Rand Paul Calls For Pete Hegseth to Testify Under Oath On Strike on Survivors

 (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) called for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to testify under oath about exactly what orders were given ahead of the deadly double-tap strike on survivors of an alleged drug smuggling boat in early September.

Paul made his comments to reporters on Capitol Hill Thursday following a briefing for lawmakers by Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley and General Dan Cain – the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Paul has been a leading critic of the Trump administration’s campaign to take out drug smuggling boats in the Caribbean Sea with lethal force. Hegseth and Admiral Bradley, who gave the order to bomb the survivors, have been accused of war crimes by critics who see the execution of distressed survivors of an attack as against both U.S. and international law.

“I think he should testify under oath about the orders that were given, and I think that the video of the distressed, shipwrecked or incapacitated people on those boats being bombed, that video should be shown to every American,” Paul told reporters.

Paul blasted Hegseth earlier in the week over his office’s shifting statements on the second strike on survivors. “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,” Paul fumed, adding:

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?

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