Trump Admiral SPEECHLESS After Hirono Reveals $29B Iran War Killed 13 Troops

Añadido: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]There are two numbers from this hearing, the press buried under 12 hours of news cycle and never returned to. 13 United States soldiers were killed, 29 billion dollars spent. Today, in a Senate Armed Service Committee room on Capitol Hill, Mazie Hirono sat across from a four-star admiral commanding all US forces in [music] the Middle East and asked him one question. The question was about a conversation, a conversation the admiral would confirm by his silence had never happened. There's a name on the diplomatic team Hirono was about to read aloud that you haven't heard yet. There is one word the senator was waiting for the admiral [music] to say. He never said it. Then she said it for him and once she did, the administration's entire Iran policy was a sentence shorter. The hearing was a Senate Armed Services oversight session reviewing Operation Epic Fury and Operation Midnight Hammer, [music] the two military campaigns the Trump administration had launched against Iran. The man at the witness table was Admiral Bradley Cooper, the four-star Navy admiral who runs Central Command.

[00:01:07]CENTCOM is the unified combatant command responsible for every US service member operating anywhere [music] from the Suez Canal to Hindu Kush. Cooper has transited the Strait of Hormuz by his own count approximately 100 times. He had been in the chair for 90 minutes.

[00:01:25]Mazie Hirono, the Senator Democratic Senator from Hawaii, took her five minutes. She did not raise her voice when she began. She read a list. 13 United States soldiers killed, more than 400 wounded, 29 billion dollars in war costs and growing every day, the Strait of Hormuz closed, an affordability crisis at every American gas pump, negotiations frozen, and a president, she said, who appeared to be slowly walking back to the exact agreement he had torn up in 2018. The agreement was the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action, the Iran nuclear deal. Hirono wanted to know one thing, why did Trump tear it up? This wasn't really a question about foreign policy. This was a question about whether a conversation occurred.

[00:02:08]The deal Hirono was asking about was signed in 2015 by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, and Russia. It put limits on the centrifuge Iran could spin. It put inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency inside the facilities. It capped uranium enrichment at levels that could not produce a weapon. In May of 2018, President Trump withdrew from it.

[00:02:32]The remaining five countries stayed in.

[00:02:34]The withdrawal was the chain reaction.

[00:02:36]Iran restarted enrichment. The United States imposed sanctions. Tehran launched proxy attacks. The Trump administration launched Epic Fury. 13 Americans came home in flag-draped coffins. There was a question Hirono had been waiting 12 minutes to ask. She asked it at 30 mark of her time.

[00:02:57]Admiral, did the president ever explain to you why he tore up the JCPOA, the Admiral shifted. He said the JCPOA was a policy matter. He would have expected anyone to answer. He did not answer. Hirono asked again, he either explained it to you or he didn't. I'm not asking you for the conversation, I'm asking did he happen to explain to you why? The Admiral said he was in a completely different assignment when this occurred 8 years ago. Read that sentence again. The four-star Admiral, now responsible for the war President Trump started, had just admitted under oath that he had no idea why the agreement that would have prevented the war had been torn up. Stick with me here, because what Hirono said next is the entire reason this hearing got covered by every major political outlet by morning. Hirono kept her tone level.

[00:03:48]So, she said, apparently the president didn't have a discussion with anybody.

[00:03:53]In fact, it was a unilateral decision that he made. There it was, the word, unilateral. She had said it. The admiral did not contradict her. He could not. He had already told the room he was at a different post. He did not know. Nobody in the chain of command had known. The deal that six countries spent two years negotiating had been ended by one man on his own. Hirono walked the admiral through his own career, vast experience, Navy combatant commander, 100 Hormuz transits. Then she asked the second question. "Before we attacked Iran, did it cross your mind that Iran might close the Strait of Hormuz?" The admiral said his job was to generate options. Hirono interrupted him. "Excuse me?" Then again, "Excuse me?" Then again, the interruptions kept landing. "Pull up the next exchange," Hirono ran, "because the press never circled what she did with it." She kept pressing on the Strait of Hormuz question. Cooper finally answered. He had transited the strait approximately 100 times. He thought about it every day. "So that is a yes?"

[00:04:57]Hirono said. He had contemplated that Iran could close the strait, the very thing that happened, the thing that caught the president by surprise.

[00:05:05]Cooper, by his own admission, had not been surprised. The administration had been surprised, the administration that no longer included anyone who had been at the original JCPOA table. Then Hirono pivoted. She wanted to know who the diplomats were. Who was negotiating with Iran now? The admiral said he would prefer the White House to answer that.

[00:05:26]Hirono answered for him. "Apparently," she said, "the diplomats are Jared Kushner, who I don't think even works for our country, and Mr. Steve Witkoff, who," she said, "I don't think has a lot of experience engaging in these kind of negotiations." Read those two names again. The president's son-in-law, holding no formal government position, and a real estate developer with no diplomatic background, negotiating with a state sponsor of terrorism while American servicemen come home in flag-draped coffins. There's a moment 30 seconds later where Hirono's voice changes. That moment is next. Here's what happened. Read it slowly. The JCPOA, Hirono said, was the result of very intense negotiations among many countries. And for us to act, she said, as though the idea of a nuclear Iran is just something that occurred to President Trump and not to his predecessors is pretty ridiculous. We had in place a regime that was intended to do that very thing, to prevent a nuclear Iran. Then she stopped. The admiral said nothing. The room said nothing. Cooper, the four-year CENTCOM commander with 100 Strait of Hormuz transits and an opening statement that called Iran a 47-year regional terror sponsor, sat in front of a senior senator who had just made a public record of three facts. Six countries had signed the deal. Five of them had stayed in. One of them had walked alone without consulting his own combatant commanders and started a war that killed 13 American soldiers. The word she had said was unilateral. The admiral had not corrected her. He could not. And the part of this hearing nobody is talking about is the second senator who's walked into the microphone after Hirono yielded. That is the next story. After the gavel, Cooper did not stay for press questions. He returned to the Pentagon.

[00:07:18]Hirono did not hold a press conference.

[00:07:20]She returned to her office. The 13 flag-draped coffins had already come home to 13 different American towns over the preceding months. Some of those families had voted for Trump in 2024.

[00:07:31]None of them have given a single interview about why the war was started.

[00:07:35]Mazie Hirono asked one question, why did Trump tear up the deal? The admiral answered without meaning to. He was at a different post. He did not know. Nobody did. 70 seconds after Hirono yielded, the senior senator from Arkansas took the microphone. He had a different version of the same war. That is the next video. Watch how it unfolded.

[00:07:57]>> Admiral Kober, did the president ever explain to you why he tore up the JCPOA?

[00:08:05]>> Uh Senator, that's a a policy matter that I would have expected anyone to >> Did he explain to you why he tore up the JCPOA?

[00:08:13]He either explained it to you or he didn't. I'm not asking you for the actual conversation, but did he happen to explain to you why he did something which led to the very nuclear crisis that we're now confronting regarding Iran and their enriched uranium?

[00:08:32]>> Uh Senator, I was in a completely different assignment when when this occurred 8 years ago.

[00:08:36]>> So apparently the president didn't have a discussion with anybody. In fact, it was a unilateral decision that he made. Now, you have vast experience, Admiral, and Navy etc. And before we went into before we attacked Iran, did it cross your mind that Iran may close the Strait of Hormuz?

[00:09:01]>> Senator, as you know, one of my responsibilities as a combatant commander is to generate a wide range of options with the associated risks and opportunities present those to the secretary and the president. I think it'd be inappropriate to talk about what those specifically are.

[00:09:15]We always make them very comprehensively.

[00:09:17]>> I'm asking whether with your experience the thought that should we attack Iran that they would close the Strait of Hormuz if that crossed your mind.

[00:09:30]>> Senator, I've transited through the Strait about 100 times. I think of the Strait of Hormuz virtually every day.

[00:09:37]>> So is that a yes that you are very aware that the Strait of Hormuz, the very thing that happened, that that is something that you contemplated happening? I hope that is the case because with your experience I I I have to conclude that you um contemplated that possibility.

[00:09:56]So, you did mention that uh our diplomats are engaged in the negotiations. Well, who are those diplomats?

[00:10:05]>> Uh sir, I really would refer to the White House who specifically is engaged uh and >> Well, apparently the diplomats are Jared Kushner Kushner who I don't think even works for our country.

[00:10:15]And uh Mr. Whitlock, Steve Whitlock, who happens to be a um I don't know a I don't think he has a lot of uh experience engaging in these kinds of negotiations. So, here we are. The JCPOA which was um a very intense uh the results of very intense negotiations among many countries. And for us to act as though uh the the idea of a nuclear Iran is just something that occurred to President Trump and not to uh his predecessors is pretty ridiculous.

[00:10:47]And in fact, we had in place a regime that was intended to do that uh that very thing which was to prevent a nuclear Iran. Mr. Chairman, thank you.