00:00Mr. Secretary, good to see you. I'd like to talk about the war in Iran. Yesterday in your Senate testimony
00:06you told Senator Booker that the war in Iran is over. This is news to me. It's also news to
00:12my 2,500 constituents, Marines, San Diego Marines in the Middle East off the coast of Iran, the other of
00:20my constituents who are deployed there, and the thousands more of my constituents who have 48-hour deployment notices whose
00:26families are still very concerned.
00:28But, okay, I will take you at your word. If the war is over, I have a simple question. Who
00:33won?
00:34First of all, Epic Fury is over, which is what you would consider the war. That operation is concluded.
00:39So you agree it's a war, then?
00:41No, those are hostilities. They called it a war. I'm just responding to Senator Booker's question.
00:46Mr. Secretary, you can change the name of the operation. It doesn't change the fact that the strait is still
00:50closed and my service members and all of our service members are still in harm's way.
00:54The war is not over. But I'm agreeing with you. Okay, fine. We're taking you at your word. The war
00:59is over. Who won?
01:00Well, first of all, you're not taking me at my word. It's a fact. We're no longer conducting sustained strikes
01:04inside of Iran to degrade their military because Epic Fury is over.
01:07The second point is, on the question of who won, I can tell you this. We defined victory. We defined
01:13victory as destroying their defense industrial base, significantly reducing the number of missile launchers that they possess, significantly reducing their
01:20stockpile of drones.
01:21And we achieved all of those, in addition to destroying what they had left of an air force and wiping
01:26out their entire conventional navy. Those are all gone.
01:29So I consider that victory. And we did, too. And that was the purpose of Epic Fury.
01:32Okay, well, good. Based on the metrics that you just said, okay, there's actually, our intelligence community has said that
01:41Iran is reconstituting its military industrial base faster than we had predicted.
01:46And analysts assess it still holds roughly 70% of its missile stockpile and 70% of its mobile launchers.
01:53The Strait of Hormuz was open before the war. It is now closed. We have lost 14 brave American service
02:00members. Over 400 are injured.
02:03And the Iranian regime remains largely intact, but now with a more hardline leader who has more incentive to try
02:10and get a nuclear weapon.
02:11So I guess I have to ask you again, Mr. Secretary, does this actually look like winning or losing to
02:16you?
02:16Well, first of all, I don't know what intelligence assessments you're referring to. We wouldn't discuss intelligence assessments if they
02:21were real.
02:21These have been publicly reported.
02:23Well, they're publicly reported. Someone committed a crime and, by the way, is also lying.
02:26And this happens all the time. People manipulate intelligence and analysis for purposes of furthering a narrative.
02:31On your point about the regime, the regime is actually deeply fractured, which is why it takes seven to ten
02:35gays to get an answer from them for anything.
02:39Fractured but still intact.
02:40Well, intact in the sense they can't even reach agreements that they can get back to us.
02:44So that's, I don't know how intact that is.
02:46What they have is people that are afraid to go into the streets.
02:48Their repressive operations have helped people back, in addition to the fact they've cut off the Internet.
02:53But this is a country right now, in this regime, that is facing hyperinflation, a completely devalued currency,
02:59hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to their military infrastructure.
03:02And frankly, all of the pre-existing problems that Iran had in their economy, which is why people are protesting,
03:09are worse, not better.
03:10And they have to deal with that, too.
03:12Mr. Secretary, so you're saying we're winning because the Iranian economy has inflation,
03:16it's cost them millions of dollars a day in lost revenue, and because it's going to cost them billions of
03:21dollars to rebuild.
03:22Well, we are having inflation.
03:24It's already cost us an estimated $100 billion.
03:27Gas prices are up with no end in sight.
03:30The average family is paying an extra $450 on gas and could pay an extra $2,000 by the end
03:36of the year.
03:37The American people are not stupid, Mr. Secretary.
03:40We all know that this war is not over.
03:43Just last night, the U.S. and Iran exchanged fire again, this time over at Karg Island.
03:47We still have not reached a deal, despite the president's promise that a deal is right around the corner.
03:52The president even said today the blockade could last until Labor Day.
03:56It's now day 97 of the war that the president said he wanted to end quickly.
04:00So I have one last question for you.
04:02Mr. Secretary, who won the 2020 presidential election?
04:05I'm not here to answer a question.
04:06I'm talking about 2020.
04:07This is a foreign affairs committee.
04:08Okay, great.
04:09You can't answer the question, even though we all know that President Biden won.
04:13I don't answer the question because as Secretary of State, I do not participate in domestic political issues.
04:16This is not about domestic political issues.
04:18This is about our democracy.
04:20You're asking me to opine, just like I don't do campaign rallies, I don't do it because as Secretary of
04:25State,
04:25we're not supposed to.
04:26That's been the long tradition of the department.
04:28And you should know that if you've been on this committee for any period of time.
04:30Mr. Secretary, it seems like you have an issue admitting facts.
04:34You can't say that the president lost the 2020 election, just like you won't admit President Trump is losing this
04:39reckless war of choice,
04:40and just like you couldn't admit that the shoes the president bought you were too big.
04:44You clearly don't know what winning means, and not because the facts are unclear to you.
04:48It's because telling the truth would cost you your job, and the American people are entitled to a Secretary of
04:54State
04:54who tells them the truth even when the president doesn't want to hear it.
04:57And my constituents, our service members, deserve better.
05:00Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
05:02I don't know what shoes she's talking about.
05:04What is she talking about?
05:05I don't know.
05:07Representative Burchett, you're recognized.
05:08Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:09If you'd like to answer any of that, I'll give you a minute.
05:11Yeah, I don't know about the shoes.
05:12I mean, he gave me some Florsheim shoes.
05:13They're actually pretty good.
05:14They fit fine.
05:15I don't know what she's talking about, and maybe that's what she's referring to.
05:18Your shoes look very nice today, Mr. Secretary.
05:21How can you see them?
05:22They're way down here.
05:24We're talking about shoes.
05:25Are you guys kidding me?
05:26I mean, is this the Foreign Affairs Committee, or is this like a circus?
05:29What is this?
05:30I think it's a circus, but I appreciate you being here, Mr. Secretary.
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05:45We'll see you next time.
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05:46We'll see you next time.
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05:46We'll see you next time.
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