In early September, the day after the first strike of the Trump Administration’s bombing campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared on Fox News to give a detailed account of the deadly incident.
“I watched it live,” he said during the interview. “We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented.”
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But months later, after a Washington Post investigation revealed that Hegseth and others had possibly committed a war crime by allegedly ordering that no survivors be left on the vessel, he offered a different version of that story.
“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said. “As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs, so I moved on to my next meeting.”
Read more: Could Hegseth Face Prosecution For Alleged Order to ‘Kill Everyone’ on Boat in Caribbean?
Hegseth insisted he had learned a “couple of hours later” that Admiral Frank M. Bradley, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, had ordered a second strike, adding: “which he had the complete authority to do.”
Although many experts have questioned the legality of the entire bombing campaign against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean, the September 2 strike has come under scrutiny because it targeted injured and shipwrecked people—a clear breach of the laws of war and of U.S. law.
The updated version of events offered by Hegseth takes the Defense Secretary out of the room at a key moment in an operation that some experts say constitutes a war crime, and that has sparked bipartisan investigations in both houses of Congress.
Republican Senator Rand Paul accused Hegseth and the Trump Administration of attempting to shift the blame for the strike onto the operation’s commanders.
“It looks to me like they’re trying to pin the blame on somebody else and not them,” he said on Tuesday. “Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this, and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn’t happen. And then the next day, from the podium at the White House are saying it did happen,” Paul told reporters in the U.S. Capitol. “So, either he was lying to us … or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”
Hegseth and the Trump Administration have been under increasing pressure following the publication of the Post’s investigation, which claimed that Hegseth had ordered that the Sept. 2 strike leave no survivors.
“The order was to kill everybody,” a person with direct knowledge of the operation reportedly told the Post, adding that the order was given verbally. In an effort to comply with that order, the commanding officer of the operation directed a second strike targeting two survivors of an initial attack, who were “clinging to the smoldering wreck,” according to the Post.
CNN also reported that Hegseth had ordered the military before the operation to ensure the strike killed everyone on board the boat.
The strikes were the first in the Trump Administration’s months-long bombing campaign against what it claims are drug-trafficking boats operating in the Caribbean. They were carried out by SEAL Team 6 and authorized by Hegseth.
Here’s what Hegseth and the Administration have said about the incident:
September 3: ‘I watched it live’
On the day after the incident, Hegseth appeared triumphant on ‘Fox & Friends’ as he recounted the September 2 strike.
“I watched it live,” he said. “We knew exactly who was in that boat, we knew exactly what they were doing, and we knew exactly who they represented, and that was Tren de Aragua, a narco-terrorist organization designated by the United States, trying to poison our country with illicit drugs.”
Hegseth notably did not mention leaving after the first strike.
September 4: ‘Absolute and complete authority.’
Speaking to traveling press during a visit to Fort Benning, Ga., Hegseth again defended the strike, saying the U.S. military had “absolute and complete authority” to kill alleged drug-traffickers—a claim that has been challenged by legal experts.
“If you’re trafficking drugs, and you’re a known cartel and designated terror organization, and they’re headed for the United States, or part of a process that would head to the United States, that will have lethal consequences.
When asked by a reporter how the U.S. military could have determined that all 11 people killed on the boat were terrorists, Hegseth replied: “Why should I tell you that?”
September 28: ‘Fake news’
The Sept. 2 strike comes under renewed scrutiny after the Washington Post publishes an investigation claiming that Hegseth gave an order to leave no survivors on the vessel.
Hegseth posts a response on social media calling the report “fake news,” and “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
“As we’ve said from the beginning, and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be ‘lethal, kinetic strikes.’ The declared intent is to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco-boats, and kill the narco-terrorists who are poisoning the American people. Every trafficker we kill is affiliated with a Designated Terrorist Organization,” he added.
Hegseth did not deny any specific detail in the report, however.
November 30: Trump’s first comments
President Donald Trump’s first comments on the incident included Hegseth’s first clear denial of the Post’s report, but also demonstrated that he was not fully briefed on the unfolding situation.
“Number one, I don’t know that that happened,” he said of whether a second strike took place. “And Pete said he didn’t even know what people were talking about,” he added.
Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump also said he “wouldn’t have wanted” a second strike on a boat.
When asked if he believed there had been a second strike, Trump replied: “I don’t know, I’m going to find out about it. But Pete said he did not order the death of those two men.”
December 1: ‘Decisions he has made’
The day after Trump’s comments, Hegseth appeared to give the clearest sign yet that he was distancing himself from the decision to launch a second strike.
In a post on X, he indicated in somewhat indirect language that it was Admiral Bradley who ordered the second strike.
“Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support. I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since,” he said.
Read more: What to Know About the Admiral Named by Hegseth as Boat Strike Comes Under Scrutiny
The original Post report did not directly accuse Hegseth of ordering a second strike, but said he had given an order prior to the operation that no survivors should remain. The commander, the report said, ordered a second strike targeting the two survivors of the first strike “to comply with Hegseth’s instructions, two people familiar with the matter said.”
December 2: ‘I didn’t stick around’
Sitting alongside Trump in a cabinet meeting, Hegseth gave the fullest account yet of his role in the September 2 attack—one that took him out of the room when the key decision was made to launch a second strike and placed the responsibility for the decision on Admiral Bradley.
“A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the [decision], which he had the complete authority to do, and, by the way, Adm. Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat,” Hegseth said.
“He sunk the boat, and eliminated the threat. And it was the right call. We have his back, and the American people are safer because narco-terrorists know you can’t bring drugs through the water and eventually on land, if necessary, to the American people,” he added.
Asked by a reporter if he personally saw any survivors after the first strike, Hegseth replied: “I did not personally see survivors, because that thing was on fire and was exploded, and fire, smoke, you can’t see anything… This is called the fog of war.”
Trump added during the same cabinet meeting that he “didn’t know about the second strike.”
“I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved, and I knew they took out a boat,” he added.
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