SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified before Congress this week. The proceedings got heated. Democratic representative John Garamendi of California said President Trump has gotten America, quote, "stuck in the quagmire of another war in the Middle East." Secretary Hegseth said...
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PETE HEGSETH: The effort, what they've undertaken, 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.
SIMON: The hearing also focused on the Trump administration's 2027 military budget proposal that would increase defense spending to a historic $1.5 trillion. NPR's Ron Elving joins us. Ron, thanks for being with us.
RON ELVING, BYLINE: Good to be with you, Scott.
SIMON: Did Secretary Hegseth make the case for continuing the war in Iran?
ELVING: He made a case for it, just as President Trump has done, by saying it's needed to keep Iran from having a nuclear bomb, although we have no evidence it has one or has come close to having one. And we were told last year that Iran's nuclear program had been obliterated. Yet that program - or the prospect of such a program - remains the go-to explanation and excuse for where we are. It's what Trump and his Cabinet members have said over and over. But as for winning over any hearts and minds among the skeptical committee members in that room, well, Hegseth did not. And beyond that committee room the skeptics are many. An Ipsos poll for ABC News and The Washington Post found 61% of U.S. adults saying the use of U.S. military force against Iran was a mistake.
SIMON: Secretary Hegseth also said that 60-day window after which the president needs to seek authorization for the war from Congress hasn't passed because of the ceasefire. Did he convince members of Congress?
ELVING: Now, the law in question speaks about authorizing the use of military force. So if you use your Navy's firepower to blockade a country's ports, is that a use of military force? Did the U.S. consider the Iranians shutting off the Hormuz Strait an act of peace? Did anyone? So now we are several days past the 60-day limit, and Congress is on recess, as they call it, leaving town without the leaders of the Republican majority bringing a vote in either the House or the Senate under the War Powers Act. And, Scott, some of us can remember when there were votes before the Persian Gulf War in the 1990s and before the invasion of Iraq a decade later.
SIMON: Pentagon on Friday announced the U.S. is withdrawing 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany - around 14% of the troops there. That was in response to Chancellor Merz of Germany saying that Iran had, quote, "humiliated the U.S." Where does this leave U.S. alliances in Europe?
ELVING: The word humiliated seems to have been a trigger word in this instance, a part of the war of words we have seen over the Europeans' disdain for Trump's actions on Iran. But as you say, 5,000 - just about a seventh of our troop commitment in Germany, so mostly a gesture, perhaps. While on the more material side, you have Trump saying he wants to boost the tariff on European cars and other goods, accusing them of failing to live up to previous agreements.
SIMON: And in ruling on a case out of Louisiana, the Supreme Court this week dramatically altered a key part of the Voting Rights Act. Between that decision and states racing to redraw their voting maps, where do you think events are headed?
ELVING: We are expecting several states in the South, where the government is in Republican hands, to seek new district lines that eliminate Black majority districts. Now, Tennessee and Alabama began that process already this week. Across the South, a dozen or more current members of Congress could lose their seats, and that may lead Democrats to retaliate by pushing extreme gerrymanders of their own where they have the power to do it. And that deprives more and more Americans in one party or the other of their chance to elect someone they support. And down the road, we can expect fewer districts where both parties can compete, which means greater partisanship and more extreme partisans on both sides. That kind of candidate will dominate the primaries in both parties.
SIMON: NPR's Ron Elving. Thanks so much for being with us today.
ELVING: Thank you, Scott. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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