The White House has rejected reports that War Secretary Pete Hegseth personally ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan boat in September, saying the decision was made by Admiral Mitch Bradley under Hegseth’s delegated authority. The clarification comes as lawmakers raise concerns about potential war crimes and vow heightened congressional oversight of the broader U.S. campaign against alleged narco-terrorists near Venezuela.
On September 2, 2025, U.S. military forces carried out air strikes on a boat in the Caribbean Sea that American officials say was suspected of drug trafficking, part of a broader counter-narcotics campaign in waters near Venezuela, according to multiple news reports.
A Washington Post investigation, cited by several outlets, reported that the initial strike left two survivors clinging to the wreckage and alleged that War Secretary Pete Hegseth had issued a "no survivors" directive, including an order to "kill them all." That account raised immediate legal questions about whether a second strike on the survivors would violate the laws of war, particularly protections for shipwrecked or otherwise incapacitated individuals.
At a December 1 White House briefing, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt directly disputed the claim that Hegseth personally ordered the second strike. Reading from prepared remarks, she said that President Donald Trump and Hegseth had made clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war. Leavitt stated that Hegseth authorized Admiral Mitch Bradley to conduct the September 2 operation and that Bradley "worked well within his authority and the law" when directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat was eliminated, according to Mediaite and other outlets that aired the briefing.
Pressed by reporters on who approved the second strike, Leavitt said Admiral Bradley gave that order and insisted he was "well within his authority" to do so. She rejected reporting that Hegseth had ordered that everyone on board be killed, while defending the administration’s broader policy of using lethal force against what it calls narco-terrorists trafficking drugs toward the United States, as reported by Newsmax and conservative outlets.
Leavitt also contrasted the current administration’s approach with that of President Biden, blaming what she described as catastrophic levels of fentanyl trafficking under the previous administration for killing Americans at a record rate. She argued that the American public’s support for Trump’s hard line on narcotics is one reason he was returned to office, according to her comments reported by Mediaite and Newsmax.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, speaking to NPR’s All Things Considered about the Washington Post’s reporting, said that if the allegation that a second strike was ordered on surviving sailors is accurate, it would be a clear violation of the Defense Department’s own law-of-war standards and could rise to the level of a war crime. Other members of Congress in both parties have called for more information and pledged to increase oversight of the campaign of boat strikes in the region, NPR reported.
Hegseth has dismissed the Washington Post story as "fake news," arguing in statements highlighted by The Daily Wire and other conservative outlets that the operations are lawful, target members of designated terrorist organizations involved in narcotics trafficking, and are intended to destroy narco-boats and kill narco-terrorists who threaten Americans.
Legal experts are divided over the second strike. Some, including former military legal officers quoted in mainstream outlets, contend that intentionally targeting survivors clinging to wreckage would be unlawful and could constitute a war crime or murder, regardless of whether the United States is formally at war with the groups involved. Others, including Cornell law professor Brian Cox, interviewed by The Daily Wire, have argued that the damaged boat and its occupants could remain a valid military objective if they still posed a threat and that critics understate the role of proportionality and self-defense under the Law of Armed Conflict.
The broader campaign has reportedly resulted in more than 20 boat attacks and over 80 deaths, according to reporting summarized by the Associated Press and Time magazine, although U.S. officials have not publicly released detailed evidence of drug cargoes for each incident. Lawmakers in both parties have cited those figures in questioning the scope and oversight of the operations.
Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona has emerged as one of the most prominent Democratic critics of the strikes. In recent television interviews, he has said that, based on what is publicly known, a second strike on survivors who no longer pose an immediate threat could amount to a war crime, and he has urged service members to question and refuse orders they believe to be unlawful. Kelly’s comments, on programs including CNN’s "State of the Union" and NBC’s "Meet the Press," have drawn sharp pushback from Hegseth and prompted a Pentagon review of whether a separate video in which Kelly and other Democrats encouraged troops to disobey illegal orders ran afoul of military rules governing retirees.
The dispute over the September 2 incident comes amid heightened tensions with Venezuela. Trump has escalated pressure on President Nicolás Maduro’s government, at times warning of possible military consequences and threatening to restrict Venezuelan airspace, according to coverage by Reuters and other outlets. Maduro’s government has condemned the U.S. posture as a colonialist threat and denies U.S. allegations that senior officials facilitate narcotics trafficking.
While administration officials insist the strikes are lawful acts of self-defense against narco-terrorists in international waters, Congress has only limited visibility into targeting decisions, and key facts about the September 2 engagement — including the precise threat posed by the survivors at the time of the second strike and the exact chain of command for the order — remain under investigation.
