Republican Senators have been left raging by a “contemptuous” briefing from Pete Hegseth’s policy chief.
Elbridge Colby delivered a behind-closed-doors update to the Senate Armed Services Committee on implementing the National Defense Strategy and the war in Iran.
But he inspired bipartisan ire by allegedly stonewalling officials. Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer seemed genuinely shocked by the performance of Colby, the undersecretary of defense for policy, on Thursday morning.
Cramer, a close Trump ally, called the fact that Colby didn’t even give an opening statement “very peculiar” and “weird.”
“There were a lot more questions than answers,” Cramer added in a conversation with The Hill.
Cramer, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said the whole thing was “very disrespectful to say the least” and was a “dodge and punt” from Colby, who has worked in both Trump administrations.
“You don’t have to go far in Congress to have a sort of confrontational view of Elbridge Colby, but boy, he just blew her up right from the beginning,” he said.
Fellow Republican Joni Ernst of Iowa was also unimpressed, so much so that she left early. “I did not stay to ask questions because he was not giving any clear responses,” she told The Hill.
Republican Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana disagreed, saying Colby “was very detailed and constructive” and “didn’t hide from any question, he answered every question with substance.”
Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri went one step further, accusing his democratic colleagues of “10 out of 10” disrespect.
The Iran war was a major focus. Democratic Arizona Senator Mark Kelly said Colby, 46, kept quiet on this matter, too. “When you don’t have a strategic goal, it’s very difficult to come up with a plan, and when you don’t have a plan, you can’t figure out what the target set is,” Kelly said.
Trump ally Mike Rounds, of South Dakota, was candid in his assertion that lawmakers need more information about the direction of the Iran war. “Right now, I don’t think any of us are happy with the amount of information being shared by the administration,” he said.
This follows almost the entire Senate Democratic caucus calling on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to disclose “basic information” about the Pentagon’s spending on the Iran conflict, also on Thursday.
In a letter dispatched to Hegseth, Democrats criticized the administration’s posture, saying: “Despite your stated needs, you have repeatedly refused to share basic information that previous administrations, Republican and Democratic, provided to the American public and Congress during times of war.”
They emphasized that “Congress must have access to this information to carry out our oversight responsibilities. It is the bare minimum that any American would expect in balancing their own household budget.”
Spearheaded by Democratic Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, a former Pentagon official who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, the message garnered signatures from every Democratic senator except GOP-curious Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman.
The lawmakers gave Hegseth a Sept. 30 deadline to clarify the complex financial picture.
