After turning his allegedly unlawful boat strikes into a meme, Pete Hegseth has now disowned accountability for the incident. Shamelessly enough, he made his top officer the fall guy for the controversial second strike instead.
The White House cabinet meeting on Dec. 2 was full of cringeworthy and outrageous statements from Trump’s ministers. But nothing tops Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s evil speech. After first calling 2025 a “historic year at the Department of War,” he bragged about his Caribbean boat strikes.
However, because a second strike from Sept. 2 is being investigated for possible extrajudicial killing, Hegseth couldn’t muster up the spine to take accountability for the situation. In a script he came up with far too late, he claimed that he was “busy” as the second strike happened:
I watched that first strike live… as you can imagine at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs.
Hegseth shifted the blame onto his top admiral
Instead of accepting that he gave the ‘Kill Everybody” order, Hegseth pushed the Chief U.S. Navy Admiral Frank M. Bradley under the bus. He bluntly claimed that he didn’t stick around the room to assess the situation till the end.
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, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.
Instead, he suggested that Admiral Bradly ordered the second strike, citing “fog of war” as a justification.
I did not personally see survivors, but I stand… Because the thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire and smoke. You can’t see anything. You got digital… This is called the fog of war… this is what you and the press don’t understand.
Hegseth’s second strike is under investigation for allegations of extrajudicial killings
Last week, the Washington Post shared a report that the second boat strike carried out by the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean on Sept. 2 was unlawful. According to it, the strike was ordered by Hegseth to “Kill Everybody” after the first strike left two survivors. This goes directly against the laws of armed conflict as well as the intent of the strikes.
Since then, Hegseth has been under public and political scrutiny. At first, he called the report “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting.” Then, he created a meme glorifying the attack. Now, he has decided to take a back seat and let Admiral Bradley take the fall, if anything goes south.
Speaking during the televised meeting, Hegseth claimed that the 21 strikes carried out in the Caribbean “are only the beginning.” Just minutes later, he admitted the strikes are paused “because it’s hard to find boats to strike right now.” Well, of course, since you killed them all, Hegseth.
Trump’s speech during the meeting raises questions about Hegseth’s narrative
Though Hegseth announced that “we’re striking the boats” and “defeating narcoterrorists,” the report suggests they’re committing war crimes. Responding to it, Hegseth attacked members of the press at the event, accusing them of nitpicking and planting “fake stories.” He alleged that the report was just “Phrases on anonymous sources…not based in any truth at all.”
But during the same event, Trump admitted that every boat seen in the Caribbean water gets “blown up.” To make matters worse, he added, “to me, it was an attack. It wasn’t one strike, two strikes, three strikes.” His statement suggests that he indeed intends to kill everyone instead of just destroying the boats.
Trump also claimed that “we’re saving hundreds of thousands of lives with those pinpoint attacks.” And ordering a second strike to kill survivors is exactly the definition of a”pinpoint” attack. But both Trump and Hegseth have shrugged the responsibility of the strike off their shoulders. And who did they choose to be the scapegoat? A top U.S. Admiral, who was probably only following orders.
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