Fresh reporting about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in a September boat strike on a suspected drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean has drawn bipartisan concern in Congress, as lawmakers seek clarity on his authorizing a follow-up attack that killed two survivors.
Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday that, if confirmed, such an order would raise serious legal questions. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va, told CBS that directing a strike on shipwreck survivors is “a clear violation of the DOD’s own laws of war, as well as international laws.”
“This rises to the level of a war crime if it’s true,” Kaine said.
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said in a social media post that Hegseth “is a war criminal and should be fired immediately.”
Bipartisan leadership of the Armed Services Committees in both chambers vowed to probe the matter, with Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.,and Jack Reed, D-R.I., promising “vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to these circumstances.”
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. was more critical.
“Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this, and it did not happen. It was fake news,” the anti-war Republican told reporters this week. “The next day, from the podium at the White House, [they] are saying it did happen. “So, either he was lying to us … or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”
The Washington Post reported last week that Hegseth directed the operation’s commander to kill everyone aboard the boat, an incident carried out as part of the administration’s stepped-up maritime counter-narcotics campaign. “The order was to kill everybody,” an unnamed source with knowledge of the operation told the outlet.
Hegseth has rejected the accuracy of the reporting, calling it “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory.” During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Hegseth said he did not see any survivors and appeared to blame the “fog of war” for any miscommunication.
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The Pentagon and the White House have pointed to Adm. Frank Bradley, the mission commander, as the one who approved the second strike, while defending Bradley’s actions and maintaining that the broader operation is consistent with U.S. and international law. Some members of Congress have criticized the administration for trying to shift the responsibility to the military.
“How about that for leadership?” asked Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. “Throw the people underneath you under the bus,” while Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said it “looks to [him] like they’re trying to pin the blame on somebody else and not them.”
