we’ve gotten plenty of rosy proclamations, finger-pointing and flat out lies from the Trump administration. But folks, these past few days have really been something else. On Tuesday, Reuters published this headline, U .S. has used virtually all of its long-range precision missiles during Iran war.
Now, publicly, the Trump administration has tried to downplay it, but privately, they’re saying something else. The Washington Post reports that last Friday, Trump demanded answers from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth about why he had apparently been misled about extreme munition shortages. And Hegseth, the testosterone-touting man that he is, defended himself by doing what we’ve seen him do before. Blame someone else. Hexth reportedly blamed his deputy for the shortages and for not making sure Trump was fully informed.
Now, today, Trump insists that there’s no problem at all. No munitions issue at all. No beef with Hexth at all. But despite all of that, nothing to see here, all of that, there’s nothing going on. Today, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Trump has reordered new investigations into the disclosures, the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile.
Joining me now is New York Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan. He’s a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq. It’s good to see you, sir. So Trump apparently believes he’s been misled on the munition shortages. Do you buy that?
He is so out of touch, out of reality. I think they feed him a slow diet of missile strike video clips and then he goes back to whatever other distraction. And it is, it would be humorous if not for the fact that we’ve got 50 ,000 troops in the region. That part. And we’ve lost 18 soldiers.
Every American is paying the price. Gas is back up over $4. And it is infuriating, especially to those of us that have served in the last generation’s forever wars to see us now six months into what was supposed to be a six-week war. And they won’t even be honest about the state of our munitions. And by the way, they’re still covering up casualties.
They’re not even attributing these last four brave Americans lost in combat to this war. It is just beyond the pale. From your perch on the armed services committee, can this stockpile be replenished? Look, if the reporting’s out there, there must be something very serious happening with them. I don’t know what you’re hearing.
Maybe you can share specifically some of the details of that, but is it really that IS THAT BAD? FROM EVERYTHING WE KNOW, AND THIS HAS BEEN THE CASE FOR SEVERAL MONTHS, WE KNEW THE BURN RATE OF THESE MUNITIONS WAS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS. LITERALLY IN EARLY MARCH, AND THEY JUST DENIED THE REALITY THAT WE WERE HEARING FROM FOLKS ON THE GROUND. THE PROBLEM IS WE HAVE EXPENDED SO MANY IT WILL LITERALLY TAKE US A DECADE PLUS JUST TO GET BACK TO THE LEVEL OF INTERCEPTORS AND PRECISION STRIKE MISSILES WHICH ARE INCREDIBLY EXPENSIVE, INCREDIBLY SLOW TO THAT MEANS OTHER ADVERSARIES AROUND THE WORLD NOW, PARTICULARLY CHINA TO CERTAIN DEGREE RUSSIA KNOW THAT WE’RE WEAK AND VULNERABLE. THAT MEANS OTHER ADVERSARIES AROUND THE WORLD NOW, THAT WE’RE WEAK AND IT’S SAFE.
LOOK, IF YOU CAN’T EVEN RECOGNIZE AND OWN AND BE HONEST ABOUT THE PROBLEM, HOW ARE THIS IS A GRAVE DISSERVICE TO OUR TROOPS IN UNIFORM WHO ARE NOW MORE IN MORE DANGER BECAUSE OF HEGCESS COMPLETE CLOWN CAR OF A Pentagon that he’s running. Well, given what you’ve just said, Congressman, Ed, you’ve been out there making very clear that there needs to be a full audit of the Pentagon. And so now you’ve got this administration that’s SCRAMBLING TO REPLINISH MUNITION STOCKPILES, THEY’RE ALSO LOOKING TO SPEND MONEY ON THINGS LIKE BUILDING 25 NUCLEAR POWER BATTLESHIPS, WHICH TRUMP HAS CALLED PART OF HIS Golden Fleet or Golden Dome Missile Defense Program. What does that say about the priorities of this administration and what should be the priorities of the United UNITED STATES CONGRESS WHEN IT COMES TO THE DEFENSE OF THE NATION? I THINK WHAT WE’RE SEEING IN THE PRESIDENT’S PRIORITIES ARE ENRICHING HIMSELF, ENRICHING HIS BUDDIES THAT ARE THE I MEAN, HIS OWN SONS HAVE BOUGHT HUGE SHARES IN A BUNCH OF COMPANIES THAT ARE NOW MAKING HUGE PROFITS ON THIS WAR WHILE OF COURSE WE KNOW TRUMP HIMSELF NEVER SERVED.
CERTAINLY NO IT’S OUR YOUNG PEOPLE, WORKING CLASS PEOPLE THAT ARE GOING TO WAR. SO HE IS 180 DEGREES OFF, PARTICULARLY FOR SOMEBODY WHO RAN ON STOPPING WARS. WHAT WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS, ONE, A TRILLION-DOLLAR PLUS DEFENSE BUDGET IS OUTRAGEOUS WHEN WE NEED TO BE INVESTING IN HOUSING AND HEALTHCARE, BRINGING DOWN GAS AND GROCERY AND UTILITY COSTS. SO WE’VE GOT TO GET GET OUR PRIORITIES BACK STRAIGHT THERE. WE ALSO NEED TO STOP GIVING TAX BREAKS TO BILLIONAIRES.
WE HAVE A TRILLION-DOLLAR TAX BREAK TO THE ULTRA WEALTHY TO FURTHER ADD TO OUR DEFICIT IN ADDITION TO IT’S NOT GOING TO MAKE SURE THE TRILLION-DOLLAR DEFENSE BUDGET. WHEN IT COMES TO THE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE, MYSELF AND MY COLLEAGUES IN A HOPEFUL MAJORITY WHICH I’M OPTIMISTIC ABOUT NEED TO IMMEDIATELY HAVE URGENT OVERSIGHT, ONE, TO PROTECT OUR TROOPS, TWO, TO GET BACK AT THE APOLITICAL NATURE OF OUR MILITARY WHICH TRUMP HAS ERODED AND THREE, MOST IMPORTANTLY, WE HAVE TO END THIS WAR, CUT OFF THE FUNDING STREAM. I HAVE A BILL CALLED THE NO FUNDS FOR IRAN WAR ACT THAT WOULD NOT ALLOW US TO SPEND A SINGLE DOLLAR MORE ON THIS war. All right, there is Congressman Pat Ryan. Thank you so much, sir.
Appreciate you. Folks, we’ll be right back. Thanks for having me.
