A new bombshell report shows that in 2016, Pete Hegseth sounded the alarm about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s statements that he would order US troops to carry out potentially illegal orders as commander in chief. At the time, Hegseth repeatedly warned that service members had a duty to refuse illegal orders, even from a president. Now, as Trump’s Defense Secretary, Hegseth has backtracked, attacking Democrats for urging troops to reject illegal orders and blatantly dismissing concerns that the military carried out potentially illegal orders to strike alleged drug boats under his direction.

In response, DNC Communications Director Rosemary Boeglin released the following statement: 

“Pete Hegseth used to warn that U.S. armed service members had a duty to refuse illegal orders, but now he’s bending over backwards to enable Donald Trump’s reckless impulses, even if they’re unlawful. Hegseth’s hypocrisy isn’t just disgraceful — it’s dangerous. He’s unqualified for the job, and it shows: His incompetence has put our troops in harm’s way and endangered our nation’s security. Americans deserve better for their Secretary of Defense.” 

CNN: Hegseth in 2016 repeatedly warned of Trump issuing unlawful military orders

By Andrew Kaczynski

• In 2016, as then-presidential candidate Donald Trump vowed that US troops would carry out even his most extreme battlefield orders as commander in chief — some of which former military leaders said would be illegal — Pete Hegseth warned that service members had a duty to refuse unlawful orders from a potential President Trump.
• “You’re not just gonna follow that order if it’s unlawful,” Hegseth said in a March 2016 appearance on “Fox & Friends,” referring to veterans he spoke with.
• “The military’s not gonna follow illegal orders,” Hegseth said of Trump in another March appearance on Fox Business.
• A Fox News contributor at the time, Hegseth echoed similar sentiments during a speaking appearance a month later, saying the US military “won’t follow unlawful orders from their commander in chief,” in previously unreported comments unearthed exclusively by CNN’s KFile.
• Now as Trump’s secretary of defense, Hegseth has pivoted in recent weeks, denouncing Democrats for elevating similar concerns over unlawful orders related to the administration’s attacks on alleged drug boats that some lawmakers from both parties believe may have crossed legal lines.
• As a Fox News contributor and former Army National Guard officer, Hegseth was frequently asked to weigh in on Trump’s national security proposals, and in the 2016 appearances he echoed that consensus view: that service members could face criminal consequences for carrying out illegal commands, that the military’s ethos requires refusing such orders, and that military members may have to refuse Trump.
• “Here’s the problem with Trump,” Hegseth said in an appearance on Megyn Kelly’s show that night. “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,” Hegseth added. “Donald Trump is oftentimes about Donald Trump. And so you can’t; if you’re not changing the law and you’re just saying it, you create even more ambiguity.”
• Hegseth’s 2016 comments have taken on renewed significance as he leads a forceful campaign accusing a handful of Democrats of undermining the chain of command for posting a video urging troops to reject illegal orders — the very warning he delivered publicly years earlier.
• His past remarks are now colliding with allegations that US forces under his watch carried out a follow-up strike that legal experts say could violate the laws of war.
• Hegseth branded six Democratic lawmakers who urged US service members to disobey illegal orders the “Seditious Six,” and accused them of spreading “despicable, reckless, and false” information. He has ordered a Pentagon investigation into one of them, Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain.