Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) blasted Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Tuesday for his role in the controversy surrounding the strike on a suspected Venezuelan narcoterrorist cartel boat on Sept. 2.
The controversy stems from the alleged “double-tap” strike, an order given to kill people aboard the boat who survived the first attack on the suspected drug-trafficking vessel. The Washington Post initially broke the story about the alleged decision to kill the remaining survivors from the military operation. Paul blasted Hegseth’s account of the incident and seemed to imply the War Secretary was being less than candid with the facts.
The senator referenced Hegseth’s X post from Friday in which he called reports critical of the strike, particularly the “double-tap” order, as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.”
“Secretary Hegseth 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 are saying it did happen,” Paul said while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. “So, either he was lying to us … or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened.”
While elaborating on Hegseth’s response, Paul suggested it was unlikely the secretary of defense/war was unaware of the second strike. He was skeptical of Hegseth’s explanation.
“Do we think there’s any chance that … the secretary of the defense did not know there had been a second strike?” Paul asked. “So as a country, we’re just going to let people lie to us, to our face?”
Paul also criticized Hegseth for seemingly passing the blame on the second strike to Admiral Frank Mitchell Bradley. In a post on X on Monday, Hegseth expressed immense support for Bradly, who he said was responsible for the “combat decisions” made during the military operation on Sept. 2.
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“Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Admiral Mitch Bradley is an American hero, a true professional, and has my 100% support,” Hegseth said in the post. “I stand by him and the combat decisions he has made — on the September 2 mission and all others since. America is fortunate to have such men protecting us. When this @DeptofWar says we have the back of our warriors — we mean it.”
Paul was critical of Hegseth’s response.
“I don’t like to see political figures pointing their finger at military figures,” said Paul. “Military people take orders. And there’s a question about, you know, when they don’t take orders, whether things are legal or not legal, but in this sense, it looks to me like they’re trying to pin the blame on somebody else and not them.”