Ambassador Mike Waltz dismisses concerns over depleted U.S. weapons stockpile amid war with Iran

Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the U.S. has “everything that it needs” for military operations against Iran, dismissing reporting regarding depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles.“I want to be crystal clear: The U.S. military, and I’ve verified this every which way, has everything that it needs to conduct this campaign as effectively as it needs to be,” he said on Sunday. “And I have to tell you, the people that are leaking this nonsense deserve to be in jail.” His comments came in response to questioning about an NBC News report that U.S. military commanders are allowing some Iranian attacks through U.S. defenses as part of an effort to preserve the Pentagon’s weapons supply, according to two senior U.S. officials.NBC News has also previously reported that U.S. weapons stockpiles are diminishing as the war with Iran continues. Waltz initially argued that stockpiles were depleted because of the Biden administration’s decisions to provide arms to Ukraine amid the war with Russia, as well as U.S. strikes on Iranian-aligned Houthis during the Biden administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “inherited a depleted situation from not only Ukraine, but also the ongoing fight with the Houthis under the Biden administration and a depleted military under the Biden administration,” Waltz said. “They have decided, one, they’re going to new types of munitions, cheaper munitions, new technologies, but also with these new defense budgets, rebuilding our great military,” Waltz said of the military under the Trump administration.The White House and the Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. His comments come as Hegseth appeared before lawmakers last week to ask for $67 billion in supplemental funding to expand production and speed up delivery of weapons. During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in April, Hegseth acknowledged in an exchange with Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., that it could take “months and years” to rebuild the weapons stockpile. In a separate interview with “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, Kelly referred back to that exchange, saying that the situation was “by their own making.”“They’re not keeping track,” Kelly said. “They, at this point, this president and the people around him are incompetent.”Asked whether he would vote to approve the supplemental funding, Kelly said he has not yet made a final decision. “If we had some competent people running this department, you could figure out, how do you defend our nation in a way and give the troops what they need within a reasonable budget?” he said earlier. “What they’re asking for is not reasonable.”