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Democratic Sens. Tammy Duckworth (Ill.) and Mazie Hirono (Hawaii) in a Saturday letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for transparency regarding the meeting he will hold Tuesday with top military leaders.
The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, will include hundreds of generals and admirals stationed around the world. President Trump told NBC News on Sunday that he plans on attending the gathering at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va.
Duckworth and Hirono, both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in their letter that the meeting “raises profound concerns about security, cost and operational impacts.” They add that the meeting endangers the personal security of those in attendance and the national security of the country.
At the meeting, Hegseth is expected to discuss the warrior ethos mentality he has sought to instill at the Pentagon, according to multiple reports.
“For an administration obsessed with rooting out waste, this abrupt, time and resource-intensive meeting of our military’s top commanders, all of whom have earned their positions through superior performance over decades of service, to reportedly hear you, the least qualified Secretary of Defense in living memory, lecture about military standards and warfighting is absurd,” the letter states.
The letter also requests details on various logistical aspects of the gathering, included required flight hours for military aircraft, the number of purchased commercial airline tickets and hotel rooms and the cost of extra security measures at the base.
It also asks how those costs are being accounted for, why a virtual setting was not chosen and whether the Pentagon has considered the intelligence and national security implications “of concentrating much of the operational chain of command in one location.”
The meeting has reportedly sparked confusion among military officials, given the absence of details from the Pentagon and the lack of a declared crisis. The letter asks Hegseth to “justify the urgency” of the meeting and to state whether the president directed it or was briefed prior to it being reported.
“Secretary Hegseth, we write with particular concern on account of your consistent prioritization of political theater and distraction over warfighting and blatant disregard for operational security,” Duckworth and Hirono added.
The letter requested a briefing or written response from the Pentagon by Monday.
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