WATCH: Gillibrand asks Hegseth why U.S. is fighting a war that majority of Americans don’t support
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth why the U.S. continues to attack Iran when most Americans don’t support the war.
“There’s no evidence that we are safer because of this war. We did not have any evidence that Iran intended to imminently attack this country in any way, shape or form,” Gillibrand told Hegseth, who appeared with Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before the Senate Armed Services Committee Thursday.
Hegseth responded that he believes they do have American support, and added that the U.S. is only two months into a war in Iran.
“Iraq took how many years? Afghanistan took how many years? And they were nebulous missions that people went along with,” Hegseth said. “This is different. This is a defined mission set that we have had great success in pursuing against a determined enemy who seeks nuclear weapons, and I’m proud of the opportunity to remind the American people because they believe in it as well.”
The war in Iran is widely unpopular with Americans. A Pew Research Center poll from the end of March found nearly 60% of Americans thought attacking Iran was the wrong decision, and a similar percent disapprove of Trump’s handling of the conflict.
The wars in both Afghanistan and Iraq were also deeply unpopular by the end of the fighting. A PBS/NPR/Marist poll found 71% of Americans thought Afghanistan was a failure in 2021, after President Joe Biden withdrew American troops from the country, and in 2019, 62% of American adults said the war in Iraq was “not worth fighting,” according to Pew.
Hegseth and Caine were invited to testify on President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request to increase defense spending to $1.5 trillion – the largest proposed amount in decades.
On Wednesday, the defense leaders appeared before House lawmakers, who questioned the defense leaders for the first time since the start of the war on Iran. Hegseth sparred with Democrats on the costs of the war and its ripple effects on Americans and the economy.
Watch PBS News for daily, breaking and live news, plus special coverage. We are home to PBS News Hour, ranked the most credible and objective TV news show.
Sign up for Here’s The Deal with Lisa Desjardins: https://to.pbs.org/41q6E8i
Subscribe for exclusive content in our newsletters: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/subscribe
PBS News podcasts: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/podcasts
Stream your PBS favorites with the PBS app: https://to.pbs.org/2Jb8twG
Find more from PBS News at https://www.pbs.org/newshour
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2HfsCD6
Follow us:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pbsnews
X: http://www.twitter.com/newshour
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/newshour
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newshour/
