Hegseth asks for billions for the Iran war, is there an end game?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
It's Consider This, where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, after more than two months without an Iran war update, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before Congress. Hegseth was on Capitol Hill asking Congress for billions for the Defense Department.
$1.5 trillion is what the president seeks and what we need to defend.
And the Secretary of Defense wants tens of billions of that urgently.
What happened at Pete Hegseth’s Senate testimony asking for urgent Iran war funding?
It's the first time in a long time lawmakers have publicly pressed the administration on its strategy and the cost of that strategy. And senators, mostly Democrats, had questions for Hegseth about the size of the request and the overall strategy of the war. Here's Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed.
We're talking about the war you started. not a situation in which oil was flowing freely. There was no conflict. We weren't losing personnel as a result of Iranian actions.
Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray was even more direct.
So I'll be blunt. The truth is your request does not make a lot of sense.
Consider this. Despite promises the Iran war would be decided quickly and decisively, the fighting continues. Does the Trump administration have an exit strategy for Iran? And is the U.S. heading into another forever war? From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.
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Why are senators, especially Democrats, challenging the size and rationale of the $67 billion request?
These days, it feels like the news changes every hour. Well, NPR has a podcast that does that too. NPR News Now brings you a fresh five-minute episode every hour of the day with the latest, most important headlines in episodes that are clear, fact-based, and easy to digest. Listen to NPR News Now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's Consider This from NPR. NPR's Quill Lawrence was watching as Republican and Democratic senators peppered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Kaine about the war. He joined me to take through what he learned.
Straight from their opening statements, I have to say that neither General Kaine nor Secretary Hegseth mentioned Iran at all in their opening statements. And this has to be noted, Secretary Hegseth didn't – I didn't hear him mention the casualties over the weekend. The senators who opened the hearing and General Kane did offer their condolences. I don't know how much to make of that fact, but it's a fact. When the question started, they were pretty bluntly dodged by the secretary and even the chairman. You heard Democrat Patty Murray just a second ago. She later asked Hegseth about President Trump's proposed toll on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, asking who talked the president out of it.
And Hegseth's answer was that the U.S. is blocking Iran's ports. Murray quoted Hegseth himself, saying a few months ago that Iran's missiles were destroyed. And Hegseth's answer to that was that Iran is at its weakest point in 47 years. So they were fairly well talking past each other. Republicans, very few of them even asked questions about the war. They focused on other budget issues, except it has said, as you mentioned, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy, who scolded Hegseth and General Kane for not answering questions. He said the topic was as serious as four heart attacks and a stroke, and he wanted straight answers.
So it sounds to me like we didn't get much new information on what was going to be the first chance in months. We'll just note here there has been no Pentagon briefing since May. Do you think that the senators know what's happening with Iran?
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