Hegseth 'blindsided' State Dept. with weapons claim: NBC
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly the one responsible for halting aid to Ukraine, blindsiding the U.S. State Department.
According to NBC News, no one, including members of Congress, officials in Kyiv, and allies in Europe, knew that the allocated aid was going to be paused, officials said.
Hegseth claimed that sending Ukraine U.S. stockpiles was putting the military at risk of having fewer weapons in the event of war.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), however, called the claim disingenuous.
“We are not at any lower point, stockpile-wise, than we’ve been in the 3½ years of the Ukraine conflict,” said Smith, who is the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee.
He explained that his staff has "seen the numbers" and that there was no evidence of a shortage that would stop the aid shipments.
President Donald Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday morning. However, three congressional aids and one former U.S. official said that was a "unilateral" decision from Hegseth.
“We can’t give weapons to everybody all around the world,” said Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell on Wednesday. “Part of our job is to give the president a framework that he can use to evaluate how many munitions we have where we’re sending them. And that review process is happening right now and is ongoing.”
The weaponry was already in Europe and had been loaded onto trucks aimed for Kyiv when Hegseth stopped it at the last minute, two sources told NBC.
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