Good Monday evening. In this edition: White House confirms second strike on alleged drug boat survivors; and Leavitt blames Biden for National Guard attack.
Plus, Habba, Nehls and special election.
Boat Strikes
The White House confirmed that the U.S. conducted a second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in early September and said that the order was lawfully issued by U.S. Special Operations Commander Adm. Frank Bradley.
The second strike killed two survivors who were clinging to the wreckage in the Caribbean — an action legal experts and lawmakers in both parties warn could constitute a war crime.
The Washington Postreported that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had given a spoken order to "kill everybody" as commanders monitored the initial strike.
According to the report, Adm. Bradley then directed the second missile strike to kill the survivors, potentially violating U.S. and international law.
The Pentagon'sLaw of War Manual states that enemy combatants or other individuals who are "wounded, sick, or shipwrecked" on the high seas must be "respected and protected in all circumstances."
"Such persons are among the categories of persons placed hors de combat; making them the object of attack is strictly prohibited," the manual says.
Secretary Hegseth denounced the Washington Post report as "fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory," but did not explicitly deny giving an order for a second strike.
"These highly effective strikes are specifically intended to be 'lethal, kinetic strikes,'" he wrote on social media. "Biden coddled terrorists, we kill them."
President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that Secretary Hegseth denied the allegation.
"He said he didn't do it. I believe him 100%," the president said. "Pete said he didn't even know what people were talking about, so we'll look at it, we'll look into it."
"I wouldn't have wanted that second strike. The first strike was very lethal, it was fine," he added. "I don't know. I'm going to find out about it, but Pete said he did not order the death of those two men."
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the second strike occurred but said it was lawfully ordered by Adm. Bradley.
"President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have made it clear that presidentially designated narco-terrorist groups are subject to lethal targeting in accordance with the laws of war," she said.
"With respect to the strikes in question on Sept. 2, Secretary Hegseth authorized Adm. Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes. Adm. Bradley worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed and the threat to the United States of America was eliminated."
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have pledged to investigate.
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the Armed Forces Committee, said that if the reporting is accurate, the strike "rises to the level of a war crime."
Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), a former chair of the Intelligence Committee, agreed it "would be an illegal act" if true.
The Senate Armed Services Committee issued a statement over the weekend vowing to conduct "vigorous oversight" on the strikes.
"The Committee has directed inquiries to the Department, and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances," Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Jack Reed (D-RI), the panel's top members, said in a joint statement.
The House Armed Services Committee also announced that it would investigate.
"We take seriously the reports of follow-on strikes on boats alleged to be ferrying narcotics in the SOUTHCOM region and are taking bipartisan action to gather a full accounting of the operation in question," the panel's respective chair and ranking member, Reps. Mike Rogers (R-AL) and Adam Smith (D-WA), said in a statement.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt blamed former President Biden for the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC, ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, and said the administration is reexamining all Afghan nationals living in the U.S.
"Joe Biden's historic failure in Afghanistan continues to haunt this country and our men and women in uniform," she said.
"Not only did this surrender lead to a suicide bombing that killed 13 American heroes in Kabul, but now National Guard troops were shot on U.S. soil by the same kind of enemy we continue to live with."
Ms. Leavitt described the shooting as one of the "deadly consequences" of the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which she said led to nearly 100,000 Afghans being "recklessly" released into the U.S. with "little to no vetting."
The suspected gunman arrived in the U.S. in 2021 through a program intended to protect Afghans from Taliban retribution, including those that assisted the U.S. during the 20-year war.
The alleged attacker, who enlisted with an Afghan paramilitary force that worked with Americans, was granted permanent asylum in the U.S. by the Trump administration in April.
Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old National Guard member, was killed in the Nov. 27 attack. The second soldier, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains hospitalized in critical condition.
"We will never forget their sacrifice," Ms. Leavitt said. "That means ensuring the monster responsible for this atrocity is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and faces the most severe punishment possible. It also means reckoning with why this atrocity was allowed to happen in the first place, so that it may never occur again."
She also criticized what she characterized as past presidents' "self-destructive immigration policies that allowed foreigners who outright hate our country and have no interest in assimilating into our culture."
"President Trump is putting an end to this dangerous America-last approach," she said. "America cannot allow millions upon millions of unvetted illegal aliens to be rewarded with amnesty after they broke our nation’s laws to come here."
President Trump on Wednesday night called the attack an "act of terror" and ordered an additional 500 National Guard troops to be called up in the nation's capital.
A federal appeals courtruled that Alina Habba, President Trump's former personal lawyer, has been unlawfully serving as the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, affirming a lower court's decision. She is one of several interim U.S. attorneys, includingLindsey Halligan in Virginia, whom the administration has sought to keep in power through unusual maneuvers despite not being confirmed by the Senate or appointed by district trial court judges. The Supreme Court is likely to weigh in on the validity of the appointments.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) announced he will not seek a fourth term next year, continuing the flood of incumbents opting to leave Congress. "I have made the decision, after conversations with my beautiful bride and my girls over the Thanksgiving holiday, to focus on my family and return home after this Congress," he said in a statement. Shortly after his announcement, his identical twin brother, Trever Nehls, announced he would run for the seat in Texas's 22nd District.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Trump urged Republicans to turn out for Republican Matt Van Epps ahead of Tuesday's special election in Tennessee's 7th District. His race against Democrat Aftyn Behn is surprisingly close considering the president won the district by 22 points in 2024. "The whole world is watching Tennessee right now, and they're watching your district," President Trump said via speakerphone as Speaker Johnson held his phone up to the microphone during a rally in the district on Monday.
For your radar…
The Supreme Court hears oral argument Tuesday in a case about a faith-based pregnancy-center and its challenge to New Jersey's investigation into its services and advertising. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN3 at 10am ET.
President Trump holds a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. Watch LIVE on C-SPAN3 at 11am ET.
%20as%20of%207-11-25.jpg?upscale=true&width=1040&upscale=true&name=Hubspot%20Newsletter%20AffiliateBanner%20(600x488)%20as%20of%207-11-25.jpg)
