Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Tuesday sharply criticized Democrats who accused the Marines and National Guard of being ill-equipped to respond to the riots in Los Angeles.
President Donald Trump on Monday afternoon deployed about 700 Marines to respond to the riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
That followed Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard to the Los Angeles area when protests against ICE escalated into riots over the weekend.
“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Hegseth said on X at the time. “We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers—even if Gavin Newsom will not.” Newsom, a Democrat, is governor of California.
Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., said that during the George Floyd riots of 2020 in Minneapolis, she didn’t think it was necessary for Marines to be deployed.
“You are right. We are both originally from Minnesota,” Hegseth said. “Which is why I recall 2020 quite well, when Gov. [Tim] Walz abandoned a police precinct and allowed it to be burned to the ground—and also allowed five days of chaos to occur inside the streets of Minneapolis.”
The National Guard was mobilized far too late in Minneapolis, thanks to Walz’ inaction, and Trump wasn’t going to let the situation in L.A. escalate to that point, the defense chief said.
“If it gets out of control, it’s a bad situation for the citizens of any location,” Hegseth said.
“So, in Los Angeles, we believe that ICE, which is a federal law enforcement agency, has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration,” he said, adding:
ICE ought be able to do its job, whether it’s [in] Minneapolis or Los Angeles.
“We have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them in the execution of their duties, because we ought be able to enforce immigration law in this country, unlike what Gov. Walz did in 2020,” Hegseth said. “There are 17,000 [Los Angeles Police Department officers]. You mentioned that there would be 18,000, if not for the defund movement that folks like Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass have implemented. The police chief said she was overwhelmed, so we helped.”
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., asked Hegseth how long the Marines’ deployment will last, and why the U.S. was “unprepared to provide them basic necessities, such as such as food and water,” sparking a strong response from Hegseth.
“Commanders and troops on the field are very well-prepared, sir,” he retorted, “They responded incredibly rapidly to a deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities.”
“There are moments where you make do as best you can, temporarily,” the secretary of defense added. “But we are ensuring they are housed, fed, water, capabilities in real time, from my office because I care that much about the California Guard and the Marines.”
Hegseth slammed Aguilar’s “disingenuous attack that misrepresents our troops and what they’re doing to defend ICE agents.”
“Nobody cares more about the troops at the top than this secretary,” he said amid attempts by Aguilar to interrupt him.
Trump has “every authority” to mobilize the National Guard and active-duty troops under U.S. code for the purpose of protecting federal agents, according to Hegseth.
“ICE agents need to be able to do their job,” the defense chief said. “They’re being attacked for doing their job, which is deporting illegal criminals. That should happen in any city, Minneapolis or Los Angeles, and if they’re attacked, that’s lawless. And President Trump believes in law and order.”
Hegseth cited the many illegal immigrants waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers at the riots.
Rioters set police vehicles on fire, tossed concrete at law enforcement, vandalized news trucks, video footage of the scene shows.
“The governor of California has failed to protect his people, along with the mayor of Los Angeles, and so President Trump has said he will protect our agents and our Guard, and Marines are proud to do it,” Trump said.
Trump has warned Newsom that he’s “not playing around” about the violence in L.A. The president said without the help of the National Guard, the city would be burning.
“A day ago, I called him up to tell him [he’s] got to do a better job,” Trump said. “He’s done a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of a lot of potential death.”