Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was accused of “gross negligence” Tuesday by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), as three more Americans were killed in battle last weekend.
Reed, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, charged that Hegseth failed to fully warn President Donald Trump that the Strait of Hormuz would close — and that Americans are now paying for it with their lives.
The confrontation came at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Trump’s supplemental funding request, which includes roughly $10 billion for farmers hit by the war-driven collapse in global fuel and fertilizer supplies.
Reed noted that the Pentagon had spent years planning for a potential military campaign against Iran — and that any such plan would have assumed the strait could be closed.
“Were you unaware of that?” Reed asked.
Hegseth did not dispute it.
“Of course, the Strait of Hormuz was front and center in every single aspect of that,” Hegseth replied before defecting by attacking the Biden administration.
“We had U.S. boats that surrendered to Iranian ships under the Biden administration,” the defense secretary argued.
“Listen, we’re talking about the war you started,” Reed said, cutting him off.
“Not a situation in which oil was flowing freely,” he continued. “There was no conflict. We weren’t losing personnel as a result of Iranian actions. So your fallback to the Biden administration is just a very, very obvious excuse for what I think is probably — as you described so often — gross negligence.”
“You did not fully inform the president that you would be in a situation where the Strait of Hormuz could be effectively closed, oil prices could surge, and effectively, the Iranians could maintain their ability to strike back as they are right now. They just killed some of our servicemen last weekend.”
Hegseth tried to recover from the senator’s criticism by heaping praise on Trump.
“All the more reason why President Trump deserves the kind of praise he should get for undertaking this effort,” Hegseth said, “having the courage to ensure that crazy Islamists can’t have a nuclear weapon…”
“Excuse me,” Reed replied. “He should be praised for starting a war without authority, creating a situation in which the world economy is suffering tremendously. We have to have extra money for our farmers, and we have no outcome — at least no realistic outcome — in sight yet.”
The Washington Post confirmed that three service members were killed over the weekend: 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, died Friday in an Iranian missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan. A third was killed Saturday in northern Iraq during a controlled detonation of a downed Iranian drone, according to National Public Radio.
At least 18 U.S. service members have been killed since the war began on February 28.