A petition to fire Pete Hegseth, the Defense Secretary has started to gain traction online. The petition reads “Pete Hegseth has put our troops in harm's way and failed the American people. He needs to go and we need your help.”
It lists out a detailed case against Hegseth, who served as infantry officer in the Army National Guard, attaining the rank of Major. Before being appointed by President Donald Trump, Hegseth was a Fox News personality, co-hosting Fox & Friends Weekend.
The petition claims there has been ‘politicization of Pentagon’ under Hegseth and adds that he's had other errors like the Signalgate row, the domestic deployment of troops and the military action in Venezuela that saw troops fly back President Nicolas Maduro and his wife to face indictment.
It also has a timeline purportedly showing when Hegseth put American troops' lives on the line and finishes with a list of sources to back up the claims made against the Defense Secretary.
{{/usCountry}}It also has a timeline purportedly showing when Hegseth put American troops' lives on the line and finishes with a list of sources to back up the claims made against the Defense Secretary.
{{/usCountry}}People can enter their first name, email id, phone number and zip code to become one of the signatories who want Hegseth fired. The petition began to gain traction online amid the Iran war.
“Signed the petition to Fire Hegseth!,” one person commented on X. Another added “Sign the Petition to Fire Hegseth!”. Yet another said "the website he started: Sign the Petition to Fire Hegseth!," sharing a video of US representative from New York, Pat Ryan, where the former U.S. Army intelligence officer can be heard slamming Hegseth.
Pat Ryan slams Pete Hegseth: Video
A video of Ryan slamming Hegseth was shared by MediastTouch, which claims to do ‘pro democracy journalism’. In the video, Ryan says “Hegseth has literally become more deranged than the SNL skits at this point. Each time he screws up, he gets more desperate—he screams louder.”
Ryan went on to issue a series of expletives about the Defense Secretary and added “He has the blood of thirteen Americans on his hands, and he needs to be held accountable for that.”
He was referring to the lives lost during the Iran war. At least 13 US soliders are believed to have been killed since the US conflict with Iran began. The war has been met with much criticism back home as one of President Trump's poll pitches was to have lesser wars during his time in office. Critics have also pointed out that the US need to have gotten dragged into Israel's conflict with Iran. The US has had trouble convincing its NATO allies to actively support its efforts against Iran – and president Trump's call to nations to help with the Strait of Hormuz situation was rebuffed by many of the European allies including the UK and Spain.