‘Pete Hegseth Needs to Be Fired—Immediately’ After Slaughter of 150 Iranian School Children
Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Elizabeth Warren make the case for the urgent ouster of President Donald Trump’s Defense Secretary.
“Pete Hegseth must be fired—immediately.” This is the argument put forward by U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen in a video statement released Thursday evening—a demand joined and supported by Senator Elizabeth Warren. Their joint call comes against the backdrop of a growing wave of global outrage sparked by the February 28 bombing of an Iranian school—an attack that claimed the lives of more than 175 civilians, most of whom were young children.
Ms. Warren cited the preliminary findings of a Pentagon report released this week, which concludes that the United States is “most likely responsible” for the massacre perpetrated at the school in the city of Minab, located in the country’s southeast; she emphasized that the attack resulted in the “deaths of mostly young girls, aged seven to fourteen.”
Human rights organizations have condemned the school bombing—which occurred on the very first day of the unjustified offensive launched by Trump against Iran—labeling it a potential “war crime” warranting an independent investigation. For his part, Trump has repeatedly lied about the bombing, falsely claiming that Iran was responsible for the strike on the school, despite having access to internal intelligence assessments that appeared to indicate exactly the opposite.
On Wednesday, Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said that the available evidence was more than sufficient to conclude that the United States was behind the attack, noting that reports now beginning to trickle out of the Pentagon merely further corroborated the conclusions already reached by outside analysts. Ms. Tlaib asserted: “Trump must be removed from office, and Hegseth must be fired.” She added: “Furthermore, the U.S. administration must be held accountable before international courts for the heinous war crimes it has committed.”
According to Mr. Van Hollen and Ms. Warren, the “Minab” massacre constitutes merely the latest—and most gruesome—example of the bloodthirsty and reckless conduct displayed by the U.S. military under Hegseth’s leadership. His tenure at the Pentagon has been marked by controversy, accusations of human rights violations, grave errors compromising national security, and the systematic violation of international law—elevated to the level of official policy.
Pete Hegseth needs to be fired.
New reporting seems to confirm our worst fears: it was a US missile that struck the girls school in Iran.
That strike comes at a time when Secretary Hegseth has systematically weakened US protections against civilian harm by our military.… pic.twitter.com/A34bcLQI3w— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) March 12, 2026
In the video, Van Hollen notes: “We witnessed the ‘Signalgate’ scandal, during which he put soldiers in harm’s way”—referring to Hegseth’s use of a public encryption and communication tool to share national security details as well as plans for a military operation that had not yet been executed.
He continues: “We also saw him blow up ships in the Caribbean”—attacks that resulted in the deaths of over 160 people and were characterized by human rights experts as acts amounting to premeditated murder. Van Hollen stated: “He had them target unarmed swimmers”—survivors of those very attacks.
Warren interjects in the video clip, asserting: “That’s right—and without ever having been held accountable” for any of these actions. Van Hollen adds: And above all else, Hegseth “has absolutely no idea what he is doing in this ongoing war in Iran. Yet, a U.S. missile has just struck an Iranian school, killing approximately 150 innocent students.
” Hegseth has vehemently and consistently denounced the restrictive “rules of engagement” imposed on the armed forces, labeling these constraints “stupid” and mocking what he calls “woke warfare”—a phrase generally used to deride what are perceived as excessive progressive concepts. As detailed by The New York Times on Friday, Hegseth’s entire career has been defined by his criticism of what he views as the excessively restrictive nature of rules designed to prevent atrocities. Now, as Secretary of Defense, he has been granted the authority necessary to put his theories into practice:
Hegseth strove to reshape the culture of the Pentagon, exalting lethality and combat bravery “without apology or hesitation.” He framed this approach as a “warrior ethos”—an ethos characterized by toughness and masculinity.
He built his career as an infantry officer in the Army; as he recounts in his 2024 memoir, The War on Warriors, he loathed the strict rules of engagement imposed to minimize risks to civilians. He argued that the rigorous standards governing when his platoon was permitted to open fire exposed soldiers to heightened danger on the battlefield. He laid the blame for these rules on military lawyers—or “JAGs”—even though, in reality, it is military commanders—not lawyers—who establish them.
Subsequently, Mr. Hegseth continued to champion this same line of thinking in his capacity as a commentator and host on Fox News, as well as a defender of U.S. service members facing accusations of war crimes. In his 2024 book, he questioned the necessity of adhering to the Geneva Conventions and referred to military lawyers using a derogatory term, labeling them “jagoffs.”
In the video in which she appears alongside Van Hollen, Warren explains that the primary reason for the call for Hegseth’s immediate dismissal lies in his hostile attitude toward mechanisms designed to mitigate “civilian harm” during wartime or other military operations.
In their capacity as lawmakers, both Van Hollen and Warren highlight the ways in which they contributed to the establishment of stricter rules aimed at preventing harm to civilians. In this regard, Warren states: “Whenever military forces consider launching an attack—particularly in areas where civilians are present and where innocent lives could potentially be at risk—it is imperative to meticulously examine the following questions: ‘What are the potential risks? Are there ways to mitigate these risks? And have we double-checked and cross-checked everything, again and again?'”
Warren then asks: “But what did Pete Hegseth do?” Van Hollen replies: “Hegseth came in and dismantled the entire system; he characterized these rules as ‘stupid rules of engagement.’ Yet, we know full well that rules of engagement were established, first and foremost, to prevent harm to civilians, and that they are also designed to prevent the commission of war crimes.”
