A day after their House colleagues had a chance to put Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the record about the U.S. war with Iran, senators will now get their turn.
Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee will question Hegseth on Thursday, and they plan to pick up where their House colleagues left off — and where some of them were unable to get answers.
One area where Democratic senators want to drill down is the cost of the conflict. On Wednesday, the Pentagon’s comptroller told House lawmakers that the now two-month-old conflict has so far cost $25 billion — a figure Hegseth restated repeatedly.
But members of the Senate’s Democratic Caucus aren’t convinced that’s the total cost.
“I think that’s way low,” Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, said.
“I think that’s probably an undercounting,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told MS NOW.
And Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said $25 billion is likely “low-balling it.”
“The estimates I’ve heard are at least a billion dollars a day,” Blumenthal said. “He is deluding himself if he believes that figure — and possibly deceiving the American people.”
Senate Democrats largely declined to show their cards when asked how they plan to approach Thursday’s hearing, but they suggested they’ll hit on many similar themes as their House colleagues — including pressing Hegseth to clarify why the American people are better off now than they were before the Iran war began.
House Democrats pursued this line of questioning Wednesday, with Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif, asking about rising gas and food prices and what the war will mean for American consumers in the longterm. Hegseth’s answer — “I would simply ask you what the cost is of an Iranian nuclear bomb,” he said — is already fueling Democratic attacks online that Republicans are out of touch with the effects of their own war, including high gas prices.
Democrats also will likely demand clarity regarding the administration’s goals and exit strategy for the Iran conflict, while also pressing Hegseth about a dramatically increased overall Pentagon budget. (The Trump administration proposed a $1.5 trillion Department of Defense budget — a 42% increase over the previous budget.)
Several Democrats also said they want to ask about Ukraine, with lawmakers seeking an explanation as to why it took the Pentagon months to send the country $400 million in military aid.
“Needless to say,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., told MS NOW, “all of us have many more than five minutes of questions.”
Wednesday’s hearing before the House Armed Services Committee was the first time Hegseth publicly answered questions from lawmakers since President Donald Trump first launched war on Iran at the end of February.
While Hegseth has participated in classified briefings, lawmakers have expressed frustration that — because of the closed-door nature of those conversations — they were limited in what they could share publicly and with their constituents.
The House hearing, which lasted approximately five hours, was at times heated.
Rep. Adam Smith of Washington — the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee — pressed the defense secretary to square his claim that Iran’s nuclear program had been “obliterated” and also an imminent threat.
Hegseth argued that Iran still posed such a threat because it had not given up its “nuclear ambitions” and still had conventional missiles.
Rep. John Garamandi, D-Calif., accused Hegseth of misleading the public about the “progress of the war,” warning that the president is getting America “stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East.”
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“Shame on you, calling this a quagmire two months in,” Hegseth replied, saying the congressman was “handing propaganda to our enemies.”
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., pressed Hegseth on his “no quarter, no mercy” remark from a March press conference, warning that it amounts to a “war crime under the Geneva Conventions.”
Hegseth replied that the “Department of War fights to win, and we ensure that our war fighters have the rules of engagement necessary to be as effective as humanly possible.”
Rep. Maggie Goodlander, D-N.H. — one of the members of the Trump-dubbed “Seditious Six” — also asked Hegseth whether he agrees with a statement at the heart of what Democrats said in late 2025, when they advised military personnel to disobey “illegal orders” and Trump responded by seeking indictments against them.
Goodlander explicitly asked Hegseth whether he agreed “the military won’t follow unlawful orders.”
“I do, but understand what you’re insinuating is a partisan point,” Hegseth responded.
“I’m not, I’m actually quoting you directly, Mr. Hegseth,” Goodlander said, pointing out that Hegseth said those words in 2016.
But it was Rep. Jason Crow’s questioning that may provide Democrats with their clearest follow-ups.
The Colorado Democrat pushed Hegseth to explain why he brought on his private attorney, Timothy Parlatore, as an adviser — questioning whether Parlatore has proper security clearances. Crow also accused Hegseth of “repeatedly going behind President Trump’s back” by appointing folks like Parlatore.
“Was it true that he was accused of lying by the president’s legal team?” asked Crow, who’s also a member of the “Seditious Six.”
Hegseth called Crow’s line of questioning “a huge waste of your five minutes.”
But the Iran war will be the main focus of Democrats on Thursday, just as it was on Wednesday.
Trump — alongside Israel — launched the war at the end of February. So far, 13 U.S. service members have been killed and hundreds more have been injured. Meanwhile, Iran has cut off the Strait of Hormuz, causing gas prices in the U.S. and internationally to skyrocket. And while a fragile ceasefire is in place, there’s no end in sight to the overall conflict.
Jack Fitzpatrick, Julia Jester, and Clarissa-Jan Lim contributed to this report.
Kevin Frey is a congressional reporter for MS NOW.