Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., charged Tuesday that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is either "lying" or "incompetent" in his continued defense of a second strike on a boat that was allegedly smuggling drugs reported late last week.
At the heart of Paul's criticism is that Hegseth initially blasted a Washington Post report as "fake news," only to later acknowledge the strike occurred and defend it as justified.
"Secretary Hegseth said he had no knowledge of this and it did not happen. It was fake news. It didn't happen," Paul told reporters Tuesday.
"And then the next day, from the podium of the White House, they're saying it did happen."
"So, either he was lying to us on Sunday, or he's incompetent and didn't know it had happened," he added.
According to the Post's report, Hegseth on Sept. 2 ordered U.S. forces to "kill everybody" on an alleged drug-smuggling boat with 11 people aboard. After the first strike left two survivors, a second strike was reportedly carried out to fulfill that order.
Later Friday, Hegseth took to X to respond, saying "the fake news is delivering more fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory reporting" but without addressing the core allegation — that a second strike was ordered on survivors.
President Donald Trump weighed in Sunday, saying, "I wouldn't have wanted that, not a second strike."
"No. 1, I don't know that that happened," Trump said. "And Pete said he did not want them — he didn't even know what people were talking about."
That statement got Paul's attention.
"Do we think there's any chance that, on Sunday, the secretary of the defense did not know there had been a second strike?" Paul asked reporters.
Hegseth on Tuesday said he was present for the first strike but left before the second.
"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," Hegseth told reporters in a Cabinet meeting at the White House.
"Adm. [Frank] Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat," Hegseth said. "And it was the right call. We have his back."
Paul wasn't having it.
"So as a country, are we just going to let people lie to us, to our face? Are we going to let them kill people who they call enemies anytime in the world?
"Are we going to let them like when someone is stranded and holding on to the scraps of a boat put a second bomb on them?" Paul said.
"I think it's outrageous and should be universally condemned," he said.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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