Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has paused dealing with the fallout from reports of his involvement in ordering a fatal second strike on a drug-smuggling boat to appear on a soft-touch MAGA podcast.
Hegseth and his third wife, Jennifer, are the latest guests on The Katie Miller Podcast, hosted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller’s wife.
During a cringe-worthy tease for the episode released on Monday, Miller asks hard-hitting questions, including, “Would you rather step on Lego’s every morning or sit through another Senate confirmation hearing?” and “Who’s harder to negotiate with? Two competing world powers or your kids trying to get out of the house in the morning?
Hegseth, 45, replies, “Yeah, you don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
Miller then asks the pair for their preference in chicken wings. Spoiler –Hegseth opts for flats; his wife gravitates towards drums.
“That flats and the drums always find each other,” Miller says, “and get married.”
Hegseth’s appearance, which was filmed at the Pentagon, follows the collateral damage from a report in The Washington Post claiming the defense secretary allegedly ordered a second “kill everybody” strike on a Venezuelan drug boat in the Caribbean.
The initial U.S. strike on September 2 was personally requested by Hegseth to wipe out two survivors of an initial U.S. missile attack on the boat, according to the Post.
The publication cited two sources who said Hegseth’s spoken directive was “kill everybody,” referring to two people clinging onto the vessel.
In a press gaggle on Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump said Hegseth had denied saying those words and that the Secretary of Defense “did not order the death of those two men.”
However on Monday, the White House gave a version of events that conflicted with what Trump had said a day earlier.
Asked about the fatal order, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that President Trump had actually made the deadly order.
“The initial order, from Secretary Hegseth, said, ‘everyone be killed,’ and that came from President Donald Trump,” Leavitt said.
That was at odds with what Trump told reporters on Sunday. When asked if a second strike would be legal, the president said, “Number one, I don’t know that that happened. And Pete said he did not want them… he didn’t even know what people were talking about. So we’ll look into it, but no, I wouldn’t have wanted that, not a second strike.”
He added, “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.”
When asked to clarify if he was saying there was no second strike on the boat Trump said, “I don’t know. I’m going find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
In another twist, Hegseth took to X on Monday to show his support for Admiral Mitch Bradley, who was in charge of the mission.
“Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support,” Hegseth posted.
“I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since.”
Miller’s podcast has struggled to maintain its initial audience. It launched three months ago with an interview with Vice President JD Vance which has had 84,000 views on YouTube, her most popular episode.
An interview with United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, where Miller grilled the airline boss on whether they would remove foods cooked in seed oils from their in-flight menu, has just over 2000 views on YouTube.
However, the podcast did well throwing softball questions at another MAGA marriage, Mike and Kelly Johnson. Their joint interview, released last week, has had 9700 views.
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