(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee on Thursday that dissent from the “cheap seats” in Congress sought to undermine the military’s efforts in its war in Iran only two months into the campaign.

“Defeatists from the cheap seats who, two months in, seek to undermine the incredible efforts that have been undertaken and the historic nature of taking on a 47-year threat,” Hegseth said in his opening statement.

The statement was nearly identical to what he told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the first of two hearings on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget plan in which he faces questions on the war in his first appearances before Congress since the war started in February.

The hearings were scheduled to discuss the Pentagon’s request for a $1.5 trillion budget for 2027, the most the Pentagon has ever requested. In Wednesday’s hearing, Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon comptroller, testified the war has so far cost $25 billion. The Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.

In both hearings, Hegseth asserted the the U.S.’s “biggest adversary” in the war is from within.

“Unfortunately, as I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.

Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan pushed back against Hegseth’s assertion on Wednesday, telling him, “Mr. Secretary, you reserved more words and more time and more vitriol to condemn Democrats than you did for [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and for [Russian Federation President Vladimir] Putin combined. It’s pretty telling to me that you decided to use your words and your time for that.”

Leaving Thursday’s hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Secretary Hegseth seems to feel that by attacking the committee, he somehow is persuading the American people. “It’s exactly the opposite — his antagonism and seeming reluctance to tell the truth, I think, is doing this administration and the country a tremendous disfavor. And by refusing to come clean, give us precise numbers on costs, when we know that the true figures are higher than what has been told us, I think just undermines his credibility.”

Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the rationale behind launching the campaign against Iran, its endgame and the strains it has put on the economy and alliances with U.S. partners.

Hegseth was briefly interrupted by protesters during Thursday’s hearing.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to agree with Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker’s assertion that Russia has tried to to undermine the U.S. operation in Iran.

“General Caine, there’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran. Is there any question about that?” Wicker asked.

“I think there’s actions and activities. [I’m] mindful of the hearing room we’re in, but there’s, there’s, there’s definitely some action there,” Caine said. Wicker described the war against Iran as a success.

“While we all mourn the tragic loss of the 14 service members who have lost their lives in this conflict, we do so knowing the world is safer without a nuclear Iran,” he said.

But he noted the threat that Iran still poses.

“Most of Iran’s leaders are now deceased, but they and those who survived them have consistently sought violence against America, Israel, our Gulf allies,” Wicker said.

Wicker said Iran was part of an axis of aggressors with China, Russia and North Korea.

“This growing alliance cannot be denied,” the chairman said, adding later that “ties have never been closer among these four … dictatorships.”

Ranking Democrat Jack Reed said that the war has put the U.S. “in a worse strategic position,” pointing out that the Strait of Hormuz had closed because of the war and Iran’s nuclear material remained unaddressed and telling Hegseth his declaration of victory on April 8 was premature.

“Mr. Secretary, I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear, instead of what he needs to hear,” Reed said. “Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander-in-chief and the troops who risk their lives based on them. Our military has performed heroically. But military force without a sound strategy is a path to long-term defeat.”

Reed also said cultural erosion has taken place in the military and would lead to “lasting harm.” He pointed to Kid Rock’s recent “joy ride” with Hegseth in Army attack helicopters, the firing of several senior officers, and “troubling” statements he said the secretary had made about the conduct of the war.

“You have made troubling statements about showing ‘no mercy’ and ‘no quarter’ to the Iranians: orders that would constitute war crimes,” Reed said.

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(WASHINGTON) — After months of resistance, the House on Thursday passed the Senate-backed Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which funds all agencies inside DHS except immigration enforcement operations.

There was no recorded vote requested.

The measure now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk now for signature — ending the record-long DHS shutdown after 76 days. Trump will sign the DHS funding bill later Thursday, according to a White House official.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next surgeon general.

Trump made the announcement on social media, calling Saphier a “STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention.”

Saphier is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey and a regular medical contributor on Fox News.

According to her profile on the Memorial Sloan Kettering website, she has experience “performing minimally invasive, image-guided procedures of the breast, kidney, pancreas, liver, thyroid and lymph nodes.”

Her nomination comes just two months after Trump’s previous nominee, Dr. Casey Means, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee for her confirmation hearing.

During the hearing, Means indicated she supports vaccines but stopped short of recommending certain shots.

Means, who has a medical degree but does not hold an active medical license, appeared hesitant to say that some vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, prevent serious disease.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the HELP committee and is a physician, noted that two children died last year from measles and pushed Means on whether she would encourage parents to vaccinate their children with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Means initially stressed personal autonomy and responded that she supported vaccination and that every patient should have a conversation with their doctor about getting vaccinated.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill on Thursday said that the Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday against the state’s congressional map means that the planned May 16 congressional primaries won’t proceed as scheduled as lawmakers consider drawing a new map.

“The Supreme Court previously stayed an injunction against the State’s enforcement of the current Congressional map. By the Court’s order, however, that stay automatically terminated with yesterday’s decision. Accordingly, the State is currently enjoined from carrying out congressional elections under the current map. We are working together with the Legislature and the Secretary of State’s office to develop a path forward,” they wrote in the statement.

Landry told at least some Republican House candidates in Louisiana that he plans on Friday to suspend the state’s primaries, according to multiple Republican sources.

A Republican source told ABC News that the governor called one candidate on Wednesday and said he is making calls to all of the candidates that he plans on Friday to suspend the election using executive power. The Washington Post was first to report about the governor’s calls.

The source said it was unclear if this will apply to all of the planned primaries, which include a closely watched Senate primary, or just the primaries for the House that would be impacted by a new congressional map.

ABC News has reached out to Landry’s office and the office of the Louisiana secretary of state. 

The Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday reverses lower court decisions that said Louisiana’s map, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the Voting Rights Act because only one of six districts was majority Black. More than a third of the state’s voting age population is Black. 

Those courts had ordered Louisiana to add a second majority-Black district, a process which in turn explicitly relied on race. In his opinion, Justice Samuel Alito said that move infringed on the rights of white voters under the 14^th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

Absentee ballots in Louisiana have already been sent out, and votes have likely been cast, although early voting in person does not start until Saturday, May 2. Absentee voting is relatively limited in Louisiana and requires a valid excuse.

Democratic Rep. Troy Carter from Louisiana said on Wednesday at the Congressional Black Caucus press conference that elections are too close at this point for congressional maps to change. 

“We are in the 2026 election cycle now. The Supreme Court has set precedent just four years ago in a case in Louisiana, they ruled the district to be unconstitutional, said it’s too close to the election now, therefore we will do it in the next cycle,” Carter said, later adding that “if precedent matters, then clearly this is something that will have to be taken up in 2028 cycle, not the 2026.”

But the Louisiana’s existing map cannot be used, according to the Supreme Court’s ruling. Technically the state could revert back to its original 2022 map with one majority-Black district or redraw a new map entirely. Some legal experts have argued Louisiana could still keep its current map for the May primaries.

On Thursday, Murrill put in a filing with the Supreme Court saying, “Louisiana currently ‘is prohibited from using SB8’s map of congressional districts for any election’. The Governor and Attorney General are thus working with the Legislature– which is in session until June 1 — to immediately produce a constitutional map and electoral process for Louisiana.”

On Wednesday, Landry praised the ruling, but declined to say if it would have an impact on those primaries or not.

“Look, I think that anyone who jumps to conclusions right now — I think it’s going to take us at least 24 hours to really pore through the opinion to understand what exactly that opinion is telling us,” he told reporters. But he left the option open to a map redraw: “I mean, look, the Supreme Court picked an interesting time to be able to drop that on us… the court decides to give it to us on the eve of the election. What are they telling us? Are they telling us we have to draw? Telling us we don’t have to draw?”

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report.

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