Later in the hearing, Kerry brought up Hersh's article again. Rice, citing the Defense Department's public statement about the piece, said the article was "inaccurate." Kerry asked, "About Iran?" Rice replied, "It is inaccurate." Kerry repeated, "About Iran?" This exchange was repeated a few times. Finally, Rice said that hitting Iran with airstrikes was not U.S. policy. Kerry let it go. But it's worth pointing out that Hersh didn't claim it was policy, only that the top civilians in the Pentagon were pushing for it to be policy.