Top Trump defense policy pick calls Iran nuclear threat existential in confirmation hearing

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans grilled President Trump’s pick to oversee policy at the Pentagon Tuesday, asking him to state for the record whether the growing nuclear threat from Iran is “existential.”Elbridge Colby, who was nominated as the undersecretary of defense for policy, fielded questions from members of the Senate Armed Services Committee weeks after a behind-the-scenes spat about his views on Tehran spilled into the open.“Let’s talk about a nuclear Iran,” said Sen.Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who sits on the Armed Services panel and also chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“I have some concerns about what you’ve said in the past.”Cotton then asked Colby directly whether Iran was an “existential danger” with atomic weapons.“Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran — especially, senator, given that … we know they’ve worked on [Intercontinental Ballistic Missile]-range capabilities and other capabilities that would pose an existential danger to the United States,” the defense nom answered.Sources told The Post in recent weeks that Republicans were discussing “concerns with specific comments involving whether it is tolerable to live with a nuclear Iran” made by Colby — and that GOP national security hawks in particular had been heatedly debating whether to publicly oppose his nomination.“Members are working to ensure all defense nominees share Trump’s position that Iran must not get a nuke, and they’re working to resolve this with meetings and a hearing over next few weeks,” one source said at the time.In 2012, Colby had said: “The only thing worse than the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons would be consequences of using force to try to stop them,” according to a resurfaced video clip reported by Jewish Insider.Colby explained Tuesday that his past remarks were in response to “quite cavalier” statements from Republican foreign policy circles about military action against Iran, though he acknowledged that T...