Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) claimed the Trump administration’s first military strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean was a “war crime.”
Host Dana Bash said, “I want to turn to new questions around the first U.S. military strike in September on a ship that the administration says was carrying drugs. Now, sources tell CNN, after the missile struck the boat, there were survivors and that a second strike was launched to kill anyone who was left. Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending the move, saying it is lawful under both U.S. and international law. What do you think?”
Kelly said, “Well, I hope it’s not true, what is being reported. That would be very disturbing. I think there needs to be an inspector general investigation. Pete Hegseth, who is totally unqualified to be Secretary of Defense. He fired a bunch of the IG’s within the department. That makes this more challenging. I don’t have a lot of confidence that he’s going to investigate that. That’s why in the Armed Services Committee in the Senate and the House, we’re going to have hearings. We’ll have public hearings. We’ll put people under oath. We need to get to the bottom of this. The U.S. military is, you know, the most powerful and effective military in the world. And we’ve got to be, you know, precise. We have to be operating in accordance with U.S. law and international law, always.”
Bash asked, “Based on what you what CNN is reporting, what the Washington Post is reporting, do you believe if there was a second strike to eliminate any survivors, that that constitutes a war crime?”
Kelly said, “It seems to. If that is true, if what has been reported is accurate, I’ve got serious concerns about anybody in that chain of command stepping over a line that they should never step over. We are not Russia. We’re not Iraq. We hold ourselves to a very high standard of professionalism.”
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