Hegseth replaced Pentagon civilian protection office with AI before Iran war, slashing staff from 40 to 9

Last January, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired most of the Pentagon's civilian harm mitigation and response (CHMR) workers and replaced them with artificial intelligence.

According to a report from The Intercept, the Pentagon's Civilian Protection Center of Excellence was reduced from 40 staffers to just nine at the beginning of last year. No new hires have been made since, leaving the center unable to fulfill its mission: protecting civilians from harm caused by U.S. military operations in conflict zones.

Remaining staff members said they are not permitted to investigate incidents such as the Minab elementary school bombing, which killed 120 children on the first day of the war in Iran.

CHMR cuts were felt across the Defense Department. AFRICOM, CENTCOM, and SOUTHCOM all saw their civilian casualty prevention infrastructure reduced, signaling what has been evident for years: Those casualties are not a moral priority for the United States.

• CENTCOM's CHMR now has only one person remaining.
• Cuts to SOUTHCOM's team left them unable to determine the full scope of civilian harm in the kidnapping of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January.

"The Hegseth regime held on to a thread of the program mostly in effort to be able to say they are following the law, but the reality is the Center and its efforts have had little to no influence on or oversight or visibility on operations," former Protection Center Chief of Civilian Harm Assessments Wes Bryant told The Intercept. "As long as they sit in the seat, they are continuing to try to put out good work, but the reality is, most of it is being thrown into the wind, and neither institutionalized nor operationalized."

Now, instead of human personnel, Hegseth is relying on a Palantir-created Maven Smart System, which a defense official claimed provides a "better layer of protection" for civilians in areas currently under U.S. attack.

"The Department's failure to implement the CHMR [Action Plan] has profound consequences for civilians in conflict zones and makes service members' jobs harder and riskier," Senator Elizabeth Warren and nine other Democrats wrote in a letter to Hegseth earlier this month. "Gutting CHMR programs leads to 'target misidentification [that] harms readiness by wasting Do[D] munitions' and increases the operational risk of 'civilian casualties, damaged coalitions and alliances, loss of legitimacy, increased local resistance, propaganda opportunities for adversaries, prolonged conflicts, and failed strikes.'"

Thousands of Iranians have been killed since the downsizing of CHMR.

Editor's Pick: Trump Is Ready for All-Out War in Iran. There's Just One Catch.

Republican Lawmakers Move On from Trump's Election Claims

Republican lawmakers are moving on from Donald Trump's election conspiracy theories.

The president spent more than 25 minutes last week addressing the public—and his supposed congressional allies—to revive his 2020 election fraud claims. He demanded that Republicans prioritize mail-in ballot bans and voter roll purges, and investigate what he claimed was a nationwide cover-up by the "deep state." Days later, however, the conservative caucus appears to have completely missed the message.

Most GOP candidates are unwilling to revisit Trump's thoroughly debunked election fraud claims, as the issue has failed to galvanize voters, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The day after Trump's address, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Whatley—who is trailing former Democratic Governor Roy Cooper in the race to replace retiring North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis—held a 34-minute campaign event that touched on none of Trump's advertised priorities. Instead, Whatley told local voters that the number one issue this election cycle is "keeping our kids and our communities safe."

Whatley had previously supported Trump's 2020 election fraud claims. But when asked by a Post reporter to elaborate on Trump's latest speech, Whatley simply mentioned...