WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited the "fog of war" Tuesday in defending a follow-up strike on an alleged drug-carrying boat in the Caribbean Sea in early September.
During a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Hegseth said he didn’t see survivors in the water when the second strike was ordered and launched, saying the vessel “exploded in fire, smoke, you can’t see anything. … This is called the fog of war.”
Hegseth also claimed he "didn't stick around" for the remainder of the Sept. 2 mission after the initial strike and the admiral in charge "made the right call" in ordering the second hit, which he "had complete authority to do."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, right, speaks as President Donald Trump looks on Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.
Lawmakers opened investigations following a Washington Post report that Hegseth issued a verbal order to "kill everybody" on the boat, the first vessel hit in the Trump administration's campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean that has grown to more than 20 known strikes and more than 80 dead.
The U.S. also built up its largest military presence in the region in generations, and many see the actions as a tactic to pressure Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to resign.
While several legal experts told The Associated Press they believed the second strike violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict, the Pentagon’s own manual on the laws of armed conflict also specifically cites striking survivors of a sunken ship as being patently illegal.
“Orders to fire upon the shipwrecked would be clearly illegal," the manual says.
President Donald Trump distanced himself Tuesday from the second strike, which the news report said killed two survivors clinging to the wreckage.
Trump said he "didn't know anything" and that he "still hasn't gotten a lot of information because I rely on (Hegseth)," when asked if he supported the second strike.
"I didn't know anything about people. I wasn't involved in it," he added.
Hegseth, sitting next to Trump at the Cabinet meeting, said Trump empowered "commanders to do what is necessary, which is dark and difficult things in the dead of night on behalf of the American people."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said earlier in the day that all of the strikes were "presidentially directed and the chain of command functions as it should."
"At the end of the day, the secretary and the president are the ones directing these strikes," Wilson said while speaking to handpicked outlets at an event at the Pentagon.
The Trump administration suggested that the admiral overseeing the operation made the actual decision to conduct a second strike. Trump called him an "extraordinary person" on Tuesday and said "I want those boats taken out, and if we have to, will attack on land also, just like we attack on sea."
The White House said Monday that Navy Vice Adm. Frank Bradley acted "within his authority and the law" when he ordered the second strike, while Hegseth said on social media that he stood by Bradley "and the combat decisions he has made."
Bradley is expected to provide a classified briefing Thursday to lawmakers overseeing the military.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro addresses supporters Monday at the presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela.
Deportation flights
Meanwhile, U.S.-operated flights returning deported migrants to Venezuela will continue despite Trump's assertion that the airspace of the South American country should be considered closed.
Maduro's administration announced Tuesday that the twice weekly flights will go on following a request from the Trump administration. That reverses a Venezuelan government announcement Saturday indicating that U.S. immigration authorities unilaterally suspended the flights.
An overflight and landing application submitted Monday by U.S.-based Eastern Airlines requests permission for an arrival Wednesday. The application was made public Tuesday by Venezuela's foreign affairs minister.
Venezuelans have been steadily deported to their home country this year after Maduro, under pressure from the White House, did away with his long-standing policy of not accepting deportees from the U.S.
A COPA Airlines plane takes off Monday at Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela.
Immigrants arrive regularly at the airport outside the capital, Caracas, on flights operated by a U.S. government contractor or Venezuela's state-owned airline. More than 13,000 immigrants returned so far this year on the chartered flights, the latest of which arrived Friday.
The flights continued despite U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean and off Venezuela's Caribbean coast.
The Trump administration says the strikes are aimed at drug cartels, some of which it claims are controlled by Maduro.
Trump said Tuesday the U.S. would start strikes on land soon, though he didn't specify where and said attacks might occur in countries besides Venezuela, suggesting Colombia could see military strikes.
President Donald Trump listens Tuesday during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington.
"You know, the land is much easier, much easier. And we know the routes they take," Trump told reporters as he met with his Cabinet at the White House. "We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we're going to start that very soon too."
Later, when asked to elaborate, Trump said he was speaking about countries that are manufacturing and selling fentanyl or cocaine. The president said he heard that Colombia is manufacturing cocaine and selling it to the U.S.
Colombia, indeed, is the world's top cocaine producer.
"Anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack," Trump said.
He added a few moments later: "Not just Venezuela."
