00:00The president has been very clear. He said in the State of the Union that essentially if his side doesn't
00:04win, then the election was rigged. He said that before the 2020 election. He's asked for voter rolls for 29
00:11different states. He just asked for Detroit's votes or ballots.
00:18And we know that in 2020, he wrote an executive order that he didn't sign that said to the U
00:25.S. military, to the Secretary of Defense, you should go and seize ballots and voting machines.
00:31A few months ago, he said that he regretted that he ever that he didn't sign that executive order.
00:37So the U.S. military has never been deployed. You incorrectly said yesterday that they were deployed during different elections.
00:46Governors deployed them under their authorities, but the federal government has never put the uniformed military at our polls during
00:56World War II, right after 9-11.
00:58We've never had to do that.
01:00So, Secretary Hegseth, if the president, who regrets not signing that executive order to the then-Sec Def in 2020,
01:07asks you to seize ballots or voting machines in states during the 2026 election,
01:15will you stand up for the Constitution and say no, or will you salute and do his bidding?
01:22Senator, I didn't get a chance to answer the front part of your question, which, you know, there was a
01:27lot of deferred maintenance under the Biden administration that needed to be addressed.
01:30because the world was in chaos when President Trump was elected because of-
01:33Just address the election issue, please.
01:34Well, again, that's another-
01:35It's the most important thing. It's what's happening.
01:37It's yet another gotcha hypothetical, which is your specialty-
01:41It's not that we had an executive order-
01:43It's not that we had an executive order-
01:43Under the Biden administration-
01:45That your predecessor had to hold-
01:45That your predecessor had to hold.
01:46It's not a hypothetical. I refuse to accept. You give that answer all the time. You and I have done
01:50this dance before. Get over it, okay?
01:53In 2020, he's the president, your boss, the guy you're performing for right now, told the journalists,
02:00this year, that he wished he signed that executive order to your predecessor, and your predecessor said publicly,
02:06thank God, we didn't actually go forward with it. What are you going to do? You're the guy here in
02:11the seat.
02:12It's not hypothetical. Tell the American people, will you deploy the uniformed military to our polls to collect voter rolls
02:19or machines?
02:20Are you accusing me of performing? Because you're performing for cable news right now.
02:24Dude, dude, just answer the question.
02:26It's a hypothetical. By the way, in 2024, under the Biden administration, 15 states did deploy.
02:32Under their governor's authority, when their governors asked for it-
02:35What did Joe Biden say about that?
02:36That's fundamentally- I don't think anything, because he needed them for cybersecurity and for COVID.
02:40Trump did. Trump did it, too, under Trump. But it was not the federal decision. It was those governors of
02:46the states under their authorities, okay?
02:48It's never been done in our history. Please stand up for the Constitution. Do not send uniformed military to our
02:55polls.
02:56Do you have a response to that portion of the question, Mr. Secretary?
03:00I've never been ordered to do anything illegal, and I won't.
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