Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth went scorched earth on Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) after the California Democrat said the Iran war has turned into a “quagmire” and questioned Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s leadership during the conflict, claiming it has served as an “outstanding example of incompetence.”

Garamendi’s harsh critique came during Hegseth’s testimony on the Pentagon’s budget on Wednesday.

Hegseth wasted little time throwing his counterpunches at Garamendi, saying he was a prime example of the “reckless, feckless, and defeatist” Democrats in Congress. He also reamed Garamendi out over his framing of the war.

“A quagmire — my generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years and years of nebulous missions and utopian national building that led us to nothing,” Hegseth said. “The way you stain the troops when you tell them two months in — two months in, congressman. You should know better, shame on you!”

He continued, “The effort, what they’ve undertaken, what they’ve succeeded, the success on the battlefield that creates strategic opportunities, the courage of a president to confront a nuclear Iran, and you call it a quagmire? Handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement.”

Hegseth then asked Garamendi, “Who you cheering for here? Who you pullin’ for?”

“Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission,” Hegseth added.

Hegseth’s acid-tongued response followed Garamendi spending his allotted five minutes of time slamming the war. Garamendi said Trump and Hegseth have “misled the public” on why the war is being fought and offered conflicting answers in public about why it is necessary; he also complained the war has inflicted “immense economic damage” on the U.S.

The Hegseth-Garamendi battle on Wednesday came about an hour after Hegseth got into a fairly heated squabble with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA).

Smith pressed Hegseth on what his “plan” was for the war is and protested when Hegseth said Iran’s nuclear facilities had been “obliterated”; Hegseth told him that while Iran’s facilities had been wiped out, the country’s theocratic leaders still had ambitions of acquiring a nuke.

Watch above via CNN.

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