During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month, Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) spoke about the deployment of Marines to Los Angeles in response to anti-ICE protests.
00:09Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm going to follow along on my colleague's chain of questioning.
00:14General Smith, I share her concerns and the concerns of the other members of this committee
00:19about the mobilization of the 700 Marines in response to the protests in Los Angeles.
00:23I am a Marine Corps family. My father, who lies at rest in Arlington, served in the United States Marines,
00:29only for a few years. He was an Army officer for the rest of the time, but that man was a Marine until the day he died.
00:34Once a Marine, always a Marine, Senator.
00:36Hoorah.
00:37Hoorah.
00:38Now, even if this is technically legal, what the President is doing, under an expansive interpretation of Article II authorities,
00:44I believe it is incredibly unwise. I don't condone violence or property destruction,
00:49but using active duty Marines for domestic protest response sets a dangerous precedence.
00:55When citizens around the country, not just in California, see Marines on the streets of America,
01:00it risks damaging their trust and politicizing a force that must remain apolitical and mission-focused.
01:06President Trump is asking Marines to be away from their families for a situation that the President himself said yesterday was,
01:12and I quote, this is what he said yesterday, simmering but not very much, end quote.
01:17Do you, General, have any concerns about the moral, moral injury of Marines who are now being tasked to face Americans
01:24and deploy their community in an unprecedented way, and what are you doing to address those mental health concerns?
01:29Senator, Marines will execute their lawful orders. I don't have any concerns about their moral damage.
01:42They're executing lawful orders that they're trained to do. They're completely confident, and they're capable of conducting
01:47protection of federal personnel and federal property.
01:49I have no question on their ability to do their jobs. They're Marines, after all.
01:54My concern is the moral, the psychological injury to Marines who are going to be told to turn on their fellow Americans.
02:04We know, and would you agree, that there can be hidden injuries such as mental health injuries to Marines, whether they're at war?
02:13I mean, when you go to war, would you agree that there are hidden injuries that can happen, such as psychological injuries?
02:19There are psychological injuries when one goes to war, yes, ma'am.
02:23Are you concerned that there might be psychological injuries to the Marines who are being told to turn on American citizens during this deployment?
02:30Well, Senator, I would say that these Marines are not being told to turn on their fellow citizens.
02:36They're conducting federal property protection.
02:38So you have no concern that there might be Marines that are having a psychological negative reaction to being put on?
02:45I'm not saying that they can't do their jobs. I'm saying you have no concerns and you're not preparing for any mental health counseling as a result of this deployment for these 700 Marines.
02:54Senator, we always have mental health counseling available to Marines at all times for any purpose, but I don't have any heightened concerns about this.
03:00Okay. Well, active duty troops are trained for war fighting and not policing. We ask a lot of different, very difficult things of our troops taxing their mental health.
03:09And now we're sending them to turn on their own communities outside of their normal training. I would be concerned for the well-being of our heroes.
03:16I want to switch my line of questioning to sea lift and leveraging our international partners.
03:22There's a reason that our system is supposed to prevent the use of our military on our soil, except for the most necessary circumstances.
03:28Ideally, in coordination with local elected leaders, the alternative is un-American.
03:33From my perch on this committee and the Commerce Committee, changing topics a little bit, I am concerned about our military and commercial maritime capacity.
03:42I appreciate the leadership of many of my colleagues on this issue and I strongly support ongoing efforts to expand our domestic shipbuilding industrial base.
03:50Even with this renewed emphasis on domestic shipbuilding, especially of commercial vessels or big-ticket military ships,
03:55I remain concerned that we are under-investing in a critical element of any future fight, sea lift.
04:00It will not matter how many submarines or destroyers we can build if equipment, fuel and resupply cannot make it to theater.
04:05And if our troops don't have enough ships to ferry each other and their resupply from place to place within the theater,
04:10and this is especially important for the Marines to have amphibious and local resources.
04:14I'd like to ask all of our witnesses, do you agree that we lack the necessary number of sea lift or auxiliary vessels
04:20to meet the logistical demands of a contested environment in the Indo-Pacific?
04:23Admiral, I'd like to start with you and everybody on the panel, please respond.
04:26I think we can do better there, ma'am. I'm not sure I would say we lack.
04:30I do think we've pursued a buy-used philosophy, and those used ships, at least the initial ones, took a lot more work to get them serviceable.
04:40The latest ones have been better. But I think a buy-new-and-used philosophy is probably prudent going forward.
04:47Do you think we could benefit from partnering with friendly foreign nations on co-production and co-sustainment of auxiliary vessels,
04:53from cargo ships to small supply boats to cable repair ships, et cetera, to build surge production and maintenance capacity within the theater?
05:01I do, Senator. And I also think there's opportunities to bring that work into the United States.
05:06Yeah, I think there's opportunity for both. Mr. Secretary?
05:10I concur with the Admiral. I don't have really much to add to what he said.
05:14What currently prevents the Navy from developing or scaling foreign partnerships to build or maintain our auxiliary vessels, Mr. Secretary?
05:25Senator, look, I think there are a couple of different issues we have to tackle when it comes to those.
05:33But I think it's, you know, as I said in my testimony during confirmation, all options are on the table.
05:39And we do need to look at this and we do need to look at both having foreign builders build some of the ships like this for us.
05:47And also, obviously, they're coming here and looking at investing in our base and bringing their expertise.
05:52So I think that would be very useful to us.
05:54Or even partnering with American builders but overseas in theater to be able to provide immediate repair.
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