{"id":19136,"date":"2026-07-24T03:03:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T03:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/2026\/07\/24\/senator-jon-ossoff-challenges-pete-hegseth-over-claims-irans-military-was-destroyed\/"},"modified":"2026-07-24T12:30:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T12:30:38","slug":"senator-jon-ossoff-challenges-pete-hegseth-over-claims-irans-military-was-destroyed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/2026\/07\/24\/senator-jon-ossoff-challenges-pete-hegseth-over-claims-irans-military-was-destroyed\/","title":{"rendered":"Senator Jon Ossoff Challenges Pete Hegseth Over Claims Iran&#8217;s Military Was Destroyed"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DbKOdskTkmr\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); 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font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:550; line-height:18px;\">View this post on Instagram<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 12.5% 0;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;\">\n<div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\"background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: 8px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg)\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-left: auto;\">\n<div style=\" width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;\"><\/div>\n<div style=\" background-color: #F4F4F4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; line-height:17px; margin-bottom:0; margin-top:8px; overflow:hidden; padding:8px 0 7px; text-align:center; text-overflow:ellipsis; white-space:nowrap;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/reel\/DbKOdskTkmr\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">A post shared by Daizy Gedeon (@daizygedeon)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script>\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap is-cnvs-dropcap-bordered\">During a heated Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) repeatedly pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over contradictory statements made regarding the military campaign in Iran.<\/p>\n<p>As the Pentagon requests nearly $88 billion in additional war funding, Ossoff called out the stark disconnect between past claims of total victory and the reality of an ongoing conflict.<br \/>\nEarly in the conflict, Hegseth publicly declared that Iran\u2019s military was \u201cdestroyed,\u201d \u201ccombat ineffective for years to come,\u201d and that the U.S. had \u201cachieved every single objective.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ossoff questioned why tens of billions in additional emergency funding are required if the opponent\u2019s air force, navy, and defense industrial base were already dismantled months ago.<\/p>\n<p>When asked directly whether his previous declarations of victory and predictions of Iranian surrender were accurate, Hegseth repeatedly refused to give a simple yes-or-no answer.<\/p>\n<p>When military leadership demands billions more from taxpayers while shifting the goalposts on past declarations of victory, public accountability is essential.<\/p>\n<p>Source: @huffpost <\/p>\n<p>#america #PeteHegseth #SenateHearing #Iran #fyp<\/p>\n<p>English Script:<br \/>\nJon Ossoff: On day 14 of this conflict in the second week of the conflict, you stated that Iran&#8217;s military had been \u201cdestroyed\u201d and \u201cmade combat ineffective\u201d. Was that an accurate statement? Yes or no? Iran&#8217;s ability to challenge the United States of America at the level at which we&#8217;re capable of. <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: That&#8217;s not what I asked you, Mr. Secretary. <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: You said on day 14, Iran&#8217;s military had been \u201cdestroyed\u201d and \u201cmade combat ineffective\u201d. Yes or no? Was that an accurate statement? <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: What the American military has done to the Iranian military\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: Will you answer the question?<\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: is a historic military defeat\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: Will you answer the question under oath? <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: Three weeks later, you declared victory. That was now nearly four months ago, three weeks after you had already said Iran&#8217;s military was destroyed and combat ineffective. You said: \u201cOperation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory\u201d. You said Iran&#8217;s military had been rendered \u201ccombat ineffective for years to come\u201d. And you stated we had \u201cachieved every single objective\u201d. Were those accurate statements? <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: It certainly was, on behalf of the men and women in uniform, a historic military victory over Iran. <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: Had Iran ultimately been rendered, \u201ccombat ineffective for years to come?\u201d That was a statement that you made four months ago. <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: They had 160 naval vessels in the Blue Water Navy and they\u2019re gone. You said four months ago\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: You need to answer your questions, Mr. Secretary. You said for months\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: The air force combat is completely ineffective and\u2026 <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: You said four months ago\u2026Excuse me Mr. Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: So describe to me a country that doesn\u2019t have an Air Force, a Navy or a defense industrial base. And I will describe to you a country that does not have an effective military. <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: Mr. Secretary, you stated four months ago that Iran&#8217;s military had been rendered \u201ccombat ineffective for years to come\u201d. Has Iran&#8217;s military been for the last four months combat ineffective?<\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: It&#8217;s been set back not just years, but likely decades at the level it did before and not even close. It doesn&#8217;t have capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: Mr. Secretary, you stated we had \u201cachieved every single objective\u201d. Was that an accurate statement four months ago? <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: The main objective of this was to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Their main sites were obliterated. We&#8217;re watching over them and we&#8217;re holding them at issue. If they don&#8217;t give them up at the table, there&#8217;s other ways we can tell them away.<\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth: Mr. Secretary, early in the conflict, day three, you said one of those core objectives was to \u201cdestroy the missile threat\u201d. And as you restated on day five to &#8220;obliterate Iran&#8217;s missiles in drones\u201d 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? <\/p>\n<p>Jon Ossoff: No one ever stated that every single missile was gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>View this post on Instagram A post shared by Daizy Gedeon (@daizygedeon) During a heated Senate Appropriations Committee hearing, Senator Jon Ossoff (D-GA) repeatedly pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,35,37,33,1],"tags":[],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-19136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-daizy-gedeon","category-israel-hamas-war","category-israel-hamas-war-live-updates","category-middle-east-news","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19157,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19136\/revisions\/19157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19136"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/daizygedeon.com\/news-blogs-and-cultures\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=19136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}