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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted Democratic senators at a hearing on Tuesday, clashing forcefully with accusations that the United States had demonstrated a failure of leadership in its war with Iran, among other areas.
The confrontations show the difficulty Democrats have had in attacking Hegseth without also putting themselves seemingly at odds with the U.S. armed forces — while at the same time expressing reservations about the administration’s decisions.
Sen. Garry Peters, D-Mich., raised that skepticism with Hegseth, pressing him on whether the administration had a plan to bring the protracted war with Iran to a close.
PETE HEGSETH HEADS TO CAPITOL HILL TO DEFEND TRUMP’S IRAN WAR AS 60-DAY CONGRESSIONAL DEADLINE LOOMS
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Cliff Owen/AP Photo)
Peters accused Hegseth of leaving the country in a worse position than when the war began.
“You — you don’t have a strategy, you don’t have a long-term plan to actually win this war. Win the war! The men and women are going to be able to do it, but they need leadership. When will you show leadership?”
Despite promises to end the conflict with Iran in under 60 days and multiple attempts to broker a peace deal, the U.S. remains in a struggle with Tehran over control of the strait of Hormuz, a key waterway in the Middle East that acts as a bottleneck for much of the world’s oil trade.
The U.S. first began the war in joint strikes with Israel on Feb. 28 that killed Ayatollah Ali Kahmenei.
Hegseth, undeterred, fired back, pointing out that Democrats had allowed hesitations about the administration’s border enforcement policies to also extend to funding the government, including servicemembers.
IRAN WAR’S PRICE TAG HITS $80B — MORE THAN DOUBLE WHAT CONGRESS WAS TOLD
Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan and ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, June 24, 2026. (Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“When will you show leadership and stand up to your fellow Democrats who won’t fund the troop, who play partisan politics while you don’t give us the money? You want to stand up here and talk about the troops?” Hegseth said.
“You won’t show any political courage to actually fund our department because you have Trump derangement syndrome and you won’t commit to anything meaningful. So, I put this on you, senator.”
As a part of his criticisms, Hegseth said he believes the hesitance Democrats have shown to the U.S. armed forces has stretched from before Trump’s time in office.
“I mean the Biden administration ignored hypersonics,” Hegseth said, referring to missiles with the capability to travel faster than sound — a breakthrough China achieved in 2019.
“They just decided to pretend like that technology didn’t exist and we shouldn’t invest in it. There are things — I don’t know what Lloyd Austin did for four years. I really don’t. The amount of neglect, the amount of stale thinking and bureaucracy; it was staggering when we took over,” Hegseth said, referring to the Defense Secretary under President Joe Biden.
TRUMP SAYS IRAN DEAL ‘LARGELY NEGOTIATED’ AS 84-DAY WAR NEARS POSSIBLE END
U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin speaks during a press conference with South Korean Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun at The Pentagon on Oct. 30, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. (ent Nishimura / Getty Images)
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The confrontation at the hearings comes as lawmakers weigh the Department of Defense’s spending needs for 2027.
The administration has requested a record-breaking $1.5 trillion budget, a sizeable increase over the roughly $900 billion Congress allocated for 2026.