See below for video and highlights of Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA10)’s appearance on MSNOW earlier today, to discuss the damning IG report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “Signalgate” scandal; holding Hegseth accountable; the Trump administration’s military buildup and saber rattling around Venezuela; and the FBI claiming to have arrested a suspect in the pipe bombs placed outside DNC and RNC headquarters on 1/6/21.
- Rep. Subramanyam on the IG report about Pete Hegseth/Signalgate: “If anyone else in the military had done this, they would have been fired. And let’s remember, it clearly says [Hegseth] put troops at risk, the men and women in uniform at risk. And the second thing…I don’t think this has been corrected. I don’t even know if they’re still using Signal or not. That could be true because they did not cooperate with the IG in any way. He didn’t hand over his phone…They didn’t do a systemwide sort of assessment of of trying to fix this problem. So for all we know, he could still be using Signal. And I think he probably is to be honest. And so again, the only reason we found out that he was doing this is because he accidentally added a journalist to the chat, and so we wouldn’t know otherwise. And this is his specific personal device, is this is an especially important target for adversaries wherever he goes and grabs coffee, his laptop. And so for him to use his personal device, especially dangerous to our men and women in uniform.”
- Rep. Subramanyam on holding Hegseth accountable: “I want [Hegseth] to come to to my subcommittee. I’m the ranking member for military and foreign affairs. I want him to come and testify on exactly what corrective measures have been taken, what he did do. And then I would like to see him turn over his phone. And then I would like him to be impeached, or else I want him to resign or be fired. Whatever it is, he is not fit to serve anymore. This shows it. What’s happening in Venezuela shows it. And really, this entire year has shown that he was never qualified in the first place, and he shouldn’t be serving as our Secretary of Defense.”
- Rep. Subramanyam on the Trump administration’s military buildup around Venezuela: “What’s the real justification for this? You know, the sort of company line right now is we’re trying to get at drug trafficking, right? But then you’ve got the president going off script and saying he wants regime change. You have him threatening Maduro, right? I think what they really want is regime change, right? What they really want is to provoke a war with Venezuela, right? That’s what the president is saying. That’s what the indications from the White House are saying. And so they’re kind of going off script and kind of hinting at what this is really about. And if the president wants to drag us into another forever war, you know, the supposed Nobel Peace Prize laureate in, in waiting, right? You know, that’s on him. But he needs to come clean with his real reasoning for bombing these boats. And if he really cared about drug trafficking, then he should seize what’s on the boat, check what’s there, what evidence is there, and also seize the people who can help you find more boats and more, you know, supply chain. And so even if what they were going after is drugs and drug trafficking, they’re completely inept at doing it.”
- Rep. Subramanyam on the FBI announcing they’ve arrested a suspect in the pipe bombs placed outside the RNC and DNC on 1/6/21: “I want to know why it’s taken so long to identify the [1/6/21 pipe bomb] suspect and bring him in for questioning. It looks like he’s actually from Woodbridge, Virginia, which is close to my district. And it seems like this person was out there for, you know, four years or more after doing this heinous crime and was not detained and arrested. And so why has it taken so long for law enforcement under both the Trump administration and the Biden administration, to apprehend this individual? “
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