Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has boasted about his department’s latest fatal strike on a suspected drug vessel in an online post with a Charlie Kirk producer.
Andrew Kolvet, a staffer at Turning Point USA, replied to a post from Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer on Thursday that read, “Pete Hegseth is not qualified to serve as Secretary of Defense. Our troops deserve better. He must resign.”
Kolvet, who is the executive producer of The Charlie Kirk Show, reposted Schumer’s comment, adding, “Every new attack aimed at Pete Hegseth makes me want another narco drug boat blown up and sent to the bottom of the ocean.”
On his personal X account, Hegseth then shared Kolvet’s post, adding, “Your wish is our command, Andrew. Just sunk another narco boat.”
On Thursday, the U.S. announced it had killed four men in a strike on a suspected drug vessel found in international waters in the Eastern Pacific.
“Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and transiting along a known narco-trafficking route in the Eastern Pacific,” the U.S. military Southern Command posted on X.
The post was quick to point out that the “lethal kinetic strike” on Dec. 4 was done “at the direction” of Hegseth.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment on Hegseth’s X post.
On Dec. 4, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted a lethal kinetic strike on a vessel in international waters operated by a Designated Terrorist Organization. Intelligence confirmed that the vessel was carrying illicit narcotics and… pic.twitter.com/pqksvxM3HP
— U.S. Southern Command (@Southcom) December 4, 2025
It follows a controversial week for Hegseth, who was accused of issuing a potentially illegal “kill everyone” order before on a suspected drug boat on Sept. 2. Hegseth and the White House shifted the blame to Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley, the operational commander who ordered that two survivors of the initial strike be killed.
“Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said during Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting. “It was the right call. We have his back.”
He also said he did not personally see the two survivors clinging to the wreckage. “The thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire and smoke. You can’t see anything,” he argued. “This is called the fog of war.”
Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday after a classified briefing with the admiral, according to the Associated Press.
Hegseth, however, is still copping heat, with calls to have him charged with war crimes.
Additionally on Thursday, video of that Sept. 2 strike in the Caribbean Sea was shown during meetings on Capitol Hill.
The 48-minute video showed two people clinging to a capsized vessel after surviving an initial strike. They were then killed in a second strike.
“The video we saw today showed two shipwrecked individuals who had no means to move, much less pose an immediate threat, and yet they were killed by the United States military,” Democratic Reps. Jim Himes and Adam Smith said in a joint statement released on Thursday.
“Regardless of what one believes about the legal underpinnings of these operations, and we have been clear we believe they are highly questionable, this was wrong.”
Smith discussed the video on The Source with Kaitlan Collins on Thursday evening. He specifically called out Hegseth’s “fog of war” comments from earlier this week.
“That‘s idiotic,” Smith said. “OK. I mean, I understand the fog of war. People are shooting at you. You see a guy, you blew up the vehicle they‘re in. Are they armed? We had video for 48 minutes of two guys hanging off the side of a boat. Alright?”
“There was plenty of time to make a clear and sober analysis,” he added. “I don‘t think Admiral Bradley would disagree with that. There was no ‘Oh gosh, we‘re in a hurry, is there a car bomb? Is it going to hit us?’ Two guys floating on a capsized piece of a boat in the middle of the ocean.”
Smith also said the video should be released to the public—“There’s nothing classified about that video”—and that Hegseth should have to testify about the events in question.
“Dumping this on Admiral Bradley, completely wrong,” Smith said on CNN. “This is Secretary Hegseth’s mission. He’s out there, talking tough about everything, saying he doesn’t have to obey the law in many instances, putting the service members on the front line of this.”
“Secretary Hegseth ought to own this,” Smith said. “It is his choice, his call. He‘s the one who did this, and President Trump. That‘s the civilian leadership that drove this.”
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