Hegseth insists ‘we always have the backs of our commanders’ amid furor over who ordered second boat strike
“We always have the backs of our commanders,” Hegseth said, insisting that “they’ve done the right things” in making judgement calls in difficult situations.
He’s alluding to Admiral Frank M Bradley, the military commander whom Hegseth has been insisting since yesterday gave the order for the second strike on the alleged drug boat on 2 September. The White House has also been backing this narrative, leading some some officials in Congress and the Pentagon, as well as Democrats, to now fear that Bradley is being made a scapegoat for the potentially illegal order.
Key events
Agriculture secretary says administration will stop federal funding to states who refuse to share food stamp data
Brooke Rollins, the president’s agriculture secretary, said that her agency will “begin to stop moving federal funds” to the 21 states who have refused to share data about Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) recipients.
She added that the USDA will withhold funds until these states “comply” and tell the USDA and allow the department “to root out this fraud and to protect the American taxpayer”.
Despite undocumented immigrants remaining ineligible to receive Snap benefits, Rollins said earlier this week that USDA is reviewing “all programs” to ensure “only legal citizens are receiving benefits”.
Duffy reiterates calls for passengers to ‘bring their better selves’ to air travel
Transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, reiterated his call for passengers to “bring their better selves” when flying in an effort to “bring civility back to travel”.
“If you have a someone’s pregnant on your flight and you’re as strong as Pete is,” Duffy said, looking and joking with the defense secretary during Trump’s cabinet meeting. “Well pick up the bag and help her, put it in the overhead bin. Let’s be nice to each other.”
The secretary reiterated his calls for passengers to “maybe not wear pajamas or slippers on the airplane”.
Hegseth insists ‘we always have the backs of our commanders’ amid furor over who ordered second boat strike
“We always have the backs of our commanders,” Hegseth said, insisting that “they’ve done the right things” in making judgement calls in difficult situations.
He’s alluding to Admiral Frank M Bradley, the military commander whom Hegseth has been insisting since yesterday gave the order for the second strike on the alleged drug boat on 2 September. The White House has also been backing this narrative, leading some some officials in Congress and the Pentagon, as well as Democrats, to now fear that Bradley is being made a scapegoat for the potentially illegal order.
In his first public outing since the Washington Post reported that he ordered a second strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat that killed two shipwrecked survivors, Pete Hegseth doubled down on strikes on boats in the Caribbean:
We’ve only just begun striking narco-boats and putting narco-terrorists at the bottom of the ocean, because they’ve been poisoning the American people.
Trump says national guard will be deployed to New Orleans ‘in a couple of weeks’
“We’re going to New Orleans soon” with the national guard, Trump said, adding that the Republican governor (and staunch ally of the president) of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, had called him and asked for help.
“We’re going there in a couple of weeks,” Trump said.
Trump told the cabinet meeting that he would be announcing his selection for the next chair of the Federal Reserve early next year.
He added that he talked to treasury secretary Scott Bessent about taking over the Fed but Bessent didn’t want the job.
Donald Trump’s cabinet meeting started a short while ago a little behind schedule. I’ll bring you all the key lines here.
Schumer calls on Hegseth to release full unedited tape of boat strikes
Also earlier, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called Hegseth “spineless” and “a national embarrassment” and called for the defense secretary to release the full unedited tape of the deadly strikes on the alleged drug boat off the coast of Venezuela on 2 September.
Schumer pointed to a recent appearance on Fox News where Hegseth “bragged that he was present at every moment of the operation” but is now claiming Admiral Bradley made the decision about the second strike.
“The minute trouble arises, Hegseth says someone else was making the decision,” Schumer said.
As well as releasing the tape, Schumer said the defense secretary must testify publicly on the matter, as well as briefing the Senate in a classified setting.
Democrats says Hegseth lied about second boat strike and ‘threw Admiral Bradley under the bus’
Meanwhile, at the Democrats press conference earlier, representative Ted Lieu of California called on Pete Hegseth to resign, saying the defense secretary lied about the second strike on the suspected drug-smuggling boat and “and threw Admiral Bradley under the bus”.
“Killing shipwreck survivors is a war crime,” said Lieu, a former lawyer with the US Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He said there was no statute of limitation on war crimes and the justice department should conduct an investigation and hold everyone accountable.
Hegseth “engaged in dishonorable conduct”, Lieu said, adding: “He is a coward, he must resign, you deserve better.”
Fellow California representative Pete Aguilar reiterated that they feel Hegseth should resign but added that Republicans would never go with impeachment.
“Members of the military need to tell the truth,” he said. “We need a full accounting of what happened on that day with that strike”.
Wilson said today that Pentagon can “100% confirm that we know, without a shadow of a doubt, who these Narco terrorists are”.
While Wilson said the department knows what these suspected carters are “carrying, where they’re coming from and where they’re going,” she declined to provide details about the Pentagon’s intelligence efforts. “I don’t want to communicate to the enemy, the ways in which we’re carrying out these strikes,” she added.
