'Kamikaze dolphin' question throws off Pentagon officials during briefing on war

During a relatively subdued Pentagon briefing on the Iran War on Tuesday morning, both Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine were caught by surprise by a question about “kamikaze dolphins” being deployed in the Strait of Hormuz.

During the question and answer segment following the opening statements, a reporter identifying herself as Mary Margaret Olohan from the far-right Daily Wire addressed her question to both of the Pentagon officials.

“My first question is for General Caine," she began. "You said that the attacks by Iran so far are below the threshold of restarting major combat operations. What is that threshold? And then for Secretary Hegseth, are there still concerns about mines in the strait? And can you kind of clarify these reports of kamikaze dolphins that we've heard about?”

That led Caine to smile and glance over at his counterpart and then joke, “I haven't heard the kamikaze dolphin thing. It's like sharks with laser beams, right?” to laughter from the assembled reporters.

After Caine added, “The threshold of restarting is a political decision above my pay grade,” Hegseth contributed, “And I can't confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don't. Ultimately, the any follow-on effort, if there are mines identified, would be something that some of our units could undertake or the world could undertake. But right now we know we have a lane of safe passage.”

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