Democratic Rep. John Garamendi of California is one of many pushing the idea that, less than two months into the Iran conflict, we’re already stuck in a “quagmire” of Afghanistan or Iraq proportions.
Thankfully, we now have a head of the Pentagon who’ll call this what it is: “reckless, feckless, and defeatist.”
In a viral clip from Wednesday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing regarding the Department of Defense’s budget amid the Iran conflict, Secretary Pete Hegseth took Garamendi to task for basically parroting Iranian “propaganda” by claiming there was a quagmire when there wasn’t one and the United States is winning.
Garamendi began the day on CNN, telling host Kate Bolduan that “I don’t believe a thing the president says” on Iran.
“He lies every day, gets up in the morning, lies, and goes to bed at night, lying,” he said, without providing proof. (For future reference, this is handy if you’re accusing someone of lying just before a House Armed Services Committee hearing in which you’re discussing the budget regarding what you claim he’s lying about.)
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“In between, there is just one statement after the other, which is foolish and not supported by any of the evidence,” he added.
And, according to Mediaite, he spent most of his allotted questioning time during the hearing with Hegseth monologuing about how the president and Defense secretary have “misled the public” on Iran and caused “immense economic damage” in America.
(Garamendi here also neglected to say that part of this pain is the fact his state has the nation’s highest gas tax, but I digress.)
Hegseth had a message for Garamendi: “Who you cheering for here? Who you pulling for?”
“Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission,” Hegseth said.
“A quagmire — my generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years and years of nebulous missions and utopian nation building that led us to nothing,” Hegseth said. “The way you stain the troops when you tell them two months in — two months in, congressman — you should know better,” he continued. “Shame on you!”
“The effort, what they’ve undertaken, what they’ve succeeded, the success on the battlefield that creates strategic opportunities, the courage of a president to confront a nuclear Iran, and you call it a quagmire? Handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement.”
.@SecWar SLAMS @RepGaramendi: I watched you call this a "quagmire" on CNN this morning. My generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years and years of nebulous missions and utopian nation building that led us to nothing. The way you stain the troops when you tell… https://t.co/ua58AphK0G pic.twitter.com/XbeD3kQUTf
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) April 29, 2026
Fact check: Accurate.
One cannot predict the future of the conflict, but for someone to say there’s some sort of “quagmire” going in Iran is to admit that they have no patience for anything the Trump administration does, good or ill.
And, in the case of Garamendi, it brings an important question to the fore: Who, precisely, is he pulling for?
The most charitable answer is himself, his party, and his position in it. I don’t wish to state the most uncharitable answer, but one answer that clearly isn’t correct is the country he represents in its federal legislative body.
This article originally appeared on The Western Journal and is reposted with permission.
