Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth berated his Democratic questioners and previous administrations in a contentious hearing before the House Armed Services Committee that was scheduled to discuss the Pentagon's 2027 budget but was more a debate on the war with Iran.
Hegseth set the tone for what was to come in his opening statement, saying, "The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans."
Wednesday's appearance is Hegseth's first appearance before Congress since the war started. He'll testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday about the Pentagon's request for a $1.5 trillion budget for 2027, the most the Pentagon has ever requested.
Calculations for that budget request were finalized months ago, before the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran in February, and doesn't account for spending on the Iran war.
Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon comptroller, testified the war has so far cost $25 billion. The Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.
Hegseth and Democrats -- as well as some Republicans -- traded barbs over the rationale of the war and its timetable and Hegseth's firings of high-ranking military officials.
Two Republicans -- Reps. Don Bacon and Austin Scott -- told Hegseth they disagreed with his firing of Gen. Randy George, the former Army chief of staff. GOP Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican, raised questions over Hegseth's firing of former Navy Secretary John Phelan.
“As you're evaluating whether they're running with the mission they've been given, you got to make a change,” Hegseth said about Phelan’s firing.
Two dozen senior officers have been fired or had their promotions blocked without explanation by the Pentagon. Hegseth made a similarly vague comment on the firing of John Phelan who served as Navy secretary.
“You have the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn’t make it right or wise," Bacon said.
Hegseth was also asked about the four colonels who were blocked from promotion to one-star general. Two of those officers are Black and two are women. None of those officers were facing any discipline issues and were thoroughly vetted before being tapped for promotion, according to two U.S. officials.
“I anticipate other officers will be removed also,” Hegseth said without offering a rationale.
Democratic Rep. John Garamendi accused Hegseth of lying about the war’s progress and slammed him for what he said was shifting reasons for starting the war.
“Cost of living, gas prices are up 40% and inflation is soaring,” Garamendi said. “So much for lowering the cost of living. The president has got himself in America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He's desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.”
“You stain the troops when you call this a quagmire two months in, handing propaganda to our enemies,” Hegseth responded.
In a tense exchange, ranking Democrat Adam Smith pressed Hegseth to reconcile two seemingly incompatible claims: that Iran’s nuclear program was “obliterated” during last summer's attack on its nuclear facilities and President Donald Trump and other administration officials have said, and that its nuclear program posed an imminent threat which was used as justification for launching the war.
Hegseth said that despite "obliterated" nuclear capabilities that the US is surveilling 24/7, Iran maintained an "ambition" and "conventional shield" that posed a threat.
“What is the plan to actually turn all of this lethal kinetic action into an improvement in the nuclear situation? Because we haven't gotten there yet. Play it out for us. How does that happen? How does it actually lead to that result?“ Smith asked.
“I would take issue with the premise of the question that nothing was done. Operation Midnight Hammer was very effective,” Hegseth said.
“What are we going to do now?” Smith asked.
Hegseth touted Trump’s record on Iran, including withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, killing Qassem Soleimani, and ordering the attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
“You have to stare down this kind of enemy who's hellbent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they're at the table giving it up, in a way that ensures they will never have it,” Hegseth said.
The testimony of Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon's comptroller, was the first public accounting from the Defense Department on the cost of the conflict so far. Much of that cost is due to the thousands of bombs and missiles used, Hurst said.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in his opening statement that he's committed to a non-partisan military.
"My blueprint for this role is Gen. George C. Marshall, his commitment to civilian control the military, and nonpartisan military remains a constant standard, and something I borrow from often, I strive daily to emulate as candor, delivering the facts to our leaders and telling them always what they need to hear, not always what they want to hear."
The hearing came just two days before a deadline set by the 1973 War Powers Resolution that gives the president latitude for 60 days to conduct military strikes.
The resolution gives the president latitude to conduct military strikes for a 60-day window, which closes Friday. The law allows for a one-time 30-day extension for the president to act without the consent of lawmakers.
Defense experts have long raised concerns about stockpile constraints even before the war with Iran, with some estimates of a potential conflict with China suggesting the United States could exhaust long-range missile inventories within the first few weeks of fighting.
In less than two months of exchanging fire with Iran, the U.S. has used roughly half of certain missiles and other munitions, according to an analysis published last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Retired Col. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS and an author of the report, said Operation Epic Fury "does create a window of vulnerability" for a period of as many as four years -- the time it would take to replenish stocks.
"The United States has enough munitions to fight this war if it stubs up again," Cancian said. "But the risk is in a future war with China, where inventory levels are far below where war planners would like them to be."
Pentagon officials have maintained the U.S. has enough ammo to fight Iran. Though rearming the force with new munitions can take years, with some missiles requiring one to two years to build, reflecting an inherent limit on how many complex munitions the defense industry can produce each year, spurring much of the interest in huge investments in relatively cheap, easier-to-produce drones, which the Pentagon continues to surge into the Middle East.