Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley "was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.
While Cotton, R-Ark., defended the attack, Democrats who were also briefed and saw video of the survivors being killed questioned the Trump administration’s rationale and said the incident was deeply concerning.
Joining Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley at the Capitol was Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for sessions that came at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how War Secretary Pete Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela.
Among those briefed were the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and the Intelligence Committee in each chamber. Most of the lawmakers in the briefings declined to comment as they exited.
Congress is seeking answers to questions such as what orders Hegseth gave regarding the operations and what the reasoning was for the second strike.
Cotton said that from watching the video, he “saw two survivors trying to flip a boat loaded with drugs bound for United States back over so they could stay in the fight.”
Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, described the survivors' state differently. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel, were killed by the United States," he said.
Underpinning President Donald Trump's campaign against suspected traffickers is his argument that drug cartels amount to armed combatants because their cargo poses a threat to American lives.
“The investigation is going to be done by the numbers,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We’ll find out the ground truth.”
Hegseth has said the aftermath of an initial strike on the boat was clouded in the "fog of war." He has also said he “didn’t stick around” for the second strike, but that Bradley “made the right call” and “had complete authority” to do it.
