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‘As a country, are we just going to let people lie to us, to our face? Are we going to let them kill people who they call enemies anytime in the world?’ the Kentucky Senator asked
Kelly RissmanWednesday 03 December 2025 13:20 GMTComments
CloseTrump defends Hegseth as secretary faces questions over Venezuela boat strike ‘war crime’
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Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul slammed Pete Hegseth as either “incompetent” or “lying” after the defense secretary dismissed claims that he gave an order to “kill everybody” during the U.S.’s initial Venezuelan boat strike.
Since September, the U.S. has launched more than a dozen attacks against alleged drug-carrying vessels in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, killing more than 80 people.
On September 2, in the first of such attacks, Hegseth gave a verbal directive that there be no survivors, the Washington Post reported. After the first missile strike, when two survivors emerged from the wreckage, the Special Operations commander overseeing the attack then ordered a second strike to comply with Hegseth’s spoken order to “kill everybody,” the outlet reported.
Hegseth vehemently denied the report, dismissing it as “fake news” that was “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” in a social media post Friday. The Kentucky Senator responded to Hegseth’s post, saying he was either “lying” or “incompetent.”
“Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn’t happen,” Paul told reporters Tuesday. “And then the next day, from the podium of the White House, they’re saying it did happen.”
open image in galleryRand Paul says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is either ‘incompetent’ or ‘lying’ over Venezuelan boat strike (REUTERS)“So, either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he’s incompetent and didn’t know it had happened,” he continued.
On Sunday, President Donald Trump said Hegseth had no knowledge of the second strike: “Pete said that didn’t happen.”
Asked about a hypothetical second strike, Trump said: "I wouldn't have wanted that, not a second strike."
The Republican Senator asked reporters: “Do we think there’s any chance that, on Sunday, the secretary of the Defense did not know there had been a second strike?”
“So as a country, are we just going to let people lie to us, to our face? Are we going to let them kill people who they call enemies anytime in the world? Are we going to let them like when someone is stranded and holding on to the scraps of a boat put a second bomb on them?” he continued.
“I think it’s outrageous and should be universally condemned,” Paul added.
open image in gallery(AP)Adding to the chaos, at a cabinet meeting Tuesday, the defense secretary said he “didn’t stick around” to witness the second strike and didn’t learn about it until hours later.
He defended the admiral, who the White House said Monday ordered the second strike, saying he made “the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat. He sunk the boat, sunk the boat and eliminated the threat,” Hegseth said. “And it was the right call. We have his back.”
A bipartisan group of senators announced Tuesday that they are launching an investigation into the allegations that Hegseth ordered there be no survivors.
The allegations come months after the president said in October that he didn’t plan on asking Congress for a declaration of war. Trump said: "I don't think we're going necessarily to ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK. We're going to kill them. They're going to be, like, dead."
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