:03:31]I think we are absolutely in the fight of our lives as a republic to win AI and quantum, space and surveillance, and the capacity to fight drones and launch drones.

[00:03:45]But I'm concerned that you, sir, and this department is distracted by issues that are not focused on the core thing we need to achieve.

[00:03:55]I could not agree more with what you said in your written testimony.

[00:03:59]For a generation, the United States was largely distracted by open-ended wars of regime change and nation-building.

[00:04:06]And as you summarize this administration's approach, we will not send America's best to advance foolhardy or reckless adventures halfway around the world.

[00:04:16]Mr. Secretary, I agree that the Iranian regime is a terrible regime. I'm grateful for the service and the sacrifice of the Americans who've been wounded or who've lost their lives in this current conflict.

[00:04:28]But I do not understand the strategy.

[00:04:31]And as the average American is seeing the costs at the pump and at the grocery store, and as this committee is being asked to approve the largest single-year increase in defense spending in decades, I need to better understand the answers to the urgent questions I've put before you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.