SerpApi.Org
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) got into a heated exchange with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth as she grilled him during a hearing on past statements on Iran she said just “don’t add up.”
During a Tuesday Senate hearing, Gillibrand confronted Hegseth with past statements from him and the administration on the Iran war that she called contradictory, leading to confusion among the public about the actual status of the conflict.
Gillibrand said:
The reason why they are so upset with you and this administration is because the words you have used in the past don’t add up about Iran specifically. You said that we had obliterated, quote, unquote, Iran’s ability to create nuclear weapons. The president made the same claim, yet eight months later in February of 2026, the president launched an active war claiming Iran was within two weeks of having a weapon. So when you say two very different things, the American people don’t know who to believe or what to believe. They just know they can’t afford their healthcare, they can’t afford their food, they can’t get affordable housing, and our farmers are continuing to suffer. So, which is true, was it obliterated or wasn’t it? What’s the status?
Hegseth said Iran’s nuclear sites were destroyed in Operation Midnight Hammer last year, but the regime continued attempting to procure “nuclear capabilities.” The secretary accused Gillibrand of trying to make “campaign commercials” with her time.
“The nuclear sites under Midnight Hammer were obliterated, but Iranians foolishly continued to attempt to pursue nuclear capabilities, which is why we destroyed their defense industrial base and so many of the other capabilities to ensure they can’t get to a nuclear weapon. So we’re staying laser focused on the objective and you’re trying to make campaign commercials,” Hegseth said.
Gillibrand answered by pulling out another quote from Hegseth on the war.
She said:
No, we’re not. So listen to this. You also say that you made the missile program, quote, destroyed and made combat ineffective, quote, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity, every company that builds every component of those missiles has been functionally defeated and destroyed, and that the missile program, existing stockpiles were depleted and decimated, almost completely ineffective. So why are there missiles left to hit Jordan and result in the loss of life of our brave men and women?
Hegseth said Iran is using “underground facilities” where they have stored missiles.
“The Iranian defense industrial base is effectively gone, but they do have underground facilities because they’re the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, and they’ve spent 47 years trying to hide their missiles under mountains, just like their nuclear capabilities, because they would like to get a nuclear weapon,” he said.
Gillibrand moved on from the war after telling Hegseth Americans don’t know “which version” of the war to believe.
“We just don’t know what version of the war to believe because it’s either over or it’s not over. It’s within two weeks or it is not two weeks,” she said. “We have no missiles or we have missiles. And that consternation is why so many New Yorkers are perplexed, stressed out, and find this war to be incredibly unpopular because they don’t understand the choices that the president’s making. They don’t agree with those choices.”
Watch above via CSPAN.
The post Senator Grills Hegseth on Wildly Different Statements on Iran, Says They ‘Don’t Add Up’ first appeared on Mediaite.
