Ahmad Austin Jr.May 4th, 2026, 3:39 pm

CNN fact checker Daniel Dale on Monday broke down how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made false claims under oath in multiple congressional hearings.

Last week, Hegseth testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. Much of those hearings focused on the Defense Department’s 2027 budget request, Hegeth’s numerous staff changes, and the ongoing war in Iran.

During Wednesday’s House hearing, Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-HI) asked Hegseth if he would comply with an order from President Donald Trump to deploy troops at polling sites during the midterm elections. Such an order, Tokuda noted, would violate federal law unless specific conditions were met to necessitate the presence of troops. In response, Hegseth claimed Trump would never give unlawful orders. He then accused former President Joe Biden of giving the exact order Tokuda mentioned.

According to Dale, however, that wasn’t true. His report continued:

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 – or that their state Guard was not actually activated for the election after all.

The next day, Dale noted, Hegseth was challenged on that false claim by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI). He simply repeated it.

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