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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
![\"America\"](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/54a62fe4-e694-4491-a171-49b8a9452130\/pete-hegseth-6-rt-gmh-260429_1777475857211_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"America\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/div>Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense’s FY27 budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 29, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Elizabeth Frantz\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cAs you’re evaluating whether they’re running with the mission they’ve been given, you got to make a change,\u201d Hegseth said about Phelan\u2019s firing.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn\u2019t make it right or wise,” Bacon said.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0discipline\u00a0issues and were thoroughly vetted before being tapped for promotion, according to two U.S. officials.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI anticipate other officers will be removed also,\u201d Hegseth said without offering a rationale.\u00a0<\/p>\n Democratic Rep. John Garamendi accused Hegseth of lying about the war\u2019s progress and slammed him for what he said was shifting reasons for starting the war.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCost of living, gas prices are up 40% and inflation is soaring,\u201d Garamendi said. \u201cSo much for lowering the cost of living.\u00a0The president has got himself in America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East.\u00a0He’s desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou stain the troops when you call this a quagmire two months in, handing propaganda to our enemies,\u201d Hegseth responded.<\/p>\n In a tense exchange, ranking Democrat Adam Smith pressed Hegseth to reconcile two seemingly incompatible claims: that Iran\u2019s nuclear program was \u201cobliterated\u201d 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.<\/p>\n Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine testifies before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense’s FY27 budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 29, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Elizabeth Frantz\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat 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?\u201c Smith asked.<\/p>\n \u201cI would take issue with the premise of the question that nothing was done. Operation Midnight Hammer was very effective,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are we going to do now?\u201d Smith asked.<\/p>\n Hegseth touted Trump\u2019s record on Iran, including withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, killing Qassem Soleimani, and ordering the attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cYou 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,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0Much of that cost is due to the thousands of bombs and missiles used, Hurst said.<\/p>\n Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in his opening statement that he’s committed to a non-partisan military.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine and Under Secretary of Defense, Chief Financial Officer Jules W. Hurst, testify before a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 29, 2026.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Kylie Cooper\/Reuters<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Defense experts have long raised concerns about stockpile constraints even before the war with Iran, with some estimates<\/a> of a potential conflict with China suggesting the United States could exhaust long-range missile inventories within the first few weeks of fighting.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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<\/a> published last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Austin](\"https:\/\/i.abcnewsfe.com\/a\/6da2221b-df6a-4f89-9fae-05557ea60c56\/dan-caine-3-rt-gmh-260429_1777475857615_hpMain.jpg?w=375 "\\"Austin")
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