00:00Mr. Hurst, drag you into the conversation here. We have not yet received from the Pentagon the costs of the
00:05war.
00:07So just for the record, we'd like to get that as soon as possible. Certainly the munitions expended,
00:12but also underreported is we've had a fair amount of equipment destroyed, including two C-130s with the rescue of
00:19our downed airmen.
00:20So do you have either A, a cost estimate coming to us anytime soon, or B, a specific supplemental request?
00:30Thank you for that question. So approximately at this day, we're spending about $25 billion on Operation Epic Fury.
00:37Most of that is in munitions. There's part of that is obviously O&M and equipment replacement.
00:41We will formulate a supplemental through the White House that will come to Congress once we have a full assessment
00:46of the cost of the conflict.
00:48So you're saying the full cost at this point is $25 billion?
00:51Yeah, that's our estimate for the cost.
00:53Okay. Interesting, because I'm glad you answered that question, because we've been asking for a hell of a long time,
00:57and no one's given us the number. So if you could get those details over to us, that would be
01:02great.
01:03Mr. Secretary, you mentioned the nuclear aspect of Iran and the war.
01:07And it is worth noting that every president prior to this one, including President Trump in his first term,
01:12also prevented Iran from getting a nuclear weapon without actually having to go to war in Iran.
01:17So we need to keep that in mind.
01:19But also, since the war started, Iran's nuclear arsenal has not been weakened in any way.
01:26And at the moment, in negotiations, what Iran is saying, basically pay us to open up the strait.
01:32That's their position, which is completely untenable. I agree.
01:35It's worth noting, of course, that the strait was open before the war started.
01:38Now we're negotiating to get back to status quo.
01:41And Iran's most recent offer is to say, we'll talk about nukes later.
01:45So what is the plan to actually turn all of this lethal kinetic action into an improvement in the nuclear
01:53situation?
01:53Because we haven't gotten there yet.
01:56Play it out for us. How does that happen?
01:58How does it actually lead to that result?
02:01Well, I would take issue with the premise of the question that nothing was done.
02:04Operation Midnight Hammer was a very effective...
02:07Well, I didn't say nothing was done. I said in this war...
02:09Ultimately, well, this is... Under this administration, unlike other administrations,
02:13which cut bad deals and pallets of cash with no ability to oversee whether Iran is actually pursuing a nuclear
02:19program.
02:19Which is where we're at.
02:20So if we want to litigate JCPOA or the Iran deal, our view, the president's views, that was a very
02:25bad deal.
02:26Okay. That gave them a bunch of money up front.
02:28That's the past. What's the future?
02:28To fund... You talked about negotiated deals.
02:30Funded... Allowed them to fund their proxies and spread Hamas and Hezbollah all around the region,
02:35build up nuclear capabilities.
02:36That's great. What are we going to do now?
02:37President Trump has been clear-eyed from the killing of Qasem Soleimani to the pulling out of the Iran deal
02:42to Midnight Hammer and now to this effort to recognize that you have to stare down this kind of enemy
02:49who's hell-bent on getting a nuclear weapon and get them to a point where they're at the table giving
02:53it up
02:54in a way that...
02:55So they haven't...
02:55...never have it.
02:56So they haven't broken yet. Okay. We haven't gotten there yet for all of the...
03:01Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated underground. They're buried and we're watching them 24-7.
03:06Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
03:07So we know where any nuclear material might be.
03:09We're claiming my time for just a quick second here.
03:11We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat.
03:20Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated?
03:23They had not given up their nuclear ambitions and they had a conventional shield of thousands of missiles.
03:28So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance.
03:32It left us at exactly the same place we were before.
03:35So much so that we had to start a war.
03:36Their facilities were bombed and obliterated.
03:38Their ambitions continued and they're building a conventional shield of missiles.
03:43All right, let me try again.
03:44It's the North Korea strategy. You know this very well.
03:46The North Korea strategy was use conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them
03:50so they could slow walk their way to a weapon.
03:53President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure in a way that only the United
03:58States of America could do
04:00with our Israeli partners to ensure their conventional shield was brought to the deal, which we've done.
04:06If I could get to it. So on Ukraine, a year plus ago, your advice, the president's advice was Ukraine
04:13had no cards to play.
04:14They should go cut the best possible deal they could.
04:18Clearly that was wrong.
04:19What did you miss?
04:21What did you miss about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine that you didn't see that Ukraine was going to
04:26be capable of doing what they've done in the last 14 months?
04:28What we didn't miss, and we're here in this committee, is that Joe Biden, with no accountability, gave hundreds of
04:33billions of dollars of our weapons to Ukraine
04:36to an outcome that never would have happened if President Trump was the president.
04:40So he pulled out our... You guys don't talk about that.
04:43Ultimately, President Trump believes there should be a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
04:47But you didn't expect Ukraine to be where they're at right now.
04:49I'm asking you, just from a strategic standpoint, what did you miss?
04:52I think the Ukrainians have shown great courage, and I appreciate that Europe is now paying for any weapons that
04:58we provide.
04:58All right.
04:59You're back.
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