Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth accused the Trump administration of committing a war crime in connection with a September military strike on a suspected drug‑smuggling boat in the Caribbean, based on media reports and briefings. She later clarified on CNN that she has not seen the classified video of the operation. Republican Senator Tom Cotton has defended the strike and voiced support for releasing the footage.
In early September, U.S. forces carried out strikes on a suspected drug‑smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against what officials describe as narcoterrorist networks operating in international waters. According to testimony described to lawmakers and reported by The Daily Wire, Adm. Frank Bradley, who oversaw the operation, told Congress that intelligence assessments indicated all 11 people on board were involved in narcoterrorism and that he authorized a second strike on the vessel.
The episode drew intense scrutiny after a November 28 report in The Washington Post alleged that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had ordered troops to “kill them all.” Top military officials, including Bradley in closed‑door testimony, have denied that such an order was ever given, and said Bradley’s written mission orders did not contain that wording, according to The Daily Wire’s account of the briefing. Reporting cited by The Daily Wire from The New York Times has also been described as undercutting the Post’s characterization of Hegseth’s instructions, noting that his guidance did not spell out how to respond if the initial strike failed to fully destroy the target.
On Sunday, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” and described the follow‑on, so‑called “double‑tap” strike as illegal under international law, the Geneva Conventions and U.S. domestic law. “Everything that they’ve done has been illegal. It’s illegal under international law, it’s illegal under the Geneva Convention, and it certainly is even illegal under domestic law. It was essentially murder with that double‑tap strike,” she said, adding, “It is a war crime. It’s illegal. However you put it, it’s all illegal,” according to the CNN transcript and The Daily Wire’s summary.
Duckworth warned that U.S. service members involved in such operations could face accountability either in U.S. courts or before international tribunals, even though the United States is not a party to the International Criminal Court. During the same interview, she initially said she had seen video of the strike but, when pressed, clarified that she has not viewed the classified footage and is relying on media accounts and written materials. She told CNN and The Daily Wire that she has requested access to the video as well as after‑action reports and intelligence debriefs from pilots and drone operators.
Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, offered a sharply different assessment. Cotton, who has reviewed the video and mission orders, has argued the strikes were lawful and necessary to disrupt drug flows and that intelligence gave “high confidence” that those on board were narcotics traffickers rather than innocent civilians. He said on NBC that he has “no problem” with releasing the video publicly, describing it as “not gruesome” and comparing it to numerous strikes on vehicles in the Middle East, according to interviews reported by Fox News and other outlets. At the same time, he has acknowledged that the Pentagon may weigh national security concerns, including protecting tactics, sources and methods used against cartels.
The dispute over the Caribbean operation — particularly the second strike on survivors from the initial attack — has fueled broader partisan clashes in Washington. Democrats, including Duckworth, continue to press for the full release of the video and for a clearer legal justification of the mission, while many Republicans have rallied behind Hegseth and Bradley, insisting the strike complied with the laws of war.