Rand Paul Blasts Hegseth Amid Boat Strike Fallout: ‘Either He Was Lying To Us… Or He’s Incompetent’
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) had pointed words for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after the secretary changed his story regarding a boat strike off the coast of Trinidad.
On Sept. 2, the U.S. bombed an alleged Venezuelan drug boat off the coast of Trinidad. According to The Washington Post, Hegseth ordered everyone aboard killed, according to sources familiar with the situation. After the first strike, which was conducted by the Navy, two survivors remained, clinging to the wreckage. Heeding Hegseth’s directive, the Post said Admiral Frank Bradley deemed the survivors valid targets and ordered that Hegseth’s directive be carried out. The Navy conducted a second strike and killed the survivors.
Hegseth initially responded to the story by calling it “fake news.” He has since acknowledged the second strike and threw Bradley under the bus on Monday by claiming it was the admiral’s decision.
On Tuesday, Hegseth insisted he “didn’t stick around” to watch the boat strikes, but this directly contradicts his Sept. 3 boast on Fox News that, “I watched it live.”
Reporters on Capitol Hill caught up with Paul, who ripped the secretary in comments aired by CNN on Tuesday night:
In this sense, it looks to me like they’re trying to pin the blame on somebody else and not them. There’s a very distinct statement [that] was said on Sunday. Secretary Hegseth has said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was “fake news.” It didn’t happen.
And then the next day, from the podium at the White House, they’re saying it did happen. So either he was lying to us on Sunday or he’s incompetent and didn’t know what had happened. Do we think there’s any chance that on Sunday, the secretary of the defense did not know there had been a second strike?
The Trump administration has been bombing what it claimed are drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific, but has provided no evidence for the claims. Experts have said even if the vessels in question are carrying illegal drugs, the strikes themselves are legally dubious.
Watch above via CNN.
