WATCH: ‘Shame on you.’ Hegseth attacks Rep. Garamendi for calling U.S. war on Iran a 'quagmire'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attacked Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., in a Wednesday budget hearing over the lawmaker’s public remarks that the U.S. handling of the Iran war amounted to a “quagmire.”

Hegseth said the lawmaker’s statements “stain the troops.”

“Shame on you, calling this a quagmire two months in,” he said, saying Garamendi is “handing propaganda to our enemies.”

“Who are you cheering for here?” Hegseth said at the end of his tirade.

Hegseth and other Pentagon officials were invited to testify on President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request to increase defense spending to $1.5 trillion – the largest proposed amount in decades.

The House hearing gave lawmakers a chance to question the defense leaders for the first time since the start of the war on Iran, which the U.S. and Israel launched at the end of February. While Hegseth has touted the Iran war as “a gift to the world,” polls have found that a majority of Americans disapprove of the conflict and the Trump administration’s handling of it.

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