Waltz blames Biden for depleted stockpiles, but says US military has ‘everything that it needs’

Defense Waltz blames Biden for depleted stockpiles, but says US military has ‘everything that it needs’ Comments: by Max Rego - 07/26/26 3:32 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Max Rego - 07/26/26 3:32 PM ET Comments: Link copied

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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz on Sunday blamed former President Biden for the Pentagon being low on munitions, but denied that the depletion is negatively impacting the war with Iran.

“We have to take a step back here in that a lot of stockpiles were depleted not only from what we gave Ukraine over the last… four or five years,” Waltz told host Kristen Welker on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Waltz also said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “inherited a depleted situation” from the Biden administration due to U.S. strikes on the Houthis — which the Trump administration carried out for nearly two months last year due to the Yemeni terrorist group targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea.

NBC News reported Friday that U.S. military commanders have been selectively choosing which Iranian missiles and explosive-packed drones to intercept amid an effort to preserve the Pentagon’s diminishing supply of weapons that block projectiles from reaching their targets.

Military analysts also assess it could take the U.S. four years or more to restock its weapons inventory. But that is only if Congress provides the administration with additional funding for the war.

House Republicans on Wednesday approved a $95 billion framework for a budget reconciliation package that would, in part, boost funding for the Pentagon.

However, that was just the first vote in a multistep process in the lower chamber, with the prospects of the package unclear in the Senate. The House departed for its August recess on Thursday, while the Senate’s last day before its summer break is this Friday.

Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this week against the failure of Congress to pass the $21 billion in the administration’s supplemental request for munitions.

“If we don’t, as a team, figure out how to properly fund the department, and you know, we’re not going to get the munitions, and there’s going to be a lack of shared risk between the federal government and the private sector,” Caine told Sen. Deb Fischer (R-Neb.).

Waltz, though, said Sunday the U.S. has what it “needs” to carry out strikes against Iran. The ambassador also said those leaking information about weapons stockpiles “deserve to be in jail.”

He told Welker, “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.”