John Ossoff: “Mr. Secretary, early in the conflict, day three, you said one of those core objectives was to, quote, destroy the missile threat, and as you restated it on day five to, quote, obliterate Iran’s missiles and drones. those were clearly and repeatedly stated core objectives of the campaign, which four months ago you declared had been completed victoriously with every single objective achieved. were those objectives achieved four months ago?”

Pete Hegseth: “no one ever stated that every single missile was gone. ultimately, combat ineffective means they’re not able to dig them out of their UGFs [underground facilities] and shoot at us.”

Ossoff: “had the missile threat been defeated four months ago?”

Hegseth: “it doesn’t mean they don’t have underground facilities where they put missiles in them and hold onto them because they’re the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism. so we never expected they would stop having capabilities to shoot. the question is, at scale, against an opponent like the United States of America, which went toe to toe with them in Iran, couldn’t….”

Ossoff continued: “you stated on March 8th, day nine of the war, on 60 Minutes, you assured the American people of Iranian surrender. does that remain your prediction?”

Hegseth: “ultimately, Iran will never have a nuclear weapon to threaten the United States of America.that has been the objective, and it remains so.”

Ossoff: “so, just to review, you will not answer whether your statement made on the fourteenth day of the war that Iran’s military had been, quote, destroyed and made combat ineffective was a truthful statement to the American people, as you sit here and ask for tens of billions more for the conflict.”