Trump distances himself from second boat strike, vows ‘very soon’ land attacks

Good morning, I'm Craig DeGrelli. We begin this morning with President Trump and Defense

Secretary Pete Hegseth, both defending the administration's boat strike campaign, while also distancing themselves from the most explosive detail, the second strike that killed

the survivors of that September 2nd attack in the Caribbean. At a cabinet meeting Tuesday

both men insisted they didn't know a follow-up strike had even happened

Somebody asked me a question about the second strike. I didn't know about the second strike

I didn't know anything about people I wasn't involved in. I knew they took out a vote

But I would say this, they had a strike. Hegseth echoed that, saying he witnessed the first strike

but stopped watching and left before the second one happened. I watched that first strike live

As you can imagine, at the Department of War, we got a lot of things to do. So I didn't stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever

where all the sensitive site exploitation digitally occurs. So I moved on to my next meeting

A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the, which he had the complete authority to do

And by the way Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat The White House now says Vice Admiral Mitch Bradley ordered that second strike Lawmakers from both parties want answers

some even questioning whether killing survivors could constitute a war crime. Democrat John Garamendi says there's no reason to hide behind classified briefings

writing, if Hegseth believes his actions were lawful, he should not be afraid to explain himself to Congress in full view of the nation

instead of burying this potentially criminal activity in closed-door meetings. But the administration isn't backing down

Instead, Hegseth is doubling down on the mission, and so is the president

Trump says the boat operation has choked off drug routes and that the next phase is coming inside Venezuela

And we're going to start doing those strikes on land, too. You know, the land is much easier. It's much easier

And we know the routes they take. We know everything about them. We know where they live. We know where the bad ones live. And we're going to start that very soon

It would mark a major escalation as the administration already acknowledges at least 21 maritime strikes and more than 80 people killed so far

All of the dead labeled narco-terrorists. Vice Admiral Brantley is set to brief lawmakers on Thursday