Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) called Wednesday for the immediate firing of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying he has gone “completely off the rails” — the latest and most pointed in a series of public demands from the Georgia senator that Hegseth be removed from the Pentagon’s top job.
“Pete Hegseth is completely off the rails,” Warnock wrote on X. “He needs to be fired immediately.”
Warnock has been one of the Senate’s most consistent critics of Hegseth since before his confirmation, voting against his nomination and calling him “unhinged and unqualified” when Trump first put him forward, according to his official Senate statement on the Hegseth vote. Hegseth was confirmed 50-50 with Vice President Vance casting the tiebreaking vote in January 2025.
What Has Piled Up Since Confirmation
Warnock’s Wednesday call for firing came after a week in which Hegseth announced a joint Pentagon-DOJ task force to prosecute national security leakers — drawing immediate criticism from Democrats who pointed to the IG report finding Hegseth himself had violated Pentagon policy by sharing airstrike details in an unsecured Signal chat — mandated annual testosterone screenings for service members, signaled he would not punish a Blue Angels pilot for a low beach pass that sent umbrellas flying at Pensacola Beach, and captioned a post “The High-T Department of War.”
Those actions built on months of controversy. The Pentagon Inspector General concluded in December 2025 that Hegseth violated department policy when he shared operational details of imminent U.S. airstrikes in a Signal group chat that accidentally included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, according to the official DoD IG report. Hegseth declined to be interviewed by the inspector general and called the report a “total exoneration.” He also shared similar details in a second Signal chat with his wife, brother and personal lawyer.
Hegseth has overseen the removal, firing or forced departure of more than a dozen senior military officers since taking office, including Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. CQ Brown Jr., Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Gen. Christopher Donahue, the commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican who voted to confirm Hegseth, has publicly said he has a “failing grade” on management.
Warnock’s Specific Concerns About Georgia
Warnock has consistently framed his Hegseth criticism around the impact on Georgia’s approximately 100,000 active duty and reserve service members — the largest military presence of any state in the Southeast, spread across Fort Stewart, Fort Moore, Robins Air Force Base, Moody Air Force Base and Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, among others. He has sent multiple oversight letters on troop welfare, food quality at military installations and the impact of Pentagon personnel decisions on Georgia-based units.
Warnock has also voted repeatedly against funding for and authorization of the Iran war, calling the conflict illegal and launched without congressional approval or a clear strategy. Georgia is home to the 3rd Infantry Division, the 82nd Airborne Division’s rapid deployment assets and multiple Air Force wings that have been involved in CENTCOM operations — making the war’s human cost a direct constituency issue for the senator, per his official press release on the Iran war funding vote.
The Pattern of “Fired Immediately” Calls
Wednesday’s post was not Warnock’s first call for Hegseth’s immediate removal. He made a similar demand around July 6 following the news that the Pentagon had briefly suspended eight South Carolina National Guard Apache helicopter pilots for a low-altitude beach flyover — before Hegseth intervened to lift the suspensions within hours. Warnock’s calls have accelerated in frequency as each new controversy has added to the cumulative case he and other Democrats are building ahead of the November midterms.
The call for firing requires no action — only the president can remove a cabinet official — and Trump has repeatedly and publicly backed Hegseth through every controversy. “I think he’s a great choice,” Trump said at an April press conference, adding that Hegseth had been “treated very unfairly” by his critics. Hegseth has shown no sign of stepping down and the administration has not signaled any change in his status.
Republican Unease That Stops Short of Warnock’s Demand
While Warnock and other Democrats have called for Hegseth’s firing, Republican discomfort has been more muted and has not translated into formal calls for removal. Tillis told reporters Hegseth has a “failing grade” on technical and managerial skills. An anonymous Republican senator told The Hill that confidence in Hegseth among Senate Republicans had dropped sharply. Sen. Mike Rounds said he hoped concerns about Turkey’s S-400 system “have been resolved” after Hegseth backed Trump’s announcement to lift Turkey sanctions — a sideways expression of concern rather than a direct rebuke.
Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot — pushed out of the building earlier this year — publicly compared Hegseth’s Signal conduct to that of CIA Director David Petraeus, who resigned and was sentenced to probation for sharing classified notebooks with his biographer, per the official DOJ Petraeus sentencing release. Even those pointed comparisons from within the administration’s own alumni have not moved Republican senators to join Warnock’s demand for Hegseth’s immediate removal.
What Warnock’s Call Signals
Warnock is up for reelection in November 2026 in Georgia — a perennial swing state that he won by just 2 points in his 2022 runoff. His repeated and escalating calls for Hegseth’s firing reflect a calculation that the secretary’s conduct is a political liability the Democratic Party should be pressing, particularly with the Iran war ongoing and military families in Georgia acutely aware of what decisions made in the Pentagon mean for their loved ones.
Whether Hegseth’s tenure ends before the election or not, Warnock’s positioning ensures the question of Pentagon leadership will remain a live issue in Georgia through November. His Wednesday post — four words, two sentences — was his most economical yet. The cumulative record he was pointing to needed no elaboration.