Jon Ossoff presses defense secretary over rising Iran war costs
Today’s newsletter highlights:
- Democrats prep a counterprogramming blitz ahead of Donald Trump’s Cobb County visit.
- The U.S. House passed a temporary government funding bill to avoid an election season shutdown.
- Multiple members of Trump’s Cabinet join TikTok.
Costly questions
U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff’s Senate hearing clashes have become so central to his reelection strategy that his aides send advance notices when one is about to begin.
Tuesday’s installment featured Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee to defend the administration’s handling of the conflict with Iran — and an estimated price tag that he said has climbed to $37 billion.
Ossoff pressed Hegseth to reconcile that cost with his earlier declaration that Iran’s military had been “destroyed and made combat ineffective.”
Hegseth said Iran “doesn’t have a Navy any longer” and its missiles were “buried underneath a lot of their underground facilities.”
“As far as a military assessment of Iran’s’ capabilities, it didn’t mean by any stretch of the imagination absolute zero,” Hegseth said.
But Ossoff wanted Hegseth to answer “yes or no” whether his previous statements that Iran’s military had been “destroyed” were accurate.
“Will you answer the question under oath?” Ossoff asked.
“It’s been set back not just years but likely decades,” Hegseth said. “It doesn’t mean it doesn’t have capabilities.”
Ossoff closed with the line quickly amplified on social media:
“So just to review, you will not answer whether your statement made on the 14th day of the war that Iran’s military had been ‘destroyed and made combat ineffective’ was a truthful statement to the American people, as you sit here and ask for tens of billions more for the conflict.”
Things to know
Good morning! Here are three things to know for today:
- President Donald Trump is visiting Cobb County’s Wheeler High School on Wednesday to promote a new investment account for children. But, as Greg Bluestein reports, Trump rarely sticks to the script.
- Georgia voters should look twice before donating money to candidates this election season, Sophia Eppley reports. Some websites are fraudulently selling merchandise and collecting donations in candidates’ names, new research shows.
- Two Republican groups linked to the scandal-ridden First Liberty Building & Loan did not violate campaign finance laws when they sought to influence Georgia elections, a state administrative hearings judge has ruled. David Wickert reports that the State Ethics Commission accused the Georgia Republican Assembly and its political action committee of failing to disclose more than $180,000 of contributions and other violations.
Democrats mobilize
Democrats are preparing a counterprogramming blitz ahead of Trump’s visit to Cobb County on Wednesday.
Local activists say the demonstration outside Wheeler High School will be their largest since the “No Kings” rallies. And Democratic leaders are targeting GOP U.S. Senate nominee Mike Collins and Republican nominee for governor Rick Jackson, who will both appear with Trump.
Democratic nominee Keisha Lance Bottoms challenged Trump to address affordability, Medicaid and federal cuts affecting Georgia — then sharpened her attack on Jackson, her billionaire rival.
“Remember, Rick Jackson agrees with him on everything,” Bottoms said of Trump. “Birds of a feather certainly flock together. Let’s watch them flock tomorrow.”
No fly zone
The much ballyhooed new Air Force One — a gift from the Qatari government — likely won’t be making an appearance at Dobbins Air Force Base when Trump lands in Cobb County.
Trump took the new Air Force One to Turkey last week for a NATO summit. But The New York Times reported he took the old jet back to the U.S. because the new one lacked some defensive capabilities. The Trump administration has since subpoenaed the New York Times reporters trying to find the source of that leak.
The White House announced earlier this week that the new plane “is perfectly safe for the President’s travels, but will receive additional upgrades and enhancements in the fall which will take approximately one month to complete.” In the meantime, Trump will use the old plane.
Ossoff and 26 other Democrats signed a resolution condemning Trump for accepting the plane “as a grave national security threat.”
Air time
Trump’s primetime speech last week got plenty of coverage across cable and streaming services. But the big broadcast networks of ABC and CBS declined to carry it on their over-the-air channels.
Trump heaped criticism on the networks for ignoring him. Now, U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter is asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate.
“Refusing to air a major presidential address because executives disagree with its content raises serious concerns that they intended to keep Americans in the dark about potential foreign interference in our elections,” Carter wrote in a letter to FCC Chair Brendan Carr.
Presidents aren’t entitled to airtime. They have to ask the networks to cover them. Sometimes, they say no — especially when the networks perceive the speech as politically motivated.
In 2014, some networks declined to carry then-President Barack Obama’s primetime address about immigration. In 2022, some networks did not carry then-President Joe Biden’s speech about threats to democracy.
In this case, ABC and CBS carried Trump’s speech on their streaming platforms. The networks then interrupted their over-the-air broadcasts with a special report analyzing the speech.
Listen up
Today on the “Politically Georgia” podcast GOP strategist Stephen Lawson joins the show to discuss the Republican ticket, including why the next month could be decisive for Collins’ chances to win the U.S. Senate seat in November.
You can listen and subscribe to “Politically Georgia” for free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.
Have a question or comment for the show? Email us at politicallygeorgia@ajc.com or give us a call at 770-810-5297 and you could be featured on a future episode.
Government funding
Republicans and six moderate Democrats helped legislation pass the House on Tuesday that would fund the federal government through Dec. 4, allowing more time for members of Congress to negotiate full-year appropriations bills.
Georgia’s delegation split along party lines, with all Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Athens, was out sick and did not vote. His office said he planned to travel to Washington on Wednesday.
Democrats who opposed the bill said they disagreed with the inclusion of money for the U.S. Border Patrol after the recent deaths of two people during immigration enforcement activities and the passage of a reconciliation bill in June that funded the agency through the end of 2029.
“Trump’s violent ICE operations continue to terrorize communities, and families are living in fear after ICE’s latest deadly shootings,” U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, D-Atlanta, said in a statement ahead of the vote. “Instead of demanding accountability, House Republicans want to hand Border Patrol and ICE a blank check.”
The House-passed stopgap funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, now goes to the Senate where Democrats could use the filibuster to block its progress.
Government agencies currently are funded through Sept. 30.
Today in Washington
- Trump will first head to Dover, Delaware, to participate in a ceremony where the remains of service members killed during the war with Iran will be returned. Then he will fly to Marietta to speak at an event highlighting his new savings program for children.
- The House will vote on the National Defense Authorization Act. They are also scheduled to vote on a bill that would ban members of Congress from buying stock and take the first step on a third reconciliation bill that would fund the war in Iran, provide bailouts for farmers and grants for states to make elections changes.
- The Senate will vote on more Trump nominations.
TikTok time
Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins and Kelly Loeffler, head of the Small Business Administration, were among the members of Trump’s Cabinet to join TikTok on Tuesday.
Loeffler, the former Georgia U.S. senator, made her debut with a short video riffing off the “Preparing For My Netflix Documentary” meme. Collins, who represented northeast Georgia in the U.S. House for eight years, posted a video pledging to use TikTok to take people behind the scenes at the VA.
Axios reported the rush to join TikTok came one day after the Justice Department told federal employees the app is now deemed safe because its Chinese owners were forced to sell to a new American entity approved by the Trump administration.
Shoutouts
Today’s birthday:
- State Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper.
Want a birthday shoutout in the Politically Georgia newsletter? There’s a form for that. It’s not just birthdays. We’re also interested in new jobs, engagements, birth announcements, etc.
Before you go
Records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show city officials have little evidence of a consultant’s work who was paid $910,000 over two years.
That’ll do it for us today. As always, you can send your best scoops, gossip and insider information to greg.bluestein@ajc.com, tia.mitchell@ajc.com, patricia.murphy@ajc.com and adam.beam@ajc.com.