Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, during congressional testimony on Wednesday, repeatedly dodged questions about whether he would carry out an order from President Donald Trump to deploy troops during the midterm elections.

During the nearly six-hour testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii) asked Hegseth if he would comply with an order from Trump to deploy troops to polling locations during the midterms.

“What you’re trying to insinuate is that the president would give unlawful orders and we would somehow deploy troops as a result,” Hegseth said. “And the evidence of our department is that we’ve worked alongside law enforcement very effectively for 15 months. Los Angeles would’ve been on fire for the summer had we not come across our law enforcement friends and helped them out.”

Tokuda then repeated her question, pointing to comments Trump made to The New York Times earlier this year, in which he said he regretted not ordering the National Guard to seize voting machines in key swing states after his 2020 election loss.

Hegseth again seemingly dodged the question, while repeating parts of his previous answer, before launching into a tirade accusing former President Joe Biden of deploying National Guard troops during the 2024 election.

“You like to insinuate that the president issues illegal orders, which he hasn’t and does not,” Hegseth said before Tokuda cut him off.

“It’s a simple question: Who would you follow, the president or the Constitution?” Tokuda asked.

“I will note that in 2024, troops were, that was Joe Biden by the way, were deployed to polling locations in 15 states. 2024, Joe Biden, troops deployed to polling locations in 15 states. Explain that one to me,” Hegseth said.

Biden did not, in fact, deploy the National Guard during the 2024 election; rather, 15 individual states activated their own Guard units to support state and local officials on Election Day, according to a report from The Hill.

Despite being asked by Tokuda multiple times, Hegseth refused to rule out sending troops to polling locations.

Watch Hegseth’s full testimony before the House Armed Services Committee here:

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