Secretary Pete Hegseth told CBS’s “Face The Nation” that concerns about U.S. weapons stockpiles are a “manufactured story.”

MARGARET BRENNAN: Let me ask you, before you go, about what is going on with U.S. munitions and stockpiles. Here, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy was on this program a few weeks ago. He made a plea, not just for more interceptors, but for the ability to produce them, for friendly governments to be able to produce Patriots. Some Republican lawmakers support this idea. Do you? SEC. HEGSETH: Nobody makes better and more munitions than the United States of America, and we are open to co-production wherever we can. And because of this administration, we’re supercharging our arsenal of freedom, building more, building faster, opening up the Pentagon, ripping through the Pentagon bureaucracy to force industry to move faster so our stockpiles are strong and they will only get stronger in the future. MARGARET BRENNAN: But there is a crisis with those stockpiles right now? You have testified to it in front of Congress. SEC. HEGSETH: That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle. And ultimately, we are — our stockpiles are great, and they’ll only get stronger because of the way this president has– MARGARET BRENNAN: You testified under oath that it would take years to rebuild those– SEC. HEGSETH: –if anything, it was the Biden administration that gave away munitions to the– You don’t have to read back to me what I, what I testified, I speculated some munitions take more time than others. We’ve got lots of them, we’re building more than ever before. The Biden administration gave away hundreds of billions to Ukraine, and so President Trump had to refill, and he has, and we have in real time. MARGARET BRENNAN: So, the answer to Zelenskyy’s request is a no or a yes? SEC. HEGSETH: Ultimately, we’ve worked with them, and Ukraine is buying munitions that Europe pays for, and it’s great to see Europe finally step up and pay for those.

Here is Hegseth’s full interview from this morning on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”
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