Hegseth said US military should refuse ‘unlawful’ Trump orders in unearthed 2016 interview | Pete Hegseth

U.S. defense secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly stated on Fox News in 2016 that U.S. service members should reject “illegal” orders from a potential president Trump — precisely that position.vile”When Democratic lawmakers said this last month.

The debate over whether U.S. soldiers should refuse illegal orders is at the center of a heated political dispute over the killings of alleged U.S. drug smugglers on boats off the coasts of Venezuela and Colombia.

in video Revealed by CNN Beginning in March 2016, when Donald Trump was the Republican presidential nominee, Hegseth responded to Trump’s comments in a debate by explaining that service members actually had a duty to refuse any illegal orders.

“You will not comply with this order if it is illegal,” said Hegseth, then a Fox News contributor. in question He eventually appeared on Fox & Friends, where he became the host.

He repeated similar comments once again Fox Business it was revealed later that month.

As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised that U.S. military personnel would carry out orders if he became president, including killing families of terrorists and reviving banned forms of torture.

Regarding Trump’s later claim that the candidate backed down, Hegseth said, “The military will not comply with illegal orders.”

Hegseth is currently at the center of a controversy over the second attack on an alleged drug ship on September 2, which left two survivors dead from the attack that occurred less than an hour earlier. The administration’s number of strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific has now reached 20, and they have reportedly claimed the lives of more than 80 people; He says that these attacks involve drug smuggling, without providing any evidence.

Critics described the attacks as illegal and extrajudicial executions, noting that the crime of drug trafficking – even if true – cannot be executed without trial. The administration justified its attacks by declaring various groups as “narco-terrorists”.

In recent weeks, Hegseth has criticized Democrats for raising concerns similar to those he voiced before Trump was elected.

Last month, Arizona senator Mark Kelly and five other Democrats with service records released a video encouraging military personnel not to comply with the Trump administration’s “illegal orders.” warned “Domestic threats to our Constitution”.

The Pentagon announced that it had launched an investigation into Kelly after Trump protested that the senator and other lawmakers “should be in prison right now” and suggested that they “may have engaged in provocative behavior punishable by death.”

Hegseth accused Democratic lawmakers of spreading “vile, reckless and false” information. On Saturday, he compared suspected drug traffickers to Al Qaeda terrorists. “If you work for a designated terrorist organization and you bring drugs into this country on a boat, we will find you and sink you. Leave no doubt about it,” Hegseth said at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in California’s Simi Valley.

He also argued that Trump had the authority to take military action “as he deems appropriate” and dismissed concerns that the strikes violated international law. “President Trump can and will take decisive military action if he deems it appropriate to defend our nation’s interests. Don’t let any country in the world doubt that for a moment,” he said.

But in 2016, he argued that soldiers could face criminal consequences for carrying out illegal orders and said the military was obliged to refuse those orders.

Hegseth: “Here’s the problem with Trump” said The Megyn Kelly show aired on Fox following the debate in which Trump commented. “He says: ‘Go ahead and kill the family. Go ahead and torture. Go ahead and go further than waterboarding.’ What happens when people do or don’t follow these orders? It’s unclear whether Donald Trump will have his back.

“Donald Trump talks about Donald Trump most of the time,” he said, adding: “If you don’t change the law and you just say it, you create even more uncertainty.”

In a statement to CNN, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly reiterated the administration’s position that the Democratic lawmakers who released the video “sowed doubt on a clear chain of command, which was reckless, dangerous and deeply irresponsible for an elected official,” adding that “the military already has clear procedures for carrying out illegal orders, but provocative Democrats added uncertainty.”

Hegseth made the same argument at an event in April 2016, as reported last week: tells The Silicon Valley Freedom Forum said the US military “will not comply with the unlawful orders of their commander in chief.” He added that refusing illegal orders is part of the military’s obligations and ethical standards.

Last month, he called the Democratic lawmakers who made this claim the “Seditious Six.”