Topline
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said “it was the right call” to conduct additional strikes that killed two survivors on a suspected drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, defending the military commander who issued the order amid bipartisan criticism that it could constitute a war crime.
Getty Images
Key Facts
“It was the right call, we have his back,” Hegseth said Tuesday during a cabinet meeting, referring to Adm. Frank Bradley, who issued the order.
While Hegseth defended the decision, he also distanced himself from it, telling reporters he “watched that first strike” but did not “stick around for the hour or two hours after” and “moved on” to his next meeting.
“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made—which he had the complete authority to do—he made the correct decision to sink the boat and eliminated the threat,” Hegseth said, adding that he “did not personally see survivors” as the boat “was on fire.”
Bradley gave orders to carry out subsequent missile strikes to fulfill Hegseth’s directive to kill the boat passengers after the first attack left two survivors, The New York Times reported Monday, citing five unnamed sources.
The Sept. 2 attacks came under scrutiny following a report in The Washington Post last week that the U.S. military attacked the vessel again as survivors clung to the wreckage, a scenario lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said could amount to a war crime.
The White House on Monday defended the mission and said Hegseth and President Donald Trump authorized Bradley to “conduct these kinetic strikes” and Bradley “worked well within his authority and the law
Crucial Quote
When asked about Hegseth’s alleged order to “kill everybody,” as reported by The Washington Post, Leavitt said Monday, “I would reject that the Secretary of War ever said that.”
Tangent
Hegseth was not directly involved in the decision to conduct additional strikes on the boat and he did not give any additional orders as the mission unfolded, The New York Times reported Monday. Trump’s allies used The Times report to claim it contradicted the initial Washington Post report. Donald Trump Jr. wrote: “So now even the New York Times is calling BS on the Washington Post!!!” The president’s son retweeted a post from former Daily Wire reporter Ryan Saavedra that said the Times article proves the Washington Post story is “false.” The Post, however, did not report that Hegseth ordered subsequent strikes, but they were carried out to fulfill his initial order to kill the people on board.
Key Background
The Sept. 2 strikes are the latest controversy surrounding the U.S. military’s repeated boat strikes on suspected drug-carrying vessels that began several months ago. The U.S. military has killed dozens of passengers in the attacks on vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans, prompting bipartisan criticism about the legality of the campaign and whether it can be conducted without congressional approval. Leavitt on Monday repeated the defense the administration has used to justify the strikes, telling reporters the September attack in question was conducted in “self-defense to protect Americans.” Hegseth appeared to address The Washington Post report hours after it was published last week, tweeting “the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory and derogatory reporting.” He did not specifically mention the Sept. 2 strike, but wrote “as we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’”
