‘They Got Executed’: House Democrat Issues Grave War Crimes Warning to Pete Hegseth on CNN

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) issued a grave war crimes warning to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth while discussing his contentious Wednesday hearing before the House Armed Services Committee with CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Hegseth is expected to appear before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday to continue answering questions about the Iran war. On Wednesday evening, Burnett played a clip of Moulton asking Hegseth about his “no quarter” comments.

“You said, ‘We will give them no quarter, no mercy.’ In order for no quarter or no survivors is a war crime under the Geneva conventions,” Moulton said in the clip. “You understand that’s murder. Do you stand by that statement?”

Hegseth began answering, “The Department of War fights to win, and we ensure that our war fighters have the rules of engagement necessary to be as effective —”

“Okay, just to be clear,” Moulton interrupted, “you called Democratic members of Congress to be tried for sedition, for reminding our troops to follow the law. But when you tell them to commit a war crime, you stand by yourself.

Burnett asked Moulton, “Do you believe that the secretary of defense is guilty of war crimes?”

“Absolutely,” Moulton answered. He continued:

I mean, he’s clearly behind the operation to shoot all these boats in the Caribbean when it’s very unclear that we actually have any confirmation that these so-called narco terrorists — a term the administration invented to justify this action — are even on the boats. I mean, in fact, there’s a lot of evidence that these are just fishermen, you know, getting jobs, piloting these boats, trying to feed their families. There’s been press reporting on some of these individuals who’ve been killed who are clearly not war criminals. And on top of that, we then have the strike where they came back in and hit it again — a double tap — just purely to kill these survivors who were clinging to wreckage.

Moulton continued, “You know, it’s interesting, Erin, another historical analogy — back in World War II, the allies tried Nazi submarine captains for doing this exact same thing. And guess what the conclusion was? They got executed. Listen to that, Mr. Secretary!”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!