Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the US-Israeli war on Iran and its mounting costs.
Wednesday's hearing marked his first congressional testimony since the US and its ally Israel jointly launched the conflict more than two months ago.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Hegseth immediately struck a combative tone. In his opening remarks, he declared that the biggest challenge now is the reckless, feckless and "the defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans."
Here are the key points Hegseth made during his testimony —
Length of US-Israel war on Iran
Democratic Representative Chrissy Houlahan asked Hegseth, "How many more months, just by order of magnitude, do you think that you’re going to need to be able to conclude operations successfully? And how many more billions of dollars do you think you’re going to ask this body for?"
Hegseth refused to answer the question, saying that the US military would never tip its hand to an adversary about how long it would be committed to the mission.
Sacking of army general
Pressed by Houlahan on why he fired the Army’s top uniformed officer, General Randy George, Hegseth refused to answer and didn’t deny the Democratic representative’s suggestion that he fired George via text.
He said he wouldn’t talk about the removal out of respect.
"However, I will note it’s very difficult to change the culture of a department that’s been destroyed by the wrong perspectives," Hegseth said.
"So, General George destroyed a culture?" Houlahan asked.
Hegseth said the department "needed new leadership."
The congresswoman responded: "You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men who’s ever served this nation?"
"We needed new leadership," Hegseth said. "That’s my answer."
"And so your answer is a very immature way of responding to my request," Houlahan said.
US attack on Iran school
Hegseth said that two months after a deadly American strike on an Iranian elementary school killed more than 165 people, including many children, the incident remains under investigation.
That answer came after California Democrat Ro Khanna pressed him on the costs associated with the strike.
Hegseth replied that "that unfortunate situation remains under investigation" but that he "wouldn’t tie a cost to that."
Hegseth told reporters last month that the military assigned a general from outside of US Central Command to investigate the strike. Still, he refused questions about what led to it while arguing that the US does not target civilians.
Costs of war
Hegseth faced intense questions from Khanna about what American households would have to pay due to the economic repercussions of the war with Iran.
"Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over the next year because of the Iran war?" Khanna asked.
Hegseth retorted, "I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb."
Khanna then accused Hegseth and the Trump administration of failing to live up to the president’s campaign promises of lowering the cost of living for Americans. He argued that Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would cause American households to pay thousands more dollars for gas and food.
"I’m sad for all the people who voted for Trump. I’m sad for them because you betrayed them," Khanna said.
A quagmire?
Hegseth pushed back on Democratic criticisms that the Trump administration has led Americans into a "quagmire," pointing out that the conflict is only two months old and asserting it has had great success against Tehran.
The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on for years, he said.
Trump said in early March that the war is likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared "to go far longer than that."
Risks of war on Iran
Pentagon "looked at all aspects" of the risk that Iran would blockade the Strait of Hormuz, said Hegseth. The claim came after Representative Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, asked Hegseth if he considered "Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz winning."
"I would say the blockade that we hold that doesn’t allow anything to come in or out of Iranian ports," Hegseth replied.
So "we’ve blockaded their blockade," Moulton said — that’s "like saying tag, you’re it."
Support for Iran war
Hegseth said the American people have supported the war’s mission of depriving Iran of a nuclear weapon, "despite your loose talk and words like quagmire."
While an AP-NORC poll from March found that about two-thirds of US adults said it’s "extremely" or "very" important to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, other polling suggests that most Americans disapprove of how Trump is handling the issue of Iran more broadly.
'Biggest adversary we face'
"The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary, we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans," Hegseth told lawmakers.
Representative Adam Smith, the ranking Democrat, told Hegseth that he finds it "absurd" to claim that the Pentagon’s strategy is built on realism when the war in Iran seems like "the exact opposite of realism."
Smith also said Hegseth needs to explain what the Trump administration’s goals were for the conflict.
"We’ve seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high," he said.
Hegseth argued that the historically high Pentagon budget request will maintain "the world’s most powerful and capable military as we grapple with a complex threat environment across multiple theaters."
