In what was War Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine’s first opportunity to answer questions from lawmakers about the war in Iran, partisanship was the dominant feature of their appearance before the House Armed Services Committee.
Hegseth was quick to criticize Democrats, the previous administration, and his predecessor, while lawmakers’ five-minute sessions to question the witnesses were largely split along political lines.
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During his opening remarks, Hegseth criticized Democrats and “some Republicans” who have been critical of the war against Iran, arguing that the “biggest adversaries we face at this point are the reckless, feckless, and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans two months in.”
The comment was brought up by multiple Democrats, who took turns criticizing him, the administration, and the war in Iran, while he frequently responded to their comments by accusing them of asking him “gotcha questions.”
In the first of many contentious moments with Democrats, Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) accused him of “lying to the public” about the war.
Hegseth countered: “The way you stain the troops when you tell them, two months in, two months in, congressman. You should know better. Shame on you. Calling this a quagmire two months in, the effort, what they have undertaken, what they have succeeded.”
He continued: “Shame on you for that statement, and statements like that are reckless to our troops. Don’t say I support the troops on one hand, and then a two-month mission is a quagmire. That’s a false equivalation [sic]. Who are you cheering for here?”
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) also referenced Hegseth’s “reckless, feckless” remarks, asking him whether he believed Congress was “smart or feckless when it failed to ask tough questions of the Bush administration and gave them a blank check for Iraq,” to which the secretary argued it was a “false comparison.”
Jules Hurst, the Pentagon’s acting comptroller, told lawmakers that the war has cost roughly $25 billion, though it’s unclear if that includes the cost of repairing bases in the Middle East that were damaged in the conflict.
The contentious exchanges and partisan comments were not limited to the subject of the war, though.
During another point in the hearing, Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA) asked Hegseth if he would overturn the requirements for service members to get various vaccines following his recent decision to reverse the flu shot mandate.
The next questioner, Rep. Trent Kelly (R-MS), responded by saying, “Don’t you think it was extremely reckless to mandate COVID vaccines for the healthiest and most unlikely to get COVID and kick them out of the service if they did not comply with an although legal, crazy order from the previous administration.”
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At another point in the hearing, Hegseth was asked about the removal of Gen. Randy George, now the former chief of staff of the Army, whom Hegseth forced to retire earlier this month. Hegseth declined to provide a direct answer, but indicated it was due to his ties to the previous administration.
“I will note it’s very difficult to change the culture of a department that’s been destroyed by the wrong perspectives with the same officers that were there,” Hegseth said. “We needed new leadership.”
When Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) asked Hegseth if President Donald Trump was fit for office, he responded with: “You and your fellow Democrats defended Joe Biden,” and he added during their back-and-forth, “I won’t even engage with the level of disparagement you’re putting on the commander in chief.”
While Hegseth and Democrats repeatedly clashed, the war secretary received a lot of support from Republicans on the committee.
HEGSETH RIPS INTO DEMOCRAT FOR CALLING IRAN WAR A ‘QUAGMIRE’: ‘WHO ARE YOU CHEERING FOR?’
Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-AL) defended the president’s $1.5 trillion defense budget, which was released last week, and was ostensibly the topic of the hearing. The recently released budget proposal did not include the cost of the war, and there had been reports that the supplemental request to pay for the war could be much higher.
As is often the case in Pentagon briefings since the war began, Caine took a much less combative stance in his comments to lawmakers and was met with less hostility, though he did refuse to answer a couple of questions on the basis that he believed they would require a partisan answer or lead him down that path.
“My blueprint for this role is General George C. Marshall,” Caine said. “His commitment to civilian control of the military and nonpartisan military remains a constant standard and something I borrow from often. I strive daily to emulate his candor, delivering the facts to our leaders and telling them always what they need to hear, not always what they want to hear.”
