GOP Senator: Newspaper Owes Hegseth an Apology

Democratic lawmakers who have seen video of a boat strike want it released to the public because they say it shows Pete Hegseth's operation went awry. But a key Republican senator backs the video's release because he says it shows just the opposite.

• "So, I personally don't—I don't have any problem with it," Sen. Tom Cotton said on NBC's Meet the Press, referring to the contents of the footage. "It's not gruesome. I didn't find it distressing or disturbing. It looks like any number of—a dozen—of strikes we've seen on Jeeps and pickup trucks in the Middle East over the years."
• Critics say the missile strike on survivors of an earlier strike violated military protocol, but Cotton disagrees. "It was entirely appropriate to strike the boat again to make sure that its cargo was destroyed," he said, per Fox News. "It is in no way a violation of the law of war, and I think the Washington Post owes Secretary Hegseth, and especially Adm. Mitch Bradley … an apology for that slander." (The Post first reported on the controversy.) Cotton asserted that the survivors "were not incapacitated" and might have continued their mission had they been been able to flip the boat over.

• In terms of the video's release, Cotton added that the Defense Department "may have valid concerns about revealing" US tactics or those of alleged cartels. Pentagon chief Hegseth has said the decision to release the full video remains under review.
• Cotton, an Army vet and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also made clear he wants such operations to continue, reports the Hill. "Any boat loaded with drugs that is crewed by associates and members of foreign terrorist organizations that are trying to kill American kids I think is a valid target. I'm not just comfortable with it, I want to continue it."