C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Open Phones examines the Trump administration’s September 2–19 Latin American strikes, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly ordered Admiral Frank Bradley to target survivors—including two on a narco-terrorism vessel—despite claims otherwise. Callers split: veterans like Vincent (MD) and Oscar (NC) defended the strikes as justified or heroic, while others, including Steve (SC) and Tim (KY), called Hegseth unqualified and dishonorable. Senators Mark Kelly, Jack Reed, and Chuck Schumer warned of legal overreach, potential Venezuelan conflict, and war powers violations, with The Wall Street Journal and AP citing breaches of U.S. and international laws. The episode reveals deep divisions over military lethality, accountability, and the administration’s broader "war on drugs" strategy, questioning whether these strikes signal a dangerous escalation of executive authority without congressional or legal safeguards. [Automatically generated summary]
Permanently authorizes the SBA Office of Advocacy red tape hotline, allowing small businesses to report federal regulations that negatively impact their business.
Also, this week, lawmakers will consider legislation to address how college athletes are paid by setting national standards for charging for the use of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL.
Watch live coverage of the U.S. House when lawmakers return here on C-SPAN.
A follow-up story in the Washington Post this morning, which initially broke the story last week concerning that one strike in September in Venezuela.
Noah Robertson and Tara Kopp reporting this morning that officials in Congress and the Pentagon said Monday they are increasingly concerned that the Trump administration intends to scapegoat the military officer who directed U.S. forces to kill two survivors of a targeted strike on suspected drug smugglers in Latin America as lawmakers made initial moves to investigate whether the attack constituted a war crime.
The Post reporting on Friday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave spoken order to kill the entire crew of a vessel that thought to be ferrying narcotics in the Caribbean, see the first of nearly 20 strikes directed by the administration since early September.
When two survivors were detected, the military commander overseeing the operation, Admiral Frank Bradley, directed another strike to comply with the Defense Secretary's order that no one be left alive.
People with direct knowledge of the matter telling that post.
The Trump administration said 11 people were killed.
It also adds that Caroline Levitt, the White House press secretary, acknowledged Monday that Mr. Hegseth had authorized Bradley to conduct the strikes on September the 2nd.
You can see that full press conference on our main channel or on our website and our app.
But here is Caroline Levitt yesterday on the latest when it comes to those strikes in Venezuela and the Defense Secretary.
unidentified
The president said yesterday that Secretary Hegset had denied that that second strike, the reported second strike on an alleged drug vote on September 2nd.
The Secretary said to the president that that didn't happen.
But to clarify, I just wanted you to clear this up.
In his social media post, Secretary Hegset didn't go into details about that strike.
He just said U.S. operations in the area were lawful, and he said that the story and media reports were fabricated.
So to be clear, does the administration deny that that second strike happened or did it happen and the administration denies that Secretary Hegsteth gave the order?
The latter is true, Yab, and I have a statement to read for you here.
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.
With respect to the strikes in question on September 2nd, Secretary Hegseth authorized Admiral Bradley to conduct these kinetic strikes.
Admiral 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.
And I would just add one more point to remind the American public why these lethal strikes are taking place, because this administration has designated these narco-terrorists as foreign terrorist organizations.
The president has a right to take them out if they are threatening the United States of America and if they are bringing illegal narcotics that are killing our citizens at a record rate, which is what they are doing.
More about those strikes and the Defense Secretary overall said on in and around Washington yesterday.
We'll show you that, but you can make your thoughts known as well as far as your confidence in the tenure of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Again, the lines: 202-748-8001 for Republicans, Democrats 202748-8000, Independents 202-748-8002.
And those active and former military.
If you want to give your thoughts, 202748-8003 is how you do that.
The New York Times reports this morning that, according to five U.S. officials they spoke with separately and on condition of anonymity, they said that Mr. Hegseth, as head of that September 2nd attack, ordered a strike that would kill people on the boat and destroy the vessel and its purported cargo of drugs.
But each official said Mr. Hegseff's directive did not specifically address what should happen if a first missile turned out to not fully accomplish all of those things.
And the official said his order was not a response to surveillance footage showing that at least two people on the boat survived that first blast, saying that Admiral Bradley ordered the initial missile strike and then several follow-up strikes that killed the initial survivors sank the disabled boat.
And as that operation unfolded, they said Mr. Hegseff did not give any further orders to him.
That's reported.
Reporting from the New York Times this morning, again, for those who are active and former military, Steve in South Carolina saying that he's former military.
In West Virginia, Axios offers a listing of those strikes that have taken place over the last weeks and months.
You can find their story online saying that the attacks have killed dozens so far.
The strikes are part of a broader pressure campaign on Venezuela and its president, Nicholas Maduro.
Also adding that the Department of Defense didn't immediately respond to the Axios request for comment.
They divided in categories: pre-strikes with the boats heading to Venezuela.
This in mid-August, that was the U.S. sending warships, spy planes, fighter jets, and bombers to the waters of Venezuela.
The first strike, strike one, which is the one that's been in the news recently, saying it was a precision strike against a drug vessel operated by a designated narco-terrorist organization on September the 2nd that kicked off the president's campaign.
It was then that Mr. Trump posted a video of the attack saying that it killed an alleged 11 members of the Trendiagua, a cartel based in Venezuela.
And this adding the friction point, which is you've seen over the last two days, saying it was that initial Washington Post reporting that the initial strike lit the boat on fire, but two survivors clinging to the wreckage over that.
There's more there when it comes to the listing of strikes that have been ordered by the Defense Department in the larger, broader campaign for narco-terrorism in the Caribbean.
There's video there, courtesy of the Secretary of War.
That's his ex-title about those strikes.
Let's go for Bobby.
Let's hear from Bobby in Florida.
Democrats line, your confidence in Pete Hegseth.
Bobby, go ahead.
unidentified
Yes.
Yes, I have confidence in Hegseth, but I'm a Democrat, and I think we've got him now.
I think this is a clear step over the line of acceptable behavior.
One of those critics of the Defense Secretary's actions, Senator Mark Kelly, holding a press conference yesterday, amongst the things he did talk about was this criticism of the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and actions he's taken.
If what seems to happen actually happened, I'm really worried about our service members.
I was talking about this from the beginning of this operation, that the thing that I am most concerned about is the very difficult situations that this Secretary of Defense is going to put service members into.
And it's because this guy is so unqualified for the job.
I mean, think about this.
He runs around on a stage talking about lethality and warrior ethos and killing people.
We have the most competent, capable military this planet has ever seen by far.
That's not the message that needs to come from the Secretary of Defense.
The message should be about what's our mission and accountability and the rule of law and training.
And let me make sure you're equipped to do really hard jobs.
Let me give you all the tools you need to do something that often is an impossible mission.
And instead, he runs around on a stage like he's a 12-year-old playing Army.
And it is ridiculous.
It is embarrassing.
And I can't imagine what our allies think of looking at that guy in this job, one of the most important jobs in our country.
In my view, after the President of the United States, it is the next most important job.
When it comes to Congress, the Hill reporting a couple days ago that Senators Roger Wicker and Jack Reed issued a statement Saturday vowing to conduct, quote, vigorous oversight on Caribbean strikes after that report surfaced that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered the U.S. military to, quote, kill everybody aboard that alleged drug vessel.
Quote, the committee is aware of these recent news reports and the Department of Defense's initial response regarding alleged follow-on strikes on suspected narcotics vessels in Southcom area responsibility.
The committee has directed inquiries to the department and we will be conducting vigorous oversight to determine the facts related to the circumstances.
And then it adds that in the next paragraph about that post story last Friday, which started that recent news and attention towards Pete Hegseth.
That's the headline if you want to read that from a couple of days ago.
Let's hear from Tony.
Tony in New Jersey, Independent Line.
unidentified
Good morning.
Thank you for all you do.
I think Senator Kelly was right in the fact that the American people do not know what the mission is.
With everything going on and the cabal that seems to be running the country, it could be that they're putting pressure using our military forces on the cartels to get a percentage of their proceeds.
unidentified
It's a $500 billion a year business.
20% of that is a lot of money shipped to some secret crypto account.
If it goes against the rule of law, I think our senators and Congress and who's ever in charge of the intelligence committees that oversee these things should know all the facts.
I just want to make a few remarks about Pete Hegseth.
I think he is a hero.
I actually do.
I'm 88 years old.
I spent 25 years in the Army from 1955 right out of high school to 1980.
And when I first went in the Army in 1955, it was the way it was supposed to be.
You did what you were told.
You didn't question.
The drill sergeant could smack you upside the head, call you every name in the world, and he had every right to do it.
It made a lot of men out of a lot of boys.
And Pete Hegseth is trying to get the military back to that level again where they will follow orders and do what they're told and got rid of all this woke business.
And as far as the high and mighty American folks go say he's killing innocent people, don't they realize what he is destroying of those boats has enough stuff on it to kill most of the United States?
And Harry Truman didn't have much regret by giving the order to drop two atomic bombs in Japan and kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people.
So I think Hag Seth is fine.
He is a hero.
I hope he stays in there and does more of the same thing.
Oscar, let's go to Randy, Randy, Democrats Line in Michigan.
unidentified
Hello.
Good morning, Pedro.
The reason why I ain't got much, I don't have any faith in our government right now because the President of the United States pardoned the biggest drug dealer from Honduras president.
He dealt more drugs than anybody that's in Central America.
Here's the opinion piece from the Wall Street Journal this morning, their lead editorial, shooting the wounded on drug boats.
Question mark is the editorial saying, Our view is that the commander-in-chief deserves legal latitude as part of his constitutional war powers, but that doesn't extend to shooting the wounded in violation of U.S. and international rules of war.
The Pentagon's own law of war manual prohibits, quote, hostilities on the basis that there will be no survivors, close quote.
Such excesses will also turn the public against allowing a president the power that he may someday need to defend the country's interests quickly.
The Hegseph story has additional currency because the administration isn't explaining its aims in the Caribbean with either voters or Congress.
Senators Wicker and Reed of the Senate Armed Services Committee have been writing to the Pentagon asking for more details on the legal rationale for its drug boat strikes.
They seem to get mostly a stonewall.
And then this opinion piece says that's all the more reason for Congress to learn the truth about the Hegseph story, and some are ready to do so.
Goes on from there.
You can find it online, that lead editorial from the Wall Street Journal.
Give your thoughts on your level of confidence in the Defense Secretary, Rick in Ohio, Republican line.
unidentified
Hello.
Hello.
Yeah, about these votes.
They ain't blowing enough of them up.
You know, you people.
America, just look around your neighborhoods.
Just look around.
Look around you.
These Democrat heads have put you people in a position where you can't think for yourselves anymore.
In Pennsylvania, let's hear next from, I believe it's Brenda in Indiana, Pennsylvania, Democrats line.
unidentified
Hey, good morning, Pedro.
I do not have any faith in Pete Hegseth, and here is why.
If you remember when he called all the admirals and generals back to Washington to give them a dressing down, everybody in that room had more education, more training, more military experience than Pete Hegseth had.
Every one of those uniformed men and women.
So that tells me that picking Hegseth for Secretary of Defense made Hegseth the DEI higher because everybody in that room had far more experience and far more qualification than Hegseth did.
So that made Pete Hegseth a DEI hire.
And second, has anybody even considered the possibility that these motorized rowboats are just decoys?
I saw a documentary on El Chapo, Javier Fuentes, and the Felix brothers, a documentary from the 1980s when these guys were the head honcho drug cartels.
40 years ago, they were using unmanned submersibles, miniature submarines, to transport tons of drugs into the ports of Florida and California.
And they showed the Coast Guard and the DEA agents capturing these unmanned submersibles and showing the tons of drugs that were loaded on there.
And you want me to believe that 40 years later, multi-billion dollar drug cartels are sending motorized rowboats loaded with drugs.
It was on Fox News yesterday that Republican Senator Tom Cotton defending the administration's ultimatum to Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro, the overall Venezuela policy.
Well, Maduro is the illegitimate leader of Venezuela.
There was an election last year.
Maduro lost it once again.
He has not been recognized as the legitimate leader of Venezuela for years by both the first Trump term and the Biden administration, and now President Trump once again.
There's a long history of transitions from dictatorship to electoral democracies in Latin America when the strongman does leave the country.
I would say Maduro needs to go for this country to be safe from the drug cartels that have infiltrated his illegitimate government and that are continuing to try to run drugs into our country.
Fortunately, not nearly as much anymore since the Trump administration is taking that threat seriously.
But as long as Nicholas Maduro is in power in Venezuela, you're going to continue to see the risk not only of violence in Latin America, but the drugs that I've heard so much about from Arkansas sheriffs and police chiefs that are threatening our communities and that are killing our kids.
Nicholas Maduro needs to go.
That's what President Trump has made clear.
I think that's probably what he told him last week on the phone.
I'm sure that the Cuban intelligence services in Venezuela and Russian generals are urging him to stay.
But if he knows what's good for him, like so many other Latin American strongmen over the years, I think that it's time for him to go.
Just to offer you a little bit of the Defense Secretary's bio, according to the War Department website, Pete Hegseth being sworn in on January the 25th of this year, the 29th Secretary of Defense.
He was commissioned as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army National Guard after graduating from Princeton University in 2003.
He participated in a number of active duty deployments during his time in service, that including operations in Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Bio also adding that his military awards include two bronze star medals, the Joint Commendation Medal, two Army Commendation Medals.
It goes on from there if you're interested.
That's the website that you can find the bio for Pete Hegseth.
Let's hear from Elroy, former military from Maryland.
unidentified
Hello.
Hello.
I have absolutely no confidence in Hedsafe at all.
Now, they are blowing up these ships.
So far, they had one person that they caught, but they let him go home.
And then two other people that he killed where he could have asked, where are they getting the drugs from?
Where are they going?
Any type of interrogation, they just gave up that opportunity.
He is an absolute clown.
I don't know what is wrong with these American people that calling in and going along with this ignorance.
That's all it is.
Maduro needs to go.
Ain't no doubt about that.
But we're going about it the wrong way.
He just wants, Trump wants to drag these people into a war.
Yes, I definitely agree with a lot of your callers who are able to think for themselves and put two and two together and understand exactly what Trump is trying to do in his administration.
They are trying to start a war.
He wants to start a war before he can try to stay in office.
And in addition, if they believe that these people are trafficking drugs in the water or whatever the case might be, they have the opportunity to stop those boats and inspect and arrest these individuals and find out exactly where they're taking it and where it's coming from.
And if you're going to capture one of the women individuals and let them go, what was there that is something fishy about this whole entire process, okay?
And who's to say what's on those boats?
We can't take their word for anything because Trump and his administration lie so much.
And we cannot believe anything that they say, anything that they present, because they don't present anything with evidence.
And if they were trying to save American people, you have pharmaceutical companies that's pushing drugs every day.
If you want to continue on with your thoughts on Pete Hegseth, his tenure as Defense Secretary of the Lines, Republicans 202-748-8001, Democrats 202748-8000, and Independents 202-748-8002.
Many of you former military giving us a call on the line that we've set aside for former and active military.
202-748-8003.
You can use that same line to text us if you want.
And then, as always, you can post on our social media sites there.
Let's go to Phyllis.
Phyllis and Colorado Republican line.
unidentified
Hi.
Good morning.
I'd just like to point out that the people in charge of this project don't know what's legal and not legal.
Doesn't that make it incompetent in the first place?
This is the Washington Post editorial this morning on Pete Hegseth in recent news.
This is the headline, Pete Hegseth's Caribbean lawlessness, saying that the revelation ought to prompt recognition that these killings were rotten from the start.
It seems to at least be puncturing the complacency of several congressional Republicans who previously bit their tongues about the attacks.
The leaders of the Senate and Armed Services committees are promising inquiries.
This editorial also saying, what danger did the shipwrecked men pose?
Without a second strike, they probably would have drowned.
They plainly posed no immediate threat.
Such flagrantly immoral behavior helps explain why Britain, America's closest ally, suspended intelligence sharing for the boat strikes.
This also adding that beyond legality, Congress deserves to hear more about the strategic implications of this campaign.
The U.S. has limited resources and faces threats in many theaters.
How many missiles is the Pentagon using for target practice on speedboats that could be easily stopped by the Coast Guard?
Again, that's more from the editorial from the Washington Post this morning.
If you want to read it there, let's go to John John, former military.
He in Connecticut.
unidentified
Hello.
Good morning, sir.
Yeah, I have faith in Pete Hegseth.
Absolutely.
I think he's done a fine job so far.
And one thing I have issues with is one lady called a Democrat saying those are robots, motorized robots.
First of all, I've done a lot of fishing.
You don't put a thousand horsepower on a boat and run open like that in the middle of the ocean.
There was no fishing rods seen any fishing equipment on these boats.
So I don't understand where these people get off saying they're motorized robots.
But I do have faith in our government.
I have faith in President Trump.
So we've got to give this administration a chance, which I feel that you guys do not.
You read from the New York Times, the New York Washington Post, all leftist magazines.
One of those criticisms on the Senate floor yesterday delivered by the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, talking about the administration's actions in Venezuela, specifically the military strikes.
What on earth is Donald Trump planning in Venezuela?
Is Donald Trump nudging America into another war?
Is he seeking regime change for Maduro?
Will he put U.S. troops in harm's way?
Nobody knows.
All we have is a bunch of contradictory statements from Trump.
Donald Trump seems to be planning a war totally in secret, without congressional authorization, without any transparency, without any explanation for what his goals even are.
And all it takes, all it takes, is one mistake, one miscalculation, one lapse in judgment from either side, and suddenly our troops could find themselves in an armed conflict with Venezuela.
Lives could be lost.
American security could suffer.
So I want to be very, very clear.
If Donald Trump proceeds with his plan to conduct strikes against Venezuela, Senators Kane, Paul, and I will immediately file a war powers resolution to force congressional action to block the use of troops in Venezuela.
The power to declare war lies in the hands of Congress, and we intend to exert that authority should the need arise.
UPI reporting this morning that it was the president hosting a meeting last evening at the Oval Office with top national security officials to discuss Venezuela.
As the administration ramps up, pressure on the country and President Maduro.
The White House also facing pressure from lawmakers to provide more of those details on a second strike targeting an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
Important cabinet and security team members join the meeting.
It was scheduled for 5 o'clock yesterday.
That included the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseff, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Dan Kaine, General Dan Kane, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, as well as the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wils, and the Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller.
That meeting wrapped up Monday night.
No details on what were discussed.
Vic in New Jersey, Republican line, the confidence level you have in Pete Hegseff as Defense Secretary.
Vic, good morning.
unidentified
Okay, how you doing?
Listen, I got two points to make.
Number one, I am a Marine Corps veteran, and I love Pete Hegset and everything he's doing.
And my first point is this.
As far as Chuck Schumer goes, he's talking about Trump being a warmonger.
These are the people who sent billions of dollars to the Ukraine and got literally tens of thousands of people killed on both sides in a winless war against Russia.
And they also, by the way, never resolved to join NATO years ago when they should have.
And my second point is, as far as these ships getting bombed, first of all, they're small boats with twin mercs on them carrying hundreds of pounds of fentanyl.
And until one of these Democrats loses their children to fentanyl, as one of my daughters lost their boyfriend to fentanyl years ago, because of all the crap that Biden let come into this country, Pete Hegset has every right to defend the Constitution of the United States and its sovereign people that live here.
We do not want fentanyl dragged into this country anymore.
He's doing the best job that he can, and he's supporting the Constitution by destroying terrorists from their point of origin, bringing drugs into this country.
Enough said, keep Democrats off their rocker.
That's it.
Trump's straightening the country out.
And I'm all for the military with having men and women serving, not 56 genders.
Number one, he came into the office and he fired all the JAG officers.
Those are the people that would inform Pete Hexett what is right, what is wrong.
A lot of those boats that are leaving Venezuela and going over in the southern Caribbean are refugees looking for better life outside of Venezuela.
So when Donald Trump and Pete Hexett say that they're blowing up boats with narco-terrorists, a lot of those people on those boats are men, women, and children fleeing Venezuela looking for a better life.
Yes, there are narco-terrorists amongst them, but this is the job of the United States Coast Guard to interdict and detain these people and bring them to justice.
You do not go into anybody's territory and blow up boats.
We don't know what's on these boats because they blow them up.
Normally, narco-traffickers don't put 11 people on a boat.
They need that space for more drugs, right?
So logically, they're killing people who we don't know if they're innocent or not.
We don't know if they're being trafficked or not.
But apart from that, Pete Hegset, I think he's been promoted way beyond his capabilities.
You know, I've been to the doctor, but that doesn't mean I'm qualified to be a heart surgeon, right?
Do you want me operating on your heart?
No, trust me, you don't.
The other part to this is I think we're just in the fog.
And this is all going to clear soon enough.
And when I was in the military, it was driven into me, you do not follow illegal orders.
That's full stuff.
You do not follow illegal orders or you can be prosecuted yourself.
And killing people who are wounded in battle or on a narco-trafficker trafficker boat, even if they're narco-traffic traffickers, that is an illegal act.
Okay.
In World War II, the Germans, they're in their foxholes.
They're holding up their hands, surrendering.
You don't shoot them.
You take them prisoner.
That's not what the United States is about.
But apparently it is now.
But I'm hoping that this fog will lift and we'll all come back to our sanity soon.
Yeah, you know, I think this is kind of like, well, first with Pete Hegseth, I mean, I have as much confidence in him as I do any other Secretary of Defense.
They all kind of get in there and they do the same thing.
They follow the same tactics.
Right now with this narco-terrorist business in Venezuela, I mean, they just label them as that to engineer consent with the American people.
They want to make everybody believe that, you know, these people are bad, label them as narco-terrorists, take over their oil reserves, replace Maduro with somebody who will do what America says.
It's like Iraq 2.0.
This is what they tried to do with Juan Guaido.
Nobody probably remembers him.
Trump's first term, Juan Guaido, was that they claimed that he won the election, even though it was completely refuted by everybody in the country.
I listened to what you have to say, and you obviously probably got red hats and a Trump watch and Trump crypto and all the stuff that he's selling on Fox, the Nazi station.
I'm a veteran, 7983.
German soldiers also loved Hitler, I will guarantee you, because he gave them high salaries in 1938.
There's a saying that's attributed to Maya Ashmuel Ross child.
It says, give me control of a nation's money.
I care not who makes her laws.
I believe this is the premise from which Donald Trump is operating since his first date in office.
All this stuff about Pete Hegseth, he's a greatly unqualified man and position.
Donald Trump, they got rid of all of the qualified people out of the government so that he could put in these stooges that are just doing whatever they will.
I mean, from Pete Hagseff to the Department of Education, to the Department of Health, to, I mean, all these people in the Trump administration are greatly unqualified.
And as far as Pete Hegseth, my confidence in his and his defense secretary, I have absolutely no confidence in him.
He's going to get us in a war, but that's what Donald Trump wants.
Like a previous caller said, if we go to war, we can't have elections.
Mark in Woodbridge, Virginia, former member of the military.
unidentified
Hi.
Hi, good morning.
Good morning, C-SPAN.
I served in the U.S. Army.
I'm very pleased with Pete Hegseth.
And I'm not a MAGA person.
I'm not an independent.
I'm not a Donald Trump fan.
But I do agree with the name change.
I served in the military.
despise serving in the military, seeing fat officers, DEI hires.
And I'm a minority.
So I'm really pleased that he's got rid of changed the standards, raised the standards back.
As far as the people in the Venezuela and the boat, I guess, triple strike.
I don't know why we're wasting whistles.
I don't know why we can't shoot them with bullets in the water.
Here's my understanding.
We have a declaration of war against drugs.
Multiple presidents have signed it.
I'm not familiar with each of the laws that are drugs against war, but this is war, and this is what war looks like.
And I don't agree with the UN and the UN doctrine.
I'm not certain that we as the Senate voted to adhere to the UN doctrine as far as war and whatnot, but we most certainly need to leave that doctrine, right?
We need to leave that doctrine.
And I think that the press and people are framing this wrong.
I think the change in the consciousness of our country is from being globalist and feminist to returning to a nationalist, centrist where we're not overly masculine and we're not overly feminine.
When it comes to the Secretary of War himself, this a couple of postings from his ex-account.
It was on November the 28th, last week, right after Thanksgiving, saying, as usual, the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting to discredit our incredible warriors fighting to protect the homeland.
As we've said from the beginning and in every statement, these highly effective strikes are specifically, and it goes on from there, but there's more there.
But in recent days, Pete Hegseff himself posting on his personal account a mock-up of Franklin the Turtle cover.
This was Franklin Target's narco-terrorist.
That's the cover.
That putting on the that putting out of the cover, the modified cover, prompted a response from the children's book manufacturer saying the publisher of the series Franklin for Turtle, that Franklin Turtle hit out at unauthorized depictions of its main character after the defense secretary posted that mock cover of Franklin shooting at drug traffickers.
He shared that image Sunday of the children's book, Franklin Targets Narco-Terrorist, showing the eponymous turtle dressed in military gear.
And then it says the post was a reference to the Trump administration's deadly strikes on suspected drug smuggling vehicles in the Caribbean.
Quote, Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity.
That's the publisher, Kids Compress.
He wrote in a statement, they wrote in a statement on X. Let's go to Maxine.
Maxine and Maryland Democrats line.
Hello, you're next up.
unidentified
Good morning, Pedro.
I have a question.
I'm trying to figure out how did Pete Hegset know who was on the boat, who gave him the orders to do that.
And I just don't understand it.
You know, is he going to just shoot everything that comes up?
He just goes shoot it under the air on the water.
My thing is, how did he know those drug traffickers are whoever in the water?
But I think, you know, to clear the air a little bit better, maybe if they would capture a few of these boats, bring some evidence, you know, forthwith to the American people and prove that, you know, these are, in fact, drug boats.
You know, I believe they are, but, you know, just blowing them out of the water like they are is a little barbaric.
You know, I think it might go over a little bit better if they were captured, brought to trial, and the evidence brought forth for the American people, then we could make a decision on our own.
The Associated Press offers discussions with legal experts about this boat strike and the law that's behind it.
The Associated Press story saying that it doesn't matter whether the U.S. is, quote, in armed conflict with drug cartels, as the Trump administration asserts such a fatal attack, that second strike they're referring to, would have violated peacetime laws and those governing armed conflict, according to expert.
This quotes Michael Schmidt, former Air Force lawyer and professor emeritus at the Naval War College, saying, I can't imagine anyone, no matter what the circumstance, believing it is appropriate to kill people who are clinging to a boat in the water.
This is clearly, that is clearly unlawful.
He goes on to say, sorry for that pop-up, saying that the White House saying, confirming Monday that a second strike was conducted against that vessel accused of trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela.
They insisting it was, quote, done in self-defense and according with the laws of armed conflict.
And there's more there if you're interested in hearing about the legal backgrounds to what's going on in the Caribbean.
Eve up next in Michigan, Democrats line.
unidentified
Hi.
Yes, good morning, Pedro.
As far as I'm concerned, Donald Trump is Donald Trump, and he's the DEI.
And all of this is just a smokescreen, as far as I'm concerned, what Donald Trump is doing.
Because he, you know, everybody was about to get down to the bottom of the fact of him being in that organization or whatever they were doing with Epstein.
People haven't forgotten about Epstein and Donald Trump.
Donald Trump was in that situation with him, and they was doing all of this stuff with those women standing up.
That's the reason why Marjorie had to go away because she was getting too close to the fact that Donald Trump was right to the nitty-gritty with the young ladies that he was doing this sex trafficking with.
First of all, that's an allegation that you're making.
And second of all, how does this deal with Pete Hagseff specifically?
unidentified
Well, it just goes to show you.
Donald Trump himself is a DEI, and so is HEDSF.
And the thing about it is, none of them are qualified to do the job that they're doing.
You know, really, to be honest, tell you the truth, the United States is the last in stock of the whole world because for one thing, they got people unqualified for the first time running this country, and this does not make any sense.
And everybody knows that.
People know that.
Even the people coming on talking about what Hedgehett is doing is right or whatever.
They know that this is a lie.
It is all a lie.
Trump is doing this to hide his.
You can continue watching this, Savannah, if you go to our website, c-span.org.
Back now to the U.S. Capitol, where the House is about to gavel in.