Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said The Washington Post should offer Pete Hegseth and Adm. Mitch Bradley an apology for «slander» for its report on the drug boat strike.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., called on The to apologize on Sunday for what he called «slander» against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Adm. Mitch Bradley over its report about the lethal strikes on an alleged drug boat.
Cotton defended the operations to destroy drug-running boats he said were poisoning and killing Americans, telling «Meet the Press» that the controversy that’s embroiled Hegseth and the administration began with The ‘s story that Hegseth was essentially responsible for the «double tap» that killed the survivors of the initial strike, a potential war crime if they were no longer threats.
«They’re all valid targets», Cotton said on NBC, saying intelligence gave high confidence that the boat had no innocents aboard and consisted solely of drug traffickers. «Now, this controversy, let’s remember, all started with a story about nine days ago that said after the first strike, there were two survivors that were helpless, and then they were ordered to kill those helpless survivors. That is simply not the case.»
Cotton said they were not «incapacitated in any way», while Democrats who have seen the footage have said they were no longer threats.
