As U.S. strikes on Iran intensified Tuesday, frustration spilled over for senators on Capitol Hill who unsuccessfully sought answers on the war\u2019s price tag.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had problems getting information from you and from the Department of Defense,\u201d Rhode Island Democratic Sen. Jack Reed told Jay Hurst in a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/b><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hurst is President Donald Trump\u2019s pick to become the Department of Defense\u2019s top financial official.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t emphasize enough. And you know, from your position, if we don\u2019t know what is going on, then we\u2019re not in a position to make judicious decisions,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n During the hearing, Hurst said he could not provide an updated cost for the war in Iran. He stated that he was unable to do so because he stepped down as the Pentagon\u2019s acting comptroller on May 20, when the president nominated him to fill the position permanently.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of spending is astronomical,\u201d said New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.<\/p>\n As lawmakers railed against the war and its price tag, Trump held an Oval Office meeting with the leader of Iran\u2019s next-door neighbor \u2014 Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi.<\/p>\n Trump promised the two men would do \u201ca lot of deals\u201d moving forward.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to create a lot of jobs for both countries, and we\u2019re going to be taking out a lot of oil,\u201d said the president.<\/p>\n During the meeting, Trump backpedaled on his promise to enact a 20% cargo fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, an embattled critical oil passageway in the region. He insisted other Middle Eastern nations promised to invest in American companies in lieu of a fee.<\/p>\n He also mocked Iran, which recently launched two attacks, one fatal, on commercial ships in the Strait.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have been knocking the hell out of them,\u201d Trump stated.<\/p>\n The developments come exactly one week after a member of Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s administration attempted to hold an unauthorized meeting with Iran\u2019s representative to the United Nations.<\/p>\n The State Department quashed the engagement, with an official telling Spectrum News it was \u201cunconscionable\u201d and that the Iranian Ambassador \u201cconsistently works to undermine U.S. interests and whitewash his regime\u2019s crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n Mamdani claimed he \u201cdid not know about [the meeting] until there was a press inquiry regarding it.\u201d<\/p>\n While most members of New York\u2019s congressional delegation dodged Spectrum News\u2019 questions about the meeting, two members defended it.<\/p>\n \u201cAs Americans who want the war to stop, we\u2019re going to have to speak to them. Right?\u201d Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who represents parts of Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about meeting with Iranian officials. It\u2019s about meeting with international officials. And I think that given the gateway from the globe into New York City, it\u2019s not unheard of,\u201d Rep. Yvette Clarke, who represents Brooklyn, told Spectrum News.<\/p>\n Spectrum News made multiple attempts to contact the official who attempted to meet with the Iranian ambassador \u2014 Commissioner Ana Mar\u00eda Archila of the Mayor\u2019s Office of International Affairs. She did not reply to Spectrum News\u2019 inquiries.<\/p>\n In June, the State Department intervened to kill a meeting scheduled between Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Mamdani.<\/p>\n The State Department revoked Petro\u2019s visa last year after he delivered a speech at a pro-Palestine rally in New York City.<\/p>\n The State Department accused Petro of urging \u201csoldiers to disobey orders and incite violence\u201d in a New York rally after he called on American and Israeli troops \u201cnot to sanction a genocide\u201d and called for a fighting force to come to Palestine\u2019s aid.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will revoke Petro\u2019s visa due to his reckless and incendiary actions,\u201d the department wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n Prior to Petro\u2019s visa revocation, Trump and Petro were already at odds, with Trump labeling Petro a \u201cdrug leader.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As U.S. strikes on Iran intensified Tuesday, frustration spilled over for senators on Capitol Hill who unsuccessfully sought…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":935537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,13565,17547,7448,405,403,17050,50,5226,5225,5228,17545,43431,5227,80,108364,52,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,5284],"class_list":["post-935536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-ny-state-of-politics-blog","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-shannon-ryan","tag-top-stories","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-vod"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116921429357291007","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n