‘We Need Straight Answers!’ GOP Senator Scolds Hegseth for Iran Answers in Testy Hearing Exchange Zachary LeemanTue, July 21, 2026 at 9:24 PM UTC 267 Sen. John Kennedy (RLA) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a testy exchange on Iran and the state of the Strait of Hormuz. At a Tuesday Senate hearing, Kennedy questioned both Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John D. Caine on the Strait as tensions have escalated between the United States and Iran with the U.S. launching days of strikes and Iran continuing to target ships in the Strait.
‘We Need Straight Answers!’ GOP Senator Scolds Hegseth for Iran Answers in Testy Hearing Exchange
Zachary LeemanTue, July 21, 2026 at 9:24 PM UTC
267
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) pressed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a testy exchange on Iran and the state of the Strait of Hormuz.
At a Tuesday Senate hearing, Kennedy questioned both Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. John D. Caine on the Strait as tensions have escalated between the United States and Iran with the U.S. launching days of strikes and Iran continuing to target ships in the Strait.
“Will they put tolls on the Strait?” Kennedy asked Caine.
“I don’t know, sir. That’s a decision that’s a hypothetical and will depend on what happens in the future,” Caine answered.
“It’s not hypothetical. We’ve got a blockade to stop them,” Kennedy said.
The senator argued the situation is as “serious as four heart attacks and a stroke” when he asked about the possibility of ending the blockade and heading “home.”
“Iran has the potential to continue to be a threat and we’re going to we will need to prepare a little bit,” Caine said as Kennedy jumped in.
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“Will they toll the Strait?” the senator asked.
Caine dismissed the question again as a hypothetical.
“Oh, it’s not hypothetical. We come home, it’s not going to be hypothetical. You know that, general, and I do too. And I appreciate your discretion, but we’re down to it. We need some hard answers and some straight talk,” Kennedy said.
He then turned to Hegseth with the same questions and at one point cut him off to stress that “we need straight answers.”
Check out the exchange below:
JOHN KENNEDY: What will happen, Pete?
PETE HEGSETH: Senator, I would agree with the chairman. The likely outcome is they would try to impose their will on the on the waterways in ways that the world would not like.
KENNEDY: Would they toll?
HEGSETH: Call it a toll, call it a fee, call it an exchange, call it it control. They would do something that would try to hold that issue, yes, sir.
KENNEDY: Would they try to commence development again of a nuclear warhead?
HEGSETH: Part of the reason President [Donald] Trump had to have the courage to do what he did after Midnight Hammer is that they didn’t give up their ambitions even though their nuclear sites had been obliterated. So this is a regime hell-bent on nuclear ambitions and —
KENNEDY: Guys, we need straight answers. We need straight answers. Do we have the ability to destroy whatever is underneath Pickaxe Mountain?
HEGSETH: Senator, a lot of our capabilities are classified, but if anybody in the world can reach anything on God’s green Earth, it’s the United States military, the most powerful military in the word. It’s all about options and trade-offs.
Watch above via CSPAN.
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Published: July 21, 2026 at 07:54PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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