1. United States
2. Maine
3. Letter

Hegseth must go. Congress has not yet held Pete Hegseth accountable for his grave breach of national security when he used WhatsApp for highly sensitive information and included a journalist. Since then he has given orders to commit war crimes on a number of occasions. He has also given explicit verbal directions to commit war crimes with his "no quarter" orders. The bombing of school killing over 160 pupils is yet another war crime: the bombing could have been prevented by proper intel and preparation, but Trump and Hegseth dissolved the agencies responsible for preventing civilian deaths. Troubling expense items in the Pentagon budget have come to light-- including the purchase of very expensive musical instruments. Per the Washington Post: "Separately, the Pentagon notified Congress on Monday that it intended to divert about $750 million in funding provided by NATO countries through the PURL program to restock the U.S. military's own inventories, rather than to send additional assistance to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials. The first official said it was unclear whether European countries participating in the initiative understood how the funding was being spent."-- this is surely illegal. Hegseth hasn't just committed security breaches, war crimes, and spending infringements, he has also put forth troubling propaganda that violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Most recently Hegseth has intervened in promotions to undermine women and people of color. As the New York Times reported: "Hegseth Strikes Two Black and Two Female Officers From Promotion List Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's highly unusual decision to remove officers from a one-star promotion list has spurred allegations of racial and gender bias. Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said." Such discrimination is illegal and betrays our laws and human decency. Every one of the issues mentioned above warrants oversight and investigation by Congress; any single one of those issues should be grounds for removal. Thousands of Americans contacted the senate to ask our elected public servants not to confirm a nominee with inadequate experience, no appropriate military experience or credentials, and a record of drinking and spousal abuse. Now that the lives of American military are being risked and lost in wars waged illegally without congressional approval, it has become unacceptable to have such an egregiously unsuitable character in post. I ask you to do oversight on Hegseth and the Pentagon budget. I call on you to impeach Hegseth and remove him. I ask you not to make the same mistake again,-- that is, not to confirm any addition unqualified nominees who lack character and integrity.