Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made a false claim about the military in his testimony to the House on Wednesday. Then he repeated the false claim in his testimony to the Senate on Thursday.
Democratic Rep. Jill Tokuda asked Hegseth at a Wednesday hearing of the House Armed Services Committee if he would comply with a hypothetical future order from President Donald Trump to deploy troops to polling places during this year’s midterm elections. Tokuda told him such a deployment would violate the federal law that prohibits sending federal troops to voting locations unless that is “necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States.”
After saying he rejects the notion that Trump would issue unlawful orders, Hegseth said moments later in the exchange: “I will note that in 2024, troops were depl… – that was Joe Biden by the way, Joe Biden – were deployed to polling locations in 15 states.” He repeated, “2024 – Joe Biden – troops deployed to polling locations in 15 states. Explain that one to me.”
There’s an easy explanation. Hegseth’s claim is not true.
All of the National Guard activations connected to the 2024 election were ordered by state governors, not by Biden. And all 11 of the states that responded to CNN’s requests for information last week said that none of their troops were deployed to polling locations.
Rather, the states said their Guard personnel worked behind the scenes at other locations – helping with election cybersecurity or serving as internal liaisons –...
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