WASHINGTON — Washington is ablaze with reaction over whether Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a directive to “kill everybody” on board a vessel the Trump administration struck in early September at the start of its now three-month campaign to target and hit what it says are drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific.
Democrats are blasting the alleged order, and a couple of Republicans have also expressed concern, as key committees in both chambers are pledging oversight.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday that Hegseth authorized Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley to carry out such strikes, and the admiral ordered the second deadly one on the vessel in question on Sept. 2. She insisted the action was “in accordance with the law of armed conflict." Asked what specific law allows the action to be taken, Leavitt said it was done in “self-defense to protect Americans.”
“Adm. Bradley worked well within his authority in the law," Leavitt said. "He directed the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat of narco-terrorists to the United States was completely eliminated."
Leavitt's explanation comes after President Donald Trump himself weighed in Sunday night, appearing to seek to create some separation between himself and the reported event when he told reporters traveling with him from Florida to Washington on Air Force One that he didn’t “know anything about it.”
Trump then backed up Hegseth’s denial of The Washington Post’s reporting, saying he believes his defense secretary “100%."
The president went on to declare, however, that he would not have wanted a second strike on the boat in order to kill the survivors of the first one — as the report alleges — and said his team would “look into it.”
The story published Friday by The Washington Post detailed the administration’s Sept. 2 attack on a vessel in the Caribbean in which Hegseth, according to the outlet’s reporting, gave a verbal directive to “kill everybody,” resulting in a second strike against the boat when two survivors were spotted in the wake of the first.
Hegseth immediately dismissed the reporting as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory,” although at the same time, he did reiterate that the strikes are intended to be lethal and “kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people.” He doubled down, posting a meme Sunday night featuring a parody of a children's book showing Franklin the turtle firing at a boat and the title “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists.”
”For your Christmas wish list," Hegseth’s caption with the post read.
Democrats have reacted furiously, both to the allegations in the report, which several said may amount to a war crime if accurate, and the defense secretary appearing to make light of the situation with the meme.
”If that reporting is true, it's a clear violation of the DOD's own laws of war, as well as international laws about the way you treat people who are in that circumstance,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
Kaine — who helped lead a resolution that failed in the Senate that sought to require Trump to receive congressional approval before potentially moving ahead with military action in Venezuela, where the administration says many of the vessels it is targeting are coming from — went on to say that would amount to a war crime. He added that he would move “immediately” to bring back up the resolution should there be further action in Venezuela.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., meanwhile, said in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” that “it's very possible” a war crime was committed, taking it a step further in saying it could even amount to “plain murder."
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., directly branded Hegseth a “war criminal” and called on him to “be fired immediately.”
Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, meanwhile, said on “This Week” that while the reporting is a “big concern,” he wanted to “get the facts” before jumping to conclusions.
“I don't think he would be foolish enough to make this decision to say, 'kill everybody,' 'kill the survivors' because that's a clear violation of the law of war,” Bacon said of Hegseth.
The House Republican, however, made clear that the situation as The Washington Post reported it would be a violation.
“When people want to surrender, you don't kill them, and they have to pose an imminent threat,” Bacon said. “It's hard to believe that two people on a raft, trying to survive, would pose an imminent threat.”
Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio agreed in an interview on “Face the Nation” that a second strike ordered to kill to people unable to fight would be “very serious” and potentially “an illegal act.”
He noted, however, the congressional investigations are set to take place.
Other Republicans defended the administration, such as Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma, who is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and called the strikes “proactive” in an interview on CNN. Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, argued the administration’s ongoing strikes are a display of the “strong leadership that we need to keep our adversaries in check.”
The Trump administration’s weekslong effort to target vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that it says are smuggling drugs from countries such as Venezuela has led to strikes against more than 20 boats and killed over 80 people. The administration has presented the campaign as a key part of its self-declared war on cartels and effort to stop the flow of drugs into the U.S.
But it has also led to questions from some lawmakers about the legality of the actions, including whether Congress should be involved in approving the activities as well as whether the administration has sufficient intelligence about who it is targeting. Some have also called for evidence to be publicly released showing the vessels are smuggling drugs. The administration has insisted it knows exactly what and who are being targeted in the strikes.