00:00Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli. We begin this morning with President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, both defending the administration's boat strike campaign, while also distancing themselves from the most explosive detail, the second strike that killed the survivors of that September 2nd attack in the Caribbean.
00:20At a cabinet meeting Tuesday, both men insisted they didn't know a follow-up strike had even happened.
00:25Somebody asked me a question about the second strike. I didn't know about the second strike. I didn't know anything about people. I wasn't involved in it. I knew they took out a boat. But I would say this, they had a strike.
00:39Hegseth echoed that, saying he witnessed the first strike, but stopped watching and left before the second one happened.
00:45I watched that first strike live. As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever, where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting.
00:59A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the, 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.
01:10The White House now says Vice Admiral Mitch Bradley ordered that second strike. Lawmakers from both parties want answers, some even questioning whether killing survivors could constitute a war crime.
01:22Democrat John Garamendi says there's no reason to hide behind classified briefings, writing,
01:27If Hegseth believes his actions were lawful, he should not be afraid to explain himself to Congress in full view of the nation, instead of burying this potentially criminal activity in closed-door meetings.
01:39But the administration isn't backing down. Instead, Hegseth is doubling down on the mission, and so is the president.
01:46Trump says the boat operation has choked off drug routes, and that the next phase is coming inside Venezuela.
01:52And we're going to start doing those strikes on land, too. You know, the land is much easier. It's much easier. And we know the routes they take. 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.
02:06It would mark a major escalation, as the administration already acknowledges at least 21 maritime strikes and more than 80 people killed so far, all of the dead labeled narco-terrorists. Vice Admiral Bradley is set to brief lawmakers on Thursday.
02:22Vice Admiral Bradley is set to brief lawmakers on Thursday.
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