Rep. Maggie Goodlander (D-NH) declared that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “completely unqualified” and “completely out of touch” following two days of House Armed Services Committee testimony in which she said he was unable to answer the most basic questions about the financial cost of the Iran war, the impact of gas prices on American families, or where taxpayer dollars are going in what she called “a war of choice.” “Today’s hearing confirmed what we all know to be true: Pete Hegseth has no business serving as our Secretary of Defense,” Goodlander said in a video posted on X on April 29, 2026. She doubled down on May 4, adding: “We need serious people at the helm of the most important institutions in the world. He’s got to go.”
The hearing in question was the House Armed Services Committee’s Full Committee Hearing on the Department of Defense FY27 Budget Request, held April 29, 2026, in Rayburn 2118. It was the first of two consecutive days of testimony Hegseth gave to Congress on the administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request — a 50% increase over current levels — and on the ongoing Iran war, which has entered its tenth week, closed the Strait of Hormuz, and sent the national average gas price to $4.45 per gallon.
The Cost Question: What Hegseth Couldn’t Answer
Goodlander’s central charge is that Hegseth, in charge of a department requesting a record $1.5 trillion in taxpayer funding while simultaneously running an active war, could not provide clear answers on either. The Pentagon’s official figure for the Iran war’s cost is $25 billion. Three sources told CNN that the real number is closer to $40 to $50 billion when accounting for the extensive damage done to U.S. military bases across the region — damage sustained when Iranian strikes hit at least nine U.S. military facilities in Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, and Qatar in the opening 48 hours of the conflict, destroying critical radar systems including the radar for a THAAD missile battery in Jordan. At the hearing, Hegseth repeated the $25 billion figure throughout without elaboration on what it includes or excludes.
The Department of Defense has also failed its annual financial audit eight consecutive times since Congress mandated the reviews in 2018. As documented by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Pentagon is the only federal agency in the United States to have never passed a financial audit — with 26 material weaknesses identified in the most recent audit released in December 2025. Hegseth told the committee he “wants to be accountable” and “will be accountable for each and every American taxpayer dollar” — a pledge Goodlander found impossible to reconcile with his inability to provide specific cost breakdowns during testimony. “He said he wants to be accountable, will be accountable for each and every American taxpayer dollar that’s spent, where it goes and why,” Goodlander said. “He couldn’t answer the most basic questions about where your taxpayer dollars have gone in this war of choice.”
Gas Prices: “He Was Stumped”
Goodlander also challenged Hegseth on gas prices — the most immediate and politically potent domestic consequence of the Iran war for American families. The Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly 20% of the world’s oil and gas normally flows, has been effectively closed since the opening weeks of the conflict, sending energy prices surging. The national average gas price stood at $4.45 per gallon at the time of the hearing. A Bank of America report released that week found the gas price spike had cost consumers $19 billion and canceled out nearly half of the expected increase in tax refunds. Goldman Sachs similarly found the energy price drag was offsetting the benefits from the administration’s own tax legislation.
When Goodlander asked Hegseth about gas prices, she said he was unable to engage meaningfully with the question. “I asked him about gas prices. He was stumped,” she told viewers. Hegseth is the Secretary of Defense — not the Treasury Secretary or the Energy Secretary — and questions about retail gas prices are technically outside his portfolio. But Goodlander’s point is precisely that: the man overseeing a war that has directly caused a 50%+ spike in energy prices affecting every American family did not have a command of the economic consequences of the operation he is running. As documented by a Pew Research Center survey of 5,103 U.S. adults conducted April 20-26, 62% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the military action against Iran — with 59% saying the U.S. made the wrong decision in using military force.
Hegseth’s Conduct at the Hearing
The cost and gas price exchanges were not isolated moments — they were part of a two-day pattern of behavior by Hegseth that generated bipartisan criticism. Before a single lawmaker had asked a question at the April 29 hearing, Hegseth opened his opening remarks by calling congressional critics “the reckless, feckless, and defeatist” biggest adversary the United States faces in the Iran war — a statement that drew immediate condemnation from members of both parties. He called Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal a “defeatist Democrat.” He accused Rep. John Garamendi of “handing propaganda to our enemies.” He told Rep. Jason Crow his questions were “a huge waste of your five minutes.” He was corrected multiple times by lawmakers on factual matters — including the war’s cost, the legal status of the ceasefire, and the constitutional requirements for congressional notification.
The Pentagon’s stated cost of $25 billion was challenged not just by Democrats but by the data itself. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Hegseth directly on April 30 that his assurances of success were “a disservice to both the commander-in-chief and the troops.” Reed outlined the facts on the ground: 13 U.S. troops killed, more than 400 injured, the Strait of Hormuz still closed, Iran still in possession of enriched uranium, and the Iranian government still in power — a far more complicated picture than the “astounding military success” Hegseth described when asked directly whether the U.S. was winning. Republican Rep. Austin Scott (R-GA) also told Hegseth directly: “I do want you to know I disagree with the firing of Gen. George” — the Army Chief of Staff Hegseth dismissed without public explanation — warning that passing any defense budget would require bipartisan votes Hegseth’s behavior was making harder to secure.
Who Is Goodlander — and Why She Is Pressing This
Goodlander’s critique of Hegseth carries particular weight given her background. As documented on her official House biography, she is a former U.S. Navy Reserve intelligence officer who served for more than a decade, a foreign policy advisor to Sen. John McCain, a law clerk to Justice Stephen Breyer, a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, and a constitutional law professor. She serves on the House Armed Services Committee’s Military Personnel and Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittees, as confirmed by the House Clerk’s office — the precise subcommittees with oversight over the rules of engagement and military readiness questions she pressed Hegseth on. Her district is home to more than 1,200 active-duty service members and more than 5,680 National Guard and reserve members, as noted in her committee assignment press release.
In a separate interview with The National Herald, Goodlander laid out her position on the Iran war in the clearest possible terms: “The President has not provided any justification for unilaterally launching this war against Iran. He has not articulated clear objectives beyond the immediate term. Thirteen American patriots have already lost their lives. The President is now expected to request hundreds of billions of dollars to fund this war. War should only be undertaken as an absolute necessity, with clear objectives and a defined strategy. The President must explain how this will end.” Her call for Hegseth’s firing is a direct extension of that position — if the president has no strategy, and the Defense Secretary cannot explain costs or consequences, then the people making these decisions are, in her judgment, unqualified for the jobs they hold.
“Vanity Projects” and the Fitness Question
Goodlander’s May 4 video added a new dimension to her critique — framing Hegseth’s unfitness not merely as a matter of competence but of character and priority. “We don’t need people who are so out of touch, so unqualified, and so obsessed with themselves and their own vanity projects that they can’t serve the people who have put their trust in him,” she said. The “vanity projects” reference is a pointed allusion to reporting throughout early 2026 that Hegseth has been focused on internal Pentagon media operations, the creation of a new internal communications apparatus, the ideological reshaping of military academy curricula, and the dismissal of senior military officers — including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George — without public explanation or consultation with congressional oversight committees. Those personnel actions have drawn criticism not just from Democrats but from Republican members including Bacon, Rogers, and Scott.
Goodlander’s two-video sequence — the April 29 post focused on Hegseth’s inability to answer basic questions, and the May 4 post focused on his fitness and her hearing exchange — represents a deliberate escalation strategy. The April 29 video made the substantive case: he doesn’t know the numbers, he can’t explain the costs, he’s out of touch with what the war is costing American families. The May 4 video made the personal and constitutional case: he’s obsessed with himself, he was forced to affirm on the congressional record a principle of American law he has been accused of violating, and he needs to leave. “Pete Hegseth has no business serving as our Secretary of Defense,” she said in both videos, keeping the headline consistent while deepening the argument. Whether that sustained campaign of accountability produces any political consequence in a Republican-controlled Congress remains to be seen. The congressional record, at least, now includes Hegseth’s own words — from 2016 and from April 29, 2026 — on the subject of lawful orders.