US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday he had watched the first US strike in September on an alleged drug-smuggling vessel in real time but did not see survivors in the water or the second lethal strike that he described as being carried out in the “fog of war”.
Hegseth, speaking at a cabinet meeting alongside US President Donald Trump, defended the follow-up strike that has drawn bipartisan scrutiny from Congress and concerns about the legality of the administration’s moves.
The Pentagon chief’s remarks were his most fulsome explanation of the events on September 2, when US forces blew up the first in a series of alleged drug-carrying vessels as part of Trump’s efforts to curtail the inflow of narcotics from Latin America and put pressure on Venezuela.
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Hegseth has faced particular scrutiny about the strikes after The Washington Post reported the commander overseeing the operation ordered a second strike to take out two survivors who were clinging to the structure in the water to comply with the Pentagon chief’s direction that everyone be killed.
Sitting next to Trump at the White House, Hegseth said he had seen the first strike that day and then went on to another meeting.
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“I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said. “At the Department of War we’ve got a lot of things to do, so I didn’t stick around … I moved on to my next meeting.”
