Admiral Bradley Testifies on Boat Strike

A Navy admiral told lawmakers Thursday that there was no “kill them all” order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth as Congress scrutinizes an attack that killed two survivors of an initial strike on an alleged drug boat in international waters near Venezuela.

Adm. Frank “Mitch” Bradley “was very clear that he was given no such order, to give no quarter or to kill them all. He was given an order that, of course, was written down in great detail,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, as he exited a classified briefing.

Cotton defended the attack, but a Democrat who also was briefed said that while there was no “kill them all” order from Hegseth, he was still deeply concerned by video of the second strike.

“What I saw in that room was one of the most troubling things I’ve seen in my time in public service,” Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters. “You have two individuals in clear distress without any means of locomotion, with a destroyed vessel were killed by the United States.”

Bradley was joined at the Capitol by Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for sessions that came at a potentially crucial moment in the unfolding congressional investigation into how Hegseth handled the military operation in international waters near Venezuela. There are mounting questions over whether the strike may have violated the law.

Lawmakers want a full accounting of the strikes after The Washington Post reported that Bradley on Sept. 2 ordered an attack on two survivors to comply with Hegseth’s directive to “kill everybody.” Legal experts say the attack amounts to a crime if the survivors were targeted, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are demanding accountability.

Among those briefed were the leaders of the House and Senate Armed Services committees and the Intelligence Committee in each chamber. Most of the lawmakers in the briefings declined to comment as they exited.

Congress is seeking answers to questions such as what orders Hegseth gave regarding the operations and what the reasoning was for the second strike.

Democrats are also demanding that the Trump administration release the full video of the Sept. 2 attack, as well as written records of the orders and any directives from Hegseth. While Republicans, who control the national security committees, have not publicly called for those documents, they have pledged a thorough review.

“The investigation is going to be done by the numbers,” said Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who leads the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We’ll find out the ground truth.”

Pressure builds on Hegseth

President Donald Trump has stood behind Hegseth as he defends his handling of the attack, but pressure is mounting on the defense secretary.

Hegseth has said the aftermath of an initial strike on the boat was clouded in the “fog of war.” He has also said he “didn’t stick around” for the second strike, but that Bradley “made the right call” and “had complete authority” to do it.

Also on Thursday, the Defense Department’s inspector general released a partially redacted report into Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app in March to share sensitive information about a military strike against Yemen’s Houthi militants. The report found that Hegseth endangered service members by doing that on his personal phone.

Who is Adm. Bradley?

At the time of the attack, Bradley was the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, overseeing coordinated operations between the military’s elite special operations units out of Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About a month after the strike, he was promoted to commander of U.S. Special Operations Command.

His military career, spanning more than three decades, was mostly spent serving in the elite Navy SEALs and commanding joint operations. He was among the first special forces officers to deploy to Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks. His latest promotion to admiral was approved by unanimous voice vote in the Senate this year, and Democratic and Republican senators praised his record.

“I’m expecting Bradley to tell the truth and shed some light on what actually happened,” said Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, adding that he had “great respect for his record.”

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., described Bradley as among those who are “rock solid” and “the most extraordinary people that have ever served in the military.”

But lawmakers like Tillis have also made it clear they expect a reckoning if it is found that survivors were targeted. “Anybody in the chain of command that was responsible for it, that had vision of it, needs to be held accountable,” he said.