‘An unauthorized war’: Democratic senators grill Pete Hegseth on US war with Iran – live

Jacky Rosen, a Democratic senator of Nevada, asked Hegseth about his comparison of the US press corps and Democratic senators the Pharisees who conspired to destroy Jesus Christ.

“It’s a problematic and historically weaponized term that casts Jewish communities as hypocritical and morally corrupt. What you choose to say, how we choose to say it – how do you justify using this language?” Rosen said.

“It’s a pretty accurate term for those who don’t see the plank in their own eye … so I stand by it,” Hegseth replied.

“Sir, I cannot stand for that. That is wrong,” she said.

A historically long 75-day partial government shutdown has ended after a voice vote in the House to advance funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) following a late-night Republican rally to boost a GOP budget blueprint.

The tides turned on Wednesday evening when the House passed the Republican resolution following a last-minute deal over unrelated ethanol fuel provisions that flipped enough holdouts to push it over the line.

That blueprint unlocked a procedural tool allowing Republicans to pass up to $75bn for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the border patrol on party lines, sidestepping Democratic demands for new oversight following the fatal shootings of two US citizens by federal agents in January.

Donald Trump has set a 1 June deadline for a final funding package to reach his desk. The White House has warned Congress that without action, it will be unable to pay most DHS employees from May. More than 1,100 Transpotation Safety Administration agents have so far quit since February.

A separate bill funding non-immigration DHS agencies must still pass before lawmakers leave for recess.

Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat of Arizona, pressed the Secretary on whether he stands by his statement of “no mercy, no quarter” for US enemies, which legal experts and Democrats have said could consitution a violation of international law.

Kelly has argued that Hegseth’s vow to take “no quarter” implies that enemy combatants will not be taken prisoner but instead executed, a war crime under the Hague Convention of 1899.

Kelly, a former Navy pilot, repeated the question, quoting the definition of “no quarter” from the department’s law of war manual, and asked if Hegseth wanted to provide any clarity on what he meant by the statement.

“We have untied the hands of our warfighters. We fight to win and we follow the law,” Hegseth said.

“You’re not clarifying your statement,” Kelly said. “You’re the secretary of defense. The things you say matter and your response right here, right now, makes it clear to the American people why you’re not right for this job.”

Notably, Hegseth had tried to punish Kelly for his participation in a video that implored US troops to reject unlawful orders. In February, a judge blocked the Pentagon from formally censuring Kelly over the video.

In a back-and-forth with Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren, Hegseth said he did not invest in defense manufacturers in advance of the Iran war.

“I’ll give it to you as a big fat negative,” Hegseth told Warren.

“I’m not looking for money. I don’t do it for money,” he added.

A recent CBS story offers some context on this argument.

If the president wishes to continue the war without congressional approval, Katherine Yon Ebright, an attorney at the Brennan Center’s Liberty and National Security Program, said it’s possible that the Office of Legal Counsel tries to argue that the ceasefire stopped the 60-day clock and any further hostilities reset the clock altogether. But she said “that is not something that by its text or by its design the War Powers Resolution accommodates.”

“But there is a long history of executive branch lawyers willfully misinterpreting the War Powers Resolution to allow presidents to conduct hostilities even past that 60-day clock,” Ebright said.

In an exchange with Democratic senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has led several war powers resolutions attempting to reign in the president’s authority on use of military force, Hegseth argued that the 60-day limit for the Iran war had been “paused” during the ceasefire.

“We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” he said.

Under the War Powers Act of 1973, the president has 60 calendar days after deploying troops into hostilities to terminate military operations not authorized by Congress. The 60-day limit will be reached on Friday, but Hegseth disagreed and explained the pause during the ceasefire.

“I do not believe the statute would support that,” Kaine replied.

Democratic senator Mazie Hirono of Hawaii asked Hegseth about his past comments in which he said “women shouldn’t serve in combat units.”

Noting that he recently ordered a review of women in combat roles, she asked if he was “laying the groundwork” to potentially reverse the policy.

“We are laser-focused on standards — the highest male standard for every combat arms position should be the standard,” he said. Hirono said he didn’t answer the question and asked if his review would be made public.

“We’re doing that study for that very reason, to ensure that real science is applied to this question and not social engineering like the previous administration,” Hegseth retorted.

The sharpness of the questions Hegseth is facing has largely fallen along partisan lines – Democrats are grilling him, while Republicans are mostly presenting opportunities for the secretary to champion the war as an unmitigated success.

In between praising Hegseth’s reverence for fallen soldiers, Republican senator Joni Ernst noted that she had been “disappointed” to see General Randy George’s retirement “hastened” earlier this month.

She “pulled the Army out of its worst recruiting crisis since the Vietnam era” and trimmed “nonessential” Army positions.

In April, the Pentagon said George would be “retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement.”

He was one of many long-serving officials to be removed from the US military under the Trump administration.

“He had 38 years of honorable service. He achieved the greatest Army recruitment and modernization effort in a generation,” Ernst said. “So I want to thank him for his service.”

In another testy exchange, Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat of Connecticut, asked Hegseth if he agrees with the president’s assessment that Iran has been “military defeated”.

Blumenthal, like other Democrats, appeared to be trying to find disagreement between Trump and his defense secretary. But Hegseth didn’t bite, and instead lashed out Blumenthal’s characterization of the war.

“The negative nature in which you characterized the incredible and historic effort in Iran is part of the reason, senator, why the American people view it the way they do. It’s why I looked at the press corps at the Pentagon and called them pharisees in the press. It’s because they look for every problem that exists,” Hegseth said, adding: “Its defeatist Democrats like you that cloud the minds of the American people and would otherwise fully support preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon,” Hegseth said.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat of New York, is up now. She begins by telling Hegseth: “I don’t know if you fully appreciate how much the American people do not support this war. It is an unauthorized war.”

She said New Yorkers are upset by the soaring cost of the war, and concerned about the death toll in Iran, particularly headlines confirming that a US missile struck a primary school in Minab, and the use of AI in warfare.

“I would just like to know why you have not sought the support of the American people?” she asked Hegseth in a testy exchange.

Hegseth retorted that the tone of the conversation was much different during the private session with the cameras off, a way of suggesting that Democrats are performing for the cameras.

“The question I would ask to you and to others is, what is the cost of a nuclear armed Iran?” Hegseth responded, insisting in the face of polling that shows the opposit that the administration does “have the support of the American people”.

“What is your response to targeting that has resulted in the destruction of schools, hospitals, civilian places? Why did you cut by 90% the division that’s supposed to help you not target civilians?” she asked.

Hegseth argued that the US’s commitment to preventing civilian deaths was “ironclad” commitment” and stronger than other countries.

Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a staunch supporter of the president, called the US’s assault on Iran a “smashing military success”. He then asks Hegseth to explain what steps the US military is taking to mitigate US casualties.

Ensuring “force protection was maximized was the top priority”, Hegseth said.

The US has confirmed 13 service member deaths in the Iran war.

Head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine, has told senators that Vladimir Putin has aided Iran’s war effort, something the Kremlin has previously denied to the White House.

Caine declined to go into details, citing the public nature of the hearing, but said: ”There’s definitely some action there.”

The chair of the committee, Republican senator Roger Wicker, agreed. “There’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran,” Wicker said.

In his opening remarks to the Senate committee, Hegseth repeated what he told the House panel yesterday:

As I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans.

Defending Trump’s budget request, he said the president had “inherited a defense industrial base that had been hollowed out by years of America last policies, resulting in a diminished capacity to project strength.”