- Pete
Hegseth urged troops to resist unlawful orders in 2016. - Comments
surfaced recently, causing public attention. - Hegseth
criticized Democrats but contradicted himself.
The US executions of suspected drug traffickers in boats off
the coast of Venezuela and Columbia have sparked a heated political discussion
about whether US soldiers should defy illegal orders.
Hegseth clarified that service members did, in fact, have a
duty to disobey any illegal orders in response to Trump’s remarks during a
debate in March 2016, while Trump was a Republican presidential contender, in a
video that CNN was able to uncover.
In an appearance on Fox & Friends, where he would later
become a host, Hegseth, a Fox News contributor at the time, stated,
“You’re
not just gonna follow that order if it’s unlawful.”
Later that month, he made similar remarks during an
interview on Fox Business.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump had promised that if he were
elected president, US military forces would carry out instructions that
included killing terrorists’ families and bringing back prohibited kinds of
torture.
“The military’s not gonna follow illegal orders,”
Hegseth
said
of Trump’s claim, which the candidate later walked back.
Due to a second strike on an accused drug boat on September
2 that claimed the lives of two survivors of a strike that had occurred less
than an hour earlier, Hegseth is currently involved in a dispute. Over 80
people have reportedly been killed in the administration’s 20 strikes in the
Caribbean and eastern Pacific, which it claims are drug smugglers without
providing any proof.
Critics have characterized the attacks as extrajudicial and
illegal killings, pointing out that drug smuggling is not a crime that may
result in execution without a trial, even if it is proven. The administration
has labeled a number of organizations as “narco-terrorists” in order
to defend its attacks.
Hegseth has chastised Democrats in recent weeks for voicing
similar worries to his own prior to Trump’s election.
Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona and five other Democrats with
military histories released a video last month that warned of internal
“threats to our constitution” and urged military troops to defy
“illegal orders” from the Trump administration.
Following Trump’s objection that Kelly and the other
congressmen “should be in jail right now” and that they may have
engaged in “seditious behavior, punishable by death,” the Pentagon
declared it was opening an inquiry into Kelly.
The Democratic politicians, according to Hegseth, are
disseminating “despicable, reckless, and false” information. He
likened alleged drug smugglers to terrorists affiliated with al-Qaida on
Saturday.
“If you’re working for a designated terrorist organization and you
bring drugs to this country in a boat, we will find you and we will sink you.
Let there be no doubt about it,”
Hegseth said at the Ronald Reagan
presidential library in Simi valley, California.
He disregarded worries that the strikes violated
international law and added that Trump has the authority to use force “as
he sees fit.”
“President Trump can and will take decisive military
action as he sees fit to defend our nation’s interests. Let no country on Earth
doubt that for a moment,”
he said.
However, he contended in 2016 that the military was required
to reject orders that were unlawful and that service personnel might be
prosecuted for doing so.
“Here’s the problem with Trump,”
Hegseth told the
Megyn Kelly show on Fox after the debate in which Trump made the comments.
“He
says: ‘Go ahead and kill the family. Go ahead and torture. Go ahead and go
further than waterboarding.’ What happens when people follow those orders, or
don’t follow them? It’s not clear that Donald Trump will have their back.
Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump,”
he
said, adding: “
“If you’re not changing the law, and you’re just saying it,
you create even more ambiguity.”
The administration’s stance that the Democratic lawmakers
who released the video “sowed doubt in a clear chain of command, which is
reckless, dangerous, and deeply irresponsible for an elected official” was
reiterated by White House spokesperson Anna Kelly in a statement to CNN. She
also stated that
“the military already has clear procedures for handling
unlawful orders, but seditious Democrats injected ambiguity.”
As reported last week, Hegseth made the same claim at a
Silicon Valley Liberty Forum event in April 2016, stating that the US military
“won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief.” He went
on to say that the military’s duty and moral principles included refusing to
carry out unlawful orders.
He referred to the Democratic MPs who made that claim as the
“Seditious Six” last month.
Pete Hegseth blamed the” Seditious Six” Popular
lawgivers Sen. Mark Kelly( D- AZ), Sen. Elissa Slotkin( D- MI), Rep. Jason
Crow( D- CO), Rep. Chris Deluzio( D- PA), Rep. Chrissy Houlahan( D- PA), and
Sen. Tim Kaine( D- VA) during a December 2, 2025 White House Cabinet
meeting.
Hegseth called their conduct” reckless, dangerous, and
profoundly reckless,” criminating them of undermining the chain of command
and creating distrust in the Armed Forces to politically target Trump; Pentagon
prophet Kingsley Wilson distinguished Hegseth’s once commentary as upholding
legal norms, not Popular” politically motivated” rhetoric.
Democrats resurfaced Hegseth’s 2016 Fox News remarks
praising colors for refusing” unlawful orders from their commander- in-
chief,” with Kelly asking” What has changed?” and Slotkin/ Crow
lacing clips on social media to punctuate inconsistency amid boat strike
difficulties.
