Schiff: Hegseth should face Senate questions over Starlink slowdown

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to testify before the Senate over Starlink’s slowdown to its satellite service in Ukraine, which disrupted the country’s military capabilities.

On NBC News’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff told host Kristen Welker that if Democrats were to regain control of the Senate, Hegseth “should be brought in,” along with “anyone who has knowledge of what happened.”

The lawmaker pointed to conflicting accounts from President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk, whose company SpaceX operates Starlink, over who was responsible for limiting the service. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Musk ordered the slowdown of Starshield, the military version of Starlink.

Musk on Saturday alluded to being behind the slowdown of Starshield, the military version of Starlink.

“Ukraine military violated Starlink terms of service and used it for offensive drone strikes to kill people. That loophole was closed last week,” Musk said in a post on social platform X.

Musk also said that limits on “speed or usage” of the service were at the discretion of “the U.S. military and ultimately POTUS,” referencing the president of the United States.

“You’ve got the president saying one thing, you’ve got Elon Musk saying another thing, you have them both saying different things at different times,” Schiff said. “Somebody is lying here. Maybe they’re all lying in different ways, but we need to find out.”

Schiff argued that it raised broader questions about Musk’s influence over U.S. national security.

“The world’s richest person shouldn’t be controlling our national security interests,” he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told NBC News last week that his government believed the U.S. had directed SpaceX to limit satellite speeds. The slow down targeted Starlink-supported Ukrainian military drones, airplanes and helicopters traveling faster than 100 mph, a source familiar with the matter previously told The Hill.

“It was the message from American government to limit this speed, and technically SpaceX did it,” Zelensky said.

The Trump administration has denied ordering the restrictions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also shut down reports that Washington had denied Ukraine access to satellite services needed for its defense.