00:01Thank you, Elaine, and thank you, Congressman DeLuzio, for bringing us today on this very important day to celebrate Veterans
00:09Day.
00:10It's shameful all the cuts to benefits to our veterans that our colleagues across the aisle are implementing.
00:18It's shameful all the things that Secretary Hexeth has been doing to wreck the morale and actually make us less
00:27ready as a military.
00:30This week, Republicans killed the vote to proceed on impeaching Hexeth, choosing to protect him over our service members.
00:39The American people sent a strong message during last week's election.
00:44They are fed up with this administration's incompetence, chaos, and abuse of power.
00:50Hexeth and Trump led our country into a reckless and illegal war in Iran that has been raging for over
00:57250 days.
00:59250 days inflicting a massive human toll and financial toll on our armed services.
01:07Beyond the war, there is a long list of reasons why Hexeth must go.
01:12His extrajudicial killings, ignoring congressional oversight, leaking sensitive military operations, remember Signalgate, and much, much more.
01:24I could go on, but in closing, I have to say, I said it before and I will say it
01:29again.
01:30Hexeth, get the hell out.
01:33Get the hell out of the Pentagon.
01:34You're incompetent now, and you were incompetent then.
01:38Again, our service members, veterans, military families, and the American people deserve better, better leadership of the Department of Defense.
01:47With that, I'd like to now introduce Chrissy Houlihan, our colleague from Pennsylvania.
01:56Good afternoon, everybody, and a happy Veterans Day to you all.
02:00I am torn right now whether to say that I am indeed a happy veteran or am I indeed an
02:06angry veteran, and I think I can hold both feelings in my body at the same time.
02:10What just went down on the House floor is truly inexcusable, and there will be accountability for it.
02:17But I am a happy veteran because look at this.
02:20We've worked so hard to make this happen, and I'm so excited to be joined by so many other fellow
02:28veterans here in Congress in the next couple of weeks.
02:30And this group is together here today to have a single message delivered back to you, the citizenry.
02:37We heard the message from you, the citizens, that we need to do better.
02:41We need to do better by you as citizens.
02:44We need to do better by the veterans.
02:46We need to do better by our allies, by our service members.
02:50And that starts by getting Secretary Hexeth out of the Pentagon.
02:56Out.
02:57Secretary Hexeth's leadership has weakened and isolated our country.
03:02It's caused our allies to lose faith in us.
03:04It's deprived our service members of qualified leadership and subjected all of us to the consequences of this unlawful war.
03:12The consequences that many of my colleagues are highlighting and I'm certain will continue to highlight,
03:17and the consequences that will be felt as long as he continues to lead the DOD or DOW or DO
03:23whatever.
03:23The DOD is the DOD because it's the Department of Defense.
03:28It's the last thing we do, not the first thing we do.
03:31Our troops and their families serve their country with more dignity, with more strength and more patriotism and skill than
03:38Secretary Hexeth has ever been capable of.
03:41And I have and will continue to call for his resignation, for his impeachment, for whatever it takes to have
03:47him leave the Pentagon because of how much I and I know my colleagues respect our service members.
03:54Last night on the eve of Veterans Day, 211 House Republicans blocked a vote to impeach him.
04:00And so they didn't just vote against impeachment.
04:03They voted to shut down the entire debate before it even began.
04:07And this refusal to acknowledge, debate or even consider taking action to hasten the war's end and remove Hexeth and
04:14his poisonous ideology is exactly the behavior that Americans literally just rejected a week ago, loudly and clearly.
04:22So last night's attempt to impose accountability fell short.
04:25And this is not the end of our fight.
04:27We will continue to fight because it's the right thing for our troops.
04:31It's the right thing for our military families.
04:33It's the right thing for our country.
04:35And there are more of us now, thankfully, than there were before.
04:39Fresh legs, dare I say.
04:41And we're never going to back down from this fight for the country that we all love and that we
04:45all serve.
04:46And thank you.
04:47It's now my pleasure to introduce a Navy veteran from Kentucky 6th Congressional District, Congressman-elect Zach Dembo.
04:56Excellent.
04:59Good afternoon and happy Veterans Day.
05:02As Congresswoman Houlihan indicated, I had the honor of serving on active duty in the United States Navy.
05:07As we're analyzing what happened in this election, you all may know I was elected in a district that voted
05:15for the president by 15 points in 2024.
05:19And last Tuesday, I won by 10 points.
05:22And when we're trying to figure out what made the American people make decisions like that, one of the things
05:28has to be that from the beginning, as a veteran, as a former prosecutor and as a teacher, I emphasize
05:33my public service and that politics should never be inserted into spaces like the Pentagon or like the Department of
05:40Justice.
05:41I'm honored to be joining these amazing members as well as these members elect from the beginning.
05:47I have said we have got to get out of this senseless war in Iran and those electoral results in
05:53Kentucky, which some people mistakenly call red.
05:57But really, it's just a common sense group of folks show that the American people agree and certainly the people
06:04of the 6th District of Kentucky agree.
06:05So I am excited to get to work.
06:08I think there is a lot of work to be done in terms of getting politics out of these spaces
06:13and making sure that American service members, as well as veterans, are respected and honored for their service.
06:20I'm excited to be among so many fellow veterans, including, importantly, so many amazing women veterans coming in.
06:28And on that note, I'm proud to turn it over to my incoming colleague, Christina Knickerbocker from Ohio.
06:40We have very brave men and women that have served our country.
06:46I'm Christina Knickerbocker, and I'm an Air Force veteran that served at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base for a decade.
06:54As a nurse and nurse practitioner, I am the one who takes care of our active duty and our veterans.
07:01The vote made today, Take Care of Veterans Act, does not take care of our veterans.
07:10The people that voted have no idea what our veterans need.
07:15It is me on the front lines, my fellow medics, who are taking care of our troops.
07:22We have disrupted money that is supposed to flow to our veterans to provide them resources that they deserved and
07:32worked for.
07:34In this upcoming 120th Congress, we have a duty as veterans to protect veterans and those that serve our country.
07:43We must get Pete Hegseth out of office.
07:48He is not only threatening our national security, he is threatening the lives of my friends in the military.
07:56My friends who served with me just in 2025, they are going overseas.
08:04I will work my hardest to protect them and make sure that our country respects and defends our veterans.
08:20My friend, Congressman Derek Tran, a fellow Army vet.
08:27Thank you, Kristen.
08:28Happy Veterans Day.
08:30I'm Congressman Derek Tran, proudly serving the people of California's 45th Congressional District.
08:35I'm so excited that so many of my new colleagues in Congress were my brothers and sisters in uniform.
08:41To the veterans standing alongside me today, welcome.
08:46I'm excited to embark on this journey with you.
08:48My military started at 18 when I marched into the Army Recruiter's Office demanding to enlist.
08:55Choosing to serve my country was one of the best decisions I've ever made.
09:00And it ingrained in me an undying patriotism that has inspired me to continue my service in Congress.
09:07As we welcome you, we also mark the start of a new chapter.
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