Potentially damning remarks from Pete Hegseth have resurfaced as the defense secretary faces accusations that he approved a war crime against a suspected Venezuelan drug boat.
MSNBC’s Morning Joe replayed two clips of Hegseth on Tuesday that may be used against him during the official investigation into the deadly Sept. 2 airstrikes in the Caribbean that killed 11 people.
One clip shows him bragging about watching the attack unfold in real time; the other shows him denouncing “stupid” rules of engagement.
“I can tell you that was definitely not artificial intelligence. I watched it live,” Hegseth told Fox News the day after the attack. “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented.”
Morning Joe then aired edited-together sections of Hegseth’s unhinged speech in front of hundreds of military leaders and generals in Quantico, Virginia.
“War is something you do sparingly, on our own terms and with clear aims. We fight to win,” Hegseth said on Sept. 30.
“We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality, and authority for warfighters.”
Hegseth is under intense scrutiny after The Washington Post reported he gave an order to “kill everybody,” after two people were seen clinging to the destroyed boat, by directing a second airstrike.
The attack has raised questions about whether the Trump administration approved a war crime by deliberately targeting survivors who were not an immediate threat to the U.S. in its campaign against “narco-terrorists.”
Hegseth and the White House have tried to shift blame onto Navy Adm. Frank M. “Mitch” Bradley, who was overseeing operations at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and who allegedly ordered the second strike. The Post reported that Bradley’s order for a so-called “double tap” was delivered to fulfill Hegseth’s demand that everyone on the boat be killed.
The New York Times later reported, citing unnamed sources, that while Hegseth did want all individuals on the suspect drug boat dead, he did not specifically indicate what should happen if there were survivors from the first strike.
After the two clips aired on Morning Joe, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius said it is crucial to determine “exactly who said what, when” before the second strike was launched.
“The argument is being made that [Bradley] was going after the boat, not the surviving two sailors on the boat. We’ll have detailed evidence to evaluate that claim as this goes forward,” Ignatius said.
“But I think the two points: Hegseth doesn’t like the overall regime of rules constraining his warriors, and second, finding out exactly what was done here is going to be the work of Senate and House committees that, from what we can tell, take this very seriously and will carry it as far as it needs to go.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the Pentagon for comment.
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