U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reacts as U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

One Republican member of Congress with an extensive military record is calling on President Donald Trump to fire Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

During a Tuesday interview with CNN reporter Manu Raju, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), who is a retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force and serves on the House Armed Forces Committee, expanded on his view that the embattled defense secretary should be "held accountable" in the wake of a Washington Post report alleging that he ordered the deaths of two people who survived a missile strike.

"We do not kill two survivors who are not posing an imminent threat to anybody," Bacon said. "I just want to make sure I get the facts. If what is being reported is true, somebody was wrong and they should be held accountable."

"It doesn't sound good. And if somebody actually did this, they should be held accountable," he continued. "And it should be at the top, not the bottom."

When Raju asked Bacon whether he felt Hegseth's actions necessitated his removal, Bacon said "absolutely." He also referenced his prior call for Hegseth to be fired in the wake of the defense secretary accidentally including Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on a group text in which he shared classified information pertaining to impending strikes in Yemen.

"I felt that way under Signalgate. He should have taken responsibility then, and he didn't," Bacon said.

Hegseth's story on his involvement in the strike has been fluid. He initially claimed in a Fox News interview that he knew "exactly" who was on the boat that was destroyed and that he watched events unfold in real time. However, the defense secretary said during Tuesday's Cabinet meeting at the White House that he had left the room prior to the secondary strike that killed the two survivors, and instead said Adm. Frank M. Bradley, who was in charge of the mission, made the call to order the strike on the survivors. Hegseth called it "the correct decision."

Watch the video of Bacon's comments below: