Michigan U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin had a heated exchange Wednesday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over whether he has given an order authorizing members of the military to “detain and arrest protesters” in Los Angeles.

“What is the order?” the Democrat asked during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. “Be a man, list it out. Did you authorize them to detain or arrest? That is a fundamental of democracy. I’m not trying to be a snot here. I’m just trying to get the actual — did you authorize them to do that?”

Hegseth did not provide a direct answer to the question. He said that the 4,700 United States Marine Corps and National Guard troops deployed amid immigration protests in Los Angeles are “there to protect law enforcement, ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers who are trying to do their job, deporting illegals who … were allowed in by the previous administration.”

The argument played out Wednesday in the final minutes of an Armed Services Committee hearing over the Pentagon’s 2026 budget request. Slotkin appeared exasperated over Hegseth’s comments and his unwillingness to provide a straightforward answer in the aftermath of President Donald Trump becoming the first commander in chief since 1965 to send National Guard troops to a state without cooperation from its governor.

In that instance, which Slotkin alluded to, President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect voting rights protesters from violence against the wishes of segregationist Gov. George Wallace.

“Have you given the order for (troops) to be able to shoot at unarmed protesters in any way?” the freshman senator asked Hegseth again, whom she indicated was laughing at her question.

The embattled Defense Secretary responded: “What is that based on? What evidence would you have that an order like that has ever been given?”

Slotkin, who previously served as a Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense official, cited statements from former Defense Secretary Mark Esper that Trump asked officials in 2020 if troops could shoot protesters “in the legs” amid unrest following the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Esper later told NPR in 2022 about that exchange: “We reached that point in the conversation where he looked frankly at (Joint Chiefs of Staff) Gen. [Mark] Milley and said, ‘Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?’ … It was a suggestion and a formal question. And we were just all taken aback at that moment as this issue just hung very heavily in the air.”

Slotkin referred to those comments and Esper during the exchange with Hegseth.

“He had more guts and balls than you, because he said, I’m not going to send in the uniform military to do something that I know and my gut isn’t right,” Slotkin told Hegseth.

Hegseth responded: “Senator, I’d be careful what you read in books and believing it, except for the Bible.”

Slotkin, taken aback, said: “Oh my God. So your former predecessor — I guess that’s not enough for you. Okay.”

Slotkin then pivoted to a question about U.S. preparedness for the fallout in the Middle East from Israel’s recent bombing raids over Iran.

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