JUST IN: Patty Murray Tells Pete Hegseth To His Face That His 'Request Does Not Make A Lot Of Sense'

[0:00] senator murray thank you chair collins secretary higgs seth um your department received 150 billion [0:09] last year in the republicans big beautiful bill it also received a record 839 billion for fiscal [0:16] year 2026 more money than you asked for last year combined that is a trillion dollar budget [0:22] for the year and as i already mentioned your department has yet to spend half of the [0:27] reconciliation funds and despite that you are here today asking for tens of billions of dollars [0:33] more for things that you've already asked for in your fy 27 request or that have nothing to do with [0:39] iran this administration has tried to sell this as an emergency request but it may be better understood [0:46] as an attempt to skirt the normal appropriations process here are just a few of the things [0:52] requested in this iran supplemental 800 million for the national guard to patrol dc even longer [0:59] over 1 billion for the army to patrol the southern border which is dhs's job 900 million to support the [1:07] administration's illegal boat strikes in the caribbean over 18 billion for munitions which [1:13] you've already requested in your fy 27 budget request and 1.7 billion to pay for your decision [1:20] to recruit more people than the services need which was not contemplated by the fy 26 funding bill [1:27] congress recently passed now you've already submitted a reprogramming request on this that our subcommittee [1:33] is considering now which really underscores the point i made in my opening remarks that the problem is not [1:39] a lack of money but poor planning so i'll be blunt the the truth is your request does not make a lot of sense [1:45] so let me ask you a simple question why exactly are billions of dollars more for the national guard [1:52] and this administration's illegal strikes in the caribbean urgently needed for the iran war well senator [2:00] i wouldn't uh of course agree with your characterization but why this kind of spending is needed is because [2:05] of the gross negligence and neglect of the bide administration inside our department ran it like a [2:10] bureaucracy uh abandoned uh our our strength posture around the world so we're having to re-establish [2:16] deterrence uh just took you mentioned the end strength numbers and i will acknowledge that uh [2:20] we are ahead of schedule on end strength in recruiting 8 000 in the navy six that 6 000 in the army [2:26] 4 000 in the air force because under president trump there's been record and historic over 30-year [2:32] recruiting records inside our department since he won the election because the american people didn't [2:37] want to sign up for what joe biden was providing our military let me and they want to sign up for what [2:41] president trump is doing in his leadership and so those are good problems to have that we need to [2:46] fund and a reflection of of momentum and this budget will allow us to continue the kind of momentum [2:50] that's my point is that a lot of this request does not feel like an emergency and let me move on [2:56] secretary haig said like most americans i've had a lot of trouble following this administration's [3:01] contradictory statements about the war on april 8th you said and i quote their missile program is [3:08] functionally destroyed launchers production facilities and existing stockpiles depleted and decimated and almost [3:15] completely ineffective mr secretary iran has been firing at u.s military bases in the region and [3:22] ships for the last week how is it possible if their capabilities were quote functionally destroyed [3:29] three months earlier as she claimed for them to be doing this now senator iran is at the weakest point [3:35] militarily it has ever been in uh in the past decade certainly maybe in 47 years as they've gathered [3:41] effectively a terror army and that terror army was built to try to create conventional capabilities [3:47] to defend against a pursuit of nuclear weapons which meant thousands of ballistics missiles many of [3:52] which we have destroyed others of which they have put inside facilities and hidden in underground [3:57] facilities that's what terror regimes would do so i acknowledge they still have capabilities no doubt [4:02] uh but the amount of the amount of damage that we've done to them over the course of uh of the [4:07] these series of operations has put them in the worst place they've ever okay well let me move on on may [4:11] 5th you claimed that iran doesn't control the strait and you said that there was a quote powerful red white [4:18] and blue dome over the strait if that was true how did iran shrink ship traffic in the strait to trick [4:24] to a trickle again last week we pushed almost i believe between 400 and 500 million bearers of oil [4:31] under the nose of iran over the course of project freedom which went underground which i uh acknowledged [4:36] after we did so covertly because it was more effective to do so quietly than to do so publicly [4:41] so we've been uh in control of moving traffic through there for quite some time but will they [4:45] retain the ability to recklessly shoot at commercial shipping and that's what happened we had a ceasefire [4:49] and then they shot at commercial shipping well you also said that's what changed same uh press [4:55] conference and i'm going to quote you um you urged iran to quote let innocent ships pass freely these [5:01] international waters belong to all nations not to iran to tax toll or control last week president [5:07] trump said the u.s would charge a 20 percent toll to each ship to pass through the state so based on [5:13] your opposition to tolls did you talk to the president out of that idea or did someone else [5:21] iran's not charging tolls and they're shooting at ships right now but trump said that he wanted to [5:27] charge a 20 percent toll we we have a blockade right now of all iranian ships and iranian ports and uh [5:33] it's it's effective my time is out