Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday defended the U.S. military’s recent strikes on alleged drug-trafficking boats in response to a recent report from The Washington Post.
“As usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland,” Hegseth said Friday evening in a post on the social platform X.
“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.
The Post cited sources who said Hegseth had ordered “to kill everybody” on an alleged drug boat in an early September attack, which reportedly required two strikes after an initial one failed to kill all on board.
The U.S. military has carried out over 20 strikes targeting alleged drug-smuggling boats, killing more than 80 people that the administration has said were “narco-terrorists.”
The strikes have resulted in backlash from both sides of the aisle, with some raising questions about the legal grounding of the attacks.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in a Friday post on X sharing the Post’s report that “if you want to know why Hegseth is panicking about reminders that there is accountably for giving or carrying out illegal orders, it’s likely because he knows he has given illegal orders to murder people.”
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Hegseth added in his own post, “The Biden administration preferred the kid gloves approach, allowing millions of people — including dangerous cartels and unvetted Afghans — to flood our communities with drugs and violence. The Trump administration has sealed the border and gone on offense against narco-terrorists. Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them.”
