Hegseth's contentious hearing in Congress reveals partisan divide over Iran war

Amna Nawaz:

Today, for the first time since the U.S. went to war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth faced sharp questions from Congress. During the hearing, the Pentagon revealed that the war so far has cost $25 billion.

The fighting is on hold, but the military maintains its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. And "PBS News Hour" has learned one of the aircraft carriers currently in the region, the USS Gerald R. Ford, will soon head home after a record-setting 10 months at sea.

Nick Schifrin reports on a contentious hearing and a partisan divide over the war.

Nick Schifrin:

After two months of fighting in the Middle East, the theater of war today was Capitol Hill and a partisan fight over Iran.

Pete Hegseth, U.S. Defense Secretary:

Based on the intel.

Man:

Stop. Stop. Reclaiming my time.

Pete Hegseth:

Because you yell doesn't make you right.

Nick Schifrin:

The U.S. and Israel says its campaign has eliminated more than half of Iran's missiles and drones, much of its defense industrial base, its entire conventional navy and air force, and has now become a fight over Iran's choke hold over the Strait of Hormuz.

But Secretary Pete Hegseth said today the threat of Iran pales in comparison to what he called Democratic defeatism.

Pete Hegseth:

The biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.

Nick Schifrin:

The secretary and this House Armed Services Committee haven't always been that political. But, today, even some previously skeptical Republicans piled on the praise.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC):

Everything I have seen, you have surpassed all of my expectations and I just want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Nick Schifrin:

And Democrats voiced the most criticism.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA):

The president has got himself in America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East. He's desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.

Pete Hegseth:

You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement. And statements like that are reckless to our troops.

Nick Schifrin:

Early on, the Pentagon's chief financial officer disclosed for the first time the war's $25 billion cost.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA):

So you're saying the full cost at this point is $25 billion?

Jay Hurst, Pentagon Chief Financial Officer:

Yes, that's our estimate for the cost.

Rep. Adam Smith:

OK, interesting, because we -- I'm glad you answered that question, because we have been asking for a hell of a long time and no one's given us the number.

Nick Schifrin:

Democrats argue that number misses the war's true cost.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA):

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?

Pete Hegseth:

I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.

Rep. Ro Khanna:

I'm going to give you that opportunity.

Pete Hegseth:

I would simply ask you what the -- you're playing gotcha questions about domestic things. I'm not...

(Crosstalk)

Rep. Ro Khanna:

No, it's not. You're asking -- you're saying it's a gotcha question to ask what it's going to be in terms of the increased cost of gas?

Pete Hegseth:

Why won't you answer what it costs to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb?

Rep. Ro Khanna:

I give you that, sir. You don't know what we're paying in terms of gas. You don't know what we're paying in terms of food. Your $25 billion number is totally off. It's the incompetence. It's the incompetence.

Nick Schifrin:

One moment of Republican and Democratic agreement:

Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE):

I share a bipartisan concern of the firings that we have seen at the Pentagon.

Nick Schifrin:

A deep concern about the firings of dozens of senior military and civilian leaders, including most recently Navy Secretary John Phelan and Chief of Staff of the Army General Randy George.

Rep. Don Bacon:

Now, I would just point out it may be constitutionally right. You have the constitutional right to do these things, but it doesn't make it right or wise.

Pete Hegseth:

It's very difficult to change the culture of a department that has been destroyed by the wrong perspectives with the same officers that were there.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA):

So you think General George destroyed a culture?

Pete Hegseth:

There are many -- we have gotten rid of many general officers in this administration, because we need new leadership.

(Crosstalk)

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan:

You have no answer, sir. You have no way of explaining why you fired one of the most decorated and remarkable men who's ever served the nation.

Pete Hegseth:

We needed new leadership. That's my answer.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan:

And so your answer is a very immature way of responding to my request.

Nick Schifrin:

Today's hearing was actually called to discuss the administration's record $1.45 trillion budget request, which goes well beyond replenishing munitions spent in Iran to build much-needed drones, missile defense and increased boat building.

The budget represents a 40 percent increase and won't survive at that number, but would help the U.S. catch up to what committee Chairman Alabama Republican Mike Rogers called China's People's Liberation Army's growing advantage.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL):

China continues to invest heavily in the PLA's military modernization, announcing another 7 percent increase in defense spending this year. As a result, they are spending more of their GDP on defense than we are.

Nick Schifrin:

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine called the request a much-needed long-term investment.

Gen. Dan Caine:

As we look at the character of warfare changing very, very fast, what's layered in to this budget by our civilian leaders will allow us to start getting ahead of where technology is evolving.

Nick Schifrin:

But today in the Middle East, it is not advanced technology helping determine the war's fate. Iran is using the threat of mines and drones to keep a choke hold over the Strait of Hormuz. Iran recently offered to open the strait if the U.S. lifted its own blockade and paused any discussion of Iranian nuclear limits, an offer that President Trump today rejected.

President Donald Trump:

At this moment, there will never be a deal unless they agree that there will be no nuclear weapons.

Nick Schifrin:

Instead, U.S. officials say they will maintain the blockade, enforced just yesterday by Marines on a commercial tanker, and keep up maximum economic pressure, hoping Iran loosens its demands. Until then, tankers remain at a standstill and the war's diplomacy in a standoff.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Nick Schifrin.