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Rand Paul Accuses Defense Secretary of Lying or Incompetence After Deadly Boat Strike

Sen. Rand Paul criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after conflicting statements about a Sept. 2 U.S. strike on a boat off Trinidad, which reportedly left two survivors who were killed in a follow-up attack. Sources say Hegseth ordered that everyone aboard be killed, and Admiral Frank Bradley then authorized a second strike. Hegseth initially called the reports "fake news," later acknowledged the second strike, and gave inconsistent accounts about whether he observed the action. Paul said the contradictions suggest Hegseth "was lying" or is "incompetent," and legal experts have questioned the strikes' legality and the lack of publicly shared evidence.

12:54 PM, 12/03/2025Politics

Senator Rand Paul sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after inconsistent public statements about a U.S. strike on a vessel off the coast of Trinidad that reportedly left two survivors who were later killed.

According to sources familiar with the matter, U.S. forces struck a vessel on Sept. 2 that the administration described as an alleged Venezuelan drug boat. After the initial Navy strike, two people survived and clung to wreckage. Sources say the secretary ordered that everyone aboard be killed. Following that direction, Admiral Frank Bradley reportedly concluded the survivors were legitimate targets and authorized a second strike, which killed the remaining individuals on the wreckage.

Hegseth first dismissed initial reporting as "fake news," later acknowledged that a second strike occurred, and placed responsibility on Admiral Bradley. He has also given conflicting accounts about whether he watched the strikes live, saying at different times that he both "watched it live" and "didn't stick around" to observe the action.

"Either he was lying to us on Sunday or he's incompetent and didn't know what had happened," Paul said when pressed by reporters, arguing the sequence of public denials followed by acknowledgments raised serious questions about who knew what and when.

Separately, the administration has carried out strikes on vessels it says were trafficking drugs in the Caribbean and the Pacific but has not publicly released evidence to substantiate those claims. Legal experts have raised concerns about the legality of such strikes even if the vessels were engaged in illicit activity.

The episode has prompted calls for clarity and oversight from lawmakers seeking a detailed account of the decision-making that led to both the initial and follow-up strikes.

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