Watch: Gillibrand Grills Hegseth On Iran War Lies, Skyrocketing Costs

Watch: Gillibrand Grills Hegseth On Iran War Lies, Skyrocketing Costs

Jul 21, 2026

Gillibrand To Hegseth: "You Are Asking For Unlimited Money For Bombs When People Can't Feed Their Families"

**Watch Her Questioning Here**

Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Appropriations, Intelligence, and Armed Services Committees, grilled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about the Trump administration's lies about Iran's nuclear capabilities and ballistic missile program, as well as the administration's refusal to address rising costs for American families brought on by the president's war of choice. She also pressed Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on the Trump administration's deep cuts to food assistance that have forced over 160,000 New Yorkers off of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

Footage of Senator Gillibrand's questioning can be found here.

Transcripts of key moments can be found below:

ON TRUMP REQUESTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO FUND HIS DEEPLY UNPOPULAR WAR IN IRAN WHILE AMERICANS STRUGGLE HERE AT HOME:

GILLIBRAND: Secretary Hegseth, you're requesting billions of dollars in supplemental funding for a war that you said would last for weeks and that the president has no plan or ability to end. At the same time, this still-unauthorized and extremely unpopular war has caused gas, diesel, fertilizer, and other essentials that New Yorkers and our farmers need across the country and has become much more expensive. So how do I go back to New York and what would you say to them, who are seeing their healthcare bills rise because massive cuts to Medicaid, they've seen their grocery and gas bills rise, and this unpopular and unauthorized war abroad is a higher priority to this administration than their ability to feed their families and provide healthcare to their loved ones who are sick?

HEGSETH: Well, Senator, you're talking about political tradeoffs, and our job is to deliver for the United States military and the president of the United States. And we look at the cost of a nuclear Iran, and we want to prevent that for future generations. And that requires funding and supplementals, and this budget, and next-generation capabilities. And that's why we're here today, to request some of that, to ensure we can ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.

GILLIBRAND: So you're essentially saying, 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 healthcare, their food, their housing. And our farmers, Secretary Rollins, who - we have cut [the] SNAP program, we are not funding the losses from emergencies that have happened in blue states, particularly when we had frost.

[…]

GILLIBRAND: 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.

ON TRUMP AND HEGSETH'S REPEATED LIES ABOUT WHY THEY ATTACKED IRAN AND WHY THEY ARE CONTINUING THE WAR:

GILLIBRAND: Secretary Hegseth, the reason why people are so upset, 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 active war, claiming Iran was within two weeks of having a weapon. So when you say two very different things, the American people don't know who to believe or what to believe. They just know they can't afford their healthcare, they can't afford their food, they can't afford housing, and our farmers are continuing to suffer. So, which is true? Was it obliterated, or wasn't it? What's the status?

HEGSETH: The nuclear sites under Midnight Hammer were obliterated. But the Iranians foolishly continued to attempt to pursue nuclear capabilities, which is why we destroyed their defense industrial base and so many of their other capabilities, to ensure they can't get to a nuclear weapon. So we're staying laser-focused on the objective, and you're trying to make campaign commercials. And that's fine.

GILLIBRAND: 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's "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?

HEGSETH: As we stated from the beginning, the Iranian defense industrial base 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.

GILLIBRAND: We just don't know what version of the war to believe. Because it's either 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. And that consternation is why so many New Yorkers are perplexed, stressed out, and find this war to be incredibly unpopular. Because they don't understand the choices that the president's making, they don't agree with those choices.

ON THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION KICKING OVER 160,000 NEW YORKERS OFF OF FOOD ASSISTANCE:

GILLIBRAND: Secretary Rollins, so you have cut - over 160,000 New Yorkers have been kicked off SNAP. What do you have against hardworking New Yorkers, children who need SNAP and seniors who need SNAP?

ROLLINS: Well, first of all, diesel is down under Biden versus today, $5.81 versus $4.80. Gas is down from Biden today from $4.84 to $3.86 today. Fertilizer is down 56% from Biden highs.

GILLIBRAND: Prices are higher than when you took office. All of those prices are higher than when you took office. So you are not making life better for New York farmers.