(NewsNation) — President Donald Trump defended Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth following media reports that the Pentagon chief ordered a second strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean after an initial assault left two survivors earlier this year.
“I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington. “The first strike was very lethal; it was fine. And if there were two people around … but Pete said that didn’t happen. I have great confidence in him.
“I’m going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
CNN and the Washington Post reported that on Sept. 2, the U.S. struck a vessel it accused of trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela a second time, killing the remaining survivors of its initial attack. Lawmakers of both parties have said they want answers.
“I think it’s very possible there was a war crime committed,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told ABC News’s “This Week.”
Hegseth order to kill boat survivors, if true, was ‘patently illegal’: Wes Clark
Retired Gen. Wesley Clark, a former Supreme Allied Commander Europe of NATO, didn’t mince words. He said an order by Hegseth to wipe out survivors of the boat strike, if true, would be “patently illegal.”
“Every serviceman knows you don’t shoot a captured enemy. You don’t kill (a) wounded enemy, and so forth, if they’re no threat to you,” Clark told “NewsNation Prime” on Sunday.
He said he presumes people on the inside of the U.S. attack were “sufficiently disturbed” to share information about the incident.
Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., the chair and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, respectively, vowed Saturday to conduct “vigorous oversight” into the matter.
“The Committee is aware of recent news reports — and the Department of Defense’s initial response — regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility,” the two wrote in a joint statement.
“The Committee has directed inquiries to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances,” they added.
There was a similar reaction within the House Armed Services Committee, from Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Alabama, and ranking member, Adam Smith, D-Washington, who called for a “full accounting.”
“Secretary Hegseth hasn’t (denied the reports), he just said it’s fake news but didn’t address it,” Smith said Sunday. “So, question number one: Did it happen? Did they have two survivors hanging on the boat when a second strike was ordered? Did Secretary Hegseth give an order to basically take no prisoners?”
The Sept. 2 operation, which the administration said killed 11 “narco-terrorists,” was the first in a series of strikes Trump has authorized against boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The strikes have killed more than 80 people, whom the administration has alleged are trafficking drugs into the U.S., and ramped up tensions with Venezuela and its leader, Nicolás Maduro.
Hegseth said Friday the operations are “lawful under both U.S. and international law, with all actions in compliance with the law of armed conflict — and approved by the best military and civilian lawyers, up and down the chain of command.”
The Hill contributed to this report.