Gillibrand criticises Hegseth on funding request for Iran war

You're asking for literally $1 .5 trillion for a war that President Trump said he already won.You're asking for $1 .5 trillion, unlimited money for bombs, but insufficient money for the American people for their health care, their food, their housing.You are asking for unlimited money for bombs when people can't feed their families.And I don't know how this administration intends to defend those decisions to the American people.

Not unlimited bombs, Senator.I'm asking for the right bombs at the right time to ensure we can deter our adversaries into the future.And that's why this is a generational investment.And it was the previous administration that didn't fund this department.

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 act of war claiming Iran was within two weeks of having a weapon.Was it obliterated or wasn't it?

What's the status?

The nuclear sites under Midnight Hammer were obliterated, but Iranians foolishly continue 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.We're staying laser focused on the objective, and you're trying to make campaign commercials.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?

As we stated from the beginning, the Iranian Defense IndustrialBase 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 to wield it against us.

We just don't know what version of the war to believe.Because it's over or it's not over.It's within two weeks or it's not two weeks.We have no missiles or we have missiles.