{"id":872,"date":"2026-05-19T21:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2026-05-19T21:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T21:37:29","slug":"admiral-accuses-lawmaker-of-inappropriate-remark-at-iran-war-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=872","title":{"rendered":"Admiral accuses lawmaker of \u2018inappropriate\u2019 remark at Iran war hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, had testy exchanges with House Democrats who pressed him on a range of issues about the conflict.<\/strong><\/p>

Read more Trump\u2019s extraordinary $1.8 billion legal fund to his allies<\/a><\/p>\n

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Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, head of U.S. Central Command, meets with House lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Rod Lamkey\/AP Photo\/Rod Lamkey)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The senior U.S. military officer overseeing the war in Iran accused a House Democrat of impropriety on Tuesday after the lawmaker asserted that the United States was \u201closing\u201d the conflict and questioned \u201chow many more Americans we have to ask to die for this mistake.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, told Rep. Seth Moulton (Massachusetts) that he had made an \u201centirely inappropriate statement\u201d during a testy exchange in a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. It occurred as President Donald Trump contemplates ending the war\u2019s weeks-long ceasefire and resuming military strikes on Iran.<\/p>\n

Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran campaigning for a Senate seat, asked Cooper if he was familiar with Gen. William Westmoreland, the Vietnam-era commander who famously downplayed the challenges of that conflict. He also pressed the admiral to account for several unresolved problems, including Iran\u2019s stifling of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for the movement of Middle Eastern oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s the plan now to actually win this war? Because it feels like we\u2019re losing,\u201d asked Moulton, who served in combat in Iraq. \u201cWe don\u2019t have a nuclear deal. We don\u2019t have the strait open. The president has called for unconditional surrender. Is that part of the plan?\u201d<\/p>\n

It marked one of several occasions throughout the hearing in which the typically understated Cooper appeared frustrated with pointed questions about decisions made by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The admiral dodged answering questions directly on several occasions, saying that the Defense Department\u2019s civilian leaders make policy decisions whereas he presents them with military options.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis administration did nothing to justify this war to the Congress or the American people, and now they act offended when members of Congress ask the questions that Americans want answered most,\u201d Moulton said. \u201cIf Admiral Cooper is unwilling to ask these questions himself, or is uncomfortable answering them, then he\u2019s not doing his job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s hearing was held as Trump repeated comments from a day earlier acknowledging that he had nearly ordered a resumption of miliary strikes<\/a> against Iran but was persuaded otherwise by Middle Eastern leaders who are hopeful a peace deal is close between Washington and Tehran. Trump, speaking at the White House, said that on Monday he was \u201can hour away\u201d from ordering a fresh attack after weeks of negotiations have yielded no end to the conflict.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope we don\u2019t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cI\u2019m not sure yet. You\u2019ll know very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The war has proven unpopular with Americans, with a majority disapproving, according to numerous polls. An Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll<\/a> conducted recently found that 61 percent of Americans say that using military force against Iran was a mistake, with fewer than 2 in 10 Americans believing that the U.S. actions in Iran have been successful. Congressional Republicans have increasingly questioned the administration\u2019s plans, including in a hearing last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his testimony Tuesday, Cooper sought to highlight military successes in the conflict, which began Feb. 28 with an assessment from Trump that hostilities would conclude within four to five weeks. As he has said in other recent hearings, the admiral told House lawmakers that the operation had set back Iran militarily by years and stopped its efforts to build a nuclear weapon.<\/p>

Read more Live updates: Georgia Senate primary election results 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican military action derailed Iran\u2019s strategy that was 47 years in the making,\u201d Cooper said, referring to the date when the Iranian regime first took power.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018m really very, very sorry for the two of you,\u201d said Rep. John Garamendi (D-California). \u201cYou just cannot answer a question correctly and directly, but you\u2019re doing the best you can.\u201d He accused the Defense Department under Trump and Hegseth of having shown \u201cdisregard for the Congress and the U.S. Constitution\u201d by \u201cignoring\u201d the War Powers Act, a decades-old law that sets a 60-day limit on a president\u2019s ability to direct military action without congressional authorization.<\/p>\n

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Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts), seen here in 2023. (Alex Brandon\/AP)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Cooper declined to do so, instead saying pointedly that the military would follow the separate international law of armed conflict \u201cto the T\u201d and \u201cvery calmly,\u201d in an apparent commentary on the congressman\u2019s rising voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just unbelievable to me,\u201d Crow said of Cooper\u2019s refusal.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find the same thing, sir,\u201d Cooper responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not leadership,\u201d Crow said.<\/p>\n

Republicans objected to the questioning, with Rep. Joe Wilson (South Carolina) interrupting the exchange and calling it an unfair \u201cpersonal attack\u201d on Cooper. The committee chairman, Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama) responded that members were permitted to ask their questions.<\/p>\n

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), a retired Navy SEAL, and Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Mississippi), a retired Army National Guard general, objected to the Democrats\u2019 line of questioning over the course of the hearing, with Van Orden calling it \u201cwholly inappropriate to ask active-duty members of the United States military to answer political questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people are using this as a platform to elevate themselves politically, they should be ashamed of themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Republicans on the committee have in the past asked military officers politically sensitive questions.<\/p>\n

In one example in September 2021<\/a>, then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (Florida) accused Gen. Mark A. Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of spending more time speaking to author Bob Woodward than analyzing the possibility that the Afghan government would fall to the Taliban and asked when Milley became aware that President Joe Biden had \u201ctried to get\u201d Afghan President Ashraf Ghani \u201cto lie about the conditions in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milley responded that he was \u201cnot aware\u201d of what Biden may have said to the Afghan leader.<\/p>

Read more Trump shows off White House ballroom construction as funding stalls in Congress<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, appeared frustrated with questions from House Democrats who pressed him on a range of issues about the conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nAdmiral accuses lawmaker of \u2018inappropriate\u2019 remark at Iran war hearing - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=872\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Admiral accuses lawmaker of \u2018inappropriate\u2019 remark at Iran war hearing - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Adm. 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