Hegseth defends US attack on Iran as ‘our retribution’
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon on March 2, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Monday defended the ongoing U.S. attack on Iran as necessary because of Tehran’s missile arsenal and nuclear ambitions, calling it “our retribution” for its yearslong role in sponsoring terrorism.
Hegseth declined to say how long the operation would last or rule out the potential of sending U.S. troops on the ground.
“We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their Ayatollah and his death cult,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth’s press conference was his first since the large-scale operation began two days ago. The attack resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and some of its senior leadership.
President Donald Trump in recent days told reporters he expect the operation could last four to five weeks — a timeline Hegseth wouldn’t commit to.
Four U.S. service members have died, with several more severely wounded, according to U.S. Central Command.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who also briefed reporters on Monday, said the U.S. is sending additional forces into the region, primarily aviation assets.
“We expect to take additional losses and, as always, we will work to minimize U.S. losses,” Caine said, later adding, “this is major combat operations.”
When pressed on the missions objectives, Hegseth insisted the goals were clear.
“The mission of Operation Epic Fury is laser-focused,” Hegseth said. “Destroy Iranian offensive missiles, destroy Iranian missile production, destroy their navy and other security infrastructure, and they will never have nuclear weapons. We’re hitting them surgically, overwhelmingly and unapologetically.”
Critics of the administration have questioned the timing of the operation though because of U.S. intelligence that has found the threat from Iran was not imminent. According to the Defense Intelligence Agency, Iran is working on developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. by 2035.
The U.S. also bombed three of Iran’s nuclear sites last year. Experts say there are recent signs of Iran trying to rebuild its program and begin again enriching uranium, but that there was no evidence they were close to building a bomb.
Trump said over the weekend that a preemptive attack on Iran was justified by “imminent threats” from the Iranian guard, though he provided no evidence, and to topple the Iranian regime.
Hegseth said Monday that Iran was “stalling” during recent negotiations with U.S. officials to buy time to build up its ballistic missile program and restart its nuclear ambitions.
“Their goal: hold us hostage, threatening to strike our forces. Well, President Trump doesn’t play those games,” Hegseth said.
Iran has responded with a massive attack on U.S. allies across the Middle East, targeting Israel, regional U.S. bases and Gulf nations. Four U.S. service members have been killed, which Hegseth said occurred when Iran hit a tactical operations center that had been fortified.
The attack resulted in the death of Iran’s supreme leader and some of its senior leadership.
In a phone call with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said the “attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates” to lead Iran.
Hegseth, though, on Monday said the operation was not a “so-called regime-change war.”
“Turns out the regime who chanted ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel’ was gifted death from America and death from Israel. This is not a so-called regime-change war, but the regime sure did change, and the world is better off for it,” Hegseth said.
The defense secretary rejected that the U.S. would be involved in another “forever war” in the region, though he gave little detail on what comes next.
Hegseth declined to give a timeline on how long the military operation could last, after Trump told ABC News the attacks could last four or five more weeks.
“President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or may not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back. We’re going to execute at his command the objectives we’ve set out to achieve,” Hegseth said.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The ballooning field of Democratic candidates to succeed the term-limited Gavin Newsom as governor of California has political operatives stunned.
“This is as wide open as I’ve ever seen anything in 25 years,” said Steven Maviglio, a Sacramento-based Democratic strategist.
The challenge for those running will be proving to voters they can tackle California’s cost-of-living crisis, as well as fill the high-profile void Newsom will leave behind as a national leader in Democrats’ fight against President Donald Trump.
Last week, Rep. Eric Swalwell, who made a name for himself as an anti-Trump firebrand in the House of Representatives and launched a short-lived bid for the White House in 2020, announced his campaign for governor on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!,” telling Kimmel that California “needs a fighter and a protector.”
Billionaire Tom Steyer, who also ran an unsuccessful campaign for president in 2020, announced his campaign the day before. Steyer, who is well-known in progressive circles for his environmental advocacy, spent millions backing Newsom’s recent Proposition 50 redistricting push.
“Everyone in this race is going to talk about affordability, but what Californians care about is results, and who’s going to be able to deliver when it comes to lowering costs. And Tom has a record of getting things done for California, even when the real politicians couldn’t,” a spokesperson for Steyer said.
Both Swalwell and Steyer join a crowded field of prominent Democrats, such as former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
“I am a proven problem solver,” Villaraigosa told ABC News in a statement.
“As the Speaker of the California Assembly, I extended affordable health care to millions of children and I passed the toughest assault weapons ban in America. As Mayor, I reduced crime by 50% and increased our school graduation rate by 60%. No other candidate for governor has delivered results like those,” Villaraigosa added.
Villaraigosa is jockeying for position among other California politicians, including former Rep. Katie Porter and former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who was also secretary of Health and Human Services in the Biden administration.
“Secretary Becerra is the only candidate in this race to take on the Trump Administration and win, suing 122 times to protect Californians as Attorney General. He delivered affordable care for millions and he negotiated lower drug prices to save California families thousands of dollars,” a Becerra campaign spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
Strategists are surprised that no candidate has clearly established themselves as a front-runner, signaling some instability in the race to lead a state of nearly 40 million people.
“It’s one of the most consequential races in the entire country that nobody’s ever heard of yet,” Democratic strategist Danielle Cendejas said. “There is a lot on the line who the next governor is.”
“A historically weak field” Democratic strategist Matt Rodriguez believes the reason the primary is so crowded is because no one candidate is very strong.
“I think it’s a very weak field, a historically weak field,” he said.
California employs a “jungle” or “top-two” primary, in which there is one nonpartisan primary for all candidates, with the top two candidates in the primary moving on to a runoff in November, regardless of party.
Rodriguez said having so many Democratic candidates in a jungle primary “definitely gives an advantage to a Republican getting into the top two. At some point, there’s just only so many Democratic voters to split up here.”
Maviglio said two Republicans ending up in the general election is “possible, not probable.”
“We’ve only seen it in legislative races a couple of times, where the party that actually has the majority doesn’t make it into the November election because of strangeness like that happening,” he said.
Slim chance for a Republican candidate GOP strategist and former executive director of the California Republican Party Jon Fleischman said that even if a Republican makes it to the general election, they would have a slim chance at winning the whole thing.
“Maybe the most important thing to remember in California is that if you have a general election between a Republican and a Democrat, unless some massive scandal of epic proportion were to strike the Democrat, we’re a blue state,” Felischman said.
“The only time it gets maybe more interesting is if two Democrats make the runoff,” Felischman added.
There are currently two major Republican candidates in the race, one of whom is former Fox News host Steve Hilton.
“A crowded Democratic field means those candidates will spend months fighting each other and defending the status quo, while Steve Hilton is focused on changing it,” Hilton campaign manager Matt Ciepielowski told ABC News in a statement.
“Californians are tired of the highest poverty in the nation, sky-high housing costs, failing schools, and a government that serves special interests instead of working families. Steve is running to make California affordable, safe, and full of opportunity again,” the statement continued.
The other major Republican running is Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, who is emphasizing his law enforcement background to define himself as someone who will be tough on crime.
“Each Democrat running is hoping to be a more liberal version of the narcissist that is currently the Governor and Californians simply cannot afford to have that happen. Sheriff Bianco offers a new way forward and the public polling proves that his campaign is resonating with voters,” Rick Gorka, a spokesperson for the Bianco campaign, told ABC News in a statement.
A still-unsettled race Others might still jump in on the right, like tech entrepreneur Jon Slavet, who filed FEC paperwork Friday and told ABC News he plans to launch his campaign early next month.
Maviglio characterized the race as “unsettled” and “a revolving door.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was mulling a bid following her defeat in last year’s presidential election, but she announced in July she was no longer considering running. And U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla — who strategists say might have cleared the field had he launched a bid — decided against a run earlier this month.
“We’ve had people say they’re running and exit out of the race. We’ve had people that were lured into thinking about running, like Padilla and Harris, and then opting not to. So it’s really hard to track,” Maviglio said.
Two politicians — California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and former president pro tempore of the California state Senate Toni Atkins — initially announced their candidacies, only to exit the race shortly thereafter.
Another rumored potential Democratic contender is billionaire Rick Caruso, who lost the 2022 Los Angeles mayoral race to Karen Bass. While Caruso has deep pockets and some name recognition, he was a Republican until 2019, which could alienate the progressive wing of his new party.
And while both Steyer and Caruso have the cash, strategists say they would have to use it wisely to mount successful campaigns.
“Self-funders do not do well here. It doesn’t mean they can’t, but they typically don’t,” Rodriguez said, pointing to the failed bids of Michael Huffington in the 1994 Senate race, Al Checchi in the 1998 gubernatorial election and Caruso in 2022.
Trouble for early front-runner Porter, the initial front-runner and only major female candidate in the field, seemed to have momentum after gaining backing from the progressive PAC EMILY’s List and several statewide labor unions. Cendejas acknowledged that Porter likely had an early advantage due to her name recognition and the fact that she is “beloved in a lot of progressive circles.”
“Katie is a fighter, a single mom of three, and a ruthless champion for working families who took on the Trump Administration and self-serving CEOs in Congress — and won,” Peter Opitz, a spokesperson for the Porter campaign, told ABC News in a statement.
But recent controversy surrounding Porter’s conduct has tightened her initial lead, indicating she may not be as strong of a candidate as was originally thought.
In a video that went viral online last month, Porter had a contentious interaction with a journalist, going so far as threatening to end the interview. Another video surfaced shortly thereafter showing Porter yelling at a staffer.
“What goes up must come down,” Cendejas said of Porter.
In her first appearance after the videos emerged, Porter apologized for the outbursts.
“I want people to know that I understand that what I did was not good,” Porter told an audience at the UC Student and Policy Center in Sacramento in October. “I’m not going to mince words about it, but I also want people to understand that I am in this fight because I am not going to back down and give one inch when people are hurting Californians. And both of those things can be true at the same time.”
Rodriguez expects that the ability for a candidate to successfully define themselves as someone who can lead California in going toe-to-toe with Trump will be “the whole thing.”
“I think Trump is going to be gigantic here,” Rodriguez added. “Everything is going to be Trump.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson faces an incredibly tight margin as he can only afford to lose one Republican vote if all members are present and voting on the funding package.
First, Johnson has to clear a procedural vote before debate can begin on the floor and a vote on final passage can be held.
Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he is confident the package, passed in the Senate after an 11th-hour deal between Senate Democrats and the White House, will pass.
“This may be hard for some of y’all to believe, but I never doubted this,” Johnson said at his weekly news conference Tuesday morning.
The agreement separates a Department of Homeland Security funding bill from five others funding other agencies for the rest of the fiscal year, and grants two weeks of extended DHS funding to negotiate Democratic demands for restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid its immigration enforcement operation, including requiring agents to wear body cameras turned on and to not wear masks.
The funding fight over DHS erupted in the aftermath of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis on Jan. 24.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told Johnson over the weekend that Democrats would not help Republicans expedite the funding package.
Meanwhile, hard-line Republicans also threatened to hold the package up in hopes of attaching an unrelated bill that would require a proof of citizenship in federal elections known as the SAVE Act. Though some hard-liners, including Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Tim Burchett, appear to be backing down on their demands.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he has spoken to congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle and expressed confidence in a resolution coming soon.
Erika Kirk, widow of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and U.S. Vice President JD Vance embrace on stage during a Turning Point USA event at the Pavilion at Ole Miss at the University of Mississippi, on October 29, 2025 in Oxford, Mississippi. Jonathan Ernst-Pool/Getty Images
(PHOENIX) — Erika Kirk endorsed Vice President JD Vance for president during a Turning Point USA conference in Arizona, vowing to throw one of the most influential conservative organizations in the country behind Vance in 2028.
“We are going to get my husband’s friend JD Vance elected for 48 in the most resounding way possible,” she said during her speech on Thursday night at AmericaFest, the first major Turning Point event since her husband’s assassination.
While the endorsement is not a major surprise given Vance’s close relationship with Charlie Kirk, Erika Kirk and Turning Point, it is significant given the group’s prominence on the right.
Turning Point, founded by Charlie Kirk in 2012, played a key role in helping elect President Donald Trump and shaping the modern conservative movement, particularly among younger voters.
Vance has not yet officially said whether he will run in 2028. In an interview last month with Fox News, Vance said he was focused on the vice presidency and the 2026 midterms but would have a conversation with President Trump after next year’s elections about 2028 .
“We’re going to win the midterms, we’re going to do everything that we can to win the midterms, and then after that, I’m going to sit down with the president of the United States and talk to him about it,” Vance said. “But let’s focus on the now.”
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, Vance credited the Turning Point founder for his own political rise and for building out President Trump’s second administration.
“So much of the success we’ve had in this administration traces directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and convene. He didn’t just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government,” Vance said in the days after Kirk was fatally shot on Sept. 10 during a campus event at Utah Valley University.
Erika Kirk’s endorsement follows Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying in an interview with Vanity Fair published this week that if the vice president were to run for president in 2028, he would support him.
“If JD Vance runs for president, he’s going to be our nominee, and I’ll be one of the first people to support him,” Rubio told Vanity Fair’s Chris Whipple.
Trump himself has said Vance and Rubio would be “great” options for presidential candidates.
“I’m not sure if anybody would run against those two,” Trump said in late October. “I think if they ever formed a group, it would be unstoppable.”
