Hegseth in the Hot Seat

This podcast is supported by Planned Parenthood Federation of America. As a listener of The Daily, we know you want the facts. Fact one, some lawmakers are making it harder for Americans to access health care. Two, a new policy threatens to prevent patients from using Medicaid insurance for life saving care at Planned Parenthood health centers. This could mean cancers going undetected, STIs left untreated, and patients not receiving care they need. Three, Planned Parenthood will not back down, but they need your help. Donate at plannedparenthood.org/defend. From New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. In back to back hearings that ended on Thursday, Pete Hegseth went before Congress for the first time in a year to answer for a war in Iran that's reached a stalemate and a management style that has caused controversy after controversy at the Pentagon. Today, my colleague, Eric Schmidt, takes us inside his testimony. It's Friday, May 1. Eric, always a pleasure. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, Michael. Let me start by asking, as a reporter who covers the military and the Pentagon and the war in Iran, how were you thinking about this hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee as it was about to begin on Thursday morning. What in your mind were the stakes of Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, giving this testimony at this particular moment? So the stakes really couldn't have been larger, Michael. Once a year, the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff come up to Congress and testify. Basically, they're asking for money. They want to get their budget approved. And this year's budget is a biggie. It's almost $1,500,000,000,000. Wow. The largest budget request ever. Some $500,000,000 more than this year's budget. And this is to do everything from replenish munition stockpiles to rebuild the navy, to construct a new anti missile system called Golden Dome. So this is all kind of part and parcel of of this budget request. But remember, it's been a year since he's had to testify before Congress and there's been so many things that have happened in that year. The military has seized the leader of Venezuela and brought him to The United States. He's fired dozens of generals and admirals, many of them women and minorities that he didn't think cut muster in his Pentagon. And it's also landing it's a very important time because, obviously, we're two months into the Iran war. Of course, he's also kicked reporters out of the Pentagon, so he doesn't really have real news conferences anymore. So there has been very little public accountability for a wide range of kind of operational and programmatic and budget issues that he has done. They've been very controversial, and he just hasn't really had to answer this. And this would be the first time where he's gonna have to face pointed questions from congressional Democrats and and some Republicans who've questioned what he's doing. …