“We Haven’t Gotten There Yet”, Adam Smith Grills Pete Hegseth Over Iran War, $25B & Ukraine | AC1G

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]low level. Now, the companies are going to pay for those factories and those production lines, and when you're when Congress gives those 5 to 7-year demand signals, they'll then fund it not just, "Hey, can we get 10 more per month?" But, can we 2x, 3x, 4x the production, uh pay for it now, and the companies invest uh accordingly. So, it's been a a critical aspect of some of what we've done so far, but we need more of those 5-to-7-year uh investments. Great. Uh General Keane, what does the 1.5 trillion-dollar budget mean for the warfighter and our ability to project forces and secure our interests around the globe?

[00:00:38]Chairman, uh you know, in my in my view, this this represents a historic down payment on future security. Um if if the budget is approved and ultimately deployed, as we look at the character of warfare changing very, very fast, what's layered in uh to this budget by our civilian leaders will allow us to start getting ahead of where uh technology is evolving. And and as I mentioned, the character of warfighting is is changing pretty quickly. Mass, simultaneity, autonomy, undersea, space, cyber, information, all of those those ways that are now manifesting themselves on the battlefields around the world, um require a higher end of capital investment, and that's why we're grateful for the uh opportunity to have this budget make its way to the joint force. So, it's an important uh down payment on the future here, sir.

[00:01:37]>> Great. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Uh with that, I yield to the ranking member for any questions he may have. Uh thank you. Mr. Hurst, drag you into the conversation here. We have not yet received from the Pentagon the costs of the war.

[00:01:49]Um so, just for the record, we'd like to get that as soon as possible. Certainly, the munitions expended, but also underreported is we've had a fair amount of equipment uh destroyed, including two C-130s with the rescue of our downed airmen. Um so, do you have either A, a cost estimate coming to us anytime soon, or B, a specific supplemental request?

[00:02:12]Thank you for that question. Um so, approximately at this day, we're spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury.

[00:02:19]Um most of that is munitions. There's part of that that's obviously O&M and equipment replacement. We will formulate a supplemental uh through the White House that will come to Congress. So, once we have a full assessment of the cost of the conflict. So, you're saying full cost at this point is 25 billion?

[00:02:33]Yeah, that's our estimate for the cost.

[00:02:35]Okay. Interesting, cuz we I'm glad you answered that question, cuz we've been asking for a hell of a long time, and no one's given us the number.

[00:02:41]Um so, if you could get those details over to us, that that would be great. Um Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the the nuclear aspect of Iran in the war. And it is worth noting that every president prior to this one, including Trump in his first term, also prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without actually having to go to war in Iran.

[00:03:00]So, we need to keep that in mind, but also, since the war started, Iran's nuclear arsenal has not been weakened in any way. And at the moment, in negotiations, what Iran is saying basically pay us to open up the strait.

[00:03:14]That that's their position, which is completely untenable, I agree. Um it's worth noting, of course, that the strait was opened before the war started, and now we're negotiating to get back to status quo. And Iran's most recent offer is to say, "We'll talk about nukes later."

[00:03:28]So, what is the plan to actually turn all of this lethal kinetic action into an improvement in the nuclear situation?

[00:03:36]Cuz we haven't gotten there yet. Play it out for us. How does that happen? How does it actually lead to that result?

[00:03:43]Well, I would take issue with the premise of the question that nothing was done. Operation Midnight Hammer was a uh a very effective >> say nothing was done. I said in this war Ultimately, well, this is this under this administration, unlike other administrations, which cut bad deals and pallets of cash with no ability to oversee whether Iran is actually pursuing a nuclear program. So, where we're at >> litigate JCPOA or the Iran deal, our view, the president's view, is that was a very bad deal. It gave them a bunch of money up front fund You talked about negotiated deals. Funded allowed them to fund their proxies and spread Hamas and Hezbollah all around the region, build up nuclear capability.

[00:04:19]>> What are we going to do now?

[00:04:20]>> President Trump has been clear-eyed from the killing of Qassem Soleimani to the pulling out of the Iran deal to Midnight Hammer and now to this effort to recognize that it you have to stare down this kind of enemy who's hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they're at the table giving it up uh in a way that you never have it. So, they haven't broken yet.

[00:04:40]Okay, we haven't gotten there yet. For all of the Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated.

[00:04:45]Underground, they're buried and watched 24/7. So, we know where any nuclear material is being kept.

[00:04:52]>> Reclaiming my time for 30 seconds here.

[00:04:54]We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat.

[00:05:03]Now, you're saying that it was completely obliterated.

[00:05:06]>> given up their nuclear ambitions, and they had a conventional shield of thousands of >> Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance. It left us at the exact same place we were before.

[00:05:18]So much so facilities were bombed and obliterated, their their ambitions continued, and they're building a conventional shield >> me try again. It's the North Korea strategy. You know this very well. The North Korea strategy was used conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them so they could slow off their way to a weapon. President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure in a way that only the United States of America could do with our Israeli partners >> And yet, they still haven't given up their nuclear ambitions. was was brought to its weakest moment.

[00:05:49]So, on Ukraine, a year plus ago, your advice, the president's advice, was Ukraine had no cards to play. They should go cut the best possible deal they could.

[00:06:00]Clearly, that was wrong. What did you miss? What did you miss about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that you didn't see that Ukraine was going to be capable of doing what they've done in the last 14 months?

[00:06:11]>> What we didn't miss, and we're here in this committee, is that Joe Biden, with no accountability, gave hundreds of billions of dollars of our weapons to Ukraine. Uh to an outcome that never would have happened if President Trump was the president. So, he pulled out our You guys don't talk about that.

[00:06:25]Ultimately, President Trump believes there should be a peace deal uh between Russia and Ukraine, and that's You didn't expect Ukraine to be where they're at right now. I'm asking you just from a strategic standpoint, what did you I think the Ukrainians have shown great courage, and I appreciate that Europe is now paying for the weapon any weapons that we provide. All right, I yield back. Thank you.

[00:06:43]All right, now, I want to remind everybody, there's Everybody wants to get their questions, so we are going to be strict sticking strictly to the 5-minute rule today. So, with that, I recognize the gentleman from South Carolina, Mr. Wilson.

[00:06:55]Thank you, Chairman Mike Rogers, for your leadership working with President Donald Trump. As the grateful father of four sons who've served overseas in Iraq, Egypt, and Afghanistan, I especially