Some members of Congress have criticized Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth over a story citing anonymous sources, saying he ordered a second strike on survivors from a suspected drug-trafficking boat that had been destroyed. A Pentagon spokesman denies the accusations, calling it “completely false.”
The Washington Post’s Friday story spoke to multiple anonymous sources who said they had knowledge of Hegseth’s order to “kill them all,” offering no quarter in the Sept. 2 attack.
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The sources told the Post that Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, identified two survivors after the initial strike clinging to wreckage. Under Hegseth’s alleged order, the two were hit with another strike and killed.
Trump posted a video to Truth Social later that day showing the initial strike. The footage didn’t include the alleged second strike.
Two sources said Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, the commander of the operation, told officials on a secure line that letting the survivors live risked others coming to retrieve the suspected drugs.
The campaign, declared a “non-international armed conflict” to Congress, has resulted in 80 deaths stemming from attacks on at least 21 suspected drug-carrying vessels.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told the Post that the outlet’s story is “completely false,” and that the operation to protect the country from drugs had been “a resounding success.”
ABC News reported later Friday that the Pentagon declined to comment on the story.
Lawmakers react
While the Department of Defense has denied the report or declined to comment, members of Congress, former lawmakers and congressional candidates have taken the opportunity to weigh in.
“The idea that wreckage from one small boat in a vast ocean is a hazard to marine traffic is patently absurd, and killing survivors is blatantly illegal,” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., said in a post to X on Friday. “Mark my words: It may take some time, but Americans will be prosecuted for this, either as a war crime or outright murder.”
Rep. Eugene Vindman, D-Va., asked if Hegseth was “criming again.”
“Let there be no doubt, you will be held accountable along with those that executed your illegal order,” he said Friday in a social media post.
Former congressman Justin Amash, R-Mich., simply referred to Hegseth as “Secretary of War Crimes” in a Friday X post.
Former lawmaker Elaine Luria, a Democratic candidate to return to the House in Virginia’s 2nd District, said Congress “must act.”
“This is a clear violation of the DoD’s own Law of War Manual and the Geneva Convention,” she said.
