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Making his first appearance before Congress since the Trump administration went to war against Iran, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth faced withering questioning Wednesday (April 29) from skeptical Democrats over a costly conflict being waged without congressional approval.

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00:00Secretary Heseth, you have been lying to the American public about this war from day one, and so has the
00:07President.
00:07You have misled the public about why we are at war.
00:11You and the President have offered ever-changing reasons for this war.
00:16The President has got himself and America stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East.
00:22He's desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes.
00:26It is in America's...
00:28Congressman, you should know better. Shame on you.
00:30Calling this a quagmire two months in.
00:33The effort, what they've undertaken, what they've succeeded, the success on the battlefield that could create strategic opportunities,
00:39the courage of a President to confront a nuclear Iran, and you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our
00:44enemies?
00:45Shame on you for that statement.
00:47And statements like that are reckless to our troops.
00:49Don't say I support the troops on one hand, and then a two-month mission is a quagmire.
00:53That's a false equivalence.
00:55Who are you cheering for here?
00:56Who are you pulling for?
00:57Our troops are doing incredible work.
00:59They've done incredible things for the entirety of this mission, and achieved incredible battlefield successes.
01:05And you sit there and go on TV for your clickbait about quagmires.
01:10It undermines the mission.
01:12Mr. Hexeth, I stand by what I said last time you were here.
01:16You were incompetent then.
01:18You're incompetent now.
01:20And you're the gift that keeps on giving when it comes to incompetence.
01:24With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
01:25Do you know how much it will cost Americans in terms of their increased cost in gas and food over
01:32the next year because of the Iran war?
01:37I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb.
01:40I'm going to give you that opportunity.
01:41I would simply ask you what the—you're playing gotcha questions about domestic things.
01:45I'm not—
01:45You're asking—you're saying it's a gotcha question to ask what it's going to be in terms of the increased cost
01:50of gas?
01:50Why won't you answer what it costs to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb?
01:54I'll give you that, sir.
01:54But let me—
01:55What would it cost—what would you pay to ensure Iran doesn't get a nuclear bomb?
01:59Will you acknowledge that there is an economic cost to the American people for doing what you believe is necessary
02:06to make Iran denuclear?
02:08Will you acknowledge the economic cost?
02:11We have an incredible economic team that's managing this better than what the previous administration did to our economy?
02:18You acknowledge there's a cost.
02:18What the previous administration did with inflation?
02:20You don't even know what the—you know what's upsetting?
02:22I reclaim my time.
02:23What the previous administration did with COVID?
02:23And you're going to lecture this administration about the economy?
02:26You know what is upsetting to me?
02:27Incredible.
02:27You didn't even do the analysis on how much it's costing the American people.
02:31It's one thing if you said, okay, it costs the American people $5,000, but we think it's worth it.
02:36That's what we've done in World War II and other wars.
02:39Here's what it costs.
02:40You got to pay for it.
02:40You don't even know what the average American is paying.
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