Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, criticized War Secretary Pete Hegseth for comments he made at a ceremony marking the anniversary of D-Day in France.

"I think it should have been about their sacrifice, their service to their country, and what they did to protect the free world at a time of great peril against Nazi Germany," McCaul said on ABC's "This Week."

"That should have been the message. It always has been in the past. And, quite frankly, I thought it was just inappropriate," he added.

Hegseth appeared to link immigration by sea to the wartime liberation of Europe, warning that the freedom won by Allied troops could prove temporary if leaders failed to defend it.

Hegseth, speaking at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer in northwestern France during commemorations for the 82nd anniversary of the June 6, 1944, landings, said that today, "different European beaches are stormed by different dangerous ideologies."

"Beaches in Spain and Italy and Greece and Bulgaria. Boats and men arrive," he said. "When will European capitals do something about that invasion? Or is it too late? I pray not, and I believe not."

McCaul said that was not the place to make those comments.

"As the son of a D-Day veteran, look, there's a time and a place for these issues of immigration," he said. "That was not the day. Not the anniversary of D-Day."

"I think out of respect to the veterans, and myself being the son of a D-Day veteran, those remarks were out of place," McCaul added.

Hegseth did not use the word immigration, but his remarks echoed broader Trump administration criticism of Europe over migration, border security, and what U.S. officials have described as censorship of nationalist and far-right voices.

On Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office condemned Vice President JD Vance for blaming immigration for the killing of Henry Nowak, an 18-year-old British student who was stabbed to death in Southampton, even though both Nowak and his killer were British.

In December, the Trump administration's national security strategy warned that Europe faced the "prospect of civilizational erasure" and could become "unrecognizable" within 20 years.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.